Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

exposed wires hung from panels and the ceiling, and pieces of furniture had been thrown to the front of the level where a glass wall lay cracked.

Arun herself was a bloody mess. Crimson stains fell down her uniform and face. Her hair was in disarray, and her left arm was in a makeshift sling.

Arun came up to us and hugged Stacy.

“I’m so glad to see you,” Stacy told her friend. “Where’s Elon?”

“He’s over here. I should warn you, he suffered serious injuries in the crash, but he’s going to be fine. He’ll heal,” Arun said, looking over to Ricky and me with a smile. “So good to see you as well, Dean. And you too, Ricky.”

Ricky didn’t waste his opportunity. He opened his arms, hugging Arun.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe now, you’re safe now,” Ricky said, holding her tight.

“Yes. We’re going to be okay,” Arun said, confused at first, then giving in and hugging Ricky back.

“Shhh…” Ricky told her. “Don’t strain yourself.”

I rolled my eyes, working my way deeper into the room. From where we stood, the floor sloped down. The light blue glow of the emergency lighting allowed me to see well enough, but I still had a hard time of it.

I made my way through the loose furniture and gathered debris resting on the bottom of the level to a steel panel that had come loose from the ceiling. It had been laid flat, and a figure was lying on it.

I moved deeper, realizing it was Elon. He was on his back with a piece of clothing folded to support his head and a blanket over his body. He looked up at me with an uncomfortable smile.

“Dean Slade,” he said. “I knew you’d be among the survivors. It’s so good to see you, my friend.”

His bright blue eyes showed the pain his voice would not. Much like his sister, his hair was a mess, and he had spattered blood across his grey uniform. He pushed himself up on his elbows, not moving his legs.

I’d seen enough injuries in my time to tell when there was something seriously wrong. Elon wasn’t moving the lower half of his body. The smile he put on was laced with pain.

“You stayed on to land the ship, you crazy son of a gun,” I told him, shaking my head. “I never thought I’d see the day where an Eternal risked his own life to land a colony ship of Transients. You’re crazy. You know that, right?”

“Ah, but am I crazy if I realize I’m crazy?” Elon started to laugh. “I’ve heard the truly insane don’t recognize their own madness.”

I cracked a grin, and he laughed harder. A moment later, he stopped, wincing from the act.

“What’s wrong with your legs?” I asked, pulling off the blanket that covered them.

“No, you don’t want to—” Arun said as she came up behind me with Ricky and Stacy.

Elon’s right leg was completely gone from the knee down. His left leg was a mangled mess of blood and flesh.

I swallowed back the bile that rose to my mouth.

“It will heal and grow back in time,” Elon said, trying to reassure all of us, even though he was the one with the missing appendage. “My DNA will make the necessary repairs, and it will regrow.”

“All of it?” Ricky asked in awe. “I mean, I knew Eternals healed quickly and could grow back limbs, but—the entire leg will come back?”

“Yes, there are some that this may bother amongst our Transient counterparts,” Arun said, clearing her throat. “What I’m trying to say—”

“You don’t want us to tell anyone because growing back limbs is bananas, and you think people will say you’re inhuman,” I said. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Thank you,” Elon said, lowering himself back down on the steel sheet. “It’s one thing to know that Eternals are capable of regrowing limbs, but it’s another thing to actually witness it.”

“We can keep it covered until you’re healed,” Stacy added in. “We’ll get a wheelchair in here and cover your legs with a blanket until then. Not to move on from this topic, but is Iris still up and running?”

“She is,” Arun said, reaching for a holo card inside her breast pocket. “I powered her down to conserve energy, but she’s functional.”

Arun produced the red holo card in her palm, tapping a few buttons, and Iris appeared in front of us. The ethereal blue light that surrounded her was a welcome sight.

She looked at all of us in turn. “I’m so glad you’re all alive. I was concerned.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Arun told the Cognitive. “Iris, can you do a full diagnostic of the ship and tell us everything we need to know?”

“It seems that the ship broke apart on the descent. Only levels one hundred and fifty and above are remaining. All other levels are scattered across the planet,” Iris said as if she were reading a report. “I’m detecting multiple life forms in the Orion.”

“Can you detect how many?” Stacy asked.

“Affirmative,” Iris said. “There are currently two thousand, nine hundred and seventy-three survivors onboard the Orion.”

My body felt numb as I heard the number. We had left Earth transporting one hundred thousand new colonists, promising them a better world. Now, not even three thousand were on board.

“How—how can that be?” Arun sank to her knees as the weight of the number hit her. “How did we let this happen?”

“You didn’t,” Stacy said, leaning beside Arun. “The Disciples did this.”

Arun hung her head low. Her white hair hid her face like a curtain, but by the way her body trembled, I knew she was crying.

“That can’t be all of them,” Elon said from his prone position. “That’s only how many are currently on the Orion, not the total number of survivors across the planet. There must be thousands, maybe more that made it onto the escape pods. There’s more out there. We just have to find them.”

The room quieted again. Ricky went over to Stacy and Arun and gave