Jake lied, “No. It made a blister, but otherwise, I’m fine.” No way was he telling her that it stopped his water breathing. No one must find out about that.
“It kills a man, but apparently barely bothers a Risonian. Interesting. I wonder—” she shook her head, as if to come back to the situation. She stood and called to the militia, “Commander Rose, are the corridors clear of ELLIS forces?”
“They pulled out,” Dad said with a wide grin. “They can’t really fight at this depth. They expected a small compound that they could come in and destroy with precision. Aberforth Hills surprised them.”
“Then I need to get Em to the hospital. Now!” she said.
Dad strode to a storage closet and pulled out a collapsible cot. Jake wanted to help, but they wouldn’t let him with his hurt shoulder. David, Jillian, and Shelby offered to help, but were waved off. In the end, Bobbie and a soldier picked up the cot and started to the door. Dr. Mangot followed with her medical case.
Jake hesitated. “Sir, do you need us?”
“Go,” said Dad.
Nodding his thanks, Jake followed Em, along with David, Shelby, and Jillian.
35
Retreat of ELLIS
December 27, midday
By noon, the ELLIS attack had fallen back. All Puentes men had evacuated. Because their fancy new D-subs also doubled as decompression chambers, ELLIS forces could only operate easily for an hour before they had to decompress. But that also limited their attacks to about an hour. While decompressing, the soldiers had full access to control panels, so they could easily maneuver the sub and retreat from the area.
Dad had moved Puentes and Martinez to a locked room in Mangot Hospital, and then went to report to the Pentagon.
In their hurry to lock up the ELLIS men, though, they hadn’t searched them. When the Aberforth Hillis militia unlocked the door to give a tray of food to each ELLIS soldier, they were ambushed. Puentes used tranquilizer darts to knock them out long enough for Puentes and Martinez to escape. The ELLIS men had hidden their deep-sea diving gear and apparently retrieved it.
Aberforth Hills hadn’t had time, yet, to retrieve the unmanned subs that were floating near the city. Officials suspected Puentes found his submarine and escaped.
Bad weather still prevented satellite imagery or long-range radar for another day, and by then, everyone agreed that Puentes was long gone.
Jake wanted to celebrate. After all, they’d won! But he realizes the only reason for their victory was the ELLIS troop’s restrictions on time spent at this depth. Their retreat was orderly and timely. They could come back, and next time, they’d know much more about Aberforth Hills. They might be able to target critical areas more easily.
ELLIS had inflicted a great deal of damage to the city. Three fourths of the city had been evacuated. Tunnel damage alone would cost millions, much less repair to buildings.
Phoke officials vowed that Aberforth Hills would rise again, bigger and better.
Meanwhile, the Battle of Aberforth Hills had broadcasted the brutality of the ELLIS Forces. The Phoke had won the publicity battle, with public opinion worldwide firmly on their side. Of course, the temptation of new tourist sites brought excitement, and the Water-Bed-and-Breakfast, or Water BNB, was flush with bookings, fueled by a steady stream of online videos.
The Phoke had come out in a most spectacular way.
36
Cousins
December 31, New Year’s Eve party
Lights flashed. Hung from the ceiling in the back room of the Bog Myrtle was an old-fashioned disco ball, a rotating ball of mirrors reflecting a dizzying glitter of light around the room. The Phoke Band was set up on the tiny stage and were belting out their particular brand of pulsing nueva folk music. Jake dodged around dancers, hands held high to protect the drinks he carried.
Em grinned up at him when he set the eggnog in front of her. They clinked glasses and Jake curiously took a sip. Hmmm. Sweet. It was a thick milky thing. Strange.
Em’s eyebrows raised.
Jake shrugged, “It’s OK.”
Em was physically stronger, her complexion a healthier color. But it was nearing midnight and her eyes drooped. He wanted to dance with her, hold her close, but instead, they’d sat all night. Jake looked down the long table at Em’s cousins who were chatting, eating, drinking and waiting for the new year to come in. This New Year’s Eve party was thrown by Dr. Max especially to introduce Em to his three children. They lived in New Jack, the Phoke city in the Pacific Ocean near Seattle. Dr. Max’s wife, Laxmi, was dark and beautiful.
