Spaced Out

by Stuart Gibbs

“Why would one family need huge houses all over the world? It sounds like a tremendous waste of precious resources.”

  “Yes,” I agreed, feeling kind of ashamed about humanity. “It is. But that’s how things work on earth. The more money you have, the fancier your life is.”

  “And the fancier your life is, the happier you are?”

  “That’s kind of the idea.”

  “But you think that might not be true.”

  “Well, we all definitely need to make money to live back on earth. But my family doesn’t have a whole lot and we’re pretty happy. While the Sjobergs have tons and they seem miserable all the time. That might only be because they’re stuck here, but I’m not sure.”

  Zan nodded, trying to get her mind around all this. It made me wonder what life was like on her planet. How different was it from earth? How did they get by without money? Did they trade? Did they even have jobs? Hundreds more questions occurred to me, but I didn’t have the time to ask a single one. Chances were, Zan wouldn’t answer them anyhow.

  “So,” Zan said, “you believe that Nina might have taken all these risks solely to earn a great deal of money.”

  “That’s the only explanation anyone can come up with for the moon rocks in her room.”

  “I always got the impression from you that Nina wasn’t one to break the rules.”

  “That’s what I thought about her. And everyone else did too. We’re all pretty shocked about this.”

  “There’s no other reason she might have taken these actions?”

  “Maybe, but I don’t know what it is. And neither does anyone else. Whatever the case, it seems she’s definitely out on the surface somewhere.”

  Zan frowned again.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “It’s hard to describe. It has to do with the feeling I got from her.”

  “Did you sense that someone had tried to hurt her?”

  Zan looked at me curiously. “You mean, like this was another murder attempt?”

  I got the feeling she was judging all of humanity. “Er . . . maybe.”

  “I can’t tell if she was hurt or not. Only in danger. And when I sensed her, it didn’t seem like she was out there, on the surface.”

  “So where is she, then?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t explain it, other than that it was dark.”

  “Like how? Did she fall into a hole or something?”

  “Not exactly.”

  I sighed. “It’d be much more helpful if you could tell me where she is rather than where she’s not.”

  “I’m doing my best.”

  “Well, try harder. Can’t you try to sense her again?”

  “That’s much more difficult than you realize.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m transmitting my thoughts over trillions of miles of space,” Zan snapped. “Does that sound easy to you?”

  “No,” I conceded. “Sorry. I’m just frustrated.”

  “I am too.”

  “Is there anything else you can tell me about Nina?” I asked.

  Zan sighed. She looked very sad, even a bit embarrassed about her inability to help. “Perhaps I can try once more, although I can’t promise anything. . . .”

  There was a sudden shout from outside the bathroom. It was Kira, and she sounded like she was upset about something.

  What now? I thought. Then I told Zan, “I’ll be right back,” and raced out the door.

  The Sjobergs had made an appearance. It was the entire family this time: Lars and Sonja had finally emerged from their suite, along with Patton and Lily. It was the first time I’d seen the adult Sjobergs in days. Like their children, they were both extremely blond and so pale-skinned, it seemed that they had never been in the sun. Lars had the build of an athlete who’d gone to seed: He was big and strong, but now he’d grown a few extra chins and his large belly strained against his shirt. Sonja had undergone so many plastic surgeries, it was hard to imagine what she’d looked like before. Her whole face appeared to be cobbled together from spare parts, some of which weren’t even human. Her lips, for example, were so enormous they might have been swiped from a chimpanzee. On their own, each bit of her face—her eyes, nose, chin, and so on—might have been beautiful, but mixed together, they were unsettling. To make matters worse, the Sjobergs didn’t merely look scary; they were scary. They were the meanest people I’d ever met in my life, and as usual, they were up to no good.

  They had entered the greenhouse. Lars and Sonja were hungrily inspecting the ripe strawberries and tomatoes, while Patton and Lily had stationed themselves at the door to keep everyone else out.

