Mother and child were reunited on that alien world. Two space suits hugged each other amid mountains of green glass.
Then Jasper snapped to attention. There was no time to waste on embraces. There were things to get done. “What are we doing back out here?” he asked the others.
“Trying to stop you, darling, from helping that awful Dirrillill conquer the Earth,” said Mrs. Dash.
Quickly, babbling in their excitement, they all told one another their stories. Mrs. Dash explained that she had spoken to the Garxx of Krilm, and that they really were not evil creatures at all, apparently, but were attempting to help stop the Dirrillillim from their cruel plots and plans.
Jasper repeated, “The Garxx of Krilm, hm? That name . . . it’s familiar. I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere.”
He sort of remembered everything that had happened since the Dirrillill had taken him over, but it all seemed like a bad dream. He couldn’t believe that he had actually shot rays at his own mother—his own mother! He kept on apologizing. “Mother, I am so sorry I shot at you with lasers. Really, Mother, I am ashamed of myself. I will never again shoot at you—at your head or any of the rest of you—with any kind of electrifying death beam. Mother, really, you do know I am sorry.”
“Yes, darling. Yes. Of course, Jasper. Of course.”
“You will forgive me, Mother?”
“Jasper, you’re forgiven. You were under the influence of a mind-control ray.”
“Oh!” Jasper cried in anguish. “How much evil rays do in the world! How much good they can do, yes, but how much evil, too!”
They got back into the flying car. Katie and Lily lifted off. They swerved over the alien landscape to one of the other antenna towers. They landed and got out.
“I hope this is good-bye to the flying car,” said Katie. “Flying cars sound like a good idea, but during explosions, they’re way too barfy.”
The four of them slammed the car door shut and went into the chamber below the antenna.
There was a room outfitted to welcome some alien prodigy. There were some big, blobby seats that wobbled when the kids touched them. And, of course, there was a teleporter.
“It will just take a jiff to reset the coordinates so this booth sends us to Earth,” Jasper said, kneeling down and taking out the screwdriver in his Swiss Army knife. He started fiddling with the workings.
“Do you know what?” Katie said to Jasper. “On top of everything else—that awful Dillillilly trying to kill us and take over the Earth—for your welcome home party, he made you a fruitcake instead of chocolate.”
Jasper frowned as he fiddled. “We don’t even know that he was really the one who set up that party,” he said quietly. “It could have been one of the other Dirrillillim, before he destroyed them. He could have been lying.”
“Wow,” said Katie. “What a jerk.”
Jasper stepped back and surveyed his handiwork. “Okay, chums,” he said. “I think that should do it. As long as the teleporter back in my room is operating, we’ll be fine.”
“What if it isn’t?” said Lily.
Jasper hesitated. “I don’t . . . really . . . know. But it won’t be good.”
“Let’s perform a test first, Jasper,” said Mrs. Dash. “We can send back something else to make sure it arrives.”
Jasper slid one of the wobbly chair-blobs over to the big teleporter and dumped it in. He pushed a button.
Jasper looked at the controls. “Well, it says the chair’s back on old Earth. So. I guess I’ll try now.”
“Be careful, darling,” said Mrs. Dash. “You’re sure it’s safe?”
Jasper nodded grimly. “One of us has to take the chance.” He stood in the booth. He waved. “Katie. Lily. Mother. I shall see you in a minute.”
He pushed a button and disappeared.
* * *
Across lots of space, the Garxx of Krilm were about to remove the vibrating crystal that made the teleporter work.
“It’s time,” said one.
“You are the captain,” said another.
“Take out the crystal,” said a third.
They reached into the workings of the machine. The teleporter blinked.
“Did someone just arrive?” said one Garxx.
“Is there someone there?” said another.
“It’s nothing,” said a third. “Never mind. We shall remove the crystal.”
“I do not think we should remove the crystal.”
“Why do you think we should not remove it?”
“I have a bad, soupy feeling.”
“He has a bad feeling.”
“Who wants to hear about his feeling?”
No one said anything. No one wanted to hear about his feeling.
The teleporter blinked again. This time, it was Jasper Dash.
The Boy Technonaut found himself scrunched in the corner of the little teleporter booth with the blobby chair pressing him against the wall like a passenger-side airbag. He struggled to get his arms around it. He tried under it. He tried over it. He finally managed to hit the door latch.
He and the blobby chair rolled out of the teleporter.
He was back in his bedroom.I
Surrounded—though he didn’t know it—by criminals from another world about to set out on a spree.
I After the fight over the Science-Fantasy Movie Spectacular, Busby Spence spent as much time as possible in his bedroom. He didn’t want to see his parents. His mother did what she normally did, but more sadly. His father, strangely, looked ashamed, even though it was Busby who had stolen the statue and sneaked out of the house.
Busby just stayed in his room, studying. He didn’t want to read Jasper Dash books anymore. He didn’t buy the new issue of the comic. He didn’t listen to the radio show. He didn’t care anymore.
At suppertime, Busby and his parents tried to ignore one another. They ate looking down at their plates. No one asked for anything to be passed. Busby got up from the table after supper and cleared up with his head bowed low. He scraped the fat off the plates with the used forks. They all walked past one another. They did not speak. They were all living alone. They stared in different directions.
This went on for days.
Busby thought about one time when Jasper Dash made friends with a scientist from another dimension: They both were in the same place, but they couldn’t see each other or hear each other and they could pass right through each other. They only knew the other one existed because occasionally, when the magnetic fields were right, there were signs that someone else, someone mysterious who saw another world, had been there, moved something, and faded away.