* Note: Parts 1 and 2 between flashbacks and present time. Only Part 3 is in present time.

* Another Note: The book is divided into parts: Part 1 - Sun Orbits Moon = Chapters 1-13, Part 2 -The Sound the Stars Make = Chapters 14-30, Part 3 - Freefall = Chapter 31-45

Earth, 2150

Chapter 2

Cameron Newell is a 17-year-old teenager living in the Upperworld part of the Earth, the rich people who pollute their own cities. He is the son of a cryosleep expert"Date Recruitment Specialist Samantha" "Sam" "Park" and and ship stocker (I think) Robert "Bob" Newell. He has two good friends: Adrian Conroy, Chairman Peter "Pete" Conroy's son, and Richard Griffen III (or "Griffen"/"Griff"), CodeMaster Richard Griffen II's son. The book then describes Cam, Adrian, and Griff's society and world that they live. One day, after training, Adrian hacks into Mr. Griffen II's "worldlink"/internet and finds a video of Sumati (her name means "wisdom" in Indian) preaching to group of people in Lowerworld while the Peace Corp. soldiers try to stop her by threatening her with guns. Sofie Patel, Sumati's disciple, suddenly appears in the crowd and Cam is instantly in love with her.

Chapter 4

In his freetime, when not training for Otherworld Colonization, Cam tries to find videos of Sofie on the internet. He fails all the time and mentions that "CanAm, Exceptional Content, Uniform Versatility, and Medical/Territorial Risk Management" rule the world "-ConGlo, MexSanto, SubCon, Frackia, and MicroNasia". And the mission for JIPOC is mentioned to: find an Earth-like planet, live there, and ditch the rest of the human race for good. The objective planet is Tau Ceti e. Cam tries to get Adrian to see videos of Sofie, but after some time, Adrian cuts him off. Cam then describe his family before around the time the Executor and Freefall are supposed to leave Earth. The only footage Cam can get of Sofie are "decades-old footage of Lowerworld riots and the weekly report of mass executions" and "Terrarists the Intercorponational Colonization Protection Agency (INTERCOLPA)". Cam then gets Griff's help and Griff is an amazing computer hacker, and the best Cam gets when searching the Internet is "an Access Restricted message". Cam then describes Griff as a good friend and that his dad settled in one place so that he couldn't keep joining new "Classification"/schools every so often. One day after "ColPrep"/Colonization Preparation, Cam tells his friends he suspects Upperworld isn't telling the whole truth. His friends laugh at it, and Cam demands them to show the video again and Adrian does show it again. Cam then realizes that Griff's word are true: "It gets inside you... You're not the same afterward" and that Sofie Patel is "on the other side of everything."

Chapter 6

Cam mentions that "when the first pictures of Tau Centi e appeared on the worldlink, everyone said it just looked like Earth" and he wasn't the same when he first saw Sofie on video. He thinks she's "Sumati's little sister, daughter, or secretary" and has already sworn to his friends that he won't go to Lowerworld to meet her, since he knows that she doesn't speak English or have the same the same history or future as him. Cam still tries to find her on the internet, but just keeps on finding "the same Two Worlds propoganda, hammering home endlessly that the Lowerworld was the source of all the planet's problems and we'd be living in a paradise soon as we left them behind for good." Teachers are mentioned to not a job anymore since "the Upperworld had gotten rid of them right from the start, along with classrooms and libraries and textbooks, all of which were unnecessary drains on prosperity" and that Cam's classes are saturated with "Two Worlds History and securing a lower-echelon corponational station by age twenty-one." Cam has seen his parents "three seconds a week" due to their jobs and he says that "nobody was real to me." He has kept searching for Sofie on the internet until he finds that she's coming to the old UN building for a meeting.

Cam wakes up one morning and gets a call from Griff about the meeting on his iPhone and sends him a video announcing the meeting. Sofie says "It is a great honor.... We wish to thank the Upperworld corponations who have offered us this chance to participate in the discourse of Otherworld colonization." Cam questions the security of the channel and Griff hisses that "We wouldn't be watching if it wasn't." The video is an advirtisement about Sumati and Sofie coming to New York CITI (where Cam and his friends and family live, I think) for a meeting. Cam realizes that he's finally going to see Sofie and Cam and Griff plan to leave to be at the meeting.

Chapter 8

Griff and Cam take a bullet train to the old UN building/the area of the meeting. The Capitol One Building, Lincoln Memorial (now "Linked-In Memorial"), and the Founding Fathers (now "Funding Father") are mentioned in the book. When both boys get to New York, they see a huge group of Lowerworlders attend the meeting. Cam mentions the city used to be the center of political debates, but now it's in ruins and a ghost town. At the old UN building, Peace Corp. soldiers dressed in white uniforms and black helmets carrying guns and walkie-talkies guard the building. There are brightly dressed Lowerworld people there, speaking foreign languages and wearing jewelry. Griff and Cam enter the buildings and people holding signs protest something Cam can't make out what it is. The people with bracelets and necklaces are the Lowerworlders not accepted into the meeting. Griff uses his card with his dad's codes to get them in to the meeting. As soon as the boys enter the room, they almost get lost looking for a good view in the mob of Lowerworlders. As soon as they find a good spot to watch, Sofie and Sumati enter, with loud cheering and applause surrounding them.

