by Dom Testa
The room was silent. All of them stared at the Swedish boy. He looked at Triana, who nodded. Deep inside she hoped that Bon had gained new respect for her as a leader. For some reason, something that she couldn’t put into words, she longed for his acceptance above that of anyone else.
She also wondered about their brief time alone in the Spider Control Room. Did that mean anything to him? Would he ever acknowledge it to her? Was he sorry it had happened at all? Or was it just a product of the tension of the moment, never to be repeated? In the aftermath of their near deaths, she was fascinated by her own thought patterns. Rather than reflect on the trauma of their encounter with Dr. Bauer, her heart was pushing her head out of the way. Or trying to, anyway.
Internally she shook away the romantic cobwebs and focused on the point Bon had just made concerning Bauer’s forecast.
“I consider that motivation,” she said. “Apparently Dr. Bauer never wanted us to succeed in the first place. He figured we would foul up our training, but we didn’t. He and Scofield figured they could sabotage the ship and cripple us. They didn’t. And Dr. Bauer tried to rattle us so much that we would lose our focus and fall apart. Well, we didn’t.”
“‘That which does not kill you makes you stronger.’ Isn’t that how the saying goes?” Channy said.
“That’s right,” Lita said. “And I’d like to remind this crew of something else. We’ve just confronted a man who wanted us to fail. He was a partner, I guess, with a few other people who also wanted us to fail. But let’s remember one thing.” She stood up, her hands resting on the table. “There were thousands of other people who gave the final years of their lives to make sure we didn’t fail. And millions of others, people we never saw or heard from, who showed their support. So, as hard as it is to imagine, we’re really not alone out here, you know?”
She smiled at her friends, then walked out of the room.
Channy stood up, walked behind Triana and gave her shoulders a small squeeze. “I’m proud of you, Tree,” she said. “And Lita’s right; we’re not alone.” She turned and started towards the door. “I need to work out. My bones feel tired.”
Triana and Bon rose from their chairs and started to leave. Bon walked out, but Triana stopped and looked down at Gap. “Are you okay? You haven’t had anything to say. That’s not like you.”
Gap shrugged. “Just overwhelmed still, I think. I’m all right.”
“I want to thank you again for getting Roc back up and running. I don’t know what we’d do without you. You know that, don’t you?”
“Thanks,” he said halfheartedly.
Triana waited another moment in the awkward silence. There seemed to be something hanging in the air between them, and she was pretty sure what it was. But how could she talk about this with Gap right now? All of their emotions were still churning, and she wouldn’t know how to approach the subject anyway. She felt for him, knowing exactly what he was experiencing, but reluctant to address it until she’d had time to think about it.
Imagine that, she thought: “the Ice Queen” had two relationship issues to deal with. And she had no idea how she was going to handle either one.
She started towards the door again. “I’ll see you in the Dining Room later, okay?”
“Sure,” Gap said.
A minute later he rested his head on one hand, a single tear emerging.
“Lita’s wrong,” he said under his breath. “Some of us are alone.”
40
Terrifying and yet beautiful at the same time. Dangerous, but still peaceful.
Triana stood by herself at the large window, holding her notebook and gazing at the inky blackness outside, marveling at the contradictions of space. She wondered how a universe so populated with ferocious, blazing suns could be so very cold.
And she wondered about her place in it all.
Biting her lip, she refocused her gaze from the brilliant backdrop of stars to the reflection of the tall, dark-haired girl who stared back from the glass. Two years ago she was living a dream in the mountains of Colorado. Her father was healthy and happy, and life was … perfect?
But now her world was not only upside down, it was gone, dropping farther away behind her every second. Her mother was a stranger, her old friends were memories.
And her father …
Not really dead, she decided. She looked into the reflection of the green eyes and for a moment imagined him looking back. Imagined him tumbling out of that raft. Imagined him reaching for her paddle, her dragging him back into the boat, and the two of them laughing. Always laughing.