  At any other time, the Sjobergs would never have done such a thing. The other adults wouldn’t have let them get away with it. But now, the Sjobergs obviously figured they could bully us kids out of the way.

  Kira was taking a stand, though. “Get out of there!” she shouted. “That food is for all of us!”

  “This food is a mere fraction of what we deserve,” Lars snarled through the glass. “We paid a half billion dollars to come up to this horrible place. The rest of you came for free! It is only right that we are entitled to more rewards than you.”

  Zan had emerged from the bathroom with me. She stood beside me, staring angrily at the Sjobergs. I didn’t know if she was actually feeling anger toward them or if she was merely sensing mine and reacting.

  Meanwhile, Roddy was unchivalrously backing away from Kira, trying to indicate to the Sjobergs that he wanted no part of this. “You have a good point,” he told them.

  “Roddy,” I said. “Go get your father.”

  “Right!” he agreed, glad for the excuse to leave the room. In his haste to go, he stumbled over his own feet and caromed off the wall.

  Inside the greenhouse, Lars and Sonja were taunting us, making a show of slowly plucking the ripest strawberries. Sonja selected the biggest one, held it up to her nose, and inhaled deeply. “Oh my. It smells delicious.”

  Kira looked to me, expecting me to do something.

  I gave it my best shot. “You know what’s going to happen when the others come back and find out you’ve done this?” I asked. “They’ll beat the crap out of you.”

  “I highly doubt that,” Lars said. “And they couldn’t possibly come up with any punishment worse than keeping us here. So we might as well take what we rightfully deserve.”

  Sonja bit into the strawberry, then groaned with pleasure. Juice trickled down her surgically enhanced chin. “Oh, Lars,” she gasped. “It’s delicious.”

  A nice person would have at least offered to share with her family. Instead Sonja simply wolfed the rest of the strawberry down in front of them.

  “Hey!” Lily yelped. “Save some for us!”

  “Don’t worry, princess,” Sonja cooed. “There’s plenty for us all.” Then she plucked a few more berries for herself.

  Lily and Patton obviously didn’t trust their mother to save anything for them, so they abandoned their post at the door to plunder the strawberries as well. Each grabbed a handful and gobbled them down without any self-control at all.

  Meanwhile, Lars picked a strawberry for himself, looked right through the glass at us, and sank his teeth into it, the same way a shark would attack a seal.

  My stomach growled in protest. It had been a month since I’d last had a piece of fresh fruit, and watching the Sjobergs devour what we’d been waiting so long for was torturous.

  “Chang won’t care about the rules,” I said. “And Nina’s not here to hold him back. When he finds out about this, he’ll go ballistic on you.”

  “What’s to say he’ll even think we did this?” Lars asked, pointedly chewing his strawberry. “Maybe he’ll think you little gremlins did it.”

  “No, he won’t,” I said. “He knows how horrible you guys are.”

  Saying something like that wasn’t the best move around the Sjobergs. They all swung toward me, glaring angrily. Each had strawberry juice dripping from their mouth,
which gave them the unsettling appearance of a group of carnivores that had been interrupted in the midst of devouring a carcass.

  Patton’s glare was even more devilish than the others’. I’d forgotten he had a score to settle with me. The faint outline of the Urinator suction cup could still be seen on his face.

  “If anyone here deserves a pounding,” he said, “it’s you. In fact, I owe you one.”

  If I’d ever threatened anyone like that, my parents probably would have dressed me down. The Sjobergs seemed pleased by the idea. Sonja’s eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s right!” she exclaimed. “You do!”

  “You swore to me you wouldn’t retaliate for that!” I told him.

  Patton ignored me and looked to his mother for approval. “Can I get him, Mother? Can I?”

  Sonja’s juice-stained chimp lips curled into a sneer. “Of course, darling. Show him that no one insults the Sjobergs and gets away with it.”

  “All right!” Patton crowed eagerly. “But you’d all better save me some strawberries.” And then he stormed out of the greenhouse, coming for me.

