WORLD FORGOT (The Ever-Expanding Universe, Band 3) - Softcover

LEICHT, MARTIN

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1481442880 ISBN 13: 9781481442886

Verlag: Pocket Books, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

“Who knew science fiction about unwed motherhood could be so very hysterical?” ―Kirkus Reviews After dealing with killer whales, evil scientists, the return of her long-lost mother and, certainly not least of all, the challenges of breastfeeding, Elvie Nara has just about had it. And then the Jin’Kai (along with the aforementioned estranged mom) kidnap her baby. And before she knows it, another Jin’Kai attack puts her on the run again, but not before discovering that Olivia was implanted with a genetic tracking device. So along with Cole, Ducky, and her dad, Elvie goes back out into space to follow the signal. There she finds evil Dr. Marsden up to some evil tricks and realizes that Mars may hold the secret to defeating her enemies once and for all. So, off to Mars she goes. Because alien race war aside, Elvie really wants to be back with her daughter. For a kid she wasn’t even sure she wanted, Olivia has come to mean the world to Elvie―and she’ll search the universe to be with her again.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Martin Leicht decided at the age of three that he wanted to spend his life spinning stories, and he went on to receive his MA from the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU. He lives in New York City, though his heart will always be in Philadelphia. Martin Leicht and Isla Neal are the authors of The Ever Expanding Universe trilogy, which includes Mothership, A Stranger Thing, and The World Forgot.

Isla Neal grew up in a small mountain town in Southern California and earned her MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Teens at the New School in in New York City, where she currently lives and works. Isla Neal and Martin Leicht are the authors of The Ever Expanding Universe trilogy, which includes Mothership, A Stranger Thing, and The World Forgot.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

The World Forgot

Chapter One

In Which We Attempt to Hit the Ground Running

Come on, already. Is it too much to ask for a little time to myself for once?

I spot Cole on the other side of the deck, where he slouches over the rail, staring out at the water. For a split second I consider turning around and heading back belowdecks, but Cole spots me before I make up my mind. He gives me a quick nod, then turns back to the water and takes a slug from a silver can. He makes no movement toward me, leaving me in the unenviable position of having to either be an antisocial jerk and ignore him or choose to hold an actual conversation.

You’d think that chatting with Cole would be easy enough, despite our current dire situation. I mean, we did conceive a child together. That kind of thing doesn’t happen when you’re communicating solely by semaphore. But after the realization I had back in Antarctica that I’m changing in really unexpected ways while Cole, for better or worse, is pretty much always going to be, well, Cole, I’ve been having a hard time acting normal around him. The fact that Cole’s testing to see if I’ll approach him is proof enough that even he has picked up on this.

I take up a spot about an arm’s length away from him along the ship’s railing and follow his gaze out to the horizon. The wind is superbrisk, but thanks to my Enosi hybrid genes, I adapted to the chill long before we even disembarked.

“Where’s Ducky?” Cole says to me, still not looking in my direction.

“He’s down in the bathroom. Barfing again.”

“I’m surprised you’re not down there holding his hair,” Cole says. “You’ve barely left his side since we set sail from Cape Crozier.”

“Cole, I’ve been with Ducky because Ducky’s been with Marnie, and Marnie’s been the one taking care of my dad. Remember? Harry Nara, middle-aged, out-of-shape engineer-slash-world’s-oldest-and-most-chuteless-skydiver?”

Cole takes another long drag from his nondescript tin can, then hurls it overboard. I want to chastise him for being an ocean litterbug, but I somehow manage to stop myself. I guess I’m growing as a person. Cole bends down and pulls two more cans from a crate at his feet on his other side.

“You’d think he’d have his sea legs after two weeks at sea,” he says, offering me one of the cans.

I don’t take it. “He’s spending twenty hours a day in a medi­cal gel bath recovering from frostbite, hypothermia, and more than a few broken bones, Cole,” I reply, more than a little rankled. “I hardly think sea legs are his biggest—”

“I meant Ducky.”

