TOM SWIFT And The Reconstructed Planet

BY Victor Appleton II

Made in The United States of America A Special Word of Thanks To author Joanne Larner, my British writing buddy. She who introduced me to a Richard III who is much more interesting than a pile of old bones found under a parking lot and gave him a romantic side he might actually have had in real life, even if the time traveling parts may be a bit fictitious. But, who am I to say anything; I deal with the fiction of science all the time!

©opyright 2016 by the author of this book (Victor Appleton II - pseud. of Thomas Hudson). The book author retains sole copyright to his or her contributions to this book. This book is a work of fan fiction. It is not claimed to be part of any previously published adventures of the main characters. It has been self-published and is not intended to supplant any authored works attributed to the pseudononomous author or to claim the rights of any legitimate publishing entity.

2 THE NEW TOM SWIFT INVENTION SERIES Tom Swift And The Reconstructed Planet By Victor Appleton II

There has been a tenth planetary object residing beyond the orbit of Pluto. It remained hidden until space-based telescopes detected all the tell-tale signs. But it remained unseen for years and years until Tom Swift decides to go take a look. Known as Eris, it is larger than Pluto—about one-quarter the size of the Earth—and even has its own moon, but is so far away that it never gets closer to the sun than millions of miles farther out than the apogee of Pluto’s orbital path. When he and Bud and their crew arrive, it is to a distressing sight: Eris is attracting another solar object, and they soon find it is about to smash the planet apart. Everything Tom tries only delays the inevitable, but he must succeed in saving Eris. If not he calculates that so much debris will be pulled toward the sun that it will slam into at least five other planets. With Mars a possible victim, it is vital to succeed. Too late he watches as the planet is hit and begins to break up. What can be done to hold everything together? Even if he finds something, can Tom really rebuild an entire planet?

______This book is dedicated to the team at the Palomar Observatory and Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz who first discovered Eris in 2005. And the crazy part is that Eris isn’t the only other new “planet” in our solar system. There’s Sedna, a planet that takes 10,500 years to make one orbit of the sun. And, 2012 VP113, a planet with a cryptic name. Why these are not Jeopardy or .I. questions can only be ascribed to ignorance or petty jealousy. Or, foolish indifference.

3 With very little event horizon, if Tom hadn’t maneuvered the ship within thirty miles, the black hole wouldn’t be visible against all the stars and debris surrounding it. CHAPTER 8

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

1 How Many? 9 2 The Other New Outpost 19 3 To Space 29 4 Drop Off and Recovery 39 5 Can You Drag Race at FTL? 49 6 Faster-Than-Physics 59 7 Designing the TranSpace Dart 69 8 Harnessing A Black Stallion 79 9 Parallel Parking in The Asteroid Belt 89 10 Goliath Heads For Home 99 11 An Unavoidable Conclusion 109 12 TranSpace Dart Outbound 121 13 “Gee, It’s Still Bright Way Out Here!” 131 14 Return to Try Something Else 141 15 The Dart Breaks the Light Barrier 151 16 A Near Calamity 161 17 How Do You Reconstruct a Planet? 171 18 Abandon, or Marshall On? 181 19 “Well, Bud, We Tried…” 191 20 …And Then it All Comes Together 199

5 AUTHOR’S NOTE

When I allowed myself to be convinced—and, it didn’t take a lot, to be honest—to help resurrect Tom Swift, but using my own spin on things, little could I have known that six years later I would have completed fifteen solo novels plus another trio of dual-author novels, along with scores of short stories. Now, as I begin novel sixteen and year seven I fi