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the time-travel device than his escape from punishment, but at the moment it was a tie.
    “Dead serious.” Dak’s dad looked over his shoulder at his wife and Sera, then back at Dak. “We’ll try to act like all is normal until tomorrow afternoon, throw the scent off if there is one. Then your mom and I are going to do a test run. For your sake, Dak, I hope the SQ somehow missed your shenanigans.”

    Dak had experienced some long days at school before. But this one was ridiculous. Knowing that when he got home, he was going to witness something momentous sort of put a damper on the usual school-day fare.
    It was nearly four thirty when Dak, Sera, and Dak’s parents were finally gathered in the laboratory, sitting around a table, facing one another with grim looks that didn’t completely hide their excitement. Dak had always thought of his parents as a little bit on the goofy side, but they were all business now.
    “Okay,” Dak’s mom said, leaning forward on her elbows. “You kids ready for this?” Evidently she included her husband in the subject of that question. When all three nodded, she continued. “Good. The plan is this: The two of us are going to take a very brief trip, then come right back here. We’d like you two to stay in the lab in case . . . well, to make sure everything goes as planned.”
    “You’re
both
going?” asked Dak. “With a single Ring?”
    Dak’s dad answered with a stiff nod. “The device works by warping the fabric of space-time to create a wormhole — basically a tunnel that leads from wherever you’re standing to wherever you’ve programmed the device to take you. But it doesn’t just transport the person who’s holding the Ring. In addition to the pilot, any person that the pilot is touching will get pulled along for the ride.”
    “And so will inanimate objects,” his mom added. “Though there are limits as to how much mass we can take with us. If I were to use the Ring in a car, the car wouldn’t travel back in time with me. But the seat belt I was wearing might. Got it?”
    “Got it,” Dak and Sera said in unison.
    “We’d bring you a souvenir, honey, but we can’t interfere with the past,” his mom said. “Even stepping on a bug could have ripple effects that drastically alter the future. I mean, the present.” She gave a little snort-chuckle then, for the first time since she’d learned the Ring was operational.
    Oddly enough, it wasn’t until then that the reality began to sink in for Dak. The idea itself had seemed so cool, but now it hit him hard and heavy. Panic flared inside him. What if his parents blinked out of existence and never came back? He couldn’t imagine letting them go, then being left to wonder what had happened to them.
    They apparently didn’t share his concerns.
    Dak’s mom stood up. “Okay. Let’s quit talking and let’s get warping.”

E VERYONE JOINED Dak’s mom at the glass case, where she carefully pulled out the Infinity Ring and held the shiny silver loop in her hands like a strange steering wheel. “Your dad and I decided last night that we want to protect this investment from being stolen and used by others. We can do that by keying the device to our DNA. No one else will ever be able to use it. Other Rings can be built when and if we share the technology, but this prototype is our family’s and no one else’s. Sera, we’re including you because of your obvious and amazing contributions.”
    “Me?” Sera said. “You want me to do it, too?”
    “Of course,” Dak’s mom answered. “I know we’ve been harsh, but it’s only because we care about you both. We want you to feel included, and if everything goes smoothly today, we may bring you two along on a later voyage. We might even need you to control the device if we’ve got our hands full.”
    Sera nodded. Dak had never seen her look so proud before.
    One by one, they each pricked their thumb on a sterile medical device that plugged right into a port on