Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic

Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic
Armand Baltazar

Imagine a world where the past, present and future have collided. A world that is timeless. This is the world Diego was born into…For fans of Rick Riordan and Brian Selznick, author-artist Armand Baltazar introduces the first book in a new fantasy adventure series.Over 150 full-colour illustrations bring this cinematic story to life!You’ve never seen Earth like this before: continents reshaped, oceans re-formed, cities rebuilt. Dinosaurs roam the plains alongside herds of buffalo, and giant robots navigate the same waters as steam-powered ships.In New Chicago, Diego’s middle school hallways buzz with kids from all eras of history and from cultures all over the world. The pieces do not always fit together neatly, but this is the world he loves.There are those, however, who do not share his affection. On his thirteenth birthday, Diego learns of a special gift he has, a secret that is part of something much bigger. When his father, New Chicago’s top engineer, is taken by the Aeternum, Diego must rescue him and prevent this evil group from disrupting the fragile peace humanity has forged.

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Published in the United States of America by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

Published simultaneously in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

TIMELESS: DIEGO AND THE RANGERS OF THE VASTLANTIC. Copyright © 2017 by Armand Baltazar. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

www.harpercollinschildrens.com (http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com)

FIRST EDITION

Source ISBN: 9780008258955

Ebook Edition © September 2017 ISBN 9780008258962

Version: 2017-09-27

Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)

For Dylan & Sharon Baltazar

and my friend

Kevyn Lee Wallace

Contents

1  Copyright (#ulink_1a97c3f0-984c-5dc0-a8c2-e4361fa94b60)

2  Dedication (#ulink_fa9a2adc-b257-529c-99bd-6bdd048e42fc)

3  Contents (#u9afc912c-b732-5fc7-bf2e-ee4320569fbd)

4  Prologue (#litres_trial_promo)

5  Part One: A World Remade (#ulink_da09cfe9-18ba-5627-887a-021cbab9cbb9)Chapter One: A Dream of Flight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Two: The Riberas of New Chicago (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Three: A Workshop of Wonders (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Four: Where Giants and Monsters Be (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Five: Serpents and Soldiers (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Six: Streets of Fire (#litres_trial_promo)

6  Part Two: The Rangers of the Vastlantic (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seven: Pirates and Stowaways (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eight: Trials at Sea (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine: Those Who Help Themselves (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Ten: Maker’s Sight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eleven: There Be Dragons (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twelve: The Magellan (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Thirteen: The Captain (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fourteen: Diego and Lucy (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Fifteen: Monsters of Sea and Air (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Sixteen: Volcambria (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seventeen: Turtles and Tactics (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eighteen: An Oath Before the Storm (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nineteen: What the World Can Be (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty: Games of War and Jubilation (#litres_trial_promo)

7  Part Three: Until It Turns No More (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-One: Where All Paths Lead (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Two: The Battle at Yorktown (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Three: Fury and Love (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Four: Path and the Promise (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Five: One Destiny Divided (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Twenty-Six: A Dream Changed (#litres_trial_promo)

8  Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

9  Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)

10  About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

11  Credits (#litres_trial_promo)

12  About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

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Prologue (#litres_trial_promo)

Our world did not end the way you might expect. It wasn’t caused by any of the things you hear so much about today: the wars, the unrest, the changing climate. It wasn’t our arrogance, our pride, our selfishness. No, in the end, it was our creativity and brilliance. We thought we were making history by changing the future.

Turns out, we did both.

It came from beyond the stars, a cosmic event we could never have predicted, a rupturing of the space-time continuum that tore apart our entire existence. Not just our present, but our past, our future—everything that humans had been or would be. Gone. And what remained was a void, echoing with the faint whispers of a world that no longer existed.

But that was not the end.

Humankind was granted a second chance.

Out of the great silence, the earth was reborn, but like nothing we had ever fathomed. Dinosaurs roamed the great plains beside woolly mammoths and buffalo herds a million strong. Great steamships and ancient sailboats crossed the harbors among the legs of towering robots. The past, the present, the future—all thrown together. The continents reshaped, oceans re-formed, and mountains sculpted anew. This was the world after the Time Collision.

The hundred million or so humans who survived the cataclysm came from all points in time and found themselves scattered across the planet. The people of the civilized past were called Steam Timers, the people from the in-between times were called Mid Timers, and the people from the future came to be called the Elders. As these refugees from different eras struggled to survive in a dangerous world without order, conflict was inevitable. It was not long before this savage yet beautiful new landscape became a backdrop for war.

After years of fighting, the desperate people finally saw the pointlessness of hurting one another and realized they needed to work together. They declared an end to what came to be known as the Chronos War and grudgingly united to form governments, laws, and communities.

Their fragile peace allowed the surviving cities to rebuild and countries to be remade. Children were born, and the mysteries and wonders of this new world were explored.

But the darkness had not been vanquished. Despite all of humanity’s efforts, there were still those roaming the undiscovered wilds who would never submit to peace and order, and who would strike down anyone who stood between them and the power . . .

. . . to make the world their own.

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CHAPTER ONE (#litres_trial_promo)

A Dream of Flight (#litres_trial_promo)

On the morning of his thirteenth birthday, Diego Ribera glimpsed his future in a dream. It was a dream he’d had before, one that he feared, and it always began with his father calling to him through darkness.

“Diego. We need more light.”

Santiago’s voice echoed through the vast workshop. He stood high on faded blue scaffolding among the enormous robots that ringed the room. He wielded a wrench the size of his arm, and was leaning dangerously far into the oily gears of a massive shoulder socket. The head, arms, and legs of the robot were spread around the floor in various stages of completion.

Diego sat on a stool, gazing at one of the robot’s enormous eyes perched on the center workbench. He’d been studying the geometric kinks of its iris. It functioned like a Mid-Time camera aperture. Diego imagined the steel plates sliding open in sequence like flower petals. He pictured the tiny pistons firing one by one, how they connected to the steam processors. He seemed to know how these mechanics would work, sensed their purpose. He wondered if this was how it felt to be his father.

Everyone in New Chicago called Santiago a genius: the greatest mind of the new age. He was a builder, an inventor, a visionary. Some had even called him a charlatan, claiming that his creations were so ingenious that there must be some kind of trickery or fraud at work, but those people had never seen Santiago when he was engrossed in his work.