Invaded (26 page)

The chamber door whispered open.

“Come,” the Aegis guard said, waving Cara inside the small, dim chamber. He narrowed
his eyes and touched the
iphal
holstered at his side.

Message received. He didn’t trust her alone with the head Elder, which kind of stung.
Cara had never hurt anyone. Well, except that one time she busted Marcus Johnson’s
knee with a
baseball bat, but that didn’t count. He’d aimed his rifle at Aelyx’s chest, and she’d
had to skew his shot. Besides, he’d used that same rifle to smash her face. Under
normal circumstances, Cara wouldn’t even bait a fishing hook because she found it
cruel to the worm.

“It’s all right,” Alona’s droning voice called from inside. “Come and be heard.”

Cara crept into the chamber, flinching when the door shut behind her. Unlike the vast
hearing room aboard the transport, this enclosure wouldn’t accommodate all ten members
of The Way.
Only two seats stood on the beige-carpeted floor: a plush ottoman Alona occupied and
a simple stool about five paces from her. A slender skylight provided the only illumination,
casting a beam over
Alona as if she were a deity. Which she was, in a way. No one on L’eihr wielded more
power than this graying slip of a woman.

“Sit,” she instructed, and Cara obeyed. The warmth—for lack of a better word—Cara
had detected in Alona’s gaze on
Sh’ovah
day was gone, replaced by
cold indifference. It seemed the guard had succeeded in blackening Cara’s name. With
a
hurry up
motion, Alona ordered, “State your grievance.”

Cara swallowed a lump of fear. “I’m here to defend myself from false accusations.
Someone at the Aegis has committed a series of crimes and made me look like the guilty
party.”

“The evidence against you is damning,” Alona said. “How do you refute it?”

This was it. Time to bust out the big guns.

But Cara had never used Silent Speech from so far away. She wasn’t sure she could
project from her seat to Alona’s. She lifted her stool and scooted nearer, practically
giving the
guard a stroke in the process. He gasped aloud and moved to draw his
iphal
. Alona seemed startled, too, stiffening in her seat.

“It’s okay,” Cara assured Alona with raised palms. “I just want to look you in the
eyes.”

Alona regained her composure, but her voice darkened with irritation. “My vision is
unimpaired. I can see you quite well from here.”

Cara nodded and latched her gaze on to Alona’s faded chrome irises. She isolated the
region in her brain she’d discovered that morning and told the Elder,
I’m
innocent
, then closed the connection between them and waited for a reaction.

Alona’s response didn’t disappoint. Slowly, her eyes widened in perfect conjunction
with her mouth. If the lighting were better, Cara could’ve performed a dental exam.
Alona
flicked a glance at the guard and ordered, “Leave us.”

The man drew a breath and hesitated a beat, but he didn’t argue. Within moments, he
was gone, and Cara reopened her mind to the head Elder.

How did you do that?
Alona asked, her feelings of shock and amazement bleeding into Cara’s mind.

Aelyx taught me what he could
, Cara said.
And Elyx’a has been helping me practice. No one else knows, and I’d like to keep it
that way.
She tried her best to focus
on words alone, but an image of Jaxen and Aisly materialized in Cara’s head, along
with a fear that they’d try other methods of brainwashing if they knew their memory
control
hadn’t worked on her.

Alona fell silent awhile before claiming, “Mind control is impossible,
Cah
-ra.”

It didn’t escape Cara’s notice that Alona had spoken aloud instead of using Silent
Speech. Apparently, they both had secrets to keep.

“But,” Alona continued, “I’m intrigued that your human brain can process mental dialogue.
This lends credence to the theory that we share a common lineage.”

Ancestry was the last thing on Cara’s mind. “I’m just glad I was able to convince
you I’m innocent. A few weeks ago, someone stole an instructor’s tablet and hid it
in my room, and then they poisoned Dahla’s breakfast. I thought she was doing it,
but I was wrong. Whoever it is wants me expelled.”

Or executed.

It occurred to Cara that the criminal could have simply killed her, which would be
easier than framing her for a capital crime. Maybe her death wasn’t the only goal.

“Allow me to apologize on behalf of the guilty party.” The slight inflection in Alona’s
tone might not have seemed significant to the average human, but it told Cara the
Elder
was majorly pissed. “Rooting out the culprit will be simple. I’ll order the guards
to perform a mental interview with every clone in your Aegis until the individual
is found.”
With a nod, she added, “And then neutralized.”

Cara didn’t like the sound of that. “You mean killed?”

“Of course. It is our way.”

