United: An Alienated Novel (6 page)

“I am the head Elder,” Alona said. “Those of us gathered here compose The Way, our governing body. With whom are we speaking?”

“My name and face are beyond the comprehension of your Noven brains. For the sake of simplicity, you may call me Zane.”

“Noven?” asked Alona.

“The collective name we give the children we’ve seeded throughout the universe. All of you are descended from a single race.”

Cara’s brows jumped at the revelation. She’d suspected this, but had never had any proof. She wanted so badly to ask where the Noven race originated. Her bet was on Earth, where the remains of ancient primates indicated mankind had evolved slowly over time. Unless the ancient primates themselves had been seeded on Earth …

“So the legends are true,” Alona mused. “Humans and L’eihrs share a common ancestor.”

“Yes. Your kind is a quaint species.”

“
My
kind?” Alona said. “Is that to say you and I are unrelated?”

“Correct.”

“Why refer to us as your children, then?”

“Ah.” His voice raised a pitch as if in amusement. “An understandably confusing term, meant in a figurative way. My people have grown fond of your race; we’ve come to view you as progeny. But we are a singular species. We share no lineage with any of the beings we’ve discovered.” As Zane spoke, he turned to take in all ten members of The Way. When his shadowy eyes passed over Cara, they caught and held for a moment before moving on, almost as though he recognized her. Maybe she’d imagined it. “We rarely intervene in our children’s lives, but for the protection of all, we must make an exception in this case.”

“How so?”

“We cannot allow an alliance to exist between Earth and L’eihr.”

Cara’s stomach dipped.

“Over the millennia,” Zane continued, “your civilizations have developed more aggressive tendencies than other Noven. The merging of your planets poses a threat to delicate races we’ve seeded in nearby galaxies. Through exploration, you may discover these races and decide to overtake them.”

Alona said what Cara was thinking. “We are a threat to no one.”

“That is not for you to decide.”

“But we haven’t done anything wrong,” Cara told him, unable to stay quiet any longer. “There’s no evidence to back up what you’re saying.”

“This is a proactive measure to maintain peace,” Zane said. “We will allow humans and L’eihrs one month to return to your respective planets and then surrender all interstellar travel technology. If you refuse to comply, both civilizations will have to be neutralized.”

Cara sputtered, too stunned to speak. The Aribol weren’t simply demanding the end of the alliance—they wanted a permanent separation of humans and L’eihrs. Not only would she lose her home and never see Aelyx again, but both societies would suffer. L’eihrs needed humans to breathe new life into their gene pool, and L’eihr technology had saved Earth on more than one occasion. Agreeing to Zane’s terms might save them in the short term, but it could also lead to their extinction.

“Please reconsider,” she begged. “At least make an exception for humans on the colony who want to stay. Some of us have found
l’ihans
—life partners. None of us are violent. You don’t know what you’re asking.”

Zane stared blankly at her for a moment. “I am sorry, young human, but there can be no exception. It is better to leave your mate than to bring about the destruction of your kind. We don’t enjoy punishing our children, but we do, when necessary.”

“How do we know you have the means to destroy us?” Alona asked.

His façade swiveled toward her. “Here is a demonstration to eliminate any doubt.”

There was a beat of silence, followed by a clamorous roar from the sky. Cara rushed to the window and peered up. She didn’t see anything at first, but then debris began to enter the atmosphere in great balls of fire that streaked through the darkness and landed in distant ocean waters.

“That was your spaceport and your Voyager fleet,” Zane told them casually, as if discussing what he should order for dinner. “One transport craft remains intact for use in complying with our demands. I urge you to obey. We’ve neutralized entire worlds for less than this.”

And with that, his image vanished.

Cara couldn’t blink, and her lungs seemed to have stopped working. Her mind kept jumping the tracks from one train of thought to another:
Was anyone on board those ships when they exploded? Was the spaceport empty? Why didn’t the Aribol just kill us all and be done with it? What are Aelyx and I going to do? Maybe we can live in hiding. But wait. We’re famous on Earth. If we both disappear, people will know we ran away together. What if someone tells? What if the Aribol make an example out of us, like I did to Jake?

“Miss Sweeney.”