Chapter 10

At the meeting, Sofie, probably, states she is a Christian because she says the Lowerworlders believe that the planets that exist now will be destroyed and made new. She also says that God will come and pierce every soul when the old world is gone. Mr. Chevalier, an Upperworld moderator, thanks Sofie for her "history lesson" and asks when the Lowerworld riots will end. Sofie says the "riots" are actually demonstations and Mr. Chevalier asks when will the demonstrations end and Sofie replies with that the Lowerworlders be given a chance to travel the universe with Upperworlders. The place is in shock and Mr. Chevalier says that "the Executor is already booked to capcity and the Freefall is a supply ship, carrying an array of materials essential to our own colonization." Sofie retorts by reading a document she carried with her, signed by CanAm, ExCon, MediTerri, UniVers, and Chairman Pete Conroy. Mr. Chevalier orders Sofie to hand it over and she defies and says that Upperworld has deprived Lowerworld of basic human rights and that the Lowerworlders are "children of the Almighty" and that walls will fall down and "God then judge who among us is in wrong and who is in the right!" The audience cheers as Sofie stands up and is shot by the bullet from an assassin's gun.

Chapter 12

Cam notices that Sumati, not Sofie, was shot. He then races over to her and the bodyguards, but the bodyguards paw him away as he tells Sofie he wants to help. Then, the Lowerworld bodyguards grab Cam, while following Sofie to a former fire exit in the former United Nation building. At the top of the building, people are running and screaming because Sumati was assassinated. Sofie inspects Cam and then speaks "a word to the guard, and he let me go" and both stare at each other before they realize that they have the the one of the same customs: it is considered rude to stare at someone. The band then board a helicopter (known as a "helicar") and are whisked off to the Lowerworld camp. Sofie then tells Cam about the spies Lowerworld has in Upperworld. Cam then apologizes to Sofie about Sumati (and introducing himself) and then she launches into a lecture about Sumati, her bindi on her forehead, and how Lowerworld got involved to get rights. Sofie thinks that Cam wants to be insulted, but he says "I didn't come to here to be insulted". She then reminds herself "That a trifling girl from the Lowerworld should speak disrespuctfully to such an illustrious personage from the great corporation of Canada-America Financial [or "CanAm"]!" Cam nervously says she can drop him off at a train station, but Sofie smiles at him and asks "What did you come here for, Cameron Newell?"

Chapter 14

To Cam, the Lowerworld camp is not what it seems. It may be mud-covered, but it sure has lots of electricity. Sofie has been telling parable-like stories every night and Cam mentions that Sumati has revived the practice from other revolutionary storytellers in the past "called lamas, or swamis, or mullahs, or mahatmas, or priests, or pundits. Or philosophers - the word that had given Sofie her name" and the stories are "called sermons. Sometimes they were called dialogues. Sometimes they were called parables. Sometimes they were called Vedas. No matter what they were called, their purpose was the same: to lead their audience to the ways of wisdom." Sofie tells Cam about how the Internet can distract people from wisdom one day. A month after the New York CITI incident, Sofie tells a parable at night. It is about a haughty god who thought he was king, the haughty god's bride, and a wise man. One day, the haughty god was riding on his huge horse "the height of ten men" to find a gift for his beloved. He finds a wise man who gives him a flower he claims will be perfect for the bridal bower and the haughty god takes it, unaware of the flower's true ability. Cam notes that he's hearing the parable through a TransSpeak device, in which it allows Upperworld people to understand Lowerworld language. Sofie continues the parable by saying that when the time for the wedding came, the haughty god's beloved inhaled the scent of the wise man's flower gift and she suddenly hated her husband. The haughty god then realizes the flower was a trap and his spell is broken, allowing the other gods to make fun of him. The spell-broken god then flees his kingdom and becomes a loner, until he meets the wise man again one day. He asks for forgiveness from the old loner and a new flower from the spell-broken god's bitter tears forms. The wise man then tells the sorry-god that he's forgiven and that when the wedding ceremony between the god and his beloved is held again, both suddenly love each other more than they could ever imagine. Sofie then ends the parable by saying "The wise man... gained nothing, for he risked nothing. He is still out there on the road, trading flowers he will never smell himself. And his temper had changed one bit!" When it's time to sleep, Sofie tells him that if that story isn't obscure enough, try listening to the story of the philosopher and cave. Cam them murmurs that he's the great god with the bride and he needs to work on being like the wise man and the flower. Sofie then tells him a quote: "We murder to dissect" before she touches him and leaves to go to her own tent. Cam then laments that he'll never get an invitation from her, until he remembers that does get invitations to crack Upperworld messages during meetings.

