Captain Future 11 - The Comet Kings (Summer 1942) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online

our universe. For the Alius desired to enter our cosmos. They wanted to open a door into our world from the black extra-cosmic abysses in which they dwelt. And the door could not be opened from their side alone, but must be unlocked from both sides. Hence their need for someone to cooperate with them on this side.”
    Anger blazed in Zarn’s eyes.
    “They found the one they needed in old Querdel,” he said. “They made alluring promises to that old devil and to Thoryx and Lulain. They told them, We Alius have powers of which you do not dream, and will richly reward you — if you will help us open a way into your cosmos. We will reward you by making you and all your people ageless and undying. You will be like gods.
    “Thoryx and Lulain, and Querdel and our other rulers, seized the bribe the Alius offered. They coveted that promised immortality. And so, obeying the explicit mental commands of the Alius that came through the veil, they prepared to help open the door through which the dark masters could invade our universe.
    “They had us people of the Cometae build a great, ring-shaped citadel at the northern pole of our world. They had us build also certain strange mechanisms and apparatus, the purpose of which was totally unknown to any one of us. Only the Alius, who transmitted their instructions by mental messages through the veil, understood the nature of the instruments we constructed.”
     
    ZARN’S eyes blazed in reminiscence. “Then, eyes in that northern citadel, Thoryx and old Querdel operated the strange machines at the bidding of the dark masters. They unlocked the door into the extra-dimensional abysses that lie outside our cosmos. And through that door, the Alius somehow came into our universe, and made that citadel their home. And they kept their promise of making Thoryx and old Querdel immortal.
    “For when Thoryx and the old wizard returned to us from the citadel, they had been made into shining electric men, such as you now see. They told us then that the Alius had done that to them, that the Alius would give us all this wonderful gift of electric immortality. Every one of our people of the Cometae was to achieve deathlessness.
    “Some of my people, especially the nobles of the ruling class, were won over by this prospect. But the great majority of us were not. Even though it meant deferring death and age indefinitely, we shrank from becoming inhuman electric men such as Thoryx and Querdel. We did not wish to lose our humanity. And we were afraid of these dark, mysterious Alius from the unguessable outside, and suspicious of their purposes.
    “But we ordinary folks had no choice! Thoryx and the nobles were resolved upon making us deathless. For the Alius had promised our rulers that then they would reap great powers and eventually sway over many peoples. They of the nobles went first, one group after another, to the citadel of the Alius in the north — to return to us as electric men and women.
    “Then we of the soldiery and the people were ordered to go, group by group. We went north to that mysterious citadel which we ourselves had built for the dark masters. But before ever we entered it, a pall came upon our minds. The Alius employed that mental darkness so that none of us might learn their secrets. When the cloud lifted from our minds, we were again outside the citadel and had been made into electric men and women, such as you now see!”
    Otho uttered a low exclamation.
    “They had you all in some kind of anesthesia as they altered you!” he declared.
    “It is more probable,” the Brain said thoughtfully, “that the Alius used an artificially induced amnesia on their subjects. These so-called dark masters must be great wielders of mental force, indeed.”
    Zarn shook his massive head.
    “I do not know how it was done. Perhaps Thoryx and Querdel know. They are the only Cometae who are permitted to go freely to and from the citadel of the Alius.”
    Zarn concluded his story