“Them’s the breaks,” Ash said.
“If I had more time, I could design some sort of automated targeting system,” Trevone said. He pulled a pair of goggle-like glasses down onto his face as he leaned over the two metal arms sticking out of the front of the car. “But to get the kinks worked out and then install it and test it in every Space Runner would take a week, at least.”
“So . . . you’re helping us?” Benny asked.
Trevone looked up at him. “I am.”
“This is a trick,” Drue said. “He’s here to sabotage us. That’s what I’d do if I were him.”
“Get a grip,” Hot Dog scoffed. “I just watched him mount this thing!”
“Uh, we’ll let you kids work this out while we head down for more lasers,” Ash said, motioning to her brother. “Come on, Bo. Let’s take a few SRs with us. I don’t know if Elijah is planning on moving all these models underground and I’ll never forgive myself if I let a bunch a’ aliens steal any of these classics.”
Bo grunted as they left.
Trevone continued. “Don’t get me wrong. I still agree with Elijah. But if you’re going to pull off a stunt like this, you need all the help you can get.” He shrugged. “Also, your friend Jasmine sent me a very spirited message, calling on me to lend my assistance in the name of science.”
“The McGuyvers and Trevone are going to work through the night,” Hot Dog said. “I checked in with Jasmine. It sounds like we won’t be able to get a better idea of how big this new storm is until it’s a little closer.”
“Okay, so what do we do?” Drue asked.
“We try to get some sleep, as hard as that’s going to be,” Benny said. “Tomorrow the real mess begins. Somehow we’ve got to teach everyone on our side to pilot Space Runners and shoot lasers.”
Hot Dog flicked her hair off of one shoulder and sighed. “I always did hate the training levels in video games.”
25.
When morning broke, they had almost half the EW-SCABers on their side.
“In total, we’ve got forty-five recruits to your Moon Platoon,” Pinky said from a seat on the couch in Benny’s suite. He’d called to her as soon as he’d woken up from a night of tossing and turning, dreaming of space rocks destroying his RV. “They’re spread fairly evenly across the four teams, which will make for easy grouping when we start to discuss flight patterns. Fortunately, almost all the scholarship winners who are on record as being exceptional pilots and drivers have joined your cause. The holdouts have already begun transferring their belongings to the underground city. The Pit Crew is overseeing the evacuations—except Trevone, who’s still working with the McGuyvers.”
“And Elijah?” Benny asked.
“Elijah”—her voice softened a little—“hasn’t left his quarters since you last saw him.”
“Great, great,” Benny said, trying to figure out what to do first. All he knew was that he needed to find his friends and keep moving.
As he ran for the door of his room, Pinky called out to him.
“You should at least put some shoes on. And brush your teeth! No one wants to follow anyone with morning breath.”
“Follow?” he asked. “We’re all in this together.”
“Right,” she responded. “But you’re the one the kids are talking about. It was your message last night that got to most of them.” And then she disappeared.
Exasperated, Benny followed Pinky’s advice as quickly as possible and then made his way down to the meeting room, where Ramona and Jasmine were standing around the holodesk, reviewing maps of the solar system.
“There you are,” Jasmine said.
“Am I the last one up?” Benny asked. “Why didn’t anyone wake me?”
“Drue’s still asleep, I think. But Ramona and I have been here for a while.”
“Sleep is for newbs,” Ramona said, glugging from a soda can.
“And Hot Dog’s down in the video game room, setting it up for flight training.”
“Wow, okay, excellent,” Benny said. “So catch me up on everything else.”
“I hesitate to say things are going well,” Jasmine said, “but they’re at least progressing. We’ve got two dozen Space Runners rigged up with lasers, so that’s a good start. We’ll have another few dozen later today.”
“Awesome. Thanks for sending a message to Trevone, by the way.”
Jasmine blushed for a moment before turning away from Benny.
“He’s got a brilliant mind,” she said. “It made sense to reach out to him.”
Ramona made kissing noises while tapping on her HoloTek. Jasmine scowled at her.
