First of all, I want to clarify that this is a fanfic adaptation work mixing with the pulp comics series "Captain Future", from1940 Edmond Hamilton and the Japanese anime version from 1979. The main characters have been replaced by their equivalent from oh my goddess and the two universes have been mixed even if the shading remains about 85% of that of the original novels by Hamilton. This is a work of adaptation, modernization (at 1940, it starts to date a little) and a merge with the ah my goddess universe. Some chapters have been adapted and their fate and the role of some characters have been changed. I think I did a pretty good job overall and hope you will enjoy reading it. Besides Edmond Hamilton, I particularly thank Kosuke Fujishima for his work "ah my goddess." For this fanfic I want to explain that nothing would have been possible without the beta reading of TheManTimeForgotI therefore thank them with all my heart. I also thank all those who worked on the series "Captain Flam", which is the French adaptation of the anime series "Captain Future" inspired by the work of Hamilton.
06) The Goddess.
Gravium, the ore that allows different species to exist on others planets by controlling gravity is threatened. Of the five existing mines in the galaxy, three was destroyed by a mysterious individual who calls himself "Wrecker". The dreaded bandit managed to capture Captain Keiichi, who nonetheless managed to escape narrowly by launching himself to the sun aboard a rescue bubble. He was brought to the brink of death by his sisters and especially Belldandy who managed to locate him before the bubble broke. To face the threat, Keiichi asked President Sayoko to secretly organize a meeting with the directors of the five mines.
Keiichi came into the waiting room where the men he had requested to meet. For a moment it was tense. Keiichi was used to that feeling. When people saw him the first time, no one accepted the idea that this average ordinary boy was the famous Captain Keiichi, they always had an incredulous reaction.
"Captain Keiichi?" said one, extending his hand. "Glad you're here. I've heard a lot of your abilities. Hope it's all true. I'm Toraichi Tamiya, president of the Bamean Gravium Company."
Toraichi Tamiya was an Earthling who looked as hard and unyielding as a block of granite. His square, stony face, cold eyes and clipped speech gave more the impression of an engineer with a simple mind instead a domineering, aggressive capitalist.
"Let me introduce my colleagues: Nicholas Verrel, head of the Mercury Gravium Company, Quarus Tull of the Kalem company, Orr Libro of Oranean moon; and Kerk El of Sigoon I. All competitors of mine, of course. But competition doesn't count at a time like this. Emergency's too grave for that. This destruction of Gravium mines must be stopped. At once!"
Then the magnate jerked a thumb toward the younger man beside him. "Hikozaemon Ootaki, my company superintendent. Brought him along. Thought you ought to hear what he has to tell."
Ootaki was a wiry Earthling engineer of twenty-four with blonde crew cut hair, a big smile and a pair of sunglasses.
"Say, this is an honor, Captain Keiichi," the superintendent said eagerly, looking respectfully at the boy and his two sisters.
"Nice to meet you gentlemen, I am Keiichi Morisato" said the young man, sitting down before asking a question. "Have any of you any idea as to the identity of "Wrecker"? Who is he and what's his motive?"
"I'm sure I can't guess," clipped Julius Gunn. "Must be an irresponsible madman."
Kerk El, the Sigoonean, laughed mirthlessly. "You would say that, of course, Tamiya."
Tamiya turned his cold gaze challengingly on the Sigoonean. Keiichi Morisato also looked sharply at Kerk El.
The Sigoonean was the youngest of the five magnates. Like all those of his species he had pink skin, a coiled face and a prominent skull with red scabs.
"What do you mean by that?" Captain Keiichi asked.
Kerk El'seyes flashed. "I mean I find it strange that only the non-Terran mines have been attacked".
"Yes, it would not be surprising that Verrel and Tamiya, with the help of your government, wanted to ensure the monopoly on Gravium. We have already seen such maneuvers." adds Quarus Tull the Romacean.
Toraichi Tamiya stared contemptuously at the accusing Sigoonean. "You're out of your mind, Kerk El. Feeling bad about losing your mine. So you accuse Verrel and me of doing it. Sheer nonsense."
"Of course it's nonsense," put in Orr Libro, the Oranean magnate, smoothly. "We didn't come here to quarrel among ourselves but to get Captain Keiichi's help in this thing."
Orr Libro was a middle-aged Oranean dandy, big-chested, his red, hairy head and face smoothly groomed, his voice a soft purr.
"My own company's mine on Oranean Moon is ruined, too," he said, "but that's no reason to accuse our friends here of doing it."
"Our friends?" echoed Quarus Tull, in his harsh voice. He laughed gratingly. "Since when were Tamiya and Verrel anybody's friends? Both would cut anyone's throat for profit."
The Romacean was wrong. Neither Tamiya or Verrel were such men, but like a Romac native, it was in his nature to always suspect the worst from others. It was too often justified, on Romac.
