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NOAH ZARC: MAMMOTH TROUBLE

Third Edition

Original Copyright © 2011 D. Robert Pease

Third Edition Copyright © 2017 D. Robert Pease

Cover Illustration Copyright © 2017 Samuel Keiser

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Published by Evolved Publishing

ISBN (EPUB Version): 1622534034

ISBN-13 (EPUB Version): 978-1-62253-403-6

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Editor: William Hampton

Chief Editor: Lane Diamond

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Disclaimer:

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or the author has used them fictitiously.

Summary:

In a future where Earth has been wiped clean of all life, and humanity has moved on to other worlds, twelve-year-old Noah Zarc and his family have embarked on a quest, in a time-traveling spaceship called the ARC, to retrieve two of every animal and repopulate a dead world.

YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION (Readers age 11+)

Noah Zarc Trilogy

Book 1 - Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble

Book 2 - Noah Zarc: Cataclysm

Book 3 - Noah Zarc: Declaration

Special Edition - Noah Zarc: Omnibus

Prequel Short Story - Noah Zarc: Roswell Incident

EPIC FANTASY (Readers age 15+)

Shadow Swarm

A Chink in the Armor (A Short Story of Job)

YOUNG ADULT URBAN FANTASY (Readers age 13+)

Joey Cola Series

Book 1 - Dream Warriors

Book 2 - Cleopatra Rising (Coming Soon)

Book 3 - Third Reality (Coming Soon)

SCIENCE FICTION (Readers age 15+)

The Exodus Chronicles

Book 1 - Enslaved (Coming Soon)

Book 2 - Red Sea (Coming Soon)

Book 3 - Promised Land (Coming Soon)

Prequel Short Story - Scout: An Exodus Chronicles Short

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NOAH ZARC: CATALCYSM

(Noah Zarc - Book 2)

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For Samuel and Abigail,

My first readers, best critics, and most ardent supporters.

Other Books by D. Robert Pease

Copyright

BONUS OFFER

BONUS CONTENT

Dedication

Chapter ONE

Chapter TWO

Chapter THREE

Chapter FOUR

Chapter FIVE

Chapter SIX

Chapter SEVEN

Chapter EIGHT

Chapter NINE

Chapter TEN

Chapter ELEVEN

Chapter TWELVE

Chapter THIRTEEN

Chapter FOURTEEN

Chapter FIFTEEN

Chapter SIXTEEN

Chapter SEVENTEEN

Chapter EIGHTEEN

Chapter NINETEEN

Chapter TWENTY

Chapter TWENTY-ONE

Chapter TWENTY-TWO

Chapter TWENTY-THREE

Acknowledgements

About the Author

What’s Next from D. Robert Pease?

More from D. Robert Pease

Special Sneak Preview: Noah Zarc: Cataclysm

More from Evolved Publishing

Fire roared beneath me even as the ever-thinning air grew colder. The thrusters on my boots shuddered. The thermsuit popped and rattled as if it would disintegrate before I tore free of Earth’s gravity.

And if that didn’t kill me, my sister probably would.

The blue sky darkened. I didn’t dare look down, as turning my head could send me careening off course, plummeting toward the surface fifty kilometers below. A blip on my heads-up display beeped. I’d pulled away from the assassin-bots, but they were still there, watching me rocket toward the cold depths of space.

Hamilton had said the suit would never hold up if I left Earth in it, but my big brother just wanted to keep me from trying.

“You’d most likely lose control and burn up on reentry,” he said. “Then we’d have to tell Mom and Dad why their youngest son is nothing but an ash cloud drifting over the Atlantic.”

“Then why’s the suit retrofitted with a second-stage booster?” I asked.

“Because,” my sister Sam said, “someday we might need it in an emergency.”

Well, if outrunning a half-dozen killer robots wasn’t an emergency, nothing was.

An alarm sounded in my ear, and initiate second stage scrolled across the visor.

“Let’s just hope this thing works. Fire second-stage boosters.” For a second nothing happened, then just before panic set in, the rockets ignited.

My head snapped forward when fire roared behind me. For a heartbeat, I wobbled. Then I straightened my head, thrust my open hands downward, and stabilized myself. Once more, I shot heavenward. Ice that had formed on my suit in the lower atmosphere shattered and fell toward Earth. Within moments the sky above had lost nearly all its blue.

Thirty seconds to engine shutdown.

I strained against the forces buffeting me. Just a few more seconds.

The beeping stopped. I was home free.

Ten seconds to engine shutdown.

Billions of stars sparkled against the darkness of space.

Main booster shutdown.

Silence.

Switching to navigation thrusters only.

For a moment I coasted in space, enjoying the view as the Milky Way, with its wide bands of blue, red, yellow, and white stars, cut across my vision. I looked toward Earth, the shimmering blue horizon receding below me. Green and brown patches, crisscrossed with roads, small towns, and cities, covered the southeastern United States. A swirl of clouds churned over the Atlantic. The earth was so alive during the twenty-first century—unlike my own time, nearly a thousand years in the future.

Someday it’ll look like this again.

I winced when a sharp pain tore at my abdomen. The two little black-tufted marmosets, rescued from certain extinction and now tucked safely inside my suit, were getting restless. One dug its claws into my stomach.

“All right, all right, calm down! We’ll be there soon.” I looked back toward the heavens and up at the giant, cratered moon. “Time to go home.”

***

“Noah, do you have any idea how stupid that was?” Sam glared at me from the doorway.

“But you’ve got to admit it was really cool.” I lay back on my bed, petting my dog Obadiah, waiting for my sister to finish chewing me out. I was twelve, but she treated me like a baby.

Sam stood with her hands on her hips, trying to look like Mom. They had the same sandy blond hair, but Sam always wore hers in a ponytail, otherwise it’d be sticking up everywhere. A grease smudge on her cheek matched the stains on her coveralls—definitely not Mom, no matter what Sam thought.

“I’m in charge while Mom and Dad are gone.” She jerked a thumb towards her chest. “Earth in the twenty-first century is dangerous enough! I should never have taken you down there. Do you know what kind of trouble I’d be in if you got yourself killed? Do you even care?”

It seemed I might have gone just a bit too far.

“Just plain stupid, Noah!” She glared, her dark eyes boring into me.

Everyone in my family had brown eyes, except for me—mine were blue. A freak of nature was the way my sister explained it, which is surprising considering my eye color was the least of my “deformities.”

Hamilton came into the room, huffing and puffing—probably ran all the way from the magsphere. At fourteen, he already had a hacker’s body, a little soft and pudgy. He looked around and wrinkled his nose, which made me smile. Hamilton normally steered clear of my room, calling it a putrid Petri dish for staphyl-something and pseudo-something-else. Maybe he really was that smart, but he didn’t have to show off all the time by using words nobody understood.

Anyway, there was no better place in the solar system than my room. It might be a mess, but it was my mess.

“So,” Sam said. “Did he damage the suit?”

Hamilton shook his head.  “Of course, the boosters have considerable carbon build-up, and the fuel cells are depleted, but the gyro-servos are intact, and there doesn’t appear to be any significant wear on the memory polymer skin.” He frowned at me—Sam glares, Hamilton frowns. “Your actions were incredibly shortsighted.”

“So Sam was telling me.” I tried to look serious, but I hadn’t yet shaken off the exhilaration of that flight. I glanced at my magchair sitting in the corner. How do they expect me to react, when I spend most of my time in that thing?

I was born without the use of both of my legs—a paraplegic—and the only time I feel free is when piloting a ship. I was smiling again—couldn’t help it. Now I could add flying in a thermsuit to the list.

Hamilton and Sam just didn’t get it.

“You were supposed to signal us when you had the marmosets.” Sam calmed a bit while she paced, stepping over piles of clothes. “I could’ve been there in forty minutes to pick you up.”

“I told you, Haon was there. I couldn’t wait.”

“Did you actually see him?” Her brows scrunched up.

“Well, no.” My cheeks grew hot. “I was a little distracted by the robots trying to kill me.”

“Noah….” Sam shook her head. “You wouldn’t remember what he looks like, anyway. You were only what, five when you met him?”

***

The Zarc family was the guest of honor on Mars, at a benefit for the Earth 3000 Foundation. I played hide and seek with another boy—What’s his name? Stevie?—when I ran right into a giant of a man.

“What have we here?” he said, lifting my chin with his finger. “One of the Zarc children. You must be so proud of your papa. He’s an interplanetary hero—off to save the animals.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “My daddy’s going to let me have a pet ellerphlant.”

He loomed over me. “Your daddy has no business messing with the natural order of the universe!”

I shivered as his face nearly touched mine. After all these years, I could still smell his breath—like rotten meat.

“The animals died out for a reason. The Earth was meant to be used for the good of mankind, not some zoo for ellerphlants!”

His face burned so red I was sure he would hit me, so I smashed into his shins with my magchair and sped off.

He’d left by the time I dragged Dad back, but he had to be Haon. I’d heard the stories about the man who’d dedicated his life to stopping the ARC project, and I’d built a picture of him in my head. This guy fit every detail.

***

“So you have no proof it was Haon you saw?” Sam put her fists on her hips.

“No,” I said. “But how do you explain the assassin-bots? Only Haon could have that technology in the twenty-first century.”

“It doesn’t prove Haon was there. No one is allowed to travel through time except us.”

“No one’s allowed. Doesn’t mean he didn’t do it anyway.”

“He’d be risking life in prison if he did,” Hamilton said, “or worse. He could never return to Mars, or Venus—he’d be apprehended the moment he set foot on either planet.”

Every human born on Venus or Mars had their DNA sequenced and stored in the Poligarchy’s computer system. Time travel left trace markers in their DNA, and regular searches would flag anyone who didn’t match their saved signature. I, along with the rest of my family, would set off all kinds of alarms if we weren’t designated as the only humans allowed to time travel.

“Well, I know what I saw.” I glared at both of them. “And just because it doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”

They glanced at each other. Hamilton shrugged, and Sam rolled her eyes.

“Someday you’ll want me to believe you,” I said, “and I’m not going to. I know what I saw. He—”

“Nothing we can do about it now.” Sam shook her head. “I don’t understand why you have to be so stupid.”

“I’m not the one being stupid—”

“You need to grow up, Noah.” She turned to leave.

I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at her. Everything I did lately made her mad. Everything anybody did, for that matter.

Sam whipped around at the door, her ponytail snapping behind her head. “Help Ham get the suit cleaned up. Then move your butt down to pod 3794. We have to get the habitat ready.” She glared at me once more, then stormed out.

“Seems our sister’s none too happy.” Hamilton smiled slightly as he watched her leave. When she was out of earshot, he turned to me. “I can’t condone what you did, but….” He dropped his voice. “How’d the suit handle? Was it incredible?”

I grinned. “You should’ve seen it when I hit the magthrusters and launched right in front of Haon.”

Hamilton raised his eyebrows. “You really think it was Haon?”

“I do.”

A glimmer of excitement sparkled in my brother’s eyes. Haon was bent on destroying the ARC project, but some of what he said rang true for Hamilton—political stuff and the proper use of Earth. He and Dad got into huge fights about it.

“Well, he scrambled the assassin bots quick enough,” I said. “I lost them with the second-stage boosters.” I massaged my neck. “About snapped my head off when the rockets fired, though. You should’ve warned me about that.”

“I told you not to use the thrusters at all.” Hamilton tried for a stern look but didn’t make it. “Nevertheless, I’m pleased. The suit exceeded even my best estimates.” He surveyed the room. “Were you able to retrieve the marmosets?”

I pointed to my desk, cluttered with this morning’s homework. A Brief History of Time Travel by Nowell Clark was still displayed on my holopad’s screen. Inside a clear box were two tiny monkeys about twenty centimeters long, with their signature black-tufted ears.

“I’m not sure they liked the ride up as much as I did. One of them grabbed onto my stomach for dear life.” I lifted my shirt and displayed dozens of red marks peppering my skin. “But I rescued them before Haon got there.”

Hamilton lifted the box from the desk. “We’ll need to get down to the infirmary and give them their shots.” One of the monkeys screeched when my brother set the box back down.

Of course Obadiah jumped off my bed and padded over. His nose twitched as he tried to figure out how to get on my desk for a closer look. The marmosets screeched again and started hopping around in their box.

Hamilton laughed when Obadiah turned his pleading hound-dog eyes my way. “I don’t think they’re in the mood to play with your dog.” He looked at me for a minute. “Why don’t you take the marmosets down, then get something to eat. I’ll refurbish the thermsuit on my own. I’m quite certain I don’t want you anywhere near it ever again.”

He headed for the door, then turned. “The thrusters about snapped your head off, did they?” He shook his head. “Why is it I spend all my time designing technological marvels that I never get to use?”

***

I reached in and lifted one of the marmosets from the box, careful to avoid its sharp teeth.

“Come on, little guy, I won’t hurt you.” I held the monkey up. “Umm, sorry… little girl.” I could feel her heart racing. “Just a small pinch and you can go back in the box.”

I held her tight and placed her little rump against the injector. She flinched when the machine clicked.

“See, that wasn’t so bad.” She glared at me.

With one injection, the machine had given her all the vaccinations she needed, and inserted a small tracking device so we’d always be able to find her in the rainforest habitat.

“Now for your boyfriend.”

He didn’t take it much better. In fact, he laid a good bite on my arm, and it took a while to coax him back into the box afterward.

When I was little, I’d take it personally when animals bit me, but the more time I spent with them, the more I realized how hard what we were doing was on them. These two little monkeys were running around the forests of Brazil with no clue their species would be wiped out in a couple hundred years. Suddenly I show up, throw a net over them, and haul them off to a room on the moon—a room with sterile white walls, the smell of ozone in the artificially produced air, the hum of instruments in the infirmary—enough to scare any creature out of its wits.

Now I viewed my scars as badges of honor. Every bite meant another animal would live. Rescuing these creatures, even if they didn’t know they needed rescuing, had become my purpose.

“Come on, you two. Let’s get you a little more comfortable.” I picked up the clear box and headed for the rainforest habitat—the one with none of the marmoset’s natural predators. “Living here does have its good points.”

***

After seeing the monkeys safely to their new home, I headed to the mess hall. Usually my magchair felt like an extension of my body—a mere thought would command it where to move and how fast, thanks to the neuro-implant at the base of my skull. Not today; the chair stuttered and lumbered around the room as if mirroring my mood.

Even after spending my entire life in the chair, there were days, like today, when it felt alien. Once I finished growing, doctors could fit me with my permanent neuro-prosthetic legs, but for now, the magchair would have to do.

“PB&J please,” I said, and our chef-bot came to life in the corner. “Oh, and a glass of milk.”

“As you wish, Master Noah.” It always cracked me up to hear the robot’s French accent. Whose idea was that, anyway?

Le Chef 9000 swiveled and passed through swinging doors into the galley.

I moved to the window overlooking the hydroponic gardens. Dozens of robots sped along the hanging plants, tending them and harvesting the fruits and vegetables that fed the hundreds of animals on board the ship. I could just hear Mom: “All this food and the only thing you eat is peanut butter and jelly.”

Obadiah came up beside me and sat down, oblivious to the view.

I reached down and scratched behind his ears. “If there’s food to be found, Obadiah’s around.”

The ARC, or Animal Rescue Cruiser, sat docked in a crater on the far side of the moon in the year 2011, so far removed from where my family came from—nearly a thousand years in the future—but it was home. In fact, I really knew no other home, since I’d only visited Mars a couple of times and didn’t remember much, and I’d never been to Venus. My parents founded the ARC project before I was born—its mission: to rescue Earth’s animals from extinction.

I hoped my parents were okay. Most of the time their missions only lasted a few seconds, at least from my perspective—thanks to the quirks of time-travel, even if they’d spent weeks wherever they went, they could just come back to the moment they left.

But this time, something kept them.

Sam and Hamilton said everything would be fine, but I could tell they didn’t believe their own words. The main reason I’d gone on my little thermsuit excursion was that I couldn’t bear to sit around wondering where Mom and Dad were for another second. Or in what century, for that matter.

The robot returned with a tray.

I took the plate with my sandwich and a cold glass of milk. “Thanks, LC.”

“You are most welcome, Master Noah. Will there be anything else?”

“This is all I need.” I gave the robot a weak smile. “Three PB&J’s a day keep the doctor away.” I scarfed down the sandwich, tossed the crust to Obadiah, and drank my milk.

I’d stalled long enough. Time to help Sam with the habitat.

***

Magspheres provided the fastest way to get around on a ship the size of a large city. The series of tubes that crisscrossed the decks allowed the spheres to travel at extremely high speeds, while keeping their passengers safe in gel-padded seats. It annoyed me having to climb out of my magchair into the seats, but otherwise I’d probably end up plastered against the wall, ceiling, or floor as the sphere screamed down the twisting tunnels.

I held Obadiah firmly in my lap while we sped along toward deck thirty-seven. When the magsphere stopped, the hatch opened and Obadiah jumped down and ran out. I wriggled back into my chair and followed. Moments later, I sat in front of pod ninety-four, where a screen next to the door displayed “Arctic Habitat - Irish Deer.” Below, the word “Unoccupied” flashed in yellow lettering.

I opened the hatch and was hit with the rich smells of fir and fallen leaves. It reminded me of hiking with my dad in the forests of northwest America.

As massive as the ARC was, it remained a bit confining day after day, so as soon as I learned to handle the magchair on my own, Dad took me on excursions to Earth. Down on the planet’s richly varied surface with the sky spread out above me, I never felt more alive. Dad said that was the reason he became a scientist in the first place—listening to stories growing up about what Earth was like before the Cataclysm.

Sometimes I wondered about the government’s edict that no human could live on Earth again. The Poligarchy had decreed that the planet must be saved for the animals we rescued from the past, yet it seemed wrong, somehow, to keep people from living on a world so perfectly suited for human life. Dad said it had to do with the guilt we felt for our role in the destruction of Earth. I wasn’t sure I felt responsible for something that happened hundreds of years ago, but I certainly agreed we should do what we could to bring the animals back. Besides, questioning the Poligarchy could have terrible repercussions, so Dad had said to just avoid the topic.

I shook my head clear. People a lot smarter than me were working on the problems of the solar system.

The temperature in the arctic habitat dipped near freezing, so I pulled a warm parka off a hook just outside the door. I entered the pod and surveyed the room, if it could be called that. Already it looked like a pristine, subalpine forestland—I could barely make out the bulkhead above, and all the trees and undergrowth blocked out most of the walls.

An electric Jeep that Dad brought back from one of his excursions to the late twenty-first century sat next to the hatch. Obadiah ran in circles, excited to go for a ride. I moved to the driver-side door, opened it, and pulled myself from my chair into the seat. Leaving the magchair by the hatch, I slammed the door. Obadiah scampered through the window to the seat next to me.

The Jeep, retrofitted with sensors for my neuro-implant, hummed to life as I pressed the power button and imagined putting my foot on the accelerator. Of course my lifeless legs didn’t move a muscle, but the Jeep lurched forward. It wasn’t made for a twelve-year-old driver, so I struggled to see over the dashboard—but hey, if I could pilot spaceships, surely a clunky old car would be a snap.

I didn’t understand why Dad liked these beaters so much. I’d take a star-runner any day. Or a thermsuit.

We bounced through the woods on a dirt road, little more than a game trail. Obadiah kept his eyes out for squirrels or chipmunks in the undergrowth, but this was a new habitat. Aside from Sam, Obadiah, and me, no living creatures occupied the forest around us. Of course, he didn’t know that, so his whole body shook with excitement as he dashed back and forth between the open windows.

I laughed at him. “Life’s pretty great when you haven’t got a clue, Obadiah.”

His big pink tongue flopped around as he looked at me.

“What am I saying? You get all the food you want, and you sleep in a warm bed. The most you ever have to worry about is whether or not I’ll give you a crust off my PB&J. You’ve got it all figured out.”

Satisfied he’d put me in my place, he licked my face and went back to looking out the window. Frozen potholes cracked and splashed as the Jeep trundled along.

“Locate Sam.” The screen on the dashboard positioning system lit up, and after a few seconds, a small red dot appeared with little light rings pulsating around it.

I whistled. “How’d she get so far already?”

The Jeep rattled along for a quarter-hour. The heater didn’t work, and it came nowhere near the feeling of rocketing through space, but I was having fun. Finally, I spotted Sam climbing over a stone ridge. Dozens of robots surrounded her: planters, sculptors, and dozers—my favorite.

She swiped her gloved fingers over her wrist-comm, and the robots headed off down the trail.

I brought the Jeep to a stop, looked around, then yelled out the window. “This is amazing!”

She turned with a scowl on her face.

“What?”

“Don’t try to suck up to me now, Noah. What took you so long?”

“Hey, a kid’s gotta eat.”

“You can eat when Mom and Dad get home.” She looked around at the forest. “This place is a mess. Help me get it cleaned up.”

“I think it looks great. Mom and Dad’ll love it.” I stayed seated in the Jeep.

“Get out here and help me pick up these tools.” She bent to retrieve a shovel, then realized I wasn’t moving. “Don’t tell me you didn’t bring your chair.”

Uh oh, here it comes.

“I asked you to come down here and help! How are you going to do that if you can’t even get out of the car?” She stomped over and threw the shovel in the back of the Jeep. “Come on, Noah, use your brain.”

“Don’t you think I know I can’t get out of the car?” I let my voice rise. “Don’t you think every day I wish I could just hop down and—”

“Oh, don’t play the poor-helpless-cripple card.” She finished loading the rest of the tools. “You handle yourself just fine, and you knew perfectly well I needed your help. You just use your shriveled legs as an excuse.”

I sat stunned. “I….”

She was right; I did try to get sympathy for being in a magchair, but she had no idea what it was like—always relying on someone else or some piece of technology just to move.

She saw the look on my face. “I’m sorry, Noah.” Her tone softened further as she looked around the habitat. “Do you think the deer will love it?”

“Of course they’ll love it. It’s just like home, except no wolves or lions to eat them.”

“Lions don’t live in the same environment as the Irish deer.” She smiled. “They’ll be safe here. Nothing, and no one, will harm them.”

I couldn’t tell by her face what she was thinking. “Sam, you’re not really worried about Mom and Dad, are you?”

“Of course not!” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Noah. I am a little worried, but they’ve been late before.”

She climbed into the passenger seat. “You remember when they went after the blue whales? Dad said it would be a piece of cake and they’d be back before we had the habitat done. And if we didn’t hurry, he’d stick them in your bathtub.”

I laughed. “They had to go back four times before they finally got Jada corralled in the ship’s hold.”

“She was one stubborn whale,” Sam said.

It still didn’t sit right with me. With the whales, my parents hadn’t actually been late coming home—they just had to keep going back. Still, knowing I wasn’t the only one who was worried made me feel a little better.

The great blue whales swam along a transparent composite wall, oblivious to the tiny humans marveling at their grace.

“I’m always surprised how small Jonah is,” I said. “Well, for a whale.”

Sam laughed. Her mood had definitely lifted on the ride to the whales. It hadn’t taken much prodding to get her to come for a visit—this time, anyway. I never knew if she was going to bite my head off or give me a hug. Dad said it was a girl thing—whatever that meant. Far as I knew, seventeen-year-old females might as well be aliens. I’d never figure them out.

“You think Jonah’s small?” she said. “I remember when Mom and Dad brought you home.” She looked at me with that look girls get when they see something cute—doe-eyed with goofy smiles. “You were the smallest baby I’d ever seen. Grandma and Grandpa were watching Ham and me on the ARC while Mom and Dad went to Mars, told me they’d be back with my new baby brother in just a few weeks.”

Sam cocked her head sideways. “You know, now that I think of it, I don’t remember Mom even having a big belly. That must’ve been why you were so small—you came early.” She slugged me in the arm. “That’s the last time you were early for anything.

“I remember Mom bringing you to my room.” Sam’s eyes had that far-off look again. “She let me take care of you. Ham and even Dad didn’t seem to want to have much to do with you at first. Maybe they thought you’d break easily, since your legs didn’t work.” She frowned and ruffled my hair. “I got to help give you baths, feed you, even change your diaper.”

“Can we talk about something else?” I said.

She laughed. “Sorry, I hadn’t thought about that in so long.” She looked back at the whales and smiled. “Jonah is getting so big.”

I watched Jonah swim along with his mother. The baby whale was over six meters long. “How many whales do you think this habitat will hold?”

Sam glanced away from the calf and his mother after they crested the surface to get some air. “Mom would have a better idea than me, but I think somewhere around ten. From what she says, our biggest problem with the whales is their food supply. We have to keep the krill reproducing at a faster rate than the whales eat it.”

“I wonder where Abner is,” I said.

“He can’t be far.” She pressed her face against the transparent wall and put her hands around her eyes. “Yup, there he is.”

The giant whale appeared out of the gloom and joined mother and baby.

I shook my head. “It boggles my mind sometimes, you know? All these animals, even the great blue whale, on one ship.”

In my opinion, the ARC was humankind’s greatest achievement in the thirty-first century—or any other century, for that matter. The fact that the ARC could be so large and still travel through time still amazed me. The ship had been my parents’ brainchild. Sometimes I wished I had their smarts, but then I’d think that would probably make me like Hamilton.

No thank you.

I glanced over at Sam. “Do you really think Mom and Dad are okay?” I couldn’t help myself—it was hard not to worry about them.

“They’re fine.” She waved her arm, taking in the whales, the ship, everything. “All of this wouldn’t exist without them. A little thing like ten thousand years won’t stand between us.” She slugged me in the shoulder again. “Besides, they have to come back so I can tell them about your little adventure in the thermsuit. You’re so in trouble.”

We stood and watched the whales a while longer. Abner, Jada, and Jonah swam so close to the glass that all I could see was whale—left and right, up and down. “How much longer is their migration?”

The whales had been swimming for a couple of weeks, while the temperature in the tank was incrementally lowered toward the arctic levels of their feeding ground.

“Just another two or three weeks, then we can really start pumping in the krill. Mom says whales—”

“Sam, Noah, do you copy?” Hamilton’s voice came through our wrist-comms.

“We hear you,” Sam said. “What’s up?”

“Get up here right away. Moses is back.”

Sam looked at me, her face filled with concern. “Moses shouldn’t be here.” She sprinted for the nearest magsphere.

I launched after her.

The ship’s interior screamed by in a blur as we sped toward the ARC Control Center.

I glanced at Sam, who chewed on a strand of hair like she always did when anxious. We sat in silence while the magsphere negotiated tunnels over hundreds of decks. Both of us were thinking the same thing: if Moses was back without our parents, something was wrong.

I held Obadiah tight in my lap. “It’s okay, boy,” I whispered, pressing my face against his furry ear. “They’re fine.”

Even at full speed, it took nearly fifteen minutes to reach the Control Center. The door opened with a whoosh and Sam dashed in. Obadiah jumped down and waited for me to pull myself into my magchair.

When we entered, Hamilton was watching an array of holoscreens on the wall. Three-dimensional images sprang forward or receded when he moved his hand in front of them. A battered, dull-gray robot lay on a console to his left, toddler-sized but shaped like a small plane with smooth sloping wings. Barely discernible on the main body’s scorched sides were the letters M.O.S.E.S., an acronym for Mobile Oriented Spacetime Energy Signal. A flashing green light indicated it was linked with the ship’s on-board computer. The images on the screens were downloading from its memory banks.

“What’s going on, Ham?” My sister moved to the screens and studied the image Hamilton waved to the foreground. “Why’s Moses here?”

“I don’t know for sure.” He turned to a small toolbox and began pulling out various implements. “He only arrived twenty minutes ago. Something’s wrong with his memory crystal. He’s been through some kind of electrical shock and his system is damaged.”

He laid another tool next to the robot.

“Most of the data I’ve retrieved is what I expected. Mom and Dad entered Northern Europe in the DUV II, exactly when they wanted to—in 8512 B.C. They set up camp on a remote plateau, separated from any people groups, and began their indigenous species survey.”

He turned and brought a three-dimensional image to the foreground. “Here’s the recording of their discovery of the Irish deer.”

The image on the screen crackled and flickered before clearing up. A deer the size of a moose materialized on the floor between us. The buck, with antlers maybe two and a half meters across, lifted its head and sniffed the air. Obadiah cocked his head sideways and lifted his nose, trying to smell the deer. He backed up and pressed himself against my chair.

I patted his head. “It’s okay—he won’t hurt you.”

Mom’s voice filled the room. “We’ve found a bull—a magnificent example. We’re trying to tag him so we can track his movements over the next few days. Hopefully he’ll lead us to his herd, and we can find our candidates for transport.” She sounded out of breath, but her voice quivered with excitement. This was her element.

Hamilton flicked the image back to the screen and turned toward the robot. “Moses was on auxiliary power when he returned. I’ve been downloading what I can from his memory while he recharges.”

He opened a small panel on Moses’s side and flipped a switch. “He should be charged enough to let us know why he returned without Mom and Dad, assuming his speech processors haven’t been fried.”

A dull hum filled the room as the robot rose off the console and spun vertically. The smooth nose cone split in half, and like a turtle coming out of its shell, an oblong humanoid head emerged.

“Tr—apped,” Moses chirped. “Mis—sion com—promised.”

Hamilton adjusted a few things in the open panel with a screwdriver. “Routing more power to his voice processor.”

Two apertures on the robot’s face spiraled open. “Your moth—er and father… grave danger.”

Hamilton continued turning screws and moving sliders.

“Haon located your… parents. Haon is after the deer.”

Sam’s eyes widened. “What do you mean he was there? That’s impossible!”

“Now do you believe me?” I’d been right, not that it made me feel any better.

“Not now, Noah. Moses, how did Haon find them?”

The robot cocked his head sideways. “I don’t have enough information to suggest a hypothesis.”

Hamilton stepped back.

Moses continued, his voice processor fully functional. “All indications are it was Haon himself. He appeared the moment your parents attempted to snare a doe.” The robot turned toward the monitor bank. “Observe.”

The nine screens went dark, then all of them lit up with a single scene. We moved back when a nearly life-sized image of our father, Noah Zarc, Sr., leapt from the screen to the middle of the room. Snow piled deep all around him and ice crystals hung in his beard and mustache. His brown eyes twinkled beneath bushy eyebrows. His face, just starting to show laugh lines around his mouth and eyes, beamed in anticipation. He hid behind a tree and motioned off to his left.

“Hannah, bring her around to your right.” He turned his large frame sideways, obviously trying to hide behind the trunk, not too successfully—Dad had put on a few pounds over the past couple of years. “That’s right. Easy.”

A female deer strolled into the scene. She seemed to step from the monitors to the control center floor. Dad held a photon-snare and pointed the shimmering energy coil toward the deer.

“A little closer,” he whispered.

The deer hesitantly moved a few more steps forward, her nose in the air, sniffing. Snow swirled around her.

Dad got ready to spring with the snare—

A loud pop filled the room! Obadiah yelped, and I stared in horror at the red spot on the doe’s flank. She turned to leap away, but barely took two steps before she stumbled and fell in the snow.

Dad froze. From the whirling white flakes stepped a huge man wrapped in furs, his face hidden by a shaggy parka hood. In one hand he held a large rifle, an old twentieth-century model with a modern homing scope mounted on top. He walked to the floor in front of us and nudged the deer’s head with the toe of his boot.

“Don’t move, Hannah,” Dad whispered. “He doesn’t know we’re here.”

The man set his gun on the ground, then reached up a meaty hand and pulled back his hood. For a moment, I was surprised how much he looked like my dad—the same shape to his nose, the same dark eyes—but the dead deer at his feet made clear this man was nothing like my dad. He did, however, look like the man I remembered from years before back on Mars.

“Haon,” said Dad.

Moses turned from the monitor-bank. “There is a ninety-eight percent certainty the individual was Haon. All recognition signatures, excluding one anomaly in the DNA catalogue, match his known parameters. Furthermore, the….”

Moses trailed off and cocked his head.

“Furthermore, the….” Again he stopped. For a robot he was doing a pretty good job of looking confused. “There is something wrong with my memory banks. There was more information, but I am unable to retrieve it.”

“You’ve suffered some kind of electrical interference,” Hamilton said. “Do you remember getting shocked?”

Moses sat for a moment, the apertures of his eyes opening and closing. “Negative.”

“What about Mom and Dad?” I looked back and forth between Moses and Hamilton. “Where are they?”

Moses turned toward me. “They… they are trapped in the Ice Age with no way home.”

The control room went silent. We watched Haon hoist the deer on his back and stagger off into whiteness. Suddenly the steel room around me seemed cold and lifeless.

Obadiah knew something was wrong. He jumped onto my magchair, licked my face once, and curled up in a ball on my lap.

“But I don’t understand,” Sam said. “What do you mean they’re trapped in the Ice Age? Why send you back? Why didn’t they just get another deer and come back themselves?”

“That is what they planned,” Moses said. “Your mother returned to the ship to locate Haon using the onboard sensors, while your father….” The robot trailed off yet again. “There is another gap in my memory.”

“Run a full diagnostic scan,” Hamilton said.

“Acknowledged.” The robot turned back toward the screens. “While I am running the scan, you can view a recording your father left for you. I believe it is intact.”

Dad’s image appeared before us—his hair wild and his eyes red. He sat on the snowy ground and looked directly at us.

I shivered.

“As Moses has probably told you, somehow Haon found us.” The vein on Dad’s temple pulsed. “He hijacked our ship….” The image flickered, and I could see the floor through Dad’s image. His lips continued moving, but no sound came out.

“What’s he saying?” I looked at Moses, but he was still running his diagnostic scan.

“…so I have no… where he….” The sound and the image stabilized. “I’ve decided to send Moses after them—if Haon hasn’t jumped yet, the robot should be able to follow.”

He leaned forward until it seemed like his face was less than a meter from mine. “I know this comes as a great shock to you kids. I don’t know how Haon followed us. Perhaps I’ve been too careless.” He stopped again and took a deep breath, more distraught than I’d ever seen him. “We have to find him. Who knows what he…?” He shook his head. “Just get here as soon as you can.”

Dad’s image flickered out, and the weight of ten thousand years fell between us.

Hamilton spoke first. “Were you able to follow Haon?”

We all looked at Moses.

His eyes spiraled open. “Affirmative. Haon traveled to twelfth-century Europe, to a castle in the Scottish highlands.”

I swiveled toward the door. “Let’s go, then!”

Hamilton looked at Moses. “Do you have space-time coordinates for Mom and Dad’s location?”

“Affirmative.” A small door on the robot’s chest opened. A tray slid out with two vials containing a dark red liquid. “I retrieved DNA samples from both time-streams. One is a sample of your father’s blood, the other from a squirrel I captured in Scotland.”

Hamilton nodded. “So we can return to the exact time and place when you retrieved those samples.”

I threw my hands up. “Why don’t we just go back before Haon got there? Then we can stop him from taking the DUV II! We still have the original coordinates Mom and Dad used to go after the deer.”

“It can’t be done,” Hamilton said. “Research has shown time and time again that you can’t alter events of the past. Mom and Dad were stranded in the Ice Age. Haon did hijack their ship. There’s nothing we can do to stop that.”

I glared at my brother. “Then what good is time traveling?”

He looked ready to launch into one of his big long explanations but stopped himself. “Our biggest problem, at the moment, is that we don’t have a ship.”

Sam spun around. “What do you mean we don’t have a ship? We’ve got loads down in the hangar!”

Hamilton’s voice remained calm, of course. “What I should have said is we don’t have a ship equipped for the time jump. Since the unfortunate accident when we lost the DUV I over southern New Mexico”—I squirmed in my chair under his gaze—“we’ve been operating without a backup. Dad planned to move the DUV III to operational status before he made the next jump, but then Moses returned with the time-markers for the Irish deer. Dad was too excited to wait, so he and Mom agreed to do the final calibrations on the DUV III’s warp manifold after they returned.”

“Then take another ship,” I said.

“No other ship has a hull built to withstand the strain. Warping spacetime around most objects”—Hamilton snapped his fingers—“simply snuffs them out of existence. Only a ship built specifically to withstand the extreme forces can make the jump.”

“But we’ve got ships much bigger than the DUV class. How come they can’t handle it?” I grew more irritated. We needed to rescue our parents, and he lectured us on the physics of time travel.

“It’s not entirely about size. It’s more about shape. The DUV class is the only ship we have capable of sliding through the time-stream without causing too great a disturbance. It’s no coincidence that Moses and the DUV class ships have the same profile. The only other ship built to the appropriate specs is the ARC herself.”

“How long would it take to get the DUV III operational?” Sam said. “I thought it was ready to go, except the calibration.”

Moses said, “Your father was not prepared to trust the reliability of the DUV III’s warp manifold. Its jumps could be erratic.”

“So we take the ARC,” I said.

“We haven’t moved the ARC in years,” Sam said. “And last time, we had Mom and Dad with us.”

“Nevertheless,” Hamilton said, “I think it’s our most logical choice.”

“Fine,” Sam said. “We’ll take the ARC. We need to get moving! We’re running out of time.”

Hamilton let out a big sigh. “Haven’t you been listening? We have all the time in the solar system. We could leave in ten years and still reach Mom and Dad at the moment Moses left them.”

Sam’s face grew red and she spoke through clenched teeth. “We aren’t going to take ten years!”

“Of course not.” Hamilton backed away. “How long do you think it’ll take to prepare the ARC?”

“Shouldn’t be more than a couple of days.” She looked at me, her brows knitted together. “As long as we all do our part.”

Hamilton nodded. “I’ll work with Moses to process the DNA samples and establish coordinates.”

“Fine.” Sam turned toward the door. “Noah, you and I need to get the animals secure and the ship ready to leave the surface of the moon. I don’t care what Hamilton says—we need to hurry.”

***

Sam and I worked all day getting the ARC ready to go. It was hard to focus—I had to go over the simplest stuff again and again to get it right. That night, too tired even to get undressed, I just collapsed into bed. No matter how tired, though, or how much I tossed and turned, I couldn’t get comfortable. Sam and Hamilton seemed to be able to keep it together, to brush off what was on all our minds—but not me.

I thought of a morning when I was seven or eight, Mom seated at her desk looking through a microscope while I played with some constructo-cubes on the floor. I loved to play in her lab—all the equipment, the whirring of machines—but I really just loved being around her, talking to her.

***

“Mom, do you think I’ll ever be like everyone else?”

She looked up from her work. “Of course not, Noah. You’re—”

“Special.” I glared at her. “Maybe I don’t want to be special.”

She got down on the floor and wrapped me in her arms. “Everyone enters this world with some kind of handicap. Whether it’s the place they live, the family they’re born into or the weakness of their legs, no one has a perfect life.”

She didn’t sugarcoat the truth.

“What makes each of us special is how we deal with our circumstances.” She brushed my hair out of my face with her hand. “I probably don’t tell you often enough how proud I am of you. You handle yourself better than I ever could.”

I looked into her eyes. There were no tears, just a firm conviction that she would never let me go.

***

Now she was gone.

Being with Dad was never that easy—he was just harder to talk to, and we weren’t really close—but he loved me. How could I go on without either of them?

