He didn’t finish his thought.
“Well,” Iyabo said, cracking her knuckles, “we could just beat up this doctor and the Pit Crew. There’s only eight of them and, what, like, forty of us up here who followed you out into deep space? I bet they’d fight for you now, too.”
“But we can’t stop the army that’s coming!” Jasmine said.
“We could try,” Hot Dog said, crossing her arms.
“Great.” Frustration was boiling up inside Benny, and it was giving a hard edge to his voice. “We fight Dr. Bale and the Pit Crew here so that we can then fight the government? Plus a bunch of aliens? What, are we just going to lock Ricardo and everyone else up in some room like Elijah did to us? Or kick them out and make them live on the dark side?”
“Whoa, chill out, Benny,” Iyabo said. “It was just a suggestion.”
“Well, it wasn’t a good one,” he snapped.
And then everyone was quiet and looking at him again. That’s when Benny realized how hot his cheeks had gotten, and that his fists were clenched at his sides.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. The people in this room—his friends—were the Moon Platoon. His new caravan. They were trying to help. But it was all so overwhelming. “I just . . . I need a second to think.”
“Yeah.” Hot Dog nodded. “Sure. Clear your head.”
And then, before he knew it, he was in the hallway, headed toward the elevator that would lead him up to his suite.
But he never made it there. Instead, he paused in front of the video game room, and before he could give a second’s thought as to what he was about to do, he went inside. The giant space was completely covered in gray rubber tiles, and the air smelled faintly of electrical discharge and sweat. Benny walked into the center of the room and stood there for a little while.
Finally, he spoke.
“Pinky?”
“What can I do for you, Benny?” she asked, appearing beside him. Her voice was soft, comforting.
“Can you make this place like the Drylands?” he asked.
She looked at him for a few moments. “Of course.”
In a flash, he was standing in an ocean of sand and dust, rolling dunes stretching out for miles and miles around him, interrupted only by the odd clumping of cacti or trees that had stopped producing leaves years before. The sky above him was cloudless, the sun blazing through a sheen of smog.
“And my RV?” he asked. “You’ve got pictures of it in my application footage right?”
“Behind you,” she said.
He turned to find it a few yards away, unsure of whether it had been there the whole time or had just appeared.
“Thanks,” he said. “You can go now.”
“I’ll be here if you need me,” she said, already fading away.
Benny thought about trying the RV door and seeing if Pinky had pieced together the inside of his home based off the clips on his HoloTek, but he knew that even if she had, it would never feel right—like how the replicas of his family had seemed unsettlingly off when he’d been trying out the hologram-producing bracelet Elijah gave him. And besides, there was another place he wanted to go. He climbed to the top of the RV, the impossibly small hyperdrive technology sewn into his Taj space suit allowing him to feel like he was actually scaling the vehicle, just as it had let him fly over a surging river when fighting robots before his entire world had been uprooted.
He sat cross-legged when he reached the top. In the distance, he could almost make out a body of water, or maybe it was just a computer-manufactured mirage. This was the place he’d sat a million times, where he’d recorded the end of his EW-SCAB application. It was the place he went to be alone at night, especially in those long, bleak days right after his father had died. A quiet spot where he didn’t have to face anyone else. Where he could allow himself to just feel, think, and be. Or, on the worst of days, to try to block everything else out completely and be comforted by silence, falling out of tune with the rest of the world.
Benny knew it was impossible, but he could almost feel the hot sting of the sand-filled breeze against his face—could almost smell a hint of motor oil drifting up from the RV. And he couldn’t help but think that he’d like to sit there forever.
14.
Eventually, Benny wasn’t alone in the computerized Drylands. Hot Dog climbed over one of the dunes to his left and stood at the top of it, using one hand to shield her eyes from the fake sun blazing in the sky.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hey,” he responded.
Neither of them said anything else for a few seconds.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked.
“No,” Benny said, realizing he had no idea how long he’d been sitting on top of the holographic RV. He climbed down and met her in front of it.
“Is this . . .” she started. “Home?”
“Yeah.” He spread his arms wide. “Miles and miles of nothing. The real thing is way hotter, though.”
“Yeah, I bet. I thought Texas summers were bad, but it’s probably nothing compared to what you live in.” She turned around a few times, taking in the scenery. “It’s kind of peaceful, though.”
“Sure, when you’re not worrying about water or food or bandits or anything like that. You should see the sunsets. They’re insane.”
As soon as he finished his sentence, the room shifted, the sun falling until the horizon burned orange, streaking the vibrant blue sky overhead and causing the smog in the distance to sparkle with iridescent light. Benny let out a long sigh, and they both stood there awhile in silence.
“It’s beautiful.” Hot Dog smiled a little. “But I actually came because I have something for you. It’s an apology. For yesterday. I shouldn’t have been talking about you with Pinky.”
Benny laughed quietly. “To be honest, with everything else, I’d kind of forgotten about that.”
“I meant it when I said I’m scared,” she went on. “And, I don’t know, talking with Pinky just makes me feel better. The same way Jasmine being so level-headed does. Or how you can seem perfectly cool standing in front of a bunch of aliens.”
