Read Captain Future 25 - Moon of the Unforgotten (January 1951) for Free Online

wolves.
    “Shall we destroy them now?” they shouted. “Shall we break the machines?”
    “No!” Curt told them. “Hold your tempers! And listen. Konnur! Where is Konnur?”
    They thrust him inward through the crowd. They had handled him roughly but even so he had not lost his dignity nor his pride. He stood waiting.
    Curt Newton spoke slowly, so that everyone should hear and understand. “This, is my proposal. There are many of the old ones who have lived so long in the Second Life of memory that without it they would die — and the secret itself is too valuable to be lost.
    “Therefore I offer this solution — that the machines shall be removed to one of the small uninhabited moons of this system and that those who wish to shall go with them. It would be a sort of quarantine, under the authority of the Planet Police, and the Second Life would be gone forever from Europa. Does that meet with your approval?”
    He looked at Konnur, who had no choice and knew it, but who did not care as long as his beloved dream was safe.
    “It is well,” he said. “Better than I had hoped.”
    “And you,” demanded Curt of the young Europans, “what is your word?”
    They had many words among themselves. They shook their fists and argued, hungry for destruction, but at the last the young man who had come with Curt and Otho from the city stepped forward and said, “As long as the Second Life goes forever from this world we will not oppose you.” He paused, then added, “We owe you that much. If it had not been for you we would never have broken free.”
    Curt felt a great relief, greater than he should have had for the mere saving of a bit of antique science. Again he avoided Otho’s gaze and even more the cold penetrating glance of Simon Wright’s lens-eyes.
    He said to Konnur, “It is done then. Waken the sleepers and let them have time to think and choose. I will see that the arrangements are made to trans-ship and settle all those who wish to go.”
    He took Ezra by the arm, shaking him from the reverie into which he had sunk again. “Come on,” he said. “We’re finished here for good.”
     
    * * *
     
    They were walking across the spaceport, the six of them, the Futuremen and Joan and Ezra, heading for the ships under the red glow of Jupiter. And Simon Wright said something that had been on his mind to say these days during which Curt had labored to finish the removal of willing exiles to a remote and barren moon.
    “Was it out of pity for them, Curtis — or did you wish to live the Second Life again yourself some day?”
    Curt answered slowly.
    “I’m not sure. It’s too dangerous a thing to meddle with overmuch and yet — much knowledge could be gained that way. If a man could be sure of himself, of his own mind...”
    He shook his head and Simon said dryly, “The last thing a man is ever sure of is the strength of his own mind.”
    Otho looked up at Grag.
    “But you really ought to try it some time, Grag.”
    “The Second Life?” rumbled Grag. “Why, now, come to think of it maybe I should.”
    “Certainly,” Otho told him. “It would be a fascinating experience to learn how your ancestral pig-iron felt in the forge.”
    Grag turned on him. “Listen, android —”
    Curt’s voice cut them short and their step quickened as they went on toward the ships.
    But Ezra walked last, slowly, the shadow still on his lined old face as he looked back — back to the remembered past, the bright lost days, the forever unforgotten.
     
    THE END
     

Meet the Futuremen!
     
    In this department, which is a regular feature of CAPTAIN FUTURE, we acquaint you further with the companions of CAPTAIN FUTURE whom you have met in our complete book-length novels. Here you are told the off-the-record stories of their lives and anecdotes plucked from their careers. Follow this department closely, for it contains many interesting and fascinating facts to supplement those you read in our featured novels.
     

 
    The Birth