“I guess you’re right.” Benny stared out the window at the distant stars. “I wonder if the Alpha Maraudi look at Earth the same way we used to look at the Taj.”
“Man,” Ricardo said, sighing heavily. “I never thought of it like that.”
Ricardo landed their Star Runner on the ground beside the entrance to the tunnel.
“Trevone and Ramona, stay up here to operate the force field,” Ricardo said into the comms. “Benny and I will wait with you until Drue’s back. Everyone else, get inside. Take Sahar straight to the med bay.”
“We’ll be right behind you,” Benny added.
“Roger that,” Hot Dog said as she followed the Miyamuras inside.
“Sahar will be okay,” Trevone’s voice came through the speakers. “That went well. All things considered.”
Behind Trevone’s car, Benny could just make out the greenish slab of rock that served as the door to the abandoned alien base. It seemed so long ago that they’d stumbled upon it, unaware of how it would change their lives—how it would completely distort everything Benny knew to be true about the Moon, not to mention the man in charge of it.
Sitting in the Space Runner beside Ricardo, it was a wonder to him that his view of the galaxy had ever been so small.
“Guys,” Drue practically shouted through the comms. “Come in? Hello? Anyone?”
“We’re here,” Benny said. “Did you find something?”
“Uh, yeah, I did.” Drue’s voice was wobbling. “Pinky, can you send them what I’m seeing?”
The windshield in Benny’s Space Runner flashed, and then was filled with the view from Drue’s Star Runner. Hovering not far away from the covered dome of the Lunar Taj was what looked like a huge, jagged piece of greenish rock—as though someone had carved the edge of a cliff off a mountain and sent it into orbit.
“What is that?” Benny whispered.
“I dunno. I’m guessing it’s, like, two hundred meters in length,” Drue said. “Maybe more?”
“By my calculations, it’s one hundred eighty-nine meters end to end,” Pinky said. “Approximately one hundred meters high. As far as depth goes, I can’t be sure from this angle.”
“Okay, so I was close. There are more of the small ships like we ran into at the asteroid storm, too. They keep leaving the big rock thing and . . . I think they’re parking around the Taj? It’s hard to tell how many from here, but . . . Look, I don’t know much about fighting or anything like that, but it seems like they’re getting into formation for something.”
“Oh my God,” Trevone muttered. “It’s another mother ship.”
“Get back here!” Benny shouted, not realizing how loud his voice was until after the words were out of his mouth.
“Now,” Ricardo added.
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Drue said. “I’m turning around.”
Ricardo looked at Benny. “How long until the Earth forces get here?” he asked.
Benny shook his head. “Hours, maybe? They might have launched already.”
Ricardo turned and looked through the now-clear windshield. “We might not have that much time.” His fingers tapped on the flight yoke over and over again. “I don’t know what we’re supposed to do. What Elijah would want.”
“I don’t either,” Benny said. “But whatever we do, we’ll figure it out together.”
Ricardo looked at him for a few seconds before raising a fist into the air so quickly that Benny flinched. Then he couldn’t help but laugh a little as he brought up his own fist, bumping it against Ricardo’s.
20.
Inside, they regrouped on the platform where the rest of the vehicles from the garage were stored. The Miyamuras had swept Sahar off to the underground medical facility to run some scans, but Hot Dog and Jasmine were waiting for Benny and the others there once Drue had returned and they’d flown back down through the tunnels.
“Pinky sent us pictures of what you saw,” Jasmine said, holding her HoloTek. It shook in her hands. “That ship is huge.”
“If it’s anything like that other asteroid mother ship was,” Hot Dog said, “then there’s no way our mining lasers can even dent it.”
“Yeah,” Drue said. His skin was pale, clearly still shaken from what he’d seen. “And we probably don’t have enough Space Runners to throw at it since Elijah blew up so many against that last one.”
“They have to be seeing that from Earth, right?” Benny said, trying to keep his cool. “So the people who are coming will expect a fight.”
“You’re right,” Jasmine said. “There’s going to be some kind of battle outside. If the army wins, they’re going to send all of us home.”
