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

not be doubted.
    “Stand by for trouble!” Curt said tersely. “I think they’re after some of the chemical elements, either in our ship or ourselves.”
    He raised his proton-pistol in a warning gesture. But the shining-eyed caricatures of humanity appeared not to comprehend the menace of the weapon. They only quickened their advance. Curt sensed the weird-ness of the scene — these gray humanoid horrors shuffling toward them across the starlit, ashen plain of the dead sun. But it was time to act. He drew aim on the foremost of the mineral-men and triggered swiftly. The thin blue beam of the proton-pistol lanced through the shoulder of the creature like a bolt of lightning. But the thing did not even flinch. It came on with the others, its two claw-like hands raised toward the Futuremen. Curt shot again, this time into the breast of the mineral-man. The creature did not stop or fall.
    “Holy sun-imps!” yelped Otho as he too shot without effect. “Their bodies are so different, they don’t even feel our beams!”
    “Back to the ship!” yelled Captain Future, now thoroughly alarmed. “We’d better get out of here.”
     
    IT WAS too late. With a final rush, the mineral-men reached them. Two of the gray horrors seized big Grag and endeavored to tear his metal body apart with their huge claws.
    Grag, bellowing furiously, balled his mighty fists and hammered his attackers with blows that would have felled a Jovian elephant. The creatures were knocked away, but they and others leaped back on the robot, bore him to the ground.
    “Pull them off Grag!” Curt yelled to Otho, springing forward.
    With indomitable courage, Captain Future seized the rough, mineraline body of one of the attackers and sought to tear him loose.
    The creature appeared not even to feel his efforts. And a moment later, great claws seized Curt from behind, and he was torn away by another of the creatures. With a yell of warning to Otho, Captain Future twisted skillfully free before those grotesque claws could rip him to shreds. But Otho was hard put to keep himself from being torn apart. The mass of the creatures still piled upon Grag, clawing at the metal body of the angry robot. At this desperate juncture, a loud cry in a human voice smote Curt Newton’s ears. He glanced in the direction from which it came, and saw two men running toward the battle over the starlit plain.
    They were men such as he had never seen before — men with brilliant crimson skins, stiff black hair and garments of black leather secured by red belts. The foremost of the pair was a giant in size, and both he and his companion brandished light metal spears tipped with a sticky, shining substance. The mineral-men uttered humming cries of alarm at sight of the two newcomers. The gray monsters hastily halted their attack on the Futuremen and started a rapid retreat.
    “Who are they?” blurted Otho bewilderedly, staring at the advancing crimson men.
    “The mineral-men seem to know and fear them,” Captain Future rejoined. “Look at that!”
    One of the gray mineral-men, more daring than his companions, turned to attack the crimson-skinned newcomers instead of fleeing. The red giant met the attacking monster with a roar of rage. The crimson man evaded the clutching claws by a quick movement and stabbed at the gray creature with his seemingly puny little spear. The point of the spear hardly more than touched the mineral-man’s breast. But that was enough. The sticky, shining substance smeared on the point of the spear acted like an inconceivably rapid poison. A spreading, shining stain crept quickly across the breast of the monster. It hummed in mingled pain and rage, tore at, its breast and then fell prone. By this time, the other mineral-men had disappeared.
    “Demons of Pluto!” swore Otho, gaping. “These crimson lads know how to deal with those gray fiends.”
    “Those monsters were trying to tear my body apart and eat it!” roared Grag furiously as he got to his