“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. He strode forward confidently but with a bit of a stoop. His visor was up, and I saw 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. I 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 the Poligarchy would leave me alone if I was dead.”
“An antivirus?” I felt a small surge of hope.
“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. I 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. I knew she was thinking the same thing I was—we beat Haon, but was it worth Dad’s losing a hundred years of his life with us? I bet it was 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.
“I’m sorry, son.” He reached out a gnarled hand and mussed my hair. “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,” Dad 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 we flew her back to the Arc and picked 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.”
Dad raised his eyebrows. “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, he was 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...”
Dad 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. I guess 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. Haon may be my father, but you’re my Dad.”
He reached over, pulled me to his chest, and hugged me tight.
“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, then 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,” Adina said. “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 the earth could never be my father.”
I looked at her face.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “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. Sitting next to Dad I realized I’d been feeling sorry for myself, but I hadn’t really stopped to think about what he’d done—what he’d given up to protect us from Haon. As we neared the ARC, I looked over at him.
“Thanks, Dad.”
He raised his eyebrows and looked at me. 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. But then I’d just remember you never did, so you wouldn’t.”
I groaned. “Time talk.”
Adina looked up from an app Mom 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—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.” Dad 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 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?” Adina 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 chang
ed 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. They were 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.
Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble (Noah Zarc, #1) Page 18