Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble (Noah Zarc, #1) (15 page)

“Did you live in a large social environment?” Mom was already writing notes on her holopad.

Adina laughed again. “I used to think so, until I saw Mars.”

I watched Mom. What about her? Could I trust her? And after living a lie for the past thirteen years, could I forgive her?

I remembered her writhing in pain on the Martian soil and realized I already had. At that moment she was my mom—no, she was
Mom
. Not someone who gave birth to me but someone who just was Mom, period.

She caught me watching her and raised her eyebrows. I unbuckled myself.

“Mom, we have something we need to talk about, but it’s been a long day.”

A flicker of uncertainty flashed across her face, then she smiled.

“Get some sleep. We’ll join you after I’ve picked Adina’s brain a little while longer.

I laughed. I probably wouldn’t see them till tomorrow.

“Computer, please bring life support back online for the rest of the ship.”

I glanced at Adina and raised my eyebrows. She gave me a small smile.

“Come on, Obadiah,” I said. My dog wiggled from Mom’s lap and floated after me as I left the cockpit.

I went to the bunkroom and lay down. I hadn’t slept for almost twenty-four hours, but I still felt wide awake. I’d learned my dad wasn’t really my dad, run away with a cave girl from the Ice Age, confronted my biological father, and rescued Mom.

What would tomorrow bring?

My dad’s face flitted through my mind. The sadness when he told me who my father was—the regret. Regret for
what
? I pushed the image aside. Meeting Haon, in some respects, was an even greater surprise than finding out he was my father. He wasn’t who I imagined at all. He believed in his cause—and he had a point. I had no idea if what he said about Venus was true, but I had seen Earth. It was so rich in everything Mars wasn’t.

The simple act of breathing on Earth filled me with energy.

In past ages, Earth teemed with life—animal and human. Was it so impossible for us to live together now that we had to set aside one planet for animals, another for humans? Did the Poligarchy really treat the people of Venus as less than human—less than animals, extinct ones at that?

I tried to imagine what Haon felt when his wife—my biological mother—died. The pain he must have felt. Had I reminded him too much of her?

The door opened and I heard Mom and Adina come in. I kept my eyes closed.

A short time later they were both in bed. Their rhythmic breathing helped to calm my mind, and I finally fell asleep.

The next morning, all three of us ate breakfast in the small galley. Well, all four of us. Obadiah floated between Mom and me, watching every mouthful. When Mom wasn’t looking I dropped some scraps toward him. He snatched them out of the air like a dog born for zero-g.

After we finished I quietly watched the majesty of space outside the observation window. Even at almost one point three million kilometers per hour, everything seemed so still. Mars had dwindled to just a bright red dot. Earth was still indiscernible from the millions of stars that filled my vision.

“I don’t understand why it’ll take us six days to reach Earth,” Adina said. “When we came from Earth to Mars the first time, it was only a matter of hours.”

Mom held a sealed cup of tea in her hand. The liquid sloshed around while she sipped from a straw.

“When you jump, you’re not only bending time around the ship, you’re also bending space. Time moves closer together, and so does distance.”

Adina said, “That makes sense, I guess.”

Mom raised her eyebrows at me.

“It’s okay if you don’t get it, I can show you with a handkerchief the way Hamilton showed me,” I said. “I’m still a little foggy on how the whole thing works, but I can get my mind around it a little better now.”

“I think I can see how it would work,” Adina said. “Once I believe that time can be
bent
it’s less of a leap to believe distance could be too.” She turned to peer out the window, like it was normal to understand advanced astrophysics the first try.

Mom sat with her mouth open. I just smiled.

The room was quiet. Sometimes it seemed I could hear a symphony when I watched the stars, but today there was only silence. Something bothered me about this whole business.

“Mom, why would Haon destroy Earth?”

“Because he doesn’t want our mission to succeed.”

“I understand that,” I said. “But what good is Earth if it’s uninhabitable? Doesn’t he want it for himself—for the people of Venus?”

“That’s just it. The nano-virus won’t destroy everything—only animal life. That’s what he needed me for. He had the virus ninety-percent there. He could have released it on Earth and wiped out everything. Nothing could have survived for another thousand years.”

“But not now?” I said.

“My specialty in micro-paleontology enabled me to target the virus to the DNA of non-plant life, then tweak it slightly to leave humans alone. Earth would become the perfect habitat for humanity, but no other living creature could set foot—” she stroked Obadiah’s head— “or paw on the planet and live.”

“And there’s nothing that would reverse its effects?” I couldn’t imagine life without animals, having spent nearly my whole life with a ship full of them.

