With the guard distracted and the monitors down, the rider climbed over the fence and dropped to the ground on the other side. It was clearly not the first time this stunt had been performed.
Looking up at a camera above, the rider suddenly pulled down the face-covering bandana in a move that was either really confident or really dumb. If the guard had been able to see the rider do that, he would have been surprised to find that it was a teenage girl—a very pretty teenage girl with long sandy-colored hair and intelligent blue eyes.
Satisfied, Casey Newton popped a piece of gum into her mouth and then secured the bandana over her face again. It was time to get back to work. She turned and began to jog away from the fence, her steps confident. She knew exactly where she was going: to the massive space shuttle launch platform.
The platform was huge and quiet. It had been abandoned after the space programs had been cut from budgets, and everyone had just stopped caring. Everyone except Casey, that is. She knew there was still so much to explore, so many possibilities beyond Earth’s atmosphere. She wanted to make sure that the platform stayed as a symbol of what could be, even if that meant doing a little breaking and entering.
Casey raced up the stairs, made it to the platform, and found herself looking at a familiar maze of equipment and freight containers. Wires were exposed and beams in the process of being taken down. Everything she saw pointed to the fact that the platform was being dismantled bit by bit—and it would continue to be unless Casey did something about it.
Crawling up into one of the large cranes sitting on the platform, she popped open its hood, revealing the engine. Then she grabbed a battery with wire coiled around it out of her backpack and, using her gum, stuck it to the engine. Finally, she pulled a gadget out of her bag and twisted its knob. In seconds, smoke began rising from the engine.
Casey smiled. Mission accomplished. Well, almost.
She threw her equipment into her bag and quickly made her way back out of the crane and onto the platform. Then she went to every truck and crane and repeated the process. When she was finally done, the whole platform was smoky, and not one piece of equipment was working. Now the mission was really accomplished.
Casey started to leave but not before pausing to look up into the starry night sky. Each star represented a possibility to her, yet they were so far away. While she hated to admit it, there would only be so many times she could delay the destruction of the shuttle platform. But until that time comes, Casey thought as she turned to leave, I’m going to keep trying.
The only problem with Casey’s late-night sabotage missions was getting back inside her house without being noticed. Unfortunately, she couldn’t use a helicopter to distract her very nosy brother, Nate. He was always up waiting for her.
Casey slid open the window to her room and slipped inside. Sure enough, Nate was awake, pointing a flashlight beam right into her eyes.
“Nate!” Casey said in a whisper. “If you wake Mom and Dad, I will crush you!”
There was a pause, as though Nate was pondering the threat, and then he turned the flashlight on himself, illuminating his eight-year-old face. “You shouldn’t sneak out,” he said.
“You shouldn’t still need a wubby,” Casey snapped as she walked across the room to her side.
Behind her, Nate clutched his worn baby blanket to his chest and frowned. “Mom says it’s okay to sleep with.”
“That’s because she can’t afford to send you to a shrink,” Casey replied. But her tone had softened. She could never really be mad at her kid brother. Slipping under the covers, Casey turned on her side, exhaustion rushing over her. All she wanted to do was sleep. Nate, on the other hand, was wide-awake and very curious.
“Were you at the platform again?” Nate asked. When she didn’t answer right away, he fired another question. “What do you do there?”
Casey stifled a groan. At times like that, she wished her parents could afford a house with one more bedroom. “Please stop talking,” she said.
“Are you trying to stop them?” Nate went on, ignoring his sister. “From taking it down? ’Cause if they take it apart, nobody will go to space anymore.”
“Nobody wants to go to space anymore,” Casey said sadly.
“Why not?” Nate asked, not understanding.
“Because they gave up,” she said.
Even in the darkness, she saw the disappointment flood Nate’s eyes. He was so young. He still believed in all that could be and he believed that no one ever gave up. At least, he had until Casey gave him an unpleasant dose of reality.
Unable to look at his sad face any longer, Casey rolled onto her back and stared up at the model of a shuttle that twirled slowly above her bed. As her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep, she wished, not for the first time, that something would happen to change her life and give her hope again…soon.
What Casey had no way of knowing was that at that very moment, in her own backyard, someone had arrived who might just grant Casey’s wish.
The someone tiptoed up to Casey’s motorcycle and then picked up the helmet and held it in small hands. Reaching into the helmet, the someone then pulled out a piece of Casey’s hair that had gotten stuck. Then she pulled a case out of her own backpack and popped it open. Inside was a pin: a pin with a telltale T emblazoned on it. It lay in the case surrounded by eleven empty holes where other pins had once rested.
Carefully, the girl pressed the hair into a slot above the pin. A moment later the box began to glow red. A small digital screen inside began to flash and then the word SEQUENCING appeared. There was a pause, followed by a ping, and then the screen read PAIRING COMPLETE.
Looking down, Athena smiled. It was the same Athena who had given Frank Walker his pin years earlier. The same Athena who had shown him Tomorrowland. And she hadn’t aged one single day.
“GET OUT!” a voice screamed in the hallway of Casey’s house. The scream was followed by loud banging on a door and then “Your five minutes is up!”
