Scott G Skinner – författare

Bob Wilkinson is sad. It was less than a week ago when the 18-year-old crashed his senior prom alongside his best friend, class clown Pete Dimkowski, only to find their classmates missing and the downtown Chicago venue a gruesome crime scene. 

The abductions have since given Bob the opportunity to spend time with his dream girl, head cheerleader Lori Rainsmith, who arrived on the scene the same time as he and Pete. Bob isn''t in like Flint, however. For one thing, while Lori was on the outs with her boyfriend, quarterback Josh Brewer, at the time of prom, Josh is among the missing and Lori wants little more than to see him again. And for another thing, Bob, Pete, and Lori''s pursuit of the truth has put their lives in danger.

Now, Pete has disappeared, sent forward in time and space to colonized, dystopian Mars, after he fails to save Dana Golding, the pregnant secretary of Wesley Arendt, CEO of the shadowy Chicago Genetics Center, from a similar fate. Wesley has been sidelined courtesy of a head injury, but his counterpart on Mars, Chancellor Ross, is very much alive and kicking.

Don''t let Ross''s polite manner or penchant for T''ai chi fool you. His numbers may be depleted, but he still holds the Freedom Contingent Brigade''s resistance leader prisoner. Although he''s tasked Lucien Reynolds, a mole who betrayed Susie Walker and other FCB lieutenants in the past, with getting back in her good graces, Ross has much more to lose than she does.  

Susie, so world-weary, yearns to believe the chancellor''s good intentions, but knows that doing so may be at her peril. Meanwhile, Josh and the newly displaced Pete debate whether they should send everyone back via the time chamber . . . or simply destroy it. 

Back home, tragedy brings Bob and Lori closer together, as an unexpected-and undeniable-romantic charge grows between them. They never lose sight of the mystery at hand, however, and discover that the full truth lies closer to home than they ever thought possible.

What do you get when you send teenagers from 1987 to a cold, dark future where freedom is in short supply? Something totally radical, of course.

High school seniors Bob Wilkinson, Pete Dimkowski, and Lori Rainsmith find their affluent suburban lives upended after they arrive late to prom and find their classmates missing and among those abducted and sent forward hundreds of years in time and millions of miles through space to work as forced laborers on Mars, colonized and rechristened as "New Earth."

Gone are fun times spent hanging out at the local arcade. Bob, Pete, and Lori reluctantly set out in search of the truth. Bob, whose relationship with his politician father is strained, is only too happy to find himself in Lori''s company, as he''s yearned for the head cheerleader from afar for years. 

Meanwhile, Lori''s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Josh Brewer, finds himself among the abducted. The leadership skills he developed as captain of his school''s football team serve him well after he is liberated by a resistance group led by the tireless Susie Walker, who longs for an end to the abductions and hopes for a peaceful sharing of labor and resources. The aging Chancellor Ross, who rules with an iron fist, has other plans, as does his counterpart in our world, enigmatic businessman Wesley Arendt. 

With bodies piling up around them, our displaced heroes in both worlds are naturally wary of the authorities, but suspect that involving them may be inevitable. Several questions arise. Who can we trust? What should we tell our parents so they don''t worry? How do we keep our demons at bay? Finally, that ageless, all-too-familiar query: I like you, but do you like me, too?