Peter David: After Earth

What? Cade thought.

The words didn’t seem real. They couldn’t be. After everything he had been through? After everything he had accomplished?

No , he thought. Just that: No.

“Permission to speak freely, sir?” he snapped.

“Granted,” Velan said.

Cade pointed to the commander. “That’s the biggest load of horseshit I’ve ever heard. And if that’s your final word, you’re not half the Ranger I thought you were.”

Velan’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a judge of Rangers now?”

“Damned right I am.”

“And that’s the way you speak to a superior?”

“You gave me permission, remember?”

The commander frowned. “So I did.”

“And as long as I’ve got that permission, I’m going to tell you what—”

Velan held up a hand. “Hold on, Bellamy.”

“Or what?”

“Or you’re going to miss the rest of what I was going to say.” He cleared his throat. “As I noted, you weren’t meant to be part of a Ranger squad. You were meant to lead one.”

Cade straightened up. Lead…?

“Well?” asked Velan. “No comment? No thank you, sir ?”

Cade grinned. “Um… thank you, sir.”

The commander nodded. “It’s my pleasure, Ranger. And I mean that as sincerely as I’ve ever meant anything in my life.” He held out his hand and opened it to reveal an insignia, the kind squad leaders wore. “This is yours.”

Cade took it. “I didn’t expect this. I…”

Velan made a face. “Is this going to be a long speech, Bellamy? Because I’ve still got things to do today.”

Cade shook his head. “No, sir. Not long at all. Again, thank you, sir.” As he left Velan’s office, he could think of only one thing:

How proud Nava would have been of him. How very, very proud.

Peter David’s novels include the fantasies Tigerheart , Sir Apropos of Nothing , The Woad to Wuin , Knight Life , and the quirky werewolf story Howling Mad . He is famous for writing some of the most popular original Star Trek: The Next Generation novels, including Imzadi and A Rock and a Hard Place , as well as the official novels of the movies Battleship , Transformers , Iron Man , Spider-Man , and The Incredible Hulk . He has written just about every famous comic book superhero, including Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, and the futuristic Spider-Man 2099, and has scripted the bestselling Gunslinger Born graphic adaptation of the acclaimed Stephen King Dark Tower series. He collaborated with J. Michael Straczynski on the Babylon 5 novels and comic book series, and with Bill Mumy he created the Nickelodeon television series Space Cases . In his spare time, David writes movie screenplays, children’s books, and television scripts.

After Earth is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

A Del Rey eBook Edition

Copyright © 2013 by After Earth Enterprises, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

After Earth: Ghost Stories: Redemption, After Earth: Ghost Stories: Savior , and After Earth: Ghost Stories: Atonement copyright © 2013 by After Earth Enterprises, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

This book contains the following short stories, previously published individually by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., as eBooks in 2013: After Earth: Ghost Stories: Redemption, After Earth: Ghost Stories: Savior, After Earth: Ghost Stories: Atonement .

eISBN: 978-0-345-54677-7

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