But it was now evident that Vostol had remained unconvinced. Determined to unmask Kaffr as an impostor, Vostol had apparently used the Futuremen's absence to gather evidence of some kind against them. And this disastrous turn of events came at the very moment when Curt was planning to use the prestige of his position, to lead the Tarasts in an expedition that might mean their eventual salvation!
"I knew it was unwise to go and leave Vostol to plot against us!" Gerdek was exclaiming, in a tense whisper. "What can his proof be?"
"We'll worry about that when the time comes," Captain Future muttered. "Don't lose your nerve. Everything depends on our maintaining my impersonation of Kaffr."
The officer took a step forward.
"The Council is waiting!" he said shortly.
Curt murmured a hasty word to Lacq, who seemed stunned by this crisis.
"You leave us, Lacq — I'll get in touch with you later," he ordered. "And don't worry. We'll carry out our plan as soon as this is smoothed over."
Lacq nodded earnestly.
"I'll do as you say, Kaffr."
Curt turned calmly to the others of his group.
"We will go with these soldiers to the Council."
"Say, I don't like this —" Otho began rebelliously, but Curt silenced him with a sharp glance.
They went through the streets of Bebemos toward the distant, looming pile of the Hall of Suns, with the soldiers marching behind them. There were throngs lining the marble avenues, but from their midst came now no wildly enthusiastic shouts of "Hail, Kaffr!"
The Tarast populace watched the suspects pass in troubled silence. The people seemed stunned by the possibility that their miraculously returned hero of legend might be an impostor.
Curt Newton grimly resolved to carry through his impersonation at any cost. It was not for his own sake — it was for the sake of these people who now watched him in such stunned silence. Only with the prestige of the legendary hero could he hope to lead the Tarasts to victory over the malign fate that threatened them.
As they passed beneath the gigantic statue of Kaffr and into the Hall of Suns, Otho whispered worriedly to Curt.
"Chief, we're walking into a trap! There's no telling what they will do to you if Vostol can really prove you're an impostor!"
"Yes, let's turn around and crash our way out of here to the Comet" Grag proposed uneasily.
"And give up all hope of helping those people, just when we've found a plan for doing so?" Curt retorted. "No, we're sticking it out. Vostol can't prove anything."
He wondered what kind of evidence Vostol had gathered. No time for speculation now! The moment of crisis was at hand, for they were entering the Council Hall.
Every member of the Council of Suns was in his seat. The tiers of dusty, empty seats loomed far up into the shadows around this group of hundreds who silently watched the Futuremen and Gerdek and Shiri, as they appeared upon the broad stage. Old Igir, the chairman, came forward.
But Captain Future was first to speak, for he meant to carry the fight to his enemies. His voice rolled out wrathfully to the Council.
"Is this the welcome you give Kaffr when he comes back from battle against your enemies?" Curt demanded. "Was it for this that I returned to my people — that they might arrest me like a common criminal?"
IGIR shrank back a little from Captain Future's thundering accusation. Doubt and lingering awe showed on his troubled face.
"If you are really Kaffr, we apologize," he said hastily. "But charges have been made that you are only an impostor who seeks to deceive us. We must investigate such charges."
"And who makes those charges?" Curt flared, his narrowed gray eyes sweeping the faces of the Council. "Who is it here that challenges my identity?"
Vostol promptly rose and stepped up onto the stage.
"I make them I I say that you are not Kaffr, and that you have conspired with Gerdek and his party to play this role."
Vostol's strong face had not a quiver in it as he faced Captain Future. The passionate determination in his eyes was unflinching.
The man's sincerity and strength were unquestionable. At another time, Curt would have admired him for so standing up against the influences of superstitious legend which had awed most of the others. But he realized the danger of this man's obstinate skepticism.
"So it is Vostol who still talks against Kaffr!" Gerdek was exclaiming angrily. "While Kaffr is out fighting our enemies, Vostol whispers baseless accusations against him."
"My accusations are not baseless," Vostol replied firmly. "I will prove them beyond doubt."