  Excerpt from The Official Residents’ Guide to Moon Base Alpha, “Appendix A: Potential Health and Safety Hazards,” © 2040 by National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  RUNNING

  Given the low gravity of the moon, running can be very difficult. It is harder to control yourself, to make tight turns, or to stop your momentum should you find something in your way. In addition, MBA has many people living in a relatively contained space, not to mention various robots and other machinery moving about. Sudden contact with any of these things—or even the thick walls—could cause serious harm or injury. To that extent, it is advised that lunarnauts not run through MBA except in cases of extreme emergency. Not only is walking safer, but it doesn’t even take that much more time. Since MBA is rather compact in size, running from one side to the other will only save you a few seconds, at most. Are a few seconds worth hurting yourself or someone else? Of course not. So take care . . . and slow down.

  DESPERATE TIMES

  Lunar day 217

  High noon

  “Dashiell! Run!” Kira ordered. And then, just in case I didn’t understand, she grabbed my hand and yanked me down the hall.

  “Go get him!” Sonja ordered Patton, while Lars and Lily cheered him on enthusiastically.

  Patton obediently chased after us.

  Kira and I loped through the base as quickly as we could in our bizarre, low-gravity way. On a normal day, I might have yelled for help, but all the other adults were out on the lunar surface—except Dr. Marquez, who wouldn’t have been able to defend me against a butterfly. Luring Patton back into the bathroom and making another attempt to suck his face off with the Urinator didn’t seem likely; the only other thing I could think of was to get to my residence, lock the door, and pray Patton wasn’t strong enough to break it down.

  In the meantime, while I fled, I tried to reason with the bully. “Come on!” I yelled. “I’m sorry for using the Urinator on you. I was only trying to defend myself. I never would have done it if you hadn’t attacked me first!”

  “Know what I’m gonna do when I catch you?” Patton roared. “I’m gonna shove your whole head down the toilet!”

  So much for reason.

  Kira and I bounded past the gym, the medical bay (which I hoped I wouldn’t be needing soon), and the rec room. Violet and Kamoze were so riveted to Squirrel Force, they didn’t even notice us go past. “Go SuperSquirrel!” I heard Violet cheer. “Save the day!”

  I couldn’t tell where Patton was behind me—I didn’t want to chance looking back—but his guttural grunts and screams seemed to be getting closer. It sounded like I was being chased by an animal rather than a human.

  Normally, to get to my second-floor room, I would have pulled a U-turn in the air-lock staging area and climbed the stairs to the catwalk, but today that seemed way too slow. I glanced at Kira and realized she had the same idea.

  Both of us launched ourselves at the outer wall of the rec room and sprang off it. The moon’s low gravity might suck for running, but you can make some superhero-style moves in it. Kira and I both sailed up through the air across the hall and caught the catwalk rail. We were right by the doors to our rooms. Kira sprang over the rail with ease and I followed. . . .

  Only, Patton lunged upward and snagged my foot right before it cleared the railing, then dragged me back down. He lost his footing, though, and fell flat on his back. I landed right on top of him. I was hoping I’d at least hit hard enough to hurt him. Instead I landed so softly, I might as well have been a bag of potato chips.

  Patton clamped his meaty hand around my neck.

  “No!” Kira screamed. “Let him go!”

  Patton’s reptile eyes flicked toward Kira, then narrowed evilly. Still looking at her, he did exactly the opposite of what she’d asked, squeezing my neck tightly.

  I gasped for breath, but found none.

  Above me on the catwalk, I heard Dr. Marquez emerge from his room along with Roddy.

  “Dr. Marquez!” Kira cried. “Make him stop!”

  For a brief moment, I wondered if maybe Dr. Marquez wasn’t so useless after all.

  And then, Dr. Marquez, displaying his standard inability to grasp what was going on in any situation, demanded, “Dashiell, get off Patton right now! You’re going to hurt him!”

  I scrabbled at Patton’s fingers, trying to pry them off my neck, but he was too strong. I began to see spots as my oxygen deprivation got worse.

