Lunar Colony (5 page)

“I think I did it!” Glen shouted. “I’m out of the asteroid field!” Glen was right. He could see in his rear window that it was now behind him. He was out of danger—or so he thought.

“That was some good flying, son,” Slayton said, the transmission no longer disrupted. “But that first collision must have done some damage.” Glen saw that Slayton was correct. The indicator was still beeping. “After you put that bird back on autopilot, I’ve got another job for you.”

Now what?
Glen thought, flipping the switch back from
MANUAL
to
AUTOPILOT
.

“Son, I’m afraid you’re not going to like what I have to say, but our readouts are showing that one of your landing gears is stuck. Unless you get it unstuck, you’ll never be able to land that thing safely back on Earth.”

“Okay,” Glen said, “is there some button I can push to fix it?”

“It’s not that simple, son. You’re going to have
to manually unjam that gear, and to do that, you need to be outside.”

Glen groaned. “Are you saying I need to—?”

“Yes,” Slayton said, cutting him off. “You’re going to have to do a space walk to make that repair.”

Once again, Glen couldn’t believe his ears, but he knew that he had no choice in the matter. “Just tell me what to do, Mr. Slayton.”

Slayton gave Glen his instructions. Before he knew it, the boy was once again unbuckled from his seat and floating in the capsule. He opened the hatch leading to the fuselage, which was the part of the ship separating the flight capsule from the rear engines.

Slayton said I should find what I need in here,
Glen said to himself, floating through the fuselage storage area. He saw crates full of all kinds of equipment and, at last, found what he was looking for—a bin marked
SPACEWALK MATERIALS
.

Glen opened the bin and put on the special airtight suit Slayton had said he’d need. He also spotted a long hose, which he attached to a port
on his belt. He floated on, holding the other end of the hose in his hand.

Now I just need something to pry that landing gear open,
he said to himself. It didn’t take long for him to find what he was looking for, a crowbar in a crate of tools.
This should do the trick.

With everything he needed, Glen arrived at the moment of truth. He passed through the airlock and reached the exit hatch, where he saw a port for the other end of his hose. He attached it and gave it a few good tugs to see that it was secure.

Boy, I hope this holds. Otherwise, I might be floating in space forever.
Glen swallowed hard and grabbed the handle of the hatch. “I guess this is it,” he said, pulling down.

The door flew open, and Glen was sucked out into the dark nothingness of space.

“Aaaaah!” he yelled as he was catapulted away from his ship. But suddenly he stopped just as abruptly as if he’d run into a brick wall. Looking down at the rigid hose attached to his belt, Glen realized he was safe.

“It held!” he shouted. “The hose held!” Then, using one hand while the other clutched the crowbar, he began using the hose to pull himself back to the ship.

At first, Glen was afraid to let go of the hose again, but he soon found that, with a good, strong pull, he could send himself floating toward the fuselage. When he reached the outside of the ship, he put one hand on the bottom part of the hatch and swung himself down to the vehicle’s belly, where he saw what he was looking for.

The underside of the ship was badly dented from the asteroid, and the panel covering one of
the rear landing gears had been shoved into the mechanism.

That doesn’t look good,
Glen thought, floating toward the damaged area.
But if I don’t fix it, I’m in big trouble.

With one hand, Glen reached up and grabbed the dented panel. Bracing himself against the ship, he pulled as hard as he could. It didn’t budge.

“Darn!” he said. “It’s really stuck. Okay, I guess I’d better try Plan B.”

Glen stuck the crowbar into the landing gear and began trying to unjam the metal panel.

“Oof,” he said. “I can’t get enough leverage.” Then, holding on to the crowbar with both hands, Glen put one foot on each side of the landing gear. Pulling with his entire body, he could feel every muscle quiver from the strain. Then, at last—

Creeeeaaaaak!

The bent metal gave way, making it possible to deploy the landing gears!

It may not be pretty,
Glen thought,
but I think it’s fixed!

After returning to the fuselage and closing the
hatch behind him, Glen radioed Mission Control.

“Problem solved, Mr. Slayton.”

Back home, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Especially Glen’s father.

Glen made his way back to the capsule and strapped himself back into his seat. He’d always wondered what it would feel like to float in a zero-gravity environment, but now that he’d tried it, he just wanted a rest.

“Phew,” he said as he fastened his seatbelt. He felt the bump on his head from when he’d crashed into the wall and saw that his hands were still shaking from all the excitement. Now, with no launch, no asteroid field, and no other crisis at hand, he sat back and tried to relax.