And she thought about the encounter with Dr. Bauer. He was an incredibly brilliant man. She had been smarter.
He had planned for months to destroy them. She had outwitted him.
The crew had been on the verge of panic. She had restored their confidence in the mission and the Council.
She managed the faint beginning of a smile and nodded. With a flip of the wrist she opened her journal to the day’s entry and added one more line.
Thanks, Dad. Now I know what I got from you.
She turned away from the window and made her way to the lift, her thoughts drifting from the past to the future. Within a few weeks Galahad would have its final contact with Earth people when it came into the vicinity of the Saturn research station.
Triana couldn’t help but wonder what was in store for them around the ringed planet.
Let’s chat a moment, okay?
I can sense a few troubled looks on some faces out there, so we’d better settle a few issues before Triana and the crew get any closer to Saturn.
First of all, some of you are worried that Dr. Bauer might have done something else to the ship. Some of you are concerned about that whole Spider situation, and what happens when they get to Eos and are short a little transportation. Some of you are going out of your minds that Triana could possibly be interested in a grouch like Bon. All valid concerns.
But let me just say that I’m a little hurt that not one of you expressed the slightest concern about me while I was knocked out. Are some of my chips damaged? Was I scared? Am I going to be the same witty and charming Roc that you’ve grown to know and love? No, you’re more worried about Triana’s love triangle with Bon and Gap. Thanks a lot.
Oh well. We’ll address the issues which seem to be much more critical to you.
#1: Did Dr. Bauer sabotage the ship some other way?
I can’t say; you’ll need to read on.
#2: What about the Spiders? Will the crew be able to get down to Eos?
I can’t say; you’ll need to read on.
#3: What’s up with Triana and Bon and Gap?
I’m not stupid enough to stick my computer nose into that mess; you will definitely have to read on.
Besides, if you ask me, there are much more crucial issues at hand. Like the bad feeling I’m getting about Saturn. It used to be my favorite planet, what with those gorgeous rings and everything. Something creepy is bound to happen, I just feel it.
And neither you nor I will know until The Web of Titan.
In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of work to do.
Excerpt from
The Web of Titan
by Dom Testa
The storm raged quietly along the surface, a swirl of colors colliding, mixing, weaving. Layers of gas clouds tumbled across one another, their brilliant shades of red and purple highlighted by short bursts of lightning. Winds galloped along at more than a thousand miles per hour, stirring the atmosphere and keeping the roiling chaos churning in much the same way it had for billions of years.
Above it all drifted the jeweled rings, chunks of ice and dust that varied in size between grains of sand and ten-story buildings. Their dense orbits stretched out hundreds of thousands of miles, occasionally sparkling like a crown in the dim sunlight while casting a thin, dark shadow across the face of the storms. The tightly packed debris in the rings rolled along, nudging and shoving, forever keeping watch over the u
nruly gas giant below.
Saturn toiled along.
Scattered near and far, its squadron of moons maintained their dutiful orbits, subjects kneeling before the majesty of the king, tossed about by the immense gravitational tugs and seared by the overwhelming inferno of radiation. Several dozen of these minor bodies drifted near Saturn’s dazzling rings, themselves a product of an earlier moon that had been shattered by a rogue asteroid or comet, the pieces now trapped in a mindless dance that circled the giant planet.
Keeping a respectful distance, and shrouded in a cloak of dense atmosphere, the largest of these moons obediently tracked through the vacuum of space, cutting a path that kept it clear of the rings. Dwarfed by the Herculean planet, it still laid claim to its own cloud system and weather patterns. Rather than water, its rivers and oceans were pools of liquid methane, carving channels and shorelines that dotted the surface, a surface impossible to see through the screen of haze and fog. An eerie orange glow masked the surface, bathing it in a dull light that made the large moon almost seem alive, breathing.
Titan.
