George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt (14 page)

“I borrowed it,” said Annie mysteriously. “After I got Cosmos out and received the alien message, Dad decided to lock him away. But he doesn't realize how smart I am.”

“Or how sneaky?” commented George.

“Whatever,” said Annie. “Let's get going.”

She opened up Cosmos and plugged him in. She pressed
ENTER
—the secret key to the Universe—but nothing happened. She pressed it again, but the screen stayed blank.

Suddenly her bedroom door inched open and a nose poked around it.

“What are you doing?” said Emmett.

“Nothing!” said Annie, jumping up to try to block his view. But Emmett had already edged his way in.

“If you don't tell me what you're doing with that computer,” he said slyly, “I'll tell your mom and dad.”

“Tell them what?” said Annie.

“I'll tell them whatever it is you're doing that you don't want me—or them—to know about.”

“But you don't know what I'm doing,” said Annie.

“Yes, I do,” said Emmett. “That computer is the one you think is really powerful. The one you're not supposed to use by yourselves. I've been listening to you and George when you don't think I can hear you.”

“You little worm!” screamed Annie, throwing herself at Emmett.

“I hate you!” he yelled back, tussling with her. “I never wanted to come here! I wanted to go to Silicon Valley with my mom and dad. This is the worst summer of my life!”

“JUST SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU!” shouted George.

Annie and Emmett let go of each other and gazed at the normally mild-mannered George with surprise.

“Now look here,” he said. “You're both being ridiculous. Emmett's having a horrible summer and he's really bored. But you're a computer genius, right, Emmett?”

“Affirmative,” said Emmett sulkily.

“And, Annie—you've got a computer problem you can't solve. So why don't you ask Emmett—nicely—if he'll take a look at Cosmos and see if he knows what to do with him? He might enjoy doing it and we might be able to stop fighting. Okay?”

“S'pose so,” grumbled Annie.

“Right,” said George. “Annie, you explain.”

She pointed to the silver laptop lying on her bed. “This is a computer—”

“I can see that.” Emmett scowled.

She ploughed on. “—that can do special things. Like open doorways to places in space.”

Emmett looked down his nose. “I doubt that.”

“No, it can,” said George. “The computer has a name—he's called Cosmos and when he works, he's amazing. Eric invented him but we blew him up by mistake last year. Now Eric really needs Cosmos and we need you to get him working again. Emmett, do you think you could try to fix him?”

“I'll get my emergency computer kit!” said Emmett, who was now beaming from ear to ear. He dashed out of the door.

“He's not so bad,” said George to Annie. “Just give him a chance.”

“Just
one
,” muttered Annie.

Emmett came back with a collection of hardware, CDs, and screwdrivers of different sizes. He arranged them all in neat piles and started fiddling around with Cosmos. The others watched him in silence, noticing how the smug look on his face faded as he grappled with their old friend. A frown crept over his brow.

“Wow!” he remarked. “I have never seen anything like this! I didn't think they could make a computer I didn't understand!”

“Can you save him?” whispered Annie.

Emmett looked baffled. “This hardware is mega-cool,”
he said. “And I thought quantum computing was just a theory.” He twiddled a bit more, biting his lip in concentration.

The noise of cicadas buzzing in the garden floated in from the window. But suddenly they heard another sound. It was very faint and none of them could be absolutely sure they'd really heard it.

“Wasn't that—?”

“Shush!” said Annie. They heard it again. A very quiet
beep
. When they looked closely at the great computer, they realized that a tiny yellow light on one side of him had come on. In the middle of his screen, which until now had been blank, they saw a thin line appear.

“Emmett!” squeaked Annie, hugging him enthusiastically. He flinched away and made a face. “You did it! I'm going to try talking to him.” She leaned toward the screen. “Cosmos, please come back!” she pleaded. “We
need
you.”

The screen flickered and then went dull. But then Cosmos beeped again—once, and then twice. And another line appeared across the center of his screen. The line turned into a squiggle for a few seconds, and then a circle, and then disappeared.

“This is weird,” said Emmett slowly. He punched in a few commands. He pressed a few more keys and sat back.

There was a whirring noise. And then, finally, Cosmos spoke.

“1010111110000010,” he said.

George and Annie were stunned into silence. It had never occurred to them that they might get Cosmos working but then not understand what he said.

“11000101001,” Cosmos continued.

Annie tugged Emmett's shirt.

“What have you done to him?” she asked him, her face a picture of panic. “Where's the alien message?”

“Holy supersymmetric strings!” exclaimed Emmett. “He's speaking Base Two!”

“What's that?” said George.

“It's a positional notation with a radix of two,” said Emmett. “It's binary—the system used internally by all computers.”

George tried typing a command on the screen but jumped back as Cosmos screeched, “101000101011 101010100010101010101101010000010010101!”

“What?” said Annie. “What's happening to Cosmos? Why can he speak but we don't know what he's saying?”

“So this computer, like, it speaks to you in English and you understand it…?” said Emmett slowly. “Because now he's speaking the underlying system, the one underneath a computer language. Like a pre-language.”

“1101011!” wailed Cosmos.

“Oh my gosh!” Annie gasped. “What if it's like he's become a little baby computer, and he's speaking baby language?”

Cosmos gurgled. And then laughed.

“So he could just be saying ‘'Poon! Dada! Mama,'” Annie continued.

“I think you're right,” said Emmett, who was too busy staring at the screen to notice he'd just agreed with Annie. “I'll try him on something. Let's see if he knows
BASIC
.”

“
GOTO GOTO GOTO GOTO
,” said Cosmos.

Emmett inserted a disk into the supercomputer. “I'll try to update him on something harder,” he said. “Something more up-to-date. It's like he's in an ancient computer world right now. I'll try
FORTRAN
95.”

“
REAL. NOT. END. DO
,” replied the supercomputer.

Emmett tried once more, and Cosmos's screen dimmed and his circuits fizzed. “He is gobbling up these disks,” said Emmett. “Spooky, huh?”