Space Station Crisis: Star Challengers Book 2 Read Online Free PDF

information about equilibrium.”
    “I saw this during our field trip here from school,” Tony said, “but it wasn’t my station, and I never got a turn.”
    “You’ll all have a chance before we proceed with transport to orbit,” Zota said. “Tell me, what information do you normally use to keep your balance?”
    “Sight,” Song-Ye said.
    “Right. I like to depend on what I see,” JJ said. “That’s what made flying under IFR so tricky at first.”
    King grinned. “Usually, I don’t have a problem staying balanced if my feet are on the ground. So I guess I’m partly using a sense of touch—the pressure under my feet.”
    “There’s hearing, too,” Tony said. “My aunt is blind, but she can tell a lot about where people and things are, just by listening.”
    “Indeed. Anything else?” Commander Zota asked.
    “Piece of cake,” Dyl said. “I read about this. There are tiny hairs in your inner ear that tell the brain which way is which. If that gets messed up—like when a person gets an ear infection—it can make you dizzy.”
    “Excellent.” Zota turned to JJ. “Cadet Wren, would you like to be the first test subject?”
    “I’m in!” JJ plopped herself into the chair, which had a five-point pilot’s harness. She buckled the harness across her waist, between her legs, and over her shoulders and chest. “Now what?”
    “For this experiment, we limit the information that your brain normally receives.” From the counter Zota lifted earphones and a set of large goggles with a completely opaque lens plate. He slipped the goggles over JJ’s head, covering her eyes; the padding fit snugly around her eyes and cheeks. Although her eyes were open, the goggles blocked all light.
    For a moment, JJ felt disoriented by a blackness as deep as space, although fortunately she still felt the solid chair beneath her. She tried to imagine herself floating there, like Alexei Leonov, the Soviet Cosmonaut who had been the first human to walk in space in 1965.
    “Point your thumbs toward the ceiling, Cadet Wren, and after I spin the chair point your thumbs in the direction you feel you are rotating. When you think you have stopped, point your thumbs straight up again. Simple enough?” The commander’s voice seemed to come from nowhere. Everything was so completely dark.
    “Simple enough. Spin me.” She pressed her back against the chair, ready to go.
    “One final step.” He placed the snug and heavy headphones on her, and all sound stopped.
    And then JJ was whirling around like a ride at a carnival, spinning and spinning. She tilted her thumbs to point in the direction she was circling. It was an amazing illusion. No sight, no sound. To get into the spirit, she thought of herself in a space capsule, rotating around and around … like John Glenn in 1962, the first American to orbit the Earth.
    She wondered what was happening in the room around her. King was probably humming “Dizzy” or some other old song. She felt herself stop spinning and gradually start turning the opposite way, so she pointed her thumbs to show the other direction. Commander Zota tugged off the goggles and headphones, and JJ was astonished to find that she was sitting completely still. The feeling was even more disorienting than the silent darkness had been.
    “When did I stop?” she asked.
    “The chair stopped fifteen seconds ago,” Tony said. “Did you really think you were still moving?”
    JJ unbuckled the harness and stood up, wobbled a bit, then turned to Tony. “If it’s so easy, then you try it.” She handed him the goggles. He put them on, set the headphones in place, and sat in the chair. For his turn, she watched Tony spin round and round; he had a grin on his face, enjoying the ride, but he made the same error JJ had made. Because the chair was perfectly balanced, and he had no visual reference points, he couldn’t tell when he stopped spinning.
    Dyl went next, then King, both with similar results.
    Seeing them