"Edmond Hamilton - Calling Captain Future" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

had vanished.
"It's my fault," Curt Newton said, his tanned face
Doctor Zarro self-accusing. "I knew from the currents that we were
getting near the Sargasso. But I thought I could escape
The Comet suddenly became a real comet! Captain it and shake off pursuit."
Future had long ago devised this perfect method of "You were wonderful to get us out of that ship!"
camouflage for his craft. It was achieved by projecting Joan cried loyally to the red-haired scientific wizard.
a dense discharge of glowing ions from the rocket- "And you'll get us out of the Sargasso тАУ I know you
tubes. That cloud of electrified atoms, clinging around will."
the ship and trailing behind it in space, made the Comet "What is this Sargasso of Space you're talking
to all appearances live up to its name. about?" Kansu Kane demanded. "I'm no space-sailor тАУ I
The camouflaged ship rushed on. As the hours never heard of it."
dragged by the Brain used a small telescope in the con- "You know what an ether-current is, don't you?"
trol-room to continue his scrutiny of the tiny dark spot Captain Future asked him. "Well, there are many strong
in the constellation Sagittarius. ether-currents, strange running tides in the luminiferous
"How can you think of that dark star now, when the ether itself, out in this part of the System. They all flow
chief is in danger?" Otho exclaimed to him. into a central vortex, and anything that is carried into
the vortex can't get out again, against the currents. That

S IMON glanced at the android with cold, calm lens- central vortex is the Sargasso Sea of Space."
eyes. Curt reached for the throttles. "I'll try once more to
"I am as worried about Curtis as you," he said, "but I break out of the current," he muttered. "But I'm afraid
must continue these studies of the dark star he asked me тАУ"
to make. He will need all possible data to combat Doc- He opened the throttles to the limits. It was futile.
tor Zarro's plot." The power was not enough to get them out of the re-
"He will, if he's still living," Otho said gloomily. morseless grip of the ether-current that was sweeping
"Master still lives!" boomed Grag loudly, with per- them fatally on into a dreaded, unknown region of
fect faith. "We will find him тАУ you will see." space.
Otho gloomily resumed his survey of space ahead. Captain Future shut off the rockets. "No go," be
In a moment there was a hissing cry from the android. said, shaking his red head. "Might as well save our
"Something ahead! It may be the ship we're after!" power, until we get into the central vortex. Then we'll
They saw it тАУ a big, queer-looking space ship com- see what we'll see."
ing toward them, driving nearer by the second. Joan smiled at Curt shakily. She had an unchange-
"It can't be the Legion ship, for that's going the other able confidence in him. Curt knew. He wondered
way тАУ" gloomily if that confidence was to be destroyed. For he
"It's diving on us тАУ it's going to ram us!" could see only a thin chance of escape from this strange
The strange ship ahead was swooping down into the space-trap.

20
 Edmond Hamilton тАУ CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE

"Better get some sleep," he said, and she obeyed. travel began. No ship has ever escaped here тАУ all that
Captain Future peered ahead, bis handsome, tanned blundered in are still here."
face keen and unafraid. He sensed that they were ap- He steered the space-boat straight toward the edge
proaching the central vortex of the vast maelstrom of of the vast wreck-pack. Now they could see it more
ether-currents. For the space-boat was now being rolled clearly.
over and over and bumped roughly as it was borne on. In the pack were space ships of every kind that had
Joan awoke from the motion, and rubbing her eyes, ever sailed the System. Great Jovian grain-boats,
came anxiously to bis side. There was still nothing visi- dumpy Martian freighters, streamlined liners from the
ble to the eye, yet they knew they were entering the Neptune and Uranus routes, black cruisers of the Planet