Tom Swift Jr #34, Chapter 18: Rendezvous in Space

The storage room that held the Challenger‘s crew was suddenly filled with a brilliant flash of white light.

“Looks like we’re headed home, boys,” Tom Sr. remarked sadly. “The kronolator just engaged.”

“We must have just begun the first leg of our journey back,” Tom Jr. said. “There will be another flash when the machine shuts down. Bud, can you help me track the bursts? I need to know when we reach Sol.”

“Sure, Tom. How many jumps does it take to get there? Was it four?”

“Six,” Tom Jr. corrected. “It’s a nine-hour trip. Each jump will last about an hour.”

“What if the robots make bigger jumps?” Bud asked.

“They can’t. The kronolator doesn’t have that much capacity. They might attempt fewer jumps, but then we’ll be able to tell by their duration.”

Tom Sr. yawned and sat down. “I’m sorry to leave you, boys, but I’m going to get some sleep. It’s been a long, long day.”

“All right, Dad,” Tom Jr. replied. He settled into a chair across from his father. “We’ll wake you up when we reach Sol.”

As his father started falling asleep, Tom Jr. removed a notebook and a green pencil from his pocket, and began making notes.

“Hey there! Where did you get those?” Bud asked.

“I had the translator beam them along when I was rematerialized,” Tom explained. “You didn’t think I was just going to sit here for nine hours and do nothing, did you?”

“I should have known,” Bud groaned. “You didn’t happen to bring a book along too, did you?”

“I’m afraid not, fly boy. But I do have two more pencils. Take your pick – do you want the red one, or the blue one?”

Bud shook his head. “No thanks – I’ll pass. What are you inventing this time? Something bigger than the kronolator?”

Tom smiled. “Not exactly. This is something much, much smaller. Submicroscopic, actually. It should be a fun challenge.”

“Just try not to get us killed again, ok?” Bud pleaded. “Once we deliver the translators to Mars we’re not going to have an escape hatch.”

“So you think we’ll get out of this?” Tom asked.

“Of course, Tom! We always do. You’ll figure something out, one way or another. I’m not worried.”

Tom stared at him. “You’re not? Honestly?”

Bud shrugged. “Ok, so I’m a little worried. But something will come up.” He looked over at his friend and began to ask another question, but the young inventor was already lost in thought. Bud sighed, took a seat, and prepared for a long wait.

Hours later, Tom Jr. nudged Bud. “C’mon, wake up! We’re almost there.”

“What’s that?” Bud asked sleepily. “Did I miss something?”

Tom smiled. “Only the entire nine-hour flight! According to my watch the kronolator should disengage in just a few minutes.”

Bud looked around and saw that Tom’s father and the crew was alert and watching the young inventor. He had obviously told them that something was about to happen.

“So what’s going on?” Bud asked.

“Wait just a minute,” Tom Jr. said. “It’s almost time for the kronolator to disengage.”

Four minutes later, the storage room was filled with a brilliant white flash of light. As soon as Tom saw the flash he grabbed his green pencil and pressed a hidden button on its side. At first nothing happened, but a few seconds later they heard the sound of a distant explosion. As the floor rumbled beneath them the lights suddenly went out, plunging the room into complete darkness.

“What’s going on?” someone shouted.

A moment later the emergency lights came on. A single bulb lit the room with a soft yellow glow.

“The famous green pencil strikes again!” Bud said gleefully. “Did you plant the bomb where we’d discussed?”

Tom Jr. nodded. “I’m sorry, Dad, but I’ve had to damage your fusion reactor. I needed to cut power to the ship to prevent the robots from escaping. Now we just need to sit tight and wait. Things should start tipping in our favor in just a few minutes.”

“So you and Bud had a plan all along!” Tom Sr. said. “I should have known. Why didn’t you tell me, Son?”

“I wanted to, but we were afraid our conversations were being monitored. I’m sure that there are listening devices in this room.”

“You’re probably right,” Tom Sr. conceded. “Is that why it took you so long to materialize after Bud?”

Tom Jr. nodded. “I needed time to arrange the simultaneous transmission of myself, the pencils, and the bomb. It had to be done all at once so that the Transmittaton would only activate a single time. I didn’t want the robots to become suspicious.”

“So both of you knew the real situation before you left the translator,” Tom Sr. said. “I take it Bud has just been playing along to make it look more convincing?”

“Exactly,” Bud replied. “The robots were easy to spot – even the cloaked ones. It turned out there are nineteen of those things on board. If you count the disabled one in your lab that makes it an even twenty.”

“But if you knew what was happening, why not plant EMP bombs to disable the robots – or maybe transport them into space? You must have known where they were.”

Tom Jr. nodded. “The problem was that a couple of them were in the hangar beside the translators. An EMP blast would have destroyed the translators as well, and I didn’t want to risk that. And there was no way we could transport them all at once – the Transmittaton can only handle one person at a time. By the time we got to the last robot they would have plenty of time for them to retaliate. Besides, our space friends were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to destroy them all simultaneously and one of them might destroy the translators in an act of revenge.”

