Space Runners #4

by Jeramey Kraatz

  “There!” Drue shouted, finger smashing against the thick, clear polymer.

  It took Benny a moment to see what he was pointing at, but then there it was. A slash of purple against the black backdrop of space. It shot down so quickly he could barely follow it with his gaze, until it slammed into the crust of the Moon—a huge shard, almost as tall as the Taj and made up of the same purple mineral as the Alpha Maraudi stealth fighters.

  No wonder their radars hadn’t picked it up.

  Seconds later, another slammed into the ground, this time on the opposite side of Vala’s mother ship.

  “So . . . is that it?” Hot Dog asked.

  “Dude, he totally missed us,” Drue said.

  “Unless he wasn’t trying to hit the Taj,” Trevone said.

  “Zee,” Benny asked, pushing the alien to the front of the group, “what are we looking at here?”

  “Uhhh,” he wheezed. “I’m not really sure. It’s not explosive rock, but if Tull sent it, I’m guessing it’s probably something bad. Maybe there are soldiers inside? Or . . .”

  The first shard suddenly began to crumble, huge chunks of purple stone falling to the ground. And then, slowly but surely, something was revealed: a bronze-colored mass that glinted against the gray sea of the Moon’s surface, a cylinder of metallic scales.

  “Oh, no,” Zee whispered.

  “What?” half of them asked in unison.

  “Remember when we were on Tull’s ship and I told us not to cut through the room with the red door because it probably had dangerous animals inside as part of our plans to relocate all of Calam’s animals to Earth?”

  Benny watched as two silver arms shot from the front of this new object, jointed in the middle like the legs of a crab or insect. It propped the mass up, and Benny held his breath as he saw two blue, diamond-shaped eyes open. A long, thick, tentacle shot out from below them, whipping through the air. On the other side of Vala’s ship, another beast was emerging, one even larger than the first.

  “Okay,” Drue said. “So, they sent giant anteaters to kill us. We can deal with that, right? I was kind of expecting something scarier than tentacle noses.”

  “Don’t say that,” Hot Dog whispered.

  “Uh, those aren’t noses,” Zee said. “They’re tails.”

  “You mean those blue things aren’t eyes?” Benny asked.

  The alien gulped. “No. They are. They’ve got them on the back and the front.”

  Benny watched in horror as the creatures continued to evolve. There were six spiderlike legs in all that brought the monsters to their full height, at least three stories tall. And then one of the creatures turned toward the Taj, and Benny could see it in full view. There were three more burning eyes on its actual face, which was long and pointed, like the head of a snake. The beast seemed to look right at them as its face started to twist and unravel, until Benny realized that it was made up of tentacles as well, dozens of them. They flung out around the creature’s head as it seemed to roar silently, showing row after row of gleaming teeth that churned inside its wet, purple mouth.

  Beside him, Drue gulped. “I take back what I said.”

  8.

  Benny was almost too stunned to move. Of all the things they’d prepared for and the dangers he thought they might face, this was definitely not one of them.

  Make that, two of them.

  “What the heck are those things?!” Hot Dog shouted.

  “Bazers,” Zee said.

  “Bazers?” Benny’s mind raced. “Wait, you talked about those before. I thought you said you used to chase them around on Calam.”

  “I did! We do!” The alien shrugged. “But then they grow up.”

  “Why would you save something like this?” Hot Dog asked.

  “Who are we to decide what should live and die on our planet?” Zee asked. “Besides, in their first phases they’re an important part of our ecosphere and serve to help several plant species reproduce via—”

  “Never mind,” Hot Dog said, cutting Zee off. “How do we stop them?”

  The Bazers began to move, spindly legs carrying them swiftly across the Moon’s surface. They headed straight for the Taj; Benny had no idea how giant animals from the other side of the universe worked, but it seemed as though they knew the resort was their target.

  “Uhhh. That’s a great question. Their bodies are basically impenetrable, covered in thick scales that are constantly moving. They don’t have to breathe. I don’t know if they can swim . . .”

  “Not helpful,” Drue said.

