23 THE ASTEROID

23 THE ASTEROID Lunar day 218 Well after bedtime "Hello, Dashiell," Zan said. I pried my eyes open to find her peering into my sleep pod. Or at least, projecting the image of herself doing that into my brain. I checked my watch. It was midnight. But even though Zan was waking me from much-needed sleep, I found myself happy to see her. "Hi," I replied, reminding myself to keep the conversation in my head. My family was asleep in their pods around me. My watch also indicated I'd received a great number of text messages since I'd last checked it.

Most of them were from Riley, wanting to know what I'd thought of the Sjobergs" video. With all the excitement, I'd forgotten to text her that I'd seen it. "I'm sorry to disturb you like this," Zan said. "It's all right." Although I could have remained in my pod, talking to Zan in my head, it seemed weird to have a conversation that way. So I kicked my covers aside and slipped out into the room. "It's not all right," Zan countered. "You had an extremely stressful day—partly due to my behavior." I gave her a confused look. "You didn't stress me out. If anything, you helped. You let me know Nina was still alive—and then you saved me from Patton. In fact, you scared him so badly, I don't think he's going to be bullying anyone anymore." "I'm glad I could be of help. But as you pointed out, my behavior has also been frustrating. There are some things I've kept secret that have been bothering you." I paused in the middle of pulling on a T-shirt. "Well, yes..." "I'd like to tell you the truth." "Right now?" "Yes." I glanced around the residence. My family was

sound asleep, but I still didn't feel like having such an important conversation in the room with them. If I got excited and started talking out loud again, they'd wake up and think I was losing my mind. I'd already dodged a bullet with Violet once that day. "Can we go somewhere else to talk? Somewhere private?" "Sure. As long as it isn't the bathrooms." "I was thinking of the medical bay. No one's in there right now." "Fine." I headed for the door, taking care not to wake my family. My parents, who'd had an extremely long day themselves, were out cold. Violet was shifting around in the midst of what seemed to be a very vivid dream. "Wow," she murmured in her sleep. "That's a big penguin!" I opened the door and peeked into the hall. No one was about. Zan and I slipped out onto the catwalk, passing Nina's room on the way to the stairs. Despite the late hour, not everyone was sleeping. In the stillness of the base, I could hear a few voices coming through the doors of the residences. Kira and her father were the easiest to hear. They

were both laughing a lot. It sounded like they were playing a game, and Kira was creaming her father, but he was taking it in stride. I wondered if they did this often at night, if this was when he engaged with her, rather than during the day, when there were too many other things to distract him. Nina was also awake. It sounded as though she was filing a report with NASA. "I believe, as the MBC of Moon Base Alpha, it is my duty to be completely open about the events of lunar day 217 and my role in them...," she said flatly, sounding as robotic as usual. Voices also came from the residence of Dr. Goldstein and Dr. Iwanyi. They were having a hushed but intense discussion, trying not to wake Kamoze. "There's no point in turning yourself in," Dr. Iwanyi was saying. "Ultimately, no one got hurt. Nothing that happened was really your fault." "I still did something wrong," Dr. Goldstein was saying. "At the very least, I led Nina to believe I could help her with her mother, and that's not going to happen." "Well, maybe there's a way we can fix that," Dr. Iwanyi said. "We have plenty of connections in the

medical community back on earth. I'm sure something can be done...." Roddy was up too. He was in the rec room with his hologoggles on. It appeared he'd reached the finale of Romeo and Juliet; he was now kissing the virtual heroine again. Evidently, the game ended much more happily than the actual play. "Oh, Juliet," Roddy sighed to the invisible girl. "I think I love you." "What's going on there?" Zan asked me. "You don't want to know," I told her. We reached the medical bay, went inside, and locked the door. Then we found two InflatiCubes and sat across from each other. "You have been asking why it is so important that I talk to you," Zan said. "Wondering if mankind is in trouble. I told you it wasn't... but that was not completely honest of me." My skin suddenly felt cold, as though I'd stepped outside the moon base entirely. "So... humans are in danger?" "In a sense." "From what?" "Yourselves. Surely you are aware that nature is a delicate balance on every planet, and yours is in

trouble." "Yes," I said. This wasn't a secret. The news from earth was always filled with stories of mass extinctions, choking clouds of pollution, islands and coastal cities inundated by floodwaters from rising seas, and other such environmental disasters. "Humanity is running out of time to confront these problems," Zan said. "Faster than you realize. Earlier today, you asked me if there was an asteroid heading toward earth. Well, there is, in a sense. Humanity is the asteroid. You're doing as much damage to earth as an asteroid would. The only difference is, an asteroid would destroy life on your planet immediately, while humanity is going to take a few centuries." I realized I was gripping the examining table tightly. Apparently, I'd needed to steady myself after hearing Zan's news. "How much time do we have?" "I can't predict the future. After all, the course you are on is not necessarily guaranteed." I looked at Zan, intrigued. "You mean, humanity could still survive?" "That's correct." I began to understand what Zan was getting at. "Because of you?"