CAPTAIN ROCKET MEETS THE MIND STEALERS

by Author Unknown

Originally appearing in Captain Rocket comics issue #1 in 1951.

Inside the enormous tiled laboratory, the solitary figure of Alan Campbell, better known as Captain Rocket, was bent intently over the dials of an electronic burner. On top of the burner was a giant copperite vat that contained a radioactive saltine solution. This time the super-wizard of science experimented with extracting the radioactive salts by evaporation. Its success would mean cheaper and better fuel for Earth's cargo space-ships.

Captain Rocket looked up from his work then. Deep lines of fatigue were etched in the young scientist's face. Suddenly he felt a bit unsteady on his feet, and slight dizziness came over him. The usual brightness of his alert brown eyes was gone. "Whew!" he muttered, "I'm about done in—almost as if..." His thought was cut short as his gaze wandered to the deep black shadows bordering the lab. Instantly, he saw them.

Two yellow, bright spots shone back at him. They almost resembled a pair of eyes. Then he made out another pair; another, and another... Automatically, his hand dropped to his dis-gun. "Who's there? Speak up, or I'll blast you into atomic dust!"

The yellow disks seemed to grow brighter, draw closer. Then, several man-shaped things disengaged from the shadows and slowly came toward Captain Rocket.

At first, there were only three of them, then six, ten, twenty, fifty of them stood before him. They were ugly green-skinned beings with whitish mottlings. Rocket glanced at their webbed fingers, pointed ears, and broad noses and shuddered at the sight of the sharp, black teeth protruding from bloodless lips. But it was the eyes, those great, orange-colored orbs bulging and glowing in the gloom, that held him fascinated.

Then one of them, who was the leader of these strange green men, spoke: "You will do nothing of the sort, Captain Rocket. We have planned too long for this moment." His eyes seemed to glow more strongly by the minute as he held Captain Rocket's gaze. He wore an odd-looking machine strapped to his back. Several antennae dangled from it. "We are called the Saturnian Mind Stealers," continued the leader. "You will do exactly what I tell you!"

Captain Rocket's head began to swim crazily. His eyes blurred and went out of focus. He stared fixedly at those great sun-colored eyes. If only he could look away . . . But that was impossible. He had to look at them. His will-power seemed to ebb, and he found himself agreeing with the Saturnian leader. "Exactly as you tell me, leader!" he echoed dully, all emotion gone from his voice.

"Now, you will instruct the Earth Council to receive me!" ordered the green man.

As though in a dream, Rocket went to the televon-annunciator and called the Earth Council. "You will receive the Saturnian representatives," was all he said. At first, there was disbelief, then doubt, but finally, the Council agreed. One word from super-scientist Captain Rocket was law on Earth.

"Thank you, Captain Rocket. You have just surrendered the planet Earth to us. When we get there, the Council will have no other choice !" murmured the mocking green man. "Our planet is too small to hold our population. We shall go now, but I will leave one of my men to guard you. You will learn your fate later."

Captain Rocket could only nod. He was powerless in mind or body to do anything else. He must comply with their every wish and demand. Suddenly, as the leader turned away from him to summon a guard, Captain Rocket noticed something—a return of thought-power. Consciousness had returned. It happened when the leader took those glowing eyes off him.

But he rejoiced too soon, for, in the next instant, the ugly, saucer-eyed guard held him transfixed with a burning gaze. Captain Rockets mind went blank once again. However, a memory wisp stayed within him, and if that chance should come again...

Hours passed. The green guard kept scaring Captain Rocket. But just a little after midnight,

Captain Rocket felt something. The impulse to look at those glaring yellow eyes was not as strong as it had been! Faintly, he experienced some semblance of reason returning. There was something ... Yes! That was it!

The vat!

The water was starting to come to a boil. Faint wisps of steam drifted into a haze within the room. Some of it passed between the green man and himself. The guard noticed none of this. Soon, the steam was billowing in thick clouds. And the denser the steam became, the more Captain Rocket could think! It was acting, he reasoned hazily, as a cloud works when crossing the sun. The sun! There was something in those glaring yellow eyes that vaguely resembled the sun.

Just then, a thick cloud of vapor floated slowly between him and his captor. It was time to act! Like a madman, he clawed at his dis-gun. The green guard saw the movement and lunged. Without aiming, Captain Rocket triggered the weapon. Blue rays flashed from the muzzle, followed by the loud electric crackle. The guard toppled, then lay still on the floor. His eyes remained open. But Captain Rocket knew that he was safe as long as they were not trained upon him.

His mind raced wildly. The resemblance in the eyes of the green men to the sun . . . Perhaps that was the clue to the situation. Quickly, he took the spectro-scope from his vault, elevated the color band viewer, and trained on the yellow eyes of the guard. All the colors of the spectrum band appeared clearly on the screen. To the left, he found what he was looking for...

There was no doubt about it—ultra-violet rays! They glowed brightly, blindingly. He looked at the intensity gauge. "Fifty times norm! Angstrom units have been stepped up one hundred percent. There's enough heat and brilliance there to affect the brain's thought-center and paralyze it!" he muttered aloud. "Wait, that generator on the leader's back ... it probably steps up those units." He made rapid calculations, hurried to the televon-annunciator, and buzzed the Earth Council.

When the face of Varno, Earth Council leader, glowed on the screen, Captain Rocket knew it was too late. Looking at the dull, listless eyes and the drooping jaw on the screen, he knew the green men had made good their threat. But Captain Rocket spoke anyway: "You will not surrender to the green men. You will resist them. They are fakes..." He let his voice trail off and waited.

Then the face of the green leader crowded the screen. The glaring eyes did not affect him now. "You're too late, Captain Rocket. Earth is already ours—and without even a fight!"

"I have defeated your so-called power," replied Rocket. "Look, I have overcome your guard. Earth does not surrender until Captain Rocket is dead!"

The green leader's face fell. "Quickly," he hissed. "We return to Captain Rocket's laboratory at once!" The televon clicked off.

Captain Rocket waited nervously and silently in the shadows of his laboratory, and in a little while, he heard the door open. The green leader, followed by many of his hordes, entered. "Ho, Captain Rocket ... come out! Hiding will do you no good."

Captain Rocket stepped out of the shadows and faced the green leader. He looked at him squarely, right in the eyes. "Look, I stare right at you, Saturnian, and I can still think clearly!"

The green leader backed away, half in fright. "Bah—but those things covering your eyes—I have never seen them before! What are they?"

Captain Rocket chuckled. The green men started to lunge toward him. In a flash, he had his paralyzer ray unholstered and sprayed the oncoming horde with its full force. They stopped in their tracks and fell to the floor. Those not hit turned in fright and fled out into the night.

After they had gone, the televon buzzed sharply. It was the Earth Council leader, Varno. "They're gone, Captain Rocket. Something seemed to happen to them. They just wilted away. What did you do?"

Captain Rocket laughed softly. "Saturnians have eyes with all the aspects of the sun, Varno. I learned that in the spectron-scope. The leader was generating angstrom units in that gadget on his back...giving enough power to his men to destroy logical thinking..."

"But they're gone!" Varno repeated. "I don't understand! What drove them away?"

Captain Rocket hesitated momentarily, then spoke. "We can thank our ancestors, Varno, that Earth was saved by a very old-fashioned pair of SUNGLASSES, which filtered out the ultraviolet rays, enabling me to destroy the leader and that generator on his back!

END