Space Runners #4

by Jeramey Kraatz

  Dedication

  For everyone trying to make our world a better place

  (even if you’re not old enough to drive a flying car)

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Dearest Moon Platoon—

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue Two Weeks Later

  About the Author

  Books by Jeramey Kraatz

  Back Ad

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Dearest Moon Platoon—

  * * *

  I am delighted to be sending you a message with some good news: thanks to the valiant combined efforts of several of your own, Commander Vala, and Elijah West himself, we were able to stop the New Apollo forces. That means the troops from Earth won’t be able to destroy the Alpha Maraudi home world, which avoids the assured destruction of your own planet! Dr. Bale and the majority of the New Apollo forces have since fled into deep space. While we still have much work to do to ensure the safety of Earth, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

  But wait, there’s more! We’re going back to the Taj, where we’ll be able to contact Earth more easily; once again have access to the resort’s cutting-edge technological resources; and, of course, restock our provisions (I do not envy those of you who have had to snack on sustenance squares the last few days, but that’s a perk of not having a tangible body). Once we’ve assessed the damage to the building, we’ll have a better idea of when we can move everyone down to the surface. Please remain patient: I have every faith that you’ll be resting in a cloud-like Taj bed very, very soon.

  So what does this mean on a universal scale? Well, that’s the less-than-great news. One of the stars near Calam, the Alpha Maraudi home world, is still expanding, threatening to completely engulf it, which means they need our planet in order to ensure the continued survival of their species. While Commander Vala and her crew have pledged to work with us, there are others who are not as open to the peaceful coexistence of humans and aliens.

  But fear not! The leaders of the Moon Platoon, Elijah, the Pit Crew, and Vala’s scholars are all working diligently to find a way for our two species to live together. This is not the end, my dear scholarship winners: we’re on the precipice of a new beginning, an unexplored stage of intergalactic relations. Remember that no matter what hardships we might face in the future, you have already proven you are the best humanity has to offer, and I couldn’t be prouder of you. (Trust me, I’ve run the simulations.)

  As we move forward, please remain patient, but at the ready—there’s no telling when we might need your help. Once again, I want to impress upon you that this year’s class of EW-SCAB winners has not only exceeded every possible expectation, but you have also changed the very tide of human history.

  All my very best.

  Pinky Weyve

  Lunar Taj intelligence and executive assistant to Mr. West

  1.

  Benny Love stood in the courtyard of the Lunar Taj, the most luxurious resort in the galaxy, nestled on a patch of prime Moon real estate next to the Sea of Tranquility, Mare Tranquillitatis. Or at least, Benny had thought it was the most impressive place in the universe until recently. Stepping inside the Taj’s lobby had once seemed like the most awe-inspiring experience of his life. But countless other impossible things had happened since the Space Runner carrying him first parked in front of the resort, not far from where he now stood, and his perspective had been completely altered.

  He’d discovered that there was plenty about space that was beyond his imagination, and that Earth was definitely not the only planet with intelligent life on it. There were wonders and horrors and beings outside his galaxy that he had a hard time even wrapping his head around. He and his new friends had fought against asteroid storms, raced across the moons of Jupiter, and broken into more than one alien ship. They’d allied themselves with a faction of the Alpha Maraudi aliens in an attempt to figure out a way to save both their worlds. There were now extraterrestrials in his life he wanted to protect, who he’d fight to keep alive.

  It was odd for him to think about what he’d been like just weeks before, filled with such excitement because he was one of the winners of the Elijah West Scholarship for Courage, Ambition, and Brains, before he’d even heard of the Alpha Maraudi. After leading the newly minted Moon Platoon against not only invading aliens but misguided human forces, though, he almost felt like a different person.

  The resort itself had changed as well. It was battered and bruised after being hammered by an Alpha Maraudi invasion team and serving as the backdrop for a battle. The once-manicured courtyard was pocked with crashed ships and Space Runners. Exotic, wildly colored plants that lined the building were singed and clinging to life. The glittering sheen of the Taj itself was dulled and dented, coated in a thick layer of Moon dust, scorched in places. It was almost difficult for Benny to remember how pristine and sleek the resort had been when he’d first arrived, how the thrill of seeing it in person had sucked the air from his lungs. The Lunar Taj was no longer humanity’s most exclusive vacation destination but the casualty of the fight between humanity and the Alpha Maraudi.

  And Benny knew if they didn’t keep fighting, Earth itself would be next.

  A yelp filled his force field helmet, breaking him from his thoughts. He turned around in time to see his friend Drue Bob Lincoln tripping forward, his foot caught on a chunk of cement sticking up from the ground. Drue fell as though he were in slow motion—the artificial environment systems for the courtyard had been damaged during the battle above the Taj, and everyone was now forced to bound around in low gravity, force field helmets supplying them with oxygen.

  As Drue flailed, Hot Dog Wilkinson sprang forward, grabbing his arms and pulling him back onto his feet.

  “Careful, dummy,” she said with a grin. “I’d hate for you to get that fancy space suit of yours dirty.”

