The crew gears up for spacewalking--or flying! For safety reasons, everyone needs to pair up, leading to an unlikely duo. Can the closed-off Mia manage to get along with the sociable Leon?
(Galactiquest Arc 1: Moon, Episode 2)
"I wish you could see it from here!" said Leon, unaware that Mia could see the Earth crystal clearly through the cameras on his helmet and armor. She couldn't deny it was impressive. Even though she'd seen the blue sphere many times from the moon's surface, seeing it after having been there put things into a new perspective. "It's so beautiful..." Mia detected a crack in his voice.
Then she heard sniffles.
"Um, Leon...?" she asked with caution. "You're not crying, are you?"
Leon sniffled. "Oh yeah, sorry. I get kinda emotional when thinking about space."
"Oh." A horrified realization overcame her. "Oh... ohhhhh no, you reeeally shouldn't cry in space...!"
"But it's so beautiful!"
"No, this is serious! Tears are going to build up in your eyes with the lack of gravity!" the freckled ranger explained. "Can you see right now?"
"Now that you mention it--"
"Ranger Wattson?" Mia's heart stopped upon recognizing the captain's voice. She took off her headphones and turned to see him standing over her seat. "I'm hearing reports that Ranger Summers is missing from the group. Where is he?"
Sounds tumbled out of Mia's mouth, but few of them resulted in words. Finally, she pulled herself together. "I'm trying to direct him towards the others, sir!"
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"Hmm." The unreadable captain responded with a single grunt before turning toward the other observers. "Remember crew, you are your partners' second set of eyes."
Second set of eyes... Mia looked at her observation panel. She could see what Leon should've been able to and then some. In front of the window, she saw Jun and Emil, the latter doing simple tricks to pass the time. She donned her headset once more, a plan hatching in her mind.
Leon's frightened voice greeted her. "M-Mia, are you there?"
"S-Sorry!" She only just realized she left him alone after he realized he couldn't see. "We can probably make this work, I think I have an idea."
"You do?"
"I can still see everything, so I'm going to need you to follow my directions the best you can, okay?"
"Can do!"
"Alright." Mia studied the different camera views in front of her. "Can you turn around? Just kind of put one foot behind your other knee and activate that jet, and that should make you spin.
"Got it!" The cameras spun with Leon, indefinitely. "Wait, let me see if I can steady myself." Mia watched the cameras go back and forth and back again, until they steadied to the point where she could see a silver and yellow speck in the distance.
She realized that was the ship. A quick check on the observation panel revealed that it floated a whopping 111 kilometers away and counting -- almost 70 miles. Her heart stopped. What had she done? The first jet flight of the mission and Mia had already lost her flier. Nothing like this ever happened back on the moon! She had a pretty decent track record when it came to being on observation duty, but the captain wouldn't know that. He'd only see a bumbling fool who lost an entire person!