Tull was glaring suspiciously. Blue-skinned like all his race, with pale eyes squinting from a bony face, he had the thin, rangy body and slightly bowed legs.
Tamiya snorted contemptuously at the charge. "You've always been jealous of the Bamean and Mercurian Company's success. All of you. That's why you make these wild accusations."
"You deny the accusations, then?" Keiichi asked coolly.
"Deny then? Of course I deny them!" barked Tamiya, "I had nothing to do with the mysterious disasters to their mines. In fact, I'm afraid my own mines on Bama are menaced. That's why I took the trouble to come here."
"We're worried out on Bama, Captain Keiichi," Ootaki said troubledly. "Mr. Tamiya's three big submarine mines may be threatened. Mysterious accidents that have occurred lately have made us afraid of sabotage."
"The field that I discovered, and I put into operation on the planet Bama is the most important of all, by far, the production is the highest, and only I have a mining permit. So of course these gentlemen are trying all sorts of maneuvers for years to get me to "share".
Orr Libro, the Oranean, interrupted in his soft, purring voice. "Your company had the only Gravium concession on Bama, my dear Toraichi," he said. "But that is not so any longer."
Tamiya stared at him. "What do you mean? Say, what's in your mind, man, don't palaver like all your race."
Orr Libro's drooping eyes flashed fire. "My race had a mighty civilization on Oranea when Earthmen were still halfapes! Twenty-six dynasties of Oranean kings reigned in glory when…."
Then, as though his mask of polished courtesy had only momentarily slipped, Libro's red face smoothed, "But that is not important now. What is important is that the Galactic Government has granted to the companies of Kerk El, Quarus Tull and myself concessions to develop new Gravium mines on Bama."
"What?" yelled Toraichi Tamiya, thoroughly aroused. "You're lying. The Government gave us sole Gravium concession on Bama."
"It did," Orr Libro agreed, "but conditions have changed. It's vital now that the supply of Gravium be increased. That's why our three companies are now permitted to mine on Bama too."
"You don't like that very well, do you, Tamiya?" mocked Kerk El, and the Oranean magnate smiled grimly also.
"It's a damned outrage!" Tamiya declared. "My company developed submarine mining in the Bamean ocean. We did the pioneering and advance work. Now you three come sneaking in to cut in on us…."
Tamiya stopped, his granite jaw shutting like a trap, his eyes narrowing.
"Now I see it!" he clipped. "You, Quarus Tull and Kerk El, or one of you, wrecked your own mines so that you would be able to coax a Bamean Gravium concession from the Government."
"Why would they want to destroy their own valuable mining properties?" Captain Keiichi demanded bluntly of Tamiya.
"Bah, their mines are no longer valuable," the director replied. "Gravium nearly exhausted in all of them. Running without profit. They've all been envious of my Bamean concession. From what I know, they may have destroyed their own mines to pose as victims and blame us, then under the threat of military retaliation, forcing us to share for free instead of buying our Gravium. About this "Wrecker", if that is not a puppet, he must be a terrorist committed to the plan and who has no idea of the real issues."
Voices rose hotly in denial and counter-charges. Suddenly the televisor-set in the wall buzzed sharply. Ootaki answered the call. The face of a worried-looking, human appeared in it.
"It's Gygo, one of our company officers on Bama!" Tamiya exclaimed. "What is it, Gygo?"
The man in the televisor answered quickly.
"You asked me to call you in case of more trouble, sir. Well, we've had two accidents in Mine One and another in Mine Two today. Trouble with the tubeways and pumps, sir."
"More of the mysterious accidents that have been occurring out in our submarine mines, Captain Keiichi!" Hikozaemon Ootaki exclaimed.
"Ootaki and I will return at once," Toraichi Tamiya told the Gygo crisply. He swung around to Keiichi Morisato. "We've got to return to Bama, Captain. Can't stay here listening to myself accused of crimes, while my own mines out there are having trouble!"
Keiichi shot a question at the Mercurian magnate, Verrel. "I haven't heard you deny the charge of Kerk El and Quarus Tull. In fact, I did not hear you at all. Now only your mine hasn't suffered any accident."
"Yes, I guess so far luck is with me for the moment. With your permission I will see if all is well."
Verrel then left the room, under the suspicious gaze of Keiichi and the other directors.
Keiichi Morisato considered his position. He hadn't learned much from the magnates, but he had learned something that pointed the same way as his atmosphere clue. He wanted to follow it up.
"Very well, gentlemen. You may all go. But I'll be seeing you all again, perhaps sooner than you think." Keiichi bade them farewell.
He was silent in thought as he and Urd returned to the Space Goddess.
Skuld was still out meteor-mining, it seemed. Keiichi called him on the wave of his pocket-televisor. "Return, Skuld."
"Coming, Captain," came the robot's girl booming answer from the instrument.
