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

by Pease, D. Robert

  The room exploded once again in a surge of electrical energy, and again we were knocked backward. Sam grabbed my arm as she fell and ended up taking me to the floor with her.

  I struggled to turn toward the center of the room, not easy with Sam splayed across my chest. Hamilton fell to ground in the same spot. The thermsuit, heavily charred, popped and creaked in the pressurized air of the hangar.

  Sam and Dad jumped to their feet and ran to Hamilton while I pulled myself back into my chair.

  They rolled him onto his back. Sam released the seals around Hamilton’s helmet and pulled it off. He lay still for a moment, eyes closed. Then he opened them and saw Dad hovering over him. His face filled with relief.

  “Dad, I’m so glad to see you’re okay.” He glanced at me and Sam. “All of you.”

  “What are you talking about? I just spoke with you on the comm a few minutes ago,” Dad said.

  “Of course.” Hamilton released the suit’s chest plate. “For me it’s been over a week. I followed Haon—he still has Mom.”

  The Zarc family, minus Mom, sat around a table in the mess hall. I desperately wanted to go see if Adina was okay, but first I had to hear Hamilton’s story.

  My brother scarfed down food like he hadn’t eaten in, well, a week.

  “Haon went home,” he said when he finally paused between bites.

  “What do you mean he went home?” Sam said. “To Mars?”

  “Of course Mars, in the year 3024. Home.”

  “Home,” Sam said.

  “You…followed him in the thermsuit?” Dad looked exhausted. I have to admit, my family is kind of a handful.

  “I’ve been working on the idea for quite a while,” Hamilton said around a mouthful of synth-turkey sandwich. “After Noah’s…successful test of the suit’s boosters, I was ready to try the warp manifold. While the DUV III’s computers were running some calibration tests, I installed the manifolds I’d constructed for the thermsuit. It’s really a simple matter, scaling down the technology to something as small as the suit. I actually stumbled on the idea while—”

  “We get it,” Sam said. “You did something that’s never been done before. What about Mom?”

  “Forget the explanations,” Dad said. “What happened?”

  Hamilton gave them both a look but continued.

  “I knew we’d never be able to follow Haon if I waited for you to get back. The DUV III wasn’t ready yet, so I used the thermsuit. After I retrieved the jump coordinates from Haon’s computer, I was able to follow him to the right time. My first jump was a bit of a shock—one moment I was standing in the hangar, the next floating in space. Once I oriented myself, though, I just followed the same course Haon had mapped out. His target was Current Standard Time on Mars, and each jump took me closer.”

  He finished up his lunch and pushed his plate away.

  “After the final jump, I moved into orbit around Mars.” He gazed beyond the pressurization shield, where the tiny red light that was Mars shimmered against the backdrop of the universe.

  “Haon de-orbited over the southern hemisphere. I tracked him to a small compound in the Gecko Desert—”

  “Where?” I said.

  “One of the few uninhabited places on the planet,” he said. “I landed about two kilometers from his compound. He had a fairly sophisticated alarm system surrounding the facility, and because breaking and entering isn’t my specialty, it took me nearly a day to write code to trick the system into thinking I was a small insect. After that, I hid the thermsuit and made my way into the compound.

  “I was surprised by the quality of the atmosphere. It’s far more breathable than—”

  “Hamilton.” Dad’s warning was quiet but deadly.

  “Scans showed only two human life forms and a vast array of artificial ones. I developed a schematic of the compound and located both humans.”

  Hamilton paused. He almost looked worried.

  “Haon has access to some of the most advanced technology I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I’m fairly sure I saw an experiment centered on the idea of replicating the conscious mind of a living organism and transferring it to a robotic one.” He was getting more enthusiastic by the word. “It was fascinating, seeing a colony of robotic mice navigate the classic maze test with such speed and accuracy—”

  “Hamilton!” we all shouted at the same time.

  “Sorry.” His face reddened slightly. “Anyway, I finally found a room with a single human life-form. I hacked in to the CCTV system and obtained visual and audio. Just watch.”

