Ashfall Legacy

by Pittacus Lore

  But I could never return to Earth.

  I had butterflies because I already knew what I was going to do. I’d known from the second Ty mentioned the Serpo Institute.

  My mom and Ty were both looking at me now. I might have been silent for a minute there, thinking things through.

  I turned to my mom. “I—”

  She cut me off. “It’s in your blood to want to be up there. It’s in your blood to go searching. I know . . . I know it was selfish, but I wanted to keep you here. On Earth. With me.”

  “Mom, I—”

  She squeezed my hand. “I watched my father waste away. I lost my partner to the Vastness. I didn’t want to lose you, too. But now there’s a reason, there’s a chance . . .” She paused for a moment to take in a shuddering breath and her eyes hardened. “You know what you have to do, Syd.”

  I nodded and turned back to Tycius.

  “When do we leave?”

  7

  Tycius drove us north on the highway until the other cars thinned out and it was just us and the pine trees. Eventually, we got off the main artery and started navigating switchbacks up a summit. There were signs along the road advertising a ski resort at the top of the mountain, CLOSED splashed in bright red paint across all of them. The road was lit only by our headlights; the night was cloudy, the stars hidden.

  I’d be getting a closer look at them soon enough.

  I sat between my mom and Tycius, my palms sweating. My mom had her arm draped across my shoulders and every so often would squeeze me against her, then realize she was doing it and release me, only to gradually start clinging to me again a few minutes later.

  I didn’t mind.

  We’d skipped our last town together.

  “There’s still a job waiting for you at the Consulate,” Tycius told my mom. “You’ll be able to monitor Sydney’s progress from there. Keep in touch.”

  “Great,” my mom replied flatly. There was a note of resignation in her voice, but I thought I also sensed some relief coming off her. We’d been caught. The worst had happened. And it wasn’t that bad.

  In fact, there was hope. My dad was alive.

  Now all I had to do was find him.

  “We’ll be able to visit, won’t we?” I asked. “Couldn’t my mom just move to Denza?”

  Tycius hesitated. “The Serpo Institute prefers to recruit younger humans. Their minds have an easier time adjusting to species outside their own.”

  “But my mom’s already seen all the aliens,” I replied. “That doesn’t make any—”

  “They don’t want me, Syd,” my mom said gently. “I’m not allowed off Earth. The Denzans rated me as a risk. Unstable.”

  “Unstable?” I opened my mouth to say how ridiculous that was, but then I remembered how just a few hours ago my mom had been waving a gun at Rebecca. And then there was that time she proved my alien heritage by trying to drown me. “I mean, I guess you’ve got a temper sometimes, but . . .”

  My mom touched my cheek. “It’s okay. You’ll find Marcius out there in the Vastness. Our family will be whole again.” She gazed out the window, looking up at the blank night sky like I’d done so many times before. “It’ll work out.”

  I peered out the window with her. Everything had happened so fast, I’d barely had time to really digest it. I was leaving Earth. And, like a good fugitive who never went back to the same location twice, I could never come back. Not unless my dad’s mysterious research paid off and he found a cure out there that would stop the Wasting.

  I was going to live among aliens.

  My DNA was going to mutate. I was going to let that happen.

  I was going to be strong. Invulnerable. An interstellar representative of what was apparently the most dangerous species in the universe.

  My knee bounced up and down. I steadied it after a look from my mom. I was abandoning her. Leaving her behind. Of course there was sadness and a big glob of nerves in my belly.

  But mostly what I felt was a pull. The unknown tugging me forward.

  I could feel it out there now. I finally had a name for it.

  The Vastness.

  It called to me.

  We reached the mountain’s summit, the ground flattening out and the skeletal remains of a burned-down ski lodge looming before us. The truck’s high beams illuminated whorls of ash blown by the wind. The slopes were muddy and snowless. The rails of the ski lift sagged where they’d come unmoored. Maybe this had been a vacation spot once, a place for happy memories.

