Tom Swift Jr #35, Chapter 14: The End of a Dream

The Eagle disappeared from radar right before it crashed, so at first the Swifts were not sure where it hit the ground. Given its enormous speed and its invisibility to radar it could have went down anywhere within several hundred miles, and there would be no immediate way to pinpoint it. However, it did not take long for news reports of a devastating plane crash in Kansas to begin pouring in. When they received word that a mysterious plane had crashed into a prairie and created both seismic tremors and a scar several miles long they knew they had found their missing jet.

The Swifts responded immediately. Tom Swift Jr., his father, and Irene took a cargo jet to the crash site, and a team of personnel from Institute accompanied them. Tom’s father called ahead and spoke with the local Kansas authorities, warning them of the danger from radiation and giving precise instructions. He also contacted the federal government and let them know what happened so they could deploy around the site and establish a perimeter.

During the trip there Tom was in shock. “I just don’t understand,” he kept repeating. “This couldn’t have happened! We ran all kinds of tests, Irene. All kinds of tests! The Tomasite never failed that way in the lab. Or in the tests on board the Falcon. This just doesn’t make any sense.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Irene assured him. “I’m sure there are answers out there.”

“But what about Mark?” Tom asked soberly. “It’s too late for him. He died because of a mistake I made. What is his wife going to do? What about his children? I’m responsible for this. What am I going to tell them?”

Tom’s father spoke up. “I’ve already spoken with them, Son. We will take care of them and see that their needs are met. I don’t want to minimize that, but right now we need to focus on cleaning up the crash site. If it’s not handled properly the radioactive debris could endanger the lives of others as well. There’s never been a nuclear accident like this before and it will be up to the three of us to manage its cleanup.”

“I guess,” Tom said sadly. “I just can’t believe it. I tested for this, Dad. I really did. This should not have happened.”

When they arrived at the crash site a few hours later Tom’s father had the jet circle the area before landing. Tom was astonished at the extent of the damage. The grassy prairie had been destroyed, with dirt and rocks thrown everywhere. A deep scar now ran across the land.

“It looks like a meteor hit,” Irene remarked.

“That’s pretty close to what happened,” Tom replied. “Do you notice how much of the aircraft is left?”

Irene shook her head. “I’m really not seeing much of it at all. There’s scraps, maybe, but that’s about it.”

“Exactly,” Tom sighed. “The plane hit the ground so hard that it shattered like glass. Even the Tomasite couldn’t take it. It’s going to be almost impossible to find out what went wrong. What can you possibly learn from a few pieces of twisted metal?”

“I see a lot of people out there,” Tom Sr. said. His son realized that he was right. The military had arrived and cordoned off the entire area. There were already people in anti-radiation suits scouring the land and picking up small fragments of the plane. Other teams were scanning the soil for radiation and searching the surrounding area for anything that might be missed.

To the far end of the field, nearest the place where the remains of the plane had come to rest, was a large crowd of onlookers. Even from the air Tom could tell that they were reporters.

“That didn’t take long,” Irene said. “It looks like every news outfit in the country has a reporter here.”

“Of course,” Tom said bitterly. “I bet this is the biggest story of the year. I don’t even want to know what the headlines are going to say.”

“You’re going to have to face them, Son,” his father warned. “This is all part of being an inventor. When things go well they will praise you, and when things go wrong they will destroy you. Our inventions have an impact on many people’s lives, and part of that means constantly being in the public eye.”

The group spent the rest of the night managing the cleanup of the crash site. Most of the wreckage had been removed by the following morning, but it took three more days to finish the job. By the time they were on their way back to the Institute they were exhausted.

“I’ve asked them to put the remains of the Eagle in the hangar where it was built,” Tom’s father told him as their plane took off from Kansas. “Let me know what you find.”

“I will,” Tom promised. “But that will have to wait. I’m exhausted, Dad. I need to recover.”

“Are we completely sure we covered everything?” Irene asked. “We’re sure that there’s no radioactive debris left behind?”

Tom’s father nodded. “I think so. But remember, we’re not completely abandoning the site. There is still a team from the Institute there that will scan the area to make sure we haven’t missed anything. And we’ll monitor it at regular intervals over the next few years to see if there is any lingering radiation. But I think this time we got lucky, Irene. If the plane had plowed into a city it would have been a whole different story.”

The jet landed at Institute that evening, and everyone went home and got some rest. The following day Irene got up around noon and went into Tom’s laboratory. To her surprise she found Tom in tears.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, as she sat down on a stool next to him. Then she noticed the newspapers that were strewn all over his workbench.

