The Dark Side of the Moon

There was a beeping in his room, and then Pinky’s voice.

“May I have a word?”

“Uh, sure,” Benny said.

The AI appeared in front of him.

“Benny …” She paused for a moment. “I don’t disagree with the choices you’re making right now. In fact, I think you’re doing everything in your power to try to figure out the problem of the Alpha Maraudi. But that’s the issue. I’ve been monitoring your heart rate, and I’m a bit concerned that you might be pushing yourself too hard. I don’t want you to burn out. There’s nothing wrong with taking a break and trying to relax.”

“Relax?” Benny asked. “How am I supposed to relax? If anything, we’re not moving fast enough. What if the aliens are already on their way back to the Earth? What if they’re on the Moon. What if at any moment—”

“You aren’t making me feel any better.” Her expression softened as she put her hands on her hips. “I know a lot about you, Benny. All your background information and application materials are stored on my servers. I’ve watched you rally the kids here and lead them to victory. I can’t imagine how tough that’s been. I know …” She sat down on the bed beside him. “I know you’re worried about your family. Alejandro. Justin. Your grandmother. The rest of your caravan. But you have to take care of yourself, too.”

“There’s just so much going on,” Benny said, staring down at the shining metal on his palm. “How do I know if what we’re doing is going to work or help us at all?”

“You don’t. In the same way Elijah didn’t know if his first Space Runner prototype would fly. And you didn’t know if you could stop the asteroids. Sometimes you have to just believe in yourself and take a leap of faith.”

“I’m pretty sure Elijah did a million tests on the Space Runner before he took it out. And it’s not like we were flying blind up there earlier. We had all your charts and graphs and had tested some of the lasers ourselves.”

“Benny, I’m trying to comfort you here, and as a holographic facsimile with no physical body, you’re going to have to work with me a little on this.”

He snorted, and then took a deep breath.

“Is there anything else I can do or say to make this easier?” Pinky asked.

Benny looked over at her. “Do you really think Elijah’s alive? I know you said so in the thing you sent out, but …”

Pinky stood and took a few slow steps away from him. “I don’t know,” she said. She turned to the screen that made up the wall across from Benny’s bed. Suddenly, videos of Elijah filled the space. He jetted across lunar mares in souped-up muscle cars. He winked at the camera while waving to Taj guests. In a smaller video in the background, he presented what must have been the real Pinky with a bouquet of shiny chrome roses. The AI smiled a sad smile. “But, despite all the mistakes he made, I really hope he is.”

“Yeah,” Benny said. “Me, too.”

Pinky shook her head. The screen went black again. “Jasmine and Hot Dog are already down in the garage. You don’t want to keep your friends waiting.”

“Right,” Benny said. “And, uh … thanks, Pinky.”

“You were right in your application video, you know. You already have changed the world. I have the most advanced processing power of any computer known to man, and there’s no scenario my processors can run in which your father wouldn’t be beaming with pride at your accomplishments.”

And then she was gone.

Benny took one last look at his hand before pulling off the golden glove and shoving it into the pocket of his space suit. Then, he took a deep breath and headed for the door.

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Everyone else was in the garage by the time Benny made his way down. The warehouse-like building hadn’t changed much since the first time Benny had seen it a week before: a ceiling of bright white light reflected off the dark, polished floors, and the acrid scents of electronics and oil hung heavily in the air. Almost all the classic cars that had been retrofitted as Space Runners or Moon buggies had been hidden away underground by the McGuyvers – the solar system’s best mechanics – just in case the asteroid storm had managed to break through the Taj’s defences. The only vehicles left were the ones they’d attached mining lasers to and flown into space earlier that day. Those Space Runners sat in neat lines on one side of the room, some blackened and scorched by enemy fire. On the other side, Jasmine chatted with Pinky and Ash McGuyver while Hot Dog catalogued the contents of a supply box in front of her. Off to the side, Drue sat in a chair with his arms crossed and lips pressed together in a sulk. Bo McGuyver, a huge, hulking man, stood over him, staring down at Drue over the bridge of his crooked nose while wiping his greasy hands on the front of his coveralls.

