Space Runners #4

by Jeramey Kraatz

  He didn’t say a word, but Benny could see the muscles of his jaw flex as he gritted his teeth.

  “I assume you know who I am, seeing as how you’re in my private office,” Elijah said. He spoke matter-of-factly, though his chest was puffed out, chin lifted slightly into the air. “I’m afraid I’m at a loss as to who you might be, though.”

  “Major Stokes,” the man said, a vein in his forehead pulsing. His eyes looked past Elijah, surveying Benny and the others. “So,” he continued, his lip curling up in a snarl, “you’re the ones who’ve doomed us all.”

  2.

  Ricardo took a heavy step forward. “It was your troops who—”

  But he stopped as Elijah raised a hand in the air. “A pleasure, Major,” Elijah said, and it was then that Benny could detect a hint of anger in his voice.

  Elijah handed a small HoloTek to Trevone, who took it and headed silently to the servers embedded in one of the office walls, fingers flying over the datapad’s screen as he walked. Elijah opened his mouth to speak again, but something caught his eye. On one of the side tables near the blinking electronics lay a shining silver necklace in the shape of a stylized W breaking out of a triangle, part of its chain hanging off the edge and swinging back and forth. A black diamond sparkled in the center of the charm. Pieces of jewelry like this were extremely rare, given out to the original Space Runner engineers and Elijah West’s closest confidants and employees. It took Benny a moment to realize where it had come from—Jazz.

  She’d ripped it off her neck the moment they’d given up on Elijah back when they’d discovered he wasn’t planning on saving Earth, when everything had started to go so wrong so quickly.

  For some reason, this, out of everything they’d seen so far on the Moon, was what caused Elijah to hesitate.

  Benny shifted on his feet, the only sound in the room the soft tapping of Trevone’s fingers on the HoloTek. He looked at Ricardo, but the leader of the Pit Crew seemed frozen, his eyes set squarely on Elijah, waiting for his mentor to move. Finally, Benny stepped forward.

  “What’s the situation, Major?” he asked.

  Major Stokes let out a deep grunt. “I do not answer to children.”

  And with that, the stillness of the room was broken.

  “Oh, listen up, Major,” Hot Dog started.

  “You have no idea how much you owe us,” Drue said at the same time.

  “Baka,” Kira spat.

  It was Elijah’s voice that rang the loudest, though, as he crossed the room in two long strides, leaning across his desk.

  “These children,” he said, “are the only reason you’re standing here alive today. They stopped an asteroid storm that would have annihilated Earth. They brokered peace with an alien commander who could have smashed her ship into our planet on a whim.” As he spoke, his voice got deeper. “They fought hostile Alpha Maraudi in parts of the galaxy you’ll never see in person and your own forces on the dark side of the Moon, who tried to shoot them down. I know. I was there.” He paused for a moment, as if to let these words sink in. “They may be children. But they’re better than you. Better than me.” A finger shot back at Benny. “So if he or any other person in this room asks you a question, while you are a guest here, I advise you to answer it. It’s the least you can do.”

  “Heck, yeah,” Drue whispered to Benny.

  Major Stokes’s eyes burned into Elijah’s, his broad chest rising and falling as though he were getting ready to shout. Instead, he tapped on the shiny surface in front of him and the holograms shifted. A blueprint of the Lunar Taj appeared. Several sections of the building flashed red.

  “See for yourself,” the major said. His lips were drawn down in a grimace, even as he spoke. “The Taj’s exterior has been damaged in multiple places. As a result, artificial environment can’t be used in many areas of the resort.” He pointed to the part of the building where the EW-SCABers’ rooms had been. “This wing was kept fairly intact, along with the garage, the infirmary, and—”

  “The basement research labs and workshops,” Elijah said, a slight smile on his face. “Good. That will be helpful.”

  “Dr. Bale left in a hurry once the Orion arrived,” the major continued. “He’d wanted to start looking at reenergizing the force field that made up the Grand Dome—”

  “But that should be pretty far down on our list of concerns,” a woman’s voice sounded throughout the room as Pinky Weyve, the Taj’s incomparable artificial intelligence, appeared as a hologram in front of them, created by a swarm of floating nanoprojectors.

