Invaded (3 page)

“Mmm,” was her only reply. She secured her seat belt and turned her silvery gaze to
Cara. As soon as their eyes met, Cara felt the girl’s voice inside her head asking,
Can
you really hear me?

Cara froze in panic. No one was supposed to know she could communicate this way.

Aelyx told me
, Elle went on.
But I didn’t believe it.

“Yeah,” Cara said, sending an unspoken message in the tone of her voice. “I’m ready
to get off this ship, too. Space travel makes me nauseated.”

“I hope you don’t mind,” Elle told Cara, “but I asked the Elders to assign us to the
same room.” Then she added privately,
Aelyx told me to watch over you until
he returns.

“That depends.” Cara winked. “Do you snore?”

“Sometimes,” Elle confessed, not understanding the joke. “But Eron used to say it
was endearing.” She bit her lip and studied her folded hands, her expression heavy
with
grief.

Everyone fell silent after that, electing to stare out the side windows into the blackness.

Moments later, two final passengers joined them and the door hissed shut. Cara flicked
a quick glance at the clones, then did a double take.

“Hello,
Cah
-ra.”

The young leader, Jaxen, took the seat directly across from her, extending his long
legs until the tips of his boots touched hers. He peered at her intently and smiled
while his sister, Aisly,
lowered beside him and greeted Cara with a nod.

Cara pulled back her feet and offered a hasty grin. His presence caught her off guard.
Jaxen and Aisly were members of The Way, L’eihr’s governing body, so why hadn’t they
shuttled down with the Elders?

Jaxen continued to study her while fastening his straps. “Aisly and I volunteered
to escort you to the capital.” It was like he’d read her mind, though Cara was pretty
sure
L’eihrs couldn’t do that.

Aisly tipped her head and scanned Cara’s face—not in a disdainful way, more like how
a visitor at the zoo would observe an exotic animal behind the glass. Cara figured
she should get
used to the scrutiny. Individual races had ceased to exist on this planet, and with
her pale complexion, blue eyes, and copper hair, she would stand out like a joke at
a funeral.

“On Earth,” Aisly said, “a year equals one planetary rotation around your sun, correct?”

Cara nodded, feeling the rumbling engines vibrate the bottom of her seat. The shuttle
separated from the boarding corridor with a slight lurch, and a thrill of exhilaration
shot through her.
They were finally leaving the transport.

“Then that would mean I’m seventeen years old, like you,” Aisly told her, then nodded
at her brother. “And Jaxen’s twenty-one.”

“Twenty-one?” Cara wrinkled her forehead in confusion, trying to remember what Aelyx
had told her about the old L’eihr breeding program. Geneticists had played God for
too long
and bred the life out of themselves, so they backtracked, cloning citizens from the
archives. But that policy had gone into effect twenty years ago, and it took nine
months to grow a baby inside
the artificial wombs. “I thought the oldest clones were nineteen.”

Jaxen’s smile never faltered, but his words turned frosty. “I suppose Aelyx told you
that.” He didn’t give her a chance to reply. “Our population is small, Miss
Sweeney, but I can guarantee that your
l’ihan
hasn’t met every clone on the planet.”

Whoa. Clearly she’d touched a nerve. She tried to make light of the misunderstanding.
“I’m sure it’s an innocent mistake. Despite what Aelyx thinks, he doesn’t know
everything.”

Nobody laughed. Tough crowd, these L’eihrs.

Jaxen and Aisly locked eyes in a private conversation, so Cara quietly cleared her
throat and faced the window to her right.

The shuttle came about and gained speed, and within minutes, empty space gave way
to distant pinpricks of light. The air was colder near the window, but Cara leaned
in and searched for the
swirling blue nebula Aelyx had described to her a couple of weeks ago.
Every time you see it, I want you to think of me
, he’d said.
I’m going to mend that alliance in
record time, and soon we’ll stand together and watch the L’eihr sky from our colony.

She couldn’t find the nebula, but she noticed twin moons and then the muted blue planet
that would become her new home.

