Captain Future 09 - Quest Beyond the Stars (Winter 1942) (15 page)

But the other Futuremen and the star captains continued to look with doubt and awe at the monstrous, half-concealed object.

“The Birthplace of Matter!” Hol Jor muttered solemnly. “The beating heart of our universe, that pumps out new matter to all the farthest spaces! It makes me feel afraid.”

“Remember the need of your worlds for the secret of matter creation,” Curt urged. “In that spinning storm of force is the secret that will save Mercury from death, and I mean to find it if it’s humanly possible.”

Thyria looked up at Captain Future, her white face distressed. “But you dare not try to approach the Birthplace!” she protested. “It is against the ancients laws — my people will never permit it.”

“But we’re friends of your people, Thyria,” Curt pointed out. “We mean to help them against Larstan and the Korians.”

The Thruunian princess shook her yellow head forebodingly. “I fear that even so, my father and the nobles of Thruun will not permit you to transgress the ancient command of the Watchers.”

“Here’s new trouble!” Otho exclaimed angrily. “Maybe we’d better not go to Thruun at all. We could go right on to the Birthplace.”

Curt shook his head. “I promised the girl I’d take her back to her world.” He turned to her. “Thyria, will you try to see that we’re not prevented from going on to the Birthplace?”

“I’ll use my influence, but it may avail little,” she admitted. “My people reverence the law of the Watchers.”

“Ships ahead, coming down on us fast!” Grag exclaimed loudly.

They were long, slim needle-like craft that traveled like speeding arrows. And they were coated with copper like the ships of the green men, to proof them against the electron-barrage. There were four of them.

“They are part of the patrol my people maintain in space around the Birthplace!” Thyria exclaimed. “Flash them this signal at once or they will open fire on you.” She rapidly told them the code of long and short flashes by which Thruunian ships recognized each other. Using the fluoroscopic searchlights, Curt Newton hastily flashed the signal. The Thruunian patrol craft slowed down, and approached more deliberately.

“What kind of communication do you have between your space-ships?” Curt asked her. “If electromagnetic signals, what frequency?”

Thyria gave him the frequency figure. “We can change the
Comet’s
televisor audio transmitter to that frequency,” he said quickly.

He and Otho rapidly altered the coils of the transmitter. Then Thyria was able to speak to the two Thruunian ships. After a short colloquy, she turned a bright face.

“They are overjoyed at my return,” she told Curt, “and they are relaying my warning of a possible quick attack by Larstan, to my father in Thruun.”

Less than an hour later, the
Comet
and its escort craft swept in through the thin atmosphere of the single planet that circled the red sun.

THRUUN was a withered world. Dull red, arid steppes formed a monotonous landscape, varied occasionally by low, rolling hills. Only at a few places did mossy red plains and valleys show the glitter of a small watercourse. The escorting cruisers led the way toward the capital. It was a circular city of dark marble, its main avenues radiating from a central plaza which appeared to contain the main government buildings.

“Metal is much scarcer here than upon Kor,” Thyria told Captain Future. “We cannot afford to use it as building material.”

“I cannot understand this,” rasped the Brain. “You Thruunians could secure the secret of matter creation from the Birthplace and revive your whole world.”

“But that would be against the command of the Watchers,” answered Thyria with a little sigh.

Curt Newton felt misgivings as to the attitude of the Thruunians toward his quest. There were two landing fields outside the city of Thruun, each bearing a number of copper-coated cruisers, parked in rows. But Thyria directed them to land the
Comet
upon the central plaza.

“My father will be waiting if he received the news of my return,” she said eagerly.

The city was one of dark marble domes, each crowned by a curved and crested roof. The public buildings were of similar design, but towered above the rest. Curt saw crowds in the streets around the plaza. White-skinned Thruunians of both sexes appeared, dressed in short white tunics such as Thyria wore. Despite their dissimilarity in complexion and in dress, the Thruunians and the Korians seemed to resemble each other in their way of living. The
Comet
had already been switched to rocket drive by Grag, and the robot brought it down skillfully upon the dark stone plaza. A group of Thruunians wearing glittering badges of honor or authority approached as they emerged from the ship. A tall, grave-eyed man with iron-gray hair and beard led the Thruunians. With a little cry, Thyria ran toward him. “It is my father, King Kwolok,” she said happily.

The Thruunian ruler, when he had heard Thyria’s hasty recital, clasped Curt’s hand strongly.

“You are doubly welcome, strangers from the outer stars, for you bring back one we deemed lost,” he said.

One of his councillors interrupted.

“Highness, if Princess Thyria is right about Larstan attacking us quickly —”

“Yes, we must prepare,” muttered Kwolok. “Give orders to double the space patrol and have every ship in Thruun ready for instant action. Send out scout craft toward Kor to reconnoiter.”

The bleak eyes of Hol Jor glistened. “We’ll soon have a chance to hit back at Larstan,” exulted the big Antarian.

The largest of the domed buildings in the plaza was the palace of the kings of Thruun. Thither Kwolok and Thyria led Curt and his comrades. The place lacked the luxury of the copper mansion of Larstan, but the austere simplicity of the shadowy stone rooms and halls was appealing.

“I like these people,” Otho announced, when they had been escorted to wide-windowed chambers on an upper floor. “They look you in the eye. They’re worth a dozen such of those green devils of Kor.”

“Unless I’m mistaken,” commented the Brain, “these Thruunians and the Korians came originally of the same race. They are identical in certain anthropological factors.”

Night swept over Thruun as the red sun set. But the night sky was filled with an incredible aurora. Even more brilliant than the night of Kor was this glowing sky, for this world was much deeper in the electronic haze. Up from the horizon rose a stupendous object. It was the colossal spiral of spinning light, its whirling arms reaching half across the firmament. Shrouded as it was by the glowing haze, it was a tremendous spectacle.

