Space Runners #1

by Jeramey Kraatz

  “Brilliant,” Drue muttered, rubbing one ear.

  “Whoa, whoa, Pinky, don’t freak out.” Benny raised his hands in front of his chest. “Um . . . wherever you are.”

  A hologram began to take shape over the desk in the center of the room, forming the figure of a woman, although instead of her normal perfectly tailored pink suit, she was dressed more casually in shorts and a T-shirt. Her manicured hands were clenched in fists at her side, and her head shook as though she were having trouble keeping it connected to her neck on account of the rage coursing through her intangible body.

  “Freak out?” Pinky asked. “I have processing power that would make NASA computers blush if they had that capability, which they don’t. Unlike me. I’m not freaking out. I’m angry.”

  “Hold on,” Jasmine said, raising a hand to Ramona. “What did we just unlock?”

  Pinky pursed her lips and looked Ramona up and down.

  “I can’t access any other room in the Taj. You’ve got me trapped, haven’t you, you clever little girl?”

  Ramona grinned.

  “What are you, exactly?” Jasmine asked. “Part of the real Pinky’s personality, right?”

  “And if so . . .” Benny said, hesitantly, “which part?”

  Pinky pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.

  “Answering you is the only way I’m getting out of here, isn’t it?”

  All of them nodded. Even Ramona, who looked like she was enjoying this.

  Pinky sighed. “Fine. Before I left the Taj, Elijah mapped my entire personality into the AI. Emotions, quirks, everything. But an emotional computer doesn’t make for the best operating system when it comes to running the most sophisticated destination in the galaxy, so he locked away certain things that made me me.”

  “The things that made you human,” Benny said.

  “That way you wouldn’t try to stop him if you disagreed with anything he was doing,” Jasmine added. “He took away your conscience.”

  “I’ve been watching and listening to everything, but I’ve been powerless to do anything other than allow for small security breaches here or there. I . . . Hey!” Pinky shouted, pointing a finger at Ramona. “You stop downloading my program files. That’s Elijah’s proprietary software protected by copyright. He may be an idiot but he’s a brilliant idiot.”

  “Wait,” Hot Dog said. “You were his girlfriend, weren’t you?”

  Pinky turned her head to stare at Hot Dog. “I loved that man. But I couldn’t sit by up here and watch him lose sight of himself. Of his hopes and dreams. He never told me about these aliens when I was here. He . . .” She paused for a moment. “Oh my God. He’s going to let me die on Earth. That scum.”

  She stepped off the table. “Now let me out of here so I can talk some sense into that fool.”

  “Okay.” Benny motioned to Ramona. “I think we can let her go.”

  Ramona tapped on her HoloTek. Pinky smiled, stretching her arms and cracking her neck.

  “Wonderful,” Pinky said, her body starting to disappear. “I’ve just locked Elijah in his private quarters and am already giving him an earful. He is not happy.”

  “What?!” Drue jumped from his chair. “You can’t trap Elijah West in his own resort. You’re just going to make him mad. He probably has a kill switch programmed for you. Plus, he’s still Elijah.” He bolted for the door, calling over his shoulder. “Come on, before she murders him.”

  “Drue, wait!” Jasmine said starting after him, Ramona in tow.

  “I guess we should follow them,” Hot Dog said.

  “No.” Benny shook his head. “I’m done with Elijah. Those aliens are on their way. I can’t just sit here and attempt to talk a delusional trillionaire into trying to save the world.”

  “Okay. So what are you going to do?”

  Benny curled his fingers into fists at his sides. “I’m going back to Earth and saving my family.”

  22.

  Benny ran. He was halfway up a stairwell to the Mustangs’ floor by the time Hot Dog caught up with him.

  “What are you talking about?” she asked. “You can’t go back to Earth. There are aliens coming to destroy the planet. They— Benny, are you even listening to me?”

  He wasn’t. Not really. He was too focused on the thought of his little brothers sitting in the RV with their grandmother, unaware that extraterrestrials were at that moment plotting to demolish life on the planet, that a huge asteroid storm was shooting through space toward them. He had to save his family no matter what.

