Captain Future 19 - Outlaw World (Winter 1946) (7 page)

“Does Ru Ghur never come here?” Curt asked.

The big Martian snorted. “Ru Ghur would be about as welcome in this place as Captain Future!”

CURT smiled grimly. He did not need that to warn him that he was thrusting his head into the jaws of a lion. But he had determined to string along with these Martian outlaws as long as he could, on the trail of Ru Ghur. These outlaws and their pirate friends might succeed in doing what the Planet Patrol had been unable to do, might find Ru Ghur’s mysterious secret base. It was worth the risk of the gamble, to Captain Future.

“Ru Ghur’s raiders have preyed on the Companions of Space as well as on commercial traffic, for radium,” Bork King was going on resentfully. “There isn’t a pirate in the System who wouldn’t be glad to kill that cursed Uranian.”

The
Red Hope
sagged toward the surface of the crimson asteroid. Now Curt saw that the scarlet hue of the little world came from the dense forests or brilliantly red club mosses which blanketed most of its surface.

At one point, just where day was passing into night on the little sphere, a large clearing had been blasted from the red mosses. A clutter of flimsy metalloy buildings was at the center of this clear space, and lights winked up from them through the gathering dusk.

“Corsair City,” grunted Bork King. “And plenty of the Companions must be here tonight, to judge by those ships.

He was bringing the
Red Hope
down toward a rough landing field beside the pirate town. There were dozens of space cruisers large and small resting here. All were heavily gunned, and many bore scars of battle.

The crippled Martian ship bumped to a landing in the darkness. Bork King called his crew together in the lower deck.

“I’m going in and bargain with Old Riah for new cycs,” he said. “And then I’m going to see, if any of the Companions can put us on Ru Ghur’s track. Half of you stay here in the ship. Qi Thir, Jan Dark, and the rest of you will go with me.”

They emerged into a night of velvet blackness. The sky was wonderful, the matchless night sky of the asteroid zone, with meteors streaking across the blazing heavens like crisscrossing trails of light. The air was soft and was freighted with pungent scents from the moss forests.

Captain Future and the Martians tramped past the rows of parked ships into the pirate town. Corsair City had a single straggling street, midway along which stood a brightly lighted metalloy structure from which came a roaring din of raucous music, and of bellowing voices.

Bork King stopped at a dark yard that was piled with shadowy masses of machines and metals — salvaged parts of space-ships.

“Old Riah’s salvage depot,” grunted the Martian. “I’m going to bargain with the old rascal for some new cycs.” He glanced around. “Qi Thir, you and Jan can go along with the rest to Meteor Jim’s place and see what you can learn from the Companions about Ru Ghur. I’ll be along later.”

Captain Future’s pulse thudded faster as he went on with the Martians to the gaudily lighted pirate rendezvous. He stopped with them at the open door of Meteor Jim’s and looked inside.

The place was a single big room, brilliantly illuminated by glowing uranite bulbs, and green rial smoke drifted in clouds, There was a long bar along one side, gambling tables along the other, and noisy music-machines going full blast from the rear.

The crowd held his eyes, The place was packed with the most motley, hardbitten interplanetary throng that could be assembled in the System. Jovians, Venusians, Neptunians, Earthmen, and men of every other planet, all of them wearing weapons and all of them drinking and carousing with equally hard-eyed women. The Companions of Space, the lawless corsairs whose depredations ranged from one end of the System to the other.

“Here’s Bork King’s band of Martians back!” went up a cheerful cry from a red-faced Earthman. “What luck this time, Qi Thir?”

“No luck,” growled the lanky Qi Thir. “We brought back nothing but a battered ship.”

Captain Future went to the bar with his Martian companions, and with them drank tawny sakra liquor from the Red Planet, their favorite beverage.

A hulking Jovian pirate who stood beside Curt Newton looked at him with curiosity on his green, prognathous face.

“Who are you, Earthman?” he demanded. “I never before saw Bork King’s outfit take in anybody who wasn’t a Martian.”

