by Erin Teagan
“This is your crew.” Sarah motioned to all of us, six kids lined up like we were reporting for some kind of duty. “You are all highly accomplished for your age and you outshined dozens of kids to earn a place here.” She smiled at us. “One of you won the state science fair. One of you spent your summer on a boat in the Arctic. Two of you received the rare and admirable Fail Smart patch at Space Camp this year.” I nudged Ella and she winked, and I felt my face heat up. “One of you skipped a few grades and is getting college credit for this camp.”
We all looked hard at one another. I knew it wasn’t me or Ella. Could it have been Lance Jacob’s kid? Was she also a genius?
“One of you was a national swimming champion,” Sarah continued, and I was pretty sure it was the kid puffing his chest out. The one with the buzz cut. “By the end of these two weeks, you’ll know all of that and more about one another. You kids will be a family.
“Everything we do here is to prepare the team for our mission to the underwater habitat, Cetus,” Sarah explained. “Taking skills tests and practice dives in the pool is part of your mission training. You’ll be assigned a partner project where you will build, create, or grow something that will be used on Cetus. All of this preparation and training is for one twenty-four-hour mission.”
Another counselor, Marcus, according to his name tag, came out of the hangar with a badge for the new girl.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’m Claire Jacobs, by the way,” even though we all hadn’t had a chance to introduce ourselves yet.
But no one said anything. Claire shifted the bag she still carried and shook our hands, just like her dad did. “That was my dad, Lance Jacobs. I’m sure you already figured that out.” She made a goofy smile, whispering the last part like it was a big secret. “Anyway, um,” she said, turning to Sarah, “where should I put my bag?”
“Oh! Right. Let’s get you moved in. You’re in the Chincoteague cabin with Ella and Luciana.”
I swear Ella stopped breathing for a minute. I bumped her with my hip because she was being ridiculous. So, Claire had a famous dad, but that didn’t just automatically mean she was a super-awesome kid, right?
Sarah and Claire started toward our cabin. “Make your way to the beach buggies with Marcus. We’ll catch up,” Sarah called over her shoulder.
We followed Marcus to a sandy driveway next to the hangar.
“Well, I’m Cole, the national swimming champion,” the kid with the buzz cut said. “And actually I’ve won like a thousand swim meets.”
Marcus rubbed Cole’s head. “Can we call you Buzz?”
“Like Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut?” he asked. “Yes, you can.”
“I’m Luciana Vega,” I said. “And this is my friend Ella Emerick. We went to Space Camp together.”
Ella waved. “I’m not the genius kid, in case you were wondering.”
“You must be the Fail Smart team?” another boy named Thomas said, and we nodded, Ella’s cheeks turning pink.
“That sounds like a cool award,” the third boy on our team added. “I’m Dominic, by the way.” He stuck out his hand formally, and I shook it.
With the introductions made, we climbed into the beach buggies, which were heavy-duty golf carts with giant wheels that could drive on sand. As soon as Claire and Sarah were back, we took off for the ocean on the other side of the peninsula, by the space flight facility. We drove across the grounds of the training program, down a sandy road, and through some tall grass, parking right at the ocean dunes.
We peeled out of the buggies, flicked our shoes off, and walked down a path to the beach. It was getting dark, and the sky was pink and purple over the quiet ocean.
“Look—the launch pad,” Ella said, pointing down at the beach.
The launch pad at the space flight facility was full of construction vehicles, cranes, diggers, and a bunch of scaffolding.
“My dad launches rockets from here all the time,” Claire said, quickening her pace as she moved past us on the path.
“That’s so cool,” Ella said under her breath.
“Was his the one that exploded?” Buzz called after her, but she was already on the beach, where Sarah and Marcus were digging a pit for the bonfire by the water’s edge. “It happened just a few months ago. BOOM!” He ran down the rest of the way.
These were the kinds of things I didn’t love to hear about. The explosions. The burning up on reentry. Emergencies when you were hundreds of miles from Earth and safety. But these were all astronaut realities.
