Space Case (27 page)

It's very hard to run on the surface of the moon.

I could only bound along, like I was in slow motion. It was like one of those nightmares where someone's coming after you, and no matter how hard you try to run, you can't. Only it was real.

And now that I'd made the decision, there was no way to double back. The robot arm reared up again between me and the solar panels, its giant fist blotting out the sun.

It was only about fifty yards from the solar array to the air lock. But despite my best attempts to run, I'd only covered a third of the distance.

On earth the sound of the robot arm would have told
me where it was—and whether it was going for me or Kira. On the stupid, soundless moon I had to watch it, and with a space suit on I couldn't just glance back over my shoulder. I had to turn my whole body, which wasn't exactly conducive to speed either.

Behind me the arm pivoted downward.

It was coming for me, not Kira.

I suddenly wished I'd worn that space diaper. Though somehow, despite the fear of being pounded into paste, I managed not to evacuate my bladder.

“Look out!” Kira cried.

I couldn't outrun the giant fist. I had to try to dodge it.

I watched as it arced downward, then sprang as it came in, using the low gravity to my advantage.

This time, however, whoever was controlling the robot had changed their attack. Instead of simply trying to squash me flat, the hand suddenly extended its fingers and swooped in sideways. It was like being slapped by King Kong. One of the huge metal digits caught me flush in the chest and I went flying.

I tumbled through the air, soaring so high that I cleared the rover garage. For a moment I feared I might actually break free of the moon's weak gravity and go into orbit. I found myself high enough to see the roof of MBA and the blinding panels of Solar Array 1 on the far side of the base.
But then, thankfully, I began to arc downward again. Gravity yanked me back and I face-planted on the lunar surface. In low gravity you don't come down that fast, but I still landed hard. Every part of my body felt like it had been punched at once, and the wind was knocked out of me. I skidded across the surface, leaving a deep trough through the moon dust, until I slammed helmet-first into a large rock, which stopped me dead.

There was a soft, terrifying clink inside my helmet.

I'd closed my eyes as I'd braced for impact. Now I opened them to have my worst fears confirmed.

The glass of my helmet had cracked.

A tiny web of fractures had appeared where I'd impacted the rock, looking like the divot a stone leaves in a windshield. But the cracks were spreading. My helmet wouldn't be able to take another hit. The glass would go—and I'd suffocate in seconds.

“Dash!” Kira's terrified voice rang inside my helmet. “Are you all right?”

I rolled over and took stock of where I was. The robot arm had knocked me thirty yards, so I was now on the opposite side of the air lock from where I'd started. The rover garage was between me and the field of solar panels; I could no longer see Kira over there.

By the garage, the robot arm reared up on its pivot
again. The hand swiveled back and forth, the palm angled at the ground.

I realized it was looking for me.

Whoever was controlling the robot had to watch me on the cameras, but the arm had swatted me so far I'd flown out of sight. There were several cameras mounted on the arm itself, though, and now my attacker was using them to scan the area to see where I'd landed.

The air lock wasn't too far away now, only a bit more than ten yards. Temptingly close. But I didn't run for it.

Instead I stayed where I was, not moving an inch.

The lunar surface was gray and white. My suit was gray and white—and it now had a layer of moon dust coating it. Hopefully, I'd blend right into the surface. I wasn't going to disappear completely, like a chameleon changing color, but on the monitors I'd be much harder to spot lying still than I would moving.

“Dash!” Kira screamed again. It sounded like she was crying. “Are you okay? Answer me!”

“I'm okay,” I told her.

“Thank goodness! Where are you?”

“By the launchpad,” I lied.

The robot hand immediately swiveled that way.

Which meant the killer was eavesdropping on our transmissions. But I'd figured as much. And now I'd diverted them and bought a few seconds.

There was another clink from my helmet. A small crack extended from the impact point, spreading across the glass like the fissure of a miniature earthquake.

I didn't have much time.

I sprang to my feet and tried to run for the air lock.

“Hold on!” Kira told me. “I'm coming to help you!”

“No!” I cried. “Stay where you are! Stay under cover! I'm fine! I'll send help for you!”

Of course I couldn't run at all. I only bounded slowly. But the air lock came closer.

And then I spotted something shimmering in the sun to my right.

I turned that way and saw the bag with Dr. Holtz's phone, lying in a patch of moon dust.

I'd tried my best to hold on to it as I'd flown through the air, but it had obviously slipped from my gloved fingers, probably when I crash-landed. It now lay only a few feet out of my path.

I tried to bank toward it and pick it up.

Only it wasn't so easy in low gravity. On earth the detour would have taken only a few seconds, if that. But it was much harder to change direction on the moon. I skidded in the dust once as I tried to stop my forward momentum, and again as I tried to grab the phone, squandering precious seconds each time.

I plunged my hand into the moon dust, fumbling for the phone.

“Dash!” Kira screamed.

I risked a look back at the robot arm.

It had spotted me—and was on the attack again.

It was hurtling my way, the palm open, only this time it was swooping around to nail me from the side. I figured that at the speed it was coming, one swat would send me sailing over the entire moon base like a home-run ball. I'd land in Solar Array 1 and fry to death on the panels.

