Project Alpha

by D. J. MacHale

  The group exchanged hopeful looks, realizing that even if they weren’t chosen, all might not be lost.

  Except for Dash.

  “Now, let’s get to the reason we’re here,” Phillips said with enthusiasm. “When I call your name, please stand and make your way up to the platform. Understood?”

  The kids all nodded or gave a thumbs-up.

  Piper leaned closer to Dash and whispered, “Good luck.”

  Dash gave her a sad smile and said, “Thanks. You too.”

  The rest sat up straight, their eyes fixed squarely on Commander Phillips.

  Phillips didn’t need to open an envelope or read from a list.

  He knew his crew.

  “The first Project Alpha crew member is…Carly Diamond.”

  The crowd burst into applause.

  “Yes!” Carly squealed with delight, pumping her fist.

  The other seven candidates applauded, though the pressure on each of them had just notched up.

  Carly leaned into Gabriel and said, “See you up there.”

  She sprinted up the ramp to meet Phillips. The two shook hands, then Carly turned and waved to the crowd and the cameras ecstatically.

  The audience’s excitement quickly shifted from joy to anticipation as they quieted down to wait for the next name.

  Phillips announced, “The next crew member is…Gabriel Parker.”

  Again the crowd erupted with applause.

  Again Carly pumped her fist and shouted, “Yes!”

  Gabriel stood slowly, stunned. He truly did not expect to be chosen, especially after the stunt he pulled by shutting down the base’s generators.

  Niko and Ravi pounded him on the back to congratulate him.

  “Makes absolute sense,” Siena said.

  Anna applauded politely.

  “Go!” Dash urged.

  Gabriel snapped into the moment. He gave Piper and Dash a high five, then jogged up the ramp. After a quick handshake from Phillips, he joined Carly.

  “I told you,” she whispered.

  Gabriel couldn’t stop grinning.

  The applause died and Phillips stepped back to the microphone.

  “Third up is…Piper Williams.”

  There was a mixture of surprised gasps and huge cheers.

  “Me?” she said to nobody. “Did he say my name?”

  “Yeah, he did,” Dash said with a huge, beaming smile. “I knew you’d be chosen. Get up there!”

  Piper put her chair in gear and headed toward the ramp.

  “No way,” Anna said, stunned.

  Ravi leaned into Niko and said, “Guess that means we’re going home.”

  Niko shrugged. He felt the same way. The last spot would certainly go to Anna or Dash.

  “Well,” Siena said, “this is disappointing.”

  Piper sped onto the stage and straight to Phillips.

  “Thank you,” Piper said with tears in her eyes.

  “Don’t thank me, you earned it,” Phillips replied.

  Piper wheeled herself next to Carly and Gabriel, who greeted her with warm hugs.

  Three-quarters of the crew was set.

  The crowd quieted.

  Dash had trouble swallowing. His quest was about to officially come to an end. He looked across to Niko, Anna, Siena, and Ravi, who stared up at Phillips with anticipation. Anna was the calmest of the four. She felt no pressure.

  Dash just wanted it to be over.

  “Besides announcing the name of the final crew member,” Phillips said, “I’m also announcing that based on their exceptional performance in this competition, this candidate will become the commander of the Alpha team.”

  Anna sat up a little straighter.

  Ravi leaned into Niko and whispered, “Now I know we’re done.”

  Phillips continued, “This candidate has demonstrated the kind of resourcefulness, intelligence, and ingenuity that will be critical in helping the crew deal with challenges both expected and unexpected. We have complete confidence that under this candidate’s leadership, the Alpha mission will be successful in bringing the Source back to Earth.”

  The crowd remained silent. Nobody was breathing.

  “The final crew member and the commander of the Alpha team is—”

  “Dash Conroy!” Carly shouted out.

  The outburst caught Phillips by surprise. He didn’t know how to react.

  “Dash Conroy!” Piper shouted.

  A low murmur went through the crowd.

