Jeramey Kraatz - The Moon Platoon

“He’s seriously the most awesome guy in the universe,” Drue said. He shook his head a few times, like he couldn’t believe such a person really existed. “I mean, I only got to say a few words to him, but I feel like we made a connection. Did you know that after inventing the Space Runner, he took it out himself on a test run because he wanted to be able to say that he was the first person who drove a car into space, even though it was crazy dangerous? And when he was overseeing the building of the Lunar Taj, a bunch of businesses offered to give him a ton of money for a stake in it, but he spent his own fortune so he could have full control over the place? Also, did you know that he’s trying to figure out how to turn the rings of Saturn into a race track? That dude is cooler than anyone alive. Or dead, probably.” Drue let out a long breath and closed his eyes. “When I’m a trillionaire, I’m driving a different Space Runner every day.”

Benny caught his own reflection in the shiny black dashboard and realised that a huge, goofy grin had taken over his face. He was so close to the Taj. Soon, he was going to be walking on the Moon.

“So, it’s not weird being there, right?” he asked. “It just feels like Earth? Because I heard that one tiny hole in the Grand Dome around the Taj would mess up the pressure inside so badly that it could suck your brain out of your nose.”

Drue’s right eye cracked open, staring at Benny.

“Uh, not true. The artificial atmosphere isn’t that strong. Plus, the whole resort is actually encased in a gravity force field. Who told you that?”

Benny shook his head. “Actually, that might be something I told one of my dumb brothers to scare them. I spent a lot of nights this week telling them about imaginary space wars to get them to stop complaining about me getting to go on this trip.”

“You’ve got brothers?” Drue asked.

“Two, yeah. You?”

“None. I’m an only child.”

Benny was not surprised. He’d only known Drue a few hours, but he didn’t exactly seem like the sharing type.

“Probably pretty quiet around your house, then,” he said. “Not like mine.”

“Yeah,” Drue said. “My parents like it that way. It’s, you know, the first thing they tell new nannies. Or tutors. Or whoever. They don’t even like me to invite people over. If there were more Lincoln kids running around, we’d probably all end up at boarding school.”

As Drue spoke, his smug smile drooped into what was almost a frown. Benny was trying to figure out what question to ask next – as well as wrap his head around the fact that Drue had nannies and tutors while he was the one who was basically in charge of his brothers most of the time now that his dad was gone – when Drue groaned and let his head fall against the thick glass that separated him from the cold expanse of space.

“This is so dumb. I can’t believe my father made me leave all my gaming implants at home. What am I supposed to do for a whole five-hour trip to kill time?”

“I don’t know.” Benny offered, “Look at the stars?”

Drue rolled his eyes.

“I could do that at home. At least there I’ve got telescopes.”

Benny really wished he had that holographic spider.

As they neared hour five of their journey, Benny caught sight of a shining dot on the surface of the looming Moon: the Lunar Taj. His thumping heart might as well have been powered by a supercharged hyperdrive engine.

The Taj was not the only thing to blame for this. Benny was starting to worry that Drue might get them killed before they even landed.

“Maybe I can pry this loose and we can take this thing out for a real joyride,” Drue said through clenched teeth as he tried to wrench the Space Runner’s flight yoke out of its locked position.

“Uh …” Benny said. “Should you really be pulling on that?”

“Don’t tell me you’re scared.” Drue’s face was starting to turn red from exertion. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing. Don’t you want to be the first person to carve your name into the surface of Mars or something?”

“How would we do that?” Benny asked, but it was obvious that Drue wasn’t listening. He made a final desperate pull, only to end up losing his grip and crashing back into the pilot’s seat.

There was a heaving sound from behind them.

Benny had almost forgotten the third member of their party. He and Drue turned, peeking over their headrests at the girl in the back seat. Her freckled skin had an almost greenish cast to it.

“Hey,” Benny said. “Are you OK?”

“Negative, flyboy,” the girl replied in a chirping, clipped tone. She put her hands on the back of her head, burying her fingers in the reddish-blond hair that was pulled off her forehead with what looked to Benny like a piece of twisted silver wire. “Girl down. Out of commish. Max sploitz.”

Drue cocked his head to one side. “Are we sure that’s English?”

“Sounds like she’s talking in robot,” Benny said.

“Newbz,” the girl muttered.

Her suit said “Robinson”, but her first name was Ramona. Or at least, Benny was pretty sure that was right. She’d been jabbering quite a bit before take-off, not to him or Drue but to the various electronics she’d brought with her. Benny thought her accent was British, but based on the gibberish she spouted he couldn’t be sure. Since blast-off, though, Ramona had hardly said a word. As far as Benny could tell she’d spent most the flight with her head between her knees, braced for a crash landing.

There were only supposed to be a hundred EW-SCAB winners. Benny’s invitation had said so. Yet when the transport dropped him off at the launch site earlier that morning and he saw the rows of fifty shining Space Runners for the first time, the adults in charge mentioned that there would actually be a hundred and one kids going to the Moon. Benny had been assigned to the vehicle with an extra kid in it. As he watched Ramona reach for a sick bag with shaking hands, he worried that his Space Runner assignment and the missing spider were bad omens for what the rest of his visit to the Moon was going to be like.

Drue leaned closer to Benny. “If she pukes, I’m flushing her out of the emergency airlock.”

Benny chuckled until he heard Ramona groan while wrapping her arms around her stomach. Then, feeling a little bad for her, he turned back around in his seat. In front of them, the Moon was getting larger by the second. Drue tapped on a few of the dashboard displays. Benny watched his fingers fly over the screens, adjusting the cabin lights and air-conditioning. He seemed right at home in the Space Runner.

“No point in going back to sleep, I guess,” Drue said. “We’re only a few minutes from descent.”

“Have you done sims for this or something?” Benny asked.

Drue shrugged.

“I have a few, but I never play them. My father has one of the first Space Runner models, so I’ve ridden around in it a little bit. They’re pretty easy to handle once you get out of the atmosphere.”

Benny’s forehead scrunched up as he considered this, trying to figure out how someone whose family owned a Space Runner ended up winning an EW-SCAB. Perhaps Drue was just lying about his previous visit to the Taj and everything else. Or maybe he was a spoiled kid who lived in a shining tower in one of the luxury buildings for the richest of the rich that had sprung up when the cities began to be overrun with drought refugees.

“So, what was your application vid like?” Benny asked, thinking this might get him some answers. “Why do you think Elijah picked you?”

Drue shrugged. “I bet he saw some of himself in me. An adventurer. Brave, smart – a young Elijah! What about you?”