I moved toward the air lock, but there was no way to outrun the arm.

However, I only wanted whoever was controlling it to
think
I was trying to outrun it.

I took one bound, then dug my heels into the lunar surface as hard as I could, bringing myself to a stop.

The arm had extended, trying to catch me right by the air lock.

Now I sprang in the other direction, diving for the lunar surface again.

The palm rocketed past my feet while the arm soared over me, close enough to clip the back of my helmet. The fingertips scraped the base hard enough to furrow the wall as they swept past. Whoever was controlling the arm tried to stop it, but now they had to fight the low-gravity inertia of the
moon. They failed. The arm crashed into the rover garage.

The cracks spread farther across my helmet.

I scrambled back to my feet, spun around, and lunged for the air lock.

The arm had slammed into the garage so hard the wall had collapsed, and the arm was now tangled in the wreckage. It was jerking about, trying to wrest itself free. Pieces of the garage—and possibly the rovers—were tearing loose and flying away.

I reached the air lock. There was no keypad on this side, only a big red button clearly marked
OPEN
. There was no point making entry difficult from the outside, as there was no one else on the moon. I slammed my fist into the button.

The air lock slid open.

There was another red button beneath the first, in the event that the air lock was jammed. This one was marked
ALARM
.

I punched it as well.

The robot arm tore free from the garage, leaving a gaping hole. It then pivoted upward . . .

And suddenly froze. Whoever had been controlling it had abandoned the controls, probably frightened off by the alarm inside the base.

I leaped into the air lock and punched the red button on the inside.

The outer door slid shut.

A moment later the glass of my helmet shattered.

I felt the staggering heat of the lunar surface and held my breath, hoping it wouldn't be my last.

There was a blast of air as the air lock repressurized to match the atmosphere of the base. As it did, I could hear the alarm wailing through the inner door. The air was blessedly cool as well.

“Are you all right?” Kira asked again.

I tentatively inhaled. Oxygen filled my lungs. Even though this had happened a half a billion times before, it was still the greatest feeling of my life. I sighed with relief.

“I'm in the air lock,” I told Kira. “And whoever was controlling the arm took off, so it's safe to come back now. Are you okay?”

“Yes. Just frightened. I've been hiding in the solar array the whole time. I'm sorry I didn't come help you—”

“Don't be. There was nothing you could do.”

“I guess not.” Kira still sounded guilty. “Okay. I'm on my way back.”

I pressed another red button, which opened the inner air lock door.

Inside, the alarm was much louder, designed to ruin everyone's sleep and rouse them from bed. I glanced toward the robot control room. The door hung open; my attacker was long gone.

Nina was already up and out her door, perched at the edge of the catwalk. “You!” she yelled, glaring down at me. “What were you doing out there?”

“Just getting a little exercise.”

Nina stormed down the stairs toward me. “You think that's funny? Well it's not! This is a serious violation of protocol!”

“Are we in trouble?” Kira asked through the radio.

“Big trouble,” I told her.

“Maybe I'll stay out here a bit longer,” she replied.

Behind Nina on the catwalk, our door flew open. My parents emerged, panic in their eyes. I figured they'd woken to the alarm and discovered I was missing. Dad had Violet in his arms. She actually seemed pretty excited by all the noise.

Mom and Dad spotted me and at once looked relieved and worried. They came down the stairs behind Nina, who was still chewing me out.

“Not leaving this base is the number one safety directive for every child here!” she shouted. “What were you thinking? Or were you even thinking at all? And what happened to your helmet? Are you aware how lucky you were not to have died out there?”

“Yes,” I told her. “I'm very aware of that.”

Nina reached the ground floor and stormed toward me,
flushed red in anger. “Then what possible reason did you have to go out there?”

“To get this.” I held up Dr. Holtz's phone triumphantly. Only now that I had a moment to look at it, my sense of accomplishment quickly faded.

Somewhere, during the robot's attacks, the phone had been hit too. The glass was shattered and the casing was cracked almost in half.

The object I had just risked my life to get was destroyed.

Lunar day 190

Really early in the morning

There may be no better
way to cause chaos at a moon base than to set off the emergency alarm, rouse everyone from sleep, and then reveal that someone has just tried to kill you with a giant robotic arm.

Nina was so apoplectic she didn't know what to get angry about first. Instead she kept starting to yell about one thing, then changing her mind and yelling about something else. Within only thirty seconds she freaked out about my irresponsibility, the wrecked rover garage, the shattered solar panels, how expensive the robot was, and how I had deliberately violated a direct order from her by pursuing my
investigation. At no point did it ever occur to her to ask how I was doing after my near-death experience.

However, my family was plenty concerned about me. My parents hugged me tightly and fawned over me, at once relieved to see that I was alive, annoyed that I'd done something so risky, and angry at Nina for how she was treating me. Violet's usual gleefulness had soured upon learning that I'd been in danger. She clung to me and cried while I tried to reassure her that the threat was over and everything was all right.