Twell and the Rebellion (19 page)

“That’s not fair!” I
ranted, aware I was shouting but not caring. “I
want
to be here!
I
want
to fight! What have I done so wrong?”

“
Calm down!” Brazin
snapped. “Childish outbursts won’t help resolve anything. You were
raised to understand that we’re to put our trust in our G.B.’s
ruling and to obey. Did you really think rebelling would get you
anything but trouble?”

I pouted at him in silence.

“We expect unity at a time
like this. The Abwarzians are just warming up; they
will
attack again and soon. I told you to prioritize your wars
and you did not heed my advice.”

I hung my head. “I know…and I’m
sorry. It’s just that things have spun a little out of
control...”

“Then my advice to you is
to
be
in control, Twell Anar,” Brazin said. My head whipped up
again and I stared at him in confusion. What was he
saying?

“
You’re intelligent,
Twell. I have trained you to fight with your entire mind and all
your strength.”

“
And all my soul,” I
added, starting to feel a bit emotional. I meant it. Brazin had
been a tough trainer, sometimes brutal. But if it wasn’t for his
methods I would not have been as convicted, so sure of my destiny,
as I was today.

“
Yes, with your
everything,” Brazin agreed. “So if you’re going to do anything, do
it perfectly. Do not make any more mistakes.”

I couldn’t believe my
ears. Was Brazin supporting me? How much did he know, or more to
the point, how easy was I to read? I searched his face, but it was
as though he’d replaced this new side to him with the tough old
mask I was used to. At that moment the others all spilled into the
small pod, and Brazin turned to them with such a familiar scowl I
almost wondered if I’d imagined our whole conversation.

“
Right, you lot,” Brazin
boomed at his usual decibel, which was totally unnecessary and ear
shattering inside the tiny craft. “You will each practice lift off
on the simulator. Twell, first in so first to try.” Brazin jerked
his head at me and I scrambled to lower myself into the pilot seat,
eager to focus on something else other than my dramas.

I was not the best flier, my
perceptions of my proximity to other objects one of my previous
downfalls. However, I was confident and never hesitated and it had
kept me from any serious incidents to this point in time. I took
care to strap down my harness and waited until the others had also
taken the passenger seats and strapped in, before I activated the
simulator. The ceiling of the pod, as well as the screen in front
of me, came to life at the touch of a button. The controls in front
of me were the real ones, but in training mode, we would not
actually go anywhere. The screen on the ceiling above me simulated
the huge hanger roof so I could navigate up and out into the wide,
white sky. I watched as the screen simulated the roof opening,
pixilated sand blowing away as the roof opened like one giant
lid.

“
Take it easy and observe
the proximity of the crafts around you,” Brazin directed, as if
reading my mind. If I was going to stuff it up, it was going to be
over something as seemingly easy as taking off, or touching back
down. Very carefully I eased the craft up and out into the pretend
sky, moving carefully so as not to bump into the other imaginary
crafts below me. It was more difficult than I’d predicted, the size
and weight of the craft making it harder to balance. A slight tilt
to one side resulting in the craft rolling so alarmingly I
struggled not to overcorrect by tilting too far the other way. I
held myself rigid in my seat, forgetting to breathe until I was out
and clear in the wide-open wetlands.

Then I finally let out a huge
sigh of relief, which Brazin was quick to smother. “That part is
over, but you now have to reach the borders of our skies as fast as
possible. Every moment lost by you is a moment the enemy could be
closer to breaching the atmosphere of Como.”

The thought made my
stomach lurch, and I threw the pod into flight so fast everyone
yelped as the artificial thrust pinned them into their
seats.

“Steady!” Brazin
barked.

I tore through the skies with
urgency, as if every moment could be the difference between safety
and mortal peril for the people of Como. My heart raced as if it
was real and no one said a word, the weight of responsibility heavy
on us all. It wasn’t long until I reached the boundaries of Como’s
atmosphere. Even though I knew it wasn’t real, passing from the
clear white, bright skies of Como to the vast and lonely beauty of
space worked a deep shudder of awe down my spine.

