Invaded (Alienated, #2)(37)
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.”
Chapter Ten
Cara 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.”