“The entire dome must double as some kind of electronic screen,” Jasmine said, her eyes wide with excitement. “I wonder if the polymer is filled with micro—”
“Holy crap, Jasmine, look,” Hot Dog said, cutting her off.
She pointed to the garage, where part of the wall was sliding away. It was dark inside except for five pairs of headlights. Before Benny had time to blink, vehicles shot out into the Grand Dome. They were smaller than the Space Runner he’d been in on his trip to the Taj—big enough only for a driver and maybe one passenger—and were trimmed in glowing neon that left tracers of light behind each car. They flew across the courtyard and then began racing around the inside of the dome itself.
“The Pit Crew in action!” Drue said. “Now this is what I’m talking about.”
“The flames coming out the back must just be for show,” Jasmine said. “Elijah would never create something that uses combustible fuel.”
“Their Space Runners match the colors of their space suits,” Hot Dog murmured once they were gone. “I think I’m in love.”
It was true. Each of the Pit Crew’s cars matched not only their clothes but the colors assigned to each team. He watched as the two white cars the Miyamura twins drove broke away from the rest of the squad and flew higher, toward the top of the dome. They were barely more than blurs of light as they began to swerve past each other, looking to Benny as though they were coming within inches of crashing into each other at every pass. Their movements got even tighter the closer they got to the dome’s peak, where there was no room for error.
“They must be in perfect sync,” Benny said breathlessly. “One screwup and . . .”
Drue made exploding noises with his mouth.
The other three cars darted through the air, looping through the holographic rings. Each time a Space Runner went through one, the circle exploded like a firework, showering the gobsmacked EW-SCAB winners with glittering particles of light. Farther up, both the white cars twisted at the same time, and in a move that seemed impossible to Benny, the Miyamura twins drove bumper to bumper at insane speeds right at the top of the dome, a cyclone of metal and white fire.
“How are they doing that?” Drue asked. “Man, I so should have been in their group.”
After a few minutes all the rings were gone and the five cars shot down toward the ground of the courtyard, landing in front of the entrance, the EW-SCABers backing away to give them room.
As the cars descended, Benny couldn’t help but wonder what color his Space Runner might be if he were part of the Pit Crew.
16.
The days at the Taj continued to be packed with activities, each one holding more unexpected wonders. Benny explored craters in automated Space Runners, was shot a thousand feet into the air via reverse bungee jumping, and ate what felt like more food than he’d had in his entire life combined. Between activities, he played around with his new hologram bracelet and showed it off to Drue, which meant that pretty soon everyone knew about it.
At night he slept deeply, soundly. If there were more vibrations in the early morning hours, he didn’t feel them. If anything, he felt like he could use more sleep.
It was a few days after the giant robot fight that he finally got some downtime.
“Today was supposed to be our group’s turn to observe Elijah as he demonstrated his driving abilities,” Ricardo said to the Mustangs gathered in the common room. “But unfortunately he’s unavailable at the moment. Something important came up that he must attend to.”
A wave of disappointed sighs swept over the room.
Ricardo raised his hands in the air. “Don’t worry. I promise you’ll get the chance to see Elijah in action in the upcoming days. For now, take the morning off. We’ll reconvene at lunch. Enjoy the entertainment in your rooms. Watch for shooting stars in the Grand Dome. Nap if you like. If you need anything, just ask Pinky.”
Most of the kids followed Ricardo out, but Jasmine motioned for Benny and Hot Dog to stay behind. Naturally, Drue stuck to their side.
“So,” Jasmine said once the other Mustangs had left the room, “I was wondering . . . We’ve been so busy these last few days, and I know Elijah said he was handling this but . . .” She trailed off as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the asteroid sample that had been left in the bottom of Hot Dog’s bag. “I still want to get this analyzed. Just to see what it’s made of.”
“Uh, yeah,” Hot Dog said. “Let’s figure out what almost blew me up.”
