The Affair of the Brains.

by Anthony Gilmore.

CHAPTER I

_Off to the Rendezvous_

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hawk Ca.r.s.e himself goes to keep Judd the Kite's rendezvous with the sinister genius Ku Sui.]

Though it is seldom nowadays that Earthmen hear mention of Hawk Ca.r.s.e, there are still places in the universe where his name retains all its old magic. These are the lonely outposts of the farthest planets, and here when the outlanders gather to yarn the idle hours away their tales conjure up from the past that raw, l.u.s.ty period before the patrol-ships came, and the slender adventurer, gray-eyed and with queer bangs of hair obscuring his forehead, whose steely will, phenomenal ray-gun draw and reckless s.p.a.ce-ship maneuverings combined to make him the period's most colorful figure. These qualities of his live again in the outlanders'

reminiscences and also of course his score of blood-feuds and the one great feud that shook whole worlds in its final terrible settling--the feud of Hawk Ca.r.s.e and Dr. Ku Sui.

Again and again the paths of the adventurer and the sinister, brilliant Eurasian crossed, and each crossing makes a rich tale. Time after time Ku Sui, through his several bands of s.p.a.ce-pirates, his individual agents and his ambitious web of power insidiously weaving over the universe, whipped his tentacles after the Hawk, and always the tentacles coiled back, repulsed and b.l.o.o.d.y. An almost typical episode is in the affair which followed what has been called the Exploit of the Hawk and the Kite.

It will be remembered--as related in "Hawk Ca.r.s.e"[1]--that Dr. Ku laid a most ingenious trap for Ca.r.s.e on the latter's ranch on Iapetus, eighth satellite of Saturn. Judd the Kite, pirate and scavenger, was the Eurasian'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 b.l.o.o.d.y and grim enough, and resulted in the erasure of Judd and all his men save one; but the important thing to the following affair was that Judd's ship, the Scorpion, fell into Ca.r.s.e's hands with one prisoner and the ship's log, containing the s.p.a.ce coordinates for a prearranged a.s.signation 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 to meet Dr. Ku face to face. The trail of the Eurasian was the guiding trail of his life, and swiftly he moved along it.

There was work to be done before he could set out. Three men had emerged alive from the clash between the Hawk and the Kite: Ca.r.s.e himself, Friday, his gigantic negro companion in adventure, and a bearded half-caste called Sako, sole survivor of Judd's crew. Aided sullenly by this man, they first cleaned up the ravaged ranch, burying the bodies of the dead, repairing fences and generally bringing order out of confusion. Then, under Ca.r.s.e's instructions, Friday and the captive brigand tooled the adventurer's own ship, the _Star Devil_, well into the near-by jungle, while the Hawk returned to the _Scorpion_.

He went into her control cabin, opened her log book and once more scanned 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 Ca.r.s.e 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 would sheathe the talons of the Hawk. This time a trap would be laid for Ku Sui.

The plan was simple enough, on the face of it, but the Eurasian was a master of cunning as well as a master of science, and high peril attended any matching of wits with him. Ca.r.s.e closed the log, his face bleak, his mind made up. A shuffle of feet brought his gaze up to the port-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 to hide her. An' now what? You still figurin' on keepin' that date with Dr.

Ku in this ship?"

Ca.r.s.e nodded, absently.

"Then where'll we pick up a crew, suh? p.o.r.no? It's the nearest port, I reckon."

"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," Ca.r.s.e cut in shortly. "And this meeting with Dr. Ku is a highly personal affair. You and I and Sako can run the ship; we've got to." One of the man's rare smiles relaxed his 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 for casting 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!" and he was still very much disturbed when, after Ca.r.s.e had had a few crisp words with the captive Sako, telling him that he would be free but watched 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 the delicate incline of her s.p.a.ce-stick, she lifted sweetly from the crust of Iapetus and at ever-increasing speed burned through the satellite's atmosphere toward the limitless dark leagues beyond.

The Hawk was on the trail!

Ca.r.s.e took the first watch himself. Except for occasional glances at the banks of instruments, the screens and celestial charts, he spent his time in deep thought, turning over in his mind the several variations of situation his dangerous rendezvous might take.

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

Whatever variations their contacting took, there was another consideration, Ca.r.s.e's celestial charts revealed, and that was the proximity of the rendezvous to Jupiter's Satellite III, less than three hundred thousand miles. Satellite III harbored Port o' p.o.r.no, main refuge and home of the scavengers, the hi-jackers, and out-and-out pirates of s.p.a.ce, so many of whom were under Ku Sui's thumb. Several brigand ships were sure to be somewhere in the vicinity, and one might easily intrude, destroying the hairbreadth balance in Ca.r.s.e's favor....

There was peril on every side. The Hawk considered that it would be wise to make provision against the odds proving too great. So, his gray eyes reflective, he strode to the _Scorpion's_ radio panel and a moment later was 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 calling XX-2--XX-1 calling XX-2--XX-1 calling----"

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 outsider overhears."

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

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

"Just fine, Ca.r.s.e," came in the clear, cultured voice of Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow, probably the greatest scientific mind in the solar system, Ku Sui being the only possible exception. He spoke now from his secret laboratory on Jupiter's Satellite III, near p.o.r.no, this transcendent genius who, with Friday, was one of Ca.r.s.e's two trusted comrades-in-arms. "I've been expecting you," he went on. "Has something happened?"