Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space (9 page)

"Aren’t you represented by legal counsel, Mr. Swift?"

"Our company lawyer is now in Washington DC," explained Tom. "My father and I, and the rest of us, didn’t feel that it was necessary to call him back on this account, because I’m quite sure that there’s been some mistake. I haven’t destroyed anyone’s property."

"We’ll see about that!" snorted Jaston York angrily.

"We will indeed," said the judge. "I wish to make clear that these are special proceedings of a type recently authorized by the State Legislature on an experimental basis. Though not a Small Claims Court matter, this hearing will be conducted with a similar degree of informality of procedure." The hearing now got underway, and York was directed to set forth his
purported causes of action
in
clear, direct, and understandable terms, as required by law and the policies of this jurisdiction—
in the words of Judge Grover.

York fingered his lapel and began. "Your Honor, my company was—"

"Which company is that, Mr. York?"

"The Quik Battery Corporation of Plattsburgh, New York, address filed with this court. My company was engaged in making some tests on solar radiation by means of a high-altitude helium balloon. Quik Battery is allowed to make such tests under its State and Federal licenses. We sent up a balloon equipped with valuable instruments on the date of—"

"Dates accepted as stipulated in court submissions. Now, Mr. York, I take it these balloon ascents took place in connection with your commercial purpose, which is the manufacture of batteries for public sale?"

"That is correct, Your Honor."

"And what, precisely,
is
that connection, sir?"

York paused. "We are engaged in proprietary research with regard to the area of—"

"No," said Judge Grover impatiently. "Just tell me what the balloon is for. Making some kind of battery?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

"And what transpired? You see,
I’m
allowed to say words like
transpired,
but
you
are
not."

York frowned and turned slightly redder. "Tom Swift and his associates, in a jet aircraft called the
Sky Queen,
deliberately rammed that balloon with his plane, causing its destruction and thereby ruining the entire experiment!"

The judge shuffled through his papers and nodded.
"Busted
it, you say?"

"In a manner of speaking, sir—yes."

"All right. Now then." Judge Grover turned to Tom and regarded the young inventor over the tops of his spectacles.. "Did you hear what he said, Mr. Swift?"

"I did, Your Honor."

"Do you understand the allegation?"

"I do."

"Did you do it? That is, you or one of the others named?"

"Definitely not, Your Honor. It’s true that I was flying the
Sky Queen
at that time, and I
did
see the balloon Mr. York is referring to. But it burst of its own accord, just as any radiosonde balloon will do after reaching a high enough altitude."

York sneered sarcastically. "And I suppose you just happened, by some strange coincidence, to be zooming close by at that particular moment!"

There was a slight titter from the crowd of spectators, and Judge Grover rapped for silence. "Much as I enjoy a note of drama, Mr. York, you will confine your remarks to the court for the time being. I take it that you are prepared to prove these charges?"

"I am, Your Honor. May I call my first witness?"

"Proceed."

At a nod from York, a tall, thin man came forward and was sworn in. After taking the stand, he identified himself as Frank Haley, a technician employed in the photographic laboratory of the Quik Battery Corporation. York handed him a sheaf of photographs. "Have you ever seen these pictures before?"

Haley glanced at them briefly. "Yes, Mr. York. I processed. these photographs myself. They’re shots taken by an electronic high-resolution camera which went up in the test balloon, the one we have reference to."

"And what do they show?"

"They show Tom Swift’s plane, the
Sky Queen,
heading straight toward the camera just before the balloon was rammed."

A buzz of interest and excitement rose from the courtroom. York turned his red, perspiring face triumphantly toward the judge. "If Your Honor will examine these photographs, you will see that there is no doubt whatsoever about the truth of my charge!"

Judge Grover took the photographs and studied them for several moments. When he looked up at Tom, his expression was grave. "Young man, these photographs certainly have a kind of
ipso facto
force in bearing out Mr. York’s accusation. Do you still deny the charge?"

