United

by Melissa Landers

  She called hello and waved. A few people shielded their eyes, bending forward to bring her into focus, and waved in return. She picked out Jake easily, a lone blond head among dozens of brown ponytails. His teeth flashed in a smile when he spotted her, but as the distance between them closed, Cara noticed a slight tenseness in his posture, a certain respectful formality, and she decided at the last minute to offer him a handshake instead of a hug.

  “Welcome home,” she said as Jake shook her hand, and then Aelyx’s. When Ayah joined them, Cara greeted her with the standard two-finger press to the throat. It warmed Cara’s heart to see Ayah rest her head on Jake’s shoulder. As Cara glanced around, she noticed theirs wasn’t the only interspecies coupling that had bloomed among the Voyagers. “Guess there was love in the air,” she mused.

  Jake chuckled, his ears going pink. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t kidding when I said the whole end-of-the-world thing was a good pickup line.”

  Cara perked up when she realized new matches would mean more colonists, assuming the Voyager commander released the crew members who’d paired off with humans. “We’re glad you’re back. I’m sure the last thing you want to think about is work, but we need the extra hands.”

  “Oh, um, about that …” Jake cringed sheepishly and pulled Ayah into a sideways hug. “We decided not to stay.”

  Cara’s mouth dropped open.

  “It’s not you,” he assured her with a lifted palm. “I just … I don’t know, I feel like I found my niche on that ship. I like discovering new worlds. And I’m good at it. So when the commander offered me a permanent position, I couldn’t say no. Especially when he said Ayah could come, too.”

  Aelyx clapped Jake’s upper arm. “Congratulations. I confess I’m jealous. I wanted to join the Voyagers when I was a youngling, but they denied my application.”

  “And it’s a good thing they did,” Cara reminded him with a pat on the chest. She turned to Jake. “I’m sorry to lose you, but I understand.”

  “Hey, listen.” Jake checked over both shoulders and moved in close, lowering his voice to a murmur. “The reason I shuttled down was because I have to give you something.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out a metal box the approximate size of an egg. “It’s a message.” He leaned in closer. “From Zane.”

  Cara jerked her head up so quickly she almost clocked Jake in the nose. In a blur of motion, Aelyx thrust a protective arm in front of her and positioned himself before the device as if throwing himself on a grenade.

  “No, it’s safe,” Jake whispered. “I scanned it a dozen times, I swear.”

  Cara tried to peek around Aelyx, but he wouldn’t let her near the object. He flashed a palm at Jake, a warning to stay back. “How did you get it?”

  “I woke up from stasis and it was in my pocket,” Jake said. “I knew it was there and what I was supposed to do with it. Zane must’ve put the information in my head. He said he had Cara’s DNA from when he cloned her, so he programmed the box to respond to her touch. She’s the only one who can open it.”

  As Aelyx relaxed a bit, Cara leaned around his arm and studied the device. The box looked harmless, and she couldn’t think of a reason for Zane to want to hurt her. She was the one who’d argued for a truce when half the Council had wanted to annihilate his kind.

  “I want to hear what he has to say,” she told Aelyx. When the corners of his mouth pulled down, she added, “The one good thing I can say about Zane is he never lied to us.”

  “Except when he said the alliance was a threat.”

  “Well, it was a threat … to the Aribol,” she pointed out, which earned her a dirty look. “My point is he made demands and he backed them up with actions—actions he told us about. He wasn’t sneaky.”

  The firm set of Aelyx’s jaw said he wasn’t convinced, but he stood aside and swept a hand toward Jake, who extended the box only to draw it back again. Jake shifted his weight from one foot to the other and peered at Cara through his lashes. He seemed hesitant to release the object.

  “Oh,” Cara said in understanding. “You want to listen, too?”

  He relaxed into a smile. “Do you mind? The curiosity’s killing me.”

  Figuring it was the least she could do, she waved him toward an expanse of leafy underbrush near the dunes, where they could listen to the message in privacy. Aelyx came too, while Ayah stayed back to keep anyone from wandering too close.

