Conquer

By Jamie Campbell

Love Conquers All.

With the alien’s secret exposed for the entire world to see, Amery can only think of one thing: Lochie. Sequestered away for her own safety, she can only imagine how much he hates her now.

Everything changes for the teenage alien when her entire town turns their back on her. Out to protect their own race, the humans make her life a misery and place her firmly in harm’s way.

On the verge of a war between Earth and Trucon, Amery has to take action into her own hands and do something to protect both the human and alien race.

Unable to tell her friends from enemies, Amery is in a fight for survival. Yet it will all be for nothing unless she can win back the heart of her one true love.

Also in the Project Integrate Series:
Ignite (Short Prequel)
Unite
Divide
Conquer
Soar
Rise
Broken

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jamie Campbell
• Release date: Dec 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311929211

Jamie Campbell

Jamie was born into a big, crazy family of 6 children. Being the youngest, she always got away with anything and would never shut up. Constantly letting her imagination run wild, her teachers were often frustrated when her 'What I did on the weekend' stories contained bunyips and princesses.Growing up, Jamie did the sensible things and obtained a Bachelor of Business degree from Southern Cross University and worked hard to gain her membership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.Yet nothing compared to writing. Quiting the rat race to spend quality time with her laptop named Lily, Jamie has written several novels and screenplays. Spanning a number of genres and mediums, Jamie writes whatever inspires her from ghost stories to teenage love stories to tantalising murder mysteries. Nothing is off limits.A self-confessed television addict, dog lover, Taylor Swift fan, and ghost hunter, Jamie loves nothing more than the thrill of sharing her stories.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Tap, Tap, Tap. I nervously tapped my pencil against the table, trying to keep my hands occupied. When was the meeting going to start? I was more than impatient as everyone around me was making small talk amongst themselves. Everyone was acting so calm. Were they really? Or was it just a front? Whatever it was, they were better at acting than I was.

Kyle sat at my left, not talking. He hadn’t said much since we arrived, nor in the week since we had received the last message from our leaders. Whatever he was feeling, he was keeping the details close to his chest.

I got you orange juice, is that okay? Garrick asked as he placed the glass in front of me.

Yeah, thanks. I didn’t care if it was orange juice or poison, I didn’t have a stomach for either. He took the seat to my right, completely surrounding me with grumps.

You have to get over him, Garrick groaned. Seriously, he’s not worth it.

He was talking about Lochie, he didn’t even need to say his name to send the pain shooting through my chest again. In fact, he rarely said his name. When talking about my ex-boyfriend, he usually referred to him as the idiot or the loser. He still wasn’t over their argument.

It’s easier said than done, I replied with a sigh, continuing to tap my pencil against the table. How do you just forget about someone who you hurt?

You were too good for him to begin with.

I didn’t bother arguing. Garrick would never be able to understand why I was so hung up on the guy.

I hadn’t heard from Lochie since he found out I was an alien. I tried to call him every day, I even showed up at his house. He wouldn’t see me, he wouldn’t even answer the door. His car was parked in the driveway, I knew he was there.

It had been the longest week of my life without him. And for other reasons too. After hearing the Department had cancelled Project Integrate, the leaders of planet Trucon had some serious decisions to make. They needed to leave their planet before the asteroid destroyed it and Earth was the closest planet that most resembled their own. With no more project, there was no longer any chance of being readily accepted by humans.

But the problems with the Department were soon eclipsed when the organization known as the Originals publicly exposed every single member of the project. Our photos and names were splashed across every media available – television, newspapers, the internet, radio, even billboards. There was nobody left on Earth who didn’t know there were aliens walking amongst them.

It didn’t matter that the information the Originals gave was mostly false. According to their propaganda, they warned everyone we were only on Earth to wipe out the human race. We were secretly infiltrating until we had full control. That was the exact opposite of what we wanted, but nobody was listening to the truth.

The meeting today was supposed to help us form a plan. All the members of the project, besides Garrick and myself, were still locked up in the prison we referred to as the complex. They were at the mercy of the Department and could be killed on any given day. We had to get them out.

Over the past seventeen years, our leaders on Trucon installed spies on Earth to secretly keep an eye on us. These spies, known as satellites, were unknown to the Department and lived covertly in the community. They were experts at blending in. Kyle was one of those satellites, and the only one we knew in the entire room.