A chill feeling of uneasiness touched Captain Future. The confidence of Vostol worried him a little. But he did not show it outwardly.
"If you have proof that I am not Kaffr, why do you not present it?" he challenged the Tarast.
"I intend to do so," Vostol said grimly. "I shall prove that instead of being Kaffr, you are an adventurer from a remote world outside our universe, who has conspired with Gerdek and Shiri to impersonate our ancient hero."
Curt felt momentarily dumfounded. By some means, Vostol had penetrated the truth!
"Chief, he's found out!” Otho whispered in alarm to Captain Future. "Let's get out of here while we can."
"Stay where you are," Curt muttered. "It's his word against mine. He can't prove it."
Vostol had turned and was making a signal. A pair of Tarast soldiers who had apparently been waiting in an antechamber now came out onto the stage. With them, they brought a prisoner.
The prisoner was a fat, plump-faced Tarast man of middle age. His features were gray with terror. Curt recognized the man at once, as the follower of Gerdek who had been with Shiri when the Futuremen had first arrived in this universe.
"It's Dordo!" Gerdek was murmuring in a strangled voice. "Gods, if he's told anything to Vostol —"
Their worst apprehensions were quickly confirmed. Vostol spoke to the fat, terrified Dordo in a ringing voice.
"Dordo, tell the Council everything you know about this stranger who calls himself Kaffr!”
Dordo's terror-stricken gaze wandered from the stern features of Vostol to the incredulous, horrified faces of Gerdek and Shiri.
"I didn't want to tell him anything, Gerdek!" wailed the fat man. "But he threatened me into it. He threatened to have me condemned to the Unbodied if I didn't!”
Captain Future realized instantly that exposure was at hand. It seemed doubtful that he could carry off his impersonation much longer. His hand dropped unobtrusively to the hilt of his proton pistol, and he made an imperceptible signal to Grag and Otho and Simon Wright.
Curt had instantly decided that if all else failed, they would force their way out of this situation. The fate of this whole human race depended upon Zuur's secret hidden somewhere on distant, forbidden Thool. He must not give up the plan to attain that secret, no matter what happened.
DORDO was pouring out his confession in a gasping voice to the astounded Council of Suns.
" — and so Gerdek and Shiri brought the red-haired stranger and his comrades from realms outside our universe, by that means. They wanted him to pose as Kaffr, so that the Tarasts would reject the proposed treaty of the Cold Ones, and —"
Curt Newton whispered an almost inaudible word to his Futuremen.
"Now!"
His proton pistol flashed into his hand as he spoke, and its muzzle covered Vostol. Otho and Grag, tense and dangerous, had drawn their own weapons in the same instant.
"No one will move," Curt rapped. "We are going out of here. Gerdek — Shiri — get around here behind me."
The Council of Suns seemed petrified by the swiftness of the Futuremen's action. Vostol flushed an angry red.
"So you think that you can escape, now that you have been unmasked as a lying impostor!" he grated to Captain Future.
"I'm no impostor — I am Kaffr," Curt retorted, still dauntlessly maintaining his impersonation. "But I can see that you are persuading this Council otherwise. I don't i
ntend to let my plans for helping the Tarasts be ruined by your stupidity.
"We are leaving here and we are taking you, Vostol, as a hostage," he continued shortly. "No one else will leave this building."
"Wait a moment, false Kaffr!" exclaimed Vostol, his eyes flashing. "I was expecting some such attempt as this on your part when we exposed you. And I prepared for it. Look up there!"
He gestured as he spoke toward the empty tiers of seats that rose in the shadows above the stupefied Council members. Tarast soldiers holding leveled atom-shell guns had risen suddenly to their feet up there. And their weapons were trained upon the Futuremen and their comrades.
"You can doubtless kill me," Vostol was saying firmly to Captain Future. "But your own life and the lives of your fellow-conspirators will pay the price."
There was a moment of frozen silence in which Curt Newton realized that he had been effectually checkmated.