When Dr. Max asked Em about the party, she had asked dubiously, “I have three cousins? And they’re all three-fourths Phoke?”
“Yes,” Dr. Max said. “Mindy, Juri and Konrad. When you go back to Seattle—which I hope isn’t soon—you can visit them in New Jack.”
At a nearby table, Mom and Dad visited with the adults. Mom was trying to take the night off from being an ambassador, but Jake saw that she was talking to the BBC announcer who had broadcast from Mangot Hospital during the Battle of Aberforth Hills. The gathered press would be leaving tomorrow, so this was one last chance for Mom to try to bend ears.
The lights flashed, the band crooned, and conversation ebbed and flowed. Jake sipped his eggnog, gazed around and thought about his last half year. He’d started Bainbridge High School just five months ago, and shortly after he’d met Em. Fresh off the boat, as they say, he had just come to Earth from the moon base and knew nothing. He’d lived through the kidnapping of his mom and defeated a rogue ELLIS officer who had tried to sabotage Mt. Rainier with old Risonian technology. Now, he’d lived through the Battle of Aberforth Hills, an attack from another rogue ELLIS officer.
His biggest regret of the year was that Puentes had escaped and lived to fight another day. Captain Bulmer said that Puentes likely made it back to his submarine and escaped. He’d gone silent on his radar and no one knew where he was now.
Dr. Mangot’s connections had worked quickly, and the Medical Mission to Rison would blast off in a week. Jake had to go up top tomorrow so they could fly out on the 2nd.
At first, they thought Bobbie Fleming would be going, but she’d had an announcement, too.
That morning, at Dr. Max’s house, Jake and Em sat in the living room staring at Bobbie.
Obviously uncomfortable, she cleared her throat and said, “I’m not going back to Seattle.”
“Why not?” Em asked.
“You know, when I talked with you that first time—”
Em nodded. “In the hospital, when you showed me the observation room.”
“Yes,” Bobbie nodded. “I was there for a procedure.” She paused, looking up at the ceiling, avoiding Em’s gaze.
“And?” asked Jake.
Her lips compressed, and she tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “Artificial insemination. I’m pregnant. It’s from my eggs, so I’m the real mother.”
“Oh,” Em said. “A Phoke baby?” Her voice was soft, questioning.
“Yes.”
Jake reached for Em’s hand and squeezed it. Gently, he said, “A half sister or brother.”
“Oh.” Em was even more startled at that. “When?”
“August or September. So, I was wondering if you wanted to go to school here and maybe live with me this year?”
Em shook her head. “I’m going home. I’ll have swim team and—” She paused, and then compressed her lips in a gesture so like her mother, and continued, “—I am Emmeline Tullis. My parents are Tullis. My sister is Tullis. I know now that I have a bigger family of Phoke and they are cool, too. I don’t know how I’ll fit in, but I’m willing to try to figure that out. But I also want to meet my biological father’s family, too. I want to meet cousins on that side, too. I’ve already contacted them.”
“Oh,” said Bobbie. “Oh.”
They stared at each other and finally Bobbie broke the silence. “Good,” she said fiercely. “Be your own person. I’m glad tha
t you’ve found Damien’s family. You’ll like them.”
“Thanks for understanding,” Em said with obvious relief. “I’ll come and visit. If you’d like me to.”
Bobbie smiled. “I’d like that.”
Jake was glad they’d come to a sort of understanding. It would give Em the space she needed to learn who she was, and to learn more about her biological parents. She needed the time to come to terms with everything.
Bobbie’s announcement meant the Medical Mission to Rison would include Dad, Jake, Captain Bulmer, and Dr. Mangot. What would the new year bring?
The countdown to midnight had started in earnest, with ten minutes left in the old year.
