Space Case

by Stuart Gibbs

  It’s very hard to run on the surface of the moon.

  I could only bound along, like I was in slow motion. It was like one of those nightmares where someone’s coming after you, and no matter how hard you try to run, you can’t. Only it was real.

  And now that I’d made the decision, there was no way to double back. The robot arm reared up again between me and the solar panels, its giant fist blotting out the sun.

  It was only about fifty yards from the solar array to the air lock. But despite my best attempts to run, I’d only covered a third of the distance.

  On earth the sound of the robot arm would have told me where it was—and whether it was going for me or Kira. On the stupid, soundless moon I had to watch it, and with a space suit on I couldn’t just glance back over my shoulder. I had to turn my whole body, which wasn’t exactly conducive to speed either.

  Behind me the arm pivoted downward.

  It was coming for me, not Kira.

  I suddenly wished I’d worn that space diaper. Though somehow, despite the fear of being pounded into paste, I managed not to evacuate my bladder.

  “Look out!” Kira cried.

  I couldn’t outrun the giant fist. I had to try to dodge it.

  I watched as it arced downward, then sprang as it came in, using the low gravity to my advantage.

  This time, however, whoever was controlling the robot had changed their attack. Instead of simply trying to squash me flat, the hand suddenly extended its fingers and swooped in sideways. It was like being slapped by King Kong. One of the huge metal digits caught me flush in the chest and I went flying.

  I tumbled through the air, soaring so high that I cleared the rover garage. For a moment I feared I might actually break free of the moon’s weak gravity and go into orbit. I found myself high enough to see the roof of MBA and the blinding panels of Solar Array 1 on the far side of the base. But then, thankfully, I began to arc downward again. Gravity yanked me back and I face-planted on the lunar surface. In low gravity you don’t come down that fast, but I still landed hard. Every part of my body felt like it had been punched at once, and the wind was knocked out of me. I skidded across the surface, leaving a deep trough through the moon dust, until I slammed helmet-first into a large rock, which stopped me dead.

  There was a soft, terrifying clink inside my helmet.

  I’d closed my eyes as I’d braced for impact. Now I opened them to have my worst fears confirmed.

  The glass of my helmet had cracked.

  A tiny web of fractures had appeared where I’d impacted the rock, looking like the divot a stone leaves in a windshield. But the cracks were spreading. My helmet wouldn’t be able to take another hit. The glass would go—and I’d suffocate in seconds.

  “Dash!” Kira’s terrified voice rang inside my helmet. “Are you all right?”

  I rolled over and took stock of where I was. The robot arm had knocked me thirty yards, so I was now on the opposite side of the air lock from where I’d started. The rover garage was between me and the field of solar panels; I could no longer see Kira over there.

  By the garage, the robot arm reared up on its pivot again. The hand swiveled back and forth, the palm angled at the ground.

  I realized it was looking for me.

  Whoever was controlling the robot had to watch me on the cameras, but the arm had swatted me so far I’d flown out of sight. There were several cameras mounted on the arm itself, though, and now my attacker was using them to scan the area to see where I’d landed.

  The air lock wasn’t too far away now, only a bit more than ten yards. Temptingly close. But I didn’t run for it.

  Instead I stayed where I was, not moving an inch.

  The lunar surface was gray and white. My suit was gray and white—and it now had a layer of moon dust coating it. Hopefully, I’d blend right into the surface. I wasn’t going to disappear completely, like a chameleon changing color, but on the monitors I’d be much harder to spot lying still than I would moving.

  “Dash!” Kira screamed again. It sounded like she was crying. “Are you okay? Answer me!”

  “I’m okay,” I told her.

  “Thank goodness! Where are you?”

  “By the launchpad,” I lied.

  The robot hand immediately swiveled that way.

  Which meant the killer was eavesdropping on our transmissions. But I’d figured as much. And now I’d diverted them and bought a few seconds.