Casey groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. Her cousins, Mikey and Clarissa, along with their parents, were currently living in the already cramped house. It made getting ready for school—or doing anything, for that matter—a huge headache.
Sitting up, Casey ran a hand through her hair. Then she did what she had been doing every morning for the past gazillion mornings: she simply got up, walked past her bickering cousins, and went to eat breakfast.
Of course, the kitchen was no less chaotic. Her mother was running around taking care of fifty different things at once. At the moment, Jenny Newton was simultaneously making lunches for the herd of children running around the house and throwing on her waitressing uniform.
Mumbling hello, Casey helped herself to a bowl of cereal. Then she attempted to tune out the racket. But the sudden ring of the phone only added to the noise level.
Distracted, Casey’s mother picked up the phone. She listened for a moment, then cupped a hand over the phone and yelled, “Phil! It’s work!”
Casey raised a curious eyebrow as her father walked into the kitchen and took the phone from his wife. His worn workman’s uniform was half on—the top half tied around the waist. Casey still missed when he’d worn suits to work. Really, she just missed when he’d had a job he loved.
“Hello?” Phil Newton said into the receiver. He paused as the person on the other end of the line said something in a rush of loud words. Casey cocked her head. Was the call about what she thought it was?
A moment later, she got her answer. Her father hung up the phone and sighed. Turning to his wife, he explained, “The equipment at the platform is down again.”
“Huh. That’s what—third time this month?” Jenny said.
Across the room from Casey, Nate shot his sister a look. Casey glared back, daring him to say anything. It seemed to work, because he only mumbled, “Really weird,” under his breath and then went back to his breakfast.
“At least you get the day off,” Jenny went on, alwa
ys looking for the bright side.
Phil shook his head. “I wish. They’re bringing up replacement equipment from Orlando.”
Casey’s face fell. She had gone through all that again for nothing? “The platform’s not going anywhere,” she pointed out, playing with her cereal. “Why are they in such a rush? As soon as they take it apart, they’re just going to fire you.” She looked up into her father’s eyes. “You helped build it.”
Casey couldn’t keep the emotion from her voice or her face. She hated that her father had to take apart what he had so lovingly created. She hated that he no longer looked at the sky with the same hope he’d once had, and she hated that because the stupid space program hadn’t been funded, her dad’s life, her family’s life, her life had been completely thrown on its head.
Seeing the pain in his daughter’s eyes, Phil softened. “I’m proud I built it. But I’ll find another job. I’m a NASA engineer. That counts for something, right?” Then he gestured at Casey and Nate to come closer. He leaned in. “There are two wolves…”
“Daaaad!” his children whined in unison. They had heard that lesson many, many times.
“Just listen,” he said. “There are two wolves inside all of us and they’re always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is brightness and hope. Which one wins?” He directed his question to Casey. He needed her to understand.
“The one you feed,” she answered with a sigh. She wanted to believe that if she fed her hopes and dreams, anything could be possible. But after all they had been through, it was getting pretty tough.
Despite the pep talk from her father over breakfast, Casey was in a bad mood. It only grew worse after a day of classes filled with depressing topics like economic collapse, nuclear war, and dystopian futures. By the time the final bell of the day rang, Casey’s mood was downright dark.
That was probably why, when she decided to go back to the platform for another sabotage mission that night, she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings. And why she didn’t see the two Kennedy Space Center police cars idling near the guard shack, on the lookout for any troublemakers. And why she didn’t notice the cop inside who had replaced the usual night guard—which was, in the end, no doubt why she ended up sitting in a jail cell waiting for one of her parents to post bail.
Finally, after hours that felt like days, there was a loud bzzz and Casey was escorted into the release area. A large officer, holding a clipboard sat behind a high desk. “You Newton?” he asked when he saw Casey.
“Yup,” Casey said, trying to sound tougher than she felt at that moment.
The officer nodded. “You made bail. Pick up your personal effects over there.” He paused, looking at the fear and defiance flashing in the young woman’s eyes. His voice was softer as he added, “And stay out of trouble.”
With a shaky nod, Casey made her way to a room that looked like a cage and waited as a new cop took out a worn manila envelope and emptied her things onto a table. “One money clip. One Florida State driver’s license. Forty-seven dollars, thirty-two cents. One scrunchie. One pin. One pack of gum.” His itemization complete, he held out a document. “Sign here.”
Eager to get out of jail, Casey hastily signed her name and began to pick up her items one by one. Then she stopped, seeing the pin. It had a large T in its center and a metal atom sign. She cocked her head. “That’s not mine,” she told the cop.
“What’s not yours?” he asked.
She reached out to grab the pin. “This. I’ve never se—”
The second her fingers closed around the metal, there was a whoosh, and suddenly, Casey was no longer standing in the jail. She was in a huge field of wheat. Above her was the bluest sky she had ever seen.
Gasping, Casey dropped the pin. Instantly, the field disappeared and she was back in the release area. She blinked rapidly, confused. Had that really just happened? And more importantly, what was that? Looking down, she saw that the pin was lying on the ground next to her foot.