As it circled Saturn, a route that took it a little more than two weeks to complete, Titan had its own companion in space. Right now, in an artificial orbit, a metallic pod shot around Titan, spinning slowly as it navigated, the light from Saturn occasionally glancing off its sides, mixing with the orange tint of the moon to form a ghostly shade. The smooth steel of the pod was uniform except for two small windows on one end, and exhaust ports on the other. During its slow, deliberate trek around the moon, block lettering could be made out on one side, along with small emblems of flags that lined up under a window. Inside it was dark, quiet, waiting.
It would not be quiet, nor waiting, much longer.
Lita Marques sat before the mirror in her room. She deftly tied the red ribbon into a knot, pulling her dark hair into a ponytail and lifting it off her shoulders. She eyed the end result with a neutral glance, then gazed past her own reflection to the smiling girl who sat cross-legged on the end of Lita’s bed. “All right, Channy, what’s so funny?”
Galahad’s Activities/Nutrition Director, clad in her usual bright yellow shorts and T-shirt that made a startling contrast against her chocolate-toned skin, replaced her grin with an expression of innocence. “Funny? Oh, nothing funny.” She uncrossed her legs and scooted them over the edge of the bed. “Just wondering why you bother to make yourself look so pretty every day and then refuse to let me set you up with someone.”
Lita’s eyes rolled. “Why did I bother to ask?” She made one final appraisal in the mirror, then turned to face Channy Oakland. “I appreciate your intentions, Miss Social Butterfly, but I’m perfectly capable of meeting a boy on my own.”
Channy raised one eyebrow. “Uh-huh. And quite a great job you’ve done in that area, too. We’ve been away from Earth for, what, four months now? Not counting your lunches with Ruben Chavez, you’ve been out with … hmm, a whopping total of zero boys.” She leaned forward and picked a piece of fuzz off Lita’s shirt. “And we won’t count Ruben. You only talk with him because he’s from Mexico, like you.”
“Hey, I like Ruben. He’s one of the nicest guys on the ship.”
“Of course he is. But you know darned well what I’m talking about, and it’s not chatting over an energy block in the cafeteria.”
Lita shook her head. “Channy, do you think it would be possible for you to go two days without trying to play matchmaker? When I’m ready to see someone, I will. Besides,” she added, “I haven’t seen you exactly setting the shipboard romance gauge any higher.”
“That’s because I’m still in advance scouting mode right now,” Channy said, winking. “I’m compiling data, see? Give me another few weeks and I’ll set the hook.”
“Right,” Lita said. “Compiling data. I like that.” She smiled at the Brit, then stood up and walked over to the built-in dresser and rummaged for a favorite bracelet. The dorm rooms on Galahad were relatively small but comfortable. Each crew member shared their space with a roommate, but the work schedules were usually staggered to the point that each person was able to have time to themself, a valuable commodity on a ship loaded with 251 passengers. Lita, one of Galahad’s five Council members, was responsible for overseeing the ship’s Clinic, or Sick House, as it was lovingly referred to by the crew. Her roommate, an outgoing fifteen-year-old from India, was currently at work in the Engineering Section. Channy had stopped by to accompany Lita to dinner.
Finding the accessory she wanted, Lita slipped it over her wrist and turned back to face Channy. “Let me ask you something,” she said. “Are you as curious about our upcoming appointment at Titan as you are about my love life?”
Channy shrugged. “Of course. I’m just not sure exactly what we’re doing. I asked Gap about this … this pod thing we’re supposed to pick up, but he was pretty busy at the time and never really explained it to me. And good luck getting a straight answer from Roc about anything.”
This brought a laugh to Lita’s lips. “Oh, he’ll shoot straight with you eventually. What exactly do you want to know?”
“Well,” Channy said, “if this pod is supposed to have been launched by the scientists on the research station orbiting Titan, how come we haven’t heard from them? Nobody seems to be saying much about that.”
