The Incredible Space Raiders from Space! (22 page)

“Martin . . . ,” Jonah said.

At that exact moment, an adventurer ran out of the service shaft.

“Now!” he shouted, his voice echoing around the engine room.

Martin turned to the computer and typed something in.

“Stop it!” Red Eye commanded.

“Nah,” Martin said.

Red Eye looked at Jonah. “You have bad friends.”

Then he shoved Jonah off the core.

A
S JONAH PLUMMETED TOWARD THE
engineroom floor, he decided he had to agree with Red Eye. It was a strange thing, falling through the air. He whizzed past power lines and conduits and walkways, always just out of reach of his grasping, flailing hands. Panic took over, but for some reason he couldn't scream. The ground was getting very close.

And then something strange happened.

He felt his body slow dramatically. He was still heading downward, but in a strange, controlled fall, as if up were down and down were up. He felt as light as a feather as he coasted down past the first-level walkways, carried only by his momentum. He vaguely heard Red Eye shouting something far above. Jonah lightly hit the ground, bending his legs just a little and then standing. But even that motion sent him floating off the ground again. Martin, who was holding on to the computer console as his legs floated up behind him, turned to Jonah and grinned.

“Turned off the artificial gravity in the engine room,” he said proudly. “Pretty cool, right?”

“Very cool,” Jonah said, looking for something to grab on to.

He spotted Space Witch's limp body floating around nearby.

“How did you take her out?” Jonah asked.

“Played dead,” Martin said. “Oldest trick in the book. When she walked over to scoop me up, I popped her with a stun shot.”

Jonah shook his head in disbelief. “And how did you turn off the gravity?”

Martin plucked a little red computer key on a chain from the computer and pushed off toward Jonah, a gun tucked into his belt. He held up the key.

“Override key,” he said. “Space Witch had it around her neck. Put this in and you don't need passwords, other than for the bridge.” He reached Jonah and grabbed on to his shoulders. The two boys did a twisting turn in midair. “Also turned off all the lights in Last Refuge Road and the crew's quarters. The battle must be on.”

Jonah nodded, feeling a bit queasy. “Then we better go help.” He spotted Red Eye's gun floating around on the other side of the engine room. “Give me a push, will you?”

Martin and Jonah pushed each other, and Jonah went spinning toward the gun.

“This is awesome!” Martin shouted, heading right for a wall.

Jonah felt a bit nauseous, but it was pretty awesome.
His momentum slowly took him to the gun, and he grabbed it out of midair and looked up. Red Eye was rapidly pulling himself toward a service shaft. Jonah narrowed his eyes as he reached the far wall and kicked upward toward a walkway. Bonkers were floating everywhere.

Jonah reached the walkway and kicked off again. It was like swimming upward through the air. He pulled on conduits and power lines and kicked off walkways, all as Martin did the same thing on the other side.

“Probably could have turned the gravity on again,” Martin called. “Wouldn't have been as fun, though.”

Red Eye was almost to the service shaft. The adventurer must have retreated to the battle, because he was nowhere to be seen.

Jonah was up past the second level now, still flinging himself toward Red Eye. He was getting high up again, but heights were a different thing in zero gravity. Up and down and left and right didn't really matter. He aimed the gun toward the retreating Red Eye and fired. The blue blast crackled, missing the pirate by at least ten feet. Red Eye gave Jonah a very evil look as he finally reached the service shaft and disappeared down the tunnel. Jonah took a big kick off the third-level walkway, propelling himself toward the shaft. He couldn't let Red Eye get back to the others.

Even without a gun, he was dangerous.

Jonah grabbed the rail outside the service-shaft opening
and looked down at Martin, who was close behind him. The smaller boy flung himself upward, and Jonah just grabbed his arm as he flew toward the ceiling.

Martin smiled. “Good catch.”

The two boys pulled themselves along the walkway, toward the service shaft, and floated through the opening.

“I wonder what happens when we leave the—,” Jonah started.

Without warning, gravity suddenly kicked in again and both boys fell face-first onto the hard metal floor. Jonah groaned and looked up.

“Makes sense,” he muttered.

