“Yes?” A male voice spoke through the intercom.

Noah pushed down on a button on a small white box affixed beside the door of a multi-story building. “It’s Noah. Can we come up?”

“Who else is with you?” The man asked.

“Uh, my friend Rachel, my sister Angie, and Dale from our freshman floor.”

“Okay, everyone but Dale can come up.”

“What?” Dale shouted. “Cut the crap man.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Did he have to be so loud?

“Why should I let you up? You were always a jerk to me.” The voice went in and out.

“Because they don’t come up without me, and we have something really cool to talk to you about.” Dale looked at the little box, and I wondered if there was a camera or something that I couldn’t see.

“Is that true, Noah? You won’t come without him?”

“Of course we’ll come without him.” Angie rolled her eyes. “Let us up. I’m tired of wasting time.”

Carl laughed. “I was just messing around. You can all come up. I’m on the top floor.”

“Prick,” Dale mumbled under his breath.

There was a buzz, and Noah opened the front door. He started up a steep set of stairs, and he kept going. For a moment I felt as if I was back at the palace taking the back stairs. Eventually Noah stopped in front of a double set of doors. One was pulled open nearly immediately. A man who looked to be around our age stood on the other side. He had unruly brown hair that fell halfway down to his shoulders. His t-shirt read ‘I am your father.’” I had no desire to know what that meant. His eyes swept over me before he turned to Noah. “Hey man.”

“Hey, Carl, is it okay if we come in and do the introductions later?” Noah wrapped his hand around mine again. I was getting used to having mine cradled in his. I wondered if he was getting used to it as well.

“Sure. You don’t even have to do the introductions.” He turned and headed inside the room.

Noah met my eye, and I nodded before following him inside.

The room was bright white with blank walls and soaring ceilings that once again made me think of the palace. The floors were concrete but much nicer than the sidewalks outside.

There was almost no furniture in the room. Only a long table with multiple screens and two black chairs with wheels.

Noah dropped my hand and went to examine the screens.

Toward the back of the room was a kitchen with two stools in front of a counter. Off to the side of the kitchen was a bed with a colorful bedspread.

I walked closer to the bed. “Star Wars?” I read the wording spelled out across the bedding out loud. “What’s that?”

“What’s that?” Carl coughed loudly. “Noah? Did you really bring someone into my home who doesn’t know Star Wars? Are you so blinded by a pretty face that you’d choose someone like that as a girlfriend?” He put a hand to his chest as if he was wounded.

“She’s not his girlfriend.” Dale crossed his feet at the ankles.

“Yes, I am.” Was he really going to pretend I wasn’t friends with Noah? “We may not have known each other long, but that doesn’t matter.” Then I turned to Carl. “I don’t know what Star Wars is, but I know that’s some sort of space fighter jet pictured underneath it. I know plenty about space. More than you.”

“You can’t possibly know more than I do about space.” Carl scrunched up his nose as if he smelled something bad. “But good try.”

“Okay. Let’s all stay calm.” Noah came to stand beside me.

“At least tell Dale I’m right.” I wasn’t sure why but I needed him to confirm we were friends. Otherwise why was I trusting him? Having him as a friend was one of the few things I could rely on.

“Right about what exactly?” Noah put a hand in his pocket.

“She’s asking you to agree that she’s your girlfriend.” Dale laughed. Somehow he thought that was funny.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Uh, Rachel.” Noah rubbed the back of his neck. “I would have no problem if you were my girlfriend. None at all. But I don’t think you two are talking about the same thing.”

“We’re not?”

“No. He isn’t denying we’re friends. He’s saying you’re not my girlfriend. As in we’re not dating.”

“Dating?” Once again I wished I had a translator to help me with these new words.

“Okay.” Angie patted my arm gently. “This is going to be a difficult conversation. Maybe we should focus on the other issues right now.”

“Like how she claims to know more about space than I do.” Carl raised his chin.

“She does.” Noah walked away from the bed and toward the computers. “Way more than any of us.” I followed him.

“Sure.” Carl followed as well. “I bet.”

