Creature Worlds: Solar Slick Read Online Free PDF

working on, do you know?”
    “No, they never really said. It seemed important to them though.”
    Tigg flipped through some of the pages and halfway through the stack he picked up a paper and studied it carefully. “Minka?” he said.
    “Yeah?”
    “Take a look at this and tell me if it means anything to you.”
    He passed me the sheet of paper and I looked it over. I noticed the word shift was written several times, along with a bunch of equations. I’d been pretty good in school but I was no scientist. “I’m not sure what it means.”
    “You said your parents were working together on Zenet. But for some reason they left the safety of the planet behind and came to Earth.”
    “I figured it was because of me,” I said. “They came here just before I was born.”
    “Judging by what’s written here, I have a feeling they didn’t risk coming here because of you. Or perhaps it was because of you.”
    “Now I’m confused.”
    “They were working on a cure.”
    “What? What do you mean a cure?” The word shift jumped into my thoughts. “For my dad? Do you think they figured out a way to stop him from shifting?”
    “Could be,” Tigg said.
    I pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, the paper still clutched in my hands. “Mom always said she loved being on Earth. The only thing she seemed wistful about was our isolated existence.” I’d never felt deprived of anything despite living out here in the middle of nowhere. Once old enough, I’d gone to school, my mom making the forty-minute drive both ways every weekday. As I got older I could go over to my friends’ houses, but no one was ever allowed to come here. I knew it was because of my dad. I knew what he was and I knew what I was. My shifts were under control long before I started school so exposure was never a concern for me. “I knew my parents were pretty obsessed with whatever they were working on, but I had no idea what it was.” Actually, being wrapped up in my own selfish little world, I’d never bothered to ask. Now I wish that I had.
    I handed the paper back to Tigg. “Can you figure anything else out about what they were doing?”
    He sat down beside me and studied the contents of the folder for a while. “Got anything to eat?” he asked.
    I got up and started going through the cupboards. There was a bunch of freeze-dried meals so I put a pot on the stove and began boiling up some water. I couldn’t help but smile as I went through the archaic phase of making a meal the way they had dozens of years ago. Big cities around Earth were filled with all kinds of modern high-tech gadgets and accessories, but many places were still old-fashioned and behind the times like this place. What a shock it’d been to me when I entered the city for the first time with my parents. We’d gone a few times together, but I remembered it had always been a short and tense excursion.
    And then they’d gotten killed.
    Usually my father would stay in the vehicle and not risk being seen in public, just in case. But something had been different that time. He’d come out for some reason. And then he’d changed. I closed my eyes as I recalled the fatal shot that rang in my ears for weeks. In one instant, my family was gone. In a daze I’d made my way back home, it taking me almost all day on foot. I’d slept for a long time. Then, unable to bear being alone, I’d packed a few clothes and what money I could find into a sack and headed back to the city, never to return until now.
    When the food was ready I put it onto plates and brought it out for Tigg and I to eat. “Find anything?” I asked.
    “This paper here, it has an equation and beside it is your name.” Tigg showed me the paper.
    “That’s strange. Wonder what I had to do with it?” I took a few bites of my meal and grimaced over the taste. It’d been so long since I’d eaten such primitive food. Tigg ate with gusto despite there being no bugs on his plate. I guess Lizords could eat