The Space Mission Adventure (4 page)

“So who eats the bananas every night?” Ziggy asked as they entered the hall full of displays of real space suits and actual lunar vehicles.

“It couldn't be the squirrels—they don't eat
fruit. They eat nuts and stuff like that.”

“See what I mean?” Ziggy said with a laugh. “I read somewhere that Martians love bananas, mon. Maybe we've got a mystery here after all!”

THAT NIGHT, AFTER AN IMAX MOVIE IN THE
Spacedome that showed what it would be like to be in space, several lectures on early space history, a lengthy practice for their “mission,” during which they would pretend to be real members of a team launching a rocket into space, and building their own model rockets, the Pathfinder team dragged themselves wearily to the Habitat.

Cubby and the twins headed for the showers while Ziggy and his friends got ready for bed.

“Now I see why there's no television in here,”
Jerome said as he pulled off his T-shirt. “They really keep us going!”

“Didn't that shuttle look awesome in the moonlight?” Ziggy whispered dreamily. “It looked like it could just take off and head for the next galaxy.”

“Yeah, it did look powerful,” Rico agreed. “It's hard to believe it can't fly.”

Ziggy looked thoughtful. “I still think it's a very clever disguise for visitors from another planet. Remember that story we read about in our mythology book about the Trojan horse?”

Jerome nodded. “Yeah, that was a cool story. The Greek soldiers put a giant wooden horse outside the gates of Troy, and the Trojans brought it into the city because they thought it was a gift.”

“But the Greek soldiers were hiding inside, and when everyone was asleep, they crept out of the wooden horse and attacked the city,” Rashawn said.

“No one suspected that big old horse had secret soldiers hiding inside, mon!” Ziggy said excitedly.
“Maybe there are space warriors hiding inside that shuttle.”

“That shuttle has been sitting there for years, Ziggy. If bad guys from space are inside it, why haven't they come out and attacked yet?” Rico asked reasonably.

“I think they were waiting for us to get here, mon!” Ziggy said.

Jerome threw a pillow at Ziggy and laughed. “Well, I hope they don't come out of there tonight. I'm sleepy!”

“I wish I could climb up there and look inside it,” Ziggy said quietly.

“First of all,” Rashawn said as he sat in the middle of the floor taking off his socks, “you act like this is a science fiction movie. There are no secret creatures lurking inside that space shuttle.” He threw his smelly socks at Ziggy, who ducked.

“Also,” Jerome added, “I heard somewhere that they filled it up with cement when they mounted it there, to make sure space-happy kids like you don't try anything. There would be nothing to see even if
you could somehow climb the one hundred feet to the top of it.”

“Besides,” Rico said, “if you so much as put your big toe outside the door of this Habitat tonight, alarms will ring, adults will show up in their nightclothes—a horrible thought—and you'll be sent home before the moonlight has time to shine on your face.”

“You know what, Ziggy,” Rashawn said. “You'd get us all in trouble and make our team look bad if you tried something like that.”

“Yes, but we're the Black Dinosaurs club—shouldn't we be solving a mystery while we're here?” Ziggy asked.

“The only mystery I care about right now is what happened to my pj's!” Rico said as he dumped out his bag of clothes.

“You're sitting on them,” Cubby told him with a laugh as he climbed into his bunk. Rico grabbed the pajamas and stuffed his other clothes back into his bag.

“Hey, don't worry. Ziggy is no fool, mon! But I can dream, can't I? This whole place is about learning
the science to help make dreams come true. Maybe one day I can do that.” He climbed into his top bunk. “But for now, I'm getting some sleep and dreaming of ways to get to space.” He pulled the covers over his head.

The next morning, the boys woke to an early wake-up call and a breakfast of waffles and eggs. For their first activity, Team America headed over to the Multi-Axis Trainer, which Samantha called the MAT. A little nervous, each camper in the group shifted from one foot to the other as Samantha adjusted the straps and checked it for safety.

“It looks like a giant eggbeater,” Ziggy said.

“Pretty big eggs,” Rico said with awe in his voice.

“Martian eggs, of course, mon,” Ziggy said, trying to sound unconcerned.

“It's designed to show you how your body would react if you were in a space vehicle that went into a tumble, so it goes upside down and around and around—almost at the same time,” Cubby explained.

“You ever been on one?” Jerome asked.

Cubby shook his head. “I know a lot of this stuff because I've read about it in books, but I've never been on any of this equipment,” he admitted.

“Who's going first?” Samantha asked.

Ziggy raised his hand. “Since I fully intend to be a real astronaut,” he announced boldly, “I'm gonna be the first to see what it feels like to get your guts scrambled!”

He walked over to the circular-shaped machine, which was about eight feet tall and four feet wide. It was made of about thirty rounded metal bars that curved around the astronaut-trainee's seat. In the center of it a leather-cushioned chair with crisscross shoulder straps, arm and leg restraints, and a sturdy seat belt waited for Ziggy.

Samantha helped Ziggy climb into the seat, strapped him in carefully, and asked, “Are you ready, Ziggy?”

He nodded, and she stepped over to the controls to turn the machine on. “Keep your eyes open,” she suggested. “That way, your body will know where it is and you won't get dizzy.”

“I hope my body knows that,” Ziggy told her quietly.

