The Sky Is Falling Read online

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1 Earth to Laura

  Chapter 2 Alien Alert

  Chapter 3 The Bunsimmunicator 3000

  Chapter 4 We Are Coming

  Chapter 5 An Intergalactic Problem

  Chapter 6 Laura’s Alien Best Friend

  Chapter 7 Unexpected Visitors

  Chapter 8 Gabe’s Stellar Plan

  Chapter 9 A Message Home

  Chapter 10 Out of This World

  Robots Rule the School Excerpt

  About Ada Hopper and Sam Ricks

  Chapter 1

  Earth to Laura

  * * *

  It was a bright and early Monday morning in Newtonburg. The sun was shining. The birds were chirping. Rush-hour traffic was backing up. The start to a perfectly ordinary day.

  Except it wasn’t.

  “Where in the world is Laura?” Gabe and Cesar pedaled their bikes at top speed. “We’re going to be late!”

  They ditched their bikes in Gabe’s driveway and raced to the backyard. Normally, the three friends known as the DATA Set (Danger! Action! Trouble! Adventure!) would already be on their way to school. But Laura hadn’t shown up at the corner as usual. Something was up.

  Gabe and Cesar used the pulley elevator to get to the top of the DATA Set’s super-awesome tree house.

  Sure enough, they found Laura inside, busy at work on an invention. She was so focused, she didn’t even hear them come in.

  “Earth to Laura!” Gabe called.

  She jumped. “Oh, hey, guys. Sorry. When I’m in the zone, it’s like I’m on another planet. What time is it?” She looked at her watch. “Whoa!”

  “I know,” said Gabe. “We’re going to have to pedal at least”—he did a quick calculation—“two point six times faster than normal to make it to school on time.”

  “Here, my mom sent us the perfect ‘on-the-go’ breakfast.” Cesar passed each of his friends a bagel. “What are you working on?”

  “Cesar, we don’t have time . . .”

  But Gabe was too late. Laura’s eyes lit up. She couldn’t resist showing off her latest invention. “Check it out!” she exclaimed.

  On a table was a large metal box with lots of knobs and speakers. It had an oversize antenna that poked straight through the roof of the tree house.

  “Is it a toaster?” Cesar asked curiously.

  “No.” Laura frowned. “Does it look like a toaster?”

  “No. But a toaster would make my bagel tastier. And toastier.”

  Laura giggled. “Well, I can’t help your bagel. But I can help if you want to listen to someone in Russia. I built an international radio! This antenna can pick up signals halfway around the world.”

  She adjusted the knobs. The radio made high-pitched whines and squeaks. Suddenly, a Russian man’s voice echoed from the speakers!

  “Pretty cool, huh?” she said proudly.

  “They make Russian bagels, you know.” Cesar munched. “Pumpernickel bread with seeds. They’re better toasted.”

  Gabe and Laura shook their heads.

  Suddenly, the Russian man’s voice fizzled out. It was replaced by loud, repeating buzzes and beeps.

  Bzzz. Bzz-bzz. Beep-boop-beep!

  “What happened?” asked Gabe.

  Laura shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

  “Maybe we can help you fix it,” said Gabe. “After school, that is. Come on, DATA Set. Trouble may be in our name, but if there’s one person I don’t want to be in trouble with, it’s Principal Stevens!”

  Chapter 2

  Alien Alert

  * * *

  “You three are in serious trouble!”

  Principal Stevens loomed over Gabe, Laura, and Cesar.

  “But we’re not late yet!” Laura protested. “The bell won’t ring for”—she checked the clock—“two minutes and thirty-two seconds . . . thirty-one seconds . . . thirty . . .”

  “Did we do something wrong?” asked Gabe.

  Principal Stevens looked very serious. “I’m afraid so. It seems you three have been selected for . . .” He broke out in a big grin. “The State Regional Science Challenge! Congratulations, DATA Set! Your hydroelectricity project was chosen to represent our school!”

