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

"You did not believe my warning, people of the nine "If it is, then Doctor Zarro is the only one who can
worlds," Doctor Zarro thundered. "you chose to believe save us from the dark star! He was the one who told us
your stupid 'scientists' instead. But now you shall see about it when our scientists denied even its existence тАУ"
for yourself. The dark star approaching is now grown The bald miner shook his head. Like all modern
so large that it can be seen in small telescopes. people, he had always had complete faith in the scien-
"Look for yourselves to the position in space I men- tists of the System. That faith was still unshaken, even
tioned, and you will see that monster dead sun that is though Doctor Zarro had proved the scientists wrong
coming nearer to us each fateful minute. Look тАУ and once.
see for yourselves whether your 'scientists' or Doctor "I still take our scientists' word against this mysteri-
Zarro was right." ous Doctor Zarro's," he declared stubbornly. "They'd
The figure of Doctor Zarro vanished from the televi- tell us if there was any real danger тАУ"
sor, leaving the gathered miners and engineers gasping. This particular Earthman might persist in his faith.
"Another fake warning!" cried the bald Earthman. Others, in various quarters of the System, were losing it
"I wonder," muttered the little Mercurian engineer. rapidly.
He turned to a younger Mercurian. "Atho, you have a "There is danger! Terrible danger to the whole Sys-
small telescope, haven't you? Get it and set it up тАУ we'll tem! And only Doctor Zarro can avert it!"
see for ourselves." The speaker was an Earthman colonist of Saturn, a
Presently, in the dark street of the metal Mercurian deeply-tanned man of forty whose face could not con-
city, they were crowded around the small electro-tele- ceal his deep-seated worry.
scope that was pointed toward a spot in the constella- His wife and family and a few friends were gathered
tion Sagittarius. with him in his ranchhouse living room. Outside in the
"There is something there!" the young Mercurian night stretched the vast plains of Saturn, with lanky Sat-
cried. "I can see it!" urnians riding to and fro on their grotesque steeds in the
One by one, they stared through the eyepiece. They light of the brilliant moons, herding the queer planetary
saw a tiny disk of darkness out there in the Milky Way. cattle.
"It's a dark star, all right," muttered the little engi- "The dark star exists тАУ the scientists can't dispute
neer. "And it must be of great size, to present a visible that тАУ and it's coming on toward the System at terrible
disk far outside the System." speed, judging from the way its visible size increases,"
the rancher continued earnestly. "If it isn't turned aside

T HE motley interplanetary group of men looked at somehow it will wreck the whole System. And Doctor
each other. A chill of doubt had settled on them. Zarro's the only one who can possibly turn it aside."
"If a dark star is rushing toward the System, it will "How do you know that even Doctor Zarro can do
wreck the nine worlds as Doctor Zarro warns!" cried a that?" demanded a Colonial Office clerk skeptically.
wide-eyed Venusian. "Maybe we ought to give him the "I don't know, but who could do it if he can't? He
System-wide authority he asks for." discovered the approaching dark star long before the
"Aw, I still don't believe it," declared the bald Earth- scientists could even see it. Hence, he must have pow-
man miner. "Let's see what the Government has to say ers greater than any known to our science. I say: give
on it." him the System-wide power he asks, and let him do
They crowded back to the televisor in the drinking what he can."

2
 Edmond Hamilton тАУ CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE

"It means setting him up as a dictator over the whole it the statements of this Doctor Zarro, but to have faith
System," pointed out a neighbor Earthman rancher. that there is no danger тАУ"
"It's better to have a temporary dictator than to see "Have faith?" cried the rancher of Saturn. "How can
the nine worlds wrecked by a catastrophe!" we have faith in the scientists' assurance that there's no
The Earthman voiced what more and more people in danger, when they've fled to save themselves? There is
the System were thinking. The scientists had been danger тАУ and Doctor Zarro is the only chance we have