Peter David - After Earth

Respect.

It was only after he was rescued, after some sleep and hot soup, that Kitai had a chance to reflect on all he had done. He had wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, wanted to be a Ranger. What he never had anticipated was that he would become a Ghost, too. He was the eighth, part of an elite group.

Kitai continued to move through the ship until he reached the small room where his father, the Original Ghost, rested on a cot, attended by two medics. He looked better than he had before they’d left Earth’s surface, which pleased Kitai. Still, he was paler than usual, a look of pain on his face that no drug could treat. Under the blankets, Kitai knew his mangled leg was healing but might never recover fully.

They were checking vitals and generally fussing over him, so it took Cypher a few moments before he realized his son was standing in the entrance. When he did, he interrupted them and spoke.

“Stand me up.”

The medics looked from one to another and then down to the man on the cot. It pained Kitai to see his father so helpless. So normal.

“General…” one of them said.

“I said stand me up!”

Without waiting, Cypher started to sit up, prompting the medics to swing into motion. They helped him rise, and that was when Kitai realized it was both legs that had been so badly damaged. They were encased in braces that helped administer painkillers, stimulate cellular regeneration, and provide support. The medics helped him swing the braced legs to the deck, and then each took an arm and helped Cypher rise to his feet. The effort took a lot out of his father, who winced but gritted his teeth and made it to an upright position.

Father and son studied each other for a long, silent moment.

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.

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.

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 .

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.