Spact Cadets: Graduation

By Steven Jon Halasz

The six friends whose first-year project at Space Academy resulted in a "breakthrough" have completed their four years of intense academic training and are poised to graduate and enter one-year internships at various sites around the solar system. But the onslaught of families arriving for the celebration, anxieties over grades and internship appointments, and a recalcitrant AI all combine to to create and experience that no one will ever forget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven Jon Halasz
• Release date: Dec 28, 2017

Steven Jon Halasz

Steven Jon Halasz was born in 1948, grew up in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and attended Mayfield High School, Hiram College, and Case Western Reserve University Law School. He has worked as an attorney and a computer software developer and has made various attempts at writing both fiction and non-fiction off and on since the age of sixteen. He has a delightful sister, a brilliant son, a lovely daughter-in-law and two precocious grandchildren. He currently lives in Portugal with his darling wife Elena.He has loved and been loved in return.

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Space Cadets: Graduation

by Steven Jon Halasz

copyright 2017 Steven Jon Halasz

I don’t know, said Nancy, in answer to Tom’s question. I haven’t decided yet.

Their four years at Space Academy had gone by quickly, and the six friends who had worked together on the ill-fated Shades project in their first year were coming to grips with an important decision—where to spend their year abroad.

Well, Tim and I are all set, said Tom. We’re going to Moon Base One! We’ll be with our father!

That was expected. Their father, Commander Charles Krikit, ran the base for Moonco, the company that had built the first colony on earth’s solitary moon. The boys talked to their father every week and had twelve weeks vacation with him when he came home on leave, but now they would be staying with him full time for a whole year.

Tim was concerned about Nancy, though, and gave her a questioning look. I thought you were going to intern on Explorer 2094-A, he said.

Nancy sighed, then said, I thought so too, but they haven’t confirmed me yet. I don’t understand it. I was sure that I would be accepted. I can’t believe there are any candidates better qualified than me!

The boys nodded in agreement. They had done well enough at the academy, but Nancy had in fact turned out to be a star student, as the infamous Eric Bengat had predicted. Only one other student in the class equaled her grade point average, a boy named Yadumani Kurusar, who had grown up in the slums of Bangalore but who, through a combination of extraordinary ability, persistence and good luck, had found his way into the famous space school. In fact, Nancy, and Yad as he was called, were neck-and-neck in the running for class Valedictorian.

Tim patted Nancy on the arm. You’ll get the posting to Explorer, he said. Just wait.

She frowned. I don’t understand what’s holding it up, she whined. I should have heard by now. I also applied for Mars Base and to Space Laboratory, and was accepted at both, but I really want to go to Explorer and I need to give my acceptance to one of them soon.

The Explorer 2094-A spacecraft was a scientific colony of several dozen astronauts who lived and worked in the outer reaches of the solar system. Currently it was exploring the asteroid belt, and in the next year would be moving into the vicinity of Hygiea, a 400 kilometer wide asteroid with a carbonaceous surface. The navigational maneuvers were of particular interest to Nancy. She