Captain Future 24 - Pardon My Iron Nerves (November 1950) Read Online Free PDF Page B

radioactive and yields many times more atomic power than copper!”
    “Why didn’t we think of that?” cried the Digger to the other Machs. “If actinium’s better than copper we’ll use it! It belongs to us by right — we’re the ones who mined it!”
    “Yeah, sure!” they cried. “Tenders, you fill your tanks with the actinium and pass it around!”
    Presently the Tenders had loaded up. They now proceeded to go around amid the Machs, pumping the actinium into the fuel-chamber of each.
    I felt exultant. If uranium had blown my overload fuses radioactive actinium should do the same to the atomics of all these Machs, putting them out of commission.
    But my exultation changed to apprehension when a Tender came rolling up to me, extending its fuel-line.
    “No, I don’t want any actinium!” I cried. “Give it to the others!”
    The Digger bellowed, “No, you get your share, guy! After all you’re the one who thought of it in the first place!”
    “That’s right!” cried the other Machs.
    They were crowded around me and I dared not resist further lest I awaken suspicion in their rudimentary minds. I was forced to open my fuel-plate.
    The Tender eagerly pumped actinium into my fuel-chamber. As I closed my fuel-plate I felt already an access of surging new strength and heard my usually noiseless atomic generators humming loudly.
    Bitterly I regretted my idea. Presently my own fuses would blow and I’d be left helpless here until Curt came looking for me.
    But my fuses did not blow. It seemed that actinium, not having quite the potential energy of uranium, did not exceed the load-limit of my generators.
    What it did do was to pour such energy through my generators that all my nerves seemed on fire. My head spun a little with the impact of too much energy through my brain.
    “Say, you were right — actinium’s a million times better than copper!” cried the big Digger to me, rolling closer.
    “I’ll say it is — I feel better than I ever felt before!” howled a looming Crusher. And to show it he proceeded to use his pile-driver arm to crush an enormous rock to fragments with two blows.
    Horrified, I perceived that all the huge Machs were acting strangely. Their movements on their caterpillar treads had become slightly uncertain. They lurched and swayed as they moved and their mechanical voices were now a deafening babble.
    The terrible realization flashed over me. The actinium, pouring far too much energy through their generators into their mental circuits, was stimulating them with so much power it had unhinged their reactions.
    To put it crassly these Machs were as drunk as goats.
    “Fellow Machs!” roared the Digger. “I say we ought to thank our new pal for giving us this actinium idea!”
    “That’s right!” thundered scores of voices. “He’s a swell Mach — one of the best!”
    They deafened me for they had lost all control of voice-volume. Their uncertain movements threatened to run over me as they crowded around.
    I felt my own mind becoming strange. Obviously the strain of my position had worsened my psychoses so that I too felt an unhealthy influence from the actinium-power coursing through me.
    It is only my psychoses that could have been responsible for my aberration that followed. For ordinarily no excess-energy fuel could have affected me in the way it did.
    Night had come by now but the great shield of Pluto poured a flood of white light. In my temporary aberration, the whole drab scene now seemed raptly beautiful, the noisy lumbering giant Machs a crowd of boon companions. I regret to say that I too raised my voice loudly, and beat upon my breast.
    “I’m feeling better now!” I shouted. “I’m feeling lots better! Coming to this moon has helped my psychoses a lot!”
    “That’s the boy!” they bellowed. “You’re as good a Mach as any of us even if you are puny.”
    “Puny?” I cried. “I’m Grag the mighty! Who was it that led the Futuremen all the way to Andromeda?