The Moon Platoon

“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 and almost knocking Benny down.

As fast as the car was going, there was very little chance they could get out of its way in time. Still, Benny moved on instinct. In one swift motion he had grabbed Jasmine and Hot Dog’s arms and was pulling them away as Drue yelped for help.

Just as the vehicle was within a few metres of Benny and the others, it turned sharply and slid sideways. In the second before it should have crashed into them, there was a low thumping sound and a flash of light from underneath the car, and then it was in the air, rotating. Benny could swear he heard screaming from inside as it spun over his head.

The car flipped a few more times, clearing the lined-up Space Runners. It landed, twisted back to face its original direction, and then finally came to a complete stop directly in front of the steps leading up to the Lunar Taj.

“Dude!” Drue said, bolting towards the new arrival and leaving the others behind.

“You OK?” Benny asked the girls. He realised he was still holding their arms, and quickly let go, shoving his hands into the pockets of his space suit. Jasmine nodded warily. And Hot Dog just laughed for a second before darting off herself.

By the time Benny pushed through the crowds to get to the car, he found Drue wedged halfway underneath its bumper, scoping out the undercarriage. Hot Dog stood a couple of metres away from it, eyes full of admiration.

“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she said.

The passenger door opened, folding back and into the car as if the entire construction was an elaborate piece of metal origami.

“Ohmigosh,” Hot Dog whispered beside Benny, the syllables stringing together into one word.

A woman stepped out, wearing what appeared to be hundreds of draped layers of gauzy white fabric that made her look as if she was enveloped in a cloud.

“No way! Is that really her?” Hot Dog asked. Then she gasped, covering her mouth with both hands and muffling her voice. “Her hair’s metallic. And she’s got antigravity hair clips in! Look at it float! It’s like she’s underwater!”

The woman looked very, very unhappy.

“… drives like a maniac …” Benny heard her say as she stomped away from the car.

“Is she famous or something?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah.” Hot Dog’s eyes went wide. “She won the last season of Heart-throb or Hologram?!”

Benny looked back to the woman, who was now all smiles as she posed for pictures and holovids with some of the other kids who had definitely recognised her. In seconds, two fashionably dressed people darted out of the Taj’s front doors and were corralling all the EW-SCAB winners into one big photo opportunity.

Hot Dog started forward to join them, but stopped after a few steps, turning her attention back to the car. Meanwhile, Drue crawled out from under the Space Runner and started to walk around it, letting his fingers smudge the thin layer of Moon dust that had settled on the vehicle.

“This must be some kind of prototype,” he whispered in reverence. “Check out this paint job. I think those ghost flames are made of microscopic LED particles.”

He didn’t seem to notice the pilot’s side door folding open, but Benny did. A man stepped out, the gold tips of his black cowboy boots glinting as gravel crunched beneath his feet. Benny instantly recognised the guy’s trademark facial hair: a close-cut reddish-brown beard with three horizontal lines shaved into each side.

Elijah West.