Maya's Seeker went silent at dawn. No lights. No sounds. The device sat dead in her hands.
She shook it. Tapped the screen. Nothing.
“It's not broken,” she said. “There are no more fragments. We found them all.”
Julian stared at the dark screen. “How many?”
She pulled up her log. “Two hundred and forty-seven. Every fragment Dr. Ellis created. Every fragment that spawned from the first rock. They're all contained in our vault.”
Dr. Ellis walked into the command center. She looked older than her years. White hair. Wrinkled hands.
“Not all,” she said. “There's one left. The first rock. The one I found in my lab thirty years ago. It's still out there.”
“Where?” Julian asked.
“I hid it. In a place no one would look. My mother's grave.”
Silence. Dara crossed her arms. “You buried a frag
