Spaced Out

by Stuart Gibbs

  Dad pulled me aside from all the chaos. “Dash, the whole reason I came to get you was that, from what we can tell, you were the last person Nina talked to before she disappeared.”

  “I was?”

  “No one else saw her last night—or this morning.”

  “You’re sure about that?”

  “No,” Dad conceded. “I’m not sure of anything. But if anyone else did see Nina before she vanished, they haven’t admitted it. Did she say or do anything strange last night?”

  “Nina is always strange.”

  Dad gave me a disapproving look, as though I’d spoken badly about someone who’d just died. “You know what I mean.”

  “Sorry.” I thought back to my time in Nina’s room and realized something strange had happened there. “Nina got a text while she was chewing me out. I think it upset her somehow.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “She reacted kind of funny after she got it.”

  “How so?”

  “Really distracted, I guess. Then she got rid of me as fast as she could—and I think she forgot all about me after that. I’ll bet that’s why she didn’t cut off my ComLink privileges. She was too focused on this other thing.”

  “Or maybe something happened to her before she had a chance to cut off your ComLink,” Dad said thoughtfully. He signaled me to come with him, then led me through the crowd in the staging area.

  Violet dropped in beside us. “Nina is really good at hide-and-seek,” she announced. “All these people can’t find her!”

  I started to tell Violet that Nina was missing, not hiding, but Dad cut me off before I could get a word out.

  “She is very good,” he agreed. “But don’t worry. We’ll find her.”

  “She should just come out already,” Violet said. “This game is getting boring.”

  “Why don’t you and Inez and Kamoze go play something else, then?” Dad suggested. “You can use the SlimScreen in the rec room if you want.”

  “Ooh!” Violet gasped. “Can we play Candy Attack?”

  “Sure,” Dad said.

  “Candy Attack!” Violet whooped. Inez and Kamoze joined in, and the three of them scurried toward the rec room.

  Dad and I reached the space suit storage area. Mom was now there, putting her suit in her locker. Everyone had their own space suit at MBA, even the kids. They were all made specially for us.

  Dad snaked an arm around Mom’s waist. “How was it out there?”

  “Hot,” Mom groaned.

  There had been a time, right after we’d arrived at MBA, when moonwalks had been fascinating and exciting to my parents, as well as all to the other adults. After all, very few humans had ever been lucky enough to take so much as a step on the moon. Now, four months later, the thrill was gone. Everyone considered going onto the lunar surface a chore rather than an adventure.

  Dad turned to Chang, who was checking his suit for any damage it might have suffered on the surface. Chang was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, allowing a great view of his tattoos. His arms and legs were covered with his favorite scientists, reimagined as action heroes. Albert Einstein was on his right bicep, wearing a cape and spandex and flying at light speed, while the great physicist Werner Heisenberg was on his left bicep, punching Adolf Hitler in the face.

  “Is Nina’s watch still in her room?” Dad asked.

  “It ought to be,” Chang replied. “Everyone was ordered not to disturb any of her stuff.”

  “Do you have any idea what kind of security protection she might have on it?”

  “Are you proposing something illegal here?” Chang asked, although he had a slight smile, as though he actually liked the idea.

  “Dash says Nina got a text when they were together last night,” Dad told him. “She reacted oddly to it. Got very distracted. And then no one ever saw her again. I’m guessing there’s a good chance it’s related to all this.”

  Dr. Iwanyi interrupted, having overheard them. “We can’t do anything with Nina’s watch,” he insisted. “Technically, it’s NASA property. And NASA protocol is that we can’t violate anyone’s privacy without authorization.”

  “Whose authorization?” Mom asked.

  “The moon-base commander’s,” Dr. Iwanyi replied.

  “Nina’s the moon-base commander,” Dad pointed out. “And she’s missing.”

  “Then we’d have to ask the second in command,” Dr. Iwanyi said.

  “Our S-I-C was Dr. Holtz,” Dad said. “And seeing as he’s dead, we probably can’t ask him to authorize anything.”

  “NASA didn’t officially name a new S-I-C?” Mom asked.

  “They named a temporary one,” Chang said.

  “Really?” Dr. Iwanyi asked. “Who?”

  “Me,” Chang replied.

  Everyone within earshot stopped talking, surprised.

  “You?” Dad asked. “You’re the S-I-C? Since when?”

  “Four weeks ago,” Chang answered. “Right after Dr. Holtz died.”

  “Why didn’t anyone tell us?” Dr. Marquez demanded.

  “Nina didn’t think we should make a big deal about it,” Chang explained. “She figured people might be upset that I was picked and not them. It never occurred to us that NASA would take so long to make an official choice for S-I-C.”

  “Well,” Dad said, “sounds like it’s your decision, then. I have no idea if this text Nina got is really important or not, but so far, it’s the only lead we have.”

  “Then let’s get the watch.” Chang shut his locker and headed for Nina’s room. As he shoved through the throng of Moonies gathered by the air lock, he announced, “Meanwhile, the rest of you should get back to your regular work.”

  There was a general murmur of annoyance from the crowd.