Chapter 16

Cam has spent months in the Lowerworld camp, hitchhiking on Sofie's helicopter to go around the world to her rallies. The sixteen-year-old girl reminds Cam of the former cities of Earth: "New Delhi, Riyadh, Cairo, Chongqing, Kigali" and what Cam sees of Lowerworld horrifies him: children so weak they can't move, pregnant women trying to find food, and factory workers hacking up blood from their "hard" work. Upperworld cities are enjoying themselves and "truckloads of prisoners or workers - who could tell the difference? - traveling to their next destination, with hollow eyes and manacled hands and rifles trained on anyone who so much shifted position." The rivers have turned red like blood from pollution and deserts are littered with plastic bags. "I saw some sights I would have called beautiful, or at least some that spoke with beauty now long gone, graffiti-smeared pyramids and waste-filled gorges and fiery, smoke-dimmed sunsets. But I saw almost nothing that spoke of beauty still alive, still growing, still reaching for the light." Sofie has changed her schedule when images of the Lowerworlder who shot Sumati are released and Cam thinks his "tattooed face and body screamed Terrarist." Cam also notices that when ever the illegally downloaded footage of Sumati was released in Lowerworld, protests erupted everywhere and that there is an "intercorponational game of cat and mouse" between Upperworld and Lowerworld. One day, when Sofie, Cam, and the team go to the ConGlo capital (formerly "Kinshasa"), Sofie is almost arrested, but the band makes it out on time. Cam's job during all the rallies: intercepting Upperworld messages (because he's from Upperworld himself). Cam is still in love with Sofie, but he also thinks about what he's been told to in Upperworld and is reevaluating it in his head. Then, to Cam's surprise, one day, Sofie enters his tent.

Chapter 18

Sofie asks Cam if he's busy and Cam says no. She then takes Cam in the helicopter to Sofie's former village where all the people are dead. The village is a village made of mud surrounded by barbed wire. When they get inside Sofie asks Cam what ExCon really meant and she says "Extermination Control". She then says that she lived in ExCon for most of her life before escaping and meeting Sumati. Cam then feels guilty and horrified about ExCon before Sofie launches into a lecture about herself and the "Terrarists". She was born in the mud village before being sold to Upperworld as a slave and she says "the only thing that kept me alive was the thought that I might return to liberate others. And now I am left to tell my people that none survive but me." Sofie then demands that Cam show loyalty to Lowerworld and says she has "prayed in vain" because she hopes Cam that Cam would learn to be part of the rebellion and gives him one more chance before she exiles him. Cam then says he will show loyalty at all times.

Chapter 20

Cam's world begins to fall apart after the day Sofie reveals the mud village massacre to him. He still hitchhikes on to rallies and Sofie watches him closely during them. During one of the rallies, Cam finally figures out the message he first saw in Adrian's room: "Sumati, bringer of wisdom, speaks to the world's people. We do not fear the power of CanAm. We call for justice." One night, Sofie enters Cam's tent and tells him about an upcoming meeting being publicly televised the next day. Cam thinks the meeting is a trick, but Sofie says no. Both teenagers then hug each other.

Chapter 22

The meeting location is chosen by Sofie's bodyguards. "A corponation propagandist, of course, the kind used to call an adjournalist, master of phony news" interviews the both Sofie and Cam. Cam notices the adjournalist is "good, but Sofie was better" as the sixteen-year-old spoke about "the history of Sumati's movement, the wrongs we were fighting, the ideals we were fighting for." She also speaks about "Terrarists", who are people who believe violence could solve problems. When the propagandist speaks to Cam, she asks him "Is that what the movement means to you? Did you join it, as Miss Patel insists, for love?" Cam sweats, and then says he joined the movement for justice. On the way back in the helicopter after the meeting, rice wine is served and Cam and Sofie get drunk in the helicopter. When Sofie tries to toast, she falls into Cam's arms and he says to her "You're my flower..... My fragrance." Cam accidentally walks into the back of the helicopter and closes the door, and he ends up kissing Sofie for the first time, but it's soon awkwardly ends when a bodyguard enters the room. Sofie and Cam leave the back of the helicopter and Cam gets so drunk, that he wakes up in the Lowerworld camp and remembers that Sofie's bodygyard threw him off the helicopter. Cam looks outside of the tent he's in and notices that the Lowerworld camp is gone.

Chapter 24

Griff meets Cam at a helicopter landing site and Cam says that Sofie dumped him last night.

Cam's doesn't expect the reunion back into Upperworld to be happy, but his family now thinks of him as a disgrace. He mentions that Adrian hates him and Griff doesn't hate him. Cam then remembers the events of the previous chapter, and it makes his stomach churn with fear. He then says he had to take medications to be sure he's ready for colonization of Tau Centi e and that propaganda pictures of him Photoshopped from the meeting are hung around Upperworld. Sofie has been attacked multiple times on her origins, with one report saying she did the unspeakable crimes of the world. Cam's iPhone has been taken away and replaced. He also finds out that Sofie's bodyguards had planned to send Cam back to Upperworld. Cam mentions that he now has a love-hate relationship with Sofie and that Griff is happy to talk with him. While drinking alchohol, or course. Cam had been drinking to forgot Sofie, but the memory of him kissing her burned in his mind. He then says the Sofie helped him see the unfairness of the world.

Chapter 26

Two months before the departures to Tau Centi e and Kapteyn b, "Joint Upperworld-Lowerworld Intercorponational Panel on Otherworld Colonization (JULIPOC)" meets only for one meeting in New York CITI. They picked out the passengers, boarding site transportation, and the starship boarding. The Executor and Freefall have been stocked for departure and everyone's waiting for the Lowerworld passenger list. Cam and Griff want to go back to the old UN building, but with the New York CITI skirmish that led to Cam meeting Sofie, they decide to watch it on the internet. Cam has a flash of deja vu before the meeting starts. Adrian's father, some JIPOC members and CEOs, and Lowerworld delegates are at the meeting. Sofie still opens up with the "it's a great honor" speech, but then introduces the concept of "prayers" to Upperworld and about "the sound the stars make" in her culture. Cam states that "In Sofie's words, I heard the sound the stars make." Sofie then prays before Mr. Conroy demands for the petition. Sofie then tells Mr. Conroy that Lowerworld will go to a planet like Earth, but away from Upperworld. Sofie then defends he case on Conroy's orders and the UN room goes silent. At Griff's place, Cam yells that Sofie should be screwed and he begins to cry. Griff then says "It's not her.... It's the goddamn Upperworld. They always get what they want." Sofie then demands segregation colonization and Cam realizes he just lost everything.

