Invaded (15 page)

Aelyx folded his arms and kept some distance between them. “Why?”

“I have a genetic disorder,” David said. “It’s degenerative and incurable. My dad
had it, too.”

“Had it?”

“He died when I was a kid.”

“Oh.” Aelyx knew what that kind of loss could do to humans. He offered a sympathetic
nod. “I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” David took a seat at the foot of his bed and gazed at his folded hands as
he spoke. “I always knew I was a carrier, but I hoped the disease would skip over
me like it
did with my grandpa. But then I started showing symptoms a couple years ago.” He glanced
up at Aelyx, delivering an urgent look. “The military doesn’t know. I went to private
doctors for all my treatments, because I didn’t want a discharge. I know it sounds
stupid, but I kept thinking I could beat this.”

“It’s not stupid,” Aelyx said. His instincts told him David was being honest, and
he felt a compassionate tug for the boy. “Sometimes there’s power in positive
thinking.”

“And even greater power in L’eihr drugs.”

Now Aelyx understood what David meant about receiving perks. “What are you taking?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” David studied the inside crook of his elbow, where his most
recent wound had begun to scab over. “It’s something experimental. Diseases
like mine don’t exist for you guys because of breeding, or something like that.”

“Selective reproduction,” Aelyx said. “Genetic disorders died out thousands of years
ago, because the people carrying those anomalies weren’t permitted to pass on their
DNA.” He’d always considered it a logical practice, but it occurred to Aelyx that
David wouldn’t be alive if his ancestors had been banned from reproducing.

“Whatever’s in this stuff makes me feel like Superman.” When David glanced up again,
his face was full of optimism. “I think it’s working.”

Aelyx hoped so. But if David had tried so hard to hide his disease, how did a L’eihr
discover it, and who’d acquired the drugs from the transport?

David must have seen the question on Aelyx’s face. “You’re wondering how I got the
meds,” he said.

“And who gave them to you.” Frankly, Aelyx didn’t know many L’eihrs who cared enough
about humans to put forth the effort.

“I met one of your leaders when he came here for a World Trade meeting,” David said.
“Young guy—looked kind of like you, but taller. Real friendly. He’s crazy about
humans.”

A young male member of The Way? There was only one possibility and Aelyx didn’t like
it. “Jaxen?”

“Yeah,” David said, wrinkling his forehead. “That sounds familiar. You know him?”

“Not really.”
Just well enough to distrust any drugs he would give me.
But as much as Aelyx wanted to warn David, speaking against The Way was treason—punishable
by
death. Besides, if David’s condition was fatal, the experimental medication couldn’t
make it much worse.

“Anyway,” David said, “he was real observant. I couldn’t hide anything from him. I
had the shakes one day and he noticed.” David held up a hand in demonstration,
making his palm tremble. “The guy came right out and asked what disease I had. I denied
it at first, but when he said he could help me, I came clean.”

“He must have liked you.” Or wanted something.

David shrugged. “I guess so. He asked if I was interested in joining your colony.”

“And are you?”

“I’m thinking about it,” David said. “I lost my mom last winter, and I don’t have
any brothers or sisters, so there’s not much keeping me here.”

Aelyx sat down beside him. “I hope you’ll go.”

“Yeah?” David seemed pleased to hear it. “So we’re cool?”

“Completely.”

“And we can keep this between us?”

“Yes and no,” Aelyx admitted. “I’ll try to control my thoughts, but I can only hide
so much during Silent Speech.”

“But you can’t silent-talk to Colonel Rutter or my CO, right?”

“Right.”

“Then I’ll be okay.”

For the next few beats, they sat in awkward silence, both fidgeting with their hands
and staring at their boots. Finally, David cleared his throat and forced a smile.
“So, did you need
something?”

Aelyx raised one brow in question.

“When you came in here,” David said with a teasing grin, “and caught me shooting up.”

Oh, right. He’d wanted advice on what to send Cara on the next transport. It seemed
so trivial now, compared to David’s troubles. “It’s nothing.”

“Out with it.” David bounced up from the bed and crossed the room to lean against
his dresser. “It’s about Cara, right?”

“How’d you know?”

Another shrug. “You only come to me with girl problems. I don’t know why you think
I’ve got all the answers, though. It’s been a long time for me, my friend.”