“I did Bork a favor on Leda and he took me in,” Captain Future answered. “My name’s Jan Dark, and I used to belong to Zarastra’s band.”

THE reaction was instant and dismaying. The Jovian, abruptly belligerent, glared into Curt’s face.

“You’re lying!” he bellowed. “You never belonged to Zarastra’s band in your life! I was his chief gunner for nine years, and I never saw you before. You’re a cursed spy!”

“A spy?”

The shout brought an electric silence and tension into the crowded place. Scores of hands instantly darted toward atom-pistols.

The least added impulse now would send them into immediate, deadly action, of that Captain Future was sure. Above all he had to avoid that.

Luck had failed Captain Future. He had been brought face to face with a real member of Zarastra’s crew. But there was nothing to do now but brazen it out. He stared at the Jovian coolly.

“I joined Zarastra before his last voyage and was nearly killed with him in that last battle off Titan,” he declared.

“I saw him off on that voyage, though I had to stay behind myself because of a wound,” the Jovian said violently. “And you weren’t one of his crew!”

“What’s all this about a spy,” said a cool, lisping voice from the back of the room, where a big table was reserved for the pirate captains. “Bring that man back here.”

Captain Future turned. He felt an instant apprehension as he saw the man who had spoken — a foppish young Venusian who sat alone at the table, his fingers toying with a goblet of swamp grape wine.

“Su Kuan!” thought Curt Newton, appalled. For this handsome young Venusian with the foppish ways was one of the most dangerous pirates in the Solar System.

Captain Future had tangled with him twice, and on the last occasion had nearly been killed by him in a lightning-fast brawl in Uranopolis. If Su Kuan recognized him, despite his disguise and darkened hair, there would be an explosion.

Curt and the Jovian had been herded to the Venusian captain’s table by the crowd. And the Jovian repeated his charge.

“This Earthman’s a dirty Patrol spy! He claims he belonged to Zarastra’s outfit, but he never did.”

Curt shrugged. “The Jovian was gunner and I was a cyc man,” he told the Venusian calmly. “That’s why he never saw me before.”

Su Kuan’s unfathomable black eyes remained fixed with a faintly puzzled expression on Curt Newton’s face.

“I’ve seen you somewhere before,” he murmured. “But I can’t remember just where.”

“He’s a spy, and there’s just one end for spies here in Corsair City!” raged the Jovian.

He snatched out his atom-pistol, leveled it at Curt.

There was a flash, a yell of pain. The Jovian staggered backward with a blasted arm, and the hard-faced men gaped incredulously at the atom-pistol that had appeared as though by magic in Captain Future’s hand.

“I’m not used to being bullied and I don’t like it,” Curt said harshly. “Anybody else here want trouble?” He was playing the part of a swaggering pirate to the hilt, for in that course alone lay safety now.

“What the devil is going on here?” roared a deep bass voice. “What do you mean by ganging up on one of my men?”

Bork King was pushing through the crowd, his craggy red face dark with menace and his hand on the hilt of his atom-pistol.

“Your man, Bork?” repeated Su Kuan, his eyebrows lifting. “Then you can vouch for this Earthman?”

“Of course I can,” snapped Bork King. “Jan Dark saved my life a couple of times over on Leda, when that devil Ru Ghur and his raiders jumped me.”

Su Kuan shrugged. “If you vouch for him, that’s enough for me. Though I still wish I could remember where I’d seen him.”

Curt Newton did not. He knew what would happen if Su Kuan did remember. He knew the wolf howl that would go up from this fierce throng. All would vie for the honor of killing their greatest enemy, Captain Future!

He had seen their eagerness a moment before when he had been accused of being a spy. Their itchy hands had lost no time in darting for their atom-pistols. They were spoiling for a kill. They would need no urging to go into action once the word was spoken.

Bork King was telling Su Kuan of how Ru Ghur’s raiders had robbed him on Jupiter’s flower moon.

