Captain Future 19 - Outlaw World (Winter 1946) (14 page)

“Do you think I don’t know how much time we’ll be losing?” he cried, his voice raw with emotion. “Do you think it means nothing to me that Joan has been carried away to some unimaginable place? I want to follow now as badly as you. But this is the only way we can follow.”

“I’m sorry, Jan,” Bork King muttered, unconsciously reverting to the old name. “I guess you have as big a stake in this as I have.”

“We all have a stake in crushing Ru Ghur,” the Brain said ominously. “That Uranian’s mysterious schemes mean danger to the System.”

EZRA GURNEY broke the taut silence to ask Captain Future a question.

“I ain’t no scientist,” he said, “but can you build any compass that’ll detect radium at interplanetary distances?”

Curt Newton explained rapidly. “Radium emits three different emanations, the Alpha, Beta and Gamma rays. The Alpha and Beta rays, streams of sub-atomic particles, powerfully affect an electroscope. That’s why electroscopes are used by radium prospectors for surveys. But those two rays are of no use to us, for they have low penetrating power and wouldn’t affect even the most sensitive instrument at great distances.

“The Gamma rays, on the other hand, consist of etheric impulses just like light-rays. They travel at the same speed as light and have tremendous penetrating power. If we can construct a sufficiently sensitive electroscopic instrument, it will register the presence of Gamma rays from large masses of radium, even millions of miles away.”

“Don’t underestimate the difficulties,” warned the Brain. “Ru Ghur had more time than we have. And he has always been an expert on radiation. In his experiments in that field he discovered the Lethe-ray.”

“We’ve got to go to the Moon laboratory,” Curt said urgently. “The facilities of the
Comet
aren’t elaborate enough for the job.”

“I’m going with you!” flamed Bork King. “Whether you want me or not, I’m going to help find Outlaw World and kill Ru Ghur!”

Captain Future gripped his arm understandingly. “Bork, you’re with us on this until the end.”

Bork King delayed only long enough to instruct his Martian followers to notify the authorities of the Red Planet of the disaster. Then he hastened after Curt.

In moments after they had emerged from the black mountain, and ran across the snow to the
Comet
the little ship roared up into the sky.

Curt Newton drove the craft at reckless speed toward Earth’s Moon. He grudged every minute of the time it took, his anxiety had become so feverishly intense.

But when they had landed in the underground hangar in Tycho crater and entered the big Moon laboratory he forced all agonized speculation from his mind. Deliberately he became the cool scientist.

Captain Future’s mastery of science was matched only by that of his teacher, the Brain. These two greatest scientists of the Solar System now applied themselves to their baffling problem with a calm detachment that none of the others could share.

The tall, red-haired Planeteer and the box-like Brain, hovering over sheets of formulae and talking in technical terms, made a spectacle at which big Bork King stared almost in awe.

“There’s something a little unhuman about his self control,” he muttered to Ezra Gurney.

Old Ezra nodded, his faded eyes thoughtful. “Cap’n Future is the most human chap in the System, really. But he was raised on this Moon by the Futuremen, an’ never saw other people till he was nearly a man. It shows in him sometimes, when he’s under strain like this.”

The perspiration glistening on Curt Newton’s drawn, lean face showed the stress under which he labored to keep that cool detachment.

“Obviously, the heart of a long-distance radium compass must be an electroscope super-sensitive to Gamma rays,” he was saying to Simon. “But even the most sensitive electroscope we could build would not detect radium more than a few million miles away, the rays would be so dispersed.”

“Then we must utilize a focusing device to gather the rays for the electroscope, just as a telescope lens gathers light rays for the eye,” pointed out the Brain.

“Chief, maybe you could focus Gamma rays by using the principle of the electron microscope?” interrupted Grag, hopefully.

“Grag, the super-scientist!” Otho said witheringly. “Gamma rays aren’t affected by electric or magnetic fields, you bucket-head.”

