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

Mammoth Trouble

D. Robert Pease

For Samuel and Abigail.

My first readers, best critics and ardent supporters.

Fire roared beneath me even as the ever-thinning air grew colder. The thrusters on my boots shuddered. The thermsuit popped and rattled, and I felt sure it would disintegrate before I tore free of Earth’s gravity.

And if it didn’t, my sister would kill me.

The blue sky darkened. I didn’t dare look down. Turning my head could send me careening off course, plummeting toward the surface fifty kilometers below. A blip on my heads-up display beeped. I’d pulled away from the assassin-bots, but I knew they were still there, watching me rocket toward the cold depths of space.

Hamilton had said the suit would never hold up if I left Earth in it, but I figured my big brother just wanted to keep me from trying.

“You’d most likely lose control and burn up on reentry,” he said. “Then we’d have to tell Mom and Dad why their youngest son is nothing but an ash cloud drifting over the Atlantic.”

“Then why’s the suit retrofitted with a second-stage booster?” I asked.

“Because,” my sister Sam said, “someday
we
might need it in an emergency.”

Well, if outrunning a half-dozen killer robots wasn’t an emergency, I didn’t know what was.

An alarm sounded in my ear.
Initiate second-stage
scrolled across the visor.

“Let’s just hope this thing works. Fire second-stage boosters.” For a second nothing happened, then just before panic set in, the rockets ignited. My head snapped forward when fire roared behind me. For a heartbeat, I wobbled. Then straightened my head, thrust my open hands downward, and stabilized myself. Once more, I shot heavenward. Ice that had formed on my suit in the lower atmosphere shattered and fell toward Earth. Within moments the sky above lost nearly all its blue.

Thirty-seconds to engine shutdown.

I strained against the forces buffeting me. Just a few more seconds.

The beeping stopped. I was home free.

Ten seconds to engine shutdown.

Billions of stars sparkled against the darkness of space.

Main booster shutdown.

Silence.

Switching to navigation thrusters only.

For a moment I coasted in space enjoying the view. The Milky Way, with its wide bands of blue, red, yellow, and white stars, cut across my vision. I looked toward Earth, the shimmering blue horizon receding below me. Green and brown patches crisscrossed with roads, small towns, and cities covered the southeastern United States. A swirl of clouds churned over the Atlantic. The earth is so alive during the twenty-first century—unlike my own time, nearly a thousand years in the future. 

Someday it’ll look like this again.

I winced when a sharp pain tore at my abdomen. The two little black-tufted marmosets, rescued from certain extinction and now tucked safely inside my suit, were getting restless. One dug its claws into my stomach.

“All right, all right, calm down. We’ll be there soon.” I looked back toward the heavens and up at the giant, cratered moon. “Time to go home.”

“Noah! Do you have any idea how stupid that was?” Sam glared at me from the doorway.

“But you’ve got to admit it was really cool.” I lay back on my bed, petting my dog Obadiah, waiting for my sister to finish chewing me out. I was twelve, but she treated me like a baby.

Sam stood with her hands on her hips, trying to look like Mom. They had the same sandy blond hair, but Sam’s was always in a ponytail, otherwise it’d be sticking up everywhere. She had a grease smudge on her cheek that matched the stains on her coveralls. Definitely not Mom no matter what she thought.

“I’m in charge while Mom and Dad are gone.” Sam jerked a thumb towards her chest. “Earth in the twenty-first century is dangerous enough! I should never have taken you down there—do you know what kind of trouble I’d be in if you got yourself killed? Do you even
care
?”

For the first time, I thought I might have gone just a bit too far.

“Just plain stupid, Noah!” She glared, her dark eyes boring into me. Everyone in my family had brown eyes, except for me—mine were blue. A freak of nature was the way my sister explained it, which is surprising considering my eye color was the least of my “deformities.”

