Light Descending: The Space Adventures of Aaden Prescott, Book 2

We're almost there!

Here's the new cover:

And here's the opening:

Journey

Don't laugh. It's amazing what you can forget when you're about to be destroyed. All you can think about is your safety. Later, you realize you’re hungry and need a decent bed to sleep in. It's like the last time your mom yelled at you to get in the car – hovercar or not – and once a safe distance from your home, you remember you left your favorite electronic game behind.

            I missed the seasons, even the cold ones. We'd had five Christmas’ in space, traveling through the sky like lost vacationers with no idea of where we were going. We'd managed a tree out of an iron pipe, and decorations from clothing that was worn out, cut into tiny pieces. We’d gathered pieces of wire no longer in use to hang the colored fabric, and the best leftover throw-away containers you’ve ever seen for awkward looking ornaments.  

          Presents consisted of love notes and nice things we had thought up to do for others. It was pretty boring, I can tell you, but sort of nice in a strange way. I mean, we were going to have to be with these people for a long time, maybe even forever before we found a planet that could support life.

            As it was, Mom was always trying and failing to make things just like home, and Dad, well, let's just say he was working on one thing or another. There was a map, an electronic thing that could light up an entire room upon touch, and technical gizmos that had been difficult to fabricate up in space. Many of my favorites had been broken upon re-entry to Earth (when the shuttle hadn't been able to escape the planet and had crash-landed before my family had finally met up with them), and so parts and pieces had to be scrounged up and fitted together, even if the pieces didn't exactly fit.

           Somehow, we'd managed in the space plane, and the advancements discovered on board hadn't hurt us any, including keeping the craft going beyond its expected landing port. I wasn't sure about all of the details, mainly because none of the adults talked about it outside of the 'room.'

            But we’ll get to that later.

          I was bored out of my mind most days. If it wasn't for Neva and Stella and the green stone, I would have gone crazy. But wouldn't you know it, the day I thought I'd lost it for sure, yelling at Barina, (the one who had first met us when we reached Space Doc 5), something fantastic was discovered in the ink-black sky I would never forget.