“Hey, Toby,” said Hannah, “don’t you think it’s cool that we might see what happened to the crew.”
“Yeah, supercool,” came the response, “provided we’re looking at it. If it all happens while we’re at school we might miss it.”
This was a horrific thought. Hannah immediately decided she wasn’t going to school all week so she could watch the window and solve the mystery. When the time came, however, her mother was not impressed with this idea.
“I don’t care what it’s going to show, young lady, you’re going to school and let’s not have an argument about it.”
“But don’t you care about what happened to all the astronauts?” asked Hannah, hopefully.
“I care about what happened to them, but your missing school isn’t going to bring them back. What happened there is in the past, years ago. There’s nothing you can do now.”
So Hannah went to school and then rushed home again at the end of the day, anxious to see what had transpired. It was still a couple of little moons but there was an edge of a large round shape beginning to show on the left hand edge.
“Not much there, kiddo,” said Toby, startling her.
“What’s that then?” she said, pointing to the round edge.
“Oh yes,” said Toby bending to look closer, “I reckon that’s the edge of Jupiter. Not long now, but it won’t be before Thursday that they get to Europa. So you’re safe to go to school till then, anyway.” He grinned at her, aware of this morning’s battle with their mother.
Hannah pouted and shoved him. “You want to see it too, don’t you?”
“Yes, you’re quite right, I do. And I’ve figured out what to do about it.”
“Oh, what?” Hannah almost shouted.”What can we do?”
“Set up the video in front of the window with a delayed start. I reckon the earliest we’ll see Europa is Thursday afternoon, so if we set up the video to start recording for the afternoon, it’ll just manage the three hours till we get home. You’re the clever clogs who worked out that it can be videoed.”
This sounded quite satisfactory to Hannah so she was able to go happily to school for the next three days.
Toby did as promised, setting up the video on its tripod to capture the scenes revealed by the window over Thursday afternoon.
Chapter 7
On Thursday afternoon, Hannah rushed home from school. Bursting into the little study, she found Toby fiddling with the video camera. She quickly checked the window which was showing a lot of dark lines.
“So what does it show?” she demanded, out of breath.
“I don’t know yet,” was the response. “I’ve only just started rewinding it. Here, you plug this into the computer and we’ll play it on the screen.” Hannah did as instructed, plugging the cable into a USB port on the front of the PC.
While they were watching Hannah could hardly sit still. At the end, while Toby was thoughtfully pressing rewind, she rushed outside and down to the gate. As soon as she got into the gate next door she was calling.
“Ella, Ella, come and see. It’s aliens!”
It took only seconds for the neighbours’ door to open and Ella and Joe piled out and hurried back around to Hannah’s front door with her. Hannah’s words were tumbling out and all over each other as she explained what they had done with the video.
Awestruck they all rushed to the window. All that was visible was a rocky landscape criss-crossed with lines.
“It looks like the road map,” said Ella.
“Cars,” said Joe hopefully.
“Well, I can’t see any, Joe,” said Hannah, “but you never know.”
“Aliens, Hannah, what about the aliens?” insisted Ella. Hannah turned expectantly to Toby.
“Can we play it again, please, Toby?” she asked. Toby nodded.
“Yes, I’d like to see it again too.”
As the digital memory played the action again, Ella’s eyes grew rounder and Joe stuck a finger in his mouth. Toby was engrossed and Hannah was still bouncing up and down, only just able to contain the excitement.
The picture showed figures approaching over the lumpy landscape. They seemed to be in spacesuits lighter than the astronaut suits Hannah had seen in pictures on the ISA website. They moved quickly and jerkily.
Then there was a stretch just showing landscape. Then the film showed the backs of the strange figures walking away again but this time they were accompanied by other figures in the bulky suits that Hannah recognised. They too were jerky and very quick.
“The crew,” she said pointing. Toby nodded.
“It must be. But they’re just walking off,” he said.
“Is there any more?” asked Ella. Toby shook his head.
“No, just blank landscape again.”
“We should ring Laura,” said Hannah. “She would know who should see this.”
“I still don’t understand,” said Toby. “If the crew walked off and didn’t come back, how did the ship take off again?”
“Autopilot?” asked Hannah.
“Couldn’t do it with nobody on board,” said Toby. “It was programmed so that it could take off on its own in case of a medical emergency, say. But it had to have somebody on board visible to its internal cameras and registering on its heat sensors, as well as being large enough to be a person, not just an animal. All those things together make it virtually impossible for it to take off by itself. Unless something malfunctioned. But a lot of things would have to go wrong together.” He shook his head.
“How come they were so quick and jerky?” asked Ella.
“I think it’s because the window is a speeded up recording. Remember what Laura said about it playing back faster?”
Toby glanced at the window. “Let’s give Laura a ring and see whether she managed to talk to someone at ISA. She might know who we should tell.”
Ella headed back to their house to get Laura’s number while Toby reset the video to the beginning of the recording. The phone call to Laura was short and finished with her promising to come round immediately.
