Begin Again

by K. A. Applegate

  Noyze frowned at them both.

  “Sorry,” Violet said. “I didn’t mean to make light of this….”

  Jobs tuned out and pretended to contemplate his ratty shoes. What he was really thinking about was his extreme unwillingness to let Echo’s innocent baby be harmed or die in the service of others. Sure, he wanted a green world, but who was he to ask a mother to risk her child’s life? Was he any better than Lumina? Was his life —or the life of anyone else on this stinking planet — more valuable than any other?

  “So — we’ve solved nothing, right?” Olga said, her voice loud enough with frustration to bring Jobs around. “Just in case I’m missing something here …”

  “It’s not up to us to solve anything,” Jobs said suddenly. “It’s up to Echo to say yes.”

  An uneasy silence followed, broken finally by Violet.

  “Let’s say Echo does agree. If we don’t identify the critical moment for the ritual soon …”

  Jobs smiled grimly. “It’s sticks and berries forever.”

  CHAPTER 16

  “J’OU WILL REGRET THIS NEW WORLD!”

  It was almost too easy. The Alpha girl got up to do her business away from the sleeping area.

  And she left her baby behind! Wedged In between an old woman — Aga — and a little kid —

  Walbert.

  Newton was big but he was stealthy. As soon as Snipe turned away from the sleeping area to check on the Source, he made his move.

  He slipped in among the women and children and snatched up the tiny bundle that was Echo’s baby.

  And without Echo’s baby, Mo’Steel and Sanchez and all the others would have no chance of getting their stupid green world.

  Nimbly, Newton leaped over the sleepers and ran full speed until he got out of easy sight.

  Then, he slowed his pace to a walk.

  But something was wrong.

  The baby was silent. Newton panicked and wondered if it was okay — and then wondered why he should even care. Because, he reminded himself, the plan — such as it was — was to give it to the Savagers, not to kill it.

  Newton didn’t pretend to be a good man but he refused to believe himself a monster.

  He held the baby’s face close to his ear and felt slight puffs of air. Good.

  His plan was going to work after all.

  He was strong. Well-fed. He’d been taking part of Grost’s and Yorka’s food portions for years. He knew he stood a good chance of finding the Savagers before long. And when he did, he’d make his presence known — from a safe distance — drop the baby, and hightail it back to the Source.

  What the Savagers did with the baby was their own call. At least Newton wouldn’t have blood on his hands. At least he’d have given the kid a chance. More important, he’d have stopped the regreening ritual.

  An unsettling thought reared its ugly head again, and this time Newton couldn’t beat it down. How would he explain his absence from the Marauder camp? How would he explain the baby’s absence without incriminating himself?

  Newton set his lips firmly. There seemed only one way. Newton would tell a story better than any that Violet girl had ever told! He’d say that a sound had woken him from sleep. That he’d gotten up to investigate and found Snipe nowhere in sight. That he’d seen some evidence of Savagers and that he’d followed their trail out of the camp. That after a while he’d heard the sound of a baby crying and continued his pursuit.

  And then, he’d tell the Marauders and Mo’Steel and the rest that there’d been a fight. A brutal fight to the finish. That he’d killed the kidnapping Savager. But that he’d been too late to save the baby.

  That story would make him a hero, all right. It would earn him back some of the respect he’d lost since the kid Mo’Steel had come along. It —

  “Just where do you think you’re going?”

  Newton whirled and almost lost his balance. Mo’Steel stood not two yards away, knife drawn, eyes boring into him.

  “I’ll drop it!” Newton raised the baby over his head — and felt a brutal pain behind his knees as someone or something slammed into them, causing them to buckle. Involuntarily, he released the baby but other hands were there to catch it.

  No … This couldn’t be happening….

  Nice work, Edward, Mo Steel said. You didn’t know you’ve been trailed since we got to the Source, did you?” he asked Newton. “No. Of course you didn’t. Or you wouldn’t have been so stupid.”

  Newton caught a glimmer of a small boy waving at him and walking backward toward the camp.

