TOM SWIFT and the Lunar Volcano BY Leo L. Levesque & Thomas Hudson Book three in the Lunar Colony Saga that began with Tom Swift and His Space Battering Ram Tom Swift and the Cometary Reclamation A Joint Levesque Publishing Empire / Thackery Fox & Assoc. Publication Made in The United States on America ©opyright 2015 by the authors of this book (Leo L. Levesque and Thomas Hudson). While some of the characters in this story have appeared in other books and collections of books, published by other entities, it is believed that all have fallen into Public Domain status. Fair use under U.S. Copyright Law provisions for “parodies” is claimed for their inclusion in this story. The book authors retain all ownership and copyrights to new or substantially altered characters, previously unpublished locations and situations, and to their contributions to this book and to the total story. The characters Damon Swift, Anne Swift and Bashalli Prandit were created by Scott Dickerson and are used through his incredible largess and understanding that they are superior to those they replaced. 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, Victor Appleton II, or to claim the rights from any legitimate publisher. 2 Tom Swift and the Lunar Volcano By Leo L. Levesque and Thomas Hudson The Emperor Shangri-La died trying to attack the Earth; the Empress—his twin sister—died trying to attack Tom Swift. Now, it seems the very Moon on which they built their Shangri-La colony of slaves is on the brink of being attacked by the ground under their feet. Harlan Ames, former Swift Enterprises Chief of Security has been the Administrator of the now free colony but is getting anxious to take his twin children back to Earth. Their safety may depend on it; their mother was the much hated Empress! But, something bad is happening inside the Moon. He hopes his old boss can figure things out before it is too late. In the meantime, he leaves his children in the care of Lola “Grandma” Reyes at the lunar colony while he heads out to see if there is anything to discover at the former “Master’s” ruined fortress in the Philippines. It is a race against time to see if clues can be found to help avoid a catastrophe. _______________________________________________________ This book is dedicated to teamwork. If you’ve ever been in the military, you know how important it can be. If you’ve ever worked for a large corporation, you know there are companies out there that charge big bucks to come in to tell everyone how important it is. If you’ve ever tried to write a story (or two or three) with another author, you absolutely know it is mandatory. Here’s to teamwork and the great results you can achieve when you have it going for you! 3 With a thunderous rumble felt seventeen miles away in the colony, the lunar surface erupted and the first lava shot out. — Page 226 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Forward(s) by Both Authors 7 & 9 1 Burbling 11 2 Saclolo Has a Dream 23 3 A Little Dig 35 4 The Twins 47 5 One Nasty Discovery 57 6 What’s Up? Dock. 69 7 Bashalli Swift: Show-Woman 79 8 …and Then Came Stefanie 91 9 Return to Not-So-Magic Mountain 103 10 The Depths of Hell Variations 115 11 Shake It, Don’t Break It! 125 12 Skirting the Failure Option 135 13 Fortress of Sadness 145 14 Mr. Swift Goes to Washington 155 15 The Cheese is Melting; Life Goes On 167 16 Deep Space 179 17 A Trying Time Going Very Wrong 189 18 Will Reason ÷ Action = Success? 199 19 The Deeper You Go… 209 20 Breakthrough 221 5 6 Tom Swift and the Lunar Volcano FOREWORD — Tom Hudson Leo Levesque and I have written two books plus this one you hold in your hands or are reading on some sort of electronic screen. As you can see, it really is a trilogy now! But, look for a fourth volume in late 2015 0r early 2016, (Tom Swift and the Killing Moon.) Unless this is sometime after 2024 when scientists at a small company in San Jose, California, have cracked the floating 3D image thing and you are reading this as it floats about four feet above the floor or hovers over your bed at night. Congratulations on purchasing the real life embodiment of Tom Swift’s 3D Telejector! While this story can probably stand alone, it really might be best if you begged, borrowed, bought or ripped off the first two. It is, after all, a trilogy, so far, and you’ve missed a lot of good, old fashioned fun. Being one of the authors, I hope I can thank you for actually buying them. “Petty Thief” or “The Defendant” are such an ugly monikers to carry around the rest of your life. This story follows close on the heels of number two, Tom Swift and the Cometary Reclamation, carrying on the story of the lunar colony and how Tom Swift is inexorably entwined in its success. Or, failure! It is always a pleasure to write with Leo. And, we get better at it. The first one took months, the second weeks. This one ought to have taken us a long weekend, but things never work the way you hope they will. It took longer, but was, as always, a work of joy. This and the first books are not your old fashioned, everybody is wonderful, Tom Swift stories. They are grittier and feature more action. I just want you to they are not for adults only, but use caution in readers under the age of 12. Tomas Hudson 7 8 Tom Swift and the Lunar Volcano FOREWORD — Leo Levesque Some novels come out fast and furious, and others take time. This one was started even before all the editing of book two was done. In fact, Tom had a couple of chapters done and the graphic for the book cover even before I had my last half chapter out of my head and shinning back at me from he computer screen. If that's not a case of the cart before the horse I don't know what is. Such unabashed enthusiasm has to be rewarded. So without taking a breath, I took his two chapters, looked at where he was going with them, and made my outline for the story. Tom can jump back and forth with his writing, but I must have a map to follow. Not that I stick to it, I just need a point of reference to go back to, or I'll land us in another dimension. The case in point is that I already have two series of books that are going down that path. This will be the last book that features Harlan Ames as a lead character. Not that he won't be in the next one; he'll just be more in the background helping Tom solve a new mystery. He's going to have to let his protégés take this one and find the way to save the now plague-ridded Cordillera City... Leo L. Levesque 9 10 Tom Swift and the Lunar Volcano Chapter One: Burbling The raised tower barely poked up over the rim of the wide, dark crater located on the far, or dark, side of the Moon. From one of the five seats facing the surround of view windows—finally replaced with clear tomasite panes so they could not be shot out as had happened once—and looking to the lunar surface west of the crater, anyone could see the white shaft that disappeared into lunar orbit. It had been a construction feat never before contemplated or attempted, and had been a success. Now, it sat, or stood, silent and unused. Chunks of a captured ice-laden comet had been chipped off as that solar body raced above in a low lunar orbit, transported to the very top of the tower, and lowered to the surface, twenty miles below. The water they contained had been absolutely mandatory to the continued use and occupation of the colony below the tower. Water was a commodity the thousands of colonists had precious little of and had been losing at an alarming rate. At the same time, the colony was the only place to process the radioactive water so it might be used elsewhere. That being the state of California that had backed itself into a wall on overuse of it available resources. It had been a dangerously dry wall at that. After one-million gallon batches of processed water had been pumped back up the inside of the space elevator tube and loaded into a giant, gleaming golden spacecraft, it had been delivered to the blue and white planet a quarter of a million miles away and forced down a pipe floating above the countryside. As improbable as it all seemed, the scheme had worked. For every million gallon load raining down from a height of ten 11 miles, upper atmospheric moisture had been pulled out in a nearly equal amount to water the land below. Months had been necessary to bring the state back from the brink, but they absolutely owed their lives and livelihoods to two things: the lunar colony and Tom Swift! The other thing anyone sitting in the tower could see was the forever unchanging surface around them.