Tom Swift Jr #34, Chapter 7: The Fate of the World

The next afternoon a small crowd of people had gathered in Tom’s private lab. Present in the meeting were Bud Barclay, Harlan Ames, Chow Winkler, and Tom’s father, Tom Sr. After the startling events of the previous night Tom had arranged the gathering so that they could discuss what had happened.

Tom was exhausted. After going home to grab a few hours’ sleep he went back to the lab and spent hours examining the robot that he had disabled. He wanted to form an opinion on its likely origin before briefing everyone that afternoon. It now lay in many pieces on large a table in the middle of the lab.

Chow looked at it with keen interest. “Well brand my circuits, but that thing just don’t look a mite friendly! Where’d you say it came from?”

Tom sighed. He was tired from long hours of work and exhausted from sleep deprivation. He had been working too hard for too long. “That’s what we’re here to discuss, Chow.” He the nodded at Ames, who rose from his chair, walked over to a terminal embedded in the wall, and pressed a button. A projector then displayed the events of the night before on a large screen. The security system in the observatory had captured the entire exchange.

Harlan Ames had reviewed the tape earlier in the day, but this was the first time the rest of the group had seen it. Tom Sr. was left with a puzzled look on his face. Bud appeared to be shocked. Chow was skeptical, and voiced his doubts. “That robot is plum loco, Tom! I knowed a steer like that once – he was jes’ clear out of his head. Made a great lot of steaks, though. But there ain’t no way that infernal contraption is from the future.”

Tom Sr. held up his hand. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Chow. Tom, you’ve obviously spent some time examining the robot. What are your findings?”

Tom Jr. let out a long breath. “I’ve never seen anything like him, Dad. He is far more sophisticated than my giant robot. I haven’t even heard of any nation attempting to build an intelligent, autonomous machine, let alone achieving it with such tremendous success.”

Tom Sr. interrupted. “So it’s not remote controlled?”

His son shook his head. “I’ve only started scratching the surface on its design, but it’s clear that the machine was designed to operate on its own accord. It has intelligence, Dad! The power supply is unbelievable, and the microchips have such tiny circuitry that I can’t even see them all with a microscope. The technology to create this machine just doesn’t exist, and frankly, it probably won’t exist for at least another century. But there’s more to it than that.”

Tom walked over to the table and flicked on a powerful microscope. “I’ve wired up the microscope to the projector so that you can see what it’s seeing,” he explained. Tom then walked over to the table, removed a small microchip from the robot, and placed it under the microscope. There, etched onto the surface of the chip, was the Swift Enterprise logo!

Bud whistled. “I’ve sure seen that before! That looks pretty convincing to me.”

Chow shook his head. “I ain’t buyin’ it, Tom. You’ve designed some ugly contraptions in the past, but that thing there beats all. You just ain’t got it in you to make somethin’ that looks like it came out of a graveyard.”

Tom was taken aback. “Ugly contraptions? What are you talking about?”

Bud stifled a laugh by pretending to cough. “Um, Tom, let’s talk about that later. The evil killer robot seems more pressing at the moment.”

Harlan Ames spoke up. “I don’t think it tried to kill anyone, Bud. Did it?”

Tom shook his head. “It didn’t try to harm me, although it certainly could have. I heard that the guard at the gate was only temporarily disabled. The machine could have done far more damage than it actually did.”

Tom Sr. started at the remains of the robot thoughtfully. “So you’re saying that there is nothing on that table that would indicate the machine is not, in fact, from the future.”

Tom Jr. nodded. “That part is easy to believe. What’s impossible to believe is that I built it and sent it back in time. First, as Chow said, I don’t build things that look like that.”

His father nodded. “That’s true, Son, but the robot claimed to have been built decades in the future. A lot can happen between now and then. There may be other circumstances that we are unaware of.”

“That’s true, Dad. But what really gets me is the way the robot behaved. If I built something and sent it back in time there’s no way I would have it commit criminal acts. Why not just have the robot approach me, explain what is going on, and ask for help? Why not present some actual evidence that its story is true instead of leaving us guessing?”

Harlan Ames laughed gruffly. “That robot is quite a piece of evidence, Tom. It’s even got our logo on it. It’d be hard to ask for more.”

“I know, Harlan,” Tom replied tiredly. “But the robot claimed that I sent it back in time! That I built a time machine! That’s crazy. There is absolutely no way to travel back in time. It’s completely impossible!”

“Impossible is a strong word,” his father cautioned. “You don’t know everything, Son. In thirty years it is entirely possible that you may have learned something that would open up new possibilities.”

Tom Jr. looked at his father, puzzled. “It sounds like you actually believe its story.”

“Not necessarily, Tom. I just don’t think we can simply dismiss it out of hand simply because it seems incredible. It may be telling the truth. If it is, the potential consequences are dire.”

Bud finally spoke up. “What are your thoughts, genius boy? Do you think it’s all just a trick?”

“That’s the thing, Bud. Who would want to do this, and why? Who would even have access to this kind of technology? What could possibly be gained?”

“Let’s think this through,” Harlan replied. “There are a couple possibilities. One is, your space friends actually did send the message. If you complete the mission you will save their lives and everyone will be happy.”

Tom nodded. “That’s one possibility. In that case the enemy would be someone who doesn’t like the space friends.”

“The Space Legion, maybe,” Bud said.

“Or perhaps some other party we are unaware of,” Tom Sr. replied.

Harlan nodded. “But that leaves us with a big problem. If an alien race built this robot, why are they merely asking Tom to not help the space friends? Barring Tom’s luck with an EMP emitter, I’m pretty sure that gadget on the table can crush just about any defense we’ve got. Seems to me that if you had an army of those things you could just barge in and take whatever you wanted. For that matter, you could just invade the Earth and be done with it.”

