Captain Future 11 - The Comet Kings (Summer 1942) (14 page)

The creatures had read Curt’s mind. They had read there that he knew nothing of the supposed scientific secret, that it was all a fake. They had read the truth — but they had not believed it!

Captain Future had introduced a psychological element of doubt into the calculations of the Alius. They could not be certain now that the thermodynamic factor did not exist, in spite of the sincere mental denials of Curt’s brain.

They could not be certain, either, that those denials were not mere pretense on his part.

Curt intercepted an Alius thought.

“Let us destroy this Earthman, Ruun. His so-called thermodynamic factor is purely an invention.”

“You may be right, Siql,” was Ruun’s cold reply. “But we must be certain! If there is such a vital factor regulating energy-flow in this cosmos, we must learn of it or our whole purpose will be thwarted.”

“Physical torture of the Earthman might produce the truth,” came the chilly suggestion of another Alius.

“No. My reading of this man’s mind convinces me that he would remain obdurate to the last degree under such pressure,” replied Ruun.

CURT could “hear” this mental discussion, for he was still gripped by the vast mental force of the Alius, and hence
en rapport
with them.

“There is another means of forcing him to unfold the truth,” Ruun went on. “As we have already observed, the intelligence of these human creatures is very largely subservient to their irrational emotions.

“I have already read in this Earthman’s mind that his strongest emotion concerns a girl of his own race, whom we made into a Cometae some time ago. I believe that the threat of physical harm to that girl would constitute the strongest pressure we could bring upon him.”

Captain Future felt a stab of agonized alarm. If he had brought terrible danger on Joan —

He realized instantly that he must suppress such alarm. But it was too late. Ruun, as always, had read his thoughts.

“You observe that the Earthman betrays deep fear lest harm befall the girl,” commented the Alius leader. “This proves that a threat to her safety is the strongest compulsion we can use upon him. Therefore, I will call Querdel and order him to return here at once, with that girl.”

The shadowy, monstrous silhouette of the Alius leader glided toward the black sphere in the alcove, which Curt had already divined was the means of communication between the Alius and Querdel.

Ruun’s special black shape hovered beside the sphere a moment, then came back.

“Querdel had just reached Mloon. He is starting back here at once with the girl,” Ruun announced.

“You can’t do this!” Captain Future cried: “I tell you, it was all a fake on my part! There is no thermodynamic factor!”

“You will return to your cell,” came Ruun’s commanding, icy thought. “We shall summon you for further questioning when the girl arrives.”

Curt made a frantic mental effort to break free, to attempt somehow to attack the shadowy group, it was quite futile. The minds that gripped his own sent him stumbling against his will from the cruciform laboratory, down the long, curving passageway into his prison.

As he entered the little room, the mental compulsion upon him ceased. But now the curtain of haze had sprung across the doorway once more. When he tried to go through it, he found that the mental barrier was impassable.

Curt Newton sat down, overwhelmed by a horror greater than anything he had yet felt. His stratagem had recoiled upon himself. It had gained him time, but it had put the girl he loved in deadliest danger. The Alius would torture her until he told them about the thermodynamic factor.

And he couldn’t tell them, for there was no such thing!

OTHO crouched frozenly upon the roof of the vast black Alius citadel, gazing down with incredulous eyes at the fantastic scene within the great central court.

“Devils of space!” whispered the stupefied android. “Have I been using dreamdust?”

In fact, the scene below him seemed more fitting to a grotesque and terrifying nightmare than to reality. Otho had seen queer things and places on many a world and moon, but never anything like this.

The circular open court that pierced the center of the Alius citadel was three hundred feet in diameter. Since its depth was the thousand-foot height of the building, it resembled a huge black well upon the rim of which Otho was crouched, looking downward.

Around the edge of the court rose a ring of eighty copper rods, that soared up out of the black well and far above the citadel roof. The tops of these rods, high above Otho, were bulbous electrodes, upon which played a ceaseless violet brush of electrical force. Otho perceived at once that this mighty ring of electrodes was designed to milk electrical force from the coma-sky.

The terrific electric voltage gathered by the copper rods manifested itself at the bottom of the well as a crackling, brilliant ring of electric flame. This ring of flaming force completely encircled the interior of the court, in a dazzling wall twenty feet high. It was in fact a ceaseless falling cataract of electric energy.

“There’s enough power in that to light up a planet!” Otho thought astoundedly. “What are they using it for?”

He craned his gaze downward, seeking to discern details on the court’s floor. His eyes fastened on an enigmatic central object.

“What the devil can that be?” he wondered mystifiedly.

The torrents of flaming electrical energy that walled in the court were canalized, through massive transformers and conduit cables, toward this central object which so puzzled him. Evidently all this stupendous power was used by the Alius simply for the operation of the central object.

But what was the thing? It looked like a massive arched door-frame which stood perpendicularly upon the black paving. Otho judged it was ten feet high and almost as wide. This arched frame was of solid copper, studded every few feet with heavy, bulging coils, to which were connected the multiple conduit cables that conveyed electric power.

But inside the opening of this elaborate frame there was — nothing. Nothing but a featureless blackness. It was as though space itself did not exist inside that massive arch, so strong was the impression it gave Otho of utter, lightless emptiness.

“If I could only get down there and see for myself what it is!” he muttered all his curiosity and passion for adventure on fire.

Then he realized the practical impossibility. He might be able to clamber down into the court, though even that was doubtful, because of the vertical nature of these inner walls. But even if he could do that, he still would not be able to penetrate the stupendous ring of electric flame that aped in the whole court.

