Captain Future 10 - Outlaws of the Moon (Spring 1942) (15 page)

He assigned Grag a special task.

“Use that molten lead to coat our space-suits. It’ll make them rayproof, so we can land on the mountain.”

“I’d hoped you had given up the crazy idea of visiting that blazing peak,” Grag groaned. “Why is it necessary?”

“We’ve got to have a mass of radium ore to power the big wave-transmitter I’m building” Curt retorted. “It’s the heart of my plan.”

“With a wave-transmitter, he’s going to stop a whole armed company of the Planet Patrol!” Grag exclaimed incredulously. “Maybe I’m the crazy one.”

Curt and the Brain labored on the construction of the enigmatic machine in their dwelling, through the hours of that night. Copper sheets and bars, cast to Curt’s order by his Lunarian smelters, were rapidly welded together into the frame of a large, round mechanism.

The heart of the big machine would be an ordinary super type atomic-power generator, designed to use radioactive ores for production of a terrific potential. Around this unit, Curt fastened the transformers, condensers and other apparatus he had brought down from above, so that the machine began to take form as a powerful wave-transmitter.

“I don’t get it, “Chief,” declared Otho, watching. “You’ve built your atomic-power unit inside the wave-transmitter. How come?”

“That’s vital,” Curt told him. “It will prevent the power unit that operates the transmitter from being affected by the transmitter’s waves, which will be radiated outward.”

“But what kind of wave are you going to broadcast, that you have to take such precautions?” Otho demanded.

The Brain interrupted. Simon Wright’s keen scientific mind had already gained a strong clue to Curt’s intentions from the circuit of the transmitter as it took form. Now Simon uttered a sharp exclamation.

“Lad, now I see how you’re planning to stop King and the others! But it’s mad, fantastic —”

“It will work if we get this transmitter finished in time,” Captain Future declared determinedly.

“But this transmitter’s too powerful — it will broadcast a wave for nearly a million-mile radius!” the Brain declared. “It’ll affect not only everything on the Moon, but everything on Earth as well!”

“Exactly what I want to do,” rapped Curt Newton. His gray eyes gleamed. “Then Earth will find out that we Futuremen are not mere hunted outlaws, but that we can turn and strike for ourselves.”

He labored far into the “night” upon the big, half-finished mechanism; before he lay down to snatch a few hours sleep. Curt was awakened by frantic, shouting voices. He leaped to his feet. There was a wild uproar of excitement all through the Lunarian town. He could hear voices yelling, the thud of hurrying feet, the clatter of a brazen gong from the house of the Lunarian chieftain.

“Something’s wrong!” Captain Future exclaimed. “We’ll soon see —”

He and the others ran toward the center of the spiral town. Wissler was shoved along with them by Grag, who did not wish to stay behind. Reh Sel, the old Lunarian chieftain, was addressing a throng of excited Moon-men in shrill tones. The old man saw Captain Future approach.

“The others from above have come, as you predicted!” he cried to Curt. “Those who plan to desecrate the Shining Mountain!”

Captain Future’s sharp questions soon revealed the situation. Two hours before, a small group of young Lunarian hunters had started up the ancient path into the dark caves, to hunt for the giant centipedes whose ivory fangs were much esteemed as jewelry. And the two young men had seen a powerful force of strangers forging down through the caves along the path.

“There were hundreds of them!” cried the leader of the young hunters, in excited answer to Curt’s queries. “They wore strange garments and carried unfamiliar weapons, and had many lights to illuminate their way.”

“Larsen King’s planetary miners and the company of Planet Patrol officers that’s come to guard them!” exclaimed the Brain.

“Yes — no doubt about it,” rapped Captain Future. His tanned face was grim. “This is bad. They’ll be down here soon. And it’ll take at least a couple more days to complete the wave-transmitter.”

FWAR AJ, the big, grizzled Lunarian leader, was brandishing a heavy spear-bow in the air. His face was flaming with passion.

