Pawn Quest trilogy

15-year-old Ran Kenelm can fix anything! He can talk smart machines into repairing themselves. Faced with conquering his phobia for virtual reality before he can continue in school, Ran opts to escape foster care and find a job. But no one will hire him. Hallie Pollard's rush to finish school gets sidetracked when she witnesses a bombing and, against orders, investigates its cause. Pel Teague bikes to Dodge, on the trail of unexplained disappearances. Unbelievable disappearances. In an age when everyone is chipped and accounted for, how can people just disappear? Then he gets a chance to pose a question to the national computer. A fateful picnic results in an attempted kidnapping of Hallie. Ran's rescue leaves him severely burned, Hallie is in the hospital with a loss of memory, and Pel locked up as complicit in the deaths of two kidnappers. All three are ordered aboard a starship, destination unknown. When Pel discovers several orphans are also aboard, being returned to their parents, Pel is sure it's because of his question. While the others undergo space sleep, Ran, still healing from burns, finally confronts his VR phobia. But there are saboteurs who don't want the ship to arrive.

Thirteen teens on the surface of an alien planet. Ten of them expect to meet parents who mysteriously disappeared from Earth. What parents? Ran is sure he has none. And his friends Pel and Hallie left families back on Earth. But no one meets them. The teens will starve if not found soon. As the only one not recovering from space sleep, Ran, along with artistic Aryn, set out across a windy, prickly desert in search. When Aryn is injured, she insists that Ran go on alone. Though successful, Ran ends up separated from the others, stuck at the base by a man intent on using Ran's machine talents. But a recalcitrant computer Ran is not allowed to see keeps deprogramming the base's tools. Mystery also surrounds the track of an alien shipwreck which humans have been mining. But why has no one investigated the wreck itself, lost beneath the sea? Ran loves all machines, but most of all he wants to rejoin the other teens-especially Aryn. Join these teens in their adventure into the unknowns of the universe and of their own psyches. Planet Quest is a sequel to Pawn Quest.