radiation-blocking substance. A thick band around the collar contained an emergency force-field helmet and oxygen supply, should he find himself outside of the artificial atmosphere of the Taj. His last name was stitched in silver over his heart. It was the first brand-new piece of clothing he could remember getting in years – not counting the stuff his grandmother made for him – and the same suit everyone else had been wearing before take-off. Except Drue’s. His suit was just a little bit shinier, and his last name, Lincoln, was spelled out in gold on his left chest pocket. It looked expensive. Like something Benny would be thrilled to find in an abandoned farm or town back on Earth because he could probably trade it for a decent hover-scooter, or at least new tyres for his dune buggy.
Drue looked at the dirt smudged across Benny’s space suit and crinkled his nose.
“What have you been doing while I was asleep?” he asked.
That’s when it clicked – Drue looked at him like a lot of people did on the rare occasions when the members of his caravan would buy supplies in the cities bordering the Drylands. Such places had grown more and more overcrowded and expensive as the ongoing drought forced people to abandon their homes and move further east. Those who could afford to live in the cities didn’t seem to want people like him and his family hanging around for too long. He could tell that from the way they avoided eye contact or clutched their bags close when he walked by. On a few occasions, shop owners had even told him that he should go back to the desert if he didn’t have any money to spend.
“Nothing,” he said to Drue, crossing his arms over the front of his suit. “Just trying to remind myself that this is real. I can’t believe I’m about to be on the Moon. Have you heard of the reverse bungee jumping they have at the Taj? Where they tie you to a Moon rock and then shoot you into space?”
Drue just shrugged.
“It’s cool, I guess. The first time is fun, but after that it’s just OK because there’s not really a lot for you to look at from that high. The Moon’s actually kind of ugly up close.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Benny said, shaking his head and raising his hands in front of him. “You mean you’ve been up here before?”
“Sure. Last summer. I told them they should add jet packs to the bungee jumping if they really wanted to make it worth doing.” Drue smirked. “The best part of the trip, though? I totally shook Elijah West’s hand.”
Benny narrowed his eyes. One of the few rules in the scholarship application was that the recipients should be kids aged eleven to thirteen who might not have the chance to visit the Moon otherwise (which, Benny understood, was a really nice way of saying that the EW-SCAB was charity and not for someone rich enough to actually visit the Lunar Taj with their own money).
Drue leaned back in the driver’s seat and put his feet up on the locked steering yoke in front of him. “This time I want to go inside Elijah’s private garage. I hear there are all sorts of Space Runner prototypes hidden away in here. I’m hoping he’s got something more like a motorcycle with a hyperdrive. Super fast. Sleek. Now that I would get pumped about.”
“I’m pretty into ATVs. Maybe he’s got something like that.”
Drue let out a snort. “If Moon buggies excite you, you’re going to have the best time of your life.” Drue’s eyes lit up a little as a smile spread across his face. “You’re lucky you got assigned to my car. Stick with me and I’ll show you the good life. You’ll have a great time! Trust me.”
“Can’t wait,” Benny said, not sure if that was the best or worst choice he could make. It didn’t matter, though. He was stuck in the Space Runner for the time being. Plus, there was something else on his mind. “So … what’s Elijah West like?”
“He’s seriously the most awesome guy in the universe,” Drue said. He shook his head a few times, like he couldn’t believe such a person really existed. “I mean, I only got to say a few words to him, but I feel like we made a connection. Did you know that after inventing the Space Runner, he took it out himself on a test run because he wanted to be able to say that he was the first person who drove a car into space, even though it was crazy dangerous? And when he was overseeing the building of the Lunar Taj, a bunch of businesses offered to give him a ton of money for a stake in it, but he spent his own fortune so he could have full control over the place? Also, did you know that he’s trying to figure out how to turn the rings of Saturn into a race track? That dude is cooler than anyone alive. Or dead, probably.” Drue let out a long breath and closed his eyes. “When I’m a trillionaire, I’m driving a different Space Runner every day.”
Benny caught his own reflection in the shiny black dashboard and realised that a huge, goofy grin had taken over his face. He was so close to the Taj. Soon, he was going to be walking on the Moon.
“So, it’s not weird being there, right?” he asked. “It just feels like Earth? Because I heard that one tiny hole in the Grand Dome around the Taj would mess up the pressure inside so badly that it could suck your brain out of your nose.”
Drue’s right eye cracked open, staring at Benny.
“Uh, not true. The artificial atmosphere isn’t that strong. Plus, the whole resort is actually encased in a gravity force field. Who told you that?”
Benny shook his head. “Actually, that might be something I told one of my dumb brothers to scare them. I spent a lot of nights this week telling them about imaginary space wars to get them to stop complaining about me getting to go on this trip.”
“You’ve got brothers?” Drue asked.
“Two, yeah. You?”
“None. I’m an only child.”
Benny was not surprised. He’d only known Drue a few hours, but he didn’t exactly seem like the sharing type.
“Probably pretty quiet around your house, then,” he said. “Not like mine.”
“Yeah,” Drue said. “My parents like it that way. It’s, you know, the first thing they tell new nannies. Or tutors. Or whoever. They don’t even like me to invite people over. If there were more Lincoln kids running around, we’d probably all end up at boarding school.”
As Drue spoke, his smug smile drooped into what was almost a frown. Benny was trying to figure out what question to ask next – as well as wrap his head around the fact that Drue had nannies and tutors while he was the one who was basically in charge of his brothers most of the time now that his dad was gone – when Drue groaned and let his head fall against the thick glass that separated him from the cold expanse of space.
“This is so dumb. I can’t believe my father made me leave all my gaming implants at home. What am I supposed to do for a whole five-hour trip to kill time?”
“I don’t know.” Benny offered, “Look at the stars?”
Drue rolled his eyes.
“I could do that at home. At least there I’ve got telescopes.”
Benny really wished he had that holographic spider.