“We will destroy these sacrilegious ones who cower the Shining Mountain!” cried the big Moon-man furiously. “We’ll assemble every man and his weapon in the eastern jungle and strike them when they emerge from the caves.”

“Go, and may the power of the Shining Mountain aid you!” exclaimed old Reh Sel.

Curt Newton leaped forward and turned to face the enraged throng, raising his voice in a desperate plea.

“Wait!” he cried. “You can’t meet those men in open fight. They have weapons a hundred times more powerful than your spear-bows. They’ll destroy you. You must wait until I have finished my work.

Then they can be overcome without shedding a drop of blood.”

His plea had no effect on the outraged Lunarians. They poured down to the beach and shoved off in their canoes, Fwar Aj leading the force.

“They’ll be massacred — trying to fight a full company of the Patrol with those spear-bows!” exclaimed Otho.

“I’m going after them and stop it,” declared Captain Future. “Grag, you stay here with Simon and gather together the rest of the metals we need to finish the wave-transmitter. We may have to leave this place to gain time to finish the machine.”

“If you see that devil Larsen King in the fracas, finish him off for me!” cried Grag.

“King won’t be here — he believes in letting other men take the risks for him,” said Albert Wissler bitterly. “King will be back on Earth, waiting till everything here is cleaned up and he can reap the profits.”

Curt and Otho jumped into a canoe and paddled out onto the black sea. They steered toward the eastern shore which Fwar Aj’s force of Lunarian fighters had already reached.

Across the, dark, heaving ocean of the lunar underworld, through the ceaseless, throbbing green, radiance of the distant radium peak, Curt and the Futuremen paddled on. By the time they reached the eastern shore, Fwar Aj and his fighters had disappeared into the towering jungle.

“They’ll head for the place where the path from above debouches, and seek to waylay the Patrol and King’s men there!” Curt exclaimed.

He and Otho lunged forward along the jungle trail. Before they had gone far, they heard a dim clamor of raging yells and whizzing spears from ahead. It was quickly followed by the ominous blast of atom-guns.

“Too late — they’re fighting already!” Curt groaned “Hurry!”

They came around a bend of the trail into sight of a dismaying spectacle. A solid band of dark-uniformed Planet Patrol men was emerging from the fissure that formed the mouth of the path to the surface. The Patrol men carried heavy atom-guns, and they were using them.

For Fwar Aj and his Lunarians, rashly advancing through the truck jungle to attack, were trying to get close enough to use their spear-bows. Most of their whizzing spears were falling short. And as the Lunarians tried to close the range, streaks of fire from the atom-guns were beginning to take a costly toll.

THE Moon-men seemed appalled by the power of the unfamiliar weapons opposed to them. Yet they were continuing to advance with unabated courage behind the raging Fwar Aj, until Captain Future leaped in front of them.

“You must retreat — you’ll all be killed if you try to face those atom-guns!” Curt yelled to the Lunarians.

At the same moment, he heard a shout from the advancing Patrol men as they recognized his tall figure and red hair.

“That’s Captain Future! He’s leading these Moon-devils! Get him!”

“Unless we get out of here, we’re lost, Chief!” cried Otho urgently.

Curt pleaded with Fwar Aj.

“Order your men to give way, to retreat to the town. I promise to save the mountain from these invaders.”

Swayed by Captain Future’s earnest promise, Fwar Aj shouted the order to his fighters. The Moon-men hastily drew back from the advancing Patrol company, and began a retreat toward the sea.

They knew every bend of the jungle trails, and they soon left the Planet Patrol force out of sight behind. When they reached the beach, they at once shoved off in the yellow canoes.

Looking back, Curt Newton saw the Patrol squads reaching the beach. A full company, six hundred fighting men armed with heavy atom-guns, deployed there. Presently the Patrol squads started a determined march along the southern shore of the black sea, toward the distant Lunarian town.

