Page 52 of Shades of Earth (Across the Universe 3)

I raise one eyebrow. “The military men are down there now. ”

“He meant—”

He meant none of my people are allowed down there. Just like none of us were allowed in the tunnel.

“If we all work together, we’ll be done by supper,” I say.

A soldier with the word COLLINS stitched on a patch on his shirt steps forward. “No one’s permitted to go near the lake,” he says gruffly.

“Why not?” I demand.

“Not safe,” Collins says. He doesn’t move from his spot blocking the path.

“But we’ll be with you. ”

“Not safe. ”

I hold my hands out, asking him to stop repeating himself. “I understand that. But you have a great big gun right there, and when we reach the lakeside, we’ll have at least half a dozen equally armed soldiers. We’ll be as heavily protected as the shuttle. ”

Collins shakes his head again. I notice the firm set of this mouth, the way he grips his gun. He will fight me over this. “It is forbidden,” he says.

“Forbidden?” I repeat, narrowing my eyes.

“Yes. ” Collins actually looks a little nervous. Good.

I lower my voice. “Do you know who I am?”

“I do, sir. And if you have a problem, I suggest you take it up with Colonel Martin. ”

“I’ll do that,” I snap. Then I turn to my people and call out, “Early supper!”

They all cheer and begin to make their way back to the ruins. But I just stand there, at the edge of the meadow that has become an unspoken border, one thought occupying my mind.

What is Colonel Martin trying to hide?

25: AMY

I’m still poring over The Little Prince when Mom bursts into the building I’d been hiding in. I quickly snap the book closed, but she doesn’t even notice.

“It’s time!” she announces with the same excitement little kids on TV back on Earth would announce that it was Christmas.

“For what?” I ask.

“Science!” she says in her best impersonation of a movie announcer. I laugh despite myself and slip The Little Prince under the sleeping bag Mom and I had taken from the shuttle. Maybe Elder’s right—I can’t spend all my time looking for clues that might not even be there, not now in the first early, crucial days of the colony.

Mom takes me straight to the shuttle to help with her research. Chris accompanies us for protection, but there are so many people now between the shuttle and the ruins that I can’t help but think Chris’s talents would be better used elsewhere. There are hardly any pteros in the sky, and while we’ve caught glimpses of other, smaller creatures—blurs of brown fur or dark feathers through the tree branches—the noise of workers and the sheer number of people here make them scarce.

Besides, I still have the . 38 Dad gave me, the holster attached to the belt around my waist.

Mom chatters the whole time about the “plethora of specimens to examine on the new world. ” The more Mom tells me about how she wishes she had a ptero specimen to dissect, the more I wish I was with Elder, talking about what Orion’s clue might hold.

The cryo chamber area in the shuttle has already been converted to a scientific laboratory. The trays that once held frozen bodies now hold scientific supplies. Several metal panels are missing on the floor and walls, exposing storage areas that hid microscopes, burners, and other scientific instruments. Some of the biologists are already preparing a trek into the forest to make casts of animal tracks. I wonder if maybe they’ll find more of the strange three-clawed prints Elder found on our first day, and I’m torn between curiosity over what the creature might be and fear that whatever it was, it was very close to the shuttle we’re in now.

I open the door to the gen lab for my mom and Chris. The cryo chamber that held Orion is empty, drained. It looks ominous, as if waiting for another victim, and I turn my back to it. A few other scientists are already inside—either Kit or Elder let them in, or Elder’s taken down the security on the biometric lock. Two of them—Dr. Engle and Dr. Adams, who’ve both worked with Mom for years—are standing in front of the huge cylinders that rise up from the ground near the now-broken Phydus machine.

Each of the cylinders holds fetuses of animals the FRX felt would be most helpful to us in the new world. Livestock animals, such as cows (normal ones, not the weird hybrids they had on Godspeed), goats, and pigs. Predators, including wild cats, birds of prey, and trays of smaller, egg-like pouches that I suspect are snakes or insects or something like that.

Dr. Adams uses a special scoop to remove a fetus from the tube. Dr. Engle takes it from him, putting the little bean that will one day become a horse into a specially designed tube.