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1 day later. Salt Lake City, Utah. Planet Earth ?
It was 7 a.m., the day after Kevin received the news about Mars II disappearing. He was sitting in his front room watching the news on his sixty-inch, wall-mounted television/computer screen. He was still in his pajamas with his robe on and his hair was a mess. He was too depressed to go into the office today. Adam and Ashley were in the kitchen, eating breakfast.
The television went to mute and spoke to Kevin. "Mr. Palmer, you have an incoming call from Michael Konrad, Head Administrator for NASA.
Oh great, now what? Kevin sat up. "Hello, Mike."
The image of Mike appeared on the monitor. "Ah, Kevin, you don't look so well. Are you sick?"
"No, I just didn't feel like getting ready for work this morning. What do you want, Mike? I don't think I can handle any more bad news."
Mike gave Kevin an apologetic look. "I'm sorry to have given you that news yesterday. But, the news that I have for you now just might cheer you up a bit."
By this time, Adam and Ashley had made their way into the living room. Kevin sat up a little straighter and said, "Well, go on, Mike. Don't keep me waiting."
"Okay, I'll get right to it. About four o'clock this morning, we received a video transmission from a probe that the crew of Mars II must have deployed just before going through the wormhole."
"Wait a minute, Mike. They went through the wormhole?"
"Yes, according to the video, they did. Well, let me show you."
Mike's image disappeared from the screen, and the image of Mars II appeared in orbit around Mars. In front of Mars II was the hypothesized wormhole that Kevin had seen in his first meeting with Mike and Skip.
"What's that, Dad?" asked Adam.
"That is a wormhole."
"Cool."
The video played. Kevin, Adam, and Ashley watched as the wormhole grew larger. It seemed to take hold of Mars II and take the shuttle through it. A few minutes later, the three saw another ship come up from the surface of Mars.
"Where did that ship come from?" Ashley asked.
"That ship is NightHawk. It's the landing vehicle for Mars. Jake and Skip must be in that one, and Taylor must have been the only one on Mars II."
They continued to watch as the wormhole began to shrink, and the smaller ship sped up. They held their breath as the nose of the ship entered the wormhole, which caused the ship to elongate. Then, the ship disappeared, and the wormhole closed.
Mike's image appeared back onto the screen. "Well, I hope that's good news for you."
Kevin smiled, stood up, and walked a little closer to the monitor. "You have no idea, Mike."
"Great, I'll let you know when they come back through and contact us," said Mike. Then his image disappeared.
Kevin turned slowly to face his children. "Well, kids, in a few months, you will meet your Uncle Adrian for the first time."