“Okay, I’m just going to spit this out and get it over with.” Noah stopped and turned to Carl. He looked at me again as if to make sure I was okay with him sharing. I nodded. We needed any help we could get. “Rachel was abducted by aliens thirteen years ago.”

“What?” Carl looked at me. “Is he serious?”

I nodded. “Yes. Although I never thought of it as abduction until very recently.”

“Ok.” Carl nodded. “Then I apologize. I misspoke. Please accept my apology, and we can begin again.” Carl held out his hand. “I am Carl. Pleasure to meet you.”

I wasn’t sure what to make of this bizarre conversation, but I accepted his hand. “I’m Rachel. It’s fine. This whole situation is confusing for all of us.”

“Okay. Good.” Angie crossed her arms. “Let’s get moving, shall we? Let me fill you in on what we know, Carl. A monster showed up at the Maple Leaf. Rachel believes he was there for her.”

“He tried to feel her up. Or down I guess. He was definitely there for her.” Dale stared at me as he spoke.

“Shut up, Dale,” Noah snapped.

“Okay. And this monster is from space?” Carl pulled one of the chairs away from the desk and took a seat.

“Yes.” I nodded. “But I don’t know what planet he’s from.”

“She just knows it’s not from Andrelexa, the planet she was raised on,” Noah added.

Carl crossed one leg over the other and leaned on his elbow. “Interesting.”

“Wasn’t there something you wanted to show us before?” Angie dropped her hands to the side. “On the streetcar?”

“He wanted this.” I pulled out the medallion. “It’s rare, and it’s worth a lot.”

“So he wasn’t trying to touch her boobs. Got it.” Dale walked toward me and looked closer at it.

“Shut up, Dale!” Noah stepped in front of him. “She deserves to be treated with respect.”

Carl reached for the medallion. Then he stopped. “May I touch it?”

I nodded. “Yes. You can’t hurt it.”

“This appears to be made from gold, but it’s different than the gold we have here. It feels featherweight yet the metal appears thicker, maybe?”

“It’s Narva gold. Have you heard of it?”

He shook his head.

“Where did you get the medallion?” Noah took it in his hand next. He turned it over.

“It might be easier to tell you the whole story. At least what I know.”

“That would be a good start.” Angie sat down on the floor. “We’re listening.”

I sat down across from her and Carl. Dale and Noah followed. We ended up in a circle on the floor. I was seated between Noah and Carl.

“Thirteen years ago Telton took me from Earth.”

“Telton?” Angie repeated his name. “Why? How did it happen?”

“I had false memories so I don’t know what to believe now. Plus, I was lied to.”

Noah put a hand on my arm. “You can skip ahead if you want to. Whatever is easier for you.”

Angie shook her head. “She has to tell us everything.”

Noah stretched out his legs in front of him. “She can. Later. Right now we need the vital details. How she was abducted can wait.”

“Thank you.” I wanted to get the rest of the story over with. I didn’t even want to think about it. “I lived with the royal family.”

“Because your adoptive father was king?” Noah asked.

“Telton?” I wanted to laugh, but I held it back. “Oh no. Not at all. He does run the Explorers, but not Andrelexa. The Emperor is someone else entirely. And I stayed because of his son.” I needed to get this out. “Caspian.”

Noah sighed. “I knew this Caspian guy was going to come into play eventually.”

“Caspian guy?” Dale’s brow furrowed. “You knew there was a dude named Caspian and didn’t tell me? This stuff is golden.”

“Should I continue?” Even speaking his name made my stomach churn. He’d betrayed me in ways I’d never forgive. Had anything he’d ever told me been true?

Everyone in the circle nodded.

“I grew up in the palace because Caspian convinced his father to keep me around. At least that’s the story he told me every time I asked. He claims he knew we were destined to be together from the first moment we met.” My chest hurt even thinking about it. I wasn’t sure what it was I was feeling. Confusion more than anything.

“When you were five?” Angie asked.

“Yes. He was eight, although the Lexas have a different developmental process so I don’t really know how it all equates.” I’d never cared before, yet now it felt silly that I hadn’t asked for more details.

