CCSS

R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.6, R.7, W.3, SL.1, SL.2, L.4, L.6

The Message

A ship is deep in space, headed for a new planet. Will Astra save the mission—or destroy it? 

Art by Shane Rebenschied

    When Oma got sick last year, I found it impossible to imagine a world without her. I knew she couldn’t live forever. But understanding something in your head is different than accepting it in your heart.

    After Oma died, I thought a lot about Albert Einstein—a scientist who lived 400 years ago. He was one of Oma’s heroes, and he’s one of mine too. His ideas about how time worked made me wonder: Could 

    I travel through it? Could I go back in time to see Oma again? 

    Maybe. I just needed to figure out how.

PART 1

    My grandmother was a pioneer on the Vida, a spaceship that left Earth 90 years ago. Only she wasn’t my Oma then. She was 22 years old and the best plant scientist in the world. On top of that, she climbed mountains, could fix an engine in her sleep, and spoke four languages. All the pioneers were brilliant like Oma. They had to be. They were the future of our new world. 

    The Vida was headed for Rubin 23V. It’s the closest habitable planet to Earth. None of the pioneers expected to see Rubin 23V, of course. They knew how long the trip would take. They’d chosen to go into space—and die there—to give their grandchildren a better future.

    Now that future had arrived. Tomorrow was Landing Day. The Vida would set down on Rubin 23V. We’d been waiting for this moment our entire lives.

PART 2

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    I was reading one of Einstein’s old papers on my holo when Rio showed up at my bunk pod.

    “Why aren’t you packing?” Rio asked. “You know you have to finish before the Celebration tonight.” 

    Rio is the golden child of the Vida. Everyone loves him. He’s first in our class, he’s on the ship’s council, and he’s even good at sports. If he weren’t my best friend, I would hate him.

    “I don’t have much to pack. All my books are on here.”  I waved the holo at him.    

    “Look, I know you’d rather stay in your room and read about time travel. But the Landing Day Celebration isn’t just some fancy dinner. It’s important. Everyone has to go,” he said. “Don’t you read the morning bulletins? You read everything else.”  

    “You sound like my parents.”

    His face turned serious. “You know they just want what’s best for you, Astra,” he said.

    You mean they just want what’s best for the ship, I thought.

    My parents were a big deal on the Vida. My mom managed the ship’s food supply. My dad was in charge of the hab pod. People put their survival in my parents’ hands. 

    Then there was me. I knew my parents loved me. But I think we all wondered whether I’d snuck onto the ship from another planet. I could never remember my chores or where I was supposed to be. One time I even burned dinner because I was reading and forgot about it. We have a limited amount of food on the Vida. Wasting it is one of the worst things you can do. 

    The only time I felt like myself was when I was in the ag pod with Oma. The ag pod was where we kept the plants that would become our food crops on Rubin 23V. Oma had designed the ag pod and the plants—a hardy grain called teff.   

    The best part of the ag pod was the flower garden. Oma had used real soil from Earth. I used to love running my fingers through the dirt, thinking about a planet I’d never see. I’d spend hours in the ag pod, talking with Oma about Einstein and time travel. 

    “I brought you this,” Rio said. I snapped out of my daze as he tossed a small object at me. “I found it on the floor of my pod. You must have dropped it.” 

    I picked it up. It was the size of my palm. The surface was cracked. I could tell from the thumbscreen that it was some kind of holo drive. 

    “This isn’t mine,” I said.

    “Your name is on it,” Rio said.

    I turned the drive over. ASTRA was carved into it in jagged letters.

    “But it’s not mine—” I stopped. I could tell Rio didn’t believe me.

PART 3

    After Rio left, I looked at the holo drive. As my fingers touched the thumbscreen, an image came to life in front of me. The image was fuzzy, but I could make out a woman’s face. Her eyes were red. Her hair was dirty. And there was an ugly scratch on her cheek. Wrapped around her neck was a midnight-blue scarf stitched with silver thread. 

    I felt like I knew her. “Oma?” I whispered.

    But this woman wasn’t my grandmother. This woman’s eyes were blue, not green like Oma’s. And I could tell the woman wasn’t on the Vida. It looked like old pictures I’d seen of Earth. But the sky was green and the ground was rocky. 

    “Astra, you are Rubin 23V’s only hope,” the woman said. Worry filled her voice. 

    “You must destroy the ag pod before the Vida lands tomorrow. Oma’s teff is contaminated. Everyone will die—” 

    And just like that, the image faded.

PART 4

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    “Wait, start over,” Rio said. I had found him on the rec deck, warming up to play soccer. “This mystery lady said what?” 

    Rio had on the old jersey he always wore to play. It had belonged to his great-grandfather.