I woke the next morning with sheets crumpled in my fists. Enough self-pity. No matter what Hamilton said, we need to get moving and find Mom and Dad now. I dressed super-fast and went looking for Sam.

***

The biggest problem with moving the ship from the moon’s surface was gravity; not the gravity holding the ship down—the ARC could easily break free of the moon’s pull—but the lack of gravity in space. Even in one-sixth gravity on the moon, the animals could live comfortably. It took getting used to, but they adapted remarkably fast. Once we left the moon’s surface, though, there would be no gravity at all to hold them down.

Of course, Dad and the engineers back home thought through that problem when they designed the ARC. Each habitat, or pod, was constructed on its own gimbal, which meant it was a totally self-contained sphere or cylinder that could be spun independently of the ship, generating its own virtual gravity. In addition, during acceleration, all the habitats would simply pivot so that down was toward the back of the ship. Depending upon acceleration, this was a better imitation of true gravity.

I didn’t understand how it all worked, but I loved the ride. In space, when we weren’t accelerating, only the pods had gravity. It was a blast floating around the ship in zero-G—no need for magchairs or thermsuits. I was free as a bird.

Over the next two days, Sam and I worked together to get all the gimbals unlocked, so we could test every habitat. When there were problems with a pod, we would go down and check it manually. Most released remotely, as they should, but it was no small task to get the rest in order.

On the morning of the second day, Sam and I worked to release the dire wolf habitat. Something had dropped between the outer hatch and the pod’s exterior plate, causing it to jam.

“How long do you think Mom and Dad can last?” I said.

Sam shook her head. “Remember what Ham said? We have time on our side. The DNA sample Moses retrieved will allow us to pinpoint exactly when and where Mom and Dad are in spacetime. So even though for us it’s been two days, for them it’ll only be a few hours at most before we show up. Make sense?”

“I guess so. It’s just hard to get your mind around it.” I thought for a minute. “I still don’t get what DNA has to do with anything.”

Sam stopped cranking the ratchet she was using. “Well, I’m no expert, but the way Ham explained it to me was that the earth is constantly bombarded with cosmic rays—radiation that travels millions if not billions of miles through space from every direction. That radiation leaves markers in the DNA—signatures that, when analyzed, can give the location in spacetime for when and where that organism lived. Our DNA is keeping a record of everywhere we’ve ever been, and everywhen.”

“Ah, now it’s perfectly clear.” I laughed.

Sam laughed too. “Yeah, just thinking about it gives me a headache.”

“And you and Hamilton are the smart ones. Imagine what it’s like for me to try and wrap my mind around it.”

“I’m sure you do just fine. You only pretend to be slow while you’re pulling the wool over Ham’s eyes or mine with some scheme.” She smiled and got back to work on the hatch.

“You know he hates it when you call him Ham, don’t you? He says he’s no side of pork.”

She laughed again. “Why do you think I do it?”

***

By mid-afternoon two days after Moses’ return, we had the ARC ready to go. Hamilton wanted to wait one hour more for daylight to cover the near side of the earth—less chance of being spotted. During the twenty-first century, thousands of telescopes were pointed toward the night sky. We would try to keep the moon between Earth and us for as long as possible. Our parents always stressed that the most important rule of time travel was not letting yourself be seen.

We strapped ourselves into our seats in the ARC Control Center. I always got excited right before a lift-off. So did my stomach, but it would calm down as soon as the engines roared to life.

Sam sat in Dad’s chair between Hamilton and me. She was in charge, with a long checklist displayed on the monitor connected to a swivel arm on her seat. Even Mom and Dad didn’t know everything it took to get the ARC off the ground.

Sam tapped her finger on the screen. “Pods ready for departure, Noah?”

I scrolled down the long row of numbers on my monitor. All had a steady green light.

“Pods are go.”

“Power and pressure systems?”

“Power is nominal. Pressure is holding at a steady one atm.”

“Ham, do you have a lock on the time-stream for Dad?”

An image on the screen showed a pulsing beam of light connecting a long line of round Earths, like a string of blue pearls moving off into the darkness of space.

“Northern Europe, 8512 B.C., requiring three hundred and twenty-six jumps.” Hamilton looked at Sam. “Warp-processors powered and ready.”

“Disengage the docking clamps,” Sam said. The screens switched to an external view of the ARC. Cameras, mounted on several sides of the crater we called home, showed the ship from every angle. “Take us out of here.”

The tiniest shudder rocked us as the main thrusters fired.

Sam turned to me, then Hamilton, and gave us a thumbs-up. “Let’s go get Mom and Dad.”

On screen, our giant ship erupted in flames along its bottom edge. Normally, ships used maglifters to launch, creating a magnetic field polar opposite the field of the planet or moon, but the ARC was so big it needed conventional rockets to help get it off the ground. The ship, shaped somewhat like an enormous snub-winged manta ray, with deck after deck flickering in blue light, slowly rose from the moon’s surface. From the outside, with no frame of reference, the ARC didn’t look as big as it really was—at more than sixteen kilometers long and eight kilometers wingtip to wingtip, larger than most twenty-first-century cities on the planet below us.

Thrusters fired as soon as the ship cleared the rim of the crater, tilting the nose of the ARC upward.

The shipboard computer’s mechanical voice filled the room. “Brace for main engine ignition. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Ignition.”

An enormous ball of fire exploded from the rear of the ship, and the holoscreens flickered out for a second. The craft shook and rumbled all around us. The vibration rattled my bones. It had been a long time since we last moved the ARC, and I’d forgotten how much force it took to get her going. I knew better, but the ship felt as if it would fall apart around us. Poor Obadiah was probably a scared, shivering ball of fur in his crate back in my room.

The screens changed to show the stars above us. The round, cratered horizon of the moon was just visible along the bottom edge. For several long minutes the acceleration was so great I could barely lift my arms.

“Reaching moon orbital altitude in ten seconds,” Hamilton said. He peered at his own monitor closely.

“Five seconds.”

I switched my monitor to the rear view. The moon’s surface fell away at an astonishing rate.

“We’ve reached moon orbital altitude.”

My body grew light and my stomach lurched as gravity changed to zero-G. A smile crept across my face. I couldn’t wait to fly around the corridors of the ship.

Sam let out a sigh of relief. “How long until we make the first jump?”

Hamilton overlaid the main screens with the same “string of Earths” image. Over the first globe a timer counted down.

“Three minutes and fourteen seconds. Powering the warp manifold now.”

I monitored the pods. Peeking in on several species told me none suffered much from the acceleration. Most lay down as if they were sleeping. But gradually, when the rate of acceleration decreased and apparent gravity returned to the level they were used to, the animals started to move about again.

“How long will the jumps last?” I said.

“Moses estimated two hours, thirty-seven minutes,” Hamilton said. “Preparing for the first jump.”

The timer ticked down from thirty seconds. The stars shimmered through a purple haze that bent the light.

Twenty seconds.

Stars rippled while blue-green electrical energy crackled around the ship.

Ten seconds.

A loud hum filled the room. Stars melted and blurred together in a fiery conflagration of energy. One moment we rocketed toward space, the next moment a view of Earth filled the screens.

The ARC skimmed over the continent of Africa toward the darkness of space. Within minutes, the earth disappeared behind us. The next image of Earth in line on the display now had a countdown of fourteen minutes, seven seconds until jump.

Hamilton had tried to explain, several times, how the whole time travel thing worked, but I still couldn’t get it. Somehow, while the ARC traveled through space, it created a dense field around itself, which warped the fabric of space and time. Hamilton said all we needed to do to travel back in time was aim toward a point in space where the earth used to be, or any other landmark, then warp present space so it touched past space. Then we could slide through a hole between them.

At one point when I was feeling totally lost, Hamilton took an old handkerchief and a needle and thread and tried to explain it again.

***

“This handkerchief represents spacetime.” He drew a dot near one edge. “This is the present location of Earth.” He drew a dot on the other edge. “This is a past location. In order for us to travel back to the past, we need to bring these two edges closer together.” He folded the handkerchief so the two dots touched.

“The energy needed increases exponentially for the amount of spacetime warped. So we usually hop through time in shorter jumps.” He drew several dots between the two. Then he took the needle and thread and pushed it through each dot.

“Once we know when we want to go to and where a specific point in space will be, such as the earth at any given time, we can jump from Earth to Earth to Earth all the way back, as far as we want.” He pulled the thread tight and brought all the dots together. “Make sense?”

“Yeah, I think so. Earth’s a big booger in the handkerchief of time.”

“I give up!” He stormed out of the room.

***

My brother pored over his monitor.

Maybe I’ll have to quit giving him such a hard time. I laughed out loud, saw the way he and Sam looked up at me, and reconsidered.

Purple and green pulses enveloped the ARC, and we jumped again. Once more Earth appeared below us. At first I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was different, but the planet would keep changing the farther back in time we went. It would become wilder, less developed—and that’s what was different. Earth this time was greener.

We jumped like this for more than two hours—until our final jump. For several minutes after it, the ship fired reverse thrusters and slowed while Hamilton scanned over some charts on his screen.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

“Earth isn’t where it’s supposed to be.”

“What?” Sam unbuckled and moved to the window. “Where is it?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Hamilton snapped the image to the main screen. Several planets appeared, as well as a flashing light he pointed at, labeled ARC.

“We’re here.” He pointed at another image. “And Earth is here.”

Sam studied the screen. “I can see that.”

It didn’t really look all that far to me.

“Computer, please calculate distance to Earth,” he said.

“Two point eight three million kilometers.”

“Not as bad as I thought.” Hamilton scratched his chin. “But it still doesn’t make any sense. We should have entered this spacetime just outside the orbit of the moon.” He ran through more screens, checking and rechecking his numbers.

“Well, there’s not much we can do about it now,” Sam said. “Let’s get moving. Noah?”

“I’m on it.” I brought my monitor back and punched up the coordinates for Earth.

“Computer, take us in.”

It took three more hours to get to Earth, but somehow it felt much longer. We passed the moon and zeroed in on the blue planet. Finally, the ship’s computer prepared to enter Earth’s orbit.

I exhaled loudly. We’d made it.

“Engage the light-deflecting shields,” Sam said. “No sense panicking the locals by letting sun reflect off our hull.” She tilted her head toward me and smiled. “Check on the pods again, then meet me in Hangar Bay One. I want to get down there as soon as we can. Hopefully Mom and Dad have kept themselves warm.”

Twisting and spiraling, I flew down a tube through the center of the whale habitat. Good thing I loved zero-G.

I didn’t need to check on all the animals—just the biggest, the ones who seemed to struggle most with disorienting changes in gravity. The whales sometimes had trouble knowing which way was up so they could surface for air.

I slowed and looked down through a window at the miniature sea. Small swells rolled back and forth on the surface as the artificial ocean spun around me. Within moments, the spray from all three whales spouted up toward my perch hundreds of meters above them. They didn’t seem to be having any trouble at all. I’d have loved to stay and watch, but I still had a few more animals to check on, and we had to get moving.

I checked the elephants last. With the great expanse of African savannah spread out before me, it took a few minutes to spy the two gentle gray giants, both of whom acted as if nothing had changed. The elephants were amazingly graceful creatures. How could such a huge animal walk without making a sound? I smiled while Fathiya laid her trunk across Elimu’s back. The pair seemed content with their new life aboard the ARC.

It occurred to me—not for the first time—how important a thing we were doing. For the past several hundred years, no one had been able to watch elephants play or hear whales sing, hear a lion roar or see a horse gallop.

We had to get Mom and Dad home so we could all carry out our mission: filling Earth with creatures once more.

I watched the elephants a few minutes longer, and headed to the hangar.

***

Sam and Hamilton stood outside the hatch of the Morning Star, the most beautiful ship we had—gleaming silver and built for speed. The wings curved forward, like a hawk about to unfurl its pinions after a dive. We had bigger ships, maybe even faster ships, but the Morning Star was special to me—the first ship I’d ever flown.

“Someone has to stay here,” Sam said. “What if something goes wrong?” She turned toward me. “Would you stay on board while Ham and I get Mom and Dad?”

“Why don’t we just radio down?” I said. “Surely we can get through from orbit.”

Hamilton shook his head. “Moses has been trying ever since we entered this time-stream. There’s been no response. We have no option but to go down to the surface.”

“I think you should stay,” Sam said.

“No way,” I said. “Neither one of you knows how to fly the Morning Star.”

Sam scowled at me.

“At least, not as well as I do.”

“Precisely my point.” Hamilton glanced at our sister. “Autopilot could take us down, but what if something goes wrong? Noah has flown hundreds of hours more than we have combined, and frankly, you’re the best acquainted with how to handle a somewhat unrefined populace.”

“Are you saying I’m the only one who speaks caveman?” Sam sighed. “I just don’t feel right about all of us going down. If something happened, there’d be no one to rescue Mom, Dad or any of us.”

“The greatest danger will be leaving the ship to search for Mom and Dad,” Hamilton said. “Noah can take us down, and once there, he can stay on board the Morning Star. If something happens to us, he can return immediately to the ARC.”

“Now, wait a minute—”

“No,” Sam said. “Either you promise to stay on the Morning Star or you don’t go down at all.” She wasn’t going to change her mind on this.

“I promise.”

She smiled. “Besides, if we get eaten by a cave bear, you can be the hero who saves the universe all by yourself.”

The ship’s computer chimed. “Entering Earth orbit, 8512 BC.”

I pushed my chair past Hamilton and Sam and boarded the Morning Star.

***

Despite all the trouble I manage to get in, I really am a great pilot. Mom said I should’ve been born a bird.

But my stomach was in knots as I sat in the pilot’s seat ready to go. It wasn’t nerves, just anticipation—this flight couldn’t be more important.

“Nothing fancy,” Sam said. “We need to get in and out as quickly as possible.”

Hamilton couldn’t resist. “Actually—”

“Ham! As quickly as possible.” Sam’s gaze drilled holes into Hamilton, who snapped his mouth shut.

I could sync my neuro-implant with the Morning Star’s control and navigational systems, and after spending my whole life controlling my magchair with my thoughts, I was better equipped than most at piloting a ship. I could fly manually, sure, and there was something satisfying about gripping the yoke with my hands, but I couldn’t imagine wanting to fly without my implant.

Sam swallowed. “Computer, open the bay doors.”

Two large steel doors opened at the end of the hangar. Stars glittered against the black canvas of space, though somewhat obscured by a shimmering energy shield that protected the hangar from depressurization.

I released the holding pins on the Morning Star and, with soft touches to the maglifters, rose off the bay floor and pushed the craft forward. Once in the air, the ship’s artificial gravity dissipated, and we again floated in zero-G. Matching the spin of the bay doors as I nudged the ship through them was the hardest part, and it took all my concentration. I lined up precisely and gave it more thrust, and the nose of the Morning Star pierced the energy shield. Seconds later, we were through.

I gasped at the glow of the Earth below. “There’s so much white!”

“Well, it is the Ice Age,” Sam said.

“Technically, it’s the end of the last glacial period.” We glared at Hamilton, but he never seemed to get how annoying he could be. “If we’d gone back another thousand years, nearly half of the northern hemisphere would be covered with ice.”

North America passed several kilometers below us. Ice covered a good part of what would one day be considered Canada, but below that was a landscape filled with millions of lakes and lush green terrain.

I gave the Morning Star a little more power and moved away from the ARC. Once we cleared, I fired up reverse thrusters to slow the ship. Within minutes, we dropped into the atmosphere.

The edges of the ship’s wings glowed.

Sun glared off the ice and snow blanketing the top third of the planet. Red and yellow flames flickered past the windows. This is where my years of practice paid off. A degree or two off in either direction would be catastrophic. The friction of entry would burn a hole through the hull in a matter of seconds. Of course, the shipboard computer wouldn’t let that happen, but you never knew when the computers might go haywire.

The Morning Star vibrated and the temperature in the cockpit rose noticeably. Sam looked a little worried, whereas Hamilton seemed oblivious as he concentrated on his monitor, plotting the course to Mom and Dad. Moses gave us exact coordinates, but Hamilton double- and triple-checked everything.

Moments later, the flames around the ship abated, then vanished. The Morning Star glided through a blue sky, and only small pockets of clouds obscured the Earth below.

The ARC should have arrived in this time-period almost the exact moment Moses rocketed after Haon. Still, it would probably take us an hour or two to get down to the surface. Mom and Dad could handle themselves, but the sooner we got there the better.

As we began our final descent, I could make out Europe.

Sam shivered and rubbed her arms. “It’s going to be really cold down there. Why couldn’t Mom and Dad pick a warmer era to get stranded?”

Hamilton flicked a switch, and a grid popped up over the image on the monitors of the European continent below. A flashing light indicated the spot where Moses had left our parents.

“There it is,” Sam said. “Take her down as fast as you can—safely.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think I’ll take us down dangerously.”

She just rolled her eyes.

I nudged the yoke forward, and the nose of the Morning Star dipped nearly straight down. For a moment we were weightless again, plummeting toward Earth.

A blanket of clouds obscured the continent, and we hit a bit of turbulence.

“Hang on!” I shouted.

I banked left and headed for a clear patch of sky. Sonic booms enveloped the ship when it smashed through the air, shaking the three of us as we sped through the clouds. We burst back into sunlight and saw northern Great Britain approaching fast.

I leveled off and slowed, preparing the Morning Star for landing. “Keep your eyes out for a good place to touch down.”

Hamilton flicked a schematic over the windshield. “Moses specified the clearing where Dad landed the DUV II.” A bright arrow appeared on the screen, pointing straight ahead.

Soon we were skimming over the ancient British countryside. The arrow pulsed on the display.

“There!” Sam said.

I saw a flash of sun on metal, and pulled the air brakes wide to bank left. In a clearing below sat the remains of a campfire with a shiny metal pot hanging over it. I turned the ship and drifted down. With a slight bump, we hit the ground.

“A perfect landing,” I said.

“I don’t see them anywhere.” Sam pressed her face to the window.

Hamilton frowned at the monitor in front of him. “They’re not within range of our scanners, so I doubt you would.” He pushed the monitor away, stood up, then grabbed the monitor and yanked it back.

“I see something—two life-forms approximately three kilometers due east.”

Sam headed for the door. “It’s got to be Mom and Dad. Let’s go.” She glanced back at me. “Remember, Noah: stay in the ship. Any sign of trouble and you get this thing in the air, got it?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Minutes later, I watched on the external monitors as they headed off into the woods, dressed from head to toe in every stitch of clothing they could find.

“Hamilton, can you hear me?”

“I hear you, Noah. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”

“Just keep me posted. If you come back telling stories of fighting off lions with your bare hands and I missed it all, I’ll be very unhappy.”

“I told you,” Sam said. “There aren’t any lions in this part of the world.”

***

For the next forty minutes, the holoscreens displayed a couple of red blips, marking Sam and Hamilton’s steady progress toward the two blue blips that had to be Mom and Dad. The blue dots moved in a line, sometimes seeming to run, sometimes stopping for several minutes. Sam and Hamilton were nearly on them.

“Do you see them?” I said.

“Not yet,” Sam said.

I moved my chair back and forth, back and forth, my eyes fixed on the screen. The dots seemed to crawl.

“We see Dad,” Hamilton said just when I thought the waiting would drive me crazy. “It looks like he’s following an animal of some kind.”

“Dad!” Sam’s voice yelled over Hamilton’s comm link.

Just then, a loud thud came from outside the ship. I tore my gaze from the red and blue blips and looked to the window—another thud as something smashed against the pane.

“We’ve got him, Noah!” Sam said. “We found Dad.”

I flipped the screen to exterior monitors. “You’d better get back here. We’ve got company.”

I nearly laughed at what transpired outside the ship, like something from one of those so-bad-it’s-good movies from the mid-twentieth century. The kind Dad loved. A half-dozen men with long shaggy hair and beards, dressed in heavy animal furs, were throwing everything they could find at the ship. A couple of boys did their best to follow the men’s lead.

“I’m being attacked by a bunch of cavemen.”

“What?” Sam sounded out of breath. “What do you mean, attacked?”

“Attacked as in they’re throwing rocks at the ship.”

“Noah?”

“Dad!”

“Are they doing any damage, son?”

I studied the scene from each external camera.

“Hard to tell, Dad.” Man, I loved saying that. “I can’t see outside the ship so well, but I don’t think so.”

“Fine, just sit tight for a minute.” I heard him whisper for a few seconds. “Noah, I think the best thing to do is just stay there. If it looks like they’re starting to do any damage, fire up the engines. That should scare them off.”

“Okay.” I tried to keep my voice steady. I’d really missed the sound of Dad’s voice. “Can I talk to Mom?”

He was silent for a moment. “Didn’t Moses tell you?”

“Tell us what?” Sam and Hamilton asked in unison.

“Haon has your mom. He took off with her in the DUV II.”

Dad said something about explaining once they got back to the ship, but I barely took it in.  Mom had been fine in the video we saw. At least she’d sounded fine. How could Haon have kidnapped her?

I tried to distract myself by watching the men outside. They’d realized they weren’t doing any damage and were standing around the ship, either staring at it in disbelief or arguing.

I turned on the external microphones, but just as I reached for the translator, Sam’s voice came over the comm. “Noah, get the Morning Star in the air! Something big is headed your way.”

I launched myself to the pilot’s seat and grabbed the yoke.

“You heard her, let’s get going.” The shipboard computer ignited the lifters, and a cloud of snow and steam billowed from under the Morning Star.

Outside, the cavemen backed away. Just as I was about to ease the ship off the ground, a great thudding sound rose over the roar of the engines. The men outside heard it too—they ran back toward the ship and huddled together. I hovered a meter or two off the ground. Before I could give the ship more thrust, I heard a thump and the Morning Star tilted.

Turning to the external monitors, I saw a boy splayed across the ship’s left wing. His eyes were wide with panic.

“What are you doing?” I yelled.

I eased off the thrust and settled back toward the ground, but before I touched down, the source of the thudding became all too clear. A giant, brown, furry animal burst through the trees beside the ship and headed straight for the Morning Star—and the caveboy clinging to the wing.

“Get out of here!” I yelled, but he was frozen with fear… and couldn’t hear me anyway.

A flash of tusks made up my mind for me. I twisted the yoke clockwise, and the Morning Star swiveled right, taking the boy with it. A crash rocked the ship when what could only be described as a huge, hairy elephant smashed into the rear. I jerked the joystick sideways, and the wing dipped to the ground.

The boy slid off.

I tried to level off, but the Morning Star wouldn’t respond. The external monitors at the rear of the ship showed the elephant was still there, thrashing about. Each jerk of its head sent shudders down my spine. One of the elephant’s tusks had pierced the skin of the ship—it was stuck.

I had no choice. That thing would shake the Morning Star apart, and if it did we’d be stranded.

“Fire rear thrusters at five percent.”

Gouts of flame erupted from the back of the ship and engulfed the elephant. In two seconds its fur ignited in a ball of yellow fire. The Morning Star lurched forward, and the panic-stricken creature pulled free.

The sudden release of the elephant’s weight sent the Morning Star surging left, smashing into a small stand of trees. I pulled the ship right and she turned sluggishly. I needed to get back on the ground.

With one check of the monitors to make sure I wasn’t going to land on anyone, I dropped the Morning Star back to earth.

“Engines down.”

A survey of the damage made it instantly clear: big trouble, any way I looked at it.

Sam, Hamilton, and Dad ran into the clearing. Dad, dressed in a winter parka, had a spear in his hand. A shaggy man in furs ran behind them, also carrying a spear. They all stopped and stared.

Too worried about Dad’s reaction to the mess I’d made of things, I opened the outside hatch remotely and waited for them to come up to the cockpit.

I stared at the damage on the holoscreens. The elephant had fallen to the ground and wasn’t moving—would never move again.

Tears ran down my cheeks, and my shoulders shook. I couldn’t help it—too much had happened: Mom was kidnapped, I’d killed the elephant, and who knew how much damage the animal had done to the ship, our only way off this planet. If I just hadn’t parked the Morning Star so close to the trees—

The door opened behind me and Dad stepped through. “Noah?” He rushed forward when he saw my face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry, Dad.” I choked. “I didn’t mean to. I’ve ruined everything.”

He leaned over and hugged me.

“That poor, hairy elephant.”

Dad smiled at me. “You mean the mastodon?”

I nodded.

He held my shoulders and looked me in the eye. “I’m sure you didn’t mean to kill him. Sometimes it’s unavoidable.”

“But… what about the ship?”

“I’d just as soon you hadn’t run the Morning Star into the trees,” he said, “but I’m sure Sam will figure out how to patch everything up. You’re safe, and that’s all that matters right now.”

“But what about Mom? We have to go rescue her!”

“Your mother’s a strong woman. She’ll most likely figure out a way to rescue herself.”

I didn’t get it. Why wasn’t he worried?

Hamilton and Sam came in, still breathing hard. Sam looked like she’d been crying.

“What took you so long?” Dad said.

Hamilton frowned. “We were right behind—”

“No, what took you so long getting here, to Earth? I sent Moses after your mother almost two weeks ago.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Hamilton said. “We set the coordinates to the exact time he calibrated from your blood sample. Unless….” He paused and looked toward the ceiling. “We didn’t appear where we should have, either. Earth wasn’t where it was supposed to be.”

“That makes sense,” Dad said. “Wrong time equals wrong place. But why?”

“Moses was damaged when he returned.” Hamilton thought for a moment.  “Perhaps the sample was contaminated.”

“Damaged how?”

“It looked like he was hit by some kind of electrical shock. We had a hard time retrieving information from him—part of your message was scrambled.”

“That’s why you didn’t know your mother had been captured?” Dad sighed. “I’m so sorry I hit you with the news like that.”

“So what happened?” I said.

Dad sat down in the pilot’s seat and swiveled toward us.

“After Haon killed that doe, your mother went back to the DUV II. We wanted to run a scan of the area to make sure Haon was really gone. I stayed out in the field to locate another deer.” He shook his head. “I should have gone with her, but we figured if anyone was in danger, it’d be me. Not fifteen minutes later, I heard a rumble and turned around to see the DUV II rocketing toward the sky. I tried to contact your mother on the comm but got no response.”

He looked away from us, out the window—maybe he was more worried than I thought. “I ran to the clearing where we’d landed. There was fresh snowfall—her tracks led straight to the clearing and didn’t leave, so she had to be on board. I found another set of tracks, much bigger, and knew it was Haon. There were drops of blood interspersed with his tracks—”

Sam gasped, and Hamilton went pale.

Dad held up a hand. “I’m certain they were from the deer Haon killed. I’m guessing he followed her on board, otherwise she’d have seen his tracks leading up to the hatch. Once on the ship, he must have overpowered her.”

By now his eyes were starting to fill up. “I felt so helpless.”

We all waited for him to continue. In a way, it was comforting that Dad seemed as lost as I felt, but it was sure unsettling.

“That’s about it,” he said, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. “I sent Moses after you, and I’ve been here ever since.” He looked out the window and his mouth made a crooked smile, or maybe it was a grimace.  “I did make some new friends, though.”

He must have meant the shaggy man with the spear.

“The fact that Moses was damaged concerns me,” he said. “Obviously Haon wants your mother for something and doesn’t want us to find her.”

“Maybe he just wanted the DUV II,” I said. “She was at the wrong place at the wrong time.” I didn’t like what that might mean. If Haon didn’t need Mom, then maybe he’d get rid of her.

“It can travel through time,” Hamilton said. “There aren’t many ships that can do that.” He hesitated, then said, “Except Haon must’ve already had a ship that could time travel. So it was Mother he was after.” His face brightened. “Which means she’s still—”

“Of course your mother is fine,” Dad said. “But if Moses was damaged, Haon knows we tried to follow him and he’ll be expecting us.”

He went quiet. I watched him and thought about how worried I’d been the past couple days. Then it hit me: he’d been here two weeks. He’d been worrying about Mom all that time and probably worrying about us, too. Sometimes it was easy to forget parents have feelings too.

He looked at me, and we smiled at one another.

“Okay, first things first. We need to assess the damage to the Morning Star.” He glanced out the window. “And I need to have a talk with my friends.”

He patted his chest and hip pockets.

“Where did I put those things? Ah, here we go.” He produced a small clear bag, pulled out several tiny objects, and handed one to each of us. “Place this in one of your ears.”

“A neurotranslator?” Hamilton said. “I didn’t know you finished them.”

“Can’t let my son have all the patents.” He grinned. “I’ve been tinkering with them for a few months now. I call them Triple-B’s.”

We all knew better than to even try to guess. Dad looked at us, still grinning, clearly feeling a lot better.

So was I.

“Bye Bye Babble,” he said, then jerked his thumb at the window. “These cavemen will give you the perfect opportunity to try the Triple-B’s out.”

I fumbled with mine and tried to fit it in my ear.

“Here, let me help you with that,” Dad said, and there it was—snug in my ear. “The trick with the neurotranslator is calibration. The more you use it, the better it works. All commands are sent to the translator via thought—like your neuro-implant, Noah. If you want to talk with someone, just concentrate on the person’s words, and the translator handles the rest. That allows you to control whose words you hear—otherwise, if you were in a room of people all speaking at once, the translator would run out of processing power and probably freeze up. Comprenez vous ce que je dis?”

I stared at Dad’s lips, concentrating on his words. At least, I tried to concentrate. It was hard when all I saw was his big shaggy beard sticking out all over his face. He really needed a trim.

“Comprenez vous ce que je dis? Do you understand what I am saying?”

“Oui.” I smiled. I’d thought “yes,” but when I spoke the Triple-B instantly translated English to French.

“Wouah! Cette chose est étonnante.” Sam said. “Wow! This thing is amazing.”

“The default speech processing is in whatever language it just translated. So if you just heard French, it will translate your words back in French. If you want to switch back to your native tongue, you can turn it off by thinking ‘Babble off.’ As you use it more, you’ll be able to switch to any language in its memory banks just by thinking that language. Like this: Jetzt spreche ich auf Deutsch.”

All of us started speaking different languages. It was confusing the first minute or two, but then we focused on one language at a time and did just fine.

“Looks like you’ve got the hang of it,” Dad said. “Let’s try it on our friends outside.” He headed toward the door and yelled over his shoulder as he left the room: “N’oubliez pas vos manteaux d’hiver. Don’t forget your winter coats.”

I thought about Dad’s reaction when he came aboard the Morning Star. I was sure he’d be upset. I should have been in trouble, but I wasn’t.

It was exactly the same when I crashed the DUV I. Even though I’d lost the ship in New Mexico and we had to abandon it to the United States government, Dad was much more relieved than mad. Of course, I was never in any real danger—but still.

Parents! I’ll never figure them out.

***

Outside, the bite of the cold shocked me. Even the arctic habitats on the ARC weren’t this cold, but of course, this land had been covered in ice fifteen hundred meters thick only a few decades earlier. I hoped my chair wouldn’t have any trouble functioning in the extreme temperature.

Dad walked toward the mastodon, where three men and a boy stood guarding it. They looked up, saw Dad, and waved. The man who’d followed him into the clearing held up his spear and shouted, then pointed at the huge felled beast.

I felt awful. The mastodon’s dead eyes seemed to stare right at me.

The man lowered his spear and said, “Shelee pundak draxeem.”

The translator crackled to life in my ear: “This is our meal.”

Dad turned toward us. “Did you understand that?”

We all nodded.

“They’re speaking a form of Hebrew. When I heard it the first time, I couldn’t believe it—to hear that language this far north, and this far back in time.” He turned toward the men again. “It has been a successful hunt.”

My Triple-B instantly translated his ancient language back to English.

“I was working with Jobar there to herd the mastodon toward their hunters. Of course, I didn’t expect you to land the ship right in his path.” He gave me a hard look, then cracked a smile.

Again the man with the spear spoke. His voice translated immediately. “Tonight we will celebrate a gift from the land.”

The boy grinned—

No, under all that shaggy hair, he was actually a she.

“My son provided the meat.” Dad puffed out his chest and patted me on the back. “He brought down the beast.”

“Then he must be our guest of honor for a grand feast tonight. This meat will feed our tribe from dark moon to dark moon.”

“We would be honored to join you.” Dad pointed to the Morning Star. “We need to see how badly our vessel has been damaged. Please let us know when you’re ready for us to join you.”

“Of course. It will take time to carve the gift.”

We waved and turned back to the Morning Star.

***

“Priority one is your mother,” Dad said. “We need to get off this ball of ice and rescue her. Hamilton, why don’t you and Sam take a look at the ship’s diagnostics and see what it’ll take to get her back to the ARC? Noah, you’re with me. We’ll see firsthand what kind of damage we’re dealing with.”

Sam and Hamilton disappeared into the ship while Dad and I headed toward her tail section.

He ran his hand along the Morning Star’s smooth, composite skin. “She looks like she’s seen a bit of action. You might have come in a little too hot.”

I shook my head. Not likely.

Several yards away, the mastodon now swarmed with men and women who’d entered the clearing. Already they were carving off long strips of meat.

“I’m like him,” I said.

Dad looked at the elephant, then at me. “Like who?”

“Haon. I saw what he did to that deer.”

“Look at me, Noah.” He waited until he was sure I was listening. “Haon kills animals for the fun of it. He loves to see living creatures bleed and die.”

He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me toward the carcass. “Do you love seeing that creature lying there dead? Did it bring you joy when you killed him?”

“No,” I whispered.

“I didn’t think so.” He nodded towards the women who were now hauling some of the meat away. “There’s nothing wrong with hunting to eat, to live. For thousands of years man hunted to survive. Until we were able to synthesize meat, most people still ate cows, pigs, chickens, sheep. Haon thinks all animals should be killed, not for food but for sport. He loves the killing.”

I took a deep breath and looked at the men and women carving the mastodon. They would all starve if it weren’t for the animals they hunted. The girl I’d saved earlier carried a hide filled with strips of meat. She would die.

“Thanks, Dad.”

His face softened, and he smiled. “Let’s see what’s what with the ship.”

He ran his finger along a gouge in the Morning Star’s side, stopping at a hole about the size of his fist. Ragged metal and composite tile fell away when he probed the damage.

“It looks punctured clear through.” He bent and looked in the hole. “Bet if we went inside, we’d see light through this thing.”

The suspense was killing me. I felt better about killing the elephant, but killing our only way home?

“I think we can fix this well enough to fly back to the ARC,” Dad said. “I wouldn’t want to burn through an atmosphere on reentry, but going up shouldn’t be a problem. We just need to seal it against the vacuum of space.”

He ruffled my hair. I was too astonished—and too grateful—to say anything.

“Better work those muscles in your jaw. This is going to take a lot of chewing gum.”

“Sam, how long do you think it’ll take to get the Morning Star ready to fly?” Dad stood in the cockpit surveying the diagnostic report.

Hamilton had said the damage from hitting the trees was minimal—it was the hole from the mastodon that needed the most work.

“I took a look, and as you suspected, the hole goes clean through to the rear storage compartment.” Sam pointed to a schematic of the ship. “I thought about just sealing the airlocks, here and here—” She indicated two doors on either end of the storeroom. “I don’t think that’ll quite do the trick, but if we spot-weld plates on the inside, fill the cavity with expanding gel foam, and seal the airlocks, we should be good to go.”

“But gel foam takes forty-eight hours to cure,” Hamilton said.

“Exactly.”

“Two days before we can go get Mom?” I said. “What about bringing the ARC down?” I took a sip of hot chocolate, then wiped the cocoa mustache off my lips. “We have Hamilton’s thermsuit. I could fly up and bring her down. The ARC’s capable of inner-atmospheric flight, isn’t she?”

“Technically,” Dad said. “But not so fast. What about Hamilton’s thermsuit?”

I kept my mouth shut.

Sam’s face split in a wide grin. “Yeah, Dad, wait till you hear about Noah’s little adventure.”

He frowned. “I’m sure it’s a doozy, but we’ll talk about it later.” He fixed his gaze on me for a few seconds, then continued. “As I was saying, it’s possible to bring the ARC down, but we’ve never done it before. And then there’s all the additional weight we’ve added to her. Those whales alone might cause trouble.”

“I seriously doubt it,” Hamilton said. “They’re a fraction of the total weight of the ship. I do agree it’s too great a risk, though. If we lose the ARC, we’re doomed.”

“It’s settled, then,” Sam said. “We get the Morning Star repaired fast as we can, then rescue Mom from that madman.” She looked at Hamilton and me. “I’ll need help.”

I frowned. I really wanted to go to the feast. “But—”

“I’ll help you,” Hamilton said. “Someone needs to be sure all the safety measures are observed.”

“Good.” Dad stood up. “Hail us on the comm if you run into trouble. Noah, let’s go see how they’re doing with your mastodon.” He opened a cupboard and pulled out three long knives. “Maybe they can use help.”

I grimaced at the idea of cutting up the meat, but took one of the knives he handed me. “Why not use a laser-blade?”

“Oh, I think knives will be advanced enough for them.” Dad winked. “We probably shouldn’t let cavemen play with lasers.”

I grabbed my coat and followed him out of the galley. Moments later we were back in the cold.

A horde of men, women, and children had descended on the carcass. I was amazed at how well the crude stone tools they used cut meat off the bone. We approached with our knives.

Dad handed one to an old women who was cutting larger strips of meat into smaller, manageable chunks. “Here, this might make things a little easier.”

She seemed skeptical when she accepted the thin metal blade, but after Dad showed her how easily his knife cut through the meat, her face exploded in a huge grin. Soon she was carving like a chef-bot. A group of people stood around her talking very fast.

“Back to work,” the old woman said.

Immediately they scattered, giving me and my magchair a quick glance before turning their attention back to the beast.

Eventually we gave up our knives to those more used to cutting mastodon meat, so I looked around for something to do. The girl from the Morning Star’s wing was still carrying loads of meat wrapped in skins on her shoulders.

I lowered my chair to the ground, bent over, picked up a bundle, and placed it on my lap. “Can I help?”

“Sure,” she said. “Our cave isn’t far.” She smiled. Dark eyes smiled too, under a mop of ratty brown hair. She turned and walked down a trail through the woods, and I wondered what she’d look like without all that hair all over her face.

I shook my head. What difference does it make what she looks like? I was thankful she couldn’t see my face, given how warm my cheeks felt.

Looking anywhere but at the girl, I pushed my chair down the trail. It took me a minute to get the hover settings right. Over smooth surfaces, I usually had my magchair set to hover just a few centimeters off the ground. On the uneven terrain, I had to lift up almost a half meter to keep myself from being jarred by every bump and stone on the path. It did mean I’d be able to look the cave-girl in the eyes, instead of having to look up at her—a definite plus.

Not far turned out to be three kilometers. By the time the trail ended at the edge of a canyon, my arms burned from steadying meat that wanted to slip off my lap at every turn. The girl, on the other hand, didn’t look like she’d broken a sweat.

“Just down here.” She giggled when she saw me struggling.

I followed her when she climbed down a narrow trail in the canyon’s side that switched back and forth until eventually it dropped about forty meters. Smoke drifted toward the sky.

She smiled at me again. “We’re almost there.”

An amazing aroma made my mouth water as we rounded an outcropping of stone and approached a cave.

