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

for him. I didn’t want to sneak up on the guy. When I finally found him, I knew he couldn’t have cared less who saw him.

Elon sat propped against the mound of dirt. He wore his familiar dark grey uniform. A metal crutch lay next to him on his left. His white hair was a mess, falling down his face. A crate of champagne lay open, an empty bottle on his left and another near-empty bottle in his hand.

If he was surprised at all at my appearance, he didn’t show it. He gave me a crazy grin and lifted his bottle in the air.

“Glad you could join the party,” Elon said, motioning for me to take a seat on the dirt with him. “Can I offer you a drink? You know this champagne was being saved for our safe arrival to Kronos Five. Arun and I had it all planned. We were going to toast and cheer to a new world. We were going to give one hundred thousand people a new life. We were going to make a difference. We were going to help so many people. We were going to…”

Elon’s voice trailed off. He forgot whatever he was going to say next and lifted the bottle to his lips again.

I wasn’t familiar with champagne, not really my thing, but the bottle looked expensive.

“Come on.” Elon offered me the bottle again. “Come drink with me.”

“I’m not really a champagne kind of guy.” I refused the bottle but took a seat on the crate next to him. “I’ve been to the bottom of too many bottles myself. I’m not that great of a drunk.”

“I wish I could stay drunk more than a few minutes at a time,” Elon said with a loud, very non-Eternal-like belch. “My metabolism makes it so I process the alcohol four times quicker than the normal person. It takes a lot to get me drunk, and then I don’t stay that way for long.”

“How’s your leg healing?” I asked, looking down to the injured appendage under his grey uniform. I couldn’t see much, but there was definitely a leg there where one wasn’t just a few days before.

“Oh, that,” Elon said, lifting up the pants leg to his right leg. It was skinny and sickly-looking, white with a fair amount of scarring on it. “It’s moving along nicely. A few more days and I’ll be able to show my face again. The general populace won’t have to be disturbed at seeing an Eternal’s leg grow back.”

“If that’s not what’s bothering you,” I asked, “what is?”

I already had a good guess at what was bothering Elon, but I wanted to hear it from him.

“I uh, I let them down. I let all of them down.” Elon swallowed hard. He stared off across the level at nothing in particular. “Most of our passengers died. Those that haven’t are just waiting to do so. Communication is gone, we have no idea where we are in the galaxy, and it seems this planet was built to kill anything that crosses its path. Oh, and I forgot to mention the aliens that either are here or were here before and died off for some reason, doesn’t bode well for us either.”

“You didn’t do this,” I said, shaking my head. My hair, a tangled mess behind me, swung from side to side. I really had to cut it soon. “The Disciples did this. You saved half the Orion by landing it here on the planet and the Transients still on board. You saved them, Elon.”

“I had Iris run numbers on how many died, the odds of how many were still alive, and how many men, women, and children were estimated dead.” Elon lifted the bottle to his lips and took another long pull. “Do you know it’s estimated fifteen thousand children under the age of twelve died in the crash? I was responsible for them. My sister and I took responsibility. Do you know what that’s like? Do you know what it feels like to let someone down to the point they die?”

I felt my chest constrict. A wave of nausea passed over me as memories I fought with on a daily basis pushed their way to the surface once more. I tried to block them out. I knew I couldn’t. Forgetting them meant forgetting her. I would never forget her, even if I wanted to.

“Yeah, yeah I do,” I said, fingering the medallion on the necklace I wore. “I know exactly what that feels like. I know the emptiness you feel inside. The hole you’ll try to fill with alcohol, drugs, anything that will give you temporary relief from the pain you feel eating you from the inside out.”

Her face pushed its way to the surface. The way the dimples formed on her cheeks when she smiled that silly little grin. The way her eyes twinkled when she was being mischievous.

“Dean, I—I’m sorry,” Elon said. “I forgot. I read your file. I know you lost your wife.”

“She was more than that,” I said, clearing my throat. I reached into the crate underneath me and pulled out one of the champagne bottles. It was in a dark green bottle with a gold label. It was a brand called Devine. I bet people who drank champagne ate that name up. “She was my best friend. She was the best part of me, and when she was taken from me, the best part of me died with her.”

“What was her name?” Elon asked.

“Natalie,” I said, rising from my seat with the bottle.

“I’m sorry she passed,” Elon said from his seat.

“She didn’t pass,” I said, reaching down for another bottle of the champagne. “She was taken from me. She was murdered.”

I removed the second bottle from the crate.

“I’m so sorry,” Elon said, eyeing the two bottles in my hands. “Maybe if you have a problem with alcohol, though, you shouldn’t drink.”

“Oh, they’re not for drinking,” I said. I reeled back. I flung the bottle in