One
The mission patch on the right shoulder of her jacket looked official, and JJ Wren was proud of it. Astronauts, shuttle crews, and team members aboard the International Space Station wore similar mission patches. Commander Zota had given the Star Challengers patches-blue, white, and black with an image of the space shuttle launching off into the future—to remind them of their decision to inspire re others with the importance of science and the space program.
Before their original school field trip to the Challenger Center, JJ’s class had designed a mission patch as a homework assignment. She had enjoyed the trip, well before they’d learned how important and exciting the Challenger Centers could be. This patch was real, though, not just a homework assignment. In a few spare moments between her two jobs, their mother had sewn the patches onto jackets for JJ and her brother Dyl. To everyone’s surprise, Song-Ye had chosen to sew on her own patch, rather than delegate the task to a member of her wealthy parents’ domestic staff.
The Star Challengers were happy to show they were a team, though most people would never know the true extent of their extra-curricular activities.
Wearing the jacket kept JJ thinking about the future crisis humans would face—the Kylarn invasion—and the related problem that too few young people were choosing careers in math, engineering and sciences. Even without the coming alien attack, Earth’s future looked pretty dismal unless JJ’s generation changed their priorities.
But Commander Zota’s guidance gave her hope. She and her friends were going to make a difference. JJ and Dyl’s mom thought they volunteered with Mr. Zota at the Challenger Center as part of a student program—which was true, although there were only five of them in the program. Their friends Tony, King, and Song-Ye had also convinced their parents of their interest in space. None of the parents objected, since they considered the Challenger Center to be a far better use of time than playing video games or web surfing.
After school, JJ stopped at the local market to pick up some supplies for dinner; she also gathered sodas and snacks to take to King’s house for their get together, as well as for their mission at the Challenger Center that Saturday. She couldn’t wait for the next exercise. On evenings when their mother worked at the hotel, the brother and sister traded off cooking and cleaning. Tonight was one of those nights, and it was JJ’s turn to make dinner. Dyl, who was already at home doing his homework, would wash the dishes.
Carrying a plastic basket for her few items, JJ moved among the shoppers pushing their carts down the store aisles. In the hour after school, many parents and teenagers had also stopped by to pick up necessities, so the store was crowded. JJ tossed in some zucchini, carrots, and a pack of ground beef, as well as a jar of salsa, tortilla chips, freeze-dried fruit snacks, some cheese crackers and cans of root beer and Coke for her fellow Star Challengers. After all, if they were trying to save the human race, they might as well have some snacks while they were in training.
She didn’t even notice the man watching her until he approached her in the snacks aisle, where she picked up a box of Little Debbie cakes and a box of Moon Pies. “That’s an unusual patch on your jacket, young lady. You must be interested in the space program?”
JJ usually liked it when people noticed the patch and asked her about the Challenger Center, but this tall, thin man had a severe look about him, as if he were spoiling for an argument. Icy blue eyes stared at her from beneath gray eyebrows, though his hair was dark. Faint lines around his eyes suggested he might be old, but she couldn’t guess whether he was forty or sixty.
JJ glanced at the patch on her shoulder. “Yes. My school took a field trip to the Challenger Center, and it was pretty inspiring, so I decided to volunteer there.”
Unlike most adults hearing her excitement for the space program, this stranger did not seem at all impressed. “Space program,” the man scoffed. “It’s just a distraction from more important things.”
JJ was surprised. “The space program is important. Think of all the great things astronauts and aerospace engineers have done to help the human race.” She felt very awkward to be defending herself to this stranger.
The man countered, “Think of the money that was thrown away on those projects—money that could have been used for truly important endeavors. Things that mattered.”
JJ felt herself flushing, and she raised her chin. “Okay, like what?”
The man sniffed. “How about feeding the hungry? There are millions of starving people in the world. Or building houses for the homeless. Providing medical care for the sick. Building schools. Shall I go on?” He raised his eyebrows, appearing very smug. “Space is cold. Dark. Heartless. It’s a void where nothing of value exists or happens.”
JJ wasn’t convinced. Even though the causes were all good, she had heard these suggestions before. “People made those arguments back in the 1960s during the Apollo missions,” she pointed out. “Back then, people asked, ‘Why waste money sending a man to the Moon when there are so many problems to solve on Earth first?”’