  Hamilton removed his wrist-comm and placed it in the middle of the table, activating the holo-display. An image flickered above the table—Mom, tied to a chair.

  Hamilton slid his finger through the image, fast-forwarding to a point when Haon entered the room.

  “Did you drug me?” Mom said. “How long have I been out?”

  “You understand the need, of course,” Haon said. “I couldn’t let you know where we were going. Once you’ve completed what I asked, you’ll be free to go.”

  “I absolutely refuse!”

  “You can’t refuse.” Haon stood over her, fists clenched. “When you look at it logically you really have no choice.”

  Again, looking at Haon, I had a sense there was something I’d forgotten.

  “Why, because you’ll kill me?” Mom said. “Do you really think that’s incentive enough for me to help you destroy every living animal on Earth, for the second time?”

  Haon paced the room. When he stopped, he seemed to be staring into the CCTV, right at me.

  “I know fear for your own life won’t motivate you.” He moved to a holoscreen. “But maybe this will.”

  He brought up an image of Dad, shivering in the cold, seated by a meager fire.

  “I know where your beloved husband is—or should I say when.” He glared at her. “Even now my drones wait for the order. Your husband won’t know what hit him.”

  I looked at Dad.

  He shook his head. “The assassin bots were there the whole time. But if he thinks I’m still back in the Ice Age, we might be a few steps ahead of him.”

  The recording continued.

  “You’re a lot of things, Haon, but a cold-blooded murderer? Are you really going to cross that line?”

  He smiled.

  “When you and I left the twelfth century, a ship tracked us. A very large ship.” His laugh made me shiver.

  Mom lunged towards him, straining at the restraints.

  “They’re children! Ben, please—”

  He whipped around and raised his hand as if to strike.

  “Don’t call me that!”

  Mom shrunk back in her seat. “I know it’s been difficult, losing Shalia, giving up your son—”

  “You have no idea.” His voice sounded thick. “You with your perfect life—your perfect husband, perfect kids...”

  He swung toward her once more.

  “And all the solar system supporting your foolish plan! Shalia knew. Soon the entire human race will know the folly of leaving Earth in the hands of a bunch of planet huggers!”

  He leaned over and put his hands on the arms of Mom’s chair.

  “Have you been to Venus lately, Hannah? Have you seen what it’s like to live in that environment?”

  He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Children have nothing to eat. Cities are packed tight as weaver-bots in a Tylin silk factory. People are dying. What kind of civilization have we become?”

  “It’s getting better—”

  “This is the thirty-first century! People shouldn’t have to live like animals. Worse than animals.” His eyes burned. “When did animals become more important than people? When?”

  “The colonists on Venus made their choice—”

  “Their choice?” He shoved his finger in her face. “It’s insanity, Hannah—you’re turning a perfect planet, the one planet uniquely suited for human life, into a zoo?”

>   Mom sat still with her mouth shut tight.

  “So there you have it. I know where your husband is. I know where your kids are. What shall it be?”

  “If you so much as touch a hair on my children’s heads, I’ll—”

  “You’re tied to a chair, Hannah—hardly in a position to make threats.” He stood, hands on his hips, and smiled. His hands on his hips?

  Mom’s body sagged. For the longest moment she just sat there. At last, she lifted her head and looked at Haon. When she spoke I could barely hear her.

  “I’ll finish it.”

  “Good,” he said. “By the way, set aside any thoughts of escape. Security-bots are stationed just outside, and they’ll vaporize you the moment you walk out this door. I’m the only one who can come or go.”

  Hamilton reached forward and switched off the holo-display. I twitched—I’d been watching so intently I’d almost forgotten that I wasn’t right there with them. With Mom.

  “At this point—”

  “Did you see his hands?”

  Everyone stared at me.

  “Just as well as you,” Sam said.

  “His right arm was broken when we fought,” I said. “But we could all see, he’s fine. There wasn’t a scratch on him.”