The five space-yachts of the Gravium magnates disappeared one by one in the direction of Mercure, and distant Bama.
o0o
"What do you make of it all, lad?" Megumi asked.
"One thing stands out," Keiichi declared. "The only Gravium company which has had no trouble is…"
He stopped suddenly. He felt a queer chill. Then, with sudden insight, he glanced up through the window. Two black space-cruisers, from one of which a long gunlike tube projected, were swooping down toward the Space Goddess!
"Wrecker's set an ambush here for us!" Keiichi yelled. "They're using that paralyzing-weapon to freeze me until they can finish us off!" He sprang toward the control-room.
"Their paralyzer won't work this time!" he blazed. "I took care to put ray-proof pads over my spinal centers, on the way out here. Take the proton-gun, Urd!"
The two black ships of Wrecker, just overhead now, loosed from their atomguns a hail of shining, deadly flares aimed at Keiichi's ship.
But Captain had slammed the cyclotron switch and yanked back the throttles. With a roar of rocket-tubes, the "Space Goddess" leaped and avoided the deadly flares.
In an instant the two black attacking craft and the "Space Goddess" were circling, looping, rolling in a mad dogfight through the heart of this dangerous asteroidal wilderness.
"We're leaving Skuld behind!" cried Urd, from the breech of the big proton-gun to which she had leaped.
"We'll come back for her later. Try to get one of those ships before they box us in!" Keiichi yelled to the android. As he piloted the tear-drop ship in the whirling, circling fight, Keiichi turned and shouted back to the Megumi.
"Meg, this attack by Wrecker's ships means that Wrecker knew I was still alive and knew that I'd be here at this time."
Locked in a death struggle, the Space Goddess and the two black attackers plunged wildly on through the asteroid wilderness.
o0o
Skuld the robot girl watched Captain Keiichi, Urd and the Brain plunge across space to the waiting ships of the Gravium magnates. Then Skuld began preparations for exploring the nearby meteor-swarm in search of heavy metals.
"There ought to be lots of copper over in those meteors, Sigel," the robot girl told her "niece", "Maybe even gold or silver."
Sigel's eyes gleamed hungrily. The little blob could not hear Skuld's words in the space without atmosphere, but she got the thought behind them, for on the airless, soundless Rigel world, where Sigel's species had evolved, she and other species living in environments with no atmosphere, had developed a communication mode, which remained a mystery to scientists.
Skuld went out through the airlock. She did not put on any space-suit for she never had to breathe. Sigel did not breathe either, and so the blob could survive in airless space too.
Sigel clung tightly with her blob body to Skuld's metal shoulder as the great metal girl leaped out from the "Space Goddess" toward the swarm of meteors. Using the reactive kick of a tubular rocket-impeller, Skuld shot toward the swarm.
"There is a likely looking meteor, Sig," the robot boomed, her glowing photoelectric eyes peering ahead. "We shall see what we find there."
Skuld had floated into the meteor swarm. On all sides could be seen great, jagged black meteors that floated and turned and ground together like flotsam of space.
The robot girl impelled herself toward one of the largest of the jagged masses.
Landing on it, he put the blob down.
Sigel scrambled away across the pitted, jagged black rock surface of the meteor.
She stopped and began to dig furiously with her strong acid secretion.
"There's nothing better here than nickel and iron," Skuld declared after some minutes. "We will try another meteor."
She leaped off the jagged mass with Sigel, came to rest on another spinning meteor-mass. Again the two began digging. Suddenly from the pocket-televisor at Skuld's side sounded the buzzing call-signal, followed by Captain Keiichi's voice.
"Return, Skuld."
"Coming, Captain," Skuld answered hastily. She picked up Sigel, who was munching a copper fragment. "Come, Sig, we must hurry!"
Skuld started back out through the meteor-swarm toward the "Space Goddess", her rocketimpeller kicking her along through space. Then the robot girl, looking ahead, saw something that made her shout.
Two black space-cruisers were diving out of the upper void onto the "Space Goddess"!
Their atom-guns were spitting shining death-flares, but Skuld saw the "Space Goddess" whirl suddenly aside and avoid the flares. Then the tear-drop ship and the two attackers circled, looped and dived away, proton-beams and atom-flares crisscrossing. Locked in deadly struggle, the three ships receded.
"Wait, Captain, I am coming!" Skuld yelled vainly, urging forward with all the power of the rocket-impeller.
But the "Space Goddess" and its two antagonists were already disappearing in the asteroidal wilderness. Struggling like hawks of the void, they passed from sight.
"We must follow, Sigel!" Skuld cried. "Captain will need us!"
And, kicked forward by repeated blasts of his impeller, the metal girl followed through space in the direction in which the three ships had disappeared.