“I don’t see how the
Comet
can ever get near or in it,” Otho muttered.

“The protective coating we gave the ship should keep out the electron torrents,” Captain Future murmured doubtfully. “Anyway, we’ve got to try it.”

A mellow bell sounded from the lower level of the marble castle.

“Let me do the talking with Kwolok about the Birthplace,” Curt said hastily as they started to descend. “These people are superstitious about it, and it will take tactful handling.”

But when they entered the small, simple dining hall where the ruler of Thruun and his daughter awaited them, there was sternness in Kwolok’s greeting.

“Thyria has informed me that you strangers cherish ambition to seek the secret of the Birthplace,” the king told Captain Future abruptly when they had seated themselves.

Curt shot a look at the girl.

“I have been trying to gain my father’s consent to aid your venture,” she said.

“It is out of the question!” Kwolok declared firmly. “The command of the Watchers was that no one, no matter whence he came, might approach the Birthplace. For ages, we have obeyed that command.”

“But we expect to help you against Larstan’s attack,” Curt Newton pointed out. “We will, if there is time enough, use our science to improve your ships and weapons. Surely you would not prevent your own allies from seeking a secret that means life for our worlds, a secret that we have come through great dangers and hardships to secure?”

“If my own brother were to seek to approach the Birthplace, I should be forced to order his death. For upon the kings of Thruun devolves the duty of enforcing the ancient commandment of the Watchers.”

“Who or what are the Watchers?” Captain Future asked. “Are they more than legend?”

“Much more than legend, my son,” replied Kwolok, his bearded face grave. “We know that, though we ourselves have had no contact with the Watchers since our ancestors first entered this space inside the cloud.

“YES, our ancestors came long ago from outside the cosmic dust cloud. Tradition has it that they were natives of a great planet whose people colonized the farthest regions of the universe.”

“Deneb,” muttered the Brain. “The ancestors of these folk must have come from Deneb just as all our own ancestors did, long ago.”

“But how did your ancestors manage to get through the cloud?” Curt cried to the old king. “Even our own super-powerful ship could hardly win through those currents!”

“The cloud sometimes shows rifts or gaps, for a brief interval, when the currents tear its veil open. Our ancestors came through such a temporary rift, after long watching and waiting.

“They entered this space,” the king continued, “and found the Birthplace of Matter and recognized it for what it is.

“They sought to approach the Birthplace and attain its secret. But out of the Birthplace itself came strange superhuman beings such as my ancestors had not dreamed existed. They did not describe them except to say that they were awesomely alien, of vast mental power, and that they called themselves the Watchers of the Birthplace. The Watchers told my ancestors, ‘The secret of the Birthplace is too mighty a power to fall into the hands of those who might misuse it for evil ends. You must not again seek to secure it. We could destroy you but we prefer to warn you. And our warning is — never again approach the Birthplace nor allow others to approach it.’ That was the command of the Watchers. They then withdrew to their home within the Birthplace itself, and my ancestors did not again seek to approach it. The command of the Watchers became the law of this world.

“But after ages had passed, Thruun began to wither. Then many of our people, who had lost faith in the ancient law, desired to disregard the traditional warning, enter the Birthplace and use its secret to revive our wasting world. They were forbidden to do so. So the malcontents left Thruun and built themselves a new city upon the world of a green star which, until then, had been too hot for habitation. They called that world Kor, and they themselves came to be green of skin after some generations.

“Since then, the Korians have lusted after the secret of the Birthplace, but always we of the true blood of Thruun have abided by the ordainment of the Watchers and prevented them. But the Korians have increased more rapidly than we on our wasted world. Only their fear that we had relaxed our former severe attitude and had secured the secret of the Birthplace for our own use has kept them from attacking us to penetrate the constant patrols that we maintain around he Birthplace. But now,” he concluded, “Larstan has learned that we do not possess the secret. Very soon, I fear, he will launch his forces upon us. The help of you strangers and your science would be invaluable in repelling that attack. But I will not delude you with false promises. Even if you help us, we cannot and will not allow you to approach the Birthplace!”

CURT NEWTON had listened in growing wonder to the old king’s story. He broke the ensuing silence with a question. “Do you Thruunians believe that the Watchers still exist inside the Birthplace?”

“We do,” affirmed Kwolok solemnly, “Even though not for ages have they manifested themselves.”

Otho was openly incredulous. “How could any beings live inside that storm of force?”

“Tradition tells us,” answered the king, “that there is a world somewhere inside the Birthplace.”

“A planet in there?” echoed Grag. “It sounds impossible.”

“It might be possible,” murmured the Brain thoughtfully. “There might be a calm area within that spinning tempest.”

Kwolok looked at Captain Future. “I have been frank with you, strangers. You know now that we can never permit you to approach the Birthplace. Knowing that, do you still wish to help us against Larstan?”

Curt’s decision was already made. “We’re going to help you,” he said quietly. “Larstan must not gain possession of the power of matter mastery, for if he did, he might carry conquest to our own outer universe. Once he has been thwarted, we can discuss our own plans.”

“There will be nothing to discuss, for I repeat that we shall never allow you to enter the Birthplace,” warned Kwolok. “But I gladly accept your help, for I fear that we will need it badly.”

“Will Larstan’s forces be so superior to your own?” Curt asked.

“I fear they will be. We can muster no more than four hundred space cruisers fit for battle, and the Korians must have nearly six hundred. To make matters worse, half our own ships are required to maintain the space patrol around the Birthplace.”