Captain Future 21 - The Return of Captain Future (January 1950) by Edmond Hamilton

Author:Edmond Hamilton [Hamilton, Edmond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2012-09-28T06:00:00+00:00

NEWTON was as rigid as though the very portals of an eon-old, lost cosmic past were opening tangibly before him.

“The First-Born? Who were they, Linid? Who?”

“They were before the Linids,” came the sullenly slow reply. “They were not like us, nor like any of the other races, nor like you humans, say the legends.

“They were mighty in wisdom — all the universe knew it. But they were mad dreamers. They dreamed of a universe utterly and completely ruled by justice. And they set out to accomplish that dream.

“They could not do it! They, the First-Born, whom all the universe had whispered of for eons, could not subdue us Linids, nor even all our rival-races! They went back to their secret worlds, in defeat!

“They said, did the First-Born — ‘We failed to bring the universe under one law because, great as was our wisdom, we are not physically or psychically adaptable to all the varying worlds of the universe. Our dream is dead, and with it passes our reason for life, so we too shall pass. But, before we depart, let us raise up a new race that will be supple and adaptable enough to succeed someday where we failed.’

“And for such an heir, the First-Born raised up — man! The crawling apes, the unclean, chattering hordes of the far worlds, the liars, the cheats, the cunning ones! They said, ‘Though he is all these things, in him is the seed of power, of power someday to unite the universe under the law of justice as we dreamed of doing.’

“So, from the noisy apes, the First-Born developed your race, human! A race that had no attribute of the great galactic races, that had nothing but curiosity — curiosity that unlocked powers for it that it could ill use. So your race was first loosed upon the universe far away in lost ages, by the First-Born before they passed!”

As the mechanical voice paused, Captain Future stood with a wild thrilling in his nerves.

Cosmic mystery dispelled at last — even though beyond it loomed deeper and older mysteries!

“So that is the secret of man’s cosmic origin!” breathed Joan.

“Yet apes evolved to man on Earth too, the scientists say,” muttered Ezra bewilderedly.

The Linid answered him mockingly. “Always and on many worlds, the humans whom the First-Born raised from apehood slip back quickly to the ape, and must toilsomely climb again.”

“But where did the First-Born do this?” Curt Newton pressed. “Where, amid the galaxies, was their home?”

“Not even the Linids know that,” was the answer. “Though there are traditions —”

The creature’s toneless, translated speech halted. A queer tense immobility had come over the coiling capes and veils.

“What traditions?” pressed Captain Future harshly. “Speak, if you wish eventual freedom!”

He was unaware, as he himself spoke, of a small gray shape that had crept silently into the room.

The Linid’s translated voice spoke, suddenly rapid. “I shall tell you what I know. Perhaps it answers your question. Listen closely —”

They strained forward, hungering for every word. And then,

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