The Dark Jumper

Chapter 1 - Relocated

Part I: Jace - Circumstantial Coincidence

Chapter 1: Relocated

To Jaceynd Handel, something about being relocated to the 21st century really pissed him off, especially considering he'd turned 15 not long ago in the 31st century. To his parents, that technicality served only as semantics; it didn't matter how many hundreds of years in the past it was, they expected him to adjust. It wasn't as if Jace were the only person his age to relocate to another time, especially coming from a family with a Time Patrol scientist, but the experience held no similarities to picking up and moving to another space colony or even another moon of Jupiter. Moving to another district or another planet in his own time would've been rough, but nothing like the news handed down to him that night.

He probably should have guessed something was up when his father and mother opted for a spontaneous trip to their favorite restaurant. His grandmother reacted none too happy with the news.

"Well, you four can have your dinner out, but I'm staying right here," she complained, standing in the kitchen of their multilevel living space in Sector 14. "I was going to make you some of my home-made space cookies, but since you don't want any..."

"I wouldn't mind, Gramma." Jace noted her hesitation. She smiled at him from behind the kitchen bar counter as he sat on one of the red stools in their dark marble kitchen. He liked seeing her smile, even if it brandished her ego. Complimenting her cooking was the sure way to do it. Anytime he could, he usually did. Her ability to bake desserts were her pride and joy, and her life's work.

"Thank you, Jaceynd. At least someone does." She gave a wink in his direction.

"Baking desserts is fine, but I think we need to have dinner first," Jace's mother said.

"Oh, eating out is overrated." Gramma shrugged before moving the cookie platter into the oven.

His mother, sister, and grandmother all had predominant Earthian traits, their heritage primarily derived from the humans that had lived there for centuries before colonizing the galaxy around them. Jace and his father, however, possessed the mark of the Tria, signs of an evolved prehistoric race on Callisto. Callisto, one of Jupiter's orbiting moons, had long been a place many Earth scientists believed could support life and expeditions in space, but it took Earth-born humans forever to realize that they weren't the first to traverse the moon's surface. Rumors of former eras had it that Callisto wasn't as capable of handling life as some of Jupiter's other moons, like Europa. Upon examination, however, they realized the beings from Callisto didn't have some of the same needs of humans. But that had been many centuries before Jace was born. In Jace's time - 3070 - many interplanetary races resided either on Callisto itself, or in the space colonies that existed around it. Gorodia was its own clustered colony with residential, consumer, and technological/industrial districts, protected from the vastness of space while giving an open view of the cascade of structures peppering the darkness.

Jace knew of no other place than Gorodia to call home. He liked the feeling of suspension that space provided. He'd been to the surface of Callisto more than a few times, even visited Io and Europa, but it wasn't really the same experience. He couldn't call himself a surface dweller. In the end, he was always glad to have the colony to return to.

"Mother, are you sure you don't want to be there for the announcement? I thought it might be best that if we have a family dinner, we should dine together," Jace's father followed.

Jace looked much like his father. He was reminded of it as he looked over to where his father leaned against the kitchen counter, glancing over his shoulder at Gramma. Dark hair and brows, intense eyes, and a calmness in demeanor that never betrayed itself of any negative emotion. If Jace's father angered at Gramma's refusal to join them, he didn't show it. Not even through the shifting hues surrounding his pupils.