Set back into the rock and rising nearly fifty meters, the cave looked like a big amphitheater. Dozens of people moved back and forth, preparing the meal. A massive fire burned in a pit toward the front of the cave, and women tended slabs of meat suspended over the flames on long, blackened poles.

I followed the girl to a bank of snow just off the near side of the cave. She dug a hole and laid her meat inside. I groaned in relief when I slid the meat off my lap into another hole she’d dug.

“Nice refrigerator,” I said.

She looked at me and frowned. I realized the Triple-B didn’t know how to translate the word, so it just gave it to her in English.

“Sorry,” I said. “That’s the name we give a place to keep stuff cold.”

She laughed. “We don’t have any trouble keeping things cold.”

I really liked her laugh. I didn’t have any real friends my age, only my brother and sister, Obadiah, and lots and lots of robots.

“My name’s Noah. What’s yours?”

“Adina, daughter of none.”

“Adina’s a nice name. Is None your father’s name?”

She laughed again. “No, I’m the daughter of no one. My mother died while giving me life, and my father died on a hunt shortly after. So I am a daughter of none.”

“I’m sorry. That sounds awful!”

“I was so young I don’t remember them at all.” She grabbed my hand. “Come on, I’ll show you our cave.”

I followed her through the crowd. They all stared at me when we passed. Even though my chair must have mystified them, no one said anything. I wasn’t sure I’d be so understanding of something so alien.

“This is where I sleep.” She showed me a pile of furs, neatly folded next to a worn stone shelf. A few possessions lay on the rock.

“Here’s a doll my mother made for me before I was born.”

She held up a small object, vaguely person-shaped, carved from bone and strapped together with strips of leather.

“And here’s my father’s favorite skinning knife.” She handed me a piece of flint chipped and shaped like a crude knife. “Careful, it’s sharp.”

I took off my gloves, tucked them in my coat pocket, and touched my finger to the edge.

“Wow, it really is.” I set the knife down before I cut myself.

“And here’s where we get water.” She skipped over to a depression at the back of the cave, where a long thin band of gray clay separated the stone of the cave’s roof from the floor. All along it, water seeped and filled up a small pool.

“Taste it.”

I dipped my hands into the water, cool but not as cold as I’d expected, and drank. It was really good—full of minerals, crisp and refreshing.

“That’s amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted water that… well, had a taste.”

She shook her head. “Water without taste? How boring!”

I looked around the cave. The walls toward the back were covered with crude paintings: men fighting mastodons with spears, people dancing around fires, scores of handprints of every size.

A crowd of people swarmed the cave, all working on some project or another. Some sat on the ground, grinding grain in worn depressions in the stone floor with smooth round stones in their hands. Others mended fur garments with bone needles and some kind of thick, twine-like thread. Kids carried wood for the fire.

As I moved past, they all eyed me in my strange clothes, riding in a chair of alloy and polymer that hovered above the ground. How alien I must have seemed to them, but the moment I moved by, they bent back to their work.

At first glance, the shaggy-haired people didn’t appear to have much of a life, probably struggling every day just to survive. Yet they seemed happy. I watched them for a few minutes, laughing and talking with one another.

“Look, your father’s coming.” Adina looked back toward the trail. Dad walked with a group of men, helping them carry the mastodon’s great tusks.

“They honor your father by allowing him to carry the creature’s pride.”

“Its pride?”

“They say the longer a mastodon’s tusks, the greater its pride. The king of the mastodons was said to have tusks that curled around twice. It was his pride that brought him down when they grew too heavy for him to lift. The beast you killed today was a mighty creature with immense pride. And now your father brings the proof of his son’s deeds.”

She beamed as she watched the men struggle with the long, heavy, curved tusks.

“There will be a great celebration tonight—in your honor, Noah.”

“I didn’t do anything special.” My cheeks were burning. “I was just trying to keep him from hurting our ship.”

“Not just the ship. Don’t think I missed what you did for me today.” She looked down, then up at me through long lashes. “You saved my life. I’ll find a way to repay you one day.”

I turned away, not really wanting her to see the expression on my face.

“Let’s go welcome your father.” Adina ran off toward the far end of the cave.

I followed, as did nearly everyone else.

Dad entered amid a sea of voices. He and the other men lifted the tusks into the air.

Many shouted, “To the hunter! To the hunter!”

Dad shook his head and pointed at me when they set the tusks on the cave floor.

“Remember, it was my son who felled the beast, all on his own.”

The people around me turned.

“He is a child,” a nearly toothless old man said.

“A child with a great heart,” Dad said. “He has provided your people with life.”

The crowd erupted in a cheer. Those nearest me lifted me out of my chair and onto their shoulders. They paraded around the cave, which made me feel weird. And then, for just a moment, I felt like everything was going to be all right.

At last they sat me down in my chair and urged me to move toward the fire. The tusks of the mastodon were brought over and placed on the ground around me.

Adina ran up. “You have the seat of honor. Whatever you need, I’ll serve you.”

I grinned. “I wish Sam and Hamilton were here to see this.”

“Do you want me to go get them?”

“No, Dad says they need to stay and fix our ship, but maybe you can tell them the story. They’ll never believe me.”

She smiled. “That I will do. The story of Noah the mighty hunter, hero to our people.”

***

As the sun set and the valley darkened, people pulled bits of burning wood from the main fire and used them to light other small fires around the cave, and the whole place brightened. It was actually getting hot now, so I took off my coat.

Adina ran it to the back of the cave and laid it alongside her things. She returned when the women tending the roasting mammoth announced it was ready. Adina carved the first piece and brought it to me on a flat stone.

“The first meat!” she said.

Everyone in the cave shouted, “The first meat!”

I looked at the red steak on my lap… and looked. I’d never eaten real meat before. Adina smiled and nodded, so I cut a small bite, lifted it into my mouth and chewed, felt the juice flow down my throat….

…and groaned in delight. “This is amazing!”

Adina grinned. “I prefer deer, but mastodon is a close second.”

After I began eating, Dad was given the second choice cut. Then the rest of the people lined up to receive generous portions of the mammoth.

Adina sat next to me. “You’ve never tasted mastodon before?”

“I’ve never tasted real meat before.” I finished another sumptuous bite.

She looked puzzled. “How have you lived?”

“I have plenty of different foods to choose from, but all our meat’s artificial.” The look on her face told me the word didn’t translate.

“Artificial means man-made—um, pretend food. Like your doll—it’s not a real person, it just looks like one. Your mother made it.”

“So you make your meat out of bones?”

“No—well, I don’t think so. Actually I don’t know what it’s made of. That’s why I eat PB&J sandwiches mostly.”

“Peebee anjay?”

“Peanut butter and jelly.” I wiped my hand on my sleeve. “Up until now I’d have told you it was the greatest food in the solar system. You have to try one someday.”

She smiled. “I’d like that.”

We sat for a while enjoying our meal. For the most part, the cave remained quiet except for the occasional belch or other unexpected noises.

“Where is your home?” Adina asked when we’d eaten our fill.

“That’s not an easy thing to answer.” I looked up toward the stars beginning to twinkle in the night sky. “I was born on a planet a long way from here.”

“Planet?”

“Um—a great big land in the sky.” I gestured around us. “This land, this planet, we call Earth. I was born on another planet called Mars.”

“So… Mars is your home?” She looked up at the sky as if she might suddenly see another world.

“Well, not really. I’ve lived most of my life on a great ship in the sky.”

“A ship? Like the silver thing you killed the mastodon with?”

The firelight danced on her face. I’d never seen eyes that big.

I glanced back at the sky. “Yes, but much, much bigger.” How to describe something so alien to her? “It’s like a giant cave, with a whole lot of rooms, but it’s not a part of the land. It moves.”

Adina looked at me as if I was a little off my rocker.

Then someone shouted from across the fire. “A tale!”

Several people took up the chant. “A tale! A tale!”

Adina nudged me in the arm.

“It’s tradition for the hunter who brought down the beast to tell a tale—you know, his adventures and daring.”

I panicked. “My daring?”

She giggled. “The story doesn’t have to be true.”

I looked at Dad, who nodded. My stomach twisted in knots. Then I saw the expectant smile on Adina’s face and the faces of dozens of people sitting around me, and I raised my chair higher. I was the hero of the day, after all.

“I’ll tell you the story of Elimu and Fathiya.”

Dad smiled big.

I could do this. “The elephant is a mighty creature, as you all know.”

They all looked puzzled.

“Sorry, elephants are just like mastodons without the fur—tough gray skin, huge ears and tusks. They’re not easy for a man to catch, and it’s especially hard for a boy on his first hunt.” So many nodded that my confidence grew.

“About two years ago, I was helping my dad track two of these elephants in the African… in a land far from here, where the sun always shines and you don’t need to wear furs to keep warm.”

Some of the women looked at each other, then back at me.

“Dad and I were watching a herd of elephants grazing near a watering hole. I spotted a pair off by themselves, a male and a female, perfect for us. We had one of our ships ready with fences on each side of an entrance so we could herd the elephants in.”

An old man to my right laughed. “Wouldn’t it be easier to spear these elephants and take their meat into your ship?”

“Yeah, I guess it would be, but we didn’t want their meat. We wanted them alive.”

A kind of collective gasp rose from the crowd.

“Dad put me in charge of closing the doors to the ship once the elephants were inside. He went off to circle around the far side to scare them in my direction. I sat for what seemed like a long time until suddenly the elephants spooked and started moving towards me. I saw my father walking behind them, herding them toward the ship.”

I looked at all the faces, shining in the firelight. They may not have understood the story completely, but they hung on every word.

“The two elephants were within three meters when I heard a loud popping sound!” I clapped my hands, and a few of the younger kids gasped. “The animals turned and started running off to the side, away from me. Dad yelled, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. A loud noise came from the far side of the watering hole, and I looked up to see a Range Rover barreling towards us.” More puzzled faces.

“A Range Rover is kind of like our ship, but it moves along on the ground instead of in the sky.”

“Another tribe had come to steal your elephants?” the same old man said.

“Poachers,” I said. “Men who kill animals and take their pride, leaving the meat to rot in the sun.”

Many heads were shaking—with outrage or disbelief.

“Finally I could hear my dad telling me to get in the ship and prepare for takeoff. We had the refractor cloak—um, we had the ship well hidden, so the poachers didn’t know it was there. I dashed in and fired up the engines. As soon as Dad made it to the ship, we took off and climbed about fifteen meters into the air. From above, I saw the poachers chasing the elephants. They were shooting at them, with their… fire spears.

“I told Dad to stay in the hold and leave the doors to the ship open. We raced ahead of the elephants. They were running through the brush, knocking over everything in their path. I had to time it just right. I remember Dad yelling he wasn’t sure this was such a good idea.”

Some of the men in the crowd smiled or chuckled. Parents, no doubt.

“I told him to trust me. The male elephant was running down a beaten trail, the female following. He was the one the poachers wanted most—he had enormous pride.”

Adina grinned at me.

“I saw an area not too far ahead of him that should do the trick. I knew I’d only have one chance. Just before the elephants reached a clearing, I dropped the ship to the ground in front of them, the door of the hold open. I heard a loud crash and the ship shook something fierce, but then Dad said, ‘We got them! Get us out of here.’ I hit the thrusters and lifted the ship into the air. The poachers screeched to a halt in the cloud of dust.” I laughed. “One minute they were chasing elephants and the next both of them were gone.

“So that’s how we got our two elephants. Sam, my sister, named them Elimu and Fathiya. They haven’t had any babies yet, but we think it’s just a matter of time.”

The people clapped and cheered when I lowered my chair to the cave floor. Even better was Adina’s smile and the look on her face.

“That was a good tale,” she said. “I’m not sure how much of it I believe—”

“It’s true, every word of it.” Then I laughed. “Well, almost every word.”

Sam’s voice sounded over the comm-link.

“We’re finished with the Morning Star repairs. We can go after Mom as soon as the gel foam is hardened.”

“Good,” Dad said. “Get inside and lock up for the night. I don’t think it’ll be safe for Noah and me to come home tonight, so we’ll stay here. Tomorrow morning we’ll come get you.”

“Sounds good,” Sam said. “Save some mammoth-burgers for us.”

Dad had a dry spot near the back of the cave where he’d been sleeping the past week or so, and I now joined him there.

Adina brought us another pile of warm furs and showed me where a stack of wood was stored to keep the nearest fire stoked.

“She’s a sweet girl,” Dad said once she’d gone to bed.

My cheeks burned again—probably too close to the fire.

Dad laid out the furs for me. I pulled myself from my chair, snuggled into them, and lay there for a while staring into the fire. The cave quieted down as everyone settled in for the night. Off in the distance a wolf howled, but I felt safe in the back of the cave.

Was Mom safe? I’d been enjoying myself tonight—telling silly stories while she was being held captive by that… what did Sam call him? That madman.

“Do you think Mom will be okay?”

“She’s much better at taking care of herself than I am,” Dad said. “I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Do you really think the repairs on the Morning Star will hold up?”

He turned onto his elbow and looked at me. “Of course. Why?”

It took me a moment to spit it out. “I just always seem to mess everything up. If I hadn’t crashed the Morning Star, we probably would have rescued her already.”

“And all these people would be sleeping on empty stomachs,” he said. “I don’t think you realize what a gift you’ve given them. When you’re hungry you can just go down and have Le Chef fix you anything you want, but these people struggle to survive. Look around—there are only a handful of people here older than me. It’s a very hard life, one you made a little easier. And we’re still going to get your mom.”

The fire flickered across his face. Although I teased him about being ancient, forty wasn’t really that old. There were people on Mars who lived far, far longer than that. But he was right. At first glance the people in the cave all looked old—weathered and beaten—but up close I could see they were almost all younger than Mom and Dad.

I suddenly felt lucky to have two parents who cared for me—Adina didn’t have anyone. Maybe I could do a little more to help her have a better life.

***

I woke shivering several times that night after the fire died down. My nose felt like an ice cube. The wood was piled near my head, and each time I woke up, I stoked the fire back to life and drifted back to sleep.

The next morning I woke to mastodon sizzling on the fire. It smelled delicious, but I wondered how long I’d be able eat the same thing three times a day.

Then I laughed. “PB&J three times a day keeps the doctor away.”

After breakfast I went looking for Adina and was told she was out gathering firewood. I found her along the trail back to the ship.

“Come on, I want to show you something,” I said.

She laid down her bundle of sticks and followed me. “Did you sleep well last night?”

I shivered, even though I was dressed in my warmest coat with my hood zipped up around my face. “It was pretty cold, but I did all right.”

She giggled. “At least you came in the summer. Come winter, when the wind howls through the canyon, it’s all we can do to keep the fires burning. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night buried in snow as deep as I am tall. But if you don’t think about it, you can get back to sleep and dig yourself out in the morning.”

I stared at her, but she didn’t look like she was kidding. A few minutes later we reached the clearing.

Adina gasped. “Where’s your ship?”

I moved forward, hand extended. “Here, feel this.”

She held up her hand next to mine and brushed against the hard surface of the Morning Star. She recoiled. “Your ship?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, it’s just hidden.” I lowered my arm. “You don’t want to touch them when they decloak—it’d give you a bit of a shock.”

She stepped back even farther.

“Morning Star, decloak.”

The trees shimmered, and in moments, we stood before the external hatch of the ship.

She gasped again. “Where did it come from?”

“The ship was here all the time. We just have a way to hide her so no one knows she’s there.”

“This would sure make it easy to hunt.” She tentatively reached a hand out and touched the hull. “As long as we were upwind, our prey would never know we were there.”

“Come on, I want to show you inside.”

She backed up again. “Is it safe?”

I laughed. “Of course it’s safe. You’re in the presence of one of the greatest pilots on planet Earth.”

She looked at me as though I’d grown half a meter.

“So there are more of these pilots all over the land?”

“Right now, just me and my dad.”

She kept looking at me for a couple of seconds, then broke into laughter and socked me in the arm. “At least you’re in the top two.”

I moved to the hatch and said, “Open please.” The door whooshed upward, and I walked in.

“Can anyone enter your ship? Couldn’t another tribe steal her from you?”

“The Morning Star is keyed to our family.” I reached in my coat pocket. “If we wanted to let someone else in we’d give them one of these.”

I held out my hand, and in my glove rested a small blue ball.

“It has a magnetic signature the ship will recognize. I always carry one when I leave because I don’t trust the ship to recognize me. What if something happened to me and I didn’t look the same?”

Adina peered inside the ship… very cautiously. “It’s so dark, Noah.”

I slipped the orb back in my pocket. “Sorry, lights please.” The interior of the ship lit up with a cool blue light.

“You have the sun inside your ship!” She let out the breath she’d obviously been holding. “And it shines on your command.”

I pointed to a long glowing tube. “Nah, it’s just a light bulb. It has something like fire inside that makes it glow.”

I opened the secondary airlock door, and she followed. A small, circular stair led up to the cockpit. When we entered, the instrument panels came to life with flashing lights and screens.

“Sit down.” I pointed to the pilot’s seat. “This is where I drive.”

She sat in the chair, her back stiff. “I’m not sure this is a good idea. What if I break something?”

“You won’t. It’s coded to only recognize commands from someone in our family.”

I turned toward the windows, which had dark shields over them. “Blast shields up.”

The steel covers over the windows opened to reveal the morning sun.

“We don’t really need these open to fly, but it sure makes the view a lot better.” I pressed a few buttons and read the status of the ship: Cabin unfit for pressurization. Flight not recommended. “I wish I could take you up in her. There’s nothing greater than rocketing over the ground at mach two.”

“Mach two?”

“That’s really, really fast,” I said, grinning. “She can actually go much faster than that, but then you can’t make out anything below you—it goes by in a blur.”

She looked out the window for a while, then turned to face me. “Could the ship take me…?” She stopped and looked back out the window.

“Take you where?”

“It’s silly.” She didn’t look at me. “When I was little, they used to say my mother and father had crossed a great ocean to a land where it’s always warm, where they would be happy and never again worry about food or cold.”

A small tear rolled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away. “I never understood why they would go there without me.”

I tried to think of something to say, but didn’t have a whole lot of experience with losing anyone I’d loved. My pet white mouse who died when I was little didn’t really count.

“I can’t take you to your mom and dad,” I said. “But maybe somewhere warm.”

“If the ship worked that is,” I mumbled.

We sat in silence for a while.

“Do you want to meet my brother and sister?”

Her face brightened. “That would be great.”

I activated my wrist-comm. “Hamilton, Sam, where are you?”

“Better be an emergency, Noah.” Sam’s voice sounded like she’d still been sleeping.

“Sorry, I wanted to introduce you to Adina. We’ve been up for hours.”

“I’m in the galley,” Hamilton said.

We headed that way.

“How about some hot cocoa?” I said.

“What is it?”

“Trust me, you’ll love it.”

My brother was finishing breakfast when we came in.

“Hamilton, this is Adina.”

He pulled his Triple-B out of his pocket and placed it in his ear. “Hello, Adina. Welcome aboard the Morning Star.”

“I’m not sure I believe something like this exists, even though I’m standing here.” She took off her bulky furs and laid them on a chair. “The elders tell stories of ships that float on the water, but never have I heard of one that flies through the air.”

I went to get cocoa while Hamilton offered Adina a seat.

“You surprise us as well,” Hamilton said. “All the books say you should be far less advanced than you are.” He sat back down and sipped his orange juice.

“Books?” She frowned. “These are your wise men?”

“Not our wise men but words written down by them.”

She nodded but still looked confused.

“Don’t worry.” I set two steaming cups on the table. “My brother has a habit of talking about things in a way no one else understands.” I slid a mug in her direction. “Be careful, it’s hot. Hope you like marshmallows.”

She reached out, touched the mug, and sniffed the chocolate. Slowly she took a sip, and swallowed. Her face split with a huge grin. “I like, I like.”

I laughed and took a drink of mine. “If you blow on it, you can drink it quicker.”

Within minutes her face was covered in sticky chocolate and marshmallow. “I can’t believe this tastes so good! Even the water of our cave doesn’t have this much flavor.”

Sam walked in. “What tastes so good?” She already had her Triple-B in her ear.

Adina looked up, saw Sam, and gasped.

“Sam, this is Adina,” I said. “Adina, Sam.”

“Nice to meet you.” Sam smiled at her but looked at me and raised her eyebrows.

Adina sat and stared, her mouth open.

“Did you eat?” Sam said.

“We did,” I said.

She walked over to the food prep center.

“I’ve never seen anyone so beautiful,” Adina whispered.

I looked at my sister and nearly choked. “Sam?”

She stood at the counter, ordering breakfast from Le Chef. Her long hair was pulled up in a ponytail. She wore a jumper and stained shirt.

“I’m not sure the translator’s working quite right.” Hamilton snickered.

Sam came back to the table, her plate full of pancakes with syrup all over them. “What’s wrong with the translators?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“Just a misinterpretation of a word,” Hamilton said.

“Oh well, you can talk to Dad about it.” Sam looked at Adina. “So my brother didn’t kill you with the ship yesterday, huh?”

Adina looked at me and grinned. “Oh, no, he’s one of the best pilots on planet Earth.”

Sam laughed. “In his mind, he’s the best pilot in the solar system.”

She reached in her pocket, pulled out a small silver box with a screen and buttons on one side, and placed it on the table. “Ham, I found the ECL. It was right where it was supposed to be in the ship’s workshop.”

“The ECL?” I picked it up and turned it over in my hands.

“Electronic Chip Locator,” Sam said. “You use it to find relay chips. If it locates a faulty chip, it emits a magnetic pulse to disable the circuitry.”

Hamilton plucked the locator out of my hands. “The right ailerons are malfunctioning. I think there’s a short in the system.”

Sam sighed. “Once we get that fixed we should be able to get out of here tomorrow. No offense, Adina, but I’m freezing.”

Adina set her empty mug on the table. “Right now I think I’m the warmest I’ve ever been in my whole life.”

***

After we finished our cocoa, I showed Adina the rest of the ship. Even the simplest things amazed her—running water in the sink, doors that opened and closed automatically—things I took for granted every day. As she took it all in, I kept wishing there was some way to help my new friend live a better life.

The last room I showed her was the small sleeping quarters.

“We don’t usually go on long trips on the Morning Star, but if any of us ever needs to lie down, this is where we do it.” I tugged on a strap dangling from a bunk. “Of course we need to strap ourselves in— otherwise we’d float around the room.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Float?”

I thought for a minute. “In space, you don’t stick to the ground, you float above it. Kind of like my chair.”

She scrunched up her eyebrows. “So how do you walk?”

“You don’t. You fly.”

She just shook her head. “I think I would stay strapped in the bed.”

I laughed. “Maybe at first, but trust me, there’s nothing better than floating in space.”

When we left the ship, Adina was still shaking her head. She just didn’t seem to be able to get her mind around the idea of flying, but that was okay. Maybe someday she could try it for herself.

I smiled as we walked down the trail toward the cave.

***

The rest of the morning, Adina and I gathered firewood and helped dig up vegetables—a tough-looking type of potato, and things that looked like some kind of onion. I really couldn’t do much digging. Back on the ARC, I’d have probably flopped down in the dirt and started yanking, but I didn’t really want her to see how helpless I was. So I let her pile the vegetables in my lap. She didn’t seem bothered I wasn’t much help.

Around midday, Adina asked Dad if she could take me to see the Mammoth’s Tusk, whatever that was.

“Back before sunset,” he said.

She grabbed a small sack and stuffed in a couple of strips of dried meat, along with a few of the potatoes we’d dug up, then led me down a trail that went in the opposite direction of the trail to the ship.

“Come on, Noah, we’re going to my favorite place in the whole world.”

The trail slowly wound its way down into the canyon, and the temperature rose the farther down we went.

After about an hour, I took off my gloves and shoved them in my pockets. “You should live down here. Seems like it’d be more comfortable.”

“It is,” she said. “But there aren’t any good caves, and the mountain cats like to hunt near the river.”

I’d been looking for signs of a river, but it was hard to see. Nearly everything was white with snow, and a misty fog hung a hundred meters or so below us.

“Are the cats dangerous?”

“Only if they catch you out by yourself.” She glanced back at me. “Sometimes, if they’re really hungry they’ll attack two people at once.”

I gulped, looked around, and then saw her grin. “Oh sure, try to scare the new guy.”

She giggled. “Sorry. We do need to be cautious, but I know where they usually hide. As long as we don’t startle them, they should leave us alone.”

I caught her glancing at my legs.

“I’ve been this way since I was born,” I said. “Mom explained it was some kind of birth defect—means something went wrong with me when I was still in her belly.”

“So you’ve never walked?”

“Well, we have a suit I can wear. It allows me to walk, almost as if my legs worked, but it’s awkward and uncomfortable.”

She looked upset.

“Since I’ve always been this way, it doesn’t really bother me much.”

“And you have this chair you can ride around on.”

“Mom says when I stop growing I can go to Mars for an operation. They can give me new legs. Then I’ll be able to walk just like you, almost.”

She thought for a moment. “But won’t that feel wrong, if you’ve lived your whole life without doing it?”

“I guess.” I hadn’t thought about that. “I just get so frustrated sometimes, like people don’t think I can do everything they can.” I kept my eyes on the trail.

“I think you can do anything you want, Noah. I’ve never known anyone as amazing as you.”

Warmth filled my face.

She smiled and turned away, probably to hide the red in her own cheeks.

***

A half-hour later, thunder boomed in the distance

Adina picked up the pace. “We’re almost there.”

The trail wove through a maze of tall rock spires, many of which were slick with green moss. A cold breeze blew against my face.

At last, we rounded a corner and Adina stopped.

I looked up and beheld the Mammoth’s Tusk. “I can see how it got its name. It’s amazing!”

Rising for nearly a hundred meters above us was a turquoise blue- and white-streaked wall of ice where a waterfall should have been. Its top tapered into a point. The column of ice also dropped below us and disappeared into a shroud of white mist another twenty-five meters below. Light from the midday sun gleamed and glittered along its surface. In a few places, water rushed past the outer shell of ice.

“Is the waterfall always frozen?”

“Most of the time, yes,” Adina said. “If we had the time, we could hike to the bottom of the canyon. Most of the ice at the base has melted this time of year.”

“I can see why this is your favorite place. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

She smiled and handed me a piece of dried jerky from her pack. “I sometimes come here and imagine there’s another world beyond the ice, that if I found a way behind the waterfall I’d discover a land that was warm and green. I could go live there forever.”

“Wouldn’t you miss your people?”

She thought about it for a few seconds. “I suppose I would. There are those who treat me like their own child, but I know it can be hard for them. Two winters ago, when we struggled to find enough food, I remember the look in their eyes. Why should they feed me when their own children might starve?”

She looked down, hiding the pain in her eyes. “Sometimes I think it would be better if I were gone. I do my part, but how much can a girl like me accomplish? That’s why I was out on the hunt yesterday. I wanted to prove my worth.”

We sat and listened to the pounding water.

At last, she looked up toward the sky. “We should be heading back. Your father was right—we don’t want to be caught out here after dark.”

We worked our way back up the trail while the sun moved toward the western edge of the canyon. Adina was quiet for the most part.

I watched her, trying to understand what life must be like for a girl with no parents in such a wild place.

As we got close to the cave, my chair gliding easily behind Adina, we rounded a rock—and Adina put her hand up and froze. When I started to say something, she threw a hand back and covered my mouth. I followed her gaze up the trail.

In the deepening shadows of a boulder, something moved. Visions of mountain cats with sharp teeth and vicious claws filled my mind. Adina picked up a fist-sized rock and moved toward the boulder. I followed as quietly as I could, but the hum of my chair echoed off the canyon walls.

As we drew closer, I couldn’t figure out what I was seeing, but it wasn’t a cat. As I tried to edge around Adina for a better look, my chair caught an outcropping of stone on the embankment and released a small avalanche of gravel and rocks. It made an awful racket when the scree slid off the trail into the canyon below.

The shape spun around and lunged at us. A glint of metal flashed just before Adina hurled the rock. A loud clang echoed through the canyon. She leapt forward and grabbed a larger rock, and smashed it down on the metal shape that had fallen to the ground.

I shot up beside her. It was a robot—an assassin-bot, to be specific. A small door opened in the robot’s chest.

“Look out!” I shoved my chair against her, knocking her to the side just as a blue-green burst of light exploded from the opening. Before the robot righted itself, I grabbed the rock off the ground and smashed the machine three or four times.

The assassin-bot buzzed, crackled, and lay still.

Adina moved over beside me. “What is it?”

I examined the smoking hulk of metal and wire, the same model that had chased me when I went to get the marmosets.

I shuddered. “Something sent here to kill my family.”

Dad agreed that Haon must have sent the assassin-bot. He just wasn’t sure if it had been left behind when Haon took off with Mom, or sent back to stop us from rescuing her.

“We’ll have to keep our eyes open tonight,” he said. “And the sooner we leave, the sooner these people will be safe.”

Hamilton stared at him. “That bot could have killed or seriously injured Noah.”

“I know that.”

“Is the Foundation’s mission really worth risking our lives this way?”

Sam and I looked at each other and groaned.

“Go on, Hamilton,” Dad said.

“We all agree that there’s a need to repopulate the earth with some kind of life, but doesn’t Haon have a point? Why waste an entire planet, a perfectly viable ecosystem, on animals? Mars is finally getting bearable, but Venus is still just as inhospitable as the day it was colonized.”

He waved an arm around the cave. “Look at these people. Even with the extreme cold, it’s still far, far better suited for life than Mars or Venus.”

Sam said, “Mars is getting there—“

“Getting there, sure,” Hamilton said. “But it’s still hundreds if not thousands of years away from being fully habitable. And again, what about Venus? At least here people won’t die if they leave this cave.”

“The Poligarchy has their reasons,” Dad said. They’d been down this road dozens of times.

“So I’ve heard,” Hamilton said. “‘We must atone for our past sins. We must keep Earth from being destroyed again.’”

The Poligarchy had driven that mantra into our heads our whole lives.

His voice rose. “It has nothing to do with past sins—they’re afraid of losing power. They’re already struggling with Venus. What would happen if people colonized Earth as well?”

“We’d be right back in the mess that caused the Cataclysm in the first place!” Dad shouted. “Nations against nations—war, strife, starvation! It’s the single, unified Poligarchy that keeps us together, keeps us from becoming cavemen again!”

Hamilton glared at him. “So we just settle for—”

“Enough!” Dad said. “We’re not having this discussion here.”

And it was over, but Adina looked ready to cry.

***

“A tale,” an old woman yelled as we were all finishing dinner. Again, just like the night before, everyone picked up the chant.

Adina managed a weak smile, then looked back at the crowd. The old man who’d been so vocal the night before stood up.

“I have a story that will lighten the dark night.” He nodded toward me. “The lad’s tale last night brought to mind an old, old story I heard from my father’s father when I was but a boy.”

The man spread his arms, his furs flowing behind him like a cape. “Back when the world was young and the sun lived nearer Earth, the land was warm and covered with bountiful food. The Creator had given dominion of the world to men.”

A hush fell over the cave.

“However, men were wicked and did not praise the Creator for his goodness.”

Several people shook their heads. Shadows danced across the cave walls while the man spoke.

“In his heart, the Creator decided he must destroy mankind to cleanse Earth of their wickedness. Yet the thought grieved him. He pleaded with men to put away their evil deeds, but they would not heed him.

“One day, the Creator sat on a mountain, looked over his creation, and wept. His tears flowed down his cheeks like the mightiest river, and Earth flooded. Then the Creator saw that not all was evil. The animals he had made were still beautiful. He did not wish for them to be destroyed, so he gathered his tears and held them behind a great dam. He then searched far and wide for one righteous man to help him.”

The children of the tribe sat in rapt attention. The story seemed familiar to them, and it was starting to sound even more familiar to me.

“Long did He toil in his quest. Just when He thought there was not a single righteous man left on all Earth, He found a hunter whose skill was beyond compare. Although the man spent his life hunting, he did so only to feed his family, and he loved the animals and thanked the Creator for his blessings each time he slew a beast.

“The Creator told the hunter of His plan to destroy Earth, and the hunter begged Him not to do it. Nevertheless, the Creator said it would be done. He could not hold back His tears forever. Even then, the dam that held the mighty flood at bay was weakening.

“‘Then allow me to gather up the animals and keep them safe,’ the hunter said. ‘They should not perish due to the evil of men.’

“The Creator smiled because the hunter’s heart was pure. He found a huge tree that reached toward the heavens, and felled it with one stroke of His hand. Then He gouged out its heart and formed a boat. ‘You and your family will be safe here, along with all the animals.’

“‘But this will not contain every animal on Earth,’ the hunter said.

“The Creator saw the truth of the man’s words, but the dam was beginning to crumble. ‘Then take just one male and one female of every kind,’ the Creator said. ‘In that way they may at least live on through their descendants.’

“So the hunter used all his skills and gathered two of every animal on the boat. When the last one was aboard, the Creator sealed them in with tree sap, then allowed the dam to burst. His tears covered the whole Earth. So great was His sadness, He sent the sun away so she would not see Him grieve. The waters of His tears froze, and the hunter’s boat came to a rest on a sea of ice.”

The old man looked around, pausing a moment to catch everyone’s eye.

“We are the descendants of that hunter, and the animals we hunt are the descendants of those saved by the Creator. And that is why we must always honor our kills and our Creator, lest another flood of tears be unleashed upon Earth.”

The old man sat down, and everyone thumped the ground in appreciation.

I looked at Dad, who sat with a bemused look on his face. Of course I’d heard the story of Noah’s Ark before. The whole idea of the ARC project had grown out of Dad’s name, and of his love for the animals that once roamed Earth. But I’d never have believed someone in 8500 BC would know that story.

I wanted to tell them what we did, why we were there, but Dad wouldn’t approve. He always said, ‘What if something we say changes events in the future? Just by being here we’re risking making a mess of things back home.’ To which Hamilton usually replied, ‘The leading consensus among astrophysicists is that we cannot mess up future events by our actions in the past. If we have visited the past and changed anything, then it’s already happened, and our present was already affected by it.’ Then he and Dad would get into a heated debate that usually ended with each of them saying that neither stand was definitive, therefore we should be careful when interacting with the past.

To be safe, I always made sure to steer clear of anyone who looked at all like me. I wouldn’t want to go and do something that might get an ancestor killed so I never got born.

Still, given that these people knew the story of Noah and the flood, and given that my family was the modern day equivalent, it was really hard not to talk about.

Later that night, before we went to sleep, I told Adina I’d heard a similar story when I was a kid. “We called it the story of Noah’s Ark.”

She raised an eyebrow. “But that’s your name, and the name of your father.”

I thought for a minute. If she figured it out on her own, it wasn’t really telling, was it?

“Do you have any idea why we’re here? Why we came in our ships from the stars?”

She watched the fire for a minute, and then her eyes lit up. “To gather animals? Are you collecting animals and taking them on your ship, like the hunter in the story?”

I grinned and held up my hands, motioning for her to lower her voice. “That’s our family’s job. We travel around and collect a male and a female of every animal, then take them back to our ship—the really big ship I told you about.”

“How many animals do you have?”

“You know, that’s a good question. I’m sure Hamilton or Mom would know for sure, but I’ve never heard a count.” I stared at the roof of the cave and thought about all the habitats I had to check before launching the ARC. “It has to be in the hundreds, maybe even thousands.”

“Oh, I would love to see them.” She gasped. “Wait… why are you collecting the animals now? Is there going to be another flood?”

“What? No!” Not from her perspective, anyway—it’d be thousands of years before the Cataclysm. I smiled. “I promise you have nothing to worry about.”

We sat in silence and watched stars beyond count appear in the sky. The warmth of the fire had me sweating again.

I wriggled out of my coat and handed it to Adina. “I want you to have this.”

“I couldn’t, Noah. You’ll freeze without it.”

“We’re leaving first thing in the morning. Then I’ll be back on our ship, safe and warm, while you’re here.” I turned from the firelight to hide my face.

She was quiet for a moment, but finally she took the coat, leaned forward, and kissed my cheek. “I’ll never forget your kindness, my hero from the stars.”

I swallowed a huge lump in my throat. “Who knows, maybe we’ll see each other again someday.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and she jumped to her feet and dashed off into the shadows of the cave.

The next morning, Hamilton and Sam went to inspect the Morning Star. When they came back, they said the repair was complete—the expanding gel foam had hardened, and they’d gotten the right aileron working, too.

I searched the cave for Adina but couldn’t find her anywhere.

“Maybe she’s not big on goodbyes,” Dad said.

I gazed down the trail toward the Mammoth’s Tusk. “Her whole life has been one big goodbye.”

Dad and I followed the long trail to the Morning Star. It seemed the whole tribe had come to see us off.

He put his hand on my shoulder. “I know you and the girl have become good friends. Bet it’s hard to leave her.”

“Yeah, I’ll miss her.”

“I’ve been thinking… when this whole mess with Haon is straightened out and we’ve rescued your mother, maybe we should spend some time on Mars, give you a chance to make friends your own age.” He squeezed my shoulder. “What do you think?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Of course your mother has to agree, but I don’t see why she wouldn’t.”

We reached the Morning Star and turned to face the people who’d come with us. Dad raised his hands, palms toward the crowd. “We thank you for the hospitality of your cave. May your fires be hot and your stomachs full, all the long days of your life.” He’s always had a flair for the dramatic.

A cheer rang out from the tribe.

I looked over the crowd once more for Adina, but she was nowhere to be seen. We turned and entered the ship, sealing the hatch behind us.

***

As often as I’d flown with my dad, I never got over what a bad pilot he was. The ride to the ARC was almost unbearable. He had a knack for finding every pocket of turbulence in the sky.

By the time we reached orbit I actually felt a bit queasy, and I never get motion sickness.

Sam and Hamilton didn’t look like they’d fared much better.

“I need to lie down.” I unstrapped myself and floated from my seat. It’s hard to believe he’s my dad, the way he flies this thing.

“Don’t hurl,” Sam yelled. “Be a real mess in zero-G.”

I glared at my sister and left the cockpit. Back at my cabin, I opened the door and—

I stopped dead. “How did you get here?”

Adina lay strapped in the bunk. Her face looked kind of green, her eyes scared.

I didn’t understand her response, and scrambled to put my Triple-B back in my ear.

She repeated herself. “Is it always this bumpy?” Her teeth chattered as the ship bounced.

“Only when my dad’s the pilot.” I moved into the cabin and closed the door, then pulled myself into a chair and strapped down. “I thought I’d never see you again. How did you get on board?”

She tried to smile. “It wasn’t hard when I found the orb in your coat pocket.” The blue ball floated from her hand, and she snatched it out of the air.

“My dad isn’t going to like this.”

“Well, it was your idea.” She smiled, and then her face went white as the ship spun around.

“My idea? How do you figure?”

“You gave me your coat and left the blue orb in the pocket. You told me you could take me somewhere warmer. You even asked if I’d miss the people of my tribe.”

Maybe she was right. I didn’t consciously think about getting her to stow away, but some part of me might have hoped she would.

“Well, whoever’s idea it was, I’m glad you’re here.” At last, the ship calmed. I unbuckled and pushed toward the far wall. “Adina, you’ve got to take a look at your world! Computer, open the shield on the cabin window.”

