Captivate (Manipulate, Book 2)

Chapter 35

Claire woke up in the flat in the evening, having slept most of the day through. Sage was gone and Athlete and Juliet were in the open living area, watching news reports on the screen. Claire settled next to Juliet, who obligingly translated for her. (Oh, how Claire missed her glasses!)

It was like tabloid TV. Apparently humans weren’t the only ones who loved a good intrigue. There were affairs, scandals, and big secrets revealed. One of the stories was particularly sensational, “Septuplets born with double-faceted eyes!” Only that may or may not have been a bad thing. Actually, as Claire watched that story, it turned out to be a scandal, as the eyes were proof of infidelity on the father’s part. Who knew? Or that aliens would even care about infidelity?

Selta was a microcosm of the galaxy. It was a kind of neutral Switzerland, Claire gathered, and full of celebrities: from politicians and emperors to cultural pop stars.

Soon there would be an athletic competition, something like an Olympics, and Athlete explained several of the sports to her when they popped up on the news reports. There was longing in his voice, and she wondered if he would have competed for the Rik, had things gone differently for him.

It seemed strange to Claire that she knew so little about all these aliens that made up the population on Selta. She knew the Spo, Merith, Tergre, Vel, Crosspoint, and Rik, but there were five other species on the planet that she barely knew about. She’d been off Earth for nearly four years now, and she’d learned so little about things.

She counted on her fingers: she’d gotten to know a couple Merith on the Diarena’s ship, two Crosspointers (counting Francois), and her five Rik friends. She kept expecting every culture other than hers to be simpler; easier to stereotype and catalog in her brain, but it wasn’t. Faal was evil, no doubt about it, but Kitteh and the other Merith on the ship had been okay. The Rik were painted as evil scavengers of society, but her Rik were kind and intelligent.

It was just a confusing galaxy. So while Sage had dinner with his friend, and Juliet tried to flirt with Athlete, Claire watched the reports.

That’s when she saw the other cadets on the news.

They stood on an observation deck by one of the huge Seltan spinners. Claire wasn’t positive, but it looked like the same one that was just below the Spo embassy, where they’d escaped. There were two cadets, waving and talking to people in the crowd around them. Sam she recognized from the footage she’d seen of the trial. The Japanese girl with him didn’t look familiar, but she had the same cadet tattoo on her cheek.

When they waved, Claire could see the other tattoo on their wrists.

“The human delegation has been investigating the sabotage of their planetary space station,” the Spo announcer was saying. “But they agreed to a public viewing on the platform yesterday morning. They are staying at the Spo embassy, and if you want to catch a glimpse of these true humans, they can occasionally be seen entering and exiting the embassy on level H.”

The screen flipped back to the video of Sam and the other cadet girl waving at the crowd, and Claire saw that Basher was in the background behind them.

 “Our reporter was disappointed to observe however, that the true humans are very similar to the Rik/Humans we are all too familiar with, so we don’t advise you to get your hopes up.

 “The humans have not issued a report on their investigation, but inside sources say the prime suspects are Rik. Without a doubt, this must challenge the very strange arrangement they have with both the Spo and the Rik. It is also rumored that Faal of Merith II is assisting with the investigation. This surprising species has certainly dived into the deep end of galactic politics.