Martin rolled over. “My everything hurts.”

Jonah spotted Red Eye sprinting down the shaft up ahead. “There he goes!”

The two boys scrambled back to their feet and took off after Red Eye. But the pirate was too fast for them, and he turned and bolted up the stairs to the crew's quarters.

“You help out on the fourth level,” Jonah said. “I'll go after Red Eye.”

Martin slid to a halt in front of the door to Last Refuge Road. “Good luck, sir!”

“Stop saying that!” Jonah called as he ran.

His sides were already burning with cramps. He never knew there was so much exercising in space. Jonah
reached the staircase and sprinted up, the gun still feeling heavy and awkward in his right hand. He barreled through the open door to the quarters and ran out into darkness. He'd almost forgotten they'd turned off all the lights. He also realized there were no sounds of battle. He turned down the hall, squinting.

Where was everyone?

He was still peering down the hallway when a fist rammed into his stomach. It was like being punched with a battering ram. The gun spilled out of his hand and clattered to the floor, and he hit the ground right behind it, curling into a ball and groaning. He heard someone step beside him.

“Did you notice my eye?” Red Eye asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

Jonah managed to look up. His scarlet eye was glowing.

“It's infrared, you idiot,” he continued. “Darkness doesn't bother me at all.”

He reached down and scooped Jonah up by the shirt, lifting him cleanly off the floor with one hand. He held Jonah close to his face, the stench of beer and beans thick on his warm breath. Jonah just hung there like a fish on a line.

“They called me, you know,” Red Eye said. “Jake told me your little friends were marching toward the main stairs like an army of rats. He went down with
Lonn and Boggs while Tepper and Jones guarded your little friends. But I'm not an idiot, little boy. I knew you were coming for the power lines. You had to save your friends. So I told them all to grab a pair of infrared goggles before they went down. We have plenty on the ship, just in case the lights go out. Of course, you didn't blow the wire anyway. You just turned them off from the computer. Which makes it very easy to turn them back on.”

With his free hand, he snatched the comm unit off his belt.

“Go ahead, bridge.”

The lights suddenly flicked back on. Behind Red Eye, Jonah saw the Space Raiders from Sector One standing at the end of the hallway, with two crew members with goggles aiming guns directly at them. Two Space Raiders were lying still on the floor.

The commander was at the front of the group, and she met Jonah's eyes. He heard voices and then saw Weasel backing through the door from the main staircase, his gun aimed at Lieutenant Gordon and the rest of Sectors Two and Three, who followed him through the doorway.

Jonah felt his stomach, which had already been punched in by Red Eye, sink even farther. They had failed. He saw Willona slink in, her eyes downcast.

Even Martin came through the door, his gun gone. He saw Jonah hanging in Red Eye's grasp, and he looked
like he might cry. More and more Space Raiders filtered in through the doors, escorted by gun-toting pirates. The crew members took off their goggles, laughing as the kids fell into a mass in the center of the hall.

“Did you really think you could beat us?” Red Eye whispered.

Then he punched Jonah in the stomach again, eliciting shouts and gasps from the assembled Space Raiders, and threw him toward the others. Jonah hit the ground hard.

He looked up and saw the terrified faces of the Space Raiders. He'd let them all down. That hurt more than the hard metal floor. It hurt more than a battering ram to the stomach. He met Willona's watering brown eyes. What would happen to them now?

The pirates spread out around the mass of Space Raiders, guns fixed on the group.

Jonah climbed to his feet as Red Eye walked toward him, comm unit in hand.

“We have them.”

On cue, the bridge doors slid open, and Captain White Shark walked out. He fit his name perfectly. He was tall and lean, with a crisp black uniform that didn't match his ragtag crew at all. He walked with a professional, intimidating march, his cold gray eyes locked on Jonah. His hair was stark white and swept back, curling over with a slight edge like a fin. He stalked
toward Jonah, who felt like a fish on a line again.

Captain White Shark stopped before Jonah, staring down at him. Then he looked out over the Space Raiders, pausing for just a moment on the commander. His face moved with a flicker of anger or disappointment or surprise. He turned back to Jonah.

