Space Runners #3 Page 5

  5.

  Following his speech, Benny let the Pit Crew handle the logistics of loading up the Space Runners that were leaving and showing those remaining on the mother ship to their sleeping quarters. He headed back to the bridge where he and the rest of the core members of the Moon Platoon watched a holographic projection of the EW-SCABers making their exits, their Space Runners shooting toward Earth in a route devised by Pinky and Jasmine. Bo McGuyver’s oversized vehicle led the way, ready to tow any SR that had problems. His car was flanked by Sahar’s yellow Space Runner on the left, and Kai’s white one on the right. Two alien ships followed behind the group. In a few seconds, they all disappeared from view.

  Including the Pit Crew and Ash, there were now scarcely more than fifty humans left on the Alpha Maraudi ship.

  “They’ll be fine,” Pinky said, coming up beside Benny, her normal height again. “Space Runners are the safest vehicles ever created. At least by humans.”

  “I know,” Benny said. “It’s just . . . kind of weird that they’re going back and we’re not.”

  “I wonder how Ash is holding up,” Hot Dog said. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to her before her brother left. They were doing all sorts of last-minute inspections, so I didn’t want to interrupt her. I would ask the same about Kira but . . .” Hot Dog shrugged. “Honestly, she kind of scares me.”

  “I know I’d be worried about my brothers if they flew out,” Benny said, “regardless of how safe it was supposed to be.”

  Drue came up between Hot Dog and Benny, leaning on their shoulders. “So, guys. What now?”

  Benny turned to Jasmine, causing Drue to stumble forward. “We’ve got a couple of Dr. Bale’s stealth drives in the hangar still, right? Is it possible for us to, I don’t know, take them apart and see how they work? Reverse engineer them? If he’s using that same tech to hide his weapon—”

  Something sparked in Jasmine’s eyes. “Of course! If we can figure out how they work, we may be able to figure out how to subvert his cloaking.” She raised her eyes to the ceiling, deep in thought. “Or we might be able to home in on the frequency that his holograms operate on and use that as a way to track down his weapon. I was also thinking: since it is an electromagnetic weapon of some sort, it’s possible that there would be peculiarities in the general magnetic field around it, and if we can use those variances to . . .”

  She stopped. Benny blinked a few times. Jasmine nodded.

  “I’ll get on it,” she assured him. “Trevone will be glad to help, I’m sure.”

  “And I’m at your disposal, of course,” Pinky added.

  “So, that’s what we’re staking all our hope on?” Drue asked.

  “Our priority is figuring out a way to stop that superweapon,” Benny said. “It’s the most immediate threat to both the Maraudi and humanity. Vala’s given us even more reasons to convince the New Apollo forces that it would be a bad idea to use it. We need everyone to work together.”

  Drue raised an eyebrow. “Hold on. You want to talk my dad into getting buddy-buddy with the aliens? Ha. I can’t wait to see you try to do that.”

  “You’ll have a front row seat,” Benny said, “because you’re going to help me.”

  Drue shoved his hands into his space suit pockets. “Um, maybe you’re forgetting that the last few times I tried to tell my dad that I was doing superimportant space hero stuff, he was, uh, less than thrilled.”

  “Things are different now,” Benny said. “I mean, we’re on an alien ship. We have an alliance with them.” He shrugged. “Plus, you totally saved your dad’s life back on the Moon. Turn on that Lincoln charm and remind him that he owes you one. Or that he should listen to us, at least.”

  Drue didn’t look completely convinced by this, but he nodded.

  Pinky raised a finger in the air. “Not to bring everyone down, but there’s no way I can connect us to the Taj this far away.”

  “I know,” Benny said. “I’m hoping Ramona will help with that.”

  “Woot,” Ramona said, not looking up from her HoloTek. “Major shock.”

  “You’ve made satellites for us before,” Benny said. “We need you to do it again. A superpowerful one that’ll let us contact the Taj.” He sighed. “And we need it fast.”

  “Psh,” she said. “No prob. Mega upstreams. I can source parts from the hangar.” A mischievous grin overtook her face. “And the mother ship.”

  “Sure . . . Great.” He tried to think of what else they could be doing, but before he could come up with anything, a gigantic yawn forced its way out of his mouth.

