Captain Future 22 - Children of the Sun (May 1950) Read Online Free Page A

Captain Future 22 - Children of the Sun (May 1950)
Book: Captain Future 22 - Children of the Sun (May 1950) Read Online Free
Author: Edmond Hamilton
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
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inescapable.
    There was more in that record than mere scientific data. There were history and hope and terror and a great dream and a conclusion so staggering that the mind reeled before it — a conclusion that brought in itself a dreadful punishment.
    Or was it, after all, a punishment?
    Curt Newton flung the book from him. He leaped up and found that he was trembling in every limb, his body bathed in sweat. “It’s ghastly, Simon!” he cried. “Why would they have let such an experiment go forward?”
    Simon’s lens-like eyes regarded him calmly. “No knowledge can be wrong in itself — only in its application. And the men of the Old Empire did forbid the use of this apparatus when they learned its effect. Carlin quotes here the inscription he found in the ruined city that so states. Also he mentions that he himself broke the seals on the great door.”
    “The fool,” whispered Newton. “The crazy fool!” He glanced at the twin sets of glowing coils and then upward at the dome.
    “He changed and went out along the Beam. And the natives, horrified by what he had done, caused the landslide to seal this place.”
    “But Carlin did not come back,” said the Brain.
    “No,” said Newton, broodingly. “No, he didn’t. Perhaps for some reason he couldn’t.”
    The android’s bright eyes were watching him. “What was it that Carlin changed into, Curt?”
    Curt Newton turned and said slowly, “It’s an almost unbelievable story. Yet Carlin notes every source, here and in the ruined city.”
    He paused as though trying to shape what he had learned into simpler terms.
    “In the days of the Old Empire the Vulcanian scientists had a predominant interest in the Sun. In fact it appears that Vulcan was first settled as an outpost for the study of solar physics. And somewhere, in the course of those centuries-long researches into the life of the Sun, one man discovered a method of converting the ordinary matter of the human body into something resembling solar energy — a cohesive pattern of living force able to come and go at will into the very heart of the Sun.
    “This was not destruction, you understand — merely conversion of a matter-pattern into an analogous functioning energy-pattern. By reversing the field the changed matter could be returned to its original form. And, since the mental and sensory centers remained functioning in the altered pattern, thought and perception remained intact though different.
    “Never before had there been such a possibility of uncovering the inmost secrets of solar life — and the study of suns was vital to a transgalactic civilization. The scientists entered the conversion field and became — Children of the Sun.”
    Otho caught his breath with a sharp hissing sound.
    “So that’s the meaning of the inscription — and the legend! Do you mean that those little wisps of flames we saw were once men?”
    Newton did not answer, looking away at the tall golden coils that seemed to pulse with the Sun’s own light. But the Brain spoke dryly.
    “Curtis did not tell you quite all. The lure of the strange life in the Sun proved too much for many of the men who were changed. They did not come back. And therefore the use of the converters was forbidden and this laboratory was sealed — until Carlin came and opened it again.”
    “And now he’s out there,” said Captain Future as though to himself. “Carlin changed and went out there, and then couldn’t get back.” He swung around suddenly to face them. His tanned face was set. “And I’m going after him,” he said. “I’m going to bring him back.”
     
    OTHO cried out, “No! Curt, you’re mad! You can’t do such a thing!”
    “Carlin did.”
    “Yes, and maybe he’s dead or worse!” The android caught Newton’s arm. He pleaded, “Even if you went after him, how could you find him? And if you did, suppose you found that you couldn’t get back either? These machines are ancient and might fail.”
    “For
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