A panel on the wall slid open just as the Morning Star rotated, revealing the planet below. The white expanse of the British Isles filled the screens.

Adina gasped. “That’s where I lived?”

“Yup. Just wait till we get a bit higher.”

She sat transfixed by the view while the ship rocketed deeper into space. A few minutes later, the blue sky around us turned black, and the curvature of the earth appeared below.

“It’s round?”

“Earth is round, just like the sun and the moon.”

She glanced over at me, then back at the screens. “That makes perfect sense, now that you say it. Why should our home be any different from the homes of God?”

I laughed. “Well, I’m not sure where God lives, but every planet we’ve found is round like Earth.”

The Morning Star passed through the last remnants of the atmosphere. The white and blue ball filled the window.

Adina sucked in her breath. “It’s so beautiful.”

Dad’s voice came over the intercom. “Everything all right in there?”

“Yeah, Dad, everything’s great. It was a perfect flight.”

“Sarcasm doesn’t become you, son.” He laughed. “We’ll be on the ARC in ten minutes.”

“Okay, and… Dad?”

“Yes, Noah?”

“Umm….” I paused as Adina shook her head. “Never mind, I’ll talk to you later.”

***

I sat in Hangar Bay One as Dad assigned us all tasks that needed to be accomplished before we could rescue Mom.

“We need to have a ship capable of inner-atmospheric flight before we get to the twelfth century. The patch job on the Morning Star wouldn’t hold up during the burn upon entry.”

“With the right tools I could have her ready in a few hours,” Sam said. She stood on my left, tapping her foot, and seemed ready to bolt for the fabrication shop the minute Dad finished speaking.

“Good,” he said. “But I’d also like to get the DUV III ready. Hamilton, can you help me with the warp manifold calibration?”

“Of course.”

I eyed the hatch to the Morning Star.

“Noah, why don’t you help your sister?”

“What? No, I—”

“Not now. I want to get moving as fast as possible. Hamilton, meet me back here after I get the ARC on course.” Dad looked at the three of us. “We’ll find her.”

With that, everyone dashed off, leaving me in the middle of the hangar bay. I turned toward the Morning Star.

***

“What did he say?” Adina sat on the edge of the bed in the bunkroom of the Morning Star.

“I didn’t exactly have a chance to talk with him. Anyway, I think it’s best to tell him later. For now, follow me.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” She stood up but stayed near the bed. “We should tell him now. It’ll be worse later.”

“Trust me, he’ll be much easier to talk to when he isn’t distracted.” That way he can give me his full attention when he tans my hide.

Adina followed me down to the hatch. I held up my hand and peered into the hangar bay. Hamilton was nowhere to be seen, and Sam tossed tools into a bin in the workshop across the bay, her back to us.

“Come on.” I waved Adina after me and sped out of the ship.

***

Minutes later, we entered my room. Obadiah jumped up in my lap, licked my face, then leapt to greet Adina, barking and racing back and forth between the two of us.

I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him.

“Calm down, boy.” I laughed as he put his paws on her chest. “You’re going to cover her in dog-slime.”

Adina grinned while he licked her face.

“This is Obadiah,” I said.

“He certainly is friendly. I’ve never seen an animal like this. Is it a fox or a wolf puppy?”

“He’s a dog—a beagle, actually.” I laughed when Obadiah knocked her over. “I think he likes you.”

Once Obadiah got his fill of face-licking, Adina turned and studied my room. Wonder filled her face. “This is all yours? There’s—there’s so much!”

“Yeah, isn’t it great?”

“I can’t believe you need all this.” She bit her lip. “Your life must be much harder than I imagined, if one person needs a room full of… whatever this stuff is to live.”

I picked up a half-finished model of a J-Class destroyer left untouched for months. “Nah, most of it’s just for fun. Like your doll.”

Adina reached into the pocket of my coat, which she still had on, and pulled out the little figure made of bone and rawhide. She looked around the room, then back at her doll. With her eyes cast down she put it back in her pocket. “So what’s your plan, Noah Zarc?”

“I think you should stay in my room until we get back.” I pushed a pile of clothes off my bed. “We shouldn’t be gone long, and Obadiah will keep you company.”

“I don’t know.” She looked around the room as if something might jump out and eat her the minute I left. With the mess I kept, it wasn’t that far-fetched.

“You just have to trust me.”

She raised her eyebrows and gave me a look I couldn’t figure out. “This doesn’t feel right—not telling your dad about me.”

“But if I told him now—”

“He’d send me back home?” Her voice rose a bit.

He probably would, eventually, but I didn’t want to tell her that. “If we just give him some time—”

“Noah, I just think it’s wrong! If he doesn’t want me here, I should go.”

“But once we get Mom and she meets you, there’ll be no way Dad can send you back.”  Why was she mad at me? Didn’t she see I was trying to help?

She studied me through her shaggy hair. Finally, she sat down on my bed with a harrumph. “We’ll do it your way for now, but I don’t have to like it.”

I struggled to think of something that would convince her, but just had to settle for her being mad for now. “I’ll bring you something to eat.”

I moved around, straightening my room, and for the first time in my life the mess embarrassed me. “It’ll take a few hours to get ready, and if all goes well, we’ll be back just a few minutes after we leave.”

She glanced about the room again, then back at me. “Okay, but please hurry back.”

“I will, Adina. I know my mom will let you stay with us. I just know it.” I tried to reassure her with a smile, then left the room.

Sam looked miserable in her twelfth-century dress. She scowled at me, maybe mad that I didn’t have to wear something just as uncomfortable.

I’d trade places with her in a minute if it meant I could leave the ship once we got to the surface. Well, I wouldn’t put on a dress, but something just as bad as what Dad wore. Whoever heard of a man in hose?

Dad constantly fidgeted in his seat, pulling his tunic down, trying to cover the dark wool clinging to his legs.

Sam had studied twelfth-century history and culture during the trip back in time, so we had some idea what to expect. According to her, she and Dad were now dressed appropriately for the period.

“You look like you’re wearing a pressurized EV suit in a low atmosphere,” I said, grinning at her.

“Meaning what? I look fat?” Her dress was made of a coarse woven silk, dark blue with red trim around the sleeves and neck. “Mom’ll gush when she sees me in this. ‘Oh, darling, you look so beautiful.’ I say ugh.”

“I say let’s get going.” I looked at Dad. “The quicker we find Mom, the quicker you can get out of those getups.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So, you’re in charge now?”

“Sorry, I’m just worried about Mom.”

“We all are.” He smiled. “Take us out of here.”

***

I had to laugh when we lost gravity.

Sam’s dress, which had pooled at her feet, now billowed around her. She bunched the fabric up with her hands and wrestled it back down. It was hard to believe that just hours ago she was covered in grime while she worked on repairing the Morning Star.

Hamilton had stayed aboard the ARC, completing the calibration of the DUV III’s warp manifold. He wasn’t happy about being left behind, but logic told him he could better put his talents to use with the work on the ARC.

I only hoped Adina would stay out of sight.

As the Morning Star entered lower orbit, the cockpit window framed an outline of the British Isles.

Moses had given us the coordinates of an isolated area in the woods surrounding Haon’s castle. With a little luck, we could land without anyone seeing us.

Dad looked up from the screen at his chair. “I’ve completed a scan of the castle and located several life forms.”

“Well, we know he doesn’t have any use for living animals, so we can assume they’re people,” Sam said. “And one of them has to be Mom.”

***

Twenty minutes later, the Morning Star touched down in a rich green forest that rose up around us on all sides.

I shut down the ship’s engines and engaged the shield generator. “So what’s the plan? You walk up to the castle and ask Haon to let Mom go?”

Dad looked amused, but Sam took me seriously. “Haon would know Dad in a minute,” she said. “He’d probably recognize me, too. We have to find a way to sneak in.”

“Once we’re in sight of the castle,” Dad said, “your sister and I will come up with a plan. I highly doubt Haon is expecting anyone to come looking for him here.”

I shifted in my chair. “Unless he knows we’re onto him.”

“We’ll be careful, Noah.” Dad tried to reassure me with a smile.

They both stood up, and Dad put his finger to his ear. “Sam, do you have your Triple-B?”

She nodded.

My stomach tightened at the idea of being left alone on the ship while they headed off to unknown danger.

It must’ve shown on my face, because Dad went into mega-reassurance mode, putting his hands on my shoulders. “Don’t worry, son. All you need to do is be ready for liftoff as soon as we come back with your mother.”

“I’ll be ready.” I touched my comm-link. “And you’ll keep in contact?”

“You’ll be able to monitor us every step of the way.” He gave my shoulder a last squeeze before he and Sam left the ship.

***

For the next half-hour, I listened in as they worked their way toward the castle. I began to feel better about sitting in the climate-controlled ship while they mucked around in the forest.

“How did humans survive in the Middle Ages with clothes this constricting?” Sam said. “If I don’t trip and break my neck, I’ll probably die of heat stroke.”

Dad kept quiet except for the occasional snicker. Finally they reached the castle.

“Looks pretty run down,” he said, “but the gates are wide open.”

“Just inside the archway? Someone seems to be sweeping the floor.”

“I see her too. Let’s go see what we can find out. I’ll do the talking, Sam.”

After a few minutes, a woman’s voice rasped over the comm: “Fàilte, Ceud mìle fàilte.” Without a Triple-B in my ear, I had no idea what it meant—but it sounded Gaelic.

Dad said, “Tha mi toilichte do choinneachadh.”

I patted my pockets for my Triple-B but couldn’t find it. “Computer, can you translate?”

“One moment, please.”

I caught snatches of conversation as the woman apparently led them into the castle. “Is mise Brìghde inghean Flaithbheartach. Dè an t ainm a th’ort.”

“Is mise No… um… Norman,” Dad’s voice quivered and changed as the computer worked to translate. “My name’s No… um… Norman.”

I smacked myself in the head. Real cool, Dad.

“I’m sure we can find you and your daughter a place to stay for the night.” The woman’s voice came through, translated to perfect English.

“Thank you, Bridget,” Dad said.

The sounds of shuffling and footsteps came through the comm-link.

“Can you tell me more about the master of the castle?” Dad’s voice sounded strained, as though he would rather just shake Mom’s location out of the woman.

“As I said, he’s been lord here for about ten years. The previous occupants moved out rather hastily the day after he arrived.”

A door creaked open, and the sound of footsteps echoed on stone stairs. “He disappears on long trips, often for months at a time. When he returns he usually has a new trophy for his wall, some dead animal he hangs along with the hundred others he’s killed.” Bridget’s voice dropped. “We know to stay out of his way when he comes back empty-handed. Nearly two months ago was the first time he’d ever come back with another person.”

Sam gasped.

After a pause, Bridget continued: “He was agitated, so we avoided him. He asked for food for the woman—”

Dad cut her off. “Two months ago?”

“Yes, but we hadn’t seen her since. Until—”

“Until when?” Sam nearly shouted.

“Just before you arrived. The master and the woman left the castle—”

“Can you show me where they went?” Dad’s voice filled with dread.

“But… the master—”

“It’s very important, Bridget.” The pain in Dad’s voice brought tears to my eyes. “The woman is my wife.”

Bridget paused and said, “Follow me.” Then they ran.

“Noah, scan the area surrounding the castle. I can do it from here, but I’ll need help from the ship’s computers to amplify the signal.”

“What do you need me to do?” I said.

“Ask the computer to pair with my signal, then do a broad sweep for life forms.”

I moved to the main monitor bank and waved my hand, bringing the screens to life. I repeated Dad’s request. The monitor immediately displayed an overhead thermal view of the castle and outlying area.

Blue indicated the cool stone of the castle. Several warm orange figures moved within the structure. Three ran through what looked like the main entrance and flared brightly once outside the walls. One figure remained as the other two continued on.

“Did you just leave the castle?”

“Yes,” Sam said. “Do you see them?”

“Not yet.” I hunched over the screen, searching. “Computer, increase coverage area.”

The display zoomed out to take in several kilometers around the castle, was and showed only one other heat signature: mine.

“I don’t…. Wait!”

On the edge of the screen, a brief flash of orange appeared. I swiped my hand over the screen and zeroed in. Sure enough, two figures ran away from the castle.

“I see them… I think.” The larger of the two blobs burned a dull red color. The other flared bright, almost white.

“I see them on my wrist-comm display.” Dad panted as he ran. “We’ll try to catch them before—”

“They’re getting away!” I launched myself toward the door. “I’m the only one close enough to stop them!”

“Noah, no!”

I tore out of the Morning Star and swept my gaze around the forest. The display had shown Haon and Mom running several hundred meters behind the ship’s tail.

A trail led out of the clearing in the underbrush. I took off as fast as my chair would let me. Brambles ripped my face and hands as I rushed through the thicket, and Dad’s shouting came over my wrist-comm.

After about a hundred meters, I stopped and looked around near the top of a little ridge. Much as I wanted to, I couldn’t just blindly charge through the woods.

I swiveled, peering into the late afternoon gloom.

“Noah, what are you—”

I slapped my wrist-comm and cut Dad off. It took me a minute to catch my breath.

The forest lay still.

A bit of color flashed between the trees to my right. I moved toward it, trying not to make a sound. A crash of snapping branches and rustling leaves sounded just ahead. I climbed to the very top of the ridge, and a ravine opened before me.

Two figures ran through a small creek below: Haon and Mom. Water erupted around them as Haon dragged her through the stream.

They stopped. Haon whipped around and glared at me.

How did he know I was here?

“You’ll never catch me, son.”

He yanked Mom by the arm when she turned to see who was following. She stumbled and smacked her head against a large stone, and blood swirled in the water.

Haon reached down with one hand and lifted her out of the water like a rag doll. He turned and sprinted up the stream, Mom hanging limply under his arm.

I slapped my wrist-comm.

“Dad, I see them! Where’s the ravine end?”

“About… one hundred meters to the north… bends right.” He panted so hard he could hardly get the words out.

I searched the ridge and found an opening through the woods toward the northeast. I spun my chair and rocketed forward through branches that whipped my face.

Moments later, I overlooked the ravine again. Empty. Where—

“Behind you!” Dad shouted over the wrist-comm.

Something hit me so hard on the back that I flew from my chair and landed on my side.

I twisted to see what had clobbered me. Three meters away, Mom lay in the leaves, her eyes closed.

“Should have left well enough alone, kid.”

I flopped on my back and looked up at Haon. He reared over me like a bear getting ready to finish the kill. He held a heavy log in his hand as if it were a twig. Sunlight streamed through the trees and shadowed his face.

I glanced at my chair, just a meter or so behind him—still in range.

“Don’t even think about it. I’d kill you before you moved a centimeter.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and gave the mental command. My magchair roared to life and launched itself right at Haon. I flattened myself against the ground as it caught him behind the knees.

He tumbled back and the chair flew over me, Haon sprawled on top. He smashed into a tree, his arm between the chair and the trunk, and a terrible crunch sounded in the woods.

Haon roared, more in anger than pain.

He jumped up and threw the smashed chair aside with his left arm, his right arm dangling uselessly at his side. In two steps he covered the distance between us, hauled back his good arm, and smacked me across the jaw.

Pain exploded in my face. I collapsed to the forest floor, my ears ringing. Yet somehow I’d thought the blow would be harder, the pain worse.

“I should kill you now,” he said. “But that wouldn’t be very fatherly of me.”

He turned and ran toward Mom. Darkness flooded my mind as he bent over her.

Then I noticed something weird: Haon’s right arm, nearly severed in two, wasn’t bleeding. Bent and twisted cylinders poked out through the rent in his skin. Sparks sprayed from frayed wires.

As strange as that was, his words and actions were stranger. He not only hadn’t killed me—he hadn’t hit me very hard, for Haon—he’d said killing me wouldn’t be fatherly?

Who—or what—is he?

Dad cradled me in his arms as we stumbled into the cockpit of the Morning Star. The magchair sparked and crackled while it ground along behind us. He laid me on the floor.

“Noah James Zarc!” He could barely hold his voice in check. “I told you to stay on the ship!”

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” Sam threw herself into her chair. She looked angry, but she also looked like she might cry. “I wish your idiocy would just finish the job next time—”

“Sam!” Dad looked twice as angry now.

“He’s always pulling stuff like this!” Her face turned an ugly red. “If it weren’t for him, Mom—”

“Enough!” Dad said. “We need to find out where they’re headed.”

“What happened?” I glared at Sam before looking back at Dad.

“After your sister and I found you sprawled on the ground, we tracked Haon and your mom to where the DUV II was hidden. Seconds later, they blasted off.” He slapped his wrist-comm. “Hamilton, do you have a lock on them?”

“I have a lock on the ship,” Hamilton said. “They’ve reached orbital altitude.”

He sent an image to the Morning Star’s screen. We could all see the ship as it fled the planet.

Sam punched buttons, already running through the launch sequence. “Can you tell where he’s headed?”

“I’m not sure. The scanner has detected warp particles building in the DUV II’s manifolds, so they’re planning on jumping. But I have no way of knowing to where, or when.”

“Prepare the ARC, Hamilton,” Dad said. “We’re going after him the minute we’re on board. And send Noah’s spare magchair to the docking bay. Your brother’s pretty hard on his equipment.”

Dad glanced at me and we exchanged weak smiles. Something niggled at the back of my mind—something Haon had said. He must’ve hit me pretty hard—because I couldn’t quite remember. Something about my father?

Twenty minutes later, we docked in Hangar Bay One and powered down the Morning Star. Dad jumped up, lifted me from my seat, and headed for the exit.

“I’m not losing your mother again!” He carried me none too gently down the spiral staircase to the hatch, Sam at our heels.

The door opened and Dad stepped out and… stopped dead.

I turned my head to follow his gaze.

A figure in a thermsuit stood a few meters away—Hamilton. Numbers and images scrolled across his visor.

“Hamilton, what are you doing?” Dad yelled.

“I’ve gained access!” He shouted over the hum of the thermsuit. “Just a few more seconds and I’ll have the coordinates.”

My brother didn’t seem to hear.

“I have it. Moses, confirm!”

Dad dropped me down in the spare magchair and ran toward my brother.

“I can’t let you—”

“Confirmed,” Moses said over the comm. “Haon’s ship is set to jump to those coordinates in five seconds… four… three….”

Then I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. Hamilton had retrofitted the thermsuit with something that looked just like a small—

Bright purple and green flashes of electricity enveloped my brother. A pulse of energy exploded outwards and blew us backwards. My chair smashed against the Morning Star, and Sam fell at my feet.

—like a small warp manifold.

Hamilton was gone.

I pushed my chair around Sam. “Are you all right?”

She shook her head and sat up slowly, looking where her brother had vanished. “If he makes it back alive, I’m going to kill him.”

***

Dad lurched to his feet and stared at the spot where Hamilton had stood just seconds ago.

“What’s your brother—?”

The room exploded once again in a surge of electrical energy, and again we flew backward. Sam grabbed my arm as she fell and ended up taking me to the floor with her.

I struggled to turn toward the center of the room, not easy with Sam splayed across my chest. Hamilton fell to ground in the same spot. The thermsuit, heavily charred, popped and creaked in the pressurized air of the hangar.

Sam and Dad jumped to their feet and ran to Hamilton while I pulled myself back into my chair.

They rolled him onto his back. Sam released the seals around Hamilton’s helmet and pulled it off. He lay still for a moment, eyes closed. When he opened them, Dad was hovering over him.

His face filled with relief. “Dad, I’m so glad to see you’re okay.” He glanced at me and Sam. “All of you.”

“What are you talking about? I just spoke with you on the comm a few minutes ago,” Dad said.

“Of course.” My brother released the suit’s chest plate. “For me it’s been over a week. I followed Haon. He still has Mom.”

The Zarc family, minus Mom, sat around a table in the mess hall. I desperately wanted to go see if Adina was okay, but first I had to hear Hamilton’s story.

My brother scarfed down food like he hadn’t eaten in… well, a week.

“Haon went home,” he said when he finally paused between bites.

“What do you mean he went home?” Sam said. “To Mars?”

“Of course Mars, in the year 3024. Home.”

“Home,” Sam said.

“You… followed him in the thermsuit?” Dad looked exhausted.

“I’ve been working on the idea for quite a while,” Hamilton said around a mouthful of synth-turkey sandwich. “After Noah’s… successful testof the suit’s boosters, I was ready to try the warp manifold. While the DUV III’s computers were running some calibration tests, I installed the manifolds I’d constructed for the thermsuit. It’s really a simple matter, scaling down the technology to something as small as the suit. I actually stumbled on the idea while—”

“We get it,” Sam said. “You did something that’s never been done before. What about Mom?”

“Forget the explanations,” Dad said. “What happened?”

Hamilton gave them both a look but continued. “I couldn’t wait for you to get back. I had obtained the coordinates, from his computer, for his first jump only. If I didn’t follow, I’d never know when his ultimate destination was. The DUV III wasn’t ready yet, so I used the thermsuit. My first jump was a bit of a shock—one moment I was standing in the hangar, the next floating in space. Once oriented, I worked quickly and hacked into his system for coordinates of the next jump. In this manner, I followed him jump after jump until we reached his destination: Current Standard Time on Mars.”

His explanation didn’t quite match up with what I knew about time travel. “But you could have just waited for us, then jumped to that first time marker—”

“I must admit my judgment was clouded.” He glared at me, and his eyes watered. “But it was my mother.”

Dad placed his hand on Hamilton’s arm. “It’s okay. Any of us would have done it.” He looked at me as if to say there’s no doubt the heat of the moment clouds my judgment, all the time.

Hamilton pushed his plate away. “After the final jump, I moved into orbit around Mars.” He gazed beyond the pressurization shield, where the tiny red light that was Mars shimmered against the backdrop of the universe.

“Haon de-orbited over the southern hemisphere. I tracked him to a small compound in the Gecko Desert—”

“Where?” I asked.

“One of the few uninhabited places on the planet. I landed about two kilometers from his compound. A fairly sophisticated alarm system surrounded the facility, and because breaking and entering isn’t my specialty, it took me nearly a day to write code to trick the system into thinking I was a small insect. After that, I hid the thermsuit and made my way into the compound.

“I was surprised by the quality of the atmosphere. It’s far more breathable than—”

“Hamilton.” Dad’s warning was quiet but deadly.

“Scans showed only two human life forms and a vast array of artificial ones. I developed a schematic of the compound and located both humans.”

Hamilton paused. He almost looked worried.

“Haon has access to some of the most advanced technology I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I’m fairly sure I saw an experiment centered on the idea of replicating the conscious mind of a living organism and transferring it to a robotic one.” He was getting more enthusiastic by the word. “It was fascinating, seeing a colony of robotic mice navigate the classic maze test with such speed and accuracy—”

“Hamilton!” we all shouted at the same time.

“Sorry.” His face reddened slightly. “Anyway, I finally found a room with a single human life form. I hacked in to the CCTV system and obtained visual and audio. Just watch.”

Hamilton removed his wrist-comm and placed it in the middle of the table, activating the holo-display. An image flickered above the table—Mom, tied to a chair.

My brother slid his finger through the image, fast-forwarding to a point when Haon entered the room.

“Did you drug me?” Mom said. “How long have I been out?”

“You understand the need, of course,” Haon said. “I couldn’t let you know where we were going. Once you’ve completed what I asked, you’ll be free to go.”

“I absolutely refuse!”

“You can’t refuse.” He stood over her, fists clenched. “When you look at it logically, you really have no choice.”

Again, looking at Haon, I had a sense I’d forgotten something.

“Why, because you’ll kill me?” Mom said. “Do you really think that’s incentive enough for me to help you destroy every living animal on Earth—for the second time?”

Haon paced the room. When he stopped, he seemed to be staring into the CCTV, right at me.

“I know fear for your own life won’t motivate you.” He moved to a holoscreen. “But maybe this will.”

He brought up an image of Dad, shivering in the cold, seated by a meager fire.

“I know where your beloved husband is—or should I say when.” He glared at her. “Even now my drones wait for the order. Your husband won’t know what hit him.”

I looked at Dad.

He shook his head. “The assassin bots were there the whole time. But if he thinks I’m still back in the Ice Age, we might be a few steps ahead of him.”

The recording continued.

“You’re a lot of things, Haon, but a cold-blooded murderer? Are you really going to cross that line?”

He smiled. “When you and I left the twelfth century, a ship tracked us. A very large ship.” His laugh made me shiver.

Mom lunged towards him, straining at the restraints. “They’re children! Ben, please—”

He whipped around and raised his hand as if to strike. “Don’t call me that!”

Mom shrunk back in her seat. “I know it’s been difficult, losing Shalia, giving up your son—”

“You have no idea.” His voice sounded thick. “You with your perfect life—your perfect husband, perfect kids….”

He swung toward her once more. “And all the solar system supporting your foolish plan! Shalia knew. Soon the entire human race will know the folly of leaving Earth in the hands of a bunch of planet huggers!”

He leaned over and put his hands on the arms of Mom’s chair. “Have you been to Venus lately, Hannah? Have you seen what it’s like to live in that environment?”

He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. “Children have nothing to eat. Cities are packed tight as weaver-bots in a Tylin silk factory. People are dying. What kind of civilization have we become?”

“It’s getting better—”

“This is the thirty-first century! People shouldn’t have to live like animals. Worse than animals.” His eyes burned. “When did animals become more important than people? When?”

“The colonists on Venus made their choice—”

“Their choice?” He shoved his finger in her face. “It’s insanity, Hannah—you’re turning a perfect planet, the one planet uniquely suited for human life, into a zoo?”

Mom sat still with her mouth shut tight.

“So there you have it. I know where your husband is. I know where your kids are. What shall it be?”

“If you so much as touch a hair on my children’s heads, I’ll—”

“You’re tied to a chair, Hannah—hardly in a position to make threats.” He stood, hands on his hips, and smiled.

His hands on his hips?

Mom’s body sagged. For the longest moment she just sat there. At last, she lifted her head to look at Haon, and barely whispered, “I’ll finish it.”

“Good. By the way, set aside any thoughts of escape.” He tapped his forehead. “I have a nasty little surprise for you if you try to leave this room. Believe me, you won’t like it at all.” The evil smile on his face said he wasn’t kidding.

Hamilton reached forward and switched off the holo-display.

I twitched—I’d been watching so intently I’d almost forgotten that we weren’t right there with them. With Mom.

“At this point—”

“Did you see his hands?” I cut off my brother.

Everyone stared at me.

“Just as well as you,” Sam said.

“His right arm was broken when we fought,” I said. “But we could all see, he’s fine. There wasn’t a scratch on him.”

Sam frowned. “Are you sure it was broken? You blacked out, remember?”

“No, his arm was almost cut in half, only….”

“Only what?” Dad said.

“Only it wasn’t a real arm,” I said. “It was a robot arm.”

“Of course,” Sam said. “I guess he just got back to Mars and swapped it out for a new one. No wonder he doesn’t look like he was in a fight with a twelve-year-old boy and his killer magchair. And why didn’t Haon tell Mom he saw you? He said he saw our ship but said nothing about fighting with you.”

“I almost stopped him!” I was furious. “Maybe he didn’t want her to know. She was unconscious, and didn’t see me, and….” There’s something else—something Haon said! Why can’t I remember it?

“You have to admit,” Hamilton said, “the whole thing does sound a bit farfetched.”

Dad held up his hands. “Enough. At the moment we have more important things to worry about than Haon’s robot arm.”

Right then, I hated my brother and sister. Would it kill them to just believe me? Besides, why would I lie?

“So why didn’t you save Mom?” I glared at Hamilton, wanting to storm out of the room but refusing to give them the satisfaction.

He sighed and put his comm back on his wrist. “I couldn’t shake the feeling the whole place was a trap, so for the next three days I hid in a supply closet. Gradually, I pieced together Haon’s plan. We know Haon wants Earth for the Venusians. He’s been fighting the ARC project from the beginning.”

He glanced at Dad, and I could tell he was picking his words carefully.

“At first he took his claims to the Poligarchy—perfectly legal, perfectly proper.”

Dad raised his eyebrows but didn’t interrupt.

“When that didn’t work, he moved on to other endeavors. Somehow he always seems to know when and where we’re going to retrieve animals, and he always sends robots to stop us. And now it seems he’s even figured out how to travel through time himself, without the Poligarchy’s knowledge.”

“We know all this,” Sam said. “But he’s losing. We have a ship full of animals. The last report we received on Earth’s status was great. More than sixty percent of the planet is habitable again. Even organisms that had lain dormant are coming back to life, plant life especially. The African continent is especially strong and can now be repopulated.”

“And it appears Haon’s prepared to admit defeat on that account,” Hamilton said. “Which is why he captured Mom. The whole Irish deer incident was an elaborate trap—he needs Mom for a new scheme.”

He looked at his hands, folded on the table. “Haon is using Mom to create a nano-bomb—an autonomous, self-replicating, carbon-based nano-bot, to be precise—that’s programmed to consume all non-human, living carbon molecules it comes in contact with—excluding plant life.”

I stared at my brother, truly horrified.

He sighed. “Haon is forcing Mom to create a virus that will destroy every living animal, here on the ARC or back on Earth, once we release the animals there.”

“But she would never do that!” I said.

My brother glanced up at me. Something had changed in him—he looked miserable. He’d always hoped Haon wasn’t the monster Dad said he was, but now he had proof that Dad was right all along.

“What would you do,” he asked, “if Haon said he would kill everyone you love if you didn’t do what he asked?”

“I’d fight him. I’d escape.” Tears stung my eyes and I looked away. “She can’t let him destroy the animals again,” I whispered. “She can’t.”

The hum of the ventilation system filled the room. We all watched each other, hoping someone would offer a way out. Surely Dad would be able to come up with a plan.

He looked at Hamilton. “What happened before you left?”

It took a minute before he could answer, and he wouldn’t look at any of us. “I tried to rescue Mom. I failed, and nearly got her killed in the process.”

Dad’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the arms of his chair. “What happened?”

“I couldn’t bring her back with the thermsuit, so I needed a ship. I found the DUV II in a hanger, ready for flight. All I had to do was get Mom out of the lab and on board. It took me a while, but I figured out a way to override the security protocols.”

Normally he’d tell us exactly how he did it, but he sailed right on, clearly worried.

“No alarms sounded when I entered Mom’s room. Of course, she was stunned to see me, furious at the danger I’d put myself in by coming there.

“We made a run for it. I led her down the hall toward the hangar. After about twenty meters, she screamed. For a moment, I thought we’d been caught. Then I looked at Mom, who had her hands to her head. She said she had a sudden, sharp pain, but she pushed me forward.”

He wiped sweat from his brow.

I’d never seen my brother so rattled.

“We ran down the hall. After only a few more meters, she screamed again. I stopped, but she told me to keep moving. I sprinted ahead to open the door to the hangar. Mom followed, but stumbled, and I bent to help her just as the door opened.

“It was Haon. I tried to push past him, but he was just too big. He grabbed my arm in a vise grip, reached down with his other hand, and yanked Mom up by the arm. She was in so much pain she could barely stand. I was equally helpless.”

Hamilton pushed his chair back, stood, and paced around the mess hall. My confident brother looked at his wit’s end.

“Haon had each of us by an arm. As we drew closer to the lab, Mom staggered. When he paused, she smashed both her fists into his face. He let go of me, and Mom shouted for me to run, so I did.”

He glanced at Dad, who nodded—maybe to let him know he’d done the right thing.

“I heard Haon throw Mom into the lab and slam the door. Within seconds, he was running after me.

“I ran into the hangar and jammed the door behind me. I’d already initiated the launch sequence on the DUV II. Haon had another smaller ship sitting next to it, so I thought I might get him to chase me, or at least chase the ship. I accessed the DUV II’s controls on my wrist-comm and instructed it to take off toward Venus.

“Haon crashed through the door just as the ship took off, but he didn’t follow. He was obviously convinced I’d left in the DUV II, but he didn’t seem to care. It was Mom he wanted.”

“Is she okay?” Sam said. “What was wrong with her?”

“I’m not sure—”

“It sounds like a neuro pain inducer,” Dad said.

We all looked at him.

“It was most likely calibrated to a certain radius around the lab,” he said. “When she moved outside that radius, it began sending serious pain signals to her brain.”

He shook his head. “That man is evil, but he’s also a genius. I’m not sure what would’ve happened to your mother if you’d made it to the ship and actually blasted off Mars. I suspect the pain would either have killed her or driven her mad.”

I couldn’t stand it any longer. “We need to go get her, now!”

“Agreed,” Dad said.

“Noah?”

A small voice at the door made us all turn to look.

Adina peeked in from the hallway.

You left her here by herself?” Dad surged to his feet, hands clenched at his side.

“Hamilton was here.” I knew that wouldn’t fly the moment the words left my lips.

My brother shook his head. “I had no idea she—”

“She could’ve gotten lost for weeks on a ship the size of the ARC!” Dad glared at me. “Aside from the fact that bringing her here was in direct violation of the Poligarchy’s orders and my wishes—”

“Dad, she—”

“Don’t Dad me! This is unacceptable. She’ll have to be returned to the surface.”

“But she’ll die!”

“We’re all going to die someday, Noah.” The vein in his forehead throbbed. “You remind me so much of my brother—” He slammed his mouth shut.

I felt like I’d been socked in the stomach. Haon’s voice filled my head: That wouldn’t be very fatherly of me. “Who’s your brother?” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady.

Dad’s face turned white. He spun toward Sam. “Take Adina to your room.”

Sam opened her mouth, hesitated, then shut it. She glanced at me with dread in her eyes, turned, and nudged Adina toward the door.

“I’m sorry,” I mouthed to Adina.

Of course she had no idea what I said—what any of us said for that matter, since no one had in a Triple-B. From the look on her face, she got the drift.

“Hamilton, get the ARC ready to jump. I want to….” Dad’s voice trembled with anger. “Just get her ready.”

My brother all but ran from the room, leaving me alone with my dad.

“Noah, I shouldn’t have said that.”

That’s all he can come up with? “Who’s your brother?” I didn’t even know what I was afraid of, but I was sure afraid of something.

“I… just meant you and I are—” Again he stopped, his gaze dropping to his hands. “Noah, there are things your mom and I have never told you.”

“Like what?”

“We really shouldn’t be having this conversation without your mom.” He still wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Who’s. Your. Brother?” I bit off every word.

“Haon.” He said it so, so softly.

It didn’t matter. I knew the answer—the only answer that could make him so ashamed. “So that makes him… my uncle?”

“No.” He sighed. “Haon is your biological father.”

I felt like I’d been kicked in the chest.

“Noah, I—”

I spun my chair and bolted for the door. Dad didn’t follow, or if he did, I didn’t notice.

My mind reeled. My whole life I’d been raised to believe Haon was a monster. He was a monster—and I was his son.

I flew down the corridors of the ARC to nowhere in particular, just away—away from the man I thought was my dad, away from everything he’d just told me.

I left the gravity of the Services pod but hardly noticed when my chair switched to zero-G mode.

My whole life had been a lie—everyone I’d ever loved, liars. I dug my palms into my eyes, trying to stop the tears that wetted my cheeks. I don’t know how long I wandered around, but eventually I found myself in front of the door to Sam’s quarters. Did she know? Did Hamilton? Had they been duped into believing I was their brother, or had they spent their whole lives lying to me? This might explain why they never took my side.

I took a deep breath. “Open,” I said. The door slid aside, and I pushed in.

Adina sat strapped into a chair by the window, looking out into space.

I fished around in my pockets for my Triple-B and placed it in my ear. “Adina.”

At first she didn’t seem to hear, but then she turned. Tears floated off her cheeks, tiny spheres of water drifting in zero-G. She swiped at them with the back of her hand. “I’ll make a mess of your sister’s room.”

My heart lifted—just a little. Adina hadn’t lied to me. She might be the only friend I had. “Did Sam tell you what’s going on?”

“No, but I can tell we’re in trouble. Your dad wants to send me home, doesn’t he?”

The fear in her eyes made me lower my gaze. She had enough to worry about without having to deal with my family issues. “If Mom were here, she’d let you stay.”

Would she? If Haon is my father… is Mom really my mother, or…? I shook my head. Too many questions, and I wanted answers. “Adina, we’ve got to do something. My dad didn’t say you had to go back right now.”

A small glimmer of hope lit her eyes.

“Follow me.” I took her to the hangar. The DUV III sat tucked behind the Morning Star. I moved to it and opened the hatch. “I just know my mom would let you stay. She’s always telling us to look out for those who aren’t as fortunate as we are.”

Adina stepped into the ship.

I started to close the door behind us when something bounded in behind us—Obadiah!

“What are you doing here, boy?” The dog skidded around on the floor and tried to jump into my lap. I looked up—I could see dad’s legs moving across the deck toward the ship’s door.

“I guess you’ll have to come along for the ride.” I closed the hatch and headed for the cockpit.

Adina followed. “I know your father is a good man. He’s just trying to do what he thinks is right.”

“But you’ll die.” I squeezed my eyes closed.

“We all die one day.”

“That’s just what he said.” How could he say that? “But chances are you’ll die before you reach my mom or dad’s age.” I looked at the blank holoscreens. “Besides,” I whispered, “there’s something I need to do.”

I’d heard enough from my dad. Maybe Mom could tell me something—anything—that would make this better.

“Please trust me, Adina.” I waved my hand over the control systems, bringing them to life. “My dad said to take you home, but he didn’t say we couldn’t make a few stops.” I turned to the controls. “Preflight check, begin.”

Long lines of numbers and symbols scrolled on the screen as the ship’s computers ran down the checklist. “Life support systems, nominal. Oxygen scrubbers, nominal.”

“Noah, what are you doing?”

“Just what I said—I’m taking you home.” I waved my hands at the monitor bank. The three-dimensional screens lit up and projected an image of Earth.

“Okay, but did your father—”

“He’s busy trying to rescue my mom.” I glanced at Adina’s worried face. “It’ll be better if I take you home myself.”

“All systems operating at nominal conditions.”

“Thank you. Computer, please open the hangar bay doors.” I waved my hands through the projection of Earth, and it changed to an exterior view of the ship. The hangar doors opened, and the great blue Earth filled our field of vision. I gently lifted the DUV III from the deck and moved her forward.

“Noah! What do you think you’re doing?” Dad’s voice filled the cockpit.

“I’m taking Adina home.”

“Not without me, you’re not!”

The bay doors loomed just meters away.

“You stay here and get the ARC ready to rescue Mom,” I said.

“Noah—”

Waving my hand at the comm, I cut him off.

“He sounded extremely angry,” Adina said.

“He’s not the only one.”

The DUV III floated free of the ARC.

“Computer, please prepare to jump to primary beacon.”

“Jump not recommended. Warp manifold calibration incomplete.”

“Can you lock onto the primary beacon?”

“Affirmative.”

“Then make the jump.”

Adina gripped the arms of her chair. “Where are we really going?”

“We’re going to go get my mom. She’ll be able to talk sense into my dad.”

“Primary beacon lock achieved.” A tiny red star floated in middle of a sea of stars before us.

