Brain of Venus by John Russell Fearn Read online

  Thrilling Wonder Stories, February, 1937

  Brain of Venus

  by John Russell Fearn

  CHAPTER I

  desk of his superior. In silence he watched

  Mutiny In Space

  Commandant Bradley add the final official

  seals to a bulky package, scribble the details

  on a check-sheet, and finally hand them both

  APTAIN BRANT, pilot of Liner 762

  across.

  of the Earth-Mars Transit Service,

  “Brant,” the commandant said quietly,

  C stood quietly at attention before the looking up, “you are undertaking an unusual

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  2

  delivery on this trip.”

  those of the lowliest rocket-tube charge-hand

  “Yes, sir,” Brant nodded.

  to the cleverest space navigator. And now

  “In this package, sealed in preserving

  mutiny hovered. Black hate was in the cause

  solution, is the brain of Lu Sang. At the order

  that had formerly been one of good natured,

  of the Imperial Surgical Council it was ambitious progress.

  removed from that notorious Chinese

  By no means was Brant blind to the

  criminal’s body when he was under the danger signals. He secretly sympathized with anaesthetic preceding his death for his the men but an uneasy premonition that countless crimes. The object in removing it

  danger was ahead had persisted in his mind

  while he still lived was so that his brain would ever since his landing from Mars two days

  still be alive when transferred to the before.

  preserving solution. You will take it to Mars

  and there deliver it to Kron, the head surgeon,

  ONCE aboard the ship Brant went direct to his

  who will send a special messenger to the own cabin and there, with a sigh of relief, space grounds to meet you. It is his wish to

  deposited the living brain of Lu Sang within

  study the brain of a criminal from Earth so

  the safe. He felt better with the infernal thing that he may learn to eliminate similar traits in out of his hands. Hardly had he put the check-Martian brains. You understand?”

  sheet in the file before the door quietly opened

  “Perfectly, sir,” Brant answered and Sub-pilot Anderson entered, concern on crisply. He took the package gingerly, stuffing

  his lean, swarthy face.

  the check-sheet in his pocket.

  “The men are grumbling again, sir,” he

  “Very well, then, that is all. Have a

  announced. “I thought I had better tell you.

  good trip.”

  I’ve heard rumors—about mutiny, about

  Brandt departed with agile strides, but once

  turning the passengers and masters adrift at

  out in the long exterior corridor he permitted a the halfway line in a safety ship, taking over

  frown to come to his face, it was not the

  control of this vessel themselves. All sorts of

  assignment that worried him; that was mere

  things.”

  routine—but the thought of the difficulties he

  Brant stood with tightened lips for a

  was likely to encounter on this particular moment, then he shrugged.

  voyage to Mars.

  “At the best, just rumors, Anderson,”

  For months now, ever since the new

  he said grimly. “We’ll meet trouble when it

  Earth-Mars Corporation had been installed, comes. Get to your post—give the starting there had been a slowly growing trouble order. Time’s up.”

  among the men—the grimy, embittered “Yes,

  sir.”

  wretches who toiled in the depths of the space

  Andersen departed swiftly to the

  monsters, tending the rocket-tube equipment,

  control cabin. After a moment’s thought Brant

  grinding out their beings in torrid heat and

  followed suit.

  yellow-lit gloom with scarcely any

  He gave his orders for the departure

  remuneration for their services.

  mechanically, watched everything

  The old system had been better, mechanically through the massive windows at controlled by the original discoverer of space

  the black rotunda of the void as the liner,

  conquest. But upon his death and the gathering momentum, cleaved through the last accession of the corporation into control, all

  vestiges of Earth’s atmosphere into the

  sentiment and mass unity had been flung infinity beyond. At once the outlook changed; overboard. Everywhere wages dropped, from

  the silvery translucence of the stratosphere

  Brain of Venus

  3

  heights had gone.

  individual action when the time came to

  Space was studded with brilliantly strike.

  glittering points of light. To Brant it all had no meaning; he was completely familiar with the

  stars. Mutiny! That was what dinned across

  his brain and frayed his nerves.

  And while he wondered, that which he

  feared was maturing below in the bowels of

  the ship. Blackie Grednow, perhaps the oldest

  rocket charge-hand on the spaceways, stood

  beside his own particular fueling unit, massive

  hand on the metalwork. His little bloodshot

  eyes peered at his eleven almost naked

  comrades with the smoldering fire of

  excitement.