She stared at it for a moment. Part of her expected it to burst suddenly into flame or start glowing some weird neon color. But when nothing happened, she took a deep breath and crouched down. Tentatively, she extended her fingers until they just brushed the pin.
Whoosh!
She was back in the field of wheat.
Whoosh! She dropped the pin again and once more was back in the release area, the guard none the wiser.
Okay, Casey thought. I’ve either officially gone insane or I just got what could possibly be the coolest pin in the history of pins. Opting for the second choice. Casey smiled, and once more she reached for the pin. But that time she didn’t just touch it; she picked it up and held it in her hand.
Then she stood up…
…and found herself once again in the wheat field.
Casey looked around. The wheat seemed to go on forever, the golden stalks swinging in a light breeze. Scanning the horizon, she saw a glimmer in the distance. It was a faint silhouette of what looked like a huge city. She drifted toward it until—bam!—Casey hit something. The impact knocked the pin out of her hand.
Whoosh!
Once again she was back in the jail release area, now facing a wall.
Turning, she saw a guy sitting on a bench watching her with amusement. Well, that’s awkward, she thought. Then she smiled again. But totally worth it.
Pulling a gum wrapper out of her back pocket, Casey gingerly picked up the pin. It was time to get home and figure out what exactly the pin was.
First, though, she had to survive the ride home with her father, who was clearly not too pleased with his eldest child. The instant she got into the passenger seat, Phil lit into her. She half listened, staring down at the pin, resting on the gum wrapper in her hand.
“Did you consider the ramifications?” she heard him say. “You had to know there would be ramifications.”
Casey held up the pin, interrupting him. “Have you ever seen this before?” she asked.
“Casey,” her dad said, “I am very angry with you. Are you getting that?”
She nodded. “I understand,” she said. Still, she waved the pin in the air. At that point, her father’s words were going in one ear and out the other. “Look at it. Does it look weird?”
Scowling, Phil took one hand off the wheel and reached for the pin. Instantly, Casey snatched it away.
“Don’t touch it!” she shouted. The last thing she needed was her father flashing to some weird field of wheat while driving.
Of course, Casey’s scream served to startle him anyway. He jerked back and the car swerved violently. “Why are you yelling at me?” he shouted as he struggled to get the car under control.
“Not while you’re driving!” Casey said, her voice only slightly quieter than a scream. “It’s dangerous! Pull over! Pull over!”
This time his daughter’s scream didn’t startle him—it just worried him. Making sure no one was in their way, Phil pulled the car to the shoulder of the road. Then he turned and looked at Casey.
“I swear to God, Case, if you’re on drugs—”
She quickly cut him off. “I’m not on drugs. Just…I need you to be NASA Dad now…new Frontier Dad. Can you do that?” It was true. She needed him to be the smart guy who used to love a good puzzle. Because this pin? It was certainly a puzzle. Carefully, she offered the pin to her father. As his fingers closed over the metal, she waited for something to happen.
She kept waiting.
And waited some more.
Her father’s body didn’t move. His face didn’t fill with awe. He just continued to look down at the pin, confused.
“Are you seeing it?” Casey pressed him. In answer, he put the car in drive and pulled back onto the road. “It’s not working?” Mystified, Casey grabbed the pin back and—
Whoosh! Once again she was somewhere else, floating above the ground. “You’re not seeing this?” she shouted.
“Casey! Stop it!” she heard her father yell, and then, sudd
enly, she felt the pin taken from her hand.
She was back in the car, her mind racing. “Maybe it doesn’t work for anyone else…” she mused out loud.
“Okay, you’re scaring me now,” her father said. “I just picked you up from jail and you’re talking like a crazy person…”
Casey wasn’t listening. “It must’ve paired with me,” she said. “Like some kind of Bluetooth—”
“I need you to calm down and—” her father interrupted.
“I can’t calm down, Dad. This is a big deal. This is…it’s huge!” Casey couldn’t stop smiling. For the first time in forever, she felt like things were looking up.
Her father’s next words sent Casey crashing down.
“They fired me, Casey,” he said, keeping his eyes straight ahead. Other than a quick blink, his face was emotionless. He hadn’t wanted to tell Casey like that. He knew what he was about to say would devastate her. But with the way she was behaving, she needed to hear it. “What you did, sabotaging the equipment,” he said. “They thought I put you up to it.”
“No!” she protested. “They can’t! I’ll tell them it was my idea….” Her voice trailed off. She had never meant for her father to be hurt by her actions. Just the opposite! The sabotage had been to keep him working to show him that there was hope. It was a wolf, and she had chosen to chase it. And now it was coming back to bite her.
Phil sighed. Casey’s optimism was futile. There was no getting around the facts. Even if he did get rehired, there was only enough work for another month of employment. “I have to be honest with you,” he said, his voice sad. “I’m looking out into the distance and I’m seeing nothing.”
Casey shook her head. She told him she would make it right, no matter what it took. “It’s going to be okay. You’re just feeding the wrong wolf.”
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