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analysing the results. Then we’ll know who caused the explosion.”
    â€œNo time for that now, Ash!” blustered the Commander. “We have to get the back-up air pumps working. You and I will have to spacewalk around the outside of the station. Parker, you’re in charge of switching the air supply inside. And take charge of those blasted kids!”
    â€œStick with me, you three,” said Jane Parker to George and his friends. “I’ll need you to operate the pumps, nobody can be spared from in here.”
    As they left the Control Centre, George looked back at the scattering of staff hunched over their screens. He was feeling worried and frightened, but they looked even more worried and frightened. Several of them were calling out various readings to each other.
    Mr Snodbury was cowering behind a bank of computers, frantically trying to connect a phone call with his mini-screen and getting nothing but a ‘No Signal’ response.
    Less than two minutes later, Ian Ash and Commander Ferguson were climbing into spacesuits as fast as they could. Parker was beside them, ready to operate the airlock through which Ash and the Commander could reach the outside of the station. Behind her, George, Josh and Amira stood ready at the controls of the back-up air pumps.
    â€œWhy have they got to get outside?” asked Josh. “Can’t they fix the air supply from in here?”
    â€œNo,” said Amira. “The explosion destroyed half the mechanism. They’ve got to find a big air pipethat’s dangling out there, and connect it up to the station by hand. Then we can switch the air supply over from these controls.”
    â€œAnd if they don’t manage it,” said George, “we’ll start running short of air to breathe in a matter of minutes.”
    Parker pulled a lever and the airlock door slid aside with a hiss. Ash and the Commander clicked the helmets of their suits into place. They both tapped the sides of their helmets and shook their heads.
    â€œCommunicators aren’t working,” said Parker. “Minor problem, I guess, compared to everything else.”
    The two bulky figures shuffled into the airlock. Coloured lights blinked on the large, rectangular packs attached to their backs. Small jet nozzles poked out of the packs – these were what they would use to move around in space.
    The airlock door hissed shut, Parker operated a second lever, and the outer door in front of Ash and the Commander glided silently back. Through a clear panel in the airlock door, George could see them switch on their backpacks and jet out into the inky blackness beyond.
    â€œKeep an eye on that indicator,” said Parker, pointing to a tall red panel just above George’s head. “When it goes green, the pipe’s been connected. Then we switch the pumps on.”
    Using her mini-screen, Amira tried to tap into the sensors outside the station, so that they could see what Ash and the Commander were doing.
    All she could get was a fuzz of static. “They must be broken,” she said. “Like the suit communicators.”
    They waited. Without being able to see or hear the men outside, they felt more tension with every passing second. Half the lights had fused along the corridor in which they stood. The shiny walls and floor had seemed sleek and high-tech only a few hours earlier. Now they seemed gloomy and sinister. The corridor was eerily quiet.
    George started wondering where Dwayne had got to. Why had he been sneaking back to the crew cabins? What was he up to right now?
    Suddenly, Josh cried out. “Oh no! Look!”
    They gathered at the window in the airlock door. To their horror, they could see a spacesuit spinning rapidly away from the station, shooting further and further into the distance. It was Ash.

    A loud PING sounded behind George. The red panel had turned green. The Commander must have managed to connect up the air