  “Phew.” Gabe, Laura, and Cesar breathed sighs of relief. Principal Stevens had a way of pulling tricks like that.

  “That’s awesome!” said Gabe. “Wait until we tell our parents. And Dr. Bunsen.”

  “He helped us with the design,” Laura explained.

  Principal Stevens adjusted his glasses. “Oh, yes, I do remember Dr. Bunsen being at the science day.” He paused. “Strange fellow. Kept talking to me about the molecular properties of mung beans.” He stared into space for a second. “Anyway, I’ll let you kids get to class so you’re not actually in trouble. Congratulations again. Oh, and watch out for aliens!”

  The principal whistled a tune as he walked away.

  “Have you guys noticed that all the adults in our lives are weird?” Cesar asked.

  “What do you think he meant by ‘aliens’?” Laura said as they walked to class. “Did we miss something?”

  “I guess we’ll have to wait and find out,” said Gabe.

  Luckily for the three friends, they didn’t have to wait long.

  “Guys, did you see them last night?” A boy named Cole eagerly hurried up to the DATA Set.

  “See what?” asked Gabe. He looked around the classroom. Kids were chattering more excitedly than usual.

  “The lights,” Cole insisted, a wild look in his eyes. “Everyone in town saw the most insane lights in the sky last night! Like laser beams streaking in every direction!”

  “My dad said it was probably the aurora borealis.” A girl named Heather turned in her chair. “That can happen, you know.”

  “Or maybe a secret government project,” another boy, Chaz, piped up. “My dad said the military is always doing stuff like that. That’s why he wants to move off the grid.”

  “Nah,” said Cole. “I’ll tell you what it was. Aliens. Definitely UFOs. Guys—it’s happening. Proof of extraterrestrial life!”

  But Gabe, Cesar, and Laura had another idea. Whenever something strange or mysterious happened in Newtonburg, it tended to be the work of one man. He could be a little spacey. But he was definitely not an alien.

  And his name started with a B.

  Chapter 3

  The Bunsimmunicator 3000

  * * *

  “Why, of course it was me!”

  Dr. Bunsen scurried around his lab collecting odds and ends while the DATA Set watched.

  “But what were the lights for?” Gabe asked. “The whole town thinks they were from UFOs.”

  “From, no. To, yes!” The doctor disappeared into another room carrying a huge pile of supplies.

  Gabe looked at his friends. They shrugged. The DATA Set had known Dr. Bunsen for a while now. But sometimes he could still be very confusing.

  Laura hopped up on a lab stool. “Mind telling us what’s up?”

  “Ah, yes, of course.” The doctor emerged and dusted his hands on his lab coat. “You see, I’ve invented a device that communicates with both light and radio waves. The Bunsimmunicator 3000!”

  The kids followed Dr. Bunsen to a large control screen. It operated an enormous satellite dish attached to the mansion’s roof.

  “The Bunsimmunicator 3000 has been sending the same message in light and radio waves into deep space for the past twenty-four hours,” the doctor explained.

  “But why?” Cesar asked, chewing a granola bar.

  “To communicate with aliens, my dear always-hungry boy!”

  Suddenly, a timer went off at the other corner of the lab.

  “Whoops!” The doctor hurried away.


  Laura stepped closer to the controls. “Wow,” she breathed. “Do you think it could actually work?”

  “What’s the message saying?” Gabe asked.

  “Bunsen code!” the doctor called from inside a closet. “Or I should say, a guide for communicating in Bunsen code.” He came out wearing a white zip-up suit. “I developed a simple language based on tones and rhythms to project into space.”

  “You mean like Morse code?” Laura asked.

  “Better!” the doctor exclaimed. “My hope is that aliens can use it to communicate with us. The Bunsimmunicator 3000 will send that message into space for the next ten years.”

  “Ten years!” exclaimed the friends.

  “But the lights freaked out the entire town in just one night,” said Gabe.

