Tom Swift and His Space Solartron by Victor Appleton II Page B

replied, his heart pounding. "But I’ll check to make sure." He tested the substance with the Swift Spectroscope, then nodded without speaking. The room rang with hearty cheers from Tom’s friends, led by his father, his sister, and his best chum.
    "Guess it works, doesn’t it," Tom said quietly. His father gave him a warm hug.
    After combining oxygen with the space hydrogen to make water, Tom concluded his experiments by trying to make one more element needed for food compounds—nitrogen. The results showed clearly that the solartron could generate the gas in usable quantities. "I’m afraid you’d have to run Matty for a few hours to get a cup of sugar out of him, though," Tom remarked. "The guy’s mighty stingy!"
    Noted Doc Simpson thoughtfully, "But if a team were stranded in space, even small quantities of carbohydrates could make the difference. There are high-efficiency edibles the machine could make that could keep someone alive for weeks, given sufficient water to drink."
    "Congratulations, son!" said Mr. Swift after carefully studying the matter maker’s readout figures. "Now how about lending your old Dad a little of that luck of yours! Perhaps a few of you fellows would like to help on my cosmic dust project?"
    Tom, Bud, and Ted were eager to do so, and Bashalli and Sandy pronounced themselves eager to observe . Acting on Mr. Swift’s instructions, the astronauts took to space and rigged a powerful set of electrodes on the upper hub of the space wheel, facing away from the earth. The elder scientist busied himself setting up a special wave-generating apparatus inside the station, feeding to an oddly-shaped antenna coil on the hull.
    When the apparatus was complete, Mr. Swift closed a switch, beaming out what he described as an ultrahigh-frequency ionization ray "of a sort." Tom and his comrades checked the electrodes every few minutes. At first there was nothing to see, but after a couple hours the microscopic dust particles that drifted in space had begun to encase the electrodes in a blue-black crust, thin but visible to the eye. By the time Chow broadcast the dinner gong, the particles had formed a stone, possessing a metallic luster and looking somewhat like a small meteorite.
    "Real stardust! Not bad for a first try." Mr. Swift smiled as he examined the results. "But I seem to be up against the same problem you are, Tom—my process works rather slowly."
    "The particles may accumulate faster as the attracting surface increases in size, Dad," Tom pointed out. "Let’s continue the experiment tomorrow. I’m eager to see how this works out. You could have a real breakthrough before we leave for Earth tomorrow noon."
    "Actually, Tom, Simpson and I have decided to stay behind on the outpost for a time," said Damon Swift. "I have some ideas I’d like to try out without feeling rushed, and Doc is right in the middle of a lengthy medicine-production process that shouldn’t be interrupted."
    Tom nodded. "I’m mainly heading down in order to apply what I’ve learned up here to the final version of the solartron—the big ‘space’ model Hank and Arv have been assembling. The Challenger will be back in less than a week."
    Later, after closing down the galley after supper, Chow was hailed by Bud as he crossed through the central hub on the way to the spoke containing his sleep cubicle.
    "Say there, Chow," Bud said in muted tones. "I wonder if—would you mind stopping by my compartment?"
    "This one o’ your jokes?"
    "No, no!" Bud replied hastily. "It’ll just take a minute. I—I guess I wanted your opinion." Glancing about, Bud lowered his voice further. "Y’see, pard, it’s sort of… private."
    Brow furrowed deeply, the Texan nodded and followed Bud to his quarters. Ushering his friend inside, the young pilot closed the airtight door, which sealed itself automatically. "These cubicles are designed to be soundproof," he murmured. "That’s fine with me."
    Bud drifted down onto his cot and gestured for