Captain Future 05 - Captain Future and the Seven Space Stones (Winter 1941) (16 page)

The authority of the Solar System Government and its laws shall extend to every celestial body that revolves around the Sun.

THE framers of the Constitution of the Solar System Government supposed that that provision would insure the reign of order on every speck of matter in the System, be it planet, asteroid, moon or meteor. But they reckoned without the devious, subtle ingenuity of a certain Jovian named Bubas Uum. He saw in that paragraph a gaping loophole.

Bubas Uum was a notorious interplanetary gambler whose semi-criminal activities had already won him a term in the dreaded prison on Cerberus, the moon of Pluto. He had started a hidden gambling resort in the jungles of his native world. But after the Planet Police raided it and he was convicted, he had decided not to defy the law. Evading it was more profitable and less wearing.

Through a dummy company, Bubas Uum bought sole title to a small asteroid lying on the extreme outer edge of the asteroidal zone. He had it fitted with air and water creators, and built on it gambling palaces and pleasure gardens — all quite openly. The Planet Police had watched, ready to raid him as soon as he started operating.

Then Bubas Uum had sprung his surprise. Secretly he had had the little asteroid fitted with rocket tubes of gigantic power, enough to move it in space like a great ship. He turned on those tubes. Their blast impelled the little world
against
its normal orbit. Instead of moving on in its orbit, the little planetoid remained stationary in space — relative to the Solar System.

Thus the Pleasure Planet, as he called it, did not revolve around the Sun but remained in one position in space. And thus, according to the Constitution, the law of the Solar System Government did not extend to the Pleasure Planet. The Planet Police had no authority there. The only authority was the word of fat, wily Bubas Uum, its owner.

The Pleasure Planet was, in fact, a lawless little world in the very heart of the System. Gambling flourished there on a lavish scale. Illicit interplanetary drugs could be purchased openly. The only restrictions were the discreet ones imposed by Bubas Uum’s yellow-uniformed guards. From all the nine worlds came the rich, the bored, the dissipated, to enjoy themselves without restraint on the Pleasure Planet.

It was this notorious little world that loomed up now before the swift
Comet.
Curt Newton looked thoughtfully toward the asteroid, glittering like an alluring golden globe in the starry heavens.

“Cut around to the night side, Otho,” he ordered. “The City of Chance, as Bubas Uum calls his resort, is there.”

“Still don’t see just what you and Joan can do alone against that fat Jovian spider and Quorn,” complained Ezra.

In the last few hours, Curt had again changed his appearance completely. Staining his red hair black, making his face white, pallid and weak-looking, and donning a silken suit made him look like a typical idle young Earthman. Joan had similarly made up as a sophisticated, spoiled terrestrial girl.

“Bubas Uum has the last two space stones that we must get before Quorn does,” Curt explained. “It would be almost impossible to steal the stones from Bubas’ vaults. He guards them with devilish ingenuity, as plenty of thieves have found out. The best chance for me to get the space stones is to win them from Bubas Uum — to gamble at his place till I take everything he has including the space stones.”

“You got a great chance of breaking Bubas Uum!” Ezra snorted. “Why, everybody that comes to this poisonous little world of his goes away without a cent. His crooked games fleece them all.”

“I know that,” Curt admitted. “But ingenious as Bubas’ crooked games may be, maybe I can be a little more ingenious.”

OTHO began to laugh. “I get it now, Chief. You’re going to go Bubas one better — out-crook his crooked games!”

“That’s the general idea,” Captain Future said. “It’s fighting fire with fire. I want only the space stones. Anything else I win from him can go into interplanetary charities, where it’ll do more good than in that fat crook’s vaults.”

“What about us, Master?” Grag asked. “Don’t we go with you?”

“Grow up, Grag,” jeered Otho. “That would be a fine giveaway for the chief, to have you come clanking in there with him.”

“While Joan and I are in there,” Curt said to Otho, “I want you to try to find out where Quorn and his cursed freaks are, and what they’re doing. The chances are that Quorn is trying to steal the space stones. That mustn’t happen. And you, Simon. Will you check a scientific point for me? Remember our old atomic compression experiments? Will you see if you can deduce just how far that process could be carried? Grag will stay here and help you.”

