Captain Future 06 - Star Trail to Glory (Spring 1941) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online

"These freaks capturing me — Grag will laugh himself sick. Oh, well!"
    And Otho philosophically fell asleep. There was nothing he could do till they reached Venus. He might as well get some rest.
    He awoke to find the Comet's bow-tubes blasting. The ship was decelerating as it dropped through a cloudy atmosphere. He knew they had reached Venus. He squirmed on the floor till he was able to look down through the window at the landscape below.
    "The Great South Marsh!" he gasped.
    Then he glimpsed a big square metal platform in the marsh. It floated on the muck, supported by vacuum caissons. There were low metal hangars and buildings on it, and a row of parked ships of various makes — Kalbers, Zamors, Cruh-Cholos, one or two Tarks. The Comet and the other craft landed beside these ships.
    The two machine men came back and lifted Otho in stiff girder-arms. Oog fled in fright into a corner, but Otho swore a streak of his best interplanetary profanity as they carried him out into the daylight. The machine men paid no attention. They carried him toward one of the low metal buildings.
    The raging android saw more than a score of other machine men stalking stiffly about the floating base, inspecting and servicing the ships. Then he was taken to a windowless little metal room, whose only ventilation came from a barred opening in the door. They dumped him inside.
    "Are you going to starve me to death, you unfinished mechanisms?" Otho yelped as they started to leave. "How about something to eat?"
    The machine man who bore the number "Six" on his metal skeleton turned toward the other.
    "One said that this prisoner was to be kept living. He must eat. Bring food from one of the ships."
    The other machine man who bore the number "Twenty-two" stalked out and returned with Jovian cured beef, a flat slab of Martian black bread, some Earth fruit. Otho guessed that the other ships had been captured, and that this food came from one of them. Apparently these creatures didn't eat.
    "Are you going to leave me all tied up like this?" he demanded furiously.
    Six stooped stiffly and unfastened the end of Otho's flexible metal bonds. Then the two machine men stalked out. The door was locked.
    "Remain outside this door on guard, Twenty-two," ordered Six.
    Otho rolled over and over until he slipped out of his loosened bonds. Then he leaped to his feet.
    "So far, so good," he muttered. "At least I talked them into untying me. Now let's see if there's any way out of this cursed hole."
     
    TEN minutes of inspection showed him there was none. The only exit was the locked door, outside which towered the mechanical guard.
    "What a mess!" Otho grumbled. "Locked up in this hole and the Comet taken. The chief will skin me alive for this. Who the devil are these freaks, anyway? Where'd they get all those ships?"
    He gave up wondering, sat down and ate the food, for Otho's synthetic tissues required nourishment. Though he preferred straight chemical solutions of the needed elements, he could eat ordinary food. He was gloomily gnawing the tough Martian bread when a sliding, rustling sound froze him. He looked up and felt cold at what he saw. A thick white snake with a blunt head was crawling through the barred opening in the door and into his prison cell.
    "A Venusian swamp adder!" Otho whispered.
    It was one of the most poisonous serpents in the System. Otho looked around for a weapon. There was none. He stood taut as a bowstring, watching the snake slide into the room. The serpent reached the floor and coiled up there. The thick mass of its coils seemed suddenly to run together, to form one solid mass. Then that mass spun in shape. In place of the pseudo-snake was a fat little animal with big, solemn eyes.
    "Oog!" Otho gasped — "You little devil! You came sniffing after me, eh, and imitated a swamp adder so you wouldn't be noticed?"
    He patted the little meteor-mimic, chuckling. Oog made a purring sound. He seemed content, now that he had found his master.