At the sound of her name, Cara jerked to attention. “Sorry,” she told Alona. “I’m still in shock.”

“I’d like to hear your initial thoughts. Your instincts have proven useful to me in the past.”

Cara blew out a long breath and tried to calm down. As she processed the news, her first reaction was that something didn’t add up. There was no reason to believe humans and L’eihrs would attack other worlds. And Zane had said the Aribol didn’t like to interfere. So why would they sit back for thousands of years of war and genocide on Earth and then step in now? There had to be a different reason, an ulterior motive for banning the alliance. “Maybe they’re the ones planning a takeover. Maybe they’re trying to weaken us for an invasion.”

Alona remained silent for a while, both hands folded on her lap. “An interesting theory, though they didn’t ask for the surrender of our weaponry systems.”

Devinder pointed out, “And we exaggerated our defenses to the mechanical probes by showing them multiple images of
iphal
cannons. The Aribol believe we’re heavily armed.”

“My gut’s telling me something’s not right,” Cara insisted. “What do we know about the Aribol? Can we track Zane’s transmission to see where it came from?”

“I already did.” Alona brought up a digital screen and swiped at the data with an index finger. “His signal originated from a galaxy our Voyagers discovered last year. We’ve yet to explore it.”

Last year?
Cara frowned. Wasn’t that when the probes had begun falling?

“As for what we know,” interjected a male Elder seated to Alona’s right, “the Aribol are a mystery. One of our scholars, Larish, compiled ages of research and rumor to form his own theories about their kind, but they’re just that—theories.”

Cara knew Larish. He was a middle-aged academic who specialized in humanities. She’d visited him months ago, when she’d first suspected that Jaxen and Aisly were part Aribol. According to Larish, the race predated every known life form in the universe, they possessed extreme psychic abilities, and they wielded technology advanced enough to blow her “Noven” mind. She’d always assumed the Aribol were a bunch of bored ancients who amused themselves by playing god.

Looked like she was right.

“We need more information,” she said.

“Agreed.” Alona peered at her fellow Elders. “In addition to the transport, we have one Voyager ship the Aribol missed. It’s away on a mission. I’ll call it home and send it to investigate Zane’s location. To be safe, all humans will return to Earth at once.”

Panic squeezed Cara’s windpipe. “All humans? Can’t some of us stay behind to help the Voyager crew?”

Alona frowned. “Perhaps, but you won’t be among them. I need you on Earth to act on behalf of The Way.” As if reading Cara’s thoughts, she added, “You may bring Aelyx with you. If we’re forced to meet the Aribols’ demands, he can return to L’eihr before the deadline.”

“Do you mind if I assemble a team to come with me?” Cara asked. “Including Larish? He can inspect the probes that were sent to Earth.”

“You may,” Alona agreed. “If I require his input, I’ll confer with him remotely.”

The meeting adjourned, and as soon as Cara’s com-sphere shut down, Aelyx rushed in from the bedroom and swept her into a hug that lifted her toes off the floor.

“I won’t leave you,” he murmured in her ear. “No matter what happens.”

She hugged him close and nodded into his shoulder, but deep down, she knew neither of them would risk the lives of billions in order to stay together.

She didn’t want to think about that right now.

“Let’s call an emergency meeting in the dining hall,” she said. One month was barely enough time for a L’eihr transport to make it to Earth and back. Every minute counted. “We need to be out of here before dawn.”

Devinder relayed the news in his native language to the colonists, and those who didn’t speak L’eihr used translator earpieces to listen. When he was done, Cara stood up and added a few words of her own.

“I know life here has been an adjustment, and we don’t always see eye-to-eye. But no matter how you feel about the colony, ending the alliance is bad for all of us. If you agree, I hope you’ll volunteer to join the Voyager ship when it returns. They need all the help they can get; they lost a lot of explorers today.” She glanced around the room. “Are any humans willing to stay behind?”

To her immense surprise, Jake Winters was the first to raise his hand. “I will.”

His response inspired a few of his friends, who lifted their arms and echoed his words. Their willingness prompted even more to do the same, and before long, half the human colonists had volunteered for duty.

“Thank you,” Cara told them. “Everyone else, you have five minutes to pack a bag, then report to shuttle number three. Our transport is fueled and waiting.”

