Tom Swift Jr #34, Chapter 17: Homeward Bound

“So how did that one go?” Tom Swift Jr. asked.

“Not so good,” Tom Sr. said, frowning.

A holographic image of Tom Swift Jr. was standing in the Challenger’s transporter room, and six potted plants were on the floor around him. None of the plants were recognizable. For the past twenty minutes Tom Jr. had been sending data from the translator to the Transmittaton in an attempt to create a live object, but he had not met with any success.

“I just don’t get it,” Tom Jr. said, puzzled. “We were able to fabricate an endless array of rocks without any problems. Why are plants any different?”

“Plants are a lot more complicated than rocks, Son. It’s possible that we may be getting some interference that’s blocking a portion of your data stream. If the Transmittaton is only receiving part of the signal it won’t be able to accurately reproduce the object.”

“But the translator is located right down the hall from you!” Tom Jr. objected. “The signal is traveling about thirty feet, tops. How much interference could their possibly be?”

“We can easily design a test and find out,” Tom Sr said. “Let’s try beaming the signal to the Transmittaton but have it not build the object. I’ll analyze the signal that it receives and we can compare notes.”

Tom Jr. nodded. “It sounds like this could take a while.”

“I’m afraid so. We’ve never tried using your invention to fabricate objects before. You have to expect a few problems.”

“And, unfortunately, there probably isn’t another way out of here,” Tom Jr. said. “All right, Dad. Let’s get started.”

An hour later Chow Winkler ambled into the room. The overweight cook gasped in amazement as soon as he walked in. “Well brand my germaniums, what’s goin’ on here?” he thundered. The transporter room was cluttered with dozens of different plant species. Some of them were intact and thriving, but others were clearly dead.

“Hey there, Chow,” Tom Jr. said, waving. His holographic image turned away from examining a large white Easter lily and faced the cook. “Where have you been? You were supposed to be here an hour ago.”

“Sorry ’bout that, boss. I had to feed the crew breakfast, y’know, and time sorta got away from me. But what are all the plants for? Are you tryin’ to start a greenhouse, or somethin’?”

Tom Jr. laughed. “Not exactly, Chow. We’ve been trying to use the Transmittaton to fabricate objects, and we’ve been testing the process with plants. It looks like we finally got it licked, though. The past six plants worked flawlessly.”

Chow nodded. “And just in time, too. There ain’t much room left in here. What was the problem?”

“It turned out it was my fault,” Tom Jr. admitted. “The signal I was generating from the translator wasn’t focused enough. Instead of sending the data over a narrow band of frequencies I was allowing part of the message to leak. The Transmittaton wasn’t getting the whole picture, so it was creating a mess.”

“I get it, boss. So what’s next?”

Tom Sr. spoke up. “I think we’re ready to attempt the extraction. Who wants to go first – you, or Bud?”

There was silence for a moment, and then Tom Jr. laughed. “Bud just told me that he needs to go first, since I’m the only person who knows how to work this thing. He doesn’t want to be marooned inside the translator for the rest of time.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Tom Sr. replied.

“What’s gonna happen, Tom?” Chow asked nervously. “You ain’t gonna produce hundreds of Buds, the way you made all those mushrooms that one time, are you?”

“Don’t worry, Chow – there’s no danger of that! Bud won’t actually be alive again until his brain energy is returned to the body that we’re about to make. There is only one copy of his brain energy, and it can’t be duplicated, so there can only be one Bud Barclay.”

“Whatever you say, boss. It don’t make no sense to me. It sure will be good to see you again, though.”

“I’ll see you soon,” Tom Jr. promised. The holographic image of him disappeared, and there was silence for a minute. Then the Transmittaton came to life, and there was a brief flash of light. When the light faded they saw Bud Barclay lying on the platform!

The figure was still for a moment, and then Bud groaned. His eyes fluttered open, and he attempted to rise to his feet. Tom Sr. rushed over to help him.

“Let’s not ever do this again,” Bud said weakly.

Tom Sr. smiled. “It’s good to see you again, Bud. How do you feel?”

“Like I just fell off a cliff,” Bud replied. “I feel awful. I think I’ll live, though.”

The two men quickly cleared off the platform to make room for Tom. Several minutes went by, but nothing happened.

“Where is he?” Tom Sr. said at last.

Bud shrugged. “He’ll be here. When he beamed me out he had to sit there and manage the whole process. He’s probably looking for a way to automate it, so it’ll happen without him sitting at the controls. Give him a little more time – he’ll show up.”

As Bud predicted, a few moments later Tom Swift Jr. appeared on the platform, wearing khaki pants and his trademark striped shirt. Tom groaned, opened his eyes, and attempted to stand.

“I see what you mean,” Tom Jr. said weakly. “This does feel awful. I guess our space friends still have some work to do on the rematerializing part.”

