The Affair of the Brains Read online

  Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  Transcriber's Note: This e-text was produced from Astounding Stories,March, 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that theU.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

  "I do not know you for a liar.... I will enter."]

  The Affair of the Brains

  _A Complete Novelette_

  By Anthony Gilmore

  CHAPTER I

  _Off to the Rendezvous_

  Hawk Carse himself goes to keep Judd the Kite'srendezvous with the sinister genius Ku Sui.]

  Though it is seldom nowadays that Earthmen hear mention of Hawk Carse,there are still places in the universe where his name retains all itsold magic. These are the lonely outposts of the farthest planets, andhere when the outlanders gather to yarn the idle hours away their talesconjure up from the past that raw, lusty period before the patrol-shipscame, and the slender adventurer, gray-eyed and with queer bangs of hairobscuring his forehead, whose steely will, phenomenal ray-gun draw andreckless space-ship maneuverings combined to make him the period's mostcolorful figure. These qualities of his live again in the outlanders'reminiscences and also of course his score of blood-feuds and the onegreat feud that shook whole worlds in its final terrible settling--thefeud of Hawk Carse and Dr. Ku Sui.

  Again and again the paths of the adventurer and the sinister, brilliantEurasian crossed, and each crossing makes a rich tale. Time after timeKu Sui, through his several bands of space-pirates, his individualagents and his ambitious web of power insidiously weaving over theuniverse, whipped his tentacles after the Hawk, and always the tentaclescoiled back, repulsed and bloody. An almost typical episode is in theaffair which followed what has been called the Exploit of the Hawk andthe Kite.

  It will be remembered--as related in "Hawk Carse"[1]--that Dr. Ku laid amost ingenious trap for Carse on the latter's ranch on Iapetus, eighthsatellite of Saturn. Judd the Kite, pirate and scavenger, was theEurasian's tool in this plot, which started with a raid on the ranch.The fracas which followed the Hawk's escape from the trap was bloody andgrim enough, and resulted in the erasure of Judd and all his men saveone; but the important thing to the following affair was that Judd'sship, the Scorpion, fell into Carse's hands with one prisoner and theship's log, containing the space coordinates for a prearrangedassignation of Judd with Ku Sui.

  [1] See the November, 1931, issue of Astounding Stories.

  All other projects were postponed by the Hawk at this opportunity tomeet Dr. Ku face to face. The trail of the Eurasian was the guidingtrail of his life, and swiftly he moved along it.

  There was work to be done before he could set out. Three men had emergedalive from the clash between the Hawk and the Kite: Carse himself,Friday, his gigantic negro companion in adventure, and a beardedhalf-caste called Sako, sole survivor of Judd's crew. Aided sullenly bythis man, they first cleaned up the ravaged ranch, burying the bodiesof the dead, repairing fences and generally bringing order out ofconfusion. Then, under Carse's instructions, Friday and the captivebrigand tooled the adventurer's own ship, the _Star Devil_, well intothe near-by jungle, while the Hawk returned to the _Scorpion_.

  He went into her control cabin, opened her log book and once morescanned what interested him there. The notation ran:

  "E.D. (Earth Date) 16 January, E.T. (Earth Time) 2:40 P.M. Meeting ordered by Ku Sui, for purpose of delivering the skeleton and clothing of Carse to him, at N.S. (New System) X-33.7; Y-241.3; Z-92.8 on E.D. 24 January, E.T. 10:20 P.M. Note: the ship is to stand by at complete stop, the radio's receiver open to Ku Sui's private wave (D37, X1293, R3) for further instructions."

  He mulled over it, slowly stroking his flaxen bangs. It was a chance,and a good one. Judd's ship would keep that rendezvous, but it wouldsheathe the talons of the Hawk. This time a trap would be laid for KuSui.

  * * * * *

  The plan was simple enough, on the face of it, but the Eurasian was amaster of cunning as well as a master of science, and high perilattended any matching of wits with him. Carse closed the log, his facebleak, his mind made up. A shuffle of feet brought his gaze up to theport-lock entrance.

  Friday, stripped to shorts, a sweat-glistening ebony giant, stood there.Shaking the drops of steaming perspiration from his face, he reported:

  "All finished, suh--got the _Star Devil_ in the jungle where you said tohide her. An' now what? You still figurin' on keepin' that date with Dr.Ku in this ship?"

  Carse nodded, absently.

  "Then where'll we pick up a crew, suh? Porno? It's the nearest port, Ireckon."

  "I'm not taking any crew, Eclipse."

  Friday gaped in surprise at his master, then found words:

  "No crew, suh? Against Ku Sui? We'll be throwin' our lives----"

  "I've lost enough men in the last two days," Carse cut in shortly. "Andthis meeting with Dr. Ku is a highly personal affair. You and I and Sakocan run the ship; we've got to." One of the man's rare smiles relaxedhis face. "Of course," he murmured, "I'm risking your life, Eclipse.Perhaps I'd better leave you somewhere?"

