Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble (Noah Zarc, #1) (19 page)

“Thanks, Dad.”

He raised his eyebrows and looked at me. A smile lit up his face, a face I was growing used to.

“When you have kids of your own, you’ll understand.”

“Well, I may not understand completely why you did what you did, but I know it’s a big deal. So thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Mom looked over at both of us. “So all this time you’ve been out here, waiting for us?”

“Well, not here exactly,” Dad said. “On the moon mostly.”

“When we met, in college? When we married? Had kids? You were on the moon?” Mom shook her head slightly. “I don’t know how you did it—how you kept from going crazy.”

“It wasn’t easy at times. What worried me most was that you’d find out about me somehow. But then I’d just remember you never
did
, so you wouldn’t.”

I groaned. “Time talk.”

Adina looked up from an app Mom found to help her learn English.

“I think it’s fascinating.”

Dad continued, “It was something you said in your transmission to me. Something you didn’t even mean for me to hear, probably.”

“Randolph Fletcher,” I said.

“Exactly.”

Mom rolled her eyes. “You both have ears like an elephant.”

“If there was anyone who could stop the nano-virus it was Dr. Fletcher. So I figured I’d head back and get his help. I joined up with the LCAS. It took some convincing, but after I told Randy some details about him that no one could possibly know, he believed I really was from the future. I knew him as a student in a class he would teach sixty years later.

“Once on board he threw every resource at the project. We had the best nano-biologists working on an anti-virus—the greatest engineers working on improving our ships. I was even able to improve Hamilton’s thermsuit design.

“I saw the new DUV-class ships,” I said. I’d been chomping at the bit to get a look at one up close.

“Yeah, they’re amazing.” Dad’s face fell. “We lost some good people this morning.”

I had a vision of the burning debris falling around Haon as he entered the atmosphere.

“I’m sorry, Dad.”

He shook his head. “Randy also gave me access to some of the best minds in the young science of time warping. We were able to advance the field tremendously. We are now much more accurate in our jumps. I can pinpoint not only a year but even a month within the year.”

Mom gasped. “That will change everything.”

“The first thing we’ll be able to do is go back and get another female Irish deer.”

She grinned from ear to ear. “What about Nowell Clark? Did you work with him?”

Dad put his hand to his chest and bowed his head. “At your service.”

“What?” Mom said. “You’re Nowell Clark? But…he’s the father of modern time travel!”

Dad laughed. “I’ve struggled with this for years. How could I be instrumental in the discovery of the mechanics of time travel yet only have knowledge of those mechanics because I was from a future where they had already been discovered?”

“See?” I looked at Adina. “Time talk. This stuff drives me crazy.”

“I don’t see a problem,” she said. “Sure, you had a hand in discovering time travel. But if you hadn’t, it would have been someone else. You’d traveled in time to get there, so obviously it had been discovered before you got there.”

Dad looked at Adina, raised his eyebrows, and grinned.

“It seems we have another Hamilton on our hands.”

I groaned. “Just what we need.”

There were four new DUV-class ships sitting in the hangar bay when we docked in the
ARC
. They had the same shape as the
DUV III
but were nearly twice as big. It took all the willpower I had not to jump into one and see what she was capable of.

When I had my fill of gazing at the new ships, I turned and saw five EV thermsuits hanging on the wall, just like the one Dad had worn. They all had warp manifolds and rocket boosters.

Dad saw me admiring them. “You’ll also notice the entire ship is using an artificial gravity system based on electromagnetism rather than velocity or centrifugal force.”

I frowned.

“I know, you loved floating around, but it’ll be much more comfortable for the animals.”

“You’ve certainly been busy,” I said.

“I wasn’t the only one.” Dad grinned. “You should go check on Elimu and Fathiya’s family.”

“Oh man!” I grabbed Adina by the hand. “Come on.”

We bolted to a magsphere. “Now you get to see what an elephant looks like.”

After several minutes, the hum of the magsphere slowed and Adina and I jumped out.

“Pod 749 holds the elephants.” We hurried down a long corridor towards the African Savannah environment. “746, 47, 48, here we are.” I stopped in front a large door. A holoscreen was mounted on the front.

Just as I moved to open it, Adina said, “Twenty-six elephants?”

I stopped and stared at the screen. “What? That’s… well, I guess it’s possible.” I pushed the door open. Hot, dry air laced with the smells of the African plains hit us in the face. I shaded my eyes when we moved out through a copse of Senegal gum trees. The artificial sun shone brightly, and it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust.

The entrance to the pod looked over a watering hole. Below us, a herd of elephants played in the water. Several sprayed themselves with showers of water and mud. A small elephant rolled on his back and wriggled, trumpeting his delight.

