“So, let me get this straight,” Drue said as he leaned against the electric green Chevelle they’d taken out to rescue Hot Dog. “We’re going to go through the back tunnels out to the dark side of the Moon, hack the force field the McGuyvers set up there, find the missing members of the Pit Crew, and sneak back in without Dr. Bale or the Alpha Maraudi ever knowing.”
“Basically, yeah,” Benny said. He stared at his friends, trying to read their expressions. He thought this was a good idea—if nothing else, it meant they were actually working together with the Pit Crew—but he certainly knew it was risky.
“Cool,” Drue finally said. “I’m in.”
“Yeah,” Hot Dog agreed. “Def.”
“Once we’re out there, we can use Dr. Bale’s scanner to see if we can get a better idea of how many aliens are around the Moon,” Jasmine suggested.
“That’s a brilliant idea,” Trevone said. “And I won’t even ask how you guys ended up with that piece of equipment.”
“I should be able to keep everyone connected via shortwave radio.” Pinky’s voice came through their space suit collars, Ramona’s HoloTek powering her.
Benny looked for Pinky reflexively, forgetting for a second that she was a disembodied voice. “Thanks. When we get back, we’ll look at getting you restored to the Taj.” He nodded to Ricardo. “And we’ll figure out what to do next.”
“Right. After the Pit Crew is back safe and sound,” Ricardo said. “This is going to be dangerous, and we need to be as stealthy as possible. For that reason, I don’t think we should take more SRs out than necessary. Hot Dog and Drue are your best pilots, right?”
“You bet,” Hot Dog said. “Unless we’re talking about driving one of those mining carts.”
Ricardo shook his head. “We’ll work in pairs, then. Benny, you’re with me. We’ll lead the way. Ramona, you’ll be Trevone’s passenger. I’m counting on the two of you to get past Pinky’s force field.”
“Ugh,” Ramona said. She was gulping an energy drink that she seemed to have produced out of nowhere as far as Benny could tell. “Flying.”
Benny remembered how Ramona had spent most of their flight to the Taj curled up in the backseat with a barf bag, a green tint to her skin. He hoped she would still be able to hack and program in the air.
“Jasmine can ride with me,” Hot Dog said.
“Drue, are you okay on your own?” Ricardo asked.
“Psh.” Drue crossed his arms. “No sweat.” He grinned. “Now, which one am I driving?”
Ricardo and Trevone looked at each other, some unspoken conversation happening between them. Finally, Ricardo nodded.
“We’ll take the Star Runners,” he said.
Drue and Hot Dog both took a few steps forward, their eyes bulging. “Star Runners?” they asked near simultaneously. Benny guessed they’d never heard of them either.
“Uh, Ricardo,” Pinky said. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”
“If we get into a tight spot against an entire army of alien ships, there’s no way we’re going to be able to fight them,” Ricardo said. “We’ll have to rely on speed.”
“Tell me everything,” Drue said.
Trevone walked over to one of the vehicles and ripped the white dust cover off it. Underneath was a slender car that bulged out in the center with room enough to carry only a pilot and two passengers. Two wings jutted out on the back sides. The entire craft shined a stunning metallic gold.
“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Hot Dog said.
“Huh.” Jasmine sighed. “He couldn’t have picked a matte black for once? These are a little flashy for a covert mission.”
“Flashy but fast,” Trevone said. “The Star Runner prototypes are basically just like a Space Runner, with one key difference: they’re equipped with two extra experimental hyperdrive systems in the back, giving them the ability to reach incredible speeds.”
“Yes,” Drue said. “Yes, yes, yes.”
“You are not to engage the experimental drive unless I tell you to,” Ricardo said.
“Sure. But just in case we have to, how would I go about doing that?”
“By pressing a series of buttons I’ll relay to you if the time comes.”
Drue frowned. “Oh.”