“I told you, I’m not going to touch anything I’m not supposed to!” Drue said. Bo remained silent. “Do you even know who I am? Who my dad is? I’m a Lincoln. We are very important on Earth.” As Benny walked by, Drue perked up. “Hey, tell him it’s OK for me to be here!”

Before Benny could answer, Jasmine’s voice rang through the garage. “Yes! Here!”

Benny raised a finger to Drue. “One sec.”

Drue huffed but stayed seated as Benny made his way to the huddle. “Tell me you’ve got some good news,” he said.

“Jasmine thinks she’s figured out where this Bale guy might be hiding out,” Hot Dog said. “So much for Elijah being the smart one.”

“Well, maybe,” Jasmine said. “And I’m sure Elijah could have found him if he’d actually tried to. From everything Pinky and Trevone mentioned, it sounds like a reunion with Dr Bale wasn’t a big priority to him.”

“True,” Pinky said. “I think he’d rather have forgotten the man ever existed.”

“Anyway, I looked at places where it seemed like he’d been camping based on evidence the Pit Crew or Elijah came across while exploring. Which, honestly, is mainly just a few footprints and Space Runner landing marks. Dr Bale and his team did a great job of cleaning up after themselves.”

She pulled on one chrome corner of her HoloTek to extend it and then held it up to Benny, showing him a map of the far side of the Moon with several yellow dots on it.

“I think he was hiding in the Daedalus crater for a while, but given when the footprints were discovered and factoring in the amount of time it would have taken to get to Hot Dog and leave her supplies after she went down, this might be his movement pattern.” She tapped on the screen and blinking lines connected the dots. “Fortunately, he’s heading closer to us.”

“Yeah,” Hot Dog said, pointing to the dot on the left side of the HoloTek. “Turns out there was some kind of energy ping around here right after I got shot down and before you guys found me.”

“It was just before our satellites were destroyed,” Pinky said. “The energy signature was comparable to that of a hyperdrive engine.”

“I’d suggest we search this group of mares,” Jasmine continued, gesturing to a spot on the map. “It’s actually not far from the alien base, relatively speaking, which means it’s possible that’s where he’s headed. Maybe for shelter. He might have seen the storm coming.”

“Uh.” Hot Dog groaned. “Didn’t we kind of leave a big hole leading into the underground tunnels back there? Maybe we should get that fixed.”

Ash McGuyver snapped her gum. “Bo and I will take care of it, no problem.”

“Perfect!” Drue said, springing into the middle of their group. “So, what, we’ll just head out and search the crater. Easy.”

“It’s not that simple.” Jasmine waved two fingers across the map, zooming in. “These mares – if he’s even there – can be almost a hundred kilometres in diameter.”

“Uh, can you talk to me in miles, Jazz?” Benny asked. “Or, better yet, how many Tajs is that?”

“The search area is the size of two or three cities. Big ones.” She shook her head. “Honestly, how has everyone not picked up the metric system yet?”

“Don’t lump me into your science shaming,” Drue said. “My tutors taught me both. This should still be pretty easy, though. It’s a whole lot of nothing out there, right? Plus, don’t we have sensors and stuff like that?”

“Heat sensors, energy sensors, you name it,” Ash said. “But if Bale has a way of messing with those, you kids are on your own.”

“So what are we waiting for?” Drue asked.

“One last thing,” Pinky said, furrowing her eyebrows a bit. “Remember that Dr Bale and Elijah don’t have the greatest history together. And in a way … you are sort of intruding on his territory.”

“Yeah,” Benny said. He looked at Drue. “We’ll be careful.”

Even as Benny spoke, though, Drue was racing towards the Space Runners. “I call whatever goes fastest!”

“You’ll take the laser-armed SRs or you’ll stay here,” Ash yelled after him. She wiped her hands on her coveralls. “That boy’ll be the death of me.”

“Jazz, you’ll navigate us, yeah?” Benny asked as they made their way to the vehicles.