"May I see the pictures?" Tom asked. The judge handed them over, and Tom glanced through them quickly. "These are the ones I’ve examined previously. I don’t deny that that’s my plane. The answer is quite simple, Your Honor. When I first saw the balloon, I realized that it was not the ordinary type used for weather signals. So I steered toward it for a closer look. That’s evidently when these pictures were snapped."

York laughed harshly. "Don’t think you can squirm out of this!" he said, shaking a fat finger in Tom’s face. "Whatever your motive, these images prove that you approached close enough to cause the balloon to explode, and my company expects full compensation and punitive damages, and an injunction to make sure—"

Judge Grover rapped his gavel for order, and replied, "No need to read the laundry list, Mr. York. If you got your camera back safely and developed these pictures, how can you claim the experiment was ruined?"

"Yes, well, I’m sure the court realizes that it’s not the camera I’m talking about! It’s the other instruments and our proprietary battery materials. The payload parachuted to earth, but from a much greater altitude than planned, as we had programmed the balloon to drop the payload package during its descent phase. Practically everything aside from the camera was completely smashed—and all of it was high-priced scientific equipment!"

"Got it," declared His Honor. "As you have asked for punitive damages, do you allege that this was a
deliberate
act?—I know you
do,
of course, as it says so right here, but let’s get going on that part of it."

There was silence; this question seemed to flummox York for a moment. "Surely it is evident on the face of it that Mr. Swift behaved recklessly in virtually buzzing my test balloon, Your Honor."

"Does the defendant have a response?"

"The fact is, my plane didn’t really approach the balloon all that closely," Tom replied. "In fact, my associates here will be glad to testify that I was concerned about
not
interfering with the experiment."

Bud and Chow nodded vigorously.

"Nods don’t count," commented the judge brusquely. "However, Mr. Swift has not yet solicited actual testimony from Mr. Budworth Newton Barclay and Mr. Charles Ollaho Winkler, so the point is moot. Two most unusual names."

Suddenly an idea occurred to Tom. With a quick shuffle he counted the number of photographic prints. Then he looked at the witness, who still occupied the stand. "Mr. Haley, I’m familiar with several types of high-speed, high-definition electronic cameras, and the special orientation marks on these prints make me think they were taken by a Mondo-Basso camera, manufactured in Milan, Italy. Am I right?"

The spider-thin technician gulped and answered, "Yes, sir, that’s what it is—the top of the line."

"Well then, that kind of camera records
hundreds
of images per
second,"
Tom said.

"Do you dispute that statement, Mr. Haley?" asked Judge Grover.

"No; that’s true."

"Then given your expertise as entered into the court record by the claimant, I shall accept that statement as evidentiary in and of itself." The judge turned again to Tom. "And your point, Mr. Swift?"

"Well, Mr. York has only brought to court a handful of these images, all of them apparently consecutive.
But that’s misleading!"
declared the young inventor confidently. "Truly consecutive images would follow each other so rapidly that they would not show any obvious motion of the plane, as these do. I’d like to know what happened to the rest of them."

Haley cleared his throat and glanced uncomfortably at his employer. Before he could reply, York snapped at Tom, "What concern is that of yours?"

"I’d like to see them," Tom said evenly. "They may be important evidence. In fact, they might even show that I never rammed your balloon at all—especially the later ones showing the
Sky Queen
moving away from the balloon before it burst!"

"Well, you’re out of luck," York retorted. "They don’t show anything of the kind."

"What do they show?"

"Nothing! The rest of the prints were all spoiled."

Judge Grover leaned forward on his elbows. "Does the witness concur in that statement?" he asked.

"Oh yes, sir. I do," replied Haley, nodding hastily and nervously.

The judge frowned for a moment, then announced, "I believe you’d better produce those images anyhow, Mr. York. I’ll explain why. You see, I can accept that all the images taken after the alleged collision might have been ruined. But this court has some difficulty with the notion that the earlier
intervening
images were completely spoiled—prophetically, as it were—leaving behind those very few others that happen to support your contention." He looked sternly at York over his glasses. "In fact, sir, I suspect it would be in your best interest to make a
most solemn effort
to enter those missing images into evidence, if you catch my drift."