“I’m going to find that Uranian if I have to search the whole universe for him!” the big Martian swore. “I thought maybe you might have an idea where his base is.”

Su Kuan shook his head. “There’s nothing I’d like better than to help you catch Ru Ghur. But none of us can figure where his base is. Ak Az and Blacky Malone will be back with their bands tomorrow. They might know something.”

Bork King nodded. “I’ll drop back tomorrow night.”

As Captain Future turned away with Bork King, he had an uncomfortable feeling that Su Kuan’s eyes were still following him speculatively.

BORK KING, Captain Future, and Bork’s followers had headed for the door when a young Martian pirate wearing two heavy atom-guns stepped into their path. He had been watching Bork with smoldering eyes ever since his entrance.

“So you’re Bork King?” he said, in a voice thickened by drink. “I’ve been wanting to meet the greatest traitor to Mars who ever lived.”

Captain Future was startled by the haunted look of misery that suddenly came in Bork King’s bleak eyes.

“They still talk about you on Mars,” the young Martian sneered accusingly. “About Bork King, the only one of the Guardians of Mars who ever betrayed his trust.”

“What are you talking about?” Su Kuan asked curiously.

The young Martian never took his fierce eyes off Bork King’s face as he answered.

“This man Bork King held the highest, most sacred trust that the Martian people can bestow. He betrayed it and endangered his whole world. His name is cursed by every Martian alive, even by pirates like myself.”

Su Kuan made a gesture of indifference. “We don’t care here on Iskar what a man did before he was outlawed. Drop it.”

Bork King, with that haunting misery still in his eyes, turned away without answering.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” he muttered to Curt Newton.

Out in the velvet darkness, under that sky of golden, flashing meteors, Curt looked up at the big outlaw curiously. “Bork, what did that young Martian mean when he accused you of betraying Mars. Is that why you were outlawed?”

“Yes, that’s why,” Bork King answered tonelessly. “I was one of the Guardians of Mars who hold the greatest secret trust on the Red Planet. I was accused of failing that trust.” His voice grew harsh. “They outlawed me from Mars, but Qi Thir and a few others who still believed in me stuck to me. We fitted a cruiser and took to the outlaw trail, and that’s all.”

Captain Future sensed omissions in the explanation. Bork King had nor explained why he and his Martians stole only radium, and why they hated Ru Ghur so intensely. But of one thing, Captain Future was sure.

“Bork,” he said positively, “I know a man when I see one. You’re no traitor.”

The big Martian looked down at him sharply. His voice softened as he said quietly, “Thanks, Jan.”

They started back our of Corsair City, following the dark street beneath the meteor-blazing sky to the landing field.

“Old Riah will truck out the new cycs I bought for the
Red Hope
,” explained the Martian. “I paid him the last of a few Titanian moon jewels I had tucked away for the stuff.”

They reached the
Red Hope
just a little before two battered rocket-trucks lumbered up to it to deliver the eight cyclotrons that Bork King had bought.

The cyclotrons were not new. They had been salvaged from wrecked ships and had seen much wear, but were still serviceable and far better than none.

The crew started in that same night to install them in place of the exploded ones in the ship. Qi Thir and the other Martians worked with unabated speed because each was well aware that not until the repairs were completed could they take Ru Ghur’s trail and make a desperate attempt to recover their lost radium.

“I still don’t see how we’re to find the Uranian,” Curt Newton said. “So far, we’ve found no clues to his trail here.”

“Two other big pirate bands will be back tomorrow night, remember — Malone’s and Ak Az’s,” Bork King reminded. “I’m hoping one of them will have heard something.”

All during the next day, Captain Future helped the Martians in the labor of installing the cyclotrons and repairing the strained hull by welding in new girders and plates. By nightfall, the work was almost finished.

Curt Newton felt the precariousness of his position each moment. The danger lay in Su Kuan. At any moment, the foppish Venusian pirate captain might realize that the new man in the outfit of Bork King, the Martian, was that archenemy of the Companions of Space, Captain Future.