IN HUMAN


IN HUMAN is a young YA (Tween,) Earth based, contemporary science-fiction adventure complete in 60,000 words. It can stand alone although it has series potential.

Protecting the alien who saved her, Fion struggles to remain loyal, when government agents hold her captive, invaders blow her out of prison, and the consequences of this friendship almost kill her. 




IN HUMAN

CHAPTER 1
BEFORE



“Fion, be an angel,” Mum said, pushing at the cardboard box that had slipped when we’d slipped around the last bend. “Calm down.”
I was very not calm. With my legs over the rails that kept me and the mattress in our place at the top of the van, I had no room to move. No way to let the tension out.  I wasn’t an angel. But I was wearing a white dress – for the first time ever – and we were travelling up a twisting mountain road, so I entertained myself by seeing if I could get the hang of the angel thing. I held out my arms and let myself flow with momentum.
“Fionnula Weekes!” Mum said loudly, looking back at me. “Is that you being angelic?”
I grinned, and I flapped my arms at my side. “Are we nearly there yet?”
My dad exploded with laughter. “Fion! I’m looking for the sign. Let me focus.”
Mum turned sideways in her seat. “Can’t you think calm thoughts – and keep still?”
Peering down to the point where I could see her, I said, “Just so long as you know calming down is going to get creases in my dress.”
“I’ll live,” she said. “You could read or something.”
“Or something,” I said, flopping onto my back.
The woven fish I’d taped to the roof were darting from side to side. My elephant’s wide white eyes made him look confused as he rocked on his side. I stood him on the shelf with the coconut monkey. Arms folded, Monkey looked inscrutable when I pushed them together. Neither looked happy when I propped Sari Barbie and my clownfish next to them.
They all slipped over again when we turned the next corner. I guessed that was how it was meant to be. We’d travelled through India and parts of China before we’d driven up the total length of Europe. None of the places we’d driven through had been blurred by speed. My view, from the van with the drippy tap, was that the world was enormous. But a little bit all the same.