Astrid opened her eyes. All she could see were shadows—human shaped shadows leaning over her. All she could hear were whispers and beeps and a swooshing sound. Every single part of her hurt. Then everything went black. When she opened her eyes again, things made more sense. She was in a hospital room. Light was streaming in through the window blinds. A woman in colorful hospital scrubs was leaning over her.

“Awake?” the woman asked.

Astrid tried to nod, but she couldn’t. So she tried to speak but the only thing that came out was a croak.

“Don’t try to move your head. It’s immobilized. Let me get you a sip of water.” She held up a cup with a straw and Astrid sipped. It was like swallowing razor blades. “I know. It hurts. Don’t worry. It will get better. Try another sip.”

“Are you… nurse?” Astrid managed after the second sip.

“Yes. My name is Amelia. I’m your day nurse. I’m going to get the doctor. If you promise not to try to move very much, I’ll unfasten your hands.”

Up until that moment, Astrid hadn’t realized it, but her hands were tied to the sides of the bed. She saw, once Amelia had untied them, that there were intravenous fluids going through a needle stuck in her left arm behind her left wrist. Her right arm was in a cast. The nurse left, and returned a few minutes later with a dark-haired, handsome man wearing a white lab coat.

“Hello, Astrid,” he said. “I’m Dr. Phillips. I’m going to take a quick look at you, if you don’t mind.” He looked at her eyes with a tiny flashlight and then examined the top of her head.

“Can you wiggle your fingers? How about your toes.” All of the appendages seemed to be functioning correctly.

“What happened?” Astrid’s voice was a whisper.

“Well, what do you remember?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? Do you know your name? Do you know how old you are?”

“I’d know I was Astrid even if I didn’t remember. You just called me that. I’m Astrid Maxxim. I’m fifteen.”

“Where do you live?”

“I… I don’t remember. I… I live in a really big house.”

“Do you remember your school?”

“I… I’m a sophomore. I know that.” She clenched her fists in frustration. “Can you untie my head?”

“All right. When you started to come to yesterday, you began jerking around a lot in your sleep. We didn’t want you to send yourself back into surgery”

As the doctor removed whatever was holding her head, she reached up and touched her scalp, finding that her beautiful shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair was gone. In its place was an unruly mass of spikes about an inch long.

“When did I have surgery? What happened to me?”

“You had brain surgery three weeks ago. You had an accident. That’s all you really need to know right now.”

“Was anyone else hurt?”

“No, Astrid. You were the only one.”

Exhaustion suddenly overcame her, and Astrid closed her eyes and let sleep swallow her up again. In and out of slumber, time seemed to lose all meaning. Then she was awake again and Amelia was giving her a sweet, soothing drink.

“Astrid, there are a couple of people who really want to see you,” said the nurse. “Do you feel up to visitors?”

“Sure.”

Her nurse stepped out of the room, and a moment later Astrid’s mother stepped in, hurrying over to her side. Kate Maxxim was just as beautiful as ever, tall and elegant with the same shade of strawberry blond hair that her daughter now missed. She looked very tired. The blue business suit she wore was a bit crumpled. On her heels was a man in a white shirt with a blue tie.

“How are you feeling, Sweetie?”

“Better now that you’re here, Mom. It’s so disorienting to wake up and not know where you are or how you got here.”

“It’s all better now,” said Mrs. Maxxim. “Don’t worry about remembering the accident. The doctors said you might have a little trouble with your memory at first.”

“Yeah. It’s weird. I remember my room, but I c… can’t remember our address. It’s just right there. I just can’t quite get it. I want to talk to you about it. I know I can remember then.”

Her mother sat down in the chair on Astrid’s left side.

“We’ll have a nice long talk right now. We’ll talk about anything you want to.”

“Great,” said Astrid with a sigh. She pointed to the man with the blue tie. “Let’s let this doctor check me out first and then we can talk without being disturbed.”

“Astrid, this isn’t a doctor,” said her mother, suddenly looking alarmed.

“Astrid, don’t you know me?” the man asked.

She looked up into his friendly face and kind eyes behind horn rimmed glasses. He was handsome with his brown hair just turning grey at the temples.

“I don’t think we’ve ever met,” said Astrid.

“Honey, this is your father,” said Mrs. Maxxim.

“Is he?” asked Astrid with wonder. “Then… um, are you two married?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Maxxim’s voice cracked when she answered.

“It’s nice to meet you,” said Astrid, looking up at him. A tear slid down his face from behind his glasses. “Should I call you Dad or Daddy?”

