The Energy Crusades (30 page)

Tell
me, he said, as the others nodded off around us.

He
is
your
cousin, I began, knowing exactly what it was he wanted to know. I let my memories of that night fill his head, from the moment Atticus knocked on the door, until Ajax closed that same door in my face. I didn't hold anything back. I felt him anger at some spots, and sadden at others.

When I was done showing him, he sat quietly, holding in his thoughts. He reached behind his head and undid his necklace, then secured it around my own throat. Warmth filled me. Around my neck, the necklace was at home. It belonged to me, like the boy who had worn it his whole life. He gave me his necklace and pledged his love for me. I reached for my wrist and fumbled through my clothing to find my cuff. I unfastened it hastily and held it out. Ajax pulled his sleeve back and allowed me to secure it around his wrist. He sighed with relief once it was there, visibly relaxing, even more so than before.

It
'
s
done
then, he smiled at me.
We
will
cement
the
bond
between
our
families,
whatever
comes
next,
whether
I
am
an
Unviable
or
not.

I tilted my head up to his and he kissed me softly, quietly. He touched his forehead to mine again.

Whatever
you
are,
I
am
, I reminded him. Maybe we weren't exactly the same genetically, but we were something similar, I felt sure of it.

Jason
is
wrong,
Kaia.
For
me,
it
does
have
to
be
one
or
the
other,
you
understand
that,
right?

I
understand.
But
we
both
know
the
only
reason
he
was
able
to
get
close
to
me
was
because
of
his
resemblance
to
you.
It
was
always
about
you
.

A flood of his emotions cascaded over me as he kept his forehead pressed against mine.

Eventually, we drifted off to sleep, exhausted from the day and also from sharing our feelings after having kept them bottled up for so long. My head stayed upon his shoulder as I nodded off, basking in the way he surrounded me and made me feel safe and loved. Whatever we had to face tomorrow, I was ready. I had Ajax now. I felt invincible.

The Reformation

When I opened my eyes again, a soft white light was shining on my face. I was lying on a bed in a warm room.

"Hello, Kaia," Commander Renier
'
s voice greeted me. I bolted upright immediately.

"Where is Ajax?" Panic gripped me. Where was I?

"Ajax is fine," he answered, his voice calm. He sat in a chair across from me.

"Is this a healing bed?" My voice wavered; I could hear it. "What have you done to me?"

He smiled benignly. Calm radiated from him and his manner was easy and untroubled. Despite myself, I relaxed a bit. "I haven
'
t done anything to you but make you warm. Is the bed not comfortable? Even if it is a healing bed?"

"How did I get here?" I whispered. The room was bare except for the bed, the chair the Commander sat in, and the light above my head. There were no windows and only one door, and it was closed.

"I walked into that sad little shelter on the side of the mountain and I took you. Didn
'
t you realize I could do that at any time?"

If I had realized he could do that, I probably never would have slept at all.

"Why?" I asked, blood rushing through my veins. How was this happening to me?

"What does the Resistance want in those mountains?" he asked quietly. I hesitated a moment before answering, considering the question.

"To control the communication outpost?" I thought it was obvious, but the answer seemed too easy.

"Or so they would have us think," the Commander smiled. "Why then, did they give up the post as soon as a certain girl was taken out of the equation?"

My face grew hot and I closed my eyes momentarily, hoping what he said wasn
'
t true.

"They have also captured your brother on Danu. In the mountains. While taking control of a communications outpost. So tell me, why do you think they lured you into the mountains in the first place?"

"Tiergan—" My heart was in my throat. I couldn
'
t believe his team could be captured. "Is he okay?"

"Why don
'
t you ask your friend Jason Paris?" The comment hovered in the air between us as he got to his feet. "I want you to take a walk with me, Kaia."

I got out of the bed as a growing sense of unease enveloped me. Worry for my brother and his fellow Crusaders filled my mind. I didn
'
t even want to consider the Commander
'
s last comment or what he meant by it, and I didn
'
t want to defend myself. If Tiergan was in trouble, all I cared about was helping him. Everything else paled in comparison.

I followed the Commander out of the room and into a long hallway.