  “Pinky’s updated,” Trevone said. “All systems have been resynced. I’m running diagnostics on the rest of our facilities now.”

  “The resort’s energy reserves aren’t capable of powering a new version of the Grand Dome at this point in time,” she continued. “We’d need extra generators, not to mention thorough testing before such a thing were truly considered safe.” She stretched, face lit up with pure delight. “It feels so good to be back home in these servers, even if most of my projectors were fried during the invasion,” she said. “You have no idea what it’s been like tethered to a HoloTek.”

  Benny let out a long breath of relief. He knew the AI wasn’t actually a person, and yet it felt good to see her so happy and free to move about. “Glad you’re back, Pinky.”

  “You and me both, Benny Love.” Then she frowned and turned to Major Stokes. “You’ve been terrible guests. If it were within my operation power to blacklist you from the resort, I would. Your soldiers practically ransacked our supplies.”

  “You’ve complained about that already,” the major said. Then his face twisted in confusion. “That was you, wasn’t it? The AI here is—”

  “Far more advanced than anything you’re used to dealing with at home, I’m sure,” Pinky said, a smirk on her face. “Just think of me as the same Pinky you interacted with before, only one who’s been to Jupiter and walked the halls of a mother ship built by an ancient race of aliens.” She winked. “I’m much more well traveled than my previous version.”

  “Wonderful,” the major said, somehow looking even less enthusiastic than before.

  “What about the Orion?” Ricardo asked. “Where is it?”

  The man hesitated a moment.

  “Keep in mind that I’ve rejoined the Taj servers, so I’m aware of basically everything you said and did inside the resort while my friends here were gone,” Pinky said.

  “This is why we employ actual people back on Earth, not holographic spies,” Major Stokes muttered. “We haven’t heard from Dr. Bale or the Orion since they entered hyperspeed and fled the dark side. Though he did mention that you’d buried his weapon—Earth’s salvation—within a chamber of explosive alien rock here. Putting all of us in far more danger than we were already in, I might add. When the aliens attack, remember that we had the power to stop them and you took it from us.”

  Benny suppressed a smile. In a last-ditch attempt to scare off Dr. Bale, he’d told the madman that the rock they’d used to drive the missile beneath the Moon’s surface was the incredibly volatile type that would blow up if hit by lasers or plasma bolts. It was a lie—the rock was harmless—but it seemed the New Apollo forces still believed him. That meant the superweapon was still safe.

  “This will likely all go much faster if I take control of the conversation,” Pinky said. She started rattling off lists. “Dr. Bale took most everything he and New Apollo brought with him when he left. There are a few working weaponized Space Runners in the garage, and many more in pieces there. There are ten soldiers on patrol throughout the resort, but only half of them are armed. Eleven people are currently in the infirmary.”

  “My dad?” Drue asked.

  “He’s okay,” Pinky said, reaching a hand out that hovered just above Drue’s head. “Or he will be soon. I wouldn’t recommend he move around much for a while.”

  “That’s great news!” Hot Dog said. She nudged Drue.

  Drue didn’t say anything
. He just kept nodding as he stared at the floor, a hint of a smile on his lips.

  “What about reinforcements from Earth?” Ricardo asked.

  “They’ve been called for,” Major Stokes said.

  “But,” Pinky said, “we shouldn’t expect them anytime soon. The New Apollo forces we faced on the dark side represent the entirety of the space-ready military on Earth. More weaponized Space Runners are being rushed into production, but they’re being kept back at home as a last line of defense.” She crossed her arms. “Did I miss anything, Major?”

  “You really are the best eyes and ears a man could ever ask for,” Elijah said with a grin. “So, we bring the EW-SCABers down and put them back in their original rooms. Or at least, their original wing.” He turned to the blueprints and began to point. “If we seal these doors and patch this window, the environmental systems can be used in these sectors, which will give them easy access to the kitchens, the garage, the workshops, et cetera. Then we can focus on figuring out how to clean up this intergalactic mess.”