“The space friends?” Tom Sr. asked.

“It was a little tricky to contact them from within the translator, but we found a way,” Tom Jr. said. “I figured out how to emit radio signals when I first contacted you in the room below the capitol, so it was just a matter of pushing a signal to one of the orbiting satellites and relaying it to Fearing.”

Tom Jr. was interrupted when members of the crew began disappearing, one by one. The abductions appeared to be purely at random.

“It looks like the cavalry’s here!” Bud said gleefully.

“Who?” Tom Sr. asked.

“The Cosmotron Express!” Tom Jr. replied. “The space friends told us the Space Legion had a base on Neptune, so I arranged for them to meet us there with a Transmittaton. That was the only risky part of the plan, since we didn’t actually know where they intended to go until later. I thought there was a chance they would proceed straight to Mars, but took a gamble. The Cosmotron Express doesn’t have a kronolator, but nine hours was plenty of time for the latest model to reach Neptune – and bring an army with it.”

“But Swift Enterprises doesn’t have an army,” Tom Sr. protested. “The Cosmotron Express isn’t even armed!”

“No, we don’t,” Tom Jr. admitted. “But our space friends do.”

Tom Sr. suddenly disappeared. Over the next few seconds a few more crewmembers were beamed off the ship, but then the evacuations stopped. Minutes ticked by, but nothing else happened. Tom and Bud were still in the holding cell, along with four crewmembers.

Bud spoke up. “I’m going to step out on a limb here and guess that something bad has happened.”

Tom Jr. nodded. “Somehow I knew it wasn’t going to be this easy. It never is. I guess it’s time for Act Two.”

“Remind me again what Act Two is,” Bud said. “I don’t remember discussing an Act Two.”

“That’s the part where we walk into the corridor and fight the robots with our bare hands,” Tom explained.

“Ah. You mean that Act Two. I was hoping that was just a bad dream.”

Tom shrugged and removed the red pencil from his pocket. Bud looked at it in disbelief. “You’re going to use a soldering iron to get us out of here?” he asked.

Tom shook his head. “No, I’m not. You are right, though. Normally the red pencil would be the soldering iron. But that didn’t seem very useful in our situation, so I’ve packed it with explosives instead.” Tom affixed it as near the door lock as he could and ordered everyone to stand back. The crew piled up chairs in one corner and crouched behind them to protect themselves. Tom then removed the green pencil from his pocket.

“Ah, radio detonation,” Bud said. “Nice! But you used that pencil just a few minutes ago! Why didn’t it go off then?”

“Because I hadn’t armed it yet,” Tom replied. He pressed the secret button, and the explosion went off in a thunderous roar. Smoke billowed out of the doorway, and a shockwave scattered the chairs.

Bud cautiously lifted his head over the chairs and peeked out. The metal door had been blown down the hallway, and the room was filled with debris. There were no robots in sight. “Someone must have heard that,” Bud said.

“I’m hoping our space friends have already eliminated the robots,” Tom replied. “If they haven’t then we’re going to be hurting. Quick – to the Transmittaton!”

The group of six ran to the door. Bud cautiously peered out of the doorway. After verifying that no robots were in sight they started running down the hallway. “The Transmittaton is down one level,” Tom whispered. “Let’s go!”

As they raced down the hall Bud stepped into a side-room and came out holding two EMP emitters. He raced to catch back up with the rest of the group. “I thought we might need these,” he said. Bud took one for himself and handed the other one to Donnie McGinnis.

“Don’t I get one?” Tom asked, as they ran down the stairs.

“Do you know how to shoot?” Bud asked.

“I hit the robot in the observatory,” Tom replied.

“He wanted you to hit him,” Bud argued. “Besides, you’ve got to work the Transmittaton and get us out of here. Leave the fighting to me.”

When they reached the door at the bottom of the stairwell Bud turned to Donnie. “You stay here and keep watch. I’m going outside to make sure that the coast is clear.”

Bud cautiously opened the door to the hallway. After firing a few shots down the hall he quietly crept toward the transporter room.

“I guess that’s one way to look for invisible robots,” Tom muttered to himself. “Where’s my holographic penetrator when you need it?”

As they watched, Bud reached the door that led to the transporter room. He cautiously cracked it open and peeked inside, then threw it wide open and started shooting. Bud tried to step out of the doorway, but before he could move something caught him in the chest and violently threw him against the opposite wall. His EMP emitter flew out of his hands, and he slumped down onto the floor.

A robot calmly walked out of the transporter room toward Bud. As soon as it stepped into the hallway, however, Donnie shot it twice. The robot collapsed onto the floor in a shower of sparks.

Tom started to run toward Bud when Donnie grabbed him. “Not yet,” he hissed. “Let me make sure there aren’t any more.” Tom nodded, and Donnie stepped into the hallway. After he had verified that the area was clear Tom rushed over to Bud, who had begun to stir.

“I’m fine, Tom,” he said weakly. Tom helped him to his feet. Donnie picked up the EMP emitter that Bud had dropped, and handed it back to him.