“It will have to be a lens to focus Gamma rays,” said Captain Future rapidly.

“And of synthetic crystal whose subatomic structure is designed to refract the rays,” muttered Simon Wright. “It can be done, but it won’t be a short or easy task.”

“It’s got to be done quickly!” rapped Curt. “Otho can construct a supersensitive electroscope, and Grag can build the ring. You and I will concentrate on the lens.”

There, followed in the Moon laboratory a period of toil was a supreme example of the scientific genius and cooperation of the Futuremen. Few words passed between them these hours.

The big Martian and the old Patrol marshal, unable to help, finally retired to an adjoining room and slept exhaustedly.

BORK KING awoke six hours later. He sprang up and hurried back into the laboratory. Ezra was already there. Grag and Otho had finished their share of the task and were intently watching Curt and Simon, who were inspecting a glittering, two-foot lens of transparent crystal.

Captain Future glanced at the Martian.

“We’ve cast the lens,” he said, “and it seems all right. We’ll soon know —”

“Here’s the mounting, Chief,” Grag said, dragging it forward.

It was a short, massive tube of heavy lead, mounted on a swivel. The synthetic lens was carefully fitted into the end of this tube. Into the other end was fitted the super-sensitive electroscope Otho had constructed, They carried the apparatus to the
Comet
and bolted it outside the hull of the ship, near the prow. Electric connections led through the hull to the pilot-room.

“It’s like a telescope mounted outside the ship — one that ‘sees’ by Gamma rays instead of light,” Curt explained. “If there’s a large mass of radium somewhere even at a tremendous distance, its Gamma rays will be focused by the lens and will register on the electroscope.”

He pointed to a large pointer-and-dial on the instrument panel, and a calibrated meter to which Otho was attaching the electric connections from the apparatus outside the hull.

“The pointer on that dial shows at what part of space the ‘telescope’ is pointed. The meter registers the intensity of the Gamma rays from that quarter, if any.”

Ezra’s eyes lit up. “So this thing will show just where Outlaw World is!”

“I’m hoping it will,” Captain Future said. “We’re ready to try it now. We’ll, take the
Comet
out into space to avoid any possible distortion.”

The little ship rose out of Tycho crater and swiftly moved a few hundred thousand miles above the twin worlds of Earth and Moon.

“We’ll quarter the northern hemisphere of outer space first,” muttered Curt.

He slowly moved the pointer on the dial. The telescopic device outside the hull swept its eye over the vast void outside the Solar System. Crowded over the intensity-meter, they waited for its needle to bob and betray the presence of radium masses in some unsuspected quarter. But the needle did not quiver once as the systematic search continued.

“Looks like Outlaw World ain’t out in that direction,” murmured Ezra.

Captain Future shifted the
Comet
a little below the plane of the ecliptic and they made a similar systematic sweep of the remainder of outer space. Astoundingly, this search was as fruitless as the first!

“The needle never moved!” cried Otho. “Then the radium raiders’ base isn’t in outer space after all.”

“It must be!” exclaimed Bork incredulously. “Maybe it’s so far away that even your instrument can’t detect the stolen radium.”

Curt Newton shook his head decisively. “Outlaw World can’t be that far. If it were, Ru Ghur’s raiders would not be able to go and come from it as quickly as they do.”

“But if it were in another dimension —” the big Martian began.

“I discounted that long ago,” Curt told him. “I saw the interior or Ru Ghur’s flagship, remember. It had no dimension shifting apparatus in it, and I doubt if the Uranian knows that secret.”

“But if Outlaw World isn’t in outer space, where is it?” Grag demanded.

“Outlaw World is inside the Solar System!” Captain Future said tightly.

“It can’t be!” Bork King burst in vehemently. “The Patrol searched every world, every moon, every asteroid!”

“They didn’t search the System with a radium compass,” Curt reminded, then explained rapidly. “The radium deposits of the System’s worlds have been thoroughly plotted by electroscopic surface surveys. We’ll allow for those natural deposits. And if any planet or moon shows more radium present than the Government surveys indicate, we’ll know Ru Ghur’s stolen radium is there.”

