Asteroid Crisis Read online

  “I have to help Mentor Toowun—and stop all of you from dooming the human race,” she cried.

  “Can’t you see that if we start now, we’ll have more than a hundred years to get ready? Think how much things can change, if we get our act together! We can work as a team. Shouldn’t we try to save all the human race, instead of just hope the Kylarn will let a few live?”

  Mira wavered, but then her nostrils flared. “You don’t know everything Mentor Toowun’s done for me. I’ve never had any reason to doubt him. I trust his judgment.”

  “And I trust Commander Zota’s,” King said. “Think about it. If we follow your plan, you know millions and millions of people will die … and that’s the best case scenario! We’ve already changed the future for the better at the moonbase and the space station. And we can do more—we can win!”

  “You can’t know that,” Mira shot back. “Mentor Toowun told me about his future and what happened when a group of human resistance fighters destroyed an alien base. The Kylarn retaliation was horrific.” Now Mira sounded as if she were trying to convince King to change sides. “Don’t you see? It’s better to try for the least damage. We should surrender and hope for the best.”

  “I would rather gamble on the human spirit—on our ability to face a problem and solve it. Because of Commander Zota, we have a second chance, and I don’t want to waste it.”

  “You don’t understand. You’re risking too many lives,” Mira said, and King was startled to see tears sparkling in her eyes. One tear even trickled down her cheek, but she refused to bend, and King saw that he would have to fight her after all.

  JJ dashed into Commander Zota’s office and slammed the door, knowing it wouldn’t hold long once the Kylarn and Mentor Toowun figured out the deception. She hoped she could manage to work the time machine’s controls faster. She grabbed the doorknob of the heavy metal door that looked like a closet and yanked it open to look at the glowing machine with its cryptic controls and alien symbols.

  “Come on, you can figure this out,” she said aloud to herself. “You know these controls, you’ve seen them before. Heck, you even flew an alien spaceship. A time machine is just like a giant alarm clock, that’s all.” Seconds were ticking away, and she knew the aliens were fighting her friends, but she drew a deep breath and calmed herself so she could think straight. Her father had taught her that. He had been trained to react well in emergencies. He would have kept his wits about him, even in the raging fire and the collapsed building that had cost him his life. And now she had to do this for herself—and do it correctly.

  The time machine was set so that its transport field grabbed whoever was in the enclosed transport room. And if Commander Zota had succeeded in tricking them, the two Kylarn as well as Mentor Toowun would be inside the chamber now. She had to act while they were still in position.

  But what should she do? If JJ transported them into the past, they might be trapped, but they’d have plenty of time to cause more damage. No, it had to be the future, just as Commander Zota had sent the Star Challengers into the future—but she could send the enemy far, far ahead in time, as many years forward as the time machine could go, centuries beyond Ansari and the space station. If they were whisked off to a time and place far later than the attempted Kylarn invasion, it wouldn’t matter. And if the Star Challengers did their work right, the human race would be advanced enough that the squidbutts would not want to mess with them, and the invasion would never happen. Her thoughts were whirling, but she knew what she had to do.

  She set the controls that Commander Zota had explained for the far future. She had no idea where, or when, she was sending the two aliens and Toowun, but any place was better than here.

  Using the power sequence Zota had shown them, she turned on the machine, uttered a quick prayer, and activated the time-travel field.

  King was scratched and bruised. Mira had thrown herself on him, surprising him by going for his eyes. He blocked her, using moves learned from his kickboxing DVDs. But Mentor Toowun had prepared Mira well. She was surprisingly fierce, and desperate. King held back, not wanting to hurt her, but Mira fought without any such reservations. And she had skill. Toowun had trained her as a martial artist, and she was clearly an expert. She fired off a flurry of kicks. One landed in King’s ribs. He fell to the ground.

  “Listen to me!” King pleaded, jumping back to his feet. “This isn’t right. The human race needs to be saved, but Toowun is teaching you to be just like the Kylarn!”

  Mira paused for a moment. King’s words seemed to sway her. The pause was brief, however. “No, my master is noble. He only wants to protect humanity from itself!” Mira sounded less sure this time. She fired off a quick punch, but King blocked her.

  “He’s wrong. We can learn to protect ourselves from the Kylarn. Who is Toowun to decide that we should be slaves instead?” King said as he knocked Mira to one side. She threw herself back, butting him in the stomach. He coughed and reached out a hand. She tried to spin away, but King grabbed her and looked her in the eyes.

  “Look inside yourself, Mira. You know it’s true,” King said firmly. “You can’t help humanity by defeating them for the Kylarn.”

  “No.” Mira’s eyes filled with uncertainty. “He believes he’s helping, and I believe him,” she whispered. “At least I wanted to believe. I needed to. The future is so scary. His way gave us hope and I grabbed onto it. But you’re right. Life as slaves to the Kylarn isn’t a nobler choice than fighting to stay free.”

  Mira shook her head slowly, staring at King. “Can we really change the future for the better?”

  King met Mira’s gaze. “Absolutely.”

