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

massive shoulders sagged. He seemed suddenly shrunken, looking all his age, again avoiding her gaze.
    “They went too far, Joan,” he muttered. “They tried to burst barriers no one could get through, in that attempt to reach Andromeda galaxy. We ought never to have let ‘em go.”
    “I tried to stop them!” cried the girl. “But you know yourself how little chance I had!”
    Little chance, indeed! Captain Future and Simon Wright, the Brain, had been too eager to solve the secret of humanity’s galactic past.
    They had, for years, been penetrating deeper and deeper into that past, had uncovered the story of the Old Empire, the great human civilization that had ruled the stars a million years ago. They had even learned dimly of the pre-human races before that, the legendary Linids and the others.
    Curt Newton and the Brain had been afire to learn the rest of the story. They had discovered that the first humans of the Old Empire had come from Andromeda galaxy. It had been inevitable that they would try to go there, to track down that cosmic secret of human origins.
    “But no danger they might meet, even out there, could be great enough to overwhelm the Futuremen!” Joan cried.
    The old marshal spoke heavily. “The Futuremen were only mortal, Joan.”
    He looked up at her now, and his face was gray and sick.
    “We might as well face it. We might as well quit feeding ourselves false hopes. If they were coming back, they’d have come by now.”
    The girl stared at him, stricken. The old space veteran looked at her, and the pity in his eyes was hard to bear.
    “You think so too, Joan. You know you do.”
    The life seemed to go out of her face. “Yes,” she whispered dully. She turned and pressed her throbbing forehead against the cold window.
    “Yes, I do. The System has lost him. And I’ve lost him.”
    She felt his rough paw on her shoulder. “You never had him, Joan. No one ever did — not a man like Curt Newton, who was raised by a brain and a robot and an android, who never quite belonged to us others.”
    “I know,” she whispered. “But I couldn’t help thinking that someday —”
    She stopped, and did not speak again for a time. The Moon rose white and cold in the dark sky. She watched it, and presently she said:
    “So now they’re going to take the last of him. His birthplace, his home — the work he did, the things that he and the others put all their minds and hopes into, to help mankind. There won’t be even a memory of him left.”
    Ezra said awkwardly, “Try not to look at it that way. They have to do it, Joan. The things in that Moon-laboratory are too dangerous to take chances with. Criminals have tried many times to get through the barriers and steal the Futuremen’s secrets. One of them might do it. And the knowledge sealed up there should be used, not lost.”
    Joan nodded. “I suppose so.” She frowned suddenly. “Secrets? Ezra, there are things there that Curt wouldn’t want anyone, not even the Government, to have. Things that wouldn’t be safe for even the top scientists to experiment with. We can’t let him down on that much, at least!”
    Ezra looked at her sharply. “You’re right, Joan. I remember some of the things he showed us, and some that he only hinted at.”
    He thought hard for a few moments, pondering the numerous angles involved. Finally he said:
    “Yes. We’ve got enough time. Not much, but enough if we hurry.”
     
    QUITE suddenly, Joan and Ezra looked almost themselves again. There was something to do, definite action to relieve their minds of the quiet brooding that was so hard to endure.
    “We’ll get the things out of the Moon-laboratory,” Joan said. “We’ll hide them, where they’ll be safe. And then, if ever —” She stopped short and then went on again, lamely, “If ever it’s safe to give those secrets, we’ll know where they are.”
    “Curt would want us to do that,” Gurney said. He grinned and turned to the door. “We’ll be