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"I found you!" Danny yelled, springing out from the wall.
"God damnit, guys, Danny vented into the lab again," Mike Burlak, the crew's doctor, said from his place against the wall.
Tyron Cooper, the chemist, clicked his tongue. "Always knew that kid was the imposter."
"Yeah, you wish," Danny rolled his eyes and swooped around to see what sorts of mad scientist experiments Cooper was running today. "Between the two of us, you're definitely the imposter. I mean, who knows what kinds of poisons you're making with those."
"I'll have you know I'm completing my task, Fenton," Cooper said.
"That's what the imposter would want us to think. For all I know, you're sabotaging the mission."
"Pointing fingers now, aren't we? That's exactly what the imposter would do."
"I mean, Coop's right. You literally flew in from the air vent," Burlak said.
" Next to the air vent. Commander Stewart would have my head if I hung out in the air vent unnecessarily," Danny retorted.
"Fair point," Cooper said, returning his attention to the flasks on his lab bench. "What are you up to?"
"Gonna go do an EVA soon. It's a scheduled inspection." Despite trying to suppress it, Danny felt his aura intensify with the acknowledgment that he would get to go outside of the spaceship today, shimmering as a few hazy-looking planets threatened to form in the glow.
That moment was not lost on his crewmates, who both glanced at the faded green planets and twinkling stars around him. As much as he loved it, his core could be so predictable.
Cooper chuckled. "Well, it looks like you're ready to go."
Cool embarrassment prickled Danny's cheeks, but he couldn't fight off the smile that overtook his face as he said, "Yup!"
Burlak stepped off from the wall. "I'll be on standby, then."
Standby in case something happened that required Danny's immediate medical attention. Even though as a ghost, nothing in space could hurt him like it could to the rest of his human crew, NASA was taking no chances. Not that Danny could blame them. They didn't exactly have a plethora of ectoplasmic astronauts to pull data from.
"Let's head out! Commander Stewart's waiting."
Some days, it was difficult to believe he'd come so far. Danny remembered sitting in class in high school ready to give up on his dreams because he wasn't brilliant like Jazz and there was no way that a space agency like NASA would ever accept a half-dead teen in their program anyway. But then, his space obsession wouldn't let him throw that dream away.
Literally.
It wouldn't let him.
After all, he had a space core. His eyes reflected the stars in the Universe and his aura shone with constellations and planets. When he looked at the sky, he didn't just see the stars, but also their characteristics, distances, temperatures, and so much more.
He was born to be an astronaut.
Which is why, despite half-dying when he was fourteen, he couldn't let that dream go. And instead of wallowing in despair, he decided to do something about it.
"And how old are you again?" Hugo Davis, director of the Mars missions, asked.
Phantom straightened his spine as if gaining an extra inch would magically age him ten years. "Old enough to be here."
Davis's eyes swept over him, narrowing as he scratched his fingers over his scraggly mustache. Beside him, NASA's senior executive Director Moore sat with his hands clasped before him, his face as expressive as a sheet of paper.
"I received a recommendation from Wilson," Phantom explained, though Davis would have already known this. It was in his file after all.
"And you're applying because..." Davis's voice drifted off, the silence echoing off the cavernous white walls of the conference room.
The answer to that, too, was obvious. So obvious, that Phantom wasn't sure if he was supposed to answer the question. But it was an interview, so he responded as if he didn't notice the awkward air. "Yes, I'm applying for the Artemis program as an astronaut. Between my education and career experience, I believe I'm qualified to join the Mars mission."
Davis glanced at Moore, who decided now it was admissible to take over. "Yes, I think your qualifications are of no question. Of our applicants, you might be one of the most...uniquely qualified, I'll say, to join."
Anticipation jolted through Phantom's spine, but then Director Moore opened his mouth again, and any hope was squashed instantly.
"However," Moore said, "I think I speak for the whole of the space program when I say there are some rather apparent concerns we need to discuss."
Those concerns were ones that Phantom was perfectly ready for, he tried to convince himself as he refrained from squirming in his seat like he was back in high school sitting in the Vice Principal's office yet again for cutting class.
