Captain Future 25 - Moon of the Unforgotten (January 1951) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

disarranged the laboratory’s work.
    It was more than six hours before Grag returned. When he came, he was dragging the dead bodies of half a dozen moon-wolves behind him.
    “Where have you been?” asked Simon coldly.
    “Out killing these beasts,” boomed Grag. “I heard you talking, Master, and I realized they were pests. So I figured I’d go hunting and get rid of a bunch of them. Just to make things safer around here.”
    Roger smiled. Grag might be a trifle difficult to control in the future, but there was no doubt about his intelligence.
    “Did it take you all this time to kill a half dozen?” asked Simon.
    “I killed about fifty,” growled the robot. “I just didn’t want to take the trouble to bring them all back. First it was easy, because they scented me, and came running. After a time, when the others saw what happened to the first batch, I had to go look for them.”
    “How did you find them in the shadows?” demanded Roger.
    “That was easy. Master,” boasted Grag. “They’re telepathic, and I could sense the mind-currents coming from them.”
     
    GRAG LEARNS TO BOAST
    Roger nodded. The moon-wolves were slightly telepathic, and Grag, as a result of his own brain being subjected to telepathic currents, was more sensitive to their presence than a human being would have been.
    “You’re sure you killed about fifty?” asked Simon, his manner still cold.
    “Well, maybe it was only thirty,” admitted Grag, unabashed. “But I could have killed fifty if they had been there. I could have killed a hundred, a thousand. It was easy, Master. I didn’t need an atom-gun, I just pulled them apart.”
    He flexed his metallic muscles, while the two scientists stared.
    “You don’t realize, Master, just how strong I am. Why, there was never anybody like me. I’ll show you what I can do —”
    “Don’t bother,” interrupted Simon, smiling in spite of himself.
    “Whatever you say, Master. But it was a cinch, pulling them apart. I can tear apart anything that exists. I can take a space ship, and throw it off the Moon. Why, with my atomic motors —”
    “Get into the laboratory,” commanded Simon. “Prepare that colloid solution for the android we’re creating.”
    “Yes, Master,” said Grag humbly, and obeyed.
    Roger laughed. But Simon scowled. “He’s going to be insufferable.”
    “At first. But he’ll straighten out. After all, he’s only a couple of days old,” reminded Roger Newton. “I think we’re going to enjoy Grag.”
    “I hope you’re right, Because if you’re not —” But the implied threat was never carried out. As Roger had predicted, Grag did improve. But never again did he display the touching confidence in others that he had shown in his first incarnation.
    He was always to remain slightly vain, selfish, proud of his strength, eager to show it off — in a word, he was always to remain more human. He would get along.
     

 
    Captain Future’s Strangest Adventure
    From the Summer 1943 issue of Captain Future
     
    On a Mysterious “Rogue Planet” the Futuremen Encounter an Amazing Fantastic Experience While in Search of Fuel!
     
    CAPTAIN FUTURE still isn’t sure whether or not it really happened. Grag swears that it was all a dream. Otho believes that they were all temporarily out of their minds. But the Brain insists that the whole crazy adventure was scientifically possible.
    It happened to the Futuremen on their way back from that long star-quest to the cosmic cloud near the galaxy’s center. The Comet was droning back toward the System at tremendous speed when Otho came into the control-room to report.
    “We’re nearly out of fuel, Chief,” he told Curt. “We’ll have to stop somewhere for copper soon.”
     
    FUEL SHORTAGE
    The atomic generators which powered the Comet’s vibration-drive used powdered copper fuel. During this long voyage through the galaxy, they had been forced to stop at several star-systems to replenish the fuel.
    Captain Future