“Not with our current technology. The nano-virus will infect all organic matter on the planet. It would be impossible to eradicate.”

“Then we have to stop him,” Adina said.

“Yes we do,” I said. “Whatever it takes.”

I grew more anxious with every passing day, more convinced we wouldn’t make it in time as each minute ticked by. On the fifth evening I sat in the cockpit and watched Earth grow steadily larger in the viewscreen. Already we were close enough to see the moon, a tiny white spot in orbit around the blue sphere. One more day and I’d know if we’d caught up to Haon.

“Incoming transmission.”

“Dad!” I said. “Computer, bring it up on the screen.”

The holo-display flickered to life. I frowned. The grim face filling the screen was Haon’s.

“To the Poligarchy and all who believe the lives of animals are more important than those of human beings.”

I hit my comm-link. “Mom, get up here.”

“It is with great sadness I come to this action.” He actually looked sad. “I’ve spent the greater part of the past decade trying to be reasonable. Trying to come to some peaceful solution to the insanity that has beset the leadership of our solar system.”

Mom burst into the room. “Noah, what is it?” She stopped dead when she saw the screen. Adina rushed in after her.

“The Poligarchy leaves me no choice.” Haon stepped aside. A view of the earth filled the screen. It didn’t seem much closer than the one I saw out our window.

“Earth—the birthplace of humanity. The rightful
home
of humanity.”

He stepped back into the picture and held aloft a small vial. A green liquid beaded up inside.

“This is a nano-virus.”

Mom sucked in air between her clenched teeth.

“A self-replicating, carbon-based nano-virus, to be exact. This small sample has enough potency that within a few days after being released into the atmosphere of Earth, it will infect all organic matter on the planet.”

He shook his head sadly.

“This infection will kill any living creature, aside from human and plant life, now living or reintroduced to the planet.

“But there is still hope. At the end of this message I will transmit a document, a roadmap if you will, to avert this crisis and bring this madness to an end. The request is simple. All habitable parts of planet earth are to be granted, without reservation, to the people of Venus. We must move beyond this fantasy that humans
need
the animal kingdom. Humanity no longer needs anything beyond its own ingenuity. If you want your little zoo, maybe we could find some out-of-the-way place on the planet to set one up.” Haon moved closer to the camera, his face filled the screen.

“Understand, this is not a bluff. I will release the virus if the document is not signed and placed in public record within twenty-four hours.” He looked off to the side.

“It is now June 22, 3024 at 4:00 P.M. CST. You have until June 23, 3024 at 4:00 P.M. CST.”

The screen went black.

Silence filled the cockpit. Mom stared at Earth as it shimmered outside the window.

“Noah, can you confirm Haon’s location? He should be within range of our sensors.”

I ran a broad-spectrum scan, then shook my head.

“I don’t see him at all. No life-signs. No engine signatures. No warp signatures. But it makes no sense. He has to be there. The strength of the transmission indicates it was within visible space around us.”

“Then where is he?”

“Hold on,” I said. “I think I’ve found something.” I flicked an image from the monitor onto the main screen.

“Computer, can you enhance grid forty-seven, triple R?”

At first the image on the screen seemed to show nothing but empty space. Then a small flash of light reflected from something slowly spinning in the darkness.

“Enhance five hundred percent.” The object enlarged until it was readily visible. “It looks like a small probe, or drone of some kind.”

“Of course. Haon wouldn’t risk detection in our time-stream. The Poligarchy keeps a pretty close eye on Earth, ever since Haon’s attack on the Air Scrubbers seven years ago. He must have jumped back in time to hide, recorded that message, and sent it forward in that drone.”

“So he could be anywhen?” My heart raced. We’d spent six days chasing him across the solar system and he wasn’t even here.

“I don’t imagine he’d jump too far back. Most likely he’d go to just before the Poligarchy started being so vigilant. But you’re right, Noah. We have no way of knowing when.”

“What about the stars?”

My mom and I turned to face Adina.

“What do you mean?” I said.

“The stars behind Haon.” Her voice was excited. “When we hunted, night was the best time to determine our location. No matter how far we were from our cave, the elders could return home by the stars.”

“That’s brilliant Adina,” Mom said.

“I told you she was amazing, Mom.” Adina’s face grew red.

“Computer, please replay previous transmission,” I said.

Haon appeared on the screen again. “To the Poligarchy…” I wiped my hand through the image and fast-forwarded until Haon stepped aside.

“Freeze there.” An image of Earth, shimmering against the starry expanse, filled the screen.

“Computer, can you calculate the date based on the visible star clusters?”

