Rachel unleashed an unearthly moan that triggered a Neuronic surge in Andie's core. It snaked around her spine, down her leg and arm bones, threatening to uncoil and burst outward like a tsunami, decimating everything in its path. As Rachel was definitely in said path, Andie clenched her jaw and fists to push down the power.

"Meet Earth's newest celebrity," said Talia. "Star of the nationally syndicated hit radio show Rachel Bank and Pilot the Psychic Wonderdog, and the most recent As the Earth Turns recruit!"

This did not compute.

At all.

Because Rachel would never have agreed to come to The Colony. She would care nothing for the phony life this place offered.

Once Andie had her mother safely out of the way, Talia was going to be zapped into tiny shards of evil-secretary and launched into outer space. Bad Andie supplied Andie this exact image—arms, legs, perfect eyebrows, beetle-black hair, a torso, all exploding like a firework against a starlit sky. The eyebrows hung on for a moment, ghostly remnants, like the Cheshire Cat's smile.

"Okay," Andie said. "That was gross."

"But satisfying. Right?"

"Yes," Andie admitted. "But still."

"It was your idea. Honestly, I don't know how to please you."

"I didn't know you cared."

"You haven't been paying attention then," Bad Andie said.

"Look," Andie said. "I've had a lot on my mind. Like now I need to figure out how to get my mom to safety, get rid of Talia, find Oliver, rescue Sterling, get transport back to earth, shut down the Star Enquirer, free the Zuts, and sign up for the deluxe kickboxing lesson package, because I don't know how much longer the Neuronic woo hoo will even hold up. Plus, it's super unreliable."

"Well, I suggest you buy time. Flatter her. Remember the eyebrows?"

"Yeah. Thanks!"

Andie took a deep breath and prepared for some Hollywood-level ass kissing. "You are so smart! How did you even find me?"

"The trees have eyes."

"You mean cameras?"

"Yes. Obviously. Trees do not literally have eyes. You are so incredibly stupid. What does Oliver even sees in you?"

"How would I know what's possible on an alien world?" Andie snapped. "These could be like the trees in the Wizard of Oz. Maybe if I'm lucky, they'll start throwing poisoned apples at you." Oops. Andie had really screwed up the ass-kissing. Unfortunately, it was never one of her superpowers. The Hummer swerved to avoid hitting a dog on the road. "Uh, I mean, throw them at me. Because of my stupidity and stuff. And, um, speaking of dogs, where's Pilot?"

"What pilot?"

"Mrrrrrrrbbb," Rachel mumbled from behind the gag.

"The show is called Rachel Bank and Pilot the Psychic Wonderdog. Here is Rachel. Where is the psychic wonderdog?"

"Oh, him." Talia flicked her hand in the air. "Who cares? I think he must still be at the Induction Center. Animals require extra paperwork. So dirty. And the fur gets everywhere."

Rachel banged her head on the back of the seat.

"Stop that now!" Talia bellowed, yanking Rachel's hair hard. Rachel yelped.

Fingertips still leaking blue lightning, Andie pulled the blaster out of the top of her spacesuit and leveled it at Talia's head. "You will not hurt my mother," Andie said through gritted teeth. Maybe Andie couldn't aim the Neuronic energy with pinpoint accuracy, but she was pretty sure she could blast a hole in Talia's head from this distance. However, it would be a good idea to hold off on blasting Talia until they were at a complete stop.

Andie rolled her eyes at the array of buttons and gizmos on the blaster. She had no clue how to operate the thing. It might've been a good idea to practice using it first. But hopefully Talia didn't know this. Andie cleared her throat and said in her most officious Controller tone: "You have three seconds to pull over and get the fuck out of this car and out of my life."

Talia giggled. "I don't think so." With one hand on the steering wheel and one eye on the rear-view mirror, Talia lifted her other arm displaying a Cannon, now pointed at Rachel's head.

Andie kept hold of the blaster, though it was now quivering in her hand. She swallowed down bile and emitted a trumpeting noise from the base of her throat. Something akin to the sound a mother elephant might make when its newborn calf was being chased by a lion. "If you touch one hair on my mother's head, I'll ..."

Rachel grunted and squirmed. "Keep still!" Talia screamed. The Hummer swerved, climbed up and over a parked car, then slammed back on to the road. Evidently, Talia had learned how to drive at a monster truck rally. "You will what? Because it seems we are caught in the Transdorian standoff," Talia said brightly.

"A what?"