“Sahar and the Miyamuras were supposed to scour the dark side, but they could be anywhere by now,” Trevone said. “The radars in the Star Runners have a fairly limited range, so it may take some time before we’re close enough to spot them or establish radio contact.”
“So, search and rescue on the Moon?” Drue asked. “No problem. That’s totally our thing.”
“And I am so glad to not be the one stuck out there this time,” Hot Dog added.
“Any questions?” Ricardo asked.
“Yeah, why are we just now getting to see these?” Drue asked as he waltzed over to one of the Star Runners and pulled open the pilot-side door. He shoved his head in and took a deep breath. “It’s still got that new SR smell. This black leather’s great and all, but does it come in any other colors?”
Ricardo ignored him, turning to Benny. “I’m driving.”
“Sure,” Benny said. “But if we’re ever in something that doesn’t fly, I’m taking the wheel.”
The older boy nodded. “Deal.”
The group slid into four of the Star Runners. Ramona uplinked her Pinky backup so the AI could talk to them and have limited control over the radar and guidance systems. Her voice filtered through the cabin of the Star Runner Benny sat in as Ricardo powered up the vehicle.
“I’m plotting a course through the tunnels that will lead you to the surface.” A holographic map appeared on the windshield.
“Perfect,” Ricardo said as his Star Runner rose into the air. “Now follow my lead.”
They shot up through the huge cavern, darting past various platforms. Benny looked out the window, catching sight of EW-SCABers walking through the aisles of greenhouse levels or standing on porches made of rock jutting out of the walls, their faces all turned up to the golden vehicles ascending toward the craggy ceiling. The bottom of the cavern was nothing but an impossibly black pit, and part of him couldn’t believe they’d made this trip—and survived—once already on a floating mine cart just a few days earlier.
“If you look up to your right,” Hot Dog said, “you’ll see where Drue carved up a big chunk of the ceiling while trying to control the laser beams.”
“Hey, those lasers came in pretty handy,” Drue replied. “I don’t think I’m getting enough credit for inspiring that idea.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re a real hyperdrive hero.”
And then they were shooting through one of the tunnels carved into the walls, dim yellow lights blinking on ahead of them as they flew. Pinky outlined every turn to take, until they were approaching the end of the line—the spot that would spit them out on the dark side, near the alien base.
Only, it looked like it was blocked off.
“Pinky,” Benny said, “I thought the McGuyvers just put up a force field here, not another metal door like the one we smashed.”
“According to my records, it should be an invisible barrier,” the AI said. “I believe they just covered the top with Moon dust so that it blends in.”
“Oh, I guess that’s smart.”
“Uh, guys,” Jasmine said. “I’m picking stuff up on this alien radar. Some kind of structure about a hundred meters away. I think it’s the alien base we found! This thing really does work.”
“Trevone,” Ricardo said. “What’s the status on the force field?”
“Well, it’s really tricky,” Trevone said. Benny could hear Ramona chirping to herself in the background. “The way Dr. Bale’s taken over the—”
Something shifted in front of them and the Moon dust that had been covering the tunnel opening began to drift away, blown by the faint currents generated by the Star Runners.
“Oh,” Trevone said.
“Back door to t
he back door,” Ramona chirped. “Level-one hack. I’m going into sleep mode now.”
“She’s good,” Ricardo said quietly to Benny.
“Yeah, it’s kind of ridiculous,” Benny agreed. “I’m still not sure what she’s saying half the time, though.”
“All right, Ramona.” Ricardo gripped the flight yoke as he addressed the group again. “Close that thing up after we’re through. Let’s do this.”
Ricardo led them out of the crater slowly, scanning the horizons, looking for any hint of an alien spacecraft. But there was nothing, just the impossible number of stars and planets blinking against the black backdrop of space.
“Looks like we’re all clear for now,” Ricardo said. “I want us searching in a straight line, twenty kilometers apart from one another. Match my speed, and keep your eyes peeled.”
