Page 79 of Shades of Earth (Across the Universe 3)

Colonel Martin taps his fingers against the edge of the communication bay. I get the impression that if the room wasn’t so small, he’d start pacing. After a moment, he looks at Chris darkly. “No,” he says. “Then we wage war. ”

“What?” I say. My eyes dart to Chris—he’s just as surprised as I am.

“Whatever alien being wiped out the first humans on this planet, they are, as Elder says, sentient. They are singling out my people and attacking. This isn’t random assault—they’re not defending their home or trying to find a peaceful answer to our presence. They are murdering my people. And yours, Elder. ”

I think about Lorin, about Kit’s dead, empty eyes, the gaping hole in her chest where her heart should be.

“Whatever is killing my people, I will kill it first,” Colonel Martin says fiercely. He looks right at Chris. “I will avenge humanity. ” His words are a threat and a promise, all wrapped in one.

41: AMY

Mom and I work in silence most of the day, too wrapped up in our sadness to focus on anything else. If I could just figure out where the Phydus is coming from, maybe that would tell us how it ended up in Dr. Gupta, Lorin, Juliana Robertson . . . and Emma.

Long after supper, there’s a knock on the gen lab door. Before I can stand up, Elder opens it.

I take one look at his face and say, “What’s wrong?”

His eyes are skittish, bouncing from me to the floor to my mom and back again. “I . . . I need to talk to you,” he mutters.

“Now?” Mom’s voice cuts across the lab. “Amy, we’re not done with our work—”

“It can wait,” I say. I drop the test tube I’d been holding onto the tray and race to the door. My mom starts to protest again, but the door zips shut, silencing her.

“What happened?” I ask Elder urgently, but he just shakes his head. There are too many people here in the shuttle. Despite the late hour, the geologists—who’ve set up a lab where the cryo chambers used to be—are busily and excitedly talking about something, little mounds of soil samples piled up on the trays around them.

Elder doesn’t talk until we’re on the path toward the colony. His steps slow as he turns to me, a wild sort of desperation in his eyes.

“Amy . . . ” He rakes his fingers through his hair. “Amy, this planet isn’t what it’s frexing supposed to be at all. ”

I step closer to him, longing to take the anguish from his eyes. “I know,” I say.

His eyes snap to mine. “Why?” he asks sharply. “What did you find in the bodies?”

“No—tell me what’s troubling you first. ”

Elder shakes his head. “I shouldn’t have taken you from your work. ”

“It’s not that,” I say, touching his arm until he meets my eyes again. “It’s just . . . ” I roll my shoulders, the muscles stiff. “Nothing Mom and I are finding in the lab really makes sense. ”

“What do you mean?”

“Mom’s been analyzing the DNA of the pteros. She thinks they’re a mix of DNA from Sol-Earth, Centauri-Earth, and gen mod material. ”

“From Sol-Earth?” Elder asks, so loudly that a small red bird bursts from the underbrush, chattering at us angrily as it flies away.

“It’s like something from Jurassic Park,” I say. I wait for Elder to give his normal little half grin of confusion whenever I reference something from Earth, but he’s too troubled to notice. His jaw is hard, and his Adam’s apple bobs up and down.

I trail my fingers up along his arm, attempting to bring him out of whatever dark thoughts are troubling him. “What did you discover today?”

“Not here,” he replies. He takes another frantic look around and grabs my hand, pulling me along so quickly that we’re practically running toward the colony.

But when we approach the buildings, he stops short. I follow his gaze. Dad stands in the doorway of the first building, his hand shading his eyes, waiting for Mom and me to return. My heart’s pounding—I can’t be with him now, not since discovering how he’s kept the compound hidden. When Dad’s gaze turns to us, Elder pulls me into dark shadows that envelop us.

Elder puts a finger to his lips. We wait until we hear Dad go back inside.

Thank you, I mouth silently at him. I know I’ll have to face Dad eventually, but I’m not ready yet. Elder leads me behind the houses, up the stairs to his building. And I realize: he didn’t do that just

for me. He doesn’t want to see Dad either.