The Lost Children of Andromeda: 2052 Ends With Z

Prologue - 205Z

PROLOGUE

ALLISTER ADAMS

Cumberland Falls, Kentucky, 2040 AD

Allister Adams hoped the worst had come and gone.

It was well-intentioned hope. A child's hope. As flashes of blue light spread through the passing thunderclouds. The sky rumbled a few times more, sounding angry, the last of its evening thunderstorm threatening the quiet town.

Allister, a boy midway through his seventh trip around the sun, sat on the grooved floor of his dad's car, an Ukimoto Hover Model X. His arms were wrapped around his legs, his chin pushed against his thighs. He was sulking, mostly because he was being told to stay out of sight.

His dad had always said nothing was the same after the West Coast earthquake. But now something else was coming, something more powerful, if that were even possible. It seemed the worst was still on its way.

The conversation about the car rules neared its end with his dad kneeling in the passenger doorway, wearing an uncharacteristic scowl. His beard was overgrown. His long, dreadlocked hair was tied on his head like frayed rope in a loose knot.

"No matter what you hear outside, don't you go gettin' up in that seat," his dad warned.

Allister side-eyed him, impatient, suspicious, waiting for his dad's often-comforting smile to reappear.

"But, Pops...what if the...the storm comes back...and...and...you need help?" he finally asked.

"Storms aren't made to hurt us. They're just Mother Nature tellin' us how she feels." His dad flipped the straps on his overalls and smiled at last, though it wasn't very big. He stood after he finished and stared out at something Allister couldn't see. "Stay low, okay? It's too dangerous out here, son."

Allister frowned.

There went the D word again. When something was dangerous, then it couldn't be done. Those were the house rules.

His dad lowered the car's door and left Allister alone in the power plant's parking lot, the place he spent most nights when both his parents were called to their separate out-of-the-house duties.

Allister's smooth, steady breaths came with ease, even in the car's confined space. But a sense of wonder kept pulling his eyes to the windshield, as he hoped to catch a glimpse of a lightning strike in the forest or wind twirling objects into the air. Hoping to experience this dangerous his parents always warned about.

He picked up his toy unicorn, which had been stuffed beside him in the seat, and nodded as he repeated, "Stay low," to himself, once again comforted by his own imagination. With a quiet whoosh from his lips, he lifted the unicorn up, letting it take off toward a pretend sky.

Then the car began rocking back and forth, swaying like their house often did against the wind, clanking like loose pipes as it moved. Startled, he froze the unicorn in midflight.

Strong bursts of wind howled through the air. A light too bright to be lightning blasted through the windshield. An engine somewhere above screamed, louder than any thunder he'd ever heard.

His dad's warning to stay low repeated in his ears. Also present was his own curiosity about the powerful thing on its way. He climbed onto the seat for a better view and plastered his hands against the dashboard to look out over the grass.

There he saw a squiggly line of blue light soaring up from the facility's open ceiling toward a break in the clouds. The strange light quivered and flashed and fizzled and brightened, struggling to stay connected to a glowing oval that was falling, as if from space.