Captain Future 21 - The Return of Captain Future (January 1950) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

serum-case in which it could live and think and work.
    Newton recoiled from the idea at first. “To live as a brain in a box, without any body? It would be too uncanny!”
    “No, Roger,” the dying scientist told him. “I have lived a full life already, as a normal man. My only interest now is in keeping up my work, my researches. And I could do that, as a living brain, without being hampered by this dying body of mine. I would be happy so!”
    Roger Newton finally saw the force of the old scientist’s reasoning, and agreed to perform the remarkable operation.
    All the biological genius of both men went into the preparation of the case in which Simon’s brain was henceforth to live. It was made of transparent, indestructible metal, so that the interior mechanisms could be inspected at a glance.
    In it were placed tiny, compact atomic pumps which would pump the serum that would nourish the isolated brain and carry away fatigue-poisons. Repurifiers were installed to keep the serum always pure. An atomic heating apparatus with thermostatic control automatically would maintain a constant body temperature inside the case.
    When all was ready, Roger Newton performed the operation. Working rapidly, he lifted Simon’s brain from his skull and placed it in the serum-case. Quickly, he connected to its optic nerves the electric connections of the artificial lens-eyes in the front of the case, and to other nerves the connections from the microphone-ears and the resonator by which the Brain speaks.
    Ever since, Simon Wright has lived as the Brain, in the serum-case. He has many limitations, of course. He can speak, through the power-operated resonator whose control is connected to one of his motor-nerve centers. Another motor-nerve control allows him to turn his eyes in any direction, and focus them. But he cannot do anything else. He can’t move himself about — Grag, or Otho, or Captain Future himself has to carry the serum-case by its attached handle.
    But mentally, Simon is completely free. He can read, or study, or observe, or think, without ever needing rest or sleep. He never needs food. The only refreshment he ever takes is a certain stimulating vibration, which he has played upon him.
     
    THE MASTER OF THE TRIO
    When Simon wishes to make records, he dictates them into a special recording device. And when he wishes to conduct one of his many scientific experiments, he uses Grag or Otho to carry out the physical work. Usually it is Grag who is his helper, for the great robot can be trusted upon to obey orders with implicit fidelity, whereas Otho will often get restless and try to hurry things along.
    Both Grag and Otho regard their fellow-Futureman, the Brain, with profound respect. For it was Simon and Roger Newton who created the robot and the android, in the lunar laboratory to which they and Newton’s bride had fled for refuge. Neither Grag nor Otho ever try chaffing the Brain — they know that he can silence them with a few well-chosen words in his cold, rasping metallic voice.
    In fact, though he was once a human man, Simon often seems more unhuman than either Grag or Otho. That is because to the Brain, the pursuit of knowledge is almost the most important end of existence. He is prone to lose himself in scientific abstractions and overlook the practical necessities of the situation, until awakened to realization by Captain Future.
    All Simon’s human feelings, indeed, seem wrapped up in Captain Future. To him, Curt Newton is not only the daring interplanetary adventurer famed all over the System, he is also the child whom the three Futuremen reared to manhood. No father could watch over Curt more anxiously than does the Brain, yet Simon would scoff at the idea that he could be sentimental about anything.
     
    CAPTAIN FUTURE’S MENTOR
    Simon’s great aid to Captain Future and the other Futuremen is in his encyclopedic scientific memory and wonderful ability in research. Only the young wizard of science whom he