  Pinky turned to Elijah. “Everyone is trying to contact you at once. And I do mean basically everyone in the Taj. How should I prioritize?”

  “Jasmine’s HoloTek,” Trevone said. “Get Pito on the line.”

  Elijah nodded in agreement

  “At least we’re pretty safe inside, right?” Drue asked. “They’re big, but, titanium alloy . . .”

  As if in response, one of the Bazers unwound its tentacled mouth, spewing forth a black substance that seemed to eat away at the Moon’s crust, causing a thick smoke to rise from the ground.

  “Well . . .” Zee said.

  “Why do you keep asking things like that and jinxing us?!” Hot Dog shouted at Drue, batting at his arm with every other word.

  “How was I supposed to know they were acid-spitting spider monsters!”

  Elijah turned to his desk, tapping away at it. “The EW-SCABers?” he asked.

  “Moving them to the basement levels,” Pinky said. “And I’ve got Jasmine—”

  A hologram appeared above Elijah’s desk. Jasmine stared back at them, Pito over her shoulder.

  “What is going on up there?” she asked. “Pinky said there are monsters outside?”

  “Bazers,” Zee said.

  “Bazers?” Pito asked. “Oh, dear.”

  “Exactly,” Benny said. “How do we stop them? We’ve got mining lasers and probably some plasma guns.”

  “I doubt they’ll do you much good,” Pito said. A tentacle scratched the side of his face.

  “How did Tull get them on board to begin with?” Trevone asked.

  “Oh, that’s simple. There’s a patch of flesh on their stomachs that’s unguarded, so on Calam, we secure them with rock and use the somu plant to put them to sleep. The thorns are tipped in an incredibly potent sedative. A single prick will put a Bazer—or anything else—out for days. Otherwise it’s harmless.”

  “Great, so we just need an alien plant,” Drue said. He glanced outside. “They’re getting closer.”

  “We do have several somu plants here,” Pito said.

  “Wha—?!” Hot Dog asked. “Perfect!”

  Benny clenched his teeth shut and groaned. “But it’s in the garden on Vala’s ship, right?”

  “Precisely.”

  “You guys should be glad he didn’t send a Triaga.” Zee said. He paused, and then lurched forward, half climbing onto Elijah’s desk. “Pito, Tull doesn’t have Triagas, does he?”

  The alien scholar shook his head. “Those were marked as third-wave arrivals.”

  “Time for a plan, guys,” Hot Dog said. “We’re not going to talk those things away.”

  “Pinky, give me a log of every vehicle we have available to us in the garage,” Elijah demanded.

  “You’re not going to like this,” the AI said as a short list appeared in the air in front of her.

  “Most of our cars are still in Vala’s ship,” Trevone said. “The rest we . . .”

  “We used to escape from the Taj in first place,” Benny said. “A lot of them got trashed.”

  Something zoomed past the window, and for a second Benny braced himself, waiting for some kind of alien being they hadn’t even seen to come crashing through, all teeth and claws and tentacles. But there was nothing.

  “What in the name of Ursa Major?” Elijah snapped.

  Another shadow flashed by, and this time Benny understood what it was. He shoved his face against the window, starin
g out as he watched two of the weaponized New Apollo Space Runners dart across the courtyard, weaving around each other in perfect harmony.

  “Incoming communications from two of the New Apollo cars,” Pinky said.

  Elijah nodded. “Put them on.”

  “Wait,” Trevone whispered beside Benny. “I know that formation.”

  “What the heck are these things?” Ricardo’s voice rang through the office.

  “Can we shoot the kaiju?” Kira followed up.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Elijah asked.

  “Most of the cars that New Apollo left behind are damaged, but a few are in good condition,” Ricardo said. “We figured we might need the firepower. Before Major Stokes got to them.”

  Kira laughed once. “No way he can outfly us.”

  Outside, the Bazer on the left noticed the ships and began beating its tail against the ground.

  “Stay away from their mouths,” Trevone said.

  “Pinky already told us,” Ricardo said. “Acid breath or something, right?”

  “Pinky!” Elijah shouted.

