The Incredible Space Raiders from Space! (2 page)

6. Orientation Session: Ship Schedule

7. Rules Pop Quiz
(Pretend you didn't see that)

8. Dinner!

9. Bedtime: I DO NOT Tuck In

Jonah frowned as he looked over the syllabus. He had so many questions, it was hard to pick just one. But there was one thing Willona had said that had kind of stood out.

“How do you know the Shrieker preys on Space Raiders?”

Willona just started marching again, and Jonah jogged after her.

“How do you know?” he asked again.

Willona hesitated and looked at him. “Because it's already eaten seven of us.”

S
EVEN? JONAH WHISPERED, FEELING HIS
knees wobbling again.

She nodded and put her hand on her badge. “May they raid in peace. And that's just on this trip. We are the seventh batch of Space Raiders to travel to the Dark Zone.”

“What happened to the first six?”

Willona paused. “We'll find out when we get there.” She patted Jonah's shoulder. “It's better not to think of it. Not until you're trained, anyway. Come on. We have a lot to cover.”

They walked by an open doorway, and Jonah saw two girls standing beside it, talking quietly. One glanced at him and smiled. She was very pretty, with long, kind of tangled black hair, dark eyes, and tiny dimples on her cheeks.

“Victoria the Avenger,” Willona whispered. “Her younger brother, Matt, was one of the seven who were eaten. He was a good kid. I'd just finished training him.”

Jonah gave the girl an awkward smile and tried to think. How had he gotten here?

He remembered sitting by himself in his living room. His parents didn't come home from work until eight o'clock, and his older sister, Mara, was at her boyfriend's house. That was nothing new: Jonah was used to being alone. His parents worked until eight o'clock every evening, even on weekends.

And so he was sitting there by himself doing his math homework and eating a ham sandwich with mustard. That was when he'd heard a noise like a window sliding open. Jonah had looked back, frowning. He didn't hear anything else, so he continued with his math homework. He was good at math, but the current problem was a bit tricky.

Then he heard a whisper.

Now Jonah was alarmed. He wasn't an overly brave boy. He was scared of the dark and of forests, and he even hid under the covers during storms until the thunder and lightning stopped. His sister called him a baby. His father said he was “a little weak in the knees.” Even his mother said he was more of a thinker than a doer, which he assumed was her motherly way of calling him a coward.

And so he'd stood up and slowly tiptoed into the kitchen, his hands already trembling. He remembered thinking that if his parents had just gotten him a dog like he'd asked for every birthday since he was four years old, this kind of thing wouldn't happen. But his mother said a dog would just ruin their nice white carpets.

Jonah made it to the kitchen and peeked through the window. He froze.

There was a spaceship sitting in his driveway. Someone had come to his house from space. That had to be a bad thing.

“You sure about this?” he heard a man with a deep voice say.

“It says Jonah Hillcrest.”

Jonah turned around sharply. The voices were coming from the hallway.

“It just doesn't seem right,” the man with the deep voice said.

“We're already way behind schedule. You really want to double-check?”

Jonah crept toward the living room, his whole body shaking. How did they know his name? He needed to get out of here, but they were blocking the front door. The only other way was to get to the back door through the living room. He peeked in. The coast was clear. Summoning his courage, he made a break for the back door.

He was halfway there when he felt a powerful jolt hit him square in the back. His legs suddenly went numb, and he toppled face-first onto the living room floor.

“This better be the right one,” the man with the deep voice said.

“I'm sure it is. Oh, he's still awake.”

“Not for long. Sleep tight, Jonah. Time to go save the world.”

He felt another jolt, and then it suddenly went dark.

When Jonah opened his eyes again, he was here.

He stopped and looked at Willona. “Men kidnapped me,” he whispered. “I remember everything now. I tried to run away, but they shot me with something and—”

Willona nodded. “That was the crew. They took all of us.”

“I don't understand. Why did no one tell me I was becoming a Space Raider?”

