Tom Swift and the Martian Moon Re-Placement

by Victor Appleton II

  He slipped into the seat by the console that was tracking everything having to do with the satellite. As soon as his eyes focused on a small cluster of gauges, his first thought was that he was still asleep and dreaming this moment.

  “That’s no dream in case that’s what you’re thinking,” Haz told him. “It’s what we’re seeing inside the colony. Tell me what it means.”

  It was almost spoken as a plea and not a request.

  “That,” Tom said before finding it necessary to clear his throat and take another drink of water, “says that the gravity stone on Phobos, the very one that has been running haywire, has shut completely off. No gravitational output whatsoever according to our instruments up there. Now, don’t get all celebratory until I can get up there to make certain it isn’t instrument failure, but it looks like the stone may have had some back-up internal power that has run out. At least, I assume and hope that is the case.”

  Most of the crew staying on Challenger were awake by now and once they understood what might be going on they all stated they’d like to go up now and not later.

  “Besides,” Bud said speaking for them all, “nobody is going to get any more sleep tonight… or rather this morning. Let’s get Chow out of his bunk up in the storage room and have something to eat and some hot coffee and head up to Phobos.”

  There was a chorus of “Here, here!” from everybody else including Chow who had come down the narrow ladder in time to find out about the gravity stone.

  “I kin get some breakfast burritos goin’ in a couple minutes. Just got ta heat up the eggs an’ make some fresh salsa. But, first, I’ll brew up some strong coffee.” He turned and walked to his small kitchenette and opened his refrigerator and two cupboards.

  Before Tom had finished examining all the readouts the smell of fresh coffee was wafting through the room.

  “Haz? You go back and tell the colonists that might be awake to not get anybody else out of bed, but things might be looking up. Also tell them to pass no rumors around until I get back from the moon. Then, come back and eat with us.”

  The word was passed, breakfast eaten and, twenty-three minutes later, the ship lifted off. It met up with the small moon nineteen minutes after that and Tom and Bud piloted the ship to a pinpoint landing just twenty yards form the bore hole.

  The inventor told his friend that, contrary to his own father’s explicit instructions to the pilot that he was the expendable one and always should go into potential danger before Tom, the inventor said, “I’m down there first and alone until I call out for assistance, Bud. No argument.”

  Knowing there are times he ought to insist and times he ought to stand back, Bud stood back. “But, I am suiting up and will be a the top of the hole in case…”

  The two men were ready and outside the ship in about nine minutes.

  Tom dropped down and out of sight on the porta-vator and only called once he’d sealed the airlock above him.

  “Getting ready to drop down. I’m activating my helmet light and camera so you can see what I do.”

  What everyone saw was the side of the shaft giving way to the vast openness of the cavern, and when Tom looked down they saw the floor with the small amount of debris from the breakthrough nobody had cleared away visible.

  The inventor touched down and began cautiously walking toward the gravity stone.

  “There is no extra gravity down here at all, and the stone looks, well, sort of dull and lifeless,” he reported. “It might be imagination of just a wild hope, but it looks… well, dead.”

  Everyone saw his right hand reach out to tap the stone. What surprised them all was that it rocked under then slight pressure. This had Tom wondering just how heavy it might be, so he reached out with both hands and grabbed the upper third. With only a slight amount of exertion the stone came up and away from the floor.

  He turned and set it down a few feet away from the defunct power tube.

  “Well, folks, I guess that is the end of the gravity stone problem. I’m going to bring it up and we’ll get it off Phobos. Someone prepare a cradle for it on the porch outside the hangar, please.”

  He created a sling affair using some extra strong line and the debris removal bucket that had been left on the cavern floor. With that strapped to his back, and now with the minute gravity that was natural to the satellite he pulled himself and his load up to the airlock where he shut the lower hatch and took a moment to rest.

  “Okay. I’m coming up,” he radioed the team above.

  * * * * *

  “Are you just going to leave it here?” Haz asked after they returned to the colony two hours later.

  Tom nodded, but also said, “For now. If I’m reading that stone right, it won’t give any more troubles unless someone hooks it up to power long enough for the internal systems to charge. Even then, it is on the exact opposite side of Mars from the colony where its influence ought to be minimal. I’ll take it home once the planets get closer next year.”

  With the gravity stone danger eliminated, Tom and Bud returned the scientific team members to the moon the next day and set up a rotation whereby at least two of them could remain overnight so some studies were not interrupted.

  What Tom said he would be doing was waiting three days to give the power pods time for full recovery and then giving the moon a steady push back to its proper orientation, speed and orbit.

  “If your people can tell me exactly where that is supposed to be, we’ll make it happen!”