  Kira realized Dr. Marquez wasn’t going to be any help and came to the rescue herself. She leaped back off the catwalk, landed beside Patton, and dug her nails into his scalp, yanking back hard enough to uproot tufts of his hair.

  Patton howled with pain and released his grip on me. I sprang back from him, slamming into the door of Dr. Janke’s residence. I knew it wasn’t very cool to let Kira fight for me, but at the moment, all I could do was desperately gulp air.

  Patton sprang to his feet and lashed out an arm, catching Kira in the chest. Since Patton was twice her size, he sent her flying across the hall, where she crashed into the wall of the rec room, whacked her head, and then crumpled to the floor, out cold.

  The bully then spun back on me. Kira had furrowed his forehead with her fingernails, so there were now slashes of red over his eyes, making him seem even more evil than usual. He was seething with anger now, glaring at me with such hatred that I feared he might actually kill me.

  I tried to back away, but there was no place to go. And I was still reeling from nearly being choked to death.

  Patton lurched toward me.

  “Dashiell!” Zan yelled. “Brace yourself!”

  I didn’t see where she was when she said this. Probably because she wasn’t actually anywhere to see. She was inside my head, speaking to me without expending the energy to display an image of herself.

  “I’m about to break the rules here,” Zan warned. “Don’t be afraid.”

  Patton cocked back a fist.

  Something erupted through the floor between us. Cement and shards of tile spewed into the air, although I couldn’t feel any of them because they didn’t really exist. They were simply an image projected into my mind—and given Patton’s startled reaction, his mind as well.

  The creature that had burst through the floor was absolutely horrifying. It was moving so quickly, I didn’t get a great view of it, but it appeared to be the worst parts of every nightmare creature combined, an unnerving combination of teeth, scales, tentacles, and slime. And I was only seeing its backside. The business end was reserved for Patton.

  The creature hissed in Patton’s face. A frill around its head flared out, the same way a cobra’s would, only this one appeared to be lined with claws.

  Patton’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. His face drained of what little color it normally had. He screamed in terror and sprang so far backward, he slammed into the wall by Kira. A big wet spot blo
ssomed in his pants as he peed himself in fear.

  The alien creature slithered out of the hole toward him. It was long and snakelike, with stubby clawed legs, like an enormous, terrifying centipede.

  For a moment, Patton was so discombobulated, he kept backpedaling into the wall, as if hoping to plow through it to escape. His scream became a long, high-pitched wail, and then, finally, his brain clicked into gear. He ran as fast as he could, bounding through the staging area and disappearing back around the corner toward the greenhouse, gibbering the entire way.

  A moment later, the alien creature vanished. So did the hole it had come from. The floor looked exactly as it always had. There was no indication that anything had happened at all, save for Patton’s whimpering in the distance and the large puddle of urine he’d left behind.

  Dr. Marquez leaned over the catwalk above and stared down at me accusingly. “What did you do to him?” he demanded.

  “What did I do to Patton?” I asked, incredulous. “Nothing! Did you see what he was about to do to me? He was trying to kill me!”

  “You must have done something,” Dr. Marquez said, sounding like he actually thought I was the troublemaker here. “He didn’t run off like that for no reason.”

  “Maybe he ran off because he realized he shouldn’t mess with me.” Still feeling shaky, I wobbled across the hall to check on Kira.

  She sat up as I approached, rubbing her head groggily. “What happened?” she asked. “Where’s Patton?”

  “He won’t bother us again for a while,” I told her. “Maybe forever. Are you all right?”

  Kira touched the back of her head, then winced in pain. “I’ve got a lump. I think I blacked out for a bit.”

  “Only a couple seconds,” I told her. “But yeah, you did.” I knelt and looked into her eyes. All Moonies, even the kids, had emergency medical training on a regular basis, so I knew how to recognize the signs of a concussion. Thankfully, her eyes weren’t dilated. “Do you feel dizzy or anything?”

  “No,” Kira replied, “I feel angry. How’d we get stuck on the moon with the biggest jerks in the universe?”