  “This would’ve made a good hideout,” I said to my mom.

  She smiled. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  “Tonight, it’s a good place to bring down a spacecraft,” Ty said.

  Ty’s tone was light. He was excited, a man at the end of a long mission. He swung open his door and hopped out of the truck, practically whistling. It didn’t seem to me like he was going to miss Earth very much.

  Was I going to miss it here?

  Earth. What had it ever done for me? I’d seen more of this place than most people my age, and yet I felt like I’d never really gotten to experience it. Never connected. There were dangers around every corner, and not just the ones my mom and I thought were pursuing us. The planet was dying, humans one water shortage away from killing one another. Maybe I was lucky to be getting out.

  But there was also kindness here. Those protestors fighting a losing battle against the gas company. Every math and science teacher who had recognized potential in me and tried to nurture it. The friends I’d made and bailed on, who never even got to know my real name.

  Earth was a mess, but it was ours. I guess that’s what my mom had been trying to impress on me back at the diner, when she got defensive over the Denzans not doing enough.

  It was only half my home, though. There was a whole other piece of me that I’d never understood, that I’d never gotten an opportunity to know.

  Denza.

  As I made to get out of the truck, my mom put her hand on my arm to stop me.

  “I need a moment with my son, Tycius,” she said.

  Tycius glanced across me to my mom, and he made a visible effort to erase any trace of his good mood. He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

  “Of course,” he said, pausing a moment, like he couldn’t decide exactly what to say. “Beth, I know we’ve had our differences, but it was good to see you again after all these years. I’ll take care of Sydney, I—”

  Mom reached across me to slam the truck’s door. Outside, Tycius looked crestfallen. He stared at us through the window for a moment, then trudged toward the burned building. He got some device out of his pocket and began punching information into it, presumably to call down his ship.

  “He doesn’t seem so bad,” I said.

  “No, he’s not,” my mom agreed. “I’m glad it’s him that’s taking you away.”

  “So, I mean, you could be nicer to him.”

  She smirked. “That’s not how my relationship with Tycius works. He’s a decent man, but there’s a lot we don’t agree on. He wasn’t supportive of the work your father and I were doing.”

  My eyebrows knitted together. Even now, I still didn’t have the whole story. “What work? You mean curing the Wasting? He seemed pretty supportive of that.”

  “Oh no, not that. Tycius worshipped the First Twelve and your grandfather like they were superheroes,” my mom replied. She started rifling through the contents of her go-bag. “It’s what we intended to do after we cured them.”

  “What do you mean ‘after’?”

  “You heard Tycius back at the diner. He and the Denzans don’t want to help humanity, even though our planet is dying. They claim that our culture is so fractured and unenlightened that to upgrade our technology would only result in more war and death.”

  The idea that humanity was a primitive society seemed pretty insulting to me, but then I thought back to the ugliness I’d seen on the news that morning, the same as every morning. I tried to imagine Den
zans coming down to Earth and creating a utopia using their technological advancement. Some wackjob with a machine gun would probably shoot them up for fun.

  “Maybe they aren’t wrong about us,” I said quietly.

  “They aren’t,” my mom replied bluntly. “We’re a shitty species that has chosen to live in a system that eats the weak and destroys the environment. Some extraterrestrial savior isn’t going to fix what’s wrong with humanity.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “So you agree with him.”

  “Don’t tell him that,” she replied. “In fact, don’t tell him any of what I’m about to tell you.”

  “Wait, so I can’t trust him?”

  “No, you can trust him. He’s your uncle. Plus, Ty’s too noble not to trust,” my mom said. “Here. Look at this.”

  She popped up from her bag with a document in hand. It was a photograph, one that I’d seen before. My grandfather in his flight suit alongside a muscular bombshell and a little hairy guy.

