CHAPTER IX
THE CAVE MONSTER
"Skipper!" Bud cried anxiously as Tom staggered back, his hands to hisface.
"I'm all right--no harm done," Tom assured his friend.
Both boys were a bit shaken by the accident, nevertheless. Chow camerushing in as Bud was brushing the fragments of debris from Tom'sclothes and examining the young inventor's face.
"Brand my flyin' flapjacks, what happened?" Chow asked. The chef hadbeen bringing a tray of fruit juice to the laboratory and had heard theexplosion outside.
"The radio set just blew up in my face," Tom explained. "Fortunately,the equipment was transistorized mostly with printed circuits.Otherwise," he added, "I might have been badly cut by slivers of glassfrom the exploding vacuum tubes."
As it was, the young inventor had suffered only a few slight scratchesand a bruise on the temple from a piece of the shattered housing. Budswabbed Tom's injuries with antiseptic from the first-aid cabinet whileChow poured out glasses of grape juice.
"What caused it, Tom?" Bud asked as they paused to sip the fruit drink.
"Good question," Tom replied. "Frankly, I don't know." But he waswondering if the set might have been sabotaged.
Tom was still eager to get in touch with his father and telephoned theelectronics department to bring another set to his laboratory. Chow leftjust as the new set arrived.
Tom hooked it up quickly, donned a set of goggles, and tuned to thespace-station frequency. Then he picked up the microphone and steppedwell back from the set, waving Bud out of range at the same time.
"Tom Swift calling Outpost!... Come in, please!"
A moment later came another explosion! _The new set had also blown up!_
"Good night!" Bud gasped in a stunned voice. "Don't tell me that's justa coincidence!"
Tom shrugged. "We can certainly rule out the possibility that anythingwas wrong with the radio itself. Every set is checked before it leavesthe electronics department."
"So where does that leave us?" Bud persisted.
Tom shook his head worriedly as he took off the goggles. "Both times itseemed to happen just as the reply was coming through from the spacestation. There is no possibility that their signal was too strong--inother words, that the explosion was caused by overloading the receivingcircuits."
"Are you implying that an enemy intercepted the message and sent somesort of ray that caused the set to explode?" Bud demanded.
Tom's face showed clearly that Bud had pinpointed the suspicion in theyoung inventor's mind. "Could be."
Bud was worried by this latest development. "Skipper, suppose I hop upto the space wheel and talk it over with your dad. He may be able tohelp us detect any enemy moves."
"Good idea, pal," Tom agreed. "The sooner the better, I'd say."
The boys exchanged a quick handshake and affectionate shoulder slaps.Then Bud hurried out to one of the Enterprises hangars to ready ahelijet for the flight to Fearing Island. This was the Swifts' rocketbase, just off the Atlantic coast. From there, Bud would board one ofthe regular cargo shuttle rockets operating between the space stationand Fearing.
Tom, meanwhile, plunged back to work on his shock-wave deflector.
At ten the next morning he called in Hank Sterling and showed him a setof completed drawings.
"Hank, you did a fast job on the container for the brain," Tom beganapologetically, "but you'll really have to burn out a bearing on thisone!"
Hank grinned. "I'm geared to action. Say, what do we call it, anyhow?"he asked.
Tom grinned. "Chow told me last night this gadget looked like a fireplugunder a rose trellis and I ought to call it Fireplug Rose! But I'vegiven it a more dignified name--the Quakelizor, which stands for anunderground quake wave deflector."
Briefly, Tom explained the various parts of his latest invention, whichconsisted of a hydrant-sized cylinder to be inserted into the ground,with magnetic coils near the top. A smaller hydraulic cylinder, mountedabove this, was wired to a metal framework and radio transmitter.
"This setup will detect any incoming enemy shock waves," Tom said."We'll need fifty of 'em, so turn the job over to Swift Construction.And have Uncle Ned put on extra shifts."
The Swift Construction Company, managed by Ned Newton, was thecommercial division which mass-produced Tom Jr.'s and Tom Sr.'sinventions.
Information from the detector-transmitters, Tom went on, would be fedinto an electronic computer at the Bureau of Mines in Washington.
The Quakelizor itself was housed in a massive cube-shaped casting withtwo large spheres mounted on top. From each of its four sides jutted ahydraulic piston.
"How does it work, Tom?" Hank asked.
"Dual-control spheres on top," Tom explained, "will receive by radiosignal the pulse frequency computed in Washington."
He added that inside each sphere was a "pulsemaker." This would producechanges in the pressure of the hydraulic fluid by affecting the kineticenergy of the fluid's atoms.
The pressure changes would then be enormously magnified in the fourhydraulic output drivers. When the unit was embedded in rock,underground, the huge pistons would send out counter shock waves throughthe earth's crust to neutralize the enemy waves.