  Once they were a safe distance from the beach, Cara formed a huddle with Jake and Aelyx. Jake licked his lips, more eager than a kid on his birthday, and rested the box in her palm.

  The cube was lighter than Cara had expected, no heavier than a silver dollar. She lifted it higher and rotated an ear toward it. For a moment, all she heard was the gentle rush of surf over sand, and then the object hummed. A pin-size hole opened at the top, projecting a miniature hologram of Zane’s porcelain mask.

  “Greetings, young representative,” he said in his computerized voice. “I hope this recording finds you well. Per the terms of our truce, it will be my last initiation of contact.” His mask morphed briefly into an image of Jake’s face. “While probing this human’s mind, I discovered memories of his conversations with you. One particular discussion drew my interest, regarding a promise made by the hybrid Aisly to a Noven female called Syrine.”

  Cara drew a breath and glanced at Aelyx.

  “You were correct in assuming that promise was false,” Zane went on. “Such an elixir does exist, but the hybrid had no authority to access it. However, I was moved by your speech to the Council in favor of a truce. Your efforts helped preserve the lives of many, so in return I offer you this gift of life. Please accept it with my compliments.”

  The cube’s outer shell began to fall away until it flaked into a circle of dust surrounding a thick disc the size of a pillbox. The bottom half of the disc was made of metal, and atop it rested a clear bubble filled with yellow liquid.

  “To use the elixir, place the device on the flesh above your patient’s heart. Bear down with your palm cupping the dome, and much like this message, your touch will activate it. When the enzymes have fully dispersed and the process is complete, the device will detach on its own. Your patient will be restored from all ailments, even those that preceded his death.” Zane paused for a beat, then abruptly droned, “Goodbye.”

  The hologram vanished in a wisp of white, leaving Cara staring blankly at the bubble in her palm. This was the elixir? It looked like something she’d find in a gumball machine. She didn’t know what to think. Despite her former argument that Zane had never told a lie, doubt tied her tongue.

  For a long while, nobody spoke. Jake was the first to step back from the huddle, followed by Aelyx, who couldn’t stop rubbing his lower face. Cara blew the dust off her palm and stepped into a beam of sunlight, holding up the fluid-filled bubble for inspection.

  “We can’t tell Syrine,” Aelyx said. “Not until we know it works.”

  Cara agreed with him. More than a month had passed since Syrine had let David go. She’d finally begun to heal. To give her false hope now would be the most vicious act Cara could imagine. She almost wondered if trying to bring David back was the right thing to do, especially since scientists could use this sample to study its properties, but she quickly shut down that train of thought when she imagined how she would feel if Aelyx were the one lying in a cryogenic box.

  “Did you bury him yet?” asked Jake.

  Cara shook her head. “There wasn’t time.”

  “How long does it take to thaw a frozen body?”

  Aelyx lifted his chin, his silver gaze hardening in determination. “Let’s find out.”

  The answer was six days, much longer than Aelyx had expected.

  They’d learned that in order to prevent the outer layer of David’s body from decaying before his internal organs had a chance to thaw, they would have to refrigerate him at a constant temperature for nearly a week.

  That week had passed so slowly it seemed to go in reverse
.

  Aelyx had barely slept, and what brief hours of slumber he’d achieved were filled with nightmares of failure. His most frequently recurring dream had been walking into the medical lab to discover David’s body had been moved to the crematorium. No matter how fast Aelyx ran, he could never reach his friend in time.

  His waking hours were no better. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d entered a room and immediately forgotten why he was there. But most difficult of all was Syrine. After the fourth day of refusing to engage in Silent Speech with her, she’d begun watching him with narrowed eyes. She knew him too well for him to hide anything from her for long.

  So the morning the laboratory called to report David’s body had reached optimal conditions for a burial dressing—the excuse they’d given the technicians—Aelyx stood from the dining hall table, grabbed Cara by the hand, and set off for the medical center without bothering to finish his breakfast.

