by Melinda Metz
It was easy to remove the cover from the wall of the hab, and there was room inside the scrubber for the new fan without removing the old one. They decided to leave it. It was still spinning, just slower than it should, so it would also help move air over the pellets.
“Now what?” Dylan asked after they’d screwed the cover back on.
“Now we send a message to Mission Control saying the fan is in place,” Samuel said. “Then I say we follow our regular schedule while we wait to see if the CO2 levels go down. That’ll tell us if the scrubber’s working.”
“We make a great team,” Zoe said. “I don’t know who keeps sabotaging us, but we’re solving every problem they throw at us. And I’m really glad we’re not trying to annoy each other anymore.”
Goo smiled. “And if our team fixed the scrubber, we’ll win the contest for sure!”
* * *
“How are my little worms?” Zoe crooned half an hour later as she looked at her monitor in the lab. It showed video feeds from the three worm cultivation chambers attached to the counter on her left.
She, Dylan, Samuel, and Goo had each been assigned an experiment to work on while they were staying in the hab. If Zoe was really on Mars, the data collected from her worms could help show how the high levels of radiation on Mars might affect colonists.
“You should see them go,” she told Samuel, who was busy putting in his time on the treadmill at the other end of the lab.
Zoe smiled as she watched the worms wiggle across the screen of her monitor. Then the image flickered and went black. The lights in the room dimmed for a moment, and Samuel’s treadmill slowed down. He hit the stop button and climbed off.
“That was weird,” he said. “The speed just suddenly dropped.”
Goo appeared in the doorway, Dylan right behind her. “I just tried to send an email to Sonja to say hi, and it wouldn’t go through. It’s like there’s no signal,” she said.
“My computer —” Zoe began. Then all the lights went out. “Houston, we have a problem.”
11
“What do we do?” Dylan asked.
Zoe peered through the darkness, trying to see his face. “I don’t know,” she admitted. She gripped the counter with both hands, almost afraid to move. It seemed like every machine in the hab was pinging or bleeping or ringing.
Thankfully, the backup generator kicked in a few minutes later, and some of the light returned to the lab. Zoe let her breath out in a whoosh.
“Goo, what did the binders say about power?” Samuel asked.
“There are emergency situations where the power will cut off. It can take up to two hours to get it back online,” Goo answered. “But there is a backup. That’s why we have lights again. The hab has batteries that are charged by nuclear reactors. Or at least that’s how they’ll be charged on Mars. The batteries don’t have enough power to keep everything running, though.”
“So we only use power for life support,” Samuel said.
“We need heat too,” Zoe said. “Remember, it’s minus eighty outside.”
Samuel thought for a moment. “The hab has four modules,” he began. “We don’t need heat in all of them. We can all stay in one until we get the power situation figured out.”
Zoe was impressed. Samuel was really stepping up — even without his twin brother. “Let’s get to work on the circuits,” she said. “We’ll cut power to everything we don’t absolutely need.”
“I can’t believe this. Someone is definitely out to get us,” Dylan said. “First someone snuck Crunchies into Samuel’s bag. Then we got the fake emails. And now the power goes down right after we got the scrubber fixed.”
“Mission Control will figure it out,” Zoe promised. “There’s nothing we can do from here except keep our colony safe.”
* * *
The entire S.M.A.R.T.S. Mission Control was gathered in the control center. They’d been out of contact with their colonists for almost half an hour. As soon as Jaden, Caleb, Benjamin, and Sonja realized they’d lost communication with the hab, they’d notified Mrs. Ram, Mr. Leavey, and the rest of the team.
The sponsors had immediately gone to find Mr. Pegg. They’d said there was no way they were leaving kids in the hab if there wasn’t a way to contact them.
Jaden glanced over at Benjamin. He stood right in front of the flat screen that usually showed the hab’s common room. It was as though he thought that if he stared at it hard enough, he could make an image of his twin appear.
“How do you get a baby astronaut to fall asleep?” Jaden asked, hoping a joke would break the tension. Nobody responded. “You rocket,” he said, his voice flat.