“Moving on,” Jasmine continued, “we launched a few old Space Runners on automated patrols, and a couple with messages to Earth. The latter were all downed a quarter of the way there, so that seems like no-man’s-land for now. But the ones sent in the direction of the storm are still reporting. They’ll scout out ahead for us.”
“What about the storm?” Benny asked.
“The good news is, we’ve managed to get a better read on it, thanks in part to Ramona rerouting some of Pinky’s power supply in order to boost her radar capabilities. It’s at the expense of some of the Taj’s amenities, but I don’t think anyone’s going to be racing on a holotrack anytime soon. However . . .”
She hesitated, and then tapped on the desk, bringing up the blinking dot steadily approaching Earth.
“The other reason we were able to get a better look at the storm is because it’s getting closer,” Jasmine said.
“How close?”
“If nothing gets in its way, it’ll be passing by the Moon by tomorrow afternoon, making contact with Earth shortly after that. Our best chance of intercepting it is here.” She pointed to a bobbing green target. “Pinky’s run several debris simulations. If we make a stand, this is where it should happen.”
“And the asteroids will be there . . . when?”
Jasmine frowned. “Tomorrow morning. We’ve got at maximum twenty-four hours. Likely less.”
Benny let out a long breath and stared at the blip on the map that represented the end of the world. It was so small, so insignificant looking. As if he could reach out and grab it, tossing it in the garbage and calling it a day.
If only it were that simple.
“We’ve been able to map the storm’s structure as well,” Jasmine continued.
She tapped again, and the projection zoomed in, until the asteroid storm filled the space above the desk. There was what looked like a hundred jagged boulders of varying shapes and sizes floating in front of them, all orbiting around one giant asteroid in the center of the group.
“Whoa,” Benny whispered.
“Yeah,” Jasmine said. “Whoa. Based on our best guesses, only a quarter of the smaller asteroids need to make contact with Earth to ensure complete annihilation of all life on the planet.”
“And the big one?” Benny asked.
“Let’s just say we need to make sure that doesn’t get anywhere near home,” Jasmine said.
Benny nodded, trying to stay calm and not look too worried even though his insides were squirming.
“I’ve been working with Pinky to figure out the best way for us to go about attacking this thing.” She looked away from him. “Which reminds me, I wanted to talk to you. Obviously I want to stop this. I’ll help out in any way I can. But . . . I’m not a pilot. I’ve never even played a sim, much less driven a real Space Runner. I was thinking about this all night, and it’s not that I’m afraid, but I don’t know that I’d be . . .” She trailed off, face scrunched up as she grasped for the right words.
Benny just nodded. “Jasmine, look at you,” he said. “You’re planning our attack patterns already. This is just like that robot simulation we ran. You got us to split up. You told us where to attack. You’re more help than you realize. Stay back here and be our eyes and ears. Help lead us while we’re out there.”
“You’re sure?” she asked, meeting his gaze again. “I
just . . . I don’t want to disappoint anyone.”
“Chill, Jazz,” Ramona muttered. “You’re a leet CPU. Top class.”
“Yeah.” Benny grinned. “Whatever she said.”
Jasmine nodded a little. “Thanks. I won’t let you down.”
“I hate to interrupt this genuinely touching moment,” Pinky said, appearing in the doorway, “but I thought you should know that Drue is in the garage and about to be murdered by Trevone. Or possibly the McGuyvers. I’m not sure which of them will snap first.”
Jasmine and Benny looked at each other.
“Go,” she said. “You’re the only person who makes him tolerable.”
As he darted out of the room, Ramona called out. “Send more soda!”
Down in the garage, Benny found the four people Pinky mentioned all trying to talk over one another as they stood around a silver Space Runner like the one that had carried Benny to the Moon.
“Guys,” he said as he approached, but none of them even noticed he’d entered. “HEY!”
They all stopped and turned to him.
“Benny,” Drue said. “Perfect. You can talk some sense into these nerds.”
