Lunar Colony Read Online Free PDF Page B

of an object sticking out from beneath the pillow. Pulling it out, Glen saw that it was a notebook. He flippedthrough the pages but couldn’t figure out what most of the drawings and scribblings meant. Most puzzling was the question scrawled over and over throughout the book:
Where is Number Four?
    “I don’t know what any of this means or what Number Four is, but I’ll bet this notebook will come in handy,” Glen said as he stuck it into the pocket of his spacesuit.
    Near Salerno’s bunk was something else of interest, a workstation covered in papers and empty cans of Astrofizz cola.
    “Sheesh, what a mess,” Glen said. “Not making your bed is one thing, but living like a pig is another.” Among the hundreds of papers that littered the desk were more drawings, maps, and calculations. The same question—
Where is Number Four?
—was written on many of these papers and even scratched into the desk.
    Hmm . . . ,
Glen thought,
Salerno seems obsessed with finding this Number Four. But what is it?
As he pondered this question, he ran his fingers up and down one of the many stacks of papers and accidentally caused it to topple over. The papersfluttered to the ground, revealing a computer monitor.
    “Hello, what’s this?” Glen said as he saw what was on the screen. It was an e-mail, the one Salerno had read before fleeing the living quarters. Glen read through it carefully, especially the mention of “little green men,” hoping it would give him a clue to where she might have gone. When he was done, he closed his eyes and thought deeply, trying to put the pieces of the mystery together.
    “Okay, so Salerno is so obsessed with finding this Number Four thing that she disobeys McNabb, the space program director, who’s telling her to shut this place down and go home. He gets mad and says he’s sending someone to come get her. I guess that would be me.” Glen laughed. Before coming to the moon, the most responsibility he’d ever had was taking care of his neighbor’s dog for a weekend, yet here he was now, astronaut-hunting. “So, she knew someone was coming, which explains why she ditched this place. But what’s this about ‘little green men’? That means aliens, right?”
    Glen frowned. Did Salerno actually believe in aliens? And did she really think that finding Number Four would lead her to them? It all just seemed so crazy. Maybe, though, that’s what happens when you live on the moon by yourself for a long enough time. Eventually you start to believe in things that aren’t possible. But, then again, she had so many notes, so many maps and drawings. It was obvious she’d done a lot of research.
Could
it be possible that she was onto something?
    Glen tried to shake this thought from his head, fearing that he was already starting to lose his own marbles. But he did have to wonder just what kind of person he was dealing with.
    “Well, one thing’s for certain,” Glen said, getting up to leave the barracks. “Salerno’s not here in the living quarters, which means she could be anywhere on the moon.” Remembering a sign he’d seen earlier, he said, “Luckily, I think I know where I can find a car.”

Vehicle Bay
    Glen opened the door to the vehicle bay, hoping he’d find something he could drive on the moon’s surface.
    “If I’m lucky, maybe there’s a jet pack somewhere around here,” he said as he scanned the vehicle bay. The garage wasn’t very orderly. There were tools lying all over the place and heaps of spare parts strewn about. But then Glen saw what he was looking for, a lunar rover.
    “It may not be a jet pack, but this should make it a lot easier to find Salerno,” he said, thinking that it was a lot like the dune buggy he and his dad had once driven on the beach. Then, seeing an empty parking spot nearby, he added, “And it looks like I’ll need it to even the odds. Salerno must have one, too!”
    Glen tried pulling open the bay door, butit wouldn’t budge.
Maybe