Space Case

by Stuart Gibbs

  I was about to step back, out of Daphne’s range of sight, when Roddy sneezed.

  It wasn’t a tiny sneeze either. It was a great big snot-blaster. In the otherwise quiet hallway, Roddy might as well have clashed two cymbals together.

  Daphne turned from the computer, saw me through the window, and shrieked.

  This startled Roddy, who shrieked as well.

  Daphne clutched her heart in shock. “Holy cow! You guys almost scared me to death!”

  Kira opened the office door and asked, “What are you doing in here?”

  Daphne looked from Roddy to me to Kira, desperation in her eyes. She quickly tried to come up with a lie—and failed. “I’m . . . uh . . . I’m . . . Oh, fiddlesticks. I can’t keep this up any longer. I’m a spy.”

  “You?” I couldn’t contain my surprise. It was impossible to envision Daphne as a spy. A kindergarten teacher, yes. Or someone who ran a bakery. But a spy?

  “Not like for the CIA or anything,” Daphne said quickly. “I’m a corporate spy.”

  “You mean, for a company?” Kira asked.

  Daphne nodded, then flushed in embarrassment. “For Maximum Adventure.”

  “The tourism company?” Roddy screwed up his face in confusion. “Why? They’re already running the tourism here.”

  “They want to open their own hotel on the moon,” Daphne admitted, “so instead of bringing up just one family of billionaires at a time, they can bring up lots of them.”

  “How long have they been planning this?” Kira asked.

  “Years.” Now that her secret was out, Daphne seemed very relieved, like a weight had been lifted off her. She’d obviously been keeping everything bottled up, and now it spewed out of her. “They’ve suspected all along that MBA wouldn’t really be the perfect vacation place—and now that the Sjobergs are so upset, they’re worried all the others they have lined up to come here will start backing out. They’ve wanted to build a real resort here all along. With nice beds and good food and masseuses and low-gravity sports and stuff like that.”

  “What are you doing for them?” I asked.

  “Getting information,” Daphne replied. “About how certain systems work. Like the evaporators and the heating and stuff like that.”

  “You’re not getting information,” Roddy corrected. “You’re stealing it. NASA spent billions of dollars developing those systems and now you’re going to give it all away?”

  Daphne hung her head in shame. “You’re right. This is bad. Really, really bad. It’s just that when Maximum Adventure approached me, they didn’t make it sound bad. I mean, no one was going to get hurt. And to be honest, I really needed the money. This gig doesn’t pay all that well. I could have made ten times what I’m getting here if I’d stayed back on earth and worked for a private robotics company.”

  Kira asked, “Then why’d you come?”

  “Why did any of us?” Daphne replied. “To go to the moon! To make history! And when Maximum Adventure offered me the money, I figured I could have it both ways: live here and cash out. But it’s been terrible. Maximum Adventure has asked me to do far more than I thought they would. And I’ve hated living a lie. Just hated it. I like everybody here so much, and I’ve been going behind all your backs all this time. Look at me! I loved Dr. Holtz, and here I am, skipping out on his memorial to do this dirty work.”

  “To be honest, you’re not missing much,” I said.

  Daphne heaved a huge sigh. “I can’t believe I’m telling you all this. I’m the worst spy in the world.”

  “Pretty much,” Roddy agreed. “We’re only kids and you cracked like an egg.”

  Daphne laughed. “I know. But it just feels so good to tell someone. I’ve always hated lying. And now I’ve had to tell the biggest lie of my life for months.” She paused as something occurred to her. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

  “We can’t lie for you,” Kira said.

  Daphne looked horrified. “No! That’s not what I meant! I meant that I should tell everyone what I’ve done, not you. I’ve lied long enough. It’s time for me to be honest. I’ll do it right after the memorial is over.”

  I looked to Kira and Roddy. It seemed like all of us should be really upset at Daphne, but I certainly didn’t feel that way, and the others didn’t seem to either. Daphne was simply too nice—and she seemed upset enough at herself for the four of us. “All right,” I said.

  “We should get back,” Kira added. “Nina’s probably almost done with her eulogy by now.”