  "Say!" bellowed the negro indignantly.

  The Hawk's smile broadened at the spontaneous exclamation of loyalty.

  "Very well, then," he said. "Now send Sako to me, and prepare ship forcasting off."

  But as Friday went aft on a final thorough inspection of all mechanisms,he muttered over and over, "Two of us--against Ku Sui! Two of us!" andhe was still very much disturbed when, after Carse had had a few crispwords with the captive Sako, telling him that he would be free butwatched and that it would be wise if he confined himself to his duties,the order came through to the engine room:

  "Break ground!"

  Gently the brigand ship _Scorpion_ stirred. Then, in response to thedelicate incline of her space-stick, she lifted sweetly from the crustof Iapetus and at ever-increasing speed burned through the satellite'satmosphere toward the limitless dark leagues beyond.

  The Hawk was on the trail!

  * * * * *

  Carse took the first watch himself. Except for occasional glances at thebanks of instruments, the screens and celestial charts, he spent histime in deep thought, turning over in his mind the several variations ofsituation his dangerous rendezvous might take.

  First, how would Ku Sui contact the _Scorpion_? Any of three ways, hereasoned: come aboard from his own craft accompanied by some of his men;stay behind and send some men over to receive the remains of theHawk--for either of which variations he was prepared; or, a third, andmore dangerous, direct that the remains of Carse be brought over to hisship, without showing himself or any of his crew.

  Whatever variations their contacting took, there was anotherconsideration, Carse's celestial charts revealed, and that was theproximity of the rendezvous to Jupiter's Satellite III, less than threehundred thousand miles. Satellite III harbored Port o' Porno, mainrefuge and home of the scavengers, the hi-jackers, and out-and-outpirates of space, so many of whom were under Ku Sui's thumb. Severalbrigand ships were sure to be somewhere in the vicinity, and one mighteasily intrude, destroying the hairbreadth balance in Carse's favor....

  There was peril on every side. The Hawk considered that it would be wiseto make provision against the odds proving too great. So, his gray eyesreflective, he strode to the _Scorpion's_ radio panel and a moment laterwas saying over and over in a toneless voice:

  "XX-1 calling XX-2--XX-1 calling XX-2--XX-1 calling XX-2...."

  * * * * *

  After a full two minutes there was still no answer from the loudspeaker.He kept calling: "XX-1 c
alling XX-2--XX-1 calling XX-2--XX-1calling----"

  He broke off as words in English came softly from the loudspeaker:

  "XX-2 answering XX-1. Do you hear me?"

  "Yes. Give me protected connection. Highly important no outsideroverhears."

  "All right," the gentle voice answered. "Protected. Go ahead, old man."

  The Hawk relaxed and his face softened. "How are you, Eliot?" he askedalmost tenderly.

  "Just fine, Carse," came in the clear, cultured voice of MasterScientist Eliot Leithgow, probably the greatest scientific mind in thesolar system, Ku Sui being the only possible exception. He spoke nowfrom his secret laboratory on Jupiter's Satellite III, near Porno, thistranscendent genius who, with Friday, was one of Carse's two trustedcomrades-in-arms. "I've been expecting you," he went on. "Has somethinghappened?"

  "I'm concerned with Ku Sui again," the Hawk told him swiftly. "Pleaseexcuse me; I have to be brief. I can't take any chances of his hearingany of this." He related the events of the last two days: Judd's attackon the Iapetus ranch, the subsequent fight and outcome, and finally hispresent position and intention of keeping the rendezvous. "The odds arepretty heavily against me, M. S.," he went on. "It would be stupid notto admit that I may not come out of this affair alive--and that's whyI'm calling. My affairs, of course, are in your hands. You know where mystorerooms and papers are. Sell my trading posts and ranches; Hartz ofNewark-on-Venus is the best man to deal through. But I'd advise you tokeep for yourself that information on the Pool of Radium. Look into itsometime. I'm in Judd's ship, the _Scorpion_; our _Star Devil's_ onIapetus, hidden in the jungle near the ranch. That's all, I think."

  "Carse, I should be with you!"

  "No, M. S.--couldn't risk it. You're too valuable a man. But don'tworry, you know my luck. I'll very likely be down to see you after thismeeting, and perhaps with a visitor who will enable you once again toreturn to an honorable position on Earth. Where will you be?"

  "In eight Earth days? Let's make it Porno, at the house you know. I'llcome in for some supplies and wait for you."

  "Good," the Hawk said shortly. "Good-by, M. S."

  He paused, his hand on the switch. There came a parting wish:

  "Good luck, old fellow. Get him! _Get him!_"

  The Master Scientist's voice trembled at the end. Through Ku Sui he hadlost honor, position, home--all good things a man on Earth may have;through Ku Sui he, the gentlest of men, was regarded by Earthlings as ablack murderer and there was a price on his head. Hawk Carse did notmiss the trembling in his voice. As he switched off, the adventurer'seyes went bleak as the loneliest deeps of space....