Tom swift and the Captive Planetoid by Victor Appleton II Read Free Book Online Page B

not my vision, Nestria,” pronounced the shabby speculationist. “I mean, wha?—mm, nothing to be ashamed of. Just different. Differentness is okay.—I guess so ! Without differentness , whatcha got?— sameness !”
    “That’s very true.” Tom hesitated awkwardly, wondering if the man felt offended. “You’re right, of course. You were thinking in terms of terraformed asteroids and huge artificial structures, real cities in space.”
    “Beaming down electricity from solar collectors. Microwaves! Safe microwaves. Birds fly, not fry . Make it a motto.”
    Demburton nodded. “And now Swift Enterprises solar batteries—”
    “Not the same thing. Nice enough. Not the same. Naw, it’s all out of date, my old stuff. Wha? Yeah. Oh? Big deal thirty years back.”
    “It sure was,” said Tom. “My father and I often talked about ‘New Stars For Man ’ and how your proposals could change civilization. It may well be the future, sir. The day may come when most ‘Earthlings’ never set foot on Earth!”
    “Yeah? Really? Naw—well, maybe. Who knows?” said Mr. Gerard indifferently.
    “That day may be on the horizon right now, Tom,” declared Mr. Demburton. “World Portico Hotels Corporation has a proposal for you—for Swift Enterprises.”
    The young inventor chuckled politely. “I don’t know there’s enough space-vacationing yet to make an orbiting hotel a profitable idea.”
    “Not a space hotel, Tom,” responded the executive suavely. “Not right now. But WPHC has many interests. We’re about progress.” This was their advertising slogan, Tom remembered. “We’d like to see some movement on Neil’s ideas. It’s time for mankind to push the envelope right out into space.”
    “Nothing to do with envelopes,” muttered Neil Gerard. “Hunh? No. Not that you should bother reading the book. International geek! Well, it got me up in the morning. Hello sun, hello moon.”
    “What sort of project do you have in mind, Mr. Demburton?” inquired Tom anxiously.
    “A space colony, Tom, just as Neil imagined! We’d like to engage Enterprises in a magnificent, historic venture—a prototype city on, or rather in , an asteroid in orbit around the Sun!”
    “Yeah, solar orbit,” Gerard said in his vague monotone. “Better test, away from the apron strings. Kind of a, wha? y’know, feasibility study. Like that thing where people lived in the ‘Mars Dome’ for a couple years until someone got appendicitis. They just did it in Russia, too, if you believe those people. So. Test out the whole Gerard vision. Felton here thinks he can get the money for it. That’s what I didn’t have thirty years back, Tom. Gotta have money or you’re dead. Me, I was dead. Don’t ever let yourself get dead.”
    During the dense verbiage Tom Swift’s bright eyes contemplated the prospect—an incredible challenge! “Gentlemen, I’m sure my father will be very interested—and I’m about ready to take off right now!”
    “Think so? Today? No, today’s way soon,” mused Mr. Gerard. “Give it a week or two. A decade. Sell it to the media, news people. Get the book back in print. Not for me , Tom. Never. It’s for—” He spread his arms wide, eloquently.
    “Yes,” Tom agreed, not entirely sure what he was agreeing with. “But you’ll need to find the right kind of asteroid, in the right kind of orbit, to apply the overall approach you’ve outlined.”
    Demburton snapped his thick fingers. “No problem at all! We’re here today because we’ve identified such an asteroid, you see. It’s out there now, a perfect candidate. It’ll be passing near Earth soon, Tom. You see, it’s a fairly large chunk of real estate, following along in the wake of the comet, Tarski.”
    Tom had difficulty hiding his astonishment. Somehow these men knew of the Follower—the intruding planetoid Dr. Jatczak had detected with sophisticated instruments only days previous—a discovery not yet announced to the world!
     

CHAPTER