“How did the rocket explode?” I asked, taking a seat next to Ella on a little piece of driftwood.
“There was a problem during takeoff,” Marcus explained, stepping back as the bonfire crackled to life. “One of the engines failed and the rocket exploded.”
“Rocket stuff is very dangerous and deadly,” Buzz said.
“It was an uncrewed launch and there were no injuries,” Marcus told us, “but it just goes to show you how risky space flight can be. They’ve fixed the problem and they’re planning for another rocket launch in a few months.”
Marcus handed me a stick and we passed around chocolate and graham crackers and marshmallows to make s’mores.
“It’s important to remember,” Sarah added, “that dreams aren’t meant to come easy. Even in failure, there is progress.”
I knew what Sarah was saying was true. Getting the Fail Smart award was an honor, even though it was given to us after we had kind of messed up at Space Camp and lost the robot-building challenge. Still, the award recognized that we took risks, even though we knew we might fail, something I was really proud of.
Ella and I put our roasting sticks in the bonfire, each of us with two marshmallows stacked on top of each other for maximum gooey goodness.
Marcus stood up, pointing into the ocean with his marshmallow roasting stick. “Cetus is right out there, thirty feet under the water. Named after the constellation that represents a sea monster,” he said, “Cetus is the next best thing to being in outer space if astronauts need to practice their EVAs.”
“Extravehicular activities,” Ella interrupted as if she couldn’t help herself. “Space walks. Sorry.”
Marcus took a bite of his marshmallow. “Yes, exactly, thank you,” he said with a full mouth. “An EVA is when the astronaut leaves the spacecraft. Outside of Cetus, the astronauts use weight belts so they can walk on the ocean floor. It’s kind of like how they’d walk on the moon, in an environment that’s similar to reduced gravity. Plus, while they’re down there, astronauts can get a taste of what it feels like to be isolated from the rest of the world.”
And from their families, I thought with a pang.
“When do we get to go to Cetus?” Ella asked.
“Next Wednesday, but first you’ll have three tests to pass: a treading water test, a two-part scuba skills test, and a test dive in the underwater astronaut trainer. We’ll announce the teams the night before the mission,” Sarah said.
“Aren’t we all on the same team? The Cetus team?” I asked.
“Yes, but within the Cetus team, we’ll divide into a mission control team and a dive team,” Marcus said.
“How will you decide who does what?” Thomas asked.
“Your skills tests will determine which team you are on,” Marcus said. “You definitely have to pass all three to be considered for the dive team.”
“Well, then I’ll definitely be on the dive team,” Claire blurted out.
Really? I thought, shooting a look at Ella, who just stared at Claire in awe.
“All of the roles are equally important for the success of the mission,” Sarah said.
“But not equally awesome,” Buzz complained. “Mission control is so boring.”
The marshmallow I was slow-roasting caught on fire. Did Ella know about this? That there was a chance we wouldn’t go to Cetus after all? All at once the bonfire felt too hot on my skin. The damp, humid air was suffocating. If I didn’t get a spot on the dive team, what
was even the point of all this? I blew out my marshmallow.
“Does everyone have to take all the skills tests?” Claire asked, munching on a graham cracker. “Because I’ve pretty much done all those things my whole life with my dad. You could call him and ask if you want.”
I groaned inwardly. This girl and all of her bragging were starting to bother me.
“Everyone has to pass each test,” Marcus said. “If you don’t pass the first time, you’ll get the chance to make it up. Don’t worry about teams just yet. By next Wednesday, you might surprise yourself and discover that you’d rather be in mission control than on the dive team. Or vice versa.”
Buzz snorted. “Yeah, right. Raise your hand if you want to go to Cetus.”
Six hands shot up.
Houston, we had a problem.
That night when we got back to the cabin, the first thing I saw was my bedding rolled up on the floor and an unfamiliar fluorescent pink flowered blanket on my bed. I felt my face get hot. Someone moved my stuff? And put it on the floor? I rushed over to save my pillow, which was half touching the dirty tile.
