He thought back to the alien ship, and how the glove had worked there. He’d had no idea what he was doing then either. In his desperation to escape, he’d just smashed his fist against a rock wall, which somehow caused it to shatter.
So he tried that. He slammed his palm down onto rock, pouring all his strength into the blow, hoping with everything inside him that it would break apart.
There was a surge of glowing energy around his hand. And then the alien rock began to crumble. He could make out the yellow paint of Sahar’s Space Runner as bits and pieces fell away.
“Yes!” Ricardo shouted, bounding over to him. “Again!”
And then Benny was punching the glove against the rock covering the side of the car over and over, until the passenger door was completely freed. Through the darkly tinted windows, he could just make out the shape of a figure.
“Move,” Ricardo said as he wrenched the door open.
Over Ricardo’s shoulder, Benny saw Sahar, unconscious, leaning against the pilot-side window. The dark scarf around her head pooled against the front of her force field helmet. Benny could tell by the rise and fall of her yellow space suit that she was breathing—at least she must have been getting oxygen.
Ricardo kept saying her name, more and more desperately, but she didn’t respond. Finally, he took her in his arms and marched toward one of the Miyamura Space Runners.
“We need to get her in a stabilized environment so her helmet will go away,” he said. “I don’t even know if she can hear me.”
“I’ll grab the first aid kit,” Kira said.
Ricardo glanced back at Benny. “Get in the Star Runner. Tell the others we found them.”
Benny nodded, and made his way back to the gold vehicle as quickly as he could. Before he could even get the pilot-side door shut, though, there were voices filling his helmet, asking what was happening. He did his best to explain, all the while keeping his eyes on the white Space Runner across from him.
“They’re weaponizing their control over these minerals,” Jasmine said over the comms.
“It’s possible they were trying to capture her,” Trevone added. “They could have easily taken her onto a bigger ship if she were stranded, encapsulated in their rock.”
“We need, like, a hundred more of those gloves,” Drue said.
“I hate to interrupt,” Pinky said, “but there’s a call coming in.”
“A call?” Hot Dog asked. “What?”
“From Earth.”
“Oh my gosh,” Jasmine said. “We’re outside the dome!”
“Yeah,” Benny said, unsure of why this mattered.
“That means we have satellite uplink now.”
Benny grinned.
“I can create a video conference on your windshields,” Pinky offered, “while engaging the autopilot to Sahar’s location.”
“Do it,” Benny said.
The windshield flickered. On the left, a map appeared, tracing the rest of the Star Runners who were still ten minutes out from arrival. On the right side, three small squares popped up that showed the inside cabins of the crafts, his friends and Trevone all staring into their windshields. And in the center of the screen was a man seated at a sprawling wooden desk.
Senator Drue Bob Lincoln, Jr., chairman of the Congressional Committee on Lunar Affairs.
He blinked once, confusion flashing on his face.
“Uh, hi, Dad,” Drue said. Benny was pretty sure all the blood had drained from his friend’s face. “I mean, sir.”
“Drue . . .” the man said. And then he composed himself and narrowed his eyes. “I’ve been trying to get in contact with Dr. Bale for the last hour and you’re the people who pick up the call? A bunch of children? In . . . what, in Space Runners? What’s going on at the Taj?”
“Well,” Drue said, “it’s kind of a long story.”
He told his father about the rock covering the dome and that they’d gone out to rescue some of the Pit Crew members—leaving out the fact that Dr. Bale had no idea they’d left.
“Put Bale on the line,” his father said when Drue was finished. “Immediately.”
“That’s not possible,” Trevone said. “This rock is obstructing communications with the Taj.”
Senator Lincoln muttered several curses. He paused for a moment, seeming to weigh everything his son had told him. Finally, he spoke again. “It looks like you’re in separate vehicles?”
“That’s right, sir,” Drue said.
