and across the floor, tendrils of vapor covering Ethan’s boots and chilling his toes.
An object rose from the fog … impossible to see clearly.
Madison gasped and hurled herself at the thing. Her motion dispersed the mist, revealing Dr. Irving, sitting up, puzzled, but nonetheless returningMadison’s hug. He rocked her back and forth as she wept with joy.
Dr. Irving then spotted Ethan and grinned. “Ah, Lieutenant Blackwood. Somehow I knew you and my granddaughter would be the first faces I saw when I woke up.”
17
THE START OF WRONG
I T WAS A TEAR-FILLED REUNION . F ELIX AND HIS mother, Colonel Winter, jettisoned proper military protocol and actually
hugged
in front of everyone. Madison couldn’t stop sobbing—or smiling her crooked smile. Even Ethan had tears on his cheeks and a goofy grin.
The Sterling Academy recruits and Rebecca’s team all high-fived.
Bobby and the Santa Blanca kids, though, kept apart from the celebration and stared warily at the new adults among them.
Colonel Winter looked exactly as Ethan had last seen her: dark hair streaked white down the center, blue uniform with a pistol strapped to one hip … and, as she detached from hugging her son, as cold and hard as an iceberg.
Everyone listened as she explained that they had always feared the Ch’zar might one day overrun the Seed Bank. There were contingency plans. They had cryogenic sleep tubes ready so that they could be placed inside in a state of suspended animation, then moved aboveground without risk of having their minds absorbed by the Ch’zar. Rebecca and her squadron were recalled at the last moment to sneak those cryo tubes past the aliens.
In addition, Dr. Irving had hidden supply depots of Resister technology, prototypes, and backups of their plans to fight the aliens in a dozen secret locations … so they could destroy the Seed Bank with little effect on the Resistance effort.
The destruction part of their plan was accomplished by simultaneously overloading the base’s fusion reactors. They literally set off a dozen nuclear bombs to cover their tracks.
And of course,
none of this
had ever been revealed to active Resisters kids in case they were caught by the Ch’zar.
In all, fifty officers, eighty-eight technicians and scientists, and over thirty-eight kids too young for active duty had been evacuated. That was
almost
everyone from the Seed Bank.
There was a moment of silence for those who didn’t make it … a few technicians who’d manned the base until the last moment … all the farm animals … and Jack Figgin’s squadron, who’d died during the battle over the Seed Bank that day.
Naturally, the colonel and her senior staff immediately wanted a debriefing on Titan Base.
Ethan told her the truth about his parents’ letters to Emma and him, and how they’d discovered the secret coordinates within them to this base. He did, though, leave out any possible explanations of
why
his parents had known about the base. He also left out the part about the picture he and his sister had found waiting for them here.
That part of the story felt like a private family matter.
As he did his best to explain everything, the coloneland the other officers frowned and asked more probing questions.
Where were the original base inhabitants? Were any records left? Why didn’t the Ch’zar know of the place? How did they so easily hack into the entire Ch’zar satellite network? Why were the robots on the lower decks out of control?
Ethan had no answers for them.
The colonel, her senior officers, and Dr. Irving then camped out in the base’s Command Center, essentially taking the place over.
What else had he expected? They
were
the senior officers. They had more experience. They were supposed to be in charge, weren’t they?
But they weren’t including Ethan in their heated discussions and plans. He was there to answer their occasional questions, but otherwise he’d been told to keep his mouth
An object rose from the fog … impossible to see clearly.
Madison gasped and hurled herself at the thing. Her motion dispersed the mist, revealing Dr. Irving, sitting up, puzzled, but nonetheless returningMadison’s hug. He rocked her back and forth as she wept with joy.
Dr. Irving then spotted Ethan and grinned. “Ah, Lieutenant Blackwood. Somehow I knew you and my granddaughter would be the first faces I saw when I woke up.”
17
THE START OF WRONG
I T WAS A TEAR-FILLED REUNION . F ELIX AND HIS mother, Colonel Winter, jettisoned proper military protocol and actually
hugged
in front of everyone. Madison couldn’t stop sobbing—or smiling her crooked smile. Even Ethan had tears on his cheeks and a goofy grin.
The Sterling Academy recruits and Rebecca’s team all high-fived.
Bobby and the Santa Blanca kids, though, kept apart from the celebration and stared warily at the new adults among them.
Colonel Winter looked exactly as Ethan had last seen her: dark hair streaked white down the center, blue uniform with a pistol strapped to one hip … and, as she detached from hugging her son, as cold and hard as an iceberg.
Everyone listened as she explained that they had always feared the Ch’zar might one day overrun the Seed Bank. There were contingency plans. They had cryogenic sleep tubes ready so that they could be placed inside in a state of suspended animation, then moved aboveground without risk of having their minds absorbed by the Ch’zar. Rebecca and her squadron were recalled at the last moment to sneak those cryo tubes past the aliens.
In addition, Dr. Irving had hidden supply depots of Resister technology, prototypes, and backups of their plans to fight the aliens in a dozen secret locations … so they could destroy the Seed Bank with little effect on the Resistance effort.
The destruction part of their plan was accomplished by simultaneously overloading the base’s fusion reactors. They literally set off a dozen nuclear bombs to cover their tracks.
And of course,
none of this
had ever been revealed to active Resisters kids in case they were caught by the Ch’zar.
In all, fifty officers, eighty-eight technicians and scientists, and over thirty-eight kids too young for active duty had been evacuated. That was
almost
everyone from the Seed Bank.
There was a moment of silence for those who didn’t make it … a few technicians who’d manned the base until the last moment … all the farm animals … and Jack Figgin’s squadron, who’d died during the battle over the Seed Bank that day.
Naturally, the colonel and her senior staff immediately wanted a debriefing on Titan Base.
Ethan told her the truth about his parents’ letters to Emma and him, and how they’d discovered the secret coordinates within them to this base. He did, though, leave out any possible explanations of
why
his parents had known about the base. He also left out the part about the picture he and his sister had found waiting for them here.
That part of the story felt like a private family matter.
As he did his best to explain everything, the coloneland the other officers frowned and asked more probing questions.
Where were the original base inhabitants? Were any records left? Why didn’t the Ch’zar know of the place? How did they so easily hack into the entire Ch’zar satellite network? Why were the robots on the lower decks out of control?
Ethan had no answers for them.
The colonel, her senior officers, and Dr. Irving then camped out in the base’s Command Center, essentially taking the place over.
What else had he expected? They
were
the senior officers. They had more experience. They were supposed to be in charge, weren’t they?
But they weren’t including Ethan in their heated discussions and plans. He was there to answer their occasional questions, but otherwise he’d been told to keep his mouth
Similar Books
