I meander back around to the door leading to the Feeder Level. Orion said he lived here, in hiding from Eldest. I can’t imagine what it would take for someone to willingly cage himself into a narrow dark hall without even the fake sun of the solar lamp to warm him. How many days passed before he couldn’t bear the darkness anymore and crept back into the Feeder Level under the guise of being a Recorder? Did he spend his time leaned up against the outside wall of the ship or against the inside wall that surrounded the Feeder Level?

Whatever he did, this was the perfect hiding place. No one else knows the stairs even exist.

Once, I stayed at a fancy hotel in Atlanta when my mom was giving a lecture at a genetics conference. I spent most of my time in the hotel’s pool. On the last day, I attempted to go back to my room and pack, but the elevator was broken. It took me half an hour to find the stairs, and when I did, they were hidden behind a door marked with a four-inch square metal placard. I’d gone an entire week not knowing where the stairs were, not even thinking about them, even though I knew, logically, that the hotel had to have stairs, somewhere.

The people of Godspeed have gone years without knowing about the stairs. And I can’t help but think: if they’ve forgotten stairs, what else have they forgotten?

Chapter 45

45

ELDER

I SLIDE MY THUMB OVER THE BIOMETRIC SCANNER AGAIN, and the metal panels over the ceiling start to close. Shelby’s eyes stare as hard as they can until the metal clicks back into place.

“We’re there,” she says, her voice alight with music and tears. “We’re here.”

“We’re here.”

For a moment, we share a smile. Then her gaze slides down to Marae’s murdered body. I’m filled with regret that even though her eyes stare unblinkingly up, she’ll never see the planet.

“I will take Marae’s body to the stars myself,” I say. “But I need you to get the remaining first-level Shippers here, on the Bridge, and start whatever process we need to begin planet-landing.”

She nods. “All the first-level Shippers are trained for this. There are simulators, and the information has been passed down since . . .”

“Since the ship left Sol-Earth.”

“We were always ready for planet-landing, even when it was centuries beyond us.”

“How much time will you need?”

Shelby stares at the control panel, thinking. “The First Shipper runs scans. . . .”

Her eyes shoot to mine. She’d forgotten. She’s First Shipper now.

“I’ll run scans. The first level is to ensure that the planet is habitable.”

“I thought we always knew the planet was habitable.”