“Twenty-six elephants?” I shook my head and smiled. “I can’t believe it. Sam’ll be so happy.”

“They look funny without all their fur.” Adina giggled. “Do you have any mammoths on the ship?”

“Not yet. I imagine we will at some point, as long as there’s a good habitat for them on Earth.”

We sat and watched the elephants play for a while.

“Jonah!” I said.

“Who’s Jonah?” Adina looked at me like I’d lost it.

“Oh, he’s my favorite, wait till you see him.” I took one last look at the elephants and headed back to the magsphere. Within minutes, we were before a great wall of glass. A pod of blue whales swam in the current of the habitat.

Adina just stared at them, her face filled with wonder.

“I’d never have believed anything this large existed.”

I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to see something new every time you turned around. Adina never ceased to amaze me, though. She took each new animal or concept and seemed to understand it almost instantly. They’d have to rewrite the history books for sure when it came to the intelligence of the cavemen.

“Which one is Jonah?” Adina said.

“I’m not sure. I guess he’d be really old.” I moved to a holoscreen and did a quick search. A three dimensional display of the whale habitat appeared and a green glow outlined a large blue whale toward the back of the pod.

I dragged the image from the display over toward the windows and with a flick of my wrist snapped it in place. The glowing outline now appeared superimposed over the real Jonah, who swam alongside several other whales.

“Wow, he’s huge!” I couldn’t believe it was Jonah. “He must be over thirty meters.”

“How long are you going to keep them here?” Adina said. “I mean it seems like they’ll eventually outgrow the space. The elephants looked like they were doing okay, but these whales seem like they might be getting a little cramped.”

“I don’t know exactly. Mom and Dad only said they’d release them when the earth was ready for them. I wonder if things have changed now that all the animals have been on board the
ARC
for so long.”

Adina and I watched the whales for a while longer.

“I’m getting pretty hungry,” I said. “Let’s go see what Mom and Dad are doing.”

We found them on the bridge. They were talking to Sam back on Mars.

“So it’ll be about six days, sweetie,” Mom said. “I’ve sent instructions to the Foundation. From what I’ve seen, I think we’re about ready.”

“That’s great, Mom.” Sam sounded like she’d been crying. “I can’t wait to see you both.”

“Goodbye, dear,” Dad said.

“’Bye, Dad.”

Mom turned when she heard the hum of my chair behind her.

“Your sister and brother are doing fine. They’re upset they missed all the excitement.”

“I know I would be.” I looked out the window—already Earth was growing smaller as the
ARC
sped toward Mars.

“Why don’t you two have a seat?” Dad said. “I thought I’d talk to Noah alone, but since this affects you as well, Adina, I guess I can kill two birds with one stone.

“Your mother and I have been talking, Noah. I know you had every reason to be upset—we should have told you about Haon years ago, but that doesn’t excuse your behavior. You need to understand the severity of what you did, running off with Adina in the
DUV III
.”

I looked down at my shoes.

“At first I thought I’d take away your pilot privileges—requiring authorization before you set foot on any jumper ships. But you’ve shown that piloting is your gift. It wouldn’t be right to take that away. Nevertheless, unless there’s an extreme emergency, you are not to fly without our permission and our knowledge of your planned route. Understood?”

“Yes sir.”

“As to your punishment, you’re going to have to give up your room.”

I shot a glance at his face, which was set in stone.

“My room?”

“You seem to get yourself into all kinds of mischief, so I want your brother to keep a closer eye on you. Until further notice, you’ll be bunking with Hamilton.”

My parents knew just where to make it hurt. I loved having my own room. Hamilton’s bedroom was sterile like a hospital. It had no character. I’d worked for years to give my room that lived-in look.

“Where will Obadiah sleep?”

Mom smiled. “I’m sure you and Hamilton can work it out.”

“But Mom—”

“No buts, Noah,” Dad said. “This isn’t a negotiation.” He looked at Adina. “Now that leaves us with what to do about you.” He pointed his thumb at me. “Your champion here gave an impassioned plea on your behalf, saying your very life was in danger.”

I opened my mouth, but Dad raised his hand.

“I think I can guess your arguments. Adina will be one less mouth to feed for her people. You believe she won’t live long in that cold, hard world, but don’t you think she’s awfully good at fending for herself whatever the circumstances?”

I just sat there, miserable.
Here it comes.

Dad looked at Adina and stroked his beard.

“Hannah and I have agreed. You can stay.”

Adina jumped from her seat and ran over to Dad.