Glowing lines appeared on the screen, flashing between stars, forming constellations. A stream of numbers scrolled up the side, faster than I could read. After a few tense moments the numbers stopped and 3010 +/- 60 yr. appeared on the screen.

“An exact date cannot be calculated without knowing the precise location the images were recorded from. The closest guess would be the year 3010, plus or minus sixty years.”

I slumped in my chair. That meant he could be anywhere between now and eighty-five years in the past.

“What do we do now, Mom?”

“I’m sorry, ” Adina said. “I thought it would work.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Mom said. “That was an amazing idea. The computer just didn’t have enough information.”

She stood with her hands on her hips and frowned at the screen.

“I don’t think we have much choice at this point. Move us into orbit around Earth. Haon will have to return by tomorrow to find out if the Poligarchy met his demands.”

I confirmed the
DUV III
was on the correct course to achieve orbit. We would reach Earth in seven hours.

“Noah?” Mom said. “What do you think your father did after you and Adina left?”

“It wouldn’t take much imagination for him to figure out where we’d gone once he figured out I didn’t take Adina home. He must be furious.”

I suddenly felt ashamed. My dad had no right to keep the truth from me, but he didn’t deserve what I’d put him through.

“I’m sure he was disappointed,” Mom said. “But he’s probably more worried than anything.” She joined me in looking out the window. “I just wish there was a way to contact him.”

“I’ll bet Hamilton could figure out how,” I said.

“Yes, but Hamilton couldn’t pilot a ship the way you do. We all have our gifts. That’s why Team Zarc is so good.”

I laughed. When I was younger, Mom and I used to pretend we were a family of superheroes, rocketing around the solar system righting wrongs and saving the helpless.

“Can’t you use these
comm-link
things to contact your father?” Adina tapped her ear. Not only was her Triple-B a translator, it also had a built in comm.

“Well, the comm-link only works in close proximity to one another,” I said. “But we do have long-range systems for talking to people. We can communicate with Mars, even Venus from here. So it’s not really a matter of
distance
, it’s
time
. We can’t communicate back through time.”

Adina thought for a minute. Her face lit up.

“If your father waited for you to come back from Earth, then realized we most likely went to save your mother—”

“Then he may already be here!” I swiveled my chair from the window.

Mom was studying Adina, a bemused look on her face. Adina seemed to surprise her at every turn.

I punched up the long-range comm on my screen.

“Computer, send on all frequencies encrypted to the
ARC’s
cipher key.” I looked at Mom. “Do you want to send the message?” I hit record.

“Noah, this is Hannah. I’m okay. Noah and Adina are with me, and we’re almost to Earth.” She sighed, lifted her chin, and went on. “Haon has a nano-virus. If he releases it in the atmosphere, all our efforts will have been for nothing. Earlier today he sent out a transmission with his demands.

“We’ve determined he’s not in the present. The computer calculated he could be anywhen between 2050 and 3024.”

She paused a moment, sighed, then continued.

“I’ll send everything I have on the virus, but there’s not much we can do if he releases it.” She muttered under her breath, “If Randolph Fletcher was still alive and I had a hundred years, maybe we could stop it.”

In her normal tone of voice she said, “Please, Noah, if you receive this transmission, we must find a way to stop him, at all costs.

“End transmission.”

The three of us sat and listened. Nothing came over the comm’s speakers but static. Mom looked desperate, but there wasn’t much she could do.

“Computer,” she said. “Please continue sending the message on all bands in a continuous loop. Relay it on all beacons between Mars and Earth.”

She pulled the data crystal from her pocket and handed it to me.

“Encrypt this and attach it to the message.”

I looked at Adina and Mom. “Now all we have to do is hope Dad gets the message in time. I bet he’ll have an idea how to locate Haon.”

Mom sat staring off into space while I uploaded the data crystal.

“Mom?”

She looked up, “Yes.”

“Who’s Randolph Fletcher? You said his name when you were talking to Dad.”

“He was my mentor in graduate school.” Her face lit up. “The greatest microbiologist who ever lived.” She laughed. “Your father and I actually met in one of his classes. Honestly I’m not sure what your dad was doing in that class, but I’m glad he was.”

I struggled to imagine Mom and Dad before they were, well, Mom and Dad. I couldn’t do it.

“He founded the LCAS, the Lunar Center for the Advancement of the Species, in 2929. It was a sort of laboratory for all the best thinkers of the time—physicists, biologists, linguists, paleontologists, martianologists, philosophers—basically anyone who had a desire to advance the human race spent part of their career at the LCAS.”