“I’m not looking forward to this,” Carly said as she and Piper approached the foyer of their dorm building.

“Seriously,” Piper said. “I’m too tired to do any more challenges today.”

“Welcome!” STEAM exclaimed as he hurried up to them. “Enjoy. You have earned it. Yes sir!”

“Earned what?” Carly asked.

Suddenly, thumping dance music kicked in, making the floor vibrate.

“It is a party!” STEAM said, and led them into the foyer.

The two stood there, wide-eyed to see that the space was decorated for a celebration. Orange and blue balloons covered the ceiling. Multicolored crepe-paper streamers hung down to hide the drab walls. A long table was loaded with bowls of chips and candy. Another held a variety of juices and sodas.

It looked like a festive school dance.

Except nobody was having fun.

Siena sat by herself, reading.

The boys all surrounded the snack table.

Anna wasn’t even there.

STEAM swung his arms and jumped from foot to foot in a strange attempt to dance. It looked more like he had short-circuited a critical movement function.

Everyone rolled their eyes and turned away from the robot.

STEAM gave up, dropped his head, and went back to pouring soda.

Carly and Piper approached Siena, making it official that the boys were on one side of the room and the girls on the other.

“I don’t think reading is allowed at a party,” Carly said with a smile.

“I’m doing research on the changes in physiology of the human body during long periods of space flight,” Siena said.

Carly shot Piper a look and said, “Oh, in that case. That’s allowed.”

“Thank you,” Siena said, and went back to reading.

“I was kidding!” Carly said, and took the book from her. “Take a break—we earned it.”

“If you insist,” Siena said with a sigh. “What should we do?”

Carly looked around at the overdone yet earnest decorations.

“They tried to make this look like a dance, so let’s dance,” she said.

She took Siena by the hand and pulled her out of her seat.

“You too,” Carly said to Piper, and pushed her wheelchair into the center of the room.

The three faced each other and started bouncing to the music. Siena had no rhythm and looked completely uncomfortable. Piper laughed and rocked in her seat. Carly liked to dance and spun around the other two.

The boys watched with looks that said they would rather be fighting another Raptogon than venturing out to dance.

“This is a strange end to a very strange week,” Niko said. “It’s weird to think that some of us are going home tomorrow.”

“To be honest, I miss my family,” Ravi said. “I want to be on the crew, but going home wouldn’t be a horrible thing.”

“I miss my family too,” Gabriel said. “But I really want this. And they could use the ten million bucks.”

“What about you, Dash?” Niko asked.

Dash thought hard before answering. “I guess I’m hoping if we don’t make the crew, there might still be some way we can help with the mission.”

“Yeah,” Ravi said. “Like teaching Anna to lighten up.”

“Look!” Gabriel said.

STEAM was between the three girls, whirling and dancing…badly.

“I’m glad somebody’s having fun,” Niko said.

STEAM danced his way over to the boys.

“Oh no,” Ravi said. “Don’t even think about it.”

“But it is a party. Enjoy yourselves. Make my day,” STEAM said.

“You go ahead and knock yourself out,” Ravi said.

“Dash,” STEAM said. “Please go to the supply room and retrieve a few liters of soda?”

“Absolutely,” Dash said, and hurried off, relieved that he didn’t have to dance. “Don’t hurt yourself, Steamer.”

STEAM gave him a pistol shot with his little mechanical finger, then turned to the other guys.

All three turned their backs on him.

“You are party poopers,” STEAM said.

Dash left the foyer and walked down the long corridor that led to the supply room. Inside was Commander Phillips sitting on top of a table.

“Oh, hi,” Dash said with surprise. “You should come to the party. It’s really…uh…”

“Boring?”

Dash shrugged and smiled. “Nice try, though.”

“Something’s come up,” Phillips said gravely.

“Oh,” Dash said. “I guess I wasn’t really sent here to get soda.”

“There’s a problem.”

Dash stood silently, waiting for the worst…and got it.

“It’s you,” Phillips said.

“Is this because I had the idea for shutting down the generators? That was a mistake. I won’t do anything like that again.”

“It wasn’t a mistake. It was brilliant.”

“Oh. So then what’s the problem?”

“You’re twelve and a half years old.”

Dash stared at Phillips, uncomprehending. “Not getting that.”

“We thought you were twelve,” Phillips explained. “Somewhere along the line, your birthday was entered incorrectly into our system and you’re actually six months older than we thought. We just realized it today.”

