Captain Future 01 - The Space Emperor (Winter 1940) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

beneath and make them easy prey.
    The Comet drove on low above the silver-lit ocean teeming with strange life. Under the three big, bright moons, the teardrop ship cleaved the atmosphere like a meteor, hurrying toward the perilous rendezvous with mystery that Curt Newton was determined to keep.
    “Lights ahead, master,” boomed Grag, the robot’s photoelectric eyes peered keenly.
    “Yes, it’s South Equatoria,” Curt said. “Those are the lights of Jovopolis.”
    Far ahead a low black coast rose from the moon-lit ocean. A little inland lay a big bunch of lights, dominated by the red-and-green lamps of the lofty spaceport tower.
    Beyond the city lights stretched the black obscurity of the big plantations and the deep jungles beyond. And in the horizon the sky was painted by a dazzling aurora of twitching, quivering red rays — the crimson glare flung up by the distant Fire Sea.
    “Only Saturn has more wonderful nights than this,” Curt said, feeling even in his tensity the weird beauty of it.
    “You’re not going to land openly in Jovopolis?” Simon Wright questioned Curt.
    Captain Future shook his red head at the question.
    “No, we’ll drop down secretly at the edge of the spaceport.”
     
    THE Comet glided with muffled rocket-tubes over the moonlit mud flats along the shore, against which the great lunar tide of the Jovian ocean was hurling itself in mighty combers. Silent as a shadow, the little teardrop ship approached the spaceport, avoiding the docks and sinking down at the unlighted edge of the field.
    Curt Newton cut the cyclotrons and stood up. He had already set his gravity equalizer, so that he did not feel the full power of the crushing Jovian gravitation.
    “Otho and I must hurry,” he said tensely. “We must be at Orris’ hut when the Space Emperor comes there.”
    “Can’t I come too, master?” asked big Grag.
    “You could never pass as a man,” jeered Otho. “One glimpse of your metal face would give us away.”
    Grag turned angrily toward the android, but Captain Future intervened hastily between the two.
    “You must stay with Simon and guard the Comet, Grag,” he said. “We’ll be back soon if we catch the one we’re after.”
    “Be careful, lad,” muttered the Brain. “This Space Emperor is the most dangerous antagonist we’ve ever encountered.”
    Curt smiled pleasantly.
    “A foeman worthy of our steel, eh? Don’t worry, Simon. I’m not underestimating him!”
     
    CURT and Otho emerged from the Comet and started toward the bright-lit Street of Space Sailors that ran eastward from the spaceport. The Jovian night lay soft and heavy upon them, the warm air laden with fetid scents of strange vegetation. The three bright moons cast queer multiple shifting shadows around them.
    Curt knew the Street of Space Sailors well. It was usually roaring with lusty life, for in its dubious taverns gathered Earthmen who knew swampy Venus and desert Mars and icy Pluto, men who would be here for only a few days and who made the most of them before they went back.
    But now the street was less crowded than usual. A pall seemed to lie over the motley interplanetary throng, and fewer rocket-cars came and went than was usual. There were many space-bronzed Earthmen drinking in the disreputable taverns, but they drank in unnatural silence. It was evident to Curt’s keen eyes that the dark shadow of the plague lay over this city.
    In the street were many Jovians, the planetary natives of this world. They were manlike, man-size creatures, but their green-skinned bodies were squatter than the human, their heads were small, round and hairless, with large, circular dark eyes, and their arms and legs ended in queer flippers instead of hands or feet.
    Their clothing was a scanty black leather harness. They seemed to watch the passing Earthmen with unfriendliness and distrust.
    “The Jovians don’t seem to care much for Earthmen any more,” muttered Otho.
    Curt’s gray eyes narrowed