Drue looked around, his body tense, until he was sure the lights weren’t going out completely. Then he shrugged. “I see a button, I push it. I see floating lights, I touch them. That’s just who I am.”
“Something’s happening,” Jasmine said.
The slivers of light grew into rods a few yards long and flew to the middle of the room. There, they spun once, and then exploded into a shower of light particles, causing all four of them to gasp. The bits of light began to move, slowly at first, and then rapidly, until they were spreading throughout the entire area. Benny jumped back as the energy expanded, ramming into the wall behind him, afraid that Drue had accidentally set off some kind of booby trap.
But he hadn’t. The lights started to form shapes he recognized.
“Is that . . . ?” he asked.
“Our solar system,” Jasmine said.
“It’s some kind of advanced hologram system.”
Strings of light began to flow around them, like glowing pieces of ribbon knotting up and looping every few inches, in constant motion. Some sections formed complete tapestries writhing through the air, weaving themselves together for a few moments before unraveling again.
Jasmine’s eyebrows crinkled together. “It looks like these are patterns.”
“You mean, like it means something?” Benny asked.
“Maybe. I’m just guessing.”
“We should have brought Ramona,” Drue said. “I bet she speaks space cursive or whatever this is.”
Benny stepped forward, focused on a pulsing green blob a few feet in front of his nose and set well apart from Earth’s solar system, but connected to it by a silver line. He raised his hand tentatively. “What’s this thing?” he whispered.
His finger touched the light, and suddenly it was expanding, minimizing everything else and pushing their own solar system to the sidelines. In front of him was a new cluster of orbs, revolving around a trio of brightly blazing stars.
“What the heck is that?” Drue asked.
“I don’t know,” Benny said. “I don’t recognize it.”
“It’s not any system I’ve ever seen before,” Jasmine said.
“Uh . . . you guys,” Hot Dogs interjected. “Am I crazy, or does this stuff look a little too familiar?”
She had her back to the holographic star maps. The sleeve of her space suit was caked with dust from where she’d cleaned off a pane of clear, thick glass on the front of a cabinet that was molded into one of the walls. Benny could just barely make out a row of sulfur-colored rocks embedded with glinting circuitry sitting on the shelves inside.
“These are like the asteroids that took down my Space Runner?” she asked. “How is that possible?”
“How is anything in here possible?” Jasmine asked, crossing the room in a few swift strides to get a closer look at the cabinet.
Hot Dog took a few steps back. “These things aren’t going to explode, right?”
Jasmine continued. “Maybe these are gathered samples. This could be where Elijah is testing them, or . . .” She trailed off for a moment before shaking her head. “No, that doesn’t make sense. Look at the state of this place.” She glanced at the dusty floor. “All these footprints are ours. These rocks must have been here awhile.”
“Wait, wait,” Drue said. “So there could be some kind of connection between the asteroids and this workshop?”
“This doesn’t make sense,” Benny said. “If the asteroids were made by someone—if they were an attack—then, what, did they come from here? Who did this? Who built this place?”
Jasmine looked around. “Everything here is so . . . odd. Like these maps. They’re to systems I’ve never seen in any online textbook. It’s information we just don’t have.”
“Maybe not normal people,” Drue said. “But Elijah might know. Or even the government. My dad’s sat in on some top secret meetings before. There’s probably a lot more going on in space that we realize.”
“He told you that?” Hot Dog asked.
“Well . . . not exactly.” Drue turned his attention to one of the dust-covered tables before muttering, “He kind of has a habit of . . . well, passing out at his desk. Or at the dining room table. Mostly in the big chair by the bar in his office. Sometimes I sneak in to make sure he’s okay. And maybe I take a look at whatever files are up in front of him when I do. Ever since they found that alien site on Pluto, there have been a lot of top secret meetings about alien life. But they haven’t found anything from what I’ve seen. I think they’re just listening to too many crackpot scientists.”
“Okay, I’m just going to be the one to say it,” Hot Dog said. “None of this stuff looks like it came from Earth.”
