ARES

The parents of Graysa Legare and Lornick and Jarsh Drayton died eight years prior while on an unscheduled expedition to Ascraeus Mons—an extinct volcano on Mars (Ares) referred to as Speak-No—when dust devils formed and laid waste to their rover. Graysa, now eighteen and undecided in a field of expertise, enters expedition training. She learns about the different biodomes on Ares, what they specialize in, their importance, and how they’re all intertwined to ensure continued Aresian survival. Seismic activity wreaks havoc on the biodomes, but what terrifies Aresians more is the sudden restlessness of two volcanoes: Hear-No and See-No. Jarsh Drayton begins translating the Legare family’s historical data, not only as a favor for Graysa, but to sort out why his own parents had become so interested in the strange stories written in it. He becomes secretive and withdrawn and Graysa suspects his involvement when several people go missing. Graysa witnesses unstoppable global destruction. She doesn’t doubt Jarsh’s explanations of what’s happening to Ares, but then thinks he’s insane when he says her ancestors hid a spacecraft inside Speak-No as a means of escaping these geological forces. However, proof becomes a spacecraft emblazoned with KRAKEN—a term mentioned in the Legare stories—which will be the only way she survives: by leaving on the ship and returning it to the world it came from.