The soldiers up there in the shadows could pour a deadly hail of atom-shells down onto the stage. And while he and the Futuremen might be able to fight their way out, Gerdek and Shiri would die in the first crashing volley.
Nor could he get out of this by threatening Vostol's life. Vostol was honestly convinced that he was performing a great service to his people by exposing Curt's impersonation. Vostol, in his obstinate way, would let himself be killed rather than see the Futuremen escape. And Curt knew he couldn't really kill the man — that had only been bluff.
Otho's slant-green eyes were blazing and his voice came in a sibilant hiss.
"Shall we fight it out, Chief?"
"No, please!" Shiri begged agonizedly. "There must be no bloodshed. These people simply do not understand —"
"Unless you drop your weapons, I will order the soldiers up there to open fire!" came Vostol's stem warning.
Captain Future knew that he was beaten, for the time being. He could not precipitate a slaughter of innocent men who were honestly doing what they thought was their duty. Even if he made the attempt, the chances of getting away in the Comet would be slim.
"Drop your pistols — we can't start a killing here," he murmured to the Futuremen. "I'll have to talk our way out of this."
"But, Chief —" Grag started to protest strenuously.
Captain Future repeated his command.
"Do as I say, Grag."
Chapter 12: The Unbodied
THEIR proton pistols clattered to the floor. At once, Vostol made a signal and Tarast soldiers hastened out onto the stage. While the other soldiers kept their weapons trained on Curt and his friends, these men quickly bound the hands of Captain Future's party.
They used heavy metal cuffs capable of restraining even Grag. That Vostol had made his plans in advance was evidenced by the fact that the soldiers also brought a net of metal mesh, which they flung around the Brain. Effectually made a prisoner by the net, Simon sputtered wrathfully.
"Let me talk," Curt Newton said in a taut, low voice. "I've got to convince them that we're here as friends, not impostors."
Vostol had turned toward the petrified Council.
"Now you see that I spoke the truth when I said this man could not be Kaffr! You have heard a confession of Gerdek's conspiracy from the lips of his own follower."
"It is so," muttered old Igir dazedly. He looked crushed. "And only yesternight, we were rejoicing because Kaffr had returned."
The Council of Suns seemed to feel the same tragic shock of disappointment as the old chairman. Their pale faces mirrored despair.
"I tell you, I am Kaffr!" Curt Newton declared. "It is true that I came here from realms outside this universe. But it was in those outer realms that I spent the long ages of sleep of which I spoke."
He was not convincing them — he saw that. Their faith in his superhuman identity had been shattered by Dordo's damaging confession.
"You must believe me!" Curt urged desperately. "I only came because Gerdek and his sister called on me to help your doomed people. And I can help you, if you will only let me.
"This universe will in time be reborn," he continued earnestly. "The Tarast scientists of old who prophesied that were right. And if you can defeat the Cold Ones, your race can live until the rebirth of this universe makes possible the reestablishment of your empire."
"Kaffr speaks the truth!" Gerdek cried appealingly to the incredulous Council. "And he has found a chance to defeat the Cold Ones decisively. There is a secret that will enable us to shatter them forever, if you will only follow Kaffr's leadership —"
"You talk of Kaffr, when we have just proved that this impostor is not Kaffr!” Vostol exclaimed harshly.
He addressed the Council with an earnest sincerity that was unquestionable.
"I seek only the happiness of our people. And I say that we must accept the inevitable fate that our race approaches the end of its history. In spite of vague and baseless claims to the contrary, we know our universe will soon be dead, for its last suns are dying even now.
"Therefore, the Tarast race can endure but a few more generations, in any case. Why should we inflict the misery of a terrible existence on those last few generations, people who will gradually freeze and die until the last wretched survivors are killed by the Cold Ones? Why not make this present generation the last, and with it bring the life of our race to a peaceful, happy conclusion?
