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It’s one phrase, three words repeated over and over and over in tiny print: Abandon all hope
My first thought is, how did Doc miss this? He said he cleaned the wi-com But, I suppose, this is just another ht psycho—Orion was I wouldn’t be surprised if Doc saw the ardless—words printed on a wire don’t actually change whether or not the stupid thing works Doc cares more about practicality than whatever leftover bits of Orion’s insanity are braided up into the thing
Beyond that, the phrase is apt If there’s one thing I don’t have any e just for me
And then I realize: he did
Doc said the wi-com came with a note It is, in a way, my inheritance
My mind spins Orion doesn’t have to tell ured that out onmoreBecause—I knohere this phrase colish teacher Ms Parker, one of the ht up there with Rhett not giving a da on about whether to be or not to be Abandon all hope is the phrase written above the gates of hell in Dante’s Inferno
And, since books were pretty much off-limits until Elder took over as ruler of Godspeed, that’s not so Doc would have known Of everyone on the ship, I’m probably the only one who knows about books from Earth
Other than Orion, that is, who spent most of his life hidden in the Recorder Hall with only words and fictional characters for company
The more I think about it, the more convinced I am These aren’t just some casual words Orion doodled somewhere “Abandon all hope” is a specific phrase from a specific book written on a wi-com that Orion left specifically for me
Maybe I’ But I’ve had “nothing” for far too long, and I’o to the Recorder Hall and look up the phrase in Dante’s Inferno than just sit here and stare at the walls some more I zip my jacket all the way up, leave s want to runbut instead, when I get outside, I re only makes me more noticeable and ith my head down and the hood of my jacket pulled up As I lance up out of habit In a cubby by the door hangs a painting of Elder, one of Harley’s last works This is the closest I’ve co Elder in days; theGodspeed In a lot of ways, he’s more trapped than I am
Painted Elder peers out fro the path of his painted eyes
The solar lalare blinds me for a moment, and in that split second of darkness, I realize so I didn’t know before: I don’t need to see the landscape to know every inch of the Feeder Level spread out beforefields in perfectly spaced hills I know the precise pattern of colors of the trailers that make up the City on the far side of the ship I know the exact point in the et so far away, I can’t really see them anymore I know the shape of each painted cloud
I try to dig into my memories for what my house looked like in Colorado, but I can’t remember exactly The shutters on the ere they undy? What kind of flowers did Mom plant in the front yard?
I know Godspeed now better than I can remember Earth
“Outta the way, freak,” a hefty wo past me as she leaves the Recorder Hall Ia jacket when everyone else has short sleeves, standing in the doorway of the Recorder Hall like an idiot