6 Nov 2008

Tom Swift Jr #34, Chapter 6: The Shadow of Death

Posted by joncooper

Tom Swift stopped a moment to think. “I bet they found out about the kronolator! Someone’s probably on the way here now to steal the plans for it.”

He quickly looked around and verified that the room had been secured. When Tom had his office upgraded he took special pains to enhance the room’s security. The lab’s bland, white walls hid a thick layer of reinforced steel, and the windows were made of unbreakable glass. The plans for his inventions were kept in a secure vault beneath the office. The only door to the room was the size of a vault door, and it was secured by both a special code and a biometric sensor.

The room’s alarm system had been designed by Tom himself. A network of sensors constantly monitored the room’s activities. Even if an unauthorized person somehow made it into the room they would be immediately spotted and an alarm would sound. The security building was located right next to the structure that housed Tom’s lab, and armed guards could arrive within seconds.

Tom had even taken the pains to design a field generator that could block the transmittaton’s signal. No one would be able to materialize directly into the room unless he first deactivated the protective shield.

With that in mind, Tom walked over to a terminal that was embedded in the wall and checked the source of the alarm. He could see that Harlan was already responding to the source of the break-in. A red light was flashing by Gate 16, indicating that something had damaged the gate and allowed an unauthorized intrusion.

Tom was disturbed. “If someone broke into the plant then they should show up on the radar system. I’m not seeing anyone, though. That either means that no one managed to break in, or that someone has found a way to neutralize the radar impulses.”

He decided to pull up the security footage and review the incident himself. Tom pressed some buttons on the terminal and pulled up the video record that was made at Gate 16 just before the sirens went off. When he played the tape he saw an individual dressed in a nondescript black suit park a sedan in the visitor’s lot and walk up to the guard station outside the gate. When one of the two station guards stepped outside to check the man’s ID he attacked the guard and quickly disabled him. Before the second guard could respond the man pulled a device out of his suit and fired it at the gate. The resulting explosion blew apart the metal barrier, which allowed the man in black to rush in.

Tom was aghast. Swift Enterprises had been infiltrated many times, but he had never before seen a forced entry by a dangerous, armed man. He hoped that the security response team would be careful.

Something about the incident nagged at Tom. Almost unconsciously, Tom pressed the replay button. As he watched the video a second time he suddenly realized what was wrong. When the man in black stepped in front of the guard post he cast a long shadow on the ground. The shadow, however, was not of a human being. Tom could clearly see the metal frame of a robot outlined against the pavement. He instantly realized that the image of a human was simply a holographic projection of light, intended to hide the sinister being underneath.

Realizing that Harlan Ames had no idea what he was up against, Tom grabbed the phone off the wall. No one responded in the security office, so Tom tried connecting to the radio communicator that he always carried. He received no response to his frantic calls.

“The robot is probably jamming the airwaves,” Tom thought. He mulled the problem over. “I’m probably safe here in my lab, but if I don’t do something someone is going to get hurt. But what can I do? The intruder has obviously found a way to remain hidden from radar. How can I find and disable it?”

Knowing he had only a few seconds in which to act, Tom looked around his laboratory for anything that he could use. “I wish Bud was here,” he muttered. “He always knows what to do in these kind of situations. I’m a scientist, not a fighter, and I’m fresh out of giant robots.”

His eyes caught sight of a piece of equipment lying on his workbench. He ran over and grabbed it. “This could work! That robot has got to be built out of electronic parts, and electronics are notoriously sensitive to radiation. This emitter isn’t a weapon, but it will send out a strong electromagnetic pulse, and that should stop the robot in its tracks.” Tom quickly grabbed a miniaturized solar battery off the shelf and wired it to the emitter. “It’s not pretty, but it ought to do the job,” he thought.

Tom ran over to the massive vault door that guarded the only entrance to his lab and then stopped. “Think, Tom. Where are you going? Where would the robot be?” He knew that the intruder could be anywhere inside the four-mile-square complex, and at this time of night it could be impossible to find.

