Lost in Space

by Kevin Emerson

  “Hey, wait,” I said, “the mothasaurs—”

  The Robot strode right toward them, stopping at the pit where the aliens’ antimatter cells were stored. Picturing their red-goggle eyes again gave me a chill, and I scanned the trees looking for any blurry shapes, but whatever the Robot had done to the portal must have bought us some time. Or maybe now that the future where we used the door wasn’t going to happen, they would leave us alone. Or the Robot had scared them. He had that effect on people.

  And mothasaurs. While they roared at the Robot, they stayed on the other side of the pit. I noticed that one still had that fresh wound in its side.

  The Robot crouched and hauled up the first of the cells, its middle glowing hot white.

  “Careful of the radiation,” I said, standing aside as he walked by with the long cylinder over his shoulder. I could still feel the stinging of those burns on my arms and neck.

  The Robot carried the cell into the cave and dropped it with a thud. Then he went and got the next one, and the next, until he had piled them all inside the tunnel entrance.

  “Now what?” I said.

  He moved to the cliffside of crumbled rock and picked up a large boulder.

  “You’re going to block it?”

  “Danger.” He carried the boulder over and dropped it in front of the entrance.

  “Do you think that will keep those aliens from coming back?”

  He picked up another boulder and added it to the pile. It smashed against the side of the entrance, causing more rocks to collapse from above.

  “We can’t keep them out if they want to come back,” I said. “This is more to keep us from being tempted by the doorway again. So maybe they won’t need to come back.”

  The Robot broke another boulder free, and then another. I watched the entrance to the tunnel close, rock by rock, and I nearly shouted at him to stop. This reality, where Dad and Penny were here and we still had our Jupiter was way better than the alternate one, but we were still in danger. What if that doorway really was our best chance of saving ourselves?

  Except those alien beings had made it pretty clear they weren’t going to allow that.

  The Robot’s next boulder caused a massive collapse from above. I waved rock dust away from my face and saw that the entrance was completely sealed. “That’s it, then,” I said.

  The Robot turned to face me, his lights calm and flowing into the center.

  “I know,” I said. “It’s just hard. You don’t know what it’s like to have feelings like this.”

  Except…“Maybe you do.” When the Robot had interfaced with the doorway, he could have taken us back to any moment from this past, especially one where we weren’t in danger from these mothasaurs, and yet he’d chosen the moment when we’d been playing tic-tac-toe. I wondered if, for him, that was a moment that he wanted to relive one more time, too, before it was gone.

  Speaking of which: I looked at the giant creatures snarling at us from beyond the pit. With those cells gone, they were starting to edge around toward us. “What do we do about these guys?”

  “Will!” A voice echoed from the forest. Mom! And now another: “Will!” It was Dad!

  “Over here!” I shouted.

  Penny burst into the clearing, followed by Judy, and then Mom and Dad.

  The mothasaurs roared and spun toward them.

  Dad stepped in front of them and leveled a flare gun. “Shield your eyes!” He fired and the flare slammed into the ground right between the mothasaurs, skidding between their feet in a fiery shower of sparks. The creatures shrieked and darted into the trees.

  “Will!” Penny ran to me and put her hands on my shoulders. Her face was red, her hair wild around her face. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah,” I said, “totally fine. I, um… are you?”

  “I think so.” She lowered her voice. “Do you remember…?”

  “All of it,” I said.

  Penny looked relieved. “Good, because for a minute there I thought I was going a wee bit crazy. So, it happened.”

  “Yeah.” I motioned to the blocked-up cave. “But now it’s not going to. We should be okay.”

  Penny sighed. “Good.”

  “Hey, Will,” Dad said, coming up beside her, and all at once I was overwhelmed by this feeling, almost like panic—

  I threw myself at him and hugged him tight.

  “Whoa,” he said, putting his arms around me and patting my back. “It’s okay, kiddo. You’re safe now. It’s all right.”

  “What’s up with you guys?” said Judy, eyeing me as she approached. “Penny did the same thing to Mom when they got back.”

  “Yeah, what did we do to deserve all this affection?” said Mom.

  “It’s nothing,” I said, pulling away and brushing at my eyes. “Just glad to see you guys, that’s all.” I made sure to hug Mom, too.

  Dad shrugged. “Penny called us back to camp, said it was an emergency and we had to find you.” He looked over my shoulder, and then around the clearing. “She was convinced you were in some kind of danger. Was it just those mothasaurs? Or was there something else?”

  I eyed Penny. “Just them,” I said. “But they seemed really hungry.”