When she arrived, Hannah was watching out the window for her and immediately opened the door. As Laura came in, Hannah breathlessly filled her in on what they had seen. Laura sounded as though she wasn’t convinced and thought Hannah might be teasing. But when Toby fast forwarded the video to the figures coming in out of the landscape she sat forward, eyes intently on the screen.
“And then there’s just a lot of landscape again,” said Toby, pushing fast forward again. “Until you get to here and the figures are walking away again. But so are the crew.”
“Whoa,” said Laura, “this is a biggie. And you haven’t seen anything else?”
Toby shook his head. “No this is it so far,” he replied. “Did you manage to get hold of anybody useful?”
“Actually, no,” she said. “One guy didn’t believe me, another one couldn’t care less and a third one I spoke to denied that such a gel had ever been invented. I didn’t really trust him, anyway. I sent an email to chap in the Head Office that I met once and liked. Something should come in tomorrow, maybe.”
“In the meantime we need to keep watching, or filming, to make sure we see whatever there is to be seen,” said Toby. “We still don’t know what happened to get the ship back into space without anybody on board. Maybe they came back and something else happened to them after the takeoff.”
Chapter 8
“Hey, Toby, come and look!” yelled Hannah up the stairs, “Someone’s coming back.” She quickly ran back to the little study.
Toby raced down the stairs. He joined Hannah at the window where they could still see the lumpy landscape with roads criss-crossing. There were also two figures coming towards the window. One was wearing the bulky suit of the astronauts, the other had the slimline alien suit they had seen before.
Quickly, with the same jerky movement as earlier, the figures approached and passed out of
sight. Hannah and Toby kept watching and shortly the same two came into view again going back where they came from somewhere out in the distance.
Hannah found watching just more landscape started to get boring. She was considering whether to go and tell Ella and Joe what they had seen when the picture changed. The landscape started dropping to the bottom of the window.
“Toby, look. What’s happening now?”
“I think it’s the ship taking off,” he said. “However it happened.”
They were watching the window as stars and the edge of Jupiter came back into sight when the phone rang.
A few moments later, Hannah’s mother called out from the living room.
“Toby, it’s for you. Girl called Laura. She sounds a bit old for you.”
Toby chuckled. “It’s okay mum, it’s only Ella’s auntie, probably about the window.” He went to take the call while Hannah kept watching the window. When Toby returned he said “Laura would like a copy of the recording of the aliens coming to show this ISA director she contacted. She said he was really interested. She’s coming round this afternoon.”
“Good,” said Hannah, “I like Laura, she’s nice.”
Toby paused for a moment, thinking. “We still don’t actually know what happened though. Okay, we know there are some aliens involved, goodness knows what or who. They took the crew off with them. Or the crew just went with them; it didn’t look like they were fighting it or threatened with a weapon or anything.”
“Always assuming we would know what an alien weapon looked like,” Hannah reminded him.
“True, there is that,” he said. “Let’s have another look.” He sat down at the computer and called up the video file, Hannah leaning on his shoulder. But study it as much as they could, it still was just a picture of the crew and strangers walking away. There was no sign of anything that looked like a weapon.
When Laura came by that afternoon they told her about the two figures coming to and from the ship while she watched the edge of Jupiter gently recede in the window.
Toby downloaded the video clip to the memory stick Laura had brought. She tucked it away in her small black leather shoulder bag.
“I have an appointment to see Mr Riddington tomorrow. I’ll show him the pictures and tell him what you have just seen and let you know if there’s any news from him.” She fished her car keys out of her jacket pocket. “See you later,” she said as she went out to her car.
“Toby,” said Hannah, “I’ve just thought of something.” Her eyes were round and she looked pale.
“What’s that?”
“They must still be up there.”
Chapter 9
The next evening at the dinner table Hannah’s mother said she had received a phone call.
“From your friend Laura, Toby,” she said. “She was inviting all of us and Ella and Joe and their mother to visit the International Space Agency Centre. Apparently there’s a launch or a landing or something that is considered quite an event. She can get us all access to the visitors’ viewing gallery while it’s going on. This is next weekend, what do you say?” Hannah’s father nodded and looked at Toby.
“Well, spaceships are really your thing, Toby, shall we go?” he asked.
“Yes, please,” said Toby and grinned at Hannah, “you too kiddo?”
“Absolutely! You’re not leaving me out,” said Hannah promptly.
“I think it really could be quite interesting,” said their father.
“I might just let you all go and carry on with my picture,” said their mother, “I’m close to finishing and a bit of peace and quiet will be just what I need.” She smiled around the dinner table. “Space isn’t really my thing but you’ll all have a lot of fun, I’m sure.”
And so that is the way it turned out. Ella, Joe, Hannah and Toby came with Hannah’s father and both the mothers stayed home. They came to their front doors, to wave the expedition off. The car was full of excited chatter as everybody wondered what they would see.
They were met at the gateway by a security guard who checked their names off on a list, gave them a sticker to wear and waved them through. Laura met them in the front reception foyer.