  They heard loud, chaotic noise coming from the transport room. They raced down the hall and yanked open the door to the transport room just in time to see Toowun and the two aliens inside vanish in a crackle of static and a ripple in the air.

  Mira stood staring for a moment, her mouth open. “Mentor!”

  King looked at her, panting. “JJ sent them away. It was Zota’s plan. He was the bait to get them inside, so she could use the Kylarn time machine.”

  Mira crumpled to the floor, tears streaming down her face. “But … if I’ve been wrong all this time, how can I ever undo the things I’ve done?”

  “You can’t.” Though he was bruised and scratched, bleeding from his cheek, King still felt compassion. “But you can take a chance with us, Mira. Help us.”

  Mira looked at King, her hazel eyes wide. She hesitated for just a moment. He could see she had changed her mind, and would work with the Star Challengers. But then her expression flickered with a flare of realization. “I’m sorry, but I’m … I’m not the only one.”

  Before King could react, Tony and Commander Zota emerged from the hatch on the other side of the transport chamber. Seeing the two of them unharmed, King sighed with relief. Mira gazed at her new allies, and began to shudder with silent sobs. King put his arm around her.

  “She’s on our side now,” he said quietly to his friends.

  In the distance, he heard sirens.

  ***

  Twenty-Four

  JJ came running out of Zota’s office. “Did it work? Are they gone?” As they all gathered outside the transport room, they found no trace whatsoever of the Kylarn attackers, or of Mentor Toowun.

  Dyl and Song-Ye scrambled into the lobby jabbering with questions. “Where did they go?” Dyl asked. “Did we send them running back with their tentacles between their legs?”

  JJ said, “I sent them far, far into the future where I hope they can’t cause any more harm.”

  Zota smiled at her. “You did exactly what I counted on you to do, Cadet. It was the best way to take care of that problem without anyone else getting hurt.”

  Song-Ye saw that the hamster cage had been smashed, the pieces strewn around the floor. “Newton—where did he go?”

  “Probably hiding somewhere,” Tony said.

  Song-Ye got down on her knees, crawling under
the tables, calling out for the hamster. Outside, the sounds of sirens grew louder.

  “Uhh, did I mention that Song-Ye called the Army, the National Guard, and the Secret Service?” Dyl said.

  Song-Ye shot him a look. “As in, the police and fire department are responding. I thought we might need at least the cavalry.”

  The hamster poked his pink nose out from where he had hidden under an overturned box of Challenger Center brochures. Song-Ye scooped up the rodent and cradled him to her chest.

  JJ laughed. “You’d be happy to know how brave Newton was. When he got loose, the Kylarn were spooked. I’m surprised they didn’t jump on chairs and wave their tentacles in panic.”

  “Hey, King, are you okay?” Tony said, “And what are we going to do with her?”

  “Uh-huh, I’m okay.” King moved aside.

  Mira looked utterly crushed.

  “I made so many mistakes. I thought I was saving lives, but I almost …” Her voice caught in her throat. “I—I could have gotten all of you killed.” She buried her face in King’s shoulder and sniffled. The Star Challengers surrounded her and King, drawing close in a group hug. They stayed that way for several minutes until Mira’s quiet sobs died down and she began to relax, leaning against King. It had been an exhausting, difficult day.

  King broke the silence. “Mira says Mentor Toowun has other recruits. Who knows how many people are working against us?”

  “We’ll have to keep our eyes open,” JJ said. “But we know we have to give humans the best chance to survive. We can tell people how important it is to plan for the future, to go into challenging careers, make new discoveries.”

  King added, “We have to focus on what we can accomplish, how much we can achieve, rather than just relaxing and forgetting everything science can do. We’re going to win that argument.”

  “We’re in this together,” Dyl said. “When the first Kylarn scouts are due to show up in ten years or so, we’ve got to make sure they see strong and imaginative humans that mean business when it comes to putting up space stations and moonbases and colonies on other planets. This is our neighborhood—no alien invaders allowed.”

  Two police cars pulled up in front of the Challenger Center.

  Commander Zota furrowed his brow. “It’s good that you called for help, Cadet Park. But remember, we cannot reveal our secret.”

  Song-Ye nodded. “Yeah, a story about tentacled aliens trashing the place would probably make us sound crazy. What should we say?”

  “Let me speak with them, cadets.” Zota looked around at the Challenger Center. “It’s obvious that something happened here.”

  JJ was sorry to see the overturned chairs, the smashed hamster cage, the exhibits that had been tossed about, pictures knocked off the wall, bookshelves overturned—everything ruined in the alien mayhem. She raised her chin. “It’s a mess, but nothing we can’t fix.”

  Zota met the police at the door. He offered them his identification and welcomed the officers, a man and a woman, inside. The six friends gathered around to show that they were unharmed.

  Zota explained, “As you probably know, officers, this is a Challenger Learning Center that teaches young people about space. There were no class trips scheduled on the weekend. When my volunteers and I”—he indicated the Star Challengers—”returned this afternoon, vandals had broken in and were causing extensive damage. I’m afraid they are long gone now.”

  The officers looked around.

  “Who would want to do something like this?” the policewoman wondered aloud.