  There was another clink from my helmet. A small crack extended from the impact point, spreading across the glass like the fissure of a miniature earthquake.

  I didn’t have much time.

  I sprang to my feet and tried to run for the air lock.

  “Hold on!” Kira told me. “I’m coming to help you!”

  “No!” I cried. “Stay where you are! Stay under cover! I’m fine! I’ll send help for you!”

  Of course I couldn’t run at all. I only bounded slowly. But the air lock came closer.

  And then I spotted something shimmering in the sun to my right.

  I turned that way and saw the bag with Dr. Holtz’s phone, lying in a patch of moon dust.

  I’d tried my best to hold on to it as I’d flown through the air, but it had obviously slipped from my gloved fingers, probably when I crash-landed. It now lay only a few feet out of my path.

  I tried to bank toward it and pick it up.

  Only it wasn’t so easy in low gravity. On earth the detour would have taken only a few seconds, if that. But it was much harder to change direction on the moon. I skidded in the dust once as I tried to stop my forward momentum, and again as I tried to grab the phone, squandering precious seconds each time.

  I plunged my hand into the moon dust, fumbling for the phone.

  “Dash!” Kira screamed.

  I risked a look back at the robot arm.

  It had spotted me—and was on the attack again.

  It was hurtling my way, the palm open, only this time it was swooping around to nail me from the side. I figured that at the speed it was coming, one swat would send me sailing over the entire moon base like a home-run ball. I’d land in Solar Array 1 and fry to death on the panels.

  I moved toward the air lock, but there was no way to outrun the arm.

  However, I only wanted whoever was controlling it to think I was trying to outrun it.

  I took one bound, then dug my heels into the lunar surface as hard as I could, bringing myself to a stop.

  The arm had extended, trying to catch me right by the air lock.

  Now I sprang in the other direction, diving for the lunar surface again.

  The palm rocketed past my feet while the arm soared over me, close enough to clip the back of my helmet. The fingertips scraped the base hard enough to furrow the wall as they swept past. Whoever was controlling the arm tried to stop it, but now they had to fight the low-gravity inertia of the moon. They failed. The arm crashed into the rover garage.

  The cracks spread farther across my helmet.

  I scrambled back to my feet, spun around, and lunged for the air lock.

  The arm had slammed into the garage so hard the wall had collapsed, and the arm was now tangled in the wreckage. It was jerking about, trying to wrest itself free. Pieces of the garage—and possibly the rovers—were tearing loose and flying away.

  I reached the air lock. There was no keypad on this side, only a big red button clearly marked OPEN. There was no point making entry difficult from the outside, as there was no one else on the moon. I slammed my fist into the button.

  The air lock slid open.

  There was another red button beneath the first, in the event that the air lock was jammed. This one was marked ALARM.

  I punched it as well.

  The robot arm tore free from the garage, leaving a gaping hole. It then pivoted upward . . .

  And suddenly froze. Whoever had been controlling it had abandoned the controls, probably frightened off by the alarm inside the base.

 
I leaped into the air lock and punched the red button on the inside.

  The outer door slid shut.

  A moment later the glass of my helmet shattered.

  I felt the staggering heat of the lunar surface and held my breath, hoping it wouldn’t be my last.

  There was a blast of air as the air lock repressurized to match the atmosphere of the base. As it did, I could hear the alarm wailing through the inner door. The air was blessedly cool as well.

  “Are you all right?” Kira asked again.

  I tentatively inhaled. Oxygen filled my lungs. Even though this had happened a half a billion times before, it was still the greatest feeling of my life. I sighed with relief.

  “I’m in the air lock,” I told Kira. “And whoever was controlling the arm took off, so it’s safe to come back now. Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Just frightened. I’ve been hiding in the solar array the whole time. I’m sorry I didn’t come help you—”

  “Don’t be. There was nothing you could do.”

  “I guess not.” Kira still sounded guilty. “Okay. I’m on my way back.”

  I pressed another red button, which opened the inner air lock door.

