Captain Future 23 - The Harpers of Titan (September 1950) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online

up at a redheaded boy who peered down impishly from atop a pile of metal cases.
    “Come down, Curtis — have I not told you it is time for Simon Wright to give you your lesson?” boomed the angry robot.
    “I’m tired of lessons,” announced fourteen-year old Curtis Newton with exasperating calmness. “Every day, one lesson after another. I want to go outside and explore.”
    “If you won’t come down, I’ll come up after you.” Grag menaced.
    He started clambering up the pile of cases. But the huge weight of his great metal figure brought the stack down, and the robot fell to the floor amid a shower of boxes with a reverberating clangor.
     
    OTHO IS FAST
    Young Curt Newton rocked with laughter atop his perch. But into the supply-room, like a flying white shadow, came the lithe figure of Otho, the android. He surveyed big Grag’s predicament with disdain.
    “Of course, you couldn’t catch him,” Otho snapped. “Watch me.”
    Curt Newton saw what was coming. The boy darted across the stacks of cases to escape. But, fast as he was, Otho was too fast for him and he was ignominiously hauled down and marched into the laboratory.
    Simon Wright, the Brain, turned his glittering lens-eyes toward the boy.
    “It is past time for your lesson in planetary botany, Curtis,” he reproved.
    “He would not come,” boomed Grag indignantly. “He wanted to go outside.”
    Curt hung his red head. “It’s fun to explore the craters and plains,” he muttered, half-ashamedly. “I’d like to go out by myself.”
    Then the boy cried eagerly, “And I want to go farther, to the Earth, to Mars, to Venus, to all the planets you’ve taught me about! I want to know all space, not to live here on the dead Moon all my life. I want to meet other men!”
    “You shall meet other men, when the time comes,” promised the Brain. “You shall see every one of these worlds of which we have been teaching you. But it is not yet time. Grag and Otho and I have reared you here, since your parents were killed here years ago, and have educated you in preparation. In a few years, your education will be complete, you will reach manhood, and then you can meet other men. But until then, it is too dangerous. Your dead father had many enemies.”
    There was a little silence, the red-haired boy staring puzzledly into the lens-eyes of the Brain. Then Simon spoke again.
    “We will begin your lesson on planetary botany. Define the phyla and subphyla of plant life on Venus.”
    In his clear high voice young Curt Newton began reciting. “Phylum One — decalciate plants —”
     
    SUPER-EDUCATION
    For minutes he spoke, systematically cataloguing the flora of Venus. Only super-education could have produced that knowledge — the education that for fourteen years had been carried on by the three unhuman beings who had made themselves the guardians of Curt Newton.
    Yet when Curt had finished the long catalogue, the Brain’s rasping voice spoke no word of commendation.
    “You made four mistakes,” the Brain declared. “You must restudy your Venusian botany until you discover them for yourself.”
    Silently, Curt took the book and retired with it into his own small chamber at the side of the Moon-laboratory. He sat down and dutifully tried to locate his errors. But he could not concentrate today. His thoughts kept wandering to what lay outside the laboratory, the lonely, luring surface of the Moon. He loved that, the wild lunar landscape where no one lived, the stupendous peaks and blazing sunlight and deep shadows. He was always happiest when outside there in his space-suit, exploring.
     
    LURE OF THE OUTSIDE
    He laid down the book. His gray eyes were snapping with excitement and resolution. He was not going to study Venusian botany any longer today. He was going to do what he had long wanted to do — go outside, all by himself!
    Silently, Curt slipped out of his little chamber. The Brain was reading absorbedly and did not see him. Otho and Grag could