  “Everything’s

  all

  set,” he announced

  eagerly. “We’ve got to strike on this trip;

  we’ve waited long enough. You know the

  plans—we take over the ship just as we near

  the halfway line, drive her back to Earth, then

  hold her there and refuse to land until new

  conditions are agreed to. That understood?”

  The men nodded silently.

  “We’re facing Brant, Blackie,”

  commented one of them. “Had you reckoned

  with that?”

  “Brant?” The dirt-and sweat-streaked

  ex-criminal spat eloquently. “He’ll crumple up

  like steel before a ray-tube when we get on to

  him. But remember! There’s to be no CAPTAIN BRANT began to feel more at ease bloodshed—there are passengers aboard, as the days passed on and everything worked valuable passengers. We can’t afford to defeat

  with perfect clocklike order. His vigilance

  our own ends. You know your places when I

  began to relax. It was the one move for which

  give the signal. Now—back to work.”

  Blackie Grednow had been waiting.

  Silently the men returned to their tasks,

  Suddenly, without the least warning,

  but in the mind of one of them at least were

  the repulsor rocket-tubes came into being. The

  personal plans. Newton reflected that it was

  ship began to slow down rapidly in its

  one thing to achieve amenable conditions tremendous headlong rush toward the red aboard a space ship by force—but it was planet. Far away in the infinite blackness of distinctly another to make use of the wealth

  the void the planet hung, a roseate globe no

  the ship contained. There must be gold and


  larger than a tennis ball.

  valuables aboard—there always were on an

  Immediately the alarm bell rang.

  Earth-Mars voyage. Captain Brant’s safe Passengers raced to and fro, heading for the usually held cargo of tremendous value. It was

  safety space ships. Brant, tight-lipped, swung

  of this that Newton thought, and plotted for

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  4

  round from his controls, Anderson by his bellowed back, striding forward. Then he side—then both of them stopped in their stopped, uttered the faintest of sounds, and fell movement as they beheld Blackie himself prone to the floor, killed on the spot by the standing just inside the doorway, a leveled

  deadly force of Benson’s ray-tube.

  ray-tube in his grimy fist.

  For perhaps three seconds there was

  “Better not,” he advised grimly. horrified silence. Passengers and men alike

  “Nothing will happen if you do as I say. Just

  looked on in blank stupefaction—then Brant

  remember the passengers.”

  leaped into action and charged forward.

  “Well, what do you want?” Brant Anderson came behind him like a whirlwind.

  snapped, glancing helplessly at his own ray-

  In the space of a minute the main

  tube in its rack.

  stateroom was a tumbled mass of fighting,

  “Complete control of the ship. You are

  battling figures. Ray-tubes flashed

  to obey my orders. Everybody is covered; I’m

  dangerously, men and women fell. When at

  warning you. You’re going down below where

  last it was over the figures of Benson,

  we’ve been. You know the work down there.

  Newton, and another man named Mason rose

  I’m giving orders from now on—”

  up from the carnage, blood-streaked and

  Blackie broke off with a sudden start at

  victorious figures, gazing down on the dead

  the sound of the scream from the corridor

  bodies of Captain Brant and Anderson, and

  outside. He took a step back, glanced in the others who had been mowed down in their amazement, then looked back into the cabin.

  efforts at escape.

  “Brant, forget my demands for the

  “So that’s how it is,” Benson muttered

  moment,” he said curtly. “You know I’m only

  thickly. “All right—so be it. You men”—he

  aiming at getting justice. Some dirty skunk

  glared savagely at a half dozen first-class

  among that rabble of mine has betrayed me.

  passengers— “can get your coats off and find

  Come on!”

  out what it’s like controlling the rocket-tubes.

  Instantly Brant and Anderson seized

  You others, will stay here for the time being,

  their weapons and followed the cursing and don’t attempt any moves if you want to Blackie from the control chamber. They came

  live to get back to Earth. Come on, you two!”

  upon a scene that caused Blackie mercilessly

  He made a motion to his two surviving

  to level his weapon for action. The rocket

  comrades and they strode off to the control

  crew, seizing upon their mistaken idea of cabin.

  liberty, was completely out of hand, forcing

  the shouting, furious passengers back into the

  ONCE within they looked at each other

  main stateroom. Those who were protesting

  dubiously.

  were not asked twice; ray-tubes mercilessly

  “Clever enough,” commented Newton

  mowed them down.

  presently. “But how do you figure on living it

  “Stop, damn you!” Blackie thundered.

  down? Nine rocket hands, the captain and sub-

  “Stop, you blasted space rats, or by—”

  pilot, and some two dozen passengers—all

  “Justice!” roared a voice, that of killed. We dare not return to Earth with all Arnold Benson, perhaps one of the most those dead.”

  fractious members of the rocket crew.