Benny had actually kind of forgotten about the strange rock since asking Ricardo about it. He’d been so preoccupied, and had been considering testing out his holographic bracelet’s capabilities a little more during their unexpected free morning. But Jasmine was right. This was the perfect time to push this whole asteroid thing out of his mind once and for all. Afterward, none of them would have to give it a second thought.
Besides, he had told her they’d figure this out.
“I’d be down with that,” he said.
Drue sighed. “Guys, we could be doing literally anything else on the Moon other than playing space detectives.”
“You don’t have to come with us,” Hot Dog said.
Drue scrunched his face. “Are you kidding? I’m not gonna get left out if this actually ends up being interesting.” He shrugged, warming up to the idea. “Plus, we’re going to have to find a lab or something, right? I bet there’s all kinds of cool equipment.”
“Right,” Jasmine said. “I know there are some research departments around here somewhere. I’ll check the map on my HoloTek and—”
“Yo, Pinky!” Drue shouted. “Are there any labs or science geek stations we can tour?”
After a few seconds, Pinky appeared in the corner, filing her intangible nails.
“You’re welcome to inspect the science facilities in the basement level; though without an official escort, you won’t be able to use most of the equipment yourself.”
“Maybe we should find Ricardo,” Hot Dog suggested. Her cheeks flushed. “See if he’d like to take us on a private tour?”
Drue held his hands out at his sides and sighed in exasperation. “Oh, come on. Are you still hung up on that Brazilian bonehead?” He quieted down, speaking in little more than a whisper. “We’ll figure something out on our own.”
The basement halls hadn’t been included on their initial tour, and were more sparsely decorated than the rest of the Taj. Most of the walls were a plain, dull metal. Knowing they were underground, Benny couldn’t help but feel a bit claustrophobic. Even in his tin can of an RV, there were plenty of windows. This just felt . . . unnatural. Jasmine led them, her HoloTek map open, until she stopped in front of a door at the end of a long hallway. A placard beside it read Biological and Mineral Research and Development.
“This must be it,” she said, reaching out to press a button. The door slid open with a whoosh, and they stepped inside.
The lab was a giant space filled with rows of workbenches and tool chests. The sides of the room were lined with counters holding all kinds of gadgets and instruments that Benny had no idea how to use—strange-looking drills, centrifuges, and boxes that looked like incredibly complicated microwaves. One wall was lined with glass cabinets holding mineral samples and vials of glowing liquids. In a corner across the room, a miniature Tesla coil connected electric currents to several pots holding metallic flowers.
To Benny, it looked like a mad scientist’s lab full of stuff he probably shouldn’t touch. Drue and Jasmine apparently saw things differently. They darted past him and Hot Dog, both of their faces lighting up with glee as they made their way through the space, pointing out things.
“A thermodynamic calibrator!”
“Dude, that’s a Tetroscope Nine Thousand!”
“There might be more rare earth metals here than on Earth itself.”
“Lasers! So many lasers!”
Benny walked over to a nearby counter and picked up a long thin tube with a shining geml
ike bulb on the end.
“What do you think this is?” Benny asked.
“Hmmm,” Hot Dog said. “Some kind of magic wand, maybe?”
Benny laughed and swung the thing around. As he did, the end of the instrument lit up in a neon-yellow flash, temporarily blinding him and causing Hot Dog to squeal.
“Oh, great, I didn’t need to see today,” she said.
“Guys, I found, like, a DNA library,” Drue said. Benny was seeing spots, but could make out Drue tapping on a screen beside what looked like a giant freezer door. “Elijah’s got samples of practically every plant and animal on Earth up here.”
“Hey!” Jasmine called from the back of the lab. “We can use this. It’s perfect!”
Benny and the others found her standing in front of a shiny white square that was raised half an inch off a metal counter.
“Uh, what is that?” Benny asked.