  “What’s up with this pit?” said Judy, peering into it. “It almost looks like someone dug it.”

  I watched her for a second, wondering if she’d have a flash of recognition, but she didn’t seem to. “I don’t know,” I said. “I was thinking maybe it’s a mothasaur nest or something.”

  “One of them looked injured,” said Mom. She eyed the Robot. “Did he do that?”

  No, time-traveling alien beings did. The words almost came out, but instead I shook my head. “I don’t know. They were already hurt when we ran into them.”

  “Could be some other predator out here that we haven’t seen yet,” said Dad. “We should get back. And Will, I want you to stick a little closer to the Jupiter while we’re gone from now on.”

  “Got it. Sorry. Hey, Mom, um, Victor and his family…”

  “What did they do now?”

  “Nothing, just… Are they all right?”

  “Not the words I’d use to describe Victor,” Dad muttered.

  “As far as I know,” said Mom, peering at me. “Why?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Okay…” Mom didn’t seem satisfied, but luckily she let it go, at least for the moment. As I now knew, she had a lot on her mind.

  Mom and Dad turned and started back on the trail. Judy followed them, and Penny came over beside me. “Hey,” she said, glancing over her shoulder. “Do you think we’re safe? From those goggle-eyed dudes?”

  “Maybe. I mean, they’ve got no reason to bother with us”—I made finger quotes—“insignificant beings now.”

  As I said that, though, I was actually thinking the opposite: I didn’t think we’d seen the last of them. And it turned out I was right, but that’s a story for another time.

  Penny rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe we almost ended up in a cosmic zoo. And I can’t believe we can’t tell anyone!” She pointed ahead. “Judy doesn’t seem to have any idea.”

  “She never actually went through the doorway,” I said.

  “What does that say about us?” said Penny. “Do we have, like, weird time-travel brains now? Or—”

  I grabbed her arm and held my finger to my lips, while motioning to Judy with my eyes.

  She was singing something to herself. We both sped up until we were just behind her, and we heard:

  “Cocoa pandas in a tree…”

  Penny looked at me with wide eyes.

  “Hey,” I said to Judy. “How did that song get in your head?”

  Judy whipped around, embarrassment flashing across her face. “I don’t know. It was just on my mind today. They were my favorite candy back on Earth. Sometimes I can still taste them.… Why are you two looking at me like that?”

  “Nothing,” I said. “Never mind.”

  “Okay, then.” J
udy shook her head and quickened her step to catch up with Mom and Dad.

  We crossed the log bridge and followed the trail back to the lake. When we reached the grove of clapping flowers, the Robot slammed his hands together and the plants bloomed around us, making their magenta carpet. I smiled, but then my smile faded for just a moment. I paused and looked along the lakeside to the south.

  “Hey.” Penny turned back to me. “More weird memories?”

  “It was really dangerous,” I said. “The version when you weren’t here.”

  “I am always saying that my importance on this mission is critically undervalued,” she said with a smile.

  “That thing you know about,” I said. “That Mom hasn’t told anyone yet.”

  Penny’s smile faded. “I think she’s going to tell the group later today.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “It’s going to be all right.”

  “Well, I’m not so sure about that,” said Penny, her face falling. “Unless you know something I don’t?”

  “Just that it could be worse,” I said. “As long as we’re all together, we’ve got our best chance.”

  Penny’s eyes brimmed with tears, but then she rolled them and gave me a gentle shove. “Dork,” she said, and headed up the trail.

  My eyes felt hot, too. I wiped them and breathed deep. Then I turned to the Robot, who was waiting behind me, his blue lights shooting in toward the center. “Race you back to camp!”

  I took off up the trail with the Robot’s big, heavy steps pounding behind me and a grin on my face.

  Acknowledgments

  It’s been a thrill to hang out with Will Robinson and the gang in the Lost in Space universe, and for that, I first want to thank my amazing editor Mary-Kate Gaudet, who helped this story soar while solving various space-time conundrums, both fictional and real, along the way. Thanks to Regan Winter and the team at Little, Brown for putting so much effort and energy into this book. Thanks to Derek Thielges and everyone at Synthesis Entertainment as well as Legendary for letting me play in their amazing world. Thanks as ever to my outstanding agent, Robert Guinsler, for his guidance and support, and the rest of the team at Sterling Lord Literistic. Thanks to my readers, to the teachers, librarians, and booksellers who have supported my books. And finally, special thanks to my family, friends, and my very own Jupiter crew: Annie, Willow, and Elliott. I couldn’t travel the stars without you.

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