Captain Future 22 - Children of the Sun (May 1950) (6 page)

So Joan, with Ezra Gurney, was detached from her regular section for special service. She and Ezra had proved they could work so well with Captain Future that they were assigned to cooperate with the wizard of science and the Futuremen whenever required.

Curt Newton likes to chaff Joan by pretending that she is merely a thrill-hunter who is more trouble than help.

“You only joined the Police for excitement,” he accuses her. “And you got put on special service with us Futuremen simply because you thought you’d be able to dabble in more trouble that way.”

Joan has a standard retort for that.

“That’s what I get for running after you all over space, and helping you,” she complains. “If you weren’t such an unromantic idiot, you wouldn’t make a girl chase you all the way from Mercury to Pluto.”

Beneath her jesting complaints, Joan’s feelings toward the famous planeteer are very real. And she suspects that Curt Newton reciprocates, but can’t get him to admit it, which sometimes exasperates her.

But she knows that Captain Future feels that he cannot let any other consideration interfere with his chosen career of championing the cause of law and order in the System. Until there’s no further need for him to blast the spaceways, he’ll have no time for romance. And until then, Joan Randall is glad to be one of the few coworkers of Curt and his famous Futuremen.

The
Comet

From the Summer 1941 issue of Captain Future

NO account of the Futuremen would be complete without a description of their famous space ship, the
Comet.

This craft is the fastest ship in space. It can go where no other vessel would dare go, and contains within its compact interior full equipment for almost any emergency. It is, in fact, the flying laboratory of Captain Future and his comrades.

The
Comet
was built on the Moon by Curt Newton and the Futuremen. Into it, they put all their unparalleled scientific knowledge and skill. As a result, no ship in the System can outrival the
Comet.

The hull is of an odd shape, like that of an elongated tear drop. This streamlined design was adopted because it combats air-resistance perfectly. Of course, there is no air-resistance in empty space. But streamlined construction makes for efficiency when cleaving through the atmosphere of a planet.

The hull is made with triple-sealed walls, each wall composed of a secret alloy devised by Curt and the Brain for special lightness and strength. The space between the walls is packed with a super-insulation. Thus the
Comet
can resist temperatures that would destroy an ordinary ship. Of course, when it ventures into extreme heat like that of the solar corona, it has to be protected by its “halo” of screening radiation.

The power-plant of the
Comet
consists of nine cyclotrons of unusual design. The cyclotrons are the heart of any space ship. They convert powdered mineral fuel into raving energy, by atomic disintegration. The process is started by a switch which releases a powerful flash of force from a condenser into the cycs. After that, it is self-continuous, a small fraction of the generated power being constantly “fed back” into the cycs to keep up the process of atomic disintegration.

The main flood of terrific atomic energy flows through the control valves into the various rocket-tubes of the ship, as directed by the pilot. If the energy is blasted out of the tail rocket-tubes, it hurls the ship straight forward. If directed into the bow or braking tubes, it slows down the craft. If turned into the lateral tubes along the aide of the ship, or the top tubes in the upper side or the keel tubes in the lower, it pushes the ship up or down or to one side.

THE SPACE-STICK

The
Comet
owes its unrivaled speed to the fact that its massive cyclotrons are of such radical design that they can produce an unprecedented output of atomic power. These cycs are one of the greatest inventive achievements of Captain Future.

The control of the
Comet
is essentially much like that of any space ship. The pilot sits in his chair, the main control panel in front of him. Above, easily in view, is the broad space window. Between the pilot’s knees is the space-stick and under his feet are two pedals.

The space-stick is important. It is a device to control the flow of the atomic power into the various rocket-tubes at will, without the necessity of opening or closing the individual throttle of each tube. Such individual throttles are on the control panel for delicate maneuvering and special uses, but the space-stick is in use most of the time.

When the space-stick is in upright position, all the power of the cyclotrons is directed out of the tail-tubes, flinging the ship straight ahead. But when you pull the space-stick back toward you, it cuts some of the power into the rear keel tubes, with the result that the ship zooms upward in space. Similarly, when you push the space-stick forward, some of the power is cut into the rear top rocket-tubes, which sends the ship diving downward. The farther forward you push the stick, the more power goes into the top tubes, and the steeper is your dive. Moving the stick sideward cuts power into the right or left lateral tubes and turns your ship to right or left.

Under the pilot’s right foot is the “cyc-pedal.” This controls the amount of energy produced by the cyclotrons by regulating the flow of powdered mineral fuel into the cycs. When you want their full output, you push the cyc-pedal to the floor. When you want to cut the power off, you let the cyc-pedal come clear back.

