Free The Apollo Academy by Kimberly P. Chase Page B

he glanced her way, Aurora nervously began stirring her yogurt. She didn’t understand the connection she had with him. Maybe it was because she hadn’t ever given someone the chance to date her with the whole avoid-people thing. Or maybe she just knew he was different.
    With the arrival of the male students, Hailen had started up a delighted cheery-girl banter with no sign of her earlier unpleasantness. A tall Asian guy introduced himself to Kaylana as Akemi. A dark-haired boy named Jeremy and a blond-haired boy named Jean-Pierre also sat down at the table, but Aurora wasn’t interested in them.
    Ms. Lovell’s voice boomed through the over-head speakers, halting all conversation. “Everyone, please remain within the building. The Apollo Alliance has trespassers on the property, and as a safety precaution we will be under lockdown until they are removed. Please stay inside the building until further notice. Class Eight swim training is canceled, but the area of concentration meetings will continue as scheduled.”
    Aurora looked at the other cadets for an explanation, but they all looked just as confused.
    “Does anyone know what’s going on?” Kaylana asked.
    Zane enlarged the screen on his techiwatch. “No, but I bet it’s on the Grid.”
    Everyone gathered around Zane as he pulled up the local news Grid. Aurora had never seen fingers move so fast.
    The same reporter that seemed to be in the middle of everything these days appeared on the screen. “This is Veronica Harley reporting for Broadcast 5 News. I’m standing outside of the Apollo Alliance’s SpacePort in Cape Canaveral where an angry mob of demonstrators is protesting. This group of protesters has aligned themselves with TerraUnited, an organization that believes the alteration of anything beyond our planet is unacceptable.
    “As you may already know, in a highly controversial move, the Apollo Alliance recently broke ground on its mining operation on the moon, making it the first organization in history to mine outside of the earth’s atmosphere. Their justification for this decision is that the moon is incredibly rich in minerals that we desperately need.
    “Not only is the moon the closest aerial body to Earth, but its low specific gravity makes it a relatively easy place to dig to great depths. The Apollo Alliance has concluded that large mineral deposits will be found below the moon’s surface since, like Earth, the moon has been saturated with asteroid impacts over its lifetime, which we know from experience contain high yields of minerals such as gold, platinum, silver and, most importantly, Helium 3, an isotope used in nuclear fusion.”
    Aurora was well aware of the benefits of mining on the moon; they desperately needed more power sources. She had never experienced the power outages, but she knew in most suburbs the power went off for extended periods of time.
    “Despite the fact that few resources remain on our planet, as you can see behind me, many are against this method of obtaining more. A supporter would argue we have simply run out of other options due to overpopulation.
    “The latest statistics from the World Retinal Database show that the world now has over twenty-two billion inhabitants, confirming the belief that we can no longer sustain our own needs. It was for this reason that the Apollo Alliance was originally formed by an influential group of people whose own mission statement shows they are determined to ensure the survival of the human race. They feel it’s now evident that in order to do this, we need to look above for our answers. Through partnership with the Apollo Academy, these objectives are becoming obtainable but are causing much controversy.”
    Aurora swallowed as the weight of what she trained for settled on her shoulders again. She hadn’t realized there were that many people in the world. She should have kept herself more informed instead of hiding from everything. Her awareness of the world was almost as