Space Runners #4

by Jeramey Kraatz

  Of course, they would still need to know what was going on inside the Taj to make this work.

  “Pinky,” Benny said as they approached the building. “Can you give us an update?”

  There was a slight pause before the AI spoke, one that most people probably wouldn’t have noticed. But Benny had gotten used to Pinky responding within an instant anytime he needed her. Now the seconds between his question and her answer seemed to span minutes.

  “Elijah’s spoken to Senator Lincoln,” her voice finally said. “He was helpful, actually. We think we have a way of contacting the president directly through some channels that shouldn’t be blocked off by Earth’s firewall. Elijah’s called Major Stokes to his office while I try to complete a connection.”

  “Excellent. That’s great news.”

  He gave Drue a thumbs-up. The medical wing was all clear.

  “Benny . . .” Pinky said.

  “Yeah, Pinky?” he asked as they climbed the stairs to the lobby.

  A few more seconds passed. “Make sure you and the others are getting some rest. You’re likely running on fumes at this point.”

  This, more than her accusing them of plotting, made Benny feel like he was doing everything all wrong.

  “Will do,” he said.

  Once inside the lobby, the three of them split up, nodding to each other one more time before going their separate ways. Benny headed for the stairwell that led to the basement, passing no one as he went—the EW-SCABers would all be in their rooms or grabbing food or maybe sitting around their common areas, wondering what was going to happen next. Part of him wanted to reassure those other kids marooned on the Moon, who’d battled alongside him, that everything was okay, that for once they had an actual plan to end all of this. But he knew he didn’t have the time to do that. The others would have to handle it. The ones they were leaving behind.

  He was downstairs in the windowless hallway in no time. Outside the research lab door, he paused a moment to collect himself and take a few deep breaths. And then, he went in.

  Jasmine and Pito were huddled around the battery. When Benny entered, neither of them said a word. Jasmine’s eyebrows were raised, waiting for him to say something.

  Benny pulled out his HoloTek. “Uh, Ramona has a list of things she’d like brought to the ship,” he said holding out the datapad. This was true—there were several items their tech wiz said she needed to have on hand if they were heading to Mars, and then deep space. “I honestly don’t know what half of them are.”

  “Right,” Jasmine said cautiously, smoothing her hands over the sides of her short black bob. She took the HoloTek and searched around the workstations until she finally found a black duffel bag. Then she began to dutifully collect the things Ramona had requested.

  Benny pulled out a small radar and placed it on one of the workbenches. It was Dr. Bale’s scanner, the one that had allowed them to detect the alien’s hidden ship and see through Dr. Bale’s stealth. Ramona had already created a new version of it on Vala’s ship. This one would be more useful on the Moon.

  “Is she well?” Pito asked.

  Benny shrugged. “I think her blood is mostly caffeine and energy drinks at this point.”

  “I meant the commander. How is Vala?”

  “Oh, yeah. Of course.” Benny said. “I think she’s fine?”

  Pito nodded, and then looked back at the battery. “I hope this has enlivened her spirits. What she did on the dark side put such a strain on her.”

  Worry flickered through Benny’s chest as he considered how making an entire mother ship practically invisible would affect her, but he pushed the thought out of his mind for now.

  “Got it,” Jasmine said, holding out the bag and the HoloTek to Benny. “I, uh . . . have my own gear. Everything else is digital. All our files. Everything we’d need.”

  “Good,” Benny said. “Get your stuff. Let’s go.”

  Without another word, Jasmine crossed the room and grabbed a metal briefcase. Pito was right behind her, picking up two larger trunks. His tentacle swiped a few tools from a workbench and curled around them.

  “What a lab,” he murmured as they made for the door.

  Only, once they were there, it didn’t slide open.

  The three of them stood in front of it, Benny in the lead, waiting for the familiar swish of air that he’d grown so used to. But there was nothing.

