See You in the Cosmos

by Jack Cheng

  Steve took a sip and told me it’s like Red Bull but way better. He said it’s an energy drink called LOX, which is an acronym kind of for Liquid Oxygen, and he showed me the can and it said Human Rocket Fuel under the logo. Steve said there’s not really liquid oxygen in it though, but there ARE vitamins, so it gives you a lift and it’s healthy for you too and rocket fuel is just a metaphor for how it makes you feel. I asked him what’s a metaphor and he said a metaphor is when you describe something using something else because otherwise it’d take too long to explain.

  Steve asked me do I want to buy some LOX, he’s selling them at SHARF for two dollars each, and also if he can get three people who get three people to sell LOX, he gets a free BMW, and if I get three of my friends to get three of their friends to sell LOX, then I can get a free BMW too. I told Steve no thanks, I can’t drive a car yet and also I’m saving my money for food and emergencies, but Ronnie might want a BMW because he’s an agent so I’ll ask him the next time I call him.

  Steve said he still can’t believe my mom and Ronnie let me come here by myself, and I told him they usually don’t care what I do as long as I don’t bother them too much. Then Steve and Zed looked at each other, and then Steve said he wishes his parents gave him that kind of freedom when he was a kid. I told the guys about Ronnie’s job and then I found out that Zed was on my same train because he was in Colorado for a retreat. I asked Zed, What were you retreating from, was it an army of ninja warriors? And Zed laughed and shrugged again like he doesn’t know, but then Steve said it’s a different kind of retreat—it’s when a group of people go away somewhere for a few days to think. I told the guys I’m thinking all the time, I don’t have to go anywhere specific to do it.

  Oh, I finally saw the guys’s rocket, by the way! Steve brought it in from his car and it was white and blue and as tall as I am almost, and it was SO cool. Steve named it Linda after his girlfriend. He’s entering it in the contest for the Civet Prize, which is a $50,000 prize for the person or team who can send a rocket 200,000 feet into the air and then recover it intact. Steve said they’re going to win for sure because him and Zed’s other roommate Nathan designed their rocket, and Nathan’s a genius at math, but he couldn’t come this weekend because he had to work overtime at his computer programming job.

  Steve said he’s really excited for tomorrow because $50,000 is no joke, and I said, That reminds me, do you guys know any astronomy jokes? Because I’m always looking for good astronomy jokes. They said they don’t, so I told them one that I know.

  I said, Why do moon rocks taste better than earth rocks?

  Because they’re a little meteor.

  At first nobody laughed, and I thought maybe they didn’t understand the joke so I explained that it’s funny because moon rocks are little meteors, but meteor also sounds like meatier, like, the word that means something has more meat on it, and meat tastes good, even though realistically moon rocks probably wouldn’t taste that good because they don’t really have meat on them, get it?

  And Zed started laughing finally, and I said, Whew, good thing I explained it, and then he laughed even louder! Steve laughed too, then he said the joke out loud, not the whole joke but just the punchline. He said, So wait, moon rocks taste better because they’re a little meteor, and then he laughed again.

  After we all had a good laugh Steve got another call from his girlfriend and he was trying to talk to her quietly at first but then he was talking louder and louder, so he went to his car so he could talk with her as loud as he wants. And then I thought that maybe Steve can be my man in love because he has a girlfriend, and I told Zed about it and I thought I saw him frown but maybe it was just dark, because then he laughed and shrugged his shoulders again.

  Steve came back right away, I guess he didn’t feel like talking with his girlfriend for that long, and as soon as he got back he unzipped his sleeping bag and started fluffing up his pillow. He said it’s getting late, he really needs to go to sleep because he’s exhausted from driving by himself and waiting for the train, and I said, Hey Steve, maybe your LOX doesn’t work so good if you’re already tired! Zed laughed and then he wrote on his chalkpad, Let’s Look At Stars. I thought it was a great idea.

