The Death of Captain Future
Allen Steele
Language: English
Pages: 43
ISBN: 1536634018
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
nion laborer Rohr Furland begrudgingly takes a job on a space freighter piloted by Captain Future, an immature and slightly crazed captain with an obsession for early 20th-century science-fiction novels.
When they receive a distress call from a nearby space station, Furland and the first officer blend the dangers of reality into the captain's fantasy world.
For all I knew, there could now be a small mining town on the Lunae Planum itself; Mars was being colonized so quickly these days, it was hard to keep track of where a bunch of its one and a half million inhabitants decided to pitch claims and call themselves New Chattanooga or whatever. “Sabotage!” McKinnon yelled. He unbuckled his harness and pushed himself closer to the nav table, where he stared at the holo. “Someone has sabotaged the mass-driver so that it’ll collide with Mars! Do you
stopped, holding the hatch ajar as I listened intently. I heard a faint giggle, then the thumping sound recommenced. Someone was alive within the bridge. The command center was dimly lit, the fluorescents switched off; the only light came from computer displays, flatscreens, and multicolored switches. The deck was in ruins, as if there had been a blowout, although the external pressure gauge told me it was still pressurized: upended chairs, ripped logbooks and manuals strewn across the floor,
suit. The little teardrop ship, theComet, blasted at top speed toward the Earth and its summoning call. Captain Future thought somberly of the many times he had answered that call. Each time, he and the Futuremen had found themselves called on to battle deadly perils. Was it to be the same this time? “We can’t always win,” he thought grimly. “We’ve been lucky, but the law of averages eventually has to turn against us.” -HAMILTON, The Triumph of Captain Future(1940) Despite the name, no one
she usually sided with the captain. Obviously, there was something else she knew but wasn’t telling me, preferring to defer the issue to McKinnon. I had become used to such behavior over the last few months, but it was still irritating. Most first officers act as intermediaries between captain and crew, and in that sense Jeri performed well, yet at times like this I felt as if I had more in common with The Brain than with her. So be it. I swiveled my chair to face the nav table. “Hey, Brain,” I
life.” I shifted hands so I could sip my coffee. “Anything you want to talk about?” She shrugged. “Nothing that probably hasn’t occurred to you already. I mean, you’ve probably wondered why a google is serving as first officer aboard this ship, haven’t you?” When my mouth gaped open, she smiled a little. “Don’t look so surprised. We’re not telepathic, rumors to the contrary … it’s just that I’ve heard the same thing over the last several years we’ve been together.” Jeri gazed pensively through