“You haven’t seen the press coverage, have you?” Tom asked bitterly. He grabbed a newspaper and tossed it at her. “Read this. Read what they’re saying in our own hometown.”

Irene took the issue of the Shopton Evening Bulletin from him and read the headline. “Nuclear Meltdown,” she read aloud. “Experimental nuclear jet explodes in the sky, showering local populace in deadly radiation.” She looked up from the paper, puzzled. “The jet exploded?” she asked. “It showered cities with radiation?”

“No, it didn’t,” Tom said. “But it doesn’t matter. Keep going.”

Irene resumed reading. “Early this afternoon an experimental nuclear jet from Swift Enterprises exploded over the skies of Kansas and crashed into a prairie a few miles from Topeka. In what is the worst disaster ever from the world-famous technology company, the jet showered the area with deadly radiation and narrowly missed wiping out the state capitol. Private sources within Swift Enterprises have revealed that the jet was designed by Tom Swift Jr., the son of the company’s famous founder.”

Irene quickly scanned the rest of the article. Her heart sank as she finished reading it. “I can see why you’re upset,” she said quietly. “There’s a lot of anger directed at you.”

“You should read the others,” Tom replied. “They’re all the same. They say that the jet is a terrible idea – a flying atom bomb. That I nearly wiped out an entire city. That I’m young and irresponsible and a public menace. And they’re right, Irene.”

Irene put down the paper and looked at Tom. “No, they’re wrong. You’re not a public menace. It’s just that you’re attempting something that has never been done before, and sometimes things go wrong. I admit this is a terrible accident, but we took every precaution. And it’s just as much my fault as it is yours. The two of us designed the jet together.”

“But look what I’ve done,” Tom said with anguish. “I really did endanger thousands of innocent lives. I killed Mark Spring. And I destroyed the good name of Swift Enterprises. Dad spent a lifetime building up this company’s reputation, and in a single afternoon I destroyed it. We went from a national treasure to a public menace in the blink of an eye. And it gets worse.”

“Worse?” Irene said. “What do you mean?”

Tom’s voice wavered. “Dad came in earlier this morning to talk to me. It seems that when he got back to the Institute there were some government people here to meet with him. The upshot is that they’re canceling Project Arcturus. Even the mass-production on the Falcon is being stopped. The public is demanding that we halt our research into nuclear aviation, and so it’s all over.” He looked at her with great pain in her eyes. “I’m finished, Irene, It’s over. My career has ended before it even began. I guess I’m not going to follow in my father’s footsteps after all.”

Irene jumped out of her chair and grabbed Tom. “This is not happening. There is no way I am going to let your father cancel this project. You had it working, Tom. It worked. I don’t know what went wrong, but we’re going to find out and we’re going to fix it. Your dad never gave up on a project, and I’m not going to let him start now.”

Tom shook his head. “But he’s right. The public was already upset with us before the Institute was even built, and it’s far worse now. They’d never let us continue after a disaster like that. Nuclear-powered aircraft are just a bad idea. It’s just not worth it.”

Irene looked at Tom angrily. “You are not going to just give up, Tom. Do you hear me? I am not going to let that happen. There is no way you can let a single failure, however bad, stop you in your tracks and send you running home and feeling sorry for yourself. If you don’t want to go talk to your dad then fine – I’ll do it myself.” She then stormed out of the laboratory, leaving Tom behind, staring off into the distance.

It did not take her long to track down Tom’s father. She found him in his office. To her surprise, Ned Newton was there.

“Irene!” Tom Sr. said, as she barged into his office and slammed the door behind her. He hesitated. “I see that you’ve talked with Tom this morning.”

“I certainly have,” Irene said. She walked up to his desk, put her hands on it, leaned over, and looked him in the eye. In a cold, steely voice she said, “You are a coward.”

Tom Sr. sighed. “I knew you would be upset, but you have to understand that I had no choice. The only way the government would even allow us to build this facility is if we agreed to operate within certain guidelines. If the authorities won’t allow me to continue Project Arcturus then I have no choice.”

“Don’t give me that,” Irene shot back. “What really happened is that some politicians saw that the public was upset and wanted to appease them. And then you, instead of fighting for your son, caved in like a wet newspaper. You have a lot of clout, Mr. Swift, but you didn’t use it. No, you just caved and crushed your son’s hopes and dreams.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Tom’s father said angrily. “I’m not above the law. I can’t just do whatever it is I want to do.”