  I unzipped the tent door and Zed and I went outside, and we looked up and I could see SO many stars, even more than in Rockview. I heard Zed write something so I shined my flashlight at him, and his chalkpad said, Crystal Clear. I said I don’t think it is really, because Benji has some crystals and they’re kind of cloudy, and the sky tonight’s a lot clearer than a crystal. I told Zed it’s more like glass right after you wipe it with Windex.

  Zed wrote on his chalkpad, Tell Me More, and I told him that my parents met on a night just like this, my mom told me the story when I was eight. She said she was in college and she was working part-time at the bank, and my dad went in to cash a check. When they saw each other, it was love at first sight. He asked her can he take her out to dinner, and she said no at first but he was charming and he convinced her, and after dinner they went to the top of Mount Sam on the tramway and when they got up there they looked out over all of Rockview and up at the stars and that’s when they had their first kiss. I told Zed it was probably like in Contact when Dr. Arroway meets Palmer Joss and they sit under the stars in Arecibo and have THEIR first kiss. It was probably just like that.

  Then I told Zed I wonder what my mom had for dinner. I wonder which of the GladWares she reheated, was it the one with carrot and potato soup? Or maybe the Spam and rice and scrambled eggs because she felt like having breakfast for dinner. And Zed was really quiet but he’s always really quiet, but for some reason he seemed even quieter than normal. After a while I heard the wind blowing but it wasn’t a sandstorm, it was just a light breeze, and I looked around at the tents and RVs and some of them still had their lights on.

  I told Zed, Isn’t it interesting how every tent and RV has people in it, people like us with rockets they want to launch, and tomorrow we’re going to meet them and see their rockets and show them ours?

  And I shined my flashlight at Zed because I thought he was going to write something on his chalkpad but he didn’t, he just kept looking up at the sky.

  NEW RECORDING 11

  6M 23S

  Hi guys! There weren’t any scorpions in my shoes this morning unfortunately. If there were I would’ve recorded their sounds for you guys, although I’m not even sure what they sound like. I think they hiss like snakes?

  Maybe desert scorpions only show up if they know you’re asleep, and I didn’t sleep at all last night. I tried to but the ground was really hard even though I had a sleeping bag, and the glue smell from my rocket was giving me a headache. I could hear snoring coming from the guys’s tent too, I’m pretty sure it was Zed. He’d snore and snore and then stop and it’d be quiet, and I’d think he was done but then he’d snore a really loud one, like FIVE TIMES as loud. It was SO loud. Maybe Zed laughs and snores extra loud to make up for all the sound he can’t make during the day because he doesn’t talk.

  I’m kind of glad I didn’t sleep though, because I got to see the sunrise when I came out of my tent. The faraway mountains were pink and yellow, and I started brushing my teeth with the water from my water bottle, and then there were two small dots in the distance that got closer and closer and the cloud of dust behind them was getting bigger and bigger. Then they came into the SHARF site and it was a van and a truck with a trailer in the back, and that’s when I remembered—TODAY IS LAUNCH DAY!

  I can’t believe it’s already here. The people from the van and truck started setting up tents that weren’t like mine or the guys’s tents, theirs were just roofs but no walls. And then they took out folding tables and chairs from the trailer and tied up a big banner that said SOUTHWEST HIGH-ALTITUDE ROCKET FESTIVAL and a smaller banner that said REGISTRATION, and I said, HOLY bleep! and my toothbrush fell out of my mouth.

  I rinsed off the d
irt and then I grabbed Voyager 3 from my tent, the glue was dry by then, and I ran over there to register and that’s when I recognized one of the organizers—it was Ken Russell from K&H Rocketry Supply!

  I recognized him because he posts YouTube videos on Rocketforum that he records from his store in New Mexico, and he has a bushy red beard and he was wearing a green polo shirt just like in his videos. He was taking out a bunch of power cables from the trailer and I said, Hey Ken, I love your videos and I ordered all the parts for my rocket from you, do you remember sending a big package to Alex Petroski in Rockview, Colorado?