  “Oh.” The doctor looked at the control screen. “Well, I suppose I could adjust the machine to send the light portion only during the daytime, when it’s not visible.”

  Suddenly, the doctor picked up a crazy-looking helmet covered in wires.

  “Now, then, I’m afraid that I’m scheduled to begin yet another experiment in precisely”—he looked at the timer—“now. Will you three be all right without me for the next few days?”

  “I guess so,” said Cesar. “But what happens if, say, something responds to your . . . Bun-si-mu-ni-cator 3000?” he asked, reading the name on the control screen. “Can we come get you?”

  The doctor waved his hand. “No need to worry. It would take months for an alien to learn the code. Years, perhaps. My new experiment will be quite complete by then!”

  “Okay,” Gabe said. “As long as you’re sure.”

  Chapter 4

  We Are Coming

  * * *

  Two days later, the friends were doing homework in the tree house after school. Laura had her radio tuned to the frequency of Dr. Bunsen’s message.

  Bzzz. Bzz-bzz. Beep-boop-beep!

  It turned out, that was the buzzing and beeping they’d heard on Monday. The friends had been listening to it on repeat for so long, they didn’t even notice it in the background anymore.

  “I think it would be cool if aliens had eight arms.” Cesar doodled a sketch of an alien on his homework. “Can you imagine the juggling skills?”

  “How about ten legs?” Gabe chimed in. “With a propeller tail so it could run superfast.”

  “Or two brains!” Cesar exclaimed.

  Gabe shook his head. “Wouldn’t the two brains compete with each other?”

  “That’s why it’d have eight arms,” Cesar said. “To duke it out with itself!”

  Cesar pretended to battle with himself like a double-brained alien. Laura and Gabe laughed.

  “I think any alien we’d meet would be super-intelligent,” said Laura. “It would have to be, because it would have figured out intergalactic space travel. And Dr. Bunsen’s message.”

  “I’d like to meet an alien,” Gabe said thoughtfully. “As long as it was friendly. Guys, imagine if aliens were watching us on Earth right now. Just waiting for the right time to reach out and . . .”

  Suddenly, Laura’s radio began making high-pitched whines and squeaks again. Static fizzled from the speakers, and then . . .

  Boop! Boop! Bzz-bzz-bzz!

  Slowly, the friends looked at the radio.

  “Laura, did you do that?” Gabe asked.

  “No,” said Laura. “Maybe Dr. B. changed the pattern. Or maybe . . .”

  Quickly, they grabbed Dr. B.’s Bunsen code manual to translate the message. He’d given them a copy to hold on to while he was busy with his other experiment.

  “What does it say, Laura?” Cesar asked anxiously. “Can you make sense of those weird sounds?”

  “Hang on,” Laura said. “Okay, that first sound”—the friends listened to the boop—“means ‘We.’ And the next part means ‘are.’ And that last sound . . .” Laura trailed off.

  “What?” cried Gabe and Cesar.

  Laura stared at the page, eyes wide.

  “Coming,” she said quietly. “It means, ‘We are coming.’ ”

  Chapter 5

  An Intergalactic Problem

  * * *

  “Dr. B.! Dr. B.!”

  Gabe, Laura, and Cesar sprinted into Dr. Bunsen’s mansion. But his lab was eerily quiet.

  “Where is he?” Gabe asked.

  “Maybe in that side room?” Laura pointed.

  The friends hurried inside. Sure enough, there was Dr. Bunsen.

  But he was sound asleep!

  “Dr. B.?” Cesar asked, shaking the sleeping doctor’s shoulder.

  “Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.” The doctor snored.

  Dr. Bunsen was seated in a reclining chair wearing the electrode helmet. He was hooked up to various tubes through the special white zip-up suit the kids had seen him put on the other day.

  “Is he okay?” Laura asked.

  “Greetings!”

  A computer screen suddenly lit up, projecting an image of the doctor. “This is a prerecorded message. If you are seeing this, it means you have visited while I am in the midst of my Ultrasonic Dream-o-rama experiment. Never fear! I will be awake again on Friday morning. In the meantime, please help yourself to king-size chocolate bars with extra nuts!”