“They’ve seen our town and are marching for it!” exclaimed Fwar Aj smolderingly. “They’ll reach it before evening.”

“We can be back there in less than an hour, if we hurry,” Curt rejoined. “Tell the men to paddle fast.”

The yellow canoes shot over the black sea at high speed. The Moon-men were badly upset, fearful of the ultimate outcome of events.

Crossing directly over the dark sea, they soon reached the town on the western shore. A great throng of excited, apprehensive Lunarians met them on the beach. Reh Sel was there, and also Grag and Simon and the captive Albert Wissler.”

Captain Future hastily explained to old Reh Sel that the invaders were marching upon the town, and would reach it by late that afternoon.

“You said that you had a plan that would stop them!” Reh Sel exclaimed.

“I have, but I can’t use it until my half-built machine is completed,” Curt explained urgently. “That will take many hours. The only thing we can do until then is to evacuate all your people from this town.”

“But where will we go?”cried the old Moon chieftain in dismay.

Curt pointed northward.

“Further around the shore, to those northern marshes you mentioned. We could hold back the invaders until my work is completed, from that marsh.”

“The Marsh of Monsters?” cried Reh Sel. “It would be dangerous to enter it. The huge beasts of prey that inhabit it are fierce and fearsome.”

“Better to take our chance on the beasts there, than to remain here and put up a useless fight that will only shed futile blood,” Captain Future retorted. “If you do this, I’ll be able to achieve my plan and then you can repel the invaders easily, without taking any lives at all.”

RINGING sincerity in Curt Newton’s voice convinced the Lunarian ruler as it had already convinced Fwar Aj.

“Then we will rely on your promise and do, as you ask,” he declared.

The old chieftain and Fwar Aj began giving orders for the wholesale evacuation. There followed intense excitement and confusion through the Lunarian town as the people hastily made ready to depart.

Fwar Aj ordered that the old, the infirm and the children were to be transported along the shore in canoes. There were not enough canoes for all, so the rest of the Moon people must march through the jungle.

Captain Future found that Grag and Simon had gathered together the metals and materials necessary for completion of the wave-transmitter.

“We can’t possibly carry the transmitter. We’ll lash together two canoes to form a scow for its transportation,” Curt decided.

This was hastily done. The massive, half-completed machine was carefully loaded upon the improvised scow. Fwar Aj’s men would tow it from other canoes.

“You and Simon go with it, Otho,” Curt ordered. “Nothing must happen to it, for everything now depends on completing the thing in time. Grag and I will march with the main body. You too, Wissler.”

The great evacuation of the Lunarians soon began, for canoe scouts coming in reported the invaders advancing steadily on the town. The people streamed out of town in two bodies, one in the canoes moving along the shore, the other marching north along the jungle trails.

Curt and Grag and the frightened Wissler were with Reh Sel at the head of the marching column. Strong Lunarian fighting men flanked the column, beating back the few land octopi or other beasts who attempted to approach it.

The Lunarians seemed pathetically dazed at being forced to leave their homes. Added to their oppression was their superstitious anxiety that the sacred radiant mountain might be harmed by the invaders. And they looked forward with dread to taking refuge in the much-feared Marsh of Monsters.

Captain Future felt the weight of a heavier oppression. He knew these people were relying on his promise to halt the invaders. To keep that promise, he must have time to complete his mechanism and secure fuel for its operation. And time was running out swiftly, now that the Planet Patrol had trapped them inescapably here in the heart of the Moon.

FROM the televisor receiver, an announcer’s excited voice was speaking to the System.

“Flash Bulletin: Planet Police headquarters reports that the notorious outlaws, Captain Future and the Futuremen, have finally been trapped deep inside the Moon. The report states that a hitherto unsuspected underworld exists there, peopled by primitive native Lunarians.

“A full company of the Patrol division has penetrated into this underworld, in conjunction with miners of the corporation that was given a concession to exploit lunar radium.