The Moon Platoon

by Jeramey Kraatz

  “Oh, crap,” Benny said.

  “Fix it!” Drue shouted. “We’re going to crash!”

  “No, we’re not!” Jasmine shouted. “Hit the manual gravity stabilizer! There has to be one!”

  Benny looked at the panel of holograms and touchscreen controls that covered the Chevelle’s dash. None of it looked familiar. He started pressing buttons at random. The air-conditioning kicked on, followed by the windshield wipers and some very loud classical music.

  “Here!” Drue said, surging forward and slamming two fingers on the dash.

  Suddenly, the car leveled out. Then it began to drop straight down.

  All three of them screamed.

  The Chevelle landed on its four wheels with a bounce. None of them said a word for a few seconds, until Drue turned off the music and Benny peeled his stiff fingers from around the steering wheel. He half expected the car to explode, but it didn’t.

  “Okay,” Drue said. “Benny . . . that . . . was . . . awesome! Let’s do it again!”

  Jasmine tapped on her neck. There was a slight glimmer in the air around her face as the space suit’s helmet powered on, creating a force field around her head—a miniature Grand Dome.

  “I’ve got to get out of here,” she said, clawing at the door handle. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Before the door opened, the inside of the car depressurized, causing Drue and Benny’s helmets to automatically power up as well. Soon, Jasmine was outside, taking a few wobbly steps away from them and coughing. The sound crackled out of a speaker in Benny’s collar.

  “Gross,” he said. “What happens if she throws up in her helmet?”

  Drue made gagging noises and shook his head. “Why do we always get stuck with girls who can’t handle a little turbulence?”

  “I can hear you,” Jasmine shouted. “The comm systems in our suits automatically connect anyone within a certain . . .” She paused for a second, and then was yelling. “You guys! Get out here! I found Hot Dog’s Space Runner!”

  The boys looked at each other for half a second before they were both jumping out of the car.

  The downed Space Runner was half-embedded in the side of a hill fifty or so yards behind them. Jasmine stood a few feet away on the passenger’s side. The windows were covered in so much dust that it was impossible to see through them.

  Benny had seen some bad accidents out in the Drylands. Cars that had gone over cliffs or simply spun out of control, rolling across the desert—the kinds of wrecks people didn’t survive.

  Like this one.

  “I don’t want to look,” Jasmine said quietly as Benny and Drue approached. They stood on either side of her.

  “Hot Dog?” Drue called.

  There was no reply.

  It took Benny a moment to realize that both Drue and Jasmine were staring at him. Drue’s complexion was turning green, and Jasmine’s head shook out of nervousness or fear or a combination of the two. So Benny did what he was good at: he put on a brave face, just like he would have back on Earth. He held his breath as he stepped around to the driver’s side of the Space Runner, preparing for the worst.

  But there was nothing. The pilot’s seat was empty.

  “She’s not here,” he said.

  Drue let out a loud sigh as Jasmine pulled open the passenger door and climbed halfway into the vehicle. “Looks like the gravity-powered air bags did their jobs.”

  Benny stepped back and looked at the crushed body of the Space Runner. He was surprised anyone could have survived the crash—but then, Space Runners were filled with cutting-edge safety features. Still the fact that Hot Dog walked away . . .

  Walked away.

  The thought triggered something in Benny’s mind.

  “There are footprints over here,” he said, moving to the back of the car. “Not ours! We can follow them! She couldn’t have gone that far.”

  “Hot Dog?” Drue yelled again as he looked at her trail.

  “She must be too far away for our comms to connect,” Jasmine said. “That, or . . .” She didn’t finish her thought.

  Benny searched the horizon, but all he could see was a gray landscape. Finally, he spotted a tiny silhouette in the distance.

  “There she is!” he said, pointing. “Everyone back in the car.”

  “You go get her,” Jasmine said, turning her eyes back to the wreckage. “I want to take a closer look at what brought down this Space Runner. Just make sure you come back for me.”

  The boys nodded, and piled back into the Chevelle. It handled differently after the fall, pulling to one side. A bent axle, probably—something Benny didn’t look forward to explaining to Elijah when they got back.

