Page 104 (1/2)

“So?” Elder asks His voice is still flat, and I know that while he’s physically in the Recorder Hall withup, still on the Bridge, watching his people die He doesn’t care about Orion’s clues anymore

I strain, reaching for the tinysuspended between the two clay models of the Earths

“In Godspeed,” I say “In it ” The chair wobbles as I stand onthe bottom of the small model ship I noticed before that it was on a hook, as if it could be taken down and inspected I push against the bottorabbing it with one hand The chair topples, and I juround Elder catches asp in surprise He sets

ently on the ground

The e as e chunks of dust fly away and then drop to the floor, too heavy to float There’s rooves of the tiny e I turn the replica over so the ship’s on its side It aled bird—a beak for a nose and thrusters for tail feathers

I hand it to Elder

He weighs it in his hand as if it’s an alien thing, not a replica of the only home he’s ever known His face is intense—a scowl so deep that the shadows seem like black ers tense Very deliberately, he presses his thulass breaks I see a dot of blood on his thun of pain

“It’s accurate now,” he says, handing the model back to me

I search his eyes, but they’re hollow inside

“There’sto the bottom of the ship

Elder shrugs, a sort of one-shoulder careless motion “I sahen I was outside An observatory or so ”

“It has to be on the other side of the last locked door,” I say “Why lock an observatory?”

I step over to the wall floppy Elder stays where he is, by the chair, but his eyes follow round and zoom in on the blueprints on the floppy I use both hands toover the cryo level until I get to the section that shows the locked doors Not all the doors are marked—the armory isn’t—but behind the last locked door on the level is one word

Contingency

“He keeps calling ency plan,” I say under my breath I turn and ain