"Primarily, your…appearance." Moore swept a hand out before him.
"You mean the fact that I'm legally somewhat dead," Phantom filled in, glancing at the black, glowing jumpsuit he'd shown up to the interview wearing. Better to rip the bandaid off at the start, his father always had said.
Davis and Director Moore caught eyes once again.
"Well," Phantom continued, "technically, I'm not really dead. I'm also alive, you see, which is why I think I'm perfectly qualified for this job."
The two men remained silent at that.
"I mean, think about it. I don't need to breathe, so therefore I won't need a spacesuit. And I know how you all are about cutting costs. Well, that and less mass in the spaceship."
Director Moore scratched his chin. "Yes, cutting costs with the lack of an EVA suit is quite tempting."
"And since I can fly and wouldn't need a spacesuit, I can do repairs on the exterior of the ship more easily than any of the human engineers could. Not to mention I can cover far more ground in a sol than any rover could. You’d have dozens of kilometers more exploratory reach around your Martian base with me on the team."
The men nodded, lips pursed in deep contemplation. Phantom could tell that he was winning them over. He just needed one final push.
"And, if you needed any more convincing…" He flared his aura, pushing the power from the deepest part of his core into the men's visible spectrum. The white glow was replaced by the swirls of an aurora, and speckled stars shone out from the light, twinkling and grouping into constellations. "Well, I'm sure you've been filled in on my file, but it's all true. My powers really do let me locate any star or planet in the Universe. All I need is a name, and I can tell you its basic features, gravity, and coordinates."
"Do you mind if I test you?" Davis asked.
"Go ahead."
"Kepler-1b."
Phantom pointed his finger in the air, and an ecto-hologram of a black planet surrounded by the light of its sun formed above them. He closed his eyes, and the words appeared behind his lids like a textbook. "Kepler-1b, otherwise known as TrES 2b, is the darkest planet known to humankind and is located 750 light years away. It orbits around GSC 03549-02811, it's got a gravity of 1.4 g's, and its right ascension is 19:07:14.035 with a declination of +49:18:59.0." He opened his eyes and grinned at the two men who were currently looking at him like he'd grown a second head. "Will that suffice?"
"I'd heard the rumors, but I wasn't sure if they were true." Director Moore's shocked expression melted into an approving smile. "I think we got what we needed. That'll be all. We'll be in touch soon."
Space was silent.
Space was expansive.
Space was incredible.
Magnificent. Amazing. Utterly breathtaking, and every single other word that Danny could pull from his mental dictionary.
Space was beautiful. And it was his. Not in the sense where a ghost lair belonged to a ghost, because even Danny's space core recognized that no one could dare lay claim to such a beast, but when Danny closed his eyes and smelled the metallic particles that dusted around him, he knew that he was truly home.
They called it an EVA for the sake of consistency, but Danny was not wearing a spacesuit. He didn't need one. He was a ghost. Not just any ghost, but Phantom, the ghost that haunted Amity Park's observatory. He was born to do spacewalks.
Convincing NASA's top worrywarts that an EVA suit was unnecessary was a challenge in itself, but somehow, he managed to do it. And thank goodness for that because, without the suit, he could truly experience everything that outer space had to offer: the bone-setting cold, the lack of atmosphere, the lack of air.
His ghost core adored it. The feeling, the silence.
"Don't get lost out there," came the amused, tinny voice of Commander Stewart through his bone-conduction CCA earpiece.
"Sorry," Danny responded, squinting into the distance. "It's just that the sun looks so small from here." He twirled around and grinned at the approaching red planet before him. "And Mars looks so huge. It's hard to believe we're still so far away when it looks like I can reach out and touch it."
"Well, it's only half the size of Earth," said Burlak.
"I don't know if you knew this, but the Earth is pretty large," retorted Cooper.
"Oh, shut up."
"Boys." Commander Stewart's voice was sharp. There was a moment of muttering apologies before she took an audible breath and tried again. "Phantom, how is the inspection going?"
"It's…going."
