Free Airlock by Simon Cheshire

Chapter One

School Trip
    It was the most amazing thing George had ever seen.
    He held his breath, hardly daring to move or blink, in case he missed a micro-second of it. Through the wide, oval windows of the passenger cabin, he could see the planet Earth far below him. It looked like a gigantic blue ball, covered in swirling patterns of cloud. Surrounding it was the deep blackness of space, scattered with a sprinkling of bright stars. By craning his neck, George could make out the coastlines of northern Europe.
    It felt strange to know that only a couple of hours ago, he’d been standing in the vast CentralCity Air and Space Port looking up at the sky through whichhe was now travelling. He had gazed at the stars above and wondered what his journey was going to be like. And now, here he was in space!
    A delicate chime sounded overhead.
    The high, calm voice of the stewardess said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we will shortly be approaching our destination, the
Berners-Lee
Orbital Platform. The shuttle will bank to your left in a moment, and we will have our first sight of the space station. Thank you for travelling MaxiBoost Spaceways. My assistant Roj will soon be handing out free souvenir MaxiBoost baseball caps. Thank you.”
    George glanced over to where his friends Josh and Amira were sitting. They looked just as excited as him. Amira was intently scrolling through data on her mini-screen, looking up the technical details of the passenger shuttle in which they were travelling, her fold-down table covered in books packed full of MaxiBoost Spaceways trivia. Josh was finishing off the packed lunch he’d brought with him, his jumper covered in crumbs as he licked his lips clean.
    â€œFor goodness’ sake, Josh,” muttered Mr Snodbury. “You were supposed to save that untillunchtime. It said so quite clearly on the letter home to your parents.”
    â€œSorry, Mr Snodbury,” said Josh through a mouth full of food, spraying crumbs everywhere as he spoke. “I was hungry.”
    Mr Snodbury flicked the crumbs off his jacket with a look of distaste on his face. He was George, Josh and Amira’s head teacher. There were only two things George wasn’t enjoying about this school trip: one was having Mr Snodbury in charge, instead of their form teacher Miss Astro; the other was having Dwayne with them too.
    â€œMr Snodbury,” said Dwayne, as Mr Snodbury brushed the last of the crumbs away, “George ate his packed lunch too. I saw him.” Dwayne sneered at George.
    â€œDid you, George?” said Mr Snodbury.
    â€œUmm,” said George, going a bit red. “I ate it before we took off from Earth.”
    Mr Snodbury tutted and shook his head. “I can see I’m going to have to keep a close eye on you. The four of you are representing the school on this trip, and I expect good behaviour and a mature attitude from all of you, at all times. I’m sure Amira hasn’tbeen an oinky pig-wig and gobbled up her packed lunch already, have you, Amira?”
    Amira didn’t even look away from her mini-screen as she held up the empty packet that had contained her packed lunch. Mr Snodbury sighed. Dwayne showed Mr Snodbury that his packed lunch was completely intact, not so much as nibbled. Then he sneered at George again. George’s eyes narrowed. He could see that Dwayne was going to be trouble.
    At that moment, the view through the windows suddenly veered to one side. Nobody inside the shuttle felt any movement, because the craft’s artificial gravity kept them all safely in their seats. With no air turbulence and no gravity in space, the ride inside the shuttle was as smooth as glass. Only the view outside changed.
    George found the sensation of space flight odd but exciting. Mr Snodbury had said it made him want to be sick. As the view through the windows shifted, without giving any other feeling of movement, Mr Snodbury gripped the sides of his seat and went