“I’m glad you could all come. I thought you’d be interested in seeing this. They’re launching a new probe to Neptune to see what’s there,” smiling, she indicated the way to the visitor’s gallery. “I’ve also found someone you would like to meet,” she added. “He was an astronaut before he retired. He likes coming to see launches and keep track of what’s going on. He also has a son who is in a spaceship right now, heading for Callisto, another one of Jupiter’s moons.”
”Wow,” said Hannah, “a real spaceman! Can we ask him questions?”
“Indeed you may,” replied Laura. She led them along a wide corridor, up a flight of steps and into a wide room with one glass wall. Through the wall they could see rows of computer terminals and chairs. There was a huge screen at the front of the room, clearly visible from the viewing gallery. A huge digital clock on the wall counted down the time to lift-off.
“There’s only the duty team on at the moment,” she pointed to the seven people sitting at terminals. “Very soon, though, the room will fill up as the launch gets closer. Not long now, I would think.” She glanced at her watch.
A tall man came into the room. He was wearing faded blue jeans and his T-shirt showed a spaceship and the word ‘Rocketman’. He came towards the little group standing at the window.
“Hi Jeff,” said Laura, “right on time, as always, I see.”
“Wee-ell, it’s real fun seeing these little jokers shoot up into space. Never fails to take me back. And these are your friends that you wanted me to meet?” His dark eyes shone as he smiled at each of them in turn as Laura introduced them. He shook hands with Hannah’s father and with Toby.
“Pleased to meet you,” said Ella, “are you really a spaceman?”
“I sure am. Well, I was. I’m retired now, you see,” he replied.
“Wow,” was all Ella could think of to say. They were all impressed. Fancy meeting a real live person who had been up in a spaceship.
“Did you go to Jupiter?” asked Hannah.
“No, ma’am,” was the response. “I did visit Mars, though. That was fun.”
This was enough to unlock a flood of questions. They all wanted to know what Mars was like; did he see the moons Deimos and Phobos closeup? What was it like being in a little spaceship for so long? How long did it take? Finally, Laura held up her hands.
“Whoa, time to stop talking and start looking,” she said. While they had been talking to Jeff, the room on the other side of the glass had filled up with people. The big screen was turned on and showed a slim, slightly flattened cylinder, nestling against a gantry, ready for takeoff.
“That’s the Pointer, the probe taking off today. All the equipment is tucked inside that casing. Once it gets up into space it will unfold all sorts of antennae and collecting arms.”
“How long will it take to Neptune?” asked Hannah.
“About three and a half years,” replied Laura. “It’s a long way. Come on let’s get comfortable and watch what’s going on. If you listen carefully, you can hear what’s going on down there. They pipe the sound through to the gallery from the main floor there.”
“T minus 2 and counting,” came over the speaker.
They found seats that gave them a good view and settled down to watch. It was very exciting but measured and calm, nothing seemed to happen quickly. Hannah nudged Toby and pointed at the big screen. With a dotted line it showed the path that the Pointer was to take. It looked very like the chart Hannah had made for the ISS Apex. Toby nodded and smiled at her.
Suddenly it was a countdown, just like on telly.
“..8, 7, 6, 5, 4…”
Someone at all the computers said “ignition”, and white smoke started pouring out of the bottom of the
cylinder. Slowly, the cylinder lifted, the gantry falling away and a deep thunder vibrated around the room. Eagerly all eyes followed the slim white shape as it got smaller and smaller and Hannah felt her eyes start to fill with tears. Soon only a little line of fire could be seen and then not even that. Everyone relaxed and took a deep breath.
Laura turned to the others and said “Fancy a coffee? Or a cold drink or something?” The others were all keen, not wanting the visit to end.
Chapter 10
The coffee shop was large and very clean. Orange tiles scattered haphazardly on the wall relieved the white and stainless steel. The chairs tidily at tables were also orange. There was a selection of cakes and biscuits at the counter and everyone chose what they wanted and picked out a drink. Hannah’s father paid for everybody, including Jeff, who protested but eventually accepted.
They put two tables together so everyone could sit around together. Hannah was still feeling awestruck by what they had just seen.
“Was that worth seeing then?” asked Laura.
Hannah simply nodded and Ella said “Wow!”
Joe also said “Wow!” and took a swig from his apple juice.
“Amazing!” said Toby. “Definitely something to see.”
Laura smiled at Jeff, “And you don’t get tired of it, Jeff?”
“Not at all,” said Jeff. “It’s a bit different every time. There have been disasters, too. You never really know that it will all go fine.”
“What was it like sitting inside when it took off?” asked Toby.
“A bit emotional,” said Jeff. “You don’t know if you’re going to make it but it’s incredibly exciting at the same time. Everything gets really heavy as the boosters fight gravity to get you off the ground. If you have any wrinkles underneath you, in the long johns under the suit, it can get really painful. But there’s absolutely nothing like the feeling of boosting out into the sky blue then dark blue, then into the black with millions and millions of stars around you. You can see many more stars out there beyond the atmosphere.”
“Did you ever travel on the ISS Apex?” asked Hannah.