  David was resting on a table in an unused room in the medical lab when they arrived. The technicians had prepared the body according to Aelyx’s instructions: clothing removed, skin bathed, a thin sheet draped over him from waist to toes. Though the temperature in the lab was frigid, Aelyx found his hands sweaty as he slid the door shut and locked it.

  He stood across the table from Cara and swallowed hard as he regarded his friend, or what remained of him. In this state, David was barely recognizable. His blond hair, cropped close to his scalp, seemed abnormally dark contrasted against skin the color of wax. Aelyx tried not to look too closely at David’s chest cavity, where a hollow-point bullet had torn a path clear through him. A memory flashed from that day, of the blood that had pooled across the floor. There had been so much of it.

  A sickening thought occurred to him. “What about blood? His veins must be empty.”

  Cara frowned at the bubble-topped disc, tipping it to and fro. “Zane didn’t say anything about a blood transfusion. I think he would’ve mentioned it if it was important. Maybe the elixir helps the body create new plasma.”

  Aelyx released a long breath. He wanted so badly for this to work.

  “Let’s try it and see,” Cara said, and without further delay, she set the device above David’s heart and firmly held it in place. A second passed, then two, before she jerked her hand away as if she’d touched an open flame. “It shocked me. I guess that means it’s working.”

  Aelyx bent down to study the disc’s metal underside, which appeared to have fused itself to David’s skin. There was a slight odor of burnt flesh, and then the liquid-filled dome began to pulse, beating like a heart. Its contents drained gradually with each compression until the serum was gone. Even after the bubble emptied, it continued pumping, strong and steady, as the minutes turned to hours.

  Cara pulled two chrome stools over and sat down on one. Aelyx tried to do the same, but each time he lowered to the seat, his restless legs forced him up again until he finally abandoned any pretense of serenity and paced the floor. With every other pass, he noticed something new taking place inside David’s body. First his muscle fibers began to knit together, after which layers of tissue closed the hole in his chest. David never breathed, and his heart remained still, but before long, a hint of color blossomed beneath his skin—not much, just enough to indicate the presence of fresh blood.

  It was then that Aelyx allowed himself to hope.

  He and Cara bent down to study the progress. One of David’s fingers twitched, and suddenly the bubble delivered a massive blow, like a shock to the chest, that startled Cara off her stool. David’s ribcage lurched upward, and he drew a loud gasp, disengaging the metal device, which plinked to the floor. His eyes snapped open, and in that instant, Private David Sharpe awoke from the dead, flailing his arms and legs as if he’d fallen from the sky and landed on the examination table.

  Aelyx rushed to help his friend, who was now shivering violently and clenching his eyes in pain. Cara darted to the storage cabinet and brought back a heated blanket, which they activated and wrapped around David’s trembling shoulders. The warmth seemed to help. David groaned through chattering teeth for another minute or two, then turned onto his side and drew the blanket up to his ears.

  Aelyx pressed two fingers against David’s wrist, noting a strong, steady pulse. The first question he asked his friend was, “How do you feel?”

  David expelled a dry laugh and cracked open one eye. “To quote my old drill sergeant,” he rasped in a delightfully familiar voice, “like a bag of smashed assholes.”

  Cara smiled as she crouched down to meet his gaze. “Sounds about right, considering the circumstances.”

  “Considering what circum—” David cut off, his gaze flying wide as realization set in. He rolled onto his back and began frantically patting his chest.

  “It’s all right,” Aelyx said, and held him still. “You were shot, but a lot has happened since then.” He didn’t mention that David had died. It was probably best to dole out the information in bite-size pieces. “If you calm down, I’ll tell you everything.”

  Cara smoothed a comforting hand over David’s head. “You’ve been in cryogenic storage for about four months. You’re on the L’eihr colony now, fully healed.” As if to confirm her statement, David glanced beneath the blanket. “Your genetic disease, too,” she added. “At least that’s what Zane said.”

  “Zane?” David asked.

