The Moon Platoon. Jeramey Kraatz

back to Earth with him. Not just money. And something more meaningful than Moon rocks or holovids.

      

      “Ahem.”

      The sound of a throat being cleared filled the Grand Dome. It took Benny a moment of looking around before he realised a man was standing behind a chrome podium beside the front doors of the Taj.

      “Hello?” His deep voice boomed. “If I could have your attention.”

      He snapped his fingers and his image was projected on either side of the Taj, nine metres high, at least. Even in the video Benny could tell that he was exceptionally tall and so thin that he wondered if the man simply floated away whenever he stepped out of the resort’s artificial gravity field.

      “Gather round,” the man said, motioning for the kids scattered across the courtyard to come closer. He paused, looking up at his image on the side of the wall and taking a moment to smooth down the pointy beard on his chin, which was dyed the same minty green colour as his hair. “We’ll have plenty of time for meet and greets later, but we’ve got a schedule to keep. My name is Max Étoile. Once, I was talent manager to the stars, but now … now I live among them!”

      He flung his arm dramatically towards the sky and stayed that way, frozen, for a few seconds before continuing.

      “Life on Earth was glamorous, but when Elijah West offers you a spot managing the Lunar Taj, you don’t say no. Not that you’re our normal clientele. Let’s get you all accounted for so we can begin orientation. The first thing we’re going to do is get you set up with a new state-of-the-art Lunar Taj HoloTek that will guide you through the rest of your stay and give you your room and group assignments. If you’ll make your way inside in an orderly fashion, you can sign in at any of the guest check-in terminals using your biosignature and—”

      The crowd of kids surged forward, pushing past Max and through the entry doors.

      “An orderly fashion!” he said again, sighing into the microphone.

      “Let’s go!” Drue shouted back to Benny before running forward.

      Jasmine and Hot Dog started after him. Benny was at the tail end of the group, but he didn’t mind – it meant that when he stopped, breathless, inside the doors to gape at the main lobby of the Lunar Taj, there was nobody to run him down.

      The lobby was four storeys high, with walls that were at first metallic blue but then began to shift, until Benny realised that the entire room was made up of screens slowly cycling through the colour spectrum. The floors were black marble, speckled with just enough gold leaf to make it look like he was standing on the night sky. On one wall hung a portrait of Elijah in a silver tuxedo. It must have been five times Benny’s height. Along another wall were framed paintings of speculative Lunar Taj designs and various blueprints. On the opposite end of the room, giant windows looked out onto the lunar landscape.

      Benny walked up to one of the check-in terminals. A gold-framed sketch of what appeared to be a first-generation Space Runner hung above it. Elijah’s signature was at the bottom right corner, dated almost ten years ago. Benny would have been two years old when Elijah was drawing this. It was shortly before his father lost his job and his mother had left. Right before they’d been forced to leave their home and join the caravan because they couldn’t afford the rent any more.

      A flash of light in front of him broke his train of thought. An outline of his body and heartbeat appeared on the wall, identifying him based on his unique biological signature.

      “Check-in complete,” Pinky’s voice said. “Welcome, Benny Love, to the Lunar Taj. You’re going to have a great time. Please take your complimentary HoloTek for further information.”

      A panel slid away on the wall, revealing a sleek rectangle that appeared to be made of glass or some kind of shiny plastic. The top left and bottom right corners of the device were edged in chrome. As he picked it up, the electronic screen powered on, and he realised that by pulling on the metal corners, the HoloTek could stretch instantly from a pocket-size gadget to a thirty-centimetre-wide tablet. It was the type of hyperfast computing equipment he’d always dreamed of owning but never could in real life.

      Until now.

      On the wall in front of him, he saw his heartbeat speed up before the image faded away.

      “What room are you in?” Drue asked, coming up beside him. The boy was tapping away at his own HoloTek, hardly looking up at Benny.

      “Huh?”

      “Bottom right on your screen. What do you have?”

      It was only then that Benny noticed a small red horse on his HoloTek. The numeral twenty-six was glowing on its side.

      “Number twenty-six? A horse?”

      “Horse here, too! But I’m number one.” Drue grinned. “Let’s go see what those girls got.”

      He grabbed Benny’s sleeve and dragged him away from the wall, eyes scanning the crowds until he spotted his targets near the windows at the other end of the lobby.

      “Hey, so what rooms are you girls in?” he asked as he approached. “This might shock you, but I got—”

      “Drue, shut up,” Hot Dog said. “Look at this view.”

      “Hey, I was just trying to—” Drue started.

      “Whoa,” Benny said, interrupting him. Beyond the four-storey floor-to-ceiling windows in front of him, a swatch of carbon-coloured land extended for miles to the horizon, eventually giving way to a starry sky. It was so utterly still that for a moment Benny was sure he was looking at a high-definition picture. But he wasn’t. This was real.

      “Mare Tranquillitatis,” Jasmine said, her voice breathy, barely above a whisper. “Also known as the Sea of Tranquillity.”

      “It’s where Apollo Eleven landed,” Drue said. He pointed. “Look, you can almost make out the American flag, right by that glowing alien.”

      “What?” Hot Dog asked, pressing her face up against the window. “Where?”

      Drue snorted.

      “He’s trying to be funny,” Jasmine said, glaring at him for a second. “The landing site is on the other side.”

      Benny raised his hand to the glass, placing one finger on the point where the surface of the Moon and the sky met. The landscape seemed oddly familiar, not unlike that of the Drylands, just without wind blowing dust around everywhere. He wondered if he’d feel at home out there, too, racing across the grey plains.

      “Barely into the first day and the resort is already getting gummed up by grubby little hands,” Max said from behind them, tapping one shiny purple shoe on the floor.

      They all took a step back from the window.

      “Pinky, get them to their rooms and arrange to have these windows cleaned as soon as everyone’s gone. Elijah may be treating this place like a sleepaway camp but it’s still a luxury resort.”

      Pinky’s voice was then everywhere, reverberating through the lobby. Her image appeared on one of the walls. This time she wore a pair of glasses with thick black frames.

      “Please note your room assignments on the bottom right corner of your new HoloTeks. Because of the number of scholarship winners this year, we’ve broken you up into four randomly assigned groups that you’ll stay in for the remainder of your visit. The teams will be led by members of Elijah’s Pit Crew, and will be staying on separate floors. Throughout the next two weeks, your team will be your family, and you’ll compete against the other groups in a variety of challenges. There may even be a special prize for the team who proves