And so they separated and shot across the dark side of the Moon. To Benny, the closest Star Runner—Drue’s—was hardly a blip in the distance as his eyes darted back and forth from the ground to the sky, searching for any sign of the missing Pit Crew members or the Alpha Maraudi. It might not even have been Drue, but just a trick of the light.
Meanwhile, Ricardo continuously called out on the comms.
“Sahar?” Ricardo said. “Kai? Kira? Where are you guys?”
He kept repeating their names, pausing for a few seconds afterward, but there was only the sound of his heavy breathing in the cabin.
After ten minutes or so, he banged his fist on the flight yoke.
“Pinky, are you getting anything?”
“I’m currently making do with the processing power of a HoloTek and the Star Runner systems,” the AI said. “It’s not exactly what I’m used to. Even if I were using the Taj’s servers, we haven’t launched new satellites on this side of the Moon yet.”
“We’re stuck with radio,” Jasmine said.
“Old school,” Ramona’s voice piped in through the comms, thin and wobbly.
“We’ll find them,” Benny said.
Ricardo glanced at him. “When you found that kid in the Drylands, the one on your application vid . . . how’d you do it?”
Benny thought about this for a second, hoping there was something useful he might remember. But he came up blank.
“It was just lucky, really,” Benny said. “The wind had covered up any tracks, which was usually great for the caravan but didn’t help when one of our own was lost.” He paused. “Actually, if I’m being honest, I almost turned back right before I saw him.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Benny shrugged. “I knew he was out there. I had to keep looking. Well, I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. You know?”
Ricardo nodded, and started calling out over the radio again.
A few minutes later, a new voice finally came through.
“Hello?” It was so shaky that Benny barely recognized it as Kai Miyamura. “Is someone there?”
“Kai!” Ricardo shouted. “It’s me. Where are you?”
“Suddenly there were ships,” he said, his words stumbling over each other. “We weren’t ready. We tried to get away, but one followed us. We took it down, but . . .”
“Is everyone okay?”
“Kira and I are fine, but Sahar . . . Something’s wrong with her ship.”
“Is she injured?” Trevone asked.
“I don’t know,” Kai said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I don’t know.”
“Where are you?” Benny asked.
“Who is that?” Kai replied, but he kept on talking. “We’re hiding in the Mare Moscoviense. It’s where she crashed.”
On the windshield, a flight plan appeared. Ricardo tightened his grip on the flight yoke.
“We’ll be there in no time,” he said. “Everything will be okay.”
“Hurry,” Kai said. “Please.”
There was silence on the comms after that.
“Trevone,” Ricardo said, “I’ve never heard Kai like that. I don’t think he’s ever said please before. We’re too far away from that mare right now. I need to get there fast.”
A moment passed, and Trevone responded. “We’ll regroup and be right behind you.”
“Hey, does that mean we’re gonna—” Drue started.
But Benny never heard the rest of his question. Ricardo hit a series of buttons on the dashboard, and suddenly there was a loud metallic noise coming from behind them. Benny turned to the window in time to see the short wings that jutted from the Star Runner’s side rotating, until they were aligned vertically with the car.
“Hold on,” Ricardo said.
Benny had just enough time to clench the armrests of his seat before they were shooting forward at an impossible speed, the stars and planets hundreds of thousands of miles away from them suddenly nothing but blurs against the black backdrop of space as the experimental hyperdrives kicked in.
Benny thought he was screaming as his body was pinned against his seat, but the roar of the engine at his back was so loud that he couldn’t really be sure.
18.
After a very long minute, Ricardo tapped a series of buttons again and the galaxy outside the Star Runner came back into focus instead of being one big smear of light. Benny swallowed hard—it felt like his stomach was in his throat—and pried his fingers off the armrests.
“Whoa,” he said.
“Yeah,” Ricardo agreed, a little short of breath. “You don’t get used to that.”
“What about the others?” Benny asked.
“They’ll catch up at normal speeds. Trevone’s driven a Star Runner before, but I didn’t know if Hot Dog and Drue could handle it.”
