Captain Future 02 - Calling Captain Future (Spring 1940) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online

outward.
    “We’re heading for the outer part of the System,” Curt muttered. “The only two planets in the sector of space ahead of us are Uranus and Pluto. Doctor Zarro’s base may be on one of those two worlds.”
    “Captain Future, who are these men of the Legion?” Joan asked. “I don’t mean Roj and Kallak — I mean the others. They look like Earthmen, yet there’s something strange and stiff about them. Their voices are queer, too. And when one of them touched me, his hands didn’t feel like the hands of an Earthman at all.”
    “They’re certainly an odd-looking bunch,” Curt agreed, frowning. “I wonder if —”
     
    THEN he broke off impatiently. “This is no time for speculation. The important thing is to break loose before we’re delivered to Doctor Zarro. I don’t know what his Hall of Enemies may be, but I’ve an idea it’s something highly unpleasant.”
    Curt felt the loss of his tungstite belt. Inside that belt, hidden in secret compartments, were compact instruments and tools that had gotten him out of more than one tight spot.
    He inspected the window, a mere little glassite loophole.
    “If we broke this, we’d simply perish of asphyxiation when our air leaked out into space,” he muttered. “So that’s out.”
    The door was the only other alternative. It was solid metal, and the bar outside it was heavy. Strength would not avail here.
    But he thought he saw a glimmering chance. He sat down and took off the big emblem ring on his left hand. With deft fingers, he began taking the famous ring apart.
    “There’s a tiny atomic engine in this ring that keeps its ‘planet’ jewels moving,” the red-haired wizard of science told his companions. “But it’ll take me time to take it apart.”
    “I don’t see what good your tiny engine will do you,” said Kansu Kane, staring.
    Curt smiled. “You never can tell! Maybe I can book it up to the ship’s rocket-tubes, and make the craft turn around.”
    Kansu Kane looked astounded. “Hook it up to the —” Then the Venusian stiffened. “You’re joking, young man. And your jokes are in bad taste, considering our situation. My great work on the nature of the Andromedan binaries is only half completed, and here I am, being hauled off to the wild outer regions of the System! And you, sir, can make jests about it!”
    Curt chuckled. “Calm down, Kansu. If my idea works, we’ll get you back to the Andromedan binaries.”
    The cruiser throbbed on and on. As he worked on the minute parts of the ring mechanism, Curt was thinking of the Futuremen. He knew that they would never rest until they found him. But they would have no idea of whither he had been taken. Lacking a clue, they would have to comb space helplessly in blind search.
    “We must be well beyond the orbit of Jupiter,” Kansu Kane declared. “And still flying on outward. I thought you had some wonderful idea for getting us out of here.”
    “It isn’t very wonderful, but it may do the trick,” Curt replied, getting to his feet. He held out the tiny instrument in his hand. “I’ve made the little atomic engine of my ring into an atomic blast. It will spend all its energy in a few minutes, but it may be able to cut through the metal of the door and the bar.”
    “And even if it does, and we get out of this dismal chamber, what then?” asked Kansu Kane gloomily. “Are you going to try to capture the ship?”
    “Too many of them for that,” Captain Future said. “We’ll try to sneak away in one of the space-boats. If we can do that, we can get to a televisor somewhere and call the Futuremen to come in the Comet — and then we’ll find out whether Doctor Zarro’s secret base is at Uranus or at Pluto.”
    Curt approached the door, listened, and then, satisfied that no one was in the corridor outside, turned his tiny instrument against the metal at the edge of the door.
     
    A LITTLE jet of white atomic fire burst from the diminutive improvised blaster. It burned