  While Cara fetched David a cup of water, Aelyx explained what happened after the shootout last winter, including the fact that David had died. David seemed to take the news well, or at least to conceal his anxiety as he listened to the story of the Aribol threat and their subsequent defeat. Aelyx had just begun to describe the elixir when a knock sounded at the door, and a voice called, “Aelyx? Let me in.”

  David’s face lifted in a hopeful grin. “Is that Syrine?”

  Aelyx made a shushing motion. He hadn’t reached the part of the story where they’d decided to use the elixir without Syrine’s knowledge. He wanted to give David a full medical checkup before telling her the news, and then break it to her gently, not slide open the door and jar her with the sudden resurrection of her l’ihan.

  Maybe if they were quiet, she would go away.

  She pounded her fist harder. “I know you’re in there, Aelyx. I tracked your sphere.”

  Fasha. “I’m busy,” he called to her. “Go back to the center. I’ll meet you there later.”

  “The technician told me you’re preparing David for burial.” A new heaviness in her voice tugged at Aelyx’s heartstrings. “I deserve to be with him. If you don’t open the door, I’ll have the technician do it.”

  David blinked in surprise and looked back and forth between Aelyx and Cara. “She doesn’t know?”

  Cara caught Aelyx’s eye and whispered, “Go talk to her.”

  Aelyx nodded; there was no avoiding it any longer. He positioned himself to block the view of the examination table when he answered the door. On the other side, Syrine gripped her hips, looking equal parts furious and hurt.

  He moved forward half a step to force her to back up, but she refused. She tried to dart around him on either side, and he blocked her with his body. “Wait,” he said. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

  Before he could say anything more, David called Syrine’s name, and her hands slipped from her hips. The color in her face drained away, and she went stone-still. Not even her eyes moved from their position fixed on a point behind Aelyx’s shoulder.

  “Let me explain.”

  She moved to push him aside. This time he let her. As she drifted forward, he shadowed her every step, prepared to support her when shock set in. And it did. The moment she found David, very much alive, sitting on the exam table with a blanket twisted around his torso, she lost her breath and swayed on her feet.

  Aelyx caught her by the elbow and held her steady. “I didn’t want you to find out this way,” he told her, but she didn’t seem to be listening. Her glassy gaze never left David’s face.<
br />
  Beside the table, Cara wrung her hands. “We didn’t know if it would work. That’s why we didn’t tell you. But I swear we were going to as soon as …” She trailed off when it became clear Syrine wasn’t listening to her either.

  When Syrine began to tremble, even David showed signs of concern, opening and closing his mouth as if afraid to speak and push her over the edge into actual, medical shock. Her eyes flooded with tears, but not necessarily the happy kind. Aelyx traded a nervous glance with Cara. Maybe they’d done more harm than good in hiding the elixir from Syrine. He often forgot how fragile her gift made her.

  But then, still staring ahead, she drew a shaky breath and exhaled in a barely audible whisper, “I love you.”

  David lifted a blond brow.

  “I love you,” she said, the words louder this time but broken in half by the thickness in her throat. She wriggled away from Aelyx and strode toward the table, chanting through her tears, “I love you.”

  Overcome by emotion, David didn’t speak. His eyes glittered with moisture that welled over and spilled down his cheeks. He lifted one corner of the blanket when Syrine reached him. She crawled beneath it, and they embraced each other with so much passion Aelyx was forced to avert his gaze.

  There was no more talking after that, only the sounds of sniffles and quiet sobs. He glanced at Cara to find her smiling at him with tears streaming down her face. He offered her his hand, and when she took it, they walked out of the room and closed the door behind them.

  The checkup could wait.

  They strode outside, where the sun hung low over the ocean, signaling the end of the longest day Aelyx could remember. Activity bustled on the front lawn of the living center where a group of humans appeared to be teaching several L’eihrs how to play soccer using a ball made from rubber bands wrapped around old uniforms. The “ball” wobbled in a wayward path when kicked, but the group played on, laughing and cheering.