“Then someone head back to the Taj. Tell Bale that the path to the resort has been successfully cleared thanks to his drones. We’re assembling troops now, and we’ll be deploying within the hour. Despite these setbacks, our mission will continue as planned.” He grimaced. “It’s clear to me that he’s incapable of managing things. I’m coming up there myself.”
They all stared back at him, unsure of what to say. Finally, Drue spoke again. “I guess I’ll see you soon.”
His father pursed his lips. “Absolutely not,” he said. “The rest of this group can relay my message. I want you to come back to Earth immediately.”
“But, Dad . . . sir, I—”
“That’s not open for discussion. The last thing I need to worry about while I’m up there is you getting into trouble.” He sighed. “I trust you were paying attention during all those Space Runner lessons we bought you. God knows we paid enough for them.”
“Your son is an incredible pilot,” Hot Dog said, shoving her face closer to the camera in her cabin. “You should have seen him when we were attacking the asteroid field. He saved—”
“It’ll make a great story for the press, I’m sure,” the senator said.
Drue stared into the camera. “I want to stay up here.”
“That’s not going to happen. I never should have let you go up there in the first place.”
“But I can help up here if you let—” Drue started.
“Your help is the last thing we need right now,” his father said. “You’re coming back to Earth. That’s an order.” And then he disappeared.
Silence filled Benny’s cabin. It was Pinky who eventually spoke.
“The call has ended,” she said quietly.
“Womp, womp,” Ramona said, tapping on her HoloTek.
Benny heard Trevone mutter something to her as he looked at Drue’s image on the windshield. Drue stared down at his flight yoke, jaw clenched, his perfectly parted brown hair gleaming. It looked to Benny like he was breathing heavily, his cheeks turning red.
“Drue . . .” Hot Dog said. “Are you okay?”
Drue blinked a few times, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he pulled out his HoloTek and swiped through a few screens Benny couldn’t see. Then he started tapping buttons on the dashboard. The dot that represented his Star Runner on Benny’s radar stopped moving.
It looked like he was turning around.
“Hey,” Benny said. “If you need to leave, we get it, but—”
“Leave?” Drue asked. He flashed his perfectly straight, white teeth at them, though his eyes still looked sad. “I’m not leaving. I’m going to show him. I’m going to help. I’ll meet you back at the tunnel entrance.” He paused. “Don’t leave me stranded out here. Please.”
“Drue,” Trevone said cautiously. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to get some info. That’s what we need now that we have Sahar and the others, right?” He smirked. “I know you think you know everything, but I guess you didn’t realize Pinky gave us the plans for Elijah’s prototypes. Turns out the Star Runner was included in those.” He tapped on a few more buttons. “Now let’s see how this baby handles at superspeed.”
“Drue, no!” Benny shouted, but the boy ignored him.
And then Drue’s camera shut off and his Star Runner disappeared from the radar, gone in the blink of an eye, shooting across the dark sky like a golden comet.
19.
Ricardo got out of the white car he’d taken Sahar to just as Benny closed the door
to the Star Runner behind him. His mouth was dry, like it was full of desert sand, as he worried about his friend who was jetting across the Moon toward what could possibly be an entire alien army.
“Sahar’s a little disoriented,” Ricardo said as he approached, unaware of what was going on. “But I think she’s going to be okay. We should make sure she doesn’t have a concussion or anything, though. She was thrown around quite a bit in the landing.”
Over the Crew member’s shoulder, Benny watched Kira climb from the backseat of the SR and hold out her hand. Sahar took it and slowly got to her feet. She tried to take a step forward but wobbled a little, leaning against the door.
Then she looked at Benny. Despite what she’d been through, her eyes were still sharp and full of intensity, and they were all he could focus on. She pointed at his chest, and then beckoned to him. He walked over to her, the low gravity making it an excruciatingly long process, until finally he stood in front of her.
Sahar stared at him for a few seconds. Then she nodded.
