Tom Swift and His Megascope Space Prober by Victor Appleton II Page B

are ‘translated’ into variations in a sort of scanning beam, which interacts with some of the particles in the cartridge in a way that causes them to collapse into one or the other of their possible states. And when that happens, the corresponding particles in the other cartridge instantly take on the same overall pattern, duplicating the shape of the original sound pattern."
    "Like a picture negative, hmm?"
    "In a way. And then we read it off, and translate the patterns back into sound." Tom added that each use of the Private Ear unit would render inert a portion of the available particles. "Each particle is ‘one use only’. But remember, they’re super-small, and the number of particles in a cartridge is enormous. It’ll last quite a while."
    "Wa-aal, sounds mighty nice t’ these old ears," pronounced the westerner. "Now that wasn’t so hard, was it, Tom? I gotta get goin’ now. But I shor did like this here little conversation."
    As Chow left, Tom could only shake his head in wonderment. Well , he boggled inwardly, it was just a simplified analogy!
    Tom worked steadily on his invention in the days that followed, thinking also of the problem of the stolen spy drone. And at the same time, in the back of his mind, he had already begun to toy with a further application of the basic quantum principle—a breakthrough even more revolutionary!
    In his personal notebook he scribbled down three words—megascope space prober.
    Late one afternoon, Tom was surprised and delighted when Bud dropped by the lab. "Got a couple days off," he explained, "so I choppered over to Fearing Island and grabbed the next jet to Shopton." Fearing was the tiny islet off the coast of Georgia where the Enterprises spaceport was based.
    The young inventor gave his pal a warm bearhug. He sensed that Bud was feeling downcast, with something on his mind. But when Tom told the story of how Chow had somehow grasped quantum weirdness without batting an eye, Bud burst out laughing, his good humor restored for the moment.
    As they chatted Tom proceeded to hook up a system of tubing from a helium cryostat to one of the two communicator units he was testing. "What’s that for?" Bud asked.
    "The matrix ‘readers’ will be scanning such delicate pattern variations that they have to be bathed in liquid helium, to cut down the waste noise in the circuit almost to zero."
    "Like you did in your electronic retroscope," the young flier remarked. "I suppose you can get all the helium you want from your hydrodome wells under the ocean."
    Tom nodded. "Benefits of ownership! And when I want to liquify it, I use the new translimator in a two-step process, allowing solid helium—which is like a metal—to absorb the heat energy from the room-temperature liquid I created in a separate chamber."
    "Jetz, solid helium!"
    "Unfortunately, it’s only stable, for any length of time, inside the chamber."
    Bud’s expression suddenly darkened. "Yeah. I’m starting to think I may be that way too, genius boy—temporarily stable. And my chamber’s close to springing a leak!"
    "Now that doesn’t sound so good, flyboy," responded Tom with concern, pulling up a lab stool to sit down next to him. "What’s going on? A problem with the Venus project?"
    "You might say that. Tom, I’m thinking of resigning as pilot!"
     
CHAPTER 9
MOON JAUNT
    "RESIGNING?" Tom stared at Bud. "Are you serious?"
    "Serious as I’ve ever been," Bud declared as a slight smile flicked across his young face. "Which isn’t saying much, I guess."
    "But why?" Tom persisted. "You’ll be the pilot of the first expedition to really study another planet close up! Don’t you realize this is an honor?"
    Bud’s answer was a stubborn shrug. He seemed to be groping for words to express whatever was troubling him.
    "Bud, it’s not only an honor, it’s a government request," Tom went on. "This isn’t just a private job you’re doing for Astro-Dynamics. It’s a project undertaken in our nation’s