“Still don’t get why that’s a problem,” Dash said.

Phillips ran his hands through his hair and took a deep, troubled breath.

“Why do you think we’re putting together a crew of such young people?” he asked.

“I thought it had something to do with adults not being able to physically handle the stress of the flight, or something.”

“That’s exactly right. We’ve developed a revolutionary propulsion system that allows the ship to make jumps not only through space but also time. It’s how we can send the crew to such a far-flung location. Without this propulsion system, the journey out and back could take years. Decades. Now we can get a crew out and back in one year.”

“So why is my age a problem?” Dash asked.

“The biological component of the system wreaks havoc on the metabolisms of older astronauts. Anyone over the age of fourteen is a liability, a risk.”

“Oh” was all Dash managed to say.

“The schedule calls for six months of training before launch. The trip itself will take a year. That means—”

“That means I’ll hit the danger age before we get back,” Dash said soberly.

Phillips looked down and kicked at the floor.

“How accurate is this?” Dash asked.

“Enough that we can’t risk it,” Phillips replied. “Simply put, you could die.”

Dash’s heart sank.

“So that’s it. I’m out,” he said, trying not to let his voice quiver.

“It seems so,” Phillips said.

“Wow” was all Dash could say as tears formed in his eyes. “I guess I never had a shot.”

“I’m sorry,” Phillips said with genuine regret. “I wish we had known earlier.”

“Any chance this is a mistake?” Dash asked with a touch of desperation.

“No,” Phillips said.

Dash wiped his eyes and picked up a couple of bottles of soda.

“Okay, then. I should get these back to the party.”

He turned for the door, then stopped and said, “Would I have made it?”

“I don’t know if this is going to make you feel better or worse, but of all the candidates, you were the only slam dunk. You brought this team together, Dash. More than once. That was one of the qualities we were looking for and you exceeded every expectation. I hope that means something to you.”

“It does. Thanks. I, uh, I’m not going to tell anybody. I don’t want this to turn into a pity party.”

“I understand. Nobody will know until tomorrow.”

Dash gave a nod of thanks and left the room. He walked slowly back toward the party. It was over. Any hope of being part of the greatest adventure in the history of mankind was gone. He wasn’t going to save the world. He wasn’t going to give his mother ten million dollars. He was going home. Dash reached the door to the foyer and looked out at the group.

The guys were still hovering around the food.

Carly and Piper chatted on the opposite side of the room.

Siena had gone back to reading.

It was hard to celebrate when every last one of them had their stomach in a knot, thinking about what the next day would bring.

Dash looked at them each in turn, wondering who would be going up and who would feel as badly as he did.

He stood up straight, took a deep breath, and shouted out, “Hey, what kind of party is this?”

He ran into the room, shaking the bottle of soda.

“Let’s have some fun!” he exclaimed as he twisted off the cap. A spray of soda flew, dousing the guys.

“Yeah!” Carly cheered, jumped up, and ran for the soda table. She grabbed another bottle of soda, shook it up, and let it erupt all over the others.

Siena hid her book under the cushion of a sofa for protection.

“Oh yeah!” Gabriel shouted. “It is so on!” He went for the food, grabbed handfuls of M&M’s, and whipped them at Dash.

Dash retaliated by dumping a bowl of Cheez-Its over Gabriel’s head.

The party quickly degenerated into a raucous, messy celebration of food fighting and fun. Everyone battled everyone else while laughing, throwing, and even dancing.

Anna watched the mayhem from the far end of the foyer with her arms folded. STEAM scampered over to her with soda dripping from his big eyes.

“Join the fun,” STEAM said.

Anna shook her head. “They don’t want me there.”

“Yes they do,” STEAM argued.

“No, a leader shouldn’t let her guard down like that. Good night.”

She turned her back on the group and headed for her room.

Behind her, the battle raged.

The tension was gone.

Ravi filled his mouth with soda and sprayed it at Niko, who was disgusted and laughed hysterically at the same time. Dash couldn’t stop laughing either, until he looked past Niko and saw STEAM.

The little robot was looking at him with his oversized mechanical eyes.

STEAM knew the truth. If it was possible for a robot to show sympathy, STEAM was doing it. Dash gave him a small smile and a shrug of resignation.

STEAM gave Dash a salute, then picked up a cup of punch and tossed it at Ravi. “We will party like it is 1999!” STEAM exclaimed.

“I have no idea what that means!” Ravi yelled back.

The party raged on.

Tomorrow the real show would begin.