Captain Future 06 - Star Trail to Glory (Spring 1941) by Edmond Hamilton Page A

stated. "Especially Rissman, who hasn't lost a single ship. He makes no secret of the fact that he'd like to crush out the others and get a monopoly."
    "Sure, I've heard talk of that all the while I’ve been on Mercury," Ezra corroborated. "They say Garson and Zamor and some of the smaller manufacturers are about forced out now. Only reason they're hangin' on, I hear, is because they're hopin' to win the Round-the-System Race, which would boost their prestige and business."
    "You say Durl Cruh started to talk about a Doctor Webster Kelso?" rasped Simon.
    Captain Future nodded his red head. "That's about the only real lead I got. You remember the story of Kelso, of course."
    "Sure, I remember, too," Ezra cut in. "The old Star Streak mutiny." Say, maybe that hooks up with these machine men who are stealin' ships."
    "That's my idea," Curt agreed. "But we'll need to dig out more information on the old Star Streak tragedy, to learn anything sure."
    "What was this Star Streak mystery?" Joan Randall asked puzzledly. "I don't remember hearing of it."
     
    "IT HAPPENED before any of us were born," Captain Future told her, "but it's still one of the great mysteries of space. Decades ago, the Star Streak sailed from Earth to establish a colony on Pluto. Head of the expedition was Doctor Webster Kelso, a brilliant physicist and engineer who possessed a number of potent scientific secrets he'd never disclosed. Kelso had built a number of semi-intelligent machines that were going to do the heavy work for him and his colonists.
    "The Star Streak sailed into space and vanished. A broken televisor message came back that indicated some sort of mutiny or disaster had hit the ship. Space was searched, but the ship was never found. And Kelso's great scientific secrets vanished with it."
    "That's the tale," commented Ezra Gurney. "It's always been supposed that Kelso's machines mutinied and seized the ship."
    "What a ghastly story!" breathed Joan. "Machines, mutinying —"
    "But they were not robots like me!" Grag exclaimed troubledly.
     
    CURT NEWTON'S bleak face softened. He laid his hand on the giant robot's shoulder.
    "No, Grag, they were not human like you."
    Grag seemed to swell with pride.
    "Lad, is it possible that these machine men who are hijacking the space ships are the same ones that Kelso made long ago?" rasped the Brain.
    "They may be," Curt admitted. "Someone may have found the Star Streak after all these years, and got hold of Kelso's intelligent machines and his lost scientific secrets. If that's so, and if we can find out who did that — " He made an impatient gesture. "But saying 'if' won't help us any. The first thing is to dig out the stereo-records of the Star Streak business and see if these machine men we're after are really the same as Kelso's machines."
    "There should be a full record of the case in the Interplanetary Library, lad," remarked Simon quickly. "Luckily we're right here on Mercury."
    Curt nodded. "You and I will go over to the library now and check on that. It won't take long. The rest of you wait here."
    Interplanetary Library occupied a square, massive metal building in a park on the west side of Solar City. This building held the archives of the whole Solar System. Scholars, historians and scientists came from every world to conduct their researches here.
    Curt Newton landed his borrowed rocket-flier in the park and strode into the massive building. He carried the Brain's square case in his hand, to avoid arousing attention. The attendants inside the entrance thought it was merely some complicated recording apparatus.
    In the main rotunda Captain Future looked around curiously. From this hushed, softly lit silvery hall radiated long corridors. Along some of them were the booths used in consulting stereo-books. Along others were the flat, narrow metal cases of the "books" themselves, stacked on endless tiers of shelves. These quiet shelves were the repository of millions of records of heroism and daring