  “Why don’t you come with me?” he asked as he bolted through a door and down a hallway, past the red horses rearing back silently in their group’s common room.

  “Because I’ve already been shot out of the sky by an asteroid this week.”

  “Fine, then stay up here and work on Elijah.”

  They made it inside his room. The suite felt different now. That first day it had filled him with such awe, but now the luxurious space made Benny’s blood burn in his veins, made his stomach cramp with disgust. The Taj had once seemed like the most perfect thing in the galaxy, but now all Benny wanted was to be back home.

  He got the sudden urge to trash the place, but there wasn’t time for that.

  “You’re not thinking straight,” Hot Dog said, standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips, catching her breath. “Don’t you remember what Elijah said? There are still alien rocks out there ready to shoot down ships, not to mention all sorts of debris from satellites and stuff. You could die in space!”

  “Elijah said,” Benny scoffed while throwing his few belongings in his bag. He picked up the hood ornament from the bedside table. “He’s been lying to us this whole time!”

  “Actually, he was right about that,” Pinky’s voice sounded behind him as the hologram appeared in the living area. “I estimate your chances of making it back to Earth safely at approximately twenty-seven percent.”

  “Did you hear that?” Hot Dog asked, throwing her hands out to her sides.

  “She said approximately,” Benny said. “That’s a twenty-seven percent chance I can get there and tell . . . I don’t know, somebody what’s about to happen while I track down my brothers. Then I’ll get them off the planet until things cool down.”

  “The odds of you finding your family in the Drylands and escaping before the asteroid storm hits are infinitesimal,” Pinky continued. “I could read the number to you, but rest assured there are many zeroes after the decimal point.”

  Benny turned to look at her. “Why are you here? I thought you were talking to him.”

  “I’m fully capable of multitasking. I’m also currently controlling all the artificial gravity, environmental sensors, and a rather rousing game of antigravity flag football between the Vipers and the Firebirds. Besides, Jasmine’s berating Elijah with historical facts about human bravery at the moment. You should be more worried about the Pit Crew. I’ve got them locked in the garage for the time being, but I don’t have the physical presence to stop them if they try to restrain you in some way.”

  “Great,” Hot Dog said. “For some reason I’m more afraid of those guys being angry than Elijah.”

  “I’d also like to point out that I could ground all the Space Runners right now and keep you here.”

  “No,” Benny said, tightening his grip on the hood ornament. “No way. I’ll get Ramona to delete your memory so fast.”

  “I didn’t say I was going to,” Pinky assured him. “But I want to make sure you’re making the right decision. You haven’t thought this through, Benny. There’s plenty in me that empathizes with you. I understand what you’re feeling, but I’m also a computer. I can see all of this from a logical perspective, all the possible outcomes, and none of them look good for you if you leave the Taj.”

  The wall across from the bed lit up with a video of Benny shooting through the Drylands in a third-rate dune buggy—his EW-SCAB application. The movie paused as he was flipping t
he ATV upside down, posing for the camera with two big thumbs up and a huge grin on his face.

  “Whoa, you really are good with wheels,” Hot Dog whispered.

  “What are you doing, Pinky?” Benny asked. “I’m already homesick.”

  “I’m reminding you why you’re here,” she said.

  The video fast-forwarded through his trek out into the desert wastes to rescue the missing kid from his caravan. Past their triumphant return, the camera drone flying high into the sky and grabbing sweeping shots of the cheering crowd. Then it was playing at a normal speed as he and his father worked on repairing someone’s truck using parts they’d salvaged from an abandoned airstrip. When the engine started up, the two of them high-fived with oil-smeared hands. Then his father smiled, and picked Benny up, pulling him in to a hug.

  “Is that your dad?” Hot Dog asked.

  Benny just nodded, unable to take his eyes off the screen.