Willona just patted his arm and continued down the hall.

“They don't tell you you're becoming a Space Raider. Once you're selected, they just come for you. It's not a choice to be a hero. It's a job.”

Jonah blinked again as Willona marched down the hallway. He tried it three more times and then sighed. She just wasn't going away. Which meant he really was on the
Fantastic Flying Squirrel
. And he really was an Incredible Space Raider.

And he really had left his family behind.

Which of course meant they had sent him here. His mom and dad. They must have known. Maybe his sister, too. She did call him a constant annoyance. But this?

“Coming?” Willona called. “We have a very tight schedule. You're a Space Raider now, which means you have less
than a month to get ready to save the universe. But no rush. Just stop and think for a while. Take it all in—”

“All right, I'm coming,” Jonah said.

He hurried after her, though he did try one more blink.

•  •  •

Willona led Jonah up and down Squirrel Street for a while longer, pointing out the cafeteria and the bathrooms and even listing the names of the other Space Raiders.

“There's Ben the Brilliant, Kyla the Courageous, Daniel the Ninja—”

“Am I supposed to remember all these names?” Jonah asked.

She glanced at him. “Yes.”

Jonah tried to take a better look at Sector Three as they walked. There were a few things he didn't understand. Everything looked old and worn and beaten down: The light panels weren't just flickering, he noticed now—they were covered with dust and grime. The doors were clearly designed to be automatic, but everywhere he looked, Space Raiders were sliding them open by hand. Even the floors were weathered and stained with oil and other dark spots that might just have been blood. Overall, it was a very unpleasant place.

“If we're saving the universe, why don't we have a better ship?” Jonah asked.

Willona looked at him in shock, covering the nearest wall with her hands.

“The
Fantastic Flying Squirrel
is the greatest ship in the fleet,” she whispered.

Jonah frowned. “I don't think it can hear you—”

“The
Squirrel
may not look . . . the prettiest,” she said slowly, dusting her hands off on her uniform. “But it's the fastest ship in the solar system, and more important, it's very hard to spot. Considering we're sneaking into enemy territory, you're going to appreciate that. It might just save your life. Now say sorry.”

“Sorry,” Jonah said.

She rolled her eyes. “To the ship, obviously.”

“Oh,” Jonah murmured. “Sorry . . .
Fantastic Flying Squirrel
.”

She smiled. “Better. Now, did you notice the side hallway we walked by?”

“Yeah?”

“Don't go down there, unless you want to be eaten by the Shrieker.”

She continued walking, and Jonah hurried after her again. They were heading to the far side of Sector Three now, past the room Jonah had woken up in.

As they walked, Willona explained that the sectors were organized by when the recruits were brought to the ship. The
Squirrel
started at Earth and then stopped at each inhabited planet on the way out of the solar system to grab the new recruits. The Space Raiders from Sector One—which was led by the commander—came
entirely from Earth, while Sector Two came from the large colonies on the moon and Mars. Sector Three—Jonah's sector—came from Saturn and Jupiter's moons, and Sector Four came from Pluto and from the moons of Uranus and Neptune. Of course, everyone spoke English anyway—Jonah remembered learning that fifty years ago the Commission for Human Expansion had decided that one official language would be better for human expansion, since people from all over the world would live together in colonies. As a result all humans learned English now, along with their native language.

“But I'm from Earth,” Jonah said. “Shouldn't I be in Sector One?”

She smiled. “You should. But you didn't come on with the rest of them. The ship had to go all the way back to Earth for you. Two extra weeks to get one recruit! That's how we knew you were so important. And then the crew brought you to
our
sector in a bag. We don't know why, but obviously you're meant to be here with us.”

“The crew brought me in a bag?” Jonah asked incredulously.

Willona nodded and kept walking. “They bring all the recruits in bags. Regular people don't know about the ISR, Jonah. They would panic. This entire program is top secret. No one can see the crew take kids off the street. Those are the rules.”

