TSJ #36, Chapter 11: Chain Reaction

LATE THE NEXT AFTERNOON Tom Swift Jr. entered his private laboratory in Shopton, New York. He and his friend Bud Barclay had spent the entire morning unpacking crates and getting his lab back into shape. Once everything was set up Bud flew back to Fearing Island to manage the installation of the kronolator. Bud promised to be back in a week.

“Don’t forget about Phyl,” Bud had said, as he left the lab. “I think she’s been feeling a bit neglected lately.”

“I won’t,” Tom promised. But all thoughts of the girl vanished as soon as he glanced at the research Ed had given him. It didn’t take him long to realize that he would need more than a week to perfect the time trigger.

I need to buy more time, Tom thought to himself. So let’s see what I can do.

The young inventor walked over to his workbench and flipped a switch on a small, silver device. The boxlike contraption emitted a deep hum. A few seconds later a distortion pattern appeared around the edges of Tom’s laboratory. Tom smiled. That should do it, he thought, as he tweaked the settings on the time dilator. Time now passes three times faster inside the field than it does outside. That will give me three whole weeks to perfect my time machine!

Tom had already moved a triphibian atomicar into his laboratory. Instead of a convertible model, however, he had chosen a semi with a large trailer. It’s large and bulky, but since I’m taking a lot of equipment with me I need all the space I can get! I’d planned on taking the Challenger, but since Bud’s off repairing it this is the best I can do.

The young scientist spent the rest of the day installing equipment in the back of the semi. First he installed the translator, which he had borrowed months before from his space friends on Mars. Next he took his laboratory’s Transmittaton and installed that as well. That will enable me to transport Irene out of the hyperplane right before it crashes, and then cure her of her radiation poisoning, Tom thought approvingly. Now all I need is a functional time machine!

Tom soon found out that working 72-hour days was too strenuous, even for him. Since meals were now 15 hours apart he started keeping food in his laboratory and napping at regular intervals. The workload was enormous but Tom kept at it. He was determined to finish his time trigger before Bud returned to Shopton. I can’t let anyone interfere – not even Bud, he thought. I know they mean well but they just don’t understand. Time travel may be dangerous but I have everything under control. I’ll go back in time, rescue Irene, and come home. Nothing bad will happen.

At first Tom was greatly encouraged by the information on the plans. As Ed had pointed out, they were not the blueprints to a working time trigger. Instead they were the original research notes that had been put together by Dr. Reisenbach. Tom IV had based his time trigger on those notes. In theory Tom Swift Jr. could do the same thing. I never thought of doing it this way, Tom thought as he studied the papers. No wonder I wasn’t able to find a solution! I wasn’t even approaching the problem correctly. This is exactly what I needed.

Tom quickly sketched out a device based on the ideas suggested in the paper. However, he immediately ran into problems. Hours went by as Tom stared at the notes, puzzled.

“I just don’t get it,” he finally said aloud. “This doesn’t make sense! It’s as if parts of it are missing – but I clearly have all of the notes. There’s no gap in the equations or the logic, but it’s just wrong. What am I missing?”

A day went by, and then another, and another. One experimental device after another failed to produce any results. Tom soon realized that he was going to run out of time and still not have a working time trigger. The young inventor became even more discouraged when he glanced at the calendar and realized that there were only two days left before Bud was scheduled to return.

I’ve got to get out of here and clear my head, Tom decided. Maybe a change of scenery will help. I’m sure the solution is there; I just need to step back so I can see it.

Tom locked up his laboratory and left.

A few hours later Bud Barclay unlocked the door to his laboratory and walked inside. “Hey there, Tom! Guess what! I got done early, and–”

Bud stopped in his tracks, amazed. “Hey Tom, what’s an eighteen-wheeler doing in your lab? Is this some new invention I don’t know about?” Bud looked around for his friend but a quick search revealed that Tom was not in his lab.

Must have stepped out for a minute, Bud thought to himself. Hmmm. I wonder what he’s been up to? Bud spied a stack of papers on the workbench and casually walked over to them. When he saw then name Reisenbach on the top one he gasped. He nervously picked them up and started going through them.

“Hey – these are the papers that were stolen from Tom IV’s office!” he said aloud. “What gives?” Bud then glanced at the semi again and his eyes widened. He walked around to the rear of the vehicle and peeked inside the cavernous trailer. When he saw the Transmittaton and the translator inside he gasped. Tom’s building a time machine! But how did he get these plans? What’s going on here?