  This was apparently some sort of trigger for Pinky, who put her hands on her hips and started tapping one foot on the ground.

  “What you need now is rest,” the AI said. “All of you have been going nonstop for a very long time. You haven’t even slept since the invasion of the Taj. I’ve marked the sleeping quarters on your HoloTeks. You’ll be useless tomorrow if you’re completely wiped.”

  “Actually, Pinks is right,” Drue said, stretching. “I’m about to pass out standing here.”

  “We need to get started on these satellites and stuff immediately, though,” Benny said. “There’s no time to waste.”

  “I agree,” Jasmine said. “But—and don’t take this the wrong way—that’s up to us, not you. You need to be awake to rally everyone tomorrow and, you know, lead.”

  “Look around you, Benny,” Hot Dog said. “The ETs have gone to sleep, too. Or, at least to their rooms? I don’t know if they sleep, now that I think about it. Anyway, this thing’s on autopilot, and we’ve still got a while before we’re to Jupiter.”

  “I can’t work much longer,” Jasmine said. “I’ll be right behind you. But I definitely want to take a preliminary look at the stealth drives before I call it a night. I do some of my best brainstorming right before I go to sleep.” She looked to Ramona. “Want to come to the hangar with me? I’m sure Ash can tell you what kind of satellite components she might have lying around if she’s still up.”

  Ramona clicked her tongue and made an okay sign with her fingers.

  “See?” Hot Dog crossed her arms. “Don’t worry. Us girls can hold down the place.”

  “As much as I enjoy the idea of an all-female crew,” Pinky started, “you should rest, too.”

  “Oh, I’m going to get my beauty sleep, don’t you worry. We’ll take shifts.” Hot Dog glanced at Ramona, who slugged from a can of soda that seemed to have appeared in her hand out of nowhere. “Even she has to sleep sometimes.” She paused. “Uh, right?”

  Drue headed for the exit, pulling out his HoloTek. “Come on, Benny, my man. Let’s see how accurate Pinky’s maps are of this place. I’m guessing we’re not going to find any Taj-style suites, if you know what I mean, so prepare to rough it.”

  “Okay, okay,” Benny finally said. He turned to Pinky and Hot Dog and shrugged. “I’ll see you soon. But if anything weird happens, wake me up, yeah?”

  Hot Dog pointed toward the exit. Benny nodded and followed Drue out of the bridge. A few steps into one of the stone hallways he heard Ramona burp behind them. Pinky started lecturing her on the importance of decorum when meeting new cultures, but Benny didn’t hear how that decidedly one-sided conversation ended as he and Drue walked through the snaking hallways of the ship.

  “Turns out, there’s actually another hangar below the one on this level. They parked a few extra SRs down there when space was getting full in the main one,” Drue said, holding his HoloTek up. “It explains how the Alpha Maraudi were able to bring so many ships to the Taj. Not that it helped.”

  “Yeah,” Benny said. “The Earth forces really overwhelmed them.”

  “That’s my dad for you,” Drue said, a little more subdued. “A Lincoln wins no matter what. Failure is never an option.”

  Benny was quiet for a few seconds as they continued. His relationship with his father—with his entire family and caravan—seemed to be so different from the way Drue had lived back on Earth. �
��Are you worried about him?” he finally asked.

  “Who, my dad? Nah. He’ll be fine. He always is.”

  Benny nodded. “He, uh . . . Before I left, he told me to make sure you were safe.”

  Drue slowed down. “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Huh,” Drue said. There was a hint of a smile on his face. Then he shook his head, picked up his pace, and gestured to his HoloTek map again. “Anyway, looks like most the rest of the ship is pretty standard when it comes to what you’d imagine a traveling space station to be like. I mean, if you don’t count that weirdo garden and some of the rooms Pinky couldn’t identify.”

  Eventually Drue led them to a hallway where the Alpha Maraudi must have slept when they’d populated the ship. Doorways opened to huge, deep-purple stone chambers that were veined with glowing orange light. The walls were filled with tubes at least five feet in diameter. There had to have been fifty little sleeping holes per room, EW-SCABers dotting the lower rows.

  “I shoulda packed my nice pillows,” Drue said. He nodded farther down the hall. “C’mon, let’s find one with fewer people. I bet some of those guys snore.”