Cara folded her hands and tried to keep her voice from shaking. “Can I request another
form of punishment? I don’t think I could stand it if someone died because of me.”

“The individual in question would perish because of his or her poor choices, not because
of you.”

Cara widened her eyes and opened her consciousness, allowing her Elder to feel the
dread that crawled over her skin like a wet frost.
Execution would punish me, too. Along with anyone who
cares for the criminal. Dahla and I deserve justice, but there must be another way.

You humans and your sentimental notions of rehabilitation.
Alona sighed.
However, I suppose this is what we wanted—to infuse our progeny with a breath of humanity.
She
closed her mind and reflected for a moment. “I will give it some thought.”

At least that wasn’t a no.

“In the meantime,” Alona droned, “I’m ordering a change in your schedule. Your talents,
as much as they’re appreciated, are wasted in the nursery. Each day after
your morning calisthenics, I want you to report here and join the colony development
panel. As our resident human, I believe your input will prove useful in creating a
charter.”

Cara drew a hopeful breath. “You want me to help form a government?” Her world studies
teacher back home would be so proud.

“Yes.” Alona studied her. “I sensed hesitation within you—a disruption in your resolve
to join the colony.”

Heat infused Cara’s cheeks as she wondered what else she’d let slip during Silent
Speech. Hopefully nothing too embarrassing.

“The choice is yours, but it is my hope that you’ll stay.” Though it was hard to tell
with the older generation, Alona sounded sincere. “I can’t promise a governing
body akin to your America, but I give you my word that your concerns will be heard
and addressed.”

“Thank you,” Cara said, and meant it. Democracy didn’t exist here, and for The Way,
who’d ruled with an authoritative hand for thousands of years, this was a big step.
“I’m honored by this opportunity.”

“Your morning notification will tell you where to report.” With a two-fingered salute,
Alona dismissed her. “Please send in the guard on your way out.”

Cara returned the gesture and did as she was told. Uncertain of whether she should
return to the Aegis, she scanned her wrist at the station by the front doors.

“
Cah
-ra Sweeney,” the computerized voice said. “You have no notifications.”

Business as usual, then. But after the bloody scene in the Aegis lobby, it was probably
best to lay low until the guard announced her innocence and began an investigation.
She walked back to the
Aegis and snuck inside her room only long enough to retrieve her com-sphere, then
jogged into the woods to call Aelyx.

She wouldn’t normally bother him at three in the morning, but she couldn’t wait to
tell him what had happened. They talked for nearly an hour about everything from her
breakthrough
in Silent Speech to her close call at the Aegis. When they said good-bye, she felt
lighter by five pounds.

Late that night, energized by fresh optimism, she uploaded a new blog post.

In the days that followed, a fleet of guards began interrogating every living being
over the age of ten inside the Aegis. But halfway through the campaign, Dahla awoke
from her
coma and pointed her finger at Professor Helm, who promptly confessed to the attack.
Since then, he’d been detained in the guard barracks, since prisons didn’t exist on
L’eihr and
The Way hadn’t quite decided what to do with him.

The entire Aegis was perplexed by the news…including Cara.

She knew Helm wasn’t her biggest fan, and yet she couldn’t picture the mild-mannered
professor wielding a blade like a common street thug. Then there was the issue of
Dahla’s
poisoning. Helm had been nowhere near the dining hall the morning she’d collapsed.
Maybe he’d snapped…or maybe someone had used mind control to orchestrate the confession.

If that were the case, only two suspects remained—the only students capable of manipulating
a mental query. Jaxen and Aisly. But for the life of her, Cara couldn’t figure out
a
motive. Neither of them had a reason to want her expelled or dead, and thanks to their
positions in The Way, accusing them of the crime would amount to treason.

So with her hands figuratively tied, she avoided them like a bikini wax and focused
on her duties as Chief Human Consultant—her official title, not that she was bragging
or anything.

Cara was a halfway decent politician, if she did say so herself. So far, she’d convinced
the panel to allot the colony six shuttles for emergency use and establish one full
day of rest per
week. Not perfect, but a Kong-size leap in the right direction. When she’d mentioned
the democratic method, the Elders had practically broken out in hives, but she would
wear them down. She
just needed more time.

However, Cara was on a different mission today—one Aelyx had assigned her—which explained
why she was currently standing outside the front doors of the capital’s reference
building, repeatedly scanning her wrist to gain entry. No matter how many times she
thrust her nano-chip beneath the dancing gray beam, the doors refused to part. Likely
because the system knew she
didn’t belong there.