Using the survey statistics from the microfilm library of the
Comet
, Curt and Simon computed the corrections of each planet and moon and asteroid for natural radium deposits.

“If Outlaw World is inside the System, then it must be an invisible world!” Bork King declared, still unconvinced.

Captain Future and the Brain finally finished their calculations.

“We’ll take Pluto and its moons, first,” Captain Future said.

They pointed the “telescope” of the radium-compass at distant Pluto. The needle of the intensity meter jumped across the dial, as it registered the Gamma rays from radium on the outermost planet. There was no unaccounted-for radium on Pluto.

Curt carried out similar observations on Pluto’s moons, one by one. On them, the instrument revealed no unsuspected radium. He shifted the telescopic tube to bear on Neptune, the next planet inward.

AN HOUR passed and another, in this slow, laborious search. Neither Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, nor any of their moons showed an excess of radium. Nor did a search of the asteroid zone have any more result.

Bork King grew more skeptical, as Mars, Earth, the Moon showed nothing. Curt Newton felt his hopes sink as an observation of Venus proved fruitless. Mercury remained their last hope. And Mercury also showed no excess of radium!

Captain Future could hardly believe his eyes.

“We must have made some mistake!” he declared, stunned. “Outlaw World must be inside the System!”

“It can’t be, by this evidence,” denied the Brain. “We’ve turned the radium compass on every world in the System.”

“No!” Captain Future interrupted suddenly. “There’s one we overlooked — Vulcan.”

“Why, that solar satellite is about as likely as the Sun itself,” Ezra said incredulously.

His objection was understandable. Vulcan, the little world that circled the Sun just outside the burning corona, was never reckoned as one of the System’s worlds. For it lay in such terrific solar heat that no one had yet been able to visit it.

The Futuremen had not been able to reach it, and they had tried. Even the
Comet
, with its powerful anti-heater equipment, had been forced to retreat. But Curt Newton clung to this last spark of hope.

“I’m going to take an observation on Vulcan anyway,” he insisted. “There are not supposed to be any radioactive elements on it at all, are there?”

“No, Vulcan’s specific gravity is too low for any of the heavier elements,” said Simon. “But this is a waste of time.”

Curt stubbornly swung the lens tube of the radium compass to point at the satellite that was hidden by the glare of the Sun.

Instantly, the needle of the intensity-meter jumped sharply across the dial!

“Why it shows a big mass of radium on Vulcan, and that can’t be right,” Otho declared. “Something’s gone wrong with the meter.”

Captain Future’s eyes were suddenly brilliant. “No, the meter’s all right. We’ve finally found it. Vulcan is Outlaw World!”

Ezra Gurney burst into vehement denial.

“You must be space struck! Vulcan’s too hot for life. How could Ru Ghur have a base there?”

Curt shook his head. “I can’t understand it myself. But the radium compass shows that he does. That’s his hoard of stolen radium that the compass spotted!” He snapped his fingers. “And I remember now! His ship had anti-heater equipment! I thought nothing of it, for lots of ships have anti-heaters so that they can take short-cuts close to the Sun.”

“But Chief, all our calculations proved that Vulcan is so hot it must be molten!” objected Grag.

“Our calculations must have been wrong,” Captain Future insisted. “Vulcan can’t be molten, or Ru Ghur’s raiders couldn’t have their base there.”

“Can we reach that world in this ship of yours?” Bork King demanded.

“We can, by running the
Comet
’s anti-heaters at full capacity,” Curt answered. “But that will use up all our copper cyc fuel by the time we get there. We’d have to find copper for fuel on Vulcan, or the cycs would stop and we’d perish there. We turned back in our previous attempt to reach the solar satellite because we were sure Vulcan was molten. But now I’m going to gamble on my belief that it is not.” He looked from face to face. “But none of you need take this risk.”