“I don’t think this—”

“Adina, I won’t let him send you back to that icy world. My mom will know how to talk to him.” I turned back to the monitors and brought up a display of Mars, the blinking lines moving off into the reaches of time. “Computer, make the first jump now.”

***

Over the next couple of hours, the DUV III jumped dozens of times. Each jump brought us closer to Mars in the thirty-first century.

I showed Adina the ship’s quarters and even found some clothes stored in a wardrobe.

“We need to help you blend in a little. If you showed up on Mars dressed in furs and your hair like that”—I pointed at the tangled mess atop her head—“everyone on the planet would know you weren’t from our time.”

I couldn’t help laughing as she tried to move around. Without gravity, she kept finding herself where she didn’t expect to be, like smacking against the wall when she kicked herself forward with her feet.

“It takes getting used to.” Obadiah floated along beside me. “But even Obadiah learned how to handle zero-G.” The dog scrabbled along what would normally be the ceiling. “He actually uses his tail almost like a rudder.”

She smiled. “He looks like a fish. Of course, fish make it look easy, swimming through water. If only I had fins and a tail.”

I grabbed a handrail near the door. “The trick is to not use much force when you push off.” I gently nudged myself in the direction of the bathroom, straightened my body as best I could, and slid through the air to the rail on the far wall.

She tried to follow me, but this time she pushed so softly she just floated in the center of the room, moving ever so slowly toward the far side.

“Well, a little harder than that.” I laughed again, then moved over to pull her toward the bathroom.

I showed her the zero-G shower and how to strap herself in. “We don’t have a salon-bot on board, so after you clean your hair, see what you can do so it’s a little more… presentable.”

“I can’t imagine using water just to clean myself.” She started to pull off her furs, not waiting for me to leave before undressing. Apparently they did things differently where she came from.

I fled back in the cockpit, where a quick check of the displays told me we were only a few hundred years behind the primary beacon. Mars loomed large on the external screens. Somewhere down there was my father, a man who’d decided, for one reason or another, that he didn’t want me.

Was it because of my legs? Did he think I was going to hold him back? Ruin his life? Was he afraid I would be too needy? Too much work?

After I rescued my mom, he’d see what I could do—assuming I could rescue her. I shook my head. What choice do I have?

Time passed while I watched the monitor. 2786. 2814. 2901. The years ticked closer to… to what? What am I going to say to Haon?

And what about Mom? For some reason my anger with her wasn’t as great as with my dad, even though they’d both lied to me. It was hard to be angry at her, knowing what she was going through.

The door to the cockpit opened and Adina stepped through. Wow! Her rich black hair floated behind her in two long braids. The jumpsuit and lavender shirt she wore made her dark eyes shine.

“Do you think I will blend in now?” She blushed as she pushed herself into her seat.

“I… you look so different.” I smiled at her.

“Different from other girls on your home world?”

“No. Different than before.” My cheeks grew warm, and I turned back to the displays. “You look nice.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw her grin.

“How far do we have to go?” she said.

“About ten minutes.” I reached into my pocket, pulled out a Triple-B and handed it to her. “Here. Put this in your ear, and you’ll understand what everyone’s saying when we get down there.”

“This is what you use to understand me?”

“Yes, but now you’ll be the only one speaking your language—it’ll be easier if you wear the translator. All you need to do is concentrate on my words and it’ll work. It gets easier the more you use it.” I took the Triple-B out of my own ear. “There, now your translator is doing the work.”

She looked at me and frowned. “Ani lo mevin otcha.”

“Keep trying. You’ll get it.”

She continued to frown. “Your words are all jumbled together in my head.”

“That’s because I’m speaking English.”

Her face brightened. “I understood that!”

“I told you it wasn’t hard. When I first used the Triple-B, I had the most trouble when we went to your cave. I heard everyone speaking at once.”

“I don’t understand how this thing works. How can I hear you speaking and understand you, then speak and have you understand me?”

I just laughed. “No idea. My dad would know—he made the translator.” Don’t think about that. “I just use the thing and don’t worry about it.”

“Someday I’d like to learn how to talk to you without one of these things in my ear.”

I glanced at the image of Mars on the screen. “After we get my mom, I’ll help you.” I grinned. “Look how fast you’re learning to deal with everything around you—zero-G, your hair…. How’d you do that to your hair, anyway?”

She laughed. “We sometimes make rope out of grasses to help bind hides together. And since everything floats here, I could separate the strands and braid them together. I let the third strand just hover while I worked with the other two.”

“Now you’re talking like Hamilton—I hear the words, but have no idea what you’re saying.”

She giggled. “I wouldn’t worry about it unless you plan to grow your hair long enough to require braids.”

“Fair enough.”

“Preparing for final jump,” the computer said.

“Here we go!”

The great red planet shimmered before us, then blue-green sparks engulfed the ship, obscuring everything on the screens. A few heartbeats later, we popped out above the planet.

“Destination reached. It is now 10:24 A.M. CST, June 17, 3024.”

“Bring us into orbit over the southern hemisphere, please.”

Adina drew in her breath sharply. “How far have we come?”

I unbuckled my harness and flicked my fingers at the display. “Well, at the moment, we’re about two hundred million kilometers from Earth.”

“And is that far?”

I laughed. “Extremely far.” I thought for a moment. “The moon is about three hundred eighty thousand kilometers from Earth.”

“I’m sorry, but that still doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“Here.” I brought up a display of Earth, a tiny representation of the moon spinning around it. “This is how far the moon is from Earth. Now watch.” I pulled back from Earth, farther and farther away until it was just a tiny blue dot. The moon was impossible to see. I then pointed to a small red dot. “This is Mars.”

Her eyes grew wide. “That is an extremely long way away.”

“What’s even more amazing, and I’m not sure I know how to explain it, is that we’ve also moved over eleven thousand years into the future.”

She just stared at me.

“Okay, real quick. You and I are about the same age, twelve?”

She nodded. “I’ve seen twelve winters.”

“So if you’re twelve years old….” I brought up a graph that had two dots on it. “Here’s when you were born, and here’s how old you are.”

I pinched my fingers together and shrank the graph down. “Here’s where you would be if you lived to see one hundred winters.”

“No one lives that long.”

“Not on your world, but on mine that’s almost considered young.” I zoomed out more, then more, until the dot for one hundred years became indistinguishable from the left-hand edge of the graph. “And here’s where we are now—the year 3024 AD.”

“You’re right. I don’t understand.” She looked out toward the red planet, which slowly spun below her. “But I know I’m a very, very long way from home.”

“Is that good or bad?”

She smiled at me. “I am extremely glad to be here.”

I started bringing up displays, which I then overlaid on the image of the Martian surface below. “Hamilton said my mom was at a remote facility in the Gecko desert. Because we don’t have an exact location, we may need to go down and ask around before we can find her.”

I studied the screens and pointed to a small town on the edge of a mountain range that ran north to south along the eastern edge of the desert. “New Cairo. It looks like they have a small spaceport. My guess is Haon might go there from time to time to get supplies.” I looked at Adina. “We need to come up with a story about why we’re alone with our own ship. Twelve-year-olds don’t usually go flying around the solar system by themselves.”

“What if your mother was sick and we were looking for roots or herbs to make her well?”

I thought for a moment. “Most of our major diseases have been eradicated, but if we were on a ship on a deep space mission, and my mom came down with an unexplained illness—that might work.”

I studied Adina’s dark, glossy braids. “How about we make it your mother?” I pointed at my blond hair. “We’re obviously not related, so maybe I brought you to get help for your mom? And we heard that Haon had experience in deep space travel.”

“Sounds like a good plan.”

“Let’s go, then.” I tapped the holoscreen and initiated the landing sequence.

Minutes later, we descended through the Martian atmosphere. A red glow surrounded us as flames engulfed the ship.

“My mom said there was a time when Mars didn’t have much of an atmosphere. People couldn’t breathe the air at all, and even now it’s not safe to be outside for long. Over time, though, scientists were able to change that.”

Adina frowned. “Not being able to go outside would make me crazy.”

I pulled the yoke left and banked through a hazy reddish cloud.

She craned her neck and looked out the window. “The ground looks so barren. Does nothing grow here?”

“There are places along the equator, up that way”—I pointed north— “where tiny plant life grows, mostly mosses and fungi, but nothing like Earth. They say someday there’ll be plants growing everywhere, and maybe even rain or snow will fall.”

“I can’t imagine a place so dry. It doesn’t seem like a good place to live.”

Now that I thought about it, maybe it wasn’t—at least, not to some people. I didn’t mind, but then, I hadn’t really spent a lot of time on Mars.

The ruddy clouds around the DUV III cleared, and we could see the spaceport. New Cairo consisted of a series of clear domes, some three or four kilometers across. Two shield bubbles shimmered, indicating a landing pad. I maneuvered the DUV III through the shield, which had green lights flashing on each side.

Ships of every shape and size filled the bustling port. I found an empty spot to land, moved the DUV III between two much bigger ships, and set her down.

I powered off the engines. “Welcome to Mars.”

“I can’t believe there are so many people,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought there were this many people anywhere.”

“This is nothing compared to the main city.” I unbuckled and worked my way into my chair. As always, I felt way too heavy after the weightlessness of space. “Once you get used to gravity again, you’ll find that walking around on Mars is much easier than on Earth. It only has about one-third the gravity.”

Obadiah ran around and whined, excited to go exploring.

Adina stood up, her legs wobbly. “It may take me a while to just learn how to walk again. This gravity makes me feel all weighed down.”

I grabbed a small pack from one of the cupboards and filled it with things we might need.

“Let’s get going. Who knows what Haon’s doing with my mom.” I want to get this over with and get back to the way things were.

Even as I finished the thought, I knew there’d be no going back. My life had changed—forever.

I moved down the circular stair, Adina and Obadiah just behind. The outer airlock opened, and air rich with the smell of rocket fuel and humanity flooded my senses.

“We need to find some kind of gathering place,” I said. “Somewhere Haon might go on a regular basis—a parts depot, maybe a pub or a restaurant.”

We moved down between the ships. Obadiah padded along behind us. I tried not to draw attention, but everywhere I looked people stared at us. At first, I couldn’t figure out why. Then I realized their attention was on Obadiah.

“Of course,” I whispered to Adina. “Most of these people have never seen an animal, except in pictures and holoscans. Maybe bringing him wasn’t a good idea.”

“How much for your cat?”

I turned toward a teenage boy leaning against the hull of a ship. “He’s not for sale, and he’s a dog.”

The boy pushed off the ship, walked toward us, and fell into step beside me. “I thought dogs were much bigger and you could ride ’em.”

“You’re probably thinking of horses.”

“Yeah, that’s right.” The boy looked sideways at Adina. “You don’t look like you’re from around here.”

She looked at her feet and kept walking.

“We’re not from around here,” I said. “We just came in from a trip to the Rigel Kentaurus system. She’s never been to Mars before.”

“A spacer, huh?” He nodded his head toward her. “Let me be the first to welcome you to Mars. The name’s Draben.”

She looked at him a moment and nodded. “I’m Adina.”

I stuck out my hand. “And I’m Noah.”

Draben shook my hand. “Where’d you get the dog? I’ve seen a lot of things in New Cairo before, but never anything like him.”

“My dad gave him to me when I was a kid. I honestly can’t tell you where he got him.”

“Well, you’re one lucky kid. Keep your eyes on him. There are probably a lot of people around who’d love nothing better than to take him off your hands.” He rubbed his thumb and fingers together. “He’d be worth a boatload of chips.”

I didn’t like the look Draben gave Obadiah.

“I will. Obadiah’s my best friend. Besides, if anyone tried to take him, he’d bite their hands off.”

As if to prove it, Obadiah bared his teeth when Draben reached out to pet him.

Better change the subject. “Can you tell us a good place to eat—maybe somewhere we can get information?”

He looked up and down the row of ships and nodded to our right. “Down that away. Mo’s. He makes the best synthburgers in New Cairo, and he knows everything that goes on in the port. If it passes through here, he knows about it.”

“Thanks. Maybe we’ll see you around.” We hurried off to the right, Obadiah close behind.

Draben called after us. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on your ship while you’re gone.”

“There’s something about that boy that makes me uneasy,” Adina said.

“You and me both.” I looked over my shoulder, but Draben had disappeared in the throng of people. “The sooner we find out where Haon’s compound is, the sooner we can get out of here.”

***

Shops and restaurants lined the whole outer wall of the port. We had to ask a few more people, but eventually we found Mo’s. It was dark inside, and my mouth watered when I smelled the grilled burgers. We walked in and looked around for somewhere to sit.

I jumped when a man wearing a greasy apron pointed at Obadiah. “Eh, you can’t bring that rat in ’ere.”

“He’s not a rat, he’s a dog,” I said.

“Just the same, he can’t come in ’ere. You’ll have to put him outside.”

I looked at Adina. “I’ll be back. See if you can find us a place to sit.”

I tugged at Obadiah. He didn’t want to leave a room that smelled of cooked meat.

“Obadiah, come.”

He looked at me, then back toward the kitchen, and finally trotted out. I pulled a piece of cord from my pack, tied it to his collar, and found a pole to tie him to.

Adina watched from a table by the window.

“At least I’ll be able to see you from in there.” I patted him on the head. “Be good—and keep an eye out for that Draben kid.”

I went back in and sat across from Adina, moving my chair so I could keep an eye on Obadiah, now on the ground. He had his head on his front paws and a mournful look on his face.

A few minutes later, the man with the apron came over. “What can I get you?”

“I heard you make the best synthburgers in New Cairo,” I said.

“On all of Mars,” the man said, grinning through yellowed teeth.

“Two, then.” I looked at Adina and smiled. “And a couple glasses of water.”

He nodded and moved off toward the kitchen.

Adina glanced around the room. “I’m not sure I like this place. There are way too many people, and none of them seem too friendly.”

“You’re doing better than me. I’ve spent most of my life with only my mom and dad, Sam and Hamilton, and a ship full of animals.”

“I keep forgetting this is all new to you, too.” She pushed a piece of hair out of her eyes. “How old did you say you were when you were on Mars before?”

“Five years old, so I hardly remember it at all.” I glared at a couple of people who’d stopped to look at Obadiah. “Of course, I hear stories from my mom and dad all the time, and I had to study Martian history and culture.”

“Is all of Mars this crowded?”

“Actually, most of it’s much more crowded than this. The only reason there aren’t more people here is because of the desert—it can be a harsh place to live. Up north, almost the entire northern hemisphere is one huge city.”

The people outside moved on when Obadiah growled at them.

“Mars is smaller than Earth,” I said. “So when people settled here, there wasn’t as much room. It wasn’t until people started living on Venus that they had any room to spread out.”

“Venus?”

“It’s another planet. It looks kind of like Earth, but it’s really nothing like it. There, people have to live inside. If you go outside, you die instantly.”

“Then why live there?”

“I’m not sure. I think it goes back to a group of people who wanted to move back to Earth. A lot of other people didn’t want Earth touched, so there was a big fight. The people who’d wanted to move back to Earth figured if they couldn’t move to Earth, they’d try Venus.”

Mo set the plates and glasses down in front of them. “Here you goes, two of Mo’s special synthburgers and a couple of waters.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Mo wiped his hands on his apron. “You two need anything else, lemme know.” He walked off.

I looked down at my plate. “Well, looks good enough.” I picked it up, took a bite, and scrunched up my nose. “I think I’ve been ruined.”

Adina took a bite of her synthburger. “I think it’s pretty good.”

“What! This is tasteless compared to mastodon.”

“I guess when that’s almost all you’ve ever eaten, just about anything else would taste pretty good.” She took several big bites and washed them down with water. She nearly spit it out. “Talk about tasteless! This water is awful.”

I grinned. “At least I was right about that.”

We ate in silence for a few minutes. I tried to finish my burger but finally pushed the plate away with nearly half left. I looked at Obadiah, who might find it more appetizing. The tepid, oily water did nothing to wash away the taste of the snythburger.

Mo came over to the table. “Burger okay?”

“It’s great, but my stomach’s a bit upset.” I patted my belly. “Otherwise, how could I not finish off the best synthburger on Mars?”

“In the whole solar system,” Adina said with a big smile.

Mo looked at her and flashed his yellow teeth. “Can I get youse anything else?”

“No thanks,” I said. “You might be able to help us, though. We’re looking for a man named Haon. Any idea where he might be?”

Mo scratched his day-old beard. “Haon, huh? Yeah, I think I heard that name before. Kind of a nutcase.” He twirled his finger around his ear. “Lives out in the Gecko by hisself. Him and his robots, anyhow.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him.” I tried to keep the eagerness out of my voice. “You happen to know where exactly he lives?”

“What do a couple kids want with that character?”

“My mom’s sick,” Adina said.

I reached in my pack and pulled out a map generator. “We heard Haon did a lot of traveling in deep space. We’re hoping maybe he can help. Can you show me where he lives?”

“What’s traveling in deep space got to do with your sick mum?”

“Well, we just came in from deep space ourselves, and she developed something while we were out there,” Adina said.

Mo stepped back. “Not catchin’, is it?”

“No,” I said. “We’re fine. But we’d really like to see if Haon can help us.”

Mo didn’t seem one hundred percent convinced, but he looked at my map. “Last time Haon was here he yakked about all the usual stuff people yak about—price of rocket fuel, weather. Then he says somethin’ kinda weird. Said his air scrubbers were broke by rampaging buffalo.”

I lifted my eyebrows. “Buffalo?”

“That’s what I said. I wasn’t even sure what buffalos was, but I’m pretty sure there ain’t any on Mars. Anyway, he asked me if I knowed anybody who’d fix ’em on short notice. I told him there’s this guy named Kenny who’ll fix anything. He was pretty pleased and asked if I thought my guy could make it out to the Jervis craters that day. I said he’d have to ask Kenny. After that, he left in a hurry.”

“So the Jervis craters?” I said. “Where are they?”

Mo traced his finger along the map until he found New Cairo, then worked his way down along a range of mountains and tapped his finger. “Right here. Just north of the Red Alps.”

I stood and slid the map back in my pack. “Thanks, Mo.” I turned toward the door. “Come on, Adina.”

“Not so fast! What about your food? You owes me two hundred fifty chips.”

I reached into my pack and pulled out a wad of old bills I’d taken from the ship.

“Is this enough?”

Mo looked at the colored paper in my hand. “What the heck’s that?”

“My dad said it was money. I thought you bought stuff with it.”

“I don’t know what planet it’s good for, but not this one.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t have any Martian chips.”

Mo frowned at the two of us, then shook his head. “I’ll put it on your tab, then. Pay me next time you’re in town.”

“Thank you, sir.” I smiled. “I’ll pay you back, I promise.” I turned toward the door, and my heart lurched.

Where Obadiah had been, nothing remained but a bit of cord.

“Draben! He took my dog.”

Adina looked around at the crowds of people, then back at me. “Come on, he can’t have gotten far.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me in the direction of the DUV III.

“Has anyone seen a dog?” we yelled in unison.

The crowds parted as we ran down the line of ships.

“Obadiah!” I yelled.

A woman with a child in her arms pointed in the direction we were headed. “I saw a boy and an animal running that way.”

I raised my chair and tried to look over the crowds. “Obadiah!”

We hurried on, calling his name. Just ahead, the crowds thinned and a glimpse of something small and brown dashed between people’s legs. A sandy-haired boy chased after it.

“There he is!” We dashed to the spot.

“There.” Adina pointed between two ships, where a boy crouched down, holding Obadiah by the collar.

I rushed over. “Let go of him.”

It was Draben. “Thank goodness,” he said, still holding onto the collar. The hair on the back of Obadiah’s neck stood on end while he strained to break free of Draben’s grasp.

“I said let go of my dog.”

Adina came up beside me and put her hand on my arm. “Noah, look.” She pointed under the ship to our right. Two tiny eyes peered out at us.

“It’s a rat,” Draben said, breathing heavily. “All that talk of Mo’s famous synthburgers got me hungry, so I came down to get one. Just as I got there, I saw the rat scurry out from under a bench. Your dog saw it too—he lunged and broke his cord. So I chased him.”

I bent down and grabbed Obadiah’s collar.

Draben let go and glanced at Adina. “Honest, I wouldn’t try to steal your dog. He’s a good dog, but I heard you call him your best friend. I knew you’d be awful sad to lose him.”

Obadiah finally seemed to notice me. He wagged his tail furiously and licked my face. Dumb dog didn’t even know he’d scared me to death.

“Well… thank you. I guess I just thought—”

“It’s okay. I probably would’ve thought the same thing.”

I tied the cord to Obadiah’s collar. “I didn’t even know there were any animals on Mars.”

“Yeah, not much. Some rats, a few bugs. Just things that stowed away on the early settlers’ ships.”

“Well, thank you for catching my dog. I don’t know what we’d do if he got lost here.”

“Hey, it was nothing.” He looked the DUV III over. “You headed back? I’d sure love to see inside your ship. She’s a TW class, isn’t she?”

We started walking toward the DUV III, parked just a few spots down.

“Yeah, she’s a great ship.”

“And she can jump?”

“Yup,” I said, feeling uneasy again. Lots of people on Mars knew about the ARC project, but time-travel is highly restricted and Dad said I’m not supposed to talk about it with strangers.

“I’ve never seen one before.” He looked wistful. “Have you ever jumped?”

I glanced at Adina. “A couple of times. It’s not that big a deal.”

“Not that big a deal! Are you crazy? There’s nothing that’s a bigger deal than that! You can travel through time. You can see Mars before people lived here. You can go to Earth before it died.” He shook his head. “Not that big a deal.”

We reached the DUV III and I turned to look at Draben. “I’m sorry, but I can’t take you on board. We’re on a mission and we don’t have much time.”

His face fell. “Yeah, I understand.”

“But if we ever come back here, I’ll give you a ride. Maybe even do a short jump.”

He grinned. “Oh man, I’d love to see my dad when he was my age. That’d be a trip.”

I smiled and stuck out my hand. “I’m not sure that’s the best idea, but we’ll see. Thanks for catching Obadiah.”

Draben shook my hand. “You’re welcome.” He looked at Adina. “Come back when you have more time. I’ll show you all around New Cairo.”

“I will,” Adina said. “Thank you.”

He looked at me. “You too, Noah Zarc.”

Of course. Everybody knew the Zarcs were the only family allowed to time travel.

We stepped into the DUV III. I closed the airlock and looked down at Obadiah. “What were you thinking?”

He just wagged his tail.

“That’s what I thought. You weren’t.”

***

I cleared the port’s shields and headed south. The sun neared the horizon, but I hoped we’d see Haon’s compound before it got completely dark.

“I guess it just goes to show you can’t judge an aurochs by its horns,” Adina said.

I looked at her, my mouth open. “You can’t judge a what by its whats?”

She laughed. “An aurochs is another animal we liked to hunt that has long horns.” She held her fingers up so they stuck out from her head. “The longer the horns, the older the auroch. The older the auroch, the tougher the meat. So even though he looks like a good kill, it’s better to let him alone.”

“And what does this have to do with anything?”

“Draben,” she said. “When we first met him, we both didn’t trust him. Then he ends up helping us.”

“I guess you can’t judge an aurochs by its horns.”

We skimmed over sand dunes taller than some mountains back on Earth.

“It’s the same as when I first met you,” I said.

“Oh?” She raised her eyebrows.

“When I first saw you hanging on for dear life on the wing of the Morning Star, I figured, ‘There’s a boy who needs to watch where he’s going.’” I grinned.

She socked me in the arm.

“Ouch. You hit like a boy too.”

“Hey, watch out!” Adina pointed to the screen.

The DUV III hurtled toward an orange outcropping of rock.

I yanked the yoke left and banked hard. “The ship wouldn’t have let us crash, you know.”

“Just the same, I’d like it if you kept your eyes on where we’re going.”

I skirted the mountain range to our right. A flashing light on the holoscreen indicated the coordinates Mo had given us.

“What did Draben mean when he said you could visit Earth before it died?” Adina said.

Uh-oh. I hadn’t really explained about the Cataclysm.

“There are things mankind has done that… well, they’re pretty awful.”

“But how does a planet die?” Her brows furrowed. “Are you saying men killed it?”

“I honestly don’t know the whole story. Even my mom and dad have a different opinion about what happened. My mom seems more convinced that humans did it. Over the years we used up all the resources of the planet: wood for fires, animals for food, pumping chemicals into the air until it wasn’t breathable anymore. Men made it so the planet wasn’t livable. Everything died—all the plants, all the animals, everything.”

She stared at me in horror.

“My dad thinks it was a combination of what man did and natural causes. There was a huge volcanic explosion that filled the Earth with dust. It blocked the sun and caused another ice age.”

“Another ice age?”

“Yeah, the time you lived in was the end of the last Ice Age. Just a few hundred years after that, the planet was warm, and most of the ice was gone. Green plants covered the earth, and animals flourished.”

“Just like I used to dream.” Adina smiled. “Where my mom and dad went.”

“Everything was fine for thousands of years,” I said. “Then it died.”

Her smile faded again. “It seems so sad. All those animals.”

“That’s what the ARC project is all about. We go back in time and find the animals before they died. Then we’re going to put them back on Earth.”

“So it isn’t dead anymore?”

“No. My dad says it’s ready.”

For a moment, the excitement of what we were about to do got my heart racing. Then I remembered why we were here, on Mars, chasing Haon—chasing my father. Maybe I wasn’t really part of the whole ARC project after all.

Adina stayed quiet for a long time. “I want to help,” she said at last. “I can’t imagine living in a world without the wooly mammoths or aurochs or deer.”

I shook my head and worked up a smile. “Once we rescue my mom and she says it’s okay, you’ll get your wish.” I looked at the display. “We should be getting close. Keep an eye out for Haon’s compound.”

***

The sun set behind us. Long shadows made the sand dunes below look like giant waves on a black sea.

“I think I see something.” Adina pointed out the window.

I strained to see.

“There, Noah. A flashing light.”

Sure enough, within the shadow of what looked to be a large crater, a yellow light blinked.

“Turn off all external lights.” The ship went dark, and I brought her down as close as possible to the sand. The flashing light disappeared behind a rocky ridge ahead of us. “I think we should land outside the crater and walk in. We’d better wear EV suits. It’s going to get cold, fast.”

By the time I landed and we got into the Extra Vehicle suits, it was pitch-black outside. I was a little embarrassed because I needed Adina’s help to get into my suit, but once we walked out into the cold desert, I forgot all about it.

The EV was nowhere near as fun as a thermsuit, but I liked it. Just like the chair, it moved in response to my thoughts as if my legs were whole. One day I’d walk like this all the time.

Phobos shone brightly in the northern sky. “The moon is so small,” Adina said over the comm-link. “And it’s not round!”

I laughed. “Yeah, lots of moons are shaped funny. Mars has two moons—Phobos is the largest. The other one, Deimos, is a lot smaller and farther away, so it’s harder to see.”

We climbed to the top of a rise. The low gravity made walking in the EV suit easier.

I pointed to another ridge a few hundred meters in front of us. “That should be the edge of the crater. Let’s try to be quiet. Who knows what kind of sentries Haon has posted out here.”

We scrambled down one hill and climbed up the next. By the time we reached the top, I was breathing hard. I sat down on the near side of the ridge, Adina next to me, her face lit by the green glow of her heads-up display. I’d shown her how to read some of the symbols on the display—human and robotic signatures. According to mine, nothing was in range so far. I pointed at my eyes, then at the top of the ridge. She nodded, and we both crawled up and peered over the edge.

Below, lit by the pale light of Phobos, stood a small compound made up of two main domes and several smaller ones. Nothing moved. Only the flashing yellow light we’d seen earlier indicated any signs of life at all.

I motioned to Adina and crawled over the edge of the crater.

I had no idea how we would get inside. Hamilton had used his knowledge of high-tech gadgetry and computer programming, a skill not in my repertoire, to override the security system. As long as we kept moving and no one had spotted us, I figured we were doing okay.

Besides, I wasn’t sure I didn’t want to be discovered.

Adina grabbed my arm just as I began to head down into the crater, and pointed to one of the smaller domes.

At first, I couldn’t see anything—then a sliver of light widened along the top of the dome. The roof was opening.

Maybe this was our chance.

I leapt over the crater’s edge and half-ran, half-slid down the gravelly slope. Adina clattered after me as light from the opening dome bathed the ground around the facility. We ran, trying to stick to the shadows along the edge of the buildings.

We reached the dome, now completely open. I stopped and looked for a way onto the roof.

Adina grabbed me and pointed toward a ladder. She dashed over and began climbing, and I followed.

We stopped when we reached a small ledge. The dome had retracted completely, leaving a circular opening about fifteen meters across. The gleaming hull of a starship pointed toward the Martian sky. Steam hissed and bellowed beneath it. The ship was preparing for launch.

If Haon was in there—or, more important, Mom—

“Come on!” I spied a ladder descending into the mist on our left, and we ran.

Seconds later, we were down. The ship grumbled and belched smoke, moments from liftoff. We were just a few meters from its still-open hatch when it started to close. I commanded the EV suit to give as much power to the legs as possible and lunged toward the door.

Maybe I gave it too much power.

I flew four meters through the air and crashed into the door. The suit bore the brunt of the hit, but I nearly passed out as the air burst from my lungs. When my head cleared, I was relieved to find that the anti-jam safeguards had kept the hatch from closing on my arm. Slowly, the door opened back up.

Adina helped me to my feet, her back to the hatch. She turned as a huge shadow loomed, blocking the light from within.

Haon yelled as he jumped out. He smashed the butt of a rifle into Adina’s visor. The faceplate cracked and she fell backward.

He swung the weapon toward me, ready to fire.

I stumbled back, my hands raised. “Wait!” I reached up and pressed a button, opening my visor.

I was a heartbeat away from having a hole torn through me by his plasma-rifle. When he recognized me, the rage on his face changed to disdain. “What are you doing here?”

“I—”

“You Zarcs are like cockroaches—squish one and another comes scurrying out of the gutter.”

“I know who you are!”

“You….” His expression changed again—confusion this time. “What do you mean, you know who I am?”

“You said it yourself, back on Earth. You’re my father. My dad confirmed—”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, kid. I don’t have a son.”

He waved his rifle at Adina, who lay on the ground unmoving.

“Your friend needs help,” he said. “Why don’t you get her out of here so I can be on my way.”

“No!” I put my hands down and stepped toward him. “I’m not going to let you shoo me away. I need answers and I’m not leaving without them.”

He’d towered over me the entire time, but at the moment he seemed smaller.

“I want to know why,” I said. “Why did you leave me?”

He glanced back at the ship. Just like my dad, he wanted to flee. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, kid.” He seemed to be frantically searching for some way to escape. “Your… your mother’s unharmed.”

The importance of his words didn’t hit me at first. He wasn’t getting off the hook so easily.

“You need to go get your mother. Did you hear me? She’s unharmed.”

I took another step toward him, and he actually backed up.

“She’s in the lab,” he said. “Here, let me—”

He turned toward the hatch, but I stepped in front of him. I wasn’t afraid of him, and that scared the daylights out of me. “Why? Why did you leave me?”

He took a deep breath and looked at me for what seemed like a long time. “All right, you’re my kid. But what’s it matter? My brother did a much better job raising you than I ever would have. He—”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter? It matters to me!”

“Listen, kid, I think you’d better talk with your dad. He’ll tell you what happened. He—”

“No.”

I looked at Adina, who stirred, then thought of Mom. Haon had said she was okay, and I believed him.

“I want to hear it from you. Why didn’t you want me?”

“Because… I was afraid.” He sounded surprised, like he never really knew until he spoke the words.

“Afraid of me? Of a baby?”

“Your mother died shortly after you were born.” He had tears in his voice.

“Shalia?” I whispered.

His brows popped up. “How did you—?”

“My brother overheard you and my mom arguing.”

“Ah, I wondered how long he was snooping around here.” Anger filled his voice. “She shouldn’t have died—she wouldn’t have died, not on Mars.” He shook his head. “We live like rats on Venus.”

“Is it really that bad? The Poligarchy wouldn’t—”

“Ha!” His face darkened. “The Poligarchy ensures it.”

“Why would they—”

“For the same reason they don’t want humans to colonize Earth. Power.”

I glanced at Adina, propped against a pylon watching us. She had her Triple-B in, so she knew exactly what we were saying.

“The war of 2997 revealed their true nature,” Haon said.

“The war of—what?”

“You’re joking.” He shook his head. “Of course you’re not. Your parents wouldn’t want you to think on your own.” He glanced at Adina, then continued. “In 2997, I was ten. Our parents—mine and your dad’s—had divorced, and I went with Mom to live on Venus. I guess she wanted to be as far away from Dad as she could. I don’t know why she didn’t bring your father with us.

“With every passing year, Venus became more of a problem for the Poligarchy. There was talk of setting up our own government. The Poligarchy wouldn’t have it, so they attacked, killed off all the ‘rebel ringleaders.’ The ‘war’ only lasted a few months.”

He slumped against the ship’s hull behind him. “My mother was killed.”

I’d always wondered what happened to Grandma Zarc.

“Since then, the Poligarchy has done everything in its power to keep us down,” he said. “Most on Venus are just fighting to survive.”

“And Earth?” I’d already guessed at his answer.

“The Poligarchy knows if we spread out—if humanity grows to three planets instead of two—they’ll never be able to control us all.”

I swallowed. It was almost too much to take in. “So the ARC project?”

“The Poligarchy’s finest act of treachery.” He sneered. “Unite the people around a noble cause. Repopulate the earth with extinct species. Who could oppose that?”

Haon’s past held so much suffering—how different would I be under the same circumstances? Still, he had a lot to answer for.

“What about the animals?”

“We don’t need the animals anymore.”

“So just because we don’t need them, that gives you the right to destroy them?”

“We’ve evolved beyond them.” Haon motioned around him. “Animals are obsolete in the face of all that man’s accomplished.”

“There are a lot of things we don’t need,” I said. “Humanity’s missing the—”

A siren blared and red lights flashed all around the hangar. Haon ran to a terminal and brought up a holo of the compound. He pressed a few buttons. Masses of red dots were converging on the base.

“It’s the Poligarchy.” He looked at Adina, who’d jumped to her feet. “I suggest the two of you go find Hannah. I’ve got work to do.” He swiped his fingers through the holo, clicking on doors. “I’ve cleared a path.” He turned and stepped toward me.

I still stood between him and the hatch, trying to figure out how I could stop him, but there was nothing I could do, really. I stepped aside.

He pushed past me but paused at the ship’s stairs. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” With that, he hopped into the ship and the hatch closed behind him.

Almost immediately, the ship began to rumble. I grabbed Adina’s hand and pulled her toward a door Haon had opened. It was a clear shot down the hall. Another door stood open at the far end. The roar of a ship taking off behind us momentarily drowned out the alarms, and smoke filled the hall. I’d forgotten to shut the door behind.

“Your visor!” I yelled.

We both put our faceplates down moments before heated steam engulfed us. If not for the suits, we’d have been cooked alive.

I yanked Adina around a corner and slammed my hand against the switch plate. The door shut just as someone running from the opposite direction plowed into us. All three of us crashed to the floor in a heap. The scorching vapor rolled over our heads and dissipated into the ventilation system. I pushed myself off the figure beneath me.

It was Mom.

She scrambled away, glancing back and forth from Adina to me.

“It’s okay.” I lifted my visor. “It’s me, Noah.”

Her expression shifted from fear to relief and back to fear in a matter of heartbeats. “What are you doing here?”

“Rescuing you, Mom.”

I heard a ship,” Mom said. “Was it Haon?”

“Yeah.” I looked at Adina, willing her to keep quiet about our conversation.

“And the alarm?”

“It’s the Poligarchy Police. They’ve got the place surrounded.”

“We have to get out of here.” She looked frantic. “Tell me you have a ship.”

“Of course, but why don’t we just wait for the police? I bet they—”

“There’s no time.” She grabbed my arm. “Which way?”

I got my bearings, then turned down the hall. “Follow me.”

We wound our way through the maze of corridors until we reached a door to the outside. A quick peek through a nearby window didn’t show me anything. Perhaps the authorities had left when they saw Haon’s ship blasting off.

I cracked the door and still didn’t see anyone. I motioned for Mom and Adina to follow as I headed outside.

“Your visors,” Mom said.

“What about you?”

She wasn’t even wearing a jacket, and the Martian night could be brutal. It was already near freezing.

“I’ll be all right.” She stood unmoving until Adina and I lowered our visors. “Now, where’s that ship of yours?”

I looked around. Everything looked the same to me. I glanced at Adina.

“This way.” Adina sprinted toward the dark side of the crater. My mom and I took off after her.

We only made it a dozen meters or so before a gruff voice sounded to my right. “Halt!”

I faltered, but Mom grabbed my arm and pulled me onward. Adina disappeared in the gloom ahead.

“I said halt!” A man dressed in a crisp white uniform with a respirator hanging to the side of his face materialized out of the shadows. He had a rifle leveled at us.

We kept running.

Confused, he lowered his weapon and took off after us.

His footsteps were gaining on us when a silver blur flashed in my peripheral vision. I whipped around just as Adina tackled the man, sending him flying to the ground and his rifle skidding away into the night.

Adina rolled away and popped up with the rifle in her hands.

“You halt!” She pointed it at the officer.

He lay on the ground, fear on his face. He didn’t look any older than Hamilton.

“You make one move and I’ll… I’ll spear you!” At least she held the rifle the right way. She looked at us and nodded at the crater’s side. “Get to the ship.”

“I’m not leaving you,” I said.

“I’ll be right behind you.”

Mom looked at us both, then pushed me toward the slope. “Let’s go. Obviously your friend can take care of herself.”

I took another look at Adina, and headed off.

My mom struggled up the side of the crater. As we neared the top she slowed—until I had to practically drag her. Her face was contorted in pain.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

“Just get me to the ship and I’ll be fine.”

She didn’t look fine—what was it Dad said about a neuro-chip?

Just as we crested the crater’s edge, a blast went off behind us. A plasma-rifle. I whipped around and looked down. At first I couldn’t make out anything in the gloom—then someone was running toward us. Adina.

“She’s okay,” I said over my shoulder.

Mom didn’t reply.

Moments later, Adina leapt over the crater’s edge. Her visor was up, and she was grinning.

“What happened?”

“The fire-spear went off. I didn’t hit him, but—” Her face fell as she looked behind me. “What’s wrong with your mother?”

I turned around.

Mom knelt on the ground, on her hands and knees, panting. Sweat dripped down her face.

I knelt beside her, and with Adina’s help we got her to her feet. By the time we reached the ship, she could barely walk. She staggered into the airlock and collapsed.

“Mom!” I dropped to her side. She was burning up.

“We must… get off… this planet.” She struggled to speak through clenched teeth.

“Go, Noah!”

I jumped up, ran to the cockpit, and yelled for the computer to initiate launch sequence. I couldn’t sit down in the bulky EV suit, so I found a rail and held on tight. Three minutes later, we rocketed toward the blackness of space.

The shipboard computer located a vessel fleeing Martian space that matched Haon’s. I told the computer to follow, and engaged autopilot. I climbed out of the suit into my magchair, and went to find Mom.