“Uh, I’m a little more concerned with what happens if the aliens win,” Drue said.
“It’s bad news either way.” Ricardo shook his head. “And we can’t count on Dr. Bale for help. He wouldn’t even let me out to go find the rest of the Crew. He doesn’t care about us.” He nodded to Trevone. “Or Elijah.”
“Just the Taj,” Benny said.
“So let’s take that back from him,” Hot Dog said.
Everyone looked at her.
“What?” she asked. “Why not? He may have Pinky up there, but we’ve got all the human brains down here. We can get her back. Then we rule everything.”
“The force fields are all still intact,” Jasmine said. “We could probably keep the Maraudi and the army out. At least for a while.”
“It could buy us some time,” Trevone added. “Maybe enough to figure out what to do next. At least to make a game plan.”
There was a rumbling sound somewhere far above them. They all looked up. Dust filtered down from the ceiling, clouding a few of the lights that floated high in the air.
“As long as the Grand Dome holds, that is,” Trevone said.
Ricardo looked at Benny. He nodded to the Pit Crew leader.
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Benny said, “alien or human. If we don’t do anything and all the Alpha Maraudi get killed . . . I don’t know how I could face my family knowing I didn’t try to stop that. Maybe by taking back the Taj we can figure out how to contact them now that a ship is so close. We could try to come up with a way for us to help each other, or at least not destroy each other.” He paused, his thoughts going back to the video of his father. “We’re stronger together.”
“Imagine what we could do if we understood their tech,” Jasmine said. “The way they control rock. How they can apparently shape worlds, if Elijah and Dr. Bale are to be believed.”
In the back of Benny’s mind, a spark went off—what if they could use the aliens’ knowledge to fix the ways his planet had been ravaged. To maybe even restore the Drylands.
He swallowed down the thought. It seemed too good to be true, and even if it were, they had so much to do before they ever got to that point. He cleared his throat and continued.
“If the people from Earth win and ship me back, at least this way I’d know I tried to find a way to save the Alpha Maraudi. And if they win . . . well, I definitely think it would better for us to be running the Taj and not Dr. Bale and his assistants. He might try to use that superweapon.”
“Let’s show this guy the Moon Platoon means business,” Drue said. Then his shoulders slumped. “Aw, man. My dad is going to be so mad at me when he gets here.”
Ricardo looked at each of them and smiled, grunting a little. Then he started down the steps of the platform, heading toward the elevator bank. “Let’s do it.”
“Ramona versus Evil Pinky,” Ramona said. “Epic.” She tapped on her Taj HoloTek. Pinky’s face showed up.
“I want to take back controls just as much as any of you, but, Ramona, could you not move my programming to the background of your HoloTek?” the AI asked. “I deserve to be—”
“Mute.” Ramona tapped on her screen. She shrugged at the others. “My Pinky will help.”
“We’ll need to get into the servers in Elijah’s quarters,” Trevone said. ?
??That’s where Pinky’s mainframe is.”
“If Dr. Bale or his assistants are monitoring the Taj’s AI programming,” Jasmine said, “they might notice something is up. And they have all those weapons . . .”
“What if Ramona, Jazz, and Trevone worked on the programming while the rest of us talked to Dr. Bale?” Benny asked. “We can, I don’t know, distract him. Maybe get some info about this superweapon of his.”
“I’m glad you’re lumping me into the action group,” Drue said to Benny. “But, just a reminder, I could so be on the smart team.”
“I can handle him alone,” Ricardo said. “He still thinks I’m on his side. I think.”
“No,” Benny said. “We’re in this together, remember? The rest of us will back you up. Once our Pinky is back in control, she can deal with him.”
“Plus, if you have to fight, this way it’s not three against one,” Hot Dog added.
“If it comes down to a fight, you do want Hot Dog on your team,” Drue said.
She grinned. “Definitely.”
“Divide and conquer,” Trevone said. “Just don’t let him get on a HoloTek. If he sees his program’s been compromised, he could shut down the system completely.”