“But you can do something about it!” Irene shouted back. “You can change public opinion. You can ask to be given time to find out what happened. You can put a hold on the project and give the public a chance to cool off. But you didn’t do any of those things. No, you just quit. You were never willing to sacrifice any of your own projects on the alter of public opinion, but you’re willing to cancel your son’s first invention the moment anything goes wrong.”

“It’s a bit more serious than that,” Ned said, speaking up. “I admit that Tom Sr. has invented a lot of things in the past thirty-odd years, but even our worst accidents weren’t really that bad. Nothing he ever invented put an entire city into danger. Nuclear power is incredibly dangerous, and in hindsight it probably was irresponsible to let some as young as Junior work with it.”

Irene gritted her teeth. “You weren’t saying that when he invented the Falcon, were you now? Oh no. Then you had nothing but praise for him. But you didn’t really mean it. You’ll support Tom as long as nothing goes wrong. But remember, it wasn’t the Sampson engine that failed – it was the Tomasite. And that wasn’t Tom’s invention. In fact, that Tomasite came from your factory.”

Ned stood up. “Are you trying to blame all of this on me?”

“I guess we’ll never know,” Irene said icily. “After all, you two canceled the project without even bothering to investigate what happened. Nice move.” With that, she stormed out of the office and slammed the door behind her.

Ned sat back down and shook his head. “She just doesn’t understand. I’m sure she’ll eventually calm down.”

“I don’t know,” Tom Sr. replied sadly. “She may understand all too well.”

Irene did not reappear until the next day. She found Tom Swift Jr. in his laboratory, packing up his supplies.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” she asked him.

“I’m going back home,” Tom said. “Dad won’t let me do anything else here so there’s no point in staying. I might as well go back to Shopton.”

“I don’t think so,” Irene said fiercely. “You need to find out why that plane crashed.”

Tom sighed. “Dad told me about your meeting with him yesterday. He hasn’t changed his mind, Irene. The project is dead.”

“But you’re missing the point!” Irene argued. “Look. Let’s lay aside the hyperplane for now. You and I are both pretty convinced that something went wrong with the Tomasite, right?”

Tom nodded. “Sure. That’s what it seemed like to me, anyway.”

“And you do realize that your father is using that same Tomasite to shield a nuclear reactor he’s building in New York City, right?”

Tom froze. “You mean that project wasn’t canceled?”

Irene shook her head. “Oh no. You see, the newspapers blamed you for the accident, not your father. They’re still quite excited about the new Swift reactor. After all, your dad has never really failed. But the thing is, the reactor is based on Tomasite. If the plane failed because of a flaw in that miracle plastic then the reactor is going to fail as well. Only when it fails it’s going to kill millions of people.”

“Oh man,” Tom said weakly. “I never thought of that. Does Dad know this?”

Irene shook her head. “He hasn’t thought it through. But the remains of the jet are still out there in the hangar. I saw samples of the reactor shielding in the wreckage when I combed through it last night. We’ve got to examine those fragments and find out what happened.”

“Then help me get unpacked,” Tom pleaded. “We don’t have much time. I think the plant is already undergoing trials. The opening ceremonies are just a few days away!”

After Tom’s lab was set back up, Tom and Irene went to the hangar. There was not much left of the Eagle, but Irene pointed out the Tomasite fragments she had found. “The Tomasite that shielded the reactor can easily be told apart from the Tomasite that covered the jet,” she explained. “It’s the reactor shielding that we want.”

Once they had gathered a handful of fragments they took them back to the laboratory and ran them through a series of tests. Tom once again found him puzzled.

“It’s just as we thought,” he said at last. “The plastic has lost its ability to turn heat into electricity. It’s just not working anymore. But what I don’t understand is why happened. We put Tomasite through all kinds of tests and we never saw this sort of behavior.”

“But we have in the past,” Irene reminded him. “At least, I have. You weren’t there when your father and I were developing this material, but I remember all the useless batches that we created. It’s very difficult to manufacture Tomasite. If you don’t do it exactly right – ”

” – it won’t work,” Tom said excitedly. “That’s right! I remember now. But the thing is it worked at first! We tested this very batch of plastic before the Eagle even made its first test flight. Why would it stop working?”

“There’s one way to find out,” Irene said. She took a sample and spent the next hour performing a chemical analysis of the substance. When the last test had been completed she looked up at Tom in triumph. “I think that answers it beyond a doubt,” she said.

“I can’t believe it,” Tom said. “The material was poisoned with rare earth elements. And not just any elements, either. It was just the right substance to cause a sudden failure after a certain threshold was met.”

“I don’t think it was accidental,” Irene said.

“I don’t either,” Tom replied. “You just don’t find these ultra-rare metals laying around. Irene, this was sabotage!”