“You've caused a lot of trouble, boy,” he said quietly. “You all have.” He looked at Red Eye. “Where is Hilda?”

Red Eye paused. “One of the boys shot her.”

Captain White Shark narrowed his eyes. “Which boy?”

Red Eye looked over the gathered Space Raiders, almost one hundred and fifty of them, and then pointed right at Martin. “That one.”

Martin swelled his chest, staring right at the captain. “And I'd do it again,” he said. “Space Raiders answer to no one.”

Captain White Shark stared at him for a long moment. “Dave.”

Wrinkles suddenly broke into a grin and grabbed Martin by the shoulder, dragging him to the captain.

“No!” the commander said, stepping forward. “You can't—”

“I warned you all,” the Captain said. “Again and again. My crew wanted to make an example of one of you, but I said no. Daren Elling was clear: None of the kids could die on board. So I held them back. And now you have
attacked them again.” He paused, still looking a bit uncertain. “That's enough. It's time to make an exception. We're a week away from our destination, and I will have no more issues. None. If you do not obey, I will kill another prisoner every day. Dave says you don't believe me. You will now.” He looked at Wrinkles and nodded. “Do it.”

Wrinkles smiled and pointed his gun at Martin's head. His finger flicked a switch. Jonah knew what that meant. He'd set the gun to kill.

Space Raiders cried out. He heard the commander shouting. Willona. Jemma. Even Erna the Strong. Jonah ran toward Martin, but Red Eye stepped up and threw him backward. He landed hard on his back, pain shooting through his body.

“Any last words?” Wrinkles asked.

Martin just stood there. He didn't even cry.

“May I raid in peace,” he said proudly.

The captain looked away. “Now.”

“I'd like to say something,” a familiar voice said.

Jonah looked up. Sally Malik was standing in the service-shaft door, holding a gun and a bonker.

She saw Jonah and smiled. “I liked Jonah's plan. He's a dimwit, you see, but he had the right idea. Turn the lights off. But next time, don't just pretend to be Shriekers. Invite it along. It loves a good ambush. Jonah, I'd start with Red Eye.”

With that, she threw the bonker to Jonah and fired
the gun right into the green power line that ran up beside the service-shaft door.

The lights flicked off, and everything plunged into chaos.

J
ONAH SCOOPED THE BONKER OFF
the floor and sprang to his feet just as an earsplitting shriek filled the air. Everything was pitch black, but there was no mistaking the glowing red eye staring right at him. Sally was right. Jonah needed to take him out first. Of course, he still hadn't completed his bonker training. But he did know how to slide.

Jonah ran directly at Red Eye, and he knew the large man could see him coming. So when he was about three feet away, he slid feet first at Red Eye's legs, swinging the bonker wildly. He connected solidly with the pirate's right shin, and with a muffled curse Red Eye toppled over and slammed into the ground.

Jonah rolled away and stood up again.

The corridor was full of cackles and shrieks and shouting Space Raiders and cursing pirates. There was suddenly a blue flash, and Jonah caught a glimpse of a grinning Martin and a very surprised-looking Wrinkles falling backward as he took a stun shot to the chest. He also caught a glimpse of Space Raiders swarming over
the pirates, punching and kicking and wrenching the guns from their hands.

Willona was right in the thick of it. She looked like she was biting Boggs in the leg. Jonah wasn't surprised.

But he also caught a brief glimpse of Weasel throwing a Space Raider off of him and raising his gun toward the crowd. Jonah gripped his bonker and charged.

He didn't make it.

As the corridor fell back into darkness, a strong hand reached out and gripped his ankle, sending him flying. He slammed into the floor once again but managed to hold on to his bonker. He had a feeling he was going to need it.

On instinct, Jonah rolled to the left just as a heavy boot slammed into the floor where his back had been. If he'd been hit, he might have been killed. Jonah swung the bonker at Red Eye's leg, but this time the big man stepped over it.

“Martin!” Jonah called. “The eye!”

But Red Eye was faster. He instantly switched off the red eye and became just as invisible as the rest of them.

“Where?” Martin called.