Tom Swift Jr #34, Chapter 19: Defeated

“Where are you, Tom?” Bud Barclay asked quietly. He was standing in the doorway to the transporter room, still clutching his EMP emitter. It was pitch black. “I can’t see a thing!”

A hand reached out and grabbed Bud. “There you are,” Tom Jr. said. “C’mon – Dad’s lab is just down the hall, to the right.”

Tom started sprinting down the hallway in the darkness, and Bud ran after him as best he could. Bud suddenly slammed into the far wall and gasped in pain. After reorienting himself he touched the wall and began feeling for the laboratory door. Over to his right he could hear Tom muttering.

“It’s not taking my ID card,” Tom said at last.

“You do realize the power has been turned off, right?” Bud said.

“I know,” Tom sighed. “At least the electromagnets holding the door closed should be dead. Here – help me slide the door open.”

Bud finally reached the door, and together the two of them were able to slide it into the wall. Inside the lab they could see a few faint lights, but they were not bright enough to illuminate the room. Tom and Bud quickly stepped inside and then slid the door shut again.

Tom walked over to the right and fumbled around in the darkness. Bud heard a thud, then a crash, and then a few groans.

“Are you all right?” Bud asked.

“Just give me a minute,” Tom replied. A moment later a beam of white light pierced the darkness.

“I knew there was a flashlight around here somewhere,” Tom said. He directed it around the room and saw that he had knocked over a telejector. Small electronic parts and bits of broken glass were now scattered all over the floor.

“Where are all those faint lights coming from?” Bud asked.

“Some of Dad’s equipment is powered by solar batteries,” Tom explained. “I think we’re safe in here for the moment.”

Bud walked over to the center of the room and picked up Tom’s holographic penetrator, which he aimed at the door. He gave his EMP emitter to Tom. “If anything tries to get in through the door I’ll be able to spot it and shoot it.”

“Sounds good,” Tom said distractedly. He was scanning his father’s workbench, looking for something. “We need time to come up with a plan.”

“I’m way ahead of you,” Bud replied. “Let’s go to the hangar, grab the Extrasolar II, and get out of here. We can zip over to the Cosmotron Express and they can take us back to Earth.”

Tom shook his head. “I’m not leaving until I get my ship back, Bud. The Space Legion is not going to get away with the Challenger.”

Outside they heard a clanking noise. It grew louder, and then faded down the hall.

“They’re looking for us, Tom,” Bud said. “It’s not going to take them long to realize that we left the transporter room and came here. We’re outnumbered and outgunned. We’ve got to abandon ship while we still can.”

“There has to be something we can do,” Tom insisted. “There’s just got to be. We know the Transmittaton is still functional. If we can somehow restore power to it – ”

“And how are you going to find the robots, Tom? The transporter can’t detect them! The Cosmotron Express has a lot better chance of retaking this ship than we do.”

As they argued, Bud noticed that the door to the lab was starting to slide open. Tom and Bud immediately stopped talking. Tom clicked off his flashlight and quietly crouched behind some equipment, and Bud activated the holographic penetrator and peered onto its display. As the door slid open he could see the outline of a robotic hand pushing against the door.

Bud fired the penetrator’s EMP emitter, and then fired it again. The hand jerked off the door and threw off sparks, and finally disappeared out of his range of vision. Bud waited a moment and then slowly walked up to the door, using the penetrator’s display to work his way through the darkness.

“What are you doing?” Tom whispered.

“Quiet!” Bud ordered.

After Bud made it to the crack in the door he scanned the hallway with the penetrator. Once he had verified that there were no other robots in sight he dragged the downed robot into the lab and slid the door shut.

“If we left it outside it would be a dead giveaway,” Bud explained. “But Tom, we’ve got to get out of here. We can’t retake this ship by ourselves. We need to go while we still have a chance.”

Tom sighed, and turned his flashlight back on. “I guess you’re right. Let’s go.”

“Leave the flashlight off – it’s a dead giveaway,” Bud said. “I’ll lead with the penetrator. Just put your hand on my shoulder and stay behind me. We’ll go to the stairwell and then take the stairs to the hangar.”

Tom turned off the flashlight and got into position. Bud then crouched behind the door, slid it open, and scanned for robots. None were in sight. The two cautiously made their way to the stairwell at the far end of the hallway. All around them was complete darkness. When they were halfway to the stairwell they felt the floor start to rumble.