“Are you sure?” Tom asked. “You hit that wall pretty hard.”

“I think I broke some ribs, and my back is aching, but it’s nothing that won’t heal,” Bud replied. “But look, Tom, we can talk about that later. Get that invention of yours up and running and get us out of here, ok?”

Tom nodded, then helped Bud into the transporter room. As the five of them stepped onto the platform Tom started working at the terminal.

“I think we can run the Transmittaton on emergency power,” Tom said. He pressed a few buttons on the terminal and frowned. “It looks like there are other robots on board – someone is trying to get the fusion reactor back online.”

“All the more reason to get out of here,” Bud replied.

“Man, but there are a lot of ships in the area,” Tom muttered, as he looked at the screen. Little green dots were flying all around the area, and pages of data scrolled by. “There’s quite a fight going on out there.”

“We’ve gotta be going, Tom,” Bud replied urgently.

“Just give me a minute to find the Cosmotron Express,” Tom said. “There’s a lot of congestion out there.” He paused for a moment. “Ok, I think that one’s it.”

“You think?” Bud asked.

Tom pressed a button on the terminal, and one by one the remaining crewmembers disappeared. After the fourth crewmember disappeared, however, the Transmittaton powered down. The emergency lights suddenly went out as well, plunging the room into complete darkness.

“I think we’ve been noticed,” Tom said. “I had a feeling that kind of power drain wouldn’t go unnoticed for long. A reception committee is probably on its way here now.”

“And I bet they can see in the dark,” Bud commented. “I say we get out of here pronto!”

“I’m right behind you,” Tom called out.

Tom Swift Sr. suddenly found himself on the bridge of the Cosmotron Express. It took him a moment to orient himself. Yellow lights were flashing, and crewmembers were shouting out information. Outside the window Tom Sr. saw a fierce battle raging in space. Saucer-shaped ships were flying at high speeds, shooting energy weapons of some kind at each other. Beyond the battle the giant planet Neptune rested serenely in space. In the middle of the confusion Tom Sr. saw his daughter Sandy sitting in the pilot’s chair, giving orders. “When are we going to have the transport back online?” she shouted. “I need propulsion back online! We can’t stay here.”

“Sandra Swift!” Tom Sr. gasped. “What on earth are you doing here?”

Sandra turned her attention to her father. “Dad!” she said, beaming. “You made it! I was so worried about you. Ned must have beamed you right onto the bridge. But where’s Tom?”

“Last I saw he was still on board the Challenger,” Tom Sr. replied. “But why aren’t you at home in Shopton?”

Sandra flipped a switch on the ship’s intercom. “Ned, what’s the deal with the transporter? We’ve still got people over there!”

There was no response. A moment later Ned Newton’s voice rang out over the intercom. He was gasping for breath. “We got hit,” he said. “There’s been a hull breach in the transporter room. It’s a total loss.”

Tom Sr. gasped. “How many were killed?”

“We all made it out alive, but we’ve got severely injured people on our hands. A team from the infirmary is working with them now. I was at the terminal when the blast hit so I emerged pretty unscathed. But there’s no way we can repair that machine.”

Sandra clenched her fists and stared out the window into space. Outside she could see that the Challenger was at the heart of the battle, drifting helplessly in space.

“We’ve got to rescue them,” she said. “I didn’t come all this way to lose them.”

Tom Sr. walked up to the intercom. “Ned, why did you bring my daughter into this mess? And what are you doing here?”

“Sandra wanted to come and wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Ned replied. “Besides, Tom taught her how to fly all Swift aircraft, including this one. Do you realize that practically all of your experienced space pilots are out in space somewhere? It was practically impossible on such short notice to find someone who had actually flown this thing!”

“And so you chose my daughter as a pilot? Are you completely out of your mind? After my only son is nearly killed you decide to put my only other child in danger as well?”

“We were kind of in a hurry,” Ned replied. “But can we discuss this later? I need your help down here – if we don’t get the propulsion system back online we’re not going to make it.”

Tom Sr. sighed. “I’m on my way,” he said.

Sandy looked at her father. “”Phyl sends her regards, by the way. She would have come too, but she was at the dentist. Root canal, you know.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with you,” Tom Sr. said, sighing. He glanced at the radar scope and paled. “There are dozens of ships out there! Whatever possessed you to come out here?”

“We’re letting the space friends do all the heavy lifting, Dad, although we can do a little fighting with the x-raser,” Sandy explained. “But mostly we just came to beam you guys off the Challenger. Our space friends don’t have beaming technology.”

“But how have you survived?” he asked.

Sandy frowned. “The inertite coating protects us from some of their energy weapons, and we’ve got a couple repelatrons to fend of missiles . Mostly, though, we’re not surviving. By the way, I’d grab a spacesuit before heading down below. We’re sustaining a lot of damage on the lower levels, and I can’t promise the hull integrity is any good.”

“Right – thanks. But don’t think our conversation is finished, young lady. It’s just – postponed.” Tom Sr. then made his way through the chaos on the bridge and headed into the elevator shaft.