TSJ #36, Chapter 12: The Last Hope

TOM SWIFT IV looked at Bud Barclay, puzzled. “Nanites? Is this some new invention?”

Mr. Swift quickly explained to Tom IV about Tom’s latest invention, the claytronic stones. “But I was positive my son had added safeguards!”

“He did,” Bud affirmed. “I was there – I saw it myself. Tom had perfected a way to keep his stone from replicating. Besides, his stones don’t create a black field anymore. I think the stones below came from somewhere else.”

“Ed Gamino,” Mr. Swift said suddenly. “They must have come from Ed!”

Bud nodded. “That’s got to be it. A few days ago Tom gave him the plans and warned him to never use them because if the stones weren’t made correctly they could cause a chain reaction. Tom told me that Ed promised to keep the blueprints only for reference purposes. However, knowing Ed…”

“…he probably didn’t,” Mr. Swift finished, aghast. He watched as his home world was swallowed by the creeping black cloud. Already North and South America were covered, and the cloud was rapidly spreading across Europe. “This is horrible,” he whispered. All of the life had been drained out of him. “There were billions of people down there. Billions. This can’t be happening.”

“Isn’t there some way to stop it?” Tom IV asked quietly.

Bud shook his head. “Only Tom would know how to do that, and nobody knows where he is. As far as I know he’s down there somewhere.”

“I’m sorry,” Tom IV said quietly. They could do nothing but watch as the whole world was consumed by shadow.

It took several hours for the entire planet to be consumed. An hour later the time field collapsed, revealing a solid mass of green nanites.

“It’s too much to take in,” Mr. Swift said at last. “I just can’t accept this. This can’t be happening. There must be something we can do! Some way to reverse this and put the world back the way it was.”

“I think it’s too late,” Bud said. “Tom didn’t seem to think the reaction could be made to work backwards.”

“Maybe there’s another way.” Mr. Swift turned to Tom IV. “You’ve traveled back in time before, haven’t you?”

Tom IV nodded reluctantly. “I see where this is going. Ordinarily I’d say it’s far too dangerous, but given what just happened I guess we can’t make the situation any worse.” He paused a moment to put his thoughts together. “Let’s head back to my universe. I’ll try to put something together.”

“But what about Tom?” Bud asked.

Mr. Swift sighed. “If he had survived I think he would have come to the station by now. The only other places where humans are still alive are Nestria and our colony on Bartonia. It wouldn’t have taken Tom long to find us here.”

Bud nodded. “I guess you’re right. I just can’t believe he’s gone. But how are we going to get to Tom IV’s universe? Wasn’t the Negative Zone down there in Shopton?”

Tom IV pulled out a communicator from his pocket. “We don’t need to use your Zone, Bud. I can just use mine. This device allows me to send a signal back home. My Zone will then open a doorway between our universes.”

“Of course!” Bud replied. “I knew that. How else could you hope to get home when you traveled to other places?”

“Exactly.” He turned to Mr. Swift. “You don’t happen to have any spare spaceships lying around, do you?”

Mr. Swift shook his head. “There are a few Titan-class rockets are docked here at the station but they’re fairly old. I’m afraid the Challenger and the Cosmotron Express were both at Fearing Island.”

“That’s what I thought,” Tom IV replied. “In that case we’re going to need to make a quick stop on our way back.”

* * * * *
 

“Explain this to me one more time,” Tom III said slowly. “You want to borrow the Exedra to do what?”

The entire group was in Tom III’s private laboratory in Shopton, New Mexico. Mr. Swift, Bud Barclay, and Tom IV were there, along with Tom III, the robot Aristotle, Anita Thorwald, and Ben Walking Eagle.

“It’s quite simple, Tom,” the robot Aristotle explained. “They wish to travel back in time to save Tom Swift Sr.’s homeworld. To do this they require a spaceship that is large, powerful, and fast. Your vessel fits the bill perfectly! I am surprised you are having difficult grasping this.”

“It’s the whole time-travel thing that gets me,” Tom III said.

Tom IV nodded. “Yeah, it’s a lot to wrap your head around but we’re going to keep this simple. All we’re going to do is go back in time and stop BG Industries from using the stones. I’m not anticipating any problems.”

“You Toms never do,” Anita Thorwald complained. “Unexpected things always happen, especially when you’re dealing with the hair-raising things we get mixed up with! You can always count on something awful going wrong.”

“Like the time we went to Kwortu’um to look for a cure,” Ben said. “I know. But we don’t have a choice! Their whole world was destroyed. You know if that’d happened to us we’d be asking the same favor.”