Sigel, clinging to Skuld's shoulder, peered with bright, scared eyes. She blob knew there was righting, and the blob wanted no part of it. She believed in peace at any price.
But Skuld's strongest emotion had been aroused, her love to her brother. On and on through the jungle of meteor-swarms and booming planetoids he went, like a great metal projectile propelled through the void by her impeller's blasts.
A misty white speck loomed ahead. It grew in size at appalling speed, into a small, tailless comet hurtling toward them.
Skuld hastily swerved out of the way. The small comet passed, its coma's electric force tingling through them. And still Skuld kept on. She had no sense of time, no thought of peril. Now there was no sign of the "Space Goddess" and the other two ships. Fear came to the robot. Had the two attackers destroyed the ship of her familly and then sped away?
She tried calling the Space Goddess on her communicator, but it was only good for short distances, and she got no answer.
Abruptly, Skuld's rocket-impeller went dead, its charge exhausted. And now the robot floated helplessly in space, drifting powerlessly through the great zone of space-debris and asteroids.
"Don't be afraid, Sig," she reassured her panicky "niece". "Captain will come back and find us."
Skuld became aware that she was floating slowly toward a small green asteroid in the distance. It was a little world of no more than a hundred miles in diameter, she estimated, and she knew it had atmosphere because of the faint atmospheric halo around it.
Faster and faster the metal girl and Sigel floated toward that green little world. She saw now that it was covered with forests of tall reeds, green except for areas of brown, dead reeds. Pulled by the little planet's gravitation, she fell toward it, and presently crashed down through the air to its surface.
The shock shook Skuld up, but did her no real harm. This planetoid's gravitational pull was so weak, and her metal body was so massive, that she felt quite uninjured. The communicator at her side was smashed, however. Sigel, thanks to her perfectly adaptable body, was not hurt either.
Skuld got to her feet. Her gravitation-equalizer made her the same weight as ever, even on this small world. She found that she had fallen onto a grassy clearing in the towering reeds. Nearby was a huddled village of wicker-huts. And closer to her, staring in awe at her, stood a horde of humans.
By the brilliant starlight that is the day of the asteroidal zone, Skuld perceived that these people were really human. They were small, timid, simple mind.
In the 22nd century, many human settlements were constructed in the asteroid belt of the solar system from Earth. They were there simply to extract the minerals present in huge quantities. However, some environmental groups, who advocated a return to simpler lifestyles, decided to go into exile on some of these asteroids, judging the planet Earth "contaminated by technology" and other humans as "having betrayed mother nature".
They came here to settle, deliberately choosing the asteroids that might harbor life with some modifications, and poor in energy resources in order to avoid that in the future a "clean and impious technology" to be developed.
The asteroids were modified into habitable space. Humans who chose to live there abandoned technology and returned "to the simple joys of nature." Many regretted their choice after a time, but with their spaceship and means of communication destroyed, they were forced to live the life they had chosen. There are some "purges", some fell in the most barbaric savagery, "sacrificing a few for the good of all".
Earthly governments of this era refused to intervene, aware that the problems occurred on Earth from other cultures, particularly at the beginning of the previous century, rarely ended well.
Today, communities that have survived have returned to a similar wildlife at the stone age, totally unaware of their Earthly origins and existence of humans across the vacuum of space.
These communities were called "Asteroidans".
"There are Asteroidans on this world, Sigel," Skuld boomed, staring at the "human".
And Skuld, as he spoke to the scared blob, saw the Asteroidans recoil in panic from the sound of her voice.
"It speaks? It is alive!" went up panicky shouts.
Skuld understood them, for she knew something of the Asteroidan tongue. And their words nettled the robot.
"Of course I am alive!" he boomed angrily. "Why should you think otherwise?"
The appearance of the angry robot, towering like a massive metal statue, her great arm raised, and the weird little blob clinging to her shoulder, was an alarming spectacle in the brilliant starlight.
The Asteroidans shrank back, still more terrified.
Skuld grunted. "These people are not intelligent, Sig. Doubting that I'm alive! And why are they so terrified of me?"
The terror of the Asteroidans had suddenly increased. They were pointing beyond Skuld, and screaming "A Dridur! A Dridur!"
Puzzled, Skuld turned. The robot stiffened. Out of the brown, dead reeds behind him an incredible monster was coming. It was myriopodal, with a black body like that of a gigantic python supported on dozens of short, powerful legs. Its head was a nightmare of coldly blazing faceted eyes, wide jaws, and cruel fangs.
While the ancestors of the Asteroidans had modified these little worlds, they also imported and adapted, from Earth, some forms of life to their needs, through genetic manipulation. The result was disastrous for them. As in the case of this descendant of centipedes.
The creature had apparently been about to raid the village for prey. That the Asteroidans feared the monster above all else was evident from the way in which they were flying for shelter.