A wide expanse of ocean wrapped around the globe, interrupted by a single tan continent
and a sprinkling of tiny islands. Thick clouds obscured her view as the shuttle jettisoned
into the
atmosphere. Once their craft broke through the haze, rows of beige-capped mountain
peaks greeted her, jutting proudly against a sky the exact shade of slate. At their
base, a placid sea stretched
to the horizon and kissed the rising sun.

Cara faced the opposite window to take in forests of majestic redwood-size trees,
their silver leaves sparkling like quartz in response to the morning rays. Her eyes
widened to absorb it all.
She tried to find some hideous flaw in the landscape to prove that Aelyx had exaggerated
the magnificence of his world, but every atom in her body sang with its beauty.

As the shuttle descended, she could make out a settlement in the distance. She quickly
identified the capitol building based on its position at the heart of the city. Offices,
apartments, shops,
and dormitories splayed out from the humble three-story structure like satellites
in orbit, each as neutral as the next. It seemed that architecture, like every other
aspect of life on
L’eihr, focused on practicality over aesthetics. The small city reminded Cara of how
the ancient, sandy-colored ruins in the Middle East might have looked in their prime.

When she turned toward the other window, she caught Jaxen observing her reaction.
He held her gaze for a few beats and leaned forward as far as his restraints would
allow. “What do you
think?”

As soon as Cara found her voice, she told him, “It’s spectacular.”

“I think so, too,” he said. “This is the smallest of the five precincts, but it’s
my favorite.”

“For good reason,” Aisly added. “Everything important is here: the academic and scientific
archives, the genetics labs, the cultural galleries.”

“Not to mention your government,” Cara said. The tiny capital reminded her of Washington,
DC. “Do all ten members of The Way live here?”

“Yes and no.” Jaxen gestured out his window toward the city. “We rotate living in
different precincts and shuttle to the capital when we need to convene. It allows
us to
oversee the local governments while ensuring each region’s needs are fairly represented.”

“Except Alona,” Aisly said. “The head Elder always resides at the capital.”

“Kind of like our president in Ameri—” A sudden dropping sensation made Cara gasp,
and she glanced outside to see the shuttle touch down in the shorn beige grass outside
the
capitol building.

Once her heart quit thumping, she scanned the open courtyard, noting a cluster of
silver-leafed willow trees and shrubs near a side entry. At this early hour, there
was only one L’eihr in
sight: a middle-age guard standing at attention near the front entrance. Cara’s eyes
darted to the
iphal
holstered to the man’s side. It was a handgun of sorts, but with the
power to stop a victim’s heart with a concentrated pulse of energy.

Welcome to L’eihr. Start anything and we’ll end you. Have a nice day!

Cara unbuckled her harness and waited for the dozen passengers ahead of her to de-board.
Then she followed her brother down the shuttle steps and paused to draw her first
breath on an alien
world.

The air was warm and humid—slightly heavier than she’d expected, smelling faintly
of bitter citrus. It was an oddly pleasant scent, especially compared to the exhaust
fumes
she’d grown accustomed to on Earth. The gentle morning sun warmed her shoulders, a
sensation she hadn’t felt in weeks. Until this moment, she hadn’t realized how much
she’d
missed the feel of sunlight on her skin. The main transport had provided ultraviolet
lamps to encourage vitamin D production, but they couldn’t replicate the breeze that
stirred loose wisps
of hair against the back of her neck. She’d missed that, too.

Right away, she noticed Earth’s vibrant color spectrum didn’t exist here. Aelyx had
once compared L’eihr to Midtown in winter, when the few remaining leaves had shriveled
and
turned brown. It was a fair comparison, but much less dreary. These tan leaves glistened
with an opalescent sparkle that made Cara want to string them together and wear them
around her neck.

She observed a great stone wall in the distance, hugging the rolling hills until it
disappeared behind a multistory apartment complex. She wondered what was on the other
side and why they
bothered with walls when shuttles could easily fly over them.

“A credit for your thoughts,” said Jaxen, studying her again with a smile.

“A credit.” Cara laughed at his spin on the American expression. “Guess my pennies
are worthless here.”

Jaxen held up his wrist. “Your nano-chip will track your credits, among other things.”
He strode to the doorway and gestured for her to follow. “Come here and I’ll show
you.”