“Talk sense into us?” Trevone asked. “You better rethink that statement.”
Ash McGuyver rubbed her temples as she shook her head. Bo stood beside her, twisting a screwdriver against his palm.
“Okay,” Benny said. “What is going on here?”
“I’ve managed to amp up output on these lasers, but we need to test them,” Trevone said. “The only problem is, the increased energy expenditure could make them very dangerous. Also, there’s a slight possibility that they might, uh . . .”
“Explode,” Ash said.
“Oh,” Benny muttered.
“All right, just look at it this way,” Drue said. “The McGuyvers need to be here to work on the Space Runners. Hot Dog needs to train everyone on the sims. She’s . . .” He got really quiet. “She’s the best pilot. And Trevone, well, he’s a Pit Crew member and if he gets blown up, Elijah will never forgive us and will probably suck all the air out of the Taj while we’re inside or something, so just let me take this thing out to the Sea of Tranquility and see what kind of damage I can do.” He paused a few beats. “In the name of science! For the good of Earth!”
“I say you let him do it,” Ash said, snapping a piece of gum. “Serves him right if he’s blown to bits.”
“Look, I can appreciate that you’re willing to test this out,” Trevone said to Drue, “but I’m not worried about the lasers blowing you up. I’m worried about you accidentally slashing through the Taj trying to show off. I’m working on a fail-safe that should keep the lasers from firing if there’s another Space Runner or a friendly target, but it’ll take me the rest of the day to complete and we need to test these beams before then.”
“Oh,” Drue said. “But I won’t shoot anywhere near the resort! I’ll be super careful!”
“Hold on,” Benny said. He let out a long breath, trying to think of anything that might help. “The trigger for the laser. It’s, what, a joystick thing like we had in the cart?”
“Not anymore,” Trevone said. “We’ve replaced it with a button that will slip onto a flight yoke so you don’t have to take your hands off the wheel to fire.”
“Okay,” Benny said. “So why not just put, like, a really long cord on it and try it out in a crater somewhere. If the laser doesn’t explode, then let Drue test it out on a Space Runner.” He paused. “Far, far away from the Taj.”
“I can live with that,” Drue said.
“I suppose it wouldn’t take too much time to rig up some kind of wired detonator,” Trevone said. “Are you two good to go while I’m gone?”
Ash smacked her brother on the stomach. “The only reason we’re not working now is because you three are in our way.”
Somewhere behind Benny, Pinky cleared her throat.
“Uh, Benny. If you’ve got a moment, Hot Dog has requested that you stop by the virtual gaming environment for a brief consultation.”
“Why does everyone want to talk to me?” Benny murmured.
He made his way through the Taj. In the lobby, he passed several EW-SCABers carrying backpacks and luggage. They all stared at him, a few muttering things that he couldn’t make out. As he crossed the shiny black floor, an elevator opened to his right.
“Everybody in,” Ricardo said. “Going down.”
Benny froze at the sound of his voice and turned to see the leader of the Mustangs. Ricardo glared at him, fists curled up at his sides, but didn’t say anything. Benny couldn’t help but wonder what he and the rest of the Pit Crew must have thought of him, of everything he was trying to do. Having been up on the Moon for so long, there was no doubt they’d follow Elijah to the end of the universe. Even if Trevone was helping them with the Space Runners, he’d made no mention of following them into space.
He was glad Elijah had made a point of keeping the Pit Crew from interfering. Benny wasn’t sure what he’d do if he had to take them on.
“Don’t worry,” Ricardo said to the EW-SCABers as the elevator door began to close. “You’ll be safe down here. Elijah will make sure of that.”
And then they were gone.
Benny hurried along to the empty, gray-padded room where Hot Dog was waiting for him. Only, when he walked through the door, there was nothing empty about it. Row after row of gleaming Space Runners lined the floor. At the end of the room, a stage had been set up. A banner hung above it that said Hot Dog’s No-Crash Crash Course in Flying. Below it was a huge hologram portrait of Hot Dog, dressed in a sparkling space suit and staring off into the middle distance, saluting no one in particular as her hair blew back in a great mane behind her.