“Let’s go over the facts again. We know the main power source for the hab is solar panels,” Caleb said. “It’s been sunny all day, so they should be charged, which means the hab should have juice. But somehow the power isn’t getting where it should go.”
“What if the sunlight didn’t get to the panels?” Sonja said. “Mars has tons of dust storms. What if part of the simulation is a simulated dust storm that kept the solar panels from charging?”
“Good thought,” Jaden said. “So if the panels are covered with dust, what can we do from here to help?”
“There’s the rover.” Antonio pointed out. “It has a different power supply. Couldn’t we use it to check the panels?”
“I’ll try!” yelled Benjamin as he bolted to his console. Everyone gathered around him, watching as he fed in coordinates for the row of solar panels and gave the rover the command to go there.
The kids stared at the screen expectantly.
“We aren’t going to know anything for almost half an hour,” Jaden reminded them. “It’ll take twelve minutes for the rover to get the instructions, and then the video it sends back will be on a twelve-minute delay. At least the rover is close to the panels.”
Each minute felt like an hour. It was driving Caleb crazy just standing there. But there was nothing to do but wait.
About twenty minutes later, the door swung open, pulling Caleb’s attention away from Benjamin’s monitor. Mrs. Ram and Mr. Leavey walked in. Kaylee was with them.
“Good news,” Mrs. Ram said. “The power problem is part of the simulation. Everyone in the hab is fine. We had Mr. Pegg show us video.”
“Wait, why does he have video?” Benjamin protested.
“Because he’s watching the simulation, not participating in it,” Mr. Leavey explained.
“I don’t get why he’d have the power go down,” Kaylee said, her rainbow braces flashing as she talked. “Wouldn’t that make people think that something is wrong with the habs, that they’re not safe?”
“Maybe he wanted to show them how easy it is for colonists — kid colonists — to solve whatever problems come up,” Mrs. Ram suggested. “Our team is doing a good job using the backup power for only the most essential hab functions.”
“And we just sent the rover to the solar panels to see if there’s something wrong with them,” Sonja added. “We’re waiting for the video.”
A few minutes later, an image of the desert and the row of four habs appeared on one of the main screens. The rover rolled slowly toward the solar panels in front of the S.M.A.R.T.S. hab.
“There’s something coating the panels,” Caleb said, squinting at the screen.
“Hey! There’s another rover out there,” Sonja pointed out. “Why is someone else’s rover coming toward our hab?”
But before anyone could answer, Barrett stormed into the room. “You cheated!” he yelled. “You used your rover to pour sand all over our solar panels so they wouldn’t collect any power. We just saw the sand on the video our rover sent back.”
Benjamin stood up so fast he knocked his chair over. “That’s your rover heading toward our hab right now!” he shouted back. “You’re probably having it check whether our panels need more sand or whatever you put on them!”
“Please calm down, everyone,” Mrs. Ram said firmly. “We’re all scientists. Le
t’s not jump to conclusions. Barrett, why do you think our team put sand on your team’s panels?”
Barrett shoved a glossy picture at her. “We lost all communication with our hab,” he said. “I checked with the Neutrons and the Kelvins. Their power is still fine. So my logical, scientific conclusion was that the S.M.A.R.T.S. are sabotaging the Mads to win our competition. I sent our rover out to take pics of our panels. Here’s a print. You can see there’s sand all over them.”
“But there’s something on our panels too,” Caleb said, gesturing toward the screen.
“Maybe you just did that so you wouldn’t look guilty,” Barrett argued, but he didn’t sound so sure.
“That would hurt our team as much as it’d hurt yours,” Jaden pointed out. “It’s not like the fake emails. That was something the Mads could have planned together before the colonists went inside the hab. Or something S.M.A.R.T.S. could have planned,” he added when Barrett glared at him. “But this is different.”