  “Oh my gosh. When you said he died, I didn’t realize you meant so recently. Benny, I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m very familiar with your application materials,” Pinky said, much quieter than she’d been before. “I know what he meant to you.”

  The video fast-forwarded and then resumed again. The image was a close-up of Benny. The sun was low on the horizon, a burning orange, splitting the sky between day and night. His face was dirty—was always dirty in the Drylands—except for a few spots under both eyes that were wet, wiped clean.

  “Stop,” Benny whispered.

  The video began to play anyway.

  “My dad was a good man,” he said on the screen. “No, he was the greatest. He saw good in everyone. He taught me to help other people. He always said that being the best people we could be was the only thing that would keep us alive out here. He believed in the caravan. He took good care of us, me and my brothers. My grandmother.”

  For a brief moment on the screen, Benny’s eyes looked watery, until he blinked a few times and composed himself.

  “But he’s gone. So I guess it’s up to me to take care of us now. And I’m going to make sure I do. I’m going to make sure he’d be proud of me.” He looked somewhere past the camera, into the distance. “We shouldn’t have to live out here in the Drylands. I’m going to find a new home for us. A place with water and food. A place where we can live permanently. I’m going to change things around here.” He laughed a bit, getting back a little of the grin he’d had at the beginning of the video as he stared into the camera once again, eyes full of determination. “No. Not just here. I’m going to change the world.”

  The wall screen went blank. His application video was over.

  “Benny . . .” Hot Dog said.

  He looked down at his hand. He was still holding the silver hood ornament.

  “My dad wouldn’t have let bad odds get in the way of saving our family,” he said quietly.

  “He probably wouldn’t have wanted you to throw your life away, either,” Hot Dog said, choosing each word with care. “We’re in the most technologically advanced building ever made. We have to be able to figure out something from here, some way to use the Space Runners to stop the asteroids.”

  “This isn’t how things were supposed to go. When I came up here, I didn’t really know what to expect. I wasn’t sure what Elijah would be like. I thought . . . This sounds so stupid. But I thought he might be like my dad. If Elijah thought I was good enough, then . . .” Benny clenched his jaw.

  “Elijah is wrong about a lot of things,” Pinky said. “But he was right about what he saw in you. Not just in how you handle a dune buggy or a Chevelle. He saw courage. Drive. Ingenuity. He saw someone who really could change the world.”

  “If you try to fly back to Earth, you probably won’t make it.” Hot Dog spoke firmly but softly. “Stay.”

  “I can’t just hide here,” Benny said in desperation.

  “Then don’t.” She shook her head, scrunching her nose. “No one’s telling you to. I’m not gonna sit back and hide. I’m gonna find a way to fix this. You can help us figure out how to keep Earth from being destroyed from up here. Or how to warn everyone back home.”

  Pinky butted in. “Warning Earth would require satellite connectivity that’s currently unavailable due to—”

  “Okay.” Hot Dog raised a hand in the air. “Then we figure out a way to stop these alien creeps. We’ve got a bunch of smart people at the Taj, even if we can’t get Elijah on our side. I haven’t seen the other groups in action much, but I bet there are plenty of great pilots in them. I think Jasmine could win a Nobel Prize one day as long as we can keep humanity around long enough for someone to nominate her. Heck, even Drue is pretty good at flying. Just don’t ever tell him I said that.”

  “You’re not abandoning anyone,” Pinky added. “From a statistical perspective, by far your best bet at saving the ones you love is to stop the asteroid storm before it ever gets to Earth.”

  “Benny, think about it.” Hot Dog pointed out his window, where they could see a brown sliver of the planet they called home. She stared at him with big, earnest eyes. “Why try to save just your family when you can save the whole world?”

  “How?” Benny asked. “There aren’t any weapons up here. This is a vacation resort.”

  “Yeah, but he killed one of those aliens with a laser cutter or something, right? Which, honestly, we haven’t gotten a chance to talk about and is really kind of disturbing. Also, where is that other research guy who was with him? And what do these aliens look like, because I do not want to have to see . . .”

