Free Captain Future 11 - The Comet Kings (Summer 1942) by Edmond Hamilton

System, if warning was needed. So I pretended that I wanted to become a Cometae and live a deathless electric life. But I’ve found out so little!
    “I was in an induced mental amnesia when I was taken to the citadel of the Alius and made a Cometae, so I remember nothing about them. And I’ve never seen any Alius since. I’m certain that only Querdel, Thoryx and a few others have really seen the Alius. And they themselves are in deadly fear of the dark masters!”
    “But Joan, even if you’d found out anything, you couldn’t have escaped from here to give warning!” Curt exclaimed. “You couldn’t have lived outside the comet, now that your body feeds on the coma’s electric radiance.”
    “I knew that, Curt. But I thought that if I could get away in a ship, my ship would be found and my written warning read — even if I died,” she answered simply.
    Curt Newton felt a lump in his throat as he contemplated the girl’s matter-of-fact heroism. He took a step closer toward her.
    “Joan —”
    “Stay back, Curt!” Her warning was a sob. “You can’t touch me now, or ever again. I’m a Cometae!”
    Captain Future felt a tumult of emotions such as he had never experienced before.
    “Joan, I’m going to get you out of this terrible electric existence, no matter what else I do!” he vowed fiercely. “You and all these Cometae, after our revolt succeeds!”
    By now the other prisoners in the rows of cells had been released. Tiko Thrin, the little Martian scientist, and Ezra Gurney were hastening toward Captain Future. After them came the other captives of the vanished spaceships — Plutonians, Earthmen, Venusians — a bewildered, heterogeneous crew.
     
    ZARN spoke a warning to Curt Newton. “We mustn’t delay here any longer. The Lightning Feast will have begun by now. Our people are waiting!”
    “Tiko Thrin, you keep Eek and Oog safe for us here!” cried Grag.
    “Joan, you stay here with Tiko also,” Curt told the girl authoritatively. “No, I won’t have you with us! We’ll be back, never fear.”
    “Oh, Curt — be careful!” she cried.
    “It’s not Thoryx or the guards I’m afraid of, but Querdel and his evil link with the Alius.”
    Curt had grabbed up one of the dielectric swords, and Otho and Ezra and the other released captives were similarly arming themselves.
    “This way!” rumbled the deep voice of Aggar.
    The hulking Cometae captain led them through the corridors of the prison building, toward another entrance than that which opened onto the plaza.
    “Fiends of Pluto!” gasped old Ezra Gurney, hastening beside Captain Future. “This, is the queerest bunch I ever went into a fight with!”
    Curt realized the strange spectacle he and his companions must present; the two radiant, electric forms of Zarn and Aggar leading, he and Ezra just behind them, the Brain gliding at their side, with lithe Otho and ponderous Grag following closely.
    Behind them in turn came the fierce-eyed, newly released Venusians, Earthmen and other captives, followed by the score of Cometae, vanguard of the rebels who had joined forces with Zarn and Aggar.
    All had swords for weapons. All were grimly tense as they emerged from the building into a narrow street at the rear of the towering prison. Aggar led the way along it, in a rapid trot.
    They met no one. The city Mloon seemed deserted beneath the flaring coma-sky. It was well into the sleep-period, and most of the city of the Cometae was wrapped in slumber.
    “We’re circling around the plaza to approach the palace from the rear,” Zarn told Captain Future as they hurried along. “Our comrades were to meet us there at this hour.”
    From a branching street of the alabaster city, a solid mass of armed Cometae poured out to join them a few moments later. As they hastened on, other bands of the Cometae were coming in from side streets.
    Aggar’s secret organization of rebels was functioning well. By the time they approached the network of narrow