Looking around the seats at everyone, I could never have guessed there were so many satellites on Earth. This was the first time they had all been together since leaving Trucon, my guess would be there was just over a hundred. Kyle had only known about forty of them.

There was no hierarchy among the satellites so there was nobody actually in charge of the meeting. If it didn’t start soon, I was going to do it myself.

We were supposed to be waiting for our leaders to dial in but they didn’t exactly adhere to Earth time. If they ever did make it to Earth, they were going to have to invest in a watch each. I would buy them myself if it meant meetings would start on time.

It’s going to be okay, Garrick whispered in my ear. Clearly I wasn’t doing a good job of looking perfectly fine like the rest of them.

I know, I just wish they’d get on with it.

We were interrupted as a microphone squealed, sending feedback echoing around the room. We were in an underground bunker, half a mile beneath the dirt and grass of Portview so nobody else could hear it, thankfully.

The loud booming voice of our leaders finally started talking. Satellites, do you read?

A woman who appeared to be in her early fifties spoke for us, she was the closest to the microphone. We read and are ready for your instructions.

The disembodied voice continued. Your first priority is to ensure the safety of our project members. You must devise a way to take custody of them. You know the behavior of those on Earth better than us, you are well equipped to undertake this task.

May we use force? The woman asked calmly.

Do what you must. The Department is no longer our ally. You will take custody of our members and keep them safe.

Nodding heads and faint murmurs passed through everybody in the room. Even though I couldn’t hear what they were saying, I was pretty sure they agreed. Without the project members, our integration had absolutely no chance of happening.

Your second priority is to remain safe yourselves. We are preparing our ships and are rallying our troops. We have taken the Department’s actions as a declaration of war. We will retaliate the same.

The knot in my stomach pulled together even tighter. The last thing I wanted to hear was the word war. With all wars came casualties. Earth was the only planet I knew, being delivered here when I was only a baby. I didn’t want anyone to get caught up in the carnage. The fight was between our leaders and the government Department, anybody else was innocent.

Sir, if we are to be accepted by humans, wouldn’t a war perpetuate the lies already being told about us? The woman asked carefully. I now knew why she had volunteered to be the speaker, she was diplomatic and firm at the same time.

The loud voice came back instantly. The Department is preventing us from coming to Earth. We only wish to integrate and will land by force. Only then can we start to rebuild our relationship with humans.

That was going to be difficult. The Originals were out there every day in the media portraying us as horrible monsters. Once the ships started to land and people could actually see the aliens as they stepped out, they wouldn’t be seeing the similarities first. They would only see the differences. And differences made people scared.

We understand, Leader, the woman nodded. Thank you for your time.

Keep us updated. I want to know the moment our project members are safe in your custody. I’m sure you can imagine we have a lot of anxious parents here. Out. The line clicked dead with nothing more than static humming through the room. It was the first time our leaders had even mentioned our parents. I wondered if mine were amongst them. I tried not to get my hopes up.

Conversations immediately started buzzing around me as everyone came up with ideas about getting the project members out of the complex. They could talk all they wanted, but none of them knew what they were truly up against. Only Garrick and I had been inside and knew it would be an epic feat to spring them all. No doubt the Department had stepped up security even further after we had escaped.

I left them to it, my opinion didn’t count. The satellites were trained in things like strategy, they could figure it out for themselves. I quietly retreated to a much smaller room away from the chatter.

Looking at my phone, there was still no signal so far underground. We had been in the disused bunker for most of the week, afraid to walk around in public for too long. So far I hadn’t been recognized anywhere but it would only be a matter of time. My adoptive parents were practically prisoners in their own home as the media camped outside.

I slumped against the steel wall and slid down to the floor. Every little sound echoed in the bunker. It had apparently been built by a wealthy entrepreneur during the cold war. He was paranoid about an atomic bomb so moved his family underground into the massive space. One of the satellites found out about it and commandeered it for our use. As far as I knew, we didn’t exactly have permission to be down there.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Lochie. Whenever my mind went quiet, he was there. Sometimes I was haunted by the way he had looked at me with such hatred before he left. Other times I yearned for him as I remembered how he used to cradle my head in his hands and lean down to kiss me so tenderly. The two images seemed completely at odds with each other.

Garrick kept telling me to forget about him but there was no way I could do that. Not when we had shared so much, and even if he hated what I was.