"That's code for Space Ghost over here has spent the entire time ogling Mars again," the engineer, Merissa Chase, joked.
Well, could anyone blame him? Mars was just so pretty and red and…and…
"Finish the inspection and report back," Commander Stewart said.
Danny blinked, turning back to the huge spaceship in front of him. "Yes, Commander!"
Danny felt the edges of the folded paper pressing between his palms. Despite his best intentions, the paper was slightly wrinkled, a casualty of his tight grip. He loosened his fingers, took a deep breath, and began. "I need you all to sit down."
Jazz eyed him curiously, her red hair slipping off her shoulder. "You okay, Danny?"
"Yeah, dude, you look pale," Tucker agreed.
"I'm fine," Danny replied, perhaps more curtly than he'd intended. He took another breath, forcing his heart to slow. "I have something to tell you all."
"What is it, son?" Dad asked. "And why did you make us take off all our weapons earlier?"
Danny glanced away. "I just don't want you to be mad at me."
Maddie stopped before her seat, her instincts seemingly kicking into high gear before she had a chance to sit down. "What is it?"
Danny shrank back, then before he could list any of the nine-thousand reasons why this was a bad idea, he unfurled the letter and passed it to his mother.
"Dear Mr. Phantom," she began, her voice catching. "Mr. Phantom? As in the space-themed ghost?"
"Just keep reading."
"We at NASA are pleased to extend an offer of employment as an astronaut on the Mars Mission team. Despite the lack of ectoplasmic entities in our employment, we feel as though the unique skills you bring as an individual are unmatched by any human. Throughout the interview process, we have enjoyed getting to know you and appreciate you letting us test the advantages that your abilities offer. We were especially impressed by your navigational abilities as demonstrated in your interview, which is a power that we believe will put your team at a huge advantage when traversing through space. It is for these reasons and many more that we are extending this position to you."
Danny tasted the words on his lips, mouthing along subconsciously as he pictured the words in his mind that his eyes had hungrily soaked in hundreds of times since he'd received the letter in the mail.
"We are eager to begin discussing the details of your position with you soon. Should you choose to accept the offer, you will be expected to relocate to Houston where you will begin training. Your expected starting date is June fifth, and you will be asked to sign a confidentiality contract at the start of your employment. Please contact me if you have any questions in the meantime. Welcome to the NASA team."
His mother finished reading the letter, letting her final words hang in the air like dew on fresh-cut grass. Danny kept his eyes downturned, unable to bear to see the looks of confusion or—worse—realization from his parents.
This was it. This was the moment when he finally told his parents that he was a half-ghost.
"Wow, that's amazing!" Jazz said, breaking the silence. She jumped from her chair and swept him into a hug.
"Holy shit, you got the job?" Tucker asked.
"Yeah." Danny finally broke out in a grin.
"Congrats, Danny!" Sam cheered. "That's awesome!"
"I don't understand. Why is this addressed to Phantom?" Maddie asked.
The cheers died in the room, and Danny's stomach plummeted once again. He finally looked up to see the distress of his parents, and he knew that it was time. Finally, after years of avoidance, he had to stop running.
"Mom, Dad, I have something I need to tell you…"
And he began. He told them about the portal, about how in his last moments, he thought about the future he'd never have. How he woke up in Phantom's body with ectoplasmic planets swirling above him. How he tried to forget about it, pretend it never happened, but he couldn't because every time he'd look up at the night sky, all he wanted to do was transform and fly to the edges of the Universe. How he'd worked so hard all these years, doing all the right things, to set his career down this road. How despite being significantly younger than most of the applicants, he still pursued this path because he knew with all his steadfast heart that this mission, this legacy was one he was made to have.
And now, he was willing to risk it all. Applying for the Mars mission meant that he would need to reveal his secret to the world. And that was something he was ready to do.
When he finished speaking, his throat was sore with thirst. He hadn't realized how much there had been to say. And even still, he knew that was only barely scratching the surface of his life since his accident. He hadn't the confidence to meet his parents' eyes throughout his long-winded speech, but now he finally forced his head to lift, he forced himself to see the teary-eyed stares of his ghost-hunter parents before him.
