United: An Alienated Novel by Melissa Landers

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