17 FRAYED NERVES

17 FRAYED NERVES Lunar day 217 Afternoon We refilled our oxygen tanks, suited up, and headed back to MBA. The rover Kira and I had wrecked was out of commission, so there was only one left—and it could only hold four people. Chang ordered Mom and Dad to drive Kira and me back in it, while he and Dr. Howard would walk. Dad protested, but Chang pulled rank as the interim base commander, and that was that. The trip back to MBA was far less eventful than the trip out had been. But even so, it was still terrifying. I spent the entire time worrying that a meteorite

was suddenly going to plunge from the sky and kill me. Or kill one of the people I was with. I did my best to remain calm, but I wasn't fooling anybody. They could all hear me over the intercom in our helmets. I'd never realized you could tell that someone was frightened simply by their breathing, but you can. I could hear it in Kira's sharp, ragged breaths. And I could see her nervous fidgeting. Despite all her claims that she was fine, she was just as scared as me. So rather than make us walk from the garage to the air lock, Dad lopped a few precious minutes off the trip and dropped us off at the front of the base with Mom. Then he drove on to the garage while we all stepped into the air lock. The other big rover was still parked by the air lock. Dr. Balnikov, Dr. Merritt, Dr. Kim, and Dr. Alvarez had been in a much bigger rush when they'd returned, fearing that their helmets might fail, so they hadn't spent a second longer outside than they needed to. The rover had been hit by a few meteorites and looked badly damaged, which made me think about what would have happened if I had been hit by a meteorite like that. I hurried into the

air lock as quickly as I could. So did Kira and Mom. The moment I stepped inside, where I was safe from incoming space rocks, I was finally able to relax. Less than two hours before, I hadn't been a very big fan of MBA. Now I couldn't have been happier to be back there. The air-lock chamber repressurized and we eagerly popped off our helmets. Through the glass of the inner air lock, we could see Violet and Daphne waiting for us. Violet had her nose mashed up against the window and was making funny faces. She also had a chocolate mustache. "Welcome back, everyone!" she yelled. "Thanks, sweetheart," Mom called back. "Looks like you had ice cream anyhow." "No, I didn't!" Violet lied. Daphne blushed, embarrassed. "I couldn't say no to her. She's too darn cute." It took a long time to get all the moon dust off our suits, especially mine and Kira's. The air hose system wasn't very fast to begin with, and we were coated with the stuff. By the time Dad bounded up to the outer air lock door from the garage, we'd only managed to get the helmets clean.

"Let's leave the suits for now," Mom said. "Stephen needs to come in and we have other things to do." So we passed into the staging area with our helmets, leaving the suits heaped on the floor, and then closed the inner air-lock door behind us. Now that the air-lock chamber was clear, Dad entered it from the lunar surface. Once I was inside the base, Violet threw her arms around me and clamped on tight. "I'm so happy you're okay!" "Thanks," I said. "I hate those meteoroids," she told me, then turned to the window and yelled, "Stupid meteoroids! You stay away from my brother!" "I'm happy you're okay too," Daphne said, then hugged both Kira and me at once. "Oof!" Violet cried from in between us all. "Help! I'm being squished!" Almost everyone else at MBA had turned out to witness our arrival as well. Now that their raid on the greenhouse was over, the Sjobergs had retreated back into their room again. But all the other Moonies were gathered to welcome us back—except Dr. Goldstein. I figured she was in the greenhouse,

assessing the damage the Sjobergs had done. Roddy stepped forward first. "Hey, guys, I'm glad you made it." Everyone then looked to Cesar expectantly. He stayed right where he was, though, looking down at his feet, until his mother shoved him forward. "Cesar has something he'd like to say," she announced. "Yeah." Cesar kept his gaze locked downward. "I'm sorry the Sjobergs and I broke the helmets and caused all this trouble." "That's all right," Mom told him, though her tone indicated she was still plenty peeved at Cesar. "How'd you finally get the helmet off?" I asked him. "We had to use some industrial lubricant designed for the robots," Daphne explained. "What was it like out there?" Roddy asked eagerly. "With all the meteorites coming down around you? Was it exciting?" "Too exciting," I told him. "Any sign of Nina back here?" Mom asked. A collective sense of sadness and unease seemed to settle over everyone else. "Nothing," Daphne admitted. "The search parties

didn't find any sign of her and we haven't heard a peep since everyone came back inside." "And you searched everywhere we planned to?" Mom asked. "No," Dr. Balnikov admitted. "We called off the search outside when the issue of the helmets became evident, and then the meteorite shower prevented us from resuming it." "However," Dr. Alvarez added, "we did cover a significant area and saw no sign of her." "I got some robots going after the shower ended," Daphne reported. "They've all come up empty, but they haven't had time to range very far." "I checked the whole base for her!" Violet said helpfully. "Even the bathrooms. But I couldn't find her." Mom looked to me. "Any other ideas where she might be?" It caught me by surprise that she was deferring to me on this. Then I noticed that everyone else was looking at me expectantly too. "No," I said sadly. "Nothing?" Mom pressed. "Come on, Dash," Violet said. "You figured out what happened to Dr. Holtz when no one else could."