  “Your father wasn’t just trying to cure the Wasting,” my mom said. “Humans get stronger after prolonged exposure to the Vastness. They get weaker upon returning to Earth, waste away, and die. He wanted to stop that. He wanted to find a way for the humans who’d been to space to maintain their power once they got back here.” She glanced out the windshield at Ty, then lowered her voice a bit more. “The Denzans don’t want to help us because we aren’t united as a people. But if the evolved humans from Denza could come home . . . with their strength and invulnerability, just a couple hundred of them could get this whole planet in line.”

  I blinked. “Get it in line? You mean . . .”

  “We were planning an invasion of Earth,” my mom said simply. “Your dad liked to call it an intervention, but I don’t want to dress it up.”

  I started to laugh, but by the stony look on my mom’s face, I could tell she wasn’t joking. She never really joked, actually. Hearing your parent tell you she’s planning to take over a planet is just too ridiculous not to chuckle at, though.

  “You’re serious?” I asked, then dropped the question mark. “You’re serious.”

  She nodded. “When the Consulate started stonewalling me about your dad’s mission, I knew something was wrong. And then that Vulpin showed up. I figured that was either the Consulate’s way of tying up loose ends or someone else got wind of our plans and sabotaged your father’s mission.”

  “Tycius said the Consulate wasn’t involved.”

  “Right.” My mom hesitated. “And I guess I believe him. Which means someone out there wanted your father gone and all ways of finding him erased. Marcius once told me there are radical antihuman factions on Denza . . .”

  I massaged my forehead. “Shit, Mom. This is too much.”

  “You have to find him, Syd. Not just for me. Not just to complete our family. But possibly to save the entire human race.”

  I leaned back and took a deep breath. The ring box containing my dad’s cosmological tether was shoved into the front pocket of my jeans. Unconsciously, I’d been rubbing my fingers against its edges. The key to finding my father, which only I could use.

  “Okay,” I said. “So, no pressure.”

  My mom tapped the hairy guy posing next to my grandfather. “This man’s name is Rafe Butler. He was organizing the humans on Denza. Once you’re up there, you should find him. He might know something about what happened. And this woman . . .” She tapped the lady. “That’s who your captain will be. Marie Reno. She was also working with us.”

  I took in the names and faces—members of the First Twelve who hadn’t come back to Earth to waste away like my grandfather. They’d be like forty years older now.

  I looked up at my mom. “Is that everything? Do I know all our secrets?”

  She nodded. “I’m sorry to have kept so much from you all these years. When your dad didn’t come back, I lost my hope. I focused all my energy on keeping you safe. But now . . .” My mom glanced out the windshield at Ty. “You can bring Marcius home, Syd. And then, if he found what he thought he would, we can bring all of them home. We can fix this place.”

  I tried to picture it. An army of astronauts-turned-Supermen returning to Earth to unify the planet. I got the same feeling that I first had when my mom told me I was half-alien—that she was totally nuts. My dad was alive and I was going to space, where I’d develop superhuman abilities. Damn, wasn’t that crazy enough?

  My eyes must have gone big and distant, the look I got whenever my brain swelled beyond capacity, because my mom touched my cheek.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I know it’s a lot to put on you, but I wanted you to have the whole story finally. I’ve had years to adjust to the idea of intergalactic life and to consider our problems here on Earth. You’ve had like ten minutes. Take some time. Think things through.”

  I laughed a bit incredulously. “I mean, gosh, Mom, it’s not like I don’t want to help you and Dad take over the planet—”

  She snorted and shook her head. “I know you’ve ached to go up there ever since you found out about your heritage,” she said. “So go. See what you think of the Serpo Institute. Find Marcius. Find what you’re looking for. I love you, Syd. I’m proud of you. I know you’ll do what’s right.”

  And, with that, my mom pulled me into a hug. It was a tight one, her arms digging into my ribs, but I didn’t mind. I squeezed her back just as hard.

  “I love you, too,” I replied. “I promise I’ll find Dad. Everything will work out.”

  Outside, Tycius waved to get my attention. He pointed up into the night.

  A silver object was slowly descending.