“Yeah, just as long as they’re not EW-SCABers, I guess,” he said. “What about Drue?”
“Drue being Drue is weirdly kind of nice because it means that not everything is being turned upside down. Some things stay the same.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Benny shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, it’s a little late for that.”
She smiled in a way that told Benny she’d been up to something.
“What did you do?” he asked.
“You remember what Trevone said to Drue’s dad? That it would take a programmer smarter than anyone in the meeting room to get around the way he was blocking Pinky? Well, Jasmine and I were talking about it, and she realized that the second part of that was what was important. The best programmer at the Taj wasn’t in that room.”
Benny stared at her blankly for a second and then took in a sharp breath. “Ramona.”
“Right. It took her, like, five seconds to figure out a way around Trevone’s firewalls. Jasmine’s sure he made them easy on purpose and that he was trying to tell us, figuring we were watching, but I’m not totally sold on the idea. Anyway, we can use the satellites now.”
“Okay,” Benny said, starting to pace back and forth. This wasn’t a solution to any of their problems, but at least it was something. “So let’s get together in the common room and we can start figuring out who to call. There have to be people on Earth who don’t want to blow up another civilization. What if—”
“Nope,” Hot Dog said, shaking her head. “Forget about all that. You have something else to do first.”
She reached into her space suit pocket and pulled out a small silver ball. Then she tossed it into the air where it hovered above Benny’s head, a lens looking down on his face.
“A GoCam?” he asked. He hadn’t seen one since he’
d filmed himself out doing dune buggy tricks in the Drylands for his application video—although, that model was practically an ancient artifact compared to the tiny, sleek orb floating in front of him now.
“Call your family,” Hot Dog said, looking serious all of a sudden. “Pinky’s already set up a connection based on your EW-SCAB emergency contacts. Just tell her when you want it to go through.” She shrugged.
Benny stared at her as all the blood in his body seemed to rush to his head.
“My family,” he said.
“I don’t have a lot of reason to call mine, Jasmine doesn’t have one, and Drue is still sulking about his dad not asking about him earlier. At least one of us should be in touch with Earth and reminded of what we’re trying to save.” Hot Dog smiled wider. “I’m glad you have them to call.”
He stood there, not moving. Finally, she rolled her eyes.
“Go,” she said.
And Benny just grinned and started to run. He only got a few yards before he stopped, turning around in small circles as he scanned the horizon.
“Uh, Pinky?” he asked. “The door?”
A doorframe illuminated at the base of a big dune. He ran to it, the GoCam floating behind him, but stopped before going through.
“Hot Dog,” he said, turning back around.
“Yeah, Benny?”
“Thanks.”
She smiled as Pinky appeared beside her.
“Would you like me to program something else for you?” the AI asked. “Maybe some flight simulations?”
“No,” Hot Dog said. “I think I’d like to see a little more of the Drylands while I’m here.”
Back in his room, Benny hurried over to his bed, jumping on top of it and tucking his knees up under his body. The camera followed, hovering a few feet above his head as he stared at a blank wall across from him.
“Pinky,” he said. “I’m ready.”
The wall lit up with a wobbly blue line and a few columns of text and numbers that didn’t make any sense to him. It felt like a long time passed, and with every second he got more and more worried. What if his grandmother wasn’t in the RV? What if she didn’t have her HoloTek on her?
What if something had happened to her and his brothers?
And then, suddenly, the screen flashed and there was his home. It was twilight in the Drylands and the inside of the RV was bathed in golden light seeping through the faded red-and-turquoise curtains that were tacked up over the windows. His grandmother sat on the threadbare gray couch, her long silver-and-black hair piled on her shoulders. She must have set her HoloTek on the coffee table that was missing one corner thanks to a mishap Benny had had years ago when he’d tripped over one of his brother’s toys while carrying a heavy pipe wrench. His brothers, Justin and Alejandro, flanked her. Dust motes hung in the air around them.
“Benny!” Alejandro, the youngest, shouted.
“Hey, dumb face,” Justin said with a toothy grin.
His grandmother just smiled, letting out a long breath before saying quietly, “Benicio.”
For a second Benny felt a stinging in his eyes, but he blinked it away as best he could.
“Hey,” he said. And suddenly, it felt like the weight of everything happening on the Moon and with the aliens was being lifted off his chest.
“What are you doing calling us?” Justin asked. “Shouldn’t you be racing Elijah West or something?”
Alejandro leaned half his body over the table, practically throwing himself onto it. “What have you been up to? How many Space Runners have you driven? What kind of food do you have? A few days ago I found some candy you’d been hiding and ate it.”
“Alex, shut up,” Justin said. He glanced at his grandmother, waiting for some kind of scolding. When she didn’t say anything, he continued, looking into the HoloTek camera with wide eyes. “What are you bringing us?”
The questions kept pouring out as their grandmother sat there, beaming at him. And Benny realized that in his rush to see and talk to his family, he hadn’t thought out what he might say to them—how he could possibly begin to explain everything that was happening.