  “Hey, my daughter came here with her class,” the other officer said. “She didn’t stop talking about it for a week after her field trip.”

  “Did you see which way the vandals went?” the policewoman asked.

  “None of us actually saw where they went,” Zota said. “Despite the damage done, it appears they are no longer a threat to us.”

  “That’s good to hear. We’ll take a report, but I doubt we can catch the vandals now.”

  Zota smiled. “We are safe, and that is the most important thing. This is nothing my staff and volunteers cannot fix.”

  Out in the parking lot, a fire truck also rolled up with a blare of sirens.

  “I guess some kids are just troublemakers,” said the officer as she righted a chair. “They think it’s more fun to wreck things than do something positive with their time.”

  King and Mira worked together to straighten one of the tables that had tipped over. Song-Ye, while resting Newton on her shoulder, did her best to reassemble his cage and fit the cover back in place.

  JJ spoke up. “It might be disheartening, officers, but people who work hard and look ahead will always have an advantage over those who just want to tear things down.”

  “I like your attitude, young lady.”

  Zota smiled proudly. “Yes, our volunteers are exceptional young people. If we can train more like these six, our future will be bright indeed.”

  The firefighters came into the Center, looked around, and made certain the fires were completely out. The police officers told Zota to fill out a more complete report if he wanted to file a claim for the damage, and they departed.

  “I hope you cadets don’t mind staying a little longer,” Zota said. “We have to get this place put back together and running again by Monday morning. I have several class field trips coming in.”

  “I think Junior should clean up the root beer splatter on the wall,” Song-Ye teased. “I’ll start picking up the books.”

  “We’ll stay as long as we need to,” Dyl said. “We wouldn’t want other classes to miss out on any of this.”

  “Someone’s got to get this place back in shape,” JJ agreed. “Might as well be us.”

  “You know,” King said with a glint in his eye, “if you find more students you want to recruit, we could help you train them. That is part of our mission as Star Challengers.”

  Zota stooped to pick up some broken glass. He smiled to watch them work, putting the exhibits back together, hanging posters back up on the walls. “Are you sure I shouldn’t wait a bit before I try to find additional Star Challengers?”

  JJ thought she heard a hint of humor in his voice.

  “Pfft! Why wait?” Holding Newton in one hand, Song-Ye stroked the top of the hamster’s furry head.

  “We know we can’t sit around waiting for somebody else to make the world a better place,” Dyl said.

  King said, “Like you told us, the future is our choice.” “We need to help other students make the right choices, too,” Mira added in a quiet voice.

  Tony ran a hand through his curly hair. “Believe me, we know it’s going to be a lot of work. But we accept the responsibility.”

  “Indeed?” Commander Zota said, surveying the Star Challengers with an expression of pride.

  “I’m in,” JJ said. “We all are.” She looked around at her friends. She was so lucky to have them and Commander Zota and her family. Her heart felt as light as a cloud—a cloud with a silver lining—knowing that they would all work together to give Earth a future of hope. “We know better than anyone else. No time to lose. Today’s already the first day of the future.”

  ***

  Praise for the Challenger Centers for Space Science Education

  “Inspiring. Exploring. Learning. It’s our mission. That’s hard to beat!”

  John Glenn,

  Former Senator and Astronaut

  “The mission of Challenger Center is to spark in our young people an interest—and a joy—in science. A spark that can change their lives-and help make American enterprise the envy of the world.”

  Former President George H. W. Bush

  “What Challenger Center has done with respect to educating America’s youth is truly commendable. I salute you.”

  General Colin Powell,

  Former Secretary of State

  “Challenger Center is at the forefront of space science education for Elementary and middle school stude
nts … America’s leaders and Explorers of tomorrow.”

  Michael L. Coats,

  Director, NASA Johnson Space Center

  “[Students] will see something and experience something that they perhaps read about, but could not truly appreciate until they came and experienced it.”

  Frederick Gregory,

  NASA Associate Administrator and Former Astronaut

  ***

  About The Challenger Centers

  The Challenger Centers for Space Science Education was created to honor and remember the brave crew of the space shuttle Challenger. The shuttle was carrying seven crewmembers, including the first civilian teacher to go to space, when it exploded shortly after liftoff in 1986. The teacher, Christa McAuliff, was going to show students worldwide—from orbit—how valuable the space program really is.

  In the wake of that tragedy, the Challenger Learning Centers were formed. The Challenger Centers use realistic simulated missions to inspire students with the exciting possibilities of space exploration, while also teaching them how to work as a team and how to expect success. Currently, a network of 50 Centers across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Korea reaches more than 400,000 students and 40,000 educators each year. The goal is to foster a long-term interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—in short, Commander Zota’s dream of creating a new generation of Star Challengers.

  Students and teachers, to learn more about the Challenger Centers and to find a Center in your area, go to www.challenger.org. In addition to actual class field trips, the Challenger Centers offer online adventures and interactive learning experiences.

  ***

  Challenger Centers

  Here is a list of Challenger Learning Centers. For the most current list, visit www.challenger.org.

  United States Challenger Learning Centers

  Alabama