“The genes?” echoed the old veteran blankly. “What’s that? Remember, I ain’t no scientist.
CURT NEWTON explained, as they rode forward. “The genes are the tiny units of heredity in any living creature. They control the physical form of the next generation. Alter the pattern of those genes, and you will alter the physical form of the next generation. Change the gene-pattern of a fruit-fly, and its descendants will be born without wings. Tamper with the far more complex gene-pattern of a man, and his descendants will be radically different in physical factors.
“Nature itself is forever tampering with the genes — thus causing strange new species to arise which we call mutations. Certain experiments have shown us that it is possible to tamper artificially with the genes by subjecting them to hard radiation, and thus to produce new mutations or species artificially. But the gene-pattern of man is so vastly complicated that our scientists have never found a way to chart it so that desired changes could be produced in the race at will. The super-science of the Ancients, however, might have found that way.”
“And if they did, that’s the secret of artificial evolution?” exclaimed Ezra.
Captain Future nodded somberly. “Yes, that is the secret by which the man-beasts were originally created from men — the secret that Cole Norton wants.”
“Then with that hidden secret, you could reverse the process so that the descendants of these man-beasts would be true men again?”
“I hope that we could,” Curt answered, that haunting doubt in his mind as he spoke. “It might be beyond our power to do that, though.”
They were moving rapidly on through the forest as he spoke, with Skeen again circling low above the tops of the giant trees ahead.
The blazing white disk of Deneb had reached the zenith when the huge trees began to thin out ahead. They glimpsed open space beyond.
“There’s the sea,” cried Joan Randall, an eager flush on her face. Then her voice changed. “But what a sea.”
Amazement fell on all the Futuremen as they emerged from the forest and stopped, gazing out from a narrow, sandy little beach.
Vast waters stretched before them. North, east and west rolled the stygian expanse of an inky ocean such as they had never before looked upon. They realized at once that its waves carried in suspension vast quantities of jet-colored mineral which gave the whole sea its somber black hue. But the realization in no way diminished the powerfully weird impression created in them by the spectacle of this vast ebony ocean heaving beneath the sky.
The black waste rolled to the skyline, and they could see no land in any direction. But from the north, there shot into the sky a glittering aurora of intense brilliance.
Lances of light shook and stabbed from that northern horizon like the waving of titan swords.
Curt Newton stared eagerly. “Does that radiance come from the Crystal Mountains?”
Skeen, who had glided down to alight by them, nodded.
“They reflect the sun, so blindly that the unprotected eye cannot look upon them by day.”
“And somewhere among them is the place we’re seeking — the Prism Peak,” Captain Future said tensely.
“The inscription-clue didn’t say where that might be among the mountains, though,” said Joan doubtfully. “Remember?”
She quoted that pregnant inscription which had brought Norton and themselves so far across the galaxy.
“Beneath the Prism Peak, in the Crystal Mountains that lie beyond the black sea of the north, lies the Chamber of Life in which were bred new human races. Seek it not lightly, for it is guarded by the undying ones, and it holds within it the seeds of doom.”
“It sure doesn’t tell where Prism Peak is among the mountains,” grumbled Ezra. “Still, Norton’s worse off than we are — he don’t even know to look for the Peak.”
“Unless he has noticed it and deduced its importance,” muttered the Brain. “He’s highly intelligent, and has had four days to search. He may already have found the Chamber of Life.”
GOLO had listened with intense interest to the recital of the ancient inscription. Now the man-horse spoke wonderingly.
“Then the place we seek is guarded by the undying ones? I did not know that.”
“You know something about the undying ones referred to?” Captain Future asked quickly.
“I know only what our traditions tell,” the Hoofed One answered slowly. “They say that when the great Ancients came first to this world from the Darkness that was their origin, they had the power of undying life when they wished to use it.”
“The same old riddle — the Darkness,” murmured the Brain. “Where was it? From where did those progenitors of the human race come?”