She lay in a bed in the rear quarters, writhing in pain, her face bright red. She moaned while tears streamed down her cheeks.

Obadiah somehow sensed now wasn’t the time to greet us with his usual licking. He sat watching Mom, his hound eyes mirroring my fear.

“I don’t know what’s happening to her.”

Adina stopped peeling off her EV suit long enough to glance at me, her eyes wide with fear.

I moved to Mom’s side and grabbed her hand. “What’s wrong?”

Her eyes were squeezed shut, but she opened them long enough to find my hand and pull it toward her face. Then she placed it on her head.

“Of course!” I remembered what Dad had said. “The neuro pain inducer.”

I zoomed to the ship’s workshop and tore open every drawer and cupboard, until I found an Electronic Chip Locator—just like the one Sam had used a few days ago. I grabbed it and rushed back.

“You’ll have to hold her still, Adina.”

I knelt at Mom’s side. “Hope this works.”

I flicked the switch but nothing happened. I shook it and held it near the neuro implant at the base of my skull. Wait—what if I fried my own chip? The ECL beeped and I yanked it away from my head.

“Okay, hold her still.”

Adina cradled Mom’s head in her lap and draped her arm over her chest, pressing down.

I brought the silver box to her forehead and slowly moved it around. The beeping began. As I moved it around the beeps grew closer and closer together until finally they became one long tone.

“Intel neuro-transceiver chip located. Modified code structure.” The box spoke in a clear, female voice. “Please choose from the following options: display specifications, disable chip, cancel.”

“Disable! Disable!” I yelled.

Mom groaned.

“Are you sure you wish to disable the Intel neuro-transceiver chip? Yes or no?”

“Yes!”

“Disabling Intel neuro-transceiver chip.”

The screen brightened. For a few seconds the tone continued, then it stopped.

Mom quit shaking, and Adina looked up at me, her face wet.

“I think we got it,” I said. “Thank you, Sam.”

Mom closed her eyes and drifted off, one hand still holding Obadiah, who had snuggled onto her lap. Mom’s other hand opened and a bluish crystal floated free.

I pulled it out of the air. “A data crystal.”

***

“You don’t know how good it is to see you, Noah.”

I held Mom’s hand while she struggled to unbuckle the straps holding her in bed.

“Where are your brother and sister? Are they safe? Did Hamilton make it out of the compound okay?”

“They’re safe.” I held onto the bed frame, my body floating behind me in the zero-G of space. “And so is Dad.”

Relief flooded her face. “Oh, that’s good news.” She looked around the room. “We’re in space? Are we moving?”

“Yeah, we’re moving.” There’d be no keeping her in bed.

“Where are we headed?”

“Earth.”

“I wish we had the Morning Star. She might be able to beat him, but the DUV III….” Her voice sounded urgent, and she looked frightened.

“What’s going on, Mom?”

She looked at me for a long moment. I had no idea what she would say, but I was afraid to hear it.

“Haon’s headed to Earth to unleash the nano-bomb I created. He’ll destroy everything we’ve worked to build over the last twenty-five years.” She patted her pockets. “The crystal?”

I held it up between my thumb and forefinger.

Relief flooded her face. “I managed to get a copy of the blueprints for the nano-virus.” She reached up and I handed her the crystal.

“So we can stop him?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. We have to catch him first.”

Adina cleared her throat from the doorway.

Mom looked up. “I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

“Adina, ma’am.”

Mom wrinkled her nose. “Please, call me Hannah, or Mrs. Zarc, but definitely not ma’am.”

Adina smiled. “As you wish, Mrs. Zarc.” She floated over with a clear box of sliced fruit in her hand. “If you don’t mind me asking, ma—Mrs. Zarc, when are we going?”

“When?”

“I mean, what time will it be on Earth?”

“I think she’s trying to ask when we’re jumping to.” I glanced over at Mom. “Adina’s from Earth, 8500 BC, where you and Dad were.”

Mom’s eyes widened. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a little hard to say.  I mean….” Adina looked at me for help.

“I brought her here. She was going to die, and I saved her.” I gave my mom a pleading look.

She glanced from me to Adina and back. “I see. Well, I can certainly tell there’s a tale there, but it’ll have to wait. We need to locate Haon’s ship.” She sat up. Only the belt around her legs remained buckled. “Have we reached orbit?”

“We’ve cleared Mars’ gravitational pull. Want me to lock in coordinates? For what time?”

“We won’t be jumping. If we jumped now, we’d risk missing him, and I have no idea if he plans to jump at all.” She looked toward the window. “Where’s your father? Is he here in orbit around Mars?”

I flushed. “As far as I know he’s back where we left him, orbiting Earth in 8500 BC.”

“What do you mean as far as you know? Where did he tell you he’d be? For that matter, why didn’t he come himself? I can’t believe he sent you and Adina alone.”

She looked at me, waiting for an answer. I stared at the ground.

“Noah.” She folded her arms. “What did you do?”

“I… I took the DUV III.” I glanced at Adina. “He was going to take Adina back to where she came from. He didn’t let us tell our side of the story. He wasn’t being fair.”

“Noah James Zarc, that doesn’t sound like the whole story.” She was mad now. “So you just took off in the DUV III, jumped eleven thousand years into the future and flew to Mars where you knew Haon was and put yourself and your friend in mortal danger because you thought your father wasn’t being fair?”

When she talked without stopping for a breath, I knew she was really mad.

“But Mom, Adina would die if we took her back.”

“I’m sure your father wouldn’t let that happen.” Her face was red, but she looked at Adina, then back at me, and took a deep breath. “There’s nothing we can do about it at the moment. Once this mess is over, I’ll hear the whole story, and then your father and I will decide what’s to be done with you—both of you.”

She watched us for a moment, the soft hum of the ship’s engines the only sound. “Now, let’s go see if we can confirm Haon is really headed for Earth.”

I glanced over at Adina, who shrugged her shoulders slightly. We helped Mom unbuckle and pushed ourselves toward the cockpit.

Once we had all strapped in, Mom said, “Computer, are you still tracking that ship?”

“Affirmative. It is on an intercept course for Earth.”

“Okay. Noah, let’s see what you can make this ship do.”

I smiled. It wasn’t every day I was allowed to fly at full throttle. “Computer, please route all available power to main thrusters.”

“Would you like me to bring life support systems offline in unused portions of the ship?”

I glanced at Mom, who nodded.

“Yes, please. Then bring thrusters up to full power in a three-minute burn.”

Mom called Obadiah over and lifted him up onto her lap.

“Fire when ready,” I said.

“Initiating full-power burn now.”

The ship rocketed forward and smashed us back into our seats. For three long minutes, none of us could move while the DUV III accelerated to speeds beyond anything I’d ever experienced.

When the ship reached 1.2 million kilometers per hour, I looked at the charts. “I’m not sure it’s enough, but we might beat Haon if he doesn’t push his ship beyond its recommended parameters.”

“It’ll have to do,” Mom said. “How long until we reach Earth?”

“Should be a little over six days.”

“Let’s hope it’s enough.” She turned to Adina. “In the meantime, you can tell me a bit about yourself. What was life like for you growing up? How did your people live?”

I smiled. Of Mom’s many areas of expertise, anthropology was a favorite. She’d love the chance to find out about ancient civilizations directly from someone who lived there.

“Cold.” Adina giggled. “Every moment of every day, you are cold, but after a while you get used to it. Sometimes, after a big hunt, we have fires that fill the cave while the women cook the meat. Then the temperature is bearable.”

I studied the two of them. Even though I’d known Adina only a short while, I instinctively trusted her, and by now I knew not to underestimate her intelligence, her ability to see things in ways that I couldn’t entirely understand. Nothing like the image people had of cavemen.

“Did you live in a large social environment?” Mom took notes on her holopad.

Adina laughed again. “I used to think so—until I saw Mars.”

I watched Mom. What about her? Can I trust her? And after living a lie for the past thirteen years, can I forgive her?

I remembered her writhing in pain on the Martian soil and realized I already had. At that moment, she was my mom—no, she was Mom. Not someone who gave birth to me but someone who just was Mom, period.

She caught me watching her and raised her eyebrows.

I unbuckled myself. “Mom, we have something we need to talk about, but it’s been a long day.”

A flicker of uncertainty flashed across her face, then she smiled. “Get some sleep. We’ll join you after I’ve picked Adina’s brain a little while longer.”

I laughed. I probably wouldn’t see them until tomorrow. “Computer, please bring life support back online for the rest of the ship.”

I glanced at Adina and shrugged, and she gave me a small smile.

“Come on, Obadiah,” I said. My dog wiggled from Mom’s lap and floated after me as I left the cockpit.

***

I went to the bunkroom and lay down. I hadn’t slept for almost twenty-four hours, but my thoughts kept me wide awake. I’d learned my dad wasn’t really my dad, run away with a cave girl from the Ice Age, confronted my biological father, and rescued Mom.

What will tomorrow bring?

My dad’s face flitted through my mind—the sadness when he told me who my father was, the regret. Regret for what? I pushed the image aside. Meeting Haon, in some respects, was an even greater surprise than finding out he was my father. He wasn’t who I imagined at all. He believed in his cause—and he had a point. I had no idea if what he said about Venus was true, but I had seen Earth. It was so rich in everything Mars wasn’t.

The simple act of breathing on Earth filled me with energy. In past ages, Earth teemed with life—animal and human. Is it so impossible for us to live together now that we had to set aside one planet for animals, another for humans? Does the Poligarchy really treat the people of Venus as less than human—less than animals, extinct ones at that?

I tried to imagine what Haon felt when his wife—my biological mother—died. The pain he must have felt. Do I remind him too much of her?

The door opened and Mom and Adina came in.

I kept my eyes closed.

A short time later, they were both in bed. Their rhythmic breathing helped to calm my mind, and I finally fell asleep.

The next morning, all three of us ate breakfast in the small galley. Well, all four of us. Obadiah floated between Mom and me, watching every mouthful. When Mom wasn’t looking I dropped some scraps toward him. He snatched them out of the air like a dog born for zero-G.

After we finished, I quietly watched the majesty of space outside the observation window. Even at almost 1.3 million kilometers per hour, everything seemed so still. Mars had dwindled to just a bright red dot, and Earth remained indiscernible from the millions of stars that filled my vision.

“I don’t understand why it’ll take us six days to reach Earth,” Adina said. “When we came from Earth to Mars the first time, it was only a matter of hours.”

Mom held a sealed cup of tea in her hand. The liquid sloshed around while she sipped from a straw.

“When you jump, you’re not only bending time around the ship, you’re also bending space. Time moves closer together, and so does distance.”

Adina said, “That makes sense, I guess.”

Mom raised her eyebrows at me.

“It’s okay if you don’t get it,” I said. “I can show you with a handkerchief the way Hamilton showed me. I’m still a little foggy on how the whole thing works, but I can get my mind around it a little better now.”

“I think I can see how it would work,” Adina said. “Once I believe that time can be bent it’s less of a leap to believe distance could be too.” She turned to peer out the window, as if it was normal to understand advanced astrophysics the first try.

Mom sat with her mouth open, and I just smiled.

The room was quiet. Sometimes it seemed I could hear a symphony when I watched the stars, but today there was only silence. Something bothered me about this whole business.

“Mom, why would Haon destroy Earth?”

“Because he doesn’t want our mission to succeed.”

“I understand that, but what good is Earth if it’s uninhabitable? Doesn’t he want it for himself—for the people of Venus?”

“That’s just it. The nano-virus won’t destroy everything—only animal life. That’s what he needed me for. He had the virus ninety-percent there. He could have released it on Earth and wiped out everything. Nothing could have survived for another thousand years.”

“But not now?” I said.

“My specialty in micro-paleontology enabled me to target the virus to the DNA of non-plant life, then tweak it slightly to leave humans alone. Earth would become the perfect habitat for humanity, but no other living creature could set foot”—she stroked Obadiah’s head— “or paw on the planet and live.”

“And there’s nothing that would reverse its effects?” I couldn’t imagine life without animals, having spent nearly my whole life with a ship full of them.

“Not with our current technology. The nano-virus will infect all organic matter on the planet. It would be impossible to eradicate.”

“Then we have to stop him,” Adina said.

“Yes we do,” I said. “Whatever it takes.”

***

I grew more anxious with every passing day, more convinced we wouldn’t make it in time as each minute ticked by. On the fifth evening I sat in the cockpit and watched Earth grow steadily larger in the viewscreen. Already we were close enough to see the moon, a tiny white spot in orbit around the blue sphere. One more day and I’d know if we’d caught up to Haon.

“Incoming transmission.”

“Dad!” I said. “Computer, bring it up on the screen.”

The holo-display flickered to life. I frowned.

The grim face filling the screen was Haon’s. “To the Poligarchy and all who believe the lives of animals are more important than those of human beings.”

I hit my comm-link. “Mom, get up here.”

“It is with great sadness I come to this action.” He actually looked sad. “I’ve spent the greater part of the past decade trying to be reasonable, trying to come to some peaceful solution to the insanity that has beset the leadership of our solar system.”

Mom burst into the room. “Noah, what is it?” She stopped dead when she saw the screen.

Adina rushed in after her.

“The Poligarchy leaves me no choice.” Haon stepped aside.

A view of Earth filled the screen. It didn’t seem much closer than the one I saw out our window.

“Earth—the birthplace of humanity. The rightful home of humanity.” He stepped back into the picture and held aloft a small vial. A green liquid beaded up inside. “This is a nano-virus.”

Mom sucked in air between her clenched teeth.

“A self-replicating, carbon-based nano-virus, to be exact. This small sample has enough potency that within a few days after being released into the atmosphere of Earth, it will infect all organic matter on the planet.”

He shook his head sadly. “This infection will kill any living creature, aside from human and plant life, now living or reintroduced to the planet.

“But there is still hope. At the end of this message I will transmit a document, a roadmap if you will, to avert this crisis and bring this madness to an end. The request is simple. All habitable parts of planet Earth are to be granted, without reservation, to the people of Venus. We must move beyond this fantasy that humans need the animal kingdom. Humanity no longer needs anything beyond its own ingenuity. If you want your little zoo, maybe we could find some out-of-the-way place on the planet to set one up.”

Haon moved closer to the camera, his face filled the screen. “Understand, this is not a bluff. I will release the virus if the document is not signed and placed in public record within twenty-four hours.” He looked off to the side. “It is now June 22, 3024 at 4:00 P.M. CST. You have until June 23, 3024 at 4:00 P.M. CST.”

The screen went black and silence filled the cockpit.

Mom stared at Earth as it shimmered outside the window. “Noah, can you confirm Haon’s location? He should be within range of our sensors.”

I ran a broad-spectrum scan and shook my head. “I don’t see him at all—no life-signs, no engine signatures, no warp signatures. It makes no sense. He has to be there. The strength of the transmission indicates it was within visible space around us.”

“Then where is he?”

“Hold on, I think I’ve found something.” I flicked an image from the monitor onto the main screen. “Computer, can you enhance grid forty-seven, triple R?”

At first the image on the screen seemed to show nothing but empty space. Then a small flash of light reflected from something slowly spinning in the darkness.

“Enhance five hundred percent.” The object enlarged until it was readily visible. “It looks like a small probe or drone of some kind.”

“Of course,” Mom said. “Haon wouldn’t risk detection in our time-stream. The Poligarchy keeps a pretty close eye on Earth, ever since Haon’s attack on the Air Scrubbers seven years ago. He must have jumped back in time to hide, recorded that message, and sent it forward in that drone.”

“So he could be anywhen?” My heart raced. We’d spent six days chasing him across the solar system and he wasn’t even here.

“I don’t imagine he’d jump too far back. Most likely he’d go to just before the Poligarchy started being so vigilant. But you’re right, Noah—we have no way of knowing when.”

“What about the stars?”

My mom and I turned to face Adina.

“What do you mean?” I said.

“The stars behind Haon.” Her voice was excited. “When we hunted, night was the best time to determine our location. No matter how far we were from our cave, the elders could return home by the stars.”

“That’s brilliant, Adina,” Mom said.

“I told you she was amazing, Mom.”

Adina’s face grew red.

“Computer, please replay previous transmission,” I said.

Haon appeared on the screen again. “To the Poligarchy—”

I wiped my hand through the image and fast-forwarded until Haon stepped aside. “Freeze there.”

An image of Earth, shimmering against the starry expanse, filled the screen.

“Computer, can you calculate the date based on the visible star clusters?”

Glowing lines appeared on the screen, flashing between stars, forming constellations. A stream of numbers scrolled up the side, faster than I could read. After a few tense moments, the numbers stopped and 3010 +/- 60 yr. appeared on the screen.

“An exact date cannot be calculated without knowing the precise location the images were recorded from. The closest guess would be the year 3010, plus or minus sixty years.”

I slumped in my chair. That meant he could be anywhere between now and seventy-five years in the past.

“What do we do now, Mom?”

“I’m sorry,” Adina said. “I thought it would work.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Mom said. “That was an amazing idea. The computer just didn’t have enough information.”

She stood with her hands on her hips and frowned at the screen. “I don’t think we have much choice at this point. Move us into orbit around Earth. Haon will have to return by tomorrow to find out if the Poligarchy met his demands.”

I confirmed the DUV III was on the correct course to achieve orbit. We would reach Earth in seven hours.

“Noah?” Mom said. “What do you think your father did after you and Adina left?”

“It wouldn’t take much imagination for him to figure out where we’d gone, once he figured out I didn’t take Adina home. He must be furious.”

I suddenly felt ashamed. My dad had no right to keep the truth from me, but he didn’t deserve what I’d put him through.

“I’m sure he was disappointed,” Mom said. “But he’s probably more worried than anything.” She joined me in looking out the window. “I just wish there was a way to contact him.”

“I’ll bet Hamilton could figure out how.”

“Yes, but Hamilton couldn’t pilot a ship the way you do. We all have our gifts. That’s why Team Zarc is so good.”

I laughed. When I was younger, Mom and I used to pretend we were a family of superheroes, rocketing around the solar system righting wrongs and saving the helpless.

“Can’t you use these comm-link things to contact your father?” Adina tapped her ear. Not only was her Triple-B a translator, it also had a built in comm.

“Well, the comm-link only works in close proximity to one another,” I said. “But we do have long-range systems for talking to people. We can communicate with Mars, even Venus from here. So it’s not really a matter of distance, it’s time. We can’t communicate back through time.”

Adina thought for a minute. Her face lit up. “If your father waited for you to come back from Earth, then realized we most likely went to save your mother—”

“Then he may already be here!” I swiveled my chair from the window.

***

Mom was studying Adina, a bemused look on her face. Adina seemed to surprise her at every turn.

I punched up the long-range comm on my screen. “Computer, send on all frequencies encrypted to the ARC’s cipher key.” I looked at Mom. “Do you want to send the message?” I hit record.

“Noah, this is Hannah. I’m okay. Noah and Adina are with me, and we’re almost to Earth.”

She sighed, lifted her chin, and went on. “Haon has a nano-virus. If he releases it in the atmosphere, all our efforts will have been for nothing. Earlier today he sent out a transmission with his demands. We’ve determined he’s not in the present. The computer calculated he could be anywhen between 2950 and 3024.”

She paused a moment, sighed, and continued. “I’ll send everything I have on the virus, but there’s not much we can do if he releases it.” She muttered under her breath, “If Randolph Fletcher was still alive and I had a hundred years, maybe we could stop it.”

In her normal tone of voice she said, “Please, Noah, if you receive this transmission, we must find a way to stop him, at all costs.

“End transmission.”

The three of us sat and listened. Nothing came over the comm’s speakers but static. Mom looked desperate, but there wasn’t much she could do.

“Computer,” she said. “Please continue sending the message in a continuous loop. Relay it on all beacons between Mars and Earth.”

She pulled the data crystal from her pocket and handed it to me. “Encrypt this and attach it to the message.”

I looked at Adina and Mom. “Now all we have to do is hope Dad gets the message in time. I bet he’ll have an idea how to locate Haon.”

Mom sat staring off into space while I uploaded the data crystal.

“Mom?”

She looked up. “Yes.”

“Who’s Randolph Fletcher?”

“He was my mentor in graduate school, the greatest microbiologist who ever lived.” Her face lit up and she laughed. “Your father and I actually met in one of his classes. Honestly, I’m not sure what your dad was doing in that class, but I’m glad he was.”

I struggled to imagine Mom and Dad before they were… well, Mom and Dad. I couldn’t do it.

“He founded the LCAS, the Lunar Center for the Advancement of the Species, in 2929. It was a sort of laboratory for all the best thinkers of the time—physicists, biologists, linguists, paleontologists, martianologists, philosophers—basically anyone who had a desire to advance the human race spent part of their career at the LCAS.”

“Did you go there?”

She shook her head. “Sadly, the funding dried up. The Poligarchy decided it was too costly and didn’t produce a large enough return on their investment. Dr. Fletcher died shortly after the LCAS closed their doors in 2999—their seventieth anniversary.”

She dabbed her eyes with her sleeve.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“He was a good friend.”

***

Three hours later I was sitting on the floor in the cockpit. A strap over my lap, connected to grommets in the floor, held me down. Obadiah floated nearby, sound asleep. Adina sat cross-legged in front of me.

I held up my hand. “Hand.”

Adina repeated, “Hand.”

I pointed to my nose. “Nose.”

“Nose.”

“Eyes,” I said.

“Eyes.” As she said it, hers twinkled with delight. I’d never seen eyes so full of life.

“You’re getting it!” My cheeks burned, and I waited a moment to be sure my voice wouldn’t quaver. “Ears.”

“Ears.”

Then I held up my hand again.

“Hand,” she said.

“Very good, you’re catching on quick.” I circled my hand around my face. “Face.”

“Face.”

I really liked looking at her face. Embarrassed, I looked to see what Obadiah was doing. Still air-sleeping.

I turned back and pointed to my nose again.

“Nose,” she said, grinning.

The computer crackled behind me, “…just left the surface….”

I twisted around, bumping against Obadiah, who careened across the room and hit the wall. He yelped and gave me a dirty look.

I unstrapped and pushed to the pilot’s chair. “Computer, isolate signal and clean up.”

“…I’m on my way. I may have an idea how to stop Haon.”

“Dad, it’s me, Noah.”

“…I don’t have time to explain but I should be there before him.”

“Computer, why can’t he hear me?”

“The message was sent thirty-two minutes ago.”

I opened a comm-link to Mom, who had gone to the bunkroom to rest. “It’s Dad.”

“I’ll be there in a second.”

I turned back to the computer. “Can you play back the whole message?”

“The message was on loop. Recording now.”

I waited impatiently for the computer to start the message.

Mom burst into the room. “Where is he? Is he on his way?”

“I don’t know. The computer’s recording his message now. It was a looped transmission just like ours.”

“Message recorded.”

“Playback from the beginning, please,” Mom said.

Adina put her Triple-B in her ear.

“I’m relieved to hear you’re okay, Hannah. I didn’t receive your message until we were already in orbit around Mars. I just left the surface—there was something I had to do first. I know time is tight, but I’m on my way. I may have an idea how to stop Haon. I can’t explain now but I should be there before him. I love you.

“And Noah, we need to have a talk when we see each other again.”

“End of transmission,” the computer said.

Mom gripped the back of my chair. “That’s it? That man drives me batty sometimes. What’s he mean he can’t explain now?”

“What do we do?” I said.

“We keep going.” Mom buckled into the seat beside me. “What’s he up to? He’s got the Morning Star, which can travel faster than both the DUV III and Haon’s XB Class ship, but there’s no way he can get here in time.” Her face went pale. “Unless…. No, surely he wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t what?”

“Never mind, I’m sure your father knows what he’s doing.” Then she muttered, “If not, he’ll have me to answer to.”

“It is not our policy to negotiate with terrorists.” The leader of the Poligarchy tilted his perfect head of hair back and looked down his hawkish nose. His smooth complexion hinted at the years of drugs and surgery that kept up his youthful appearance.

I had no idea how old he was, but Mom said he had been Prime Senator when she was my age.

“You must understand, Mrs. Zarc—we simply do not have the resources to stop this… madman. The ships stationed on the moon can’t handle inter-atmospheric flight, for obvious reasons. And we most certainly cannot agree to hand over Earth to a group of thugs.”

I’d never been to Venus, but “thugs” wasn’t a word that seemed to fit the people living there.

“What do you expect us to do, then?” Mom’s voice rose slightly, then she checked herself. “Prime Senator Sarx.”

“You will do what you have always done. Defend the Earth and be her one hope for a bright future.”

Political speak for ‘you’re on your own.’

“We’ll do our best, sir.” Disappointment rose in Mom’s eyes. What had she expected—a fleet of warships?

“Please keep my secretary apprised of the situation.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The Prime Senator waved his perfectly manicured fingers. The screen went black.

Mom slumped in her chair.

I had to admit, Sarx sure didn’t seem like the benevolent leader I’d been brought up to believe in.

“Sorry, Mom.”

“It was no more than I expected, just less than I’d hoped.”

We were nearing Earth. Adina returned to the window where she’d been sitting, watching for any sign of Haon’s ship. My instruments showed nothing but empty space between us and Earth.

“Sometimes I really wonder if—“

A bright light flared on my screen. A ship was moving towards us from the far side of the planet. I looked at the clock. Haon’s twenty-four hours had just expired.

“Right on time.” I put the display on the main screen.

Adina pressed her face to the window. “Is that him?”

A black smear covered the top half of the North American continent and part of the Atlantic. Sunlight flashed off a ship dropping quickly toward the atmosphere.

“It couldn’t be anyone else,” I said.

I applied reverse thrusters. Maybe we could stop him before he entered the atmosphere. I glanced at the screen, making slight adjustments to our course so—

A dozen or so ships materialized out of nowhere, converging on Haon’s ship.

“Whoa, where’d they come from?”

Mom frowned at the screen. “I’ve never seen ships like that before.”

“Computer, identify class please,” I said.

“Unable to identify.”

“They look almost like DUV class, but much bigger.” Mom enlarged an image of one of the ships. “And they’re armed.”

Sure enough, They carried rocket arrays under each wing.

“They have warp manifolds.” I glanced at her. “They’re jumpers!”

“Whoever they are, they’re going after Haon,” Adina said. She moved away from the window and back into her seat, perhaps anticipating a bumpy ride.

“Let’s just hope they’re on our side,” I said. “We could use all the help we can get.”

I increased the throttle on the reverse thrusters and allowed gravity to tug the DUV III toward Haon’s ship and the small fleet surrounding him. At first he seemed unaware of the ships, but then he nosed into a steep dive.

“He better be careful or he’ll burn himself up.”

“Save us the trouble,” Mom said.

Haon’s ship began to glow. Half the fleet behind him nosed down too. Within seconds they were burning into the atmosphere.

“What are they doing?” I’d read about some crazy maneuvers, even tried a few in the simulators, but what they were doing was suicidal.

Haon’s ship flared, a burning meteor plummeting toward Earth. Then he vanished. One moment his ship was a fireball, the next he was gone.

“He jumped on entry!” I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Unfortunately, the ships pursuing him weren’t all as quick. I watched, horrified, as two of them exploded after the heat caused by atmospheric friction burned into their fuel tanks. The remaining ships in orbit winked out. They must have locked onto Haon’s warp signature somehow.

I looked at Mom. “What now?”

“I think we should continue to de-orbit,” she said. “He needs to get into the lower atmosphere to release the nano-virus.”

I inched the ship’s nose up slightly. Already we were catching the top layers of the atmosphere—I was able to use the friction along the lower hull to slow down further.

“He’s back!” Adina shouted.

A ship spiraled toward Earth, surrounded by burning debris that looked like the remains of at least two ships. For a moment it appeared there’d be no pulling out of that dive, but somehow Haon managed it. Chunks of burning metal bounced off his ship as he got it under control and leveled off.

Had I inherited some of my piloting skills from—

“Can you get us down there, Noah.” It wasn’t a question. Mom was getting a little frantic.

I adjusted course to intercept, and the ship started to heat up as it plunged into the atmosphere.

“What do we do when we catch him?” I brought up a projection of Earth on the holoscreen. A red flashing light showed Haon’s ship somewhere over the Pacific, and a green flashing light showed the DUV III over the northern reaches of Africa. There were no other ships.

“For the nano-virus to have maximum effect, he has to find the ideal location for it to spread.” She looked at the holoscreen. “I think he’ll release it over the equator, up about six kilometers.”

“So we have to stop him before he descends that far.”

“Somehow, yes.” She massaged her eyelids with her fingers. “I wish your father hadn’t listened to me. I was the one who insisted we not have a weapons system on board the DUV III.”

“You were right,” I said. “We’re scientists—”

“Noah, Han… you?” The comm barked to life, but static overpowered the signal.

“That was Dad!” I said. “Reentry must be messing with the transmission.”

“…anti… risk getting killed….”

“Is there anything you can do to clean it up?” Even as she said it, Mom was working frantically to boost the signal and clear out the static.

“Not until we get out of this.” I nodded toward the flames burning outside the window and pushed forward on the yoke.

Mom and Adina glanced at each other and gripped the arms of their seats. The ship rattled violently.

“Noah?” Mom said.

“She’ll hold up.” We were engulfed in orange and red fire. “I’m taking her in much steeper than recommended. Might get a little hot in here.”

The temperature rose until sweat poured off our bodies. Obadiah panted in Mom’s arms. Great globs of drool spun out from his jowls toward the ceiling. Just when I thought the air was going to burn up in my chest, we broke through the upper atmosphere. I fired the rear thrusters, yanked the nose up, and pulled out of the semi-controlled fall. The blue of the Pacific Ocean spread beneath us in every direction, and I scanned the horizon.

“There!” Adina pointed.

Three or four kilometers ahead, a long contrail streaked through the sky.

I adjusted course. “It’s going to get bumpy.”

“Bumpier than what we just went through?” Adina hollered over the roar of the engines.

Mom flipped on the comm. “Noah, can you read me? This is Hannah.”

There was only static.

I looked at the display. “I still don’t see any other ships.”

Even if that was Dad we’d heard, I didn’t have time to worry about it. Haon was dropping fast, so I pushed the DUV III forward.

We rocketed through the air at speeds normally reserved for spaceflight. Air friction kept the wings’ edges glowing red-hot. Sonic booms exploded around us. I struggled to keep our ship steady. Haon’s leveled off, and we drew within a kilometer.

“Computer, what’s our altitude?” I said.

“Twelve kilometers.”

I allowed myself a little smile. We might just make it. I pointed the DUV III at the underside of Haon’s ship and slowed down so we wouldn’t fly past him.

“Altitude, ten kilometers.”

Haon’s XB Class glided ahead of us, dropping through the air toward the surface. I brought the DUV III within a few hundred meters and lowered our speed.

“It doesn’t look like he knows we’re here,” I said. “If I can just pull ahead of him, I can fire the rear thrusters and maybe take him down.”

“Like the mammoth,” Adina said.

“Be careful,” Mom said. “We don’t want his ship to explode at this altitude and release the nano-virus into the atmosphere.”

I shoved the yoke forward and matched the descent of the XB Class.

“Seven kilometers.”

“Okay, hold on.” I pulled up underneath Haon. The scorched underside of his ship passed only four meters above us. “A little more.”

Just when we were about to pass his ship, a loud roar engulfed us. Haon fired his thrusters.

“He saw us!”

The XB Class shot ahead, diving to keep us from getting under him again. I banked left when the flames from his ship smashed into the DUV III, and we pitched sideways. I decided not to fight it and pulled the ship into a roll. We corkscrewed through the air several times, the earth spinning in front of us.

After a few nerve-wracking seconds, I was able to get her back under control. I hit the thrusters and rocketed toward Haon, who fled to our right.

I checked the display. “The good news is he’s dropped to nearly three kilometers. Now all we have to do is keep him from climbing back up to six.”

I pushed the DUV III to her limits. In a matter of seconds, his ship was directly in front of us again. The XB Class rocked back and forth, trying to shake us.

“It looks like he thinks we’re armed.”

“Maybe we can use that,” Mom said. “Computer, open a channel to the XB Class.”

It only took a couple of seconds.

“Haon, this is Hannah Zarc. I’m not going to let you deploy that bomb.”

“Hannah, I thought it was you. By your flying it looks like you have my twerp of a son on board too.”

“I’m not a twerp!”

Mom shot me a look. “My son can fly circles around you. Better give it up. We’ll stop you by any means necessary.”

“What are you going to do, shoot me out of the sky? Do you really want to turn your son into a murderer?”

Mom looked at me and swallowed hard. “He understands the value of life—more than you can possibly comprehend—but if it means stopping a madman—”

“Oh, a madman. That’s rich. Go ahead, fire on me.”

Mom swore, then looked at me and raised her eyebrows.

“It’s okay, Mom. I know who he is.” I turned back to the controls and moved the DUV III just above and behind Haon’s ship. “But we can talk about it later.”

She looked at Haon’s ship weaving and dodging in front of us and spoke into the comm. “Wouldn’t you rather just find a place to land and give me the nano-virus?”

“You don’t even have weapons on that ship, do you?” Haon laughed. “I should have known. You and my brother wouldn’t dream of using violence to solve your problems.” More laughter. “Fortunately, I’m not handicapped by such shortcomings.”

Haon opened his air brakes, and his ship dropped beneath us and popped up behind the DUV III.

“Noah, get us out of here!” Mom screamed.

I shoved the yoke forward and left. The DUV III plummeted as loud beeping filled the cockpit.

“The XB Class has achieved missile lock,” the computer said.

We flew straight down. Bright blue ocean filled the window in front of us.

“Two Mark 7 missiles fired. Impact in ten seconds.”

“Just a little— bit— more….” I pushed aside the thought that my own father was trying to kill me and let instinct take over. My knuckles went white on the yoke.

“Five. Four. Three.”

I yanked back. The DUV III shuddered but pulled out of the dive moments before hitting the ocean waves. An explosion rocked the ship as the rockets smashed into the sea. Geysers of water shot into the air.

“My son is quite the pilot, but how long can he keep it up?” Haon sounded smug, but also mad.

I saw land ahead of us and pushed the DUV III to her limits.

“You’re not making this easy on me—”

Mom reached forward and slapped the comm, cutting Haon off.

“Maybe we should head back to orbit, Noah.”

“No way.” My jaw tightened. “If we do, he wins.”

“If we do, we live.”

“It’s not over yet. I have an idea.” We rocketed over the coast of what was once southern California.

“Missile lock confirmed.”

I banked left, and then back right.

“Missile lock lost.”

I smiled. “He was too far away.”

California sped by in a blur below. I hugged the terrain as closely as I dared. A line of mountains in front of us made me smile.

“Computer, keep track of Haon’s location.” I slowed the ship slightly. “We want to make sure he keeps following.”

“XB Class is two-point-seven kilometers behind and closing,” the computer said. “Altitude five hundred meters.”

“Perfect,” I said.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Mom looked a little pale.

Adina, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the excitement.

The mountain range soared in front of us. I pulled back and skimmed along the peaks.

“Missile lock confirmed.”

I accelerated over a ridge of granite.

“Two Mark 7 missiles fired.”

After we crested the ridge I plunged back down. The DUV III streaked toward a green valley below, and an explosion came from behind us as one of the rockets clipped a peak. I banked left and climbed up over another ridge. The second rocket didn’t make the turn and smashed into a granite wall.

“That was close!” Adina yelled.

Once more I hugged the terrain. The ground below was broken up by never-ending rows of sharp granite peaks.

“XB Class is still within missile range.”

“Good.” Finally the terrain below smoothed out, and we sped over brown desert. I pushed the DUV III faster and pulled away from Haon. “Just a little farther.”

I finally saw what I was looking for: the desert gave way to rocky terrain again, and a huge chasm came into view.

“The Grand Canyon?” Mom said.

I grinned. “I always wanted to try this.” I banked right and dropped into the canyon. Even after I lowered our speed, the canyon walls still sped by in a blur.

“XB Class closing. One kilometer.”

“Seven hundred fifty meters.”

“Missile lock confirmed.”

The DUV III screamed around a column of red rock.

“Four Mark 7 missiles fired.”

“He can’t have too many missiles left.” I skimmed over a flat butte and dropped down toward the green Colorado River. Rockets exploded around us, smashing into ancient stone.

“One Mark 7 missile remains. Impact in five seconds.”

I spotted the perfect outcropping of stone. I skimmed the surface of the river, mashed the yoke left, and whizzed behind it. The rocket blew a hole through the shale. Fragments of stone pinged all over the DUV III.

“Those are getting too close for comfort.” Mom dug her fingernails into her armrests.

“I need the right spot.” I banked, turned, rose, and fell while we rocketed through the canyon. Just ahead, the canyon walls came together. “That should do.”

I slowed and let Haon close in. When I dropped toward the river, he followed.

“XB Class is two hundred meters back. Missile lock confirmed.”

A few more heartbeats, then I yanked back on the yoke. The DUV III groaned, but her wings caught the air and lifted her up. I kept pulling back as the ship strained toward the blue sky above, then curved back around to the canyon floor, completing the loop.

Haon’s ship now appeared in front of us. He couldn’t turn, surrounded by stone walls left and right. He couldn’t climb out of the canyon.

I moved in to block his ship.

Just ahead, the canyon took a sharp turn left.

The DUV III skimmed above the XB Class, Haon hurtling toward the rock. We were maybe ten meters away from the canyon wall when he managed to pull up high enough to scrape over the cliff’s edge.

He smashed against our underside, and flew out from beneath us with a wrenching tear. The vertical stabilizers on his ship dangled.

I clipped an outcropping of stone and the DUV III spun left. I used up every trick I knew to straighten her out, but the ship continued to spin.

We dropped toward a plateau of rock below.

“Landing thrusters!” I yelled.

The DUV III continued to twirl like a top. A loud grinding noise rent the cabin as we hit the ground.

Dust and debris filled the air while I fought with the controls. For several long heartbeats, the ship rumbled and shook. Finally everything went quiet.

We’d crashed.

And Haon’s ship was gone.

I smacked the yoke—hard. “He’ll get away!”

“I don’t think he’s going far,” Adina said. “Did you see how much damage you did to him?” She cracked a smile. “You do tend to run into things when flying.”

I looked at her and couldn’t help smiling myself. “You’re right. Haon can’t fly well without his rear stabilizers. There’s no way he can climb to six kilometers.”

“Okay,” Mom said. “What do we have to do to get this ship back in the air?”

“Computer, run a diagnostic on the ship’s flight systems,” I said. “But first get me a lock on Haon’s location.”

“The XB Class is traveling approximately two hundred forty kilometers north.”

“He’s still moving fast,” Mom said. “Computer, can you plot a course?”

“At the current heading and current speed, he will reach the Yellowstone Crater in approximately thirty-seven minutes.”

She gasped. “Of course. It makes sense.”

“What?” I said.

“If he can’t fly to six kilometers, he’ll need something else to lift the nano-virus into the upper tradewinds. The Yellowstone volcano is the perfect mechanism.”

“Diagnostics complete. The DUV III is capable of limited flight. Extra-atmospheric transit is highly discouraged.”

“Good enough,” I said. “Let’s get going.”