I can’t believe I’m really in outer space,
Glen thought as he stared out the capsule window. He’d never even visited another country, yet here he was outside Earth’s atmosphere. As far as his eyes could see were the twinkling lights of distant stars and planets, all within a massive ocean of darkness.

Glen couldn’t help but wonder how far outer space stretched, or even if it ended at all. And if there was an “end” to space, what then? Was there something else beyond it, or was there just nothing?

It made Glen’s head hurt to try to wrap his mind around all of this, and at last he sighed, swiveling his chair away from the window.

Now, what’s the deal with this Salerno character?
Glen wondered, his thoughts shifting from the mysteries of the universe to the astronaut he was supposed to bring back to Earth. There had been times when he’d disobeyed his dad, like when he ate a bunch of junk food before dinner, but he couldn’t imagine what would make an astronaut ignore her orders.

I guess it doesn’t matter,
he thought.
All I know is that I need to find her so I can get home. But still, what kind of unauthorized mission is she on?

“This is Slayton,” the flight director said, interrupting Glen’s thoughts. “Do you copy?”

“Yes,” Glen replied, shaking himself back to the present. “I copy.”

“You’re approaching the moon’s orbit, so you’d better get back to the fuselage and enter the lunar lander,” Slayton said.

Glen knew what Slayton was talking about. When he’d passed through the fuselage earlier, he’d noticed a small landing vehicle, which he supposed would take him to the moon’s surface.

“Okay,” Glen said. “Will I have to do anything?”

“That’s a negative,” Slayton answered. “All you have to do is sit there and enjoy the ride. Compared to what you’ve been through so far, it should be a piece of cake.”

The rover zoomed across the lunar surface, leaving clouds of dust in its wake. It had been wandering the northeast sector of the moon for hours, but its driver, Commander Salerno, felt no closer to finding Number Four than when she left the barracks.

Drat,
she said to herself,
I know Number Four is around here somewhere, but it’s like trying to find a tennis ball in a desert.
Salerno’s face was grim with frustration. Then, spotting the outer slope of a nearby crater, her spirits rose a little.
Hmm, maybe seeing things from a different point of view would help.

Salerno jammed her foot on the accelerator as the rover raced up the huge hill. She skillfully dodged the rocky debris that littered the slope and, at last, reached the rim of the crater.

Stepping out of the rover, she looked down
from the rim, far below into the crater’s basin. Even after all these years on the moon, this lunar world never ceased to fascinate her. She stood for a moment in awe, wondering what it would have been like to see the moment of impact when a meteor had crashed into the moon, leaving behind this colossal hole below her.

“Okay, back to work,” Salerno said, shaking herself from these thoughts. “Somewhere out there is Number Four. But where?” From high atop the crater’s rim, she scanned the lunar surface in every direction. She could make out the faraway silhouettes of Numbers One, Two, and Three. She could also see the blinking lights of the distant mining facility to the west and the biodome to the north. Closest of all the lunar facilities was the medical building to the east. Otherwise, the moon’s
surface was barren, featureless but for the occasional crater that dotted the landscape here and there.

Salerno sighed, not knowing which direction to search next. “If only I had a Geiger counter,” she said. “That device would lead me right to Number Four!”

Suddenly, Salerno caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. Turning, she saw a pair of blue lights blinking high above the moon. They were very far away, but there was no doubt that they were descending, each second getting closer to the
ground. Salerno peered through her binoculars to have a better look.

“Just as I thought,” she said. “McNabb’s errand runner has arrived.” She watched the lunar lander make its way toward the landing pad outside the living quarters. As the vehicle touched down, Salerno wondered which astronaut was aboard.

“Is that you, Hatcher?” Salerno said aloud. “Have they finally taken off your training wheels and given you your own mission? Not likely. From what I’ve heard, you can’t ride an escalator without getting queasy. No, I’m sure they’ve sent the best, someone with more experience. But who?”

Salerno paused. The door of the lander opened, and a figure, unidentifiable from such a distance, stepped onto the landing pad before entering the living quarters.

“Well, whoever you are, you have your job to do, and I have mine,” Salerno continued. “You’ll be coming for me, I suppose. I’m guessing you’ll want to use a locator device to track me down.” Salerno reached her gloved hand into her
pocket and fingered the gadget she’d taken from the barracks. She looked in the direction of the medical facility before getting back into the rover.