  Niko and Ravi looked at Anna, who seemed ready to explode with anger. She stared straight at Carly and Piper. If looks could kill, Project Alpha was going to need two new crew members.

  “Dash Conroy!” Gabriel exclaimed.

  Carly and Gabriel stood on either side of Piper, holding hands in a show of solidarity.

  “Be careful how you handle this,” Siena whispered to Anna. “You’re going to have to win them over.”

  “Uh-uh,” Anna said, gritting her teeth. “They’re going to have to win me over.”

  Phillips watched the three for a moment, shaking his head in amazement.

  “C’mon, Commander,” Gabriel said. “You know it’s gotta be.”

  Phillips turned back to the mike.

  The crowd quieted once again.

  Anna shook off her anger, sat up straight, and put a smile back on her face.

  “This final choice was a difficult one,” Phillips announced. “But ultimately we are one hundred percent confident in our selection. The final crew member and the commander of the Alpha crew is…Dash Conroy.”

  Anna made a move to stand, but froze instead.

  “What?” she exclaimed with surprise.

  Dash was even more shocked.

  Niko and Ravi clapped him on the back.

  “We knew it’d be you, man,” Ravi said.

  “Good luck, Dash,” Niko said.

  As Dash went for the stage, Niko looked at Ravi and said, “I thought we had a plan.”

  “Should have been us, man,” Ravi said, shaking his head. “Should have been us.”

  Anna looked ready to jump out of her skin. She moved to stand up, but Siena put her arm out to stop her.

  “Don’t be foolish,” Siena said in such a forceful, confident tone that Anna actually stopped.

  Dash couldn’t move his feet. This made no sense.

  As the crowd cheered ecstatically, Ravi pushed Dash to get moving. On the stage Carly, Gabriel, and Piper were cheering and whistling for joy.

  Dash walked up the ramp in a daze and went right for Phillips.

  The two shook hands and leaned in to one another.

  “I don’t get it,” Dash whispered.

  “We’ll talk,” Phillips said, and directed him toward the others.

  He joined hands with them and the four raised their arms in triumph.

  “Ladies and gentlemen and people of the world,” Phillips announced, “I present to you the Voyagers.”

  The crowd jumped to their feet. Even the reporters, who normally looked at events with cold indifference, stood and cheered.

  The other candidates stood and applauded. All but Anna. She fidgeted anxiously.

  Phillips said, “Please give a final show of appreciation to the four alternates who will be waiting in the wings should one of our crew be unable to fly.”

  As the band kicked in with another tune, Phillips left the stage and walked quickly down the ramp and directly to the four alternates in the front row. He gestured for them to follow him.

  Anna looked to the far side of the stage to see the bus door opening. It made her stomach drop. She had planned on leaving Base Ten on a spaceship, not a bus.

  She stormed ahead of the group and climbed aboard. The others walked with Phillips and gave a quick wave back to the crowd before boarding.

  Phillips entered after them and the door immediately closed. Once it sealed shut, the music and the raucous cheers were reduced to a muted hum.

  “This is wrong!” Anna excla
imed, fighting back tears. “How can you say Conroy would be a better commander than me? I won two of the major competitions and would have won a third if Gabriel and Carly hadn’t cheated.”

  “This isn’t about any one individual,” Phillips said. “The choices reflect what we believe will make the best team. The mission is going to require a variety of skills, plus we felt strongly about selecting the candidates who demonstrated the ability to work together.”

  “So it didn’t matter that I nailed every test?” Anna asked, indignant.

  “Every test but one,” Phillips replied. “You weren’t collaborative.”

  Anna opened her mouth to argue, but stopped. Phillips was right, and she knew it.

  “Thanks for the chance, Commander,” Niko said, shaking his hand. “Good luck.”

  Ravi put out his hand to shake as well. “Yeah. Don’t mess up.”

  “Thank you for the opportunity,” Siena said. “It was enlightening.”

