Space Case Read Online Free Page A

beeping suddenly filled the room. It sounded like a giant microwave announcing that the popcorn was done. It took me a moment to figure out it was coming from both SlimScreens at once. On the wall and the tabletop, the home page and the chess game vanished and were replaced with a message in blinking red letters:
    *  *  *
    Urgent communication for Dr. Rose Harris & Dr. Steven Gibson. Log in to the secure portal immediately.
    I hadn’t even known information could be delivered this way. I turned to my mother, who looked as surprised by it as I was. Violet danced around, excited by the noise, and added her own whooping to it. Dad still hadn’t emerged from his sleeping pod. At the sound of the alarm he had jammed his fingers in his ears and burrowed under the covers.
    Dad had never been a morning person.
    â€œSteven,” Mom called to him. “You’d better take a look at this.”
    Dad stuck his head out of the pod and glanced at the big SlimScreen. He looked like a squirrel peeking out of its nest. “What the heck is that about?” he grumbled.
    Mom shrugged. She was already using the tabletop SlimScreen to log in to the portal.
    I was humming with excitement, figuring the emergency message had to do with Dr. Holtz’s discovery. Maybe he hadn’t been able to wait until seven and had already revealed his amazing news to the top brass at MBA, who were now getting the word out. Or maybe he was calling a big meeting to share the news with everyone at once.
    I opened our door to see if anything was happening. There are two tiers of residences at Moon Base Alpha. Ours is on the second floor, one down from the end. The door opens ontoan iron catwalk. (Catwalks are easier to ship and install than real floors.) Over the railing I could see the first-floor hallway below. No one was moving on either level, though the same urgent beeping was coming through the other residence doors. Two residences to the right of mine I could hear the muffled sounds of the Brahmaputra-Marquez family groggily waking.
    Voices echoed through the base to my left, in the direction of the main air lock. There was an edge to them, as though the speakers were worried—or panicked—but I couldn’t hear what anyone was saying. Their words were all drowned out by my sister, who was still singing about breakfast foods at the top of her voice.
    Directly to my left was the residence of the base commander, Nina Stack. It is the closest residence to the air lock. Nina’s door hung open, which was unusual. Since there is so much common space at MBA, the residents take their privacy seriously. No one ever leaves their door open. Nina must have left in such a hurry she’d forgotten to shut it behind her.
    I started down the catwalk toward the air lock, but a horrified shriek from my mother stopped me in my tracks.
    I rushed back into our room. “What’s wrong?”
    Mom had gone pale. She stared at the tabletop SlimScreen, eyes wide in astonishment. Dad stood behind her, equally stunned, having read the same message over her shoulder. Mom started to answer me, then noticed Violet.She looked to Dad and something unspoken passed between them.
    â€œViolet,” Dad said. “Want to watch TV before you have your waffles?”
    â€œNow?” Violet’s face lit up. Even in the confines of MBA my folks tried to limit our screen time. Offering TV before breakfast was like telling Violet she could have a pony. “Can I watch Squirrel Force ?”
    â€œSure.” Dad quickly clapped headphones over Violet’s ears, ensuring that she wouldn’t hear what my mother was about to say, then switched the big SlimScreen to TV mode. The emergency alert vanished and was replaced by animated squirrels battling evil land developers. Violet sat, riveted to it, ignoring us completely. If the base ever catches fire while Squirrel Force is on, Violet will probably roast alive rather than stop