“A matter spectrometer,” Jasmine said, awe filling her voice. “I’ve only ever read about them. I can’t believe he has one. Well, I can . . . I just can’t believe I’m looking at one in real life.”
“So, what does it do?” Hot Dog asked.
“It’s a high-tech ingredient counter,” Drue said. He was standing nearby, trying in vain to turn on a giant laser cutter.
Jasmine grinned, larger than Benny had seen her smile in the last few days. She looked around a bit and then pointed to a ring on Hot Dog’s finger.
“Can I see that?” she asked.
“You’re not gonna melt it, right?” Hot Dog asked.
“Of course not.”
She handed over the piece of jewelry. Jasmine set it in the square and tapped twice on the instrument, causing the area around the ring to light up. Letters and numbers began to appear in one corner.
“Ah-ha!” Jasmine said. “See? It measures the composition of whatever you put on it and tells you the elements that make up the object. This ring, for instance, is ninety-one percent silver, one percent palladium, and eight percent copper.”
“What?!” Hot Dog shouted, snatching the ring back. “The guy I bought this from said it was platinum.”
“I think you got scammed,” Benny said.
“Okay, so let’s scan the asteroid piece,” Drue said, coming to their side. “Unless we want to take turns putting our hands on it to see what we’re made of.”
“Mostly oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen,” Jasmine said, fishing around in her pocket.
“I could think of a few other things in your case,” Hot Dog said, glancing at Drue.
“Unfortunately science has yet to add awesomeness to the periodic table.” He flashed her a smile. Hot Dog rolled her eyes.
Jasmine pulled the yellow rock out, carefully placing it on the square.
“Asteroids are usually made up of mostly carbon, iron, or silicate minerals. Based on the way this one looks, I’m guessing it falls into the last category.”
The four of them stood in silence as they stared at the matter spectrometer, waiting for the percentages to appear. Light pulsed beneath the sample, but otherwise the square remained dark.
“Maybe it’s broken,” Hot Dog said.
“It’s a possibility . . .” Jasmine replied, but it didn’t sound to Benny like she actually believed it.
“This isn’t normal, right?” Benny asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve never used one of these, remember?”
Then, the numbers appeared.
“Small amounts of promethium, thulium, and fifteen percent platinum,” Jasmine said. “That could be the metal circuitry and wire we noticed. And look, trace amounts of cesium.”
“Ce— what?” Benny asked.
“It’s an alkali metal.”
“Yeah, one that goes boom really easily,” Drue said. Everyone turned to look at him. “What? Jazz isn’t the only smart one here, you know. I’ve had great tutors.”
“So . . .” Benny started, trying to work things out in his head. “That might be why those asteroids exploded against the Grand Dome?”
“Maybe,” Jasmine said. “If there was enough of it.”
Suddenly the edges of the square lit up in red.
“That can’t be good,” Drue muttered.
New words began to appear: unknown elements—71%. Beneath it, the unidentifiable substances were broken into further increments, four separate mystery elements in all.
“No way,” Jasmine said.
“Does that mean what I think it does?” Benny asked.
“You can read, Benny,” Drue said. “I think we just discovered druedium, bennium, jazzite, and . . .” He turned a questioning face to Hot Dog, who shook her head and looked to Jasmine.
“Are they really new elements?” she asked.
“Um . . . Well . . . I . . .” Jasmine stammered. “That’s what the machine says.”
“What does that even mean?” Benny asked.
Jasmine shook her head. “Maybe these asteroids came from deep space, somewhere beyond human reach. Who knows what’s out there?”
“And the circuitry and metal stuff?” Benny asked. “What about that? Trevone said it was from the Space Runner.”
“Space Runners do not have platinum wiring.”
“Guys, elements named after us,” Drue butted in. “I think you’re all missing the bigger picture here.”
“At this point,” Jasmine said slowly, “I have no idea what this thing is, where it came from, or if it’s naturally occurring or not. The possibilities are endless.”
