The Moon Platoon. Jeramey Kraatz
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right?” Drue asked as he watched Benny shove his face against the car’s window. “I want a resort of my own like this one day. Built like a big L. No, no. All my initials. DBL spelled out across Jupiter.”
“Isn’t Jupiter mostly gas?” Benny whispered, not taking his eyes off the Taj.
“You know what I mean.”
The Space Runners lined up in five neat rows in the centre of the courtyard, near a big chrome statue of a hand reaching out of a pool of water, its fingertips almost grazing a solar system of gemlike planets orbiting it. Benny’s vehicle parked itself in the back corner. Once it had stopped and the doors unlocked, he took a second to catch his breath and then climbed out onto the inky black gravel. Ramona spilled out of the back seat, basically throwing herself onto the ground.
“Eagle has landed,” she whispered. “Environment stabilised. Stand by for system diagnostics.”
“Uhh …” Benny started, but she waved for him to leave her alone as she climbed into a sitting position, leaning against the side of the vehicle.
The other kids were exiting their Space Runners and gathering near the fountain in front of the resort. Benny hadn’t really met any of them back on Earth. In fact, half the Space Runners had taken off from different parts of the world and joined his group once they were already in flight. The scholarship winners came from all over the globe, sporting everything from shaved heads to waist-length braids woven with metallic thread, but they were all united in their awe of the resort in front of them.
Except maybe Drue, who pushed his floating travel bag around to the passenger’s side, stepped over Ramona’s legs, and put his hands on his hips.
“All right, let’s see what they’ve got lined up for us. I hope I’m on the top floor or else …”
His mouth hung open like he had something else to say, but no words came out.
“Drue, what are you—”
“Shhh, shh, shh, Benny,” Drue said, shaking his head and nodding forward.
It was only then that Benny realised Drue was looking at two girls unloading their Space Runner a few metres away from them. One was petite, with black hair cut into a short bob. The other girl was hoisting an overstuffed piece of luggage out of the back seat. A mountain of blond curls fell over her shoulders and added a few centimetres to her already impressive height.
“It just seems really … fragile,” the blonde said. “Like, I’m a little freaked out that some idiot is going to throw one of these rocks at it and then it’s bye-bye life because I’m sucked out into space.”
“The glass is really a secondary defence against the outside elements,” the other girl said. “Mostly for show. It’s not even glass, but a practically indestructible polymer created by Elijah and his researchers. Besides, if something did happen and the dome was breached, you’d need to be much more worried about all the oxygen getting sucked out, not you.”
The blonde girl frowned. “You’re not making me feel any better.”
Drue poked Benny with his elbow. “I think we just met our first Moon friend.”
“Let me guess,” Benny said. “The girl with the bag that looks like it’s about to explode?”
“Psh,” Drue scoffed, heading towards the girls. “Dream bigger, Benny.”
“Huh?”
But Drue was already several steps ahead of him. Benny followed, half because he didn’t know what else to do, and half because he figured there was a high probability that Drue was about to embarrass himself, and that he kind of wanted to see.
“Hey, there,” Drue said when he was just a couple of metres away from the girls. Both turned and stared back at him, confused. “I’m Drue Bob Lincoln.”
“I’m Jas—” the shorter girl began.
“Jazz.” He shoved his hand out. “That’s a cool name.”
She started to protest but he ignored her, turning to the blonde girl. “You?”
“Hot Dog,” she said flatly, raising one eyebrow and pursing her lips. “And you interrupted my friend here.”
The other girl glanced at Hot Dog as if surprised for a second, before turning back to Drue, her eyes penetrating, sizing him up.
“I didn’t mean to!” Drue said, flashing a smile at her. “Please, tell me more. Where’re you from?”
“My name is Jasmine,” she said. “Jasmine Wu. And, I’m sorry, did you say ‘Drue Bob Lincoln’? As in, the senator?”
Drue shrugged.
“Technically I’m Drue Bob Lincoln the third. The senator’s my father.”
Benny wasn’t exactly surprised about this news. It at least explained a lot of what Drue had said in the car. Neither of the girls seemed impressed, though, and as Drue winked at Jasmine, Benny wondered if it would be best to just slink away and abandon his travel mate.
“I noticed your necklace,” Drue continued, pointing to the gleaming silver charm around her neck, a stylised W breaking out of a triangle, with a small black diamond in the centre. It was the same design as the hood ornaments on the original Space Runners. “That …” Drue laughed a little, shaking his head. “What am I thinking? It’s not real, right? Elijah only had one hundred of those made for the original Space Runner engineers. I’ve been trying to track one down for years.”
Jasmine’s hand went up to the necklace, gripping it as she stared at Drue. “A senator’s son …” Her eyes narrowed a little. “You must be the reason there are a hundred and one of us and not a hundred,” she said. The look she gave Drue wasn’t a glare, exactly. More a combination of disappointment and disgust.
Drue straightened his back.
“I deserve to be up here just as much as you do,” Drue said.
“Right.” Hot Dog looked him up and down, nodding at his suit and floating luggage. “So you’re some rich kid senator’s son who decided he wanted a holiday. I hope you at least had to pay for your ride.”
Drue’s mouth hung open, but he didn’t seem able to form any actual words. As much as Benny was enjoying this, he thought he should introduce himself and maybe save Drue some face.
“Uh, I’m Benny. I was in the same Space Runner as Drue.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “That’s Ramona on the ground. I think. She’s … interesting. So, you’re Jasmine and … Hot Dog? That can’t be your real name, right?”
“Of course not,” Hot Dog said.
“Where’d you get the nickname?”
She tossed her hair.
“Get me behind the wheel of a Space Runner and you’ll find out for yourself.”
“Uh,” Jasmine said, gesturing behind Benny. “Guys?”
Benny turned to find a vehicle unlike any he’d ever seen shooting into the Grand Dome from the entrance tunnel. It was a deep, shiny crimson and had a body similar to that of the Space Runner he’d just been in, only thinner. There was something else weird about the car, too. None of the Space Runners Benny had ever seen used wheels. On Earth, they floated above the streets just as easily as they did through space. Since the hyperdrives inside altered gravity and provided propulsion, there was no reason to include tyres in the design, except those that stayed up inside the car’s body and were deployed only in emergencies. But the Space Runner speeding out of the entrance tunnel had three black spheres on the bottom – two in the back, one in the front – rolling over the ground.
And it was rocketing straight towards them.
“Look out,” Jasmine shouted, jumping back