just a pile of metal on a distant planet.
Annie couldnât bear it. Her dad had been so excited and happy at the prospect of receiving Homerâs findings. She hated seeing him so upset. So she had a brilliant idea: She decided to get Cosmos out of retirement, just to see if she could make him work again.
âI realized that if we had Cosmos,â she told George as they stood outside under the starry sky, âwe could just go off to Mars, fix the robot, and come home again without anyone even knowing. If we went when the monitoring satellite was on the other side of Mars, no one would even see us. I mean, weâd have to be careful not to leave a footprint or drop anything. That would be a bit of a disaster.â
âHmm,â said George, still affected by his weird dream. âSo what did you do?â
âI got Cosmos out of his secret hiding place.â
âNot that secret if you knew about it,â said George.
âAnd,â Annie went on, ignoring him, âI started him up.â
âAnd he actually worked?â George was wide awake now.
âNot really,â admitted Annie. âAt least, only for a few seconds, and he didnât say anything. But this is what I saw on his screen.â She waved the paper at George. âIt was thereâhonest, it was. It was a message. I checked the sender ID and it said: unknown . For message location, it said: extraterrestrial . Then Cosmos died and I couldnât start him up again.â
âWow!â said George. âDid you tell Eric?â
âOf course,â said Annie. âAnd he tried to start Cosmos up again but couldnât. I showed him the message, but he didnât believe me.â She pouted. âHe said I was making up storiesâbut Iâm sure Homer really is waving to us and has something he wants to tell us. But my dad just insisted that Homer doesnât work because he had a bad atmospheric entry and that this messageâif Cosmos received it at allâis just something to do with Cosmos being broken.â
âBut thatâs really boring of him!â remarked George.
âNo, heâs just being a scientist. Itâs like Emmett said,â admitted Annie. âMost people believe there is only some form of bacteria out there and no real aliens. But I thinkâ¦â
âWhat do you think?â asked George, looking up at the stars.
âI think,â said Annie firmly, âthat someone out there is trying to get in touch with us. I think someone is using Homer to attract our attention, and because weâre just ignoring him, theyâve started sending us messages instead. Only we canât pick them up because Cosmos isnât working.â
âWhat are we going to do?â
âWeâve got to go out there,â said Annie, âand see for ourselves. But first we have tofix Cosmos. We need to see if the aliens are sending us any more messages! And then, maybe, we can send one backâ¦â
âHow would we do that?â asked George. âI mean, how can we send a message that they will understand? And even if we knew how to send it, what would we say? And in what language? Theyâve sent us the message in picturesâit must be because they donât know how to speak to us.â
âI think weâre going to say, Leave our lovely robot alone, you pesky aliens! â said Annie, looking fierce. â Youâre messing with the wrong civilization! Pick on someone else! â
âBut we want to know who they are and where they come from,â protested George. âWe canât just say, Get lost, aliens, and never find out who sent the message.â
âWhat about, Come in peace and then go home ?â said Annie. âSo we find out who they are, but theyâre not allowed to come to Earth if they have evil intentions.â
âYeah?â said George. âWhoâs going to stop them? They could