“Do you need us to come with you?” Tom III asked.

“If you don’t mind,” Tom IV replied. “None of us know the first thing about flying the Exedra. Faster-than-light starships don’t even exist in my universe! If the three of you could fill in as the crew I’ll supply the time machine.”

“What about us?” Bud asked.

“You can deal with that Ed character after we finally get to him,” Tom IV replied.

“And I will deal with my son,” Mr. Swift replied. “When we find him.”

* * * * *
 

It took Tom IV several weeks to build his time trigger. During that time the gang camped out at his Swift Enterprises facility in southern California.

“This is so different from Shopton,” Bud commented, as he started out the window of Tom IV’s laboratory. Modern cards were driving by, and Bud could see palm trees in the distance. “Everything seems more modern. And faster. I really wish I could try out the beaches.”

“That’s probably not a good idea,” Mr. Swift warned. “We don’t want anyone asking questions about where we came from.”

“It’s probably already too late for that,” Anita replied.

“Not really,” Tom IV said. “I mean, sure, Harlan Ames knows you are here, but he’s kept tight wraps on this place. I don’t think even my sister Mandy knows about you guys. If she did you can bet she’d be down here in a heartbeat.”

“I’d love to meet her,” Ben Walking Eagle replied. “I’ve heard a lot about her.”

“We can do that later,” Tom III said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

“Do you think there will be much danger?” Anita asked.

“Probably not,” Tom IV said. “I mean, yes, there’s always danger when you travel through time, of course. But all we’re going to be doing is going back a few weeks! I’m not going into the prehistoric past like I did last time. A short jump should be pretty simple.”

“Do we know where to go?” Bud asked. “I saw the black cloud but I didn’t happen to notice where it started.”

“BG Industries has a facility in Nebraska,” Mr. Swift remarked. “That’s where Ed’s office is located. I would be willing to wager that the nanites came from there.”

“We can do even better than that,” Tom IV said. “I just happen to have a chronoscope, which I can use to look back through time. When we get to your universe I’ll use it to pinpoint the source of the problem. That way we can make sure we don’t arrive at the wrong place or the wrong time. I’d like to get everything done in a single jump.”

“That should do it!” Bud replied.

* * * * *
 

The Exedra had been parked in a geostationary orbit, with its cloak activated so the governments of Earth wouldn’t detect it. Under Tom IV’s guidance, Tom III and his friends installed the finished time trigger on the ultramodern starship.

“Do we want to test it before we begin?” Bud asked.

“That would be most unwise,” Aristotle replied. “According to my calculations, each use of the device increases the risk of a catastrophic failure that could destroy spacetime itself. It would be far wiser to only use it once. Indeed, it would be wisest to never use it at all, but given the circumstances the danger is acceptable.”

“If you say so,” Anita replied. “Have you done any testing on this, Tom?”

Tom IV nodded. “I’ve done a few small tests on a molecular level. I’m pretty sure I got it right.”

“But this is still new territory, right?” Anita persisted. “I mean, even when you used it to fight Von Doom, or whatever his name was, you still didn’t transport an entire spaceship. You just used your TANC.”

“It was the Black Dragon, and yes, that is correct,” Tom IV replied. “This is something new. But I think it will work.”

“Hey, now that you mention it, why aren’t you using your TANC?” Bud asked.

Tom nodded. “Good question! First, we are going to be bringing the TANC – it’s a handy excursion vehicle. I don’t really want to land the Exedra on Earth, so we’ll use it to get to the surface. However, the reason we need a starship is because this model of the time trigger is very different from the last one. One of the reasons the original one did so much damage to spacetime was because it was a very crude device – it was like using a sledgehammer to open a window. The Exedra has a fusion reactor that produces incredible amounts of energy. I can use that energy to make the trip smoother and less destructive. It greatly increases our odds of success.”

“But you’ve never actually tried it before,” Anita repeated. “You’re just ‘pretty sure’.”

“You don’t have to come,” Tom IV countered. “I’d be glad to drop you off in your own universe before we leave.”

Anita shook her head. “Nothing doing! I’ll come. I just have a bad feeling about all of this.”

Aristotle spoke up. “I am sorry to intrude, but the calibrations are complete. We can depart on your command.”

Tom IV turned to Tom III. “Are you ready?”

He nodded. “My ship is ready to go.”

“I’m ready as well,” Mr. Swift replied.

“Then let’s go,” Tom IV said. “First stop – Tom Swift Jr.’s universe!”

Tom III pressed a button on the ship’s control panel, and the Exedra vanished.