The Energy Crusades (23 page)

"What happened? Did you get the information?" Balor was impatient.

"No," I answered. "Professor Baal ordered us to leave peacefully. But at least now we know how to break their transmissions. Good job, Caden."

"What are we going to tell her?" Caden asked somewhat worriedly. I didn
'
t have an answer. I knew what Caden meant, we all did. What were we going to say about what happened? Should we admit they
'
d asked for Kaia? It should have been an easy decision but none of us knew what might happen to her if the Teachers, and the Reformation, knew the Resistance wanted to trade and I was uneasy about it.

"We
'
ll talk about it at home," I answered, my thoughts too troubled to make a decision.

"Don
'
t you have anything else to say, Ajax?" Kaia squeezed my hand — hard — and gave me a satisfied little smile. Malik started to laugh.

"You too, Malik. You didn
'
t believe me either," she reminded him.

"He looks exactly like me," I admitted.

"And?"

"You were absolutely right. I
'
ll never doubt you again." I couldn
'
t help but return her smile. Still, he had kissed her and I hadn
'
t…couldn
'
t. Whatever my feelings, she was far too important to lower herself for an Unviable and I wouldn
'
t ask it of her. She could do better. I only hoped she wouldn
'
t start to believe that Jason Paris was better.

"What about you, Malik?" She persisted. He grinned from ear to ear.

"I
'
ll never doubt you either. And, it sure does explain things doesn
'
t it?"

She ignored his last comment and I called for our portal. It was time to go home.

Commander Renier

I stared across the table at Astrid and my brother, noting, as I always did, our missing compatriot. Once, the four of us had been inseparable. We
'
d had the same goals then, before Abra lost her nerve and jumped to her death. Now there were three of us. I was beginning to think the two in front of me had lost their nerve as well.

"They all told the same story," my brother pointed out. "Why don
'
t you believe them?"

"Why do you?" I countered. Yes, they had all told the same story even though I
had
surprised them by waiting for them in the Weapons Room, there to intercept them when they walked back through the portal from the ruined city. I separated them and questioned them immediately, allowing no time for them to form any sort of cohesive story if they hadn
'
t done so already, and I didn
'
t want Astrid or Audrick to get to them first. Something had happened in the ruined city and I wanted to know what it was.

"They told the same story, yes," I continued, when Audrick remained silent. "But what about the other Crusaders? The ones who said the Resistance asked for a trade?" My patience was wearing thin. What were they hiding from me and why?

"What about it?" Astrid asked, nonplussed.

"What about it?" I repeated, while my emotions turned red all around me. "We need that information Astrid, as you very well know. Let
'
s make the trade and be done with it."

"How do you expect to do that? None of the Crusaders seem to agree on what the Resistance wants to trade, and some never even mentioned a trade."

"YOUR Crusaders never mentioned a trade!" I shouted at her, bringing my fist down on the table. The whole thing shook, but those two remained as still as statues. "The Resistance asked to trade a girl, so which girl?" I turned toward my brother. "Why don
'
t you bring me Kaia Robi and we
'
ll start with her."

"No," was his response, quiet and unfazed. "We don
'
t know what they
'
re asking for, or who they
'
re asking for. Why would you consider trading one of your top Athletes?"

"Why should I care about a human girl? Trade her and be done with it."

"Why should we care about some information stolen years ago? Why now Alaric? Maybe the information is no good anymore." Astrid
'
s blue eyes bore into me and her anger pierced my skin as hot as an iron. She was angry with me; I knew it, felt it. But why? Maybe I hadn
'
t told her everything about the information, but I still thought we were on the same side. The infant mortality rate on Danu was skyrocketing. Pretty soon, there would be no children of our kind at all. There were no Danunian children any longer on Earth. Those that came years ago, like the four of us, were among the last to be trained to live here. We were slowly becoming extinct, and we needed humans to keep us alive.

When I chose to hide the cure, the solution to our breeding problem, I hadn
'
t considered all of the consequences, or how great a betrayal it would seem to the two in front of me now. Of any of us, I never thought it would be Abra to give in to despair. She was always my rock. I couldn
'
t accept she might actually love the human she
'
d been mated with or her half-human children.

When I hid the cure, I did so thinking it was the right thing to do. I hadn
'
t planned on keeping it a secret forever. I only wanted to see how many children could survive without it. At the time, I believed I was creating a superior gene pool from which to build an entirely new race. I still believed it was possible.

I steepled my hands in front of me and reeled in my emotions. I needed to command them. I needed to stay in charge.

"Let
'
s talk about the girl then. Give her to me and I will find out what is so special about her, besides those purple eyes, and I will decide if I want to trade her or not."