Chapter 28

Cam mentions the final months before departure were hectic and that Cam was close to Griff the entire time. There were no classes, the only think happening was restocking the ships. The Lowerworld base before departure is "a heavily guarded fortress" in a flooded Greenland. Cam desperately wants to say goodbye to Sofie, but Griff says he'll regret it when he asks his dad to allow it. It's now one week before liftoff.

Chapter 30

Note: Chapter 30 is the same as the prologue at the beginning of the book

Cam approaches Sofie the day of boarding he tells her he loves her. Sofie says that Cam didn't need to tell her that, but Cam tells her he thinks he needed too. He realizes he won't see Sofie in a thousand years.

Otherworld, Earth Year 3151

Chapter 1

The book opens up with 17-year-old Cameron "Cam" Newell, who is in a malfunctioning pod on a weird lava planet. The pod he is in has technology that tells him who he his and what medication he's on because of cryosleep. "The front panel displays my personal information.....:

PASSENGER: NEWELL, C.

DOB: 05022134 [or 05/02/2134]

CLASSIFICATION AT DEPARTURE: 17 EY

HT: 1.75 m

WT: 68.49 kg

HAIR: brown

EYES: brown

CORPORATION OF ORIGIN: Can-Do Amortization

GENETIC SCREEN: within designated parameters 

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE: within designated parameters"

Cam then finds that it's Earth Year 3151, meaning that he's actually over one-thousand years-old and the trip to the planet was a success. But, as he gets out of his pod from the Starship Executer, he realizes that he's not on with his fellow passengers. He then calls out to his two best friends Adrian Conroy and Richard Griffin III (or "Griffen"/"Griff"). The response: a low growl from a creature on the lava planet.

Chapter 3

The creature attacks Cam. (I thought it was a dragon at first, due to the description in the book.) It nearly kills him when Adrian and Griffen, out on patrol, scare the creature. Cam asks Adrian and Griff where they are and Adrian says "We're in hell.... But you already knew that."

Cam is in hospital ward on the Executor, where he is treated for his shoulder and the toxins the alien spat on Cam's eyes. When the wrap around his eyes is taken off, he sees a man wearing "the silver-and-black JIPOC [or "Joint Intercorponational Panel on Otherworld Colonization"] crest on his lab coat." The man then tells Cam that they've had to test the toxins, but the teenager says he fine. Cam then sits on the metal table in the hospital ward and the man tells him about his pod malfunction before the Executor landed on volcano-covered Otherworld. Cam then asks the scientist about the Lowerworld ship, the Freefall, which is Lowerworlder sixteen-year-old Sofie Patel's ship. The man then leaves him and promises Adrian will help him understand. Cam then thinks that, as lies back down on the metal bed again, that he lost everything he had as soon as he left Earth on the Executor.

Chapter 5

Griff visits Cam everyday in the hospital ward, and Cam mentions that Griff can forgive and not forget, which is different from Adrian, who is a raging dragon. One day, Griff tells the story of how he and Adrian found Cam to Cam, and Griff makes it a lot better with his humor (a little bit, since the incident was dark). Griff tells Cam that there is no news for the volcano planet, but does tell him the ship is malfunctioning ("Passengers (2016)", anyone?) and that his dad is working on weapons first, under the orders of Chairman Peter Conroy. Griff also tells his friend that one hundred more pods were lost during touchdown and that the Lowerworld ship is gone forever in space. Before Griff leaves, Cam says that the mission was messed up and Griff says "What comes around goes around" and "Screw and thou shalt be screwed, as the Good Book says. That's from Saint Fat Cat's First Epistle to the Piss-poorlings, by the way. You can look it up."

Cam is released from the hospital ward four days after the incident and is free to whatever he wants. The catch? He has to go to the hospital ward to strengthen his injured shoulder. The only thing the ship has for Cam is a jumpsuit and a "selfone"/iPhone. He then sees a handwritten note (since the iPhones don't work on volcano planet) that says "They want nothing to do with a disgrace to the Newell family name like me." Cam is ignored on the ship, since he can't leave it at all. He also recognizes another malfunction: the trains on the ship are dead, so people have to use their feet to get around. Cam decides to explore the ship and then finds observation deck by evening and sees what Volcano Planet looks like: "Spongiform rock rises in piles like tortured slag heaps. Bubbling vats of sulfurous mud shroud the valleys in fog, while volcanic spew cones yellow sludge, as if they're puking the planet's guts. Here at the ship's midpoint, I can feel the floor quivering from all the geologic activity. Pale stars sprinkle the sky, and another heavenly body, much brighter than the stars against the gathering dusk, rides above the wave of mist. A distant moon, or neighboring planet, from the looks of it. Even this late in the day, the rays of whatever star this planet circles glance sharply through the haze, warning me of a skimpy atmosphere unprepared to guard human bodies from UV." Cam looks out the window and sees that the alien that attacked him on day 1 brought its pack and he notices that they're trying to get into the Executor.