For a few moments, no one said anything, but Benny’s thoughts were exploding like miniature supernovas. What Hot Dog was saying sounded crazy, but if it were possibly true . . .
Drue let out a single laugh. “You’re serious?”
She threw out her arms in exasperation. “Dude, look around you. Does any of this look familiar? Seen any of it back home, or even at the Taj? You’ve been in Elijah’s labs and the garage and they definitely don’t look like this. So, what, you think some humans built a secret hideout on the dark side of the Moon and then created, these . . . these . . .” She motioned to the rocks.
“Unknown elements,” Jasmine offered.
“These unknown elements?”
“I’m saying it’s possible,” Drue said, though he didn’t sound near as sure of himself as he usually did. “Don’t blame me for not wanting to believe in creepy spider aliens or something like that.”
“This place does kind of look like the one in photos from Pluto,” Benny said. He and his brothers had spent hours poring over them. He was surprised he hadn’t noticed the similarities before, but now they were everywhere. The smooth rock walls. The stalactite chandeliers.
Benny turned his attention back to the holograms. His mind was whirring, trying to sort things out. Despite the strangeness of the place and the connection to the asteroids, he was most concerned about something else.
“Okay, so, let’s just imagine Hot Dog’s right . . .” He pointed to the map. “Then what’s this line connecting Earth to another solar system.”
“Maybe some kind of flight plan?” Hot Dog asked.
“That might be a best-case scenario,” Jasmine said.
Benny nodded. He knew what she was thinking. “It could be where the ‘asteroids’ came from.”
“And following that logic . . .”
“The aliens are definitely not coming in peace.” Hot Dog said.
Benny gulped. The impressive star map looked downright terrifying to him. “Let’s hope we’re wrong.”
Drue pulled out his HoloTek and held it up to eye level.
“Please don’t tell me you’re taking holoselfies at a time like this,” Jasmine said.
“I’m recording these maps. Whatever’s going on, we need to get this info to Elijah. He’ll know what to do.”
Hot Dog looked around. “This place is starting to creep me out. Maybe I’ll go see about fixing the flight controls on that floating cart or something.”
She started for the exit. That’s when they saw lights from inside the hallway.
Everyone froze.
“Someone’s there,” Benny said.
Hot Dog gulped. “Or some . . . thing.”
They backed away from the tunnel, huddling together in one corner of the room, near the sulfur-colored rocks.
“I’m so not ready to see an alien,” Hot Dog whispered. “Please don’t let us get abducted. Or killed.”
“Oh, no way,” Drue said. “I just survived a race through a mine, being shot through a metal door, and crashing onto the surface of the Moon. I am not dying in some dirty lunar cave. You’re from a caravan, Benny. You must know how to fight, right?”
“Only through wrestling with my brothers and taking down robo-bees.” He curled his fists up at his sides. “Whatever’s in that h
allway, we’ll deal with it together. That’s what I know from the caravan.”
“Sure. Sounds great,” Drue said, prying open the cabinet beside them and pulling out one of the tiny asteroids.
“Don’t touch those!” Hot Dog hissed. “What if they blow up?”
“I’m trying to be resourceful!”
It was at that moment that Ricardo Rocha stepped into the room, followed by the other four members of the Pit Crew.
“Oh, thank God,” Hot Dog cried out.
All five of them turned to face Benny and his friends. Ricardo shook his head.
“Why am I not surprised?” he asked looking at the four EW-SCABers. He narrowed his eyes at Hot Dog. “Is that . . . ?”
She looked down at the jersey she still wore. “Oh, no, no, no,” she whispered.
Behind him, Benny could hear Drue sigh in relief, but all he could think was that the Pit Crew didn’t look surprised by the fact that they were standing in some kind of strange workshop hidden in a crater on the dark side of the Moon.
20.
The Pit Crew split them up among their Space Runners and headed back to the Taj. Benny rode with Ricardo, who wouldn’t even look at him during the short ride over the lunar surface, instead turning bass-heavy music up so loud that Benny doubted the older boy would have heard him if he’d shouted at the top of his lungs. Questions raced through his mind as they shot back toward the resort. Why was Elijah mining underground? What was that strange workshop they’d found? Why were there asteroids there?