But the Dridur had noticed that Skuld did not flee. The creature turned toward her, poised a moment, then shot toward her with appalling speed, a charge of incredible swiftness, Skuld tossed Sigel aside and reached forward her great metal arms.
Skuld was particularly hateful of such creatures. When humans began to colonize the Moon, some ships had brought with them all sorts of insects. Most, of course, had perished in a vacuum and the icy cold of the moon. Not all though. By a miracle of evolution, some species were able to adapt to this iced environment, without air, with a gravity six times smaller, and survive despite the lack of food, rather eating certain metals and energy forms present in the soil.
Unfortunately, some of these insects had developed an appetite for computer circuits. Just think: From metal and energy. Yum. Every three months, the girl of silver metal, should do an audit of the computer systems of the lunar base where she lived with her family and the "Space-Goddess". These "bugs" as she called them, were her enemy daily.
In addition, these things had become particularly resistant. They had learned to survive in the lunar environment, so they did not need to breathe, and therefore the good old insecticides had become totally useless. Icing on the cake, the more they ate, the more they grew larger. Some were as big as cats. Skuld had found only one solution to get rid of: crush them. With a big hammer. Of course she could use his own hand but it was too disgusting.
It really was a dirty job, morally and physically. She was so furious at the sight of this "cousin" bugs and decided to treat it her classic manner: by crushing it. No need to use its anesthetic or blinding bombs. Anyway, this creature was clearly too dangerous for humans in the area to be left alive.
Next moment, the Dridur struck her and knocked her over. But she had gripped the monster, was grappling with it.
The Dridur's fangs clashed furiously on Skuld's metal arms and legs. But not even those teeth could make impression on the impervious metal of the robot's body.
The creature at once coiled its many-legged body around Skuld, to crush her.
But Skuld had got a grip on the monster's neck, and had not let go. Now the robot squeezed tighter and tighter. The myriopodal monster's coiled body threshed in ferocity and agony.
Even in anger, Skuld had no pleasure in killing the animal. A reluctant action despite the usual result. But all evidence pointed to the fact he used to consider Asteroidans which were human, as his natural prey. No doubt he had already devoured many.
Weird battle of the great robot and the nightmare Dridur, beneath the brilliant stars of the asteroidal sky! A battle that had for witnesses only the panicky Asteroidans peeping from their huts, and the scared Blob cowering in the reeds.
It should be noted that the fear of Sigel was due to an infantile reflex and not to the danger of the situation. She could secrete acids to dissolve the metal which would have killed the Dridur in an instant and anyway with her nature, Sigel wouldn't have been harmed.
Skuld's photoelectric eyes blazed, her hands made a wrenching movement of awful power. The Dridur's snaky neck snapped. The creature went limp, its coils sliding to the ground. The robot stood still, her metal body scratched, her eyes blazing.
And now the Asteroidans rushed joyfully from the huts.
"She has slain a Dridur!" they cried incredulously, "She has slam the monster that cannot be killed!"
Sigel, seeing the battle over, crept out of the dry reeds, cautiously eyed the dead monster, then covered the carcass of the creature and used her acid to dissolve it, leaving only a tiny pile of formless matter. Sigel looked up as though to say, "Well, we two certainly finished that thing!"
"She is a goddess, a metal goddess who came to us from the sky to protect us from the Dridurs!" the Asteroidan chief shouted.
"Praise the goddess from the sky!" rose the cry.
Skuld stalked into the village, followed by the joyously shouting Asteroidans.
The big robot sat down on a rock and then spoke to the Asteroidans in their own language.
"Bring copper and silver and gold please. Sigel is hungry."
"The goddess eats metal!" whispered the human awedly.
They hastily brought silver ingots, nuggets of raw gold, scraps of copper they had collected for weapons and ornaments.
Sigel began devouring the gold and silver with gusto, Skuld, who felt the need of renewing the atomic energy which activated her own body, hoped her brother came back quickly, in order to charge her batteries.
The awe-struck people watched Sigel greedily devouring all the gold and silver.
Skuld gave orders to bring more. Her obsequious worshippers hastily obeyed.
Then the Asteroidans, gathered in the dim light, began a long chant humming the prowess of their new goddess from the sky. Each time the chant rose, the gathered throng bowed low toward the great metal robot sitting facing them, beneath the eternally brilliant stars.
Skuld was enjoying her godesshood. After all, she knew she had the name of a Norse goddess even if she had nothing in common with the mythological Skuld. She was amused and flattered inwardly. But the great silver robot girl was deeply troubled by the thought of her brother. How was she to rejoin Keiichi? She had no way of leaving this little world now. And even if the Captain came searching for her, she couldn't call the Space Goddess on a broken communicator. She was marooned!
o0o
Keiichi steering capabilities were excellent, the same level as that of Urd, although lower than that of Skuld. He now utilized all his skill in the struggle with the two black ships who attacked the Space Goddess.