  Ken turned around and he looked surprised to see me but then he smiled, and I remembered that he has a huge gap in between his front teeth. I bet he’s really good at whistling. Ken said he does remember my order, actually, and then he saw Voyager 3 in my hands and he said, Is that it? And I said, It is, and he told me it’s a nice-looking rocket. I told him I want to register but I have a question because I’m not sure which contest to enter, because I’d love to compete for the Civet Prize except my rocket’s carrying my Golden iPod into space, so it isn’t coming back down to Earth.

  Ken looked at my rocket again and he was quiet for a little while, and then he asked me what kind of motor am I using. I said I’m using a D-class motor but the OpenRocket simulation told me it’s going to go high enough to leave the atmosphere. Ken said, Is that so? And I said, It is, and he said I should just enter it in the D-category contest because that’s the one for D-class motors, but hold on a minute because he has to finish getting stuff out of the trailer.

  I asked Ken where are the launches happening and he pointed to a clear part of the desert away from the tents, and then he started getting the launchpads from his trailer. When I saw them I said, THOSE are the launchpads? They don’t look like launchpads at all! They had launch rods but instead of pads they were big wooden things that looked like Olympic track-and-field hurdles—they were launchurdles.

  Ken carried out the launchurdles and I helped him plug in all the cable wires, and then we sat down at one of the tables and he found my name on his laptop in the list of people who registered online. Ken typed the letter D for D-class in the column next to my name and he said I’m ready to go, I’m the first official entrant! And then he asked me am I here by myself and I said I came with Steve and Zed and Carl Sagan but they’re all still asleep.

  I asked Ken can I borrow his laptop to check my messages because Benji told me he’d send me some pictures from Chicago, and Ken said Sure, knock yourself out, and I said I’m not going to do that because I’m a pacifist and besides, how am I going to check my e-mail if I’m unconscious? And Ken laughed and I wondered if food ever gets stuck in the gap between his teeth.

  I logged into my e-mail but there wasn’t a message from Benji like I thought. The only e-mail I had was from Ancestry.com and it said, We found possible matches in the Petroski family tree.

  I logged into Ancestry and under where it said U.S. Public Records, I saw my dad’s name, Joseph David Petroski. I clicked on it and saw his name again on a document called the Nevada Marriage Index, and it’s so weird, it said there’s someone who has the same exact name and birthday as my dad except in Las Vegas instead of Rockview. It said he’s married to some person named Donna but that’s not my mom’s name, and besides, my parents got married in Colorado, not Nevada, so I’m pretty sure it’s just a coincidence. That happens sometimes—Ancestry.com will send me stuff about people with the same name as my dad but who aren’t really my dad, even though this is the first time it’s someone with the same birthday too.

  Anyway, I just closed my e-mail and I told Ken thanks for letting me use his computer, and now I’m back here by mine and the guys’s tents. Carl Sagan’s awake and Steve went to get breakfast for all of us, and Zed’s sitting on his round pillow away from the tents and staring in front of him, I think he’s meditating.

  Some of the other campers are waking up too, and more people are starting to get here in their cars and—Oh! I think I recognize that person. I think that’s Frances19! Oh wow, her rocket’s bright purple and so is her hair!

  Come on, Carl Sagan! Come on, boy!

  [dog collar tinkling]

  Let’s go make some friends!

  NEW RECORDING 12

  5M 17S

  Every. One. Is. So. AWESOME.

  I’ve never met so many people who love rockets and space as much as I do. There are some kids here like me but mostly grown-ups and I’m the only kid who didn’t come with their mom or dad. A lot of people were surprised I came here by myself but some of them said, Seeing from your forum posts, I’m not surprised at all. I showed them Voyager 3 and my Golden iPod and my Planetary Society membership card and they all said, Wow, that is so cool. And I thought Carl Sagan was going to be nervous around so many people and cry and curl his tail and he did at first but then he loved everyone and they loved him. They all said it was a great name for a dog.