“The robot is almost certainly on his way here to this very lab. It’s a good two miles from that gate to this building, so unless it can run over a hundred miles an hour it ought to take it at least a few minutes to get here. If I can get on top of the infirmary across the street I should be able to see it as it comes down the road and can pick it off from a distance.”

Tom went back to the wall terminal and pressed a few buttons. Moments later, a transmittaton in his lab transported him instantaneously to the roof of the infirmary. He had set the protective shield to lower itself only long enough for him to be transported out, and felt confident that the lab was still safe. “If the robot had beaming capabilities it would never have had to force itself through the gate,” he thought.

Outside it was pitch black. The night sky was obscured by a low layer of clouds, which blocked any moonlight. A cold wind blew from the north, making Tom wish he had remembered to grab a jacket before he left his parent’s house that morning. It was a bitter evening to be outside.

Tom walked over to the ledge and kneeled down. The street that led past the infirmary to the gates was well-lit, and it was easy to see the laboratory building’s entrance from his vantage point. He clutched his EMP emitter and sat down to wait.

A few minutes later Tom saw a figure darting from one building to the next. He tensed, and waited. To his surprise, however, it went inside the observatory.

He picked up his portable radio and tried to raise Harlan again, but heard only static. Tom glumly put the radio back in his pocket, and then walked over to the building’s emergency escape stairwell. He quietly walked down the stairs, and then looked around.

The wailing sirens had gone off some time ago, and there was no noise to break the silence of the night. Tom wondered where everyone was and checked his watch. “Does nobody work here at three in the morning?” he asked incredulously.

He quietly made his way to the observatory, while being careful to maintain a firm grip on his emitter. Once Tom reached the building he stole a glance inside. From the street he could see a figure kneeling in front of the megascope space prober.

Tom was taken aback. “He’s disassembled my megascope? Why would it do that? They’re commercially available! You can find them in observatories all over the world. What gives?”

After taking one final glance down the street Tom picked up the emitter and aimed it at the figure inside. “The glass door shouldn’t block the electromagnetic pulse,” he thought, “and I’d rather not get any closer than I have to.” He took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

The emitter let out an incredibly loud hum, and Tom felt a blast of heat hit his face. Inside he saw the black robot suddenly stand up, and then wobble backward as if it had been hit with a sledgehammer. Even from a hundred feet away Tom could see sparks flying out the machine.

However, the robot had caught sight of Tom. It leveled its metal hand at the door and fired something. The glass doors burst into shards, and Tom felt the emitter yanked right out of his hands. He then felt himself being pulled toward the robot! Tom tried to hold himself back, but was drawn toward the machine with an irresistible force. Suddenly, a few yards from the robot, he stopped.

Tom looked at the robot coolly. The machine was built out of a dark metal, and had no extruding wires or parts. The fingers were articulated, but the body was built with a minimum of material. “It almost looks like a skeleton,” Tom thought. The head was a featureless sphere of metal, save for two red eyes that glowed out of the machine’s forehead. It had no obvious nose, ears, or mouth, which gave it a chilling appearance.

The device was obviously damaged, but Tom could see that it was still immensely powerful. He knew he could probably finish it off with one more shot from his emitter, but it was nowhere to be seen.

The robot turned its full attention to Tom. “I apologize for the mess, Mr. Swift,” it said, in a clear, human voice. “It was not my intention to destroy your property.”

Tom was taken aback by this. “Just a few minutes ago you blew apart my front gates! That’s hardly asking for a warm welcome.”

The robot nodded. “It was necessary to gain access to this megascope, and I feared that you might not be cooperative. Please understand that I mean you no harm. In fact, it is you who have enabled me to be here tonight.”

“What are you talking about?”

Without takings its gaze off Tom, the robot activated the megascope. From where Tom stood he could see that it had been pointed toward the extrasolar planet.

“First, let me apologize for the unfortunate actions of my associates. I did wish to prevent you from sending messages into space, but the demolition trigger was not intended to injure you. I merely wished to prevent you from learning of my existence. Likewise, the messengers I sent to your island to warn you of the great danger you are in were not sent to harm you.”