"You might be the Commander, but you still have a cabinet to answer to. We will decide together." My brother tried to force his will on me. I blocked it and he continued speaking. "I will never consent to turn over our top Athlete. Isn
'
t this what we
'
re training them for? We want her to breed, Alaric, not be traded so she can breed with our enemy." He had a point; we did want her to breed. We needed her to breed. And we wanted her to breed with an Unviable. We let humans believe those half-breeds were unsuitable, when really we just wanted to make sure the majority of the population would be put off by such a declaration.

So far our plan had worked, almost too well. Humans avoided breeding with Unviables, but Astrid had assured me she would make sure our number one Athlete would mate with one of her sons.

"It seems you picked the wrong son, Astrid," I told her, dredging up an old argument. Cadmus was the better son; we all believed that. Yet, she had chosen Ajax, the sullen, gloomy boy who, as far as I could tell, had no redeeming qualities. Who in the world would want to mate with him? When I questioned him, I found nothing endearing about his dark personality. He remained emotionless as he told me nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the ruined city. The girl herself, this Kaia Robi, was almost as emotionless as he was. Oh yes, she blocked me from her mind and remained as emotionless as she could, but I felt something leak at the end. Fear. I relished the small bit of feeling that leaked from her skin.

"If you don
'
t like my choice, Alaric, then trade her, by all means. I
'
m sure our enemy will be glad to get their hands on her," Astrid countered.

"It
'
s harder to tell who is an enemy and who isn
'
t," I pointed out, and Astrid
'
s anger surrounded me. She didn
'
t like what I said about Ajax; she always defended the boy. I was losing my patience with her human-like attachment to those children. "We need the information more than we need the girl. Once, the four of us were on the same team. Why do I feel that has changed?"

"Four of us?" Astrid spoke up, her voice quiet but laced with rage. "I count three. And quit acting like a fool. We don
'
t know who they are asking for, nor should we care. My Crusaders will recover the information and we will make no trade."

"I
'
m acting like a fool? You two are acting like fools when you think you can hide Kaia Robi from me. I
'
ve been playing along with you but I
'
m growing weary of this game. Let
'
s bring her in here, cut off one of her arms, and see what happens, shall we? Bring in her parents, too. I
'
ll test them in every way possible to see what they
'
re made of as well."

"They
'
re humans, Alaric!" Audrick slammed his fists on the table this time. "How dare you question us! Do you think we
'
re stupid?"

"So you
'
ve tested them?" I asked, keeping my voice low.

"Yes," he answered, "Of course we have."

"And why would you have to do that?" I had him there, I could see the anger dissipate and his face pale ever so slightly. "Bring her to me," I repeated.

"No," Astrid insisted. I swiveled toward her.

"Don
'
t you find it curious that the only crusaders who never mentio
ned a trade were your Crusaders,
Professor
Baal
?"

"They weren
'
t the only ones. You will not take the girl."

"Oh, that
'
s right. There was another Crusader who never mentioned a trade," I smiled at her, and then turned to my brother.

"Bring that one to me. Let
'
s see what he knows and why he
'
s lying. Let
'
s use him against her."

"No," he answered.

"No?" I asked him. If I was human, I would have raised my eyebrows at him. "Bring me Atticus Martin, or bring me the girl. It
'
s your choice, but I will have one of them now. And, I
'
m growing tired of asking the two of you for anything, do you understand me? I am the Commander and I will command the two of you, cabinet or not. Right now I
'
ll go along and pretend to ask for your opinion, but in the end, I will have the girl no matter what you do."

Social

I woke up in a panic, heart thudding wildly in my chest and shirt soaked with sweat. The Commander was in my dreams yet again.

"Kaia?" Ajax stirred next to me and lifted his head. "Again?" he asked.

I got out of bed and walked to the windows. Below me, the campus was dark. I stared at my reflection in the glass and tried to stop the shaking in my body. Ajax stood up and walked to my side. It didn
'
t matter. Even with him here, I was terrified. Not even his presence could soothe me these past few nights as the Commander probed me in my dreams. What was he looking for? There would be no rest for me until he left the campus altogether and returned to the Cassiopeia Grid.

"Why am I so afraid of him?" I whispered, still shivering.

I
'
m
afraid
too
, Ajax answered inside my head.

The Commander surprised us in the Weapons Room upon our return from the ruined city. We were all questioned, separately, by a high
-
ranking member of the Reformation, but I was questioned by the Commander. When he was through with me, I left with a sick feeling in my gut and wandered as far away from the Weapons Room as possible. I had no idea if my friends were done with their interviews but I couldn
'
t shake the Commander
'
s presence.

In a daze, I found myself near the tennis courts and hoped to find my coach. A few of the Students called to me as I walked, and I would lift my head and wave, as if nothing was amiss. The sun was low in the sky, but it wasn
'
t yet dusk, and all around me the Students hurried about their business.

As I neared the Athletics Building, Coach Renier must have sensed my presence. I heard his voice in my head.