But where he expected fear was nothing but love.
"Son," Jack said, his voice barely a whisper. "I'm so proud of you."
"We're both proud of you, honey," Maddie said.
"I can't believe it. My brother, Danny, a future astronaut." Jazz beamed. "Congratulations."
The descent vehicle slowed.
"Adjusted thirty kilometers east," the pilot, Parth Chadha, said.
"Right above target," Commander Stewart responded.
"Lowering now."
There was a jolt as the boosters switched off, and then they were descending again at speeds that would have had Danny's parents covering their eyes in fear. But not Danny. He was a ghost, after all, and these speeds were just another Tuesday for him.
"Slowing our descent."
Danny slammed into his seat as the boosters re-engaged, stopping their free-fall and slowing them until they reached Martian soil.
"And we've landed on Mars."
But Danny already knew that. He could feel it. And the moment they hit the ground, the air sparked with an electric anticipation that his core couldn't help but soak in like a sponge.
It took everything in him to not phase out of his seatbelt, shoot through the side of the descent vehicle, and take in the sights of Mars. But these missions had an unspoken etiquette, and so he waited. He waited for Chadha to turn off the descent vehicle, he waited for the rest of the crew to get out of their chairs, he waited and waited until he thought his core was going to explode.
"Alright, crew, this is it. Outside those doors is the Elysium Planitia, our home for the next two months. Our priority is setting up the Outpost. Fenton and Chase, you're both on solar panel duty."
"Gotcha, Commander," Merissa said. "We better hurry it up, though, because I think if we wait another minute, Danny over here is gonna have an aneurysm."
"Jeez, I've never seen him glow like that before," Cooper said.
"Sorry!" Danny said, though he really wasn't. Because he was finally here. He was on Mars.
"Alright, I guess we better get to it, then." Commander Stewart turned for the door. "Artemis crew? I'm ordering us off the descent vehicle."
Depressurizing took forever and a half. But finally, finally, the door swung open to reveal a sea of red dust and rocks below an orange sky. As is tradition, Commander Stewart stepped out to the soil first, and one by one, the crew followed.
And finally, it was Danny's turn.
Obeying the laws of gravity was typically a challenge in ghost form. But to obey the laws of a gravity only a third of Earth's while also battling the excitement of being on Mars was an entirely different level of challenge. But he forced his tail to form legs, and he forced his feet to descend the stairs of the descent vehicle because he wanted his first entrance on Mars to leave a real footprint. One that was his.
Nothing could have prepared him for the elation that could come from the Martian soil crunching beneath his boot. Nothing. It was pure, unfiltered joy. One that he didn't think he could replicate for as long as he lived.
His core took over, and green tinted his orange vision, sparkling and glittering with ectoplasmic constellations and energy. He shot into the air, laughing into his CCA system and not caring who heard because he'd made it! After all these years, all the nights of studying and gazing into the night sky and thinking and hoping and wishing that he could be up there, up here, and he was finally here!
He inhaled deeply. Mars's air was thin compared to Earth's and smelled sweet and dry like a desert. He took another breath, and hints of sulfur and chalk wafted through his nose. The smell was foreign compared to what he was used to in the sterile Artemis aircraft, but it spoke of an ancient planet, one untouched by the paws of humanity, and he couldn't help but breathe in again, and again, soaking up every inch of the air that his nose could handle.
The air was cold, too. Though, compared to the cold of outer space, it felt like Florida in July. But compared to Earth, it was frigid. Not that he cared. With his space core, he was able to handle any temperature thrown at him. So despite the fact that he'd previously reported surface temperatures to the team of -20C, to him, the air was perfect.
"Oh no, Fenton's lost it," Cooper joked.
"You wish," he responded, feeling a grin spread across his cheeks.
"Alright, come down here. We have to get to work setting up the outpost or else we'll all be sleeping in the MDV tonight," Commander Stewart said.
Danny scanned the distance once more, taking in the sights of red rock against the orange horizon. This was it. This was everything he'd worked for.
And it was so worth it.
"Now, Phantom."
"Coming!"