  “I wouldn’t bet on it,” Roddy grumbled.

  I started back toward the rec room. “Still, I shouldn’t miss my mom’s eulogy. She worked really hard on it.”

  Kira began to follow me. However, Roddy stayed rooted to his spot, staring Daphne down.

  “You coming?” he asked.

  “In a few minutes,” Daphne told him. “There’s one more thing I need to take care of.”

  I stopped in my tracks. I liked Daphne, but I didn’t completely trust her anymore. “What?”

  Daphne put her hand over her heart. “It’s nothing for Maximum Adventure, I swear. I’m not even going to send them the files you caught me swiping just now. But while I was doing that, I noticed something strange in the robot log from two nights ago, and I want to follow up on it before I forget.”

  Kira and I shared a look, the same idea occurring to us at once.

  “You mean, the night Dr. Holtz died?” Kira asked.

  “Yes.” Daphne had turned back to the computer. She wiped away several windows until she came to a log sheet filled with dates and times. “It’s probably nothing important. You should get back to the memorial.”

  I returned to the door of the office. “What was strange?”

  Daphne scanned through the log. “Well, as you know, there are hundreds of robots at work here, especially at night. They run all sorts of maintenance tasks while we’re asleep: calibrating the evaporators, checking the seals on the exterior of the base for oxygen leaks, cleaning the solar arrays, and so on. They work in carefully timed shifts, so they’re not all bumping into one another out there and screwing each other up. The computer logs all their entry and exit times, so I can tell if there’s a problem with any of them. Like, if I see that a solar-panel robot is taking longer than usual, I know it might be time to run some maintenance; it probably has moon dust built up in its joints or something. But instead of the usual three hundred sixteen robots two nights ago, the log shows there were three hundred seventeen.”

  Kira and I shared another intrigued look.

  Roddy kept his eyes locked on Daphne, suspicious. Now that he’d busted her for spying, it was like he imagined himself to be the base police force. “Why are you only noticing this now? Aren’t you supposed to check the logs every morning?”

  Daphne sighed. “Yes. But as you might recall, there was a lot going on here yesterday.”

  “What happened yesterday?” Roddy asked.

  I smacked him on the back of the head. “Dr. Holtz died, you moron.”

  “Oh yeah,” Roddy said.

  Daphne said, “With all the commotion, I forgot all about checking the robot logs.”

  Kira asked, “Do you know what the extra robot was?”

  “Not yet.” Daphne kept scrolling through the log. “But it shouldn’t take long to find out. . . . Aha! Here we go!” Daphne pointed at the screen triumphantly, then looked surprised. “That’s weird.”

  “What?” Kira and I asked at once.

  “I was expecting that one of the maintenance robots had glitched,” Daphne told us. “That instead of going out once, it went twice. But according to this, a drone went out.”

  “What’s a drone?” Kira inquired.

  “A robot we send out for a specific task,” Daphne explained. “The maintenance robots do the same thing all the time, day after day. But often we need to handle something more precise. The biologists want a soil sample, so we send out a drone with a drill. Or the geologists want to map a
specific crater, so we send out a flying drone to scan it. The thing is, not just anyone can send a drone out. In fact, I’m the only one authorized. Other people are allowed to send them, but it’s supposed to be cleared with me.” Daphne’s fingers were tap-dancing on her keyboard, bringing up more and more information on the suspicious robot.

  “What kind of drone was this?” I asked. “Where did it go?”

  “And when did it go out?” Kira added.

  “It was a rover,” Daphne replied. “It went to Solar Array Two, panel thirty-six-B. And it went out at five fifteen in the morning.”

  “Who sent it?” Roddy asked.

  Daphne stopped typing and stared at the computer, shocked. “According to this, I did. But I didn’t. Which means someone here swiped my command code.”

  I stepped back from the office, not wanting her to see my face, afraid I couldn’t control my excitement—because I had a very good idea who’d sent the probe out.

  Dr. Ronald Holtz.