Chapter 7

Cam and Adrian are on night patrol, planting poles in the ground to keep the aliens away. When putting poles in the ground, Cam thanks Adrian, but Adrian shrugs the night off. Cam asks Adrian what their doing and he says that "We're going to travel around a secured perimeter extending several hundred meters outward from Airlock Alpha 11.... Make sure the area remains clear of unlicensed lifeforms.Expand our range into enemy territory with the additional devices in this trolley. Then go back to base." Cam asks is planting poles in the ground the thing they do the entire night and Adrian thinks the question questions his authority. Cam then tells Adrian that he saved his life, but Adrian says that he rescued an Upperworld traitor instead. Cam asks Adrian if they'll see each other again if he is attacked again and Adrian snorts, saying, "Go to hell, Cam" and Cam says "Already there."

The boys keep walking throughout the night putting poles in the ground when they hear a noise from the sky. Cam and Adrian look up and they see the Lowerworld ship/supply ship, the Freefall, touch down onto Volcano Planet.

Chapter 9

Cam runs to the Freefall and Adrian follows him, cursing the Lowerworld people. In response, Cam stops running and punches Adrian, hard. Adrian tries to stop Cam, but Cam struggles to get out of Adrian's grasp. Adrian denounces Cam and Sofie and says that both of them are going to take the Freefall's supplies and ditch the Lowerworlders for good. Before Adrian can do that, the aliens attack Cam and Adrian, with Adrian killed in the process before he can punch Cam. Cam faints from Adrian's attack on him.

Chapter 11

Cam is taken to a prison on the Executor and he calls out to anyone that might be nearby, but nobody answers him. Then, teen guards open Cam's cell and take him to Chairman Conroy and threaten him that if he speaks, he's shot.  A guard cuffs Cam as the three teens enter Conroy's office. Conroy dismisses the guards and talk to Cam about his missing son and the malfuctions on the ship. Conroys says it sabotage by Cam and Sofie and they are Terrarists. Conroy orders Cam to bring is son home and then shows him Sofie in cryosleep on the Executor as a motive for Cam to bring Adrian to his rightful place as Solider. 

Chapter 13

Cam leaves the Executor at 12:00 am/midnight and he mentioned being told to go to the Freefall by Conroy and that Conroy will flip the cryosleep switch on Sofie and kill her if Cam doesn't bring Adrian home. Cam has taken a gun, emergency flares, oxygen tanks, binoculars, homing device, and food and water on his mission. He then thinks he has no idea how to survive a night on Volcano Planet and thinks about the world that he and Sofie were going to make on Earth.

Chapter 15

Cam's being sluggish on Volcano Planet to get to the Freefall and thinks that whatever the consequences of the mission, he loses. He's using a pole like the ones he and Adrian were putting in the ground as a walking stick to find his way across the fog. He keeps walking until he trips and loses his walking stick and instinctively plans to give Conroy a taste of his own medicine. Cam keeps walking on into the night and he's attacked by the aliens again, except, he notices they look like metal spiders. Machines, maybe? Cam runs towards the Freefall with the spider machine chasing him. He uses his gun against it and kills the machine, right before it leaks his oxygen tank. Cam then figures he has to get to the Freefall, fast, or else he dies on Volcano Planet.

Chapter 17

Cam's getting close to the Freefall, but he can't pick it out because it's big and there's a mist around him. It's almost morning on Volcano Planet and Cam needs to get into the ship. He sees the remains of the spider monster and sees pods in it and that the machine's helmet has the acronym JIPOC on it. He them climbs down a tunnel shaft to a cave and sees pods in the cave. Cam figures out the malfunctioning pod ejections were Conroy's sabotage and that he planned to blame it on Sofie and Cam. Cam "leans against the nearest pod, holding the tracker in my hands" and takes a nap.

Chapter 19

Cam sees the spider creatures wake up in the cavern and he decides to escape. When he finds the creature he killed last night still on its sternum, he decides to melt off a piece of its legs and uses it as a walking stick. He then heads over to the Freefall and starts climbing the outside ladder of it. Halfway up the ladder, he finds an entrance/exit and says "Sofie" before he gives up. Suddenly, the door opens and Cam rushes insides the Freefall before he can be burned by sunlight.

Chapter 21

Cam is inside the Freefall and he throws up a bit from vertigo in the entrace/exit shaft. He then climbs down a ladder into a hallway aboard the spaceship. He then deliberately decides to give Conroy a taste of his own medicine. He uses then wanders the ship, whose layout is similar to the Executor. He finds the cargo bay in an hour, stuffed with supplies and Lowerworld pods. He mentions that the Freefall was originally an experimental starship and the Executor's compainion. But then Sofie's demands came and the "Joint Otherworld Colonization Amity Pact (JOCAP)" was signed and Lowerworlders were then crammed into pods for the supposed journey to "Earth-like planet Kapteyn b". After finding how long the Freefall is ("The bay is four kilometers square if it's a centimeter.") and goes into the hallway for fresh air. He then says "Sofie" into the pod tracker and something in the distance beeps. He keeps saying Sofie's name into the tracker and find a white pod with a beeping flashing red light at the top. He tries to open it with a button, but noting happens. He then says Sofie's name into the tracker again, but this time "I touch the flashing light light of the tracker to the flashing light of the pod" and the pod opens, revealing the cryosleep body of Aakash, the head of Sofie's bodyguards on Earth.