Bud grabbed Tom and hustled him into a doorway. “What’s that?” he asked.

Tom frowned. “I’m not sure, Bud. It could be – ”

Before he could finish, they both heard a metal grinding sound in the stairwell up ahead. A bright light suddenly shone from beneath the cracks of the stairwell door, followed immediately by a thunderous explosion! The door was blown into the hallway, narrowly missing Tom, and smoke poured out of the ruins.

Bud used the penetrator to scan through the smoke. “This is bad,” he said. “Very, very bad.”

“The stairwell has collapsed?” Tom asked.

Bud nodded. “It’s now buried under tons of steel. The robots must have wanted to make sure that we remained trapped down here.”

Tom stared thoughtfully at the penetrator’s display. “At least they can’t get to us now.”

“Right,” Bud said. “Because there is no way they could possibly cut a hole in the ceiling and drop down on top of us. Evil metal robots from space are incapable of cutting holes. Or of taking the elevator, come to think of it.”

Tom winced. “Ok, so maybe I was a little off-base there. But the elevator is not a bad idea. Why not use it to reach the hangar?”

“How are you going to climb up the shaft with no power, Tom?” Bud asked.

“Come with me,” Tom said. He and Bud raced back to Tom Sr.’s lab, where Tom took out his flashlight and made his way to the workbench. He scanned it for a second and then grabbed two silver machines that looked like futuristic pistols.

“Ah, repelatron guns!” Bud said. “I see what you’re thinking.” He took one from Tom and put it in his pocket as Tom turned off his flashlight. The two of them then ran out of the lab, down the hallway, and to the elevator.

Bud scanned the hallway. “I’m not seeing any more robots,” he said at last. “I don’t like it.”

“They probably know the elevator shaft is our only way out,” Tom replied.

“Which makes me like it even less,” Bud replied. “But at least we’re on the lowest level of the ship. They can’t come at us from both directions.”

Tom pointed his repelatron gun at the elevator door, switched the gun into low-power mode, and pulled the trigger. The doors held for a second, then buckled, and then collapsed inward. Before stepping into the shaft Bud took a few steps back and used his penetrator to scan the area. Before he had completed his search, however, a small metal sphere dropped down the shaft and landed on the floor. It began to give off a soft white light.

“Tom – run!” Bud shouted. Tom saw the bomb and began running away, but he was too late. The sphere erupted into a ball of flame and blew the elevator shaft apart. A violent shockwave hurtled Tom down the hallway, where he violently crashed into the far wall. His flashlight clattered to the floor. Bud watched in horror as he slumped to the ground, unconscious. He quickly grabbed the flashlight and raced over to his friend.

“Stay with me, Tom,” Bud whispered as he checked his pulse. He glanced over to the elevator shaft and saw that the blast had blown a wide hole where the elevator doors used to be. There was a clear path up into the shaft.

“This is going to be tough,” Bud thought. He was still in pain from his own encounter with the robots, and knew it would be difficult for him to carry Tom upstairs. Bud first checked Tom’s injuries. “Hmmm. A nasty blow to the head, but no obvious signs of bleeding. There may be internal injuries, though. He hit the wall pretty hard.”

Bud quickly thought the situation over. The infirmary was located several levels upstairs, which placed it well out of reach. “The lab probably has medical supplies somewhere, but I really don’t have that kind of time. I’ve got to get Tom out of here before the metalheads realize we’re still alive.”

As carefully as he could Bud hoisted Tom over his shoulder and carried him into the elevator shaft. He then took out the flashlight, turned it on, and put it in his shirt pocket. The flashlight shot a brilliant beam of light straight up into the shaft. After making one last scan with his penetrator he backed into a corner, aimed the repelatron gun at the floor, and held down the trigger. The force of the repelatron pressed him into the corner of the shaft, and they both started to rise off the floor.

“The hangars are two levels above us,” Bud thought. He looked down at the repelatron gun, which was humming quietly. “I sure hope this thing holds out. Man, am I hurting. Why couldn’t the artificial gravity have gone out with the lights? That would have made this so much easier.”

The climb in the darkness was excruciating. Bud held both the repelatron gun and the flashlight with one hand, and with his other arm he held his unconscious friend. Bud found it very difficult to hold Tom and maintain his balance, and he did not have a free hand for the penetrator, which he was carrying under his arm. He realized that if the robots found him in the shaft there was no way he could defend himself without dropping Tom. On top of that, it was very difficult to hold the repelatron gun steady. “The gun just wasn’t designed for this,” Bud thought wistfully.