  He pressed his lips together firmly and pushed the manual exit button near the doorframe, which should have caused the metal to slide away even if there were no power in the Taj. Nothing happened. He pushed it again and again, knowing each time that it wasn’t broken, that something else was keeping them from leaving, but hoping that for some reason it would work.

  Finally, he stopped, and slumped his shoulders.

  “Pinky,” he said.

  She appeared beside him. A strand of hair had fallen out of her tight ponytail and now hung by one eye. Her cheeks were flushed red. She adjusted her glasses and crossed her arms.

  “Benny,” she said.

  “Let us leave.”

  Her head shook in short, rapid movements. “Do you think I’m an idiot? That I’ll let you and your friends just walk out of here and—what?—attack Dr. Bale on your own and fly outside of known space without me? Without Elijah? Do you have any idea how many things could go wrong? I do, because I’ve calculated every single one of them since I first saw your face when Elijah was talking in here earlier. More times than I care to admit.”

  “Then you also know this is Earth’s best way of surviving,” Benny said solemnly. He didn’t like seeing her so upset, especially knowing that he was the cause. “You can’t keep us trapped down here forever.”

  “I can try!” she said, her voice blaring out of his collar speakers. When she spoke again, it was quieter. “I’m trying to keep you safe. All of you. Just like he is.”

  Benny could guess what was happening now. Pinky would be alerting Elijah. It would take only a few moments for him to understand what was going on and try to go after them, to stop them. She’d tell him where each core member of the Moon Platoon was, and he’d go after Benny and Jasmine first, because they were in the lab and because Benny was their leader.

  But Benny wasn’t planning on being in there for long.

  “I’m so, so sorry, Pinky,” he said. Then he took a deep breath. “Ramona. Do it.”

  Pinky’s face rumpled in confusion. And then, moments later, she jerked upright, eyes staring at something—or nothing—in the middle distance. Her face turned to Benny, mouth slightly agape, though he couldn’t tell if the look of concern on her face was because she didn’t know what was happening or because she was fully aware of it. Before she could say anything, the hologram blinked three times, and was gone.

  Benny felt absolutely terrible.

  “Please forgive me,” he said, hoping that the AI could hear him and that what he asked for was something that had been built into her programming. He hit the button for the door again. It slid open.

  “What did you do to her?” Jasmine asked, an edge of horror to her voice.

  “She’s just being rebooted,” Benny said, already in the hallway. “She’ll be perfectly fine, but we need to move immediately.”

  They took the back way to the garage, through the hallways of the first floor, avoiding the lobby and the courtyard since they were the places it was most likely they’d run into Elijah. Pito put on his red rock mask as they darted past a few loitering New Apollo soldiers; but apart from a look of slight surprise to see Benny, Jasmine, and an alien scholar rushing past, they didn’t seem to care what was going on. Still, it wasn’t the best news: if anyone asked them, they’d surely say exactly what they’d seen the group running toward.

  When they finally burst into the garage, Benny and Jasmine’s force field helmets powering on, Benny scanned the room. It was the first time he’d been inside since the invasion of the Taj, and he was quick to notice how different it looked compared to
the first time he’d visited it. The main entrance was destroyed. The rows of silver cars were mounted with lasers, a few New Apollo vehicles were parked in the corner, and the remnants of Dr. Bale’s short-lived occupation were still scattered along the far wall. The McGuyvers had kept the place pristine, even if there were a few oil stains on the concrete, but now the whole building needed a thorough cleaning.

  Hot Dog was sitting in Trevone’s Space Runner, the car turned on and driver’s-side door open.

  Ricardo Rocha leaned against the hood.

  “Crap,” Benny muttered.

  “He was waiting for me,” Hot Dog said.

  “I knew this is what you would do,” Ricardo growled. “As soon as Elijah started talking, I was sure of it. Do you have any idea what he’ll— What am I saying, of course you do.”

  “We have to go, Ricardo,” Benny said, stepping forward. He glanced down at the brace on Ricardo’s leg and then back up to his face. “You can’t stop us.”

