But only after a golden bolt of energy shot straight through the center of Commander Vala’s chest.
14.
Chaos erupted in the crater.
Commander Vala stared at her chest. She made a noise that sounded like a curse in the alien tongue and then spoke a single, furious word: “Tull.”
And then she disappeared.
“Where did she . . . ?” Dr. Bale started.
“You idiot,” Senator Lincoln yelled as he pushed Dr. Bale backward, the man’s assistants catching him. “This may have been a setup, but we could still use the commander alive.”
“It wasn’t a setup!” Drue said. “I promise! Dad!”
But his father ignored him and started barking orders. Overhead, the weaponized Space Runners flew into action, darting toward the oncoming swarm of Maraudi ships.
“We’re stuck up here,” Jasmine yelled.
“You’ve got to let our SRs free,” Benny yelled at the senator. “They’re sitting ducks. You’ll get them all killed.”
Senator Lincoln pointed to Todd and Mae.
“It will take a few minutes,” Todd said.
Mae nodded. “They’ve been fighting us, and now the programs are all tangled up.”
“We don’t have a few minutes,” Benny said, making a break for Ricardo’s Space Runner. “Come on, guys!”
Above them, Earth’s forces began to clash with Tull’s soldiers, filling the space over Io with flashes of energy blasts as a full-blown battle broke out. Silver bolts of energy rained down on the surface of the moon as a wave of purple alien ships shot over the crater they were standing in. Io shook as the ground around Benny erupted in plumes of dust and scorched rock.
Senator Lincoln’s Space Runner must have been caught in the line of fire, because when Benny looked over his shoulder, it was flying through the smog of debris, headed straight for him like missile.
And then it stopped suddenly a few yards away from him, floating several feet off the ground.
“Gahhhh,” Ricardo shouted as he waved his right fist, using the electromagnetic glove to move the vehicle out of the way, placing it on the surface nearby. “Go,” he yelled. “Get Vala out of here.”
“I’m trying to,” Benny said as he rounded the side of Ricardo’s car.
Already the back door was open, and Commander Vala—the real Commander Vala—leaped out. Benny glanced at his wrist. The nanoprojectors that had constructed the hologram of the alien leader had returned to the silver bracelet Elijah had given him.
Their precautions had paid off. If Vala had actually been standing there, she’d have a hole burned through her chest now and the entire meeting would have been even more of a disaster than it was turning out to be.
At least Pinky could never say that he’d borrowed her body for nothing.
“Can’t you tell Tull you’re down here, too?” Benny shouted.
“Don’t you think he knows that?” Vala asked. Her eyes were wide, frantic. “Where’s Zee?”
“Oh, crap,” Benny said. “I forgot about him.”
“Incoming!” Jasmine shouted. “Benny, watch out.”
Benny looked up just in time to see a huge comet of silver energy shoot straight for him and the commander, growing larger every second.
Vala reached out and pulled him close with her tentacles, his face smashing against one of the pieces of armor on her forearm.
“Hold on,” she said quickly.
There was a flash of gold, and then suddenly, a small chunk of alien rock began to grow at an impossible speed, encasing the two of them in darkness before Benny could so much as begin to formulate a question.
The commander had shielded them in a sort of stone cocoon right before the blast hit.
To Benny, it felt as though the entire universe was shaking. It was impossible for him to tell exactly what was going on while they were encased in rock, but he had the distinct feeling that they were flying through space. With every passing second his heart beat faster as panic set in.
Something squeezed his arm. Vala was still gripping his bicep.
And then they were crashing. Vala’s side of the rock seemed to take most of the force of the collision. Cracks of light appeared around them. At first he thought this was because the commander was making the stone glow, but the impact of their landing had actually fractured parts of their shield.
They skidded to a stop, and the rock began to melt away.
Benny gasped, taking in deep breaths once his chest was free to expand again, and crawled a few inches, trying to get his bearings and see what was happening.