The elevator door opened. Before they got in, Ricardo turned back to them. “Okay, it’s a plan,” he said. “Well, sort of.” Then he held his finger up in front of his mouth in a shh motion and jerked his head toward the elevator.
They rode to the lobby in silence. Once there, they split up, everyone nodding to one another. Out in the courtyard, Benny had to fight the urge to stop and stare at the alien rock above them. At the same time, he kept his hand in his pocket on the golden glove. Maybe it would prove to be useful again.
“Uh, guys,” Hot Dog said.
She pointed in the direction of the chrome fountain. On the other side of it, Todd and Mae were setting up what looked to Benny like a big cannon pointed at the top of the dome. Ricardo took one look at them and then bolted for the garage, Benny, Hot Dog, and Drue in tow.
The inside of the building was still lit up in red, thanks to the emergency lights overhead, and Dr. Bale was at the far end of the structure, feverishly going through trunks while arguing with the new Taj version of Pinky.
“Doctor,” she said, her voice lacking any emotion, “I’m not positive the dome can withstand many more of these power surges. It would be advisable to retreat to the lower—”
“I don’t care about your readings,” Dr. Bale shouted. He banged a fist against one of the tables, causing a few tools to fall to the ground, the metallic sound echoing through the garage. “I designed the polymer that’s underneath that force field of his, and I’m telling you it can withstand these aliens.”
“Doctor, the load-bearing—”
“I know about the load-bearing capabilities, Ms. Weyve.”
He caught sight of Benny and the others approaching, and tried to smooth down the back of his hair, which was sticking out in several directions.
“What is going on out there?” Ricardo asked, pointing toward the courtyard.
“Todd and Mae?” Dr. Bale raised an eyebrow. “I have them setting up some secondary Taj defenses. As soon as reinforcements arrive and break us out of this shell, they can take those weapons outside the dome and shoot down any lingering Alpha Maraudi ships.”
“We saw what’s out there,” Benny said. “It’s an entire fleet. There’s another mother ship.”
“How could you have possibly . . .” He turned to Pinky. “You were supposed to be keeping watch on them.” He swiped a screwdriver from the table and threw it at her. The tool passed through her body, bouncing off the wall of the garage.
“Are you listening to us?” Benny asked. “There is a giant, two-hundred-meter Alpha Maraudi ship outside the dome.”
“Yeah, and, like, a lot of tiny ships,” Drue added.
Dr. Bale looked at them in confusion for a moment, and then broke into a strange, bellowing laugh. “So, they’ve finally realized that we’re going to put up a fight. I suppose I have you and your asteroid storm to thank for that.” He sucked on his teeth. “No matter. When the committee sends their ships up, they’ll deal with the aliens. The particle beams I designed for them will tear the mother ship apart.”
“It’ll be hours before they get here,” Benny said. “We talked to them. Drue’s dad—Senator Lincoln is coming up here himself.”
Of all the things they’d said, this was what seemed to have struck a nerve in Dr. Bale. He tugged on his beard, his mouth hanging open for a second before his lips formed a sneer.
“Doctor,” Pinky said, “there’s something strange happening to my—”
“Shut up,” he said quietly. There was a brief moment of stillness before he slammed both his fists down on the table in front of him. “No. No, no. They think I can’t handle this, but I can. All my work, and they’re just going to take over—take it all away from me.”
A strange grating sound, like a rusted bolt being wrenched loose, filled the garage. The floor rumbled below them. Benny turned to look through the open door leading out into the courtyard just in time to see a rolling green energy wave surge across the Grand Dome.
“Pinky—your Pinky was just talking about the dome,” he said. “She said it might not hold up. What are we going to do if it breaks?”
“The dome won’t break,” Dr. Bale said, shouting each word. “I have faith in my work. More faith than any of you, or that abominable AI. More faith than anyone on Earth has in me apparently.” He began to walk over to his car—the Tank. “Do you think I was up here all this time doing nothing? Do you think I’m unprepared? No. I’m the savior of the entire human race. When history books are downloaded centuries from now, they will list me as the only reason there are still history books around at all. None of you get it. None of you ever have.”
