Across the Universe Read Online Free PDF

was Godspeed.”
    I’m not sure if he means that they gave us luck or the ship, but they both seem a bit inadequate right now.
    “But we need more than luck. The ship needs someone to protect the people, not just the ship itself. You will be that leader.” Eldest takes a deep breath. “It’s time for you to learn the three causes of discord.”
    I scoot my chair closer. This is new. Finally— finally— Eldest is really going to train me to be the leader after him.
    “On Godspeed ,” he says, “do we all speak one language?”
    “Of course,” I answer, confused.
    “Do we have any differences in race?”
    “Race?”
    “Skin color.”
    “No.” Everyone on board has the same deep olive skin, the same dark brown hair and eyes.
    “You’ve studied the myths of Sol-Earth: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam. Does anyone on Godspeed ‘worship’?” He says the last word with dripping derision.
    “Of course not!” I laugh. One of the first lessons Eldest gave me when I moved to the Keeper Level was about Sol-Earth’s religions. They were magic stories, fairy tales, and I remember laughing myself silly when Eldest told me how people on Sol-Earth were willing to die or kill for these fictional characters.
    Eldest nods once. “The first cause of discord is difference. There is no religion on Godspeed. We all speak the same language. We’re all monoethnic. And because we are not different, we don’t fight. Remember the Crusades I taught you about? The genocides? We will never have to worry about those types of horrific events on Godspeed .”
    I am on the edge of my seat, nodding, but inside I’m hoping Eldest can’t see what a chutz I actually am. I remember those lessons. They were among my first lessons, when I was thirteen and had just moved to the Keeper Level to live with Eldest. Stars, I was such a kid then. I remember pictures on the floppies of people of different skin color and hair color, of people dressed in long gowns or loincloths, of the sounds of languages whose words I could not understand. And back then I thought it was all kind of brilly.
    I slouch further down in my seat. No wonder Eldest has been slow to train me—clearly I never picked up the real lessons he’s been teaching me.
    “The second cause of discord,” Eldest continues, “is lack of a strong central leader.”
    He leans forward, reaching his gnarled, wrinkled hands toward me. “Do you understand the importance of this?” he says, his eyes watery from old age or something else.
    I nod.
    “Do you really?” he asks more urgently, gripping my hands so hard that some of my knuckles crack.
    I nod again, unable to take my eyes from his.
    “What is the greatest danger of this ship?” His voice has fallen into a raspy whisper.
    Um. Maybe I didn’t understand. Eldest stares at me, expecting a response. I stare back.
    “ Mutiny . It’s mutiny , Elder. More than technical error or ship malfunction or outside dangers, mutiny is the greatest threat to this ship. So, after the Plague, the Eldest system was created. One person, born ahead of the people he would lead, to act as patriarch and commander to the people younger than he. Each generation has an Eldest to lead. You will one day be an Eldest. You will be the strong central leader who prevents discord, who preserves every living person on this ship.”

5
    AMY
    I AM AS SILENT AS DEATH.
    Do this: Go to your bedroom. Your nice, safe, warm bedroom that is not a glass coffin behind a morgue door. Lie down on your bed not made of ice. Stick your fingers in your ears. Do you hear that? The pulse of life from your heart, the slow in-and-out from your lungs? Even when you are silent, even when you block out all noise, your body is still a cacophony of life. Mine is not. It is the silence that drives me mad. The silence that drives the nightmares to me.
    Because what if I am dead? How can someone without a beating heart, without breathing lungs live like I do? I must be dead. And