Captain Future 01 - The Space Emperor (Winter 1940) by Edmond Hamilton Page A

to Jupiter is this atavism business, isn’t it?”
    Curt nodded grimly.
    “That’s it. What do you know about it, Ezra?”
    “I know it s hell’s blackest masterpiece,” said Ezra Gurney somberly. “Captain Future, I’ve been out on the planetary frontiers for forty years. I’ve seen some evil things on the nine worlds in that time. But I never seen anything like this before.”
    His weatherbeaten face tightened.
    “This town is sitting on top of hell, and no one knows when it’ll bust loose. The atavism cases are increasing daily, and the Jovians are acting queer.”
    “You called Quale tonight about the Jovian unrest increasing?” Curt said, and Ezra Gurney nodded emphatically.
    “Yes, I told Quale the truth, that the Jovians are working up to something big. You can hear their ground-drums out in the jungle all the time now.”
    They had turned off the crowded street into the small metalloy structure that housed Planet Police Headquarters.
    “Ezra, what do you know about Lucas Brewer’s radium mine?” Captain Future asked.
    Gurney looked at him keenly.
    “There’s something queer about it. Brewer is able to get the Jovians to work for him as laborers, something nobody else can do. That gives him a big advantage, with labor as scarce as it is here. He’s getting rich producing radium, up there.”
    “How does he explain the fact that the Jovians work for him and no one else?” Curt demanded.
    “He says he treats ‘em right,” Gurney answered skeptically. “I know he pays ‘em a lot of trade-goods — shipments go up to his mine all the time. But the green critters won’t work for nobody else, no matter what pay is offered them.”
     
    THE big red-haired man considered that, his tanned face thoughtful. He asked another question.
    “Do you know anything about the disappearance of Kenneth Lester, a young planetary archaeologist, up here?”
    “Not a thing,” Ezra confessed. “He went up into the jungles weeks ago. Then he flew back down here to send a letter off, and went back north. No more word ever came back from him and he’s never been found.”
    “I’m going out and make a secret investigation of Lucas Brewers mine,” Captain Future declared, getting up. “Lend me a rocket-flier?”
    Gurney’s face grew anxious.
    “That’s a dangerous place to monkey around. Brewer’s got guards all around the mine. Says he’s afraid of radium-bandits.”
    Curt grinned, and there was no trace of alarm in the big young adventurer’s cheerful face.
    “I’ll take my chances, Ezra. What about that rocket-flier?”
    Ten minutes later, in a small, torpedolike Planet Police flier, Curt flew up above the blazing, turbulent streets of Jungletown and headed northward.
    Black, brooding jungle unreeled beneath an endless blanket of dark obscurity. Ahead, the whole northern sky flamed shaking scarlet from the glare of the Fire Sea.
    Dark, low ranges of hills showed far ahead, standing out blackly against the quivering red aurora.
    Curt hummed a haunting Venusian tune as he flew on, keenly eyeing the blank blackness of jungle. He sensed himself closer on the trail of the Space Emperor, and the thought of coming to grips with his unknown adversary brought a cheerful gleam to his eyes.
    At last he saw what he was looking for — a little cluster of lights far ahead and below. At once, he swooped downward in the flier, hovered hummingly above the dense dark tangle of jungle, and then landed expertly in a small clearing.
    In a few minutes, Curt was slogging steadily through the moon-drenched jungle of tree-ferns toward the lights.
    Tree-octopi flitted overhead. Bulbous balloon-beasts sailed slowly by high above the ceiling of foliage. Once Captain Future’s foot crashed down into the mouth of an underground tunnel made by “diggers.” They were big, bloodthirsty burrowers who seldom appeared above ground.
    Sucker-flies swarmed around him, cunningly injecting a tiny drop of anaesthetic to deaden their sting.