“And how did you get the medallion?” Noah picked it up off my chest again.

“Caspian gave it to me after his advancement. It was the same night I saw that thing. The creature.”

“His advancement?” Angie asked.

“When Caspian moved up to direct heir to the throne, even though he’s always really been that. It was in name only.” No one said anything so I took it as a cue to continue.

“And at that same ceremony.” I swallowed hard. I didn’t even want to deal with this. “Well, as I said Caspian gave it to me.”

“He just gave it to you?” Angie moved up onto her knees. “Please. Noah, even you can’t settle for that kind of answer.”

I didn’t wait for Noah to say anything. He’d let go of the medallion. “Caspian gave it to me without asking.” I could feel tears burning in the back of my eyes. Tears I’d been unable to shed at the time. “I still can’t quite believe he did that to me. But then again he lied to me too. I don’t believe anything he ever said anymore.”

“He did that to you?” Dale asked in a far softer tone of voice than he’d used with me before. “So you didn’t want this medallion?”

I shook my head and looked down at my lap.

“It was a mating ritual, wasn’t it?” Carl was speaking in soft tones too. As if I were a child.

That snapped my head up. “Yes. That is exactly what it was.”

“Mating?” Noah blanched. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Everyone in the royal family has a medallion. Each child born into the family receives two. One to keep and one to give to their life mate. Some wear them as rings. When Caspian gave me the medallion, it signified my becoming officially part of the royal family as his life mate.”

“But you didn’t want to be?” Noah’s voice was normal. I liked that. I didn’t want to be babied.

“No. I. I mean I loved him… or I thought I did. My feelings were so different before. I’m starting to wonder if they’d kept me on modifiers all those years without my knowing it. Nothing else can explain the fog, and how it’s all gone now.”

“Modifiers?” Angie put her head in her hands. “You weren’t kidding about this being a long story.”

“It’s my life story… or my life so far.” I truly hoped this wasn’t the end of my story. In some ways it felt as if my life was just beginning. “How can I explain this quickly? Okay. I mean emotion modifiers. Lexas take them all the time. I only took one once that I know of, but now I’m wondering if they gave them to me in another form. They come in these little capsules, and they dissolve on your tongue. Caspian never took them because he didn’t need them, but everyone else did.”

“So it’s some sort of drug.” Carl leaned on his hand. “This is all fascinating.”

“Okay. I have tons of questions, but the one I have to get an answer to is what else Caspian lied about.” Angie had moved to what was the middle of the circle.

“Earth.” I tried to get the courage to keep talking. It was all surreal. “He lied about Earth.”

“What about Earth?” Angie pressed.

“About it still being here.” I closed my eyes. I couldn’t handle looking at anyone. “I thought it was gone.”

“Why would the Earth be gone?” Noah asked, his voice right beside me.

“Because it was scheduled for destruction,” I whispered the words.

“Why?” He pushed.

“Because when planets turn so evil they can’t be saved, the Lexa destroy them for the sake of the universe and all the billions of galaxies that are part of it. Eventually that kind of evil will spread. The Lexas take them out before that happens.” I refused to open my eyes. I didn’t want to know the way they were looking at me. “Usually it’s a process. But Earth was so far gone they couldn’t even wait to harvest the resources.” I stopped. All of this was a lie. Earth wasn’t destroyed so why even repeat the story? I opened my eyes. “Sorry. I mean all of this is what they told me. They showed me videos—I had no reason to think they were lying.” Even with my eyes open I could see the images clearly. The blue and green ball ceasing to exist.

“What resources do they harvest?” Dale asked. “I mean are we talking natural resources or people?”

“I’m sure they never took people. Just metals and minerals. That sort of thing.”

“But they took you.” Angie reached out and took my hand. “I think your abduction story really matters. We need to hear that part.”

“I can tell you what I remember, but I have different versions of it in my head.”

“That’s okay.” Noah shifted so he was in front of me, forcing me to look at him. His eyes were still so kind. Even after the story I was sharing. “We’re all here to help.”

“But first we should eat.” Carl jumped to his feet. “Does everyone here like tacos?”