The plaintiff was obviously distressed, his face redder than ever. "B-but you just heard—that is—" York glared first at the judge, then at Tom. He looked more than ever like an angry bullfrog about to explode. Finally he grumbled in a sullen, ill-tempered voice: "Oh, very well. I’ll produce them if we can still find the digital cartridges in our lab. But I repeat, they show nothing."

"A wise decision," said Judge Grover with a smile. "And by the way, Mr. York, you might like to bear in mind that this court does not care to be glared at, as by long tradition only the judge is granted that privilege. Now then, I do note that you allege a second, more recent occasion, in which you allege further interference by a Swift aircraft, this one piloted by Mr. Barclay here. And I see you have again presented a similar series of camera images."

"Yes, sir," responded York sullenly.

Chow Winkler suddenly cleared his throat. "Say there, yer Honor, sir, if I could have a say—"

"Mr. Winkler."

"Um, well, I’as just lookin’ at that second set o’ pitchers, and they look a lot like t’other ones. And, say—don’t it seem jest a little bit
suspectible
that both times that there camera was pointed right at where the jet was?"

Judge Grover smiled broadly. "Whether
suspectible
or not, you’ve raised something of a question."

Tom now added, "Your Honor, this camera has a unique 360-degree lens that allows views simultaneously in all directions, from which the image printer then makes a selection. Once again, it appears we are seeing only a very minute portion of the actual evidence."

Grover nodded. "Mr. York, I will again suggest that—"

But York interrupted with a near-growl and a wave of his hands. "Since the court chooses to regard those spoiled images as such important evidence, I may as well drop the charges!"

"Suit yourself, Mr. York," the judge said coldly and brought his gavel down. "Case dismissed!"

The courtroom onlookers burst out in a surge of chatter and applause, and once again photo-flashes exploded into brilliance as Tom’s family and friends rushed up to congratulate him.

Sandy planted a kiss on her brother’s cheek and Bud clapped him on the back, exclaiming, "Why didn’t you tell us you were such a legal beagle?"

Mr. Swift shook Tom’s hand. "Nice going, son! If you weren’t such a first-rate scientist, I’d say you’d missed a legal calling."

"Thanks, Dad."

On the way home Bud kept everyone chuckling with his jokes about York’s popeyed reaction when his case started falling apart. But he added, "Just the same, I think that guy would be a good one to stay away from."

"That’ll suit me!" said Tom emphatically as he steered the family car through Shopton’s late afternoon traffic. Smiling, he added, "We’ll be too busy the next few weeks to bother to look him up!"

"But there is something I do not understand," said Bashalli. "To use a legal term, what is the motive here? What is it this froglike Mr. York hoped to gain from his very obviously bogus lawsuit? Surely not just the money penalty, which must be quite
minute
potatoes to a company like his!"

"As to that," Mr. Swift said, "I think I know the answer, Bashalli. It turns out the potatoes are a lot bigger than we suspected!"

"OKAY, SO WE have some very large potatoes," said Bud with a laugh. "What’s it all about, Mr. Swift?"

Damon Swift picked up a folded newspaper. "I was reading this morning’s
Shopton Courier
while we were waiting in the courtroom," he explained. "Bashalli, since you asked the question, why don’t you read this article aloud—starting with the headline."

"It is in the
Business and Commerce
section," she announced. "The headline reads,
New Invention Will Harness Sun’s Energy!"

"Oh no!" Sandy gasped, leaning over to scan the article. "It’s about that awful man’s company!"

Bashi quickly read the article aloud. The story announced that the Quik Battery Corporation had developed a solar battery that would revolutionize industry. Jaston York was quoted in glowing terms in praise of the many future uses for the battery. The story also stated that the batteries were energized in "the airless near-earth environment" but gave no further details.

"Those balloons you saw must be the answer," Mrs. Swift remarked.

"It says that a whole series of such balloons has been sighted lately," Sandy declared. "The reporter think they might have been behind a slew of upstate UFO sightings."