  Haz laughed. “I’ve had them compiling that information for a couple months. They can tell us both within five feet altitude and a hundred meters along the orbital path where that spot is every five seconds of its daily orbit. Tell us when you want to push and we’ll fine tune everything based on that.”

  While the scientists were off the moon for another (agonizingly long according to them) period of time Tom set up a schedule.

  The move began that evening just before the sun went down over the western mountain behind the colony. Tom, Bud and Hank stood by in one of the saucers with the reconfigured Goliath sitting in its position and all three of the colony’s mules ready to give little tiny directional nudges if and when required.

  It started so slowly that it wasn’t until an hour later the colony reported the now had some indication there was movement.

  “The move is looking good so far,” they reported, “but we can’t determine if everything is going in the absolute right direction.”

  Tom radioed down, “Give us another hour and then you should be seeing what is actually happening.”

  After that and over the next thirty-two hours things went absolutely as they should. On only two occasions were the mules brought closer to give the tiniest of corrections, a move necessary because of extremely limited steering control using Goliath.

  The final five hours were spent getting things so close to where they had been Tom was able to report the moon was now within a meter of where it might have been had there been no intervention courtesy of the gravity stone.

  Back at the colony Haz asked if Tom was taking the Goliath back home with him.

  “It’s been on my to do list, Haz, but if it’ll make all the people up here feel better and safer, I can leave it until we get the two planets back in closer orientation. I’ve already arranged to transfer the controls to the colony and we’ll train three of your top people before we depart.”

  He wanted to spend a full day with the scientists on Phobos and that happened two days later.

  Tom and Bud were wandering through the cavern noting where some things had already been viewed and cataloged and now were cordoned off with bright red and yellow tape.

  “Starting to look like a crime scene,” the flyer quipped.

  “Yeah, but what’s got my interest is what I think I’m seeing way down that corridor,” Tom said pointing.

  Bud looked and then looked at Tom. “What the…?

  Close to one of the side walls was something that looked ou
t of place. It was cube-shaped and in very, very good condition.

  “Obviously, that wasn’t here all this time,” Tom stated, “so I wonder how and when it got into this cavern.”

  The approached the cube which turned out to look for all the world like a large storage or shipping case roughly fifteen feet on a side. The grayish material on the outside was similar to some of the items the Space Friends had once sent for Tom to look at before their Earth visit. Slightly rough and bumpy with a plastic-like dull appearance.

  Three hours came and went as Tom tried to gain entrance until he had a realization that it might never open in the vacuum; it might require being in a viable atmosphere so he ceased what he was doing and made a call to the colony to arrange for it to be carefully brought to the Martian surface.

  * * * * *

  Tom. Bud, Hank, Chow and five others left for Earth a week later in the TranSpace Dart. Challenger and two of the three saucers would come back as a flotilla with the saucers being unmanned and everybody else in the larger ship.

  Where the Dart would take just five days—they might be farther away than the previous trip out but that meant more distance to get up to higher speeds—the other ships would take three weeks.

  Chow made certain there were plenty pre-made meals for all to enjoy, so nobody was worried about the extended transit time.

  On the way back to Earth, Bud asked Tom a difficult question that had the inventor puzzle.

  “What was the source of the power down under the gravity stone?”

  * * * * *

  He was shocked, quite frankly, when only an hour after returning to Enterprises he received notice from Communications of an incoming message from space.

  “Don’t know what to tell you, skipper,” the duty radioman said, “but it’s coming in on the proper frequency and has every earmark of being real. Want it on your screen?”

  “No. This might be our last ever communication and it just seems right that I take it over there. See you in five.”

  As soon as he sat down at the monitor the computer pinged indicating it had reached a translation of the entire message.

  Space Friends to Tom Swift. Yes we now

  understand your personal identifier.

  We also regret not being able to send

  answers to you for lengthy period of

  time. Our Masters have forbidden it.

  We now must depart your system but

  have made Masters understand

  need to shut off gravity stone inside

  larger orbiting object.

  Object you call Phobos would have been

  returned to original position, however

  we detect this has already occurred.

  Assume you are responsible for this.

  Uncertain how this was accomplished.

  Can you send final message with

  details. The large beings and artifacts

  you have found were from our previous

  Masters who once attempted to

  populate your planet. They had some

  success but perished almost in total

  many eons of your time ago.

  The last time they were near your planet

  Mars was almost five thousand solar

  orbits ago.

  The remains you found in the small

  cavern was our commander who

  perished from time. That is his final

  place of habitat and we ask you do

  not remove him.

  We depart the system in one rotation

  of your home planet. Our voyage

  will take one half solar orbit time.

  After that, we will try to communicate.

  Impossible during transition to home

  planet.

  We have found great satisfaction and

  what we believe you call pleasure in

  our time here and our communications

  with you.

  And, that was it.

