George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt (25 page)

“Couldn't the satellites also measure the rising sea?” asked Emmett.

“Well, yes, they could,” said Eric. “And I would have happily helped them, if only they'd asked me. But even so, human exploration and real experience are still very important. On their journey they will have learned a lot about other things that satellites can't help us with. But we could have worked together on this project. And perhaps we will now. Daisy called Mabel to tell her that Terence was missing, and Mabel came right here to find me. Which was, of course, exactly the right thing to do. Any minute now, we should spot him,” he finished, just a touch smugly. “Anyway, where are George and Annie? Have you been playing hide-and-seek?” He smiled, and Emmett's heart leaped into his mouth.

“We are playing a sort of game,” he stuttered.

“Oh good!” said Eric. “MABEL, THE KIDS ARE PLAYING A GAME! Tell us—we can all join in. I could do with some fun, what with having missed the launch.”

“Y'know, like, a treasure hunt,” said Emmett slowly.

“Ye-esss…,” said Eric.

“A game?” asked Mabel. “How exciting!”

“Like, where you have clues and you have to follow them to find out where you need to go,” continued Emmett, wishing he could blast himself into space at that exact moment and not have to finish what he had to say.

Eric scribbled something in Mabel's notebook.

“A treasure hunt! How splendid!” she exclaimed, reading it. “My, it's not just your memory, Eric! Your handwriting is dreadful too. How ever did you get so far in life?”

“So what's the clue? Where have they gone?”

Eric was still smiling when Cosmos, from under his reflective thermal blanket, said in a loud voice, “
Ping!
Sending is complete! Mission stage three is underway.” Eric stopped smiling as soon as he heard Cosmos's voice. He ran over to the shiny pile of crumpled foil and whisked it away to reveal the supercomputer underneath. “THAT'S MY COMPUTER!” he shouted so loudly that even Mabel heard him with no problem. “So where in the Universe are Annie and George?”

E
ric looked so angry that, for one horrifying moment, Emmett had a vision of him exploding like a supernova in a burst of radiation that was so bright it could outshine a whole galaxy. He glared at Emmett, the full force of nuclear fury blazing in his eyes.

“If you've done what I think you've done…,” he said.

Emmett just opened and closed his mouth, like a goldfish. He tried to speak, but he couldn't get any sound out. He made a strange sort of gurgling noise instead.

“Where are Annie and George?” asked Eric quietly but fiercely, his face white with tension.

“A—a—a—” was all Emmett could stutter.

Mabel's bright eyes were flicking from Eric to Emmett as she tried to work out what was going on.

“Tell me,” said Eric. “I need to know.”

Emmett moved his lips, but he still couldn't make his voice work. He swallowed loudly as tears filled his eyes.

“Okay!” said Eric. “If you refuse to tell me, then I'll ask Cosmos instead.” He knelt down on the floor in front of the computer and started tapping away furiously. “How could you!” he muttered. “How could you do this!”

Mabel hobbled over to Emmett and handed him her notepad and pencil.

“If there's something that's too difficult to say,” she whispered to him, “perhaps you could write it down instead? Then anything you need to tell Eric, I can say for you.”

Emmett looked at her gratefully and took them. He chewed the pencil end, not sure where to start.

“What if I ask you some questions?” said Mabel kindly. “That might get us going. Why is Eric so upset?”

He's mad because we took his special computer, Cosmos
, Emmett wrote neatly in Mabel's book.

“What's so special about Cosmos?” asked Mabel.

He can send you across the Universe.

“Have Annie and George gone on a trip?”

Emmett nodded, his big eyes full of fear. But Mabel just smiled at him and motioned for him to carry on writing. He took a big gulp and put pen to paper again.
They were on Titan, but they've just gone through the portal to the nearest star system to us, Alpha Centauri. They think this is where they will find the next clue. The first clue came to them on Earth, they got the second on Mars, and the third on Titan.

“Ah, the treasure hunt.” Mabel nodded understandingly.

Eric was still bashing away on Cosmos, who didn't seem to be helping him. “Bug off! Access denied!” said the supercomputer angrily. Emmett glanced nervously at them.

“Who is leaving these clues for them?” said Mabel.

We don't know
, wrote Emmett.
But each message has the same ending—it threatens to destroy planet Earth if we don't follow them.

“Any more clues about the clues?”

Well
, wrote Emmett, doodling a little.
I did work
something out. But I might be wrong….
He drew a series of dots.

“Carry on,” said Mabel as Eric let out a howl of frustration. She put a calming hand on Emmett's shoulder. “We'll deal with him in a minute.”

The first clue came to them on Earth, where there is
already
life. The second clue was on Mars, where we think there might have been life in the
past
. The third clue was on Titan, which is a moon of Saturn. Titan might be like the Earth was just
before
life began. So we thought the fourth clue might take them to Alpha
Centauri, which is the nearest star system to us and the closest place we would look for signs of life outside the Solar System. And they have to find a planet in a binary star system. That's what the clue says.