Benny nodded. He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to be in charge of driving something that went so fast.
Ricardo pointed to a dark swath of Moon in front of them.
“There,” he said. He tapped on the holographic dashboard a few times, and two dots popped up on the windshield map. “We’re close enough for SR scans to work. That’s them.”
“Just two?” Benny murmured.
Ricardo didn’t say anything, and Benny couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the other ship—to Sahar.
They landed next to the Miyamura twins’ white Space Runners. Kira and Kai were outside, frantically walking around a big chunk of what Benny immediately recognized as alien rock. Ricardo was out of the Star Runner in a flash, and Benny hurried after him, his comm automatically linking with the rest of the Pit Crew.
“What happened?” Ricardo asked. “Where is she?”
“They came out of nowhere,” Kai said, his voice high and trembling. “They were so fast.”
“Monsters,” Kira spat. She looked so angry, but Benny could tell she was frightened, too—her voice broke as she spoke. “There were two of them. Scouts, probably.”
“We barely got away, and then . . .” Kai motioned to the alien rock.
“Get yourself together, Kai,” Ricardo said. “Where is Sahar?”
“Here,” Benny said, stepping up to the mass of minerals that pulsed with a dim green glow. It was just a little bigger than a Space Runner would be. “She’s inside, isn’t she? They grew this around her.”
“They hit her with something,” Kira said. “Not the energy bolts they were shooting at us the last time we fought them. It was different. As soon as it touched her SR, it started to spread. There was only one chasing us by then. I got it with a laser right after it attacked Sahar. I think it went down on the other side of the cliffs.”
“No, no,” Ricardo said, stomping over to the rock-encased Space Runner as best he could in the low gravity. “We have to get her out. Sahar? Hello?”
“Could we use your lasers to cut through it?” Benny asked.
“We don’t even know which side is the front,” Kai said.
“If something goes wrong and we damaged the hyperdrive, the whole thing could go,” Kira said.
“Plus, if the rock explodes like the asteroids did . .
.” Kai started to shake his head frantically. “No. No way. We can’t do that.”
“We’ll get a hammer,” Ricardo said, heading back to his car. “Or a chisel. There’s got to be something in the emergency kits.”
“Wait,” Benny said. “I think I might be able to fix this.”
The closer he stepped to the chunk of rock, the more buzzing he felt in his pocket—the golden glove seemed to come alive, just as it had in Dr. Bale’s tent when he’d been around so many asteroid samples. Benny pulled it out of his space suit pocket.
“What is that?” Kai asked.
“Something I brought back from the alien ship,” Benny said as he slid it onto his hand. “I’m, uh . . . not really sure how it works, but I think it can control this rock.”
He looked to Ricardo, waiting for the lead member of the Pit Crew to give him some sort of go-ahead. But Ricardo just stared back at him.
“Or,” Benny said, “we can wait and try to mine her out with a hammer or something.”
“No,” Ricardo said finally. “She could be hurt in there, or the environmental systems could be damaged . . .” He shook his head. “If you can get her out, then do it.”
Benny nodded, and turned his attention back to Sahar’s Space Runner. In all honesty, he had no idea what he was doing, but one of the Pit Crew was stuck inside that lump of glowing rock, and they needed to get to her as quickly as possible.
He took a deep breath, whispered a silent hope for the best, and placed his gloved hand on the rock. It seemed to vibrate underneath his palm.
And then suddenly the rock started to shift and move, like it was some kind of superthick fluid beneath his touch. In fact, it looked like it was growing, a tentacle of the sludge extending to the ground beside his feet.
Benny yelped and jumped back. As soon as he did, the rock resolidified.
“What happened?” Kai asked.
“You made it worse!” Kira shouted.
“It’s alien tech,” Benny said, biting his lip. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”
“Try again,” Ricardo said. “I don’t know . . . focus maybe. Or imagine the rock disappearing.”