  Inside, the alarm was much louder, designed to ruin everyone’s sleep and rouse them from bed. I glanced toward the robot control room. The door hung open; my attacker was long gone.

  Nina was already up and out her door, perched at the edge of the catwalk. “You!” she yelled, glaring down at me. “What were you doing out there?”

  “Just getting a little exercise.”

  Nina stormed down the stairs toward me. “You think that’s funny? Well it’s not! This is a serious violation of protocol!”

  “Are we in trouble?” Kira asked through the radio.

  “Big trouble,” I told her.

  “Maybe I’ll stay out here a bit longer,” she replied.

  Behind Nina on the catwalk, our door flew open. My parents emerged, panic in their eyes. I figured they’d woken to the alarm and discovered I was missing. Dad had Violet in his arms. She actually seemed pretty excited by all the noise.

  Mom and Dad spotted me and at once looked relieved and worried. They came down the stairs behind Nina, who was still chewing me out.

  “Not leaving this base is the number one safety directive for every child here!” she shouted. “What were you thinking? Or were you even thinking at all? And what happened to your helmet? Are you aware how lucky you were not to have died out there?”

  “Yes,” I told her. “I’m very aware of that.”

  Nina reached the ground floor and stormed toward me, flushed red in anger. “Then what possible reason did you have to go out there?”

  “To get this.” I held up Dr. Holtz’s phone triumphantly. Only now that I had a moment to look at it, my sense of accomplishment quickly faded.

  Somewhere, during the robot’s attacks, the phone had been hit too. The glass was shattered and the casing was cracked almost in half.

  The object I had just risked my life to get was destroyed.

  Excerpt from The Official Residents’ Guide to Moon Base Alpha, © 2040 by National Aeronautics and Space Administration:

  EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS (CONTINUED)

  In the unlikely event of an emergency, it is imperative to respect the chain of command. The base commander has had far more training in emergency procedures than anyone else, has studied all possible crisis scenarios, and will be the primary liaison with Mission Control in the event of trouble. Therefore, in a state of emergency, any orders issued by the base commander must be followed immediately. Failure to do so will be considered mutinous behavior and will be punishable upon return to earth.

  Should the base commander have been rendered unconscious, dead, or in any other way unable to carry out his or her duties, then the second in command will take over. Rest assured, though, that the chances of such an event occurring are exceedingly small. In all likelihood, your stay at MBA will be calm, relaxing and trouble free!

  CORRUPTED EVIDENCE

  Lunar day 190

  Really early in the morning

  There may be no better way to cause chaos at a moon base than to set off the emergency alarm, rouse everyone from sleep, and then reveal that someone has just tried to kill you with a giant robotic arm.

  Nina was so apoplectic she didn’t know what to get angry about first. Instead she kept starting to yell about one thing, then changing her mind and yelling about something else. Within only thirty seconds she freaked out about my irresponsibility, the wrecked rover garage, the shattered solar panels, how expensive the robot was, and how I had deliberately violated a direct order from her by pursuing my investigation. At no point did it ever occur to her to ask how I was doing after my near-death experience.

  However, my family was plenty concerned about me. My parents hugged me tightly and fawned over me, at once relieved to see that I was alive, annoyed that I’d done something so risky, and angry at Nina for how she was treating me. Violet’s usual gleefulness had soured upon learning that I’d been in danger. She clung to me and cried while I tried to reassure her that the threat was over and everything was all right.

  Meanwhile, around us in the staging area, the Moonies were all going nuts. Lars Sjoberg was his standard jerkwad self, yelling at everyone within earshot about the alarm, as though this were merely another instance of bad service at MBA, like a hotel wake-up call that had come too early. Daphne was devastated by how her precious robot had been used for evil—and severely damaged in the process. Some people, like Chang and Dr. Kim, were trying to make sense of what had happened, while others, like Roddy, were panicking and wanting to know if the alarm meant we had to evacuate the base. Even Dr. Howard was displaying emotion for the first time since he’d arrived. Once Kira returned through the air lock safely, he threw his arms around her and began sobbing. The only people who remained silent were Mr. Grisan, who was figuring out how to shut the alarm off, and Zan Perfonic, who hung back by the wall, studying everyone carefully and taking everything in.