The room cleared, and Aelyx jogged in from the lobby to meet her. “I just spoke to Elle on the continent. She’s going to join Larish and meet us on the ship.”

“Good.” Cara was grateful to have Aelyx’s sister on the team. Elle worked mostly as a medic, but she had other skills, too. She was the one who’d taught Cara how to block her thoughts, which had saved her from Jaxen’s multiple attempts at brainwashing. There was only one problem. “Did you tell Syrine?”

Aelyx cringed. Elle and Syrine were former best friends who’d turned into enemies years ago, when they’d allowed a boy to come between them. “I was going to let her find out for herself.”

Cara shook her head at him. Leave it to a guy to underestimate frenemies.

The sound of footsteps drew her attention to a young L’eihr girl, who was hurrying toward them with worry etched on her face. As soon as the girl reached Cara, she skidded to a halt and locked their gazes to use Silent Speech.

There’s a problem
, she said in a rush.
I was going to tell you in the morning, but now there’s no time
.

What’s wrong?
Cara asked.

I work in the medical center. After supper, I received an alert that the cryogenic chamber had been opened. When I went to the lab to see what was wrong, I discovered the human body had been moved to the crematorium
.

It took a second for Cara to figure out who the girl was talking about.
David’s body? The soldier we brought here from Earth?

The girl nodded.
I contacted the crematorium, but it was too late. The remains have been incinerated
.

Cara massaged her forehead. This was why she’d wanted to bury David sooner rather than later. Burial was a foreign concept to the L’eihrs. An error like this was bound to happen.

At that precise moment, Syrine appeared by Cara’s side with a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. “I’m ready.” She glanced around at the group. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Cara lied, because now wasn’t the time to explain something so delicate. She would tell Syrine on the transport, when they were alone. She locked eyes with the medic and pushed a hurried thought into her mind.
Keep this quiet until we leave
. Then she took Aelyx’s hand and led him toward the lobby. “We have to pack. Meet you at the shuttle.”

Inside her apartment, Cara stuffed a week’s worth of uniforms into her bag while doing her best not to look around—at the joined cots where she and Aelyx had slept in each other’s arms; at the futon where she’d rested her head on his lap and read
Jane Eyre
to him; at the data table where they’d played virtual chess; at the collection of seashells sitting in a bucket by the door.

At the home they’d made together.

“Ready?” Aelyx asked, his own duffel bag in hand.

Cara nodded, because her throat was too thick to let words pass. She resisted the urge to grab a handful of shells as a memento, telling herself this wasn’t really goodbye. The colony was her home, and one day soon she would return to it.

When she strode out the door, she didn’t look back.

Chapter Five

B
y the time they reached Earth’s atmosphere, their one month deadline had shrunk to a mere sixteen days. Aelyx had never felt more helpless in his life. He couldn’t wait to disembark for the shuttle to Manhattan so he could actually
do
something for a change.

“Perhaps they don’t possess physical bodies …”

Something besides theorizing with Larish.

“Of course they do,” Aelyx replied. He had nothing against the scholar, but ideas would only take them so far. They needed facts about the Aribol, and as of yet, the Voyagers hadn’t uncovered any. “How else would they build the technology to destroy our spaceport?”

“Their minds are powerful. Maybe they enslaved another race to do it.”

Aelyx pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t take any more. He left Larish and crossed to the other side of the transmissions room, where Cara was engaged in a terse conversation with Jake Winters’s hologram.

“The L’eihrs won’t listen to me,” Jake hissed, his blond brows forming slashes over narrowed eyes. It was almost magical how his bitterness transcended the distance of multiple galaxies. “I have an idea for probes that would measure brainwave activity instead of energy output, but my software codes aren’t compatible with their system. I need a L’eihr to work with me.”

Syrine strode to Aelyx’s side with labored steps that told him she hadn’t recovered from the news of David’s cremation. He couldn’t blame her. In a way, it was as if she’d lost him a second time. And because Aelyx knew her so well, he also knew she didn’t want to talk about it. So he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and they resumed listening to the conversation. Their images must not have appeared within Jake’s line of vision, because he didn’t seem to notice them.