  “We’re not going to,” Benson growled.

  “Justice! You were going to give us that,

  “We’re going on to Mars and there we’ll

  Blackie! Betray us more likely! We’re taking

  become heroes. There was a mutiny—Blackie

  what we can get and no questions—”

  Grednow started it. We got things under

  “Not while I’m in charge!” Blackie

  control after a hard fight. The passengers

  Brain of Venus

  5

  won’t talk, they’re too scared. Leave It to me.”

  face faded as a shadow fell across the treasure.

  “Say, do you realize that we’re nearly

  He looked up sharply. Benson was

  five thousand miles off our course?” immediately behind him, grim, rugged, cruel.

  demanded Mason, turning from the route-

  “So, you blasted rat, this is how you

  checkers. “While that fight lasted we drifted—

  fix the passengers, eh?” Benson asked slowly,

  ”

  grinning viciously. “I come here to look for

  “Then don’t waste time talking. Give

  Brant’s charting directions, and I find you’ve

  orders to those idiots down below to fire the

  cleaned out the safe! All right—you’re

  off-tubes. We’re drifting—and quickly.” finished!”

  Benson glared through the observation

  “Wait!” Newton implored hoarsely, as

  window. Far away to the left hung the argent

  Benson whirled him toward the emergency

  ball of Venus, blazing silently through space.

  space chamber. “Wait! I’ll do anything you

  Through an immense arc lay Mars, miles out

  want! Anything—”

  of the charted deadline.

  “You’ll do nothing!” Benson retorted,

  “Sure you know how to chart the and with a tremendous shove sent the luckless course?” Newton asked.

  Newton sprawling into the space chamber. A

  “Of course I do.”

  second afterward the heavy sealing door

  “All right then—I’ll go and get the

  closed, accomplishing two things. The closing

  passengers and crew to work. You and Mason

  of the door dropped the screaming Newton

  can look after things here. Join you later.”

  into the infinite void of space, reduced him

  Newton departed, but not toward the

  instantly to a tiny, frozen satellite of the space passengers locked in the stateroom. Instead he

  ship itself. Used only for emergency

  stole softly down the deserted promenade explorations in a space suit, or for repairs, the deck until he arrived at the dead Brant’s cabin.

  space chamber was a death trap to anyone

  Softly he opened the door and went inside.

  unprotected.

  Within a moment he had slid aside the

  For a moment Benson stood gazing at

  partition that concealed the regulation safe;

  the hoard on the table, then he swung round as

  with a grim smile on his face he leveled his

  Mason came rushing in. The man took no

  ray-tube.

  notice of the treasure; his expression was one

  “First come, first served,” he of utter terror.

  commented thoughtfully, as he watched the

  heavy door drip to molten metal beneath the
r />   ray’s impact. Then at last he was satisfied.

  Taking care to avoid the hot metal edges he

  reached inside and drew forth the contents.

  The brain of Lu Sang he laid on the

  table after a casual glance at it. To him it was worthless. There were other things of greater

  Import. A cargo of precious stones from New

  “Benson, unless we can chart the

  York’s most lucrative coffers; a medicinal course we’re sunk!” he shouted desperately.

  shrub of immense value for planting on Mars;

  “Those damned fools down below don’t

  money to the value of fifty thousand dollars in

  understand rocketry. We’re being pulled

  notes.

  aside—we’re within the gravitational field of

  Newton chuckled and rubbed his hands

  Venus. Haven’t you found Brant’s charting

  as he took stock. Then the broad smile on his

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  6

  sheets anywhere?”

  Faster. . . .

  “No.” Benson set his jaw. “I can’t

  Until at last the space liner hit the

  chart a course, Mason; I thought I could. I’m

  outermost edges of the Venusian atmosphere,

  only a rocket roan, not a navigator. Hell, if

  screamed with unholy speed through it, and

  only Brant had not been killed!”

  crashed at last with terrific, buckling force

  “Newton! What about him? H« knows

  into an immense mountain.

  more than most.”

  “He won’t be able to help us,” Benson

  answered slowly, and cast an unnoticed glance

  CHAPTER II

  out of the window at the frozen grey spot that