Double Cross Read Online Free Page A

per second for nearly 1,500 days to get there. (And some stars are millions of light-years away!)
    Why is looking through the telescope like looking backward in time?
    If you focus on a star a thousand light-years away, the light that hits your eyes left the star a thousand years ago. It might be in the middle of an explosion as you look at it, but you have no way of knowing for another thousand years until the light of that explosion travels billions and billions and billions of miles to reach you.
    In short, the farther you look out into the universe, the farther back in time you can see. To me, that’s one of the cool things about astronomy.
    I rolled into place at the eyepiece of the telescope, where the dome astronomer usually sat. I punched my password into the computer control pad.
    It prompted me for a location. The telescope computer was programmed with 100,000 different locations in the universe, as seen from Mars.
    Tonight I wanted to look no farther than the backyard of Mars. So I entered Amors asteroids into the computer.
    The electric telescope motors hummed as the machine automatically swung into place.
    Before I was able to lean into the eyepiece, Ashley stepped onto the deck. “Hey,” she said. I heard sadness in her voice. I wondered if it had anything to do with her mom and dad. She hadn’t talked about it much, but I knew her parents were divorced. “Whatcha looking for?”
    â€œAsteroids,” I said. “More specifically, the Amors belt.”
    Asteroids ranged from the size of a refrigerator to a football stadium to the 15 biggest asteroids, which were each about 150 miles across.
    â€œThe Amors belt,” she said. “Asteroids in orbit between Mars and Earth.”
    I grinned. “And the Atens asteroids?”
    Ashley paused, beginning to smile because she had a chance to show off her knowledge. “Between Earth and Venus.”
    â€œApollos belt?”
    â€œMuch, much more serious. Those are the ones that cross the Earth’s orbit.”
    â€œBravo!” I clapped for her.
    She bowed as if I were an audience of thousands instead of me, just a kid in a wheelchair beneath the Martian night. “Any reason you picked asteroids? Usually you get us to look at more exciting things like star explosions. Asteroids are just lumpy rocks that drift like garbage.”
    â€œJust thinking about the one that might have hit Mars yesterday. Dad and Rawling figure it was only the size of a spaceship.”
    I stopped, wondering. Could it actually have been a spaceship? One out of control? Made by an alien civilization? What were we going to find when we finally arrived at the crater that the satellite had photographed?
    Dumb , I told myself. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. As if an alien spaceship had crashed into Mars.
    â€œDoesn’t take much, does it?” Ashley said, breaking into my thoughts. “I mean, I was reading up on asteroids today too, and—”
    â€œHa!” I interrupted. “That’s how you knew about the Amors, Atens, and Apollos belts.”
    She ignored my comment. “And there’s a crater in Arizona nearly a mile across, made by an asteroid fragment only half the size of a football field. If one of the bigger asteroids ever hit Mars, it would break the planet in two!”
    â€œNice thought,” I said.
    Ashley shrugged. “At least it would take my mind off the news I just got from Earth.” The sadness was back in her voice.
    â€œIs anything the matter?”
    â€œWell—”
    Footsteps stopped her from saying anything else.
    It was Rawling. “Hi, guys,” he said to us. “Sorry to barge in, but I need to talk to Tyce. It’s about our trip. There’s no problem if your dad joins us, and we’ve decided to leave in an hour.”
    â€œAt night?”
    â€œAt night.” He didn’t give a reason. I thought this was strange. Very strange. Why leave at night?
    â€œSo if you