"We are both armed. The only question is, who can get off a shot first? I'm going to bet I'm faster. I may even go so far to assume you do not even know how to work that antique. It must be twenty years old."

"Go to hell!"

"Oh, come now. I don't think me vaporizing your mother is your favorite morning activity."

Andie exhaled. "What do you want?"

"That's better," Talia squealed. "Things go so much more smoothly when people cooperate with my demands. You know what I want."

"Honestly, I don't. Except to make my life a living hell."

Talia grinned. "That is merely an enjoyable byproduct of my quest." Rachel squirmed again. "Stay still, or I will shoot your daughter first and make you watch." Rachel stiffened like refrigerated tofu-avocado pudding. How did Talia not know that Rachel was blind? "What I want, Andromeda, is to be the Amu princess."

Andie winced at her real name. "You are insane. Do you see a wand?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not your fairy godmother."

"What are you talking about? You call me crazy! There are no fairies on the Colony. They are all living in bogs on the planet of Milasia under house arrest. You just can't trust those little imps. Anyway, I demand you give Oliver to me." "I will have him. I will be the Amu princess."

This alien was even more deranged than Andie thought. If that was possible. "It's not my decision, Talia," Andie said, speaking slowly, as if to a child.

"Oh, I think it is. If you beg him to Join with me, he will listen to you. I might even let you live! I am a reasonable Amu, after all. You and your mother and your precious Sterling all stay here at The Colony. I leave with Oliver. Everybody is happy."

"I don't even know where Oliver is. Jellyfish drones abducted him."

"By what?"

"By ... Watch out!" Andie cried. Talia swerved as a legion of drones hurtled down from the sky, directly at the Hummer, tentacles waving frantically. "By ... those." If only the drones could shatter the windshield, reach inside with their tentacles, abduct Andie and her mom, and leave Talia to drive herself off a cliff and meet a fiery end.

Splat, the drones in front hit the windshield with a sickening wet, crunching wallop, but the glass held. Talia kept one hand steadfastly aimed at Rachel, while gunning the engine and taking out a dozen more drones. The Hummer banked around a corner at top speed, tires squealing. Andie's fingers were so sweaty, the blaster slipped from her grip.

"Pull over now!" Andie cried, as the car leveled off on to a busy four-lane road. Drones flew at them in all directions.

Rachel grunted and stomped her feet on the floorboard, launching herself at Talia. The Hummer swerved out of control, hitting several cars. The road was chaos. Cars braked and veered and sped to get out of the way of the Hummer. If only they would block them! Drones surrounded the Hummer, attacking them from all sides. They would hit all the windows and bounce off into drone mayhem.

The car zigzagged through traffic, the shoe mall closing in. At least Andie assumed it was the shoe mall, given the enormous red sequined shoe hovering over the top of the structure. They were on a collision course to the mall. Because the rules of the Colony were that no one died, except for maybe by blaster because honestly, how does a person come back from that? Anyway, Andie didn't fear for their lives. But pain existed here. And crashing into a shopping center at a hundred miles an hour with no seat belt would not be pleasurable. So she screamed. "We're going to crash."

Talia grinned over her shoulder and hit the gas even harder. "Promise me!"

"You're an insane secretary!"

"Assistant!" Talia bellowed. She gave up on steering and aimed the blaster at Andie.

A second drone army rushed through Runway's glass doors, headed straight for them. "I am pressed for time, so decide now."

"I can't give you what I don't have to give," Andie said.

"Have it your way, Andromeda." Talia removed Rachel's blinder. "You can watch your daughter go first."

"No," Andie screamed, thankful her mom was blind. Neuronic energy exploded from her fingertips. The driver's door disintegrated and Talia, along with the blaster, flew from the vehicle, carried into the air by a drone. The Hummer smashed through the glass entrance of Runway, taking a legion of drones down with it. It slowed as it crashed into a shoelace kiosk and skidded another hundred feet before coming to a stop in front of a gargantuan television screen, broadcasting the accident in real time.

Andie's heart beat wildly. She rolled onto the front seat and hugged her mother.

"Binlghsehwon," came the muffled comment from beneath the gag.

"I'm really sorry," said Andie, removing the gag and untying the ropes.

"Thank Gaia," Rachel said, eyes filled with tears.

A pair of jellyfish drones gently wrapped their tentacles around Andie and her mom and tugged.

"Oh, Mama," Andie said, squeezing her mom tight, inhaling her sandalwood scent. Now that Andie had her mom safely in her arms, she didn't want to let go. Rachel kissed Andie's head. "You're okay. You're okay."