  “But Nina’s still missing,” Dr. Goldstein pointed out.

  “I’m well aware of that,” Chang told her. “However, there’s also plenty of work that has to be done here. If I had something constructive to assign you right now, I’d do it . . . but I don’t. And tripping all over each other while we search the base for the umpteenth time isn’t going to help Nina.”

  “What about finding the blueprints for the base?” Dr. Balnikov asked.

  “The base computer can do that faster than any of us can,” Chang replied.

  “And doesn’t someone need to inform NASA of what’s going on here?” Dr. Iwanyi asked.

  “As the temporary second in command, that’s my job,” Chang said. “I’ll do it right after I find Nina’s watch.”

  “I could notify NASA if you needed me to,” Dr. Brahmaputra-Marquez offered.

  “I can handle it,” Chang told her. “The best way you can all help me right now is to get your own work done. You all know that if someone else was missing out there and Nina was still in charge, that’s exactly what she’d ask of you.”

  There was a general muttering of agreement with this.

  “Good,” Chang said. “So all of you, back to work. And kids, school is back in session.”

  “Awwww,” Roddy whined.

  “That’s an order!” Chang barked.

  The staging area quickly cleared as everyone headed to their stations.

  “I’ll let you all know if I find anything,” Chang told us, seeming to already feel bad about raising his voice. “Frankly, this whole thing’s probably a wild-goose chase anyhow. Nina’s the most competent person at this base. I wouldn’t be surprised if she shows up soon on her own.”

  “Fat chance,” Roddy muttered as we headed to the rec room for class.

  I didn’t bother arguing with him, because I didn’t believe Chang either. In fact, I didn’t even think Chang believed what he was saying. He was only trying to bolster everyone’s spirits.

  I glanced back out the air-lock window at the surface of the moon.

  It looked calm, but it was an incredibly hostile place. The lunar surface was 14.6 million square miles, bigger than North America and Europe combined—and in that entire vast
expanse, Moon Base Alpha was the only safe place for humans.

  So if Nina wasn’t there, where was she?

  Excerpt from The Official Residents’ Guide to Moon Base Alpha, “Appendix A: Potential Health and Safety Hazards,” © 2040 by National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  POOR PREPARATION

  We all make mistakes. Unfortunately, sometimes those mistakes can lead to injury . . . or worse. Therefore, all lunarnauts are advised to try to make as few mistakes as possible. If you are going to be doing anything risky—such as taking a moonwalk or cleaning the evaporator units—take the time to plan ahead. Think through every step of what you are going to do, analyze all potential risks, and have multiple backup plans in case of emergency.

  However, it also makes sense to use this type of caution in all aspects of your life at MBA. After all, even a space toilet can cause injury if one doesn’t exercise the proper caution around it. To stay safe, follow the motto of the Boy Scouts and be prepared!

  DIRE WARNING

  Lunar day 217

  Midmorning

  Zan showed up in the middle of math class.

  School at MBA took place in the rec room, but since there were nine kids in several different grades, the logistics were complicated. We were usually lumped into three groups: the high school kids (Cesar and the Sjobergs), the middle schoolers (me, Kira, and Roddy), and the elementary schoolers (Violet, Inez, and Kamoze). All our classes were taught over ComLinks from earth. The high schoolers and middle schoolers normally jacked in to individual tablets with headphones for our classes, while the elementary schoolers gathered around the large SlimScreen together. This was because the little kids couldn’t manage their own equipment or even keep their headphones on for more than five minutes. It wasn’t a great system, because the little kids usually made a lot of noise, which could be distracting—and they easily got distracted themselves. The high school kids were supposed to wrangle them, but they never did. In fact, the Sjobergs barely ever showed up at all, which explained why both of them were about as smart as stalks of celery. (They were absent that day as well.) So it usually fell to Kira and me to deal with the little ones.

  That morning, the elementary schoolers were being more distracting than usual. They were learning about dinosaurs, and all three were eagerly trying to prove that they could make the loudest velociraptor noises.

  Of course, I was distracted by the Nina situation as well. Questions kept tumbling through my mind as I tried to work: Where could Nina be? There was no evidence that she’d left the base, but she certainly didn’t seem to be anywhere inside it either. Only, how could she have left without a space suit? And what could have possibly motivated her to leave?

  Meanwhile, there were still the Sjobergs to think about. What had they been doing in the offices when Roddy saw them? Why had the family been so quiet that morning? Were they connected to Nina’s disappearance? And if so, why?

  My last conversation with Zan was also disturbing me. I desperately wanted to know what kind of danger the earth was in. So I was excited to see her—even though she nearly scared the pants off me when she showed up. One second, I was doing word problems. The next, she was sitting beside me.

  One of the most unnerving things about having an alien beam herself into my brain was how abruptly she could appear. Zan usually tried to make this easier on me by projecting an image of herself walking into the room like a normal person, but sometimes she forgot—or simply couldn’t make it work. At those times, her sudden presence could be startling, kind of like when you were crossing what you thought was an empty street and then realized there was a truck bearing down on you.

  I did my best not to overreact. I managed to only jump in my seat a bit.

