William Morrison - Captain Future by Days of Creation

Author:Days of Creation
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-06-09T15:42:07+00:00

BLACKBEARD’S arm shot out of a tangled mass of arms and legs just as the engineer was about to bring his fist down on the control keys, and closed about Jackson’s ankle. The engineer tumbled down, his head landing in the stomach of one of his own men. The man exclaimed painfully, “Ouff!” and relaxed.

Blackbeard’s fist smashed into the solar plexus of his other still dangerous opponent. The man gasped, clawed feebly at him, then sank back. Blackbeard rose to his feet.

Off in the distance, several other asteroids were ablaze. Loring, not waiting to see what would happen, had taken off in the Comet, and was now hovering in space, watching fearfully. But the asteroid upon which Blackbeard had been battling so fiercely was still apparently untouched.

A dazed victim of Blackbeard’s fists was lifting himself to his feet, grunting with pain.

“Quick man!” Blackbeard spoke fiercely. “Where’s the space-radio?”

“You think I’ll tell you?” snarled the assistant engineer. He shouted suddenly to a fourth man, who stood some distance away, watching the scene openmouthed. “Quick, Jan, radio for help! This man’s crazy!”

Blackbeard caught Jan just as he reached the radio, hurled him away.

“Calling all remaining asteroids!” he began. A guttural reply reached his ears. “I don’t care if that isn’t the proper signal! This is a matter of life and death—your life and death! Cut off your nitrogen, and switch on your oxygen again, full force! Yes, I know it isn’t safe, but it’s safer than being caught in that explosive wave! And it’s kept us untouched so far! Hurry up, men!”

Another asteroid sprang into sudden brilliance. And then, on its neighbor, the nitrogen stopped rolling out, gave way to high-pressure oxygen again, Slowly, the flames on the illfated asteroids died away, leaving only a mass of glowing rocks that would take months and perhaps years to radiate their heat into space once more.

The men he had fought so fiercely a few moments before approached cautiously now. There was no longer any fight in them. They stared at Blackbeard in sheer admiration. They knew that he had saved their lives, but they still couldn’t figure out how.

Half an hour later, aboard the Comet once more, Blackbeard apologized.

“Sorry I had to be so rough, but as you can see for yourselves, I had little time.”

Loring growled angrily. The chief engineer who had returned aboard their ship nodded.

“So that’s why Captain Future objected to the use of the artificial gravity. A pity his advice was disregarded.”

“He must have known the danger of this happening,” agreed Blackbeard. “Artificial gravity is produced by electro-gravitational waves, which don’t ordinarily interfere with the operation of the cosmic ray condenser. But occasionally, some of the partially spent rays, consisting mostly of high-speed particles, are emitted together with the created matter. The atoms of the excited matter are partially energized, and become exceedingly reactive chemically under the influence of the electro-gravitational waves.”

“And when they happen to be oxygen, just aching for a chance to combine with whatever’s around, there’s all space to pay,” added Jackson.

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