I guessed after hearing everything the Originals said, Lochie could be forgiven for hating that I was an alien. He was probably repulsed by the fact he had kissed me, let alone slept with me. He had given himself to an alien, a horrible, human-killing alien. I had gotten exactly what I had deserved.

I would love to have spoken to my best friend, Lola, about everything that happened. She was fine with my alien status, the only person I had ever told had reacted quite well. It had given me hope that Lochie would too, but not in the way he had found out. Hearing it from the Originals was the worst possible way to find out his girlfriend’s biggest secret.

I missed Lola so much. If my phone worked, I would have called her. I needed to feel like a normal teenager for a while, even if just for a few minutes. I was so tired of having the weight of the world on my shoulders.

Is this a private party, or can anyone join in? Garrick gave me a grin from the doorway. At least in the past week he had stopped fighting with me about everything. Disaster actually mellowed him, who would have thought?

Are they still pretending like they can fix the world? I managed to joke. If I didn’t laugh, I was going to cry. And never stop.

Garrick joined me on the floor, our arms touching, he had seated himself so close. He nudged me. They’re the adults, they’re the ones supposed to be fixing the world. Not us.

They have no idea what they’re getting themselves into.

Agreed. But they’ve got to try.

How would you fix it? I asked, curious. Garrick spent a lot of time thinking, I would often catch him staring into nothing. I didn’t have any doubts that a lot went on behind his dark brown eyes.

He sighed, grinning. I would set a fire in the complex and get everyone out while the guards were distracted. I couldn’t stop the smile spreading across my face as I remembered the way we had escaped from the complex.

I guess it worked once, I shrugged. But seriously, how?

The best way to get the Department to do anything would be from the inside.

I caught on quickly, he really was a genius. You’d trick the Department into releasing them.

It only takes turning one of them to start a chain reaction. How many people do you know would be fine killing thousands of seventeen year olds? They might be federal agents, but they’re still human.

Do you think any of the satellites have thought about that? I asked, already sensing I knew the answer. When Garrick shook his head, it was confirmed. Should we tell them?

Do you think they’d listen? We both already knew the answer to that question too. The satellites might have been experts in their field and the elite of our planet, but they didn’t understand humans the same way we did. They had been on the fringe of society since arriving, whereas we had been a part of it. Sometimes even the best of intentions weren’t enough.

I leant my head against the metal wall, hearing and feeling the bump it made. I just want to go home. The moment the words were out of my mouth I regretted them. I had a home to go to, but Garrick didn’t. His parents had been reassigned in the Department, not wanting to be in the project anymore. My stupid foot was firmly in my mouth.

You could go home, Garrick stated casually, like it was an actual possibility. I turned my head to stare at him, raising one eyebrow. You just might be killed, by either the Department, the Originals, or a member of the general public.

I think I’m almost ready to take that chance, I sighed. I meant it too. Even the possibility of a horrible death sounded better than spending another day holed up underground.

We should get back. They’ll eventually miss us.

"By they, you mean Kyle, right?" I teased, Garrick just smiled in return. He stood and held his hand out for me. I took it gratefully and he helped me up. We returned to the meeting hall where everyone seemed to be getting a little heated in the discussions.

We took our seats and listened for a while to gauge the gist of their plans. From what I could tell, some satellites wanted to storm into the complex and take all the project members. Others wanted to sit back and observe for a while. There didn’t seem to be any in between. Either they wanted to go in guns blazing or do nothing for a while.

The arguments went around in circles. Even the woman seated in front of the microphone couldn’t make everyone agree. I didn’t think either of their plans would work. If they suddenly attacked the complex, they would be no match for the guards. It was a huge building and there were only a hundred satellites. Not only would the guards outnumber them, but they were also heavily armed and trained. Even if we could get weapons like they had, none of them would be able to use them effectively.

On the other hand, if they did nothing and just sat back and observed, the day grew closer where the Department would dispose of all the members. By not doing anything but watching, they were risking the members’ lives.

Neither plan was going to work and Garrick knew it just as well as I did. I couldn’t take it any longer. The walls felt like they were closing in on me as the disembodied voices just screamed around me. I pictured all those guns pointed at the members and then a bloody massacre in the dining room of the complex. That was how it was all going to end.

I stood up and banged on the table, unable to stop myself. The room grew deathly quiet as all the satellites turned their attention my way. With hundreds of eyes staring at me intently, I swallowed my fear. Someone had to do something and it may as well be me.

