Courageous: Afterlife Book Four Read Online Free PDF Page B

Still, I would like to wear a beautiful dress every now and then. I'd like to dress up for Mick since I enjoyed it when he looked at me in that way, like when he saw me in my wedding dress. He was so proud. I smiled and held his hand tight in mine.
    "Can't you just give me a little hint as to where we are going?" I asked.
     

C HAPTER 7
    M ICK WAS SILENT as the grave and kept a secretive look on his face as we soared further through the clouds and soon burst through the many layers of the atmosphere. The carriage bumped heavily as we left the exosphere, the outermost layer of the Earth's atmosphere. Then everything went quiet, only the sound of the Pegasus' big wings flapping eagerly to bring us through the thin air of outer space.
    "Did we just pass the moon?" I asked.
    "Sure did," Mick said and stared out the window as well.
    It was so dark and calm. Underneath us I spotted Earth getting smaller and smaller as we moved further out.
    "There goes Mars," Mick said.
    "Where are you taking me?" I asked with a smile. I had butterflies in my stomach. This was truly adventurous. I had been in outer space a few times but only briefly.
    "Jupiter," he continued as another planet rushed past us.
    "It's so colorful," I said. "And big."
    "Look at all the moons," Mick said. "There are sixty-two of them."
    "I can't believe how colorful they are!" I exclaimed.
    "That's because some of them are highly radioactive. Like Io, you see, the one right there. The radiation found in this area is a thousand times stronger than what is needed to kill a human. It's also covered in volcanoes that erupt constantly. Those are the ones that spurt out large amounts of sulfuric acid into the air which falls, causing the beautiful reds, yellows and orange colors of Io's appearance."
    "Wow," I said staring at Jupiter with its many moons passing by my window. "Have you ever been to another planet?" I asked. "Have you like ... set your foot on one?"
    "Plenty of times."
    "On Jupiter too?"
    "No. Jupiter is a very stormy planet. You risk getting pulled apart to beads like you did in that tornado once, remember that?"
    "Barely," I said ironically.
    "There are constant storms throughout Jupiter's atmosphere, and most of the storms never end. Just because it looks beautiful and endearing doesn't necessarily mean you should go there. The many different cloud formations and storms in the atmosphere make Jupiter this colorful a planet. The red spot in the middle of it, you see it here," he said and pointed at a huge crater. "This is caused by a giant storm that has been raging for at least three hundred years. It is commonly known as 'The Eye of Jupiter' because of its shape. This storm's super hurricane winds blow across an area that is larger than the Earth."
    "What about the moons?" I asked as we passed a flock. "Are they something you could visit?"
    "Not many of them. I once went on Europa here," he said and pointed at a brown moon. "She has liquid water ocean underneath her surface but is also cold and covered in ice. She has a hot core that heats up the water and makes it run underneath the ice. But she is cold and barren even if the conditions are there for her to be the only likely planet in this solar system to have life besides Earth. I also went to Titan once. That is one of Saturn's moons. It has lakes, rivers and oceans flowing with liquid methane."
    Jupiter with its amazing worlds circling it soon disappeared and became nothing but a dot in the distance. By the speed we were moving we would be out of our own solar system in a matter of minutes. I had to admit it scared me slightly, but Mick remained calm and mysteriously quiet. I figured he had everything under control, so I tried to just enjoy myself and the amazing view from my window. Behind us the sun glowed in the center of everything. It looked like a huge ball of fire. It glowed so bright I had to cover my eyes trying to look out of the back window. We were still far away from it and going further