“Hi, Dad!” Tom exclaimed as he strode into the laboratory.  “What’s doing with Ole Think Box?”

Mr. Swift looked up with a smile of relief. “’Morning, son!  All well again?  That’s wonderful!  I’m just giving Exman an artificial speech mechanism.  He’s already briefed us via the electronic brain on the situation in Brungaria.  But I thought it would be even better if he could tell us in person.”

Details on the earthquake plot, Mr. Swift went on, had already been reported to the Defense Department.  Tom’s raid on Balala Island had effectively blocked further quake attempts.

The Brungarian rebels had become enraged by their failure to extract Exman’s secrets, and had decided to disintegrate the robot creature and its brain energy.  But the youthful Brungarian loyalist group had kept them so busy with resistance outbreaks that they had delayed too long.

“Lucky thing!” Tom put in with an affectionate grin at Exman.  “If they had started to destroy him half an hour sooner, it might have been pretty sad for Ole Think Box!”

Tom was intrigued by his father’s design for an artificial speech mechanism.  After talking it over, they decided that Tom would go to work on a central computer device to integrate all the senses.  He would also provide Exman with “ears,” which would be sound-reception equipment.  Mr. Swift, meanwhile, would continue work on the speech mechanism and also perfect the seeing equipment he had started earlier.

The day sped by as the two Swifts worked with feverish intensity.  Lunch was eaten from their workbenches, but the inventors reluctantly halted at dinnertime.

After a tasty meal of fried chicken at home with Mrs. Swift and Sandy, both Toms returned to the plant.  Father and son labored until well past midnight on their experiments.  Then they snatched a few hours of sleep and resumed their tasks early the next morning.

By early afternoon an atmosphere of excitement pervaded Enterprises.  The visitor from Planet X would soon be able to communicate directly with his earth friends!  Bud, Chow, Hank Sterling, Arv Hanson, and Art Wiltessa gathered in the laboratory, along with several other Swift key men.  Mrs. Swift, Sandy, and Phyl also arrived to watch.

At last the sensing equipment was completed and installed.  Exman was ready to speak!

His voice came out haltingly, but as the words were selected from a vast taped collection, they were clear and bold: 

    GREETINGS TO YOU, MY EARTH FRIENDS!

Sandy gave a squeal of delight and the room echoed with applause for Exman’s first effort.  After a few adjustments, he was able to speak more freely and smoothly.

Tom whispered to Phyl, “Confidentially, we had a dummy run before lunchtime.  At first, all Exman could do was croak like a frog.”

Phyl, thrilled by the spectacle of a speaking space creature, gave the young inventor’s hand a squeeze.  “Tom, he’s just wonderful!”