Diving, zooming, corkscrewing through space in a series of dizzy maneuvers, the boy fought to evade the deadly Proton flares that the two enemy ships continued to fire upon him.
Keiichi Morisato had a fighting grin on his tanned, handsome face, and his brown eyes were blazing as his strong hands shifted the brass control-throttles with lighting swift movements. Even in this moment of deadly danger, fighting against outnumbering enemies, his adventure-loving soul savored the thrill of it.
And it was thrilling, this death-combat through the spinning meteor-swarms and booming planetoids of the zone, this giddy whirl and swoop and rush out here in space beneath the eyes of the solemn stars!
"They're going to trap us!" Urd yelled.
"They're closing in…"
The two enemy ships were seeking to catch the "Space Goddess" in a cross-fire of atom flares that would soon destroy it.
"Hold on, Urd!" Keiichi shouted back. "Here's where we take the bumps, stand ready to gun that outward ship!"
The Captain's keen eyes had spotted a big meteor-swarm ahead, in the path of the running fight, and his quick brain had instantly devised a daring and desperate plan.
As the two black attackers came closer, Keiichi's right hand jerked down a burnished red lever in the control panel, while his left hand opened a throttle suddenly wide.
The "Space Goddess" suddenly spouted a tremendous flood of glowing ions from its rocket-tubes as the red lever was pulled, a shining cloud that enveloped the teardrop ship and swept back in a long, flaring tail. It was as though the ship had abruptly become a real Comet! It was Captain Keiichi's method of camouflaging his craft.
Simultaneously, the ship swerved sunward and bore directly on the attacker on that side. The spectacle of the flaring, glowing "Space Goddess" coming at them was too much for the men in that ship. Their pilot swerved his craft instinctively away.
That swerve was fatal. It took the black ship right into the meteor-swarm that they were coasting. In a moment, before they could escape from the swarm, the attacking craft had crashed head-on into a veritable hell-nest of meteors...
Their reinforced hull, however, did allow them to escape annihilation, though their ship was severely damaged.
"That got them!" Urd yelled triumphantly. "Now, the other one, Captain"
Captain Keiichi's clever maneuver had disposed of one attacker. He had already turned the "Space Goddess" in a vicious swoop toward the remaining enemy.
"Now's your chance, Urd!" he shouted.
Until now, Urd had been unable to use the proton-canon effectively upon the two antagonists on different sides. But now the situation, was changed, with the reduction of the enemy by half.
As the flaring Space Goddess looped over and leaped at the remaining enemy, the brown skin girl was already bringing the proton-guns to bear. Through the hail of atom-flares from the enemy there lanced the pale, deadly proton beams.
They caught the surprised antagonist craft in the tail, wrecking its rocket-tubes.
Both vessels were now severely damaged and disabled. Urd had been careful not to target vital systems.
"We will approach them, capture them, and make them confess." said Keiichi victoriously. He did not have the opportunity, at this moment, both ships exploded simultaneously.
"They self-destructed!" Urd gasped in amazement.
"No I do not think so. The two explosions occurred simultaneously. I rather think that someone blew them up remotely. Wrecker likely."
"This guy is the worst kind of junk." Urd cursed.
At this moment the screen on the side of Keiichi broke into a frantic buzzing, an emergency call on all wave-lengths.
Keiichi snapped on the instrument. In the screen appeared the frantic face of Kerk El, the Sigoonean Gravium magnate.
"HELP! CAPTAIN KEIICHI! I AM ATTACKED BY UNKNOWNED VESSELS! I HAVE NO WEAPONS! I CAN NOT DEFEND MYSELF! 4.2.6-4 IS MY CURRENT POSITION! IT IS NOT VERY FAR YOU! HELP!"
"We're on our way." Keiichi said.
"What the devil… is all space alive with Wrecker's ships?" gasped Urd. "Two that attacked us, and now one that's attacking Kerk El!"
The Space Goddess flashed out from the asteroid zone in the general direction of Kerk El. In only a brief time they sighted the space-yacht of Kerk El. It was floating aimlessly in the void, and its hull had been riddled in scores of places by Proton-flares.
"Too late!" swore Urd. "And the ship that did this got away!"
Keiichi turned to the Brain. "Megumi, will you and Urd sweep space with the electroscope and see if you can pick up the trail of the ship that did this?"
"I can try, but considering all these meteorites, I cannot guarantee the result." Megumi replied.
The boy was hurriedly donning his space-suit.
A moment later he was aboard the wrecked space-yacht. Inside it, one look was enough. Kerk El and his three-man crew were all dead. They had died of the cold of space even as they were trying to put on their space-suits.
Sorrowfully, Keiichi returned to the Space Goddess. The Brain was searching space in all directions with the tube of the electroscope, a delicate instrument that could detect the recent course of any space ship by the trailing ions of its rocket-discharge.
