Lunar Colony (7 page)

“P
LEASE FORGIVE ME, SIR
. I
AM
A LUNAR FACILITY HELPER ROBOT, BUT THE ASTRONAUTS HAVE ALWAYS JUST CALLED ME
N
AT
. A
PPARENTLY
, I
BRING TO MIND AN INSECT CREATURE YOU HAVE ON
E
ARTH, THOUGH
I
AM AFRAID
I
DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE CONNECTION
.”

“Nice to meet you, Nat,” Glen said, feeling a little funny. He’d never talked to a robot before. “What can you tell me about Salerno?”

Nat’s eyes dimmed a bit, making him look sad. “M
Y DUTY IS TO ENSURE THAT ORDERS ARE CARRIED OUT
. W
HEN
C
OMMANDER
S
ALERNO REALIZED THAT
I
WOULD NOT PERMIT HER TO LEAVE THIS FACILITY, SHE DISCONNECTED MY WIRING
. I
F SHE ESCAPED, THEN
I
FAILED TO DO MY DUTY
.”

Glen felt sorry for Nat but needed to know more. “What could you have done to keep her from leaving?” he asked.

“M
Y PROGRAMMING ALLOWS ME TO SHUT DOWN THE BASE, KEEPING ANYONE FROM OPENING THE DOORS
. B
UT
I
FAILED TO DO IT, AND NOW
I
AM JUST A FAILURE
.” Nat dropped his head, saying, “B
OO-HOO-HOO
.”

“Wait a minute, Nat. If you can lock the
doors, does that mean you can open them, too?” Glen asked.

“Y
ES, OF COURSE
,” Nat replied, perking up his head.

“In that case, you still have a chance to help! I need an override on the vehicle-bay door right away,” Glen said, running back to the rover. “I’m going out to find Salerno!”

“Y
ES, SIR
,” said Nat. His eyes had brightened again, and he punched numbers into a keypad on his wrist, causing the bay door to instantly open.

“Thanks,” said Glen, who turned on the rover’s ignition. But before he could step on the pedal, the robot zoomed over to him.

“C
OMMANDER
S
ALERNO’S SUIT EMITS A TRACKING SIGNAL
. U
NFORTUNATELY, YOU WILL NEED A LOCATOR DEVICE TO TRACK THAT SIGNAL, AND
I
SAW HER TAKE IT BEFORE SHE DEACTIVATED ME
.”

“Then how will I find her?” Glen asked. “The moon is a pretty big place!”

“A
FFIRMATIVE
. B
UT BECAUSE THE LOCATOR DEVICE IS QUITE BULKY, SHE MAY HAVE CHOSEN TO HIDE IT RATHER THAN CARRY IT WITH HER
. I
F YOU CAN FIND THE LOCATOR
DEVICE, IT SHOULD LEAD YOU TO HER
. I
WOULD HELP YOU, BUT
I
AM UNABLE TO LEAVE THIS FACILITY
.”

“Got it! Thanks, Nat.”

Glen stepped on the accelerator and drove out of the vehicle bay. Before him stretched the lonely lunar surface, and somewhere out there, he hoped, was Commander Salerno.

Slayton was on the phone when Mr. Johns stepped into the flight director’s office.

“Yes, yes, Director McNabb,” said Slayton, speaking into the mouthpiece, “everything is on schedule. We’ll have Salerno back on the ground in no time.”

As Slayton spoke, he motioned for Mr. Johns to sit in one of the chairs facing the desk, which Glen’s father did with an air of exhaustion.

“Right,” Slayton continued, “I assure you the kid will get the job done. I’ll keep you posted. Good-bye.”

As he hung up the phone, he looked at Mr. Johns, whose face was filled with concern. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

Mr. Johns was done wasting time. “I want you to bring my son home, Mr. Slayton.”

“You know we’re doing everything we can to make that happen,” Slayton replied. “And just as soon as he finds Salerno—”

“Now, Mr. Slayton,” said Mr. Johns. “I want my son home now. I’m sure finding this Salerno character is very important to you, but what’s important to me is getting my son home safely. I want you to call off the mission and get him home. Now.”

Slayton sat back in his chair and looked at Glen’s father. Though he had no children of his own, the flight director could understand the fear that lined the man’s face. Nonetheless, he was under orders and had a mission to complete.

“Mr. Johns,” Slayton began, “I promise you that we’re going to do all we can to get your boy home safely, but abandoning the mission and leaving Salerno up there just isn’t an option. It’s not an ideal situation, I know, but right now, your boy is our best hope for rescuing that astronaut.”

“Rescuing her?” Mr. Johns asked, frustrated. “It seems to me that she doesn’t want to be rescued. So, how can you put the safety of my son at risk?”

