7 SEEDS OF DOOM

7 SEEDS OF DOOM Lunar day 252 Breakfast time The greenhouse was located directly across from the mess hall, which allowed us to grab breakfast while casing the place. Normally, I wasn't a big fan of breakfast at MBA—or any meal there, really—but since I had already been awake for several hours, save for my brief nap, I was hungry enough to eat well, space food. I made myself some reconstituted banana pancakes and a hot tea. (Since it's basically dried leaves and water, tea was one of

the few things at MBA that didn't vary much from its earth version.) In the mess, Dr. Iwanyi sat at a table with Kamoze, while most of the Brahmaputra-Marquez family was at another. Only Roddy was missing, probably off making his case to Nina, as he'd threatened. None of the other adults were there; they were all at their workstations already. The entire Sjoberg family was absent as well. Lars had been released from the medical bay, and now all the Swedes were holed up in their suite, as usual. Mom and Dad were seated at one of the big tables, almost done eating. They obviously expected Violet and me to sit with them, so we did, and Kira joined us, as her father was nowhere to be seen. "Don't tell Mom and Dad about the apple seeds," I warned Violet on our way to the table. "It's a secret." "Okay," Violet said, through a mouthful of blueberry muffin-like substance. She seemed very excited to have a secret with Kira and me. "What took you so long to get here?" Mom asked as we sat down. "You guys get lost?" "We can't get lost in here, Mom," Violet replied, missing the joke. "It's way too small. We were

playing a prank on Roddy with Kira." "Oh?" Mom arched an eyebrow. "What sort of prank?" "We attacked him with unicorns and sparkle power!" Violet exclaimed, then launched into an explanation of what we'd done. While Kira helped her tell the story—leaving out the part about our investigation—I observed the greenhouse from my seat. The room was glass on two sides and stretched all the way to the top of MBA, where it had a glass roof as well. (An extremely thick, meteor-proof glass roof, for safety's sake.) For our first six months, the greenhouse hadn't been very green at all; the plants hadn't been growing nearly as well as we had hoped. However, Dr. Goldstein had recently had some breakthroughs. Even though the Sjobergs had greedily raided the greenhouse four weeks earlier, the plants had rebounded nicely: There were clumps of red strawberries and quite a few cherry tomatoes on the vine. The sugar snap peas were doing particularly well. In the low lunar gravity, they had rocketed up the stay wires toward the skylight, creating a curtain of greenery along the glass. Behind it, I could see Dr. Goldstein tending to her garden.

"Sorry our catch this morning got cut short," Dad whispered to me. Kira and Violet were so busy telling Mom their story that he felt it was safe to say this without being overheard. "It's okay," I assured him. "Thanks for even taking me out." "So you know, I took care of our space suits. Got all the dust off and moved them into the lockers." "Thanks." Dad hesitated a moment, as though he wasn't completely convinced he wanted to say the next thing, but then went with it. "While I was in the air lock at four thirty in the morning, I saw you coming out of Nina's quarters." I gagged a bit on my pancakes. Partly caught off guard by Dad's statement. Partly because I had hit a poorly rehydrated chunk of banana. "Want to tell me what you were doing in there?" Dad pressed. I glanced back at the girls. They were still telling their story. Violet was being extremely animated, acting out her part, as well as that of the Murkmoid and the unicorns. She had attracted the attention of everyone else in the mess hall. "Nina told me what really happened with Lars," I

confided to Dad. "That it wasn't an accident." Dad's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed as he realized what was going on. "Did she ask you to help investigate this?" "Yes," I admitted. "I can't believe she would do that," Dad said angrily. "I know you've solved some crimes here, but you're only thirteen years old —and that's only as of today. Whoever did this is dangerous. I don't want you getting involved. Chang and I can handle it on our " Dad trailed off as he put two and two together. "Oh, crud. She suspects Chang or I might have done it." "She only mentioned Chang." "Well, she wouldn't have told you that she suspects your own father. Even Nina is human enough to realize that wouldn't go over well." Violet wrapped up her story with a grand reenactment of the Murkmoid's death, dramatically collapsing to the floor. All the Moonies in the mess hall applauded. I considered asking Dad if he thought Chang could have done it, but I was pretty sure he would be upset at me for even thinking it—and while I waffled on the issue, Dad got up from the table.

"I'm going to take care of this right now," he said, then started toward Nina's residence. "Where are you going?" Mom asked, startled by Dad's sudden departure. "To talk to Nina," Dad replied, and then hurried on without an explanation. Violet took her seat at the table and dug into her muffin again. She seemed a bit winded from the exertion of telling her story. Mom's watch pinged, signaling she had received a message. She glanced at it, then stood herself. "I have a call from earth in a few minutes," she told us. "I need to prepare for it. Dash and Kira, can I trust you two to get Violet and yourselves to school on time?" "Of course," Kira agreed. "Although, it is Dash's birthday. Maybe letting him get to school late would be a nice present...?" "No," Mom said curtly. "Your teachers take a great deal of time to prepare your lessons, and if you three show up late, that's disrespectful. So please be on time today." "We will," I said, fully intending to keep my word. "Hug first," Violet announced, opening her arms