Free Captain Future 12 - Planets in Peril (Fall 1942) by Edmond Hamilton Page B

examined the shattered bodies with intense interest. He realized at once that these inhuman creatures who could live in an airless void were of a startling new order of creation.
    The broken white bodies and limbs were composed almost wholly of rigid bone. The only parts not of osseous tissue were elastic, cartilaginous ligaments inside the hollow limbs, and the eyes and brain. The eyes were lenses of transparent cartilage. And the brain exposed by the shattering of one skull-like head was an organ of hard gristle.
    "We can look these over later," Captain Future said hastily. "Here comes Otho with the Comet."
     
    THE small ship of the Futuremen was streaking across the dome toward them. It landed quickly, and the door swung open.
    "You and Shiri come along," Curt told Gerdek. "I’ll need you to guide us in this cluster of suns, as far as you can."
    Gerdek was worried.
    "Vostol will be challenging your identity during our absence," he said. "The people and many of the Council are convinced that you are Kaffr, but he is not convinced. Our absence may tell against you."
    "We'll worry about Vostol when we get back," Curt answered confidently. "So far, my impersonation of Kaffr is succeeding all right."
    The Comet shot up from the glittering roof of Bebemos, angling steeply skyward across the icy wastes that surrounded the hothouse city. Curt and Gerdek divested themselves of the space-suits and went forward to the control room, where Otho sat at the space-stick, with Shiri near him.
    Otho's little mascot Oog was rubbing himself rejoicingly against his master's ankle. But the other pet, Eek the moon-pup, ran anxiously from one to the other in vain search of its own master.
    "The little mutt misses Grag," Otho commented. He looked inquiringly around at Captain Future. "What course shall I follow, Chief?"
    They were already out in space. Curt peered keenly into the drift of clustered dead and dying suns that spanned the black firmament.
    "A little north of west, toward that pair of very faint stars," he directed. "I was watching Grag's captors when they disappeared, and they went in that direction. Use all speed, and we may overtake them."
    Otho had switched into the high-speed vibration drive. The generators of the Comet were shaking the ship with their quivering drone. The little craft was now being hurled forward at a speed far in excess of that of light, by the powerful propulsion waves it jetted back.
    Curt tensely scanned the vault ahead. They were flying almost due west into the great pack of clustered suns. Had they been young, living stars, it would have been a blaze of glory. But as it was the scene was depressingly somber with its vista of smoldering, old red stars and frigid worlds, and cold black embers of wholly dead suns.
    Captain Future swept the void with the powerful telescopes of the control-room equipment but saw nothing of the Cold One raiders. It became apparent that they were too late now to overtake the enemy force.
    "What'll we do, Chief?" Otho asked anxiously. "We can't very well search this whole wilderness of suns and worlds."
    Curt turned to Gerdek and his sister.
    "Tell me, what's the most desolate and least-visited section of this cluster?"
    Gerdek pointed a little to the right, where there was a region at the edge of the cluster composed completely of dead stars.
    "That dead region there," he answered. "We Tarasts abandoned it years ago, for its worlds are too cold now even for our domed cities."
    "Then head for that sector, Otho," ordered Captain Future. "It seems the most logical region for an advanced base of the Cold Ones. If their base is there, we may be able to pick up the trail."
    As the Comet flew on a changed course toward the dark sector in question, little Eek pressed forward against the control-room window with pitiable eagerness. The moon-pup seemed to sense they were hunting Grag.
    Otho swore to himself as he looked at the somber, lifeless vista of dead suns ahead.
    "Only a bunch of