Project Alpha by D. J. MacHale

Author:D. J. MacHale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2015-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

It was the night before launch.

After a year of hard work to get on the team, and another six months of training, it was almost time to go.

T-minus twelve hours and counting.

—

Dash, Carly, Gabriel, and Piper were eating dinner silently in the dorm at Base Ten. It wasn’t until they’d all finished and pushed their trays away that Carly said what was on everybody’s mind.

“Are we ready?” she asked. “I mean really ready? Sure, we can fly the simulators and run the systems, but this is for real now. I mean, we’re going into space.”

“I think we’re ready,” Dash said confidently. “This mission is too important for them to send us if we weren’t.”

“But what happens if we run into things they didn’t count on?” Carly asked. “There’s no way we’ve been trained for every possibility.”

“That’s when we earn our ten million bucks,” Gabriel said.

During the hours and weeks of simulator training, Gabriel had established himself as the best aviator of the crew and was named the official pilot and navigator. He had the uncanny ability to think three steps ahead and fly safely through every challenge thrown at him.

“It would be nice to know exactly where we are going,” Piper added, bringing up a point they had been speculating about for weeks.

“Seriously,” Carly said. “I mean, we launch tomorrow!”

Carly was assigned to be the ship’s science and technology officer. She’d spent months learning every detail of the ship while honing various skills like troubleshooting the Element Fuser and analyzing the density of a celestial storm.

Piper had trained to be the crew’s medic. Much of her training was in the medical bay of the Cloud Leopard, performing simulated medical emergencies and learning how to access the vast medical database.

“Try not to stress,” Dash said. “Failure is not an option, right?”

“Let’s hope not,” Carly said nervously.

As commander of the mission, Dash had to learn it all. He not only had to be prepared to make decisions based on his crew’s recommendations, but he also had to be ready and able to fill in for any one of them.

In addition to their training, they did their best to make the Cloud Leopard their home. They’d worked out in the gym and watched movies in the recreation room. They’d decorated their quarters and made daily video-calls to their families. As the weeks stretched into months, the crew had grown more sure of their skills, and more trusting of each other.

“We’re going to do this and we’re going to get back with the Source,” Dash said. “I have total confidence.”

“Good,” Phillips said as he stepped into the room with STEAM right behind him. “I do too.” He stood at the end of the table. “Big day tomorrow. I want you all to get a good night’s sleep.”

“I doubt I’ll sleep at all,” Carly said, grumbling.

“Is that because of nerves?” Phillips asked. “Or something else?”

Dash stood up to represent the group.

“We’ve done everything you’ve asked us to do,” he began. “We left our families. We worked hard.

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