“Are you kidding? They shot at us!”

The robot nodded. “This is true, but remember, Mr. Swift, they were armed and you were not. Had they chosen to fight you they could have killed you both, but instead they fled. I have only been trying to warn you, and it is you yourself that gave me this task.”

Tom felt his anger beginning to boil. He fought to keep it under control. “That’s the second time you’ve said that. I’ve never seen you before in my life!”

“Of course not. Permit me to explain. You, Mr. Swift, have been asked by unknown parties in space to go to a distant planet and retrieve an alien object.”

Tom nodded. “Our space friends need our help. Their survival depends upon it!”

“So they say. Tell me, Mr. Swift. How do you know that the message was sent from your space friends, and not from, say, someone who means you great harm?”

He thought a moment. “This isn’t the first message we’ve received from them, you know. We’ve been communicating with them for quite some time. The message was sent in their language, using the protocols we established some time ago, and from roughly the same place the messages have always originated. There’s no reason to think that it didn’t come from them.”

The robot nodded – an eerily human gesture that only made Tom dislike the machine more. “That is all true, but you cannot honestly believe that such a message would be difficult to counterfeit, can you? Anyone could have sent that message provided they had sufficient scientific expertise. That’s hardly a foolproof system.”

“So what are you suggesting?”

“I am here to tell you that the message did not come from your space friends. In fact, your space friends died just recently. It originated from their enemies, who wiped them out and now want you to retrieve an artifact for them that is beyond their reach. You, Mr. Swift, are going to go get this artifact, and in your ignorance you will give it to them freely. They will then use it to destroy their alien opponents. Thirty years from now, when that war is finished, they will come here, to Earth, and destroy it.”

“And you know this how, exactly?”

“Because I am from the future, and what I describe has already happened. When you realized what you had done you built a time machine and sent me into the past to undo your great mistake. I am your own invention, Tom. Thirty years from now you will build me with your own hands for this very mission.”

Tom’s mind reeled. “I don’t believe it,” he stammered. “Not a word. You’re just part of a Brungarian plot!”

“Your future self realized you might react this way, of course. Which is why I am here. I had hoped to persuade you to not help your space friends without revealing myself, but when you proved stubborn I knew I had to take a bolder course. So I have come here and upgraded your megascope. I’ve taken the improvements that you will make to it over the next thirty years and installed them on this device. I want you to see the true nature of this planet that you are about to visit.”

The robot reached over and switch on the megascope’s screen. Tom could see the extrasolar planet very clearly now. A thick layer of dark clouds obscured the planet’s surface. He could see arcs of electricity shooting through the upper atmosphere. The robot reached out a hand and slowly turned a nob. To Tom’s astonishment, the view penetrated the clouds!

He could now see the surface of the planet itself. The sight was horrifying. Vast stretches of the planet’s surface were covered in blackened, hard lava, dotted by active volcanoes. In a few scattered patches Tom could see the ruins of once-mighty cities. The southern portion of the planet held a large sea that Tom guessed was made of liquefied methane gas. As Tom watched, the robot adjusted the megascope to provide a view beneath the surface of the methane sea. At the bottom of the ocean Tom could see buildings that had clearly been blown apart in a terrible war. Nowhere on the planet could he see any signs of life.

Tom turned his head from the nightmarish scene and looked at the robot. “What happened there?”

“At one time that was the home world of your space friends, Mr. Swift. Then the group you know as the Space Legion attacked their world and devastated it. Those same creatures are still out there, and they remain very dangerous. Do you see all of that destruction? That is exactly what they want to do to your own world. If you continue on this expedition, you will be dooming your world to this fate.”

Tom opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again. He turned back to look at the ruined cities that were depicted in the megascope’s viewer.

“I know you do not trust me, Mr. Swift, so do not take my word for it. Go ahead and make your trip to that distant point of light. Find out for yourself what happened on that once-fertile world. See if what I told you is true or not.”

With that, a shower of sparks suddenly flew out of the robot’s upper torso. The glowing eyes in the robot’s head went dark, and the machine clattered to the floor.

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