  “Uh,” Hot Dog said. “Speaking of messes. The Alpha Maraudi soldiers . . .”

  At first Benny didn’t grasp what she meant, but then it dawned on him. “Yeah,” he said. “Where are Vala’s crew members?”

  “The ones who tried to take over the Taj?” Major Stokes asked. “Who injured my soldiers? The enemies to—”

  “Where are they?” Elijah cut him off.

  “They were sent underground,” Pinky answered. Her eyes stared somewhere in the middle distance.

  “Where you can’t see them,” Benny said quietly. The underground city Elijah had been building to hide in once the Alpha Maraudi took Earth—before he’d had a change of heart—still lacked much of the Taj’s tech, including Pinky. They’d used this blind spot to their own advantage in the past, but there was something in Pinky’s voice that made Benny think this was not a good thing for them.

  “Not all the Maraudi were sent down immediately, though,” Pinky continued, narrowing her eyes at the major. “Some were kept up here.” There was disgust in her voice, and she didn’t offer up any more details like she’d been so quick to before.

  Benny turned his attention to Major Stokes, worry starting to flit through his chest. “What happened?”

  “Well . . . You must realize . . .” the man began. “With the fate of humanity at stake . . .”

  “Major,” Ricardo said.

  A beat passed before the Stokes answered again.

  “In the interest of planetary security, it was imperative that we learned everything we could about their plans. You can imagine they weren’t exactly forthcoming with any information, so during our interrogations . . .”

  The sentence was already finished in Benny’s head. He’d heard stories of the roving gangs in the Drylands, who would capture the members of caravans and do whatever it took to get information about where they might be hiding food, water, or other supplies. In the darkest parts of his mind where he tried not to venture, he had wondered if this had been his father’s fate. Had he never come back from the unforgiving expanse of the desert because he refused to tell the people who captured him where the caravan and his family was located?

  “You tortured them,” Benny said quietly. “Then locked them away.”

  Major Stokes’s eyes narrowed at the word. “We were trying to protect Earth. When we learned all we could, we sent those we’d detained down to be with their own kind. I’m sure they’re fine.”

  “I guarantee you have no way of knowing that,” Pinky said. Benny was certain that if it had been within her power, her gaze would have turned the major to dust where he stood. “You overrode the elevator control systems once you sent them away. They’ve been down there on their own for days.”

  “I believe we’re done here,” Elijah said, bringing his silver glove down onto the top of the desk with a loud clank. “We’ll contact you when we need further information. Until then, you’re dismissed.”

  The shocked noise that came from the major’s mouth seemed to resonate from somewhere deep in his body. “You can’t just—”

  “You heard him,” Ricardo said, taking his place at Elijah’s right side, nearly the same height despite their difference in age.

  “Didn’t you?” Kira asked, stepping up as well.

  “There appears to be a block of rooms on this side of the Taj that are fully functional,” Elijah said. “I suggest you and your remaining soldiers occupy those and stay out of the rest of the resort until further notice. Pinky will see to it that you have whatever you need.”

  “Within reason,” she added.

  “You suggest?” Major Stokes asked, ignoring the AI.

  “You could always go back to Earth instead,” Hot Dog said. “No one’s stopping you.” She paused, turning to Benny. “Are we?”

  He shook his head. “I say let them go.”

  Major Stokes looked around the room, weighing his options. Finally, he slumped a little, hurrying toward the door.

  “A handful of kids who think they know how the universe works and a delusional egomaniac,” he muttered as he passed. “This is how humanity ends.”

  And then he was gone.

  “Keep an eye on him,” Elijah said, nodding to Pinky.

  She adjusted her glasses. “I’m way ahead of you.”

  “Why don’t we just force them to leave?” Ricardo asked. “This is our home. We’re in charge again.”

  “There’s plenty we still don’t know about New Apollo,” Trevone said. “They could come in handy.”

  “Exactly,” Elijah agreed, swiping through files on the top of his desk. “Besides, it sounds like some of their wounded aren’t in any condition to fly.”