  Excerpt from The Official Residents’ Guide to Moon Base Alpha, © 2040 by National Aeronautics and Space Administration:

  THE LUNAR SURFACE

  The surface of the moon is deceptive. While it is certainly an amazing, beautiful, and serene place, it is also the harshest environment humankind has ever lived in. In direct sunlight the temperature is 260 degrees Fahrenheit. And yet the moment the sun goes down, the temperature will almost immediately drop to 240 degrees below zero: cold enough to instantly freeze a man to death. In addition, there is no oxygen. Of course, your personal space suit can protect you against all this—temporarily—but keep in mind that, should your suit not be put on properly, the lunar surface can kill within seconds.

  For this reason, access to the lunar surface is extremely restricted. Children are prohibited from venturing outside MBA unless an emergency has compromised the safety of the base. As for adults: Unless you have express permission from NASA and the base commander, you should never venture onto the lunar surface. And even if you believe you have good reason to go, analyze your options carefully. If your task can be performed by a robot rather than a human, send the robot. And if you absolutely must venture onto the surface, never ever go by yourself. Always go with a partner. Check your suits multiple times before passing through the air lock. Don’t wander too far from MBA. And exercise extreme caution. Let’s not spoil our beautiful moon by having a tragic accident on its surface!

  MOONWALK

  Lunar day 189

  Evening

  The way I figured it, Dr. Holtz had sent the robot out to hide his phone somewhere around panel 36B in Solar Array 2. After all, the robot was dispatched shortly before Dr. Holtz stepped through the air lock. Who else besides him (except whoever had forced him to go outside) would have been awake at that time? And it was the perfect place to hide something. If Dr. Holtz’s killer suspected he’d hidden evidence somewhere, they’d most likely search the base—but not outside it. When I explained my theory to Kira later, she admitted that not only did it make sense, but she’d been thinking the same thing.

  There was only one problem: Getting the phone wouldn’t be easy.

  The surface of the moon is deadly. Therefore Kira and I—as well as every other kid on base—were banned from going out onto it.

  Despite this, Kira was still eager to go. “It was amazing out there yesterday,” she told me. This was an hour after we’d confronted Daphne. The memorial was over; everyone else’s speech about Dr. Holtz had been much shorter than Nina’s. (Mom’s had been the most touching by far.) Now Kira and I were huddled in a corner of the staging area while most everyone else mingled in the rec room. Kira asked, “Didn’t you think it was incredible when you were on the surface?”

  “Of course,” I replied, although the truth was, since it had been six months since I’d trudged from the rocket to the air lock, my memory of it had faded greatly. After all, the walk had only taken a few minutes and there had been lots of distractions.

  “So let’s go,” Kira said. “It won’t take more than ten minutes to get to the solar array.”

  “This isn’t like sneaking behind the scenes at the art museum or the zoo,” I warned. “This is dangerous.”

  “Not if we’re careful. It’s perfectly safe out there with our suits on.”

  “Dr. Holtz just died out there with his suit on.”

  “Because someone forced him to go out with it on wrong. Someone who’s still on the loose here in the base, because the evidence against them is out there.” Kira pointed out the air lock in the direction of Solar Array 2.

  “That’s only a guess,” I said.

  “Well, it’s a good guess.” Kira gave me a frustrated stare. “I can’t believe you’re trying to weasel out of this. I thought you were going stir-crazy in this place.”

  “I am.”

  “So? Think how awesome it would be to get outside again, even for just a few minutes. There’s no good reason we’re not allowed out there. It’s just a stupid rule that ought to be broken.”

  “It’s not stupid,” I protested. “And if we break it, we’re going to get caught. We’ll end up in big trouble.”

  “Not if we find Dr. Holtz’s phone,” Kira argued. “We’ll be heroes.”

  I sighed and looked out through the air lock window. Kira was right. I did want to go out there again. And I didn’t want to wait another two years and six months until my return rocket home to do it. But it was far more dangerous than Kira seemed to understand. Or she was far more reckless than I’d realized.

  “There might be another way to get the phone,” I said.

  “You mean like sending a robot?” Kira asked.

  “No. I don’t know how to do that, and we can’t ask Daphne to help.” I looked down the hall, to where Daphne was standing with my parents and Chang.

