Prodigy Returns (book 3)

Chapter One

**NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR**

Thank you all so much for your continued support. With your reads, votes, comments, reviews, and spreading the good word about the first book, this series would not exist. I really hope you like the third installment. I completed it this summer and have been editing it for months.

Please continue to vote, comment, and do all that other great stuff... the more people who find out about the stuff you love, the more of it will be created.

Thanks!

***

Chapter One

Amid a pile of rubble, Alex lay motionless on the floor. The equipment behind her, the place of impact, was concaved inward. Her shallow breath froze in the frigid air as a bone-chilling coldness set in. Her sensory receptors awoke, filling her body with aching pain. Nighttime squawks from some indeterminate animals echoed throughout the jungle, bringing Alex closer to consciousness. Through panting breaths, Alex moaned in agony as her dry mouth begged for water. The jungle sounds grew louder as Alex became more aware of her surroundings.

Coming to, her eyes flickered in the darkness, but did not provide her any clues as to where she was or why she was balled up on the floor in some strange room. Despite her shivering body, her attention was drawn toward a wound on the back of her head, which was a few hours old. By now, the blood had clotted, sealing the gash shut and matting her hair.

What the hell happened? she asked herself. Without attempting to move, she took a moment to regain her wits. A picture in her mind came forward of a savage attack. She wondered if it was real or just a figment of her imagination.

She tried to move, but the searing pain that coursed through her body forced her to remain still. She grimaced as she clutched her right arm. It was undoubtedly broken, the obvious result of blunt force trauma.

"Flashlight," Alex instinctually commanded with a coarse voice. The effort triggered her to cough as her lungs searched for oxygen in the cold climate. Her muscles constricted, causing excruciating pain and alerting her to the possibility of several fractured ribs. When her flashlight didn't turn on, it provided her with yet another clue. Alex remembered her access pod becoming fried as a result of the teleportation.

Another image flashed through her mind, this time of the ship. Alex slowly started to put the pieces together. She was aboard her father's ship, The Pegasus, which had touched down on a strange planet. She recalled seeing her father, old and frail, collapse on the floor in front of her. In his dying breath, he had whispered a vague warning to get off the planet. Something terrible was out there, and in his final moments, he had tried to warn her.

"Dad?" Alex called out with as much energy as she could muster. There was no answer.

Alex strained to move again, this time with a little more calculation. She felt around for her stick — a small token of security. By now, her eyes had adjusted to the low light. Scanning the room, she spotted the stick twenty feet away and began to crawl toward it.

The advanced healing hacks were quickly at work, repairing her damaged body. Nevertheless, she had no idea how long it would take for her broken bones to heal. Within a short amount of time, the sharp and aching pain she was feeling began to subside.

Inch by inch, Alex slowly crawled toward the centre of the room. Unable to put weight on certain parts of her body, each movement required focus and precision. When she arrived at the stick, she realized it had been broken in two. She grabbed the longest piece and used it to stand. A soft beam of light shone through the window of the ship, illuminating the spot where she had last seen her father. Only now, he was not there.

This can't be happening, she said to herself. I must be dreaming.

The time of day had since shifted to night so Alex had no idea how much time had passed from when she had the unexpected encounter with her father. The whole situation still seemed surreal. She hoped she would suddenly awake from this nightmare and be back at Incarus with Milo and the others. But with every second that passed, she became more convinced that would not happen.

A faint purple haze coming from the main window of the cabin captured her attention. She slowly turned toward the window and hobbled toward it. When Alex was close enough to the window, she looked up and saw the most breathtaking view she had ever seen. Orbiting the planet was a large celestial body, appearing to be many times larger than the moon of Earth. With its fantastic patterns of swirling colours, the large sphere cast a purplish hue on the planet that it orbited. The moon reminded her of Jupiter, only much more vibrant. From the safety of the ship, she stared in awe at the magnificent beauty.

Cascading her gaze downward, the forest was filled with a similar beauty unlike anything she had seen before on Earth. Among the dense shrubbery were various bioluminescent plant life, which sparkled an array of glowing neon colours. She desperately wanted to get a closer look, but was in no condition to go off on her own given her vulnerable state. 

There was no telling what dangers resided on this planet and her father's caution was enough to scare her into remaining inside until daybreak, whenever that would be. There was no guarantee that the planet she was on operated on the same solar and lunar cycles as Earth. For all she knew, nightfall would last seventy-two hours, or three months, or even a year.

For nearly ten minutes, Alex stared out the window transfixed with admiration as the colourful moon floated blissfully across the starry sky. Eventually, she shifted her weight, jabbed her walking stick in front of her, and took a step. She didn't have to go far to find the captain's chair, which by now was tattered from years of decay. The fabric was ripped and most of the cushioning had been removed, but it still provided the most comfortable place for her to rest, allowing her body to recover.

Alex slowly lowered herself into the chair and adjusted herself to get comfortable for a long night. Caressed by the soft glow, Alex gazed out the main window of the ship. In her immediate field of view was the moon. She let out a deep breath, which she could see in the crisp air, and tried to forget about the cold and pain she was feeling. Over the course of the next hour or two, the room gradually became darker as she watched the moon travel across the sky and out of view.