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Chapter 3
Zach Croft: 2053
“You think he’s telling the truth?” Cora asked as she and Zach climbed the steps into the small OSE museum.
“I’m not sure anymore.” Zach held the door for her, looking side to side before he followed her in. As they wandered past a Prescott poster on the wall, Zach could almost hear the echoes of the past calling to him. “But if Carver says it’s not Ryker, I have to trust him. I owe it to him.”
And for so many reasons, too. When Zach graduated college, penniless and without options, Carver swooped in and recruited him to OSE. Later, while Zach was rebuying his childhood home, Carver financed the down payment with no strings attached. There was no logical reason why he would lie.
“Carver’s not perfect, you know,” Cora reminded him. “The way you describe the guy, he sure sounds like Ryker. And the jacket? With the Prescott emblem?” She leaned on the railing of an exhibit, a miniature replica of a dropship. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but something’s not adding up.”
The jacket meant nothing. There were hundreds of them on the station, each emblazoned with the colony’s seal. And as for the stranger’s appearance, plenty of people had blonde hair, so that wasn’t solid evidence either.
“Let’s say it’s not him,” Cora proposed. “Who else could it be?”
“Well, we thought we were alone when we woke up from cryo, but the Gateway is a big station. Someone could have been hiding somewhere, and we never found them.”
“Were there any other kids at the time?” asked Cora.
“None that survived.”
“That means this ‘perfect hider’ would have been an adult. They’d be elderly by now. You said the man on the dropship looked like he was our age. So he must have been a kid. And the only other kid left aside from you was Ryker.”
Zach nodded, knowing she was right. By the time Zach returned to Earth, all the other kids had died or had been left behind on Mars. The only kid on the Gateway aside from Zach was Ryker Gagarin. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Sure, it does. You were separated. He was presumed dead. Now, someone who looks like him and is his age shows up. And you said he recognized you, right?”
“He said my name.” Zach wiggled the badge on his shirt. “But it says it right here.”
“There’s a difference between saying someone’s name and recognizing it.”
Fine. Cora had a point. Something in the man’s eyes had suggested a recognition beyond what Zach was claiming, but still. Carver wouldn’t lie. “So, what do we do? How do we find out if it’s really him?”
“Why don’t you ask him something only Ryker would know?” Cora suggested.
Zach thought for a moment. There was one question he knew only Ryker could answer.
He just had to find a way to ask him.
Cora Keaton: 2030
The wind whispered through the schoolyard’s swings as eleven-year-old Cora’s feet dangled above the sandy ground. She swung silently, lost in thought.
Jason took a seat on the swing next to her. “What are you doing?” he asked.
Cora brushed back her long black hair and bit her cheek. “Slowly dying,” she joked, then shook her head. “Just waiting. Same as you.” There wasn’t much else to do, honestly.
It was the third day in a row her father had left them waiting on the playground. Victor Keaton was too important to be on time, Cora guessed. She checked her watch and confirmed the school day had been over for nearly an hour. With a rumbling in her stomach and disappointment in her eyes, she pulled a pair of fruit bars from her bag and offered one to Jason. “It’s going to be a while.”
Jason seized the bar and tore open the wrapper. “Walking home would be faster.” Although they lived almost ten miles away, Cora couldn’t help but agree. Her father was a genius, but he couldn’t manage a simple deadline like the end of school. “Yesterday, we were here until six,” Jason continued. “Just saying.” Jason took a bite of his snack bar and changed the subject. “I wonder what Zach is doing right now. And Ryker. You think they found any aliens yet?” His hands morphed into finger guns as he pretended to blast a swarm of unseen intruders.
Before Cora could answer, a black sedan sped into the parking lot and slowed to a stop in front of them. The window rolled down. “Hey, guys,” Victor said while fiddling with his cufflinks. “Come on. Doors are open.”
Cora and Jason hopped down from the swings and approached the car.
“How was school?” Victor asked Cora. “You had a test, right? Science?”
Pulling the door open, she shrugged. “I got a 98.”
“That’s my girl.” Victor’s freshly shaved face curled into a smile.
Cora crouched inside, sliding across the seat while Jason climbed in behind her. “You’re late again.”
Victor winced dramatically. “Sorry about that. I got caught up at work. Today’s the day.”
Of course. How could Cora forget? This morning, while Cora was trapped in English class, Zach was on a dropship headed to the surface of Mars. She was happy for him, though a part of her wished she could be there with him. It sounded like an amazing adventure. “Whatever. It’s fine. Can we go?”
Victor pressed a button on the center screen, and the car zoomed forward. Cora leaned her cheek against the window. Her mind wandered to Mars, replaying what she had learned about Zach’s mission. First, the colonists had to settle into the habitation dome, a structure built over several years by a fleet of autonomous drones. Then, they had to get the mining plant up and running so they could start sending irogen back home. Cora smiled a bit at the thought of Zach as a miner, picturing him with a pickaxe and a helmet, covered in smears of red dust.
“Hey,” Victor tried for her attention. “If you keep it up with those test scores, who knows? Maybe you’ll take my place at OSE in a few years.”
“A girl can dream,” Cora answered with a sarcastic sigh.
Suddenly, an alert labeled OSE: URGENT appeared on the car’s center screen. Victor glanced at the kids through the rearview mirror, then pulled an earpiece from the center console. He shoved it into his ear and pressed ANSWER on the screen. “Keaton,” he answered. As he listened to whoever was talking, his expression turned confused, then grave.
Cora’s stomach fluttered. “Dad?”
Victor waved her off, speaking to someone she could not hear. “How many? I see…” Cora sensed something terrible had happened. It was the way her father talked, the way his breathing hitched. “Okay. Get back to me as soon as you hear.” He tossed the earpiece into the compartment and exhaled a deep breath.
“What happened?” Cora asked.
“It’s work stuff. Nothing you have to worry about.” Victor disengaged the car’s autopilot and took control of the wheel.
“Something with Prescott?” Cora’s thoughts traveled to the darkest places imaginable. Were they dead? Was Zach dead?
Victor hesitated, then relented, “It’s just… the dropships didn’t land as smoothly as we hoped.”
“Is everyone okay?”
“If you’d let me finish—”
“Well, are they? Are they alive?”
Victor rubbed his eyes. “We don’t know.”
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