“And then what, you just visited one day?” Lochie continued.
“We did a lot of preliminary visits first, we had to be sure it was worth our time. We-”
Lola butted in. “Did you abduct people? Was that you guys?”
Kyle actually looked proud as he replied. “We borrowed a few humans to make sure our physiology would be compatible. There would be no point in settling somewhere we couldn’t fit in.”
“So humans and Truconians can have babies?” Trust Lola to think of that one.
I was way too interested in hearing the answer than I should have been. I pretended not to be listening.
“In theory, yes. Our genetics are similar enough. To my knowledge, it hasn’t been done yet though. The project members were supposed to start procreating in another two to three years’ time. I guess we’ll find out for sure one day.”
I glanced up only to catch Lochie looking at me. I quickly glanced away again, willing my cheeks not to blush. I lost that argument as they started to burn a little. Having babies with a human was not something on my agenda yet. When I was in Project Integrate it was mandatory. Now, I had a choice. And I wasn’t going to take it lightly.
Someone needed to change the subject and it didn’t look like anyone else was going to do it. “How many people are left here?” I asked, making them all turn to look at me. It was the first thing I’d said in a long while.
Kyle seemed a little disappointed to be back talking about the mundane. There must have been a science nerd hiding inside of him somewhere. “About a hundred Truconians are still left. They are here to make sure everything is closed and final before leaving for good.”
“Plus, Leader Krom wanted us to be able to run back if the humans started turning on us,” Roch added. “We must keep everything active for another four months before the settlement is considered successful and we can close it down.”
It was comforting to know Krom had a plan for his people if things didn’t work out. Not that running back to Trucon was a long term plan, the asteroid was still going to destroy the planet one day.
The vehicle climbed a hill without losing speed, it didn’t even seem to struggle with the angle. As we reached the apex and started the descent down the other side, we got our first glimpse of the impending danger the planet had been in the shadows of.
Sitting high in the distance was the flaming red ball of the asteroid. It was huge, probably ten times the size of the planet itself. No wonder all the Truconians were so happy to leave and settle on another planet even though it wasn’t ideal. The asteroid was frightening. To have to see it every day and know it was getting closer would have been horrible.
“And that’s Flaming Britna,” Roch said, pointing toward the ball of fire. “At least, that’s what we call it. It does have a technical name but only the squares call it that.”
“Flaming Britna sounds accurate,” Garrick said, joining in the conversation for the first time. We were all staring at the thing slack jawed and in awe of its size.
“Are you sure it’s got another ten years left before it hits?” Lochie sounded skeptical.
“At least ten years. We’re quite sure,” Kyle replied. “We’ll be safe here while we need to be. Don’t worry.”
“It doesn’t have, like, radiation in it or anything, does it?” Lola asked.
“It’s too far away to be of any danger.”
“You’re sure?”
Kyle laughed, although I thought it was a legitimate question. “You’ll all be fine, trust me.” As a rule, I didn’t trust people who said trust me. But I did know Kyle and I doubted he would put us in any danger. After all, he was here with us and being exposed to the exact same stuff we were.
As we travelled along, Roch pointed out some landmarks. Something about a leader ceremony being held here and the first spaceship to be built was done there. I tried to take it all in, but the landscape all looked to be the same – grey rocks. If I ever got lost there, I would never find my way back again.
Our surroundings started changing as we entered the city. Trucon only had one because of the small size of the planet so the entire population once dwelled there.
Boulders gave way to buildings, not big ones, but solidly built. The houses resembled boxes, the Truconians obviously went for practical over pretty. Again, another reason for their minds to boggle when they joined us on Earth.
We stopped in front of a box – grey – and the vehicle lowered down to sit on the ground. The doors whooshed as they opened. “We’re here,” Kyle declared as he stepped out. We followed him like little lambs being shepherded along.
We were standing in front of a tall box, probably two-story. It didn’t have windows, just a single front door. Ash covered the front lawn with a dirt path up the center. It kind of looked like a depressing prison.
“There’s plenty of food inside and everything has been prepared for your stay,” Roch said from the vehicle. “You will find clothes in the cupboards and the beds have fresh linen. You know where to find me if you need anything.”
Kyle thanked him before the vehicle took Roch away. I watched it leave down the road until it was just a speck. The street seemed to go on forever in a straight line. Kyle had said we were on the outskirts of the city, I was curious to see what lay further down the road.
I had to hurry to catch up with everyone. They were all inside already. The box was just as nondescript inside as it was on the outside. The white walls held no adornments and the furniture was sparse. Two boxy couches faced each other and that was all.
After a quick walk around, I found the white kitchen, white bathroom, and two white bedrooms. Our clothes stood out like paint blotches on a new canvas.
“The houses are only small here, as you can see,” Kyle started. “I requested we stay in just one so we can stick together. If we have to move suddenly, we can do it without incident. I’d rather know where everyone is at all times.”
Everyone mumbled an agreement or nodded their consent. I didn’t care where we stayed as long as it was bigger than the spaceship. The house was comfortable enough, hopefully we wouldn’t need to stay too long anyway.
