The Gismo Trilogy MEGAPACK®: The Complete Young Adult Series. Keo Felker Lazarus
“Well, if it conducts electricity, maybe it conducts other things—like radio waves.” He looked about his room. “If we could attach it to…” His eyes lit on the crystal radio set on his nightstand. “Hey! How about this?” Quickly he detached the gismo and hurried to the stand. He loosened the cat’s whisker and crystal from the radio and fastened the gismo by its two end knobs in their place. He put the headphones over his ears and moved the tuner bar across the coil. There was a loud hum, but he couldn’t tune in any radio stations.
Ron stood beside him. “What do you hear?”
“Nothing…just a hum.”
Ron studied the set for a moment, then reached down and changed an end wire to the side knob of the gismo as he had done before.
Jerry jumped. “Wow!”
“What is it?” Ron asked eagerly. “Let me listen, too.” He lifted the headphones from Jerry, turned one earphone so it faced outward, then put the set back on Jerry’s head. Ron sat down next to Jerry and put his ear to the turned-out earphone. From the sputtering static a voice came in loud and clear. “XR…calling XR…come in, XR.” The voice was high-pitched.
“You’ve got a ham radio band!” Ron exclaimed.
“On a crystal radio set?” Jerry glanced at the gismo, then caught Ron’s arm. “Look at the gismo!” The tiny silver wires on top had become a faint pink color.
The voice came again. “XR…please report in.” The wires on the gismo glowed cherry red as the voice spoke.
Jerry reached over and gingerly touched the glowing wires.
“Are they hot?” Ron asked.
“No, they feel cool.” Jerry answered.
The voice began. “We have had no message from you since you entered the atmosphere of Planet Three, Sun G six zero eight, Syklo Galaxy.”
Ron Chuckled. “Syklo Galaxy…that’s a good name for a science-fiction program. What station have you got?”
“I don’t know.” Jerry moved the tuner bar across the coil again, but only the humming came through.
The voice returned and the gismo glowed red. “Can you hear us, XR?” The voice sounded eager. “We’re beginning to receive your transmitting signal now. Are you in trouble? We repeat: Are you in trouble?”
“Maybe we’ve hooked onto an airlines band.” Ron said.
Jerry shook his head. “Airports and pilots don’t talk about planets.”
“This must be a gag of some ham operator,” Ron said.
“XR…calling XR…your signal is clear now, but we’re receiving no message… Repair craft are waiting for you at crater 7 del 5, natural satellite, Planet Three, Sun G six zero eight, Syklo Galaxy…over.”
Jerry frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a gag message to me… That sounds like a real one from outer space.”
Ron looked at Jerry in surprise. “It’s got to be a gag! No one has cracked radio signals from outer space yet, let alone heard them in our own language!”
The gismo glowed as the high-pitched voice broke in again. “XR…we repeat…repair craft are waiting for you at crater 7 del 5, natural satellite Planet Three, Sun G six zero eight, Syklo Galaxy…do you read us?… Over.”
Jerry turned, and snapped his fingers. “I know this sounds crazy, but maybe it isn’t a gag!”
“You’ve got to be kidding!”
“No, I’m not, Ron. Remember when we studied the solar system in Miss Mill’s class?”
“Yeah?”
“She said billions of stars circle around in the galaxy we call the Milky Way. Remember the Greek name she used for it? Meant something like ‘milky circle of stars,’ I think.”
Ron wrinkled his forehead. “Galax… Galaxias Kyklos, wasn’t it?”
“Right! And doesn’t that sound like ‘Syklo?’”
“Yeah, but…”
“Miss Mills said our star, or sun, is out near the edge of the Galaxy and has nine planets circling around it.” Jerry went on eagerly. “Earth is the third planet from our sun. Right?”
“Right.”
Jerry leaned forward. “And what’s the natural satellite of the earth?”
“The moon, of course,” Ron said.
“And remember the report someone brought to school about astronomers seeing strange lights around one of the craters on the moon? And that UFO sighting near Bridgeville the other night?”
“What are you driving at, Jerry?”
“Oh, come on, Ron! Don’t you get it?…UFO’s…the moon. Earth’s natural satellite with strange lights by a crater, maybe crater 7 del 5… The earth… Planet Three… The sun…maybe number G six zero eight, to anyone that’s counted all of them…and Syklo that sounds almost like Kyklos, the name for our own Galaxy… Doesn’t it add up?”
Ron looked at Jerry. “You mean this message could be for real? But from what?”
Jerry took the headphones off. He gazed at the gismo, then back at Ron. “That gismo didn’t come off any old radio or television set. It didn’t come from a telephone truck, either.” His voice was low. “It came from that spaceship, XR!”
CHAPTER 3
Is that you, XR?
Both boys were quiet for a moment; then Ron stood up. He stared at the crystal set and shook his head. “If that gismo fell from a spaceship, it would still be orbiting out there.” He waved his arm toward the window.
“Not if the spaceship wasn’t out there orbiting the earth, too,” Jerry said.
“But if the gismo entered the earth’s atmosphere, it would burn up! You know that.” Ron exclaimed.
“Not if it was lost while the spaceship was in the atmosphere,” Jerry suggested.
Ron shook his head. “It would be smashed to pieces when it hit the ground…like my transistor radio.”
Jerry leaned forward. “Not if it fell off a spaceship that was on the ground.”
Ron grinned. “Back of Gormley’s shop? Ha!”
“Well, maybe they were investigating something.”
“Like the trash boxes, maybe?”
“Who knows what they investigate when they land!” Jerry said. “We know they do land, and there was a UFO over Bridgeville the other night!”
Ron picked the headphones up and slipped them on. “I’ve got to hear this thing again to believe it!”
But before Ron had the earphones adjusted, a loud wail of music filled the room. Ron spread his hands and shook his head.
Jerry ran to the door and stuck his head into the hall. “Hey, Lou! Turn your record player down! We can’t hear my radio in here.”
“Turn your radio up, then,” Lou yelled back.
“I can’t. It’s my crystal radio.”
“Tough!” Lou shouted.
“Darn her! Just a minute, Ron, I’ll be right back.” Jerry started for the door, but Ron stopped him.
“Forget it, Jerry. Unhook the gismo and we’ll take it over to my place. I’ve got my crystal radio set up in the workshop, where it’s quiet.”
Jerry removed the gismo from the wires and slid it into his jeans. Together