“Whoa,” Hot Dog whispered. “Uh, maybe we should take a breath and—”
But Dr. Bale kept going. “Elijah gets all the credit for this place, for his vision, but what would have happened if he hadn’t had me working at his side? What good is a vision if you can’t put it into action?”
“Elijah created the hyperdrive technology that made Space Runners possible,” Ricardo said. “That made the force fields and environments here possible.”
“Maybe not the best time,” Drue muttered. “And that’s coming from me.”
Dr. Bale spun around, pointing a finger at Ricardo.
“You worthless kids, following him around like dogs, yapping at his heels. What do you know?”
“Hey,” Hot Dog said. “We’re the ones who went against Elijah and stopped that asteroid storm.”
“Ha,” Dr. Bale scoffed. “I could have stopped it myself. Would have stopped it.” He was across the garage now, standing beside the Tank. “And I’ll make sure they never get the chance to threaten Earth again. Whatever’s out there, we can handle. My weapons can handle.”
“Dr. Bale . . .” Benny said. “What kind of superweapon did you create?”
The man sneered for a moment. Then a smile spread across his face, showing off his teeth. “Buried in one of those craters is an electromagnetic fission bomb capable of destroying the Alpha Maraudi. Utter annihilation of their species. A weapon like the universe has never seen before. It’s brilliant.”
“Electro-what?” Hot Dog asked.
“You’re crazy,” Benny said.
“That’s what they always say about men of genius,” Dr. Bale said.
Ricardo took a few steps forward. “You think you’re so much better than Elijah, but you’re not doing this for Earth or for humanity. You’re just doing this for yourself, aren’t you?” He paused, taking a moment to look at Benny before turning his attention back to Dr. Bale. “You can’t just destroy an alien race. It makes us no better than them. They’re just looking for their Taj.”
Dr. Bale clenched the fingers on both his hands. “So you are a coward after all.”
“Doctor, I
—” Pinky started.
Her voice transformed into a low-pitched drone before she blinked out of existence.
Dr. Bale turned his attention to Benny and the others. He laughed once. “Well played. But if you think it will be easy to wrest back control of the resort’s AI, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“I think you underestimate the minds at work up here,” Ricardo said.
“Uh, Benny to Jazz,” Benny whispered into his collar. “Now would be a good time for Pinky to take control, I think? Maybe order some SRs around?”
“We’re working on it,” Jasmine said.
Dr. Bale opened the passenger door of his modified Space Runner.
“Don’t let him use a HoloTek!” Drue said.
Ricardo bolted at the man, but when Dr. Bale turned around, he wasn’t holding a datapad: instead, it was what looked to Benny like a rifle.
“Oh, no,” Benny murmured.
Ricardo put his hands up by his chest and took a few steps back.
“I know you’ve been running this place for a few days,” Dr. Bale said. “But from where I stand, it looks like you’re unarmed, and I’m the one holding a state-of-the-art plasma rifle. Now . . .” He narrowed his eyes, and it took Benny a second to realize he was looking past him, at Drue. As Dr. Bale brought the weapon up and rested it on his shoulder, he smirked. “Did I mishear, or did someone say earlier that you’re Senator Lincoln’s son? I wonder if he’d be so keen to take control of this operation if he knew I had you.”
Benny’s eyes went wide, and he was moving before he even realized it—stepping to the side and blocking Drue. “You may have lived on the dark side of the Moon for a few years, but I grew up in the Drylands. I’ve seen scarier stuff than you.”
“Benny,” Drue said from behind him. “Don’t.”
“You have a lot to learn, boy,” Dr. Bale said. “The Drylands are nothing. I’ve been living in a space suit for almost five years. Out there in the desolation.”
“Yeah,” Benny said. “With no one to talk to but yourself and two assistants. You’ve lost touch with the people you want to save.”
“Don’t do this, Dr. Bale,” Ricardo said.