  But Benny had stopped listening again after her first sentence. He was thinking back to the times when he and his dad had to make do with whatever mismatched parts they had on hand. He’d helped rig up headlights using old lanterns and patch up trailers using metal salvaged from an abandoned amusement park. That was something he was good at.

  His father used to nod furiously and smile with only the left side of his mouth when Benny had a good suggestion. And as a spark of an idea formed in Benny’s brain, he could almost see that look again in his head.

  “Hey, Hot Dog,” he said.

  “Yeah?”

  “How many of those lasers do you think Elijah has underground?”

  23.

  They raced to Elijah’s private quarters, Pinky directing them through a series of previously locked doors, until they were ascending a staircase leading to the room at the top of the Taj that was surrounded by blooming sheets of gold on the outside—the tower shining above the rest of the resort like a blazing sun. As they ran, Benny tried to figure out how, in such limited time, they might be able to use the Taj’s resources to save Earth.

  Finally, they burst through a door and into a huge room with high ceilings that rose to a slight peak. Unlike the rest of the sleek, shiny Taj, Elijah’s quarters were dimly lit and lined with dark wooden panels. Jasmine and Drue stood near a long counter, where various Space Runner models floated in pools of light. Ramona inspected a row of crowded shelves housing books and trophies on the other side of the room. A section of the shelving opened up into what Benny guessed was Elijah’s bedroom. Elijah sat at an expansive desk built from the parts of a dozen different automobiles. He didn’t react when Benny and Hot Dog had entered. His eyes were locked on his former girlfriend, who paced back and forth in front of his desk.

  “The Elijah I fell in love with would never dream of letting this happen,” Pinky said. “Where is he? You can’t have lost your mind completely in these last few years. When I knew you, you believed in nothing more ferociously than the ingenuity of the human spirit.”

  “I still do,” Elijah said, though Benny could detect a tinge of sadness in his voice. “Set aside your feelings for a second and look at the facts, Pinky.”

  He nonchalantly slid his hand across the inky black surface of his desk, illuminating some kind of keyboard.

  “Don’t even think about it, E.,” Pinky said. “I’m rewriting my programming as I speak. If you really wan
t to go head-to-head with me and see who’s the better coder, I’m game, but keep in mind I’ve got control over all the systems in the Taj right now. I’d hate for your precious cars to get shot into the sun.”

  “All I’ve got to do is say a few override words and a nice, neutral AI takes your place.”

  “Try me,” Pinky growled. “Let’s see who’s faster now that I’m not locked away in a box of ones and zeros.”

  “Stop it!” Benny shouted, stomping into the middle of the room. “Both of you. This isn’t helping anything.”

  “I told you already,” Elijah said, standing up. “You may have Pinky on your side for now, but that doesn’t change anything. This is the only—”

  “I don’t believe you,” Benny said, cutting him off.

  Elijah turned away from them, looking up at the wall behind him, where half a dozen portraits hung. Names like “Curie,” “Tesla,” and “Parry-Thomas” glowed underneath them.

  “Sometimes progress takes sacrifice,” he said. “Do you think I want this? You have no idea what a burden this knowledge has been, how much it weighs on me. This isn’t a decision I’ve made lightly. I’ve thought long and hard about it, examined the variables.” He looked over his shoulder. “Pinky, you know what I’m talking about. You helped me run the projections.”

  “There’s a difference between a statistic and a person, Elijah,” she said, pointing a finger at him. “Once upon a time you recognized that. What happened to the man who wanted to heal the world? To bring water to the Drylands and clean up smog-filled air? Elijah, what happened to the man who drove me to the other side of the world on a whim just because he thought it would be romantic to have lunch by starlight?”

  He turned back to her. “I’m the smartest human in this galaxy. Why can’t you all see that what I’m saying is correct?”

  “What’s correct isn’t always what’s right,” Jasmine said quietly. “I realized that only recently myself. You can’t boil down all of human existence into statistics.”

  “I actually agree with her on this one,” Drue added.