Tom Sr. helped his son over to a chair, where he sat down. “It is so good to see you again, Son,” Tom Sr. said. “I thought I had lost you.”

“We weren’t feeling too good either there for a while,” Tom Jr. commented. “It’s good to be back.”

Chow nodded. “It surely is, Tom. You two got a real talent for gittin’ into trouble, you know that?”

Tom Jr. laughed. “You’re not kidding! I just can’t figure out how I get into these situations. These things just seem to happen.”

“So what now?” Bud said, as he settled down into a chair and relaxed.

“I think it’s time to go home,” Tom Sr. replied. “Have you made a decision about the translators, Son?”

Tom Jr. nodded. “Yes, Dad, I have. It turns out the robots were right. If we take the translators back to Sol we will be dooming the human race. I’m going to personally destroy both of them.”

“Are you kidding?” Tom Sr. asked, aghast. “Those machines are home to millions, possibly billions of life forms! You can’t destroy them!”

Chow spoke up. “Do not worry, Mr. Swift. Your son is lying.” The image of Chow Winkler suddenly disappeared, revealing a black metal robot with two glowing red eyes.

Bud gasped. “You’re not Chow!”

“I had a feeling that would flush them out,” Tom Jr. said quietly.

Tom Sr. sighed. “I should have known. Chow would have been here right on time. You’ve already kidnapped the entire crew, haven’t you?”

The robot nodded. “We took control while you were distracted in here. It worked out rather well.”

“Are you Andy?” Bud asked. “Or are you someone else? I can’t tell you creatures apart.”

The robot turned its head to face Bud. “That is because the members of the Space Legion’s robotic tactical division are all identical, save for our serial numbers. I am not the one Mr. Swift named Andy. But you may call me Andy as well if you like.”

Bud shook his head. “I prefer the term evil killer robot, if it’s all the same with you. Truth in advertising, and all that.”

“What did you do to the crew?” Tom Jr. demanded.

“Oh, they are all safe. We have placed them in one of your storage compartments. We took the liberty of emptying it first, of course. And now you will join them.”

“There are a few things about all this I don’t understand,” Tom Sr. said. “First you try to keep us from going to Thanatos to get the translators, then you actually help us get the translators, and now you’re stealing them from us. Why the change of heart?”

“Don’t encourage him,” Bud pleaded. “He’s going to start monologuing, and we’re going to be here for hours. Once an evil villain starts bragging about their evil plan it’s almost impossible to get them to shut up.”

“Ignore him,” Tom Jr. pleaded. They suddenly felt the ship tremble slightly.

The robot spoke. “It makes no difference. We have now left the ocean floor and are headed into space. We will be back at Sol by the end of the day. There is nothing you can do about it. It will do no harm to answer your pathetic questions. We had you fooled all along.”

“On the contrary, I think I know exactly what you were doing,” Tom Jr. said boldly. “Your first plan was to keep us from ever going to Thanatos. Rather than reveal yourselves to us, though, you hired a couple local thugs and had them plant the jamming device and give us the warning on Rattlesnake Island.”

“Why would they do that?” Bud asked. “I mean, why use unreliable help when you’re a space-age killer robot?”

“I bet it’s the space friends,” Tom Jr. said. “They’re afraid of them!”

The robot interrupted. “The Space Legion is not afraid of those you call your space friends. We simply find it best to avoid their attention where possible. Why provoke an unnecessary conflict?”

“You mean, if they caught you the jig would be up,” Bud retorted. “They have you scared silly.”

The robot ignored him and continued. “Our original plan was indeed to prevent you from coming here. We knew the translator that housed your allies had become damaged in an earthquake and was about to stop working. If we could discourage you from going it would ensure their defeat.”

“But it would ensure your defeat as well,” Tom Sr. said. “Tom told me about the genetic meltdown that happened here. Our space friends weren’t the only ones on the verge of extinction.”

“It would be better for both races to perish than for our enemies to live,” the robot replied.

“What I don’t get is why that robot revealed itself in the observatory that night,” Bud said. “If you guys were trying to be all secretive then why give the game away? You had to realize that your story about time travel was pretty thin.”

“The security system at Swift Enterprises is very strong,” the robot said. Bud nearly burst out laughing, but a sharp glance from Tom silenced him. The robot continued. “We could not find anyone who was willing to challenge it, so we were forced to do it ourselves. Our original plan was to have a robot cloak itself with human form and complete the mission in that disguise, so that it would appear that a human was responsible. However, when our operative spotted Swift Jr. on the infirmary roof holding an EMP weapon we realized that our disguise was known.”

“You guys spotted me?” Tom Jr. said, astonished.

“We?” Bud asked, interrupting. “Who is this ‘we’?”