  As they continued, Trevone stepped out from one of the rooms.

  “Hey,” he said, seeing them. “Plan on getting some shut-eye?”

  “I’m being forced into it,” Benny said. “We left the girls on the bridge. We’ll trade out when we need to.”

  “Smart,” Trevone said. “That’s actually the same idea we had. I’m going to make the rounds. See that everyone’s settling in.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder and into the open room behind him. “The rest of the Pit Crew’s in here. You should join us.”

  “Thanks,” Benny said.

  “I mean, we could probably find a basically empty room if we keep looking,” Drue said. “Maybe even with bigger sleep holes? There’s got to be, like, an officers’ suite, right?”

  Benny ignored him. “Tell Hot Dog what room we’re in, will you?” he said to Trevone. “For when she needs someone to take her place. And if you’re up to it, Jazz was about to head to the hangar. We have a whole project she can update you on.”

  “Sure thing,” Trevone said. He started down the hall before calling back to them. “Oh, and nice work with that speech earlier. You’re getting good at those.”

  Drue elbowed Benny’s arm. “I’m rubbing off on you.”

  Benny groaned. “Please don’t say that.”

  “Hey!” Drue said, his mouth hanging open and eyes narrowed.

  Benny tried to keep a straight face, but the exhaustion was wearing on him, and he couldn’t stifle a chuckle.

  Drue smacked him on the back and went ahead. “You’re gonna thank me for everything I’ve taught you one of these days.”

  Inside the sleeping cavern, a handful of other kids had already climbed inside the cubby holes carved into the walls and passed out. All he could make of Kira was the soles of her white boots. Ricardo sat on the edge of a tube on the bottom row, his head a foot from the top of the circular frame.

  “I call top bunk,” Drue whispered. He raced over to the wall, put his feet on the bottom of the first sleeping nook, and then jumped, straining to pull himself up onto the second row. Once there, he craned his neck back, looking at the three rows of tubes above him. “Actually, you know what?” He slapped the side of the rock. “This is fine.”

  “People are trying to sleep,” Ricardo said quietly, glaring at Drue. He looked to Benny. “By the way. Sorry if I was frustrated earlier. This has just been . . . a lot.”

  “Of course,” Benny said. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure out how to find that weapon. Not only is it the way we all survive, it’s the best hope we have of getting Elijah back from Tull.”

  “We will,” Ricardo said, climbing inside his bed. “We have to.”

  Benny crawled into the chamber underneath Drue’s, leaving an empty one between him and Ricardo. He’d slept in the little space in the RV that was situated above the front seats on occasion, which sometimes felt unbearably cramped. By contrast, he could sit upright if he wanted to in here, with feet to spare above his head. It was actually kind of cozy, he thought—there was a blanket folded inside, a few round woven bags he assumed were pillows, and a thin mat that was somehow absurdly comfortable.

  Drue’s head appeared at the foot of his tube, his dark hair wild as he hung upside down.

  “Ugh, this thing is totally claustrophobic, right?” he asked. “It’s like a cryochamber in a movie. I feel like they’re going to freeze us and then we’ll wake up and it’ll be the year 3085 and they’ll be using us as organic batteries or something.”

  Several people from all around shushed him. Drue rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Good night.” And then he disappeared.

  The thin veins of glowing amber light threaded through Benny’s sleeping cubby, too, giving off just enough glow for him to see his immediate surroundings. On the wall of the tube was an outcropping that held some kind of gold oval—like a little frame that didn’t have any glass or picture inside. He pulled it off with his silver-gloved hand and turned it around a few times, inspecting it. Nothing but a hollow ring. But when he placed one of the fingers of his gold glove on it, the device sprang to life. A six-inch hologram appeared. An Alpha Maraudi, unmasked, holding a much smaller alien—perhaps a baby?—came to life in front of him. They both waved.

  Benny held his breath, staring back at them wide-eyed. It was only after a few seconds that he realized the image was repeating, not an actual communication. He sighed, trying to calm himself down a bit.

  That’s when it dawned on him that this tube hadn’t always been empty. Someone had called it their own—someone who had probably been shot down over the Taj or had been on the invasion team that went inside the resort. Maybe even an alien he’d faced. Were there holograms, memories like this in all these tubes? What was happening to the alien soldiers stranded on the Moon now?

