Chapter 6

6 BIZZAP! Pablo, Violet, Deepak, and Dr. Crisp were back in room fourteen of the Maker Maze. Their space suits and helmets had disappeared. The space tether lay on the floor. Dr. Crisp shook out her rainbow hair and found her backpack. She opened it and pulled out the glittery Maker Manual.

"Okay, Makers! Let's find out what's next," she said as the book snapped open. The pages turned quickly. They opened to one that read: LEVEL 2: DARK ENERGY Go to door number fifteen. Dr. Crisp closed the book and tossed it into her backpack. She grabbed the pencil from behind her ear and pointed at the wall opposite the door. "This way!" she hollered over her shoulder. "Careful, Dr. Crisp!" Deepak shouted across the room. But just before Dr. Crisp walked headfirst into the wall, a hidden door slid open. She turned to

face the Makers and winked. "What are you waiting for?" Pablo, Violet, and Deepak hurried through the secret entrance just as the door began to close. Room number fifteen was empty except for four long poles sticking out of the floor. Each had a hook attached to the middle. Together, the poles formed a large square. "We just learned about some of the different objects you find in space. But there is one space object that we haven't discussed yet," explained Dr. Crisp. The Makers looked at Dr. Crisp with wide and eager eyes. "Black holes!" she finally said. "Yes!" Pablo and Deepak said. "We're not going to turn into spaghetti, right?" asked Violet, closing her eyes and biting her lip. Dr. Crisp laughed. "Don't worry! No real black holes in room fifteen. We keep those nice and far away in room three thousand!" Violet opened her eyes and gulped.

Dr. Crisp continued. "Today, you're going to figure out how black holes work." She got the Maker Manual out of her backpack. It flew open to a page with a list of instructions. Pablo, Violet, and Deepak looked them over. Dr. Crisp reached again into her backpack and started pulling out supplies. She removed a giant black bedsheet, a large black ball, and two smaller purple marbles. Dr. Crisp folded her hands behind her back and started circling the sheet.

"This sheet represents a force that scientists still don't fully understand." Dr. Crisp suddenly leaped in the air and clicked her heels. The room went black. When she landed on the ground, her face was lit up by a flashlight that she held beneath her chin. With a smile, she said, "Scientists call it dark energy. And everything in our universe is connected by it." She turned off the flashlight and clicked her heels again. The light returned.

"Whoa, that sounds creepy," said Violet, blinking. A shiver slid down her spine. "You can think of dark energy as a fabric. Space fabric! That's why we use a sheet to model it," Dr. Crisp continued. "To complete this level, you'll need to figure out how black holes work. But first, you need to make the model," she said, pointing to the instructions. Pablo rubbed his hands together. His chest began to rise again with the excitement that had faded during level one. "Let's do this!" he said. Then Dr. Crisp hollered, "Ready, set, MODEL!" The trio huddled together. "I think all we have to do is attach this sheet to the hooks," said Pablo, looking over the instructions. Violet started spreading out the large sheet. "We'll definitely need to work together. Otherwise, it will get all twisted and tangled." "These are probably the holes the hooks need to go through," said Deepak, holding up an edge.