  Anna stood back, sulking.

  “Remember,” Phillips added, “you may still get the call. It’s a long time until launch day.”

  “I don’t do second string,” Anna mumbled.

  “Well, you don’t have to make that choice now,” Phillips said. “Next stop is the airport for your flights home. Safe journey. We’ll keep in touch.”

  The bus door opened, and Phillips stepped back into the music and the roar of the crowd.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Anna said, and fell down into her seat.

  The bus rolled, headed for the exit of Base Ten. Many in the crowd waved to them, but most had their eyes focused on the stage and the young astronauts who had just become the four most famous people on Earth.

  Phillips jogged back up onto the stage. He gestured for the crew to sit, then held up his hands to quiet the audience.

  “I want to take a moment to briefly outline the Voyagers’ mission,” he announced, focused directly at the television cameras.

  “I’m sure many of you watching today are skeptical about deep-space travel. You’re wondering how it was possible for us to have developed this technology. I’m about to show you something that will put your concerns to rest and help you believe that a better tomorrow is coming.”

  The sound of multiple hydraulic engines began to grow, giving off a deep, throaty rumble that echoed over the desert floor. All eyes went to the roof of the football-field-sized hangar, where giant ceiling panels were opening up to the sky.

  Dash, Piper, Carly, and Gabriel turned in their chairs to watch the show.

  “What’s going on?” Piper asked Dash.

  “You’re asking the wrong guy,” Dash said. “I still don’t even know why I’m sitting here.”

  All television cameras focused on the roof of the hangar.

  The thunderous motorized sound grew louder as something began to rise up from inside the building. Something big. Carly, Dash, and Gabriel stood up, and Piper spun her chair.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Gabriel said in awe.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Phillips announced with pride, “the vehicle that will take our Voyagers team to the stars.”

  With that, the roof panels dropped down, revealing the vessel that had risen from within.

  There was no mistaking what it was.

  A spaceship.

  There was no applause. Most of the people there had seen it before. They had worked on it for years.

  The reveal was for the benefit of the rest of the world.

  The ship was enormous, taking up the entire platform that rose out of the hangar. It stood five stories high with a gleaming silver body that was oval-shaped and came to a slightly pointed nose. It rested on an enormous black ring. Multicolored running lights winked on and off across its skin, showing that the vehicle was alive and powered.

  “People of the United States, of the world, of the planet Earth, I proudly present to you…the Cloud Leopard.”

  The crowd finally erupted with cheers of pride.

  The four crew members could only gaze at the ship with their mouths open, stunned.

  “This suddenly got very real,” Carly said with wide-eyed wonder.

  “Yeah,” Gabriel added. “And we have to learn how to fly that thing.”

  “Welcome to the Cloud Leopard!” STEAM exclaimed. “She is a beautiful ship. Yes sir!”

  The little robot was waiting outside of the elevator that brought Commander Phillips and the Alpha crew up to the platform that held the spaceship.

  “It’s bigger than my school,” Carly said in awe while gazing up at the behemoth. “It makes me dizzy.”

  STEAM led the group forward, walking beneath the huge craft, which seemed to stretch overhead forever.

  “It takes my breath away to be near something so giant,” Piper said.

  “It seems impossible,” Gabriel said. “Then again, I didn’t think robots could walk and talk. No offense, Steamer.”

  Dash caught movement out of the corner of his eye. It was something small that flashed quickly across the hull far to their right.

  “Whoa, what was that?” he exclaimed.

  Everyone looked, but whatever it was had disappeared.

  “What did it look like?” Piper asked.

  “Could have been a bird but it was really hauling,” Dash replied.

  The question remained unanswered. As they continued on, Dash kept glancing back, hoping to get another glimpse.

  “STEAM will give you a brief tour. There’s a lot to take in, but trust me, by launch day you’ll know this ship inside and out.”

  “Commander Phillips?” Carly said.

  “Yes?”