Hamilton came into the room, huffing and puffing—probably ran all the way from the magsphere. At fourteen, he already had a hacker’s body, a little soft and pudgy. He looked around and wrinkled his nose, which made me smile. Hamilton normally steered clear of my room, calling it a putrid petri dish for
staphyl-something
and
pseudo-something-else.
Maybe he really was that smart, but he didn’t have to show off all the time by using words nobody understood.

Anyway, I absolutely knew there was no better place in the solar system than my room. It might be a mess, but it was my mess.

“So,” Sam said. “Did he damage the suit?”

Hamilton shook his head. “Of course the boosters have considerable carbon build-up and the fuel cells are depleted. But the gyro-servos are intact, and there doesn’t appear to be any significant wear on the memory polymer skin.” He frowned at me—Sam glares, Hamilton frowns. “Your actions were incredibly shortsighted.”

“So Sam was telling me.” I tried to look serious, but I hadn’t yet shaken off the exhilaration of that flight. I glanced at my magchair sitting in the corner. How do they expect me to react, when I spend most of my time in that thing?

I was born without the use of both of my legs—a paraplegic. The only time I feel
free
is when I’m piloting a ship. I realized I was smiling again, couldn’t help it. Now I could add flying in a thermsuit to the list. Hamilton and Sam just didn’t get it.

“You were supposed to signal us when you had the marmosets.” Sam calmed a bit while she paced, stepping over piles of clothes. “I could’ve been there in forty minutes to pick you up.”

“I told you, Haon was there. I couldn’t wait.”

“Did you actually see him?” Her brows scrunched up.

“Well, no.” My cheeks got hot. “I was a little distracted by the robots trying to kill me.”

“Noah…” Sam shook her head. “You wouldn’t remember what he looks like, anyway. You were only what, five when you met him?”

It was back on Mars. The Zarc family was the guest of honor at a benefit for the Earth 3000 Foundation. I was playing hide and seek with another boy—
what was his name? Stevie? —
when I ran right into a giant of a man.

“What have we here?” He said, lifting my chin with his finger. “One of the Zarc children. You must be so proud of your papa. He’s an interplanetary hero—off to save the animals.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “My daddy’s going to let me have a pet ellerphlant.”

He loomed over me. “Your daddy has no business messing with the natural order of the universe!” I shivered as his face nearly touched mine. After all these years I could still smell his breath, like rotten meat.

“The animals died out for a reason. The earth was meant to be used for the good of mankind, not some
zoo
for
ellerphlants!
”

His face got so red I was sure he was going to hit me. So I smashed into his shins and sped off. He was gone by the time I dragged Dad back, but I was sure it was Haon. I’d heard the stories about the man who’d dedicated his life to stopping the
ARC
project, and I’d built a picture of him in my head. This guy fit every detail.

“So you have no proof it was Haon you saw?” Sam put her fists on her hips.

“No,” I said. “But how do you explain the assassin-bots? Only Haon could have that technology in the twenty-first century.”

“It doesn’t prove Haon was
there
. No one is allowed to travel through time except us—”

“No one’s
allowed
,” I said. “Doesn’t mean he didn’t do it anyway.”

“He’d be risking life in prison if he did,” Hamilton said, “or worse. He could never return to Mars, or Venus—he’d be apprehended the moment he set foot on either planet.”

Every human born on Venus or Mars has their DNA sequenced and stored in the Poligarchy’s computer system. Time travel leaves trace markers in their DNA and regular searches would flag anyone who didn’t match their saved signature. I, along with the rest of my family, would set off all kinds of alarms if we weren’t designated as the only humans alive allowed to time travel.

“Well, I know what I saw.” I glared at both of them. “And just because it doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”

They glanced at each other. Hamilton shrugged. Sam rolled her eyes.

“Someday you’ll want me to believe you,” I said, “and I’m not going to. I know what I saw, he—”

“Nothing we can do about it now.” Sam shook her head. “I don’t understand why you have to be so stupid.”

