Moon of the Unforgotten - Edmond Hamilton, ebook, Temp
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12MOON of theUNFORGOTTENA Captain Future Novelet By Edmond HAMILTONCurt Newton and Otho plumb the perilous secrets of the Jovian Moon Europa--whereEzra Gurney, friend of the Futuremen, has fallen prey to a mystic cult !CHAPTER IThe Second LifeThe machines hummed and whisperedand a man's life changed. He was an oldman, with an old man's burden ofweariness and sorrow. But now that burdendropped from him and his years droppedfrom him and he was young again.He felt the hot blood burst along hisveins and the singing excitement in hisnerves, the pulse and throb of long-forgotten youth. For youth was his oncemore and once more a whole universe ofadventure lured and beckoned, far-offworlds calling and calling to him.And Ezra Gurney, he who had been old,shouted a glad young cry that was answerto that call.* * * * *A message went to Earth's Moon,flashing across the millions of emptymiles. It went by a secret wave-frequencythat only a half-dozen people knew.Back across the empty leagues of thevoid, in reply to that urgent summons,came a ship, driving hard for Europa,moon of Jupiter. There was a man in thesmall ship and one who had been a manand two who were manlike but who werenot truly human.The ship came down toward the darkside of Europa with the rush of a shootingstar and landed in the rigidly restrictedPatrol area of Europolis spaceport. Thefour came out of it and looked around inthe magnificent glow of Jupiter. Then theyheard the light running steps and the urgentvoice."Curt !" And again, with a desperategladness, "Curt, I knew you'd hurry !"Curt Newton took the girl's tenseoutstretched hands in his own. He thoughtfor a moment she was going to weep andhe spoke to her with an affectionateroughness, not giving her time to beemotional. "What's all this nonsense aboutEzra ? If anyone but you had sent thatmessage ...""Its true, Curt. He's gone. I think--Ithink he won't ever come back."Newton shook her. "Come on, Joan !Ezra ? Why, he's been up and down theSystem since before you and I were born,first in the old space-frontier days of the3Patrol and now with your Section Three.He wouldn't get himself into any jam.""He has," said Joan Randall flatly. "Andif you'll stop being comforting I have allthe data ready to show you--what there isof it."SHE led the way toward the low buildingsof Patrol headquarters. The four followedher, the tall red-haired man whom theSystem called Captain Future and his threecompanions, his lifelong friends, the threewho were closer to him even than this girland the missing Ezra Gurney--Grag, themetal giant, Otho, the lithe keen-eyedandroid, and Simon Wright, who had oncebeen a human scientist but who for half alifetime now had been divorced fromhuman form.It was the latter who spoke to Joan. Hisvoice was metallic and expressionless,issuing from the artificial resonator set inone side of his "body". That "body" was ahovering square metal case that containedall that was human of Simon Wright--hisbrilliant deathless brain."You say," said Simon, "that Ezra isgone. Where precisely did he go ?"Joan glanced at Simon, who waswatching her intently with his lens-likeeyes as he glided silently along on the paletraction beams that were his equivalent oflimbs."If I knew where I wouldn't hide it fromyou," she said with an undertone ofirritation.In the next breath she said contritely,"I'm sorry. Waiting here has got me down.There's something about Europa--it's soold and cruel and somehow patient..."Otho said wryly, "You need a doublehooker of something strong and cheering."His green slightly-tilted eyes werecompassionate beneath their habitual irony.Grag, the towering manlike giant whobore in his metal frame the strength of anarmy and an artificial intelligence equal tothe human, rumbled a question in his deepbooming voice. But Curt Newton onlyvaguely heard him. His gaze had followedJoan's out into the alien night.This was not his first visit to Europa.And he was surprised to find that Joan hadput into words exactly what he had alwaysfelt about the silent moon, the old oldmoon that was scarred so deep by time.Here, on one side, were the modernglare and thunder of the spaceport, busywith freighters and one or two sleek liners.Beyond the spaceport was Europolis, aglow of light behind a barren ridge. But onthe other side, before him and behind him,was a sadness of ancient rock and distanthills, of brooding forest hung with shadow,of great plains empty in the red glow ofJupiter, dusty wastes where no herds hadgrazed and no armies fought for a hundredthousand years.The woods and plains were scatteredwith the time-gnawed bones of cities, deadand forsaken