“I believe he’s suffering from an overdose of truth serum,” Doc Simpson explained.
“Why so?” Tom asked with a puzzled frown.
“You remember that I gave Ted and your father, as well as you and Bud, injections of anti-156 SPACE SOLARTRON
truth serum?” When Tom nodded, Doc said, “Well, I suspect that the kidnapers tried to make Ted talk, but found him immune to their truth drug. When he refused to reveal any secrets, they probably kept increasing the dosage until he lapsed into unconsciousness.”
Tom was horror-struck. In a low, tight voice he asked, “Do you think you can revive him?”
“Yes, he’s definitely responding,” Doc Simpson replied. “Fortunately, he didn’t have a fatal dose, but it may take a while for his system to throw off the effects of the drug.”
Tom was still baffled as to why the kidnapers had rocketed Ted back to his friends. Was it merely to rid themselves of a useless prisoner? Or was it a part of an evil plot? In view of his enemies’ ruthless methods, Tom felt the latter theory was more likely.
Suddenly Arv Hanson’s voice blared out over the loud-speaker, “Tom, we’re having trouble hooking up one of these energy collectors!”
Tom hurried to the hangar deck, donned his space suit, and went out through the air lock. “What’s wrong?” he called over his suit radio.
Arv explained that while the collector was being shifted back to the Challenger from the cave setup, some of the wiring of the cell leaves had become loosened. Tom examined the wires and managed to reconnect them, although he found the job extremely difficult to do with his heavy space gauntlets.