“You call me Dad.”

“I do? You mean we’ve met?”

“Yes Astrid. We’ve lived together all your life.”

“Um, Dad? Do you think I could talk to Mom alone for a little while?”

The man nodded and quickly left the room.

“I feel really bad,” said Astrid. “I probably really hurt his feelings, but I don’t remember him at all.”

“It’s okay, Honey. Don’t feel bad. Your memory will come back and everything will be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” said her mother forcefully. “I’m sure.”

“Okay. Please, Mom. Tell me what happened to me. I know I had an accident, but I don’t know anything else.”

“I can tell you some of it, Astrid. The doctors don’t want us telling you anything except what we know for sure. They think you might create false memories based on what you hear from us. That might make it harder for your own memories to come back. The truth is, I don’t know all the details. All I know is that you were on a field trip with your class and you fell while climbing and hit your head. You were bleeding into your brain and the doctors had to rush you into surgery to relieve the pressure. You also broke your arm and two ribs, and you have a couple of other hairline fractures.”

“It was Outdoor Survival.”

“You remember?”

“No. I don’t remember falling or even a field trip. I do know I have Outdoor Survival seventh period. Austin sits next to me.”

“You remember Austin?” asked her mother.

“Sure,” said Astrid. “Oh no! I didn’t miss his birthday, did I? It’s February third.”

“Oh, I’m afraid so. That was a week and a half ago. Would you like Austin and your friends to come visit you? They’ve all been asking about you.”

“Sure, that would be great.”

“Can we have your father come back in?”

Astrid nodded. Her mother went out and returned with the man she said was Astrid’s father. They both sat down and the three of them talked about home and about their work at Maxxim Industries. Astrid really couldn’t remember anything about her father, but she liked him. They began discussing Astrid’s inventions, but at some point in the conversation, Astrid drifted off. When she woke, her mother was gone, but her father was still there.

“You invented the hoverdisk, didn’t you?” she asked him.

“Did you remember that?”

“Not really. I deduced it. I remember building my hoverbike and using hoverdisks. I didn’t invent them, so they had to come from somewhere. I know my mother isn’t an inventor, so it must have been you.”

“Brilliant as always,” he said, smiling weakly.

“Can I see your phone?”

He pulled it from his pocket and unlocked it with his fingerprint, before handing it to her. Once she had it in her hand, she flipped open the photo app and began scrolling through it.

“Lots of pictures of me,” she said. “It’s a good thing I know you’re my dad or I would think you were some kind of weird stalker.”

“When I come back tomorrow, I’ll bring your tablet and then you can look through all your pictures. That might spark some memories for you.”

“Can’t I just come home?” asked Astrid.

“The doctors say not for a few more days.”

She held up the phone with a picture of two men sitting together.

“Are you Uncle Carl’s brother?”

“You remember Uncle Carl?”

“Yes. It’s so strange. I remember Uncle Carl and I remember he’s married, but I can’t remember anything about his wife.”

“Do you remember his daughter?”

“Uncle Carl has a daughter?”

“Yes, and yes, Carl is my brother. Do you remember Aunt Penny?”

Astrid shook her head.

“Well, at least you remember somebody from my family,” he said.

“I’m really sorry, um… Dad.”

“That’s okay, Astrid. Everything will be all right.”

“Ariel spacecraft, this is Houston.” A new voice sounded from the radio speaker.

“Go ahead Houston,” Astrid said.

“Ariel, we have a message for you, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to ignore it.”

“What is the message?” wondered Astrid.

“Your mother says ‘turn around and come home’.”

“Well, I couldn’t really, even if I wanted to.”

“Ten-four on that, Ariel. We would however like to know your plan.”

“Plan,” said the girl inventor. “I knew I forgot something. Well, my intention is to rescue Nova 5, but I have to be honest. I don’t really have a plan.”

“Well, we have a few suggestions for you.”

“I thought you might,” said Astrid. “Can I ask who I’m speaking to?”

“This is Eric Foley.”

“I’m familiar with you, Eric. You were a mission commander to the ISS. I’m Astrid.”

“I’m familiar with you too, Astrid. So here are the possibilities. Number one: You can rendezvous with Nova and nudge her up into a sustainable orbit. The problem is we don’t know how much that will help. She appears to be badly damaged. Number two: You could rendezvous and latch onto Nova with your robot arm, towing her to the ISS. The problem with this one is it might be dangerous to both crews, since her current orbit is pretty steep. Finally, you can rendezvous and Nova’s crew can transfer in their suits to Ariel and abandon their ship. This sounds easy, but it’s not. It’s difficult to get around in space, even when it’s not an emergency situation.”

