Star Trail to Glory by Edmond Hamilton

Author:Edmond Hamilton [Hamilton, Edmond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
ISBN: 9781610818353
Publisher: Radio Archives
Published: 2012-09-05T07:00:00+00:00

WITH an explosive curse, Otho snatched up the trough and flung it at him.

But Grag stood rocking with bellowing mirth.

“I got you that time, Otho!” he boomed. “I’ll never forget you honeying me along to get a nice present.”

“Laugh, you fugitive from a chain-belt!” Otho said bitterly. “It serves me right for trying to be nice. I only hope I’ll have a chance to shove you into a pit or something when we reach Kansu’s Comet.”

Kansu’s Comet grew steadily in apparent size as the teardrop ship flashed on. The great green sphere of its coma glowed like a misty sun, concealing the solid nucleus within. There was no tail, for not until the comet approached the Sun would light-pressure force back particles from the coma to form a tail.

Otho had the throttles of the Comet as it swept closer to the awesome celestial body after which the ship was named. The keen, slitted green eyes of the android and the gleaming photo-electric eyes of Grag surveyed the coma intently.

“There are lots of breaks in it,” muttered Otho. “We can slide through one without touching, if we’re careful. We’d better. That coma has a terrific electric charge.”

“If the disabled Star Streak drifted in to the nucleus long ago,” Grag suggested, “it would touch the coma. It couldn’t help it,”

“Yes, and that would kill everyone aboard by electric shock,” Otho said thoughtfully. “Everyone human, that is. It wouldn’t hurt machines.”

The ship circled round the comet in a closing spiral. Otho was looking down intently. Through rifts in the glowing green coma, he descried a small world inside. Grag watched also, calling directions as they sank toward the dangerous nebulosity. The two Futuremen, as always, were able to bury their feud when there was actual peril, and when they were on Captain Future’s business.

They dropped closer to the flaring coma, seeking a wide rift through which the ship could go. A fine violet brush began to spray from all the metal inside the ship, even from Grag’s metal body.

Otho expertly lowered the ship toward a long, ragged fissure in the coma.

“Here goes!” he shouted.

The ship dived with flashing speed, its rockets screaming. Raging seas of glowing green force surged about them. Then they were through the rift, inside the vast coma.

“Made it,” Otho breathed. He peered downward. “Look at that little world. It’s got an atmosphere and everything!”

“I see a little domed city!” Grag boomed.

“You’re crazy,” Otho retorted. “There’d be no sense in putting a dome over a city when this world has warmth and air and — ” His jaw dropped. “Why, you’re right! I can’t understand this.” The planetoid that was the solid nucleus of Kansu’s Comet was a friendly-looking little planet, blanketed by queer yellow-green vegetation of fantastic shapes. On a small, grassy plain, rose a little city of metal and glassite cubical buildings, covered by transparent glassite.

“It’s crazy to build a domed city here,” Otho repeated. “We’d better land in that vegetation and reconnoiter,”

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