  Oh! I finally met Calexico! I thought he was going to be Ronnie’s age but he was a lot older than that even, he had long white hair in a ponytail and he was wearing a tie-dye shirt that said Peace Love and Rockets. A lot of people here have really cool shirts that I want. Frances19 has a shirt that says Angular Momentum: It Makes the World Go Round. Ganymede and Europa both have shirts that say Save Pluto and they both have earrings too except on their lips—they have lip rings. I also met Dishgal and Bebop and BuzzAldrin who isn’t the real Buzz Aldrin, he just picked that name because Buzz Aldrin is his all-time hero, and maybe also because he has short hair like a buzz cut. BuzzAldrin told me he lives in Las Vegas and I said there’s someone in Las Vegas who has the same name and birthday as my dad, isn’t that weird? And he said yeah, that’s really weird.

  I already saw so many people’s rockets too! Most of them are huge and shiny and, um, way bigger than Voyager 3. But the coolest rockets were definitely the college teams’s. They’re all here trying to win the Civet Prize and their rockets are SO huge, they’re even bigger than Steve’s rocket! One of the teams’s rockets is called Skywalker II and it’s named after Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. Another of the teams’s rockets is called Ptolemy IV and it’s named after Claudius Ptolemy from Ancient Greece. The teams all have their own launchpads and trailers too, and they all have sponsorships from big companies like CivSpace and MST Engineering and Praxa Aero.

  A lot of people said they hope Lander Civet is going to be here but they also said they don’t have their hopes up. They just have their hopes in the middle. Lander’s the CEO of CivSpace and he’s the one who started the Civet Prize, but he’s probably really busy right now because his company is launching their Mars satellite next week. I always see articles on Rocketforum and in Mr. Bashir’s magazines about how Lander wants to start a human colony on Mars. One time I saw him on the news and he’s bald like Zed and he wears suits all the time like Ronnie, and the news reporter asked him why is he spending his entire fortune trying to go to Mars, couldn’t he use it for something else?

  People used to ask my hero stuff like that too. They’d say, We have so many problems here on Earth, we have global warming and wars in the Middle East and kids in Africa who don’t have food or clean water, so why should we try to go to Mars or communicate with extra-terrestrial intelligence when we can’t even solve all the problems we have on our own planet?

  And do you know what my hero said to those people? He told them to think about what it would mean if we went to Mars. He said if we can do something that big, something that’s never been done before in the history of humanity, then of course we can solve all the problems we have at home, DUH! And I agree.

  And even though Lander Civet’s not at SHARF, some people from his company are. On Rocketforum you can tell who’s from there because it says CivSpace in front of their names, and here you can tell because they’re all wearing gray polo shirts with the CivSpace logo on the pocket. I talked to CivSpaceElisa a
nd CivSpaceNelson who are on the Jupiter team, and CivSpaceScott who’s on the PR team, and PR isn’t a planet like Jupiter, it’s an acronym that means Public Relations. I told Scott that if they ever discover a new planet they should call it Public Relations so that way his team can have a planet too. Scott laughed and then he gave me some stickers.

  Elisa told me she loved the OpenRocket screenshots I posted when I was designing Voyager 3 and my cheeks started getting warm, it’s a really hot day today. She gave me her business card also and she said if I’m ever looking for a summer internship, they’d be glad to have me. I asked her what’s an internship and she said it’s a job where you get paid in knowledge. I told Elisa that the internship sounds really interesting but I’d like to keep my options open because Mr. Bashir already pays me five dollars a week to help him stack magazines at his gas station. I told her he lets me take home the science magazines he doesn’t sell every month, so with my job right now I get paid in knowledge but I get paid in money too. Elisa said that I’m a tough negotiator. She said we should keep in touch and talk about it with my mom before the next school year ends, and she wished me good luck with my launch.

  My launch! I can’t believe it. I’m launching my Golden iPod into space!

  NEW RECORDING 13

  5M 28S

  CROWD: Three . . . two . . . one . . .

  [high-pitched roar]

  [clapping and cheering]

  ALEX: HOLY bleep. That one went so high!

  ANNOUNCER: All righty folks, that about wraps it up for our C-class launches. Let’s give our contestants one more round of applause.

  [clapping and cheering]

  ALEX: OK guys, this is it, my last recording. I can’t believe it’s only been a day since I left Rockview on the Amtrak train!