“Yeah, it’s a little creepy,” Lita agreed. “Thirty scientists and engineers, all working for a couple of years on a lonely outpost near Saturn, and suddenly nobody can get in touch with them.” She walked over to the desk across the room and called out to the computer. “Roc?”
“Hello, Lita,” came the very human-sounding reply. “What’s on your mind?”
Lita couldn’t hear the computer’s voice without seeing the short, lovable genius who had programmed the machine. Roy Orzini, one of the champions of the Galahad project, had been responsible for outfitting the ship with a computer capable of controlling the life-support systems, lights, gravity and other crucial functions of the spacecraft. As a bonus he instilled an actual personality into the thing; his personality, it turned out, for the talking computer soon demonstrated the same wit and sarcasm as its creator. Roy’s Computer was soon shortened to RoyCo, and eventually to Roc. He was indispensable to the five Council members, almost an older brother along for the ride.
“I’m trying to explain to Channy about the pod we’re picking up pretty soon,” Lita said. “About the research station that has gone silent. But I’m not sure I really know exactly what it’s all about.”
Roc remained silent a moment, then said, “Well, if you love mysteries, you should really love this, because it’s not just one thriller, but two: the disappearance of the research crew, and this metal pod we’re supposed to snatch out of space.”
“What’s the story on the scientists?” Lita said, sitting down at the desk. “Who are these people anyway?”
“A combination of biologists, medical researchers, engineers and technicians,” said the computer. “Maybe not the group voted ‘Most Likely to Party in Space,’ but all brilliant in their fields. The research station is a small space station in orbit around Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and one of the most important bodies in the solar system.”
“Why?” Channy asked. “What makes Titan so special?”
“Life,” Roc said. “Or, at least one of the best chances at finding it off the planet Earth. Titan, you see, has an atmosphere and oceans.”
“Oceans?” Channy said. “You’re kidding.”
“Not the kind you’d want to surf in, my friend,” Roc said. “These are oceans of liquid methane. But bubbling around in that poisonous soup are a lot of the building blocks that eventually led to life on Earth billions of years ago. This research station has been studying Titan for several years.”
Lita picked up a stylus pen from the desk and tapped her cheek with it while she listened to Roc. Now she paused and said, “What have they found?”
“That’s just it,” said the computer voice. “All of
their reports have been labeled classified and top secret. Nobody knows what they’ve found. But apparently, at about the same time Galahad launched, something happened around Titan, and all contact with the scientists was lost. The last message was pretty garbled, didn’t make a lot of sense. But it mentioned a small pod that was jettisoned into Titan’s orbit, waiting.”
“Waiting for what?” Channy said.
“Us.”
Copyright © 2006 by Dom Testa
Tor Teen
Reader’s Guide
About This Guide
The information, activities, and discussion questions which follow are intended to enhance your reading of The Comet’s Curse. Please feel free to adapt these materials to suit your needs and interests.
About the Author
Dom Testa grew up a world-traveling Air Force “brat” with a passion for radio. He got his first radio job at the age of sixteen. In 1993, he joined Colorado’s MIX 100 where he cohosts the award-winning “Dom and Jane Show.” A frequent speaker at schools and libraries, his passion for reading, writing, and education is profoundly evident in his Galahad books as well as his Big Brain Club, a website dedicated to encouraging young people to be proud of their intellectual accomplishments. He lives in Colorado.
Writing and Research Activities
Welcome to “Humanity’s Lifeboat” You have just received a letter of invitation to join the Galahad project. If you accept, you must leave home tomorrow to begin two years of training in hopes of being one of the 251 young people chosen for the crew. With classmates or friends, role-play a conversation between yourself and family members in which you weigh the pros and cons of this opportunity.
Write at least four journal entries describing your training regimen; your teachers; your emotions at being selected as one of Galahad’s 251 crew members; and your assessment of leading students Triana, Gap, and Bon.
