The Eye of Their Future            part 1               by Mera 491
 
 "Commander, get up here!" Harlan yelled into the intercom. "There's an escape pod in the 
landing bay!"
 Commander Goddard spoke back quickly, "No, Harlan. You, Radu, and Mera meet me at the airlock."
 "Okay, Commander." Harlan said, and he, Radu, and Mera shot down the jumptubes to the airlock, 
wondering what was going on. 
 Mera was the newest member of the Space Cases crew. She was the second student at the 
Starcademy. She was eleven, like Radu, and was also sent to the academy because of her 
individualism. And the Starcademy had quickly sent her out on a journey to search for the 
Christa. But her ship had been small, and by the time she had found them, she was running out 
of fuel and oxygen.....fast. So the Christa had boarded her, and the crew had taken an 
immediate liking to her, even Harlan. And especially Radu. In fact, in the past week that she 
had been with them, he had developed an enormous crush on her. And she felt the same way about 
him, but both were too shy to admit it.
 As the three crew members ran to the airlock, they were joined by Rosie and Suzee, who had 
heard the conversation with the Commander. As soon as they reached the entrance to the airlock, 
they saw the Commander standing there with a worried expression on his face.
 "Radu, I can't get this door open. Could you-" Before he could finish, Radu and Mera had 
opened the door with their incredible Andromedan strength. Mera gasped when she saw what was 
behind the door.
 "What? What is it?" Suzee asked worriedly.
 "It- it's a baby." Radu whispered. "An Andromedan baby."
 Mera pushed past him and scooped the baby up out of the escape pod it had been in. She carried 
it into the Christa. The others gathered around her.
 "Oh, it's so cute!" breathed Rosie.
 "Do you think it's a boy or a girl?" Suzee asked.
 "I think it's a girl." Mera said. "I mean, who would dress their baby boy up in a pink dress?"
 "Who do you think her parents are?" Harlan wondered.
 "What would an Andromedan baby be doing way out here?" Commander Goddard said.
 "Hey, look!" Radu exclaimed. "A computer chip!" he said, pulling his hand out of the pod. In 
it, he held a tiny chip.
 "Maybe it's from her parents." Mera murmured. "Maybe they had a good reason for putting their 
baby in this life pod."
 "Well, let's check it out!" Harlan said, and they all walked down to the command post, because 
Mera said she wasn't about to take a baby throught the jumptubes.
 In the compost, the crew was joined by Bova and Miss Davenport. They put the chip into the 
computer and waited, with Mera still cradling the baby in her arms.
 "Here's the message." Rosie said cheerfully.
 An image came up on the view screen. The entire crew fell silent when they saw the baby's 
parents. They were a slightly older version of Radu and Mera!!
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