Curt Newton made no comment. But a strange look had crossed his face, as a new and startling speculation invaded his mind.
He thought he could make a guess now at the answer to that great mystery of the Darkness whence the ancient Denebians had come. The reference to their ability to remain undying could mean only one thing.
“Yet that can’t be true!” Curt Newton thought, stupefied. “If the first Ancients came here from there —”
Ezra Gurney’s dry voice interrupted his dazed speculations. “I still don’t see how in space we’re goin’ to get across this sea.”
Captain Future gestured toward the big trees that grew to the very edge of the narrow beach. “There’s our way. A raft.”
It was what he had had in mind all along. In a few minutes, the work of constructing such a raft was in full swing.
Curt Newton and Ezra Gurney felled big trees by flashes of their proton-pistols and trimmed and cut them to length by the same means. Grag bent his colossal strength to the task of rolling the logs down into the water.
And there, Otho skillfully bound them together, lashing them with tough vines.
An oblong, heavy raft capable of supporting them all soon floated on the black waters.
They had shaped rough paddles for steering and propulsion.
Shih looked doubtfully at the clumsy craft. “The monsters of the deep will destroy it like a toy,” predicted the man-tiger.
“We have our pistols and we’ll take our chances,” Curt Newton said tersely. “But there’s no use of you of the Clans risking it. You’ve guided us thus far and we’re indebted enough —”
Zur interrupted. The man-dog demanded:
“Are we Clan-brothers or not, that we should desert you here?”
“Zur speaks well — we go with you,” rumbled Golo. “This quest is for the dream of our race, remember.”
They climbed aboard the big, heavy log raft. Grag exerted his strength to shove off from the beach. The robot stood at the stern steering-paddle like a grim metal giant as they paddled out onto the heaving black waves.
Curt Newton laid their course straight out toward the glittering glare of the northern horizon. Before they had gone more than a few rods from shore, he descried a dark shape that lifted from the black waves in the distance and then again submerged.
“One of the monsters of this sea,” said Golo nervously. “They are the biggest and most terrible creatures upon our world.”
“Things like that don’t bother us any,” scoffed Otho. “Why, I remember one time back on Neptune’s ocean in our own System —”
HE NEVER finished the words. There was a sudden boiling tumult in the waters around the raft. Up from the waves, directly ahead of the craft, rose a hideous, scaled reptilian head of incredible size.
Cold, filmy eyes, then stared down at those on the raft, and enormous jaws opened.
“Paddle westward,” yelled Captain Future. “Quick!”
As he shouted, he leveled his proton-pistol, thumbed its intensity-ratchet to the highest power, and released its crashing bolt of energy at the enormous head towering over them.
The beam seared into the lower jaw of the sea-monster. The huge, hideous head jerked wildly.
Next instant, the whole raft seemed to rise in the water a
nd tilt sidewise. As Curt Newton hit the water, he glimpsed the vast, scaled green bulk of the monster’s body, which had risen to overturn them.
Chapter 17: Perils of the Deep
QUICKLY Captain Future came up like a cork to hear Ezra Gurney’s sputtering yell.
“Look out,” shouted the old man.
The hideous reptilian head was looming above them as they struggled in the water. Captain Future had not released his grip upon the proton-pistol, and he instantly brought it up and fired again.
This time, the beam seared into one of the filmy eyes of the creature. The thing uttered a deafening hiss and threshed the waves in wild convulsions of agony and rage.
“Back to shore, quick,” cried Curt Newton to his swimming companions.
The man-beasts swam even more swiftly than the Futuremen. Curt Newton had his arm around Joan Randall’s shoulders, but she was too strong a swimmer to need his support. The Brain and Skeen had taken to the air as the raft upset. The raft itself was drifting back toward shore with the tide.
They clambered drippingly up onto the beach. The threshing convulsions of the wounded monster had ceased and there was no sign of it out in the waters now.
“Either its wound was fatal, or it was scared off,” Captain Future said, panting.