“I’m not the one being stupid—”

“You need to grow up, Noah.” She turned to leave.

I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at her. Everything I did lately made her mad. Everything anybody did for that matter.

At the door Sam whipped around, her ponytail snapping behind her head.

“Help Ham get the suit cleaned up. Then move your butt down to pod 3794. We have to get the habitat ready.” Sam glared at me once more, then stormed out.

“Seems our sister’s none too happy.”

Hamilton smiled slightly as he watched her leave. When she was out of earshot, he turned to me.

“I can’t condone what you did, but…” He dropped his voice. “How’d the suit handle? Was it incredible?”

I grinned. “You should’ve seen the look on Haon’s face when I hit the magthrusters and launched right in front of him.”

Hamilton raised his eyebrows. “You really think it was Haon?”

“I do.” I saw a glimmer of excitement in my brother’s eyes. Haon was bent on destroying the
ARC
project, but some of what he said rang true for Hamilton—political stuff and the proper use of Earth. He and Dad got into huge fights about it.

“Well, he scrambled the assassin bots quick enough,” I said. “I lost them with the second stage boosters.” I massaged my neck. “About snapped my head off when the rockets fired, though. You should’ve warned me about that.”

“I told you not to use the thrusters at all.” Hamilton tried for a stern look but didn’t make it. “Nevertheless, I’m pleased. The suit exceeded even my best estimates.” He surveyed the room. “Were you able to retrieve the marmosets?”

I pointed to my desk, cluttered with this morning’s homework.
A Brief History of Time Travel
by Nowell Clark was still displayed on my holopad’s screen. Inside a clear box were two tiny monkeys about twenty centimeters long, with their signature black-tufted ears.

“I’m not sure they liked the ride up as much as I did. One of them grabbed onto my stomach for dear life.” I lifted my shirt and displayed dozens of red marks peppering my skin. “But I rescued them before Haon got there.”

Hamilton lifted the box from the desk. “We’ll need to get down to the infirmary and give them their shots.” One of the monkeys screeched when Hamilton set the box back down.

Of course Obadiah jumped off my bed and padded over. His nose twitched as he tried to figure out how to get on my desk for a closer look. The marmosets screeched again and started hopping around in their box.

Hamilton laughed when Obadiah turned his pleading hound-dog eyes my way.

“I don’t think they’re in the mood to play with your dog.” He looked at me for a minute. “Why don’t you take the marmosets down, then get something to eat. I’ll refurbish the thermsuit on my own. I’m quite certain I don’t want you anywhere near it ever again.” He headed for the door, then turned.

“The thrusters about snapped your head off, did they?” He shook his head. “Why is it I spend all my time designing technological marvels that I never get to use?”

I reached in and carefully lifted one of the marmosets from the box, avoiding its sharp teeth.

“Come on little guy, I won’t hurt you.” I held the monkey up. “Umm, sorry… little girl.” I could feel her heart racing. “Just a small pinch and you can go back in the box.” I held her tight and placed her little rump against the injector. She flinched when the machine clicked. “See, that wasn’t so bad.” She glared at me.

With one injection, the machine had given her all the vaccinations she needed and inserted a small tracking device so we’d always be able to find her in the rainforest habitat.

“Now for your boyfriend.”

He didn’t take it much better. In fact he got a good bite on my arm, and it took a while to coax him back in the box after his shot.

When I was little, I’d take it personally when animals bit me. But the more time I spent with them, the more I realized how hard what we were doing was on them. These two little monkeys were running around the forests of Brazil with no clue their species would be wiped out in a couple hundred years. And suddenly I show up, throw a net over them, and haul them off to a room on the moon—a room with sterile white walls, the smell of ozone in the artificially produced air, the hum of instruments in the infirmary—enough to scare any creature out of its wits.

Now I saw my scars as badges of honor. Every bite meant another animal would live. Rescuing these creatures, even if they didn’t know they needed rescuing, was what I was meant to do.