“Come on,” Alejandro said. “What it’s like up there?”
Benny’s mouth went completely dry. He thought about going and grabbing a glass of water. But that would have been ridiculous since his family would be conserving every last drop they had, drinking out of the big plastic barrels strapped to the roof. Water that always had a little bit of grit in it, no matter how many times it was filtered.
“The Moon is . . .” he started. “Crazy.”
“Ugh, I’m so jealous,” Justin said. “I’m one-trillion percent applying next year and getting in. Start talking about me so Elijah knows who I am. And don’t do anything stupid and get all the Loves banned from the Taj.”
Benny forced a smile, but all he could think about was how there wouldn’t be an EW-SCAB next year. For all he knew, there might not even be a Taj.
“I won’t,” he said.
“Tell us everything,” Alejandro said. “I’m dying here!”
Benny opened his mouth, ready to somehow try to explain to them what was really going on. But the words wouldn’t come. He looked at the three of them, all smiles, their eyes so wide. They had no idea how close humanity had come to being destroyed—how close it still was to being wiped out by an alien race from a solar system an unfathomable distance from their tiny RV. Life was going on as usual. They didn’t have to worry, like he did, that it might be blinked out before any of them could stop it.
That’s when he realized he didn’t want them to know the truth. He wanted them to keep living, happy, waiting for his return and the promise of a new, better life once he got back. Why should he make them live in fear of something they had no control of?
And so he talked about everything else.
“I’ve driven a few Space Runners,” he said, trying to add some excitement to his voice, putting on a brave face for his brothers. “I got reverse-bungie shot into the sky. I drove a muscle car over the surface of the Moon—Dad would have loved that. I’ve eaten so much pizza and fresh fruit and stuff I didn’t even know existed.” He paused, but his brothers were egging him on with their eyes, begging him to keep going. So he did. “There’s a whole room here that basically puts you in a video game. I destroyed a giant robot! There’s water whenever you want it and showers. I’ve taken so many showers. I’ve never been so clean before in my life. Oh, and watch this.”
He tapped on his metal bracelet Elijah had given him and suddenly there was another Benny sitting beside him—a hologram created by a mist of nanotech image projectors.
Both of his brothers yelped with glee.
“I am playing with that so much when you get home,” Justin said. “I’m pretty over that dumb holospi—”
He stopped, but Benny could guess what he was about to say.
“You guys stole my holographic spider!” he said, leaning forward. “I had big plans for that thing up here.”
“Yeah, well . . .” Justin was avoiding eye contact. “You’ve got much cooler stuff now, right? Oh! Anyway, one of the search parties found some crazy old hood ornament and brought it back for you. You have to see it. It’s so cool.”
“I’ll go get it!” Alejandro said, sliding out of view.
“You don’t know where it is!” And then Justin was gone, too. Benny could hear the door of the RV slam behind them.
“Your brothers are the same as ever,” his grandmother said. “They miss you, though. Without you here to tell them stories, they fall asleep at night imagining what you must be doing.”
Benny smiled. His grandmother did, too. But this only made him feel guilty, knowing that she wouldn’t be smiling if she knew everything he did. Never in his life had he lied to his family, not about things that mattered. And yet, here he was, sitting on a too-plush bed in a resort on the Moon doing just that.
He was acting like Elijah again, and he wondered how that man had gone so long kn
owing the things he did and not warning anyone. At the same time, he finally understood in some small way why he hadn’t told the people of Earth that there was a threat out there in the stars waiting to annihilate them.
His expression must have changed, because his grandmother’s face crumpled with worry.
“What is it?” she asked. “Why do you look so sad?”
“It’s nothing,” he said, trying to smile again. “I’m just a little homesick, I guess.”
“Benicio Love.” Her voice was firm. “In twelve years, have you ever been able to fool me?”
“What about when I was ten and I told you I was going to go help Dad work on a generator when I really went out to practice tricks in my dune buggy?”
She smirked. “You really think I didn’t know what you were doing?”
He looked at her for a few seconds and then shook his head. “There’s a lot of . . . pressure up here. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like I have a lot of people counting on me.”
She jutted her bottom lip out and narrowed her eyes, a look he’d seen a million times, one that meant she was in deep thought. She considered him and the sleek room he sat in so far away. Finally, she nodded a little.
“You’re strong, Benny. You had to grow up fast. Alejandro and Justin wouldn’t be who they are today if it weren’t for you taking care of them. I mean that as a compliment, by the way. All the kids in the caravan always looked up to you, even those who were older. Even when you were pulling pranks on them.” She winked. “It’s probably best you didn’t take that holographic spider to the Moon with you.”
“This is different,” Benny said, shaking his head. “There’s so much going on up here. And at the caravan I always knew what to do because I had you. Or Dad.”
“You have others around you now, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yeah. I do.”
She smiled warmly. “That look on your face. You remind me so much of your father when he was young. You don’t have all his features, but you have his expressions. Do you know what I used to say to him when he was your age? ‘Loves lead with the heart.’” She laughed a little. “I wonder sometimes if he took that a little too seriously.”