“No, thanks,” Eva said as she surveyed the forest edge. In the morning shade of the bird-catchers, she saw what appeared to be a large boulder, angled at one side and half submerged in the earth—the ground-level entrance to a Sanctuary.

But it was not her Sanctuary.

Eva ran across the gravelly plain toward the entryway. Like the holograms she’d seen of underground subway entrances, the open doorway led down into the earth at a gradual angle. Its outside walls were splotched with large lichens. Enormous pale mushrooms grew from the entryway’s pitted roof. The door itself was nowhere to be found. Eva concluded from the entryway’s eroded appearance that the Sanctuary had been vacant for a long time.

She pulled a strand of brown-blond hair out of her eyes and peered down into the descending entrance. The darkness below revealed nothing.

Perhaps there is someone in here who can help, she thought, someone like me. Maybe their transmitter is broken just like ours was, and they’ve been trying to reach Muthr and me all these years.

Eva called down the shaft, “Hellloooo!” The sound echoed as it bounced down into the dark depths.

A high-pitched squeak answered from below, and out burst a swarm of ugly tiny flying crab-things. Eva shrieked, holding her hands up to cover her face. The twittering critters fluttered up into the morning sky above her. Next, a deep, low bellow sang out over the entire landscape. A gigantic shadow darkened the entryway from above.

What appeared to Eva as an enormous flying whale drifted high up over the open plain. With its massive maw the air-whale consumed the entire swarm of flying crabs. It then continued on its way, buoyed by a pair of mighty air sacs. Stunned at the sheer size of the whale, Eva cowered. She didn’t raise her Omnipod until the air-whale had disappeared over the treetops on the far side of the plain.

Eva caught her breath and leaned back against the side of the pitted entryway. She said to the device, “This is Eva Nine. Initiate LifeScan. Please sweep the area for any other detectable life-forms.”

“Initiating LifeScan.” A radar image floated over the Omnipod’s central eye. Eva bit at the medi-sticker on her thumb and watched a blueprint of the Sanctuary entrance rotate in front of her. She saw several tiny dots appear scattered about—and one large dot, glowing brightly. The Omnipod reported, “There are several small life-forms of no serious consequence. However, there is a larger, active life form that is making its way toward the entryway stairs from below.”

Eva’s throat clenched. “Is it human or robot?”

“Unknown.”

Standing tall, Eva scanned the immediate area. Though the entryway was near the forest edge, she was still a ways from the line of trees.

“Life-form almost to the surface.” Eva detested how the Omnipod maintained its cheerful tone.