And, most pressing of all, what was that line connecting the distant star system to Earth?
Benny told himself everything would make sense soon. Elijah would know what was going on. He’d clear everything up.
But then, he realized he’d been telling himself this ever since Jasmine had found the strange rock, and so far, nothing had been explained.
At the Taj, they were led into the same meeting room they’d been brought to after rescuing Hot Dog, only this time the lights were dimmed low and the black circular holodesk was projecting all sorts of maps and charts in the air. The holograms cast an amber glow on Elijah, who stood staring at the data with his arms crossed over a gray leather racing jacket and white T-shirt.
“And so we find ourselves here again,” Elijah said, not taking his eyes off the projections. “I knew this group had brains and flight skills, but I must admit I underestimated your curiosity.” He cocked his head to one side, turning to look at them. “Or maybe it was your hunger for adventure I didn’t take into account. Regardless, I knew I was right in choosing you all. Even you, Drue, have exceeded my expectations.”
Drue grinned, flattered. “Thanks, Elijah.”
Benny elbowed him in the ribs and then stepped forward. His mind was reeling, and when he started talking, words flew out, tumbling over each other. “I don’t know what’s happening, but we found the stuff you’re carving out under the Moon’s surface, and I know we shouldn’t have snuck around and we’re sorry, but when we were down there, we got lost in the caverns and then we had to use some of the lasers to—”
“Hey, hey,” Elijah said, raising his hands in front of his chest. “Slow down. Even with the environmental stabilizers in here, you’ll pass out if you don’t breathe. Now, I understand my Pit Crew found you inside the base on the dark side of the Moon.”
“So you have been there,” Hot Dog said, stepping up beside Benny.
“Ms. Wilkinson, I’ve seen every inch of the Moon. I may not technically own it, but for all intents and purposes I am its shepherd, and I like to keep a close watch over things I am responsible for.”
“We didn’t mean to, but we hit some buttons and some maps—” Benny started.
“He knows,” Jasmine said, pointing to one of the star charts over the table.
That’s when Benny saw it: the line he’d noticed connecting Earth to the three-star system was lit up on the charts over the table, only this time it was pulsing bright red, with various time stamps and dates marked along it. And there was something else—a blinking light moving almost imperceptibly along the marked course. The time stamp beside it was today’s date.
So many thoughts clouded Benny’s mind that he found it difficult to focus on a single thing. Nothing made sense. No matter how his mind pieced things together, he couldn’t strike down all the worry that was starting to make him feel sick to his stomach.
“What’s going on?”
Elijah’s eyes fell to the floor as he began to crack his knuckles, one at a time.
“You’d have found out in the next few days anyway. I was just hoping . . .” He shook his head. “Well, I guess I was putting it off, if I’m being honest. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you’re the ones who found all this after that stunt with the Chevelle. It’s almost funny. You’re doing exactly what I brought you up here to do: you’re truly beginning to live up to your full potential.”
“We are?” Drue asked, squinting and lifting one side of his upper lip.
Benny was still bewildered, his head starting to feel like an engine on the verge of overheating. What had they discovered?
Elijah continued. “When I first came to the Moon almost a decade ago, I spent weeks scouring the lunar surface while my team began construction on the Taj. I wanted to see everything, to know all of its secrets. We’d mapped the dark side before, but we’d never really explored it, so I took the mission upon myself. It was exhilarating. Space had been the ultimate open road, but nothing compares to the feeling of tires on the ground or the pure pleasure of skidding across solid matter. Up here I could just drive for hours, in any direction, as fast as I wanted, over craters and mares no one had ever touched before.”
He let out a single, sad laugh and began to walk around the table. With each step, yellow strips on the sides of his black pants glowed dully.
“Or so I thought. One of my top researchers and I stumbled upon the base sometime in the second week. Hidden in the side of a crater, all but impossible to see from the sky.”