“Where is the metal one?” asked Shih, shaking himself with true feline dislike for a wetting.
Grag was not in sight. He had sunk like a stone when the raft overturned. But Captain Future was hot worried, for Grag did not breathe and could not be drowned.
In fact, Grag soon came marching up out of the water, no worse for his submersion. He dragged the raft up onto the beach with him.
“Where’s my Eek?” he demanded anxiously.
“I got him and Oog ashore,” reassured Otho. “Though I ought’ve let that little mutt of yours drown, after the trick you played on me.”
Ezra Gurney was dismal.
“Cap’n Future, we’ll never get across that sea on any raft with critters like that swarmin’ in there,” he said.
Joan Randall shuddered. But Curt Newton was undismayed. “We must get across,” he cried. “Norton is over there now, if he hasn’t already obtained the secret and gone.”
“Skeen and I could fly across and see what we could do,” suggested Simon Wright.
Curt Newton shook his head. “You two alone could accomplish nothing against Norton,” he said. “He has all the Comet’s weapons, and could use them in you.”
A thought had occurred to Captain Future.
“Didn’t you say that in this sea lives a semi-human race of man-seals who are more than a match for those monsters?” he asked Golo.
The Hoofed One answered in the affirmative. “Yes, the Clan of the Swimmers, who are our clan-brothers. They are so swift and skillful that they can vanquish the largest monsters that inhabit this ocean.
“Then,” proposed Curt Newton, “couldn’t we call on them for help? To convoy our raft across this sea?”
Shih uttered an exclamation.
“The Swimmers would help us, if we sent them the clan-call for aid,” he said. “And they could escort us safely across.”
Golo too betrayed excited new hope. “We shall try it. Skeen, fly westward to the rocks where the Swimmers have their city, and tell them of our quest and our need for help.”
The big man-condor spread his wings and plunged upward into the sky. He disappeared from sight, flapping out westward over the black sea.
They waited in suspense. Curt Newton realized the precariousness of his plan, but it seemed the only chance for them to cross the ocean in time to checkmate Norton. To march around the great sea would take weeks.
It seemed a long time before Skeen came flying back. But the man-condor brought cheering news.
“The Swimmers will help us,” he announced. “When I told them you strangers were clan-brothers, and that your quest’s success would make our races human again, they promised to come at once.”
They waited some time longer, scanning the dark watery waste. Then, out of the waves near the beach, there rose a strange head.
It was a human head in most respects, yet was round and streamlined, the nose flattened and the ears set close against the skull. The eyes were very large, and dark, and intelligent.
THE body of the creature, glimpsed vaguely in the swirling black water, was more seal-like than human. It too was streamlined, with short limbs that ended in powerful flippers instead of feet. The hands too were flipper-like, and one held a short, stone-pointed spear.
“Hai—ooo, clan-brothers,” the man-seal’s hoarse voice called. “We have come as you asked.”
“It is Ro, leader of the Clan of the Swimmers,” said Golo quickly. “And see, he has brought many of his clan with him.”
Scores of man-seals were raising their heads above the water behind Ro. All of the strange creatures carried the short spears.
“Hai—ooo, brother,” Captain Future said in the customary clan-greeting. He pointed northward to the glittering aurora of light beyond the watery horizon. “We desire to cross to the Crystal Mountains. Can you help us against the sea-monsters?”
“Aye, we will help,” answered Ro. “We Swimmers can handle the monsters, for though they are big, they are very slow and clumsy! And we will aid to the utmost, for Skeen has told us what your quest means to us.”
Curt Newton’s hopes rose. “Get back aboard the raft, everybody,” he ordered.
Again aboard the raft, they pushed out from the beach once more. The man-seals swam up to the craft, darting swiftly through the water.
“Paddle toward the east,” Eo directed Curt Newton. “There is a strong northward current there that will take you across the sea in short time.”