even before the lastdescendants of their builders had sunk intofinal barbarism. A thin old wind wanderedaimlessly among the ruins, whimpering asthough it remembered other days and wept.Newton could not suppress a slightshiver. The death of any great culture is amournful thing and the culture that hadbuilt the shining cities of Europa was thegreatest ever known--the proud OldEmpire that once had held two galaxies.To Curt Newton, who had followed theshadow of that glory far back toward itssource, the very stones of these ruins spokeof cosmic tragedy, of the agelong nightthat succeeded the blazing highest noon ofhuman splendor.The functional gleaming Patrol buildingbrought his mind back to the present. Joantook them into a small office. From alocked file she drew a neat folder of papersand placed it on the desk."Ezra and I," she said, "were called intothis case some time ago. The Planet Policehad been handling it as a routine matteruntil some peculiar angles turned up thatrequired the attention of Section Three."People had been disappearing. Notonly people from Earth but other planets as4well--and nearly all of them older people.In each case when they vanished, they tookmost of their wealth with them."Planet Police discovered that all thesemissing persons without exception hadcome to Europa. And here in Europolistheir trails ended."Simon Wright asked in his tonelessvoice, "Did they leave no clue as to whythey came to this particular moon ?""A few of them did," answered Joan. "Afew of them before they left talked a littleof something called the Second Life. Thatwas all--just the name. But they seemedso eager and excited about it that it wasremembered."She continued, "Since they were nearlyall aging people it seems obvious that theSecond Life they were hoping for wassome form of rejuvenation. A form ofrejuvenation that must be illegal in natureor it wouldn't be carried on secretly."Curt nodded. "That sounds reasonableenough. 'The Second Life'--the term is anew one to me. However, Jupiter and itsmoons retained the civilization andscience of the Old Empire long after theother planets had relapsed into barbarism.To this day odd scraps of that ancientwisdom keep rising to plague us.""Quite," said Simon dryly. "You willrecall the case of Kenneth Lester, also thatof the Martian, Ul Quorn. Europa inparticular has always had a reputation inthe System as a repository of knowledgethat has been lost elsewhere. It's aninteresting problem. It occurs to me--"JOAN cut him short, genuinely angrynow. "Are you and Curt going to start onthat archaeological obsession of yours at atime like this ? Ezra may be dead or dying!"Captain Future said, "Steady on, Joan--you haven't yet told us exactly whathappened to Ezra."Joan caught a deep breath and went onmore calmly."When we came here to investigate wefound that the missing people who hadarrived here had simply dropped out ofsight. The Europans themselves refused totalk to us. But Ezra wouldn't give up andfinally got a lead. He found that themissing folk had hired native mounts at aninn called the Three Red Moons and hadridden out of the city."Ezra planned to follow that lead outinto the hills. He made me wait here--hesaid he had to have a contact here. I waitedmany days before Ezra got in touch withme through our micro-wave audio. Hespoke briefly to me and switched off--andI've never heard from him since.""His message ?"asked Curt tensely.Joan took out a slip of paper. "I wrote itdown word for word."Curt read aloud. "Listen carefully, Joan! I' m all right--safe, well and happy. ButI'm not coming back, not for a while. Nowthis is an order, Joan--drop theinvestigation, and go back to Earth. I'llfollow you later !"That was all.Otho said sharply, "He was forced tomake that call !""No." Joan shook her head. "We have asecret code. He could have said the samewords and yet could have let me know thathe spoke under duress merely by a certaininflection. No, Ezra was talking of his ownfree will.""Maybe he fell for this rejuvenationprocess, whatever it is ?" suggested Grag."No," said Simon decisively. "Ezrawould not do anything so foolish."Curt nodded agreement. "Ezra has hadplenty of tragedy in his life that few peopleknow anything about. It's why he's alwaysa little grim. He wouldn't want to live asecond life.""Second Life ?" murmured Otho. "Thename tells nothing. Yet there must be aclue in it."Captain Future stood up. "This isn't acase for cleverness or subtlety. Ezra maybe in danger and we're going to work fast.We'll go into Europolis and make thosewho know something talk."5Otho, his eyes sparkling, sprang to hisfeet. Grag took a clanking step toward thedoor."Wait, Curt." Joan's face w...
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