Shaking with fear for his friends, Caleb summoned up the will to calm his thoughts and reached out to the World Tree. In moments, the images from his vision were flashing through his mind. He forced himself to ignore the others, and concentrated on sending his thoughts out to the Reaver, letting the images flow backward through time.
Suddenly, the Reaver lurched as if in pain, though none of the old-bloods’ attacks had pierced its impervious armor. Mixed with the sound of the monster’s roars, Caleb could hear its mental voice crying out in anger.
“No! I will not see this—I will not! I will kill you all!”
Caleb pressed on, even as he saw Chuck lunge forward and bite down on the Reaver’s leg. The furious monster finally grunted in pain as the ceratosaur’s powerful jaws clamped down on muscle and bone, and a small trail of blood spilled to the floor.
Steadying itself against the other attackers, the Reaver kicked its powerful leg and flung Chuck loose. The dinosaur skidded across the floor and hit the wall with a yelp of pain, then slumped to her side.
Caleb forced down a wave of fear and anger, forcing himself to continue with his psychic attack. The images spun faster and faster, the rise of the Reaver coming undone as time flowed ever backward.
“No! I’ve already won! I won’t let you take me back!” the Reaver screamed mentally. The force of the scream brought tears of pain to Caleb’s eyes, but he pressed on. He was dimly aware of Garner being flung from the Reaver’s neck and crashing to the floor, but he refused to let up.
Time flew backward through the ages. The ice age went and came, and mankind devolved into monkeys.
“It’s too late! I WILL NOT TURN BACK NOW!” the Reaver screamed. Caleb struggled, trying not to let his mind be washed away by the scream of sheer hatred.
The Reaver thrashed and flailed as Eric began firing into the wound on its leg. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Caleb cried out as Tess was flung against the side of the machine, bouncing off of the massive column to the floor.
Time whirled backward at blinding speed. Monkeys devolved into tiny shrew-like animals. Countless millions of creatures were restored to life as the great asteroid rose up from the earth’s shattered surface, soaring back into space. The Ne Shaazi fought their brother Hininze in reverse. The dead returned to life, wounds were unmade, crimes undone.
“It’s too late! I’ve come too far—I can’t go back!” Caleb felt himself buckle under the force of the Reaver’s fury, but he could not stop the vision’s flow now, even if he wanted to. The images continued as his legs collapsed beneath him. He wondered dimly if Krezahu would catch him before he hit his head on the hard floor.
Time spun backward, and the Hininze and Ne Shaazi moved ever closer. The servants of the Shard-Mind dwindled in number, until there was only one, separated by blind fear and pain.
Time spun, and fear transformed into apprehension. Apprehension devolved into casual contemplation.
Time spun, and fear vanished. The Shard-Mind was reabsorbed back into the warm embrace of the World-Mind. The severed splinter was restored, the wounds healed, and the hate forgotten.
“It’s too late! You can’t take me back! It’s too late for meeee...”
Caleb started at the sound of a trailing, sobbing inhuman scream. It was not a mental voice, but an actual physical cry. He turned to see the Reaver’s massive form collapsed on the floor, shuddering. There had been none of the unbelievable hate and fear in this last shout, only an intense sense of sorrow, guilt and loss. Peaceful blackness descended on Caleb’s world.
Caleb’s eyes snapped open, and he found himself lying on the floor, his head supported in Krezahu’s feathered arms.
After a few moments, a shadowy form leaned over Caleb, his fuzzy vision unable to focus properly on it. The figure leaned down and spoke with Tess’s voice.
“Caleb,” she said weakly. “Are you all right?”
Caleb tried to sit up suddenly, but groaned and slipped back down.
“Tess!” he gasped. “You’re okay? He didn’t hurt you?”
She shook her head tiredly. “It’s not that bad. What about you? Can you walk?”
Caleb lay still a moment, trying to muster the strength to lift himself. He could feel his entire body shake from the intensity of his psychic ordeal. For a moment as he lay there, he could clearly sense the World Tree again. He had a vivid impression of the Reaver’s mind leaving its body—casting it off like a painful memory and gradually, peacefully rejoining with the World-Mind.
