Tom Swift and the Asteroid Pirates by Victor Appleton II Read Free Book Online Page A

in the XAIP!"
    Tom echoed the yawn. " Quite a day!"
    Tom slept helplessly for hours. It was daylight when he awoke. A quick check with the communications center was disappointing—the moonlet had entered Earth’s shadow, but there was still no radio response. But that’s not too surprising , Tom thought hopefully. It may take awhile for the anti-magnetic effect to build up.
    Some time later, having a late breakfast with Bud, he was interrupted by a buzz on his cellphone-intercom. "We’ve just made contact with Nestria, Skipper!" Harry Lengle reported excitedly. "Come on down!"
    Tom and Bud were thrilled by the news. They sped across the island by jeep and dashed into the communications office.
    "Still getting through?" Tom cried.
    Lengle nodded. His expression was pensive. "Their signal’s pretty weak, but we’ve enhanced it enough to make out the audio." He added into the microphone in his hand, "Galileo, here’s Tom now."
    Tom seized the mike. "Do you read me? What cooks up there?" he asked eagerly.
    A blur of voices could be made out through the earphones. One voice was especially prominent. "He said cook . He’s askin’ fer me!" The young inventor was smiling broadly as Chow came on the line. "This here’s ole Chow, boss! Brand my ― "
    But Tom had already begun speaking, the signal delay overlapping their voices. "Are you fellows all right?"
    "Sure thing, son, ever’body’s right fine! Wa-aal—considerin’."
    "It’s great to hear you, pardner, but maybe I should talk to Kent. The communications window may not last very long."
    "Okay. Here he is."
    Rockland’s voice came on. "Looks like you had the same idea as Professor Jatczak, Tom. We’ve been trying from our end for an hour now. We know there’s some sort of screen or cloud-barrier around Nestria that blows things to kingdom come—we’ve sent up a few test missiles."
    "Have any of the scientists determined the nature of the barrier?" asked Tom.
    "No, we can’t get a fix on anything. One of the Brungarians thinks it might be some kind of antimatter deal."
    "I have the same theory," Tom stated. "What sort of condition is the base in?"
    When Rockland’s response came through after the delay, Tom noted that it had become more distorted and was noticeably weaker. "We’re getting water from our atmosphere-making machine, but we could use some food. We’ve got quite a few mouths up here right now." The mineralogist explained that the explosion of the supply rocket had sent out a shower of radioactive fallout which had contaminated nearly all of Base Galileo’s experimental vegetable gardens. The colonists, given a few minutes’ warning by the base’s radiation sensors, had retreated to protective shelters but had had no time to shield the crops. "We’ve started de-radding the area, but Doc Simpson says the edibles are unsafe. And we don’t keep a big reserve of the packaged stuff."
    "Roger. Your signal’s starting to go now. But tell everyone we’re working the problem. Keep your chins up, all of you," he added. "I’ll try to get a ship there with provisions as fast as possible—and bring you fellows safely back to earth."
    Beneath the rising waves of static Tom could hear a faint chorus of cheers and exclamations of relief from voices in the background. Evidently the entire crew of the base had gathered around the radio. "This is Fearing, signing off."
    Tom and Bud jetted back to Shopton and Swift Enterprises. Landing, the young inventor headed for his office, remarking to Bud: "I’ve got to let my ideas cook a little—upstairs. Which is fine, because tomorrow ― "
    "Is Friday!" concluded Bud with an excited grin. "Which means we’re due in Chinatown for some Chinese-puzzle solving!"
    Early the following afternoon the youths took off for New York in a Swift Enterprises jetrocopter. Marketed by Enterprises’ manufacturing subsidiary in Shopton, the Swift Construction Company, this was the name given to a versatile combination