Captain Future 23 - The Harpers of Titan (September 1950) by Edmond Hamilton

Grag boomed to Curt. “Had not Simon Wright used the view-scope to locate you, when we missed you, you might now be dead. You go back now to Simon for punishment.”
    A very silent and chastened boy entered the Moon-laboratory with his two guardians.
    “I am ready to be punished, Simon,” he said in a subdued voice.
    “There will be no punishment,” the Brain said metallically. “Sit down, Curtis.”
     
    THE REVELATION
    Astonished, the boy seated himself. “The time has come,” said the Brain slowly, “when you must be told who you are and how you came here on this lonely Moon with us three.”
    “Those men said something about a Newton who had discovered great scientific secrets!” Curt interrupted eagerly. “Was that my father?”
    “That was your father,” answered Simon solemnly. “He and your mother died long ago — soon after you were born. Listen, and you shall hear how they died.”
    The metallic voice rasped on, telling the story of that long-dead day when Roger Newton and his young wife had met their deaths at the hands of covetous men.
    And as the tale went on, young Curt Newton’s boyish face became strained and strange.
    “So you see,” concluded the Brain, “that there are many evil men in the System who still would kill you for the secrets in this laboratory. That is why we have not let you go forth yet among other men. You are not yet able to cope with the deadly enemies you would meet.”
    The boy slowly nodded his red head. “I understand, Simon. But I still want to go, out there among the other worlds. I can go some day, can’t I?”
    “Yes, lad,” answered the Brain thoughtfully. “Someday you can go, someday you will know all those worlds. And I think that all the world will know you someday —”
    That was the first meeting with other men of the boy whom the System was one day to know as Captain Future.
     

 
    How Curt Newton Became Captain Future
    From the Summer 1942 issue of Captain Future
     
    The World’s Greatest Space-Farer Begins His Trail of Adventure When He Battles for Justice on Pluto!
     
    UPON the icy surface of the Arctic planet Pluto, there gleamed a big glassite dome like a bubble of warm light. This was the small Earthman trading-town that was the one outpost of Earth on the frontier planet. For this was in the wild, early years before the bigger domed cities to come had yet been built. Across the blizzard-swept ice-fields of the bitter planet, a small group of native Plutonians trudged toward the Earthman trading town.
    These natives of Pluto, towering men whose bodies were completely covered with long black hair and whose eyes were huge-pupiled ones of odd expression, hauled with them several sledges piled high with the furs they regularly brought to exchange with the Earthman traders.
     
    THE YOUNG EARTHMEN
    With the Plutonians marched an oddly dissimilar figure — a young Earthman, hardly more than a youth.
    He wore a heavy felt cold-suit that could not keep out all the bitter chill of the screaming wind and snow. Yet his youthful, handsome face and clear gray eyes were vivid with excited interest.
    “What do you get in exchange for the furs, Oraq?” he asked the towering Plutonian leader beside him, speaking the latter’s tongue fluently.
    Oraq answered gloomily. “We get little enough, these days. The first Earthman traders were fair, but now they cheat us.”
    Curt Newton — for the Earth youth was he — looked incredulous. “You must be wrong, Oraq. Earthmen wouldn’t cheat you.”
     
    FIRST VISIT TO PLUTO
    Curt Newton was eighteen years old. And this was his first visit to Pluto.
    This was the last stop upon a voyage that had taken him and his three stranger tutors and guardians out through the whole System. This exhaustive tour of the System had been designed by the Brain as the conclusion of Curt’s unparalleled education.
    Unparalleled had been Curt’s education, indeed! For eighteen years, he had lived upon Earth’s Moon where he