  Sam frowned. “Are you sure it was broken? You blacked out, remember?”

  “No, his arm was almost cut in half, only…”

  “Only what?” Dad said.

  “Only it wasn’t a real arm,” I said. “It was a robot arm.”

  “Of course,” Sam said. “I guess he just got back to Mars and swapped it out for a new one. No wonder he doesn’t look like he was in a fight with a twelve-year-old boy and his killer magchair. And why didn’t Haon tell Mom he saw you? He said he saw our ship but said nothing about fighting with you.”

  “I almost stopped him!” I was furious. “Maybe he didn’t want her to know—she was unconscious, she didn’t see me...” I knew there was something else—something Haon said! Why couldn’t I remember it?

  “You have to admit,” Hamilton said, “the whole thing does sound a bit far-fetched.”

  Dad held up his hands.

  “Enough. At the moment we have more important things to worry about than Haon’s robot arm.”

  Right then, I hated my brother and sister. Would it kill them to just believe me? Besides, why would I lie?

  “So why didn’t you save Mom?” I glared at Hamilton. I wanted to storm out of the room, but I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction.

  He sighed and put his comm back on his wrist.

  “I couldn’t shake the feeling the whole place was a trap, so for the next three days I hid in a supply closet. Gradually, I pieced together Haon’s plan.

  “We know Haon wants Earth for the Venusians. He’s been fighting the ARC project from the beginning.”

  He glanced at Dad. I could tell Hamilton was picking his words carefully.

  “At first he took his claims to the Poligarchy—perfectly legal, perfectly proper.”

  Dad raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

  “When that didn’t work he moved on to other endeavors,” Hamilton said. “Somehow he always seems to know when and where we’re going to retrieve animals, and he always sends robots to stop us. And now it seems he’s even figured out how to travel through time himself, without the Poligarchy’s knowledge.”

  “We know all this,” Sam said. “But he’s losing. We have a ship full of animals. The last report we received on Earth’s status was great. More than sixty percent of the planet is habitable again. Even organisms that had lain dormant are coming back to life, plant life especially. The African continent is especially strong and can now be repopulated.”

  “And it appears Haon’s prepared to admit defeat on that account,” Hamilton said. “Which is why he captured Mom. The whole Irish deer incident was an elaborate trap—he needs Mom for a new scheme.”

  He looked at his hands, folded on the table.

  “Haon is using Mom to create a nano-bomb—an autonomous, self-replicating, carbon-based nano-bot, to be precise—that’s programmed to consume all non-human, living carbon-molecules it comes in contact with.”

  I stared at my brother, truly horrified.

  “Haon is forcing Mom to create a virus that will destroy every living animal, here on the ARC or back on Earth, once we release the animals there.”

  “But she would never do that!” I said.

  Hamilton glanced up at me. Something had changed in him—he looked miserable. He’d always hoped Haon wasn’t the monster Dad said he was—now he had proof that Dad was right all along.

  “What would you do if Haon said he would kill everyone you love if you didn’t do what he asked?”

  “I’d fight him. I’d escape.” Tears stung my eyes. I looked away. “She can’t let him destroy the animals again,” I whispered. “She can’t.”

  The hum of the ventilation system filled the room. We all watched each other, hoping someone would offer a way out. Surely Dad would be able to come up with a plan.

  He looked at Hamilton. “What happened before you left?”

  It took a minute before he could answer, and he wouldn’t look at any of us.

  “I tried to rescue Mom. I failed. I nearly got her killed in the process.”

  Dad’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the arms of his chair.

  “What happened?”

  “I couldn’t bring her back with the thermsuit, so I needed a ship. I found the DUV II in a hanger, ready for flight. All I had to do was get Mom out of the lab and on board.

  “It took me a while, but I figured out a way to override the security protocols.” Normally he’d tell us exactly how he did it, but he sailed right on.

  He must really be worried.