The basket was getting heavy, so she shifted it to her other arm. “So, the Apollo program was cancelled, and we stopped sending people to the Moon in 1972 after Apollo 17. But it’s been decades, and the ‘saved’ money wasn’t used for those important things you mentioned. People are still starving, sick, and homeless. Taking money away from the space program doesn’t solve the other problems. If helping people isn’t in the budget, it doesn’t get done.
“But space programs do solve problems,” she continued. “A lot of the technology we take for granted now actually came from space research. And that technology and research gave people good jobs. The discoveries made because of the space program have changed the world and made it better place.”
JJ expected the man to chuckle, or at least pretend that he was enjoying the debate, but he seemed very hard and serious. “You seem very earnest. What sort of discoveries?”
Fortunately, JJ and her friends had discussed this many times, and she was ready for just such a debate. She pulled out her cell phone and held it up with one hand. “Communications satellites for starters. Plus the GPS in your car, geological survey maps to identify valuable resources, weather satellites that warn us about hurricanes and storms—in fact, any kind of satellite whatsoever. And computer technology. Handheld computers and electronic mail were developed as part of the overall space program, along with robotics that are used in medicine and manufacturing.” She was on a roll now. “They developed tons of cool materials: alloys, plastics, Teflon, and new kinds of cloth. Then there’s medical imaging that helps diagnose disease, cordless tools, new ways to preserve food,”—here she pointed to the freeze-dried fruit in the cart—”ATMs, water purifiers, solar collectors, sunglasses that block ultraviolet light. I could go on and on.” She switched the heavy basket back to her other hand.
She noticed then that the man had no basket or shopping cart, nor had he picked up any groceries. What was he doing here? Something about him felt very strange.
The man seemed irritated by her answer. “Who’s to say that someone wouldn’t have invented all of that anyway? And why take the risk of sending people into space? We don’t need to go there—it’s just grandstanding to show off what we can do. It’s dangerous. It’s expensive. It’s pointless.”
Even though the stranger made her decidedly uncomfortable, JJ did not turn and walk away. She had spent enough time with Commander Zota and the Star Challengers to be convinced of the benefits, so this man’s perspective was hard for her to understand.
“You think ‘One giant leap for mankind’ was grandstanding? Setting foot on the Moon was one of the greatest things mankind has ever accomplished. We need to keep dreaming, to feed the human spirit. And it’s by stretching ourselves to do what’s never been done before—by trying to do the impossible—that we grow.”
This man must have been alive during the heyday of the U.S. space program, when astronauts were childhood heroes who returned home to tickertape parades, when every schoolchild wanted to grow up to be an astronaut. Why had he lost his excitement? Or had he never felt it in the first place? “Don’t you remember what you felt like when you watched the first Apollo missions on TV with your family and the rest of the world? Didn’t you feel any excitement or pride?”
Now the man let out a small laugh, but she heard no humor in it. “I do remember what I felt. It’s what I feel today. Waste of money. Too dangerous. Kind of pathetic, really.” He focused on JJ with colder eyes. “I can see you’re very passionate about this, but you’re young. As you become an adult, young lady, you’ll get a dose of reality and see that most science is just wasted effort and money. We really should concern ourselves with more practical and realistic goals.”
JJ’s heart pounded, and she was disappointed that she hadn’t been able to convince him. Commander Zota had given them all a mission to make a better future, rather than just letting it happen. She couldn’t let herself be intimidated—after all, she had faced the Kylarn. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Mister. But science is a practical and realistic way to solve the world’s problems.”
The man turned and stalked away down the aisle without saying goodbye. Scowling, JJ yanked a bag of tortilla chips off the shelf in front of her, tossed it into the basket, and walked off in the other direction.
As soon as the man had disappeared around the corner, she thought of several other examples she could have used. She picked up her pace and headed up the next aisle, hoping to bump into him again, but he was gone. He must have moved on to a different section of the store.
While she finished her shopping, JJ kept an eye on the cash registers to see if the man was there. The debate kept going in her mind, and she came up with some convincing points, but she never saw the man again—he had simply vanished.
JJ paid for the groceries with the money her mom had given her and went home, still feeling unsettled.
***