“Thank you,” she said. Her voice was raspy but firm, and Benny was so taken aback by the words that he didn’t know what to say. Everything he’d read about the girl said that she never spoke. And so, he just stood there, looking at her dumbly, until she climbed back into the Space Runner, closing the door behind her.
Benny turned to Ricardo. “I thought . . .”
“It’s not that Sahar doesn’t speak,” Ricardo said. “She just chooses her words carefully.”
There was a glint in Benny’s peripheral vision, and he turned to see two other Star Runners landing. Soon, everyone was gathered together in the crater, except for Sahar and Kira, who stayed in the car.
Ricardo scanned the sky in confusion for a moment, and then pursed his lips in frustration. “What has Drue done?”
Benny shook his head. “I don’t know. He said he was going to help and then . . . he was gone.”
“Based on his trajectory,” Trevone said as he approached, “I’m guessing he’s gone to the Taj to scope things out. But he’s not responding to any communications. Possibly because he’s still traveling using the experimental hyperdrives.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Ricardo muttered, “if he doesn’t get shot down by the aliens first.”
Ricardo caught the others up to speed on what had happened to Sahar. As he spoke, Trevone couldn’t take his eyes off the golden glove Benny was still wearing.
“Fascinating,” he said. “I have so many questions.”
“Uh, yeah,” Benny said. “You and me both.”
“Can’t we just use the glove to break the rock on the dome apart?” Hot Dog asked.
“That would take a lot of punching.”
“If you don’t have full control over it,” Trevone said, “it would also put the dome’s structural integrity at risk.”
“Hey, guys.” Jasmine stepped forward, holding out the alien radar. “I’m picking something up.”
She spun the radar screen around so they could see. A few kilometers away, on the other side of a rocky outcropping, there was a triangular-shaped figure lit up in orange—one of the alien ships.
“That must be the one Kira shot down,” Kai said.
“Was it purple?” Trevone asked. “A stealth ship?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, at least we know this radar will pick them up. That’s good.”
“Hold on,” Jasmine said, drawing her finger across the screen. “There are all these weird settings . . .”
Ramona snatched the radar out of her hands and started tapping on it. “Let the master work.”
As she toyed with the device, Hot Dog took a few steps away from them, looking first at her Star Runner, then in the direction Drue had headed. “You know, I bet I could catch him.”
“No,” Ricardo said.
“All I’m saying is that we could jet over there and back him up. I could even take the alien radar! I mean, come on. We don’t know if there’s one ship that shot that rock stuff onto the Grand Dome or, like, an entire alien army right outside the Taj. We could get some scans or something.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“I agree,” Trevone said. “But if Drue does bring back some solid information, that will be incredibly helpful. At this point in time, intelligence is the thing we are sorely lacking. It’s also our best weapon.”
“And our best method of defense,” Jasmine added.
“Fine,” Hot Dog said, pouting. “I didn’t want to drive the superfast star car anyway.”
“Whoaaaaaa,” Ramona said, stepping into the center of the group. She turned the alien radar around. “X-ray filter. Hard-core.”
It took Benny a second to realize what he was seeing on the screen. It looked like there was some sort of glowing orange skeleton walking around near the downed alien ship, only its bones were all too long and thin to be human.
But of course, it wasn’t a human.
Jasmine gulped. “Am I looking at an extraterrestrial skeletal system?”
“Oh, that is so gross,” Hot Dog said.
“Alien skellie,” Ramona said with a grin. “Nice.”
Trevone grabbed the radar. “These readouts are insane. It looks like Dr. Bale was somehow able to map out the mineral structure of the Alpha Maraudis’ bones. But how?”
Benny thought back to the bronze-looking objects he’d seen in the shed full of alien artifacts in Dr. Bale’s campsite—the ones he’d thought looked like bones. He shuddered.
“Interesting,” Jasmine said, coming up beside Trevone. “It looks like they’re made up of mostly metallic components.”
“Uh,” Hot Dog said. “So, is that thing headed our way, or . . . ?”