  Drue shook off her grip as he regained his balance and straightened his posture, waving her away with one hand. “Just testing your reflexes. I don’t want to end up getting blasted out of the sky because you weren’t fast enough to be my backup.” He winked, and then started toward Benny again.

  “Backup?” Hot Dog asked, her blue eyes widening. “No, no, no. I think you’re forgetting how many times I’ve led the charge in epic space battles. I’m . . . front up?”

  Drue paused and looked over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised. Hot Dog scrunched her face in frustration.

  “Ugh,” she groaned. “You know what I mean.”

  “I think the term you’re looking for is vanguard, ace,” Drue teased. “Maybe you should get your head checked out again when we’re inside.”

  Hot Dog rolled her eyes and stomped past him as best she could, smacking his arm as she walked by. “I should’ve let you fall.”

  As she got closer, Benny could make out a bruise on her temple, peeking from beneath the cascades of her blond hair. The battle on the dark side of the Moon earlier that day had been treacherous for all of them, and he didn’t know which stars to thank for the fact that the Moon Platoon had made it out alive with only minor injuries. And that they’d actu
ally managed to accomplish their goal and keep an electromagnetic superweapon capable of completely destroying the Alpha Maraudi out of the hands of its creator, Dr. Austin Bale, and the New Apollo forces. Benny was still feeling a little weak after expending so much energy growing the alien rock that pushed the missile down into the core of the Moon, but it could have been worse: Commander Vala remained unconscious up in her ship’s infirmary, totally wiped from the experience.

  As his two friends gathered by his side, Benny set his sights on the others that had flown down from Vala’s ship with him. Elijah West, the legendary explorer and entrepreneur, and the entire reason any of them were in space to begin with, stood across the courtyard near a hunk of mangled chrome that had once been a fountain. His eyes surveyed the Taj—his Taj—taking in the damage that had been brought down upon it while he’d been a prisoner on an alien mother ship. Many windows were broken, meaning the inside hallways and rooms would be impossible to walk through without a space suit and force field helmet. Several of the scalloped gold sheets that topped the tower in the center of the building were missing. The exterior of the garage, which had once been polished to such a shine that Benny had thought it produced a light of its own, was covered in layers of grime and pieces of alien rock that still clung to it in places, the entrance smashed open. It was the center of the Taj, though, that Elijah finally settled his eyes on. The gleaming chrome doors that had welcomed aristocrats and celebrities to the resort had been blown in, leaving a gaping maw of wrenched metal in their place.

  “My poor baby,” Elijah said, his voice piping through speakers hidden in Benny’s space suit collar. His head shook slightly. Then he clenched his fists and took a deep breath. “Don’t worry. I’ll fix you. You’ll be yourself in no time. Just as soon as . . .”

  Elijah trailed off. The three members of his elite Pit Crew who were still left in space—Ricardo Rocha, Trevone Jordan, and Kira Miyamura—flanked Elijah. Ricardo, the oldest among them at sixteen, put a hand on their leader’s fur-lined jacket, squeezing his shoulder.

  Benny couldn’t imagine what Elijah was feeling. What he did know was that if he’d found out that his ramshackle RV out in the Drylands had been destroyed, he’d be overwhelmed with worry and grief.

  Not to mention anger.

  There was a slight buzz of static inside Benny’s helmet before Jasmine Wu’s voice sounded through the collar speakers.

  “Is it as bad as it looks from here?” she asked.

  Benny glanced above them to Vala’s huge alien mother ship. It loomed over the Moon, even though it was hundreds of miles away. That’s where Jasmine and almost forty other EW-SCAB winners were waiting. Earlier, when he was still on the ship himself, Benny had watched as Elijah contacted the Lunar Taj and explained that they would be taking back the building. The New Apollo soldier on the other end of the holographic call hadn’t seemed to take them seriously until he realized that the giant blip on his radar wasn’t a malfunction of some sort but the Moon Platoon closing in on the Taj in an alien vessel.

  “Let’s just say they’re going to have to update the ads and maybe lower the prices for rooms,” Drue whispered, as though this would keep Elijah from hearing it.

  Elijah ignored him. “What have you found, Ms. Wu?” he asked.

  “Griida and I have finished the scans,” she said. “It looks like New Apollo is running a skeleton crew. I’ve got two dozen people on my radar, tops. And half of them look like they’re in the infirmary.”

  “Perf,” Hot Dog said, crossing her arms. “Honestly, they’d have to be pretty dumb to try and lie to us right now. I mean, we kind of drove here in a giant asteroid. We’ve got them totally outnumbered and outgunned.”

  “Don’t jinx us,” Drue said. “We still don’t know where Commander Tull and his asteroid storm are hiding, or where Dr. Bale and the Orion disappeared to. And that ship had plenty of firepower. Even if I did manage to take out one of their cannons.” He wrinkled his nose, like he’d just smelled something rotten. “Which, come to think of it, no one has thanked me for.”

  “Thanks, Jazz,” Benny said. And then he turned his attention back to Elijah. Over the last few weeks, Benny and Ricardo had fallen into leadership roles among the Moon Platoon, sometimes even fighting over which of them was in charge. But here, back on the Moon at last, Benny felt like he should leave the first step to Elijah. Besides, no one knew the Taj better than him. It was probably a good idea to have the resort’s creator out front, just in case something went awry.

