The Incredible Space Raiders from Space! (20 page)

But they made it without incident, and now he had his chance.

Of course, now that he was crawling through the tunnel he had no idea what he was going to say. It was a little different from speaking with his sector. The commander terrified him, and he didn't have any friends in Sector One. They might just dismiss him, or even hand him over to the crew for being so foolish.

But he had to try.

Erna the Strong crawled out of the tunnel and stood up, though she didn't have a lot of headroom. A large, boxy power grid stood in the middle of the room, and power lines streamed into one side and poured out the other before continuing through a small opening to an adjoining room that looked identical to this one. But even with two rooms, it was packed and very warm.

Space Raiders were crammed into every square inch of the room, enough so that it must have been hard to lie down. With seventy members, Sector One was much bigger than the third sector, and they all looked very uncomfortable.

Jonah wondered if he might succeed after all.

His eyes fell on the commander. She was perched at the back of the room, surrounded by a tiny ring of personal space. Samantha was close by, and she gave Jonah a questioning smile as he walked in.

“Jonah the Now Incredible, Lieutenant Gordon,” Erna the Strong started, and then paused. “And . . .”

Willona stepped forward. “Martin the Marvelous and Willona the Awesome.”

The commander didn't stand up. Her hair looked a little clumpy and frayed, and her probing eyes were tired, with dark circles around them and heavy bags below.

“Why are you here?” she asked coolly. There was still authority in her voice.

Lieutenant Gordon stepped forward. “We would like to request a meeting.”

Her green eyes flicked to him. “It seems you've already called one.”

He paused, looking uncertain. “I didn't want to waste time.”

The other Space Raiders were all watching very closely. Jonah saw some crawling through the opening from the other room, trying to get a look.

“Why do you want a meeting?” she asked.

“Actually, I do,” Jonah said, stepping forward.

He had to avoid one Space Raider's leg.

The commander smiled, but it wasn't from amusement. “I should have known,” she said. “What is it now, Jonah? What have you done this time?”

He met her eyes. “I want to take over the ship.”

Just like the first time, the room fell into silence. Only the moaning, groaning engine could be heard, along with the buzzing of the power grid. He saw disbelief. Fear. But he only saw scorn on one face. It just happened to be the commander's.

She stared at him for a very long, very uncomfortable few seconds. Her finger tapped the metal floor beside her. “What is it you want, Jonah?” she asked finally.

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Are you trying to destroy us?” she said. “Is that your goal? Why? Why do you not want us to get to the Dark Zone? Why do you want to stop our mission?”

Jonah was taken aback. “I don't want to stop our mission.”

The commander slowly stood up. “I think you do,” she said. “You break every rule. You steal Lists. Attack crew members. Rescue prisoners. And now this.”

Jonah saw Erna the Strong shifting beside him. She was ready to take him prisoner at a word from the commander. Martin took a small step beside him, putting himself between Erna and Jonah. Jonah bit back a smile. Martin barely came up to Erna's elbows. But Martin the Marvelous was a real Space Raider. And so was he.

Then it hit him. He knew how to win the crowd.

“Do you know why I did all that?” he said, looking around the room.

Everyone was looking at him. He had their attention.

“I did that because I'm a Space Raider,” he continued, turning back to the commander. “I was chosen—like all of you—from the entire solar system to travel to the Dark Zone and save the universe. We didn't have a choice. We just woke up here with a mission, and we were all brave enough to accept it. We're all special. The most special kids in the solar system. And if I'm risking my life to save the universe, there's no way I'm taking orders from a bunch of smelly, miserable pirates. We're Space Raiders. We answer to no one.”

As soon as he said it, Jonah knew he'd won. Lieutenant Gordon stood up a little straighter. Martin broke into a wide grin. Even Erna the Strong looked at him in amazement. But it was the crowd that showed the greatest change. Like a ripple in a pond, smiles and proud looks and hope filtered across the small, cramped room.

Samantha gave him a nod.

