George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt (30 page)

“I see,” said Reeper. He sounded rather confused.
“You're sorry.” He didn't seem to know what to do next.

“Yes, I'm sorry!” said Eric, speaking fast. “You were my best friend once, and my best colleague. Together as scientists we could have been magnificent. We could have done brilliant work, if only you hadn't insisted on trying to grab everything for yourself. And guess what, Graham, you're not the only person who got hurt that evening. I've missed you—at least, I missed the person you once were before you started working against me. And I've had to live with the guilt, too, of what happened that terrible night. You're not the only person who's suffered. So stop being so melodramatic and get us all out of this place and back home again while we can still breathe.”

“I lost you once as a friend,” said Reeper sadly. “And I lost my life in science. The only way I found the strength to carry on was by hating you and seeking revenge. But now, if you're not my enemy, I have nothing at all.”

“That's really silly,” said George. “Eric has apologized and said he's sorry. Don't you think you should say something back?”

“Right,” said Reeper quietly. “In that case, Eric Bellis, I accept your apology.” He gave a little bow.

“Your turn now,” whispered Annie.

“What?” exclaimed Reeper.

“Your turn to say sorry. That's how it works. Dad said he was sorry, now you have to apologize too.”

“What for?” said Reeper. He sounded like he genuinely didn't know.

“Oh, I don't know…,” chipped in George. “For stealing Cosmos, for throwing Eric in a black hole, for making us travel across the Universe because you said you were going to blow up planet Earth if we didn't. I don't know—pick your favorite and say sorry for that.”

Eric growled. “Make it quick, Graham.”

“No need to go on,” said Reeper hastily. “I'm sorry too. I wish I'd been a better person. I wish I hadn't wasted all that time. I wish I could go back to science—proper science…” He ended on a wistful, hopeful note.

“Listen, Graham,” said Eric urgently. “You want to come back to science—fine. You want me to believe you're a good person after all—fine as well. But just get on with it and get my daughter and George back to Earth before their air runs out. Because if that happens, I can assure you that I would never forgive you and wherever you are in the Universe I will find you.”

“Do you mean it?” said Reeper. “Can I really come back to science again?”

“Get us back to planet Earth first and then we'll talk,” said Eric.

“George,” said Reeper, “you need to stroke Pooky on the head again. You've sent him to sleep, and you need
to wake him up.” George gingerly fluffed the top of Pooky's head, and the hamster stirred in his hands. “Pooky,” continued Reeper, “I want you to link with a computer on Earth, the same computer I ordered you to block. You're going to work with him to create a doorway that can take us all back there again.”

The hamster woke up fully as George called Emmett.

“Emmett, Gran,” he said. “Prepare the portal. We've found another computer. We need Cosmos to work with this other supercomputer to make a portal powerful enough to bring us all back.”

“You found another computer? Where?” said Emmett in surprise. “And what on Earth is going on out there?”

“That's just it,” said George. “On Earth. It's the final clue in the cosmic treasure hunt. It takes us back to where we came from. Get ready—we're coming home. Over and out.”

Pooky sat up straight, and two beams of light shot out of his eyes and drew a doorway, exactly the way Cosmos did. While he was forming the portal that would carry them across the Universe, George asked a final question:

“Reeper,” he said as they waited for the cosmic hamster to complete the portal. “The end of the messages—you said you would destroy planet Earth if we didn't follow them. Did you mean it? Could you really destroy a whole planet?”

“Don't be ridiculous!” said Eric, who was holding Annie as near to the glimmering portal doorway as possible, so he could shove her through it as soon as it opened. “Graham can't destroy the Earth. That would take an explosion of unimaginable power. He was just making empty threats. Weren't you, Graham?”

Reeper fiddled with his space gloves.

“Weren't you?” Eric insisted again.

“The odd thing is,” said Reeper, “it could really happen. But it wouldn't actually be my fault. It's just something I heard about on my travels….”

Just then, Pooky's eyes glowed, and he opened the portal doorway for them, back to the Clean Room, back to the Global Space Agency, back to the United States, back to planet Earth once more.

But this time his eyes were no longer yellow but marbled, with patterns of blue, green, and flecks of white.

In his eyes shone the reflection of the most beautiful planet in the Universe—a planet that is not too hot and not too cold; that has liquid water on the surface and where the gravity is just right for human beings and the atmosphere is perfect for them to breathe; where there are mountains and deserts and oceans and islands and forests and trees and birds and plants and animals and insects and people—lots and lots of people.

Where there is life.

Some of it, possibly, intelligent.

L
ive long and prosper!” said Emmett, giving the Vulcan salute as he got into his dad's car to go home at the end of the summer vacation. His dad—a carbon copy of Emmett, except taller—grinned and took one hand off the steering wheel to give the Vulcan salute as well.

Annie and her parents, George and his grandmother all stood outside on the porch to wave good-bye.

“See you next summer!” called George, saluting back.

“Emmett, you rock!” said Annie, waving. “Don't forget us!”