  Hot Dog looked over her shoulder once and saw their approaching car, and then she turned her attention back in front of her. It wasn’t until Drue and Benny were out of the Chevelle that she looked surprised to see them.

  “Wait. You two?” she asked.

  “Nice look,” Drue said. Hot Dog’s bountiful blond curls were all scrunched up against the inside of her force field helmet, as if she had a mane crowning her head.

  “My hair wasn’t made for space travel,” she said, adjusting the strap of a black bag hanging off one shoulder. “What are you doing out here?” Her face went white. “Oh, no, don’t tell me he sent all the EW-SCABers out looking for me. That’s so embarrassing.”

  “Actually, it’s just us,” Benny said. “We kinda . . . borrowed a car to come looking for you.”

  “It was my idea,” Drue said, stepping forward.

  A wave of surprise passed over Hot Dog’s face before she let out a single laugh.

  “You’re kidding. You’re dumber than I thought.”

  “We didn’t want you to get stranded out here alone,” Drue said. “Who knows what might have happened to you.”

  Plus, this way we look like heroes, Benny thought. That was the part Drue was leaving out.

  “I can take care of myself,” Hot Dog said with a little scowl.

  “You say that,” Drue grinned, “but you’re headed in the wrong direction.”

  “I know.” She shook her head, pointing to her right. “The Taj is that way.”

  “Then what are you doing over here?” Benny asked.

  Hot Dog held up a small silver packet, squishing it in her hand. A label said H2O in black letters.

  “Thanks,” Drue said. “I am a little thirsty.”

  “It didn’t come from the Space Runner,” Hot Dog said, turning back to the expanse of nothingness in front of her, where the surface of the Moon looked darker.

  “What do you mean?” Benny asked. Drue had already pulled the straw off the side of the pouch, and was trying to figure out how to get it through the force field of his helmet.

  “It was sitting outside the car when I came to.” Hot Dog opened up the black bag to show them. “All of this was.”

  Inside were half a dozen pouches, some labeled as protein drinks and meal replacements, others marked as more packages of water.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Drue said. “What?”

  “I think someone left this for me.” She paused, her eyebrows scrunching together.

  Drue thought about this for a second. Then he gulped. “Are you telling me someone saw you crash, brought you a bunch of supplies, and then left you alone out here? Just disappeared?”

  “I don’t know. I was knocked out for a little while,” Hot Dog said. “But there are some marks in the dust that could be from a hover-scooter. They head in this direction.” She motioned toward a section of the Moon in the distance covered in shadow, an ocean of darkness. “But . . . I don’t know where they would have come from. The Taj is the only building on the Moon, right? Unless it wasn’t . . .” She didn’t finish her sentence.

  “Maybe you had an alien guardian angel,” Benny said, trying to lighten the mood and wipe the concern out of Hot Dog’s voice.

  But she just shook her head. “You think that’s a joke, but there’s a lot of sp
ace out there we haven’t gotten to. We know aliens existed at some point. Do you really think we’re the only life in the whole universe?”

  “The only intelligent life, yeah,” Drue said. “Although, I don’t know that I’d call—”

  “Not now,” Benny interrupted. “We can talk about this back at the Taj. Please remember that we did take one of Elijah’s cars.”

  “Relax, Benny, the Taj isn’t going anywhere. We’ll drive back when . . .” Drue trailed off for a second before his face lit up. “I’m driving this time! We’ll pick up Jazz and speed back to the resort! I hope Elijah’s got cameras filming the courtyard so he can see our heroic return.”

  And then he was off.

  “Wait, you got Jasmine to come out here, too?” Hot Dog asked.

  “Yeah,” Benny said. “I get the feeling it’s the first time she’s ever broken a rule. I don’t know how she’s going to handle it.”

  “Seriously,” she said. “Hey, thanks for coming to find me, by the way.”

  “No prob. But like you said, I’m sure you could have made it back without us.”

  Hot Dog bounced her head back and forth.