Stay
away.

I
turned away reluctantly, and walked toward the football fields hoping to find Atticus. The football players were out there, practicing as long as there was light, but I saw no sign of him. I wanted to know if his team had been questioned by the Reformation and what they had experienced in the ruined city. Since I had nowhere to be, I sat down in the bleachers and watched the practice. The air was growing colder as winter approached, and as the sun sank in the cloudless sky, so too did the temperature. A cool breeze blew vibrant leaves to the ground, and I sat there, cold and gloomy, waiting for Atticus to appear, but he never did.

"You
'
re safe with me, Kaia," Ajax whispered in the dark, drawing me back from my reverie. I met his eyes and let a small smile form on my lips. Neither of us was safe, but at least we were together. When he found me on the bleachers after the interrogation, he told me he hadn
'
t said a word about the trade. And then, one by one, our fellow Crusaders joined us and said the same thing. None of us had mentioned a trade. Unknowingly, we had all told pretty much the same story — the truth, with a few omissions. I stared at them, overcome with emotion because of what they had done to protect me.

"Thank you," I whispered to them. The five of them huddled around me on the bleachers next to the football fields. We linked arms and drew our heads together in a group hug, holding each other fiercely and solidifying the bonds between us.

My thoughts were troubled after my meeting with the Commander, but at least they spared me from concentrating too hard on the festive mood all around me. The Students were gearing up for the promised Social and the campus was abuzz with excitement for it. My fellow Crusaders, except for Ajax, joined the merriment of the other Students and discussed excitedly what they would wear, whom they would dance with, and what kind of music the University would play. There was even talk that President Ross planned on showing motion pictures all night, old ones made before the Great Oil Wars, the kind that told stories just for entertainment. Those archaic films were of a type not made anymore, but could still be viewed for pleasure, along with anything else in the media archives, provided you could spare the energy it took to view them. That the University might show them for free was a great luxury, and another blow to my ego as an Athlete. We had never been
'
given
'
air time to watch such things. But, as before, when I tried to find Atticus to commiserate with, he was nowhere to be found. I kept to myself and stuck to the tennis courts, trying not to be a downer for my friends.

"Will you come with us Kaia, at least for a little bit?" Tory asked, as the six of us sat again in the bleachers next to the football fields after a run.

"Maybe," was all I could manage in response.

"Come on," Balor nudged me. "Don
'
t you want to see me dance?" He stood up and took me by the hands, pulling me to my feet. He put his hands on my waist and placed mine on his shoulders, then stepped side to side a bit and called it dancing, while the others laughed around us.

"Is this supposed to convince me?" I laughed along with them, but my cheeks were red with embarrassment. I had never danced with anyone before; I had never danced at all. I was uncomfortable in Balor
'
s arms and didn
'
t like the feel of lurching around. When I sat back down next to Ajax, I tried to join in their exuberance, or at least not to ruin it. Ajax was quiet too. He gave me a gentle pat on the back after my little dance with Balor, and he definitely didn
'
t banter with them about whom he might dance with or what he would wear when he didn
'
t have to wear his energy suit.

I wondered if Ajax would go to the Social, if he would wear regular clothes and if there was a girl he hoped to dance with. I tried not to think about it. It should have been easier for me to talk to him after our time together in the ruined city, but since my meeting with the Commander, I felt more like a freak than ever and kept to myself whenever possible.

On the night of the Social, I avoided my friends. While we were eating dinner together, I slipped away when Tiergan rang my mailbox, gesturing to them that I would catch up with them later. I went up to my room alone.

"Hello, little sister," Tiergan greeted me. His face was troubled and I did not have the heart to burden him any further.

"What is it?" I asked him, and he opened up about what he was going through. The girl, the one called Josiah, had indeed been trying to capture him. She told him things and made him question his alliance to the Reformation.

"She
'
s beautiful," he admitted. "I don
'
t have the heart to fight her. I
'
m not sure what will happen if she gets her hands on me."

"What about Cadmus? Let him fight her," I insisted, urging him to keep a hold on his emotions.

"I don
'
t know if I can do that," was his dejected reply. He was struggling. Struggling to do what he was meant to do, and struggling to keep away from Josiah.

"It
'
s what they want!" I reminded him. "They want you to question what you are. They sent the sister after you and the brother after me. But we are Athletes, Tiergan. Surely we won
'
t let a little beauty bring us down?" I tried to smile, to give him encouragement when I felt little myself.

He shrugged. "I guess. It
'
s not like I haven
'
t been around a pretty girl. She
'
s different, though." He shook his head and changed the subject.

Before we broke our connection I had one last thing to say. "Stay strong, Tiergan; don
'
t let her get to you. We
'
re stronger than them."

He nodded his head once, tersely, and signed off. I felt a deep dislike for the girl called Josiah who put the look of worry on my brother
'
s face.