“So, back outside the dome you said it looked like someone made these,” Hot Dog said. “Do you still think that could be true?”
“Yes.”
“But who’d make something like this?” Benny asked.
“Or what,” Hot Dog replied, twisting her lips to one side.
“Here comes the alien conspiracy again,” Drue said. “I thought they helped you after your crash.”
“I’m just trying to keep an open mind.”
“Well, whether they were shot at us on purpose or not, at least we know we’re safe here at the Taj,” Drue said.
“Yeah,” Benny started. “But—”
Just then, the door to the lab slid open. Trevone walked in, face buried in a HoloTek.
“We don’t have time to go scouring the dark side trying to find him, not if these new projections are accurate and—”
He froze when he saw Benny and the others. For a moment, none of them spoke.
“What are you doing in here?” Trevone finally asked, tapping once on his HoloTek, ending whatever call he was on or message he was recording.
“Just playing with some of these sweet toys,” Drue said. He put on his usual big grin, but spoke softly through his teeth so only Benny and the others could hear: “We should keep the sample, right? It’s our discovery.”
“Uh-huh!” Hot Dog said, smiling right alongside the boy.
“But—” Jasmine started.
Benny’s instincts took over as he looked down at the square. Back on Earth he and the rest of the caravan members shared everything they could. Tools, scavenged goods—whatever they could mine from the abandoned, half-buried cities and towns in the Drylands. But he also knew the importance of not letting on to the fact that they had something good before they were ready to trade it, especially when there were gangs roaming the dunes, ready to raid any caravan they suspected of having treasure stashed away. And so, in one swift move, Benny grabbed Hot Dog’s hand, slipped the silver ring from her finger and placed his hand over the electronic square, palming the rock and leaving the piece of jewelry behind.
“Yeah,” he said with a forced smile of his own. He glanced back down at the spectrometer, which was once again showing the ring’s readout. “Turns out Hot Dog got ripped off by a skeezy jeweler.”
Benny turned to Hot Dog, raising his eyebrows, goading her on.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “Last time I trust a dude on the street telling me he’ll give me a special price because
he’s in a good mood. Although, now that I say all that out loud, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Trevone pursed his lips. “Maybe you four should head back up to your rooms. There’s a lot of fragile equipment down here.”
“You’re probably right,” Benny said, pushing Drue forward.
“Uh, yeah,” he agreed.
“Wait,” Jasmine said.
Benny turned to see her staring at Trevone with wide eyes.
“In your research, have you ever come across anything with an unusual atomic makeup? Perhaps—”
“Jazz, let’s go!” Drue said, giving her a wide-eyed look. “Tre’s obviously got more important stuff to deal with.”
“It’s Trevone,” the Crew member corrected. As the foursome neared the door, he continued. “Pinky?”
The AI’s voice filled the room. “At your service.”
“The research labs are off-limits to EW-SCABers from now on.”
He kept his eyes on the kids as they exited, not looking away as the door slid shut behind them. Outside in the hallway, Jasmine turned to the others with her hands out at her sides.
“What was that?” she whispered. “He’s one of the Pit Crew. He could have helped us.”
“If we turn this over to any of them, it should be Ricardo, right?” Hot Dog asked.
“Uh, I was more concerned about someone else not stealing our credit for discovering this stuff,” Drue said.
They looked at Benny, whose mind was racing. On one hand, it was his instinct to protect whatever resources or valuables they might have discovered. On the other, there was no one better to look into this matter than Elijah West.
But then, they’d already given him a big sample.
“This is a huge scientific breakthrough,” Jasmine said. “Four new elements!”
“Our elements,” Drue added.
“Possibly engineered elements,” Benny said. “Elijah’s got to already be researching whatever this stuff is, right? If Jasmine noticed it was weird right off the bat, he would, too.”
Jasmine nodded. “We should ask him to share his findings with us. We could be helping him.”