“A long time since…?”

“I got laid.” He laughed casually, not the least bit embarrassed to discuss something
so intimate. “I should be asking
you
for tips.”

David’s unabashed honesty gave Aelyx the confidence to admit his lack of experience.
“My tips wouldn’t get you far. I’ve never…well…” He felt his face heating.
“You know.”

David’s blond brows shot up his forehead. “Never? Not even with Cara?”

Aelyx shook his head. “She said it was too soon.”

“Ouch.” David sucked in a sharp breath while pushing off the dresser, then clapped
Aelyx on the arm. “Tough break, man. But she’s got to be crazy about you. Otherwise
she
wouldn’t have left Earth, right?”

“I’m worried she’s having second thoughts,” Aelyx confided. “I want to send something
to make her feel better.”

“Let me guess—you came to me for gift ideas?”

“Got any?”

“That’s the thing,” David said. “Girls like stuff that comes from the heart—something
only you can give them. It has to be personal. I can’t tell you what to
buy, or she won’t think it’s romantic.”

Aelyx considered that.
Something only I can give her…

“Maybe a mushy letter,” David suggested. “Or glue your picture in a locket so she
can wear it over her heart, or some crap like that. Whatever makes her feel closer
to
you.”

That gave Aelyx an idea, and he found himself smiling when he imagined Cara’s reaction.
She would love it. More importantly, he hadn’t needed David to tell him what to send.
“I
know just the thing.”

C
ara made several key discoveries over the next week, mostly involving her brother.
She learned the reason he loved those nasty cabbage-flavored protein packets was
because they reminded him of sauerkraut, which he’d grown fond of during a brief assignment
in Germany. During a game of truth or dare, Troy confided that a servicewoman called
Melanie
Maloney had broken his heart, and that he’d lost his best friend in an ambush two
years ago. He showed Cara the scar on his left calf from a friendly fire incident
he’d never told Mom
and Dad about, and he confessed to watching
The Muppet Christmas Carol
when he was homesick during basic training.

It was like Troy had this whole other life, and she’d never known him until now. Cara
spent every spare minute glued to her brother’s side. She’d even convinced Elle to
let
Troy bunk with them for his last week on L’eihr. His snoring kept them awake, but
Cara didn’t mind. Who needed sleep?

At that moment, he slept flat on his back with one arm hugging a pillow against his
chest and the other arm resting beneath his head where the pillow belonged. His metal
dog tags hung over his
cot and stirred with the breeze from the open window, creating a light tinkle.

God, she was going to miss him.

Cara tried reminding herself that she could go home to visit every year, but twelve
months seemed like forever with multiple galaxies stretched between them. She wished
they could get back all
the time they’d wasted on Earth, holed up in their bedrooms watching Internet videos
or texting friends who hadn’t lasted beyond the school year.

The room alarm interrupted her moping in three long, buzzing bursts that rattled her
teeth and vibrated the furniture. Cara flipped back the covers and stood, then tugged
Elle’s arm. The
alarm wouldn’t stop until they’d both scanned their nano-chips and reported awake.
Troy didn’t have a chip, so he grumbled a curse and stayed beneath his blankets, scratching
himself like a typical guy.

Elle thrust her wrist beneath the scanner affixed near the door, and in response,
the system replied in L’eihr, “Elyx’a of the first Aegis, you have no
notifications.”

Cara followed suit, expecting to hear the same message in English. “
Cah
-ra Sweeney,” the computer said, “return after your morning meal and await further
instructions.”

Cara made it halfway back to her bunk before she absorbed the message. “Wait. What?”
She’d never had a notification before. She turned to Elle, who didn’t appear to
understand it, either.

“That’s odd.” Elle pulled off her nightshirt without a care for the male in the room.
“But I wouldn’t worry. It’s probably an administrative
matter.”

“Maybe I’m getting a new com-sphere,” Cara said. Her transmissions were getting through
to her parents and Aelyx, but she kept missing alerts, like the emergency assembly
the
headmaster had called last week. She’d reported the issue to the devices department,
who in turn had promised to look into it.

“I hate to leave you alone, but I have to attend classes.” Elle unfastened her ponytail
and ran a comb through her hair. “Troy, can you stay with her today?”