David leaned over Jake’s chair and said, “Can we talk?”
Jake leaned toward Em and said, “I’ll be right back.”
He followed David to the back of the room where it was quiet enough to talk without yelling.
David said, “I don’t know if I’ll see you again till you get back, so I wanted to wish you an easy trip.”
“Are you sad you’re not coming?” If David didn’t join the medical party, he’d never see Rison. By the time they got back, Rison would likely be gone.
“No, I’m an Earthling, through and through,” David said. “But that’s part of what I wanted to ask. This trip to Scotland, I’ve learned that I love politics. I’m a nobody, but it’s been fun. Do you mind, could I ask your Mom if I could be her intern this summer?”
Jake remembered all the times David had been there with a calm word to prevent an argument. Back in Seattle, Jake had fallen into Puget Sound and should have been in hypothermia shock, but his magma-sapiens blood kept him warm and safe. David smoothed it over, hid Jake’s alien nature, and convinced everyone that the unexpected swim in Puget Sound was nothing. At the diplomat’s luncheon in Edinburgh, David smoothly talked to everyone while Jake had been nervous. When Captain Cook had argued about taking the Gretchen out to Aberforth Hills, David had cast it as just a tourist trip. Smooth. Calming. David was a natural diplomat.
“It’s a perfect thing to do,” Jake said earnestly. “Will you do it as a human or a Risonian?”
David’s brow furrowed. “Don’t know yet. But we’ll work it out.”
And Jake was sure he would.
“Five minutes!” shouted the crowd. It was almost midnight.
Jake worked his way back to Em’s side.
“Four minutes!”
Jake and Em stood together under the disco ball lights and watched the countdown clock over the Phoke Band’s heads.
Together, they shouted, “Three minutes!”
Jake didn’t know what the next year would bring. The trip to Rison would be dangerous, and Em’s health and permanent recovery was far from certain. But he was a different person than he had been on that far-away day on the Alabama beach when he’d gone swimming with the great white shark. Then, he had longed to know more about the Earth, and sometimes now, he thought he knew too much. But it was like Rison. Even though Rison was his home planet, he’d only seen a fraction of it. There was a lifetime to explore Earth.
“Two minutes!”
Em tugged on Jake’s sleeve. “I’m tired,” she yelled into his ear. She pulled him back to their table. She leaned back and closed her eyes.
“One minute!”
Reluctantly, Jake sat beside her and watched the crowd celebrate. When the countdown of seconds started, Em opened her eyes and weakly joined in. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.”
The Phoke Band lit into a fast-paced Irish dance, and the dance floor was alive with people kissing, hugging and dancing. Em leaned back and closed her eyes again. With an aching heart, Jake held her hand and watched her quiet face.
37
Before and After
January 1
The new year dawned on the North Sea with a brilliant blue sky. The winter storm had left a couple inches of snow, frozen water near the shore, and a crackling cold wind that caught at Jake’s breath when he tried to speak. Yet he and Em walked the shore alone, the only place they could escape the chaos of everyone getting ready to travel. She couldn’t go far, but they had to have one last good conversation.
The Risonians had rented the Coldingham Bay cottage again, and Em had been allowed to join them for a final good-bye breakfast. They had come up early this morning after the party at the Bog Myrtle. Em had taken a long nap and woke a bit stronger. When he suggested a short walk, she’d agreed.
Jake had to leave the next day for Florida to prepare for launch, and this was his last chance to talk to Em alone. His heart was so full and yet he found it hard to speak.
Instead, he held Em’s hand as they walked, helping her climb over a patch of rocks to another clear space of beach. Her hoodie was tight around her face. Her cheeks were pink from the wind, her dark eyes glittering from the tears provoked by the wind. She was stronger today, but he had to remember not to push her too hard.
Finally they slowed and as if by mutual consent, they turned to gaze out at the North Sea. The waters were still tossed about and frothy. Ice crusted the quiet spots along the beach, but the surf kept other spots ice-free.
“Em, I’ll miss you.” He spoke calmly, though his insides were in turmoil.