"If Megumi can pick up the trail, we'll split space after them till we catch them and capture them!" Urd exclaimed.
"First, we've got to go back into the asteroidal zone and pick up Skuld," Captain reminded her.
"Devils of space," Urd swore, "I forgot about Skuld roosting in that meteorswarm. It'll spoil our chance to overtake that ship!"
"Got the trail, lad!" rasped the Brain. "The ship that wrecked Kerk El's yacht headed straight toward Mercury from here."
"Mercury, eh?" Keiichi said, frowning. "Then we're going there after it, soon as we pick up Skuld. I want to investigate Verrel's Gravium outfit on Mercury."
"You think maybe Verrel is Wrecker?" Urd asked.
Keiichi shrugged. "We SUPPOSE Wrecker is one of the six Gravium officials who met us in that secret conference. Only they knew we'd be there, only one of them could have planned the ambush to get us. And now that Kerk El is dead, we have five suspects. But just like the inquiry about the Space Emperor, it does not necessarily mean that one of them is our culprit. It may be a simple agent working for Wrecker, or one of them being unwittingly bugged."
Captain Keiichi opened the throttles and sent the Space Goddess streaking back into the asteroidal zone like a new, true comet.
"We'll pick up Skuld and then hit the trail for Mercury with all rockets open!"
But when they returned to the meteor-swarm where Skuld had been left, there was no sign of Skuld, nor did the robot answer their communicator calls.
"Something's happened to big sis!" Keiichi exclaimed, his face anxious.
"Perhaps she tried to follow us through the zone when she saw us fighting those two ships," the Brain suggested.
"We'll cruise in that direction," Keiichi said worriedly.
But as the shining "Space Goddess" cruised on through the jungle of asteroids and meteors, no answer came to their calls. Then Urd pointed to a small green asteroid on their sunward side. A red, winking spark of light flared on it.
"That might be a signal, chief!" the shapeshifter said.
"It can't be Skuld," rasped the Brain. "She'd simply call us on her communicator…. and she hasn't called."
"We'll investigate anyway," Keiichi decided.
He swept the "Space Goddess" in toward the asteroid in a flaring rush. They ripped down through the thin atmosphere and saw now that the red flare came from a great section of burning dry reeds.
"There's a little village of some kind, and there's Skuld!" Urd yelled, hopping delightedly.
"So you're glad to see her after all?" Captain Keiichi grinned, himself relieved.
Urd checked her elation. "Ah, this is not for Skuld I think. It is rather for Sigel."
They landed in the smoky red glare of the burning reeds, by a hut-village whose human people stared in fear. Skuld came stalking quickly to them, Sigel clinging to her shoulder.
"Bro, I was afraid you wouldn't come!" boomed the robot, her photoelectric eyes shining. "I saw the Space Goddess flaring through the sky and recognized it, but my communicator was broken and I couldn't call. So I had some of my people here fire the reeds as a signal."
"Your people? What do you mean?" Urd demanded.
"These people recognize my true worth, Urd," Skuld answered loftily. "They think I am a goddess from the sky."
"Goddess... I think it's been 10 years since we had not done that joke. It is true that dad called you Skuld, in reference to the Norn of the future of the old Norse mythology, and me, Urd, the Norn of the past. Except that, first, the Norns are not goddesses but "Jotuns", and secondly, we lack Verdande for to be the Norn of the present. So if you are a goddess, I'm the princess of the fire giants in this mythology, and Keiichi is Siegfried, the hero unable to feel fear." Urd said with amused irony.
"Fear? What's this? Can I eat it?" Asked Keiichi, laughing.
The Asteroidans were timidly crowding around Skuld now, staring at Keiichi and his two sisters. The chief spoke to Skuld.
"Are these your servants, goddess from the sky?" the Asteroidan tribal leader wonderingly asked the robot.
"Me? Skuld's servant?" Urd howled.
"They are my family," Skuld boomed to the chief, "and I am going back with them to the sky."
A wail went up from the primitive Asteroidans. "But you must not leave us!"
"I will return sometime," Skuld declared. "Farewell!"
As the Space Goddess screamed up from the little world, Keiichi looked back and saw the disconsolate human staring after them.
"I hate to leave there, in a way," Skuld boomed thoughtfully. "They were good people. They gave Sigel and me plenty to eat."
"We will return and we will help," Keiichi said. "Because somehow they worship you , I guess we have already interfered. Not a big deal, we can probably help them without deciding their future".
Keiichi sent the "Space Goddess" flying out of the asteroidal zone, the sun at their face, the faint of Mercury and more distant Bama beaconing ahead.
"We're rocketing for Mercury, Skuld," Keiichi told his robot sister, and explained briefly what had occurred.
"And if we trail down Wrecker's ship there, you'll see some fireworks!" Urd added.