Caleb stepped closer to Jaden. “Benjamin absolutely wouldn’t do it, even if he was trying to get Samuel out of the hab,” he whispered. “He wouldn’t risk being out of contact with his brother.”
“Okay … so you’re innocent this time,” Barrett admitted. “Then who did it?”
“Well, it could be part of the simulation,” Jaden told him. “Mr. Pegg said the power failure was planned. But it’s weird that it only happened to the S.M.A.R.T.S. and the Mads. Why would he put the sand on just our teams’ solar panels?”
“Are you sure it’s sand on the panels?” Kaylee was looking over Mrs. Ram’s shoulder, studying the photo taken by the Mads’ rover. “The grains seem too big.”
“What does it matter what the stuff is?” Barrett demanded. “It’s messing up our teams.”
“It might be a clue. Knowing what it is might help us figure out if Mr. Pegg is telling the truth, or if someone else is doing this,” Jaden said.
“Then let’s get out there,” Caleb said.
“We can’t,” Destiny answered. “Until the simulation ends, that’s Mars.”
“I’m not part of the simulation. I’ll go check it out,” Kaylee volunteered. “It could give me a great blog entry!”
12
“There’s nothing else we can do for the colonists,” Jaden said thirty minutes later.
Benjamin was using the rover to clean off the solar panels, but they wouldn’t be able to start charging again until the sun came up. Jaden wasn’t even sure the panels would make enough power to get communication back before the colonists came out of the hab at lunchtime the next day.
“We can find out who sabotaged both our teams,” Barrett said. “We —”
“It isn’t sand!” Kaylee announced, interrupting Barrett as she hurried into the S.M.A.R.T.S. control center.
“What is it?” Caleb asked. He and the others crowded around her.
Kaylee set a baggie full of something on the back table. “It might be couscous,” she said. “I think it’s definitely some kind of grain.”
Grain! Jaden thought. He had a flash of memory from their conversation with Robin. “Anyone know what quinoa looks like?” he asked.
“I do,” Brooke said as she stepped forward and studied the substance. “And that’s it!”
“I don’t get it. Quinoa on the solar panels — and only on the ones that belong to the S.M.A.R.T.S. and the Mads,” said Sonja, crossing her arms. “This can’t be part of the simulation. But why would Mr. Pegg lie?”
Caleb thought for a second. “Maybe he doesn’t know what’s going on, either. He probably lied so that the reporters and investors wouldn’t think the Mars colony is dangerous.”
“Hold on. What’s quinoa?” Barrett demanded.
“Like Kaylee said, it’s a kind of grain,” Jaden answered. “A locally grown grain.” He looked over at Caleb. “You feel like walking around outside? Nothing else we can do here.”
“Sure,” Caleb replied. Once they were out in the hall, he grinned and added, “If by walking around outside you mean getting proof that the Earth Firsters have been sabotaging us.”
They came up to the elevator, and when Jaden pushed the button, the doors opened immediately. Barrett burst in just before they shut again.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “But it seems like you two know something. I’m not letting you out of my sight until I figure out what.”
Jaden tried not to groan. Barrett always yelled first and thought later. He was the anti-Sherlock, but there was no way to get rid of him now.
“We think maybe the Earth Firsters are behind the sabotage,” Jaden explained. “They could want to make the Mars Commission look bad in front of the reporters and possible investors.”
“One of them, this girl Robin, had a thing of Cheez Crunchies in her bag,” Caleb added as the elevator doors opened on the ground floor. “And we found out they eat a lot of quinoa. But we don’t have any proof they did anything yet.”
“Unacceptable! I’ll get a confession,” Barrett promised. He led the way outside. “Just show me which one she is.”
The Earth Firsters were back to marching around with their signs and yelling their slogans. Jaden spotted Robin right away, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell Barrett that.
“Hey! Hey, you guys!” a girl called.
Robin’s sister, Lark, was running toward them. “Can I borrow a cell phone? Just for a few minutes. Pleasepleaseplease. Please!” She looked over her shoulder, then ducked behind the boys. Caleb was sure she was trying to hide from her sister.
