Space Station Crisis: Star Challengers Book 2

by Rebecca Moesta

  “I have no idea. I’ve never seen one like it,” JJ said. Commander Zota certainly hadn’t given them anything similar.

  Dylan gave his sister a nudge. “Talk some sense into her, JJ. You figured this thing out. Without you, we’d all be evacuating to Earth for no reason, and the Kylarn would have captured the station.”

  JJ and Tony propelled themselves through the cloying, purplish-green fumes, hoping it wasn’t some acid vapor that would eat away at their skin and clothes.

  “Keep an eye out for any floating globules,” Tony warned. They passed through the smoke screen in moments. “I think we’re all right.”

  Ansari said. “Then the smoke wasn’t dangerous. She could just as easily have released sulfuric acid vapor.”

  “I don’t think she’s trying to kill us,” JJ said. “But she’s deluded, and she wants to get away.”

  Tony said, “Well, we’ve got her now.”

  Stationmaster Ansari sealed all the exits.

  JJ pulled herself to the sealed hatch, just as when she’d tried to observe the Kylarn emerging from their ship. She didn’t expect to see an eye like a milky poached egg this time, unless Mira could somehow change her shape and become one of them. Not a pleasant thought.

  “Careful. She might have set up a booby-trap.” Tony drifted up next to her while JJ peered cautiously through the porthole into the sealed node room. Ansari opened the hatch.

  To their astonishment, the chamber was entirely empty.

  After a quick glance through the next porthole, Ansari released the security locks and opened the Med Module—but Mira wasn’t there, either. “What happened? How did she escape?” She shot a worried glance at JJ. “There was no alarm, no pressure release. The outer airlock is still sealed, the node room still pressurized. She couldn’t have ejected herself to space, like the two aliens did. How could she just disappear?”

  JJ shook her head. She couldn’t explain to Ansari, but she suddenly understood what must have happened. “If I had to guess, I’d say she’s not on the station anymore.”

  In her mind, she was convinced that Mira had been transported back home, to her own time and her treacherous Mentor Toowun.

  ***

  Twenty-Five

  After the evacuation was cancelled and the station began to recover from the succession of emergencies, Stationmaster Ansari had a long-distance meeting with emergency administrators and Earth’s military leaders. Colonel Fox announced an impending launch from Earth so that five additional crewmembers could come aboard the ISSC to help keep it secure. They were bringing components to install a newly designed external defense system in case the Kylarn ships came again.

  But it was only a first step; everyone knew that.

  Meanwhile, the Star Challengers gathered for a private meeting in Hab 1.

  “I feel so stupid!” JJ wanted to kick herself. “Commander Zota warned us about the threat, told us not to trust anyone—how could I not take him seriously?”

  “Remember he didn’t want me to come along either,” Tony pointed out.

  “Yeah, that made me think Zota was just going overboard,” JJ admitted. “But now I see he was right to be cautious.”

  “Uh-huh,” King said. “I liked Mira, but I guess we were too trusting.”

  “As in naive?” Song-Ye said.

  “This is definitely a problem,” Dyl sighed. They all hung together, comfortable in microgravity now, in front of the empty sleep stations. No one felt like sleeping.

  JJ shook her head in frustration. “I wanted to trust her! We’re facing a gigantic crisis, so it would’ve been nice to have some help.” She bit her lip. “I never guessed somebody would want us to lose to the aliens.”

  “Huh-uh,” King said. “What worries me—and maybe I shouldn’t even say this—but what if she’s right?”

  “You mean that we’re doomed, and that the human race should just give up before the fighting starts?” Song-Ye asked. “That’s not our style.”

  Dyl blew out a slow, steady breath and said, “But would even surrendering help? I don’t see it—those two squidbutts sacrificed themselves to keep from talking to us. If they were willing to negotiate, would they really do that?”

  “It wouldn’t make sense,” JJ agreed.