  Slowly he rose to his feet, knees wobbly. Badger — a Marauder! — stood a few feet away gripping a thick piece of metal in both hands. Jobs stood just to Badger’s left, holding the baby. And now Newton saw Cocker and Mattock emerge from the gloom behind Mo’Steel.

  Everybody was staring at him….

  “It’s over, Newton,” Mo’Steel said calmly. Almost casually.

  His tone enraged Newton, “J’ou will regret this new world!” he spat.

  “Nah. I don’t think so.”

  In a split second it came to Newton that he had no choice but to run. To stay with these people would mean being a prisoner. With a wild look to his left, Newton dashed into the semi-gloom.

  “Hey! Come back!” Mattock shouted.

  Cocker took a step after Newton but Mo’Steel grabbed his arm. “Let him go, ‘migo. Running away is what Newton does best.”

  “Do you think he’ll survive?” Jobs said.

  Mo’Steel shrugged. “For a while. He probably had some food and water with him. And he’s been in this desert all his life. He knows the ropes. But I doubt anyone, no matter how skilled, could last here alone. Besides, Newton’s stupid. And he’s a coward. I’m betting he won’t live to see his next birthday.”

  “Yeah,” Jobs said absentmindedly. He shifted the now sleeping infant. She’s only about two or three weeks old, isn’t she, he thought. So little. So frail. Just like her mother. Who cares about Newton? I wonder if Lumina will make it to her first birthday….

  The moment from which the voice was heard….

  Billy’s enigmatic words tickled through Jobs’s brain. They sounded and echoed and …

  Echo.

  That’s it, isn’t it, he thought. What Billy meant. The moment from which… A point of origin. A birthday…

  “I’m so stupid!” Jobs cried. “Why didn’t I see it before?”

  Mo’Steel grinned. “Well, I wouldn’t say stupid, exactly…. See what. Duck?”

  The other men and boys eyed Jobs curiously.

  “I think I know what Billy meant when he said. The moment from which the voice was heard.’”

  “Spill.” Mo’Steel ordered.

  “Okay. There’s an ancient legend, a Greek legend, about a nymph named Echo. She was in love with a guy named Narcissus but he was totally involved with himself.”

  Mo’Steel frowned. “There is a point here, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah. See, eventually Echo just pined away for love until all that was left of her was her voice. Get it? The voice. Echo. ‘The moment from which the voice was heard.’ I think Billy is talking about Echo’s birthday as the critical moment for the regreening ritual!”

  Jobs looked from dubious face to dubious face.

  “Uh, Duck? How do you even know that old story?”

  “Violet told me,” he admitted. “A long time ago, back when she had that villa on board Mother.

  What does it matter?”

  “This Billy,” Mattock said. “He would know the story, too?”

  “There are worlds in Billy’s head,” Mo’Steel said. “And who knows how his head works. Maybe he doesn’t even know. Besides, the Mayflower — and then Mother — the Source — the ship’s computer

  — had stored tons of files about human culture.”

  “This could be the answer, then,” Cocker said. “But we will talk to Sanchez.”

  “Mattock?” Badger asked. “Do you know Echo’s bi
rthday?”

  The Alpha shrugged. “Maybe ask Lyric. But I don’t think she’ll know.”

  Jobs grinned. “Okay. We have some investigating to do. But first, I’d better get Lumina back to her mother I, er, think her diaper needs to be changed.”

  CHAPTER 17

  “YOU’RE STILL WILLING TQ TAKE THIS CHANCE?”

  The camp was abuzz. The story of Newton’s attempted kidnapping had spread quickly.

  2Face had always known the big lug was good for nothing. He couldn’t even sneak off with a mewling infant!

  Now that the kid was safe and sound, the regreening ritual might still go forward. If Sanchez could figure out the final part of the puzzle. Which meant that Billy might still have his way with them.

  And that meant that it was up to 2Face — again — to put things right. To stop Billy.

  Without anyone knowing what she’d done.

  Everyone was gathered just outside the old ship. It was like a freakin’ jamboree, 2Face thought. Woo. Hoo.

  Mo’Steel was still bragging about the big save. 2Face pretended to listen with interest.

