The Dark Side of the Moon. Jeramey Kraatz

… kind of a long story,” Benny said.

      Dr Bale narrowed his eyes before glancing at the sky. “It’s not safe to be out here. You may have damaged the other four crafts, but they’ll be back.”

      “How did you …? I mean, that level of … Where? Up here?” Jasmine asked, the questions spilling out of her mouth.

      Dr Bale took a moment to look at each of them again, and then back at the three Space Runners parked a few metres away. Finally, he nodded towards his own vehicle. “Why don’t I show you? My campsite isn’t far.” He glanced back at Benny. “I think we have a lot to talk about.”

      

      There was something oddly familiar about the inside of Dr Bale’s vehicle. A coating of dust covered the consoles – touch surfaces that were scratched and practically obsolete compared to those inside the Space Runners Benny had been in. In fact, everything seemed dated, from the switches where there could have been holographic buttons right down to the strumming acoustic guitar that was pumping out of the speakers. The whole thing felt like a vehicle better suited for the caravan than the Moon, though it must have had a solid environmental system in it since Benny’s helmet had automatically disappeared after they’d taken off.

      He glanced in the side mirror to make sure his friends were still following close behind, three chrome brush strokes against the black sky. They’d been hesitant to let him ride alone with Dr Bale when the man had suggested he do so, but Benny had figured if they were going to ask him for help, they should at least try to be friendly. And Dr Bale had just saved his life.

      Benny turned his attention to a gear lever between him and Dr Bale. He’d seen them on Earth on the rare occasions that the caravan stumbled across ancient cars with primitive transmissions, but he couldn’t imagine what one was doing here.

      Dr Bale must have noticed his staring, though he didn’t look over at Benny when he spoke, his voice deep. “It controls the cannon. Not the most delicate instrument, but it gets the job done. As you saw.”

      Benny swallowed hard, thinking of the alien ship: there one moment, gone the next.

      “So …” he began, unsure exactly what to say. “You have a … I don’t know. It looks like a space truck?”

      “We call this the Tank. It’s my own design.”

      “That makes sense.” Benny paused. “Powered by one of Elijah’s hyperdrives?”

      Dr Bale grunted, which Benny took as a yes. He continued.

      “And you built it to take down the Maraudi ships?”

      At the mention of the alien species by name, Dr Bale raised an eyebrow. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “I saved you back there, so you owe me a little explanation as to why four kids are wandering around out here alone. I assume you’re some of Elijah’s scholarship winners.”

      “You know about the EW-SCAB?”

      “Just because I’ve been living on the dark side for a while doesn’t mean that I’m not aware of what’s going on in our solar system. I’ve been back and forth to Earth regularly over the years.” He tried to smooth his beard down – finally free from the helmet, it was still curling up at the end. “Besides, Elijah’s not the only one who can launch a satellite.”

      “So you’re in contact with Earth?” Benny jerked forward. “Could you—”

      “Don’t get excited. That asteroid storm last week killed our communications. I take it the same can be said for the Taj’s. From what I can tell it destroyed almost every usable satellite for hundreds of thousands of miles.”

      Benny hunched back in his seat. “Oh.”

      There was a brief silence between them before Dr Bale spoke again. “Did he send you?”

      “Did who send us?”

      “Elijah,” he said, his voice dropping even deeper at the last syllable. “Of course he did. Summoning me to that gaudy metal palace of his after the Maraudi finally made a move. I suppose he’s seen reason at last and is ready to enact countermeasures. No doubt he’s lobbying on Earth, trying to play the role of the white knight. I just can’t believe he sent a bunch of children out to find me. He could have had the decency to come himself.” He glanced at Benny. “Tell me he at least had military forces piloting the fleet that went out this morning.”

      “You don’t know,” Benny said. It hadn’t occurred to him that he’d have to explain everything that had happened in the last few days, to Dr Bale. “Uh, where do I start? OK, so you know about the aliens and that Elijah was using the EW-SCAB to recruit kids to basically sort of be the last of humanity once the Alpha Maraudi came for Earth …”

      Benny went on, catching the man up to speed as best he could. By the time he was finished, Dr Bale’s face was contorted in disgust, his lips twisted and teeth half bared.

      “The idiot, he …” Dr Bale said, his eyes flashing wide for a second. Then he took a breath and adjusted his goggles as he shook his head. “Of all the preposterous ideas he had, I don’t know why the plans behind the scholarship should surprise me. I always assumed the Taj would become a stronghold for the elite. I suppose I have to give him at least a sliver of credit.”

      “Yeah, well, things obviously didn’t turn out like he planned,” Benny continued. “We found out about the aliens and confronted him. I guess the important part is that a bunch of us weren’t going to let Earth get destroyed, so we flew to the oncoming asteroid storm and tried to blow it up.”

      “How? I thought Elijah didn’t have any weapons at the— Ah, wait. The lasers I saw you shooting. Let me guess, they were for excavating?”

      “Yeah,” Benny said.

      Dr Bale nodded. “Hmm. Very clever.”

      “They worked pretty well until the aliens attacked. We did our best, but in the end it was Elijah who showed up and saved us. He got sucked into this big asteroid – a mother ship – by a tractor beam and overheated his Space Runner’s hyperdrive.”

      “Causing it to explode.” Dr Bale pursed his lips for a moment. “Yes, I see. And the mother ship?”

      “Retreated. I was inside it for a while. It was like the whole thing was made of rock. But I could breathe in there. My helmet didn’t come on.”

      Dr Bale twisted the end of his beard while staring out at the landscape in front of them. He nodded a few times but didn’t say anything. The silence was just starting to get uncomfortable to Benny when the man finally spoke again. “Colour me impressed. The lasers were a good idea, but they’re primitive at best. You’re lucky you didn’t all get yourselves killed. You never should have had to go after the Alpha Maraudi yourself – for that, I must apologise on behalf of all the adults who failed you. Fortunately, I’ve been working on a means of combating these invaders since we first encountered them all those years ago.”

      Benny glanced at the bonnet of the car where the cannon had disappeared. The word invaders lingered in his ear. “Yeah, I can see that. But, actually, the Alpha Maraudi aren’t what you and Elijah—”

      “Who’s running the Taj now that he’s gone?” Dr Bale asked, cutting him off. “Not that simpering fool Max, I hope.”

      “Uh, that’s kind of a good question. Pinky’s sort of in charge.”

      “Pinky Weyve?” He let out a single grim laugh. “Elijah’s personal-assistant-turned-girlfriend-turned-computer is in charge of the most sophisticated artificial environment humanity ever created?”

      “Well,