  Drue perked up at the mention of the injured. “My dad . . .” he said.

  “Go to him,” Elijah said. “Of course. I should have told you to sooner.”

  Drue started for the door, but paused, turning back to Benny and Hot Dog.

  “What’ll you guys do?” he asked.

  “I strongly suggest double-checking the physical integrity of the resort’s vital operations centers, just in case my sensors have been damaged and aren’t reporting accurately,” Pinky said. “There are also a few physical tasks that I’m not exactly equipped to handle myself. Hallways that need clearing. Jammed doors.”

  “On it,” Ricardo said. “Just point me in the right direction.”

  Kira nodded. “Same.”

  “Trevone, stay here with me,” Elijah said. “Let’s take a look at satellite placement and radar systems. Maybe we can track the Orion. Or even Tull’s mother ship. Who’s got Dr. Bale’s radar?”

  “Ramona,” Trevone said. “And I’d highly recommend we get her down here. I hate to admit that she’s schooled me on more than one occasion when it comes to tech wizardry.”

  “We’ll send for her. And I’ll reach out to my contacts on Earth. Pinky, get me a list of everyone we know in the government, starting with the highest ranked.”

  “I still think our best hope is to stop the expanding star,” Benny said. “If we can save Calam, the Maraudi will have no reason to come after Earth. If Jasmine can pull this off . . .”

  Jasmine had shown up right after Benny had regained consciousness, her smile bright, talking a light-year a minute about how she’d figured out a way to use the energy held in Dr. Bale’s weapon as a way to stop the Maraudi star from expanding. Benny had understood maybe 5 percent of what she’d said, but Elijah and Trevone had seemed excited by her hypothesis.

  Elijah nodded. “I agree. Now that we’re here, she can use the Taj’s resources. Anything she needs. I’ll let her know she can come down at once. The alien scholar helping her, too.”

  “We have to get the Alpha Maraudi up from underground,” Hot Dog said. “Who knows what it’s like down there. Or how many of them there are. Or if they need help.”

  “Yeah, but . . .” Benny twisted his lips. “They have no idea we’ve made an alliance with Vala. We�
�re still the enemy to them. Especially after whatever happened with New Apollo. We can’t just turn on the elevators and say ‘We’re cool now, trust us.’”

  “It’s a . . . delicate situation,” Elijah agreed.

  “We need to bring someone who speaks their language,” Benny said. “I mean, some of them probably know a little English based on who we’ve met so far. But I don’t know how much that’s gonna help us.”

  “Pito?” Ricardo asked.

  “Or Griida,” Kira suggested.

  Trevone shook his head. “Pito is helping Jasmine, trying to find a way to address their star problem. He should stay there.”

  “And Griida’s manning the mother ship in Vala’s place,” Pinky added.

  Drue let out a loud sigh. “I can’t believe I’m going to suggest this,” he said.

  “What?” Benny asked.

  But Drue just shook his head.

  And then, all at once it dawned on him. “Zee,” Benny said.

  “Squid kid to the rescue,” Hot Dog said. Then she clicked her tongue. “Oh, boy.”

  3.

  “This is what all the fuss has been about?” Zee asked as he walked into the Taj’s tattered lobby. A red rock mask that allowed him to breathe covered the bottom half of his face, an adapted comm unit attached to it. “I didn’t realize it’d be so small from the pictures. The Space Runners were so much cooler in person that I was kind of expecting the same thing with ‘Earth’s Greatest Achievement.’ But . . .”

  “It looked a lot better before it was invaded,” Benny said flatly.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Zee said, one of the four stubby tentacles protruding from the back of his head waving off the idea. “I know you probably think all our stone architecture is boring, but now that I’ve realized this really is basically just a building where humans come to sleep in giant rooms on beds that are way too soft—not to mention literally the only place worth visiting on the entire moon . . .” The young alien narrowed two of his three eyes at the portrait of Elijah West in a gleaming silver suit on one wall. “I don’t know. It seems kind of . . .” He paused for a moment, head cocking slightly to one side. “Anti-needed?”