  Song-Ye looked pensive, “Still … they’re aliens. Their culture is different. Remember what I said about the thumbs-up sign being rude in some parts of the world? It’s a foreign concept. If cultures on Earth are so different from each other, how can we really understand what the Kylarn—from a completely different solar system—are thinking? And we don’t know what we can accomplish against them.”

  JJ said, “Commander Zota says the future is our choice. That’s got to mean we can save people.”

  King gave a tentative nod. “But what if we make the wrong choices? We’re not perfect. We may be able to go to the future, but we can’t see it. We could get someone killed if we don’t make the right decisions.”

  Song-Ye gave an uncomfortable shrug. “And what if Commander Zota is wrong? What if this isn’t the way to save humanity?”

  “What if we aren’t as good as he thinks we are?” Dyl said. “We could make a worse mess of the future than it already is. What if Earth gets blown to smithereens?”

  “Pfft. Smithereens? Nice word, Junior,” Song-Ye teased. “What if we can’t do enough to make a difference?”

  JJ made an impatient sound. “We could ‘what if until we freeze up and don’t try to accomplish anything for fear that we might be wrong. That kind of thinking won’t help anyone, much less save Earth! It’s never a bad idea to get more people interested in science, progress, and leadership. Someone’s got to take action, so it might as well be us.”

  King drew a deep calming breath. “All right. So there are a lot of things we know for certain. First of all, knowledge is not the enemy. Stupidity is. Ignorance is. If our generation learns science and leadership, looks to the future to understand and to grow strong, then Earth will be much better off.”

  Tony took up the train of thought. “So Commander Zota is right about having us help our generation learn. Science does a lot of good for the world—cures diseases, feeds the hungry, gives us safe water, puts men on the Moon.”

  “And women,” JJ pointed out.

  “Not yet,” Dyl said.

  “Second, we can tell we’re doing good work,” King continued. “We exposed the alien base on the Moon, and without us, everyone at the moonbase would have died a year ago.”

  Song-Ye took up the train of thought, “Third, we know the Kylarn aren’t peaceful. They didn’t come to help Earth. They don’t want to be friends, no matter what we do—even Mira admitted that. They’re the bad guys, pure and simple.”

  JJ said, “Then we’ll just have to judge the aliens by what we do know. Commander Zota and Mentor Toowun definitely agree on one thing: The Kylarn are going to kill billions of humans in our future.”

  “The squidbutts didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat the first time we met them on the Moon,” Dyl reminded them. “They were already sneaking around building a military base. And they shot down the Halley just for trying to say hello.”

  “Not to mention that they blasted an unarmed moonbase”—Song-Ye glanced teasingly at Dyl—“to smithereens.” Dyl grinned and responded with a teasing thumbs-up.

  “The Kylarn don’t even want us to have a non-functioning satellite—much less one that might be able to see anything they’re doing,” Tony pointed out.

  King said, “I wish I knew what they were thinking.”

  Song-Ye said, “We can only look at things from our own point of view, what we can see. And as far as we can tell, we haven’t done anything to make them attack us. As in, from our point of view, they’re jerks.”

  “Deadly jerks,” Dyl corrected.

  JJ sighed. “We have to go on the assumption, then, that the Kylarn aren’t looking for a reason to play nice. Weakening the human race isn’t going to save lives.”


  Stationmaster Ansari chose that moment to enter the Hab module. “I thought it was time I had a private meeting with all of you. After what we’ve been through together, I think I deserve some answers.”

  “We’ve been trying figure out some answers ourselves,” JJ said. “Like how we misjudged Mira so badly.”

  Ansari gave them all a searching look. “I believed that she was here to help, too. You know, Dr. Kloor is convinced that all of you were in on it, as a worst-case scenario … and as a best-case scenario he believes you’re just a magnet for trouble. Who are you, and where do you come from?”

  Dyl gulped.

  “Honestly, ma’am,” King said, “we can’t tell you. That could mess things up even worse.”

  “Then how do we know we can trust you?” Ansari looked at them all. She held onto a wall handle, keeping herself steady.

  “But we helped save the space station!” JJ objected. “And I’m the one who told you the ammonia emergency was fake. Otherwise you would have evacuated the ISSC, maybe even destroyed it.”