Kyle decided one of the bedrooms would be for Lola and I and the boys would share the other one. That was absolutely fine by me, sharing with any of the guys would not have been pleasant.
According to spaceship time, it was heading toward midnight. Even though it was still daytime on Trucon, we all decided to have an early night anyway. All of us were exhausted from the trip.
The best part of Trucon so far were the showers. They were just like on Earth except with more water pressure. It was like having a massage on my back. I enjoyed every single minute of it before getting out and slipping into some white pajamas made out of a soft material.
I slid into the bed beside Lola’s in our room. “How good is that shower?”
She flashed me a smile. “Uh, only heavenly.”
“Maybe we could take one back with us when we leave.” I was serious too. It was only going to be destroyed one day anyway.
“How long do you think we’ll need to be here?” She asked, a little quieter this time. She didn’t need to add that she missed home already, I could do that for her instinctively.
“I guess it depends on how quickly Krom can do something about Garrick’s conviction. I know my parents will do everything they can to help too. I’m sorry you got pulled into it. You might miss Rockapalooza.”
She waved me away like it was no big deal. “Don’t worry about it. I chose to come with, you didn’t force me to. I’m a big girl, I could have gone back.”
There was no point in arguing with her, we were both too tired for it anyway. “I’m still sorry. ’Night, Lola.”
“’Night, Ame.”
She switched off the bedside lamp by tapping the shade once. With no windows and the door closed we were plunged into complete darkness. I had to swallow down the fear the dark instantly invoked. I was safe, I just had to keep remindi
ng myself that.
I slept but I’m not sure for how long exactly. It was just as black when I woke up. Lola was snoring soundly in her bed and I had no intentions of waking her up. I needed a drink of water and was wide awake, there were no other options except getting up.
Stumbling around in the dark, I tiptoed for the door. The room was barely bigger than our two beds so I didn’t have far to go. Finding the door, I opened it just a crack to get out. The light didn’t seem to stir Lola.
The hallway lights came on as I walked through and went off again when I left. It was a little disorientating at first but I soon learned to trust the lights.
Going down the thin stairway, I turned left and saw the kitchen light was already on. Either the lights were psychic, or somebody else was already up. I stepped through.
Lochie was sitting at the kitchen table nursing a mug of something. “Hey,” he said as I entered. It was the first word he had spoken to me since we were at my house.
“What are you doing up?” I asked as I poured myself a glass of water. They didn’t exactly have a refrigerator in the house, it was more of a cold cupboard built into the wall. Still, it seemed to keep things cold and that was the main thing.
“Couldn’t sleep. You?”
“Thirsty. And I couldn’t get back to sleep.” I sat at the table. Lochie was on the end so I took the seat in the corner as far away from him as possible. I’d never had an ex-boyfriend before, I wasn’t sure what the protocol was. Lochie, on the other hand, had heaps of ex-girlfriends so he should know the drill.
He held up his mug. “I’m not sure what this is, but it’s good. You should try it sometime.” Perhaps when I got the memory of trying the food items on the spaceship, I would be ready to try something new again.
“Why couldn’t you sleep?” I asked, trying to make small talk. Plus, I was actually curious about what was going on inside his head about all this.
He shrugged. “A lot’s happened, I guess. How does it feel to be home? Can you call it that? Is that how it seems?”
So many questions after so little sleep. “When I think of home, I think of my house back on Earth. This just feels… foreign. I thought maybe I would feel like I belonged here or something but it feels like nothing.”
“Is it wrong that I’m kind of happy to hear that?” He looked at me over his mug.
“Why would you be happy?”
“Because it means my girlfriend will be coming home with me. I thought once you got here, you might want to stay.” Did I just hear right? Unless he started to date Lola in the spaceship, then he didn’t have a girlfriend.
Although… they had spent a lot of time together on the ship. “What I do isn’t your concern anymore. Have you forgotten we broke up?”
His mouth formed an O. “When did we break up?”
Was he serious? I knew I didn’t have an argument with myself. There were definitely two of us in that hotel room. “At the Boathouse Grand. You said you wanted to go to summer school. You didn’t stop me leaving.”
“I said I didn’t want to break up,” he said defensively. My mind reeled as I tried to go through everything that was said in the hotel. The whole thing had happened so quickly, but I distinctly remembered telling him I had to go and all he did was drive me home. “Amery, I can’t be broken up with you.”
“This is the first conversation we’ve had since leaving. You haven’t said a word to me in three days.”
“I thought you needed some space. Plus, I was still angry at the beginning. I thought we both needed some cooling off time.”
I still wasn’t convinced. Nothing had changed since our fight. We still had the same problems, we were just in a different location at the moment. “But nothing’s changed, Lochie. Maybe we should be broken up.”
He looked so far away down the table. It wasn’t really that far, probably only a few feet and I could possibly touch him if I leant over enough, but it seemed like a great distance.
He must have felt the same chasm because he shuffled across to sit in the seat beside mine. He was wearing a white shirt and white pants, made out of the same material as my pajamas. They were a little snug on him, outlining his muscles. “Maybe I didn’t explain myself well enough at the hotel.”
