The Incredible Space Raiders from Space! (10 page)

I'm so scared. I miss you, Mom.

Signed,

the space princess

Jonah closed the diary and looked at Martin. “She never came back for Mr. Monkey.”

“Yeah,” Martin said quietly. “Or the diary entries.”

Jonah gently put the notebook back where it was. “We should go.”

Martin nodded and started for the door. “I don't like this room.”

He was just stepping into the hallway when the first cackling laugh flooded down the Haunted Passage. A shrieking voice filtered along behind it, and just like the first time, it grew louder and louder as they carried down the hall. The Shrieker was back.

Martin looked at Jonah in terror.

“The door,” Jonah said, grabbing Martin and pulling him back into the room.

The cackling, inhuman laughter grew louder, and Jonah smacked the inside door panel with the palm of his hand. Thankfully it still worked, and the blue door slid shut.

Slapping feet ran by the door in a flash, the shouting and laughter just inches away through the blue steel. Beside him, Martin just trembled and stood there as if he didn't dare move, his eyes fixed on the door.

Finally the Shrieker was past again, its voice echoing from farther down the Haunted Passage, and Martin looked at Jonah.

“Can we go back now?”

Jonah paused. He wanted to, but they couldn't give up already.

“No,” he said. “Not until we find Alex.”

Martin sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

J
ONAH AND MARTIN WAITED UNTIL
the Haunted Passage was completely silent again and then crept back into the hallway. Martin bent down to examine the floor.

“No footprints,” he whispered. “Maybe it's a ghost.”

“It's a metal floor,” Jonah said. “Why would there be footprints?”

Martin seemed to think about that, and then stood up again. “Fair enough.” He glanced at Jonah. “What now?”

Jonah nodded down the hallway. “We keep moving. I have a plan.”

The two boys tiptoed down the Haunted Passage, keeping their backs pressed against the cool metal walls. Everything was cold on the
Squirrel
, as if space were constantly creeping through the ship's hull. Jonah could feel it through his uniform.

“Do you know Ben the Brilliant well?” Jonah asked.

Martin shrugged. “Sort of. We don't talk much. Why do you ask?”

“Just curious why he hates me so much.”

“Because he's had a bad life,” Martin said.

Jonah slowed down and looked back at Martin. “What do you mean?”

“Space Raiders usually talk when they first get to the ship. You know, about where they came from. I mean, most of Sector Three woke up at the same time. They scooped us all up and dumped us in the rooms. So we all wandered out, confused, and there was Lieutenant Gordon to welcome us all. He's actually from Sector One; the commander assigned three strong recruits to lead each of the other three sectors.”

Jonah frowned. “So no one knew why they were here?”

“Of course not. The lieutenant gave us the history and then assigned us jobs. But we were all a little scared at first, obviously. Not me so much—I was used to scary places. But a lot of people were, and in the first few days it was hard to enforce the rules. Everyone was talking and swearing and forgetting to go to guard duty. Some were even wandering off into the ship, like Matty. But they didn't come back, and we realized it was time to start becoming Space Raiders.”

Jonah looked around as they slowly crept down the hall. It was still silent.

“So what happened to Ben?”

Martin hesitated. “He only had his mom. I guess his dad was gone already. His mom worked in a factory. They
didn't have a lot of money, I guess. Well, one day she got killed in an accident, when Ben was twelve. They came to get him, and they took him to the orphanage kicking and screaming and refusing to go. His grandparents were long dead. He ran away again and again and wouldn't let anyone adopt him or even speak to him. They put him in juvenile detention when he was thirteen. Finally got out a year later, but he just stayed at the orphanage, and they had nowhere to put him. He thinks he got picked to join the ISR because he has no one left to care about.”

“So why does he hate me?” Jonah asked.

Martin met his eyes. “Because you do. Think about it: He's been seeing other kids with their families for years, and thinking how lucky they are. Coming here was his chance to be lucky. To be special. He thinks that you're taking that away from him.”

Jonah looked away, his stomach twisting. It made sense. Suddenly Ben didn't seem like such a bully. Just a boy who wanted to be special.