  “And the icing on the cake,” he said now, grinning, “is that Jobs got some divine inspiration or something and figured out what Billy meant by ‘the critical moment’ Sanchez is with Billy now, hoping to confirm our guess.”

  Rats! 2Face felt her stomach tighten.

  “Tell us!” Noyze cried.

  Jobs grinned. “Well, we owe a lot of thanks to Lyric. Luckily, she’s been keeping a journal since leaving the Alpha colony.”

  Big deal, 2Face thought.

  “That’s right,” the Alpha girl said. “And, before we left I — borrowed — Borlaug’s watch.

  It’s very, very old, but it works. And I’ve been very careful to wind it just enough so it never stops.”

  Blah, blah. Get on with it! 2Face screamed silently.

  “Lyric’s watch also has a calendar,” Jobs said now. “So she’s been keeping track of passing time in the Alpha tradition. It’s not so different,” he added, “from what we Remnants knew, back before the Rock.”

  Is there a point to all this blathering? 2Face wondered, shifting from one foot to the other.

  “And?” Violet prodded. “The suspense is killing me!”

  “And,” Jobs said, “it suddenly came to me what Billy meant by the critical moment for the ritual. He said to Sanchez that it was ‘the moment from which the voice was heard.’ I did some thinking and, well, came up with — Echo’s birthday. The exact time of her birth. But I had no way to know that information. And I couldn’t be sure Echo even knew it.”

  “So, he came to me.” Lyric was beaming now, and it made 2Face even angrier.

  “It was a long shot but… I lucked out. We all did.”

  “In my journal,” Lyric said, “I keep all sorts of information. Like important occasions. Like when Rainier died. And when Mattock passed his first round of medical training. And when Cocker came to the colony. I also marked down the exact time and date of Lumina’s birth.

  And a long time ago my mother told me the exact time and date of my own birth. And of Echo’s.”

  Olga shook her head. “Lyric, as of this moment you are our official record keeper.”

  “Yeah. J’ou are smarter than j’ou look,” Mattock teased.

  Lyric tried to scowl but it didn’t hold. “There’s a lot about me j’ou don’t know,” she said with mock haughtiness.

  Echo stepped toward Lyric. “I almost forgot,” she said softly. “About my birthday. With so much to worry about…”

  “Well,” Lyric replied, taking a round, brass-cased watch from a pocket of her tunic, “I didn’t forget. J’ou are my friend.”

  “And in exactly twenty-two hours and twelve minutes my time,” Jobs said, “you will be —”

  “17/365S,” Echo said.

  Just then, Sanchez emerged from the ruin. He surveyed the group and his eyes came to rest on Echo.

  “Jobs was right,” she said. “Wasn’t he?”

  Sanchez nodded. “I believe so.”

  There was a strangely expectant hush.

  Finally Echo spoke. “How can I thank j’ou all for saving my child?”

  2Face bit her cheek to keep from screaming. Here we go again…. That idiot, Jobs, actually blushed. He opened his mouth but no words came out. Dork. Badger, Mattock, and Cocker just stood there, mouths shut, looking stupid.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Mo’Steel said lightly. “It makes my day to play hero. I might even get myself a cape.”

  Echo looked puzzled but Mo’Steel didn’t seem to mind. How full of himself is this guy getting, 2Face wondered. But still, she kept her mouth shut.

  “I am afraid,” Echo said then, rubbing the baby’s back. “I don’t want to lose my child. But…

  I’m ready to trust j’ou all. And Billy.”

  Olga put her arm around the girl’s shoulders and looked all goopy.

  “We figured out the critical moment,” Mo’Steel said to Echo now. “All the pieces are in place. But you understand that none of us knows for sure if the regreening will go down okay.”

  Echo nodded.

  “You’re still willing to take this chance?”

  Again, the Alpha girl nodded.

  And 2Face’s stomach fell. Crap. Now that everything was in place for the regreening ritual, she didn’t have much time…. She could destroy Lyric’s watch, throw off their timing. But that wasn’t definitive enough. No, 2Face would stick to her original plan to eliminate the cause of all their troubles: Billy.

