yellow light.
Nick cupped his hands around his face to try and see past the webbed glass. Nothing changed.
“Do you see anything over there?” said Nick.
“No, dude,” said Xanthus. “No expanding vortex. No epic, magical gate. Nothing.”
“Come on, Grand,” Nick groaned.
“Nick,” Xanthus said, “your grandpa is nuts, isn’t he? We’re dead! We’re all dead! The navigation system says we can’t go back now. Not enough fuel. I never even got to kiss Caroline on the mouth.”
Nick turned slowly to Xanthus.
“What? I know you guys think I’m this virtuoso of mythological creatures, but I need love, too!”
Nick’s eyes fell on the trash chute just below Xanthus’ leg.
“Waitasecond!” Nick said. “These shuttles are lined with a UV shield. Grand said the stone interacted with solar light. We have to get the stone outside.”
The chute slid open at the presence of Nick’s hand, and he shoved the chronostone down. They heard rock scraping through the garbage chute. Metal screamed, and the shuttle kicked from the rear.
A reddish wave rolled over the shuttle.
“Wow,” said Xanthus.
“That’s a good sign, right, Nick?” Haley’s voice crackled over the intercom.
“It’s the gateway. Strap yourselves in.”
A shimmering pocket materialized into a bright, conical object. Its walls were lined with thousands of red comets spinning into a magma center. For all Nick knew, the gateway was the building block of the universe, ready to crush the ship into light and heat. They were about to find out.
“Here we go . . .” someone said over the intercom.
Twelve • Mermaids
They were thrown out of a bloom of red fire.
“Did it work—?” Haley’s voice faded away and then returned. “That’s awesome! Are you guys seeing this?”
Xanthus and Nick gasped. Grand’s stardust rendering had nothing on the real Mon and Earth.
“Are you seeing this, Nick?” Haley repeated. Brandy and Caroline squealed from somewhere in the background.
“Yeah,” said Nick. “There is another world, but it is in this one.”
It was Xanthus’ turn to look at Nick.
“Yeats,” said Nick.
The brother planets were anything but peaceable. Mon hung over Earth, recalling images of Atlas bearing the weight of an entire planet. The sun cast a paternal light between the two weather systems, revealing a black mass of cloud and dust. Lightning crackled around the otherwise hidden tether. But it was the unreal beauty of Mon that made Nick unbuckle his harness and crawl over Xanthus. Scattered underneath the clouds were islands, craggy and desperate. The continents were covered in ripples of mountains smoothing into deep valleys. The land masses were utterly blanketed in wild vegetation. There might be cities down there, but Nick couldn’t see them.
It looked nothing like Moon.
“Are you guys getting this?” Tim said.
“Yeah,” said Nick. “All of it.”
“Please remain in your seats as we begin our descent to Earth’s Keranu Walls,” the auto-pilot announced. The shuttle took a sharp right from Mon and steered directly toward Earth.
“Wait,” said Xanthus. “We’re not supposed to land on Earth. We’re going to Huron, I thought?”
“I don’t know.” Nick buckled himself in. “We’ll see, I guess.”
The shuttle nosed toward Earth. Belts of clouds were the only thing they could see for several minutes until they hit atmosphere. The stars disappeared under steam and fire. Finally, they passed through the cloud line, revealing a swampy landscape with a circle of stone crowning the tether. On a closer look, the tether seemed to be organic, even tree-like. Well, aside from the fact that trees don’t grow to the size of mountains.
“I think that’s the Keranu Wall,” Xanthus said.
“Landing sequence initiated,” announced the auto-pilot.
Suddenly, a grey object flashed by. Before Nick could make out what it was, wind punched through the cockpit and sprayed glass everywhere.
“Hold on to something!” Nick yelled to the intercom. “We’ve been hit! Something blew out the windshield. Prepare for a crash landing.”
The space shuttle flipped over, turning cloud and Earth into a kaleidoscope. After a few rotations, the shuttle stopped tumbling and fell into a corkscrew.
“Sorry, Caroline,” Nick said to himself.
The passenger door whipped open, revealing a very confused Grand. He leapt for Nick’s controls.
“Auto-pilot overridden. Emergency landing sequence initiated,” the auto-pilot announced.
After a few grunts and curses, Grand leveled the shuttle. Nick heard something like the small blast of air and two parachutes opening from the wings.
Too late.
Branches slapped the window. The shuttle slammed ground, skipping over rocks and bushes. Tree limbs shredded the parachutes. Rocks scrapped the bottom, and muddy water sprayed over the windshield. They slid for what seemed like an eternity, until a tuft of land kicked them to a stop. Grass