  “They were going to go whether I tried to talk them out of it or not. At least this way they’re prepared.”

  “Those Space Runners aren’t going to do anything,” Zee said. “The plasma bolts they shoot are crazy, but they can’t take down a Bazer.”

  “We can try,” Ricardo said.

  Benny watched as the two SRs looped around each other, golden bolts of energy raining down on one of the alien beasts. Dust and debris clouded the scene. It seemed as though nothing would survive a head-on assault like that, but Benny didn’t cheer. None of them did. They stood breathless, watching, until the Bazer came into view again. Between its six thick legs and the low gravity, the animal was able to leap twice as high as the Taj itself. It swung its tail through the sky like a sword as its body twisted. Ricardo or Kira—Benny wasn’t sure which—rolled out of the way at the last possible second before it batted them into space.

  “It doesn’t look hurt, just mad!” Ricardo shouted. “I don’t even think we knocked it down.”

  “Major Stokes and his remaining soldiers are arming themselves and heading toward the garage,” Pinky said. “There are a few of their SRs that can still fly. The rest will likely fight on foot.”

  “We’ll send them to Vala’s ship,” Elijah said. “They can retrieve this thorn Pito mentioned.”

  “No way,” Benny said. “Stokes and his men tortured some of the Maraudi. It would be a disaster to send him to the mother ship.”

  “He’s right,” Hot Dog said. “The last thing we need is for them to start fighting each other.”

  “Then I’ll go,” Elijah said. “You kids stay here.”

  “What?” Hot Dog asked.

  “You don’t actually get to command me,” Zee said. “I’m like a laundromat.”

  “Diplomat!” Drue shouted. “And I’m not just going to stand in here and watch you guys fight these dudes even though I really want to because I hate spiders.”

  “Major Stokes won’t listen to me,” Pinky said. “He’s called me several names I’d rather not repeat, most of which relate to the fact that I’m a computer program. He and his soldiers are going out to meet them in the courtyard.”

  “Look,” Benny said, “the Bazers are distracted by the Space Runners. If we can keep them that way, a few of us can sneak onto Vala’s ship and find these thorns. We’ll call ahead and get Griida or someone to be waiting with them. Elijah, Pinky: you talk to Major Stokes. Tell him what to do. Otherwise they’ll get themselves killed.”

  “I’m with you, Benny,” Drue said.

  “Same,” Hot Dog said. “Obviously.”

  Trevone nodded. “They’re right, sir.”

  “This is madness,” Elijah said. “I’m Elijah West! I can fly and talk at the same time. It’s called multitasking.”

  “This is the Lunar Taj,” Benny said. “You know every inch of it. If these things attack, you’ll know how to protect everyone. There’s still a resort full of EW-SCABers to think about.”

  Whether Elijah agreed or not, Benny wasn’t sure. But he did hesitate, and in that pause, Benny pulled the golden glove out of his pocket and slipped it on his right hand. “Let’s do this.”

  And then he was out the door, the others following him.

  “So what’s our plan?” Hot Dog said as they descended the stairs.

  “Good question,” Benny said. “Pinky, contact Vala’s ship. Figure out where we can get on board and have those thorns waiting for us, please. See if the Maraudi will fight, maybe.”

  “We need a way to expose their bellies or we don’t have a chance,” Trevone said.

  “Right. Get to the garage and find something to fly. You and Hot Dog work with the rest of the Pit Crew. See what you can come up with to knock these things over.”

  “There could be some stuff in the garage we can use to our advantage. We’ll make it work.”

  “Um, and what am I supposed to do?” Drue asked.

  Benny reached up and manually powered on his force field helmet as they approached the last flight of stairs. “You’re with me. We’ll take whatever we can find in the garage and zip over to the ship.”

  “Woo-hoo!” Zee said.

  Benny almost stopped in his tracks. He’d forgotten about the alien kid. “You stay here,” he said, but even as the words came out of his mouth, he knew they were useless.

  “I am not dying in some human hotel,” Zee said. “If nothing else, I’m going back to the ship.”

