T-Bin has been traveling through space for years to deposit its passengers on a new planet, to give them a new life.

But now, mere days from arrival, Tanner can't shake the feeling that there's a more sinister plot at work. Millions of gallons of water have vanished from the closed recycling system.

Between severe rationing on his small farm and whispered warnings from the colony's oldest survivor, the pieces refuse to fit. Together with his friend Morena, the fourteen-year-old begins digging into the sealed silos at the aft end of the ship.

While the rest of the colony prepares for landing, they race to crack the encrypted hatch before time runs out. A short story from Guys Read: Other Worlds, edited by Jon Scieszka.

• Unlikely Hero: Treated as an outsider, fourteen-year-old Tanner relies on practical farm grit rather than social status to spot the colony's fatal blind spots.
• School Drama: Arrogant classmates like Ocean Klingsmith gloat about their privileged futures on the new world while teachers dismiss any awkward questions about missing animals or unadjusted planetary gravity.
• Sci-Fi Mystery: The hollow steel cylinder of T-Bin holds an entire upside-down farming community clinging to its curved hull, where strange clues hidden in public monuments point to an undisclosed mission.
• Race Against Time: As the ship's massive deceleration sail deploys and unexpected tremors rattle the drum, Tanner and Morena must decode the secret message left by the original builders before planetary impact.
• Also by This Author: What Daddy Did.