  Daphne had already revealed her secret to everyone. As she’d promised, she’d told Nina right after the memorial, and word had spread quickly. Nina wasn’t happy, of course, and told Daphne there’d be some punishment, but everyone else seemed okay about it. After all, Daphne was probably the most-liked adult on the base. The fact that she’d owned up to her mistake and seemed genuinely ashamed only seemed to make everyone like her even more. My father and Chang were teasing her about it at the moment, humming the James Bond theme and calling her Special Agent Merritt.

  Kira asked, “So what’s the other option, then?”

  “We get an adult to do it.”

  Kira looked annoyed. “Who? Your parents?”

  “No,” I said. “They wouldn’t break the rules like that. And besides, they still think Dr. Holtz was crazy.”

  “Then who? We can’t ask my dad. He’d get lost out there and we’d never see him again.”

  “I can’t tell you.” I knew Zan was the right person to approach about this. She was an adult and she was determined to find out who’d killed Dr. Holtz. She’d be thrilled to hear I’d learned where the phone was hidden—and she probably had all the security clearance she needed to go out onto the lunar surface. But she’d also made it extremely clear I couldn’t tell anyone about our collaboration, no matter how much I wanted to.

  “What are you talking about?” Kira demanded. “Don’t you trust me?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then why can’t you tell me who you’re going to?”

  “I just can’t,” I said.

  Kira gave me a long, hot stare. “Fine. Whatever. But if this secret friend of yours says no, then we go, okay?”

  “They won’t say no.”

  “But if they do . . . we go. Tonight, after everyone’s gone to sleep. There’s no time to waste. Whoever killed Dr. Holtz is going to find out about the robot soon enough.”

  “Sure,” I said. “We’ll go tonight.”

  “You promise?” Kira stuck out her hand.

  I shook it. “I promise.” I fully meant it. I just didn’t think I’d have to.

  * * *

  I never got to talk to Zan Per
fonic. I saw her. The first time, she was standing with a bunch of scientists after the memorial service. The second time, she was at dinner in the mess with the other temps. And both times she saw me, too. After the memorial, I signaled that I desperately needed to talk to her. She mouthed, Not now, so I backed off, expecting her to come around sooner or later, but she didn’t.

  So when we were in the mess, I decided to be a little more direct. I started across the room toward her, intending to approach her directly. When Zan saw me coming, though, she reacted with such alarm that I stopped dead. Behind the backs of everyone at her table, she shook her head wildly, panic in her eyes.

  I signaled again that we needed to talk.

  I know, Zan mouthed. I’m sorry.

  I started to signal that this was really, really urgent, but all the temps at her table were staring at me now like I was nuts. So I backed down and headed off to get dinner, hoping now that Zan knew I was desperate to talk to her, she’d come find me.

  But that didn’t happen.

  This was incredibly frustrating. I’d found our biggest lead so far—and Zan couldn’t make the time to hear it? I understood that we needed to keep our alliance a secret, but it seemed that secrecy was now jeopardizing the entire purpose of our investigation.

  I spent an hour trying to chill inside my residence after dinner, figuring Zan would swing by, and after that I went out and combed the base in search of her. I found everyone I didn’t want to see—Nina, Dr. Marquez, the entire Sjoberg clan—but not Zan. After a dozen loops of the base, I had no choice but to conclude that she didn’t want to be found.

  I couldn’t wait for her anymore. Kira was right about there being no time to waste. If we had figured out that Dr. Holtz had sent the robot to the solar array, his killer would probably figure it out soon as well. And when they did, they’d go right for the evidence.

  I sent Kira a text: We’re on for tonight.

  She responded within seconds. 1 am.

  I reluctantly returned to my room and spent the rest of the evening trying to act normal around my family, hoping Zan would decide to throw caution to the wind and show up at our door. I talked to Riley in Hawaii for a bit, pretending everything was fine, then finally got around to making my video log about Dr. Holtz. I wasn’t that pleased with it—it was kind of dull, just saying that Dr. Holtz was a nice man and that I’d miss him—but Mom and Dad both said it was perfect. I turned in when everyone else did, acting like I was tired when I was actually buzzing on adrenaline. I tried to read in bed but couldn’t concentrate.