  Benny raised a hand in the air. “Fine,” he said. He didn’t have time to argue. They’d gathered at the door that led to the lobby, where the environment systems would no longer be engaged.

  “If I may,” Pinky piped through their collars, “there’s still quite a bit of refuse in the hallways to the garage that the others didn’t have time to clear. It’s a little more out in the open, but with the creatures distracted, your faster path would be to cut through the courtyard out front.”

  Benny took a deep breath, turning to the others behind him. “Okay, then. You guys ready?”

  They nodded.

  “Here we go,” Hot Dog whispered.

  They raced out into the lobby and down the steps of the courtyard as quickly as they could in the low gravity. Once on the gravel they fanned out, weaving around chunks of broken alien rock and divots in the ground. When another New Apollo ship shot out of the garage, they all ducked out of instinct before they were on their way again.

  Benny was going over a hundred different scenarios in his mind, thinking of all the ways this could go wrong, trying to focus on the ways it could go right. But how were they supposed to topple these giant beasts when the plasma bolts that could do so much damage didn’t even slow them down? What if they got to the Taj and started spraying that black goo on it? Would it eat through? Could they burn all the way down to the underground bunker? What if—

  And that’s when he tripped.

  Benny had no idea what he’d snagged his foot on, but pain ran through his ankle as he tumbled forward, the speed of his sprint causing him to sail toward the debris-covered gravel. He had just enough time to tuck his body into a ball before he hit the ground, rolling a few times, kicking up a cloud of dust and shimmering bits of polymer.

  “Benny!” Drue shouted as he skidded to a stop, bounding back to pull his friend up and toward the garage. “I refuse to let us die because you tripped over your own feet.”

  “It wasn’t that,” Benny tried to explain. “There was something . . .”

  That’s when he saw it. The dust was beginning to settle behind him, but several yards away, it was taking an odd shape, as though it were finding a home on something they couldn’t see. Something invisible.

  Something that still had one of Dr. Bale’s stealth drives engaged.

  Before he could speak, Drue was gasping, as though a hole had been drilled into his force field helmet.

  9.
/>   “Galaxicle!” Drue screamed, letting go of Benny. Benny was able to brace himself and get to his feet without falling back down, thanks mostly to the low gravity.

  Drue was at the Galaxicle in a flash, running his hands over the invisible exterior of the Space Runner/motorcycle hybrid they’d used to race through the Taj and across the courtyard back when Vala’s fleet was invading—and had promptly lost when they’d dropped it while one of Dr. Bale’s stealth drives was still attached.

  Across the courtyard, the Space Runners continued to shoot at the Bazers.

  “Drue, we don’t have time for—” Benny started, but realized he was wrong. What they didn’t have time for was to let Bazers get to the Taj. What they definitely did need was a way for them to get to Vala’s ship.

  Fast.

  Drue’s hands found the stealth drive and pressed something that Benny couldn’t see. Instantly, the yellow bike appeared on the ground. The two locked eyes and, wordlessly, Drue got the prototype upright and slid onto the long seat as Benny bounded toward it, eyes over his shoulder, watching the Bazers whip their tentacled faces and tails at the SRs. In seconds, he’d jumped on the back of the bike.

  Benny took a quick stock of the situation. Hot Dog and Trevone had made it inside the garage. A handful of New Apollo soldiers charged out of the Taj, plasma rifles in hand, heading straight toward the Bazer on the right, which was being attacked by one of their ships—Major Stokes at the helm, Benny assumed. On the opposite side of Vala’s ship, Ricardo and Kira circled the other creature, keeping its attention for the time being. But how long would it be before the mammoth beasts got bored with them and went after a larger, more stationary target?

  “Griida is harvesting the thorn and will meet you in the upper hangar,” Pinky said into his helmet. “If the Bazers go after the mother ship, they’re taking off, so I would hurry.”

  “And Vala’s soldiers?” Benny asked.

  “They won’t attack without their commander’s order.” She paused. “Their actual commander.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Zee said. He jumped onto the back of the bike, barely squeezing onto the edge of the seat. “They’re not super thrilled to even still be docked here where they lost a fight.”