  “Yeah, but it’s a lot nicer to not have to walk. Although, if this was Drue’s idea, I hope he doesn’t think I owe him now.”

  Benny shook his head. “I can’t figure out if he’s my new best friend or worst enemy.”

  She laughed a little. Then her face turned serious as she started for the car.

  “Hey,” she shouted. “Shouldn’t the best driver get to take the wheel?”

  Back at the crash site they found Jasmine standing beside the wreckage, holding a fist-size piece of bright yellow rock. It was opaque, like some kind of dull gemstone.

  “What’s the story, Jazz?” Drue asked as they got out. “Collecting Moon rocks now?”

  “Um . . . not exactly,” Jasmine said. “I pulled this out of the hull of Hot Dog’s Space Runner. I think it’s what brought her down.”

  “Probably,” Hot Dog said. “An asteroid or meteorite or something.”

  “The same stuff that exploded against the Taj,” Benny said. Hot Dog looked his way, mouth agape. “Don’t worry,” he said. “The place is fine.”

  “It does look like some kind of mineral at first glance,” Jasmine said, but her eyes were wide, staring at the other side of the rock. “Or maybe it was designed to look that way.”

  “Uh, Jazz . . . I mean, Jasmine?” Benny asked. “What are you talking about?”

  She turned the piece of rock around to show off the other side. At first Benny wasn’t sure what the big deal was, but as it caught the light just right, he could see silvery patterns crisscrossing the rock. And sticking out of one section was what looked, impossibly, like several pieces of wire.

  “Even the color is strange. It looks like sulfur, but I’m pretty sure it’s not,” Jasmine said, “And with this metal sticking out of it . . . it looks like circuitry. I don’t think this is a naturally occurring asteroid.”

  “Wait, what are you talking about?” Hot Dog asked.

  “I think someone made whatever took down your Space Runner and fell on the Taj.” She furrowed her eyebrows as she looked to Hot Dog.

  “You mean, like, on purpose? You think this might have been an attack?”

  The question hung there in the quiet expanse of the Moon as Benny looked back and forth between the other three. In that moment, he felt very far from home.

  “We’ve got to get this back to the Taj,” Jasmine said eventually. “We have to tell Elijah.”

  Benny swallowed hard, trying to make sense of what she was saying.

  Drue just shook his head. “What? So someone’s built an asteroid cannon or something? Who’d attack the Lunar Taj?”

  Benny saw a flash out of the corner of his eye.

  “Uh, guys,” he said, pointing.

  A glowing red blur was racing toward them from the sky. Fast.

  “Maybe we’re about to get our answer,” Jasmine said.

  The approaching Space Runner descended at a breakneck speed, slowing only when it was a few yards above the ground. The door folded open, and a boy jumped out.

  Ricardo Rocha towered over them in his red space suit, eyes drifting from the wrecked Space Runner, to the stolen Chevelle, and then finally to Benny, who stood closest to him.

  “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?” he asked.

  Somewhere behind him, Benny heard Jasmine gulp.

  11.

  For most of the trip back to the Taj, no one spoke. Ricardo’s custom Space Runner was too small for more than one passenger, but with a few taps on the Chevelle’s dash he set the stolen car on an automated course back to the garage. The girls sat in its front seats, Jasmine shaking her head with her eyes closed. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. Hot Dog kept her gaze locked on the gray landscape ahead of them, taking deep breaths, a slight crease on her forehead. She held the black bag in her lap, Jasmine’s rock sample inside. In the backseat, Drue let his head bang against the passenger window every few seconds while Benny mentally cursed himself for getting dragged along on this rescue mission. For ever thinking it was a good idea. He tried to prepare himself for a lecture or yelling or, worse, something he hated to even consider—that Elijah might kick all of them off the Moon for pulling a stunt like this.

  If he did get sent home early, what would his family say? How could he explain this to his grandmother, to his brothers? What if, in one stupid move, he’d doomed everyone he cared about to stay in the Drylands?

  They’d manage, of course. They’d get by as they always had, along with everyone else in the caravan. But how could he forgive himself?