The Brain’s lens-eyes fixed intently on him.

“Lad, do you mean that Thuro Thuun’s secret formula is connected with a process like that? Why, it’s fantastic!”

“Perhaps, but I fear it’s quite possible,” Captain Future retorted, his face somber. “You know now why I’m so worried, Simon.”

“Yes,” muttered the Brain. “That means whole worlds —”

It was as though a cold breath of alien menace blew over them. The others, puzzled, watched Curt and Simon.

“Coming round to the night side, Chief,” Otho called from the controls. “We’ll hit the City of Chance in half an hour.”

“Land secretly outside the city’s spaceport,” Curt ordered.

The
Comet
was now flying low over the dark side of the Pleasure Planet. Starlit gardens and parks showed vaguely underneath. They passed over a gigantic atomic power plant. At the center was a cluster of colossal rocket tubes that projected straight out from the planetoid’s equator, and were steadily streaming fire.

“Them’s the tubes that keep the Pleasure Planet hangin’ motionless in space,” commented Ezra. “Confound that wily Bubas Uum!”

“And there’s the City of Chance,” Joan said eagerly.

It showed far ahead as a mass of fairy towers, blazing with red, blue and golden light. Hotels, theaters, houses of amusement gathered around the central tower of the Palace of Hazard, as Bubas Uum grandiloquently called his main gambling hall. The
Comet
came down in a quiet park not far from the green lamps of the spaceport. Captain Future made sure the little instrument he had fastened under his jacket was functioning correctly. Then he turned to the girl.

“All right, Joan,” he said. “Remember your part.”

“I’ve always wanted to be a spoiled daughter of the rich,” said his pretty companion. “This is my chance.”

“You know what you and Grag have to do, Otho,” Curt said as he opened the door. “And Simon, work hard on that problem.”

THE wizard of science and the girl agent stepped out into the soft, summery night of the Pleasure Planet. The air was balmy, spiced with scents of flowers and strange shrubs that hid the faint chemical tang characteristic of synthetic atmosphere. Curt and Joan moved over the soft turf, skirting the spaceport that was crowded with passenger ships and luxurious space yachts which had brought pleasure-seekers from every world.

The two entered the City of Chance as if having come from the spaceport. A broad avenue, paved with mosaic marble from Uranus, and bordered by tall, graceful, feathery
piam
trees from Venus, led straight through the city toward the golden Palace of Hazard.

Richly dressed men and women from every planet elbowed Curt and Joan on the walk. Rocket cars purred softly through the streets. Music was gay from many of the pleasure-houses along the way, and there was a great amount of chattering and laughter. Under the splendid night sky of flashing and fading meteors, the brilliant City of Chance seemed indeed a magical place.

But Captain Future’s keen eyes discerned the haggard strain on many of the faces, the false note in much of the laughter. He knew how many people came to the Pleasure Planet for an exciting vacation, and left it as paupers, stripped of all their possessions by the games of Bubas Uum.

“It’s time something was done about this place,” he muttered, “no matter whether System law is helpless or not.”

Yet as he thought this, Curt Newton was careful to maintain the expression of a bored, sophisticated young Earthman. He and Joan looked around negligently as they approached the Palace.

“I feel lucky tonight,” Curt said, loud enough to be overheard. “Let’s try the radium-roulette game.”

“It’s pretty steep, even for you,” drawled Joan.

“What if I do drop a few thousands?” Curt replied casually. “I’ll simply televise Dad for more. The old boy will send it.”

They were going up the steps into the splendid vaulted foyer of the Palace. Here and there stood keen-eyed, brawny men in gold uniform, with holstered atom pistols — Bubas Uum’s private guards.

“Welcome to the Palace of Hazard,” an unctuous yellow Uranian official greeted them. “The radium-roulette room? Right ahead.”

Curt Newton and Joan passed through other gambling halls. From the rooms of planetary slot machines, in which small-time gamblers were trying to make all nine planets appear in a row and win a big stake, they went through the “quantum-dice” rooms and their clicking tables.

The radium-roulette salon was biggest of all, for at this game was the highest play in the System. It was a circular silver chamber with a vaulted ceiling in which artificial stars winked softly. At the big table in the center was gathered a dense little throng. Curt pushed his way through.