  An automatic drawer opened, revealing a box of chocolate the DATA Set had sold Dr. Bunsen when they’d first met him.

  “I don’t believe this,” said Gabe.

  “What are we going to do?” asked Laura.

  “Holy molars! He still has those?” Cesar stared in disbelief at the chocolate. “I thought he said he liked chocolate!”

  “Come on, Cesar, focus,” said Gabe. “There are aliens on their way to Earth, and the guy who called them is sleeping for the next two days.”

  “We need to go back to the tree house,” said Laura. “Maybe we can figure out a way to send a message using Dr. B.’s manual, telling the aliens not to come.”

  “Like, ‘Thanks, but no thanks’?” asked Gabe.

  “Something like that,” said Laura.

  Cesar picked up several chocolate bars. “Well, he said ‘help yourself.’ And I know I like chocolate.”

  Quickly, the friends left. But they bumped into their classmate Cole on the way back to their tree house.

  “Guys, did you see that just now?” Cole stopped his bike. “The lights. They’re back!”

  “They are?” Laura asked. She whispered to Gabe and Cesar, “But we were just at Dr. B.’s, and the light-wave signal wasn’t on.”

  Cole was ecstatic. “It was different this time! The light came from the sky down to Earth! I’m going to get my camera. Something big is going on.”

  Gabe, Laura, and Cesar watched him go.

  “This doesn’t sound good,” said Gabe. “I hope we’re not too late.”

  They took the elevator into the tree house. But just as Laura ran inside, she noticed that something was different. “Guys, did you move my radio?”

  Gabe and Cesar looked over to the corner of the tree house.

  There was the radio on its side. It looked like someone had changed the radio station too. The DATA Set heard something move at the other end of the room. That was when they realized that they were not alone.

  Chapter 6

  Laura’s Alien Best Friend

  * * *

  “Bzzz voop beep zoop?”

  The DATA Set was in shock—there was an alien in their tree house, and it was trying to communicate with them in Bunsen code!

  “Uh, guys, what do we do?” Cesar asked.

  The friends stared at the alien. It blinked its enormous black eyes.

  “Does it look friendly to you?” asked Gabe.

  “Maybe,” said Laura. “Let’s try to talk to it.” She reached for the Bunsen code manual.

  “Bzzz bzzz bzzz!” The alien backed away.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay,” Laura said calmly. “I just need to grab this.”

  The alien watched Laura curiously. It wasn’t much smalle
r than she was. But it had an oversized head, had smooth gray skin and long, skinny fingers on each of its four arms.

  Laura flipped through the manual. “I can’t be sure, but I think it’s asking for help.”

  “Bzzz voop beep boom.”

  “Stand by.” Laura scanned the manual. “Something about ‘call’ and ‘crash.’ ”

  “Do you think it crash-landed its spaceship?” Cesar asked.

  “That could have been the light Cole saw,” said Gabe.

  “And ‘call’ could be about my radio,” Laura said. “The signal coming from it is pretty strong. Maybe it thinks this is where Dr. B.’s message came from.”

  The alien tilted its head and blinked.

  “This is going to sound weird,” said Cesar. “But the little alien is kind of cute.”

  “Well, then, there’s only one thing to do,” Gabe said with a confident grin. “We’re the DATA Set, and the alien needs help. So it’s our job to keep it safe until Dr. B. wakes up. Team, we have an intergalactic guest for the next two days!”

  Later that night the DATA Set sat in the tree house with the alien. It turned out, Laura had been right: This alien was supersmart. Not only had it deciphered Bunsen code, but it had quickly learned to communicate using hand signals, too, which was a whole lot easier.

  The alien had even managed to tell them its name: Fave.

  Fave studied all the gadgets in the DATA Set’s tree house.

  “I made them,” Laura said proudly, pointing to the inventions, then herself.