“Well, I’m going to be honest, Eric. Since right now, there’s just a big empty space where Ariel’s robot arm goes, we have to go with option three. Can you tell Nova’s crew to suit up? We’ll rendezvous in 116 minutes.”

“Relaying that information now,” he said. “Just so you know, that’s cutting it close. They’re dusting some atmosphere now. We estimate that they have a window of only 121 minutes.”

“That’s just craptastic,” said Williams.

Ariel shot through space essentially flying herself. Astrid ran through calculations, eventually deciding that she could accelerate enough to gain 19 minutes, without taking herself off course and without cutting into the fuel that she would need to make it home safely. Unlike the Nova capsules, which maneuvered through space with very little fuel and then just dropped back to earth, the space plane had to maneuver through the air and fly down to a runway landing. Pushing the throttle forward, she guided her creation across the sky. Carl Williams meanwhile gathered the emergency gear.

“Nova 5 on alert radar,” said Williams, back in his seat.

“Got it,” she replied. “I see her! There she is!”

Everyone was back in school for lunch, which was butternut squash soup, yellowfin tuna ribbons with avocado and spicy radish in a ginger marinade and hamachi sashimi with avocado, yuzu, and radish, alongside mushroom risotto with citrus foam. Dessert was peanut butter torte with caramel.

“I don’t think my fish is done,” said Austin.

“It’s supposed to be served rare,” said Christopher.

“Yeah, but mine’s still going like this.” Austin formed his lips into a fish mouth, opening and closing.

“If you don’t want it, I’ll eat it,” offered Bud.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to eat it.”

Astrid was only paying half attention. She was busy sending an email memo on her phone. “Attention all Maxxim Employees. The correct name of the launch facility located on the Maxxim campus is the Maxxim Spaceport. Any official use of the term ‘Startopia’ is prohibited. Signed, Astrid Maxxim Co-Chairman of the Board, Maxxim Industries.”

“What are you doing?” asked Denise.

“Um, just texting.”

“Who are you texting? We’re all right here.”

“I’m texting my chief of design that his daughter is a nosy-Rosie.”

“Fine,” said Denise. “No need to be snappish.”

The rest of the day was pretty routine. Astrid rode home with her friends, who said goodbye and parted, one after another, until only she and Toby walked the last leg up the hill. When they were halfway home, Toby reached out and took her hand and held it until they said goodbye near the poplar trees where their yards touched.

Astrid’s mother wasn’t home all evening and of course her father was in space, so Astrid did her homework, which she was three weeks ahead on, and sat down to dinner by herself. Chef Pierce baked a fish pie; something Astrid had never tried before, though she had heard people in Britain ate them all the time. After an hour of TV and an hour playing her oboe, she climbed into bed and slipped into sleep.

An annoying sound woke Astrid from a deep slumber. It took her a minute to realize that it was her phone. Staggering across the room, she picked it up and pressed it to her face.

“Hello?”

“Astrid, have you seen the news?”

“Who is this?”

“I’m sorry. This is Tomiko Ikeda. Astrid, you’ve got to turn on channel 25.”

“Now?”

“Yes, right now. Channel 25.”

Astrid flipped on the all-news channel and tried to shake the cobwebs out of her eyes. There was a male news anchor in a grey suit talking to the screen.

“It is confirmed now. There is an emergency in space. Nova 5, the privately funded manned spacecraft of Maxxim Industries has experienced a catastrophic failure. The vehicle has lost all power, is in a decaying orbit, and is venting oxygen into space. Indications are that the ship was hit by an object, though whether that object was a meteoroid, a piece of space junk, or some type of space weapon is unknown at this time. Houston has confirmed that the three crewmembers, billionaire industrialist inventor Roger Maxxim and two veteran NASA astronauts are alive and in no immediate danger, but how long that will continue to be the case is unknown.”

The second day of the new year, Astrid, along with pilots Hugh Chase and Carl Williams, took her space plane for another test flight. This time they broke no records for altitude or speed. Instead they pushed Ariel through a series of complex maneuvers, carefully measuring the structural integrity of the craft. She came through with flying colors.

The girl inventor was still at the airfield when her Maxxim Carpé signaled she had a phone call.

“Hello,” she said, tapping the screen to pass the call from her phone to her wrist device.

