96
97
“Well, what else can we do?” asks Kamari.
“We can shoot it down.”
“How?” puts in Devon. “And even if we can rig 
something up we don’t have time!”
“We don’t need to,” responds Chen, “It’s already 
done. Captain Adebeyo on Earth showed me how 
to programme a sample return rocket to hit it. The 
countdown has already started. It launches in 90 
seconds.”
“This sounds great,” says Skylar. “Surely we should 
pick the most definite way of saving people.”
Then Kiran jumps in. “Won’t that fill space with 
lots of uncontrolled bits of junk? Won’t they smash 
into the lunar space station? Or even smash into us 
here?”
“I didn’t make up this idea myself,” shouts Chen. 
“Earth says it’s a low risk and certainly one worth 
taking to save the lives of the crew here and 
potentially the space station crew too. Think about 
what it means if the jamming signal is too late or 
communications black out in about 90 seconds. 
You’ve done everything you can. We’ll talk to you 
on the other side.”
“Josef, I’m not ready for this. I’m scared.”
“Don’t be. Whatever happens, your team mates 
are there for you. Talk to them. And you’re a leader. 
I can tell by all the awesome work you’ve done. 
Good luck, Sasha.”
“Thank you, Josef.”
The signal from Earth ends. 
Sasha calls everybody into an online meeting. She 
quickly explains what has been happening. She 
tells them that it could be first contact with aliens 
and how the jamming signal will save the adult 
crew, while not destroying the spacecraft, but that 
it is going to be a close run thing with the power 
build up.
Chen interrupts, shouting “Are you crazy? Why are 
we depending on something that might work? We 
have to save their lives. Nothing else matters?”

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