Last Signal from Mars

When a mysterious signal arrives from an abandoned Mars colony, you are chosen as the youngest member of a rescue crew sent to investigate what happened to the colonists.

Most twelve-year-olds dream about being astronauts someday, but you are already living it. You are the youngest crew member ever assigned to the space station Horizon, orbiting Earth like a giant tin can full of scientists and freeze-dried ice cream. You earned your spot because you have a gift for cracking codes — puzzles, ciphers, secret messages, you eat them for breakfast. Life on the station is busy but predictable: morning lessons with Dr. Okoro, afternoon shifts in the communications lab, and evenings floating in your bunk reading old mystery novels.

Tonight you are halfway through a chapter about a locked-room mystery when the comm panel on your wall lights up red. 'That is not normal,' you mutter, pushing yourself off your bunk. You drift toward the panel and stare at the scrolling data. A repeating signal, source: Mars. 'Mars? Nobody is on Mars anymore.'

The hatch swings open. Captain Reyes floats in, her jaw set tight, that look on her face that means fun time is over. 'I need you in the comm lab,' she says. 'Now.' She holds up a data chip. 'Something is transmitting from Ares Colony. The colony we abandoned eighteen months ago.'

'That is impossible,' you say, but even as the words leave your mouth, a thrill runs through you. Impossible is your favorite kind of puzzle.