Troy pushed onto his elbows and glanced across the room, then went slack-jawed at
the sight of Elle’s bare chest. “Holy God!” he shouted, blocking his view with one
hand.
“You could’ve warned me!”

Elle laughed and refastened her hair at the nape of her neck. “You humans are amusing.
Such a prudish view of your own bodies.”

He peeked through his fingers. “Are you saying it wouldn’t bug you if I strutted around
here buck naked?”

“Whoa.” Cara held up one finger. “It would bother
me
!”

“Go ahead.” Elle swept a permissive hand toward Troy’s cot. “Yours wouldn’t be the
first male reproductive organ I’ve seen. They all look the same to
me.”

Troy threw a pillow on his lap while trying not to ogle Elle’s boobs. “I’d better
stay put for a few minutes.”

Gross. This was why siblings shouldn’t share a room. Cara gathered a towel and a clean
uniform, deciding to make a run for the showers before she saw something that would
scar her for
life. But when she reached the communal washroom, she wished she’d stayed behind.

“Look,” Dahla said in flawless English, glancing at Cara from the enzyme mouth-washing
station. “It’s our resident chimpanzee.”

Odom spat his enzyme rinse into the sink and jutted out his bottom lip, then made
a weird growling noise in his misinterpretation of monkey chatter.

Refusing to let them intimidate her, Cara strode toward the shower. “Chimps don’t
sound like that. And besides, you have just as much of their DNA as I do.” She glared
at Dahla
and flashed her best
f-you
grin. “Sister.”

The girl’s eyes turned to slits. In one massive step, she blocked Cara’s way until
they stood toe-to-toe. “A handful of sacred mud doesn’t make us sisters. You’re
an insect, and when the alliance fails, no one will even notice the extinction of
your race.”

“Don’t you mean
our
race?” Cara asked sweetly. “You know, since your ancestors are from Earth.”

Dahla’s hands clenched, but Odom pulled her aside and communicated something in Silent
Speech, probably a warning that the consequences of a fistfight weren’t worth it.
The two gave
her the L’eihr middle finger and stomped away.

When Cara had finished washing, she returned to her room, pleased to find Troy alone
and fully clothed, lacing up his combat boots.

“I’m starved. You ready?” Troy patted his belly. “By the way, you missed a call from
Mom. She said Tori’s going to sneak away tomorrow to talk to you.”

“Really?” Cara perked up as they made their way toward the cafeteria. It had been
too long since she’d heard her best friend’s voice.

“
Alex
called, too,” Troy said with an eye roll. “I told him to get a life.”

“You’d better be joking.”

“Nope. When you didn’t answer your sphere, he tried mine.” Troy led the way inside
the dining hall and grabbed a tray. “Total stalker.”

“You dillhole!” she hissed. “He’s worried about me because of what happened with the
tablet.”

“Whatevs.” Troy dumped a ladleful of ground meat over his flatbread. “Just say the
word and I’ll introduce you to a couple of my friends. They’re jackasses, but at
least they’re not stalkers.”

Cara grabbed the ladle and positioned her plate near the steaming vat of meat. She
hated
t’ahinni
, but her muscles would ache for protein once she joined Satan on the intermediate
course in a few hours.

She’d just sat down opposite her brother when Dahla swooped in and lifted Cara’s plate
from the table. “Thank you,
sister
,” she sneered, then took her ill-gotten
breakfast to the table she shared with her friends.

“You gonna put up with that?” Troy asked.

Cara remembered all the times Aelyx had turned the other cheek during his portion
of the exchange at Midtown High. She could be mature about this. “I like to think
of it as being the
bigger person.” But on her way to fetch another serving, she strode by Dahla’s table,
licked her finger, and dipped it in the little thief’s
t’ahinni
.

Maturity was overrated.

After breakfast, she and Troy had just slid their plates into the sanitization chute
when shouts drew their attention to the other side of the dining hall. Dahla had fallen
to the floor in
convulsions and lay on her side moaning in pain. She lurched, and the breakfast she’d
stolen came back up.

Elle and her medic friends rushed to Dahla’s side and assessed her while someone called
for help. Soon the kitchen supervisor came out to investigate, and Cara moved closer
to see if the
girl was okay. Dahla was a total jerk, but Cara hated to see anyone suffer.