I gave the throttle a little squeeze and fired the thrusters. The ship groaned when she lifted off the rocky surface. I pitched to the right slightly to compensate for the wing tip buried in the dust of the plateau, but with another burst of the lifters, we broke free.

Minutes later, we rocketed north across the desert. I continued to monitor the ship’s vital signs.

“It looks like we damaged the front landing pylons.”

“We?” Adina laughed.

“Well, you were there.” I brought up a 3-D schematic of the ship’s underside. “We’ve got a hull breach.” I spun the display around and pointed at three glowing areas. “Here, here, and here.”

“Nothing we can do about that now.” Mom stood and held onto railings while she worked her way to the door. Obadiah walked drunkenly beside her. “If we’re going to be dealing with volcanos, perhaps I should get suited up. Adina, would you help me please?”

“Sure thing, Mrs. Zarc.” Adina unbuckled and stumbled after Mom.

“What do you want me to do?” I said.

“Catch up to him—and whatever you do, don’t let him fly over the crater.”

I turned back to the screen. Catch up? That was one thing I really knew how to do.

***

Beautiful terrain sped past—deserts, snow-covered peaks, vast forests—but I only had one thing in mind. The ship’s computer calculated we’d catch the XB Class several kilometers outside of what had been called Yellowstone Park. I flew comfortably at several thousand meters, while Haon struggled to stay aloft.

“How long?” Mom called over the comm.

“We should be there in seven minutes,” I said. “Haon’s just ahead of us. I’m not sure he’s going to make it over the Hobak pass into the Teton Valley, though. The computer’s only giving him a forty percent chance.”

“All the better.”

I watched the screen as the flashing light of Haon’s ship climbed up the mountain pass. I was just about to bring the DUV III down to make visual contact when the XB Class limped over the ridge.

“He made it into the valley. I’ll keep on him, see if I can slow him down.”

I strained to see his ship when the DUV III crested the pass. Nothing yet, so as we pushed forward and dropped into the valley, I leveled off and looked north.

In any other circumstance, the jagged snow-capped peaks of the Grand Tetons to our left would have filled me with awe, but what drew my eye now was the churning black column of smoke that filled the entire northern portion of the valley. The immense Yellowstone volcano was spewing tons of ash into the sky.

Adina came in. “Wow! What’s that?”

“That’s the cause of the dark cloud we saw from space. It’s a volcano—a really big one.”

“The elders used to tell stories of mountains that shot fire into the sky, but I thought they were just stories. Mountains don’t burn.”

“Well, this one does, although I’m not sure there’s much of a mountain there.”

Adina looked at the valley below. “Any sign of Haon’s ship?”

I studied the holoscreen. “He should be right below us.” I glanced out the window. “Yeah, there he is.”

Sunlight glinted off an object weaving in out of tall trees and bluffs of stone.

“Mom, I see Haon. You might want to hold on.”

“Okay, Noah. I’m strapped in down here.”

Adina scrambled over to her seat and buckled in.

I plunged toward the XB Class, and immediately the ship weaved right—there’d be no catching him off guard this time. I tried to get directly behind him; he’d have a harder time firing at us if he had to do it blind.

“Okay, let’s see what you’ve got left.” I throttled up and closed in.

For several minutes, we mirrored Haon’s path through the Teton Valley and across the surface of a long, placid lake.

“I’m going to try to force him to land.”

I lifted the DUV III above Haon’s ship and accelerated. He weaved and bobbed for several minutes while we worked our way closer to the volcano—then the XB Class braked and disappeared behind us. Fearing Haon would launch another missile, I pulled up into a steady climb, then banked right to get behind him again. Through the side window, I saw his ship at a near standstill, hovering a couple meters above the ground.

Just as I was bringing the DUV III in behind her, the XB Class rocketed forward again. This time it lifted from the ground and attempted to shoot skyward.

“What’s he doing? There’s no way he can handle that.”

But somehow the ship held together.

I followed while he surged toward the sky. “I think he’s making a run for six kilometers!”

“You have to stop him, Noah!” Mom sounded desperate.

I punched the throttle and hurtled after the XB Class. Within seconds, we were just behind.

I looked at Adina. “Hold on.”

The DUV III twisted into a spiral when it rocketed past the XB Class, and skimmed its cockpit.

Haon glanced at us through the window, then turned back to his controls. The ship fought him every meter. His face was red with the effort, and he looked… afraid.

I jerked the yoke left and weaved in front. “Fire full afterburners.”

Two bright orange spouts of flame erupted from the rear engines as we lunged forward. Seconds later, a massive fireball smashed into the DUV III.  Haon’s ship had exploded.

“What happened?” Adina said.

“I don’t know. That shouldn’t have been enough to destroy the ship.”

I banked left and looked out the window.

Burning debris plummeted toward the earth.

From her seat beside me, Mom looked at the field of burning debris below. I flew in a slow circle around what was left of Haon’s ship.

“Computer,” she said. “Run a chemical analysis of the air outside the ship.” She looked at me. “The nano-virus should have been released in the explosion. It probably wasn’t high enough to cause worldwide destruction, but most of North America won’t support animal life for centuries, if ever.”

“Chemical analysis complete: 78% nitrogen, 20.1% oxygen, 0.9% argon, 0.7% carbon dioxide, 0.3% sulfur.”

“There should be a sharp spike in carbon molecules,” Mom said.

“Negative.”

She shook her head. “But the nano-bots wouldn’t have been destroyed, even in an explosion of that magnitude.” She frowned. “Unless Haon never had the virus with him in the first place.”

“What if he dropped it somewhere before the ship exploded?” Adina said.

We both looked at her.

“Just before Haon turned toward the sky, he slowed almost to a stop. What if he dropped the nano-bots then?”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Mom said. “Unless—” She whipped around. “Noah, take us down… to the point where Haon’s ship slowed.”

I grabbed the yoke and pushed forward, scanning the ground below. “I think it was right there. See? That small clearing just north of the debris field.”

Minutes later, we were on the ground.

“What are we looking for?” I said once we were all outside the ship.

“I’m not sure.” Mom parted the vegetation around her.

Adina bent over and moved back and forth, scanning the ground. “Here!”

Mom and I ran over. In the soft ground was the perfect imprint of a boot.

Mom looked at Adina.

“He jumped out of the ship?” I tried getting my mind around what I was seeing. “It can’t be him. Adina and I both saw Haon in the XB Class seconds before it blew up.”

“That’s true, Mrs. Zarc,” Adina said. “He was definitely flying the ship.”

Mom threw her hands up. “Then whose footprints are these? This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Unless….” I shook my head. “No, that’s impossible.”

“What?” Mom said.

“Back in the twelfth century, when we tried to rescue you, I fought Haon. I found out his arm wasn’t real. It was mechanical, like—”

“Like a robot,” Mom said. “So that’s how he’s been able to time-travel. I couldn’t figure out how he was always there, no matter when we went, how he was able to defeat all the Poligarchy’s scanners.”

“It was never really him?” I said.

“Exactly.”

“So we just blew up this robot?” Adina said.

“It’s possible.” Mom’s voice held a tinge of awe. No one had robots so advanced, completely indistinguishable from their human counterparts.

“If true, that means these footprints could be the real Haon’s,” Adina said.

“Do you think you can follow him?” Mom said.

Adina nodded. “No problem.”

I turned toward the volcano. “Let’s go.”

“Not so fast,” Mom said. “We need to get suited up. The closer we get to that volcano, the more toxic the air will get.”

“Fine, but let’s hurry.”

Haon could be kilometers away by now.

***

We rushed back to the DUV III and helped one another into our suits. Ten minutes later, we were back outside. Obadiah wanted to come, but I had to make him stay. His sad eyes tore at me as the hatch closed.

Once more I felt the rush of being able to walk in the EV suit. The mechanical legs whirred as we ran back to the field.

It was hard not to run ahead of them, but I knew it wouldn’t do us any good. Luckily Adina lost no time picking up Haon’s trail. We all jogged after him into the woods.

It was much warmer than back on Mars when I last wore the suit. Sweat rolled between my shoulder blades. Mom allowed us to keep our visors up for the time being, though, so at least I had fresh air.

Adina wove back and forth but steadily moved toward the dense smoke ahead. “He makes a trail easier to follow than a cave bear.”

The air began to stink of burning sulfur, and I tried to stifle a cough.

Mom heard me and stopped. “Okay, visors down.”

“Aw, Mom, just a little farther.”

She didn’t have to say anything. One look and I dropped my visor.

Soon visibility worsened. The woods around us darkened to an eerie twilight as smoke rolled along the forest floor.

“It seems Haon picked a good time to visit the Yellowstone volcano. It hasn’t been this active in years.” Mom peered around. “Keep your eyes out—he could be anywhere in this smoke.”

The forest thinned around us until we broke into a bleak landscape of burnt tree trunks that stood like broken sentinels.

Haon’s footprints were now easy to see in the blanket of ash. The three of us ran side-by-side, darting in and out of burnt trees. Finally, the blackened trunks thinned and disappeared, leaving only a tumbled mess of boulders and smooth obsidian lava flows.

We climbed upwards along a rocky ridge. When we reached the top, a wall of heat and smoke hit us. I thrust my hands in front of my face and looked down.

A crater the size of a small city opened up before us, its walls curving off into the shadows. Black smoke poured from a central cone. Slow rolling lava oozed down the cone’s side in several places.

“There he is!” Adina pointed down and to the right.

Hopping atop black boulders, avoiding steaming jets and molten lava, was a figure in a silver EV suit. He was nearly to the base of the cone.

I scampered down the ridge into the crater, my mechanical legs pumping. The floor of the crater was pocked with debris and potholes, and Mom fell behind.

“We can’t let him reach the top of the cone!” she shouted. “You two are the only chance we have. I’ll catch up.”

Adina, who’d lived most of her life chasing down game, dashed off.

I followed.

Haon was now climbing the cone, using both hands to scramble up the steep sides.

Adina reached the base of the cone and started climbing really fast. Haon turned and saw her and, though I couldn’t actually hear him, I was sure he swore.

He started grabbing loose rocks and rolling them down at her.

I darted to his right and climbed as fast as I could.

He continued to scramble up the slope, but Adina was getting so close he stopped long enough to rock a nasty boulder loose.

“Look out!” I yelled.

She glanced up in time to get out of the way as Haon turned and started climbing again.

I was now even with him, only two meters or so below the volcano’s top. Lava flowed over the lip of the cone to my right. The heat was so intense I’d be dead without my EV suit.

To my right, Haon reached into a pocket on his chest and pulled out a gleaming vial. he cocked his arm to throw.

I lunged and got hold of his boot, but it was too late—the vial flew end over end through the air toward the mouth of the cone. It disappeared in a belch of smoke.

“Tough luck, kid.” He kicked me in the shoulder and rolled away.

No—we couldn’t have failed, not after everything we’d been through. We couldn’t—

A white-suited figure outfitted in a highly customized EV suit emerged from the churning smoke above us. In his hand was the vial!

“No!” Haon shouted. “Where’d you come from?”

Jets were strapped to the figure’s feet and back.

Haon scrambled forward. “It’s not possible! Give me that vial.” His eyes darted around frantically.

Without warning, Haon lunged and grabbed me around the neck, knocking me over. We rolled several times, then stopped.

He pressed his knee down on my chest. “Give me that vial or the boy dies.”

A rolling rivulet of lava flowed just centimeters from the visor protecting my face.

Haon pushed my head toward the magma. “Give me that vial. Now!”

I tried to talk but his weight on my chest was too much. Lying there helpless, moments from death, I knew the truth: this man wasn’t my father. He could never be my father. My father was Noah Zarc Sr.

The newcomer flew down the side of the cone and landed a few meters away. He held the vial toward Haon.

“No tricks.” Haon climbed to his feet and pulled me with him.

Keeping me between himself and the suited figure, Haon inched forward, his hand outstretched. He grabbed the vial, then thrust me forward so hard I fell over, knocking the figure down with me.

Haon immediately turned and scrambled back up the slope. He climbed to the top and pulled his arm back to throw the vial again.

Adina lunged from behind a boulder and knocked him backwards, landing on top of him. He kicked her off, and she tumbled down the cone’s slope, landing hard, then not moving.

He stood and lifted the vial.

The suited figure next to me ignited the rockets on his suit and flew straight at Haon, an odd-looking pistol in his outstretched hand. A faint whirring sound filled the air as a jet of white gas erupted from the gun. A cloud engulfed Haon’s arm, then ice crystals formed from shoulder to wrist.

His arm was frozen solid.

He bellowed and swung around, smashing his free fist into the visor of his attacker. The pistol skidded across the ground and stopped a few centimeters from Adina’s motionless body.

I heard a loud crunch and the suited figure dropped to the side of the crater with a thud. His body began to slide into the boiling black smoke. In a second I was at his side, grabbing for a hold.

My EV suit struggled to keep up with the commands I was sending through my neuro-implant, but I was able to get my footing and grab his arm before he disappeared over the edge. In my chair, I’d never have been able to hold him.

His facemask was shattered, and I was surprised to see an old man with a white bushy mustache and beard spilling out of his visor. He looked familiar.

He didn’t move.

“Enough of this!” Haon screamed.

He turned his frozen arm toward the crater. The vial in his hand flickered with a green glow as light caught the liquid inside.

“No!” I struggled to keep the old man from falling into the crater.

Adina was unconscious, and Mom had just reached the foot of the crater—she’d never make it in time to help.

“You’re not looking so good, brother,” Haon said.

Brother? I looked down at the old man.

He groaned. Dark brown eyes opened and looked up at me, filled with sadness.

“Dad?”

“Good, you’re awake,” Haon said. “I’d hate for you to miss the demise of everything you’ve worked so hard for.”

He moved the vial over the crater.

Time seemed to slow. I thought of the people on Venus, living in terrible conditions. Would Haon’s plan really work? Would the Poligarchy allow the Venusians to populate Earth?

I pictured Obadiah back on the DUV III, only a few kilometers away. He’d be the first to die if Haon released the nano-virus.

“This is not the answer!” I was still straining to keep Dad from sliding into the crater.

Haon just shook his head.

I looked at Dad, then at the pistol lying near Adina. No way I could get to the gun without letting go of Dad.

The choice was clear.

I pushed the EV suit’s legs upright and yanked as hard as I could. My arms felt like they were going to tear off. Little by little I pulled him out of the crater. Finally, I fell back and Dad landed next to me.

“Bravo!” Haon said.

He squeezed the vial. It shattered.

“No!”

The liquid inside vaporized, and the green gas dispersed into the broiling black cloud of the volcano, churning toward the upper atmosphere.

He really did it.

“Noah, catch!”

I turned in time to see Dad’s pistol sliding toward me.

Adina smiled, then slumped back to the ground.

I grabbed the gun, spun around and fired.

A white cloud of gas engulfed the giant of a man who stood over us.

I couldn’t see anything, but kept squeezing the trigger until the stream of gas stopped. The white smoke burned away in the heat.

Haon stood for a moment, a scream etched on his face, then toppled over and slid down the slope. His frozen body stopped a meter from the lava he’d held my head to only moments before.

We need to get out of this crater.” Dad shook his head. “Noah, help me.”

I glanced at Mom. Even through her visor I could see how pale she was.

I helped lift Adina into Dad’s arms. She groaned.

“Meet me back at the DUV III. I need to make sure she’s all right.” Dad fired the rockets on his suit and flew over the ridge of the crater and out of sight.

Mom reached for me. I squeezed her gloved hand, turned, and looked at the frozen figure of Haon lying at the base of the crater.

“What about him?”

“Haon should be stable for a while.” She glanced up at the churning smoke. “It’s more than he deserves. The nano-virus has probably spread a hundred kilometers already.”

I imagined green gas seeping into the DUV III and Obadiah choking in the noxious fumes. Maybe he’d be okay… but I knew he wouldn’t. The door to the DUV III was wide open. The nano-virus would be attacking him right now.

“So that’s it? We failed?” I couldn’t believe that after all we’d been through, this was how it would end.

“It looks like it.” Tears slid down her face. “Even though you got Haon with that freeze-ray, it wouldn’t have stopped the virus after it was dispersed. Besides, the heat of the volcano would instantly thaw any of the nano-bots that might have been frozen.”

She looked off in the direction Dad and Adina had gone. “Let’s go make sure your friend is okay.”

We hiked back to the ship. I felt as if I was moving through ten times Earth’s gravity. What had happened to Dad? Why was he so old? Was Adina okay?

What about Obadiah? Well, I knew he wasn’t okay. No animal was.

I watched Mom as we worked our way through the blackened terrain, and could tell she was just as sad as me.

“What happened?” I said when we were clear of the volcano.

She didn’t seem to hear me at first.

“With Dad?”

She sighed. “I think your father went back in time—a long way back—and waited for Haon to appear. It’s just the kind of thing he’d do.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense.” We reached the DUV III and entered the ship’s airlock. “Why would he go back so far?”

“Because I had to.”

We looked up to see Dad walking down the stairs from the cockpit. He wore a white jumpsuit with tubes, wires, and pistons running along his arms and legs. Small servos whined when his legs bent and straightened. Out of the EV suit, his hair looked even whiter. His face had deep lines and his eyes were droopy, but when he smiled at Mom, I saw the dad I knew. And when Mom stared at him, her eyes filled with tears.

“How long?” Her voice cracked when Dad reached the bottom of the stairs and moved toward us.

“Nearly a hundred years.” He pulled Mom to his chest with hands spotted by age. His fingers didn’t quite open all the way as he caressed her hair.

“No.” She sobbed. “There had to be another way.”

“I don’t understand, Dad. What do you mean a hundred years?”

He looked at me, his brow wrinkled. “It was something your mom said. Something she didn’t even mean for me to hear.”

Mom pulled back and looked up into his face.

“During your transmission to me, Hannah. You said to yourself if you had a hundred years, you might be able to come up with an antivirus.” He smiled at her. “Of course, time is something I had plenty of. We also knew Haon was somewhere between the present and a hundred years ago. I thought maybe I could catch him in the past, stop him before he had a chance to do any harm.”

I was trying hard to understand.

He continued to stroke Mom’s hair. “I travelled to the year 2932. For the past ninety-two years, I’ve waited to do what I could to stop Haon.”

“But it was all for nothing,” I said. “He never went back in time, did he?”

“We did see him a couple of times. Exactly ten years ago, he appeared not far from Earth. We scrambled some ships after him. I joined the chase on the prototype of the new DUV VI. When we reached him, he was already in battle with other ships just like the one I was on. It was eerie, seeing ships I knew hadn’t been built yet. Now I know I was actually on one of them.”

“Wait,” I said. “You were fighting alongside yourself?”

He smiled. “I know it’s hard to get your mind around. But when you were chasing Haon this morning and he jumped while entering the atmosphere, I knew exactly where and when he’d jumped to. I knew it was futile to follow, because I’d already witnessed the outcome of the battle, but I jumped anyway.”

Again his face filled with sadness.

“I still hoped I could stop him from destroying two of our ships. Maybe, just maybe, everyone had been wrong, and the future can be changed in the past.” He shook his head. “But of course it can’t. We damaged Haon’s ship, but he still got away, and two of our ships were destroyed, just like it happened ten years ago.

“Those men were the bravest pilots I’ve ever known. None of us knew who was going to get killed, only that two wouldn’t make it back.” He paused for a moment, his eyes filling. “I didn’t know about the other two who died this morning before Haon jumped back in time.”

He wiped his eyes and managed a weak smile. “But it wasn’t for nothing, Noah. We stopped him. You’re safe.”

“But we didn’t stop him.” I had a painful lump in my throat. “The virus is covering the planet.” And Obadiah, my best friend, was dead.

“Maybe so, but according to Randy, it shouldn’t make a difference.”

Mom pushed back from him. “Randy?”

Dad laughed. “It’s going to take a long time to explain, but I’ve got someone you need to meet.” He moved toward the hatch. “He should be here any minute. He went to retrieve our frozen captive.”

We all stepped outside just as a ship crested a hill, flying from the direction of the crater. It was one of the new, large DUV-class ships.

Moments later it landed and the hatch opened. A figure in a white EV suit stepped from the ship, striding forward confidently but with a bit of a stoop. His visor was up, revealing the smiling face of a very old man. He reminded me of the storyteller in Adina’s tribe.

“Hannah.” He moved toward Mom, his arms outstretched.

She looked astonished. “Dr. Fletcher!”

“In the flesh.”

“But, you’re….”

“Dead?” He smiled. “I assure you, I am very much alive.” Dr. Fletcher’s eyes twinkled as he pushed along the container that held Haon’s frozen body. “What a relief to finally talk to you without holding back the truth.”

Mom kept looking back and forth between him and Dad. “You mean to tell me you’ve known my husband since before I was born, and you never told me?”

“That’s right.” He laughed. “I thoroughly enjoyed watching you two awkward twenty-somethings trying to woo each other, knowing the whole time you’d end up together.”

I looked from Dr. Fletcher to the box he pushed, and shivered at the sight of Haon’s face through a glass window in the lid of what looked to me like a coffin. It was actually a cryogenic freezer. Somehow the idea of a dead—or nearly dead—body just inches away made it hard to focus on the doctor’s story.

“I assure you he’s fine,” Dad said when he caught me glancing at Haon. “He’ll wake up with an awful headache when he’s thawed, but he shouldn’t suffer any lasting harm.”

“More than he deserves,” Mom whispered, then turned back to Dr. Fletcher. “But what about your death?”

“Well, that’s simple enough. After Prime Senator Sarx shut us down, I knew I couldn’t stop what we were doing. We were making good progress on an antivirus to Haon’s nano-bomb, but still had a long way to go. We figured no one would interfere with my work if everyone thought I was dead.”

“An antivirus?” A small surge of hope rushed through me.

“Oh yes. Of course, it was your Mom’s work that got us pointed in the right direction. It took decades to perfect, but when you pulled that trigger, freezing Haon, you also released a nano-bot antivirus, specifically designed to destroy what Haon released.”

“So the virus has been neutralized?” Mom looked afraid to hope.

Dr. Fletcher frowned. “To be honest, I’m a bit concerned about the conditions at the release point. We didn’t test the reproduction rates in a volcanic environment.”

My heart sank.

“It’s possible the intense heat might have allowed Haon’s virus to achieve critical mass before the antivirus could infect it—”

I heard the sound of claws scrabbling on the steel deck of the ship, and turned just as Obadiah hurtled toward me. He jumped in my lap, placed his paws on my chest, and started snuffling and licking.

“There’s your proof, Hannah.” Dr. Fletcher laughed.

For a while I just lay there, hugging Obadiah and letting him lick my face.

We did it!

***

Mom looked at Dad and her smile faded. She must have been thinking the same thing I was—we beat Haon, but was it worth Dad’s losing a hundred years of his life with us? It must have been hard to suddenly be married to a man over three times her age.

“Now I won’t catch you,” I said.

Dad looked at me. “What’s that?”

I looked into his lined face. “I always had this idea that one day I’d catch you in age. When I turned ten you were forty, which meant I was a quarter of your age. When I turn thirty, you’d have been sixty, so I’d be half your age. When I’m seventy, you’d have been a hundred, so I’d have been almost three quarters your age. Now I’ll never catch you.”

Dad laughed, then saw the look on my face. He reached out a gnarled hand and mussed my hair. “I’m sorry, son. I missed you so much”—his voice caught—“all these years.”

He looked at Mom, who had a tear running down her cheek. They just stared at one another for a long moment.

“Speaking of missing people,” he said. “We need to get back to Mars and pick up your brother and sister.”

***

The damage to the DUV III turned out not to be as bad as it looked. Dad decided we had time to get her patched up before flying her back to the Arc and picking up Sam and Hamilton. He asked me to help with repairs.

We worked in silence outside on the front landing pylon for quite a while before he stopped and looked at me. “Your mother told me what you’ve been through. I know you have a lot of questions about Haon, about who your mother was—”

“I talked to him.”

“You what?”

“Back on Mars, before we rescued Mom, I talked to Haon.” I glanced away. “He didn’t seem…. He wasn’t the monster you and Mom always said he was.”

“Noah—”

“Just listen, Dad.”

He closed his mouth and let me continue.

“Sure, he’d gone about everything the wrong way. He was angry and out of control, but there was another side of him, too. He was desperate, sad even. There were things about Venus, things about… my mother that just didn’t seem fair. The way the Poligarchy treats them….”

He nodded.

“I was so mad at you. Haon almost made me believe you were the reason my mother had died.”

Dad waited but his expression didn’t change.

A hundred years might make me more patient, too.

“You always defended the Poligarchy. Every time you and Hamilton get in an argument, you come down on the side of the government. So if they did what Haon said they did….”

“Then I’m no better than they are?”

“When I saw you lying on the ground, I realized the lengths you’d take to protect us. I knew you would never do anything to hurt me. You’d never do anything to hurt anyone. Haon may have some good reasons to be angry, but it doesn’t justify what he tried to do. He may be my father, but you’re my dad.”

He reached over, pulled me to his chest and hugged me. “I’m so sorry, Noah.” His arms tightened around me. “You’ve done a lot of growing up the past few days, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

We stood there for a few long minutes, until I stepped back and wiped my eyes. “I want to get out of this suit and back in my chair. It just doesn’t feel right anymore.”

***

A couple hours later we had the DUV III ready to go.

I was feeding Obadiah in the galley when Adina walked in. “Your dad seems different somehow.”

I just stared at her. “Well, yeah, he’s aged nearly a hundred years since we saw him last.”

“I don’t mean that. He seems quieter, sad almost. You’d think he’d be overjoyed to see his family again.”

“He’s been through a lot. And there are other things on his mind.”

“I know. Your mother told me he’s not your father.”

“Don’t say that! Of course he’s my dad. That man who just tried to destroy Earth could never be my father.”

I looked at her face. “I’m sorry. It’s just going to take me a while to sort it all out.”

“I’m the one who should be sorry.” She took a step toward me and reached for my hand. “If you want to talk sometime, I’ll be here.”

My cheeks burned at her touch. “Thank you, Adina. For everything.”

She blushed too and turned away.

***

On the flight back to the ARC, which was orbiting Earth, I thought about everything that had happened. I’d been feeling sorry for myself, but I hadn’t really stopped to think about what Dad, now sitting next to me, had done—what he’d given up to protect us from Haon.

As we neared the ARC, I looked over at him. “Thanks, Dad.”

He looked at me and a smile lit up his face; a face I was growing used to. “When you have kids of your own, you’ll understand.”

“Well, I may not understand completely why you did what you did, but I know it’s a big deal. So thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Mom looked over at both of us. “So all this time you’ve been out here, waiting for us?”

“Well, not here exactly,” Dad said. “On the moon, mostly.”

“When we met in college? When we married? Had kids? You were on the moon?” Mom shook her head slightly. “I don’t know how you did it—how you kept from going crazy.”

“It wasn’t easy at times. What worried me most was that you’d find out about me somehow. Then I’d just remember you never did, so you wouldn’t.”

I groaned. “Time talk.”

Adina looked up from an app Mom had found to help her learn English. “I think it’s fascinating.”

Dad continued. “It was something you said in your transmission to me, something you didn’t even mean for me to hear, probably.”

“Randolph Fletcher,” I said.

“Exactly.”

Mom rolled her eyes. “You both have ears like an elephant.”

“If there was anyone who could stop the nano-virus, it was Dr. Fletcher. So I figured I’d head back and get his help. I joined up with the LCAS. It took some convincing, but after I told Randy some details about him that no one could possibly know, he believed I really was from the future. I knew him as a student in a class he would teach sixty years later.

“Once on board he threw every resource at the project. We had the best nano-biologists working on an anti-virus, and the greatest engineers working on improving our ships. I was even able to improve Hamilton’s thermsuit design.”

“I saw the new DUV-class ships,” I said. I’d been chomping at the bit to get a look at one up close.

“Yeah, they’re amazing.” Dad’s face fell. “We lost some good people this morning.”

I had a vision of the burning debris falling around Haon as he entered the atmosphere. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

He shook his head. “Randy also gave me access to some of the best minds in the young science of time warping. We were able to advance the field tremendously. We are now much more accurate in our jumps. I can pinpoint not only a year, but even a month within the year.”

Mom gasped. “That will change everything.”

“The first thing we’ll be able to do is go back and get another female Irish deer.”

She grinned from ear to ear. “What about Nowell Clark? Did you work with him?”

Dad put his hand to his chest and bowed his head. “At your service.”

“What?” Mom said. “You’re Nowell Clark? But… he’s the father of modern time travel!”

Dad laughed. “I’ve struggled with this for years. How could I be instrumental in the discovery of the mechanics of time travel, yet only have knowledge of those mechanics because I was from a future where they had already been discovered?”

“See?” I looked at Adina. “Time talk. This stuff drives me crazy.”

“I don’t see a problem,” she said. “Sure, you had a hand in discovering time travel. But if you hadn’t, it would have been someone else. You’d traveled in time to get there, so obviously it had been discovered before you got there.”

Dad looked at Adina, raised his eyebrows, and grinned. “It seems we have another Hamilton on our hands.”

I groaned. “Just what we need.”

***

There were four new DUV-class ships sitting in the hangar bay when we docked in the ARC. They had the same shape as the DUV III but were nearly twice as big. It took all the willpower I had not to jump into one and see what she was capable of.

When I had my fill of gazing at the new ships, I turned and saw five EV thermsuits hanging on the wall, just like the one Dad had worn. They all had warp manifolds and rocket boosters.

Dad saw me admiring them. “You’ll also notice the entire ship is using an artificial gravity system based on electromagnetism rather than velocity or centrifugal force.”

I frowned.

“I know, you loved floating around, but it’ll be much more comfortable for the animals.”

“You’ve certainly been busy,” I said.

“I wasn’t the only one.” He grinned. “You should go check on Elimu and Fathiya’s family.”

“Oh, man!” I grabbed Adina by the hand. “Come on.”

We bolted to a magsphere. “Now you get to see what an elephant looks like.”

After several minutes, the hum of the magsphere slowed and Adina and I jumped out.

“Pod 749 holds the elephants.” We hurried down a long corridor towards the African Savannah environment. “746, 47, 48, here we are.”

I stopped in front of a large door. A holoscreen was mounted on the front.

Just as I moved to open it, Adina said, “Twenty-six elephants?”

I stopped and stared at the screen. “What? That’s… well, I guess it’s possible.”

I pushed the door open. Hot, dry air laced with the smells of the African plains hit us in the face. I shaded my eyes when we moved out through a copse of Senegal gum trees. The artificial sun shone brightly, and it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust.

The entrance to the pod looked over a watering hole. Below us, a herd of elephants played in the water. Several sprayed themselves with showers of water and mud. A small elephant rolled on his back and wriggled, trumpeting his delight.

“Twenty-six elephants?” I shook my head and smiled. “I can’t believe it. Sam’ll be so happy.”

“They look funny without all their fur.” Adina giggled. “Do you have any mammoths on the ship?”

“Not yet. I imagine we will at some point, as long as there’s a good habitat for them on Earth.”

We sat and watched the elephants play for a while.

“Jonah!” I said.

“Who’s Jonah?” Adina looked at me like I’d lost it.

“Oh, he’s my favorite. Wait till you see him.” I took one last look at the elephants and headed back to the magsphere.

Within minutes, we were before a great wall of glass. A pod of blue whales swam in the current of the habitat.

Adina just stared at them, her face filled with wonder. “I’d never have believed anything this large existed.”

I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to see something new every time you turned around. Adina never ceased to amaze me, though. She took each new animal or concept and seemed to understand it almost instantly. They’d have to rewrite the history books for sure when it came to the intelligence of the cavemen.

“Which one is Jonah?” she said.

“I’m not sure. I guess he’d be really old.” I moved to a holoscreen and did a quick search. A three dimensional display of the whale habitat appeared and a green glow outlined a large blue whale toward the back of the pod.

I dragged the image from the display over toward the windows and with a flick of my wrist snapped it in place. The glowing outline now appeared superimposed over the real Jonah, who swam alongside several other whales.

“Wow, he’s huge!” I couldn’t believe it was Jonah. “He must be over thirty meters.”

“How long are you going to keep them here?” Adina said. “I mean it seems like they’ll eventually outgrow the space. The elephants looked like they were doing okay, but these whales seem like they might be getting a little cramped.”

“I don’t know exactly. Mom and Dad only said they’d release them when the Earth was ready for them. I wonder if things have changed now that all the animals have been on board the ARC for so long.”

Adina and I watched the whales for a while longer.

“I’m getting pretty hungry,” I said. “Let’s go see what Mom and Dad are doing.”

We found them on the bridge, talking to Sam back on Mars.

“So it’ll be about six days, sweetie,” Mom said. “I’ve sent instructions to the Foundation. From what I’ve seen, I think we’re about ready.”

“That’s great, Mom.” Sam sounded like she’d been crying. “I can’t wait to see you both.”

“Goodbye, dear,” Dad said.

“’Bye, Dad.”

Mom turned when she heard the hum of my chair behind her. “Your sister and brother are doing fine. They’re upset they missed all the excitement.”

“I know I would be.” I looked out the window—already Earth was growing smaller as the ARC sped toward Mars.

“Why don’t you two have a seat?” Dad said. “I thought I’d talk to Noah alone, but since this affects you as well, Adina, I guess I can kill two birds with one stone.

“Your mother and I have been talking, Noah. I know you had every reason to be upset—we should have told you about Haon years ago, but that doesn’t excuse your behavior. You need to understand the severity of what you did, running off with Adina in the DUV III.”

I looked down at my shoes.

“At first I thought I’d take away your pilot privileges—requiring authorization before you set foot on any jumper ships. But you’ve shown that piloting is your gift. It wouldn’t be right to take that away. Nevertheless, unless there’s an extreme emergency, you are not to fly without our permission and our knowledge of your planned route. Understood?”

“Yes sir.”

“As to your punishment, you’re going to have to give up your room.”

I shot a glance at his face, which was set in stone. “My room?”

“You seem to get yourself into all kinds of mischief, so I want your brother to keep a closer eye on you. Until further notice, you’ll be bunking with Hamilton.”

My parents knew just where to make it hurt. I loved having my own room. Hamilton’s bedroom was sterile like a hospital. It had no character. I’d worked for years to give my room that lived-in look.

“Where will Obadiah sleep?”

Mom smiled. “I’m sure you and Hamilton can work it out.”

“But Mom—”

“No buts, Noah,” Dad said. “This isn’t a negotiation.” He looked at Adina. “Now that leaves us with what to do about you.” He pointed his thumb at me. “Your champion here gave an impassioned plea on your behalf, saying your very life was in danger.”

I opened my mouth, but Dad raised his hand.

“I think I can guess your arguments. Adina will be one less mouth to feed for her people. You believe she won’t live long in that cold, hard world, but don’t you think she’s awfully good at fending for herself whatever the circumstances?”

I just sat there, miserable. Here it comes.

Dad looked at Adina and stroked his beard. “Hannah and I have agreed. You can stay.”

Adina jumped from her seat and ran over to Dad.

“Oh, thank you, sir. You won’t regret it.” She gave him a big hug, then gave Mom one too. “I don’t know what I can do on board this ship, but I’m a hard worker. And I won’t ever let Noah do something so stupid again.”

She glanced at me and winked. “Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mrs. Zarc.”

“The first thing you can do is stop calling me sir.” He smiled. “None of that Mr. Zarc stuff either. You can call me Dad.”

Adina positively glowed.

“It wasn’t a hard decision. Hannah told me how you’ve adjusted already, and how helpful you were tracking Haon. I think you’ll be a great part of the team.”

I laughed. “Team Zarc.”

“And besides,” Dad said. “Now that Noah is moving in with his brother, we have an extra room.”

Adina’s smile grew even broader. “My own room?” She looked at me. “Can we go see it?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s still my room until I get my stuff moved out. Besides, you’ve already seen it.”

“Yes, but that was before it was mine.”

***

Minutes later we were in my room.

She nearly danced as she moved about. “I’ve never had anything to call my own before. I’m sorry, Noah. I know this is your bedroom.”

I laughed. The idea that she didn’t have to go home rushed through me. It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t want to live in a world without her in it, with or without my own bedroom.

I felt my cheeks warming and looked at my hands. “Hey, if this is what I have to put up with to keep you here, it’s worth it.”

Adina studied me for a minute, then came over and kissed me on the cheek. “Thank you, Noah. You really are my champion.” Then she stepped back. “How… how long do you think your father will live, now that—”

“Now that he’s so old?” I said. I was glad we’d changed the subject, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to think about the new one. “I’m not sure. He’s nearly a hundred and forty. I think the oldest person alive right now is close to a hundred and eighty. But who knows. Scientists are making breakthroughs every day.”

“Do those things he wears on his arms and legs help him?”

“I’m sure they help him walk and lift things, just like the thermsuit allows me to walk. Doctors are at the point now where they can replace nearly every part of the body with artificial components, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him live a long, long time.”

“I hope so. Sometimes I feel like it’s all my fault.”

“What? How could it possibly be your fault?”

“If I hadn’t allowed you to take me to Mars—if your dad were the one to rescue your mom instead—he would have been on the DUV III chasing Haon.”

“But then he wouldn’t have been there to help us stop Haon. Dr. Fletcher wouldn’t have developed the anti-virus.”

“I know, but it still makes me think there might have been another way.”

“Well, I can tell you this: you’ll go crazy if you try to think through all the possibilities. Time travel will do that to you.” I looked around the room. “Now what do you think? Can we make this room look like it belongs to you?”

“The first thing we can do is throw all this garbage away.”

I socked her in the arm. “It’s not garbage—it’s valuable treasure.”

“Garbage, treasure, it makes no difference—we just need to get it out of my room.”

Dad stood on a wooden platform constructed in front of the DUV VI. Several hundred people, each a high-ranking official in the Poligarchy or a supporter of the Earth 3000 Foundation, stood in front of the stage.

“Today is the culmination of all our efforts,” he said. “Today marks a new beginning in the history of humankind, a history that sadly seems filled more with violence and destruction than kindness and benevolence.”

I looked over at Prime Senator Sarx. Even in the bright sunlight, his skin seemed waxy and artificial. He caught me watching him and gave me an oily smile. I shuddered and turned back toward my dad.

“When I was a little boy,” Dad continued, “my parents told me the story of Noah and the Ark. I was fascinated by the stories of animals of every kind, and imagined that one day those animals would be more than just pictures on a holopad. That somehow we could rescue those animals from destruction, just as Noah did from the flood. That one day little boys and girls would walk in a land like this and see living, breathing animals, and enjoy creation as it once was.”

My whole family, including Adina, sat on the stage to his right. I breathed the rich air of the African Savannah—the real Savannah.

He turned toward us. “And so, for my children and all the children of the solar system, I dedicate Earth to a new generation of those who believe that all life is worth protecting.”

I glanced at Prime Senator Sarx again. He just nodded, holding a handkerchief to his mouth.

Dad beckoned to me. “Noah, if you would be so kind.”

I maneuvered my chair off the platform to the bay doors on the DUV VI. I waved my palm in front of the scanner, and the doors opened.

