Page 47 of Shades of Earth (Across the Universe 3)

23: AMY

Who are the monsters. Not what. Who.

Elder sighs and slams the book shut.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“It doesn’t tell us anything. ” He looks at the book with disgust. “It’s just another frexing clue. And wherever this would have led us? It’s out of reach. ”

“We don’t know that,” I reply, even though deep down I suspect he’s right.

Elder touches the side of his neck, where his useless wi-com is. “Amy, it’s hopeless. The answer is orbiting the planet, somewhere on Godspeed. ”

“It’s not hopeless,” I say, even though I can’t really see how it’s anything but.

Elder doesn’t answer me. When I look up at him, his eyes have grown serious and concerned.

“What is it?” I ask, fiddling with my hair. His intense look makes me nervous.

“You know I didn’t want to leave you,” he says, his gaze never wavering.

“What?”

“When you passed out. I didn’t want to leave you. I wanted to stay. But your parents—”

“Elder . . . ” I feel stupid for ever having brought it up. I don’t need him by my side every second of the day to know that he wants to be there. I guess the only thing his absence this morning really proved was that I want—need—him around too.

“Speaking of your parents, we should get back,” Elder says, defeat in his voice. “Your father will want to know that the shuttle is open now. ”

I nod—he’s right. I tuck The Little Prince under my arm and follow him back outside the shuttle. Even though we have the thing we came for—the clue that might give us the answers we need—it feels as if we’ve been defeated. On the bridge, Elder pauses, looking down at Orion’s body. Elder’s long hair obscures his face and his shadow casts Orion in darkness, making it seem almost as if Elder is peering into his own reflection. I clutch the book against my chest, trying to dispel the image.

“Amy?” a surprised male voice calls out. Elder steps in front of me, as if to protect me from an enemy, but any enemy on this planet wouldn’t know my name.

Chris walks out of the shadows of the trees.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, surprised and perhaps a little suspicious.

“I have every right to be in my shuttle,” Elder says loudly. “What are you doing here?”

“Colonel Martin sent me to check to see if the shuttle’s lockdown was over,” Chris says. “What’s that?”

He points to Orion’s body.

Elder explains—partially. He tells Chris that Orion was a shipborn who’d been frozen for crimes he committed on Godspeed, but he doesn’t tell him about the clues.

“You two should get back to the ruins,” Chris says when Elder is done. “Colonel Martin is having a colony-wide meeting. He’s only waiting for me to return with the voice amplifier. ” He runs up the ramp and to the bridge, carefully avoiding contact with the metal table and Orion’s body. After withdrawing something—a voice amplifier, apparently—from a panel built into the shuttle, he tosses it down to Elder, and Elder passes it to me. I hold it next to the copy of The Little Prince. Chris glances at the book but doesn’t bother asking questions.

“What about—” Elder says, pausing. What about Orion’s body.

“I’ll take care of it,” Chris says gently. “I’m helping with the others. ”

Juliana Robertson and Lorin.

So many.

Too many.

And we don’t even know what happened.