Moonbase Crisis: Star Challengers Book 1 by Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, June Scobee Rodgers Page B

on the moonbase had seemed so strange, and he had wondered what they were meant to do. Now, an incoming video? He accepted the transmission, watched the screen fade to be replaced by an image of a handsome dusky-skinned man with a familiar scar on his cheek. The cadets had originally thought his uniform was just like the others from the Challenger Center, but now it seemed different.
    “Greetings.”
    “Commander Zota!” Dyl exclaimed, then lowered his voice, not wanting to bring Chief Ansari running in to see what was the matter. First, he wanted some explanations.
    The man’s expression was serious. “Cadet Wren, I trust that you and your companions have settled in at Moonbase Magellan?”
    “Yes! But … what’s going on? Did you know this wasn’t a simulation?”
    “I was aware, Cadet Wren. I was quite honest about it, if you’ll recall. I told you all in your briefing that you would go to the Moon, and you did. I said you would wear real spacesuits, and you did. There are no tricks or special effects up there—just science. You truly are in humanity’s first manned moonbase.”
    “Okay, Commander, but that brings up a lot more questions. How did we get here? Even the moonbase staff can’t figure it out. And what are we supposed to be doing? Did you plan this?”
    Zota nodded, giving him a faint smile. “Indeed, you have a lot of questions. Yes, I arranged the experience for you and your friends. It was necessary. And now that you have all grasped the reality of your situation, you deserve some explanations. That’s why I risked this transmission.”
    Dyl felt a rush of relief. He had been anxious about the new situation, and after more than two days—when they had expected to be at the Challenger Center for only seven hours—he was starting to worry that they would never get home. “Why didn’t you come with us?”
    “Alas, it is not possible. The reasons are complicated, but I must remain in your time of history.”
    “My time, not our time? Don’t we all have the same time?”
    “Obviously not. I am from the future … farther in the future, in fact, than you are now.” He paused a moment to let that sink in. “I traveled back in time with an urgent mission—and you cadets are a part of it. You are just the seeds, and I hope that many more from your generation will follow your example. You could be humanity’s only hope.”
    Dyl sat back, his stomach leaden. “Hope for what? And what makes the four of us so special?”
    “In the future I come from—and the problem began in the time period that you are in right now—humanity turned its back on progress, grew lazy and no longer faced challenges. Preferring an easy life to the challenge of innovation, we stopped bothering to discover new things. People became short-sighted, focusing only on comfort and entertainment.”
    Dyl grimaced. “I know kids at my school who blow off their work, do just enough to get passing grades, and spend most of their time goofing around. They don’t think about the future at all.”
    Commander Zota’s expression turned grim. “Yes. Sadly, a great many of those people grew up to be unmotivated adults, and their children became a pampered generation. Very few of them pursued science or learned to become good leaders and the future suffers for it.” He sounded deeply pained.
    In the empty MCC of the nearly empty moonbase, Dyl could see the results of what the commander was describing.
    Zota’s voice grew more passionate. “There is a very real danger, Cadet Wren. When people ignored verified science and listened only to charlatans who said what they wanted to hear, the human race began to slide backward. And so, in the future—in my time—Earth faced a terrible crisis, and there were too few innovators to solve the problems.”
    On the screen, he straightened and looked directly at him. Dyl wished his friends could be there listening as well. He tried to focus on Zota’s every word, jotting notes on a