United: An Alienated Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

The reality of it was there were some jobs nobody wanted to do … like cleaning.
    “Please?” Mary pressed. “I really want to stay, but this isn’t what I signed up for. Give me something else. Anything else. I promise I won’t complain.”
    The longer Cara looked into those sad brown eyes, the more her willpower crumbled. “Well, I guess the agriculture department can always use another—” Before she could finish her sentence, Mary threw both arms around her. “Let’s keep this quiet,” Cara mumbled around a mouthful of hair. “If anyone asks, we’ll say there was a mistake with your test results.”
    After a multitude of thanks, Mary practically skipped out the door to tell her supervisor the news. Cara started to follow, then changed her mind and decided to leave the same way she’d arrived—through the window.
    As she strode along the outskirts of the front lawn, she pictured Mary’s smile and found herself beaming. It felt good to make a difference, to boost someone’s quality of life with one simple act. Maybe it was a small victory, but she’d needed the win, so she reveled in it while munching on her sandwich.
    While walking, she watched the activity taking place on the park field as colonists used their lunch break to fulfill the daily exercise quota. One group of humans had formed a scrimmage game, flag football from the look of it, while another group jogged laps around the field perimeter. It seemed all of the L’eihrs were either engaged in games of sticks on the opposite end of the park or swimming in the nearby saltwater pool.
    Cara’s prideful grin fell. Aside from one interspecies couple sitting on a bench overlooking the ocean, she couldn’t see any humans and L’eihrs interacting. There were no fights, but it was clear that cliques had formed. She wished she knew what to do about it. This was the sort of problem that couldn’t be fixed by shuffling job assignments.
    Her day took a turn for the worse when she snuck back into her office and found a pair of pristine boots propped up on her data table, belonging to a young blond man who was currently perusing her data tablet. He glanced up at her with narrowed eyes, as if she’d been caught trespassing instead of the other way around.
    Cara’s jaw clenched. Jake Winters .
    He was her least favorite human being on the planet—a twenty-something Los Angeles big shot who’d made millions from an Internet startup company, and then gotten bored, sold it, and applied to join the colony. Cara didn’t know why he’d come here. He didn’t seem to like her very much, and the feeling was mutual.
    “Make yourself at home,” she said sarcastically while snatching her tablet from him. At least he had the decency to remove his boots from her table, though he didn’t surrender her chair. “We need to have a serious talk about boundaries, Jake.”
    “What we need to talk about,” he countered, “is why you’re playing favorites.”
    “I already told you Aelyx doesn’t get special treatment.”
    “Who said anything about your boyfriend?” Jake stood up extra tall in a clear attempt to use his three-inch height advantage against her. Not that it worked. She glared right back at him. “I want to know why Mary Shapiro can change jobs, but the rest of us have to suck it up and play the hand we’re dealt.”
    Cara’s mouth dropped open. How could he have possibly heard so quickly? She’d barely left the living center five minutes ago.
    Jake’s answering smirk said he enjoyed catching her off guard. “I was with the agriculture supervisor when the call came in. I heard everything, so don’t bother denying it.”
    Cara released a thousand mental swears while a riot broke out in her stomach. Of all the people to overhear that call, it had to be an instigator like Jake. “There was a problem with Mary’s—”
    “Test results,” he finished flatly. “Yeah, I know. Well, guess what. There’s a problem with mine, too.”
    Behind her,