“And what about you?” Jonah asked quietly.

Martin grinned. “I think being special has nothing to do with where you came from.”

They soon reached the metal grate that Jonah and Alex had climbed into the first time they'd come to the Haunted Passage, when the Shrieker had almost gotten them. While they were hunkered inside, Jonah had noticed that the small, dusty air duct kept going behind
him. He hadn't mentioned it then because he was afraid Alex would want to explore it, but Jonah guessed that those air ducts might run through the entire ship. If he was right, then that was their best chance to make it to the Unknown Zone alive. Jonah bent down and pulled the metal grate off.

“We're going to crawl in there, aren't we?” Martin asked miserably.

“Yep,” Jonah said. “After you.”

Martin made a face and then crawled into the air duct. Jonah followed him in, pulling the grate shut behind him. It clanged back into place.

Martin looked back. “Sorry you have my keister in your face.”

“Just start crawling,” Jonah replied.

Martin nodded and began crawling down the air duct. “This is pretty clever. Were you an adventurer back home?”

“Not really,” Jonah said, grimacing at the dust beneath his hands. “You?”

“Sort of,” Martin said. “I did a lot of sneaking.”

Martin stopped as another duct opened up beside them, running left, along the Haunted Passage. The duct was dark and dusty and smelled like stale mothballs, and it disappeared into the shadows in the distance.

“That's the one we want,” Jonah said.

“You sure about this?” Martin asked.

“No,” Jonah said. “But I don't have any better ideas.”

“Rats,” Martin grumbled.

Jonah assumed that was another fake swear word. It reminded him of something as they started crawling again. “Does Whiskerface live in these air ducts?”

“I don't know,” Martin said. “If he does, I hope he's the only rat in here. Most rats aren't as nice as Whiskerface. I think he thinks he's a cat. He even purrs. Kind of.”

“Do you know a lot of rats?” Jonah asked.

Martin glanced back. “I did.”

As they crawled along the duct, they soon passed another one on their left that looked like it ran back out and connected with the Haunted Passage. Jonah guessed that they were crawling through a main supply duct and they would find lots of little outlets back to the hallway as they went, where the recycled air filtered back to the main areas.

“How are we going to know when we get to the Unknown Zone?” Martin asked.

“I have no idea,” Jonah replied. “I assume it will be completely dark and full of shrieking and laughter.”

“Oh,” Martin said.

They kept crawling. The main supply duct was only about two feet high and two feet wide, and Jonah was feeling a little cramped. It didn't help that Martin kept kicking up dust that billowed into his face. He was starting to feel like a rat himself.

“What's your job on the ship?” Jonah asked.

“When I'm not in the brig, hall guard,” he said.

“Are you good with a bonker?”

“Not really,” Martin replied. “You?”

“I don't think so.”

Martin glanced back. “Then we better not run into the Shrieker. I'd like to know a few more moves, like Alex—”

“Shh,” Jonah said suddenly. “Listen.”

They both stopped. There were voices coming from the Haunted Passage. Human voices. Jonah and Martin exchanged a look.

“Get to the next grate,” Jonah whispered.

Quickly crawling down the duct until they came to another opening, they crept up to the metal grate. The voices were growing louder. They didn't sound like Space Raiders.

“—running around everywhere. Going to mess something up, I'll tell you that much. Second one I've locked up today. And I still haven't heard from Grouter.”

Jonah and Martin exchanged a look.

“The crew,” Martin mouthed.

Jonah crawled forward to try to get a look. He could only really see silhouettes through the grate, but he could see the shapes of two grown men walking toward them.

“Gonna fill up the brig soon,” a second man said, his voice gruff and deep. “Have to make a second one.”

“Or shoot 'em into space,” the first replied, chuckling. His voice was raspy and higher pitched. “Think the captain will agree?”

The second man laughed. “Doubt it. Rules are rules. Don't want to lose the contract.”

The men were past now, walking farther down the Haunted Passage, toward Death Alley. Jonah hoped the guards would hear them coming and hide.