“Oh,” Claire said from behind me. “I hope you don’t mind. I can’t sleep on the top bunk.”
I shook out one of my sheets, which was now sandy thanks to her.
“We don’t mind,” Ella said, and I squinted at her. “I mean, you don’t mind, do you, Luci?”
“I guess not—”
Claire gave me a hug. She smelled like spicy flowers. “Thank you.” She grabbed her toothbrush and disappeared into the bathroom.
“What?” Ella said, feeling my stink eye. “I’m sorry. I just—”
“She put my bedding on the floor where there’s sand and who knows what else!”
“Yeah,” she said. “That wasn’t nice.” But it didn’t seem like she really meant it.
I didn’t like the way Ella was acting. Just because Claire had a space celebrity dad, it didn’t mean that she could do whatever she wanted. And it certainly didn’t automatically make her the best at everything. Why couldn’t Ella see that?
“What should we do?” Ella asked.
“Forget it.” I sighed and threw my sheets up to the top bunk. By the time I made up my new bed, which was very hard to do when you’re trying not to fall off the whole time, both Ella and Claire were already in their pajamas and crawling under their own covers.
I heard them talking while I brushed my teeth. About how Claire didn’t have any brothers or sisters and how she had a little kitten named Pudding. Ella came from a big family and had to share her room with two sisters who were constantly stealing her things. So, I knew what she was thinking: that Claire had the perfect life. A kitten of her own. No siblings to take her stuff or share her room.
I lay wide awake, up high in the top bunk, thinking about Cetus and skills tests and how not everyone would get to be on the dive team. Even with the air-conditioning blowing from the ceiling, I felt hot and homesick.
I turned my pillow onto the cool side and pictured myself passing all the skills tests and diving to Cetus. I saw myself ahead of my astronaut class in the space program. I imagined sending messages to my parents from Mars. “Life is great up here,” I’d say. “I haven’t met the locals yet,” I’d joke.
I knew I could get on the dive team and I finally fell asleep believing it.
The next morning after breakfast, we put on our bathing suits and met the rest of our crew at the underwater astronaut trainer. It was taller than a two-story house. Deep enough to hold a killer whale. There was a ramp that wound around and up to the top of the twenty-five-foot-deep pool. Ella, Claire, and I walked slowly, peeking into the portholes as we circled around.
“I’ve never been in a pool like this,” I said.
“You haven’t?” Claire said, like this was an everyday pool to her.
Ella climbed up the ramp to the next porthole. “Me neither but it doesn’t look like a big deal.”
“That’s a long ladder,” I said, joining Ella at her porthole.
Claire shrugged. “I’ve seen taller.”
The ladder went from the top all the way to the deep bottom. There was a giant apparatus made out of pipes on which astronauts-in-training made repairs and replaced equipment. Marcus had explained that this was good practice for astronauts, because performing these activities in the water felt similar to doing them in space. In the middle of all the pipes was a dome with a small door, about the size of our kitchen pantry at home. From what Sarah had told us earlier about the pool, I knew it was a storage closet used during practice EVAs.
Buzz pushed past us on the ramp, the rest of the boys stopping to walk with us. We took our time, inspecting the pool through each porthole.
“Have you ever been in an underwater astronaut trainer before?” I asked the quiet boy named Thomas.
He shook his head and looked through the porthole again, squinting up to the water’s surface. “How many minutes do we have to tread water today?” he asked.
“Fifteen,” Ella said.
Claire pushed away from the porthole. “That’s it? A lousy fifteen minutes?”
“That seems long enough to me,” I said.
“That’s what it said in the camp program,” Ella said, smoothing down her ponytail. “I think that’s a pretty standard water test.”
“Yep,” I said. “Totally standard.” But when I peeked through the porthole again, I felt a squeeze in my chest because I’d never seen water so deep.