  “And we helped take care of the patients in Medical and repaired the solar array,” Dyl said.

  Ansari gave them all a rueful smile. “Oh, I know that. I already used all of those logical arguments on Dr. Kloor. But he’s feeling endangered from a source he can’t control, so he’s reacting emotionally, not logically.”

  Tony ran a hand through his curly hair. “Boy, it does look pretty bad.”

  King nodded. “A lot of things have gone wrong both times we were here.”

  Ansari pressed her fingers to her eyes for a moment, looking completely exhausted. She sighed and looked up again. “I thought we had only the Kylarn to worry about, as if that weren’t enough. But now it turns out there are humans trying to sabotage us as well. How do I know whom to trust?”

  “We were all sent here by people who think they have the best interests of the human race at heart,” JJ said quietly. “Mira couldn’t even imagine that I wouldn’t agree with her—that the best way to stop the Kylarn is to bow and let them take over. I guess from now on all of us need to be more on guard than ever.”

  ***

  Twenty-Six

  To make doubly certain that the Kylarn—and Mira—had caused no further sabotage, all of the ISSC’s crew, as well as the Star Challengers, combed every module, every laboratory station, every system.

  At last, all four members of the satellite team were well enough to return to duty. “Your electrolytes and energy levels are fine now,” Dr. Romero said. “There’s no need to dispatch you back to Earth for recovery. Clean bill of health.”

  “I don’t ever want to think about getting that sick again,” Rodgers said with a long sigh. “There were times I thought I’d never eat anything solid again.”

  Lifchez commiserated.

  King was assigned to the observatory module to help Dr. d’Almeida. Though he tried not to show it, he was devastated by Mira’s betrayal. He had been intrigued by the mysterious girl, and excited by the idea of other mentors from the future like Commander Zota. But now the problem seemed even more daunting. How could they prepare for the future?

  Now, rather than just being independent, counted on to do what they could, the Star Challengers had to fight against an actual resistance group—collaborators with the Kylarn—like Mira and her Mentor Toowun. Their goals were precisely the opposite of Zota’s. Mira had fooled him completely, and now King worried about how many others like her might be hidden in society, ready to cause trouble.

  Here in the observatory module, he had spent many hours comparing detailed charts of the asteroids that lay between Jupiter and Mars. Mira had actually volunteered to work with him on the assignment. What had she really wanted? Searching for new asteroids had seemed tedious work, less important than the problems closer to home. Why had Mira been so interested?

  King found it all deeply troubling.

  Dr. d’Almeida was still analyzing Recon-1’s images of the secret alien base and how extensive it had grown on the far side of the Moon. Although the astronomer preferred to look at distant galaxies, nebula clouds, even the planets here in Earth’s own solar system, she was now completely preoccupied with the Kylarn crisis.

  Sure that Mira had been up to something sinister, King was intent on solving the mystery. While studying the stored astronomical images, he attempted to call up the files that he and Mira had worked on, the sky survey charts on which they had identified asteroids.

  But the charts were missing, along with King’s notes about the newly discovered blips of light. All of their results.

  “Dr. d’Almeida, did you move the files of the asteroid maps we compiled?”

  “No time to worry about asteroids now, Cadet King.” On her screen, the astronomer displayed the images from Recon-1, along with the earlier pictures taken of the alien base just after its discovery. She mused, “I’m developing a complete blueprint of the Kylarn outpost, showing how it’s grown. I’ll also make my best guess as to what all of the structures are for.”

  “I understand, ma’am, but something’s very fishy here. Mira was working on those asteroid maps with me, and now we know that she wants to prevent Earth from defending itself. Why would she remove all the charts? She must have had some reason, and I don’t think we’re going to like it.”

  Dr. d’Almeida sighed. “How could she possibly care about a set of astronomical maps of asteroids?”

  “I’m not sure, ma’am, but she volunteered for that work, and now … the records are gone. She must have erased them.”