"You are in the Cassiopeia Grid, at the headquarters for the Reformation Republic." He began narrating our walk as we strolled around the headquarters. There were several buildings in the compound, all one-story structures situated within easy walking distance of each other. Many of the buildings were quite large, as was the one we were currently in, but austere. There was no opulence to them, no luxury. The surroundings were simple and functional, much like a University.

"This is my compound in particular," he continued, showing me around his private quarters. His things were modest and spare. He had an exercise room next to where he slept, outfitted with a running machine. "Even I earn my energy, Kaia. Did you know that? Everybody who works for the Reformation Republic, human or Descender, earns their own energy every single day."

He stopped walking and looked at my face as his words sunk in. I hadn
'
t known he earned his own energy, I assumed the Reformation was powered by all the human energy from the many Crusades that served it. We began to walk again, stopping at a door to pull on jackets before heading outside. While not as cold as the Helena Mountains, the Cassiopeia Grid was also in the grip of winter, and a blanket of snow crunched beneath our feet as we walked.

The Commander stayed at my side, though I would have preferred to walk behind him as befitted his rank. Also, I wanted to study him. I cast sidelong glances at him as we walked. Each one was met with his own eyes, catching me as I studied him. He wore a red energy suit. Red was the color for the Reformation, but I had never seen him, or his advisors, wearing such a suit and his looked well-worn and properly used.

We entered another building and the smell of lavender engulfed us.

"This is the Healing Building," he informed me, gesturing at the multitude of healing beds in front of us. "It is the most advance Healing Center on the planet. Humans come from all over to heal and rehabilitate." It was the most luxurious of all the buildings I
'
d encountered, ever. Comfort of the patient was clearly the top concern. The beds looked plush, outfitted with soft blankets and a multitude of pillows. Each had its own monitor nearby and from what I could tell, the patients could view whatever they wanted. The entire space was warm, calm, and a general sense of peace hung in the air. The Healers went about their work quietly, stopping to acknowledge us with only a slight tip of the head, seemingly unruffled by the Commander
'
s presence. We stopped by each patient
'
s bed and he visited a few moments, laying his hands on them and bringing them comfort. Love poured forth in the room; I felt the emotion in the air, thick and sure, and all for the Commander. He spoke softly and gave encouragement.

"Do you see what your energy has helped to provide?" he asked me, when we had stepped back out into the cold.

"Yes, Commander," I answered, humbled by what I had seen.

"You are at a crossroads, Kaia; don
'
t think I can
'
t see that. You
'
re starting to question what you are, and what your life has been about. I felt the same way at one time. When I came to this planet, I was a young boy, much younger than you are, and I had to leave behind everything that was familiar. I wasn
'
t simply leaving home; I was leaving my entire planet, forever." As we walked, he told me his story, speaking in a soft voice about coming to a destroyed planet and making it his life
'
s mission to rebuild it.

"I loved someone once too, does that surprise you?" he asked, looking into my eyes again. His own filled with pain, the emotion of hurtful memories sweeping over the two of us.

"Yes," I admitted. "What happened?" I knew next to nothing about who he was on a personal level.

"My companions and I were sent here for a purpose: to rebuild and re-populate the planet. To teach humans a healthier, cleaner way of sustaining their lives and to ensure the planet would be a safe home for both humans and Descenders. We were sent to Academies and trained for this purpose in much the same you
'
ve trained as an Athlete. We became so adept at studying human nature that some of us let our alien characteristics recede, and adopted human characteristics." He turned his head to look down at me. "Do you understand what I mean?"

"Some of you pretended to be human," I answered, more pieces of the puzzle falling into place inside my head. "Why pretend? We live together peacefully and work for the common good, right? Aren
'
t we on the same side?" Once again, I wanted the answers and I didn
'
t want the answers.

"Are we?" he tilted his head as he continued to look at me. "The common good is a tricky idea." He walked on, clasping his hands together behind his back. "I always thought I was doing what was best for the common good, but many would disagree with me. My own race is in decline, and we stand on the brink of extinction. Danu is dying, much like Earth once was. We came here to build a new home, to do things right. What we need is the best possible gene pool to ensure the survival of our species."

"Your species, Commander?" I had a sinking feeling the survival of the human species was not his priority.

He kept his gaze straight ahead and allowed a bit of his feelings to hover between us. Sorrow, regret. "I cannot have children, Kaia. I will never have a child of my own. It is the males of our race who are unable to breed. The females are still fertile. We need a new race that combines the best of both of our species."

