Chapter 10

BIG TROUBLE

We made it to Valles Marineris safely after a long journey. Professor Will landed the pods in a long string along the surface as the Sun set. Each family had its own pod. It was like we were on a camping trip on Mars.

We were so tired from the trip that we went to bed early. I slept like a Martian rock that night. I dreamed about flying around Mars in the MM.

In the morning, Raj, Yuna, and I were outside playing soccer when the professor approached us.

“I have a fun experiment that I thought you and your team might want to help me with today,” Professor Will said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I’d like to tow several pods out to different locations within Valles Marineris. Each one contains a different experiment.”

“How can we help?” Raj asked.

“You guys can tow them out with an MM.”

“It sounds like fun to me,” Yuna said.

“I already asked your parents if it’s okay for you to help. It should be easy enough,” the professor said. “I’ll be able to track you on my computer.”

He showed us how to connect a pod to the back of the MM. It was pretty amazing because the tube from the pod connected to the MM, so you could actually move between the MM and the pod.

We flew the first two out to the locations without any trouble, but when we were about halfway to the location with the third, the sky started to fill with red dust like I’ve never seen before. Maybe Cozzie is right and Mars is cursed, I thought. The surface below vanished completely as we were swallowed up in the dust storm.

“Press ‘Land,’” Raj said. I pressed the landing feature, but nothing happened. Then the map vanished from the screen and the dashboard lights blinked off.

“What’s happening?” Yuna asked, alarmed.

“The dust must be short-circuiting the system,” Raj said. “Try to lower it the best you can.”

I did my best to lower the MM slowly, even though I couldn’t see where I was going. I figured that if I went slowly, when we finally reached the ground we hopefully wouldn’t hit very hard. We had been traveling pretty high, and it took a few minutes before we finally touched down on the surface with a thud. The impact wasn’t too bad, but almost immediately the MM started moving.

“We must have landed on a steep incline,” Yuna said. “We’re sliding.”

I tried to lift back up, but it didn’t work. The MM tipped on its side, and we bounced and tumbled down what must have been a steep cliff. When we finally reached the bottom, I was amazed we weren’t hurt. My neck hurt a little from the impact, but other than that, I felt fine. “Wow, we were lucky,” I said.

Raj and Yuna spoke at the same time, and I realized I couldn’t understand anything they were saying. I banged the side of my helmet with my hand to jar the wires. It was no use; the translator wasn’t working. We were back to three different languages. We were in big trouble, and we all knew it.

I didn’t have to understand what they were saying to know how they were feeling. All I had to do was look into their eyes. They were panicked and worried. I felt the exact same way. Raj was talking super-fast, and I knew that he must have been saying something about our situation and how we were going to get out alive.

I located my phone and tried to make a call to the station, but it didn’t go through. Panic rushed through me as I watched Raj and Yuna do the same. None of the phones worked.

After a few panic-filled minutes, I realized I had to calm myself somehow. I was the leader, after all. Raj and Yuna were my responsibility. I had been trained for this sort of thing. I took a few deep breaths to calm my mind and tried to focus. Mom had taught me that in an emergency you have to focus on all the positives.

Focus on the positives, I thought. We’re alive — that’s a big positive. We have oxygen. The space suits are still doing their jobs. The suits were providing us with oxygen and were keeping us warm too. So we had oxygen and warmth. It was important to focus on those things.

The negatives, I thought. Mom had always taught me that the negatives should not be ignored in an emergency, but you have to focus on the positives before you can deal with the negatives. First of all, we were lost. That was a big negative. Also, we had no way to communicate with the station. If that wasn’t enough, we didn’t know if everyone else was safe. I was sure there were more negatives, but I couldn’t think about them without getting upset again.

Raj and Yuna were still trying to communicate with me, but I had no clue what they were saying. We finally sat and all fell silent. We were lost on Mars.