  D’Almeida came over, leaving the diagram of the Kylarn lunar base projected on the smooth wall. Her brow was furrowed. “But that makes no sense.”

  “There must be something she doesn’t want us to see,” King said, then smiled in relief. “Fortunately I transmitted a backup down to Dr. Wu at CMC.”

  “All right, I’ll request the backups from Earth.”

  “I’d suggest we also retrieve the asteroid maps that Dr. Wu completed at the Moonbase Magellan observatory. His records went back a long time, but I’m guessing we’ll find that something important has changed.”

  The astronomer nodded. “Now that Mira has called our attention to this, I’m very curious to see what it is that she doesn’t want us to notice.”

  Normally, asteroid maps were very low priority, but based on King’s alert observations, d’Almeida convinced Stationmaster Ansari of the potential urgency. All the files were transmitted up to ISSC within the hour, while several teams on Earth also pored over them to spot potential problems.

  Once King knew what to look for, an answer jumped out at him immediately. “There’s a lot of activity out in the asteroid belt. Look at these images that show white blips, like a swarm of bees—I think that’s a flurry of Kylarn ships.”

  “But what would the aliens be doing out in the asteroid belt?” the astronomer asked, “That’s between Mars and Jupiter—nowhere close to Earth. Are they mining for metals? Building more ships?”

  “Maybe they’re establishing a base out there, like they did on the Moon,” King said. “We need to look into this more.”

  But after he compared the ISSC observations with Dr. Wu’s records, using computer comparisons to track any unexpected movements, the answer was plain as day. He suddenly felt cold.

  When she saw King’s report, the Stationmaster called another emergency all-hands meeting in the Mess. The ISSC crewmembers had just barely survived one disaster after another, and they were all still on edge. JJ, Dyl, Song-Ye, and Tony were also there, just as concerned.

  King had transferred the asteroid charts to the main screens in the Mess so that everyone could see for themselves. Ansari nodded to him. “It’s your show, Cadet King. Tell us what you’ve found.”

  “I don’t expect you have good news for once?” Bronsky asked.

  “Afraid not, sir.” King drew a deep breath.

  D’Almeida looked around at the other ISSC crewmembers, who sat at all angle
s, holding onto handholds. “I assure you all that I have verified this discovery. Cadet King’s projections are accurate—and cause for a great deal of concern.”

  King displayed the asteroid images on the main screen in the Mess Module. He had highlighted the selected dots as he toggled from one deep-space photo to the next.

  “In the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter, you can see some Kylarn activity. The aliens are doing something out there, and you can bet they’re up to no good.” When he accelerated the sequence of asteroid-field images, three of the bright dots veered off course and began to move along entirely different orbits.

  “Every one of these asteroids was in a stable orbit until recently. Comparing the old and new images shows that their orbits have changed—they’re on new courses.”

  Dyl groaned. “Are you saying the squidbutts shoved those asteroids out of orbit?”

  “I wouldn’t put it past them,” Song-Ye said.

  “That’s what it looks like.” King glanced from d’Almeida to Stationmaster Ansari. “Mira purposely deleted these images. She didn’t want us to see how the orbits had changed. She was trying to keep us from finding out.”

  “Why would the Kylarn knock three asteroids loose?” Tony asked.

  “They didn’t just knock them loose,” King said. “Their trajectories aren’t random. Those three asteroids were aimed”

  “At what?” Pi asked.

  “Earth,” King said. “They’re like giant, slow-moving cannonballs, drawn by the Sun’s gravity.”

  As everyone fell into an angry hush, Dr. d’Almeida called up a diagram that showed the Earth’s orbit overlaid with the elongated new orbits of the asteroids. “Look. If you mark out their orbit and Earth’s, in less than three years they intersect. Earth will be bombarded by asteroids.”

  JJ drew a deep breath. “We’ve got to find some way to stop them. Can’t we send ships out to the asteroids and plant bombs, to give them a little nudge out of the way?”

  Tony brightened. “She’s right! From that far out, it wouldn’t have to be much, just enough of an alteration of orbit so that they miss Earth. Space is a big place.”