"Wow!" Hank Sterling was breathless at the sheer scope of the youngscientist's newest invention. "I'll get hot on the job right away."
After forty-eight hours of round-the-clock work, the equipment wasready. Tom conferred by telephone with both Dr. Miles in the Bureau ofMines and Bernt Ahlgren in the Pentagon. He had already chosen the spotsfor the detector-transmitter check points.
Tom told the men that he believed the best spot for the Quakelizoritself was on a certain government reservation in Colorado. A deepunderground cave there would provide a perfect site.
"We'll be close enough to the San Andreas fault to prevent a reallyhuge-scale disaster," Tom explained. "And the Rocky Mountain structurewill give us a good bedrock medium for shooting out waves anywhereacross the continent."
Dr. Miles and Ahlgren agreed enthusiastically. Tom and the twoscientists spoke over a three-way telephone hookup--with automaticscramblers to counter the danger of enemy monitors--laying plans toinstall the equipment. Ahlgren agreed to fly a technical crew out to thespot in Colorado which Tom had named.
The next day, Tom, Hank, and several top Enterprises' engineers,including Art Wiltessa, took off in the _Sky Queen_. This was Tom's hugeatomic-powered Flying Lab. The massive plane flew at supersonic speedsand was equipped with jet lifters for vertical take-off or hovering.
A Whirling Duck heliplane, loaded with communications equipment,accompanied the _Sky Queen_. In little more than an hour, the two crafttouched down in a rugged Colorado canyon. The government technical crewwas already on hand.
"Glad to know you," Tom said, shaking hands with the engineer in charge.He introduced his own men and added, "Better roll up your sleeves. Thisjob is going to take plenty of oomph!"
The parts of the Quakelizor were unloaded from the _Sky Queen_ ontodollies. Then the group, armed with bull's-eye lanterns, flashlights,and walkie-talkies, hauled the parts by tractor into the cave.
"Okay. Now let's pick out the spot for embedding the unit," Tom said.
The men had no sooner begun to look around the huge underground chamberwhen a fearsome growl rumbled through the cave. Everyone whirled aboutand the next instant froze in horror.
A huge bear reared up in the mouth of the cave! The monster snarled andblinked its yellow eyes in the glare of lights.
"We're trapped!" Hank cried out.
The enormous bruin was now waving his huge head from side to side, as ifdaring the intruders to step up and fight.
Several of the government men had brought rifles and shotguns. But inspite of their peril, no one wanted to shoot the handsome old fellow.
"I'll send out an SOS," Tom said. "If help arrives before the bearattacks, we won't use guns."
He radioed the local Forest Ranger post. After a nerve-racking wait,with the
group expecting a charge from the beast at any minute, tworangers appeared and captured the bear with a net. One man of thegovernment work crew knocked together a stout wooden cage. The beast,outraged, was loaded aboard the heliplane to be released in an arearemote from the cave.
[Illustration (Tom and Hank meet a bear in the cave)]
Now the grueling job of installing the Quakelizor began. First the cavewas cleared of debris, bats, and other small living creatures. Then asite was marked out on the cave floor. Tom had brought along a midgetmodel of his great atomic earth blaster, which he had invented to drillfor iron at the South Pole.
With the blaster, Tom quickly drilled a pit of exact size into thebedrock. Then the Quakelizor was assembled and lowered into place by aportable crane. A power plant and radio antenna were set up and theinstallation was finally completed.
"I must return to Shopton now," Tom said. "Art here will stick aroundand help you operate the setup," he told the government engineers afterradio contact had been made with Washington. "If anything goes wrong,just flash word to Enterprises."
The _Sky Queen_ and the heliplane sped back across the continent. As Tomlanded at Enterprises he was greeted by Bud, who came speeding out onthe airfield by jeep.
"Just got back from the space wheel about an hour ago," Bud said. "Yourdad's really worried about those exploding radio sets, Tom. He has noclues, but he's sure the scientists working for the Brungarian rebelsetup are responsible. He thinks they may try to ruin all ofEnterprises' communications system by remote control."
Tom's face was grave as he listened. The two boys discussed the problemas they drove to the Swifts' office in the main building.
"Boy, I sure wish I could think of some way to cope with it," Tom saidwearily, flopping down in his desk chair.
"Your dad said to give it the old college try," Bud reported. "And healso said he'd be back in two days to help you on the problem."
Tom glanced at the calendar. "Which reminds me," he said, "on Monday thebrain energy will be due from space!"
The thought sent a thrill of excitement tinged with worry through theyoung inventor's mind. Would the container he had devised provesuitable?
"Hey! A call on the videophone!" Bud pointed to the red light flashingon the control board. He jumped up and switched on the set.
Blake, the Washington announcer, appeared on the screen.
"Bad news, skipper," he said ominously. "An earthquake tremor was justfelt here in Washington. It centered in a shipyard on the Potomac andcaused great damage!"