“Hi Astrid,” Toby’s voice came through the speaker. “How did your test flight go?”

“She’s got it going like a turbo vet.”

“Did you just quote Sir Mix A Lot?” he asked.

Astrid laughed. “What can I say, the man’s a poet. Seriously, Ariel is 100%. I’m ready to declare her airworthy, but we’ve still got two tests planned.”

“That’s great,” said Toby. “Another Astrid Maxxim success. The reason I called was to see if you had plans for tomorrow night?”

“Not that I know of. What’s up? It’s not another party, is it? I’m just about partied out.”

“No. Not a party, but a date.”

“I’m listening,” said Astrid.

“They’re showing a Charlie Chaplin double-feature at the Main Street Cinema and I thought we could have dinner afterwards at The Great Wall.”

Astrid was so excited about her date, she decided to stop by the Main Street Dress Emporium and purchase something new to wear. She found a cute tunic dress with bright colors that she paired up with black leggings. She also bought a pair of black heels to go with the outfit. They weren’t particularly high, but since Astrid seldom wore heels, she practiced walking in them for about an hour.

The Cinema was located at the east end of Main Street. It was a small movie theater. Originally built in 1937 in a town in Kansas, it had closed down in the fifties, and had been scheduled for demolition, but was bought and moved to Maxxim City. This was the case with many buildings on Main Street, a feature of the town that made it seem to have far more history than it actually did. Because it had only had one screen and seats for only 122 movie viewers, the Main Street Cinema seldom showed the newest movies, and never anything with digital or surround sound. It was almost always the classics. But sodas were a dollar, candy fifty cents, and all-you-could-eat buttered popcorn was included in the price of your ticket. Toby and Astrid tried not to stuff themselves too much as they watched Chaplin tramp through The Kid and Modern Times.

“It’s amazing how well Charlie Chaplin films hold up,” said Astrid, as they walked hand-in-hand down the street to The Great Wall.

“I think a lot of the great old movies hold up,” said Toby, “if people will only give them a chance.”

The following morning was the launch of Maxxim’s Nova 4 unmanned spacecraft. There were far fewer high school kids there than there had been during the Nova 3 launch. Most were off visiting friends and family or Christmas shopping. In fact, as Astrid watched the rocket disappear among the clouds, she was reminded that she hadn’t done much in the way of Christmas shopping yet herself. Fortunately she knew just who she needed to help her.

The girl inventor flew to Phoenix, which was the closest major metropolitan area. She had to take a certified pilot with her, but it was another chance to add miles to her flight log. More importantly, Miss Scacchi went with her. They spent the day at the Biltmore Fashion Park and by that evening, Astrid had her Christmas shopping done.

One of the many stores in the mall was the Maxxim store, where in addition to several presents, Astrid purchased a Carpé Aviatrix for herself. The clerk who waited on her was so excited that Astrid worried he might wet himself. She was frankly surprised that he recognized her, until she saw a large picture on the wall of herself climbing out of a mini-sub in the waters near Hawaii. It was right next to an even larger picture of Gloria riding a hoverbike. After a quick dinner at an Italian restaurant, Astrid, her instructor pilot, and Miss Scacchi flew home.

The clock said 10:43 AM when Astrid finally climbed out of bed the morning of Christmas Eve. It was unusual for her to sleep so late. It was even more unusual for her to find both parents at home that late in the morning, even if it was the day before a holiday. Still in her pajamas, she plopped down at the table in the breakfast room as Chef Pierce placed a bowl of oatmeal and fruit in front of her. She was on her second bite before she realized that though both her parents were seated, neither was eating and they weren’t talking. Glancing at her mother, Astrid noticed that she was intentionally not looking at her father.

“All right, who’s in trouble?” asked the girl inventor. “It’s not me, is it?”

“No, it’s me,” said Dr. Maxxim. “I just informed your mother that when Nova 5 launches on January 7^th, it will be the first manned launch from the Maxxim Spaceport.”

“Can you get the launch facilities ready so quickly?” asked Astrid. “That’s a turn-around of less than four weeks.”

“I think so,” he replied. “It was up and running in less than five weeks between the last two launches. We’re just pushing it a little.”

“Stop beating around the bush,” snapped Mrs. Maxxim. “What your father neglected to mention is that he’s planning on being in that capsule.”

“It’s not a capsule,” he said. “It’s a spacecraft.”

“Stop it! You have no business going up into space!”

“I’ve gone through the training. I’m in good physical shape. In fact, with the exception of some less than perfect vision, I’m a perfect specimen. Besides which, space literally is my business.”