When I finished my conversation, I let my mailbox slip from my fingers and fall to my bed. I didn
'
t plan on speaking to anyone else, as Atticus hadn
'
t bothered returning any of my calls and I couldn
'
t count on him for companionship while the dreaded Social occurred.

I left my room and headed for the tennis courts. The sun was just beginning to set as Coach Renier helped me strap into my virtual tennis gear.

"You should go and have fun, Kaia," his voice seemed to echo in the empty locker room. We were the only two in the Athletics Building. I didn
'
t answer him. It was an old argument and we both knew he was lying. He didn
'
t want me in a casual setting with the Students, where they might feel comfortable asking me questions or commenting on my eye color.

"What will he do with me?" I asked him for about the dozenth time. He had no answer for me. I left my mind unguarded while he helped me dress and the questions swirled around my head. Was the Commander a good guy? If so, why did my coach, the Commander
'
s own brother, want to hide me from him? Should I trust Professor Baal? Should I trust Coach Renier? Who were the Resistance? All of these questions and more filled the space between us as my worry enveloped me.

"He believes he is good," Coach Renier answered quietly. I thought about his response. I guess the question of whether someone is good or evil depends on where you are standing. I thought I was standing on the same side as the Commander, so why did I fear him?

"What do you believe?" I questioned my coach.

"I believe in you," he answered, but it wasn
'
t an answer at all. Frustrated, I closed my mind, and pulled on my virtual mask. Coach Renier fitted me with an earpiece so I could hear his commands while he monitored my match. I walked to the stadium court where the stands rose up all around me. Thankfully, they were empty and I
'
d be able to play as long as I wanted without worrying about who might be watching.

From my side of the tennis court, I signaled when I was ready and my mask came to life. Across the net, I could see my virtual opponent. It served the ball and hit its mark at a dizzying 200 kilometers per hour and then some. I kept the ball in play as the virtual player moved me all around the court with deadly accuracy. It never missed.

"Close in!" my coach would shout in my ear, prompting me when the ball landed short. Then I would rush to the net and try to turn defense into offense. A few times, I missed my shot, and more than once the ball struck me. The first time it hit me on the side of my calf, hard enough to make me lose my balance and stumble to the ground. Another time, the ball nailed the top part of my arm, finding a spot not covered by armor. The pain took my breath away, just for a moment. Even when the ball hit my armor, I could feel the sting and knew I would have the bruises to show for it. They might fade quickly, but the pain would linger.

When it was my turn to serve, my coach demanded I stay offensive and serve and volley quickly, rushing to the net before my opponent could, to try to end the point quickly. As fast as I was, my opponent was always faster. I often found myself in fifty ball rallies, where we hit the ball back and forth across the court, waiting for the other to make the mistake. Those were exhausting. Coach Renier had set the game to the most difficult level, and as I played, the game adjusted. The virtual player calculated any weakness, or strength, and changed its game accordingly. There was no tiring it, while my own sweat poured into my eyes and clouded my vision. The longer I played, the heavier my suit became, but I didn
'
t want to stop. My opponent required all of my concentration and my mind didn
'
t wander or dwell on unpleasant thoughts. If I lost my focus, I risked getting hit by the ball, an occurrence I wanted to avoid. I stayed on the court as long as I could, hitting ball after ball, until my grip disintegrated and sweat clouded my vision so badly, I could no longer see. I had to stop.

Coach Renier ended the game and turned off my headset. Without him in my head, I was alone. I pulled off my mask and sat down right in the middle of the court, putting my head on my knees as I tried to catch my breath, each one a struggle after the grueling match.

When I lifted my head, my eyes fell upon Ajax, sitting in the stands alone. A wave of emotions crashed through my body upon seeing him there. He was the only one in the world I wanted to see and didn
'
t want to see at the same time. I got up and walked to him, taking a seat on the step below him. I put my head down on his knees and fought off tears, unconcerned about being soaked in sweat.

"You shouldn
'
t be here," I told him shakily, my cheek on his knee. "You should be having fun with everyone else."

"Sure I should," he answered, draping his arm across my shoulders. "But I
'
m here instead. That was the craziest match I ever saw. Why do you do that to yourself?"

I looked up at him, "You watched that? The whole thing?" He nodded down at me. "Coach Renier let you in?"

"Obviously," he grinned.

"It keeps me from thinking about anything else," I admitted. "Did you go?"

I could feel my heart thud in my chest. Ajax wasn
'
t wearing his energy suit; he was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. He looked extra handsome, his black hair a sharp contrast against his white shirt. I, on the other hand, was sweaty in my virtual tennis gear. My hair left a wet mark on the knee of his jeans. It seemed perfectly reasonable for him to want to be somewhere else, having fun with someone else, someone who probably looked and smelled a lot better than I did.