Page 5 (1/2)

Which means, of course, that as few people as possible know the truth

“I was apprenticing then,” Marae continues, “and I remember that Elder—the other Elder, the Elder before you—”

“Orion,” I say

She nods “Eldest sent him to do some maintenance on the ship, and when he caht to Devyn Whatever he said thenit made an impact on Devyn All research ceased for a while after that ”

“The Shippers went on strike?” I lean forward, shocked Of everyone on Godspeed, the Shippers are the most loyal I don’t know if it’s because we trusted theenetically engineered to be loyal, or if it’s simply because they, like Doc and a handful of others, like the Eldest system of rule, but whatever the reason, the Shippers are unswerving in their loyalty

“They didn’t strike exactly, not like the weavers did last week They did all their duties as norine research ”

“What ain?” I ask I’uely aware of the other Shippers in the room, the deep silence, the uncomfortable way they hold themselves, but my attention is focused on Marae

“Elder died,” she says simply

She means Orion—when Orion was Elder, he faked his own death to avoid a very real death at the hands of Eldest

“After that,” Marae goes on, “First Shipper Devyn resuhthe research was even more closely hidden than before Fewer Shippers were allowed access to the engine, and Devyn was not exactly, well, not exactly forthright with Eldest When I took his place, I carried on as he trained ularities ”

“Irregularities?”

Marae nods “Things didn’t add up Soine’s problems seemed new—as if intentionally done, and recently All records of past research were gone—destroyed, probably, as we’ve never been able to discover them ”

So Devyn had misled his apprentice, Marae Whatever Orion had told hi so far as to hide information from his own Shippers and Eldest Orion once told et to Centauri-Earth without us Why would he say that if he’s the one who knew the probleht?

“Eldest started to realize this too, didn’t he?” I ask

Marae looks down at her hands “The Eldest’s job is to take care of the people The Shippers’ job is to take care of the ship But before hebefore he died, I think, yes He’d realized soht ”