"I'm fine and so happy you're alright. Let me look at you, baby."

"What?" said Andie. "Look at me?"

"I haven't seen you in seventeen years."

"You can see me?" A hot, salty tear slid down Andie's cheek and into the corner of her mouth.

"It seems I can. You look so much like your father. You are beautiful, Andromeda."

"Thanks, Mom. But how can you see?"

"It's a blessing from the goddess," Rachel said, caressing Andie's cheek. "And even if it's just for this one moment, I am happy I got to see my girl all grown up."

Of course, it wasn't a goddess. It was the moon's healing power. The same power that had repaired Andie's scar had returned Rachel's sight. What about boob and nose jobs? Would the moon eradicate those as well? The celebrities wouldn't be happy about that.

But there was no time to explore this train of thought because at that moment, a cadre of Vin Diesel guards repelled down from the food court on the upper floor. Cold prickled up Andie's neck. They were the same as the guards Sterling had at her fundraiser, which made little sense. This had to be the strangest thing Andie had yet seen on the Colony.

"You are cordially invited to an audience with the Colony's Director," said the drone holding Andie. "Do not move. You may be injured. We will extract you." Geesh, these drones were polite. And the Director was just who she wanted to see. That person would know where Oliver and Sterling were and how to get off this moon. Now all Andie had to do was convince the Director to help.

The drones carefully slid Andie and her mom from opposite sides of the vehicle and set them on a pink marbled floor riddled with debris—socks, bits of yellow metal, decapitated jellyfish drones, and a shattered chandelier.

Rachel crunched a path through the detritus, grasped Andie's hand, and drank in the sight of her daughter. "Being able to see you is wonderful beyond words. But I have one tiny question," Rachel said.

"Yes, Mama?"

"What the hell are you wearing?"

Once the drones were satisfied that Andie and Rachel were all right, three of the Vin Diesels accompanied them to an elevator paneled in rich mahogany and pressed a button that said "Penthouse." The doors slid open to an opulent but dimly lit art déco anteroom, painted red with gold art déco flourishes—lots of inlaid, carved, and painted angels. There was even a trompe l'oeil angel mural on the ceiling, and a swimming pool-sized muted flatscreen broadcasting the accident scene on As The Earth Turns. They stepped out of the elevator on to a spongy red carpet.

"Guards, you're dismissed," said a bitchy voice from across the room. "I'll take it from here." The Vin Diesels hesitated. "Go!" The guards gave a brisk nod of their bald heads and folded their massive arms over their black T-shirted chests. The elevator doors closed and disappeared. It looked like a wall now. No evidence of an elevator remained. Andie gulped. Obviously, they weren't leaving the way they came, and now they were alone with the owner of the bitchy voice. "Come here!" demanded the voice.

Andie took her mother's hand, and they traversed the room where they soon discovered the owner of said bitchy voice.

"Gigi Gaines!" Andie cried, unable to keep the shock from her face. Here sat Sterling's nemesis, behind an enormous wooden desk, its surface covered in two-foot-high columns of paper.

Rachel stood beside Andie calmly, going with the flow. Weirdness did not affect her. She accepted weirdness as a child accepted gravity. It flowed through her body in much the same way as air; its presence left her enriched but not otherwise affected.

Andie wasn't even sure why she was pondering all this when she should've been asking: Are you the Director's secretary? So she asked.

"Personal Assistant," Gigi screamed.

"Sorry," Andie said.

Gigi cleared her throat. "You are in the Director's chambers. You will be received shortly." She gestured to a line of antique theater seats along one wall. "Can I get any of you anything to drink?"

"Is it safe?" Andie said, recalling what had happened to her the last time she took a glass of water in an Amu office.

"Of course. Nothing kills you on The Colony. But the Director doesn't want you dead."

"Could have fooled me," Andie said. "I mean, with an entire drone army chasing us down."

Gigi rolled her eyes. "They were there to greet you, not damage you. But you kept ignoring them. I think you hurt their feelings."

"Like you hurt Sterling's feelings when you stole her job?"

"I don't get paid enough for this," Gigi griped. She touched her ear. "The Director will see you now. Thank god." A mahogany door swished open. Gigi dramatically flopped into her chair. She really couldn't act.

Andie nearly tripped over her own feet walking into the Director's office. "No frickin' way," she said.

"Sterling, dear. So good to see you," Rachel said, as casually as if she'd run into her adopted child in the faux meat aisle at the health food store.