“His face looks just like it did the day he got called to the principal's office for letting that stray dog in school and hiding it all day,” Rashawn whispered to Jerome.

“Do you think he'll throw up?” Rico asked.

“I hope not!” Cubby said. “That wouldn't be a pretty sight.”

The MAT's motor began to hum, and then to turn. Faster and faster, up, down, around, upside down, and sideways. Over, under, through, and back again. Ziggy's braids flew wildly—like branches in a windstorm—but his body stayed safely glued to the chair. “Wheeee!” he cried out.

“How is it, Ziggy?” Alan asked from the benches where the rest of the kids waited their turn.

“Amazing, mon!” Ziggy managed to say as he was whipped around and around.

Finally the machine stopped, and the MAT chair returned to its upright position, swaying just slightly as Ziggy waved at his friends. He jumped down
triumphantly and sauntered over to the bench as Jessica ran forward to take her turn.

“Did you feel like you were going to throw up?” Rico wanted to know.

“No, mon. I didn't even get dizzy. It was the most fantastic thing I've ever done!”

“What was it like while you were spinning?” Cubby asked. “Real astronauts train on equipment like this, you know.”

“It was like the floor and the ceiling and the walls were moving, not me. They bounced around in front of me faster than I could even think about it. My body always felt like it was two seconds behind what I was seeing and feeling,” Ziggy explained.

“Cool!” Jerome said. “Hey Samantha, can I be next?”

All of the team members got turns on the trainer, grinning with satisfaction when they finished.

Ziggy asked immediately, “What's next, Samantha?”

“We're going to the One-sixth Gravity Chair trainer—the one that lets you see what it feels like to walk on the moon,” she replied.

“Now
that's
what I'm talking about!” Ziggy said eagerly.

“What does it feel like when you're on the moon, Samantha?” Jessica asked. She twirled her hair between her fingers.

Samantha laughed. “Well, the last time I was there, it was snowing!”

“Huh?” Jessica looked confused.

“She's just teasing you, Jessica,” Cubby said. “Only twelve astronauts have actually walked on the moon for real.”

Samantha touched Jessica on the shoulder. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made light of your question. Cubby's right. Very few people have walked on the moon. But we do know that the moon's gravity is one-sixth of the earth's.”

“That means that if you weigh sixty pounds on earth, you only weigh ten pounds on the moon. Right?” Rico asked.

“Absolutely!” Samantha replied.

“And if you can jump five inches off the ground here on Earth, you should be able to jump thirty
inches high on the moon,” Cubby added.

“You could jump
over
the basket on the moon,” Jerome said dreamily.

“I could make baskets and dunk for days!” Rashawn said, pretending to make a jump shot. “NBA coaches would all want me on their team!”

“Yeah, but all your games would have to be on the moon!” Cubby said with a laugh.

“It's all good, mon!” Ziggy said as he tried to jump as high as he could on the sidewalk. Jerome, Rico, and Rashawn jumped with him, and the twins and Cubby joined in as well. Leaping and laughing, they headed toward the building where the 1/6th Chair sat waiting for them.

The ground beneath the chair was uneven and had been designed to look like the surface of the moon, with craters and hills. The chair, suspended above this “moonscape,” waited.

“It looks like a giant baby's jumper toy—you know, those things on springs they use to exercise little kids,” Rashawn said.

This time, Rico was the first to try the equipment.
Samantha strapped him in and then showed him how to walk, bounce, and jump with what felt like very little gravity. He grinned, leaped, and stretched his arms wide while the others cheered. “I feel like I can fly!” Rico said. “This is glorious.”

“This skill will come in handy when I explore the moon and send my report back for cable news,” Ziggy told the others as he was strapped in next and began to jump.

“Or maybe when you try out for the ballet!” Jerome called out. “You look like a dancer.”

Ziggy just grinned and used his toes to push himself even higher and take larger leaps that helped him soar. He swayed his arms gracefully. “I should have been born on the moon!” he cried out. “This is
too
cool!”

“There are no hamburgers on the moon, Ziggy,” Neil called out.

“Or pizza with pickles!” Rashawn added.

“I don't care, mon! I was born to fly!” Ziggy bounced to the side, leaped forward and back, reached toward the ceiling, and jumped higher than
his own height. He was a picture of movement—arms, legs, hair—gracefully flowing across the room. He sidestepped and swayed and swerved, almost twirling with delight.

Ziggy didn't want his turn to be over. But Samantha reminded him that everyone deserved equal time, so Ziggy reluctantly let himself be unstrapped and returned to the world of normal gravity. He knelt down to retie his tennis shoes, which had come unlaced in all the jumping. Lying on the edge of the artificial moon surface, caught between the moonscape and the wooden floor, was a small, oddly shaped, shiny object.

“What's this?” he whispered. He reached over, grabbed the item quickly, and stuffed it into his pocket.

When he got back to the benches where the others were waiting their turn, he took a seat in the back. He took the glossy, stonelike thing he had found out of his pocket and examined it carefully. It was a dark, shimmery green color—like the color of grass after a rainstorm—totally smooth on one side,
and rough to the touch on the back. It was about the size of Ziggy's thumb. He rolled it around in his hands, a slight frown on his face.

“What's that you got, Ziggy?” Rico asked as he walked back to where Ziggy was sitting. “Can I see it?”