  My first spaceship.

  “I can’t watch you go,” my mom said, her eyes suddenly welling up. “I can’t do it.”

  I hopped out of the truck, and we hugged again once through the window. My mom seemed so small and fragile, particularly for an intergalactic revolutionary. My head was still spinning. I slung my backpack over my shoulder, my dad’s ring pulsing in my pocket.

  The truck kicked up dirt as it sped away from me. I missed Ty’s spaceship touch down. Instead, I watched my mom disappear into the forest. I jumped when Ty patted me on the shoulder.

  “I don’t mean to rush you,” he said, “but we’ve got a small window where the Consulate can guarantee we won’t be visible to any human air traffic.”

  I turned to him, nodded, and walked toward the unknown.

  Part Two

  Species of Aliens Ranked From Least to Most Horrific

  8

  To be honest, Ty’s spaceship sucked ass.

  I expected something at least on the level of a flying saucer. What I got was a titanium-plated pyramid about the size of a tent. The thing sat there in front of the collapsed ski lodge looking more like some abstract artist’s misplaced sculpture than a means for interstellar travel.

  “Is that what you were chasing us around in?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Tycius replied.

  “I’m surprised you caught us.”

  “She’s faster than she looks.”

  The wall nearest to us peeled back, revealing an unlit interior. The inside of the ship was completely empty except for two cushioned swivel chairs bolted to the floor. Looking closer, there weren’t any controls—no levers to kick on the hyper-speed, no giant red buttons to mash for photon torpedoes.

  Tycius needed to duck his head to enter. He sat down in the chair on the left, and a seat belt slithered across his lap, the thing made of the same quicksilver material as his portable bodyguard. As soon as he was strapped in, Ty brushed open his coat, his fingers hovering over the button that controlled his holographic projector.

  “I’m going to turn this off now, if it’s okay with you,” he said.

  “Sure,” I replied. “Be yourself.”

  My uncle nodded, but his fingers hesitated for a moment. “Good-bye, Bogie,” he murmured. I wondered if he was feeling a bit sentimental about the identity he’d been hiding behind for the las
t decade.

  Tycius hit the button, and the rumpled detective disappeared, replaced by the thin-limbed Denzan. Smooth gray skin, wide black eyes, tangle of dark green hair, an extra finger on each hand. I reminded myself not to stare too much.

  It sank in that I was alone with my alien uncle.

  I hesitated getting onto the ship. I mean, this situation was truly, truly insane. I was going into space. With an alien relative that I’d known for all of four hours. I glanced over my shoulder, down the road where my mom’s truck had disappeared into darkness—my only link to the familiar gone.

  Ty didn’t have eyebrows, but his prominent eyes were very expressive. One narrowed to a slit while the other widened, his head tilting.

  “Coming?” he asked.

  I took a deep breath. “Yeah,” I replied. “Just thinking about Neil Armstrong all of a sudden.”

  “‘One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,’” Tycius quoted with a smile. “Pretty appropriate.”

  “He went to space and didn’t come back to Earth with superpowers,” I said, thinking out loud.

  “No offense to the brave astronauts of Earth, but popping into orbit is hardly the same as going into the Vastness.” He looked into my eyes. “You’re about to travel far beyond the imagining of most humans, Sydney. It’s okay to take a moment to appreciate that.”

  I didn’t bother to hide the chill that sent through me. Then I shuffled inside, set my backpack in one of the ship’s four corners, and sat down. Even though I’d seen it happen with Tycius, I still jumped when the seat belt curled around me. Another tentacle of liquid metal emerged from the floor, securing my backpack.

  “What is that stuff?” I asked.

  “Ultonate,” Ty replied. “It’s an alloy mined from volcanic deposits on Denza, then imbued with nanobots. Very versatile. We use it for almost everything.”

  I looked around at the featureless interior. “Where’s the bathroom?”

  “You won’t need a bathroom,” he replied. “The ship will see to that need.”