“That door didn’t seem like it was made of any stone naturally occurring on the Moon,” Jasmine said.
Elijah nodded. “That was my first observation as well. From the moment I saw that door, I knew I had to go inside, to discover what it was hiding. You all must understand that feeling. You did the same thing. I figured the place might have been some abandoned outpost from the Second Cold War. Maybe even home to spies with plans to learn my trade secrets. But that obviously wasn’t the case. I don’t have to tell you how breathtaking it is inside. All those pulsing lights and glowing walls, like the whole place was alive.”
“That’s . . .” Hot Dog said, shifting her weight, “kind of a disturbing way of putting it.”
“So, you didn’t build it?” Drue asked slowly.
Elijah scoffed. “Come now, Drue. Even if you don’t want to believe the truth, somewhere deep down you know it. No human built that structure.”
“So it is alien,” Benny said, barely able to speak above a whisper. “We . . . we were just standing in an alien base.”
Elijah nodded, and it suddenly felt like the air had been sucked out of the room, that the artificial environment was no longer pumping in oxygen. But Benny’s helmet didn’t appear. It was just in his head. He swallowed hard.
“I . . .” Jasmine started, at a loss for words. “There were rocks that looked like they were made out of the same unidentifiable elements as the asteroids that hit the Taj. Why?”
“It’s simple, really,” Elijah said. “The beings who built the place—who created those asteroids—approached their sciences in far different ways than we have on Earth. Championing exploration and elemental mastery. They can sculpt and control minerals, though I’m not sure to what extent. They’re so advanced. By comparison, the lasers I have carving out the new city beneath our feet are absurdly primitive.” He stopped in front of a window looking out over the Sea of Tranquility and pointed to some faraway star. “We’re still banging roc
ks together to try and make sparks as far as they’re concerned. Hardly out of the primordial soup. Accomplishing nothing except the destruction of our planet. Of each other.”
“You learned all this from the base?” Benny asked. “Everything we saw . . . It’s not like it was in English.”
Elijah shook his head.
“Then how?” Jasmine asked.
Something changed in Elijah’s face as he looked at them. “Because the base wasn’t empty when we found it.”
“What?” Hot Dog asked as Jasmine gasped. Drue reached a hand out and steadied himself on the holodesk.
Benny thought his brain might leak out of his ears as he tried to comprehend everything Elijah was saying.
“There were three of them. Scouts. I don’t know how long they’d been there, but they’d learned everything they needed to know about humanity by the time I met them.” He let out a noise that was half sigh, half laugh. “They even knew who I was. I actually felt a little flattered when they recognized me.” He shook his head.
“But they’re not there anymore,” Benny murmured.
Elijah turned back to the window, his eyes locked on something in the distance. “Two of them got to a ship we’d missed. It’d been covered in so much dust that I’d thought it was just another rock. The other wasn’t as fast. He attacked us with these tentacles on his head that were tipped with metal, and . . . Well, I had a laser with me I’d been using to mark points of interest on the lunar surface. The creature wasn’t expecting me to be armed, I don’t think. And I . . . I was scared.
“When it became obvious that my researcher and I had the upper hand, something in him changed. He spoke enough English for us to communicate. He started answering questions. That’s how I learned that his people wanted Earth. That they were coming for it. Soon, though I had no concept of what that meant to him, or why they had to have Earth out of all the planets in the galaxy. I was more concerned with how they could be stopped. So I asked him. That’s when he started laughing. Or I think he was laughing, at least. It was hard to tell. His point was obvious, though. No matter what I did—no matter what Earth did—there was no way we could hope to win a fight against his people. When they came, Earth would be theirs. They’d reshape it into something usable, something worthwhile. A resort planet, maybe—their own Taj on a planetary scale. They’re terraformers, capable of customizing worlds. Morphing the Earth’s crust as they see fit. They can heal planets. Or destroy them. Imagine the possibilities . . .” He paused for a moment. “I learned all I could and then . . . Well, the laser wasn’t meant to be a weapon, and I had no business wielding it as one. He didn’t survive.”