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it, okay?”
    Ana frowns. “I’m not going looking for it, but it makes sense to investigate as much as we can while we’re here. What about the letter? Experience, discover, blah blah. If it shows up again,if it attacks … Do you suppose we could kill it if we had to, if we worked together? Maybe stabbed or shot it in just the right spot?”
    “No!” Todd barks. “The worm is something else.” He turns his back on her and sets off down the path again. “Just trust me, okay? It’s more than it seems. As bad as it looks, the worm is even worse. You don’t want to get anywhere near it.”
    Ana closes her eyes a moment and flashes back to that slavering jaw, those rows of jagged teeth. The thing is like a tank—sixteen tanks strung end to end. What does she really think a couple of kids with pistols and knives could do against it? She was told to experience and discover, sure. She was also told to survive.
    But the rush of adrenaline now coursing through her body is something else altogether. Because she’s discovered something hard inside her, something cold and strong and razor-sharp. There is solid iron at her core. She will not break, will not bend, will not deviate from whatever path she embarks upon. And right now she knows with deadly certainty that she will do whatever it takes to defeat that worm.
    Or die trying.

After Successful Test Mission, Manned Paradox Expedition Imminent

    Galaxy Voice
    The first unmanned space probes fitted with neo-Alcubierrean warp drives have successfully completed their maiden voyage, reaching Paradox in a record four months. The tiny planet, which upon its discovery a decade ago was named Cyclid-Bf, quickly became a public fixation due to its abundant Earth-like qualities. “It’s got it all—ample groundwater, ideal surface temperature, breathable atmosphere,” said Dr. Alan Bartleby, astrophysicist and Paradox expert. “Soil analysis and planet scans have shown it fully capable of supporting life.” No animal life has been detected on the planet, though fossilized remains suggest the existence of intelligent life forms dating back millions of years. “It’s like Earth 2.0,” said Dr. Bartleby. “All systems are focused on getting us there as soon as possible.”
    Tuesday’s successful probe landing now brings the planet within the range of manned space expeditions in the foreseeable future. “It’s only a matter of time,” said Alisha LeBewh of Savitech Corp. “We’ve got funding and sponsors lining up, and a list of candidates a mile long. Now that technology has caught up with discovery, we can finally take steps toward breaking through that final frontier.”

At the threshold of the Dead Forest, the path winds down a few hundred feet, then disappears into the solid wall of trees.
    “There’s something about this place,” Ana whispers. She glances at Todd. Despite his determined stride, Ana can see tension in the set of his neck, in his rigid posture. She can almost feel the fear coursing through him.
    “What is it?” she says.
    “The forest?” Todd shrugs, then ruins the effect with a nervous swallow. “It’s fine. No big deal.”
    “Come on, Todd,” she says, pushing past him. The barren ground makes way for little tufts of yellowish growth, and bushes claw their way up out of the ground as they near the trees. Ana is so busy studying the ground that she almostmisses the moment where the shift happens—but there’s one step and then the next and suddenly it’s as if she were inside a shuttered room. She’s crossed over into the forest.
    The trees loom overhead, so high she can’t see where their canopies end, and so close together that the light’s almost completely blocked out. The sunlight that does filter down is dim and watery. Each tree is nearly as wide around as the rocket she traveled here in. Six of her could probably hold hands in a circle and not reach around to the other side of just one trunk.
    Stranger still, the trees