  Eventually, I got the chance to tell my story: how I’d gone out to retrieve Dr. Holtz’s phone and been attacked, but the attacker had fled before I could see who it was, and the phone was now a total loss.

  Chang took the phone from me and examined it closely. “Maybe not,” he said. “Mind if I try to salvage something?”

  I wasn’t sure I could trust Chang, but no one else volunteered to help. I glanced at Zan and she nodded that she thought it was okay, so I handed over the evidence. Chang promised to stay within sight and went to work on it at the computer station in the control room.

  Meanwhile Nina finally settled on one thing to be angry at: me. “Do you have any idea how much damage your reckless behavior has caused?” she demanded. “Millions of dollars for sure. Maybe billions!”

  Mom placed herself between Nina and me, anger flaring in her eyes. “Dashiell’s behavior didn’t cause any of this! Whoever was controlling that robot did. So why don’t you stop chewing him out and try to find whoever just tried to kill him?”

  “Because for all I know, your son made the whole thing up!” Nina shot back.

  “Oh, right,” I said. “Kira and I decided to play with the robot arm, destroyed it by accident, and then went outside to fake our own deaths to cover it up.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past you,” Nina snarled at me.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Dr. Howard yelled. “Give it a rest, Nina!”

  His words caught everyone by surprise, because few of us had even heard Dr. Howard speak, let alone raise his voice. Every last Moonie stopped what they were doing and turned his way.

  He was standing beside Kira now, still clutching her tightly, glaring at Nina. “We all know you’re afraid of a scandal here, but there is now irrefutable evidence that there is a killer on the loose at this base! So stop pretending that Dr. Holtz’s death might have been an accident and face the facts!”

  It turns out, the second best way
to cause chaos on a moon base is to reveal that one of the residents is a killer.

  Everyone who had finally calmed down now went nuts again. Moonies ran off to lock themselves in their rooms, or demanded Nina explain why she’d covered up the crime, or pointed accusing fingers at who they thought had done it.

  “I’ll bet it was Lars!” Roddy announced, and half the other Moonies quickly agreed with him.

  “This is an outrage!” Lars shouted. “I am sick and tired of being treated like a common criminal!”

  “This sounds like a job for Squirrel Force !” Violet announced.

  “Silence!” Nina roared. And when everyone kept talking, she added, “The next person I hear a peep out of gets thrown out the air lock!”

  Everyone shut up.

  “I have never covered anything up about Dr. Holtz’s death,” Nina informed us. “Until now, all evidence has indicated that he died due to reckless behavior and personal error. And as of this moment there is still no evidence that indicates otherwise. However, the Gibsons and Dr. Howard are correct. Someone on this base has caused some serious damage to our robotic arm and some of our facilities, most likely while Dashiell and Kira were on the lunar surface. Now, I intend to find whoever did this—and if their motives were, in fact, to bring harm to Dashiell and Kira, then I will see to it that they are prosecuted for what they have done. However, until that point, we are going to have order on this base! There will not be a witch hunt! So, for everyone’s safety, I’m sending you all back to your rooms right now until further notice.”

  “You mean you’re grounding us all?” Lars asked indignantly.

  “I’m ordering you,” Nina growled. “As is my right as base commander, per the bylaws of Moon Base Alpha, section seventy-eight, subheading A. Anyone who sees fit to violate that order will be locked in the medical bay with Dr. Holtz’s corpse and held there until I see fit. Is that understood?”

  Everyone nodded obediently and started back to their rooms.

  As my parents reluctantly turned away, Chang whispered from the control room, “Not so fast.”

  He’d only wanted my family, the Howards, and Nina to hear. We all looked that way.