Cypher raised his hand and crisply saluted his son.
Kitai was stunned and pleased in the same instant.
Kitai returned the salute just as neatly and then broke into a smile as he ran forward and gently embraced his father.
Close to each other for the first time in what felt like forever, Kitai reached his father’s ear and whispered, “Dad…”
“Yes.”
“I wanna work with Mom.”
Cypher chuckled a little at the joke. Kitai realized his sense of humor still needed work, but this was a good moment. Neither wanted to let go, but the medics respectfully separated them and lowered his father back to the cot.
As the ship left Earth’s orbit, preparing the powerful engines for the trip home, Kitai studied the monitors, taking a last look at the planet. It was raining when they took off, a fresh, cleansing rain that would replenish the pools and lakes that sustained life.
The jungle would endure. The cycle of life would continue.
A different monitor showed the ocean, and to Kitai’s surprise, there was something breaking the surface. It was the size of a whale but looked like no whale he had ever seen before.
Kitai stood over his father’s sleeping form. Cypher was going to be like that for most of the trip home, healing.
The planet being left behind was also slowly healing, and life would continue to evolve.
Eyes still on the vanishing green and blue planet, Kitai took a chair and sat by his father’s side.
Soon the ship had cleared the solar system and engaged the Lightstream engines, propelling them into wormhole space and back to Nova Prime.
One would not blame Kitai if he spent the entire journey home lost in daydreams of the accolades and adoration he, the youngest Ghost, was certain to receive once he set foot on Nova Prime. But his only concern was the man lying quietly before him.
Cypher Raige was many things to so many people—the Original Ghost; the Prime Commander; the reason Skrel were no longer winning the war—but, to Kitai, Cypher had only one name: Dad.
And he was his son.
To Bob and Mike, two of my best friends ever
Acknowledgments
This book exists because of Will Smith and Caleeb Pinkett. I would also like to thank Gaetano Mastropasqua, Clarence Hammond, and Kristy Creighton for their input. At Random House, editor Frank Parisi and publisher Scott Shannon showed grace under impossible pressure.
Other Books by Peter David
After Earth: A Perfect Beast (with Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger)
Fable: The Balverine Order
Fable: Blood Ties
Fable: Reaver
Fable: Theresa
Fable: Jack of Blades
Battleship
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man
The Incredible Hulk
Fantastic Four
Iron Man
The Camelot Papers
Tigerheart: A Tale of the Anyplace
Knight Life
One Knight Only
Fall of Knight
Book 1: Darkness of the Light
Book 2: Heights of the Depths
Book 1: Sir Apropos of Nothing
Book 2: The Woad to Wuin
Book 3: Tong Lashing
Book 4: Pyramid Schemes (forthcoming)
Blind Man’s Bluff (Star Trek: The New Frontier)
Year of the Black Rainbow (with Claudio Sanchez)
Cypher Raige was the first to ghost, making him an Ursa-killing machine and Nova Prime’s new hope for survival.
Kitai Raige, his son, became the eighth human to exhibit such amazing self-discipline.
In between were six incredible individuals who also found themselves able to mask their presence from the Ursa.
Here now are three of their amazing stories.
The remaining three tales can be found in the book After Earth: A Perfect Beast by Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, and Peter David, available now in print or as an eBook from Del Rey Books.
AFTER EARTH
Ghost Stories
REDEMPTION
Robert Greenberg
The sun was warm as usual, but not oppressively so, and Anderson Kincaid wanted to play in the sand. His mother took a rare afternoon off to bring the seven-year-old to the park. Accompanied only by the boy’s baby-sitter, she left word that she was not to be disturbed for anything short of a supernova. This was strictly family time, a rarity given her responsibilities for the population’s medical needs.
She smiled as Anderson rushed from her grasp to the mounds of sand before him. Given how dusty Nova Prime City could get, it never ceased to amaze her that the boy still asked to go play in the sandpit. She briefly worried that he would inhale the fine particles and choke, but Norah shook her head at the maternal instinct to want to protect her child. It was this sense of protecting life in all its myriad forms that tied her to the people.
Rather than swallow the sand, he stomped around on it with white sandals and then planted his rump and squirmed, indenting the space until he was comfortable. His baby-sitter, a young man named Jason, stepped over and handed him a cloth bag filled with tools to shape the sand. Anderson patted the faded red shovel atop the sand and giggled. He delighted in this, and the sound reminded her of what she herself had been like as an infant, first encountering the sand. Anderson began digging with a purpose that attracted the attention of boys and girls of various ages. Soon five children were busily constructing some sort of fort or castle.
Norah Kincaid was content to sit and watch. Life on Nova Prime was never easy, but the people were enjoying a nice respite. Their alien enemies, the Skrel, had not been heard from in decades, and their vile creations, the rampaging Ursa, had been largely wiped out. The last attack had been around thirty years ago, and all but a dozen of the Ursa had been killed. Those remaining beasts were elsewhere on the planet, and every night, as part of her prayers, she asked that the United Ranger Corps or age would destroy them and keep her people safe.
Those prayers appeared to have been answered—there were very few such sightings in the last handful of years.
As a result, the people once more were gazing up at the stars, wondering what else was out there. The news was filled with word that the latest anchorage, Avalon, had been successfully opened for business out in the next spiral arm. The planet Tau Ceti beckoned nearby, and Norah’s cousin Atlas had been captivated by the notion since he was a boy. Such thoughts were good ones, but the actions they might lead to were a constant source of concern. Humankind had fled Earth nearly a millennium ago and, hundreds of years after that, learned they were not alone in the universe. There were dangers out there, including but not limited to the Skrel. She had understood the warnings against tempting the fates and the hand of the creator, but there remained those who wanted to explore. It was human nature, and rather than fight it, she sought ways to embrace the yearnings while tempering them with grounded reality.