  And she would be very sure to throw suspicion off herself.

  “Wait a minute,” Noyze was saying. “Where’s Newton now?”

  Mo’Steel smiled oddly. “Well, he decided not to stick around for the consequences of his actions. In short, he ran away.”

  “You let him go?” 2Face blurted.

  Mo’Steel shrugged. “Why not? My guess is that he won’t get far before something big and ugly takes him down.”

  A downright jolly laugh burst from the hideous girl named Grost. Yeah, well, 2Face admitted silently, I’d be laughing, too, if I were her. Until Mo’Steel killed that Beast and put Newton in his place, Newton had made Grost his personal punching bag.

  “Too bad about that Newton,” Aga said, shaking her head. “He could have been a good —”

  “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” 2Face shot back vehemently.

  Olga chuckled. “Now there’s an expression I haven’t heard in a long time!”

  “Yeah. Mom, remember Grandpa used to say that?”

  “He had a cliché for every occasion. I —”

  “Could we stick to the subject, please!” 2Face cried. God, she thought she would explode.

  “The important thing is that Billy is safe and that his plan can proceed without obstruction.”

  “And just in the nick of time!” Noyze said.

  Most everyone moved off then to check on the freak or whatever.

  Violet stayed behind. 2Face didn’t like the look in her eyes.

  “So, you seem to have done a turnaround as far as Billy’s concerned,” she said.

  2Face forced a tone of innocence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure you do,” Violet said blandly. “It wasn’t too long ago that you were blaming Billy for our being stuck on this ratty planet. You thought he was in cahoots with Yago and the Troika.

  You said so.”

  2Face kept her mouth shut. She was giving her nothing.

  But that didn’t stop Miss Goody-Two-shoes.

  “It’s just that now you’re all pro-Billy,” she said. “You act like you trust him.”

  “I do trust him,” 2Face said simply, forcing a tone of truth.

  Buy it, you moron, she urged silently.

  Violet hesitated. And then something shifted in her eyes and she shrugged.

  “Okay,” she said. “So, see you around.”

  It was all 2Face could do n
ot to grin triumphantly.

  “Yeah,” she said sweetly. “See you around.”

  CHAPTER 18

  “I CARED ABOUT YOU.”

  It was okay that he was going to die. There were far worse things. Like being awake and alone for five hundred years.

  Besides, Mother wouldn’t let anything hurt him. Not anymore.

  Death would be different, though maybe not better or worse than where he was now. In a place between waking and sleeping, life and death.

  A place in which Billy still needed — or maybe just enjoyed — companionship. He liked the voices of humans. Humans like Jobs and Mo’Steel. And Sanchez.

  Billy sighed and felt his body unfurl ever so slightly.

  When he was dead, he wouldn’t need companionship. Maybe he wouldn’t even remember it.

  *

  It was easy to overpower D-Caf. He was down and out before he knew what had hit him. Harder had been to steal Claw’s tin-can-lid knife. The jagged, ultrathin blade was just the weapon 2Face needed to accomplish her goal.

  Get rid of Billy.

  And, as a consequence, stop the charade he’d concocted. A green world! 2Face hadn’t believed it possible for a moment.

  She stepped over the unconscious twitch and slunk inside the ruined ship. This time, she totally ignored the pile of bones and headed straight for the alcove in which she’d find her prey.

  There was no sound but for the shush of ash under her feet and her own steady breathing. 2Face held the makeshift knife loosely in her hand and —

  “You never did learn, did you? It’s like that old, old song. All you need is love. And all you had to do was listen.”

  2Face whipped around to face the person who’d just spoken. But no one was there.

  “Where are you?” she demanded. “Who’s there?”

  The response came readily.

  “It’s me, 2Face. It’s Tate.”

  2Face darted toward the crumpled bones. They were still. No dancing skeleton like in a cheesy car-toon.

  “Where are you?” 2Face demanded again, backing into the center of the ship.

  The voice laughed, but not nastily. “Oh, I’m here. And there. But I think the more important question is —”