“It would never make it over these cliffs,” Ricardo said.
“But it could have called for help,” Benny said.
“We should get Sahar into the underground med bay,” Kai said. “Why are we not in the air?”
“We can’t leave Drue out here,” Benny said.
There was silence for a few seconds before Ricardo spoke again.
“Let’s get back to the tunnel. Everyone follow my lead.”
Hot Dog glanced in the direction of the Taj. “Hopefully Drue will be back by the time we get there.” She shook her head. “That idiot better not get himself captured. Or hurt.”
After the bone-shaking speed they’d reached in the Star Runner, the drive back to the underground tunnel with Ricardo seemed almost sluggish, despite the fact that they were traveling hundreds of miles an hour. Along the way, Benny finally got in touch with Drue, who had apparently disengaged the experimental hyperdrives. Benny was relieved, but Drue was less than thrilled to hear from him.
“Will you stop calling me?” he asked. “I’m trying to focus and be stealthy! I’ll let you know if I find anything.”
And then the line went out.
Benny thought about calling him back and demanding that he head toward the tunnel, but he seriously doubted that Drue would listen to him. So instead, he updated Ricardo on the call they’d received while he’d been helping Sahar. The Pit Crew member kept grinding his teeth.
“If Elijah knew what was going on . . .” Ricardo growled when Benny was through. “How could I let this happen? He’d be so disappointed. After everything he’s done for me, he’s gone for a few days and under my command everything falls to pieces.”
Benny could almost feel some of the same pressure that had been weighing on his mind radiating off Ricardo, the suffocating sense that there were so many people counting on you.
“You thought you were doing the right thing. I mean, so did I. And we did get in contact with Earth. Just not how we thought we would.”
“All I wanted was to get him back,” Ricardo continued, “any way possible. So I let Dr. Bale into the Taj, and now . . . I think you’re right. I don’t think he cares about finding Elijah at all. He’d probably say anything to keep us from getting in his way.”
“
This isn’t over,” Benny said. “Once we get back and have a better idea of what’s happening outside the dome, we’ll make a plan. We’ll figure things out.”
Ricardo glanced at him. “You’re, what, three or four years younger than me?”
Benny shrugged. “Yeah.”
“Then how do you keep knowing what to do?”
The question didn’t sound angry to Benny, more like Ricardo was bewildered.
Benny laughed. “Are you kidding? I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve been freaking out the last few days.” Familiar words started floating through his brain. “I’m just trying not to let my fear keep me from doing anything.” He paused. “And, again, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Dr. Bale.”
Ricardo leaned back in his seat. “An army is coming. This is so far from what Elijah built the Taj for.” He shook his head and was quiet for a moment. They were getting closer to the tunnel. Then he spoke again, without looking at Benny. “When you were out in the Drylands, did you used to stare up at the Moon and dream about being up here? I did all the time in Rio after I first heard the resort was being built.”
“Every chance I got,” Benny said. “I used to sit on the top of our RV a lot. Any time I could see the Moon, I thought about the Taj.”
“Dr. Bale was a fancy scientist before he moved up to the Moon, you know,” Ricardo said. “People like him and Drue’s dad, they don’t realize what something like the Taj means to those of us who grew up with nothing. To them it’s a vacation hotel, a place to relax for the weekend. Or a place to house soldiers, I guess.” He looked at Benny. “But to people like you and me . . . it’s everything. A place where you can be anyone and do whatever you want. People from the cities probably have no idea what it’s like to be on the streets in Brazil or out in the desert and to have this impossible, untouchable thing staring down at you every night. I’m well aware of how lucky I am to live up here.”
Benny shook his head. “You’re wrong. The Taj isn’t everything. It’s just a building. I mean, a really cool building, but still. It’s nothing on its own. Just like my caravan back home would just be a bunch of cars without all the people.”
“That sounds nice,” Ricardo said. “But you know what I mean.”