When he finally rose to the floor that contained the hangar Bud saw that the elevator doors were closed. “I should have known,” he thought, grimacing. He gently backed off the power on his repelatron gun so that they would stop rising. After staring at the doors for a moment, he used the arm that was holding Tom to reach into his friend’s pocket, where Tom had placed his repelatron gun. Once he had the second gun in his grasp Bud aimed it at the door and fired.

The blast blew apart the two doors and knocked them into the hallway. It also jerked the gun out of Bud’s hand, and knocked Bud off-balance. As the gun clattered down the elevator shaft he struggled to hold onto Tom and keep from plunging into the darkness. In desperation he used his feet to push off of the elevator shaft wall and launched himself into the hallway.

As he landed he heard a clanking noise approaching. Bud dropped everything, grabbed the penetrator from under his arm, and did a quick scan of the hallway. He saw nothing.

“You’re out there,” he muttered. “I’ll find you yet.”

While still clutching the penetrator, Bud hoisted Tom over his shoulder again, turned off the flashlight, and started making his way down the hallway. It was pitch black, but the penetrator’s screen offered a view of the surrounding area. He crept slowly along one wall and continued to watch his back, convinced that something was following him.

When he had almost reached the hangar he heard something clatter down the hall. He whirled around just in time to see a small metal sphere roll toward him. Bud aimed the penetrator at it and fired an EMP blast. The sphere emitted a few sparks, but it did not explode.

Sweat poured off of Bud’s brow. He was becoming weak from exertion. “I’m almost there,” he told himself. When he reached the hangar door he stopped and looked at it. “Let’s assume this room is full of metalheads,” he thought grimly. Bud carefully opened the door and then stared firing wildly, raking the entire room with waves of EMP. He felt something shake the floor under him, and saw groups of brilliant white sparks flare all over the hangar. As he stood in the doorway and scanned the room he saw that there were four robots inside. All of them were on the floor, disabled.

When Bud stepped through the hangar door he heard a clanking sound behind him. He immediately lunged inside and slammed the door behind him. As he ran away from the door and into the darkness of the hangar he heard a tremendous roar in the hallway. The door to the hallway was blown open, but it remained on its hinges.

“I hate those bombs,” Bud thought. “Where’s a cesium force field when you need it?” He raced over to the Extrasolar II, opened the hatch, and gently placed Tom inside, all the while keeping an eye on the doorway. After securing the still-unconscious Tom in place he jumped inside the craft and closed its tomasite canopy. “I am so glad Tom coats these craft in an EMP-resistant coating,” Bud thought, as he powered up the ship. “You just gotta love inertite.”

Bud used the ship’s repelatrons to blast open the hangar door, and then flew the ship out into space. Outside everything was still. The planet Neptune loomed in the distance, and a small group of ships were flying toward it. Wrecked ships were everywhere, and a handful of live ships charted a course through them, heading toward a large fleet in the distance. Bud saw no signs of shooting.

“Let’s see,” Bud said aloud, as he scanned his cockpit display. “I’m seeing four ships heading toward Neptune. There are a couple dozen dead ships, and, wow, a whole bunch of active ones. There’s the Challenger, completely dead. And there, right in the middle of an army of alien spaceships, is the Cosmotron Express, with signs of heavy battle damage. Oh boy. This is clearly not my week.”

Bud opened up a communications channel. “This is Bud Barclay, calling the Cosmotron Express. How is life treating you these days?”

Bud heard Sandy Swift’s voice come in over the radio. “Bud! You’re alive! How is Tom?”

“Um, well, Tom has been better, actually. He needs urgent medical attention. But is that you, Sandy? What are you doing out here?”

“Just come on in,” Sandy replied. “We’ll have a medical team standing by.”

“Right. You want me to head toward you because all those big alien ships surrounding you are…?” Bud asked.

“Our space friends,” Sandy replied. “Come on in and I’ll explain everything. I think we’ve defeated the Space Legion once and for all.”

Bud then flew the Extrasolar II toward the Cosmotron Express. “It looks like we’ve done it again, genius boy,” he said to his unconscious companion. “Now we just need to get you patched up and head for home.”