Bud stood there a minute, thinking. “This is too much for me,” he said at last. “I need help. Something’s just not right here. Maybe I’m just missing something.”

The young pilot walked over to the picture of Aurum City and slid it to one side. He then pressed his finger against the green panel that was hidden behind it. There was a clicking sound, and the laboratory went into secure mode. Bud then grabbed a communicator and contacted Tom IV. Over the radio he explained what he had just found. A moment later the young scientist came out of the Negative Zone and appeared in Tom’s lab.

Tom IV became furious when he saw the documents in Bud’s hand. He grabbed them from Bud and examined them closely. “These are the missing plans, all right!” he said grimly. He glanced at the semi. “And it looks like Tom has been putting them to use! I knew he was the thief. I just knew it! I never bought that line about Ed.”

“So that is a time machine,” Bud said. “I kind of thought it might be. Can you tell if it’s finished?”

Tom IV made a quick examination of the machine. “Nope, it’s not. Tom’s still missing a few very important pieces, but I’m afraid he’s pretty close. The worst part is that I can tell he understands the basic principle. That means he can now finish his machine without these plans. It’s probably too late to stop him. The little thief got what he wanted. I should have known right from the start he was behind all this!”

“So you think Tom stole them?”

“Are you kidding?” Tom IV asked. “Seriously? Of course he did! Tom’s the one that wanted the plans, and he knew they existed. He broke into my lab, stole them, and pinned the whole thing on that Ed guy. It was a setup right from the start!”

“I don’t know,” Bud said dubiously. “That doesn’t sound like Tom.”

“This job has his fingerprints all over it,” Tom IV insisted. “I mean, look at that semi! Look at these plans! You caught him red-handed. What further proof do you want?”

“I guess,” Bud said reluctantly. “It’s just hard to believe he’d do something like that.”

“Hasn’t he told you that he would do anything to get Irene back?” Tom IV asked angrily. “What part of anything do you not understand? What we need to do now is find him and tell him that his big time-travel adventure is stopping right here and right now. Where is he?”

“I don’t know,” Bud said. “I haven’t seen him in a week. But I think I know someone who can help us.”

Bud contacted the outpost in space and asked Grinsby to transport the two of them up to the station. A moment later they appeared in the outpost’s observatory. The spacious room was filled with ultramodern equipment, including a giant megascope space prober. Tom Swift Sr. was standing beside the megascope, examining a globular cluster that was displayed on a terminal beside it. On the wall behind them was a giant glass window through which they could see the Earth rotating below.

Mr. Swift turned around in surprise when he heard them materialize. He was even more surprised when he saw who had accompanied Bud. “Why, Tom! What brings you here?”

Tom IV quickly glanced around the room. “Are we alone? It is safe to talk?”

“For the moment,” the elderly inventor replied. “I’ve been up here the past few days doing some deep-space studies for a conference next month in Berlin. As far as I know I’m the only one in this part of the station.”

Tom IV nodded. After asking Bud to lock the door he showed Mr. Swift the plans that the pilot had discovered in Tom’s laboratory. Mr. Swift’s face fell when he saw them.

“This is all starting to make sense now,” he replied. “I was wondering why Tom had decided to revisit his claytronic stones after the immense disaster they had caused on the centaur. I have a hunch that Ed is your culprit.”

“But he’s a paper-pusher!” Tom IV protested. “It would take a brilliant mind to get past my security.”

“Ed has a brilliant mind,” Mr. Swift replied. “Last week I went to BG Industries to formally hand over the Behemoth. While I was there Ed gave me a tour of his office. He’s actually a very accomplished inventor.”

“I didn’t know that,” Bud exclaimed, amazed.

“Neither did I,” Mr. Swift replied. “Ed must have realized that Tom would need some very strong motivation before he would even consider finishing his claytronic stones. He probably made Tom a deal – if Tom would finish the stones then he would give Tom the plans for your time device. In fact, he probably went to your universe for the sole purpose of getting them for Tom.”

“So that’s why Tom finished the stones,” Bud said. “What a mess!”

“I think we have a much bigger mess on our hands,” Tom IV said, interrupting. “What’s that?”

Mr. Swift and Bud turned their attention out the window behind them. A black shadow was rapidly spreading across North America, swallowing it up in utter darkness.

Bud paled. “I’ve seen that before – it’s a nanite chain reaction! Tom’s stones must have gotten lose and are destroying the planet!”