  “For what it’s worth, I think you chose the best possible crew.”

  “I agree,” Phillips replied with a rare smile. “Enjoy the tour.”

  “This way,” STEAM called. “Time for you to meet the Cloud Leopard.”

  The four crew members followed the little robot toward a ramp that led up and into the belly of the ship, near its tail. They walked slowly, taking in every detail of the vehicle as if they were witnessing an impossible dream come true.

  Phillips watched as they walked up the ramp and disappeared into the ship.

  “Big day,” a man said as he approached Phillips.

  Phillips turned quickly to see the blond teenager who had been observing the competition from the catwalk above the event arena. He wore a similar dark blue jumpsuit to the one Commander Phillips had on.

  “It went well, don’t you think?” Phillips asked.

  “I do,” the young man said. “How did the others take the news?”

  “Disappointed, to varying degrees,” Phillips replied.

  “What was Dash’s reaction?”

  “Confused,” Phillips said.

  “Will he accept the risk?”

  “I don’t know. We should be prepared to go with an alternate.”

  “Let’s hope it won’t come to that,” the young man said, and the two walked away from the Cloud Leopard.

  —

  STEAM and the crew stood tight together in a space that was barely large enough to hold all of them.

  “This is an air lock,” STEAM explained. “In case you need to leave the ship while in space.”

  “Leave the ship?” Carly said, shaking her head. “That won’t be happening.”

  STEAM continued, “The Cloud Leopard will be launched from Earth without a crew on board. Once it is in space, it will not land again. You will travel to and from it aboard a shuttlecraft called the Cloud Cat.”

  “We have to learn how to fly that too?” Piper asked.

  “Yes,” STEAM replied. “We will now enter the engine room.”

  A sliding door opened with the hiss of air and the crew stepped into Wonderland.

  “Oh man!” Dash exclaimed.

  “Wow” was all Carly could say.

  “This just keeps on getting better,” Gabriel said in awe.

  The space was the size of an auditorium. Di
rectly in front of them sat an array of vehicles, all built from the same silver steel material as the Cloud Leopard.

  “You will use these vehicles during the mission,” STEAM explained. “There is a hovercraft, personal water vehicles, a two-person submarine, and a rover.”

  The crew went straight to the vehicles, giddy at the idea of playing with the wondrous, oversized toys.

  “How cool is this?” Carly said, breathless.

  “These are great,” Dash said. “But why do we need them? Isn’t the mission about going to a planet to dig up some stuff and get back?”

  “Yes, but you need to be prepared for anything and everything, yes sir,” STEAM said.

  “Yeah,” Gabriel said. “Don’t argue. I want to take these babies out for a drive.”

  “You will have plenty of time to practice,” STEAM said. “Time to move on.”

  The group re-formed and walked deeper into the compartment. One whole wall was taken up with an array of hard drives with thousands of colorful, winking lights. Beneath the drives were several touch-screen monitors that showed dozens of schematics of the engines and also held the ship’s controls.

  “We are on the lower deck,” STEAM said. “There is another deck above us. The engines are below. All engine functions are controlled and maintained right here.”

  “We’re going to have to learn how to work all this stuff?” Piper asked nervously.

  “Yes,” STEAM replied. “But mostly as a backup. The ship is automated. Maintenance is performed by the ZRKs.”

  “The who?” Dash asked.

  As if on cue, a small round object the size of a golf ball flew from behind the vehicles and past their heads. Everyone ducked, though they didn’t need to, for the sphere had no intention of hitting anyone. It flew toward the rows of monitors and hovered in front of one like a high-tech hummingbird.

  “That’s what I saw outside!” Dash exclaimed. “It was flying across the hull of the ship.”

  The sphere was surrounded by multiple small rotors, which gave it lift and propulsion. A small panel on the device opened up and a tiny mechanical arm emerged. It gently tapped the screen to change the setting on one of the sliding controls. The arm retracted and the tiny gizmo flew off.