"We can do that," Vostol continued earnestly. "We need only agree to the treaty proposed by the Cold Ones, and promise that this will be our last generation and that we will have no more children. If we do that, the Cold Ones will stop attacking us and we last Tarasts will have peace."
Old Igir spoke in a slow, heavy voice.
"You are right, Vostol. There seems nothing else to do now that Kaffr, our last hope, has proved a fraud." The chairman addressed the silent Council. "Do you assent to make a treaty with the Cold Ones?"
In a dead silence fraught with the tension of a fateful decision, the Council members reluctantly raised their hands in affirmative vote.
"Don't do it!" begged Gerdek, agonized. "You're committing race suicide when you agree to make this treaty!"
They ignored his appeal. Reaction from the shattering of their faith in Kaffr had compelled their surrender to Vostol's plan.
OLD IGIR was addressing Vostol. "The Council has decided. Are you ready to negotiate the treaty with the Cold Ones?"
Vostol nodded.
"When the Cold One envoys first proposed the treaty, they gave me one of their telep-transmitters with which I could call them if we decided on acceptance. I have it here now."
He brought out the square apparatus that was used by the enemy race for long-distance transmission of telepathic messages. Vostol touched the switches of the compact instrument, and then seemed to stare in concentrated silence at the shining knob upon its face.
Several minutes passed silently, while the Council and the prisoners tensely watched. Then Vostol turned off the telep-transmitter and straightened.
"I established telepathic contact with the Cold Ones' capital at distant Thool," he reported. "Their ruler, Mwwr, spoke to me. When I told him we had decided to accept their proposal, he requested me to come to Thool to negotiate the treaty."
"Mwwr promised me safe-conduct to Thool," Vostol added. "I am to go in a star-cruiser marked with a silver circle, and all patrols of the Cold Ones throughout the universe will be instructed to let that cruiser pass."
Igir nodded haggardly.
"A star-cruiser will be made ready for you at once. But what shall we do now with the false Kaffr and these other convicted conspirators?"
Vostol and all the members of the Council looked at Curt Newton and his fellow-prisoners. There was a momentary silence.
Then Vostol spoke heavily.
"We have no choice," he said. "They are too dangerous to be allowed freedom, and they have merited our heaviest punishment They must be imprisoned with the Unbodied."
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Shiri, with a little cry of horror. The same horror was refle
cted from the face of her brother.
Captain Future wondered puzzledly again what there was about this mysterious punishment of the Tarasts which so terrified people. As he wondered he was raising his voice in final desperate warning.
"You are sentencing your race to death needlessly when you reject my leadership!" Curt cried. "I tell you, you must not make that treaty!"
Igir, ignoring him, was speaking troubledly to Vostol.
"Many of the people still will believe that this man is really Kaffr. There may be riot and dissension if we announce that we've condemned him to the Unbodied."
"Then do not announce it yet," advised Vostol. "Announce merely that the charges against Kaffr are still being considered and that judgment has been deferred until later. Then, after I have returned from Thool with the treaty we can explain all to the people."
"We will do that, then," Igir decided.
With pity in his eyes, the old chairman faced the soldiers.
"Take the prisoners down to the vault of the Unbodied," he directed.
Captain Future and his friends were conducted out of the great hall and down winding stairs that dropped, level after level, into subterranean chambers beneath the Hall of Suns. The stairs were hewn from solid rock, and there was no light except for a few glowing bulbs.
"Don't give up hope, Gerdek," Curt muttered to the crushed Tarast beside him. "Things aren't finished yet. Even if Vostol concludes the treaty at Thool, there'll still be time in which to fight against it"
"No, there will be no time then," Gerdek replied hopelessly. "For if the treaty is signed, then at once the whole Tarast race will be required to submit to self-sterilization which will forever destroy the power of my people to have children. That will mark the end of our race."
CURT NEWTON frowned at this information.
"That shortens down the time-limit, all right. It means we'll have to escape imprisonment before Vostol actually reaches Thool and signs the treaty."
Captain Future 12 - Planets in Peril (Fall 1942) Page 9
