I pulled on my safety harness and fumbled with the buckle until it finally clicked into place; then I pulled the straps tight against my chest. Once everyone was properly buckled in, Meadows’ ATHID gave us all a robotic thumbs-up.
“The journey to Moon Base Alpha should only take about forty minutes,” he said. “Once we clear the Earth’s atmosphere, we’ll be moving extremely fast. If we run into any hostiles along the way, you’ll each be able to use your QComms to control one of the omnidirectional laser turrets mounted on the underside of the hull. But our scopes are clear right now, so it should be smooth sailing. Just sit back and try to enjoy the ride.”
The drone returned to the cockpit, and I saw it dock with its charging station just before the hatch closed. When I glanced around the cabin, I found that my companions were once again staring at me. Debbie and Whoadie quickly averted their eyes, but Milo and Chén both just kept right on staring, as if a sparkly horn had suddenly sprouted from my forehead. I ignored them as long as I could; then I slowly mimed cranking up the middle finger of my right hand. When it reached full mast, they both finally seemed to get the hint and looked away.
I took out my QComm and tried punching my mother’s mobile number into the keypad, but the call didn’t go through, and a notice popped up informing me that access to the civilian phone system was still restricted.
I sighed and snapped the QComm back onto my wrist.
We lifted off a few minutes later. As before, the ride remained perfectly smooth, even as the shuttle climbed through the atmosphere and accelerated to escape velocity—and the sky outside our windows gradually began to turn from light blue to pitch black.
And this time, when we reached the edge of all that blackness, the shuttle didn’t turn around and begin to fall back to Earth. We kept right on going, out into space. As on my first shuttle trip, the gravity inside the cabin never wavered, and when I closed my eyes, it felt as if we were motionless, even though we were moving so fast that within just a few minutes, we’d already traveled far enough away from Earth for me to be able to see the entire planet all at once, something I’d dreamed of doing for as long as I could remember.
I stared down at the radiant blue-white sphere that was home to everything and everyone I loved and scanned the gaps in the swirling cloud layer until I located the western coastline of North America, then followed it until I spotted the familiar inlet of Portland, just barely visible. I realized then just how far away I already was from home. And it was getting farther and farther away every second.
That’s what we’re fighting for, I thought. That’s what they’re trying to take from us.
I pressed my face against the window beside me, craning my neck to see as far ahead of us as possible. And there it was: a radiant gray-white bulb, shining in the darkness far ahead of us. I’d spent my entire life believing that no human being had set foot on its surface since the last Apollo mission in 1972. Now I was headed there myself, aboard a spacecraft that incorporated reverse-engineered alien technology, to meet the father I had never known. What was he like now? What would he say when he saw me? How would I react?
Across from me, I noticed that Debbie had her head down, and her hands were clasped together in her lap. Her eyes were closed, and she was moving her lips in silence.
“What are you doing?” Milo asked, sounding genuinely curious.
Debbie silently whispered “Amen” to herself, then opened her eyes and looked over at him.
“I was obviously trying to pray, Milo,” she said.
“You were praying?” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “To who?”
Debbie stared at him in disbelief. “To Jesus, Our Lord and Savior, of course.”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” Milo said, chuckling. “Just one question, church lady—in what part of the Bible did Jesus warn us about this alien invasion?” He glanced around the cabin at the rest of us for support. “Because I must have missed that verse!”
Debbie stared back at him, instantly livid. She opened her mouth, but his question seemed to have her so flustered that she didn’t know how to respond.
Whoadie did, though.
“ ‘And the fifth angel sounded,’ ” she recited, locking eyes with Milo, “ ‘and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace. … And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.’ ”
“What pit?” Milo asked. His smile was gone. “What are you talking about, kid?”