  “No alarms sounded when I entered Mom’s room. Of course she was stunned to see me, of course she was furious at the danger I’d put myself in by coming there.

  “We made a run for it. I led her down the hall toward the hangar. After about twenty meters I heard her scream. For a moment, I thought we’d been caught. Then I looked at Mom. She had her hands to her head. She said she had a sudden, sharp pain, but she pushed me forward.”

  Hamilton wiped sweat from his brow. I’d never seen him so rattled.

  “We ran down the hall. After only a few more meters, she screamed again. I stopped, but she told me to keep moving.

  “I sprinted ahead to open the door to the hangar. Mom followed. She stumbled, and I bent to help her just as the door opened.

  “It was Haon. I tried to push past him, but he was just too big. He grabbed my arm in a vise grip, reached down with his other hand, and yanked Mom up by the arm.

  “She was in so much pain she could barely stand. I was equally helpless.”

  Hamilton pushed his chair back, stood, and paced around the mess hall. My confident brother looked at his wits end.

  “Haon had each of us by an arm. As we drew closer to the lab, Mom staggered. When Haon paused, she smashed both her fists into his face. He let go of me, and Mom shouted for me to run. So I did.”

  He glanced at Dad, who nodded—maybe to let him know he’d done the right thing.

  “I heard Haon throw Mom into the lab and slam the door,” Hamilton said. “Within seconds, he was running after me.

  “I ran into the hangar and jammed the door behind me. I’d already initiated the launch sequence on the DUV II. Haon had another smaller ship sitting next to it. I decided maybe I could get him to chase me or at least chase the ship. I accessed the DUV II’s controls on my wrist-comm and instructed it to take off toward Venus.

  “Haon crashed through the door just as the ship took off but he didn’t follow. He was obviously convinced I’d left in the DUV II, but he didn’t seem to care. It was Mom he wanted.

  “Is she okay?” Sam said. “What was wrong with her?”

  “I’m not sure—”

  “It sounds like a neuro pain inducer.”

 
We all looked at Dad.

  “It was most likely calibrated to a certain radius around the lab,” he said. “When she moved outside that radius, it began sending serious pain signals to her brain.”

  Dad shook his head. “That man is evil but he’s also a genius. I’m not sure what would’ve happened to your mother if you’d made it to the ship and actually blasted off Mars. I suspect the pain would either have killed her or driven her mad.”

  I couldn’t stand it any longer. “We need to go get her, now!”

  “Agreed,” Dad said.

  “Noah?”

  A small voice at the door made us all turn to look. Adina peeked in from the hallway.

  “You left her here by herself?” Dad surged to his feet, hands clenched at his side.

  “Hamilton was here.” I knew that wouldn’t fly the moment the words left my lips.

  Hamilton shook his head. “I had no idea she—”

  “She could’ve gotten lost for weeks on a ship the size of the ARC!” Dad glared at me. “Aside from the fact that bringing her here was in direct violation of the Poligarchy’s orders and my wishes—”

  “Dad, she—”

  “Don’t Dad me,” he said. “This is unacceptable. She’ll have to be returned to the surface.”

  “But she’ll die!”

  “We’re all going to die someday, Noah.” The vein in his forehead was throbbing. “You remind me so much of my brother—” He slammed his mouth shut.

  I felt like I’d been socked in the stomach. Haon’s voice filled my head: That wouldn’t be very fatherly of me.

  “Who’s your brother?” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady.

  Dad’s face turned white. He spun toward Sam.

  “Take Adina to your room.”

  Sam opened her mouth, hesitated, then shut it. She glanced at me with dread in her eyes, turned, and nudged Adina toward the door.

  “I’m sorry,” I mouthed to Adina. Of course she had no idea what I said—what any of us said for that matter, since no one had in a Triple-B. From the look on her face, she got the drift.

  “Hamilton, get the ARC ready to jump. I want to…” Dad’s voice was still furious. “Just get her ready.”

  My brother all but ran from the room, leaving me alone with my dad.