Chapter 23

Cam doesn't know Aakash's name, but he's certain the the man is the leader of the bodyguards. He thinks that Aakash's pod opening first isn't a coincidence and still an act of Conroy's sabotage. Cam tries to shut down the pod and get Aakash out, but nothing works. He then says Sofie's name and Aakash wakes up. Aakash is confused where Sofie is and both plan to get to the Executor to save her. But first, Cam catches Aakash on everything the has happened on Volcano Planet.

Chapter 25

Cam starts to become friends with Aakash and they plan to free Sofie from the Executor. Cam then eats "Plop-Tarts"/PopTarts and "SpaceAde"/Gatorade, "compliments of Uniform Versatility (formerly Universal Comestibles, before they rebranded)" before trying to find weapons. He finds none (only to find a jumpsuit instead) and meets up with Aakash at cargo bay, with the other bodyguards still in their pods. The first person to wake up after Aakash is Ranjit. Then the others wake up. They are: Basil (the person behind Sofie's internet campaign), Stejpan (a guy from MediTerri who funded the revolution in Upperworld), Mingzhu (a MicroNasia woman part of the revolution), and Zubin (another one of Sofie's bodyguards). Cam and Aakash feed the band energy bars and Gatorade before forming their plan. They then plan to wait until night to free Sofie.

Chapter 27

Cam, Aakash, Ranjit, Basil, Stejpan, Mingzhu, and Zubin drive to the Executor in a jeep. Aakash then tells Cam that Lowerworld had plans before he even arrived and Cam is mad about it inside. Cam has to follow Aakash's orders in order to free Sofie. During the drive, Aakash tells his story of how he joined the revolution. He was sent to jail as a teen after he killed a man for drugs on the street. He was then sent to prison. Cam mentions that in Upperworld, crimes are no more. But Aakash finished his story anyway. He says that Sumati came to his cage and had won over the prisoners with her words and then, they escaped. Cam asks about Sofie and Aakash said that when she heard Sumati's message, she became Sumati's apprentice. Aakash finally says to Cam, "Let her go, Cameron Newell. Let her become here what she was on Earth, what she must be for all time" and "The fall into love is deep.... But the soul's thirst for freedom is a well without a bottom" before continuing to drive to the Executor.

Chapter 29

The band finally gets to the Executor and Aakash says to Cam before driving off "Be swift... And go with God." Cam thinks "Go with God" "is Lowerworld talk for It's been nice knowing you." As Cam approaches the ship, Conroy orders where his son is from a speaker. He then says that the Lowerworld band has been arrested and Cam figures out the trip to the Freefall was a trap. Conroy then says he will kill the Lowerworld band and Sofie to end the revolution. Cam counter by saying Conroy's dead meat and Conroy tells Cam "The only one dying tonight.... is you." Cam quickly gets into the Executor after dodging cannon attacks outside the ship and the he tells the cruiser to take him to Conroy's office.

Chapter 31

The cruiser takes Cam to Conroy's office and Cam sees that guards are running towards an explosion that just happened on the Executor. Cam enter Conroy's office and the Chairman tells him to join the Upperworld. Cam sees Aakash in the claws of Conroy's spider machine and the machine instantly kills him on Adrian's father's orders. Conroy then flips the switch on Sofie's cryosleep as Cam tries to run to her. Sofie immediately dies as a result. Conroy then tells Cam that he'll die when the sun rises for Upperworld treachery. The spider machine begins to take Cam prisoner, but then the metal spider attacks Conroy, allowing Cam to escape with Sofie's body.

Chapter 32

Cam tries to revive Sofie, but nothing happens. He considers suicide, but the cruiser that took him, doesn't let him go outside (since it's on autopilot). The door that Cam tries to open doesn't open. Cam accidentally goes to the rear end of the Executor and find a pod in there. He lays Sofie's body in there and begins to cry. Suddenly, the pod closes and enters cryosleep again. Cam desperately tries to open the pod, but it doesn't open. Cam beings sobbing, and then lies next to the pod, "had folded neatly on my chest." He then falls asleep.

Chapter 33

Cam wakes up and sees the Freefall in the distance and realizes it's morning. He tries to open the pod, but nothing happens. He then drags Sofie's pod and himself to the cruiser and it drives them to the Freefall. He eats a meal and then decides to arm the Freefall, but then Sofie's pod opens and the assumed-dead 16-year-old is alive. Her first words when awake is "Cameron".

Chapter 34

Cam helps Sofie from her pod and tells her about everything that happened so far. He tells her of Conroy's plan, the planet, and that "Aakash is dead." Sofie is calm when Cam says that and he also tells her that she died too. Sofie leans into Cam and says she "was trained by Sumati to control by heartbeat and breathing as a survival strategy...." and Cam says that Upperworld will definitely kill her for it and Sofie says she knows "the ways of death of the Upperworld". Cam then thinks "Ladies and gentleman, Cam Newell. The guy who decides to pick a fight with the girl he's loved forever the minute she returns from the dead." Cam asks her not to die again before Conroy's minions and robots attack the Freefall.