Thus, when you get warning of a meteor close ahead and want to zoom up sharply, you do two things simultaneously — you pull the space-stick sharply back, so that the power flows to the tail and rear keel rocket-tubes, and you push in hard on the cyc-pedal.

The pilot has beneath his left foot the brake-blast pedal. When this is pushed inward, it instantly directs the atomic energy of the cyclotrons into the bow or brake-tubes which project from the ship’s bow for a few inches, just beneath the fore window. Pushing in on the brake-blast pedal automatically cuts out all other tubes. To make a quick stop, you simply jam both brake-blast and cyc-pedals to the floor, which pours all the power of the cycs into a blast ahead.

These standard principles of space ship control are used by Captain Future and his companions in the
Comet.
They are all such consummate pilots, however, that they often ignore the convenience of the space-stick and use the individual rocket-throttles, to cut a course as close as possible.

INSTRUMENTS OF SPACE NAVIGATION

The control panel of any space ship is a bewildering sight. But that of the
Comet
would baffle any ordinary pilot, even if he were of Rocketeer rating. All the ordinary instruments of space navigation are on the
Comet’s
panel — the meteorometers that warn of distance and direction of nearby meteors, the gravitometers that indicate the pull of all bodies in space, the ether-drift indicators and main cyc-switch and auxiliary televisor screen and microphone. But also, the
Comet
has on its panel a variety of unusual instruments.

There’s the atmosphere-tester, an ingenious device of Captain Future which automatically takes in and analyzes a sample of any air, and shows the percentage of all elements in it. There’s the comet-camouflage switch. When turned on, it actuates a mechanism which ejects a cloud of shining ions from all rocket-tubes, concealing the
Comet
and making it look like a small real comet with long, glowing tail.

There’s the electroscope, one of the Brain’s pet instruments, and which has done sterling service in tracking criminals in space. It’s a device that can detect a recent rocket-trail of a ship in space, by the faint trail of ions always left in a rocket-discharge.

The two space chairs that flank the pilot’s chair in the control room of the
Comet
are so mounted that their occupants can handle the two proton guns of heavy caliber which project through the walls of the ship. These weapons fire a flash of energy of unequaled range and intensity.

The main cabin of the
Comet
is not built for comfort. Two folding bunks in one corner are the only sleeping provisions. For neither the Brain nor Grag require any sleep, and Otho doesn’t need much. Food and other perishable articles are carried in a cold-storage compartment sealed off from the rest of the cabin, and open to the bitter cold of space.

Everything in the cabin is subordinated to scientific requirements. In one corner is the powerful main televisor set, the compact atomic motor generators which can furnish auxiliary power for any undertaking, and the locker of atomic tools of all descriptions.

In an opposite corner is the compact astronomical observatory of the ship. There is a battery of electro-telescopes and electro-spectroscopes of high power. These instruments have their light-gathering lenses mounted outside the hull of the ship, and are controllable from inside so that they can be directed at any celestial object.

Light that falls on the lenses is transformed into electricity by a unique photoelectric cell, led in through a cable inside, and amplified and transformed back into a vastly magnified image. Adjacent to these instruments is a file of spectra of every planet, star and other body of importance, and there is also a collection of atmosphere samples from every world and moon in the System.

The chemical laboratory of the
Comet
is a concentrated mass of apparatus whose application has enabled the scientific wizard and his companions to perform those alchemical feats which have astounded the System. Beside it is the reference library, composed of every important reference and scientific book, reduced to micro-film form.

There is also a botanical cabinet, with specimens of rare plants and vegetable drugs from faraway planets; a surgical and biological corner with a folding operating-table and instruments that have often worked strange magic. There are other cabinets of instruments and specimens and materials too numerous to list.

QUEEN OF THE SPACEWAYS

In one side of the ship is the air-lock entrance. It is automatic. When the outer door is opened, the inner door automatically closes, if it is not already closed. Inside the little lock-chamber is a cabinet containing space-suits, impellers, and similar equipment.

The
Comet
has many other unique features. Its rocket-tubes, for instance, have special check-valves which make it possible for them to operate efficiently under water. Thus the
Comet
can be used as a submarine in case of emergency. Its cyclotrons are so designed that they use infinitely less powdered mineral fuel than is usual, and the mineral tanks beneath the deck which hold the supply are sufficient for extraordinarily long continuous operation.

The
Comet
has been in almost every corner of the Solar System. Strange beings in unknown depths of remote worlds have seen the tear-drop ship plunging across the sky, and people of the greatest civilized cities on the nine worlds have cried out in excitement as they glimpsed it zooming toward the stars. For, all over the System, the
Comet
is known and recognized, and those who see it know always that the Futuremen are out on the space-trail.

THE END