"Then why hide it?" I asked again, but he didn
'
t give me a straight answer.

"I had to give up the woman I loved for the common good. Would you be able to do the same?"

We re-entered the Commander
'
s headquarters and I followed him down hushed corridors. He opened a door into a conference room. A large, oval table nearly filled the space, but only two people were present in the room.

"I trust you recognize your Coach and Professor?" He held the door as I walked past him into the room. I bowed to them immediately, trying to mask the look of confusion across my features.

"Sit down," the Commander touched my shoulder as he passed me, taking his seat at the head of the table. I sat in the chair to his left. Coach Renier and Professor Baal sat across from me, their faces as expressionless as masks.

"Are you done with your little game, Commander?" Professor Baal addressed him, her voice tense. "Cadmus is in trouble on Danu and you
'
re wasting time."

"I
'
m wasting time?" he raised his voice slightly as red threads shot through his hair. He reached out and took hold of my arm without looking in my direction. "From where I sit, it
'
s the two of you who have been wasting my time. Trade this girl and be done with it!" His fingers dug into my flesh.

"No!" Coach Renier slammed his fist down on the table. The brothers glared at each other for several moments.

I stole a glance at Professor Baal and she reached a hand up to her neck, as if she had an itch, but she let it linger there, one finger tracing a small line across her throat. In response, I felt the heat of Ajax
'
s necklace, of my necklace. The stone lay on my chest beneath my energy suit and I felt it pulse with heat. She knew. She knew her son had given me his necklace and that we were bound to each other. The thought pleased me somehow, and I let the smallest of smiles tug at the corner of my mouth.

"You know you have no intention of trading her," Professor Baal turned her gaze back to the Commander. "Get to the point of this meeting-"

"You do NOT command me, Astrid Baal!" The Commander cut her off. "Don
'
t presume you know what it is I want, because what I want is to cut her open and figure out exactly what she is, then find a way to duplicate her."

I pulled my arm from his grip and found my voice. "Cut me open?" It was difficult to speak up in front of such an audience, but I had to have a say in what was to be my fate. The Commander turned his fiery gaze to me. "What is it you think I am?" I asked him, not flinching away from his eyes.

"What you are is a hybrid," he answered, the slivers of red fading out of his hair. He seemed to calm down a bit. "The very thing we
'
ve been trying to create and perfect for years."

"How do you know that?" I asked him. Tiny beads of sweat began to form at my temples and my stomach felt queasy. I didn
'
t like the direction of the conversation at all.

The Commander smiled in the friendliest of ways. With
the gesture, some of my fear of him ebbed. I remembered what my coach had said about the Commander believing he was good and I tried to consider his point of view, but it wasn't easy.

"I had you for an entire night," he told me. "Obviously I tested you in every way I could while you slept. I also put a tracker in you."

My blood went cold upon hearing I had been experimented on without my knowledge

"Alaric!" my coach shouted. "How dare you! You do not decide the fate of this girl; we all do!"

"Life is about compromise, brother. I
'
ll take the tracker out if you let me cut her open. Or, you can leave the tracker in, and send her to Danu. Either way, this girl is a Reformation Athlete and she will do as we command her." He paused and turned to meet my eyes again. "You worry about what you
'
ve given to the Reformation, right Kaia? That you might be a slave, rather than working for the
'
common good
'
as you put it?"

"No, Commander. I am proud of what I
'
ve done," I answered him. I wouldn
'
t back away or let my fear paralyze my senses.

"If humans don
'
t have to earn their energy, how long do you suppose until disease creeps back in? Look at your history books to remind yourself what the human condition was like before the Oil Wars, before we came along."

It wasn
'
t good, I remembered. There was rampant obesity and chronic disease. People smoked on purpose and abused all manner of food and other substances.

"Things won
'
t be better if the Resistance were to take over, believe me. They
'
ll just seem that way for a while," he finished.

"That
'
s enough, Commander," Professor Baal kept her voice low. We all turned toward her. "I want to protect this girl. You
'
re right, we have tried to create a perfect hybrid and things have gone horribly wrong. It
'
s not too late to stop this. Lift the decree on inter-breeding and let nature take its course. You cannot control this any longer and we
'
ve already lost too much. We can still do the right thing."