  Looking at the waving aliens, he wondered what was going on back at Calam, too. Were the Alpha Maraudi he was looking at now worried? Were they thinking about the alien who had been in this tube the night before? Were they planning their evacuation?

  Benny suddenly felt like this hologram wasn’t his to see, and placed the little frame back on the wall. Then he put his head down against a pillow and closed his eyes. He let his mind wander back to the Drylands. What were his brothers, Alejandro and Justin, doing? What about his grandmother? Were they okay? Had they realized yet that he wasn’t coming home?

  His eyes grew heavy, until he could barely keep them open. He half wondered if he’d really used an electromagnetic glove to fly on the back of a Space Runner capable of landing on an alien mother ship just hours before, or if it had all been a dream. Before he could be certain, he’d passed out completely.

  Benny woke to something shaking his foot. He jumped, pulling his legs farther into the tube and scrabbling to sit up on his mat.

  “Baka,” Kira Miyamura said, pulling her hand back. “I was just trying to wake you.”

  “Sorry,” Benny said, scrambling to get his wits about him and shake off the remnants of sleep.

  “We’re almost to Jupiter,” Kira said. “They thought you’d want to be on the bridge.”

  Before Benny could ask more questions, Kira was gone. Benny inched out of his tube, his entire body sore from the events of the previous day. Muscles he didn’t even know he had burned as he stood and stretched.

  Trevone was doing the same thing a few yards away from him.

  “I thought you were on watch,” Benny said.

  “I was,” the Pit Crew member responded, putting his goggles up to the top of his head. “Kira took over for me. We tried to wake you up earlier, but you were out.” He nodded to the door. “Come on. If we’re really that close, I don’t want to miss the approach.”

  In the hallway they found Pinky directing several kids.

  “Ah,” she said as they approached. “There you two are. The br
idge is fairly small, so I’m moving the scholarship winners who are awake to this vessel’s version of a mess hall. There’s a clear rock wall there they can watch from and plenty of food—though, it will of course be nothing like the feasts I could create back at the resort.”

  Iyabo, one of the EW-SCABers who’d been instrumental in the attack on the asteroid storm—not to mention in convincing the rest of the kids underneath the Taj that the best course of action they had was to board the alien ship—leaned out of one of the doorways to another sleeping room.

  “So, like,” she said through a yawn, “where’d we end up putting all our supplies? I know for a fact I made sure to pack a bunch of boxes of that cereal that’s mostly marshmallows.”

  “I believe there are still crates in some of the Space Runner trunks that we haven’t unpacked,” the AI said. “Though, as you know, I would much prefer you have a balanced breakfast of—”

  “Yeah, sure,” Iyabo replied, already starting toward the hangar, her silver-threaded braids swinging behind her. “Just point me toward the morning sugar rush, Pinky, and nobody gets hurt.”

  Pinky sighed, looking back to Benny and Trevone. “If you’ll excuse me.”

  The two boys hurried to the bridge, where they found the core members of the Moon Platoon and what was left of the Pit Crew standing around the hologram that showed their approach to the fifth planet from the sun.

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” Drue said with a grin as Benny approached.

  “You could’ve woken me up,” Benny replied.

  His friend just shrugged. “I didn’t want to interrupt your desert dreams or whatever. You kept sleep talking about sand.”

  “I don’t believe that,” Benny said.

  “It was an uneventful few hours,” Hot Dog said, sipping a soda. “You didn’t miss a thing.”

  “We’re getting close,” Jasmine said. “I wish I could see it better.”

  Vala turned away from the terminal where she’d been observing Griida. “That’s simple enough,” she said as she beckoned to Benny and the others. “Come.”

  The alien walked up the stairs to the egg-shaped throne and stopped in front of a giant stone wall—part of the hull—which must have been at least three stories tall. It was more transparent than the rest of the bridge, but still allowed them to see only the vaguest outlines of whatever was on the other side. The commander raised a hand, and Benny noticed a flash of gold rings across her knuckles. As Benny and the others climbed the steps, the rock in front of them began to change, fading until it was almost imperceptible, giving them a clear view of space.