Diggers: The Sharp Edge of the Universe by Shannon Heather, Jerrett James Page A

she reminded him. “Are you okay?”
    “Yeah, I’m okay. But what the heck happened?”
    “I don’t know, sweetie. If I had to guess, though, I'd say—“
    “Mom? Mom?”
    “We have interrupted all communications for the following announcement from Captain Windblown,” The sugary voice of ELAINA sounded over the All-Station Com.
    “Uh…yes. We uh…well there’s been…a…well, collision of some sort,” Captain Windblown expertly stated the obvious. “We uh… well, we’re working on the problem. We uh…we need everyone to stay calm. We will let you all know what’s going on when we have new information.”
    Finn grabbed the ComPad and practically screamed Reggie’s name into it. He was grounded from communicating with anyone outside his family, but this called for breaking the rules.
    “Heya, Finn,” Reggie said after his face popped up on the Compad.
    “Reggie! What the heck just happened?”
    “Space Station hit something,” Reggie said.
    “I know!” Finn’s usual patience with Reggie’s lack of information vanished and he screamed at the revolving holopicture of Reggie. “What’s going on? Who’s working on this? What’s the plan?”
    “Don’t know,” Reggie said.
    “What do you mean you don't know? You’re on duty…right?” Finn yelled.
    “They’re scanning. Problem is there isn’t anything there.”
    “Nothing there? What do you mean?”
    Reggie pointed into space. “Look out the window.”
    Finn climbed over piles of furniture to the portal and looked out at black, empty space.  The region in front of Vortex looked to be empty. He saw no distant sun. No planets. No stars. Just black.
    “There’s nothing.”
    “Yep,” Reggie said.
    Finn’s jaw dropped, and a bit of drool made it out past his lip. He shoved a hand in the pocket of his brown uniform his mom insisted he wear every day so he'd remember where he came from, blah blah blah, family pride, blah blah blah.
    “Ouch!” He yanked his hand out and blood dripped from his finger. More carefully this time, he reached in and drew out a lab slide sample he’d managed to save the evening they'd caught him in the Science Lab. As he sucked the blood off his finger, he stared at the rectangular slide.
    “Reg, have they figured out how big the thing is? Do they have a size or…a shape?”
    “Big. Thousands of meters in all directions.”
    “Have they scanned it?” Finn asked.
    “Yep,” Reggie said.
    “Well? What did it say?”
    “Silica-based,” Reggie said.
    Finn thought for a moment, “Like…sand?”
    “Yep,” Reggie said.
    “What could be silica-based in the middle of space?” Finn questioned.
    He sucked more blood off his finger and flipped the slide over and over.
    “Window,” Reggie said.
    Finn sputtered, “Reg! Meet me at DUMP Launch Pad One in fifteen minutes!” Finn scrambled over the kitchen table, now wedged in front of the entrance.
    “'Kay,” Reggie said.
    “Goodbye, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly,” ELAINA cooed.
    Finn skidded to a stop at the Science Lab for a moment to watch Lee Fishborne, and his assistants, race from one WorkPad to another, probably analyzing the space anomaly and talking about things he could only wish to hear. A few people righted tables and chairs, and some of the assistants tried to salvage pieces of their work off the floor.
    “You again.” Mikayla’s voice forced Finn to turn his head. “We finally got your nose smudges off the window, and it took us hours to fix your mess, just so you know. I thought you were grounded until the inquiry. What are you doing here?”
    Finn stared at Mikayla while his mouth opened and shut, like Quigley's, as he tried to decide what to say to her. “A window,” he finally said.
    “Yeah, I know. You like to smudge up the glass,” she fumed.
    “The thing…in space…” Finn said.
    “What are you talking about? Is this about the anomaly we just hit?” Mikayla didn’t bother to hide her hatred for Finn.
    “N-never mind.” Finn