The Legend of Things Past (Beyond Pluto SciFi Futuristic Aventures Book 1) Read Free Page A

don’t
work too hard. You look like you’re getting sick.”
    “I am,” Nona said. “iMed detected a virus three days ago. I
took some immunity boosters, but they haven’t helped much. Just have to get
over it the old-fashioned way.”
    His wife leaned toward him across the breakfast bar. “You
make any for me?” she said, nodding toward the omelet on his plate.
    He smiled and pulled out more ingredients. “Of course.” He
slid his plate across the counter. “For you.”
    She smiled that cute smile of hers—the one that was a faint
turning up of the corners of her mouth, showing only a few teeth. The smile was
mostly in her eyes.
    She ate the omelet in large bites while Donovan began making
another one. Nona never pretended to be a genteel woman.
    “How do you even fit all that inside you?” Donovan asked,
not for the first time. It was something he always teased her about. She was
average height and had arcs in her body, but she was thin.
    “I have to keep up with my metabolism.” She patted her
stomach. “If I don’t feed the monster I get in trouble.”
    “Yeah, so do I.”
    Nona was notoriously grouchy when she was hungry.
    She laughed and held out her empty plate. “Another one,
please.”
    Donovan slid the freshly made omelet to her. She dove right
in. He started the process a third time, hoping he’d actually get to eat the
result.
     
    After breakfast, his wife dressed and left for her
department’s lab and library suite. She spent most of her time there, doing
research and bringing the fossilized genes of extinct animals back to life. She
would be exploring the DNA of a zebra today. It was once classified as an Equus
and belonged to the Equidae family, she’d said. Donovan had seen pictures and
footage of the animals. The images were so clear that it was hard to believe
that they no longer existed.
    Nona obsessed over bringing animals like the zebra back to
earth. Donovan thought that was another reason they had stayed married—they
were both driven by a desire to right the world, only Donovan wasn’t sure he
did as good a job as she.
    Donovan went through his morning workout and shower and took
his skycar to the Saint John’s Providence Hospital. The twenty story building
was located at the center of town, easily accessible from all parts of the city—not
that it was ever much needed. The iMed App that came preinstalled on most Liao
Inserts these days prevented the majority of illnesses through early detection.
Donovan was a part of the dwindling group of people who refused to undergo the
minor surgery for a Liao Insert. Yes, it was convenient to have information and
connectivity literally at your fingertips, but Inserts were far too invasive
for Donovan—even with the medical benefits. He’d rather just use a watch and
make regular visits to the doctor.
    Donovan entered the parking structure at the very top of the
building, parked, and descended to the fifteenth floor. Inside room 1508, a
permanent lodging, he found his grandfather staring blankly at the TV. A little
bit of drool slid down his chin as the news anchor chattered at him.
    Donovan rushed to wipe the spit from his grandfather’s face
with a piece of tissue from the bathroom. Even with the best care in the world,
Donovan still felt that his grandfather wasn’t getting enough attention.
    Tobias Knight was a world-renowned scientist—the inventor of
teleportation and the man who had discovered dozens of planets with his space
probes. Donovan knew, unlike most people, that he had also invented a time machine—he
just hadn’t found a substance powerful enough to sustain it. His grandfather
knew everything about everything. Physics and astronomy were his specialties,
but his grandfather was well versed in biology, chemistry, and geology, too.
    It somehow disturbed Donovan to see Tobias’s dignity smeared
by a line of drool. It was so frustrating. He knew that his grandfather would
be able to solve the mystery of his illness.