“Talk some sense into your father,” Astrid’s mother demanded.

“Can I come too, Dad? The Nova holds up to seven and I’ve already had a spacesuit custom made to fit.”

Mrs. Maxxim’s face went white, and then red.

The next day was less regimented, at least in the morning. That’s when Astrid realized that Miss Scacchi had gone a little overboard. Guests started showing up for a party. Eleven girls, all the within a year or two of Astrid’s age, arrived. Astrid couldn’t imagine how Miss Scacchi had come up with this particular list of girls. There were girls that she had always gotten along well with: Alicia Noble, Madison Laurel, and Joanie Blair. Then there were girls that she tried to have as little to do with as possible: Hannah Stark, Taylor Kirkpatrick, and Sierra Brightman. And there were girls she had hardly even ever spoken to: Diana Mills, Chloe Sergeant, Dot Collins, and Amelia Stark, who was back in town after having her appendix taken out. Finally there was her cousin Gloria. Astrid thought they had been getting on extremely well, considering. Why push it?

Miss Scacchi gathered everyone together in the foyer and then led them up the sweeping staircase to the third floor. She had transformed one of the large unused rooms into a vast game room. There was a pool table, two ping pong tables, and an air hockey table. Along one wall was a bank of classic coin operated arcade games. Along the other wall were small tables, each with two chairs, and set up with board games. The entire room was decorated with an Olympics theme. By the door, was a chart set up with progression ladders or score charts for each of the games.

The fifteen girls rotated around playing. Most of them were interested, though not overly enthusiastic, about the games. All that changed when Miss Scacchi rolled in a table filled with gold, silver, and bronze medals. Suddenly the competition grew fierce. They were playing so hard, they didn’t even notice they were hungry until Chef Pierce brought in a cart filled with snacks, including gold medal cookies, and torches made from sugar cones filled with buttered popcorn. By time for dinner, the girls were growing quite tired. Another nearby room had been arrayed with three folding banquet tables covered with the evening meal. Dinner consisted of gold-medal vegetable dip with crisp veggies, Olympic rings of pizza, Olympic rings of fruit pizza with a chocolate cookie crust, and a champion chocolate cake. When they were all stuffed, Miss Scacchi handed out 45 medals. Everyone got at least one. Astrid got gold in Ms. Pacman and Chess, a silver in Q-bert, and a bronze in air hockey. The medals turned out to be chocolate. Then they all watched Chariots of Fire. When vans arrived to take everyone home, the girls were exhausted but happy. And all of them proclaimed Astrid’s party a success.

“We should have had your party planner two months ago,” said Denise. “Compared to this, our birthday parties sucked.”

“Well Astrid,” asked Miss Scacchi. “What did you think?”

“It was the best party I didn’t even realize I was throwing.”

Between homework and dinnertime, Astrid made use of the new sitting room to discuss a few things with Miss Scacchi.

“I’d like to leave for Detroit on the 17^th if possible,” she said. “That way I can come home on the 21^st, in time to watch the Nova 4 launch and with plenty of time to finish my Christmas shopping.”

“Would you like me to arrange a first class ticket?”

“No, I’ll take a company plane. In fact, I think I’ll fly it. The guys have been bugging me to get my pilot’s license. This will give me enough hours and will count as a cross-country solo flight. I would really appreciate it if you could make sure that I have everything I need for the trip.”

“Of course. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“How about helping me set up a girl’s weekend with Denise, Valerie, and Valerie. I’d like to do something special next weekend—really fancy it up, with invitations and everything. I think I’ve been neglecting them lately, especially Denise.”

“Leave it to me, Astrid.”

“Um, one more thing. I need to get ahold of Governor Hardgrave and ask him to give me an age waver for a student pilot’s license.”

“I’ll call him right away,” said the assistant.

The first part of the week seemed to stretch on forever, as Astrid was looking forward to the first test flight of Ariel, her space plane. When the scheduled time arrived for the test, Thursday afternoon, she stepped out onto the tarmac of the Maxxim airfield in her flight suit. Just as she had told her friends weeks before, Astrid would not be piloting the craft, though she felt more than capable. Instead, two Maxxim test pilots Hugh Chase and Carl Williams would be at the controls. The girl inventor would be along for the ride though, as navigator and flight analyst.

As soon as the three of them climbed aboard and strapped themselves into their seats, Chase called the control tower for clearance. Once they received the go ahead, he ignited the engines. Ariel rumbled to life.