    “I think the message is damaged, but just watch,” I said.

    He was silent as the message played. The silver threads in the woman’s blue scarf caught the light.  

    “Astra,” he said when it finished. “This woman is telling you to destroy our food supply! That’s crazy!” 

    “What if she’s right? The plant sciences team could design a new kind of teff within a few months,” I argued. “We’d just have to get by on protein bars for a while.”

    Rio threw up his hands. “Look, I know you’re smarter than everyone on this ship—”

    “You do?” I said, shocked. “I am?” 

    “But you have no idea who this person is or where this message came from,” he said. “It could be from our enemies. It could be a joke.” 

    “It could be true,” I said.

    “I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation.”

    “Rio, she knows me. She knows I called my grandmother Oma.”

    “Astra, promise me you will forget this whole thing.”

    Rio was right. Destroying the ag pod was crazy. What if I damaged the ship? What if the plant sciences team couldn’t make more teff and we all starved? Plus, the teff was Oma’s creation. Destroying it would be like destroying the last piece of her I had.

    “Not everyone is going to understand you,” Oma had said to me once. “What matters is that you understand yourself.”

    I didn’t know why, but I was sure the woman in the message was telling the truth. 

    I wished with everything I had that I could travel through time and ask Oma for advice.

PART 5

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    “You look lovely, Astra,” Mom said a few hours later. I was wearing dress coveralls and my sparkly blue earrings, which match my eyes. 

    “You nervous about tomorrow, kiddo?” my dad asked.

    “A little,” I said.

    “Me too. I think it’s normal,” Mom said. “We’ve waited our whole lives for this moment.”

    We walked through the maze of hallways to the Landing Day Celebration. I wiped my sweaty palms on my coveralls and looked at the people walking with us. Was I really going to put them all in danger? But this would be my only chance. With everyone at the Celebration, I would be able to sneak into the ag pod.

    “I forgot something in my bunk pod,” I blurted. “I’ll meet you at the Celebration, okay?”

    My mom gave me a slightly annoyed but loving look. “Sure. Try not to be late, honey.”

PART 6

    The ag pod was exactly as I remembered it, except that Oma wasn’t there. Long containers held rows of Oma’s teff. Along one wall was her Earth garden. The marigolds were blooming. I turned away from them, tears filling my eyes.

    Oma had taught me all about ag pod security. There was an emergency system that would kill everything in the ag pod—including me, if I wasn’t careful. I found a safety suit in the locker and pulled it on.

    “I’m so sorry,” I whispered to Oma’s flowers. With my hands shaking, I opened the safety system keypad. I keyed in the codes Oma told me never, ever to use unless I had to. 

    Right away, a loud alarm went off. A wave of fire crashed through the room. The safety suit protected my body, but it couldn’t stop my fear. I buried my head in my arms. I didn’t want to watch as everything Oma had worked so hard for was destroyed.

    The next 15 seconds lasted 15 years. And then it was over. The vacuum fans came on and sucked out the fire. All that was left was a few burnt pieces of Oma’s plants.

    Behind me the doors flew open. Rio, my parents, and at least 20 other Vida council members stared at me. People were screaming.

    And then I fainted.

PART 7

    When I woke up, I was locked in my bunk pod. All I could think about was what was going to happen to me. Would I go to prison? Would I be launched into space?

    Then, after a few hours, the door slid open. Rio poked his head in. “Come with me,” he said.

    “What’s going on?”

    “Just come,” he said, tugging me toward the ag pod.

    Everyone was there: the plant sciences team, the council, my parents. Mom stepped forward and took my hands. Her face was pale. 

    I couldn’t tell if she was angry or terrified.

    “Astra,” she said. “Thank you.”

    Thank you?

    “Rio told us you figured out something was wrong with the plants,” explained one of the scientists. “We took the burnt plant material and ran some tests. The plants had a deadly parasite.

    “Planting these would have wiped out all plant life on Rubin 23V,” Mom said.  “We would have starved to death.”

    I blinked back tears, trying to take it all in. The woman in the message had been right.

    “Astra, you saved us,” Rio said.

PART 8

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    That night—our last on the Vida—my mom gave me a present. 

    “I planned to give this to you on Landing Day, but I want you to have it now,” she said.

    I peeled away the wrapping—and gasped. Midnight-blue fabric spilled across my hands. Einstein’s equations were stitched into the fabric in silver thread. It was amazing.

    “Where did you get this?” I asked.

    “I made it,” my mom said, her eyes shining. “I know how much you love Einstein.”

    Now I understood who the woman in the message was.

    I wrapped the scarf around my neck and thought of Oma. I imagined what she’d say to me if only I could tell her what I’d done. 

    And then I realized: Maybe someday I could. 

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