The commander saw it too. For the second time, she'd been bested by Jonah the Now Incredible. A strange look came over her face. It wasn't anger or resentment or even fear. It was sadness. A deep, tangible sadness.

“We've always done it this way,” she said quietly.

“Then they won't expect it now,” Jonah replied.

She still didn't want to agree. He could tell. She hesitated and looked around the room and hesitated some more. But she knew they all wanted to fight. Jonah suspected she could still stop it. If she gave the order, they would follow her. But maybe he'd stirred something in her as well. Something the commander had kept hidden behind those old eyes and tapping fingers and sweeping lightning-streaked locks. Because when she looked at him again, the sadness was gone. In its place was a grim determination.

“What's the plan, Jonah the Now Incredible?”

He smiled. “We act like Space Raiders. We march.”

A
FEW HOURS LATER, JONAH
was sitting in the Bubble again, staring out into space. The plans were set. They weren't perfect, but it was the best they could do. He knew Space Raiders could be hurt. Maybe even killed. But he also knew they had to act. Something was wrong on the
Fantastic Flying Squirrel,
and he had a feeling they were all running out of time.

The deadline for Captain White Shark's ultimatum was the following morning, and that was when the Space Raiders would make their triumphant march on the crew's quarters. That meant they all had a long night ahead of them, waiting for a battle they hadn't expected.

He thought of the stars at home. He used to sit in his backyard sometimes with the patio lights off and stare up at space, wondering what secrets lay in the darkness. Now he was here, floating through them, and he still had no answers. Everything was big and dark and scary and lonely, and now all he wanted to see was the back door
of his house, the light washing out from the windows, his parents sitting on the couch watching TV.

He wondered what they were doing now. If they missed him. He hoped so.

Jonah heard footsteps and turned to see Jemma sit down beside him. Most of the others were sleeping or talking quietly. Sally Malik was gone again.

“Hey,” she said, smiling. Her bird's nest of straw-colored hair was even messier than usual, with strands falling out on all sides like she'd gone through a clothes dryer. “Just wanted to say congratulations.”

Before they'd left, the commander had named him an official adventurer. The other assembled Space Raiders had all saluted happily as she said, “I give you Jonah the Now Incredible, Special Recruit and Adventurer of the Highest Order.”

Willona had looked like she might cry.

“I greeted him, you know,” she'd told a girl next to her.

Jemma smiled. “I also wanted to give you this.”

She took a blue bundle out from behind her back and handed it to him. It was Jonah's school uniform, cut open and stitched into a square blanket. Jonah gingerly took it, blinking back an unexpected tear. It was strange to feel something from home again, and it made him realize just how far he'd come from the scared boy who used to put that blue uniform on and get pushed around at school. He put it close to his nose, smiling. It was comforting to
smell his mom's favorite fabric softener as he stared out into space.

“Thanks, Jemma,” he whispered, putting down the blanket.

“I'd thought I'd make you a special badge as well,” she said, “you know, because you're the special recruit, but then I thought maybe that would be too much.”

“Yeah,” Jonah said. He looked down at his badge. “I'm happy with this one.”

She paused and glanced at him. “Are you sure?”

Jonah frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Are you sure you want to do all this? You have a home to get back to. You could hide like Sally Malik until the
Squirrel
goes back to Earth.”

“She's tried,” Jonah said. “You can't get off the ship.”

Jemma looked at him. “If anyone could, it would be you.”

Jonah thought about that. There were probably ways. He could try to send a message to his family. Maybe sneak into the shuttle bay.

But he didn't want to run. He wanted answers.

“Would you go back, if you could?” he asked her.

“No,” she said. “Although, I didn't mind Burbank Orphanage. There were about eighty kids there. A lot of their parents had died in the mines on Ganymede. That's where most people work. Good money, but very unstable under the ground. That's what happened to Martin's
parents. He didn't like Burbank. He's very independent, as you can tell.”

