Captain Future 22 - Children of the Sun (May 1950) by Edmond Hamilton Page A
Authors: Edmond Hamilton
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
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device that can detect a recent rocket-trail of a ship in space, by the faint trail of ions always left in a rocket-discharge.
The two space chairs that flank the pilot’s chair in the control room of the Comet are so mounted that their occupants can handle the two proton guns of heavy caliber which project through the walls of the ship. These weapons fire a flash of energy of unequaled range and intensity.
The main cabin of the Comet is not built for comfort. Two folding bunks in one corner are the only sleeping provisions. For neither the Brain nor Grag require any sleep, and Otho doesn’t need much. Food and other perishable articles are carried in a cold-storage compartment sealed off from the rest of the cabin, and open to the bitter cold of space.
Everything in the cabin is subordinated to scientific requirements. In one corner is the powerful main televisor set, the compact atomic motor generators which can furnish auxiliary power for any undertaking, and the locker of atomic tools of all descriptions.
In an opposite corner is the compact astronomical observatory of the ship. There is a battery of electro-telescopes and electro-spectroscopes of high power. These instruments have their light-gathering lenses mounted outside the hull of the ship, and are controllable from inside so that they can be directed at any celestial object.
Light that falls on the lenses is transformed into electricity by a unique photoelectric cell, led in through a cable inside, and amplified and transformed back into a vastly magnified image. Adjacent to these instruments is a file of spectra of every planet, star and other body of importance, and there is also a collection of atmosphere samples from every world and moon in the System.
The chemical laboratory of the Comet is a concentrated mass of apparatus whose application has enabled the scientific wizard and his companions to perform those alchemical feats which have astounded the System. Beside it is the reference library, composed of every important reference and scientific book, reduced to micro-film form.
There is also a botanical cabinet, with specimens of rare plants and vegetable drugs from faraway planets; a surgical and biological corner with a folding operating-table and instruments that have often worked strange magic. There are other cabinets of instruments and specimens and materials too numerous to list.
QUEEN OF THE SPACEWAYS
In one side of the ship is the air-lock entrance. It is automatic. When the outer door is opened, the inner door automatically closes, if it is not already closed. Inside the little lock-chamber is a cabinet containing space-suits, impellers, and similar equipment.
The Comet has many other unique features. Its rocket-tubes, for instance, have special check-valves which make it possible for them to operate efficiently under water. Thus the Comet can be used as a submarine in case of emergency. Its cyclotrons are so designed that they use infinitely less powdered mineral fuel than is usual, and the mineral tanks beneath the deck which hold the supply are sufficient for extraordinarily long continuous operation.
The Comet has been in almost every corner of the Solar System. Strange beings in unknown depths of remote worlds have seen the tear-drop ship plunging across the sky, and people of the greatest civilized cities on the nine worlds have cried out in excitement as they glimpsed it zooming toward the stars. For, all over the System, the Comet is known and recognized, and those who see it know always that the Futuremen are out on the space-trail.
THE END
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The two space chairs that flank the pilot’s chair in the control room of the Comet are so mounted that their occupants can handle the two proton guns of heavy caliber which project through the walls of the ship. These weapons fire a flash of energy of unequaled range and intensity.
The main cabin of the Comet is not built for comfort. Two folding bunks in one corner are the only sleeping provisions. For neither the Brain nor Grag require any sleep, and Otho doesn’t need much. Food and other perishable articles are carried in a cold-storage compartment sealed off from the rest of the cabin, and open to the bitter cold of space.
Everything in the cabin is subordinated to scientific requirements. In one corner is the powerful main televisor set, the compact atomic motor generators which can furnish auxiliary power for any undertaking, and the locker of atomic tools of all descriptions.
In an opposite corner is the compact astronomical observatory of the ship. There is a battery of electro-telescopes and electro-spectroscopes of high power. These instruments have their light-gathering lenses mounted outside the hull of the ship, and are controllable from inside so that they can be directed at any celestial object.
Light that falls on the lenses is transformed into electricity by a unique photoelectric cell, led in through a cable inside, and amplified and transformed back into a vastly magnified image. Adjacent to these instruments is a file of spectra of every planet, star and other body of importance, and there is also a collection of atmosphere samples from every world and moon in the System.
The chemical laboratory of the Comet is a concentrated mass of apparatus whose application has enabled the scientific wizard and his companions to perform those alchemical feats which have astounded the System. Beside it is the reference library, composed of every important reference and scientific book, reduced to micro-film form.
There is also a botanical cabinet, with specimens of rare plants and vegetable drugs from faraway planets; a surgical and biological corner with a folding operating-table and instruments that have often worked strange magic. There are other cabinets of instruments and specimens and materials too numerous to list.
QUEEN OF THE SPACEWAYS
In one side of the ship is the air-lock entrance. It is automatic. When the outer door is opened, the inner door automatically closes, if it is not already closed. Inside the little lock-chamber is a cabinet containing space-suits, impellers, and similar equipment.
The Comet has many other unique features. Its rocket-tubes, for instance, have special check-valves which make it possible for them to operate efficiently under water. Thus the Comet can be used as a submarine in case of emergency. Its cyclotrons are so designed that they use infinitely less powdered mineral fuel than is usual, and the mineral tanks beneath the deck which hold the supply are sufficient for extraordinarily long continuous operation.
The Comet has been in almost every corner of the Solar System. Strange beings in unknown depths of remote worlds have seen the tear-drop ship plunging across the sky, and people of the greatest civilized cities on the nine worlds have cried out in excitement as they glimpsed it zooming toward the stars. For, all over the System, the Comet is known and recognized, and those who see it know always that the Futuremen are out on the space-trail.
THE END
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