TSJ #36, Chapter 18: A Father-Son Conference

TOM SWIFT JR. LOOKED UP when he heard a knock on his office door. “Come on in,” he called out.

His father entered the office and closed the door behind him. “I hope I’m not disturbing you, son.”

“Not really,” Tom said, sighing. The young inventor was sitting behind his desk. There was a stack of papers on it but Tom was ignoring them. His father could tell that he was preoccupied.

“I’m surprised to find you here,” Mr. Swift remarked as he took a seat. “It’s quite unusual to find you in your office.”

“I’ve just been doing a lot of thinking lately, Dad. I haven’t been in an inventive mood.”

“I can understand that,” Mr. Swift said. “Speaking of moods, I just had a meeting with Ed Gamino. He told me that you paid him a visit a few days ago and were quite upset. Apparently you told him some very disturbing things.”

Tom nodded. “I wondered how long it would take you to find out about that. Frankly, if you hadn’t come to me in another day or two I was going to tell you about it myself. There’s been a lot going on lately that I think you need to know about. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but I haven’t been completely honest with you lately.”

If only you knew, his father thought. Aloud he said, “Why don’t you tell me about it. I’m here to listen.”

Tom took a deep breath and began talking. He started by telling his father how he had tried to get Tom Swift IV to give him plans for his time trigger. He then told him about Ed Gamino’s offer, and how Tom’s acceptance of it ultimately led to the nanite flood that destroyed the Earth. He finished by telling the account of his disastrous trip back through time – a trip which failed to rescue Irene but did put an end to the claytronic stones.

His father was silent for a few moments after Tom finished his story. He was tempted to tell his son that he already knew what had happened but decided against it. He could tell how upset and remorseful his son was, and decided that was not the right moment to tell him his side of the story.

“I just don’t know what to do, Dad,” Tom said. “I’ve done horrible things. I know I was able to stop the flood, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that I enabled it to happen in the first place! After all, what if time travel hadn’t worked, or what if I’d failed to stop the nanites? What if there had been no way to undo what I had done? I let my love for Irene blind me to what I was doing. And now – well, now I just don’t know what to do with myself. I’ve let everyone down, and that’s something that I can’t fix..”

“I’m afraid you have, Son. This is something you will carry with you for the rest of your life. You’ve disappointed me greatly and you’ve betrayed the trust of many people who thought very highly of you. Trust, once lost, is very difficult to regain. I think you’ll find Tom Swift IV much more reluctant to answer you when you call in the future.”

“I know,” Tom said. “I’m sorry, Dad, I really am.”

“And then there’s Ed,” Mr. Swift continued. “He’s not a bad person, Tom. He just gets excited sometimes and doesn’t really think through all of the possibilities. He’s the sort of person that needs watching to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. Instead of doing that, though, you let him down. Your relationship with him will never be the same.”

“But he stole the time trigger plans!” Tom protested. “That was hardly an honest thing to do.”

“He did it because he trusted you. It never crossed his mind that anything you invented might be a serious danger to the world. You could have taken him aside and shown him why the stones were dangerous, but you didn’t because you wanted what he had to offer. You didn’t even take any precautions to make sure the stones were treated safely! You could have just told Ed you’d supply the stones yourself when the time was right. But instead you gave dynamite to a child and he blew himself up with it.”

“I never thought of that,” Tom replied.

“That’s the whole problem,” his father continued. “You never stopped to think any of this through. You didn’t think about what might happen if something went wrong with the stones, or if something went wrong when you traveled back in time. You never gave a single thought to the immense danger you placed the entire world in – or if you did you just ignored it. You put the lives of countless innocent people in danger just so you could have a chance at saving someone who was already dead. That’s a terrible thing to do, son. You should never have even considered it.”

“I know,” Tom replied. “I know. If I could take it all back I would, but I can’t. I just got lost inside my grief and I went too far. But what do I do now?”

“You move on,” his father replied. “You can’t erase the past, but you can learn from it and choose not to make the same mistakes in the future. You can use the lessons that you’ve learned here to build a brighter future. That’s all you can do.”

Tom sighed. “I’m sure you’re right. But Dad, for such a long time I held out hope that I could save her. I really, honestly thought that I could do it. I had a future – a future with her – and now that future is gone. I know, now, that I’ll never get her back. And I just don’t know what to do with myself. Irene was the one thing that I really wanted, and now she’s gone forever. And I just don’t know what to do.”

His father thought for a minute. “I know it’s not the same thing as having Irene, but there’s always the Barclay Group project. Since your claytronic stones are no longer an option it will take the colonists much longer to build their city. I’m sure your help would be immensely appreciated.”

“You mean that project hasn’t been canceled?” Tom asked. “I thought, after all that happened with Ed–”

“The colonization project is much bigger than Ed,” Mr. Swift replied. “I highly doubt that they are going to call it off at this point! Too many people are involved and too much money has been spent. And yes, despite everything that’s happened I do think they would value your help. After all, no one has more experience establishing space colonies than you do.”

“I guess,” Tom replied. “I’ll look into it.”

“Good,” his father said. He stood up. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to never, ever do anything like that again.”

“You don’t,” his son replied.

“I will be watching you a little more closely than I have in the past. I may have given you too much freedom before you were ready for it.”

Tom simply nodded and said nothing. Mr. Swift looked at his teenage son. He knew his son was despondent, and his heart ached to help him. “I hope you know how much I love you, Tom. Your mother and I are very proud of you. You’ve done a lot of amazing things and I know that you have a bright future ahead of you. Learn from this, but don’t let it crush you. Remember, you’re not the only one that’s ever made a mistake. I’ve done things I regret as well – in fact, I am largely to blame for the series of events that led to Irene’s death. At the time I never dreamed that my attempt to get talcap wood for my ocean airport would lead to all this, but it did.”

“It’s not your fault, Dad,” his son replied. “Besides, Irene chose to fly that hyperplane. No one forced her to. If she hadn’t done it none of us would be here.”

“I know,” his father said. He thought back to the planet he’d seen just a few hours ago – a world that had been destroyed in an atomic war. The memory still haunted him. And it all started with talcap wood, he thought sadly. But at least I can make this right.

Aloud he said “I know you’re busy but I’m afraid there is one more thing. There’s someone else here that would like to talk with you.”

Tom sighed. “I’m sure there is. I can think of a number of people that would probably like to give me a piece of their mind.”

“If you’ll wait just a moment,” Mr. Swift said. He then left the office and closed the door behind him. Several minutes passed, but his father did not return. Tom stared at his door, puzzled. A feeling of nervousness grew. What’s taking so long? he thought. He sighed.

A moment later the door opened. Irene Goddard walked into the room and took a seat in front of the desk. “Hey there, Tom!” she said, smiling.