“So you think they are following a trail of life in the Universe in order to prevent life on Earth from coming to an end,” said Mabel. “You are a very smart boy, Emmett. Eric!” She poked him in the back with her cane.

“Leave. Me. Alone. I. Am.

Busy,” said Eric as Cosmos blew a loud raspberry at him.

“Oh, grow up!” said Mabel. “I've got something to say. And when you get to my age, you have the right to speak, whether anyone wants to listen to you or not. Eric, you have scared this poor boy so much he can't tell you what he knows. So if you could try and be a bit nicer to him, he will stop feeling so terrified and help you sort this out.”

That boy
, wrote Eric in Mabel's book,
has put Annie and George in terrible danger. I am incandescent.

“We can see that,” said Mabel. “But you are also wasting valuable time and you need to listen. And stop blaming Emmett.”

Eric really did explode this time. “Somehow he managed to repair my computer without telling me,” he ranted. “And then he let Annie and George go off across the Universe, chasing after some crank message Annie imagined she'd received through a computer, which at the time didn't even work, from aliens who don't exist. And now Cosmos is malfunctioning again, and we have no idea if we can ever get them back!”

Mabel had clearly heard every word. “Oh, stop it!” she snapped. “This isn't Emmett's fault. This is entirely the work of your daughter and my grandson. It's got their sticky fingerprints all over it. George told me he had to come to Florida because Annie had something important she wanted him to do. And this must be it. They have gone on a mission because they believe the Earth is in danger and they need to do something about it. They received the first clue on Earth, but Emmett here tells me that when they followed it to Mars, they found another clue waiting for them. That clue sent them to Titan. They've just left Titan and gone to look for a planet around”—Mabel checked her notebook—“Alpha Centauri.”

“What?” said Eric. “You mean they haven't gone out there just for fun, for messing around? You mean they've actually gone to one location, found a clue, and then gone
farther
out?”

Emmett nodded, his eyes squeezed tight shut.

“How in the name of Einstein could that happen?” asked Eric in disbelief.

“Um, I created a remote portal application when I was updating Cosmos,” whispered Emmett, finding a bit of his voice again. “I'm really sorry.”

Eric took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “And you say they got to Mars and found another clue waiting for them?”

“Yup,” said Emmett. “It was drawn on the surface of Mars by Homer's tires.”

Eric put his glasses back on and sprang to his feet. “Emmett”—he took the boy by his shoulders—“I'm sorry I shouted at you. I really am. But I need to reach Annie and George immediately. Can you send me out to Alpha Centauri?”

Emmett sagged a little. “I can try,” he said nervously. “But Cosmos is being a bit difficult, and I'm worried that he is using too much memory now. I don't know what will happen if I send another person through the portal.”

But Eric had already gone to get his space suit.

Emmett plonked himself down cross-legged in front of Cosmos. Mabel stood over him. “My poor old joints won't let me get down that far,” she said regretfully.

“Oh!” said Emmett. Immediately he got to his feet, picked up Cosmos, and balanced him on the side of the half-assembled satellite so that George's gran could see the screen. He fetched some spare machinery parts,
which he arranged as a sort of chair, so that Mabel could sit down.

“Thank you, Emmett,” she said. “That's very considerate of you.”

“My pleasure,” he said seriously. He tried to arrange some of the shiny yellow foil as a blanket over Mabel's knees, but she batted him away.

“Go on with you!” she said affectionately. “Get to your computer and don't worry about this old dear.”

Nervously Emmett entered his personal password, waiting to see if Cosmos would react as badly to him as he had done to Eric. “Access granted,” said Cosmos politely. Emmett then typed in a command for locating the last portal activity, so that he could create another doorway from Earth and send Eric through it to where Annie and George had gone. But this time it wasn't Cosmos's attitude that worried Emmett so much. It was his ability to perform the tasks they so badly needed him to do.

“Planet…orbit…Alpha Centauri…,” said Cosmos slowly. “Seeking coordinates for last portal activity in the Alpha Centauri star system…Seeking…planet in orbit…Seeking information…Seeking last portal location…” The little hourglass appeared on Cosmos's screen. Emmett pressed a few keys, but Cosmos did not respond. All that happened was that the little hourglass flashed a few times, as though to remind Emmett that Cosmos was busy.

I think he is running out of memory
, Emmett wrote in Mabel's notebook as they waited.
He's using so much of it at the moment to operate these portals in distant space. It's really important we don't ask him too many difficult questions right now.

“What do we need to know?” asked Mabel.

We need to know where Cosmos sent Annie and George. They asked him to find them a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system.

“And how do you find a planet in space…?”