Some minute later as the tear-drop ship ate up the millions of miles, hurtling toward the white disc of Mercury, the first planet. Finally, Mercury bulked as a great white sphere filling half the starry firmament.
"Head around to the night side of Mercury, big sis," he directed. "According to my maps, the Gravium mine is there."
Skuld, who held the controls, obeyed. The ship's "Space Goddess" camouflage now cut off, she shot the craft around to the dark side of Mercury.
Mercury, the closest and smallest planet in the solar system. A metallic planetary core that occupies 40% of its mass (against 17% for the Earth). Surface temperature: 179 ° C on average.
Mercury is best known for being the first Gravium mine discovery by humanity, thanks to astronaut Mark Carew. The deposit though smaller than the others, enabled humans to begin the conquest of space. Several centuries later, the deposit is still active. Its production is sufficient to cover the needs of the entire solar system but no more.
Of course, the space surrounding the mine has an artificial atmosphere and a protective dome. The dome is an ancient type, built before the invention of force fields. However, it is much stronger and even proton weapons could not destroy it.
"Only the lure of Gravium would ever induce men to stay long on this planet," mustered the Brain, staring downward.
"There're the lights of the Gravium mine, down in, the valley beyond that big volcano!" Urd exclaimed.
Captain Keiichi had seen. In a long, narrow valley at whose head a huge white volcano; were clustered lights.
"That should be the office building at the side of the valley," Keiichi commented keenly. "Land there."
Presently the Space Goddess came to a landing in the semi-darkness near the metal office structure.
Keiichi turned, to the Brain.
"Megumi, will you use the electroscopes and see if you can detect the rocket-trail of any ships that have landed here recently? We know Wrecker ship that got Kerk El came on to Mercury."
"I'll see what I can learn, lad," Megumi promised.
"Skuld, stay here and help Megumi with the instruments," Keiichi asked her sister.
"Come along, Urd."
He and the shapeshifter emerged from the ship into the darkness. The gravitation equalizers had already automatically compensated for the changed gravity. The air was sulfurous, pungent to the nostrils. And there was a constant, dim tremor of the rocky ground beneath them, a ceaseless faraway muttering of thunder as of distant storm.
"I don't like this cursed planet any more than Skuld does," declared Urd.
"There there's a good chance that this is the lair of Wrecker" remarked Megumi.
"But there is not a single spaceship in sight and it's eerily quiet for a large mine." Skuld added.
Everything was deserted. The lights were on but nobody was present. Even the guard fleet was gone.
"Everyone had to run away on hearing that Captain Keiichi and his sisters arrived." Urd said.
"No. If these bandits had wanted to hide, they would not have come here knowing very well that our radars could afford to follow them, even with difficulty, to their destination." Retorted the Captain.
That's when Keiichi heard a noise behind him. He turned drew his pistol.
"Who's there? Go on, show yourselves."
Nicholas Verrel, director of the mine, came forward timidly.
"Verrel? What are you doing here?" Asked the boy.
"I saw your ship land. As everyone is gone, I came to see you, hoping that you could help me." The director replied simply.
"Why everybody is he gone? Where is the defense fleet?"
"When I returned from our meeting all was well. Apparently the fleet left. Panicked, my staff ordered the evacuation. They were unable to reach me and left an explanatory note on my desk. Then you arrived. I hope you bring me good news." Explained Verrel.
"Kerk El is dead." answered Keiichi, scrutinizing a reaction on the part of his interlocutor.
"Dead ... I'm sorry for him. He was a respectable man and a competent businessman. Our mines were not in direct competition and we had agreements to not infringe on the business to each other." Said the director with a sad look.
"Really? Nothing else?" Keiichi asked, still looking for a tell from the director.
"A small thing, but I do not know if it has a report. Just before arriving I saw on radar four unidentified spaceships were heading here. Lately four Gravium transport equipment disappeared. I thought it might be them returning."
"Describe these spaceships please."
"They were black, shaped like sharks, heavily armed with two powerful Proton cannons, with a great "fin" on top". Verrel explained.
"The spaceships we fought!" Urd confirmed.
"Do you know why the defense fleet is gone? It's simply unthinkable." said the captain.
"No explanation. They just left like that, I have found no answer. But I confess that I haven't had much time to search. I myself was considering leaving. Only here, with everything that's going on right now, it seems very dangerous".
"Your story seems very reasonable mister Verrel, but I am wary of Wrecker. He may have drawn us here to have a free hand elsewhere."
"It is beyond me Captain. I'm just a businessman. My enemies are the quotas of Gravium to provide monthly and resisting certain political pressures. Terrorists, vessel disappearances, employees who run away, it's not my habit." explained the director.
Is Verrel telling the truth? And if so, who is Wrecker? Why is Mercury's defense fleet gone? Has Keiichi's crew fallen into a trap?