“You are firmly installed in my memory banks,” said Emmett, fastening his seat belt. “Forever. It's been the best. I'm going to miss you.” He sniffed. “Dad, I made some friends,” he said plaintively. “And now I'm going to lose them again!”

“No chance!” called Annie. “I'll be bugging you by e-mail all the time! And so will George!”

“Maybe your friends can come and stay with us
sometime, Emmett?' said his dad. “You know how pleased your mom would be to have your friends come over.'

“Or I could go to England!” said Emmett eagerly. “Annie could come too, and we could see George and check out some university courses over there? They do some really cool stuff.”

Eric came over to the car window. “Well done, Emmett,” he said. “You saved the day.”

“What day?” asked his dad. “What have you been up to?”

“We were playing a game,” said Emmett.

“Did you win?” asked his dad.

“No one really won or lost,” Emmett tried to explain. “We just progressed to another level.”

His dad started the car. “Thanks, Eric,” he said. “I don't know what you've done to my son, but it seems like a bit of magic has happened here.”

“It's not magic, Dad,” said Emmett in disgust. “It's science! And it's friends. It's the two together.”

Mabel waved her cane and bellowed, “See you at the final frontier, Emmett!”

The car drove away, and the others turned back to go into the house once more. As they did so, Eric's pager bleeped, giving him news from the Mars Science Laboratory. He read the message and broke into the most enormous smile.

“It's Homer!” he said. “He's working properly again! He's found visual evidence of water on Mars, and we think it won't be long before he can send us the chemical evidence, too!”

“What does that mean?” said George.

“It means,” said Eric firmly, “that we need to have another party.”

“Are you going to invite Reeper?” asked George. “I bet he hasn't been to a party for years.”

After they had gotten back from the 55 Cancri system, using Cosmos and Reeper's special nano-computer, Pooky, Eric and Reeper had spent quite some time sitting
on the veranda, talking. George, Emmett, and Annie had tried to listen in from the tree, but they hadn't caught much of the muttered conversation between the two former colleagues. They'd understood, however, that the conversation had ended well. Reeper had smiled at them when he came to say good-bye. Eric had found him a place at an institute where he could start studying again. It was a nice, quiet place, said Eric, where Reeper would be able to catch up on what he'd missed and get involved with real science again.

The condition of Eric helping Reeper was that Pooky was left behind with Eric. Eric was going to oversee a massive system overhaul of both Cosmos and Pooky, to find out if he could link the two supercomputers together. Right now, both Cosmos and Pooky were in pieces while Eric tried to work out how to do this, so there was no opportunity for any further cosmic adventures for a while.

But Eric, it turned out, wasn't the only person receiving news of life elsewhere. The house phone rang and Susan answered it, passing the receiver over to George. It was his mom and dad, calling from the South Pacific.

The satellites had spotted George's dad, a rescue mission had been dispatched to pick him up, and he had returned safely to the mother ship and been reunited with George's mom.

“George!” she said on the faint, crackly line. “We're all safe, and we'll be seeing you and your gran
soon—we're coming back via Florida. And”—she paused, as if wondering whether to continue, then went on in a rush—“we've got some exciting news for you too! We were going to wait until we saw you to tell you, but I just
can't
not tell any longer. You're going to have a baby brother or sister! Isn't that wonderful? It means you're not alone anymore. Are you happy?”

George was rather stunned. All this time they'd been looking for signs of life in the Universe, and now it turned out there was going to be a brand-new life-form inside his very own home.

“We'll see you in two days!” said his mom.

“Whoa!” George said to the others when he got off the phone. “My mom's having a baby.”

“Ahh, how cute,” said Annie, smiling.

“Hmph,” said George, wondering how she would react if it was her mom and dad.

“No, it's cool!” said Annie, who'd caught the expression on his face. “We'll have another person to join in our adventures!”

“No you won't,” said her dad firmly. “No babies in space, Annie. And that's a rule. In fact, no more kids in space.”

“But, Dad,” complained Annie, “what are we going to do? We're going to be really bored!”

“You're going back to school, Annie Bellis,” her dad told her. “So you won't have time to get bored.”

“Urrr!” Annie made a face. “Can't I go and live with George?”

“Well,” said Eric, “funny that you mention it. I was thinking of taking you back to England. Now that Homer works properly and he's found water on Mars, it might be time for me to take part in another great experiment that's in progress in Europe—in Switzerland. We could all go back to the house in England, and I could join the work from there easily.”

“Yeah!” Annie and George celebrated together. They wouldn't have to be apart again.

They all wandered out onto the veranda, wondering what to do with themselves now that all their challenges were over and Emmett had left.

George picked up
The User's Guide to the Universe
, which was lying on the garden table. “Eric,” he said thoughtfully. “There's something I've been meaning to ask you, but we haven't had time until now.”

“Go on,” said Eric.

“When we were”—George lowered his voice—“out there, Reeper said something. He said that you understood the Universe. Is that true?”

“Well, yes, it is,” said Eric modestly. “I do.”

“But how do you do that?” said George. “How does that happen?”

Eric smiled. “Turn to the last pages in the book, George,” he said. “And there you'll find the answer.”