Chapter 32: A Challenger Appears

Fighting difficult crosswinds, you traverse the desert, gently approaching the runway, put down the landing gear, and with a slight bounce, you land Space Shuttle Discovery! Melvin checks the fuel gauge: “Yes! More than 7500 units left! We did it!” You high-five, which is strange, given his lack of hands. The Shuttle was incredibly difficult to pilot, especially to do so efficiently, when that training satellite kept moving around. And landing was no picnic either! Until Christa had explained it, it never would have occurred to you that during re-entry, there was no way to maintain signal with ground control.

You exit the Shuttle, and walk down a flight of stairs that someone has put into place. At the bottom, you see Christa, beaming with pride. “Nice job!” she says, saluting, and then shaking your hand. “You really paid attention!”

“It wasn’t easy,” you admit with some exhaustion, “but we never could have done it without your lessons.”

“On behalf of the AASA, I have something for you,” she says. She holds out a distinguished looking folding case with the agency logo on it. You take it, and open it up. Inside are two patches. First a round one that reads “Space Shuttle Pilot”, and then an oblong patch with wings that reads “Space Shuttle Commander.”

“Wow!” shouts Melvin. “What an honor!”

“You’ve earned it,” says Christa. “And to think, when you walked in, I wasn’t sure you could handle baggage! Now I wonder if maybe you might be going to Solaris after all.”

“Do you think we can get there?” asks Melvin.

“Well,” she says, “one step at a time. I told you about how we need to rebuild our Space Defense Station to get back into the League of Civilized Planets. Do you think you’re ready for that mission?”

“Absolutely!” shouts Melvin.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” you ask, feigning irritation.

“Oh… sorry…” Melvin apologizes.

“Just kidding,” you joke, “it seems important, and we did handle that last mission, even though it was REALLY HARD! I guess we can try to rebuild the space station.”

Christa takes a deep breath. “Okay,” she says, “then follow me.” Again she leads you to the golf cart.

“Wait a second,” you say. “Won’t we be flying the Discovery again?”

“Oh no,” she says, climbing into the cart. “It’ll take a couple weeks to prep it for another mission. You’re going to pilot… Challenger.” Something about the way she says that feels slightly eerie. You ride quietly as you head back towards the terminal, partly because you need a rest, but partly because you are thinking. You approach the terminal and drive around it to the other side. You see planes of various colors taking off and landing on runways all around. As you round the terminal, you see the other Shuttle in the distance. It is enormous, just like Discovery was when you approached it. But something about Challenger is much more ominous. You look up at its silent, foreboding shape as you draw near. You turn to Christa, who looks up at it with a solemn expression as she drives up to it, and suddenly you remember. Suddenly it all comes flooding back to you, and you start to panic.

“Stop!” you say. How did you not realize this before? Christa stops the cart. “What’s wrong?” she says, looking at you with concern.

“Yeah, what’s the problem?” asks Melvin.

“This is the Space Shuttle Challenger!” you say with alarm.

“Well, duh,” says Melvin, “What did you think it was? The Good Ship Lollipop?”

Your breathing speeds up. You don’t know how you forgot, but somehow you forgot, and now you remember. You remember that horrible day. The day that the Space Shuttle exploded, and everyone on board died. You loved the Space Shuttle, and everything it represented about the beautiful future of humanity. The day the astronauts died, a part of you died, too. You feel like you are having a nightmare. You can see Challenger exploding in your mind, those terrible forking cloud trails. At the same time, you see it before your actual eyes, ready for launch, living up to its name, challenging the very sky.

You turn to Christa, ready to tell her how insane this is, how you remember that horrible day when six astronauts and a teacher… and… a teacher…

Christa seemed concerned at your distress at first, but then she seemed to understand, and became calm, almost serene. She looks down for a moment. Then she looks at Melvin. “Melvin, can you fly up to the Shuttle, and see if it’s ready for takeoff?”

“Oh… sure thing!” says Melvin, and zips off.

You look at Christa. She’s just pixels… everything, and everyone here is just pixels. But you know exactly who she is. “You’re… Christa McAuliffe, aren’t you?”

She nods, and looks at you calmly. “Yes… that’s right.”

“But, you… you…”

“Yes, I know. I died on the Space Shuttle.” She smiles, sadly. “You see, that happened in 1986… but here, for me, it’s always 1984.”

This doesn’t make sense. “So… it never happened?”

She sighs. “No, it happened, I’m sad to say… in the real world. It just never happened here. That’s why I stay here.”

You’re completely confused. “So… you’re… what? A time traveler? A ghost?”