“The robots in the tactical division maintain constant communication with each other at all times,” the robot explained. “Contact is only broken when the division is dispersed across multiple planets – or star systems, in this case.”

Tom Sr. spoke up. “I believe I understand. Rather than challenging Tom, your group decided to change plans and have the robot pretend it was from the future.”

“But what about the Swift logos that were on the parts?” Bud asked.

“Paint is easy to fabricate, Mr. Barclay,” the robot replied. “We had hoped that the original human disguise would not be penetrated but we felt it wise to have a backup plan ready. It is always wise to have options.”

Tom Sr. nodded. “That explains why the robot I destroyed didn’t have the logo on it.”

“We had hoped you would not examine that machine,” the robot said. “It was a calculated risk. After this ship left Earth we could have overpowered you, but we were concerned that there would be difficulties getting to the translator. Since you and your Son are excellent at overcoming technical challenges it seemed best to have you on our side. As it turned out our fears were unwarranted, but we did not want to take any unnecessary risks.”

Tom Jr. spoke up. “So once you realized we were actually going to make it to Thanatos you decided to hitch a ride, help us get the translators, and then steal them for your own use.”

“Our plan goes further than that,” the robot said. “If that was the extent of our plan then you would already be dead.”

“I wondered about that,” Bud muttered.

The robot continued. “It is entirely possible that those you call your space friends will find a way to repair their damaged translator. We do not wish for that to happen, so we are going to use these two translators to trick them into revealing the location of their base.”

Tom Jr. snapped his fingers. “That’s it! You need us alive because you think our space friends will scan the ship for our presence and will get suspicious if only you robots are on board. And you know for sure they won’t give up their location if the translator isn’t here.”

“In fact we cannot be on board at all,” the robot replied. “Your friends are very adept at detecting our presence, so we will not be joining you on your trip to Mars. We will stop at one of the outer planets and return to our base, while this ship’s auto-pilot flies all of you to Mars. Once it arrives it will automatically contact your space friends with the good news. When your space friends reply with their coordinates this ship will inform the Space Legion, and we will invade.”

“This ship doesn’t have an auto-pilot,” Tom Sr. said.

“Something tells me it’s got one now,” Bud muttered.

“It is time to go, gentlemen,” the robot said. “I trust you will not be so foolish as to attempt to stop me from escorting you to the holding area.”

Bud glanced at Tom Jr., who shook his head. Bud let out a heavy sigh, but took no action.

The robot led them out of the room and down the corridor. At the end of the hall was a heavy steel door that led to a storage room. Beside it was an armed robot. When the group reached the door the guard robot unlocked and opened it. After Tom Jr., Tom Sr., and Bud were ushered into the room the guard closed and locked the door behind them.

Inside the surprisingly spacious room they saw Chow, James, and the rest of the crew. Most of them were sitting on chairs, but a few were milling about. It was clear at a glance that none of them had been injured. When the crew caught sight of Tom and Bud they eagerly crowded around and welcomed them back. Tom Jr. personally shook everyone’s hand.

“Checking to make sure they’re all real people?” Tom Sr. asked.

“Could be,” Tom Jr. replied nonchalantly. “It never hurts.”

“Hey, this really is a pretty big room,” Bud remarked, after the commotion had died down.

Tom Jr. nodded. “Normally it houses the space solartron, but we didn’t take it with us this time.”

“Oh, of course,” Bud said. “That makes sense. A device that turns sunlight into matter wouldn’t work very well in deep space, would it? But didn’t the robot say something about emptying the room? What was in here earlier?”

“All my galley supplies,” Chow groaned. “I had enough food in here to last all winter, Tom, and now it’s all gone. Those blasted robots made off with all my vittles.”

Tom Jr. was surprised. “How long did you think we’d be at Thanatos, Chow? This was just going to be a quick trip! I’ve actually got to speak at a commencement ceremony in two weeks. Who told you we’d be there for months?”

“You can never tell,” Chow replied vaguely. “There ain’t many grocery stores out in space, Tom. You gotta be prepared for anything.”

“So what do we do now?” Bud asked.

“Haven’t you asked me that before?” Tom Jr. replied. “In fact, come to think of it, haven’t you been asking me that ever since we got here?”

“Tell you what,” Bud replied. “I’ll make a deal with you. If you’ll get us safely home and wipe out all the evil killer robots, I’ll lay off with the questions for a week or two. Deal?”

Tom Jr. smiled. “Deal. But don’t worry. All we need to do is wait.”

“Wait?” Bud said, surprised. “You mean, as in sit here and do nothing?”

“Something like that,” Tom Jr. agreed. “That is, unless you have your own super-secret plan for defeating a horde of invisible robots with only your bare hands.”

“So I guess we wait,” Bud said glumly.