When we reached the top, the carpeted ramp widened into a large space with gear hanging on rolling racks and benches set along the railing. I peered over the railing back down to the floor of the hangar where the Aviation kids were taking apart a giant engine. Realizing how far up I was, my stomach did a backflip.
“Is there a shallow end?” I asked.
“What, are you scared?” Buzz said, grinning while hanging his towel on a hook.
“She’s not scared of anything,” Ella said for me.
And since I saw Claire standing right there beside her, I added, “I can’t wait to get in this really deep pool.”
“There’s a ledge,” Sarah said, stepping into the pool next to Marcus. The water only went up to their waists. “See? It extends halfway across the pool. It’s only three feet deep.”
We gathered around, looking over the edge, and I thought how from up here it seemed like a regular old pool. I got chills and maybe it was from thinking of all the deep water, but also maybe it was from imagining all those real astronauts, standing where I stood, just like me, ready for their first challenge in the underwater astronaut trainer.
“Like we talked about last night,” Marcus said, dunking himself in the shallow part of the pool. “You will have to pass three skills tests before you can be considered for the dive team.”
My mouth felt dry and I thought about what Lance Jacobs had said. Going to Cetus would put us a step ahead of the rest of the kids in the world who wanted to be astronauts. If I ever wanted to be the first girl on Mars, I had to be on the dive team—which made these the most important tests I’d ever have to take.
“Today we’ll be treading water. Fifteen minutes. That’s our first skills test,” Marcus said.
“Swimming goggles are okay, but otherwise you don’t need any equipment, so go ahead and hop on in,” Sarah said, waving us into the water.
Ella and I slid into the water together and swam around. I felt more relaxed, looking down with my goggles into the bright blue of the pool. This wasn’t so bad. From here I could see the EVA apparatus clearly and I noticed there was a basketball hoop and a few bowling balls at the bottom of the pool.
“Cooooool,” Thomas said, swimming next to me. Claire was already treading water in the deep part of the pool, and I heard Sarah tell her to save her strength for the test.
Buzz took a running start and cannonballed into the water, coming up sputtering. “Whoa. That’s deep.”
“No cannonballs in the underwater astronaut trainer!”
said a booming voice from outside of the pool. A guy wearing a bandanna on his head stood over us looking very official and serious. We all stopped splashing around and got serious too. Especially Buzz.
“Hey, Pirate Pete,” Sarah said.
And then the Pirate Pete guy broke into a grin, chuckling and putting down the scuba masks in his arms. “What did the ocean say to the pirate?”
“I don’t know,” Buzz said.
“Nothing! It just waved!” He snorted and clapped at his own joke and Marcus and Sarah groaned.
“Pirate Pete is our scuba expert,” Sarah said. “He’s in charge of gear and safety and he’ll be with us on Cetus as well.”
“And today, I’ll be your professional timer.” He grabbed a handheld stopwatch from the basket on the table and slipped the cord over his head. He held it up, poised to press the start button. “You ready?”
We pulled away from the side, floating out into the open water.
“Ready … set … go!”
Within the first thirty seconds, I realized just how long treading water for fifteen minutes in the middle of a twenty-five-foot-deep pool was going to feel. My muscles burned. But when I glanced around at the rest of my campmates, nobody else seemed to be struggling. Claire and Buzz were having a conversation about their goggles as if they treaded water like this every day. Ella looked focused and in control, and Thomas and Dominic were treading effortlessly. Meanwhile, I was trying hard to control my breathing and even harder to motivate my muscles to keep on going.
“Eight minutes!” Pirate Pete called, looking at his stopwatch.
By then I was already counting the seconds, one all the way up to sixty, again and again. I stopped looking at everyone else and kept my eyes on the water in front of me. I ignored the ache of my body and pictured myself diving to Cetus, finding the perfect shell for Raelyn at the bottom of the sea, sleeping in a bunk with a view of the fish and night-time sea creatures. Luciana Vega: Cetus diver. Luciana Vega: first girl to Mars.
