Captain Future 05 - Captain Future and the Seven Space Stones (Winter 1941) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online

the control room of the flying Comet, his fingers touching the twenty strings of his favorite Venusian guitar. His lean, tanned face was lazily relaxed as he softly hummed the popular melody of the cloudy planet. The automatic controls were set and the little tear-drop space ship was flying through the star-flecked vault of space. Ahead, the white half-disk of Venus was growing larger.
    “Lad, you’ve hummed that song four times,” rasped Simon, his lens-eyes speculatively watching Curt. “It isn’t possible that you're thinking of Joan, is it?”
    Curt flushed. “Can’t a fellow sing a tune? You’re getting too analytical. I’m going aft and rouse out Grag and Otho. We’ll soon reach Venus.”
    Putting away the instrument, the tall, red-haired scientific wizard strode into the astoundingly complete laboratory of the Comet. Wherever the Futuremen might be in the System, they brought equipment that was surpassed only by Future’s underground home upon the Moon.
    If a problem required astronomical investigation, the Futuremen had portable electro-telescopes and spectroscopes of advanced design and un-equaled powers. If there was a point of astrography that needed checking, here were the files of star and planet spectra, the maps of the planets, moons and asteroids, the atmosphere-samples from every world.
    Similarly the physical apparatus held microscopes capable of seeing far into the infinitesimal. The biological cabinet held complete equipment for research, including botanical and entomological specimens from many worlds. The surgical apparatus was a miracle of completeness and compactness. The philological file contained spoken records of scores of planetary languages. The cabinet of tiny micro-film books was an exhaustive scientific reference library.
    In two space chairs with a folding table between them, Grag and Otho sat playing cubical bridge, the most complex of card games. The “cards” were cubes, each face of which bore a different suit, making a total of six suits. The card on the upper side was the one that counted. But it could be “covered” by a matching card of an opponent’s cube, so that the suit that was led might suddenly turn into a quite different one.
    “Come on and sit in, Chief!” Otho invited eagerly. “Even though we did adapt this for two-handed play, it’s better with three.”
    “Otho just wants to start a new game because he’s losing this one,” Grag accused. “I’ve taken nearly all the tricks so far.”
    “Sure, robots always make good players,” Otho sneered. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Grag, if you’re so confident. I’ll play you for real stakes. I’ll put up my best proton pistol.”
    “And what do you want me to put up?” Grag asked.
    Otho pointed to the corner of the cabin, where Grag’s bearlike pet was gnawing idly at a stanchion. The moon-pup did not breathe air and was capable of eating metal or mineral, but the impervious metal of the stanchion was resisting his teeth. “You put up Eek,” Otho said.
     
    GRAG rose to his feet indignantly. “It’s just a plot of yours to get my pet! You’d cheat to get him, and then toss him out into space because you hate the poor little fellow.”
    “Poor little fellow?” cried Otho. “That little beast is the curse of this outfit! I’m damned if I’ll put up any longer —”
    “We’re nearing Venus,” Curt Newton interrupted. “Put away that darned game and quit bickering.”
    They followed Curt back into the control room, Grag picking up Eek and protectively fondling him. Captain Future unlocked the automatic pilot and took the controls. He tested the braking rockets by depressing the throttles. The Comet shook to the roar and jerk of the blast. Venus was a glowing white half-moon in the heavens ahead. Curt sent the Comet curving around in a spiral toward the dark side of the planet.
    “Better if we reach Venusopolis at night,” he mused. “We’ll be able to visit the Museum