They did as directed. As the heavy raft forged slowly eastward over the waves, the Swimmers were darting and diving all around and ahead of it to scout the way.
The raft came into the grip of a strong tidal current that raced almost due north. With greatly accelerated speed, their clumsy vessel swung out onto the vast bosom of the black sea.
There was a sudden flurry in the water a few hundred yards ahead of them. From one of the man-seals there came a sharp cry.
“Hai—ooo, brothers, one of the Scaled Ones approaches.”
Zipping through the water in answer to his cry went all Ro’s followers, holding their short spears ready for action.
“Holy sun-imps, there’s another of them monsters,” cried Ezra Gurney.
A scaled green bulk was rising mountainously in the water ahead. It was one of the enormous reptiles, and it was turning and striking furiously at the man-seals who rushed to attack it from all sides.
Not once did the great jaws close on one of the attackers. The Swimmers were far too swift for it. They rushed in like streaks of light, stabbed deep with their spears, and whirled and were gone in an instant.
The black water crimsoned with the blood of the wounded monster. There was a final frenzied flurry of spray and steam. And then the great creature floated dead, its white belly turned toward the sky.
Twice again in the next two hours, as the raft glided steadily across the black ocean on the powerful northward current, the Swimmers who escorted them battled scaly monsters which sought to attack them. Each time, the man-seals’ weapons quickly slew the enormous attackers.
On and on went the strange company of voyagers over the heaving inky waves. The green shoreline behind had faded from sight. The sun was declining toward the horizon, but a wonderful aurora of light that blazed from the skyline ahead was becoming stronger.
At sundown the raft was within a half mile of the black ocean’s northern shore. From that shore, almost at the edge of the water, rose the stupendous glittering peaks of an incredible mountain range.
The Crystal Mountains were just what their name implied. They were a great range, extending miles east and west. Each separate peak was like an enormous, glittering diamond, with facets and edges as regularly geomet
rical as though artificially cut.
A TITAN range of diamond mountains, whose highest peaks rose thousands of feet into the sky. No two of the geometrical peaks seemed alike in shape, some having hundreds of facets and some only a few dozen. They flung back the dying sunlight in a blinding blaze of splendor, of shaking pennons and banners of light.
Dusk came. Curt Newton leaped ashore as the raft ground into the sand of a strip of beach. The others followed quickly.
In the deepening twilight, the Futuremen and their companions looked around. The shimmering, incredible mountains rose only a few hundred yards inland from the beach on which they stood.
The complex wilderness of gigantic crystals presented a labyrinth that dashed Captain Future’s confidence. How were they to find their way in this maze of diamond peaks?
“Which one of ‘em do you suppose is Prism Peak?” asked Ezra Gurney.
“I’ve reason to think that the Prism Peak mentioned as the location of the Chamber of Life would be an octahedral formation,” said Curt Newton. “We’re not going to start hunting for that peak now; What we’re here for is to find and deal with Cole Norton and his band. They must be somewhere in these mountains, seeking the Chamber of Life.”
“I could soon spot them for you if they’re here,” Skeen suggested.
“I was thinking of that,” Curt nodded. “Simon will go with you. Fly high and don’t let yourselves be seen by Norton’s party. As soon as you’ve located them, come back at once with your information. Look for the Comet, and you’ll find Norton somewhere near it.”
Skeen and the Brain rose at once into the darkening twilight. High overhead, they separated. The man-condor flew eastward, and the Brain glided toward the west, to reconnoiter different sections of the mountains.
Curt Newton turned to the others.
“As soon as we learn where Norton’s party is, we start,” he said. “Nothing is safe until we’ve retaken the Comet and dealt with that traitor.”
Joan Randall’s face was pale in the dusk. “It will mean a desperate fight, Curt. We have only a few proton-pistols, and Norton and Voories have all the weapons of your ship, and Osorkon’s Manlings to aid them.”
Captain Future 15 - The Star of Dread (Summer 1943) Page 13
