Captain Future 27 - Birthplace of Creation (May 1951) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online

read in our featured novels.
     

 
    Otho Finds a Mascot
    From the Spring 1945 issue of Captain Future
     
    On the tiny asteroid of a hermit, the famous android d iscovers his moon-mimic, Oog, which after much g oading, stages a Battle Of The Ages with Grag’s Eek!
     
    IT WAS one of the countless asteroids that whirl between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was only a tiny worldlet, but it was green and forest-covered and parklike, with a thin atmosphere and gleaming little streams and lakes.
    Flame-birds darted in shining trails above the forests. Asteroid-rats scurried beneath the flat fronds of the trees. The hum of insects, the sigh of the breeze through the foliage and flowers, these were the only sounds to break the silence. For this asteroid had but one human inhabitant.
    He was an old man, this hermit of space — an Earthman, and something of a fanatic. For in the midst of an expanding scientific civilization, he was a bitter opponent of scientific progress. An eccentric rebel who had come to this lonely little asteroid, deliberately marooning himself here without tools or instruments, building his own cabin, cultivating his own food, and living completely out of the rush of Solar civilization.
     
    FUTUREMEN VISIT HERMIT
    The Futuremen were the only visitors to the hermit’s little world. They had first chanced upon it in running down certain pirates. Since then, they had stopped here more than once.
    Oddly enough, Curt Newton liked the old man. He the supreme wizard of modern Solar science, recognized a certain strain of bitter truth in the old Earthman’s condemnation of that science.
    “He’s a corrective,” Captain Future answered when the others wonderingly asked the reason for his liking.
    “Whenever I get too vain about what we modern men are doing with science, I like to hear the old boy point out just how much we haven’t done.”
    It was on the hermit’s little asteroid that Otho finally found what he had been looking for — a pet that would outshine Grag’s mascot.
     
    OTHO SEEKS PET
    Ever since Grag had adopted the moon-pup Eek as a pet, Otho had been secretly a little jealous. He had resolved to outdo Grag.
    “I’m so blasted tired of hearing Grag drool about that confounded moon-pup’s abilities, that I’m going to fix him for good,” Otho told Curt Newton. “I mean to grab myself some kind of a little critter that will make Eek’s life miserable for him.”
    “What are you going to do — get another moon-pup?” Newton asked.
    “No, I’ll find some kind of animal that will not only be smarter than Eek but will also be able to thrash the life out of Eek. Grag will go wild, then!”
    On the asteroid of the hermit, Otho on this particular morning noticed a small beast gamboling near the Comet. It was short-legged, and fat and white, with a round head whose two incongruously big, solemn eyes gave it an irresistibly comic appearance.
    Otho started toward it with casual interest. Spotting his approach, the little animal suddenly underwent an astounding transformation.
     
    A STRANGE CREATURE
    The fat, doughy-looking white body and head seemed to flow and twist and change color at the same time. In a second, the little beast had changed itself into a perfect replica of an ordinary asteroid-rabbit.
    “What the devil! Am I seeing things?” yelled Otho.
    He started toward the asteroid-rabbit. It hopped away among some gray stones. Again, its body changed with protean rapidity. Now it had become a perfect simulacrum of a gray stone.
    Otho yelled for the others. When Captain Future came with the hermit, the android pointed excitedly at the thing.
    “First it was a little fat white animal, then it changed into an asteroid-rabbit, now it’s a stone! I must be going crazy.”
    The old eccentric stepped forward and uttered a shrill whistle. The gray stone suddenly changed back into a little white animal, looking solemnly up at them.
    “It’s a meteor-mimic,” said the hermit.