In a reverent sort of
silence, I steered the pod towards the Comian moon, Arvia. Behind
me, many millions of light years away, was the uninhabited planet
Polix, with her own sun. To my left, and only a small speck of a
planet in my vision, was what I knew to be the pixel version of
Abwarz. It blinked slowly, a glittering red threat, the very colour
of the bloodshed their world had unleashed on us and other
neighbouring planets. We had alliance with a few of these other
planets, but they were so far away, more than five moons worth of
travel to the nearest one. They were not even on my screen and too
far away to really feel like an ally.

Behind me, in the rear view
screens, Como became a small glowing orb of white and grey, then a
smaller ball of light until it was no larger than the size of my
fingernail. It felt exhilarating and scary at the same time to be
no longer anchored to my planet, the world I’d never left
before.

“
Assimilating attack,” a
female voice said suddenly from the screen at my fingertips. I
didn’t even have time to query this announcement before we lurched
and rolled so violently I hurtled forward in my seat.

“
Argh!” I shrieked as a
huge grey craft materialized in front of me.

“Watch out!” Talon
shouted. Recovering, I dropped down several feet; skimming under
the belly of the huge enemy craft just in the nick of time as my
blood turned icy with real fear. It was huge, big enough to hold at
least a thousand Abwarzians, or more. My skin crawled, my heart
pounding in my ribcage even though I knew it wasn’t
real.

“
Turn around and attack,”
Brazin commanded before I could think for myself what to do
next.

“
Attack?” I repeated
stupidly, even as I steered the pod in a tight circle. Moans of
protest sounded behind me as bodies flung forward against their
harnesses.

“
Attack. Defeat!” Brazin
roared in my ear, stunning my senses and rendering me momentarily
frozen. Attack? Maim? Kill... My bones became heavy as stone. My
brain chugged too slow, struggling to think through the thickest
smog of doubt and fear.

“
Do something!” Shanna
screeched, straining against her harness as if she could take over
the controls with sheer willpower. Or just her powers.

“
Attack, Twell Anar, your
life and ours is in your hands and they will not hesitate to kill
us!” Brazin yelled. As soon as the words left his mouth, the grey
alien craft fired at us, red beams of electric light, designed to
disable the electrical system of our own craft. My heart pounded
fast against my ribs and it felt like I was moving in slow motion
as I managed to swerve around their fire. Then I swooped and dove,
my stomach plummeting as I put thousands of lengths between us in
matter of seconds. I felt a hand drop firmly onto my shoulder and
knew it was Avin’s.

Leaning forward he spoke
quietly into my ear. “Twell it’s okay.
This isn’t murder, its war.” His warm breath tickled my
ear, his words answering the very fear choking in my throat and
threatening to burst out of my mouth in a scream. I’d killed
before. I’d shed blood. I had never planned it. Now I saw that the
minute I entered the skies, I was deciding to attack our enemy, to
do whatever it took to save my own skin and protect my people. I
was choosing to take the life of others and justifying it by
proclaiming them bad, the enemy. They
were
the enemy; history
showed us so in words and pictures, that couldn’t be denied.
Nevertheless, we were guilty of our own crimes against them and the
knowledge did nothing to sooth my own conscience.

Somehow my fingers found
the missile icon on the screen, and targeting their craft, I fired.
The missile moved so fast I didn’t actually see it, but I sure saw
the consequences. It exploded into the hull of their craft; one
massive fireball lighting up the black shroud of space around us
with such brilliance it momentarily dazzled me. The craft broke
into pieces and then the nose of the craft separated from the rest,
flying with speed towards my screen.

“
Argggh!” Talon sounded
actually alarmed as I veered sharply to the right; sure I could
feel the heat of the fiery debris on my face as I sliced narrowly
passed it. I rapidly put distance between us again, until we were
far above it and watching the wreckage drifting beneath us. Sweat
dampened the hair at the base of my neck and I realized my
breathing had become shallow and rapid.