CHAPTER 2

Your plans aren’t going to work, I said clearly, my voice louder and steadier than I imagined it would have been. You need to infiltrate the complex from the inside. You need to turn a Department Agent. That’s the only way to get them out.

Garrick stood at my side. She’s right. We’ve been in the complex, we know how it operates. You have no chance of getting them out by storming in. You’ll all be dead and the project members will be soon to follow.

I was so grateful to have half the attention shared with Garrick now. At least I wasn’t just a madwoman anymore, I had backup. Or just a madman, either one.

The satellites continued to stare at us, their mouths either pursed in thought or hanging open in disbelief. We may have been the youngest there and certainly not trained for espionage, but we did have experience on our side. That had to count for something, right? We had been there, we had seen beyond the walls. None of the satellites could say the same thing, they had to listen to us.

We were wrong. The woman at the microphone spoke first. We will observe then. I’ll set up a roster and arrange a vehicle. We will observe for a period of one month and then reassess. Any objections?

Apparently it was only Garrick and I objecting, all the others nodded in agreement. We sunk back into our chairs, completely defeated. The only good thing to come of it was that they weren’t going to storm into the complex. At least that would save a few hundred lives.

They concluded the meeting and we were all free to go as a smaller group started on the planning. Having people sit outside a government building didn’t seem like it would take much organizing to me. All they had to do was make sure they weren’t seen by the Department. But even if they were, they would just say they were private citizens.

Since I had posted the complex’s address on the conspiracy message board just over a week ago, there had been people staking the place out anyway. It got so bad the Department put out a press release saying it was merely a training camp for agents. Which only added fuel to the ever growing fire. After the announcement by the Originals, it was a hotspot on the alien conspiracy theorist’s roadmap. I felt a small sense of accomplishment at causing the Department some inconvenience at least.

I pushed my chair back, the air was too stuffy in the bunker to remain down there. They could all fight about it, I didn’t care what they said anymore. Garrick grabbed my hand before I could go anywhere.

Where are you going? He asked, concern in his eyes. It was better than the anger that used to be there when he looked at me. I don’t know what had changed but something obviously did.

I need to get out of here, I’m going for a walk.

He pushed his own chair back. I’ll come with you.

No, I need some time alone, I said quickly, too sharply. I just need to clear my head. Thank you, though, really, I added softly. Garrick let go of my hand and nodded. He watched me leave until I was out the door.

In the corridor, I didn’t stop. I climbed the steel ladder, warm from the heat of the bunker. Our air supply came from a series of vents. We didn’t have the air conditioning running as it used too much electricity. Our entire electrical supply was powered by a small generator, it was used only for the essentials.

When I reached the top, I had to push on the door for it to creak open. There was nobody around so I climbed out and secured the entrance. I was standing in an open field, nothing around except the odd tree here and there. I started walking.

Kyle’s car was parked a mile down the road, he kept the keys hidden underneath the wheel hub for an emergency. I fished around and pulled them out, letting myself into the vehicle and getting out of there.

I resisted the urge to go see if Lochie would talk to me. I knew the outcome would just be silence as I stood like an idiot on his front stoop. Even if he was home he would refuse to come to the door. It was pointless going there. I knew that, but I still had to fight hard to resist the temptation anyway.

Instead of going down that well travelled road, I headed in the opposite direction and drove even further out of town than I already was. I doubted I would get any further at my new destination but it was worth a try. I headed for Special Agent Robert Bower’s house.

The last time I had seen him, it was at the Department as he sacrificed himself for my freedom. He saved my life that day and he had been plaguing my nightmares ever since. I needed to know what happened to him. I needed to see for myself that he was okay.

I had only been to Rob’s house a handful of times. Each time was when he had held a barbeque for his birthday or on the fourth of July. My parents had driven with me every time, I had to look for landmarks to find my way there.

At least Kyle’s car was easier to drive than the old VW Bug Garrick and I had been driving previously. His new four wheel drive didn’t rattle and shake, nor did it stall at every intersection. And it was completely void of bullet holes – bonus.

It was pleasant being outside in the sun, away from all the dramas in the bunker. For one moment, everything felt normal. It felt like I could just drive home or to school and resume my life like nothing had happened.

The feeling only lasted a few seconds. I recognized Rob’s house and pulled up at the curb a few houses down. I slipped the key into my pocket, just in case I needed to get out of there quickly. I