Luciana: Out of This World by Erin Teagan

Author:Erin Teagan [Teagan, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2018-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

The ride back to the Mars habitat was quiet. The small cooler of samples sat snugly between Claire and me and we used it as an armrest, neither of us letting our elbows touch. We were all sweaty and hungry, and I swore I had dust in my mouth. When we finally arrived at the habitat, Rick instructed us to stay inside until he was done unloading the rover. Claire and I scrambled out of the jeep and raced to the bathroom. I let her go first because it was the nice thing to do even though I had to go so bad it was nearly an emergency.

After I was finished, I rushed back to the airlock to see if Vanessa and Pia needed any help emptying the jeep. From the ramp, I could hear them in the lab tent, chatting as they got their tools ready to test the samples. The jeep’s back door was open, and I spotted the cooler in the seat where Claire and I had been sitting. I was so excited for the scientists to start testing the samples—my sample in particular—that I ran out and grabbed the cooler from the back seat. As I made my way around the back of the jeep toward the lab tent, I heard a mechanical noise, like a latch being released.

All of a sudden, Rick called out to me, “Watch out, Luci!”

I looked up and saw the rover rolling backward off the trailer—and heading straight toward me!

“Luci! Get out of the way!” Rick shouted. “Now!”

Panicked, I sprinted out of the way, the cooler slipping out of my hand. Immediately, I turned around to try to retrieve it, but Rick grabbed me around the waist.

“What were you thinking?” Rick asked, his eyes bulging, his face red.

“I—I was—” I started.

“I told you to stay inside until I finished unloading the rover,” he scolded. “What were you doing out here? You could have been seriously injured.”

“I wasn’t thinking,” I said. “I was just so excited to test the samples that I …” My voice trembled and I trailed off.

Rick took a deep breath and asked, “Are you hurt?”

I shook my head. By now, Pia, Vanessa, and Claire had come to see what the commotion was all about. My face blazed like it was on fire, partially from the hot sun, but mostly from complete and total humiliation. I had basically walked right in front of the rover.

Rick brushed the hair out of his face, pacing. “That was too close. Way too close. We’re so lucky you’re okay.”

And that’s when I saw the true damage. The cooler was cracked and smashed to pieces, run over by the one-thousand-pound rover.

“The samples!” Vanessa cried. She kneeled in front of the cooler, pulling a splintered piece of the handle out from under a tire.

I felt dizzy, because if the samples were crushed too, they would be contaminated and useless.

“Are the samples okay?” I asked.

Why did I think I should be the one to bring the cooler to the lab? I had acted without thinking—again.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.