Read Online Shifter Planet by D.B. Reynolds - Free Book Online Page B

tucked into a neat twist behind her head. Equally dark eyes regarded her in silent accusation.
    Amanda cringed. She’d hoped to arrive at the suite before her mother, hoped to have everything packed, so she could make a clean getaway after what she’d known would be an uncomfortable and inevitable scene.
    Coward . “Well, strictly speaking, I’m staying and you’re leaving,” she joked lamely.
    “Amanda,” Elise scolded.
    “I’m sorry, Mom. I just found out for sure today, right before I shuttled down with Nakata for his meeting with Cristobal. How did you—”
    Admiral Leveque stepped out of the living room to stand behind her mother, one hand going protectively to her shoulder.
    “I see,” Amanda said, giving Leveque a resentful glance.
    He shrugged negligently. “I was in Sick Bay checking the status of some medical supplies for the colony and happened to see your mother.”
    She gave him a look that said she didn’t believe him for one minute, and ducked into her bedroom without another word, closing the door behind her. She opened her closet doors with a snap and pulled down her single duffle bag, throwing it onto the bed as she surveyed the room. Not much to show for twenty-five years of living, more than ten of them on this very ship. A few mementoes from places she’d visited. A couple of images that she’d liked well enough to print out and frame, including one of her and her mother from two years ago when she’d made full lieutenant. One didn’t accumulate many possessions living in space. There wasn’t enough room for it, not even on the flagship of a fleet admiral.
    She heard her mother’s footsteps in the hallway a moment before the door slid open.
    “Amanda.”
    She turned. Leveque was still there, hovering in the background, but Elise stepped away from him, crossing the threshold and letting the door close behind her.
    Amanda felt a stab of satisfaction and pride. Elise Sumner had no need to lean on anyone, and most especially not when it came to dealing with the daughter she’d raised to be just as fiercely independent as she was.
    “Talk to me, sweetling,” her mom said, reaching up to smooth a stray hair back into Amanda’s braid.
    Tears threatened. Even though she desperately wanted to remain on Harp, she was going to miss her mother. Impatient with herself, she drew a breath to explain.
    “We’re installing a new computer facility on the planet with shields heavy enough to protect against the system’s solar activity, which has been a major problem for the colonists up until now. Most of the fleet’s databases have been downloaded, everything we can share anyway. A small team has to stay behind to maintain the facility and train the locals.”
    “And you volunteered.”
    “I did.”
    “Their science is centuries out of date,” Elise objected. “It will take—”
    “Their natural sciences are excellent, though. Fionn says—”
    “Is that what this is really about, Amanda? He’s a good-looking boy, but—”
    “Mom. First of all, Fionn’s hardly a boy. And it doesn’t matter anyway, because you know me better than that. This isn’t about him, it’s about me. Harp is special, I can—” She cut her words off before she blurted out the truth about Harp, about how the trees sang to her. She didn’t want anyone in the fleet to know, because she knew what would happen if they found out. Hordes of scientists would descend on the planet, prying into its secrets, shredding it down to DNA, and destroying the very thing that made it unique.
    “I can’t breathe up here sometimes,” she said quietly, trying to explain something her mother would never understand.
    Elise regarded her silently for several minutes, the look on her face a mix of fondness and something else. Something she’d never seen before. “You’re just like him, you know.”
    “I know. I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t be,” she said softly. “Your father was a good man. I wouldn’t have loved him