  There was another thought in his mind he couldn’t shake. An image. His father’s face, twisted in disappointment. His dad was a man who believed you could change the world if you set your mind to it. And what had Benny done when given the promise of real change? He’d thrown it all away. Drue’s insistence back in the garage that Elijah would crown them as heroes if they found Hot Dog had seemed like solid logic at the time. Now, Benny just felt stupid.

  He looked through the window, staring at the sliver of Earth visible above them as Drue broke the silence.

  “Elijah will understand,” he said, though it sounded to Benny as if Drue was trying to convince himself, not the rest of the car. “You guys’ll see. He’ll be proud of us. What we did was super courageous.”

  “And idiotic. I worked so hard to get here . . .” Jasmine muttered. She glanced in the rearview mirror. “I knew you were going to be trouble. I’m better than this. I’ve spent my whole life trying to find a real home. The Taj is it. All I’ve wanted is to be up here, and now . . .” She couldn’t finish the thought.

  Benny started to ask what she meant about finding a real home, but stopped. Instead, he tried to find a bright side.

  “We did find Hot Dog,” he offered.

  “You stole one of his cars,” Hot Dog said. “I mean, I’m happy you did, but—”

  “What do you care?” Drue cut her off. “You’re gonna make it out of this just fine.”

  “Hey, a little while ago I was shot out of the sky by an asteroid, okay? It’s not like this was a good first day on the Moon for me, either.”

  And then they were all quiet until the Taj came into view.

  “Do you . . .” Benny started quietly, not really wanting to ask the question. “Do you think he’s going to send us home? After they figure out if there are going to be more asteroids, I mean.”

  “Hey, yeah, I almost forgot about that thing Jazz found,” Drue said, his eyes lighting up. “We may have just saved the Taj if someone’s really using asteroids as weapons. Like, maybe we uncovered some kind of supervillain plot or something.”

  “You mean alien plot,” Hot Dog said. “Those things came from space.”

  “Don’t tell me you think ETs are throwing rocks at us.”

  “We don’t know what’s going on,” Jasmine said. “Jus
t that this could be important.”

  “I hope Elijah sees it that way, too,” Benny said as their car slowed down, approaching the auxiliary tunnel into the dome.

  Inside the garage, Ricardo jumped out of his Space Runner and pointed one finger toward the door leading into the Taj.

  “Move,” he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

  They didn’t pass any other EW-SCABers in the hallways. Everyone must have been sent to their rooms for the time being. Benny would’ve given almost anything to be in his own suite, watching a wall of TV or raiding the snack pantry instead of marching toward some kind of inevitable punishment.

  Ricardo led them to a meeting room, where chairs equipped with miniature hyperdrives floated around a circular holodesk so dark and shiny that it looked like a pool of ink. Ramona sat in one of the seats, spinning around, raising her fingers in a peace sign but not bothering to come to a stop as the others entered. Someone must have figured out she’d been the one who’d messed with Pinky’s systems.

  “Sit,” Ricardo grunted.

  Benny followed directions, as did the girls. Drue loitered near the entrance.

  “Uh, maybe I should run up to my room,” he muttered, starting for the door. “I’ve got a pretty good satellite phone in there that might help us contact Earth.”

  “Pinky?” Ricardo said.

  “I’m on it.” Her voice came from all around the room as she appeared in front of Drue, hands on her hips. He hesitated a second before darting through her, allowing just enough time for the door to slide shut. Trapped, he glanced back at Ramona.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Pinky said. “We’ve confiscated her old HoloTek.” Her voice got deeper. “Her programming skills are sloppy but effective.”

  Ramona grinned, still spinning, and made some sort of beeping noise with her mouth.

  “Listen,” Benny said to Ricardo, trying his best to keep his cool. “We had a good reason for going out.” He turned to Jasmine. “I mean, tell him about the probabilities and statistics and stuff.”

  Jasmine’s eyes went wide. “Don’t blame this on me.”

  “Save it,” Ricardo said, pulling out his HoloTek and tapping on it. “Elijah should be here any—”