“There you are!” the real Hot Dog shouted as she made her way past the Space Runners. She stopped in front of Benny, smirking. “So, whaddaya think?”
“This is intense,” Benny said.
“It’s dumb, I know,” she said. “But I figured if I’m about to go try and save the world, I’m at least going to do it with some style. Plus, it was Pinky’s idea, and she kind of ran with it before I could say no.”
“Have a little fun,” Pinky’s voice said. Benny turned to see her reclining in the seat of a nearby Space Runner.
“We’ve been talking all morning. She’s like my new best friend. Anyway, I’ve got a bunch of EW-SCABers coming in later to go over Space Runner controls. Can you help me out a bit first?”
“Yeah, of course. What do you want me to do?”
She pointed to one of the simulated Space Runners. “Have a seat on the passenger side. You’re my first student. You may be good behind the wheel of a Chevelle or an ATV, but Space Runners are different beasts. Let’s see you put some of those driving skills to work.”
He climbed into one of the cars, but instead of getting into the pilot’s seat, Hot Dog ran to the stage, where a hot-pink Space Runner was sitting.
All the windows in Benny’s car went black and were replaced by hyperrealistic views of outer space. Hot Dog suddenly appeared beside him, in the pilot’s seat.
“Okay,” she said, staring in his direction but not actually at him in a way that Benny found really unnerving. “So watch me handle all the controls, and then you’re going to do it yourself.” She grinned. “I’m not really here, obviously. I’m on stage. But this is how I’m going to teach a bunch of people at once.”
“This is so creepy,” Benny said.
Hot Dog smiled. “I’m just going to assume you’re telling me how brilliant I am, but hold that thought and watch me turn this baby on.”
They worked for over an hour, until Benny felt comfortable enough with the basic Space Runner controls to navigate in space and Hot Dog felt like she had a good idea of how to teach others the kinds of flight tricks she knew. She assured him that she’d talked to several kids who were planning on joining their expedition, and most of them had far more experience on sims and—occasionally—actual S
pace Runners than he did.
It was beginning to feel like this plan could actually work.
“Pinky,” Benny said when he and Hot Dog decided to break for lunch, “how’s everyone else doing?”
“The lasers appear to be fully functional based on Drue’s tests,” the AI said. “He’s just finished carving his initials into a patch of land near the Copernicus crater. I’m bringing his Space Runner back in from the cold as we speak. Based on the way he was giggling, I have the feeling he was about to start drawing things I’d rather not see cut into the Moon forever.”
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Hot Dog said, looking at the rows of simulated controls. “I can’t believe I’m going to teach people how to fly.”
“You’re good at it.” Benny stretched, working out fingers that had become stiff as they gripped his flight yoke. “Look how much I just learned! You’re the best person for this.”
“No, I’m not,” she said. “Elijah is. I wish he’d come down and help us.”
“We can do this on our own,” Benny said. “We are doing it.”
“Still. I wonder what he’s doing up there in his quarters.”
“He’s watching everything,” Pinky said, her voice low and calm as she sat on the hood of a Space Runner, eyes looking toward the ceiling. Toward Elijah. “I’ve got live video feeds running on his desk. I thought it would be best to let him observe. Maybe he’ll learn something, too.”
26.
They trained all day.
Groups rotated between Space Runner flight school with Hot Dog and laser-targeting practice with Trevone and the McGuyvers—and, for a while, Drue, until Trevone firmly insisted that the boy take a break “for his safety and the safety of others.” In between, Jasmine introduced herself as the person who’d be calling out targets and went over basic survival skills like what to do if accidentally ejected from your vehicle or why it was important to take a systematic approach to destroying the asteroids instead of racing in and shooting randomly. Pinky kept everyone up to date on the advancement of the storm and herded the fledgling pilots to and from locations while ensuring that there was plenty to eat and drink, and monitoring all facets of the upcoming mission.