  “I shouldn’t have to,” he said. “Why don’t you just wait for Elijah to come around and realize he needs our help?”

  “You heard him earlier,” Benny said. “And you know better than any of us that once he gets something in his head, he doesn’t let it go.”

  “Benny’s right,” Jasmine said. “This is the best strategy. We have to do this.”

  Ricardo shook his head. “He’s just trying to look out for us,” he said. “The right way, this time.”

  “I get that. But this is our choice. Not his.” Benny paused. “Make sure he knows that.”

  They stared at each other for a few moments. “Then I’m going with you,” Ricardo said at last. And there was at least some relief for Benny in hearing him say that, because it meant he in some way understood what they were trying to do.

  But that wasn’t an option either.

  “We’re invading a ship,” Benny said. “You can’t help us do that with a fractured bone.”

  The leader of the Pit Crew grunted in frustration. “It’s my left leg. I can still drive! I’m not useless.” He banged on the hood.

  “Ricardo,” Hot Dog said, “it’s not just that. Think about it. If we go it’s one thing. If the entire Pit Crew goes—if you go, his right-hand man . . . what does that leave him with?”

  Ricardo didn’t say anything. His eyes fell to the floor of the garage. Benny counted every beat of silence, sure that Elijah was going to burst through the doors at any second.

  Finally, Ricardo spoke again. “Trevone’s going with you, isn’t he? He’s already in the ship.”

  Benny hesitated, part of him not wanting to admit it. “Yeah.”

  Ricardo closed his eyes. “If you don’t take care of him, I’ll feed you all to those Bazers myself.”

  “We will,” Benny said. “I swear.”

  Ricardo nodded once, and without looking at any of them, pushed himself off the hood, hobbling toward the side of the garage.

  “One thing about the low gravity,” he said quietly. “It’s a heck of a lot easier to walk out here than it is inside, where it feels like Earth.”

  “Jazz, go with Hot Dog,” Benny said. “Pito, you’re with me.” He pointed to a nearby silver Space Runner with Mustang-red racing stripes painted on it. “That one.” He looked over at Ricardo. “Thanks.”

  But Ricardo only shrugged. “Just make sure it works.”

  “Sorry!” Drue’s voice yelled into Benny’s helmet as he rushed through the door. “Sorry, sorry. I’m late, I know. My bad. My dad got kind of emotional for once.”

  “You ready?” Benny asked him.

  But Drue was already heading for the Galaxicle that had been returned to the garage after the Bazer attack.

  “Always,” he said, jumping on the bike.

  Benny slid into the driver’s seat of the silver Space Runner as Pito was buckling himself in.

  “I can’t tell if this is really smart or really stupid,” he said as he turned on the hyperdrive.

  “I’m supposedly one of the smartest of my kind,” Pito said, “And I’m not completely sure either.”

  That wasn’t really reassuring to Benny, but he understood what the alien meant.

  “Ramona,” he said, “we’re coming. It’s go time.”

  With that, his car sped forward, through of the entrance to the garage that had been busted during the battle over the Taj, hunks of alien rock still hanging around the edges. Hot Dog and Drue followed.

  As they shot into the courtyard, the mother ship shifted, separating from the base and rising off the ground. Benny gunned the engine, heading for entrance to the hangar that was opening up before their eyes. It was a short flight to the ship—seconds, really—but they’d wanted the extra cars and were afraid that running across the courtyard in low gravity would take too much time and leave them too exposed.

  They’d been right. Or at least, right about the fact that the courtyard would have put them face-to-face with Elijah. Benny glanced down to see him running out of the Taj, Major Stokes and Kira following close behind—all of them staring at the three vehicles racing toward the ship.

  And then they were inside the Alpha Maraudi hangar. Benny could see the top of the Taj for only a split second in his rearview mirror before the ship was too far above it. After that, it was nothing but the pinpricked backdrop of space as far as the eye could see, until the hangar door shut completely. There was a slight jolt around him as he opened the Space Runner door.