They’d been blown clear past his invisible escape car, toward the far end of the crater. Above him, alien and New Apollo ships were both being shot down or careening wildly into the cold expanse of space. Another purple craft dropped bombs of silver energy across the meeting place, obscuring Benny’s vision. He couldn’t even make out Drue or Ricardo because there was so much dust. All he could see of the Space Runner they’d been standing beside moments before was a smoking shell of metal.
“Not good, not good,” Benny murmured. “Hello? Anyone?” he called into the comms, desperate to hear from his friends.
“There you are!” Ricardo yelled. “Are you two okay?”
In his daze, Benny hadn’t thought to check on the commander. Vala was on one knee, swaying a bit, a hand on the side of her face. A trickle of purple blood seeped from one of her temples.
“Vala?” Benny asked.
“I . . .” she said groggily. “Zee.”
“Get out of here,” Ricardo yelled through the comms. “We already got the little one. We’ll take care of him.”
“I’ll pick you up in the Chevelle,” Benny said.
“Please, we’ve got our own ride,” Drue said.
“The SRs are free?”
“Almost,” Jasmine said through the comms. “Ramona needs one more minute.”
“Then how . . . ?” Benny asked.
“We’re taking my dad’s car,” Drue said.
Benny could make out two figures in space suits darting toward the weaponized Space Runner Ricardo had saved with his silver glove, a short Alpha Maraudi trailing behind them.
Vala was trying to stand, and Benny reached out, helping her to her feet.
“We have to move!” he shouted.
“But, Zee . . .”
He looked into the commander’s eyes as best he could, considering he only had two. “We’re taking care of him,” he said. “I promise.”
A beat passed and Vala’s blue eye flashed before she nodded, clearly still dazed from the crash. And then they were off, Benny half dragging the commander across the yellow plains toward the orange boulder.
“My arm,” Vala murmured, and it was only then that Benny noticed that the commander’s other hand was hanging useless at her side.
“It must be broken,” Benny said. “Are you—”
“I’ll be fine.”
He almost knocked the breath out of himself as he crashed into the invisible car, groping for the passenger door handle. Finally, he found it and pushed Vala in as carefully as he could, slamming the door behind him before racing to the other side of the Chevelle, his hand on the hood as a guide.
He buckled his seat belt once he was inside. The engine purred as he revved it, the steering wheel vibrating ever so slightly.
“Hold on!” he shouted.
Vala’s tentacles wrapped around the roll bar above her head. Benny’s foot was already slamming down on the gas pedal, sending them rocketing in reverse. He spun the steering wheel, straightening them out, and then they shot away from the scene. Apart from faint trails of dust, they sped invisibly across the pocked landscape.
“Okay, okay, okay,” Benny said, glancing in the rearview mirrors to make sure they weren’t being followed. “Where am I going? What are we doing?” He paused. “Jazz, updates?”
“Ricardo, Drue, and Zee are in one of the Earth cars, fleeing the . . . well, the battlefield,” she said.
Vala sighed in relief in the passenger seat.
“We’ve just regained control of the SRs,” Jasmine continued. “I’m sending everyone back to the mother ship.” She paused. “I don’t think anyone will chase us? They seem to be pretty engaged above Io.”
Benny clenched the wheel as they hopped the side of a new crater. The Chevelle flew through space in a low arc, finally touching back down on the ground, bouncing and jolting both passengers.
“Guess Ash got around to putting those titanium axels in after we messed this baby up the first time,” Benny said quietly. He eyed their surroundings. They’d left the immediate danger behind, but now he had no idea where they were heading.
“Talk to me, Jazz,” he said. “Can Ash pick me up? Where’s a safe rendezvous point?”
“Of course I can,” Ash said over the comms. “But I’m gonna need to see you to do so. That stealth is a beast.”
“Oh, right,” Benny said. He leaned forward, figuring that since he’d gotten the commander out of there, they were safe, and tapped on Dr. Bale’s drive. The electric green of the hood appeared through the windshield. “You spot me?”