She laughs. “No, it’s simpler than that. I’m more like… a memory.” She pauses. “You see, this whole place is made of memories. And not ordinary ones, but memories of what people aspire to be. I spent my life aspiring to be an astronaut and a teacher. I succeeded at those in real life, but here, here I can do so much more. Do you know how many shuttle flights I’ve made here? Hundreds. Almost a thousand. And the number of people I’ve taught how to fly… well, I’ve almost lost count. It’s a wonderful place, and I’m glad to be here.”

You look up at the Challenger, and see Melvin zipping around it, giving it a sort of inspection. “But… the Challenger… is it safe?”

She smiles, leans on the steering wheel of the golf cart, and looks up at the towering Shuttle. “Oh yes, definitely. I’ve flown it hundreds of times. I can promise you nothing will go wrong with the O-rings on this shuttle.”

“Is there… a way I can… rescue you? Take you home?” Your mind races, and you start talking fast and loud. “Since this is 1984, does that mean we can… prevent the disaster? Is that why I’m here?”

She puts her hand on your arm. “No. No one can change the past, not in the real world. Like I told you, I’m a memory. I’ll be here, teaching and flying, as long as there are people to remember who I was. Don’t be sad about it, a memory is a wonderful thing, and this place is silly, but I love it.”

“Are you… sure?”

She laughs. “Yes, definitely. Let me ask you,” she says, smiling, “what is your quest, right now? Something about Solaris, right?”

“Yes… right… Queen Stella needs us to retrieve the Starstone of Solaris.”

“Ha, right,” says Christa, laughing. “I suppose the Krylons or someone stole it.”

“Uh… the Zylons, actually.”

She laughs again. “Right, right, Zylons. I always mix those up. So… you’re going off into outer space to fight the Zylons, so you can bring the ‘Starstone of Solaris’ back to the Queen, is that right?” she says teasingly.

You feel kind of embarrassed. “After going on your training mission, it all feels… silly. Just… crazy kid fantasies.”

Now she gets serious, and almost a little angry. “And what’s wrong with crazy kid fantasies? Where do you think things like the Space Shuttle come from? From serious adults thinking rational thoughts? Wrong. Sure, most people set aside their crazy fantasies when they grow up… they forget about them, and live boring adult lives. But a few of us, we hold on to those crazy kid fantasies, and use them as fuel to make wonderful new things come true. That’s why I love it here. And that’s why you need to help the Queen recover the treasures. It’s the only way to preserve the memories that this place represents. I know this place has been falling apart, it’s why I’ve been so busy at the airport… there just aren’t any Players anymore to solve our problems. And… until you got here, I… almost forgot who I was. But I remember now! So, go, Player. Go build that space station, find that Starstone, and save the day. The world depends on it, in ways you’ll never know.”

Just then, Melvin zips over. “She looks good! A little different than the Discovery, but I think we can handle her.”

Christa starts up the golf cart. “Did you check the O-rings?”

“Sure,” says Melvin. “They look fine. Why?”

Christa smiles at you. “No reason. Come on, let’s get you to Solaris!” She drives the golf cart up to the elevator. You get out, making sure to take your patches with you. The door opens and Christa says, “This mission will be different, and in many ways, much harder.”

You and Melvin look at each other in alarm. You say, “Remind me… what are we doing exactly? How do we build a Space Station?”

She hands you a diagram from her folder. “All that practice docking was for a reason. When you fly Challenger into orbit, you will find a few orbiting satellites. One is a fuel station, one is a factory that makes space station parts. And in the highest orbit, you’ll find the ruins of our old Space Defense Station. Your job is to take parts from the factory, and install them onto the SDS. I’m glad there’s two of you. One will need to stay in the shuttle, the other will need to do a spacewalk to get the parts and put them in place. Everything is very fragile. Bump a part, it breaks. Put a part on the wrong way, it breaks. Collide with comet fragments while flying, and your parts will break.”

“Wait… comet fragments?”

“Yes… a comet flew through recently, and… left a kind of minefield between the factory and the station.”

“That… sounds terrible.”

“It’ll take some fancy flying,” she says, punching your shoulder, “but you can do it.”

A thought strikes you. “Hey! Why don’t you come with us!”

She smiles. “No, no. Shooting up Zylons? That’s not really my thing. But don’t worry… you inspired me. I’ll be doing a science mission on Discovery just as soon as it’s ready again. I had forgotten how much I love space science… but my memory is starting to come back.” She looks at you meaningfully. “And I have a feeling that I’ll remember a lot more soon.”

“Will we see you again?”

“It’s hard to say. But don’t worry about that. You have a mission, Player!” She snaps you a salute. You straighten up and salute her right back. “Thanks for everything, Commander McAuliffe!”

The elevator doors start to close. Melvin asks her, “After we rebuild the station, is there anything else you need us to do?”

“Don’t forget me,” she says.

“I never will,” you say to the closed doors, and the elevator starts its rise.

Put the Shuttle Orbiter cartridge into your Atari 2600. Use game select 1, and play until you successfully build the space station. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.