A pair of large, rough hands gently slipped under Caleb’s body, rousing him from this last vision. He opened his eyes to see Gabe’s horned face as the old-blood lifted him up from the floor.
Caleb quickly glanced around the chamber, his head spinning with the effort of keeping his vision focused. He could see Krezahu and Tess standing nearby, with Rebecca approaching. Near the wall, Hank was helping Garner to his feet, supporting the old-blood’s massive weight on his strong, armored back. Caleb scanned the section of wall where Chuck had crashed, but saw no sign of her. He swung his head about for a panicked moment, nearly blacking out as he tried to spot his old friend.
Gabe gripped Caleb tightly as the old-blood was suddenly jostled from behind. With a soft snort, Chuck’s familiar shape circled around to nuzzle Caleb protectively. Her snout was still speckled with the Reaver’s glistening blood, and she moved with a pronounced limp, but otherwise the dinosaur seemed to be unharmed.
Caleb closed his eyes and laid a hand on Chuck’s brow, breathing a deep sigh of relief. He could feel Tess gently take his other hand, then Garner’s voice broke the silence.
“We’d better get going,” he said, grunting slightly as he tried to walk on an injured leg. Hank steadied him, and Rebecca did her best to support his other arm, though she couldn’t safely sling it over her spiked back.
Caleb nodded and the others turned toward the door they had entered through.
“Wait,” Caleb said, his eyes popping open again. “Where’s Eric?” Caleb looked around the room, but he saw no sign of the tall diplodocus-man, only the machine and the Reaver’s huge body.
Caleb felt Tess’s hand tighten around his, and the others looked down or at the walls. Setting his massive jaw, Garner looked over at the fallen Reaver.
“Eric didn’t make it,” he said, his voice suddenly rough and raw-sounding.
Caleb looked back at the Reaver, then noticed the dark form lying next to it at the base of the strange machine. Caleb instantly recognized Eric’s long-necked body. He lay slumped on his side, with his arms and legs cast out at odd angles. His magnificently long neck lay twisted to one side at a sharp angle—farther than it ever would have turned in life.
Caleb closed his eyes again, though the tears flowed freely from them. He heard the others opening the giant metal door, and he let his body relax as Gabe carried him after them.
Slipping in and out of consciousness, the trip through the hall seemed brief to Caleb, even when they made several wrong turns and hand to double back. They had a nasty start at one point, when all of the doors in the hallways suddenly slid open at once. Shortly after that, a series of low, booming thuds echoed through the chambers from somewhere out in the complex. Garner guessed that it was the sound of Bill triggering the airlocks.
Soon enough, they had reached the corridor leading to the Reaver’s private ship and had hurried down its length, stopping at yet another titanic doorway. Like the others, this one stood open. Inside, lit dimly by rows of small, floor-mounted lights, was a huge trilobite ship, roughly two hundred feet long. It looked to Caleb like one of the large troop carriers, but instead of having several small entry hatches, it had a single massive hatch built into the side. Caleb could see multicolored lights flickering and blinking from inside the open hatch, and a low, buzzing hum came from somewhere deep inside the vessel.
Gabe carried Caleb inside the hangar, following the others. Caleb looked around the chamber, struggling to shift his position so he coul
d see more. Gabe gently set him down on his feet, steadying him with one hand until he was sure Caleb could stand on his own.
The chamber was huge, twice as wide as the ship, and nearly four times as long. At the far end, the floor gave way to a large pool of open water. Caleb sniffed, breathing in the distinct scent of salt water. He started to walk toward the pool to see how deep it went, but Garner called out to him from the ship’s huge hatchway.
“Caleb!” he growled. “Let’s go. This whole place is going to turn into one big fish tank in no time!”
