7 Zeke’s Workshop

Seven zeek's workshop THAT EVENING, ZEKE SAT IN A corner of the garage attached to his house. He stared at a pile of alien machinery that his parents had brought with them from Tragas. Xad had shown Zeke what a lot of this equipment could do, and Zeke enjoyed tinkering with it.

Time to get busy, Zeke thought. He lined up a bunch of circuits, dials, and knobs on a workbench. Using some of the Tragas tools, Zeke constructed a metal frame in the shape of a box. He then took a sheet of Trass—super-thin Tragas glass—and made panels on all sides of the box.

Zeke began setting up a complicated contraption. Using his alien power of moving objects with his mind, he moved a series of arms, levers, and steel balls into the box. Xad stepped into the garage. "What's that supposed to be?" he asked. "It's a cosmic clock," Zeke explained. "As the arms rotate, they drop these little steel balls into grooved wooden tracks that spin around. When the balls stop moving, they land in these holes.

"Using this, you can not only tell what time it is on Earth, but also on any other planet in this solar system. And you can also predict when there is going to be an eclipse or shooting stars." "Very well done, Zeke," said Xad. "Right now I'm just making it move using my mind abilities," Zeke explained. "What I need to find now is a power source."

Xad pressed his fingers on either sides of his head. Using his own mind powers, he made a large silver box float down from a high shelf. Zeke looked into the box and saw what looked like a bunch of glowing purple buttons. "Wow!" said Zeke. "What are those?" "Barzium crystals," Xad explained. "They are mined on Tragas. These crystals can provide power to big machines. One should be more than enough to power your cosmic clock."

Zeke stopped using his powers and the cosmic clock stopped moving. Then he slipped one of the Barzium crystals into the clock. The arms started rotating again, and the steel balls spun around the track. "Thanks, Xad!" Zeke said. "This is going to be a perfect Valentine's gift. And Debbie will never have to change its batteries!"