“Ten four,” Ash said. “You’re on my radar. Give me a minute to get to you.”
“Wait . . .” Jasmine said. “I see you, too. And according to Dr. Bale’s alien radar . . .” She gasped a little. “Benny, look out! Three Alpha Maraudi on your tail!”
“Huh?” Benny asked.
He could just make out a few swaths of deep purple in his rearview mirror.
“Ooooh, this is bad,” he said, kicking the Chevelle up another gear. He turned the stealth back on, but it was no use—the Alpha Maraudi ships opened fire, shots of energy landing all around them. A thin coating of dust now covered the car, rendering Dr. Bale’s stealth drive useless.
Beside him, the commander cursed in her alien tongue.
“They’re going to kill us,” Benny said. “Can’t you tell them you’re in here with me somehow?”
“I think that would only make matters worse,” Vala said.
“What are you talking about?”
“Think, Benny Love,” the commander continued. “If word got back home that I was killed during what should have been peace talks with the humans, all hope for your planet would be lost. There would be no more conversation. No shared science. Simply destruction. Tull is making sure of that.”
“You’re telling me Tull would kill you just to get permission to eliminate all of humanity.”
Vala nodded. “I believe he would.”
Dead ahead of them, more energy bolts rained down, and Benny wrenched the steering wheel to the left just in time for them to avoid the blasts. The Chevelle wobbled, and for the briefest second he lost control of the machine. But then the wheel was responding again and he exhaled loudly as they continued forward.
He scanned the landscape, desperate to get out of harm’s way. To one side was a series of tall mountains. To the other, a deep crater. Ahead of them, nothing but flat surface for as far as his eyes could see.
“We need cover,” Benny said. He bit his lip for a second. “I’m going to try something.”
“What?” Vala asked.
Benny shook his head. “It’s either really stupid or really smart. I guess we’ll figure out which.”
“Well, if that’s the case,” Hot Dog’s voice crackled over the comms. “I’m in.”
Benny glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the shining gold of Hot Dog’s Star Runner weaving through the alien crafts. It wasn’t weaponized, but it was definitely faster than the Alpha Maraudi ships. As she looped around them, the alien pilots seemed confused, unsure where to fire.
“Hey, Ace,” Benny said. “I was wondering where you were.”
“Just waiting to save your butt,” she said. “So what’s the plan?”
Benny jerked on the steering wheel. The Chevelle skidded across the surface of Io, drifting sideways. Vala shouted in surprise as the car straightened out.
“Wait, don’t tell me . . .” Benny wasn’t sure if Hot Dog’s voice was full of excitement or horror.
“Yup,” Benny said, pressing the gas.
They shot forward toward a space between two tall mountains just wide enough for three cars to drive through side by side.
“As a commander, I must say this seems like a poor choice,” Vala said.
“Only if this thing dead-ends or something,” Benny said.
“Ugh. Why would you even say that?” Hot Dog groaned. “This is a bad idea.” She paused. “I’m right behind you.”
“You don’t have to be,” Benny said. “It’s a narrow canyon. Not a lot of room to fly.”
“Psh. Have some faith in my skills, cap’n.”
Benny glanced at Vala. “Um . . . this might get bumpy.”
The commander nodded as her tentacles tightened around the car’s roll bar.
They sped into the pass between the mountains. Hot Dog followed high above them, the three Alpha Maraudi ships swooping in after her. They fired, but she rolled and maneuvered the superfast Star Runner as though it were second nature to her, avoiding outcroppings and rock bridges that had formed across the canyon.
Benny was pretty sure he heard her giggle, but he couldn’t be certain.
The aliens didn’t seem to be quite as adept as Hot Dog. One of them clipped the side of the canyon wall, causing the ship to spin and crash against the other mountain, eventually falling to the ground behind them.
“Well, that’s one down,” Hot Dog said.
No sooner had she spoken than the two remaining aliens opened fire again. This time they didn’t seem to be trying to hit Hot Dog or Benny’s car—instead, they were aiming at the walls of the pass itself, causing parts of it to collapse around the Star Runner and Chevelle.
