-Vander- Missing.

He awakens to see a face from his dreams.

  "Whoa!"  Vander jumps upright in bed, slamming his back against the wall and kicking the rough sheets away.  A girl with long, pale hair stands a matter of feet from him, her eyes scrutinizing him like bright blue flames.  Beside her is a bronze-skinned boy, his excitement at Vander's wakening plain to see.  He immediately swivels and calls into the adjacent room:

  "Hey, he's finally up!  He's up, everyone!"

  The stampede of footsteps is thundering, and before Vander can blink, a dozen people his age have rushed into the room.  He gapes at them, paralyzed with confusion.  The strangers look like they've come from a different country, or planet altogether; tattoos, painted faces, piercings, shaved heads and dreadlocks are combined with animal-skin and rough hemp clothing.  But all of them have the same dark complexion as the boy, save the one blonde girl.  They all stare back, giving him the feeling that he looks equally bizarre to them.  For all they know, he's the stranger.

  Vander is just starting to collect himself when the blonde girl fires a question at him.  "What relationship do you have to Kye Firewheel?"

  He shakes his head.  "What?"

  "Kye Firewheel.  You're supposed to be the one who overthrows Daasen, but he went after her instead.  Why?"

  Vander squeezes his eyes shut, rubs them.  What in the world?  "I have no clue what you're talking about.  I've never heard of her. . . .  Where am I?"

  "Shut up.  I'm not stupid enough to believe that crap, so you can cut it.  Why did he go after her instead of you?"

  The boy standing next to her nudges her with his elbow.  "You know, he might be telling the truth," he says.

  "I'll be the one to decide that," she retorts.

  As they bicker, Vander looks around the wooden room full of people, and begins to sense that something is wrong.  Something besides the fact that he's surrounded by strangers and has no idea where he is.  Something that has him deeply worried.

  "Where's my sister?" he says.

  The arguing stops, and a dozen blank stares fall upon him.  He scrambles to his feet and demands an answer.

  "Where's my sister?  Where is she?"

  The blonde girl cocks her head.  "We don't have your sister. . . .  If you had a sister, we left her alone back on Earth."

  "Alone?" he repeats.  No.  No, no, this is not good.  He starts shoving through the cluster of people.  "Emony?" he calls out.  "Emony!"

  The strangers grab his shoulders, try to force him back, but he resists them.  Panicked, he finds himself struggling against bodies twice his size, desperate to find his sister.  "Emony!  Emony, where are you!"

  Then something whacks him in the head.  Hard.  And suddenly he's looking up at the ceiling, which spins around as he sinks into darkness.

  As the room turns black, he hears the voice of the boy.  Talking to the girl.

  "Again?  Really?"