United: An Alienated Novel by Melissa Landers

Author:Melissa Landers [Landers, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: k'12
Publisher: Elire Publishing, LLC
Published: 2016-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

I’ll pass the coordinates on to the navigator team.” Jake swallowed hard enough to shift his Adam’s apple. His hologram paled visibly, which was saying a lot, as his blond-haired, blue-eyed software geek complexion was fair to begin with. “I can’t believe you found them.”

Neither could Cara. But now that her adrenaline had worn off and the night breeze cooled her flushed skin, she understood Jake’s reaction. She felt a prickle of sympathy for him. She’d been so focused on pinpointing the location of the Aribols’ home planet that she hadn’t given much thought to what the Voyagers would have to do with those coordinates. Soon they would go knocking on hell’s door to face an enemy they knew nothing about.

They had to be terrified.

“Will you pass along something else for me, too?” she asked.

“What is it?”

“My gratitude. I want all the colonists on board, yourself included, to know how proud I am of you. None of you had to join the search. You volunteered. And what you’re about to do is the bravest thing I can imagine.” She smiled at him. “I’m glad to have you on my team, Jake.”

The praise seemed to make him uncomfortable. He scratched the back of his neck and inspected his shoes while mumbling something vaguely resembling a thank you. He peeked up through his lashes. “If that’s it, will you hand me to Syrine? I want to ask her something before I go.”

Cara bit the inside of her cheek and glanced at the shuttle, where Syrine and the others were catching a few hours of much needed shuteye. “Now’s not a good time.”

“Oh. I’ll try her later, then.”

Cara was pretty sure what Jake wanted to ask Syrine, and later wasn’t a good time for that discussion either. “There’s something you should know. I don’t want this getting out, so keep it between us.” After Jake nodded, she told him how Aisly had manipulated Syrine with the false promise of reanimating the love of her life. “Now she’s grieving for him all over again, so you can probably imagine why it’s a bad idea to ask her for romantic advice.”

Jake’s whole face melted into a frown. “The poor girl. That’s awful.”

“Yes, it is,” Cara agreed. “So why don’t you ask me instead?”

His blond brows shot up.

“Oh, come on, I’m totally qualified for this. I fell for a L’eihr, too, remember? I know better than anyone what you’re going through. The whole ‘culture clash’ thing was a nightmare at first.”

“At first?” That piqued his interest. “So it got easier?”

“Sure, but there was a lot of trial and error along the way.” Cara thought back to those first awkward weeks with Aelyx. Neither of them had understood anything about the other. She’d tried to force-feed him pizza, which he’d hated, and he’d offended her with his clinical honesty regarding her waist-to-hip ratio. Even their first kiss had happened because of a competition to see whose method of expressing affection was best. (She’d won.) “So why

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