“
Well done, Twell,” Brazin
said as nonchalantly as if I had just performed a handstand.
“Return to Como and then the others will complete their
tests.”

Exhausted, I turned the
craft around and mapped out my course, punching the co-ordinates
wearily into the screen. I wanted to feel elated. I knew I’d done
well at the test, but instead I only felt a nervous urge to get
back to land, real or otherwise. Even after I landed I still didn’t
feel safe and a knot of anxiety settled in my chest and remained
there like a tight little ball of fear and uncertainty. Only when I
went to unclick my harness did I realize Avin’s hand was still on
my shoulder. Normally I would have shrugged it off, but it felt
comforting against the unpleasant new sensation growing inside of
me. My fear felt icy cold, but Avin’s hand felt warm and steady as
it thawed my shock away.

I traded places with Shanna who
gleefully dove into the pilot’s seat while I buckled in behind her,
feeling slightly out of it. She took off like a crazed thing into
the sky, nearly swiping against the side of the roof and seemingly
un-perturbed by Brazin’s harsh reprimand.

“
Are you okay?” Avin’s
eyes clouded as he frowned at me, but I knew better than to look
into his eyes when I felt so vulnerable.

“
That was a really good
reminder as to what I’m doing here,” I said quietly.

“
It kinda puts things into
perspective, doesn’t it,” Talon agreed soberly from my other
side.

“
You did really well,
Twell. You did what you needed to do,” Avin reassured
me.

I tried to smile, but I couldn’t
make it reach my mouth. We fell silent, because there didn’t seem
to be anything else to say that would make the situation less
horrifying. We were cadets and would be soldiers when or if we
passed training. Then we would really be fighting and actually
killing. There would truly be a war…it would all be real.

One by one, the others got
through their training, everyone passing the test. Shanna flew and
attacked with jerky vicious energy that made for a bumpy ride, but
completed the task. She annihilated the enemy craft the minute it
appeared on the screen, whooping war cries that Brazin simply
groaned at. Talon was steady and purposeful; he flew
skillfully
and got the job done. Yet it was Avin
who had natural talent for flying. He didn’t hesitate and flew like
he’d done it a million times before. Lost in concentration he took
the target out more quickly than the rest of us had, hitting it in
a way that broke the whole craft into hundreds of pieces. Soaring
deftly through the debris with calm confidence, I couldn’t help but
admire him. More than that, I felt I would trust him as the pilot,
that I would feel safe. It felt weird to admit that, even if it was
only to myself.

It felt different to use
skills unconnected to our gift, but it felt good. We would need to
learn how to fuse the two together for maximum power, to be a force
against the Abwarzians. They were so sure their technology was
better, more deadly than ours...and it was. But they still didn’t
know about our powers. Boy would we show them.

The day was over before I knew
it and the sun sank low over the desert, making the landscape glow
here and there with soft tendrils of sparkling light. All I wanted
to do was have a shower. I was sticky with sweat, because even
though the flight hadn’t been real, my fear had been. Brazin
announced that by the next lesson, we would actually fly for real
and the concept filled me with both elation and dread at the same
time.

As the sun slipped away
and evening crept around me, I trudged wearily to the hygiene block
with Shanna. The air in the washroom was filled with steam so thick
I could only see a couple of lengths in front of me. Shanna
disappeared into a cubicle humming happily. Voices filled the room
to a din as cadets chattered through the cubicles to each other,
discussing the training as light heartedly as if we were still back
at
school, discussing an exam. I
experienced a pang of jealousy for my old life as I walked to the
far end of the washroom.

I was too shocked to even
scream when an arm shot out from the cubicle I was about to pass
and, yanking me inside, pressed me firmly against the door. Jonaz
stood only a hair’s length away from me, his hands gripping my
shoulders, his dark eyes seizing mine. My heart jolted at the sight
of him and I realized it was the quarter moon. I’d completely
forgotten about meeting him. My initial elation turned to prickly
fear as I read the expression on his face. I opened my mouth to
talk, but he pressed a finger firmly against my lips, cutting me
off.