“You don’t have to go.” Her voice held a plaintive hint. “It’s not your fault, not your responsibility.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said, speaking as much to himself as her. “I’ve been the Face of Rison because that’s my duty. And it’s always felt fake, like I was wearing a mask. This is different. I know what I have to do. This is my responsibility, what I was made to do. There are things that only I can do because I’ve been on Earth, and I know both worlds now. I swear to you, I’ll bring back a cure for the umjaadi.”
Her dark eyes were fixed on his face. “Yes, I see that. This is you. But I don’t want you to go if you are just feeling guilty. Because it’s not your fault. The umjaadi was an accident. It’s a fluke that I was the first to get sick from it.”
For a moment, Jake let himself get lost in those eyes. But time was short. “Partly, I feel guilty, yes,” he said. “But I’m also worried that if I don’t go, my step-father won’t evacuate and leave Rison. Humans have a saying for it: the captain goes down with his ship. But that’s stupid.”
She turned to him and squeezed his hand. “Don’t be stupid, either. Don’t go down with the ship.”
Jake turned to her, too, and nodded. He pulled a small gift box from his jacket. “I have something for you.”
The box was no bigger than her fist. Quickly, she tore open the paper. Jake held out his hand, and when she handed it to him, he stuffed the paper into his pocket.
She lifted the lid and gasped. “Amber?”
Jake grinned and fastened the golden mermaid around her neck. “Don’t take it off till I get home,” he said. “I’ll be back. I promise.”
“Is that a promise you can keep?”
Jake stared at her dark lashes that blinked back tears. Her face was a dark golden color like the amber mermaid, the rich color of her Japanese father. Underneath there was still a pallor from the umjaadi illness, and the dark hoodie made her face even more stark. But she was his siren, his call from the Earth’s sea.
He dipped his head, and finally—there was no one to stop the kiss.
But the kiss stopped Jake’s world. Soft, electric, breathtaking. It was as if he’d been living in space, in a vacuum, but it was no longer empty because Em filled up all the dark emptiness.
This is a turning point in my life, he thought. It will always be before the kiss and after the kiss.
He hoped there would be many more kisses. But this one? It changed everything. His heart swelled and he dared name the emotion: love. He vowed that he would be back for more, and he would bring her a cure.
Jake held her hand close to his heart, and Em’s head rested on his chest where she surely heard his heart thumping in a wild joy.
/> Em was his siren; and he was hers. One day, together, they would explore all the seas of the planet called Earth.
38
Blast Off
January 7
The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, was crowded with spectators.
Commercial vehicles traveled to and from the Moon Base making it a bustling port-of-entry. But the medical mission would launch from the interstellar platform that had been built in the last ten years to accommodate Risonian ships.
Mom had come to see Dad and Jake off. From his backpack, Jake pulled out a small gift-wrapped package.
“Mom, this is your birthday present. I’m sorry it’s a couple days late.”
“Oh, thank you.”
She pulled the ribbon to untie it and ripped open the paper. Opening the jeweler’s box, the amber mermaid gleamed against the black velvet. Mom’s eye widened and she cried out with surprise. “So beautiful.”
Jake shrugged. “I bought it at the Aberforth Jewelers in Edinburgh before we found out anything about Aberforth Hills. But I hoped you’d still like it.”
Mom turned and let Dad fasten the necklace around her neck. Touching the mermaid, she said, “I won’t take it off till you return.” Her voice choked. “Come back, you hear me, come back.”
Jake nodded. “I will. I’ll try to bring Swann with me.”
A sudden homesickness swept over him. How he’d missed Rison! But when he’d left, he was a child. Would Swann accept him as older and wiser, or still treat him like a child? Would he still be proud of Jake? Would he still love Jake?
Mom turned and buried her face in Dad’s shoulder. They hugged tight for a moment, and then she pushed gently away. The odd Risonian wrinkle on her forehead and nose deepened, the only sign that she was having trouble holding back her emotions.
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