“Do you mind letting us at the table?” he grumbled. “I want to play, not watch.”

“Better not play now, Earthman,” warned a Venusian onlooker. “There’s some Martian here who’s winning millions. You can’t buck him.”

“Nobody can scare me,” Curt said disdainfully.

He reached the edge of the table. Then Curt received a shock. Ul Quorn and N’rala sat across the table from him!

THE Martian mixed-breed’s handsome red face was smooth and composed as he played. In front of him was a stack of silver thousand-dollar chips, and a small pile of golden hundred-thousand chips. Bubas Uum, the notorious proprietor of the Pleasure Planet, sat at the end of the table, watching Ul Quorn. He was obese to a repulsive degree, his great puffy body overflowing his chair, his bald head and green-skinned face glistening with perspiration, his small eyes alarmed.

“Bubas Uum is badly worried,” chuckled the Venusian behind Curt. “That Martian has won millions, and he keeps playing.”

Ul Quorn glanced up as Curt and Joan seated themselves. But he did not penetrate their disguises.

“One million even on Twenty-eight,” said the Martian softly.

The thin, blue Saturnian croupier looked at Bubas Uum.

“Take the bet,” said the obese Jovian in a harsh voice.

A few others around the roulette table laid smaller bets. Then the Saturnian touched the starting button. The apparatus of the game was a hemispherical cup three feet across, in the middle of the table. This cup was lined with one hundred small numbered pockets. At the center of the cup was a tiny pivot on which rested a minute grain of pure radium.

Curt Newton knew the principle of the game quite well. The pivot which bore the grain of radium was spinning swiftly. After two minutes, a mechanical control unloosed a neutron ray from the ceiling. It struck the grain of radium in such fashion as to smash just one single atom of the radium, producing alpha particles. Whichever numbered pocket the particles entered was the winning number. It was, in theory, absolutely impossible to cheat in a game so scientifically contrived.

The alpha streak flashed from the radium grain suddenly, as an atom was smashed. And the little streak struck a pocket near Quorn.

“Number Twenty-eight wins,” said the croupier dazedly.

A low murmur of amazement went up from the spectators.

“Pay the winner thirty million-dollar chips,” ordered Bubas Uum harshly, sweat rolling from his chin.

The croupier pushed the platinum chips onto the numbered square on the table. But Ul Quorn let them remain there.

“All thirty-one million on the same number,” he said calmly.

This time the cries were loud and unconcealed.

“Thirty-one million on a single number! If the Martian wins two more like that, he’ll win the Pleasure Planet itself from Bubas!”

“And that,” Captain Future reflected tensely, “is just what Quorn is trying — to break Bubas Uum and get the Jovian’s two space stones. The same game I came here to play myself, and he’s using the same scientific means I brought, to make sure he wins.” Curt surreptitiously touched the little instrument under his jacket. “We’ll see if we can’t change Quorn’s luck.”

CAPTAIN FUTURE laid a small pad of interplanetary banknotes on the table.

“Fifty thousand on Number Seventeen,” he said loudly.

Ul Quorn didn’t even look up at him. The Martian was too sure of winning. As the croupier started the radium grain spinning, Curt pressed the little instrument under his jacket. It was a small, specially designed mechanism that could project a powerful magnetic field along a narrow beam. Magnetic force deflects alpha particles in flight. Curt meant to use that principle to win, as he knew that Ul Quorn was using it. The alpha particles flashed.

“Number Seventeen wins!” was the cry.

A million and a half in chips was pushed on Curt’s number. And Ul Quorn’s thirty-one millions were gathered by the banker. Quorn looked up, he and N’rala plainly amazed.

“They can’t understand why his device failed that time,” Curt mused.

Staring at Curt and Joan more closely, Ul Quorn’s dark eyes narrowed. Recognition leaped into them.

“Hello!” he said coolly to Curt. “Didn’t know you at first.”

“Glad to see you.” Curt grinned. “It seems we’re playing against each other, eh?”

“Place your bets,” the Saturnian croupier was calling.

Captain Future and Ul Quorn began playing against each other for stakes that meant the fate of worlds!