Chapter 8

GLITCH

We all fell super-silent as she tried it again: still nothing.

“What’s wrong?” Cozzie asked, panic and fear definitely in his voice. “Why won’t it start?”

Mom kept trying, but she couldn’t get the MM to start back up. My heart thumped so hard in my chest I could feel it beating.

“I bet it’s the dust,” Raj said. “It was blowing all over while we explored the caldera.”

I felt my jaw clench and noticed Yuna nervously tapping her foot. “What happens if we can’t get it started?” Yuna asked.

“We’ll get it started,” Raj said. “Let’s call the professor and ask him for a little help?”

Mom pressed the button to make the call, but it didn’t work. I tried making a call with my phone and that didn’t work either. None of the phones worked. We were stranded.

“I think that we’re so deep in the caldera that the phone signals aren’t working,” Mom said. “I don’t know why the MM isn’t working, though. It should be fully functional and able to operate in these conditions.”

I remembered the soccer ball hitting the bottom of the MM earlier and felt a ping of hope. “Maybe it has something to do with the soccer ball hitting the bottom,” I suggested.

“I bet that had something to do with it!” Raj exclaimed. “I’ll go take a look.”

He climbed back out of the MM and vanished underneath. We all climbed out too. I knelt down to see what he was up to, and he already had a piece of the bottom panel off. “It looks like the ball might have knocked it loose,” he said. “There’s a bunch of dust on the wiring. I bet it’s the problem. I’m not sure how I’m going to get the dust off.”

We looked inside the MM for anything that might help get off the dust, but couldn’t find anything. “I have a few more paintbrushes in my backpack,” Yuna said. “Maybe we can use them to dust off the wiring.”

“That might work,” Raj said. She handed them to him, and he worked for a while dusting off the wires. The Sun had set, and the caldera felt even creepier. Above I spotted Deimos and Phobos in the sky. Cozzie noticed them too.

“This place is cursed,” he said.

“It’s not cursed,” Mom insisted. “We’re just having a technical glitch. I bet we get the MM working again in no time at all.”

“Give it a try,” Raj said.

“Cozzie, why don’t you click the starter this time?” Mom asked. “You might give us a little luck.”

Cozzie climbed in, crossed his fingers, and pressed the starter. The MM started right up as it had earlier in the day. We all cheered. Raj quickly put back the panel and climbed out from under it.

“Those brushes did the trick,” Raj said. “You should bring your art supplies with you wherever you go.”

“I always do,” Yuna said.

We made it back from Olympus Mons long after the other Martian Masters arrived. By the time we returned, everyone else was already back inside the station, except for Dad. He was recording as we approached.

We landed softly on the surface, near the other MMs. Dad stopped recording and hugged us all after we climbed out. Raj’s and Yuna’s families were inside the station waving like crazy from one of the pods. They both skipped toward the station.

“Thank goodness you are all right,” Dad said. “We were really worried about you.”

“We’re fine,” Mom said. “We just had a little glitch.”

“It was pretty scary,” Cozzie said. “But it was also pretty exciting.”

“If you thought that was exciting, wait until tomorrow when we visit Valles Marineris!” Mom said.