Chapter 35

Battle cruisers with soliders and spider machines approch the Freefall ship. Conroy suddenly hisses through one of the robots that he has Cam surrounded. Sofie tries to persuade and sympathize with Conroy but the Chairman demands the Freefall for himself. Both Cam and Sofie escape through a loading dock.

Chapter 36

Conroy's soldiers barge into the Freefall and arrest Cam and Sofie, dragging them apart from each other. Conroy promises that Sofie will in fact die for real again. He then tells a soldier to kill the rest of the Lowerworlders, which upset Sofie. Conroy then tells her that "the Freefall currently represents the Upperworld's best hope for securing our intrests. We will therefore occupy it, taking possesion of its assets and excising its liabilities. You were a fool to surrender your vessel when it was the only bargaining chip you had left." Conroy's cronies drag Cam and Sofie away from each other and Cam says "I love you" to Sofie, while Sofie says "Farewell, Cameron Newell. There will be other worlds for us" to Cam.

Chapter 37

Cam is taken prisoner in an ExCon cruiser and he thinks about all the Lowerworlders still in cryosleep and begins to pray from them. A soldier in the cruiser is waiting for Conroy's orders. Cam then tells the guard about freedom on Earth and Conroy's true intentions. The solider that told Cam to shut up is then killed by a gunshot by another soldier. And that solider is Griff.

Chapter 38

Griff frees Cam and pretends to follow Conroy's orders and give him false reports. Conroy threatens him by saying "I'll have your ass for this, Griffin" before preparing "Juggernaut Team A", a battalion of soldiers used to eliminate Lowerworld people, to board the Freefall for a hostile takeover. Griff disables the battle cruisers to do nothing from a distance (except go around in circles and flop onto the ground) and the spider machines suddenly surround Conroy's vehicle. Griff says "I calls 'em Terra Tanks.... Much better branding than Centurions, don't you think?" Cam realizes that the machines are controlled by Griff and both teens exit Griff's cruiser and see that Conroy and his cronies are dead. Cam finds Sofie in the Conroy's cruiser and holds her in his arms. Cam and Griff then go back to Griff's cruiser and Sofie is awake. Sofie thanks Griff by calling him by his real name "Richard". Sofie then reveals to Cam that Griff "was one of our Upperworld operatives" on Earth and Cam realizes that Griff and Sofie knew each other back on Earth before the 1,000-year journey. Griff and Sofie tell Cam some things he never knew back on Earth before Griff blows up Conroy's cruiser, the Imperial, with his cruiser, the Maverick's, cannon. Sofie screams at Griff that he shouldn't have done it, and Griff hisses that he's now Commander Richard Griffen III. He then shoots Cam's legs to convince Sofie to tell Cam the whole actual story of everything that's happened. Sofie then agrees to tell the whole truth.

Chapter 39

Sofie says that she was not born in the mud village, but in ExCon, proving she's another Upperworlder. Her parents were officials there and they were charged with arresting Lowerworlders and killing them. Sofie mentions the mud village she took Cam to was one of the villages her parents killed and that they took her to see the massacres to convince her about Lowerworld being a dump. Cam mentions that Sofie was a slave and she says "From the time I was old enough to speak, my parents arranged me to be featured in worldlink promos for their campaign against the Lowerworld. Under their hands, I faced lenses and spoke of hatred for my own kind, my thankfulness that I had been rescued from Terrarists. My mother and father made me a slave to the Upperworld as surely as any who labored in its mines or factories. The only difference was that I did not know what I was until I met Sumati. Until she set me free." Cam has a flash of deja vu about Aakash's story before Sofie continues. Sumati knew Sofie's true past and gave her an identity and protection. In Earth Year 2150, Lowerworld needed a recruit to hack into Upperworld's internet. Griff was the recruit and says that Adrian was his first try, but he wasn't in it. Griff then tells Cam that New York CITI was a setup to meet Sofie, as Cam was already in love with Sofie. Cam asks if Sumati was supposed to die and Griff says no and that he can hack into technology but not be a bodyguard. Sofie mentions that she was Sumati's disciple and that after the assassination, Sofie became the leader of the revolution. Sofie was not convinced that Cam followed the revolution and that she took her to the mud village she saw being massacred to convince him to be a part of the cause. Sofie then says that she feared the truth, that if she told Cam her true past, he would never join them. Cam then thinks he cannot trust Sofie and he asks her if she really did love him and she says she was never meant to fall in love with Cam and that when they both kissed each other on the night of the rice wine party, Sofie knew she'd betrayed her promise to Sumati. She then tells him that they can't be together due to her past. Griff then takes Sofie out of the cruiser to convince her to preach Griff's message of hatred. Cam then passes out from gas entering the Maverick.

Chapter 40

Cam wakes up in a cavern on Volcano Planet with Griff standing over him. Griff says that Cam walked into the cavern half-conscious and he found him there. Cam demands to know what happened to Sofie and he says not to worry. Griff then says he killed Adrian with his Terra Tanks the night that Adrian ridiculed Cam and Sofie's relationship. He then says he sabotaged the Executor and the Freefall to let the Upperworld die and also for revenge for his mother, who was from MicroNasia. Griff shows Cam a picture of his mother on his iPhone before launching into his parent's backstory. Griff's mother was one of Sumati's earlists followers, but after Sofie's parents told the Peace Corp. about her, she was murdered. Griff then says he was born in MicroNasia, but then he changed in appearance to prevent being caught. Griff and his father then moved to CanAm after finding the whole story on Cons Piracy. Cam then tells Griff that Sofie was taliking about justice not revenge, but Griff retorts and says "Revenge is justice". Griff then says that Sofie's plans were glorious and that the Upperworld was going to get a taste of their own medicine. But when Sofie and Cam fell in love, Griff says that that ruined his whole plan. Cam then puts the pieces of the puzzle together in his head. Griff then snarks that the Terra Tanks will kill him before saying goodbye.

