As soon as Bjorn accepted the concept of Suppressed Infectious Memory, his education expanded in leaps and bounds. The more information he took in, the more his dreams opened up. By the close of the third education cycle, he had written notations, formulas, and calculations directly out of memory. His mind was a living document of his mother’s memoirs.Then active, officious interference began, and Kurg discovered a spy lurked among them. He told Bjorn as they hovered in a secluded branch near the of the same cluster of cattails where Bjorn and Crystellia had meet on that day she shared her mystery and her mission. The wind whisked moisture through the airways, and odor of spores was stronger than ever. The end looked nearer than ever.“Who is it?” Bjorn said, his face twisting into a near human sneer. “I’ll slice him into shreds quicker than sunlight sucks moisture.”“No, no,” Kurg said, his flaps arching. “

Even from high above the surface, Below was not the same land Bjorn remembered. In many areas, surface quakes gutted the ground as trees burned even while still standing. In one direction, torrents of wind-driven rain blinded the eyes, and from a different view, ice and snow ravaged the hillsides. Lakes and rivers overflowed their banks. Valleys flooded. And throughout the air, a wave of flaming, foul-smelling muck twisted in, around, and under, advancing a destructive ecological change. All across the open areas, worms surfaced by the tens and tens of thousands, all squirming amid yellow-tinted ooze and many spewing the seepage twenty to thirty feet from the core of each grouping. A complete disaster had overtaken the land of Walkers. Surface burned, and nasty rainfall consumed all else. Bjorn feared rescue had arrived too late. “So, it’s not a myth,” said Nalura, her brown eyes glassy with tears. “For many seasons, we knew the vines were leaking oil. We just never

Cupun’s friendship with Jamison felt second nature, so much so that Cupun wondered why his father still sometimes spoke of hanumans as abominations. Maybe old expressions die slowly, he thought, or perhaps such words merely linger in the mind long after the history behind the link is no longer relevant. Whatever the cause, Nukilik never used the word in the presence of Jamison. His sister’s husband was family and friend.While Adlartok trained Kallik in the methods of various weapons, Cupun and Jamison traveled beneath a prickly canopy of musty-smelling grayish-green rope-foliage growing on trees taller and thicker than any Cupun had encountered. Three grown men with arms extended and hands touching could not wrap the circumference of the sharp-barked hardwood trunks.During the journey from Jamison’s homeland, many new races had joined their group, all working to help one another. But Cupun and Jamison made too great a team to split apart. So from hu

Hours after the battle in the sky, Bjorn and the party arrived at a mountain waterfall, boarding a Walker’s village near a vast stretch of flatland. Greenery blended into the environment and covered the cascade’s rocky structure as though nurtured and shaped by an experienced Arborist. The scent of fresh blooms whiffed up and into the airship.“Here,” Bjorn said. “We drop anchor here.” A nearby field stretched wide with rolls of wood containers similar to those used when shipping worms to Cloud. Although occupied by living annelids, no yellowish slime lingered on or near the crates. For Bjorn, more of the pieces came together.They readied the climbing gear, and Bjorn and Nalura harnessed up.“I’m going too,” Crystellia said.“Can’t do,” Nalura said. “Edoul is too old, and Bjorn is necessary. We only have two yokes. Although professionally train, you, my impulsive daughter, lack

Adlartok stood on a hill overlooking the graveyard where Meriwa said goodbye to mom and dad. Both had passed away several years back. The sun glared from a blue sky as Airborne ships came and went, many of them now used by Walkers and their associates. Cupun and his mate reaped the benefits of a home-raising bee in the fields near the worm farms. But once they completed the house, he and Roxanne would join Adlartok and Jamison on another rescue mission. Ever since the merging of the races, reports of stranded humans came in often. Someone had to help. Tulugaak had journeyed back down south. Although he favored the cold weather, he said the ice wasn’t yet the same as it had once been on several return visits. But he wasn’t alone. A few of the original clan had survived. — Meriwa didn’t believe her parents lived in the ground. Neither had they ascended with the angels into the heavens, for angels, like other mutants, were merely genetically altered huma