“Oh. Well, I think he was hoping that Oates’s contact would come pick us up in a fancy spaceship or something, instead of an old oil tanker. But I guess beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to which smugglers aid in your escape from prison.” I do take the can from him then, but I don’t open it. It’s shiny and silvery smooth, like a can of peaches with the label pulled off. I play with the pop-top, lifting it slightly up and then letting it snap back onto the lid. “Besides, I’m sure Ducky’d barf in a spaceship, too. I’ve yet to discover any form of transportation gentle enough for his world-class motion sickness.”

“At least Oates had friends out there who could pick us up,” Cole says. “Even if they are kinda shady. After those pricks on the elevator platform left us stranded.”

“Well, the elevator was kinda sorta completely destroyed,” I remind him. “Those guys didn’t have any way to send a transport to pick us up before they left.”

“They could have left us something,” Cole argues. “Instead of scrambling back home with that weak-ass excuse about a ‘communications blackout.’ If it weren’t for Oates’s pals, we’d still be stuck in the snow.”

I look at Cole’s profile, a beautiful silhouette against the white sunlight. There are things we need to be talking about. Another conversation entirely.

I’m not sure I’m ready to have it.

“They’re still fighting down there,” I say, darting my eyes down to the deck below, where all the Almiri and Enosi trapped with us in Antarctica have been battling it out for the past several days. They stop only for meal breaks. “Oates is doing his best to referee, but no one’s seeing eye to eye on the whole let’s-go-back-to-Almiri-headquarters-and-hug-this-out plan we’ve got going.”

“Well, probably because it’s a shit plan,” Cole says.

“It’s the only option we have.”

Cole turns and looks at me. “Elvs, the hybrids are never going to be okay with going to HQ. We Almiri have been huge dicks to them for centuries. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon just because we all took a boat ride together.”

“The Jin’Kai invasion is coming,” I say, and I hate to admit it, but even I can hear the hint of desperation in my voice. “Marsden said as much. A fleet of those Devastators is on its way to Earth. Our only hope is to make sure everyone who calls Earth home—Almiri, Enosi, human—learns to play nice and form a unified resistance.”

“That’s all well and good to say,” Cole says, “except that’s not why you want to go back to HQ. You think Byron knows how to find Olivia.”

“Yeah,” I snap back. “And so what if that’s my reason? You act like wanting to find my daughter is some sort of crime.”

She stole her. My own mother kidnapped my daughter, right out of my hands, and handed her over to Dr. Marsden.

“Our daughter,” Cole says, and when I give him a funny look, he bores his stony eyes into me. “You said ‘my.’ You keep forgetting that Olivia’s my daughter too.”

I do. I do keep forgetting that. Probably because Cole hasn’t been acting much like a parent lately. Probably because he’s been acting more like a whiny, entitled baby, sulking on the deck when he should be helping Oates to get everyone to play nice like I’ve been doing for two weeks straight. Suddenly I feel butterflies climbing into my throat. I haven’t felt butterflies, not truly, since I was home in Ardmore, before any of this alien invasion craziness was a thing. A million years ago, in my bedroom in Ardmore, when Cole touched my hair, and I looked into his eyes, and he kissed me for the very first time.

Those were very different butterflies.

“I think we should break up,” I say softly. The words hover in the air between us like they’re in a cartoon speech bubble. Cole barely reacts at all, but I notice the corner of his mouth twitch. For several seconds the only sound is the crashing of the waves against the hull of the ship. I wait, as patiently as I can, for the explosion of feelings that’s probably welling up inside him right now.

“Whatever,” Cole says finally.

Not exactly what I was expecting.

“Whatever?” I snap back.

“What do you want me to say, Elvs?”

“Something more than ‘whatever.’ We have a child together, for Christ’s sake.”

“You’re the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Pocket Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2024
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1481442880
• ISBN 13: 9781481442886
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande