The Moon Platoon

“Nah,” Benny said. “What would I do when it’s just super-rich people at the resort all the time? Besides, my family’s back on Earth.”

Drue let out on laugh. “You’re nuts, man. But it’s probably for the best. I’ve got a lock on that spot.”

Benny leaned back in his seat, ignoring Drue. What would his family be doing without him, in their dirt-covered RV? His brothers were probably wrestling in one the bedroom in the back, that was barely big enough for a mattress, while his grandmother drove or worked on another of the multicoloured quilts she was always putting together in order to make their little home feel cosier. He hated to think of their cramped house on wheels while he was hurtling towards the most luxurious resort in the solar system, but he reminded himself for the hundredth time that day that he shouldn’t feel bad about it. After all, when he returned to Earth in two weeks, things would be different for all of them. They’d stop scavenging for water and resources and move into an apartment. They’d have space. They could have their own rooms. Maybe he’d even have enough money for an entire house. Maybe a place with enough land that the dozens of vehicles that made up their caravan could camp on the lawn.

Drue pressed more buttons on the Space Runner’s dash, changing the music. “This model does not have the upgraded sound package,” he muttered. “Weak.”

The Space Runner suddenly jerked and began to slow, causing a tingle to run from the top of Benny’s spine down into his gut and Ramona to pop up in the back seat, bracing herself as best she could.

“Error, error,” she murmured.

“What did you do?” Benny asked Drue.

“It’s so your first time in one of these.” Drue smirked. “We’re just slowing down for the final descent. You nervous?”

“Not at all,” Benny lied.

“It’s only the Moon,” Drue said, putting his hands behind his head. “Trust me: by the end of the second week you’ll be hoping for an alien invasion to keep things interesting.”

“Now that would be a story to take back to my brothers,” Benny said. “Maybe the news is wrong and there is intelligent life out there.”

It had been a decade since a deep space probe had found what scientists believed to be an abandoned alien outpost on Pluto. A few rock samples and tools were brought back to Earth by a collection bot, but it was widely believed by scientists that the place had been empty for millennia. Still, Benny reckoned that in the whole wide universe, there had to be other forms of life.

“Actually, I hope we’re the only smart species,” Drue said. “If not, then it’s only a matter of time before all the aliens out there on sad planets figure out that the Taj is the nicest place in the galaxy. Then it’ll be really hard to get into.”

Benny snorted. “True. I’ll be happy catching air in Moon buggies and exploring craters. And if I do somehow get bored, I’ll just pull some pranks with the voice modulator I brought with me from home.” At least his brothers hadn’t swiped that, too.

“Voice modulator, huh? Old school. But I can see where it could be fun.” Drue flashed a set of perfect white teeth. “Benny, I think you and I are going to get into a lot of trouble together.”

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The Lunar Taj was a brilliant red palace adrift in a sea of grey. From space, the five-hundred-suite compound looked like a W, the top of which butted up to a dark section of the lunar surface that Benny had read was called the Sea of Tranquillity. A tower rose from the centre of the building – the middle peak of the W. Huge, scalloped sheets of gold topped it, all layered over one another, as if the building was crowned in a fireball frozen mid-explosion. It was a popular rumour that this was where Elijah West’s private quarters were located because the man refused to sleep at a lower elevation than anybody else, though Benny wasn’t sold on this particular story. He liked to think that Elijah was the same kind of person his father had been – just much, much richer. His father had slept on the floor of the RV or sometimes on the ground outside, letting his boys take the one big bed in the back and Benny’s grandmother have the mattress in the alcove above the driver’s seat. He was the kind of guy who wouldn’t close his eyes for days if it meant that other people in the caravan could get some rest, and would chase the wildest leads in search of water, never giving up hope that tomorrow would be better. Always looking for an oasis in the desert.

Benny tried to live his life in the same way, believing that the future held great things for him and his family if they just worked hard enough. The EW-SCAB was kind of like their own unexpected oasis, he reckoned.

Inside the Space Runner, Drue pointed to a long chrome tunnel jutting out from one side of the transparent dome that was barely visible around the Taj.

“That’s where we’re headed,” he said. “And there’s another, smaller entry tunnel coming out of the garage – that building.”

He motioned towards a shiny cube beside the Taj that looked like a full stop next to the W.

“You should maybe brace yourself,” he continued. “This part can get kind of bumpy.”

Benny glanced back at Ramona, who made a noise that was part gasp, part burp as she tightened her seat belt around her waist. He clenched his jaw and tried to put on a brave face, partly to make her feel less afraid and partly to trick himself into not being concerned about turbulence or what landing would be like. He was good at that. In his twelve years on Earth, he’d made sure that his little brothers had never seen him look frightened or worried, even once. Even when they were running short on water or having trouble finding a part to get their RV running again. He’d become pretty good at pretending everything was always OK. It was only after his family had gone to sleep that he’d let himself be afraid of anything.

Through his window, Benny watched as the fleet of Space Runners holding the other EW-SCAB winners began to drift towards one another. They were definitely the shiniest cars Benny had ever seen, the outside made of a silver metal so polished and reflective that it almost looked as though they were comets flying through space. They continued to slow in speed, until eventually they stopped moving completely about a mile above the Moon’s surface.

“Ugh,” Drue said, reclining. “This is the worst part.”

Benny had just enough time to wonder if they’d stalled before all the vehicles were diving forward, heading towards the silvery tunnel. Benny gasped, goosebumps prickling all over his body as they sped towards the Moon’s surface. It looked to him like they were going to plough right into the ground. Fortunately, the Space Runners were precision vehicles, and just when Benny was sure they’d crash, the cars all pulled up, changing flight patterns like a flock of silver birds, until they floated a mere metre above the rock below as they raced into the tunnel connecting them to the Lunar Taj.

From the outside, the entrance had looked like nothing more than a long, shining chrome hallway. Inside, however, the walls were awash with a rainbow of colour, casting a kaleidoscope of reflections all over the Space Runner and its interiors.

“This is incredible …” Benny murmured as he held out his hands and watched the colours run over them.

Suddenly Benny’s gut felt like it was twisting into knots. He wrapped his arms around his stomach and leaned forward. That’s when his ears popped, and the roar of the vehicles vibrated in his head, escalating until Benny thought he could actually feel the sound.

Ramona let out a worried gurgle from the back seat.

“We’re entering the pressurised zone,” Drue said, stretching his jaw. “Don’t worry. We’re almost through already.”

Suddenly the colours and the roar were gone, and the Space Runners sped into the Taj’s courtyard: the Grand Dome. One by one the cars circled in front of the resort, giving Benny his first real look at where he’d spend the next two weeks. His eyes darted about, trying, impossibly, to take in everything at once. The Lunar Taj had looked like a W from space, but up close it was something else entirely, a playground of light and colour and shiny surfaces. The building itself was built out of a dark, gleaming red metal. Gold stairs led up to the chrome front doors, which were three metres tall, at least. The windows, too, were outlined in glittering metals. In fact, it seemed to Benny as if everything was ablaze with light, from the tower roof with its blooming sheets of gold to the spotlights casting projections of star systems onto the sides of the building, as if the resort itself were a secret galaxy all its own. On the ground, plants of unnatural colours blossomed in bejewelled pots: palm trees with electric blue fronds, metallic roses, shrubs made of neon.

The sight of the Lunar Taj was enough to cause him to forget about the popping in his ears and spinning in his stomach. In the back seat, Ramona muttered a string of indecipherable exclamations as she stared out at the sparkling building.

“Impressive, 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.”