Caleb spun around and hurried back to the others, climbing up the shallow ramp that led to the hatch. The front half of the ship was composed of a single large chamber, laid out much like the smaller Ne Shaazi scout ships, but built to the Reaver’s huge scale. Caleb looked at the gigantic controls and perilously high instruments, wondering how they would operate the thing. His eyes were drawn to Tess’s movement near the base of the gigantic pilot’s seat. Caleb breathed a sigh of relief as he saw her settle down at a smaller, Ne Shaazi-sized set of controls.
“Caleb, look at this!” she said excitedly. “It’s just like the scout ship!”
“It must be there so that a Ne Shaazi could take the wheel for a while,” Caleb said. “You remember the other one, right? See if you can get this one started.”
Caleb turned around, making sure that Chuck had come all the way inside. The ceratosaur was crouched on the floor near the back, watching Caleb intently. Caleb half-smiled, then gasped and turned to the open door.
“Bill!” he shouted. “How long has it been? Shouldn’t he be here by now?”
The other old-bloods looked at each other, then looked nervously back at Caleb.
“I’d say it’s been at least twenty minutes,” Garner said tensely. “He did say that if he wasn’t here by then, we should go.”
“No!” Caleb yelled, running toward the door. “I just found him—I’m not going to leave him here!”
Garner stepped sideways, blocking Caleb’s way and grunting in pain as he stretched his injured leg.
“Caleb!” he said, gripping Caleb’s shoulders with his stocky hands. “He knew it might go down like this. I don’t even know if he thought he would ever make it out of here at all. If we don’t go now, we’ll all die here too. Don’t waste his sacrifice.” As if to illustrate his point, a sudden tremor shook the ship and the entire chamber, as something gave way somewhere out in the complex.
Caleb struggled against Garner’s short but muscular arms, tears streaming down his face. “No! I can’t leave him now! Bill!”
Caleb’s shouts degraded into shallow sobs as he felt Tess’s arms wrap around him.
“Caleb, don’t,” she whispered.
He turned and buried his face against her downy shoulder. Garner simply stood and stared, afraid Caleb might make one last dash for the door. Another vibrating tremor echoed through the chamber.
“Tess,” Garner said quietly. “Bring Caleb up front. We need to get this thing going.”
Caleb shot one last look out the ship’s hatch and down the long, empty corridor. Just as Tess pulled him forward, a tiny, dark shape came scrambling into view at the end of the hall. Caleb tensed, staring at the figure in shocked surprise. As he watched, two other figures followed the first, running frantically down the long passage. The first figure called out, waving his arms excitedly.
“Dammit, Caleb!” Bill hollered, sounding more relieved than angry. “What are you still doing here? Get that ship going or we’re all done for!”
Tess released Caleb and ran for the controls as the other old-bloods shouted triumphantly. Caleb sprinted down the ramp toward Bill, but the old man pushed him back with surprising strength, shoving him back through the hatch and following him inside at a dead run.
“Sorry kid,” he wheezed, “no time for happy reunions quite yet. We have to get out of here before this whole place collapses!”
Lucas and one of the other armed men charged in after Bill. Lucas spun around and hit the controls, and the hatch hissed downward and sealed with a loud “clang.”
“Wait,” Caleb said, looking at Lucas and the other man. “There was one more guy—what happened to him?”
“One of the Commanders,” Lucas said, panting heavily.
Caleb glanced out the small window set into the hatch. At the far end of the hall, he could see another figure come charging around the corner. This one was different, however. Its hulking, mismatched shape marked it instantly as a Commander. A sudden flare of sparks flashed on the outside of the hatch, and Caleb realized that the thing was firing at them with a machine gun.
“Tess,” Caleb shouted, running toward the front of the ship, “Get us out of here!”
The agile raptor-woman had already hopped onto the smaller pilot’s seat and was tugging carefully at the controls. Caleb and the others had to steady themselves as the ship rocked and vibrated, then lifted into the air. A series of ringing vibrations echoed through the hull as the Commander fired at the ship again.
“There, that’s it,” Caleb said, pointing to the pool ahead of them. “Fly over that, then go down—right into the water. That’s got to be the way out.”