“That ring of force would blast me or anyone else who tried to go through it,” Otho admitted to himself. “But what’s it all about? What’s that arched frame of blackness, and why does it have to use such terrific, constant power?”

He strained his keen eyes desperately to inspect the object far below.

“It seems to be the very keystone of the Alius’ citadel.”

SUDDENLY Otho gasped unbelievingly as he looked downward. He was witnessing something that made his feeling of nightmare even stronger.

A black, shadowy figure was emerging from that mysterious, coil-framed copper arch. The figure did not go through the arch — it simply came out of it!

It was like a monstrous, moving silhouette of repulsively serpentine outline. Even at this height, Otho’s super-keen eyes could detect the essential inhumanity of that shadow’s alien dimensions.

“Gods of space!” he whispered, appalled. “Is that one of the Alius?”

The opaque black shadowy figure was gliding away from the arch toward the side of the court. Otho perceived that from that black shape there trailed a thin, shadowy filament which led back into the mystery-arch from which the creature had emerged.

The dark figure glided unharmed right through the encircling wall of electric flame, to disappear through a doorway which led from the court into the citadel around it. But Otho could still see the filament of shadow it trailed behind it, which still led into the arch of mystery.

“What the devil kind of entity is that?” the android gasped. “Creatures of shadow that come out of a door to no place, on a shadow-string! Creatures that can walk through that blasting wall of force!”

He soon saw another of the Alius. For that these were the mysterious Great Ones, Otho could no longer doubt.

He saw one of the shadowy creatures coming from the citadel into the court, gliding into the arch of blackness to disappear. In the next minutes, several such beings came and went through the arch. All of them who emerged from it trailed that curious shadowy filament after them.

Otho felt badly upset. It had long been the reckless android’s boast that he was afraid of neither man, beast or devil. But these Alius were none of the three. As far as he could see; they were just opaque shadows of hideous form. But no mere shadows, he knew, could have mastered a planet as they had mastered this comet world.

“No wonder the Cometae are scared to death of those creatures,” Otho thought, stunned. “How in the devil can a man fight a shadow?”

Then a more cheerful thought occurred to him.

“Still, on the other hand, how can a shadow fight a man? The things may have some queer mental powers, but aside from that I don’t see what they could do. I’ll bet they haven’t been able to get the chief down!”

His active mind began to make plans. He and Grag had to get into the citadel somehow, to help Curt if he needed aid.

Otho rejected the possibility of entry by climbing down into this central court. Too many of the shadowy Alius were coming and going constantly down there. He’d be sure to be detected, even if he were able to make it.

The android quickly decided to return to Grag and explore the exterior of the citadel for a possible way inside. There was no opening anywhere to the roof, but they might find one somewhere in the walls.

Hurriedly Otho retraced his way over the synthe-stone roof of the mighty pile, and with spidery agility and quickness climbed back down the outer wall. Then he raced for the edge of the luminous green jungle.

Grag greeted him with a complaint.

“You took long enough up there! I was beginning to think they had you. What did you find out?”

“Plenty!” retorted Otho. He told rapidly of what he had seen.

THE big robot listened incredulously. “You mean those Alius are nothing but shadows?”

“They look like shadows, but there must be more to them than that,” Otho corrected. “The point is, there’s no practicable way into the place by the roof. We’ll have to look for some crack or window in the wall.”

The two Futuremen started to reconnoiter the mighty citadel, moving around it and keeping always in the concealment of the jungle. In less than an hour, they were back where they had started from, baffled. The structure’s whole exterior was blank and without openings, except for the single entrance into which ran the white road from Mloon.

“Not a chunk big enough for a Mercurian rat to get through!” exclaimed Otho, exasperated. “Well, there’s only one thing to do. We’ll have to dig a tunnel up into the cursed place.”

Grag stared at him.

“Are you crazy? There’s that big, wide entrance right in front of us. We’ll go in through it.”

“Don’t be dumb all your life, Grag!” flared Otho impatiently. “Didn’t I tell you that entrance would be guarded somehow by the Alius? A child could see that.”

“Querdel went in and out of it in his power-car,” retorted Grag. “I saw him come out and speed south, while I was waiting for you.”

“Naturally, the Alius would let Querdel in and out, for he’s one of their tools,” Otho pointed out. “But you can bet a planet that if we tried to walk in there, we’d run right into a terrible trap.”

“We’ve got to get in, and that door’s the only way in, and so I’m going through it,” Grag announced calmly.

And the big metal robot, with Eek still clinging to his shoulder, stalked straight out of the jungle toward the entrance of the citadel.

Otho swore furiously, and then hastened after the robot, with Oog trotting hastily at his heels. The android caught up with Grag just a few yards outside the yawning entrance.

“Grag, don’t be an idiot!” Otho pleaded. “If you weren’t so cursed thick-headed, you’d know that we’ll never get in this way.”

Grag paid no attention. The robot’s simple mind was thoroughly made up. Curt Newton was inside, here was a way to get in, and he was going that way without any further talk. Grag could be obstinate upon occasion, and this was one of the times.

They now could see that the big, open entrance that pierced the citadel’s massive black wall was curtained by a zone of dark haze.

“See — that haze is a force-barrier of some kind!” Otho expostulated. “It’ll either blast us to bits, or else set off an alarm that will bring the Alius down on our heads.”

“Aw, it’s just a little dark haziness, that’s all,” replied Grag with sublime denseness. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”