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PROLOGUE

70,000 Years Ago

Near Present-Day Somalia

The scientist opened her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear it The ship had rushed her awakening sequence Why? The awakening process usually happenedin her tube dissipated a bit, and she saw a flashing red light on the wall—an alarm

The tube opened and cold air rushed in around her, biting at her skin and scattering the last wisps of white fog The scientist stepped out onto the frigid iron floor and stu waves of green and white light, like a water fountain ulfed her hand She wiggled her fingers and the wall display reacted Yes—the ten-thousand-year hibernation had ended five hundred years early She glanced at the two empty tubes behind her, then at the last tube in the roo the awakening sequence She worked her fingers quickly, hoping to stop the process, but it was too late

His tube hissed opened, and he focused on her “What happened?”

“I’m not sure”

She ht up a map of the world and a series of statistics “We have a population alert Maybe an extinction event”

“Source?”

She ain and the map panned to a small island surrounded by a massive plume of black smoke “A supervolcano near the equator Global temperatures have plummeted”

“Affected subspecies?” her companion asked as he stepped out of his tube and hobbled over to the control station

“Just one 8472 On the central continent”

“That’s disappointing,” he said “They were very pro”

“Yes, they were” The scientist pushed up from the console, now able to stand on her own “I’d like to check it out”

Her co look

“Just to take some samples”

Four hours later, the scientists had moved the massive ship halfway across the small world In the ship’s decontamination chamber, the scientist snapped the last buckles on her suit, secured her helmet, then stood and waited for the door to open

She activated the speaker in her helmet “Audio check”

“Audio confir video You’re cleared for departure”