Chapter Three
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“Welcome to the launch of the spacecraft Orion. We have a team of very dedicated teenagers, who will speak to you in a moment.”
Comet, the head of Scallanos Space And Universal Explorations (SSAUE), is delivering his half-hour long speech, but I am totally tuning him out.
“Agh! What in the world am I supposed to say to the entire planet?” I’m biting my lip so hard, I can taste blood.
“Calm down, Aster! You’ll do great! You talk to the school all the time,” Meteor whispers to me, tucking a strand of loose hair behind my ear.
“Ok. Ok. I’ve got this.”
“Good. ‘Cause you’re up now.”
He’s right. The five platforms under each of us are rising, taking us to the stage. As it’s rising, I’m trying to compose my features, which quickly fails when Meteor blows me a kiss through the glass. I’m about to explode. Because I’m officially at the top.
“Fellow Scallonions, I am Asteroid, leader of the space mission TeamTektite. The origin of the team name comes from the mineral tektite. Tektites are bits and pieces of ejecta that are formed when a sizable extraterrestrial commodity crashes into Earth. I guess, to humans, we would be ‘extraterrestrial commodities’!” My hands are sweating but I manage a grin. Throughout the crowd I hear a smattering of laughter.
“The team members each have individual talents. Constellation, the Navigator, draws unparalleled digital maps and star maps. Meteor, the Mechanic, has, at one time or another, fixed nearly all the starships on Scallanos. Nova, the Pilot, had her own space-taxi service at age nine, and Star, the Co-Pilot, is Nova's most trusted space-taxi driver.” Quietly, the SSAUE is playing a drum roll, meaning the Orion is going to be brought up from the underground headquarters of Scallanos Space.
“Now,” I smile. “Without further ado, behold the Orion!”
The Orion is slowly rising from behind the crowd, which has burst into applause. I see Meteor out of the corner of my eye and realize he’s winking at me. I turn my head and mouth “Do you want to say something?” He nods so subtly I’ve almost missed it. I spin my attention on the crowd once more.
“The ship’s Mechanic, Meteor, will speak to you now.” As I step away from the microphone, I see Meteor stride up to it.
“Hello Scallonians! And parents,” he says, chuckling. After a few more jokes, he has the whole audience shrieking with laughter.
“Anyway,” he continues, running a hand through his hair, “On a more serious note, I would like to share with you some of the highlights of that stunner of a ship. The first, invisibility. We will use the ghostly component to slip into the Long Island Sound, which surrounds the state of New York, a state in North America. The second feature is the teleportation station. When any one of the team members stands inside the glass tube, all they have to do is type in a destination and they will become millions of molecules whizzing through time and space, to arrive at the objective mere seconds after the destination was entered. Oh, there is also this.” He is holding up a bracelet, no bigger than a small watch. “This little device has an emergency teleport button. When pushed, it will bring the wearer back to the Orion, right to the teleportation station.
“Each member of Team Tektitewill have an earpiece that functions just like the call feature on your holopads. All the wearer has to do, is say, for example, Meteor to Asteroid. Then, on Asteroid’s end, a four note tune will play, notifying her that I am calling.
“Now, if you’ll be so kind as to excuse the team, we have an Earth to get to.”
He steps back into his space, then mouths. “One… two… three,” and we all press our teleport buttons. Suddenly, we are aboard the Orion. We all run up to the observation deck to see the crowd and hear Comet’s farewell speech. 130Please respect copyright.PENANA3x4Y6a8NPX