Chapter 41

When Cam sees the Terra Tanks, he realizes that Griff planned his death on Volcano Planet after Sofie failed to preach a message of hate. Cam then finds a tunnel in the cavern and begins to flee from the mechanical insects. Then an explosion happens, which brings down the whole cavern. It almost kills Griff, traps the Terra Tanks, and allows Cam to make his escape.

Chapter 42

As Cam weaves his way through the cavern's tunnels, a Terra Tanks begins to approach him from behind. Suddenly, another explosion happens and the Terra Tank explodes and Cam sees Griff in an intersecting tunnel. The Terra Tank shoots again, this time it shoots Griff. The spider machine then heads towards Griff and kills him instantly. Cam thinks the Terra Tanks are about to kill him, when they don't shoot at him. He asks them, "What are you waiting for?" before one of them lowers its head towards Cam and purrs. Then, a flare is lit behind Cam and the Terra Tank before a few explosions kill the robot. Cam tries to see who shot the Terra Tank when he realizes that Sofie is near him. She tells him to get them off Volcano Planet.

Chapter 43

Cam and Sofie weave their way through the cavern before realizing they've been underground in the cavern all night. Blocking them in front of the cavern are Terra Tanks. Cam then suddenly realizes he understands the part of the wise man in Sofie's story on Earth. Cam tells Sofie that he will attack the Terra Tanks while Sofie hides. She asks why and he says that if she dies, who will the revolution be led by. He then tells Sofie he loves her, from the minute he saw her. Sofie then kisses Cam before she says that they'll attack the Terra Tanks together. The spider machines are about the fire at both of them (Sofie and Cam are holding hands) before they decide to shoot themselves. Sofie asks what's going on as the machines shoot each other before falling over on the ground. Some jump into the canyon below the Freefall, while others are on fire without anyone shooting at them. A cruiser suddenly rolls up to the carnage an Cam notices that they are waving a white flag. They surrender. The people in the cruiser are no other than Cam's parents, Samantha Park and Robert Newell.

Chapter 44

Cam greets his parents and his parents automatically recognize Sofie Patel. They go into the Freefall, where Robert tells them they should find somewhere quiet to talk.

Cam, Sofie, Samantha, and Robert are greeted by numerous Lowerworlders bowing at them. They then talk about the truth with all the Lowerworlders watching them. Robert says that with Conroy's death, taking orders from JIPOC and "Otherworld Colonization Limited Partnership" (or OCLD) won't be easy. Cam then cuts in that the world in still divided, and Robert agrees with him. He tells him that Conroy was losing favor and that the Executor is dying. Samantha then takes out the same jewel that Sofie has on her forehead (the bindi) from her white lab coat. Cam is shocked and she then tells her son their backstory. Samantha Park was born in MicroNasia, but was then transferred to SubCon where she met Robert Newell. Samantha's first job was Division of Data Recruitment, in which she researched cryosleep and its techniques for Tau Centi e colonization. Her research stumbled onto Sumati and Samantha became a part of the revolution. Cam asks why they didn't tell him that information, to which Robert says it would threaten Cam. He then says that he and Samantha moved to CanAm, where they married each other. Robert's job "as vice president for Otherworld Colonization put me in a perfect position to work for Sumati behind the scenes..." and he also helped people hide their ancestry and move them to Upperworld. Cam then realizes that Griff's dad and Griff were brought into Upperworld by Robert Newell. Robert also did some things on Sofie's profile (since Suamti was dying) and Sofie asks if they knew about Griff's sabotage. They said they suspected, but he was too clever to cover up his tracks. Cam then says that Griff sabotaged the ships because his father worked for JIPOC and Conroy. Robert says that Richard Griffen III didn't work with Conroy or JIPOC, but instead defied orders in order to protect Sofie and the Freefall. Sofie is shocked and she asks what they need to do. Samantha says "I think you and Cam already know."

Chapter 45

"Otherworld" is mentioned to be called Tau Centi d. On the Freefall, Upperworlders and Lowerworlders have gathered in peace to hear a speech of Sofie's. It's been some weeks since Griff's death and equipment from the Executor has been moved to the Freefall. The people from the Executor have been moved to the Freefall. Sofie begins her speech on a makeshift stage made of storage boxes. She says that Earth is gone and Two World History (the history of how Earth is divided between Upperworld and Lowerworld) must dissipate forever. She also says the barriers of injustice have fallen and that both Upperworld and Lowerworld have united, but still struggle with justice. The crowd then cries "Justice!" in victory. Cam then thinks he sees his and Sofie's united world forever.

Epilogue

Cam and Sofie are now in an official relationship. Now Upperworld and Lowerworld will head to Tau Centi e on the Freefall. The Executor has been abandoned on volcanic Tau Centi d.

Originally: published: 06/06/2018; edited: 02/02/2022 (formatting)