  Roddy looked my way, but I acted like I was stretching. Roddy bought it and returned his attention to his work. Or rather, pretending to work. He was secretly reading a graphic novel instead of doing his math problems. Since our math teacher, Dr. Levinson, was back on earth, it was hard for him to keep tabs on all of us.

  I did my best to pretend I was doing my math as well while speaking to Zan inside my head. “Where have you been?” I asked. “I really need to talk to you.”

  “I am sorry I couldn’t get back to you sooner. Some things came up.”

  What could possibly have been more important than the future of earth? I thought. If I’d been talking to a human, I would have kept it to myself, not wanting to antagonize her, but since Zan could read my thoughts, it was as though I’d said it anyhow. Yet another unnerving thing about communicating directly from your brain.

  “It would be very hard for you to understand,” Zan said, which was her standard answer to almost any question I asked about her planet.

  “Can you tell me about the danger earth is in, then?”

  “Earth is not in danger.”

  “But you said it was. . . .”

  “No. I said it was important for us to be in contact with one another. You made an assumption that earth was in danger. I am sorry if there was any miscommunication on my part. As you know, I sometimes have trouble with your language. It is quite difficult to master.”

  I stared at Zan. Once again I had the sense she wasn’t being completely honest. As I gazed into her crystal-blue eyes, though, I began to feel okay about that. And then I found myself wondering if Zan was calming me herself, somehow manipulating my brain. I had the very faint sensation of something working on my mind that wasn’t me.

  “Dashiell, why aren’t you doing your work?”

  I looked up, startled, to find Dr. Levinson staring at me on the SlimScreen. When he wasn’t teaching us math, Dr. Levinson was a rocket scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I’m finding it hard to concentrate today. With Nina being missing and all.”

  Chang had told his superiors at NASA about Nina’s disappearance. They were doing their best to keep the story secret, even from other divisions, so that the public didn’t find out, but Chang had insisted upon letting our teachers know. He thought all us kids—especially the little ones—might need some additional emotional support dealing with the crisis.

  Dr. Levinson tried to give me some right then. “I understand,” he said supportively. “An event like this can be quite unsettling.”

  Roddy perked up at this. “I’m having trouble concentrating too! Maybe we should cancel class for today.”

  “Rodrigo,” Dr. Levinson said sternly. “Please tell me you’re not trying to use a crisis situation for something as petty as getting out of math class.”

  “No, I would never do that!” Roddy replied, even though that was exactly what he’d been doing.

  Of course, that was exactly what I was doing too. But I was better at selling it than Roddy. “I just thought of something Nina said to me last night that might be important,” I told Dr. Levinson. “Can I go tell Chang and my father?”

  “All right,” Dr. Levinson said. “But come right back.”

  “I will. Thank you.” I got up and headed for the door.

  Zan followed me. Or at least she projected an image of herself following me into my brain. “What’s going on with Nina?” she asked curiously.

  “She’s not in the moon base anymore,” I said in my mind.

  Zan gave me a doubtful look. “That’s not possible.”

  “That’s what everyone keeps saying. But she’s still gone.”

  I passed Violet and her class on the way out. The kids had grown tired of dinosaur noises and were now making other animal noises instead. Violet was proudly demonstrating how loudly she could imitate an elephant. Her teacher, Miss Driscoll, was on the big SlimScreen, desperately trying to get them all to calm down and pay attention. It was only fifteen minutes into her lesson, and she already looked like she needed a nap.

  I headed for my family’s residence, figuring no one would be there. On the way, I quickly explained what had happened to Nina, doing my best to keep the wo
rds inside my head. Zan listened intently the whole time.

  When we got to my residence, I unlocked the door and led Zan inside. It didn’t take long to make sure no one was there. I could see the entire room from the doorway, though I still checked the sleep pods, just to be safe.

  Zan sat on an InflatiCube. It didn’t make an embarrassing noise beneath her, because she wasn’t really there. I was too amped up to sit. Instead I paced.

  Zan said, “Your species has an extremely limited temperature range in which it can survive. Plus, you need oxygen. Moon Base Alpha is the only place on the lunar surface that meets those needs, correct?”

  “Yes.” In the privacy of my family’s residence, I felt comfortable enough to speak my words, rather than only thinking them. It was a huge relief.

  “Then Nina must still be here,” Zan concluded.

  “She’s not. We’ve looked everywhere.”

  “There must be someplace you’ve missed.”

  “There isn’t. MBA isn’t that big and we’ve been here four months. Trust me, we know this place inside and out.”

  “Logic says that must not be true.”

  I started to argue about this, then thought of something. “Hey. You could help us find Nina!”

  Zan looked at me curiously. “How so?”

  “You could project yourself into her mind the same way you do with me and then just ask her where she is.”

  Zan frowned. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple.”

  “What do you mean? You do it with me all the time.”

  “Yes, but I can’t do it with anyone. First, as you know, my appearing to you is a significant event. My species has known about yours for nearly a hundred of your years and you are only the second person with whom we have made contact. We do not take this selection lightly.”