Page 37 of Alien in the Attic

“Have I done something wrong?” he asked, no longer able to contain his concern.

“No.” Her answer was quick and clipped. It contained no hint of forthcoming elaboration. He took this to mean he had definitely done something wrong.

“Please, talk to me,” he urged her. “Let me help?”

Carmen huffed. “I don’t know if coming here was worth it.”

Her words were like an ice dagger straight to his lungs. “Why?” he asked, trying to touch her. She backed away.

“Nobody wants us here,” she said, her lip twitching.

“I want you here,” Arccoo told her.

“Then why do you let them treat us the way they do?” Carmen asked, heat rising in her voice. “The way they look at us. What they say. Doesn’t any of that bother you?”

“Of course it does,” Arccoo said. “It infuriates me. I would like nothing more than to have the guards lock them away until their bigotry burns out like a cold flame, but that would be an abuse of power. You have to see that.”

She squeezed her face hard for a second before responding. “I’m not asking you to arrest anyone or hurt anyone or make a law about racism,” she explained. “But you can speak up against it. Can’t you? Instead of just being seen with us, can’t you defend us? With words and actions?”

The strength in his knees nearly gave way. He held the side of a podium displaying an ancient scroll to remain standing. She was right. He’d been treating her situation like an afterthought. For him, the hate Carmen and her sisters faced was something happening in the periphery. For them, it was a ceaseless problem, not something that could be put off until later.

“I am sorry,” he said. “You deserve better than this.”

Carmen looked into his eyes. He thought she might be searching for evidence of his sincerity. She nodded. “Thank you,” she said.

She hugged him, which made him feel powerful.

“Break it up, lovebirds,” Sofia said.

She and Elena were walking up to them with a book so heavy, each sister had to hold a side to carry it. “You’re going to want to take a look at this.”

Arccoo and Carmen took a step back so the other two could come around and show them what they found. An illustration extended from one page to the other with a long block of text bordering the art. The image was of a Thryal militia riding peakbacks into battle. The Parantaa was sticking out of the backof a brass tank strapped to the largest peakback. Tendrils of blue light like hot electricity short from the machine, seeming to vaporize an entire row of warriors who were stupid enough to meet this militia in combat.

“I can’t read the words, obviously,” Sofia said. “The implication is clear enough, though. Should someone harness the power of the parantaa with advanced enough technology, it could become a weapon of mass destruction.”

“I guess Thryals and humans aren’t all that different,” Sofia said.

Carmen touched Arccoo’s elbow lightly. “You can’t let him do this.”

“Let him do this?” Arccoo asked. “The second brother doesn’t let the first son do anything. He is going to be king. He doesn’t need my permission to act as he wishes.” He took a few steps away from the small group to think. He’d heard legends of the staff’s destructive power, but to see it, even as an artist’s rendering, was almost unfathomable.

He imagined Rocco working with engineers to construct a machine on such a scale that an entire civilization could be wiped out in a flash. Some would see this as a triumph, a return to Thryal’s glorious days of power and war. Instead of seeking Govian approval to join their federation, they could simply obliterate planet after planet until they had no choice but submit to Thryal rule.

That is not the future I want for my people, Arccoo thought.

Standing at full height, Arccoo turned back to Carmen and her sisters. “Come with me,” he said. “We have to stop this before it starts.”

“But you have to see how dangerous this is,” Arccoo pleaded with his father across a long table. “Do you want Thryal to be known across the stars as genocidal conquerors?”

The king wiped food from the corner of his mouth. “You have no evidence to suggest your brother is planning anything nefarious.”

“He drugged Carmen,” Arccoo told him for the second time. “Why else would he do that if his intentions were pure?”

“Have you confirmed with him that this alleged drugging took place?” the king asked, interlocking his fingers and laying his hands in his lap.

Arccoo flinched as if his father had just slapped him. “Excuse me?” he asked, genuinely hoping he misread the intention of asking such a question.

“How do we know she isn’t lying?” He paused. When Arccoo didn’t respond, he continued. “We don’t know much about humans, and what we do know doesn’t say much about theircharacter. She is a stranger here. We’re expected to take her word without evidence?”

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