The crowd stood on tiptoes to see as first one, then another, and another of the descendants of Elimu and Fathiya emerged from the ship. The elephants’ long trunks tasted fresh air. The crowd gasped when the great gray beasts walked once more on land that had not seen them for nearly a thousand years.

For a moment, the elephants seemed unsure. Then they turned and trotted toward a thicket of jackalberry trees.

But... please continue on for a Special Sneak Preview of

NOAH ZARC: CATACLYSM (Noah Zarc – Book 2)

NOAH ZARC: CATACLYSM

(Noah Zarc – 2)

The second book in this young adult science fiction series picks up where this one leaves off. Please enjoy the Special Sneak Preview of the first 3 chapters below....

...Or just grab your Amazon Kindle copy now at this link:

NOAH ZARC: CATACLYSM at Amazon

“I can’t believe we’re seeing this.” Draben floated next to Adina, admiring the view. “If school were this cool, I probably wouldn’t skip so often.”

We’d traveled back in time to when they began terraforming Mars. Off to our left, the curve of the Martian horizon glowed with dawn. Several streaks of light appeared in the lower atmosphere.

“Wait for it,” I said.

A bright flash exploded in the still-dark half of the planet. Another. Then another. We followed an asteroid as it hurtled toward the surface.

“This is as close as we get.” I pulled back on the yoke, bringing the ship out of a dive.

The asteroid continued on, and moments later, the ball of rock smashed into the red Martian soil. The control room filled with light, and we gasped at the intensity of the explosion. Without a sound, a shockwave expanded around the impact, throwing debris for kilometers in every direction. A plume of red dust launched into the air and boiled upward toward us.

Adina turned from the window. “How many will they crash into the planet?”

“I don’t remember. I think they worked over the course of several weeks—pulling asteroids from the belt between Mars and Jupiter. After another couple decades, the dust in the atmosphere caused the temperature to rise, melting the polar ice caps.”

I waved my hand toward the planet. “This is where everything began. How the terraforming of Mars—”

An alarm blared. “Collision imminent. Perform evasive maneuvers immediately.” The computer spoke casually over the siren.

I yanked the yoke right. Adina and Draben slid left along the windshield, grabbing for any handhold they could find. I glanced at the proximity display. Several pulses of light streamed toward the ship.

“Hold on.”

Using my neuro-implant, I pushed my mind into the ship, a DUV IV class I had named Screaming Eagle. I entwined my thoughts with the control system. The external cameras became my eyes. The flailing bodies of my two friends receded from thought as I focused on keeping the ship intact.

An asteroid had broken up after the terraformers nudged it in the direction of Mars. Three of the smaller pieces, a meter or two across, flew closest to the ship. There would be no way to dodge them all.

“Computer, route all available power to the shield modulators on the starboard wing.” I spun the ship so the port wing would squeeze between two of the asteroids.

The smallest of the three flew barely above the leading edge of the starboard wing. For a moment, I thought it would miss entirely, but then blue and purple sparks exploded around the ball of rock as it scraped along the steel.

The shield’s magnetic field tugged at the iron within the asteroid, working like a dampening system, and the asteroid slowed enough that it didn’t tear into metal. The rock slid off the back of the wing and continued on toward Mars.

The rest of the asteroid, including the largest chunk, zipped past as the Screaming Eagle shot out into clear space.

I pulled my mind from the computer, back into the cockpit. Draben floated spread-eagle against the bulkhead above the windshield. Adina drifted over my head, with a big bruise forming under her right eye.

“Are you two okay?”

They looked at each other. Their faces were white, but they managed a smile and pushed themselves toward their seats.

Adina buckled herself in. “I’m fine. Draben socked me in the eye when you spun us between those asteroids.” She grinned at Draben as he worked his way into his seat. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”

Draben looked ready to hurl. “I’m sorry, Adina. I—I was trying to help you. I thought we were dead.”

“Nah,” I said. “I had everything under control. Probably a good time to go home, though.”

We looked at each other and smiled weakly.

“I told you we should have gone back to see my dad when he was my age.” Draben laughed. “I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have had to dodge asteroids then, but no, you said it wouldn’t be safe.”

I checked to see if the ship was ready to make the jump. “What are you talking about? I kept us safe the whole time.”

Draben winked at Adina. “Yeah, as long as no one finds out about this little excursion.”

My smile faded as I thought of what Gramps would say if he found out. What was I thinking? Of course he’d find out. He always found out, and he would let me have it.

After we came to live with Gramps on Mars, for what Dad called “a taste of normal life,” I discovered Gramps’ occasional temper. Not at all like Dad. Sometimes, I worried that if I were about to be swallowed by an alien, Dad wouldn’t be able to yell at me to run. He’s just soft-spoken.

But Gramps, he can let it out. When he gets fired up about something, get out of the way. Then I met Haon, and it all made sense.

Gramps wasn’t mean, just vocal. Then there were times when I caught him silently staring off at nothing. I could tell he was thinking, remembering something, but when I’d ask, he’d just sit there. I think that was even worse than the alternative.

But this little adventure? It wouldn’t bring out the quiet Gramps. Nope, I was in for it. My heart quickened, and sweat beaded on my forehead as I set the coordinates for home.

“What’s the matter, Noah? You’re as white as an arctic fox.” Nothing got past Adina.

“I was thinking about—”

She smiled at me, and I forgot Gramps and the trouble I’d be in.

I couldn’t figure out what to think about Adina. Ever since I rescued her from the Ice Age—well, since she stowed away on our ship—I got these strange feelings around her. What made things worse: everyone treated her like another member of our family. Am I supposed to think of her as my sister?

My geek brother, Hamilton, was no help. He didn’t seem to have time for girls. And ever since Adina and I came to live with Gramps in New Cairo, Draben was always around. He certainly didn’t think of Adina as his sister.

“So, are we getting out of here, or what?” Draben stared at me. “You really need to pay more attention. Otherwise, we’re sure to get pummeled by another one of those asteroids.”

I shook my head clear. “Right. Um, sorry. Just thinking about how much trouble we’re gonna be in.” I turned to the display. “Computer, make the first jump.” I glanced sideways at the two of them. Draben rolled his eyes at Adina and she giggled. Yeah, I’m not sure I should be asking Draben what to do about Adina. I think maybe he has his own ideas.

The excitement of our trip lasted exactly three minutes after we landed back on Mars in the present time. The moment we stepped off the ship, police dressed in trim, white uniforms and matching helmets surrounded us. I couldn’t make out their eyes through their tinted face shields, but I knew we were in trouble by the way they waved their plasma rifles around.

“Ugh,” I said. “The registry!”

Adina nodded, but Draben looked confused. He’d figure things out soon enough.

One of the cops stepped forward, his gun held at the ready. “We’ve been notified of an illegal time jump.” His voice sounded synthesized through his mask. “You will submit to a scan.”

We were each assigned a thug who commanded us to raise our arms. Draben and Adina were forced, none too gently, to stand with their legs apart. The cops waved a scanner around their bodies.

My guy scanned me while I sat in my magchair. The wand beeped, hummed and finally chirped, “Scan complete.” The cop who checked me glanced at the display and nodded toward his commanding officer.

Adina was approved, too. She’d been added to the registry when Mom and Dad made her an official member of our family. Draben, on the other hand, got a shake of the head, and immediately found himself in handcuffs.

“Draben Alexander Breckenridge, you are under arrest for unauthorized time travel. Come with me.” The cop grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him away.

“Stop!” I said. “He’s with me.”

The commander turned back. “I realize that, but it was his choice to break the law. If it were up to me, I’d take you all in, but my orders are clear.” He pointed at Adina and me. “You two are free to go home.” He pulled Draben along again.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll get you out.”

Draben glanced over his shoulder and smiled before disappearing in a mass of white-suited cops. I was shaking, but from the stories Draben had told, he was pretty familiar with the feel of cuffs around his wrists.

“I should have remembered the registry,” Adina said.

“Yeah, me too. It totally slipped my mind that he wouldn’t get past the scanners.” I pushed my chair in the direction of the magtrains. “Let’s go talk to Gramps. I’m sure he can get things cleared up.”

Adina seemed skeptical. “Let’s hope so.”

***

“You did what?” Dad glared at me, his eyes blazing in anger.

“I—”

“Don’t.” He waved his finger at me.

Mom didn’t appear angry, mostly disappointed. “Noah, this is not acceptable.”

As soon as I’d gotten home, Gramps called Mom and Dad on the holo-phone. Their shimmering images sat across from me at the kitchen table. Why couldn’t they be somewhere they could only transmit audio? Or better yet, back in time so Gramps couldn’t reach them at all?

“Well, I’d promised Draben a trip last time we were on Mars.” I nuzzled my dog, Obadiah, who sat on my lap. He always knew when I was in trouble, and did what he could to protect me from the tongue-lashing in store for me. Gramps had told Adina to wait outside until Mom and Dad finished with me.

Tears filled Mom’s eyes.

“You always told me to keep my promises.” Ugh. Why can’t I keep my dumb mouth closed?

“Don’t pull that one on me,” she said. “You knew this was wrong the moment you boarded the ship. No, the moment you thought about boarding the ship.”

Dad took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Noah, but I’m going to have to take away your piloting privileges.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “You said I was too talented a pilot to keep on the ground. You said I had a gift.”

“You knew the rules. You were allowed to fly only if you told us, or your grandfather, where and when you were going.” He looked at Gramps standing behind me. “Did he tell you about this little trip back to see the asteroids?”

Gramps must have shaken his head.

“I didn’t think so.” Dad frowned.

“We had that project at school. What better way to study the terraforming of Mars?” I knew I was grasping at straws. No one else in my class had a time-traveling spaceship. Obviously, we didn’t need one to get a good grade in history.

“Until further notice, you are not to set foot on any ship capable of extra-atmospheric flight, understood?” He had a look on his face that said the conversation was over.

“What about Draben?”

“I’ll call Prime Senator Sarx’s office. We’ll get it straightened out.”

I had to try one more time. “Mom—”

“What? Do you think I’m going to contradict your father?”

“Enough, Noah.” Dad’s face contorted in anger—a hundred-year-old face I hardly recognized sometimes. After everything he’d done—going back in time, living all those years on the moon so he’d be ready to stop Haon, to save us—this was how I returned the favor.

“Are we clear, son?” Dad asked.

“I get it. I’m grounded.” Literally.

School was strange the next day.

Draben was still in police custody, and Adina didn’t seem to want anything to do with me. She and I hardly had any classes together anyway, even though we were technically the same age. Still, we usually ate lunch together. Today, though, she sat by herself watching the younger kids run around the playground.

When my family brought Adina here to the thirty-first century, I had all these visions of teaching her the ropes. I’d be the one she’d look to when she struggled to understand what must have been so strange. I mean, she was from the Ice Age. She should have been scared, lost, and unsure of herself. And she was—for about two minutes.

I’d never seen anyone so eager to learn, so amazing at picking up new things. Sometimes she even made my brother, Hamilton, look like an idiot.

My mom had spent the first month running her through all kinds of IQ tests. She scored off the charts on nearly every level. I’d always learned, just like everyone else, that cavemen were just a step above monkeys, that they could barely communicate, let alone understand advanced topics like astrophysics and quantum entanglement—not that I had a clue. Obviously the “experts” had been wrong.

I’d asked her one time if everyone in her tribe was as smart as she was. She didn’t know exactly how to answer. The concept of being smart was foreign to her, though she grasped it quickly.

She said the elders had amazing memories, with the ability to recite long histories. And the women of the tribe knew just what do with every edible part of an animal they killed. The men had uses for everything else, from bone knives to hides for clothing. The most important thing, though, was passing down knowledge from generation to generation.

“So, if you were so smart, why’d you live in caves?” I’d asked.

“Well, you saw how we lived. It took nearly all our wits just to stay alive. We didn’t have time to build much of anything, only the tools we used.”

I still couldn’t fathom it. Snapping back to the present, I glanced over at her. She wasn’t really watching the kids. Her eyes were unfocused, and a tear rolled down her cheek. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I pushed my chair over to her table.

“What’s going on, Adina?”

She didn’t seem to hear me at first; then her eyes focused and she shook her head.

“Come on, you can tell me. Are you mad at me for taking us back in time, for getting Draben in trouble?” I was clueless when it came to girls.

She frowned and wiped the tear from her face. “No. I know you didn’t do it on purpose. Getting Draben in trouble, I mean. And I know he’ll be fine.” She looked away. “It’s just….”

“You can tell me. I won’t be mad.”

“It’s your parents.”

“My parents?”

She looked at me like I was being stupid, which I probably was. “They don’t yell at me.”

“What?” I shook my head. “You should be happy they don’t yell at you. Believe me, I get enough for the two of us.”

“But, it’s as if they don’t….” She looked away again. “They don’t treat me like I’m part of the family. They act like I’m fragile.” She glared at me. “I was every bit as responsible for our field trip back in time as you were. I could have said no. I could have stopped you, but I wanted to go. And what happens when we get caught? I’m told to stay outside while your mom and dad berate you. Not a stern word. Not a single we’re disappointed in you. Nothing.”

I stared at her. “You want to be yelled at?”

“Yes, if that’s what it means to be part of your family.” I could tell she fought the tears again. “I’ve never had a family,” she whispered. “Your parents said I could be part of yours.”

I laid my hand on hers. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

“You can be pretty dense.”

She smiled, and my cheeks burned. After eight months I still had no idea how to think of her—sister, friend, something more.

I realized I still had my hand on hers and pulled it away. “Well, you should be very ashamed of the way you behaved yesterday, young lady.”

She laughed. “Thanks, Noah.”

“Any time. And believe me, if I can figure out a way to have you get in trouble more, so I can get it less, I’m all for it.”

“Always thinking of me.”

The bell rang and Adina jumped up. “Thanks, Noah, for… not laughing.” She bent over and kissed me on the forehead, then turned and headed out of the cafeteria.

I sat and watched the door for a while before I realized the room was empty. Ugh, now I’m late for class. I touched my forehead and smiled. Maybe I—

The bell rang again. Yup, late for class, and in trouble… again.

***

Mrs. Phillips gave me a dirty look when I snuck into the back of class. It wasn’t as if I actually missed anything. This was one of the few classes I got all A’s in. So far, Introduction to Biology was all about the order and classification of extinct animal species, many of which I had seen up close and personal.

After one more glare in my direction, Mrs. Philips turned back to her holo-board and started flinging up images of a small monkey. The displays at our desks sprang to life and the tiny creature seemed to dance right in front of me. It was, in fact, a black-tufted marmoset.

I knew these guys intimately and had the scars on my belly to prove it.

The teacher’s voice droned on as she described their habitat, and my eyelids began to droop. Not surprising, given the amount of sleep I got the previous night. Maybe I’d just close my eyes for a few minutes. Surely, Mrs. Phillips would rather have me alert and awake, for at least part….

***

Pain roared through my arm into my shoulder, as though I’d immersed my hand in fire, then dunked it into freezing water. Fingernails dug into my palm, but try as I might, I couldn’t unclench my fist. What’s wrong with me? I reached over to force my fist open, but didn’t feel anything. I opened my eyes and looked down.

For a heartbeat, my brain didn’t register what I saw. I was lying on a bed, or a table, in the middle of a white room. A crisp sheet was draped over me, tucked under my arms. My left hand, a big man’s hand, was balling up the sheet where my other hand should have been. My right hand, forearm, and elbow were gone. The arm ended in a bandaged stump midway down my humerus. I could still feel the missing hand, still feel my fingernails tearing at the flesh of a palm that wasn’t there.

Sweat beaded on my forehead and ran into my eyes. My heart raced.

What’s happening to me?

My body felt bulky, like I’d suddenly put on about a hundred kilos. No, that wasn’t right; I’d always been big, even as a kid. What mattered now is what happened to my hand.

Then I remembered: the nano-virus. I had broken the vial—the culmination of my plans to stop the ARC project. At last the people of Venus would have a home. Then pain had exploded through my hand. Nano-bots had swarmed from the broken glass, attacking my flesh, consuming skin, sinew, bone. Hannah Zarc had programmed the nano-bots to go after me!

I felt my temple throb as anger burned within me. She will pay for this!

“Welcome to Deimos, Mr. Zarc.” A doctor strode into the room, dressed in white, a smug look on his face. Two armed guards flanked him.

“Do not call me that,” I said through clenched teeth. “I gave up that name a long time ago.”

“There are many things you’ve given up, Haon.” The doctor sneered. “Including your freedom.”

Haon? No, I’m… Well, yeah, I guess—

“Wait, what did you say? Deimos?”

The doctor grinned, showing his perfect teeth. “The most secure prison in the solar system. Even the whole galaxy, I’d wager.” He laughed. “Deimos—your new home.”

I rolled my tongue over one of my molars. I knew quite well the stories of Deimos. Even the good doctor here was a prisoner of sorts. Sure, he probably had a swanky house on one of the better parts of the moon, but he was a prisoner just like me. No one ever left Deimos. They’d be vaporized the instant they touched the energy shield encircling the whole rocky moon.

However, I was never without a plan. A prison hadn’t been built that I couldn’t escape. I allowed a smile to play across my lips.

“That’s where you and I are different, doc. You look around and see the height of human ingenuity, the perfect prison to keep criminals locked safely away.”

The smug expression on the doctor’s face faded.

“I, on the other hand, see another opportunity to show humanity just how full of themselves they are.” I looked down at the stump of my right arm, then back at the doctor.

“Tell Hannah Zarc that I’m coming for her. Goodbye, doctor.”

I ground my teeth sideways, breaking the enamel of my back molar. Tangy metal caressed my tongue. I felt the hole where my tooth had been. A jolt surged through my jaw as electricity coursed through me and my body convulsed.

I vaguely heard the doctor yelling, “He’s having a seizure!”

My backarched, straining against the restraints binding me to the bed. Then I lay still. The last thing I heard was the doctor screaming down the hall. “He’s poisoned himself! We need to pump his stomach.” Then silence.

I had escaped.

***

I jerked awake and immediately held up my hand. Whole. My body ached. Remnants of the electricity which had poured through my system caused my muscles to contract spontaneously.

“Are you okay?” Annie Franklin looked at me, her eyebrows pinched together. Mrs. Philips still droned on, and the rest of the class didn’t seem to have noticed anything amiss.

“I—I’m fine. Didn’t get much sleep last night.” I wiped drool from my cheek as Annie smiled and turned back toward the front.

What was that?

After school, Adina said she needed to talk to her astrophysics teacher about testing out of the class. “It’s just plain boring. I already read the whole textbook.”

I know she wasn’t trying to show off, but sometimes—

“Well, I gotta get home. I’ll see you later.” I grabbed my backpack and headed out the door. The whole way home, all I could think about was that crazy dream. I mean, who dreams stuff like that? When I got home, I had to talk to someone.

Gramps was tinkering around in his workshop. “That you, Noah?”

“Yeah. I’m gonna give Mom a call.”

He looked up from his workbench and wiped his hands on his overalls. “Probably not a bad idea. Smooth things over a bit.”

“I’ll be in the kitchen.”

I arranged the kitchen chairs to line up with the holo-projector, and moved to the opposite side of the table. “Computer, please call Mom.”

“One moment, please.” A little red light flashed on top of the projector sitting in the middle of the table. After a few moments, it turned green, and an image flickered in the seat across from me. It was Dad.

“Hi, son.”

“Uh, hi, Dad. I was hoping to talk with Mom.”

He smiled and looked off to the side. “She’s on her way.” He turned back and watched me for a moment, his bushy eyebrows pinched together. “You have a good day at school today?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Noah, I hope you’re not calling to try to—”

“I’m not. I’m grounded. I get it.”

“Okay.” He turned again, and Mom shimmered into the room.

She sat in the chair next to Dad. “Hi, Noah.”

“Mom.” I glanced at Dad, then back at Mom. “I have a question.”

She raised her eyebrows. Obviously, she expected more small talk. “Go ahead.”

“When I froze Haon… I mean, when I froze his hand, was it all in one piece?”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“He released the nano-bot, right? Did it attack his hand before I froze it?”

Mom’s eyes grew wide. “How did you—?” She glanced at Dad.

“I guess I must’ve seen it eating away at his hand.” Maybe I had. Maybe that’s why I’d dreamed about it.

She seemed to mull over her words. “When he forced me to develop the nano-virus, I knew he’d test it. He wouldn’t trust me to create a virus that would wipe out all living animals without checking the results. So I did as he asked, but—” She glanced at Dad again, who nodded. “—I changed it. The virus was designed to exclude humans, but I altered its structure to recognize Haon’s DNA signature so it would attack him as well. I hoped that maybe he’d kill himself when he tested it the first time.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “You tried to kill him?” She had tried to murder… my dad?

“Noah, you have to understand.” Tears filled her eyes. “I thought it might be my only chance to save Earth. To save you and your brother and sister.”

“So he never tested it?”

“Well,” she breathed deeply, “he wasn’t sure he trusted the virus—rightfully so, I guess. He watched from the other room while I tested it. I still have nightmares of the pig and two rats’ bodies that were eaten away to nothing, right before my eyes.”

My stomach churned at the thought. “So, when Haon released the nano-virus at the Yellowstone volcano—”

“It immediately attacked his arm,” Mom finished. “You froze his hand before it could do much damage, but as the Deimos medical team thawed him out, it continued its work. Without delay, they removed his arm to keep the nano-virus from consuming his whole body.”

I shuddered, remembering the pain in my dream—the pain of nano-bots eating away my flesh. Logically, I knew it wasn’t me. It wasn’t my arm, but the pain was real.

“You actually saved his life by freezing him when you did.” She smiled at me.

I knew, somehow, his death would have haunted my mom for the rest of her life.

Mom leaned forward, like she wanted to grab my hand. “So what’s this about, Noah? Are you—?”

The projection of my parents flickered, like we might lose the signal. Two loud thuds echoed, one right after the other.

Mom’s eyes grew wide. “What was that?” She looked at Dad, fear on her face.

“Mom? Dad?” It was Sam’s voice over the comm. “You’d better get up here!”

“What’s going on?” Dad asked, rising from his chair.

“We’re being attacked!” Sam sounded hysterical. “There’s a ship shooting torpedoes at us.”

“What!?” Mom leapt from her chair. “We’ll call you back.”

She waved her hand at the screen. The room shook with another massive thud just before the image disappeared.

“Gramps!”

“I’m right here, Noah.”

I turned to see him standing in the doorway. “Did you see that?”

“I caught the end.” He looked just as stunned as I was. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“You don’t really believe that.”

He just stared at me. We were both thinking the same thing: our loved ones were under attack, and there was nothing we could do about it.

***

My stomach tied itself in knots as I waited for Mom and Dad to call. I even tried calling them, several times, but they never picked up.

Adina came home and tears flooded her eyes when we told her the news. “I can’t lose another family.”

Gramps tried telling her not to worry, but she didn’t buy it any more than I did.

“What can we do? Did you try the authorities?” She looked between Gramps and me.

Gramps nodded and sighed. “I called the police, but they said it was outside their jurisdiction. Then I called Prime Senator Sarx’s office, but I was only able to leave a message. I’m hoping he’ll call back soon.”

“Who could it be?” Adina paced and flailed her arms. “Who attacked their ship?”

“I don’t know,” Gramps said. “I don’t even know many organizations capable of it.”

I was beginning to have my suspicions, but I knew they’d think I was crazy.

We spent the rest of the night hanging around the kitchen, waiting for someone to call. No one did.

Finally, exhausted, I went to bed. “Wake me up if you hear anything.”

Gramps looked up from where he was sitting at the table and nodded, eyes red with worry.

A few minutes later, I lay in bed, thoughts running through my mind. It seemed too big a coincidence that I’d had this crazy-vivid dream about Haon escaping prison on the same day Mom and Dad were attacked. If he somehow got out, then he would most certainly go after them.

I tried to will myself to sleep. Maybe I’d have another dream. But, of course, sleeping is one of those things you can’t accomplish by trying harder. I lay there for a long time, until exhaustion finally took over.

***

A giant figure ran through throngs of people, skirting in and out of sickly pools of light.

I raced to keep up. There was something about the man, something about his lumbering gait. I dug around in the hidden recesses of my brain, trying to reel in the memory. I dodged a haggard woman holding two small, dirty children in her arms. She shuffled along, dragging a cart by a rope tied to her waist. It was full of what could only be described as garbage.

Where am I?

At first, it seemed only natural I’d be engulfed in the sea of humanity, running after… who was I chasing? I slowed to a walk and looked around. Tilted, ramshackle buildings seemed piled up around me—the slightest breeze would probably topple them. The stench of too many people in too small an area made me gag. I was coated in sweat that beaded down my body, hotter than I’d ever been.

What am I thinking? This is my daily life. It’s always this hot on… on what planet?

“Get a move on.” The hulk of a man stopped and turned, waving me on. “It’s bad enough we have to be out here, among this….” The rest was left unsaid, but his expression told me exactly what he thought of the squalid conditions around us. “Let’s not draw it out.” He turned and the side of his face caught the light. Haon?

Of course it was Haon. Who else would it be? I shook my head. What’s wrong with me? This was my life, following around that man like a half-starved dog.

I hated it when Haon took me on his little missions into the city.

“It’s just around the corner. Keep up!”

I ran to catch up as Haon cleared a wide path through the teeming crowd. The bear-of-a-man ducked into a shack, and I moved to follow, but was blocked by a strong, oily arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?” A squat man with a tattooed face glared at me.

Haon’s head appeared through an opening in the tattered fabric covering the door. “The boy’s with me, you idiot.” He grabbed my arm and yanked me inside.

We entered a room stuffed full of everything imaginable. Shelves ran floor to ceiling. One whole wall was filled with an odd assortment of foodstuffs: bottled herbs, jars of pickled meats, boxes of dried foods, and hanging sausage links. Another wall overflowed with small, mechanical gizmos: holo-pads, old laserblades, recording devices, and glass beakers. Probably enough machines and tools to outfit a large workshop or laboratory—a few hundred years ago.

“Ah, you finally got here, did ya?”

I turned toward the voice. At first I didn’t see anyone, but then I stepped on my tiptoes and saw a dusty cap, perched cockeyed on the head of an ancient man.

Haon stuck out his hand. “Good to see you, Bart.”

The old man ignored the offered hand. “So, you’ve come to your senses?”

I moved around a machine that looked like an old clothes washer to get a little better look at Bart.

“Yes, I suppose I have.” Haon looked warily around the room. “Do you still have it?”

Bart’s eyes gleamed in the dim light. “I may, I may. Have you brought anything to barter with? Remember, I don’t have any need for Martian credits.”

“Of course.” Haon reached into his jacket and pulled out a brown paper sack with string tied around it. “I had to go to great lengths to get this, but I know you’re a collector.”

Bart cleared off the top of an old wooden crate, and Haon laid the package down and untied the string. There was a flash of something silver as Bart lifted it out of the paper wrapper—an old weapon of some kind.

“A Magnum Research Desert Eagle, .44 caliber!” the old man said.

“Exactly. You know your twentieth-century handguns.” Haon smiled a crooked smile. “Do we have a deal?”

Bart was practically drooling over the handgun, but he gained his composure. “Do you have any working ammunition?”

Haon patted his chest. “Of course, but first show me what I came for.”

“Very well.” Bart shuffled over to a tall cabinet and pulled out the bottom drawer. He put his body between the drawer and Haon, and opened a small, hidden compartment under a stack of papers. He seemed to have forgotten I was there. He pulled out a large envelope and turned. “Here we are.”

Haon put out his hand.

Bart hesitated, then handed him the envelope. “I assure you, the information in that envelope is worth far more than some old revolver and ammunition.”

Haon eagerly opened the envelope and pulled out its contents: a yellowed, folded-up paper inside a clear wrapper. It had words and monochrome photos printed on it.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like it before,” Bart said. “I bought it off some poor sap. Said it had been in his family for generations, sealed up just like you see it. I only opened it once to verify its authenticity.” He reached out a gnarled finger. “You can see the date right there.”

I leaned in to take a look. July 14, 1947. I gasped. “That thing’s over a thousand years old.”

“Yes.” Bart smirked. “And remarkably well preserved.”

Haon’s eyes shone brightly as he unzipped the clear sleeve and pulled the paper out. He carefully unfolded it and laid it out on the crate. The top of the paper read, “Roswell Daily Record,” and just below that in huge, black letters, “U.S. Captures Alien Spaceship.”

I began to feel uncomfortable.

Haon gingerly turned a couple pages, to a large, grainy photo of a ship flying behind a silhouetted tree.

I gasped again.

“Ah,” Haon said. “You recognize the ship.”

“It’s a DUV class.”

“The first model, if I’m not mistaken.” He grinned. “I wonder who’d be foolish enough to fly in broad daylight where everyone could see.”

It was my first solo operation. Nothing to it, Dad had said. Just go down, get the tortoise, and come home. Of course, I had a way of messing things up.

Haon folded and stuffed the paper in its sleeve. “Why don’t you take this and wait for me outside?” He slapped me in the chest with the paper.

I grasped it and headed out into the noisy streets. A loud bang echoed, but I couldn’t tell where it came from.

Haon appeared through the doorway, shoving something silver into his breast pocket. “Let’s go, boy. We’ve got some spare parts to round up.”

***

I woke to the sound of someone clattering around in the kitchen. My bed was in disarray, but the room felt cool, the oppressive heat gone. I was back in my room in Gramps’ apartment in New Cairo, Mars.

The dream was so vivid. I lay back on my pillow, thinking it through—Haon, the smells, the heat. I was certain my dream, if it was a dream, wasn’t going to fade away like most did as the day progressed.

Then it hit me: in the dream, I’d been walking, running even. I’d had dreams before about having legs that worked, but never so vivid. I could feel muscles pumping, feel my feet strike the pavement.

I suddenly had an ache in my chest, a longing for something I might never have. I’d been a paraplegic since I was born. How could I have such a strong sense of what it would feel like to run? How could I dream something so real?

I remembered Mom and Dad, and pushed myself upright, dressed and pulled myself into my magchair. Some days I hated my chair; this was definitely going to be one of them.

I hovered to the kitchen. Maybe Mom and Dad had called this morning.

Gramps stood over a stove, frying up synth-bacon. A huge bowl of scrambled egg-product sat on the table. He never really cooked, so maybe he was trying to keep his mind occupied.

He forced a smile when he saw me. “I didn’t think you were ever getting up. Adina’s been gone for hours.”

I glanced at the clock: 12:43. Yikes. “Why’d you let me sleep so late?” I moved to the table and started dishing out some eggs.

“I went to the hangar this morning. See what kind of mess you made of the ship.”

He put a plate of bacon on the table and sat down. “I’m not sure how much more my old ticker can take.” He had a twinkle in his eye, which was definitely not there last night. Maybe there was hope.

“Have you heard anything?”

Just like that, the light faded. “No.” He tried to smile. “I’m sure it’s—” He shook his head. “I honestly don’t know what’s going on. I tried calling your parents again. I called the Prime Senator’s office and demanded to speak to him, but just got the runaround.”

He was definitely more upset than he let on.

“They’ll be okay,” I said. It was strange being the one to comfort him. “Mom and Dad have been in sticky situations before.”

He nodded. “I’m sure you’re right.”

We sat in silence for a while, barely eating, simply staring off into space.

Finally, Gramps snickered. “Don’t think this gets you off the hook.” The twinkle was back. “You can be a handful, you know.”

“I’m sorry, Gramps. It’s just… I get so antsy sometimes.” I spooned in a mouthful of eggs. “I feel like I was sent here as a punishment.” I looked up to see him frown. “Not that I don’t love being with you, I just don’t feel like I’m contributing here. There’s only school and playing around with Adina and Draben. I want to do something important again.”

“You’ll get your chance.” He picked at the food on his plate. “Your mom and dad want to give you a little taste of normalcy, let you be a kid for once.”

“Maybe I don’t want to be a kid. Maybe I was happy doing grown-up things.” I pushed my plate away. I missed the PB&J sandwiches our chefbot made back on the ARC. Gramps’ food lacked a certain… syntheticness.

My dream came back to me. “Can you tell me about Haon and Dad—when they were young?”

He closed his eyes. “I’m not sure it’s my place. If your dad isn’t ready….” He looked at me and wiped his mouth on a napkin.

I was struck by how wrinkled his fingers were. He looked almost as old as Dad.

Gramps shook his head and threw his napkin on the table. “Enough with what they think. You have a right to know. Benjamin—that’s Haon, of course—is the elder of my two sons.” He paused, staring off toward the kitchen window. “Well, I guess your Dad’s the oldest now. I don’t know how I’ll ever get used to that.”

During our confrontation with Haon on Earth, Dad had gone back in time nearly a hundred years. He’d spent a century working to develop an antivirus for Haon’s nano-virus. He was technically one hundred and forty years old. Older than his own father.

I gave Gramps some time.

Finally, he shook his head and looked back at me. “From the moment Benjamin was born, he caused his mother and me grief. She nearly died giving birth to him—he was a very large baby. Your dad, on the other hand, was always so easy-going. All we had to do was look at him crossly and he’d mind his manners.”

He closed his eyes again. “I suppose it isn’t hard to see why Benjamin thought we loved Noah more.”

His gnarled fingers kneaded the napkin as he talked. “From an early age, Benjamin acted out to try to get attention. He got kicked out of two preschools before he was five. I suppose I didn’t help matters. I always thought his mother babied him.

“Maybe I went too far the other way. One day, I told Benjamin I didn’t understand how he could be my son. He and Noah were polar opposites. Noah and his mirror image, Haon.”

Gramps smiled sadly. “I was trying to be funny, of course, but Benjamin latched onto the name, and started calling himself that. He wouldn’t come when we called him, unless we used Haon. We humored him a while, until it got out of hand.

“Benjamin decided he would do exactly the opposite of everything Noah did. Noah ate with his right hand, Benjamin with his left. Noah excelled in school, while Benjamin failed every class. By the time he was your age, maybe a bit younger, Benjamin was out of control. I lost my temper one night, and… he ran away.”

He wiped his shirtsleeve across his eyes. “I haven’t talked about this in years. There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t think about it, though. It drove a wedge between his mother—your grandmother—and me. She went looking for him and never came home.

“Several years later, I heard news they’d moved to Venus. His mother began demonstrating against the Poligarchy. Benjamin joined in. First it was equal opportunities for Venusians in government office. Then it was free access to technological innovation, and finally the fight against the ARC 3000 project. Benjamin—or, I guess at this point, Haon—became the most vocal opponent to the project your father was most passionate about.”

He stood to clear the table. “That’s pretty much how it all began—two brothers on two worlds. Earth caught in the middle.” Gramps ran the dishes through the scrubber and put them in the cupboard.

“But what about me?” I asked. “Haon… Benjamin is really my dad. How did I end up with Mom and… with Hannah and Noah?”

“Surely, they told you.”

“Bits and pieces, but I still don’t understand most of it. How could Haon give me up? How come he still fights against us, when he knows I’m his son?” I knew my face was turning red. I always got angry when I thought about his rejection.

“I don’t know what goes on in Haon’s mind. It’s been a mystery since before he spoke his first word. But, I believe he still loves you. Somewhere beneath the anger and hatred he has for your dad—his brother—there’s still a spark of love.”

“He tried to shoot me out of the sky!” I slammed my fist on the table, remembering the dogfight over Yellowstone. “Those missiles were a strange way of showing his love.”

Gramps reached toward me, but held back. He wasn’t one for showing affection. Eventually, he put his arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Noah. You’ve been through more than any thirteen-year-old should.”

“I just wish I knew why… why Haon hates me so.”

“There are some things we may never know. Don’t let it eat you up inside.” He squeezed my shoulder once more, then got back to stacking the dishes.

—END OF SNEAK PREVIEW—

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There are so many people without whom this book wouldn’t exist. First I want to thank Greg Scheetz, whose boundless creativity and vision was the original inspiration for Noah Zarc.

I’d also like to thank all my beta readers who gave invaluable feedback: Dallas Johnson, Abigail Pease, Samuel Pease, Misti Pyles, and Susan Kaye Quinn.

Also, I’d thank my wife, Beth, who puts up with me hiding away in my office, or at the coffee shop, while I’m working on the stuff of writing, especially in the crazy month of November, during NaNoWriMo.

To the folks at the Editorial Department, Renni Brown and Shannon Roberts, this book is light-years ahead of where it was before I started working with you. I give you my utmost thanks.

And finally to my editors at Evolved Publishing, William Hampton and Lane Diamond, thanks for believing in these fun stories about an ark in space.

Epic adventures filled most of D. Robert Pease’s childhood. Middle Earth, and the planets of Dune were his stomping grounds. It’s not surprising he chose to write stories with worlds just beyond reach but familiar enough for readers to get lost in new lands with epic adventures all their own.

D. Robert lives in the grey-skied world of Northeast Ohio with his wife, son, daughter, dog, cat, and a back yard pond full of goldfish. When not writing, he loves travelling the country in an RV and riding his bike up and down the hills of Ohio.

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ENSLAVED

(Exodus Chronicles – Book 1)

Watch for the first book in this exciting new young adult sci-fi series to release in August 2017. For more information on this book, please visit the author’s page at the Evolved Publishing website.

At a time when humanity has nearly eradicated disease, and war is but a distant memory, Dr. Cosette Sinclair, an astrophysist with the International Space Administration, is tasked with finding a new world suitable for mankind's expansion to the stars. But when she discovers what appears to be a tear through spacetime itself she begins to wonder if we are not alone in the universe, and if some unimaginable evil has entered our solar system with conquest its only goal. It's not long before she realizes her desire to save her unborn child, is in fact the only hope to stopping the total annihilation of the human species.

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Book 1 - Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble

Book 2 - Noah Zarc: Cataclysm

Book 3 - Noah Zarc: Declaration

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YOUNG ADULT URBAN FANTASY

Joey Cola Trilogy

Book 1 - Dream Warriors

Book 2 - Cleopatra Rising (Coming Soon)

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EPIC FANTASY

Shadow Swarm

SCIENCE FICTION

The Exodus Chronicles

Book 1 - Enslaved (Coming Soon)

Book 1 - Red Sea (Coming Soon)

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A young adult epic fantasy series, suitable for readers aged 11+:

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By Kira A. McFadden

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DIRT AND STARS

By Kevin Killiany

Book 1: Down to Dirt

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UPLOADED

By James W. Hughes

Book 1: Uploaded

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Table of Contents

Copyright

Other Books by D. Robert Pease

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Dedication

chapter ONE

chapter TWO

chapter THREE

chapter FOUR

chapter FIVE

chapter SIX

chapter SEVEN

chapter EIGHT

chapter NINE

chapter TEN

chapter ELEVEN

chapter TWELVE

chapter THIRTEEN

chapter FOURTEEN

chapter FIFTEEN

chapter SIXTEEN

chapter SEVENTEEN

chapter EIGHTEEN

chapter NINETEEN

chapter TWENTY

chapter TWENTY-ONE

chapter TWENTY-TWO

chapter TWENTY-THREE

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Acknowledgements

About The Author

What’s Next from D. Robert Pease

More from D. Robert Pease

More from Evolved Publishing