The flicker of the ancient glyph still glowed softly in the corner of the whiteboard, unnoticed by anyone but the stars above. Morning came fast, and with it, a fire in Jack Parker’s mind.He stood outside the estate’s control wing with a digital map glowing before him, oceans shimmering in 3D. Emily stood beside him, arms folded, hair tied back, dressed in her usual sleek, navy uniform.“The underwater cities,” Jack said. “It’s time the world sees them.”Emily arched a brow. “Polynesian sector first?”Jack nodded. “Then Asia Pacific, East Asia, the Caribbean, and we’ll wrap back in Harmonfield. All cities operational, all functional. It’s time for exposure.”“DragonBullet ready?” she asked.“Always.”Just then, Jackson burst into the room with Matilda close behind.“You’re not going without us,” he announced, planting his feet like a stubborn tree.Jack raised a brow. “This isn’t a vacation, son.”“It should be,” Jackson shot back. “I’m your heir, remember? I need to see what I’ll in

The next morning, the Caribbean dawn cast a warm, gold-blue light through the domes of Azura Bay. Jack stood on the observation deck, his gaze fixed beyond the glass where the ocean stretched into an endless sapphire haze.Sarah approached, wrapping a shawl over her shoulders. “You’re thinking about home,” she said softly.Jack smiled faintly. “I’m thinking about the other home. The one hanging in the clouds.”Jackson joined them, his camera already clicking away. “Hanging city time?”“Soon,” Jack replied. “But not just Harmonfield. We’ll visit them all—Reidsville, Richmond, Carlisle… and then Dragon Home.”Matilda’s head popped from behind Sarah’s side. “Can DragonBot still talk to us from here?”“As long as he’s online,” Jack chuckled. “And I’m sure he’ll have plenty to say when we arrive.”By midday, the Dragonfly—Jack’s personal aerial craft—was skimming over the Atlantic. Its carbon-glass canopy caught every reflection of the sky as the powerful anti-grav thrusters lifted them sm

The morning light spilled through Dragon Home’s panoramic windows, painting the white walls in shades of gold. The Parker residence was unusually restless—more restless, in fact, because of one boy who refused to stay still.“Dad,” Jackson called from the hallway, “is it afternoon yet?”Jack looked up from the control tablet in his hands. “It’s seven-thirty in the morning.”“So… almost afternoon?”Sarah chuckled from the kitchen counter where she was packing nutrient pouches into a travel case. “You’re worse than you were on your first field trip.”“This isn’t a field trip,” Jackson said, leaning against the doorway. “This is Mars.”Jack shook his head with a smile. “Mars will still be there in a few hours. Patience, Jackson.”The boy groaned and flopped dramatically onto the couch. “Patience is for boring people.”Matilda padded into the room, clutching a sketchbook. “Maybe you should draw something to pass the time.”“Fine,” Jackson muttered, flipping the book open.For the next hou

Jack’s eyes lingered on Jackson, the boy’s question still hanging in the cool air of the observation deck. “Dad… what’s really out there that we haven’t seen yet?”Jack leaned back slightly, gazing past the curved glass into the ink of space. “Everything,” he said quietly. “Worlds untouched. Stars no one’s named. Places so strange that we might not even recognize them as planets. There could be cities floating in clouds, oceans lit from beneath by creatures bigger than mountains, or entire civilizations living in asteroid belts.”Jackson’s pencil scratched furiously over paper. “And—”“Jackson,” Sarah cut in gently from behind, “let your father breathe, cariño. He’s been answering your questions for two straight hours.”“But—” Jackson started, then caught the faint smirk on Jack’s face.“Son,” Jack said, shaking his head with exaggerated weariness, “you trying to kill me with questions today?”That broke the tension. Matilda giggled, Lena let out a snort she didn’t bother to hide, an

The image hovered before them, flickering slightly as if the holo display itself wasn’t sure how to process what it was showing. A dark, angular shape clung to the outer edge of the nebula, clearly unnatural in contrast to the swirling gases around it.Jackson's voice was hesitant but insistent. “Dad, that’s not a star, right? What is that?”Jack didn’t immediately respond. His eyes traced the edges of the shape, his mind working at an unnervingly fast pace. Something about the structure — its geometric precision, the way it cast shadows in a place where there should only be light — felt wrong. Not wrong in the sense of a mistake, but wrong in the sense of unfamiliar, alien.Matilda shifted closer, her usual bravado replaced by genuine curiosity. “What do you think? Some kind of space station? A wreck?”Lena frowned, squinting at the image as if she could somehow make the thing clearer with her gaze alone. “It looks like it’s been there a while. It’s not just floating there by acciden