“Again, Mr. Johns,” Slayton said, “we’re going to get him home just as soon as we can. But with all the media attention, it wouldn’t benefit anyone to bring him back before the mission is complete.”

“Media attention?” Mr. Johns asked. “What are you talking about?”

“Haven’t you seen the news?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Slayton, I’ve been a little too busy worrying about my son to watch television.”

“Well, let me show you,” Slayton said. He picked up a remote control from his desk and turned on a panel of televisions that covered his wall. Each was tuned to a different live news channel, where the top story was
“Boy Astronaut Travels to the Moon.
”

As Mr. Johns stared in astonishment at the screens, Slayton said, “Glen has gotten us the kind of media attention we haven’t had in years. Suddenly, everyone is interested in the space program again. I mean, who knows? Maybe your kid is just what we needed to regenerate public interest.”

“Mr. Slayton,” Glen’s father said, turning
back to the flight director, “are you using my son just to save the space program?”

“No, of course not,” replied Slayton. “No one planned this, and getting Salerno back is of the utmost importance. Still, you have to agree that this could be a very good thing for all who wish to see the space program continue.”

“Mr. Slayton, I am a space enthusiast. I’ve always believed that discovery is one of the most important parts of life. But nothing is more important than my son, not even the space program.”

“Mr. Johns, a lot of jobs are at stake here. A successful mission with lots of public interest could be just the thing to save them.”

Slayton’s phone began ringing, and he could see that it was McNabb. “I’ve got to take this call. Don’t worry, Mr. Johns, we’ll get your boy home.”

As he answered the phone, Mr. Johns got up to leave, but he stopped as he reached the door and turned back to the flight director.

“Mr. Slayton?” Mr. Johns said.

“Yes, what is it?” Slayton said, covering the mouthpiece with his hand.

“I told you that the spirit of discovery is why I’m fascinated by space exploration. What about you, I wonder. Are you here to save my son and your missing astronaut, or are you just trying to save your job?”

With that, Mr. Johns walked out of the office, leaving Slayton to stare at the empty doorway and ponder the question.

The hidden locator device, the mystery of Number Four, Salerno. Glen didn’t even know how to begin solving all of these problems, but as he raced the rover across the lunar surface, he was, at least for a while, not thinking about his troubles.

“Wheee!” he shouted. The rover zigged and zagged across the moon, leaving tire tracks behind in the dust. The rim of a small crater appeared straight ahead, and Glen pressed the pedal to the floor. The vehicle jumped forward, heading straight for the crater. As it zoomed up the slope, Glen held on tight to the steering wheel.

Vwooooom!

The rover was airborne, flying high above the crater. Glen let out a whoop as he looked down at the ground below. The moon’s reduced gravity allowed the vehicle to glide perfectly to the crater’s far slope, where its four tires landed softly. Glen rolled down the slope, where he skidded to a stop.

“That was awesome!” he said, catching his breath. Then, as he wheeled the rover around to jump the crater again, he saw a shape in the distance, something rising from the ground. Curious, Glen set off to investigate.

As he neared the object, he saw what it was: a tall, pencil-like structure sticking out of the moon’s surface.

“It’s an obelisk,” Glen said aloud. “We learned about these in school.” He was right; it was an obelisk, a four-sided structure with a pointed top. “But what’s it doing here on the moon?” Glen wondered.

He drove the rover right up to the structure and got out to have a closer look. What he saw surprised him. The stone obelisk was covered in strange carvings, pictures, and letters that Glen didn’t recognize. He walked around to each side, trying to make sense of his discovery.

“This is weird,” he said. “What does all this mean, and who put this thing here? It doesn’t look
like something man-made.” Glen was filled with wonder. He’d never seen anything like it before. Or had he?

“Wait a minute,” he said, pulling out Salerno’s notebook. He flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for: a drawing of this very object. “I knew I’d seen this before!” he said. “According to Salerno’s notes, she calls this Number Two. And here are drawings of Numbers One and Three, which I’m guessing are somewhere else on the moon’s surface.”

Glen flipped to another page of the notebook, where he found a map of the moon. Salerno’s penmanship was hard to read—Glen figured that you must not need good handwriting to become an astronaut—but he saw that there were three numbers spread out on the map.

“Hmm, each of these numbers must represent an obelisk. So, Salerno must think there’s a fourth one somewhere out there—Number Four! But that still doesn’t explain
what they are or where they came from.”

He looked back up at the strange structure in front of him and gazed at it for several minutes, fascinated. It was hard for him to leave it without first understanding what it could be, but he knew that he needed to get moving. Looking back at Salerno’s map, he saw that she’d marked the location of each lunar facility. Not far from Number Two was the medical facility.

I’d better check there,
he thought.
With any luck, I’ll find the locator device. Or better yet, Salerno herself.