Tom nodded. “That’s what bothers me. If the robot isn’t from the future then we’re not left with any other real possibilities.”

“Which brings us back to time travel,” Harlan continued. “A second possibility is that the robot really did come from the future in order to prevent you from making a terrible mistake. If you complete the mission you will doom our entire planet to total destruction.”

“I’ve spent all day worrying about that,” Tom confessed. “The destruction I saw last night looked very real. I have a feeling it will look even worse in person.”

Harlan continued. “A third possibility is that helping the space friends was the right thing to do, but someone from the future wants to stop you for some reason we don’t know. In that case the robot would come from some future enemy.”

Tom sighed. “I just find it very hard to believe that we’ve got a case of time travel on our hands.”

“You and me both, boss,” Chow replied.

Tom Sr. nodded. “I can understand your feelings, Tom, but the consequences for making the wrong decision are very dire. You’re going to need to be very careful here. One false move could doom our world, or theirs. Or both!”

“That’s the thing about being Tom Swift,” Bud said. “Most people’s idea of a big problem is having trouble paying your bills. When Tom has a big problem the entire world is in danger.”

Tom laughed. “I guess you can’t have it all, Bud. Somebody’s got to save the planet!”

“So what are you going to do?” Harlan asked.

“The only thing I can do,” Tom replied. “I’ll go to the extrasolar planet and see what I find there. One way or another, I should be able to tell if the robot was telling the truth. Once we have all the facts we can make our decision.”

Tom’s father nodded. “That sounds reasonable, Son.”

“Jest don’t go anywhere without me, pardner,” Chow said.

Tom smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of it!”

A few hours later, Tom and Bud were in the newly-installed underground test chamber. Tom had lowered the kronolator into the tunnel and was making a few last-minute adjustments.

Bud rubbed his hands together with glee. “I can hardly wait to see this thing move! How fast do you say it will be able to reach the end of the tunnel?”

Tom grinned. “If all goes well it should make the trip in about a microsecond, Bud. I think I can get more speed out of it than that, but I don’t want to push it just yet.” Satisfied, Tom disconnected a large electrical cable that ran from the device to the tunnel wall.

“I’m guessing it’s fully charged?”

Tom nodded. “That should do it, Bud. Are you ready?”

“Ready and waiting, skipper!”

Tom and Bud retreated to a viewing area that was protected by a thick, transparent pane of indestructible tomasite. The two of them sat down at a table and donned protective goggles. Tom checked the monitors on the table to ensure that no one else had wandered into the tunnel. Once everything was in place Tom removed a remote control device from his pocket and flipped a switch.

The kronolator disappeared in a blinding white flash of light!

Tom looked out the window, puzzled. He checked the monitor but didn’t see anything. “Hey Bud, where did it go?”

“You mean it’s gone?”

Tom nodded. “It should be at the other end of the track, but it’s not. It’s just – disappeared!”

Bud opened the door and rushed outside the viewing area. “I don’t see it anywhere,” he called back.

Tom went out and joined him. “That’s strange,” he said. “Where could it have gone?”

While they were standing there, they were startled by a second flash of light. The kronolator then reappeared, exactly where it had been a few minutes before!

Tom groaned. “Look at that – it didn’t go anywhere! It left the time stream, all right, but it didn’t actually move. What’s wrong with it?”

Bud shrugged. “At least you’ve built a very effective cloaking device! We should bring one of those things along with us the next time we need to do some covert operations.”

Tom shook his head. “I don’t get it, Bud. It doesn’t make any sense.” He stared at the device and frowned. “What am I missing?”

Tom and Bud spent the remainder of the day tinkering with the device, but to no avail. When they both went home that evening Tom had been unable to get it to budge so much as an inch. The next morning, however, Tom woke up feeling refreshed and energized. After eating a quick breakfast he raced back to the lab. Bud was already there waiting for him.

“Have you got the problem cracked, genius boy?”

Tom nodded. “The problem was so obvious, Bud. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. The purpose of the machine is to take us in and out of the time stream, correct?”

“I think so, skipper.”

“Well, Bud, that’s a nice thing to do, but just manipulating the flow of time isn’t going to actually move you anywhere. Once you’re in motion this will help you get there quicker, but you’ve got to actually have some initial momentum first.”

Bud nodded. “Makes sense. But I thought you already had that problem licked! That’s why you’ve got all these repelatrons all over it.”

Tom smiled wryly. “That’s right, Bud. But I forgot one important detail. The repelatrons only kick in after the device has left the time stream. But when they’re taken out of time the repelatrons can’t find anything to push against, so our ship won’t move! I need to have it in motion before engaging the kronolator.”

“Sounds good to me! Let’s give it a whirl.”

Tom reconfigured his invention and then the two retreated back to the viewing area. After making sure that the tunnel was empty Tom removed the remote control from his pocket.

“For this short test its initial speed is relatively unimportant,” Tom explained. “When we’re in outer space it will become more of an issue because there are limits as to how much the kronolator can adjust time. We’ll need to get up some a fairly reasonable speed before engaging it. That shouldn’t be a problem, though.”

Tom engaged the repelatrons and watched. When the kronolator hit 30mph he flipped the switch. The tunnel was filled with a blinding flash of light, and the kronolator instantly appeared on the other side of the tunnel!

Bud slapped Tom on the back. “Looks like another astounding success!”

Tom scanned the numbers that were displayed on the terminal that was sitting on the table. “I think so, Bud. It’ll need a bit more tuning, but I think we have the problem licked.”

“So what’s the next step?”

“Dad’s almost finished installing his reactor on the Challenger. I’ll wrap up my work here and then take the kronolator to Fearing Island so I can install it on the ship. We’ll give it a test run, and if that works out, our next stop will be the extrasolar planet!”