  Vala’s ship was already speeding away from the Lunar Taj.

  14.

  A message from the Taj was already coming in by the time they got to the bridge. Benny had expected as much. He joined Trevone and Vala by the big hologram, which now displayed their path over the Moon. It rippled every few seconds, a chiming sound filling the air.

  They hadn’t yet picked up the call.

  “It’s good to see you again,” Trevone said to Jasmine, though his eyes kept darting back to the hologram every time the noise sounded. “This battery is remarkable. I have to say I’m jealous I didn’t come up with it myself.”

  Jasmine blushed a little. “We’ll need your help going forward, I’m sure.”

  “I expect I know who is reaching out to us,” Vala said, one tentacle hovering over a green ribbon of light floating at the edge of the map. “This will be a communication for you, not for me. Let me know when or if you would like to speak.”

  “Should we go ahead and turn the ship purple?” Hot Dog asked. “So he can’t find us?”

  Jasmine blinked. “What?”

  “I’ll explain later,” Trevone said.

  “It’s not worth it,” Benny said. “He’ll know exactly where we’re going.” He took a deep breath. “We can’t ignore him. Let’s talk.”

  Vala nodded, and touched the shining green thread.

  It was Elijah, of course. Benny could tell from the background that he was in a Space Runner, about to take off from the garage. His jaw was set, angry looking, but there was something else, something sad in his eyes that pierced Benny. He instinctually planted his feet.

  “What are you doing?” Elijah asked as his car took off and the garage became nothing more than a metal blur behind him.

  “Well . . .” Benny started.

  “Rhetorical,” Elijah continued. “I know exactly what’s going on. I just can’t believe you’d do this with how much is at stake.”

  “We’re doing it because we know that,” Trevone said. His voice was low and calm, but his hands were fidgeting. “And I know deep down you have to understand this is the best way.”

  “You, too, Trevone?” Elijah asked. “My own Pit Crew?”

  Trevone didn’t answer.

  “We’ll be back,” Benny said. “And all of this will be fixed. Finished. We’ll laugh about it over one of Pinky’s feasts.”

  Benny wasn’t sure where this optimism was coming from. He felt like he was trying to convince himself as much as Elijah.

  “I’ll see you on the dark side,�
�� Elijah insisted. “We’ll talk this through. I have a line to the White House now. I just need a little time. We can—”

  Benny cut him off. “It’s not like we’re doing this because we want to be the ones to save Calam,” he said. “We need you here. You have to protect Earth. We think it’s days before Tull shows up, but what if we’re wrong? If he lands even a single asteroid on Earth, everything we’re trying to do is for nothing.” He paused, looking Elijah in the eyes. “You’re the smartest man in the galaxy, right? Figure out a way to prepare for him. Make sure those laser mounts are holding on the Space Runners.” He thought for a second. “And I’d get as many of the busted weaponized SRs going as possible. You may need them. Dr. Bale’s radar is in the basement lab. We don’t know what direction Tull might fly in from, but I’m positive you’ll figure out a way to upgrade that scanner and see his approach. Even if he tries to be stealthy. Maybe even figure out where he is now.”

  Elijah stared straight into the camera. He didn’t nod, but he also didn’t protest any further. Benny wasn’t sure what to make of this, but he hoped it meant that the man who had inspired them back on Earth, who had brought them to the Moon and changed their lives in so many ways—for better and for worse—understood why they had left.

  “We’ll be in touch,” Trevone said. “Constant communication for as long as we can. I promise.”

  Elijah let out a frustrated half groan, half shout, and then he pursed his lips, looking off to the side. “I should have seen this coming. Your EW-SCAB class has always been so bad at obeying the rules.” He shook his head. “That used to be why I liked you so much.”

  “You’ll see us again soon,” Benny said.

  Elijah looked back at him. “I’d better.”

  The call ended, and the hologram cut back to the map. They were already closing in on the Jules Verne mare where the weapon was buried.

  No one said anything at first. Jasmine, ever practical, was the first to speak.