Language Difficulties by R. Richard

Jeremy dropped out of school at 16-years-old and now makes his living building air-cooled Volkswagen transmissions, for dune buggies that run out in the desert.
During a test trip into the desert, Jeremy finds a skeleton down an isolated dry wash. The skeleton; it isn’t human. Jeremy buries the skeleton and finds some gear in a synthetic, leather like pouch. The pouch has been buried in the sand under the skeleton and it's still sealed.
When Jeremy gets the pouch home and opens it, it contains a computer. It's some sort of laptop computer, but different from anything that Jeremy has ever seen before.
Jeremy manages to get the computer up and running.
Over several years, Jeremy manages to learn an alien language and to use maybe an alien encyclopedia, on a disc that he finds in the pouch with the computer.
Jeremy then begins to patent some of the things that he learned about from the alien encyclopedia.
Then, the aliens come to get their computer back and the adventure begins.
Jeremy and a lot of other people begin to learn the value of an education.