“Watch out!” Hot Dog said. Her Star Runner shot straight up, narrowly avoiding impact.
On the ground, Benny kept his eyes bouncing between the rocks falling from above and the path ahead of them which, fortunately, seemed to be opening up a little not too far ahead.
“Come on, come on, come on,” he muttered as he slowed down and swerved to avoid one falling boulder, then sped up to avoid another.
Above them, Hot Dog’s craft flew in a loop, cutting off one of the alien crafts and causing it to jerk to the right—straight into a falling chunk of rock dislodged by its own shots.
“Two down!” she shouted. “I thought this game was gonna be in hard mode.”
“Benny!” Vala shouted, pointing a tentacle forward.
That’s when he saw it. Ahead of them, the path was indeed opening up into a wider space, some sort of cavern. Unfortunately, it looked as though there was a gorge ahead, a gap in the makeshift road—a space they’d have to jump if they were going to keep going.
“I can clear that,” Benny said. “I just have to—”
A geyser of molten rock shot out of the gorge, fifty feet up at least. It wasn’t just a break in the ground—they were going to have to jump a river of lava.
“Benny?” Hot Dog asked. “I’m guessing you saw that since a pillar of fire is kinda hard to miss?”
“We can make it,” he said, gripping the wheel, his palms sweaty beneath his gloves.
“As long as you don’t get toasted!”
“You get out of here. Who knows how high those geysers can go?”
“Are you kidding?” Hot Dog asked. “I’ve beaten this level plenty of times before.”
Benny glanced at Vala. “We don’t have a choice,” he said. “Even if I put the car in reverse, half the pass is collapsed back there. This is our only way out.”
Vala looked at him in silence before nodding.
He glued his eyes to the terrain ahead of them, spotting the edge that looked like it had the biggest incline and would give them the highest arc through the air. He said a silent prayer, sending it through the expanse of the galaxy and into the Drylands, to the RV where his family was: an apology for not being able t
o save them in case this failed.
Benny changed gears and smashed the gas pedal so hard that for a second he thought his boot might go straight through the floorboard. And then they hit the incline, the bottom of the Chevelle sparking against the rock as they took to the air in a long arc.
He allowed himself only the briefest glance out the driver’s side window, where there was nothing but roiling lava as far as he could see. He reflexively pulled back on the wheel as though it were a flight yoke—as if he could will the car to climb even higher as they began their descent toward the other end of the fiery gorge.
Both he and Vala screamed, their voices forming a horrible drone of sound that filled the car.
The Chevelle landed with a jolt, the back tires just barely catching the edge of the rock on the other side of the gap. And then they were shooting forward once more.
Benny screamed again, this time out of pure relief as he glanced into the mirror and saw Hot Dog shoot over the lava as well.
The third alien ship wasn’t so lucky. A geyser erupted just as it was halfway across the river, striking one of its crystalline wings. The craft careened to one side, out of sight. It was the last Benny saw of it.
“We’re alive!” Hot Dog yelled.
Benny took a few huge breaths, trying to calm down. As he did, he realized that they weren’t going as fast as they should be. It felt like the car was dragging.
“I think my tires are melting,” he said.
“Don’t let off the gas!” Hot Dog said. “I see the end of the pass ahead!”
And sure enough, in a few moments they were out of the mountains and back onto the flat plains. Benny let the car slow once they were there, searching the sky for any signs of ships.
“That was an insane thing to do,” Jasmine said over the comms.
“Yeah,” Benny said. “I’m aware.”
“We were tracking you. But it didn’t seem like a good time for distractions. Stay put. We’re seconds away.”
Benny parked the Chevelle and leaned back in the seat, looking over at Vala, who was inspecting her broken arm.
“You are an exceptional pilot,” the commander said.
Benny shook his head. “I’m not a pilot. I’m just good with wheels.”
Space Runners #3 Page 14