“Oh, thank you sir, you won’t regret it.” She gave him a big hug, then gave Mom one too. “I don’t know what I can do on board this ship, but I’m a hard worker. And I won’t ever let Noah do something so stupid again.” She glanced at me and winked.

“Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mrs. Zarc.”

“The first thing you can do is stop calling me sir.” He smiled. “None of that Mr. Zarc stuff either. You can call me Dad.”

Adina positively glowed.

“It wasn’t a hard decision. Hannah told me how you’ve adjusted already—and how helpful you were tracking Haon. I think you’ll be a great part of the team.”

I laughed. “Team Zarc.”

“And besides,” Dad said. “Now that Noah is moving in with his brother, we have an extra room.”

Adina’s smile grew even broader. “My own room?” She looked at me. “Can we go see it?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s still my room until I get my stuff moved out. Besides, you’ve already seen it.”

“Yes, but that was before it was mine.”

Minutes later we were in my room. She nearly danced as she moved about.

“I’ve never had anything to call my own before—I’m sorry Noah. I know this is your bedroom.”

I laughed. The idea that she didn’t have to go home rushed through me. I suddenly realized I didn’t want to live in a world without her in it, with or without my own bedroom. I felt my cheeks warming and looked at my hands.

“Hey, if this is what I have to put up with to keep you here, it’s worth it.”

Adina studied me for a minute, then came over and kissed me on the cheek.

“Thank you, Noah. You really are my champion.” Then she stepped back. “How… how long do you think your father will live, now that—”

“Now that he’s so old?” I said. I was glad we’d changed the subject, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to think about the new one. “I’m not sure,” I said at last. “He’s nearly a hundred and forty. I think the oldest person alive right now is close to a hundred and eighty. But who knows. Scientists are making breakthroughs every day.”

“Do those things he wears on his arms and legs help him?”

“I’m sure they help him walk and lift things, just like the thermsuit allows me to walk. Doctors are at the point now where they can replace nearly every part of the body with artificial components, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him live a long, long time.”

“I hope so. Sometimes I feel like it’s all my fault.”

“What?” I said. “How could it possibly be your fault?”

“If I hadn’t allowed you to take me to Mars. If your dad were the one to rescue your mom instead—he would have been on the
DUV III
chasing Haon.”

“But then he wouldn’t have been there to help us stop Haon. Dr. Fletcher wouldn’t have developed the anti-virus.”

“I know, but it still makes me think there might have been another way.”

“Well, I can tell you this. You’ll go crazy if you try to think through all the possibilities. Time travel will do that to you.” I looked around the room. “Now what do you think, can we make this room look like it belongs to you?”

“The first thing we can do is throw all this garbage away.”

I socked her in the arm. “It’s not garbage, it’s valuable treasure.”

“Garbage, treasure, it makes no difference, we just need to get it out of
my
room.”

Dad stood on a wooden platform constructed in front of the
DUV VI
. Several hundred people, all high-ranking officials in the Poligarchy or supporters of the Earth 3000 Foundation, stood in front of the stage.

“Today is the culmination of all our efforts,” he said. “Today marks a new beginning in the history of humankind—a history that sadly seems filled more with violence and destruction than kindness and benevolence.”

I looked over at Prime Senator Sarx. Even in the bright sunlight, his skin seemed waxy and artificial. He caught me watching him and gave me an oily smile. I shuddered and turned back toward my dad.

“When I was a little boy,” Dad continued, “my parents told me the story of Noah and the Ark. I was fascinated by the stories of animals of every kind and imagined that one day those animals would be more than just pictures on a holopad. That somehow we could rescue those animals from destruction, just as Noah did from the flood. That one day little boys and girls would walk in a land like this and see living, breathing animals and enjoy creation as it once was.”

Dad turned toward us. My whole family, including Adina, sat on the stage to his right. I breathed the rich air of the African Savannah—the
real
Savannah.

“And so, for my children and all the children of the Solar System, I dedicate Earth to a new generation of those who believe that
all
life is worth protecting.”

I glanced at Prime Senator Sarx again. He just nodded, holding a handkerchief to his mouth.

Dad beckoned to me. “Noah, if you would be so kind.”

I maneuvered my chair off the platform to the bay doors on the
DUV VI
. I waved my palm in front of the scanner, and the doors opened.

The crowd stood on tiptoes to see as first one, then another, and another of the descendants of Elimu and Fathiya emerged from the ship. The elephants’ long trunks tasted fresh air. The crowd gasped when the great gray beasts walked once more on land that had not seen them for nearly a thousand years. For a moment, the elephants seemed unsure, then they turned and trotted toward a thicket of jackalberry trees.