59 pages • 1 hour read
Stuart GibbsSpace Case
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 15-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary: “Impossible Travel”
“Assembly”
An excerpt from the NASA handbook explains that assemblies are a required aspect of life on Moon Base Alpha.
“Lunar Day 189, Afternoon”
At the mandatory memorial service for Dr. Holtz, the speeches go on and on. Dash is bored, and when Kira tells him she wants to talk about “something about Dr. Holtz” (243), he is intrigued. They quietly whisper to the side as Kira reveals that “there’s no record of Dr. Holtz making a call” (244) the night that he was murdered. They wonder if Nina had deleted the records, and they begin making a plan to find Holtz’s missing phone. Roddy has been watching them, and, after a short argument about space travel with Kira, he invites himself on their plan. Before they decide to leave, they realize that Daphne is absent from the assembly; suspicious, they decide to figure out where she is.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Skullduggery”
“Vigilance”
The residents’ guide describes how important it is to remain vigilant on the base, in order to keep everyone safe.
“Lunar Day 189, Afternoon”
Kira, Dash, and Roddy leave the memorial service to try to see what Daphne is up to. They find her “typing frantically, bringing up page after page of information” (254) on the administrative office computers. When Roddy loudly sneezes, Daphne realizes they are there, and she quickly confesses to her crime: She has been stealing data for a corporate moon base company. After she explains, Daphne “seem[s] very relieved” (255) and asks the adolescents to let her confess to everyone herself.
The trio are about to head back to the memorial service, but Roddy pauses, watching Daphne, who is still trying to use the computer. Daphne explains that it’s not for her corporate subterfuge, but because she “noticed something strange in the robot log from two nights ago” (258). An additional robot had been employed on the night of Dr. Holtz’s death. When Dash asks what kind of robot, Daphne explains that it was a robot drone that went out into the solar array field, with a faked command code from Daphne. Dash is convinced that it was Dr. Holtz who sent the robot.
Chapters 15-16 Analysis
Given the high-profile nature of this lunar expedition, it is not surprising that many of the residents have some kind of personal motivation for participating. While Dash and his friends might not have predicted all of these possible incentives, Daphne’s confession about her suspicious behavior helps clarify that many of the dubious characters on board Moon Base Alpha might be dealing with other secret things beyond the Dr. Holtz case. Gibbs intentionally positions this realization about Daphne before the resolution of the novel to help make it more obvious that many characters may be behaving strangely not because they murdered Dr. Holtz but because of other influences in regard to their careers or identities. In short, Daphne’s confession is an important layer in understanding the theme of Influences That Lead to Corruption. Additionally, however, learning about Daphne also foreshadows the possibility that whoever murdered Dr. Holtz did so for their own professional gain in some way. Dash, Kira, and Roddy are too young to be plugged into career-based motivations, so they learn through their interaction with Daphne to be more mindful of the adult influences that govern the other residences on base.
The excerpts from the residents’ handbook that precede each chapter consistently line up with the rising conflicts in each chapter. As the novel moves toward the climax, these excerpts begin hinting at the ways that a seemingly perfect community can break down. Chapter 15 is preceded by a note on assemblies, and Chapter 16 talks about the importance of vigilance. Both excerpts seem to hint, through their overly positive tone, that a community can be torn apart by lack of community and by not being careful enough about the possible disasters that might happen. When Chapter 15 opens on the memorial service, it becomes clear that Dash and Kira are the only residents on the base being actively vigilant about who is at the assembly and what they are doing. This vigilance in regard to their community is what helps them move forward in investigating Dr. Holtz’s death. Yet, in some ways, their vigilance also defies the community rules that Nina and their parents have set in place for them. Breaking the rules, thus, is affirmed again as an important thematic undercurrent of Space Case, as Dash and Kira subvert the handbook in order to be truly vigilant against danger.
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By Stuart Gibbs
