Free The Nerdy Dozen #2 by Jeff Miller Page A

Neil before pivoting his head to the group. “You know, at first I didn’t know if this would work, but I’ve got faith in you. In all of you.”
    â€œHail Lord Commander Andertol!” shouted Riley. “May he be a fair and wise dictator! A friend to man and beast, particularly hogs and their overseers!”
    â€œWell, I don’t know about that part, but sounds good to me,” said Sam. “Just know we’re counting on you, ManofNeil.”
    This seemed to be the final opportunity to come clean, to let Finch and the group know how Neil had stretched the truth. How he had a maximum of forty minutes logged in Shuttle Fury, which included bathroom breaks.

    â€œIf I had any doubt in Neil, the mission wouldn’t happen,” eased Finch. “Now, we’ve got minutes until takeoff. We’ll be in constant radio contact. I’ll be with you the whole way, as well as the astronaut flying with you in the middeck.”
    â€œAn astronaut? I thought you said nobody could fit in the Fossil ?” asked a befuddled Neil.
    â€œCorrect, but there’s a retired Russian cosmonaut we’re bringing in to fly with you. He’ll handle the technical aspects of flight. He’s trained for monitoring pressurization and fuel levels,” said Finch as the hulking elevator came to a stop. The doors opened to a cream-colored spaceship.
    Waiting for them on the bridge was a chimpanzee in a green-and-white jumpsuit, his name stitched onto it in bright-red cursive lettering. He had a wrinkled, agitated face complete with a small scar on his left cheek. Gray hair framed his face. He looked at Neil and the others and spit on the metal floor of the walkway.
    â€œRecruits, meet Boris.”

INSIDE THE FOSSIL , THEY WERE FORCED TO CROUCH AS THEY made their way to the cramped main flight cabin. White space suits with helmets and backpacks full of oxygen were secured to the walls.
    The whole craft itself was a small compact wedge, like a space shuttle and a minivan merged together. It had stubby wings that stuck out on either side and four windows looking out from the control deck. At any given time, Neil was basically touching two of his fellow recruits, and everything pretty much smelled like a zoo exhibit.

    â€œNow just know we’ll be with you the whole time. We’ll be in constant contact during the entire mission,” said Finch. “Everyone settled in?”
    Everyone gave him a thumbs-up, and Neil could hear the exterior door of the ship being sealed. Dale closed the circular door leading from the ship’s main cabin into the air lock. He latched it shut with a firm twist of the metal handle and then secured himself into his locking chair.
    There were two rows of seats separated by a small space to walk in the center. Dale and Waffles were seated way in the back, with Neil and Trevor up front. Sam was behind Trevor, and the seat behind her was left empty, meant for Yuri. Jason 1 and Jason 2 completed the row ending with Waffles’s grinning face.
    Across the small primate walkway, and directly behind Neil, was JP. Then Biggs, in charge of communicating with Dallas, and Riley and Corinne took the seats after.

    Neil looked at the control panels in front of him. All things considered, it looked rather familiar. The gauges seemed similar enough to the ones Chameleons had, and the joystick for the Whiptail felt comfortable in Neil’s hands. It felt like the whole thing was created to be like a video game, just designed for chimpanzees. Controls and gauges used pictures instead of words. A few were marked with pictures of apes screaming, with red circles slashed through them.
    â€œOkay, I won’t touch some of those controls. Whatever they may be,” Neil said to himself.
    With a howl, Boris descended to the middeck, below the flight deck. A hatch in the floor led to his boiler room–like quarters, where he was to regulate the pressurization and other