“I’ll let you use mine if you answer a couple questions for us,” Jaden said.
Lark held out her hand. Jaden put his cell in her palm.
“Is that Robin?” Barrett demanded.
Jaden was silent for a moment, staring at Lark as she pulled up the game on his phone. “No. Forget about finding Robin,” he told Barrett. “I just realized she didn’t do it — nobody from Earth First did.”
“How do you figure?” Caleb asked.
Jaden glanced at Lark. “Can’t you play your game on a laptop?” he asked.
“As if I’d be let near one of those,” Lark said, not taking her eyes off the little screen. “No one in Earth First has a computer.”
A light bulb turned on in Caleb’s brain. “No cells phones, no computers, no way to send the fake emails. The Earth Firsters can’t be behind the sabotage.”
“And we already agreed neither of our teams did it,” Barrett said, crossing his arms. “So who’s the perp?”
* * *
When Jaden, Caleb, and Barrett returned to S.M.A.R.T.S. Mission Control, it was empty.
“They must have gone up to the suite,” Jaden said. “Without a way to communicate with the colonists, there’s nothing to do in here.”
The three boys took the elevator up to the top floor. As they expected, they found the rest of the S.M.A.R.T.S. kids there — and everyone from the Mad Scientists’ control center!
“We’re reading some of Kaylee’s blog, since there’s nothing we can do for the colonists right now,” Sonja told them, like it was normal to be hanging out with the rival team.
“Kaylee didn’t come up with you?” Caleb asked, looking around.
“She said she was going to tell the other reporters about the quinoa,” Amanda, one of the Mads who’d been extra friendly on the bus, answered. “I think she wanted to gloat. She got the story before all the adults.”
“Her blog is really popular,” Sonja commented. “She got more than four-hundred thousand hits today! People are really into the Mars Commission project. Some think it’s awesome. Some think it’ll be a disaster. But they all want more info on the simulation, and Kaylee’s been blasting new content onto her site.”
“Well, she has been filming constantly,” Antonio reminded them.
“She also gets stuff up fast. She had the quinoa post up an hour ago. And just before that, she posted about how Mr. Pegg lied when he said the power outag
e was part of the simulation. Really he had no idea what happened,” Sonja continued.
“She had a post up about our competition almost as soon as we got here,” Caroline, the Mads girl who loved bad jokes as much as Jaden, added. “And she wrote about the sabotage and how the Mads and the S.M.A.R.T.S. were blaming each other. Tons of people commented on those.”
“Wait. You said she had the quinoa post up an hour ago?” Jaden asked. His Spidey senses were really tingling now.
“Yeah,” Sonja said. She checked the blog. “At 4:02 p.m.”
“Does anyone remember what time we sent the rover out to check the panels?” Jaden asked.
Barrett pulled the picture taken by the Mads’ rover out of his pocket and checked the time stamp. “Our rover checked our panels at 4:16.”
“So Kaylee put up a post about the quinoa more than fourteen minutes before she supposedly went out to check the solar panels,” Jaden said.
Caleb could practically feel the neurons in his brain light up. “So unless she can time travel, that means she’s the one who put the quinoa on the panels! This whole time she’s been creating stories to put on her blog so she’d get more readers!”
“A new post just went up,” Sonja announced. “It’s about how the Earth Firsters are sabotaging the simulation.”
“That makes the story even better,” Jaden commented. “And it makes Kaylee look really smart. She solved the mystery.”
“I can’t believe it,” Finn, another of the Mads’ kids, said. “She actually got us to believe we were sabotaging each other.”
“She was with us when Mr. Pegg brought us into the building. She saw how much Samuel hated the sound of cracking knuckles and how Barrett did it to bug him,” Jaden pointed out. “So when she emailed from the fake account, she told Zoe to crack her knuckles.”
“Let’s go get her!” Barrett exclaimed.
“Let’s go get proof,” Jaden said. “And I have an idea on how to do it. We need to find Lark.”
