63 / 195
2
CHAPTER I
William sat, slowly sinking to a slumped position of defeat, at his desk which
had cartoon drawings of rockets that looked childish and nothing like the
humongous and intimidating ships that were docked just four corridors to the
left and two doors to the right of his spacious, six-person dormitory. The
National Australian Space Station was home to twelve-year old Will and his
twenty-four classmates learning to become astronauts in an out-of-this world
boarding school. Literally. The stress of the upcoming Astronaut Examinations
were crushing in on poor Will’s thoughts like the intensely pressured field
around a black hole. The vibrant backlight of
Nova
’s screen
- his artificially
intelligent laptop computer and only friend - was contrasting to Will’s gloomy