Tess worked the controls and the ship rushed forward, then stopped, barely avoiding a collision with the far wall. With a final ring of ricocheting bullets from outside, Tess lowered the ship into the water.
Through the windows, they could see that they were in a round chamber, with a huge circular hatch in front of them.
“Damn!” Caleb swore. “It doesn’t lead straight out.” He turned to Bill, his heart pounding. “How do we open the door?”
Bill raised his hands and shook his head. “I don’t know! I thought it would be the same as in the main hangar! I’ve never actually been in this room before.”
Caleb turned back to the window, scowling. “Everybody hang onto something.” He gripped the edge of the instrument panel tightly, then looked at Tess.
“I hope this ship is built as strong as it looks,” he said darkly. “Tess, ram the door.”
She looked back at him with an uncharacteristically frightened expression, then gripped the controls tightly. Another rumble echoed through the complex. This time, the water conducted the vibration through the ship, rattling everyone. Tess grimaced and pushed forward on the controls as hard as she could.
With a sudden lurch of motion, the ship shot forward and slammed headlong into the metal hatch. There was a hideous shriek of scraping metal followed by a low groan, then nothing. Caleb looked up, noting with satisfaction that the door was heavily dented. At one edge, it had pulled part of the way free of its frame, and Caleb could see the deep darkness of the open ocean beyond.
“One more time, Tess,” he said.
She gritted her teeth and pushed the controls again. The ship jumped forward. There was another tremendous crash, then the doors fell away and the ship shot out into the depths.
“Quick, get us up to the surface,” Bill said, looking nervously out a side window. “The shock waves might smash us up against something a little more solid than that door.”
Tess nodded and pulled up on the controls. Everyone held on tight as the ship pitched upward. In the back, Chuck groaned pitifully. Caleb glanced nervously out the small side window. He could see a vague, greenish glow of lights illuminating what he assumed were the complex’s airlocks. Long trails of bubbling air streamed upward, illuminated by the ghostly glow. As he watched, a bright flash erupted from the darkness. The mysterious explosion flared briefly, then vanished in a cloud of steam and bubbles.
As they rushed upward, the water ahead grew increasingly bright, finally erupting into brilliant morning light as the ship broke the surface with a hissing splash.
Caleb and the others stared out the windows, shocked to see the golden sun rising over the sea after being surrounded by so much darkness. A deep rumble echoed outside, and they all peered out the side windows. Tess swung the ship around for a better view as they
stared at the spectacle below.
The top of the Empire State Building stood out from the waves nearby, glinting golden in the morning sunlight. As they watched, the hollow, broken-topped tower shuddered and trembled, then began to tilt. Water sprayed up into the air as the mighty structure toppled beneath the sea with a deafening roar. Huge clouds of bubbles and buoyant debris roared to the surface, even as the waves still surged and frothed from the tower’s fall.
They all watched in silence as the last visible trace of New York City sank forever beneath the ocean’s surface, leaving only a faint rainbow hanging in the falling mist. Despite his overwhelming sense of relief and hope, Caleb couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow at the sight.
The ship swung westward, sweeping over the waves at high speed. For several minutes, no one spoke, then Bill shouted, pointing out one of the side windows.
“Over there,” he said, pointing toward a spot on the horizon. “A carrier! They must have escaped!”
As Caleb watched, the distant ship flashed its searchlights in a series of rapid blinks.
“It is them!” Bill cried. “That’s the signal. They made it!”
Just then, Hank pointed out a window on the other side of the ship. Everyone spun around to see what he was looking at.
“Look,” he said excitedly, staring down at the water. “They’re still here—the Freewind!”
The others looked out, smiling at the sight of the sturdy old ship as its white sails billowed in the morning breeze.
CALEB OWEN SAT AT A SMALL, handcrafted wooden table in his study. The warm sun shone in through the room’s small window, and a gentle breeze brought the smell of baking bread and the sounds of children playing.
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