I lead Amy across the cryo level. She casts a nervous look back. “We’ll leave the door open,” I say, because I can tell she’s worried about leaving her father behind.
“What is this place?” she asks as we step inside the lab. She’s whispering, and I can barely hear her as the whirring noise grows louder.
“The lab. ” I whisper, too. Something about the lab invites secrecy, and I’ve not forgotten that Doc and Eldest are in here, if the wi-com map’s correct. We stick close to the walls.
“I’ve seen those needles before. ” Amy points to the big tubular syringes labeled with characteristic traits that Eldest wants the inhabitants of the ship to have.
“That’s what they do here. ”
“What’s that?” She points to the big amber-colored tube extending from floor to ceiling and filled with tiny bubbles of stuff floating in it. “That almost looks like . . . ” She tilts her head. “Like embryos?”
I look at the debris floating in the amber liquid, and am surprised Amy could identify it so quickly. The only fetus I’d ever seen was one of a miscarried cow, and it was larger and bloodier and not really anything like these tiny round toe-sized bubbles.
I lead Amy to the back of the lab where, hidden by the way the room bends in a right angle, is the giant pump Eldest showed me the first time I was here. That’s what’s making the whirr-churn-whirr noise; the pump is on, shuddering and complaining as its internal mechanics heave Phydus and stars know what else into the water system.
Eldest stands at the pump, holding a bucket of clear viscous liquid.
Doc stands opposite him.
I grab Amy and we whirl back around the corner of the room. Neither of them has seen us—yet. I put my finger to my lips, and Amy nods. We both duck low and peer around the corner to watch them. A chair blocks our vision, but also gives us some level of cover.
“I’m sorry!” Doc shouts over the noise of the pump.
“You shouldn’t have let her see!” Eldest storms toward Doc, his uneven gait making the bucket in his hands swing. Doc eyes it nervously.
“I thought it would make her more willing to behave. ”
“Nothing short of Phydus will control her. Why did you give her the Inhibitor pills?”
Eldest sets the bucket down.
“They’re talking about me,” Amy breathes in my ear.
Doc says something else, but his back is to us, and I can’t catch it.
“Well, we’ll just get her tonight and take her to the fourth floor,” Eldest says, picking the bucket back up and lugging it to the pump.
“I don’t think—”
Eldest throws the bucket down. The clear liquid inside sloshes, but it’s denser than water, like syrup, and it doesn’t spill over the side.
“You know what?” Eldest shouts, striding toward Doc. “I don’t really care what you think. If you’d just listened to me the first time, with the other one, we wouldn’t be in this situation. ”
“What do you—”
“You know what I mean!” Eldest roars. “Elder! You let Elder live!”
Amy grabs for my arm. I had been leaning forward, dangerously close, trying to catch their words.
“Elder is fine,” Doc says.
“Not this Elder. The other Elder. ”
Doc stares at Eldest, his face emotionless and cold, but I can tell he’s restraining himself. There’s a thin line of white around his lips, and his jaw clenches.
Eldest is oblivious to Doc’s reaction. “The Elder before this one! The Elder that is supposed to be assuming his duties now so that I can retire instead of wasting the last of my life on a teenager who’s thinking with his chutz and not his head!
”