Cara glanced at her inoculation scar. She’d forgotten that in addition to a thousand
vaccines, the medic had implanted a data chip beneath her skin.

Jaxen pointed to a light switch–size box affixed to the outside wall. “There are stations
like this everywhere—even inside your quarters. Hold your wrist under here, like
this.” When he demonstrated, a beam of light danced over his flesh. “The system will
scan you for personalized notifications.”

Cara extended her arm, palm up. Seconds later, a woman’s soft voice ordered, “
Cah
-ra Sweeney, please report to the first Aegis at your leisure.”

Impressive. They’d even programmed the system to speak English for her.

“The first Aegis is ours,” Troy said, pointing to the complex by the city wall. “It’s
the closest school to the capital. Students from the other four campuses have to
take the air train to get here.”

“What train?” Cara asked.

He pointed to a set of metallic pillars she hadn’t noticed before. Her gaze followed
them upward to a monorail track.

“And
at your leisure
really means
now
,” Elle advised her.

“I’m staying at the Aegis?” Cara asked, a little disappointed. “Not the colony?”

Jaxen drew back in surprise. “No. The colony is on the other side of the world and
still under construction.”

“The other side of the world?” But the entire population of L’eihr lived here, divided
into five small precincts on a continent half the size of Canada. There was nowhere
else
to go except…“On an island?” She didn’t say
marooned
, but that was what came to mind.

Again, Jaxen seemed to have tasted her thoughts. “Yes, but don’t worry. The intent
is to allow colonists the liberty to form a unique society, free from our influence…to
some
extent.”

Cara supposed that made sense, though she wondered to what “extent” The Way would
interfere.

Jaxen turned to Troy and Elle. “I have sensitive matters to discuss with Miss Sweeney.
I’ll deliver her to the Aegis shortly. You’re free to go.”

Troy hesitated, but Jaxen’s word was law, and the tone of his dismissal left no room
for negotiation. Once Troy and Elle had strode out of sight, Jaxen led the way down
the same path,
motioning for Cara and Aisly to follow.

“Is everything okay?” Cara asked while glancing at the pavement beneath her boots.
It had a slight bounce to it, like shock-absorbent indoor track. She hopped on the
balls of her
feet and grinned, realizing she’d always have a spring in her step.

Aisly shot her a curious glance and they began at an easy stroll. “Yes. We only wanted
to give you a proper welcome.”

A soft
whoosh
sounded from above, and an air train jettisoned into the city at lightning speed.
Somehow, it managed the job with barely a breath of wind. Cara craned her neck, marveling
like a child as another train passed above her. Even higher, sky lanes directed a
few shuttles to and from the city, though she had no clue how their pilots avoided
midair collisions without
visible boundaries.

“I imagine this is difficult to process,” Jaxen said.

Cara laughed dryly as her gaze darted from one unfamiliar object to the next. “I need
another pair of eyes.”

“It was the same for me,” Jaxen said, “my first time on your world.”

She whipped her head around. “You’ve been to Earth?”

“Many times. I love your people—you possess such passion and creativity, the traits
L’eihrs have lost over time.” Jaxen brushed aside an overgrown dandelion seed. At
the
contact, the thing flitted away like a jellyfish. “I can’t wait to return and explore
other human cultures. I’ve never traveled much farther than the ambassador’s residence
in Manhattan.”

“That’s where Aelyx is now.” A glance at the tan and gray trees lining the walkway
brought a question to mind. “He told me there’s no green here because your plants
don’t use photosynthesis. So what would happen if I brought a maple from Earth? Would
it be compatible with your sun?”

“Irrelevant, as The Way would never allow it. Destroying an ecosystem is easier than
you think.” Then with a slightly haughty tone, he added, “Earth’s current predicament
should’ve taught you that. It’s a shame that such a dynamic race can’t be trusted
to care for their own planet.”

Cara took her tongue between her teeth, literally biting back a scathing response.
You forgot about the
sh’alear
, jerkwad. The clones didn’t hesitate to meddle with our
ecosystem when it suited them.

“Your cheeks are flushing,” he said, as if this greatly amused him. “I’ve made you
angry. See? Such passion. I envy you.”