She snapped her fingers. “That reminds me,” she said, fishing a piece of paper out of her pocket. “The rules!” She handed it to Jonah. “Try to memorize these.”

Jonah frowned and took the paper. It read:

1. NEVER make contact with Captain White Shark or the crew. Doing so will result in exile,
if
the crew doesn't kill you first anyway. Which they will.

2. NEVER talk about where you came from before joining the ISR.

3. NEVER question the commander or a lieutenant.

4. NEVER cry or show signs of weakness outside of your quarters.

5. NEVER swear or insult other Space Raiders.

6. NEVER steal food or water.

7. NEVER abandon your post, unless you really have to go to the bathroom.

8. NEVER, EVER try to communicate with the Shrieker. It will eat you.

Jonah frowned. “Why would the crew kill us if we're on an official mission?”

Willona shrugged, considering his question. “Because they're evil. When Earth's first ship went missing, it was full of scientists and soldiers. The best in
the solar system. After that, no one would volunteer to go—except Captain White Shark. For some reason, the EETs wouldn't kill him or his crew. I think it's because they only like to destroy things that are good, like us. And because he can survive the trip, Captain White Shark is the only one who can take us. That's why we're stuck with an evil crew that loves to kill Space Raiders.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“But when the war is over, we'll come back and take our vengeance. Let's continue.”

Willona led him to the end of Sector Three, which Jonah knew because the hall ended at big double doors with black-and-yellow stripes and a handwritten sign saying
sector four
. Willona stopped at the last gray door on the right and pulled it open.

“These are my quarters. Before you start training, I have to give you something.”

Jonah followed her into the bedroom. It looked the same as his, except there was a pile of various items in the corner. There was also a photograph sitting on the bed. It was fairly crumpled, but Jonah saw two smiling people holding a little girl with brown hair.

“Who's that?” Jonah asked.

Willona turned around and made a noise like a squeal. She hurried over to the bed and snatched up the photo.

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “Left that out. Shouldn't even have it, actually.” She tucked the photo under her
blanket. “Nothing, though. Never mind that. Classified.”

She gave Jonah an awkward smile and headed back to the corner, where she grabbed a pen and a dusty notepad. After a quick check to make sure the pen worked, she handed both to Jonah.

“Your journal.”

Jonah looked at the notepad, confused. “I don't need a diary.”

She nodded. “Yes you do. Commander's orders. Everyone writes in a journal.”

“Why?”

Willona forced another smile. “It helps with the Space Sadness.”

“Space Sadness?” Jonah asked, frowning.

“Being on the ship out here . . . sometimes recruits get down. Not me. Not much. Well, sometimes. Writing helps. I know you're used to a tablet, but it's kind of nice to write. Like we're explorers on an old sea ship on Earth.”

Jonah didn't want the journal, but he took it anyway and tucked it into his pocket. “Thank you.”

She gave him a real smile this time. “It's going to get better. Trust me. You're going to love it here.” She patted his arm. “Why don't you take a break? Lie down for a bit. When you get up, you can get your uniform and start training. Jemma will have it finished by now. We need to get you out of that . . . thing.”

Jonah looked down. He was still wearing his school uniform: crisp blue pants and a matching jacket with black-and-white trim on the arms and legs. Every student at Pinewood Boys' Academy wore the same outfit. It was a very strict and very expensive private school. Jonah didn't really like it there, but his parents insisted it was good for his future. They always liked to talk about his future.

“What's wrong with this one?”

She made a face. “You almost look like an adult.”

“I think that was the point,” Jonah said.

“Well, it won't do. You need to dress like a Space Raider.” She looked up and away, as if staring at a distant sunrise. “It's not an easy life. But if we don't stand up to the Entirely Evil Things from the Dark Zone, who will?”

Jonah followed her gaze, confused. “About the Entirely Evil Things—”

“I'll take you back now,” Willona said, heading for the door. She stopped and glanced back. “Can you not tell anyone about the photo?”