  Elijah let out a quiet sigh. Then he looked around at them and flashed an impenetrable grin, as though nothing bad had ever happened to him or to his biggest claim to fame. “Right,” he said as he knocked on the side of Ricardo’s force field helmet. “Let’s meet the unwelcome guests in our home.”

  He held up a hand and curled his silver glove into a fist. All of them wore similar accessories, gauntlets capable of controlling and shooting strong magnetic pulses. The New Apollo stragglers had promised that they wouldn’t raise arms against the rightful owner of the Taj, but Benny and the others they didn’t plan on being caught off guard. The electro gloves had proved instrumental in fighting against the metal-boned Alpha Maraudi, but they could just as easily be used to disarm humans.

  Benny wore another glove, too, this one gold. An alien artifact that allowed him some control over the strange minerals that the Alpha Maraudi seemed to use for just about everything—be it weapons, spaceships, or bunkers buried deep beneath the moons of distant planets. He bent down and picked a hunk of alien rock off the ground. He concentrated on the stone. It undulated slightly, flashing with light.

  He’d be ready for New Apollo if they tried to stop them.

  “So, we’re headed to Elijah’s office first, or . . .” Drue started. Benny could guess what was on his mind: Senator Lincoln, Drue’s father, was in the infirmary, and they’d had no update on his status since the fight against the New Apollo forces. If his dad were still alive and hurt, he’d want to run to his bedside as fast as possible. He probably wouldn’t have waited this long, or even asked permission to do so.

  Still, this was a strange situation, especially since Senator Lincoln had sort of been their enemy the last few days, leading New Apollo until he’d been hurt in a battle with Tull’s soldiers on one of Jupiter’s moons—a peace talk that had gone horribly wrong. And as much as Benny wanted his friend to be reunited with his father, he also realized it probably wasn’t a good idea for them to separate until they had a better picture of what was happening inside.

  Before Benny could say anything to Drue, Elijah was charging forward with long strides, headed straight for the entrance. “Once we have control again,” he said as the Pit Crew followed him, “we’ll merge the Pinky from Vala’s ship with the Taj servers since the AIs have been operating separately. That way everyone is up-to-date. Then we’ll start assessing the situation and planning our next moves.”

  “I have to get a hold of Kai,” Kira said. “He and Sahar need to know what’s going on.”

  The two members of the Pit Crew had escorted almost half the EW-SCAB winners back to Earth along with Bo McGuyver, one of Elijah’s mechanics, and a few of Vala’s soldiers.

  “Plenty of people will want to be in contact with Earth,” Trevone added.

  “Yeah,” Benny said, glancing up at the blue and green and brown ball of the planet above them, where his family was. Where his life was. He desperately wanted to see his grandmother and brothers smiling back at him as holograms, or on the big wall-size screen up in his Taj suite. Just thinking about it made him want to sprint into the building.

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” Hot Dog whispered. Benny turned in time to see her smile wide at Drue. “You’ll see him in a sec.”

  Drue didn’t say anything, but Benny saw him let out a long breath. “Let’s do this, then.”

  They followed Elijah into the Taj, careful to step over the bent metal at the entryway. Inside, Elijah stopped for only a second, eyes
sweeping across the once-grand four-story lobby that was now trashed, covered in dust, bits of alien rock, and various pieces of equipment and tech. The walls made up of microscopic LED paint particles still shifted with slow waves of color, but huge sections of them were blinking, shorted out. In one corner, near the front of the resort’s main restaurant, sat a huge chunk of stone glowing a sickly green. Benny recognized it as one of the automated Space Runners the aliens had taken down as he and his friends had tried to escape the Taj’s invasion.

  Elijah cleared his throat, and they continued on. As they approached the stairwell that led up to Elijah’s private quarters, two New Apollo soldiers exited, their force field helmets so dark that Benny could barely make out their faces. They tensed as they saw Elijah and his entourage, but they were unarmed and moved out of the way quickly. Benny wasn’t sure if it was because they were scared of them and the alien tech they may have brought, or simply because they’d never seen the most famous man from Earth in person. He didn’t have time to wonder, though, because Elijah never hesitated, moving past them without so much as nodding in recognition of their existence.

  A few flights of stairs later, and they were at the highest point of the Taj, Elijah West’s quarters, located at the top of the gold-tipped tower. As the door closed behind them, their helmets de-powered, the environmental systems still intact in this sanctuary. The rest of the Taj they’d seen had been in shambles, but this room looked mostly untouched. Blueprints and sculptures of early Space Runner designs still decorated the walls and dotted the expansive bookshelves. A life-size portrait of Elijah West’s father leaned beside a panel that served as the main access point to the Taj’s servers. And at the other end of the room sat a hulking desk made from the exteriors of countless classic cars, the surface lit up with readouts, holograms of radars and star maps glowing in the air above it.

  A man stood behind the desk, his back to them as he looked through a huge window that stared out into the courtyard. Slowly, he turned, the light above glinting off his shaved head. His eyebrows were dark, bushy, and a scar cut jaggedly through the left one.