Read Captain Future 09 - Quest Beyond the Stars (Winter 1942) for Free Online

— it’s the nearest world!”
    The violence of the currents was less now that they were outside the cloud. Curt was able to steer toward the cinder-like dark star by means of the throbbing rockets. Limping on, the Comet approached the burned-out sun. A quick telescopic inspection showed that its two small planets were ice-sheathed.
    “We’ll need terbium for repairs and it’ll be hard to get on those icy little worlds,” Curt decided. “We’d better land on the dead sun itself and see if we can find any there.”
    Somber, black, desolate in death, loomed the burned-out star as they approached for a landing. In the starlight stretched cindery plains that rose to low hills of ashen drabness. There was a thin atmosphere of gaseous elements that remained after the solidification of the cooling star.
    Curt brought the Comet to a landing on one of the desolate plains. He exhaled a long breath as he turned off the rockets. It was the first landing they had made since leaving the Moon in their own System, far across the universe.
    “The air is breathable,” reported the Brain, from his check of the atmosphere tester, “but has a high percentage of inert gases.”
    They emerged from the ship and tramped cindery ashes underfoot as they moved aft to view the damage.
    As Captain Future had guessed, the terbium drive-ring had been snapped when the hull was warped by impact of currents. Half of the ring was now missing.
    “We can soon repair the drive ring,” he declared, eyeing the damage, “if we find terbium on this dark star. But terbium is an unlikely element on a dead sun like this —”
    He had turned to wave across the starlit, deathly plain as he spoke, but suddenly stiffened, his voice dying away. Unbelievingly, Curt stared. From Otho came a gasp.
    “Gods of space, what are they?”
    Across the dim, ashen plain, a group of incredible figures advanced toward them.
     

     
Chapter 5: Castaways of the Stars
     
    THE grotesque creatures approaching them bore a dim resemblance to humanity. In the starlit distance, they looked like stooping, shambling men with stocky bodies and preternaturally long arms. Then Captain Future’s keen eyes apprehended their full strangeness.
    These were not men. Their bodies, even the hairless heads, were of gray, mineraline substance resembling asbestos. Their arms each ended, not in a fingered hand, but in a great curved claw like that of a pick. And their faces were flat and unhuman, with huge-pupiled shining eyes and wide mouths equipped with enormous grinding-fangs.
    “I can’t be seeing these things for I haven’t been drinking!” gasped Otho. “Last time I saw anything like these was when I had too many radium highballs that night on Uranus.”
    “They look as though they may have been human once,” Curt muttered. “But look at that one!”
    He was calling attention to the peculiar action of one of the mineral-men. The group of creatures was steadily approaching the Comet, their blank, shining eyes fixed upon the Futuremen. But one of the gray mineral-men had stopped and with a quick motion, had used his claw-like “hand” to dig out a chunk of gleaming ore from the cindery plain. The creature thrust it into his mouth, ground it between his massive teeth, swallowed the pulverized rock and came on with the others.
    “Good Lord, they eat rock, just like Eek!” yelped Otho. “Let me out of here! I don’t crave to tangle with guys who chew up a nice piece of iron ore for breakfast.”
    The Brain’s rasping voice came, coolly interested.
    “Obviously, these creatures can ingest their food-elements in the rawest forms. They’re an extreme instance of adaptation to an unusual habitat.”
    “They’re a lot of nightmares!” Grag declared. “I don’t like the way they’re coming on.”
    The mineral-men were now advancing in a rapid, shuffling trot, low humming cries came from their throats, and that the Comet and the Futuremen were the object of their advance could