  Tom sat, a combination of surprise and sadness running through his mind as he re-read the message.

  So, it was true. The Space Friends were actually departing the solar system for their home world and in about twenty-four hours. There were so many things he wanted to tell them and ask them, but his thoughts were interrupted by a radio message from his father.

  “I saw the message, Son. What a great loss to us, but oh, how much we have learned about things that might have remained hidden to us had they not made that first attempt at contact nine years ago.”

  “Yeah, I know, but it feels like a great friend has announced they are moving to a foreign country, and it is happening in less than one day and there might be no phones or mail service. I want to acknowledge their message but can’t think what I might say or ask. Any thoughts?”

  Damon told his son he had more thoughts than could ever be expressed. “You go ahead and send them what you want to. Be sure to add my thanks for all they have meant to us. Okay?”

  “Sure. Thanks.”

  Tom pulled over a notepad and began writing a possible message. He read it and crumpled the page up starting over on the following page. An hour later he had about twenty balled-up pages and a message he thought might be adequate in communicating his real thoughts and feelings. He moved over to the radio panel and pulled out the keyboard.

  Tom Swift to Space Friends. My father

  you call Earlier Swift known as Damon

  Swift sends his greetings and regrets

  that you must leave our system. I also

  am saddened by this news but

  understand you might be eager to

  get back to your home planet.

  Knowing you has meant a great deal to

  both of us, and what we have learned

  from you has increased our planet’s

  knowledge of the universe. For this

  we thank you.

  I have so many questions but primary is

  knowing if it is safe to open one of your

  radio devices to see if I can make more

  of them.

  Your question about position of Phobos

  is easy to answer. We found gravity

  stone and have removed it from the

  small moon. It is now down on the

  planet Mars in a position it cannot

  affect anything.

  Is there a gravity stone inside other

  moon?

  Also found large container inside larger

  cavern with lizard being remains. It is

  very new and has been brought out of

  cavern and to surface of the planet.

  Can you tell me what I will find inside.

  If possible contact me before you depart

  and again when you arrive in home

  system. I will try communicating with

  you in just over half orbital time.

  Farewell, which means have a safe and

  fast trip home. Also, thank you for

  your friendship.

  Tom pressed the SEND key and sat back. He didn’t expect to receive any return message and was shocked when the unit pinged less than thirty seconds later. Across the screen came:

  To Tom Swift and Damon Swift. We

  believe you call feelings of happiness

  for knowing an individual to be called

  friendship. We feel great friendship

  for you and will not forget our time on

  your planet and here in your system.

  The gravity stone will be returned to

  normal condition and can be

  controlled using controls build into it.

  Touch is set for Tom Swift to

  enable commands.

  Our Masters set stone to high to

  destroy it in crash onto planet Mars.

  They were not understanding you

  have Earth beings on planet that

  might be harmed or destroyed.

  They will never energize if again.


  There is no other stone on second

  moon.

  Thee remains you found were from

  our previous Masters who abandoned

  the small orbiting object before they

  sent us here the first time.

  Container you found in large cavern

  is our gift to you. Again, touch of

  Tom Swift will open and operate.

  We bid you goodbye and farewell

  and will attempt communication

  once we get to home planet.

  And, that was it.

  Except it wasn’t. The following day the container Tom and Bud found emerged from the cavern and was brought down to the Martian surface.

  Haz sent word he would get it to Earth as soon as possible.

  * * * * *

  Good to his word, and of some surprise to Tom, Goliath announced her approach three weeks later. Her skeleton crew, hampered by being tucked under the cargo deck, managed to set the big ship down at Fearing Island where Tom was waiting.

  Eagerly, Tom and Bud and about fifty of the personnel at Fearing and all the crew of Goliath crowded around to see what might have been packed into the fifteen-by-fifteen-food cube.

  It had been hauled into the hangar next to the Administration building where some aircraft and ground vehicles were kept and maintained. With the doors closed, the atmosphere was thick with expectation.

  The inventor had a camera set up to send images back to Shopton so his father could see what was inside, as well as back to Mars, before he searched for and found the hidden keypad. It was invisible until his hands moved to within a few centimeters of it. Then, what looked to be a detection pad and a single button glowed a bright yellow.

  With great care, Tom placed his right hand so it hovered over the surface of the pad. It began to strobe bright and dull until he placed the palm directly on it.

  The closest people stepped back quickly as a series of sharp clicks came from all around the upper plane of the cube. Even Tom moved back a step as a precaution.

  The top edge nearest him popped open about an inch and then slowly rose as if on hydraulic struts. But, as he watched he saw nothing like those opening devices. It simply opened on a hinge point until the top folded over the back side and the edge rested on the ground.

  Tom called for a portable stairs unit and was soon stepping up to peer into the box. He let out a gasp but did not move back.