“I got the message loud and clear.” I stopped looking at him, focusing on the wall instead. If everything wasn’t so white and stark it would have made it a lot easier to find something else to stare at.
“Clearly you didn’t.” He paused and it took every inch of my resolve not to look at him. “It’s been hard, okay? Dealing with the whole summer school thing has been really difficult. And it’s been driving me crazy because I’m so torn and I don’t know what to do.”
“Do what you want, you will anyway.” I couldn’t stand to have him close enough so that I could feel his body heat and yet know I couldn’t touch him anymore.
I stood and went to the sink, taking a long time to refill my glass. I leaned on the bench and took a sip, using it as an excuse not to talk anymore.
Lochie swiveled around in his seat so he could continue his relentless staring. “You know it’s not that simple. My mom has worked really hard to make sure I could go to a good school and I know she wants me to start college as soon as I can. Which means summer school.”
“So what’s the problem? Your mom wants you to go, you want to go…”
“Because as much as my head is telling me what is sensible and right, my heart is telling me I need to be wherever you are,” Lochie replied with a resigned sigh. I finally looked at him because I really needed to know whether he was telling me the truth or not. He’d lied before, he had done it a thousand times since I’d known him. He couldn’t lie about something so big now.
His eyes burned with intensity. I wanted to run over to him, to sit on his lap and drape my arms around his neck and kiss him until we couldn’t breathe. That was what my heart said. My head won out and forced me to stay in place. “If it’s the right thing to do, then you should go.”
If I had hit him over the head with a block of wood, he wouldn’t have looked more hurt than what he did right then. My heart contracted in my chest at seeing him so upset.
“So you won’t care then?” He asked, his voice full of emotion that he was trying to hide. “If I go, you won’t miss me?”
“Of course I’ll miss you. But you’ve got to think of your future. I don’t want to be the reason you don’t achieve everything you’re capable of.”
Lochie stood up and perched on the edge of the table to face me, crossing his arms. “And what’s your future? Are you going to achieve everything you’re capable of?” He always did know which of my buttons to press to cause the most damage. My future was a subject I didn’t want to talk about, not when it was the most confusing topic of my life.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled in reply.
“You don’t know, or you don’t want to tell me?” Where did that come from? It had been a long time since I had hidden anything from Lochie. Clearly there was something going on inside his head I wasn’t aware of.
“I don’t know,” I repeated, more forcibly this time. “While everyone else is making plans and moving on with their lives, I have no idea what I’m going to do. Ever since the project was cancelled I’ve felt completely lost because I have no idea what I’m supposed to do anymore. Okay? Happy now?”
“No, I’m not happy.” He held my gaze as he stared. I had spent hours with Lochie in silence before but nothing like this. The air crackled with tension between us. It felt like we were both holding back what we really wanted to say.
The only thing I could do was let him go. “I can talk to Kyle and see if they can take you back to Earth as soon as possible. You should be able to make it back in time to go to school. Lola should go with you.”
“That’s what you want?”
The thought made me want to scream but it was the right thing to do. “I think that’s best.”
“Amery…”
&n
bsp; “Don’t, Lochie. You don’t belong here.” I couldn’t look at him, my eyes went to the floor instead as I fought as hard as I could to hold back the tears. Since when had I become such a cry baby? I hated it, I was stronger than that.
In my peripheral vision I saw him move but I wasn’t sure where he was going. I hoped he was leaving me so I could have a breakdown without any witnesses. He had seen me cry before but it didn’t seem right anymore.
Suddenly his arms were around me. Lochie pulled me tight into his embrace, his hand cradling the back of my head against his chest. “You’re wrong. I belong right here,” he whispered into my hair, kissing my head.
I let out everything I had been holding in since leaving my home as I cried into his chest. He did nothing except hold me tight and whisper that everything was going to be alright. I wanted to believe him so badly that I almost did.
When I was all cried out, Lochie let me go far enough so he could cup both my cheeks in his hands. His thumbs brushed away the last of my tears. “Do you still want me to go?” I shook my head. “Good, because I don’t want to go either.”
“I don’t know how long we’ll be here,” I mumbled. It was a little difficult to talk with his grip on me so strong. I welcomed it anyway.
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll stay for as long as it takes.”
“But your mom-”
“Will probably hate me for it and blame you for corrupting her precious son,” he finished for me with a big grin on his face. It had been too long since I’d seen that smile. And those dimples. “But I’ll deal with that. As much as it pains me, I love you, Ame. We’re a team regardless of who cares.”
“I love you too.” He leaned down and pressed his lips on mine. The kiss was hungry and deep and it made my knees go weak. I could have melted into him if he didn’t release me.
He looked at me intently again, studying my face while he held it. “We have to promise each other something.”
I would have promised anything at that moment. First born to be named Jedi? Yep. Need a kidney? Yep. I nodded instead so I didn’t sign up for something I would probably regret later. There was no way I was naming my child Jedi.
Project Integrate Series Boxed Set Page 81