Jonah glanced at Martin, who was fast asleep in the corner. As usual he was lying flat on his back, his slender little arms and legs sprawled out, just as he was when Jonah thought he'd been shot in the brig. He really was a strange boy.

“I liked it, though,” Jemma continued, tucking her sewing supplies back into her pocket. “Some of them made fun of me because of my scars. I guess you can expect that.”

“How did you get them?” Jonah asked quietly.

She sighed and pulled back her sleeves. The scars ran all the way past her elbows. “When I was eight, we got in an accident. My parents and I. They crashed off the side of the highway, and the propulsion engine burst into flames. They came from below—burned most of my body.” She lifted her pant legs. There were more scars. “The first responders managed to pull me out before the flames got to my face, but they were too late to save my parents.” She looked out into space, the stars reflecting off her eyes. “That's when they put me in the Burbank Orphanage.”

She pulled her sleeves down again.

“Like I said, some of the kids there were mean. But there was a worker there, a woman named Lolli, and she treated me like a daughter. She braided my hair and read
me stories and did crafts. She was the one who always called me creative.” She smiled sadly. “They took me while I was sleeping, I guess. I remember lying down, and then I was here. I wish I could have said thank you. I miss her. I called myself Jemma the Creative for her.”

She turned to Jonah.

“But I would never go back. On Ganymede I was Jemma Main, another orphan. People don't adopt much on Ganymede. They came sometimes, though, and they'd say, poor little girl. What a shame.” Her voice grew thick with emotion. “But here I'm a Space Raider. I have a mission. A uniform. No one says poor little girl, what a shame. They don't pity me here. Because I'm special. They chose me because I'm special. And for that, I would go fight Entirely Evil Things from the Dark Zone. And I'll definitely fight the crew.”

Jonah nodded. “I understand.”

“And what about you? Would you go back?”

Jonah thought about that for a moment. “I do like my uniform here.”

Jemma laughed. “Thanks. There are boxes and boxes of them, you know. All different sizes. There's a big room in Sector One. We take boxes out and throw the old clothes in. There's a huge pile of old clothes. Six trips' worth, the most important uniform specialist said. That's what the commander told him. One thousand Space Raiders. You can imagine the pile.”

“I thought this was the seventh trip to the Dark Zone?” Jonah said.

She paused. “I never thought about that. Must have made a mistake. Or maybe the first Space Raiders already had uniforms. Think we'll meet them in the Dark Zone?”

“I hope so,” Jonah murmured.

Something was nagging at him. Sally Malik. Wearing her old purple sweater and ripped blue jeans and dirty shoes. Where was her uniform?

“Everything all right?” Jemma asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Just thinking.”

She smiled and stood up. “I'll leave you alone. Try to get some sleep.”

She crept back to her blanket and lay down, leaving Jonah to stare out the window again. He thought about what Jemma had said. About what this all meant to her. About what it meant to all of them. Without thinking, his hand found his badge, and he suddenly realized what it meant to him. Jonah the Now Incredible, Special Recruit and Adventurer of the Highest Order. He was a Space Raider. He wouldn't let them down.

But as he sat there, Jonah couldn't shake the feeling that something else was going on. And for the first time, he wondered if the answer might lie with Sally Malik.

•  •  •

When the Space Raiders woke up, Jonah forgot all about his questions. The day had come. Space Raiders folded up
their blankets and brushed off their uniforms and rested their bonkers on their shoulders like ancient soldiers with rifles. They fell into two parallel lines, with Lieutenant Gordon standing at the front, looking brave and grim.

When the signal came, Sector Three was to meet up with Sector Two in the middle of Last Refuge Road, which ran just outside the Bubble, and together the two sectors would march on the main staircase to the crew's quarters, singing and shouting war cries and banging their bonkers like a true invading army. Jonah figured the crew would be there almost immediately. That's when things would get interesting.

“Ready?” Jonah asked Martin.

He nodded, wearing his typical grin. The gun they'd taken from Wrinkles was tucked into his belt, hanging down almost to his knee. “Ready.”