Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives (49 page)

"You never were!" Traylor protests, his face indignant. "Why does everyone seem to forget that?"

I smile at my little brother. "Quit whining, Traylor," I say.

EPILOGUE: THE SATELLITE

"I need to show you something," Altair says to me.

"Sure," I say, smiling up at him. I give him a peck on the cheek and he takes me by the hand.
We're alone, for once, in the main gallery of the Evernight Skytower. Ursa, Traylor, and Pilcrow have gone off to start dismantling the cloning machine. Above us, the false stars of night twinkle.

As we walk, I say, "I learned about the stars in school,
but I've
never
seen a real one. It's always so cloudy in Everwinter. Is there anywhere we can go that we can see them for real?"

Altair grins. "Yeah, there is. Closer to the Fringe
s where it doesn't snow so much but the sun is below the horizon."

"Will you show me someday?"

"Absolutely," he replies, "but there's something else I have to show you first."

He leads me over to a display in the gallery.

It's a glass case, inside of which is a large, round metal object with all sorts of crazy protrusions coming off of it.

A sign on the display reads:
FORERUNNER SATELLITE

"Satellite?" I ask. "What does that mean?" I've never heard the word before.

"It's a type of craft," Altair explains. "A spacecraft, specifically."

"Spacecraft?" I echo. "Like the space station they talk about in the Forerunner Archives?" I stare at the object in the case. "This thing seems kinda small to be a craft. It's no bigger than a horse!"

"It's an unmanned object," Altair tells me. "For sending signals back and forth."

"Cool," I
say. "But how do you know that? And why are you showing it to me?"

Altair smiles.

He pulls one of his trusty throwing stars from his tunic jacket and holds it with one point drawn outward. Then his hand becomes a blur, striking outward at the glass. It shatters instantly.

I yelp in surprise and jump backward.

"What'd you do that for?" I ask.

Altair doesn't reply. Instead, he steps inside the case, coming up beside the satellite. He finds a panel on its round surface and pops it open. Inside is a messy jumble of wires, cables, and other stuff I know nothing about. He fiddles around with a few for a moment then, incredibly, a red light begins to blink intermittently. Altair steps away from the craft.

"How'd you know how to do that?" I ask. "This is Forerunner tech!"

"My people built it," Altair says, without preamble.

I must have misheard him.

"Come again?" I say, shaking my head.

"I just sent a signal back to my home, Juno." He hesitates. "It's time I
told you the truth of who I am, of where I come from. My people will be returning to this planet very soon."

"Your people?" I echo, shell shocked. "Altair, you're scaring me. Who are you?"

Altair takes me by both hands, staring me deep in the eyes. "I'm a Forerunner, Juno," he says.

THE END OF

EVERWINTER: THE FORERUNNER ARCHIVES

☯

About the Author

J. Rock lives in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and works in

the Parks & Recreation department. Other than writing and

reading, J. enjoys camping, fishing, mountain biking, and

plays bass guitar in a local alternative band. He is currently at

work on
the sequel to Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives.

              Contact J. Rock:
[email protected]

Dinosauria on the web:
http://dinosaurianovels.webs.com/

eBooks by J. Rock, available at all major online retailers:

Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives

Dinosauria Volume I

Part I: A Memory of Time

Part II: Garden

Part III: Twin City Crossroads

Part IV:
Nuevogato

Dinosauria Volume II

Part V: This Is War

Part VI: Purple

Part VII: Supermassive Black Hole

Part VIII: The Harrowing

Dinosauria Volume III

Part IX: The Hunt for the
Nuevogato

Part X: The Twisted Combination

Part XI: A Brief History of Dinosauria

Part XII: Worthy Adversary

Dino
sauria: The Complete Volumes I, II, & III

The Dinosauria Cycle (Volumes I-III)

The Death Clock - a short story

Ex Machina - a short story

Upcoming Works (working titles):

Untitled Forerunner Archives Sequel (2015)

In Other Worlds (2016)

Contact J. Rock:
[email protected]