“Well, if they keep getting in my way, I'm gonna keep locking 'em up,” the first man said. “And they won't like it in there with Leppy. I'll tell you that much.”

“Who would?” the second man said. “I wish we could catch the shouter. That's the one I want.”

The first man snorted. “You'll never catch 'im. Been trying for two years.”

Their voices were getting fainter. Jonah strained to listen.

“Let's get back,” the first man said. “We need to find Grouter.”

Jonah just caught the name Grouter, and then it went silent.

He glanced at Martin. “We better get back. I think we know what happened to our adventurers.”

•  •  •

Jonah thought about the conversation as they crawled back down the air duct. Who was Grouter? And Leppy? And why was Captain White Shark and his crew taking
Space Raiders? Something strange was going on in this ship, and he wanted to know what it was.

Martin had plenty of theories.

“Captain White Shark is evil,” Martin explained. “He owns the ship, but he hates Space Raiders. Earth just hired him to take us to the Dark Zone. Maybe he works with the Entirely Evil Things.” He paused. “This could all be a trap.”

“But weren't there other Space Raiders before us?” Jonah asked.

“Yep,” Martin said. “We're the seventh batch. The first six batches are already fighting the war somewhere in the Dark Zone. We haven't won yet, but I bet that will change when we get there. Me and you are going to bonk them right out of the galaxy.”

Jonah thought about that. He wondered if the others would accept him as a real Space Raider now. He hoped so. He still wanted to go home, but the commander had made it clear that the
Squirrel
wouldn't go back to Earth until the mission was done. If that was the case, it would be nice if everyone stopped staring at him like they wanted to hit him with a bonker.

He led Martin back into the Haunted Passage and carefully closed the metal grate behind them. He didn't want the crew or the Shrieker to know about their secret tunnel.

“Isn't it strange that only the blue door has a control panel?” Martin asked. “None of these other doors have them, or any of the ones in Sector Three.”

“Most things are strange on the
Squirrel
.”

They were approaching the scratched blue door, which they'd left open. Jonah had wanted to close it to cover their tracks, but he figured the Space Raiders might want to investigate the room further and didn't want to risk closing it and losing the evidence if it didn't open again.

“Think they'll give us an extra food bar as a reward?” Martin asked, walking ahead. “I mean, we deserve it. We just journeyed into the Wild Zones and did some pretty good spying. Whiskerface has got to be getting hungry—”

They were just a few feet from the blue door when Jonah saw it: a pale shadow in the doorway. Someone was waiting for them.

“Look out!” he shouted.

But he was too late. A pair of large, hairy hands reached out from the doorway and grabbed Martin's collar. A barrel-chested man with a thick brown beard stepped out, holding a squirming, wriggling Martin. A second man with a thin, weasellike face and a cruel smile emerged behind him.

“Save yourself!” Martin shouted.

Jonah sprinted back down the Haunted Passage as the second man tried to grab him, and he heard heavy footsteps chasing after him. Jonah ran as fast as he could, not daring to look back.

“Leave him!” the other man shouted. “He'll come back eventually.”

The footsteps stopped, and Jonah just kept running until he finally spotted the air duct and scrambled inside. He closed the grate behind him and sat there, trembling.

What was he going to do now?

J
ONAH SAT THERE FOR WHAT
felt like hours, thinking about what to do next. He had three major problems. One was that those two crew members could still very well be waiting for him in the blue-door room. The second was that even if he could sneak by, he would be returning to Sector Three without Martin the Marvelous. Considering he had already been labeled a possible spy and traitor, he guessed that returning without his companion would not go over well.

And the final and most important problem was that he couldn't just leave Martin behind. Martin had come along to help Jonah, and now he was in the clutches of the crew. And since Jonah now knew that they were keeping their prisoners in a brig, he wasn't sure he could stand to say “may they raid in peace” and then go on as if the missing Space Raiders had never been there. No. As much as Jonah wanted to go back and the mere thought of anything else made his stomach turn, he had no choice.