Twell and the Rebellion (2 page)

Chapter
One

I sat with my guardian, Shay, on
the balcony of our pad, gazing out over Caran. We didn’t talk for a
while, preferring a comfortable silence as we watched the distant
sun setting over the city. The white sky dimmed to a soft pearly
glow, the muted light caressing everything it touched. Normally, I
went so fast at everything I did, I failed to stop and appreciate
the beauty of my world. Now I was trying to stow away last minute
memories, savouring the city I loved before I had to leave it, or
before it changed any more than it already had.

The moon rose steadily upward
and hung at peace, as if it knew nothing of our troubles, while the
solar lamps twinkled to life in the dusk. A light, cool wind blew
over my skin and everything was calm. Then, a long, ominous dark
shape sailed overhead, reminding me of those troubles. The Army
craft moved in silence like a predator through the sky, even though
it was supposed to be for our protection. The evening had fallen
too dark for shadows, but there was already one in my heart, heavy
with the foreboding that the crafts’ presence signified.

“
Have you finished
packing?” Shay broke the silence in her gentle voice I’d almost
never heard raised. I’d put her through enough frustrations to
raise it in my journey from child to young adult, believe me.
However, Shay had patience I knew I’d never inherit and not just
because she wasn’t my biological parent.

“
I guess so,” I replied
absently while twisting my coppery, brown hair through my fingers.
There was only so much packing one could do that was appropriate
for army training and I was pretty sure my sassiest outfit and
latest face enhancers were not required. I’d resisted the training
at first. I’d doubted my ‘gift’ for a long time before I’d gained
the courage and desire to use my abilities for good. However, the
attack on Caran changed my mind, just as it had changed everything
in my world. In the morning, I’d be leaving the home I’d lived in
my whole life and the city I’d once felt safe in, to join the ranks
already patrolling our skies and training for war. Not so long ago,
the only thing I’d been protective over was the amount of sleep I
got. Now, I was expected to protect my own people against the
threat of more attacks. The idea seemed as ludicrous as it did
frightening.

“
I heard you again last
night, Twell. It would be good for you to get as much rest as
possible.” The wrinkles around Shay’s eyes creased in worry, her
greying head turning towards me in concern. Shay’s reply reminded
me of two things. The first was what a wonderful guardian she’d
been my whole life. When I lost my parents in the first war, the
Governing Body assigned her to care for me. Many children of Como
had required guardians; the first of the Abwarzian’s attack against
our people so devastating it caused a significant loss in our
population.

The G.B. had also ensured Shay
encouraged my telekinetic abilities as I grew up under her care.
That was the part where I’d tested her patience. Let’s face it,
being different as a teenager is social suicide no matter what
planet you inhabit. I’d mostly refused to practice, stubbornly
disregarding my abilities until I’d been called on for mandatory
training. Now, I was honing my powers, as though my life depended
on it. Which, to be honest, it did.

The second thing it reminded me
of was the dreadful nightmares that gripped me almost every night.
I hate to come off in any way dramatic, but my guilt at what
happened in the caverns still rubbed fresh and raw on my mind. In
my dreams where I couldn’t escape, the grisly scene played
perpetually over. I could still hear the sharp crack of my bones
breaking as he snapped them. I relived the horror of watching him
hurt my friends, awakening over and over to my own cries, screaming
in fear that he was still coming for me. His eyes were always
glazed with burning hatred, his huge hands clawing at my throat,
crushing my life out of me…well… you get the idea. So much for
worrying about the enemy.

Yet there were much bigger
things to fear and unfortunately, they weren’t a nightmare, but
reality. The Abwarzians had attacked us. Again. They’d targeted our
schools, a warning to surrender, or a brutal hint they could do
much worse. The death toll included people I knew, peers and
teachers, people who were innocent of bloodshed, and people who
hadn’t deserved to die. One of my training friends, Marz, hadn’t
made it, and I was sorry about it every day. But it was my best
friend’s death that haunted me the most.

Chaz Harlen’s lifeless
eyes still stared at me when I closed my own eyes. I saw his body
lying broken and empty of his soul among the flames and wreckage.
The horror of finding him dead was still too vivid a memory, a
sharp, torturing pain that never seemed to fade or lessen. I knew
I’d never recover finding him dead like that. Some things change
you forever and I knew I could never go back and be untarnished by
death.

However, I had a purpose now,
even if I didn’t actually have a choice. The Army of Powers had
been created, calling on all the gifted young adults of Como to use
their powers in defence of our world and in particular, our water.
That was what it was all over. The Abwarzians had used up their own
fresh water a generation ago in their weaponry processing plants
and then battled or bullied neighbouring planets ever since for
their natural water supplies. There was a time when we had bartered
with them. As a new colony of the uninhabitable earth, we’d wanted
to try and do things right in the new world. We hoped for peace,
negotiation, and sharing. We wanted a new way. But the Abwarzians
didn’t care what we’d done to ruin earth or hold any remorse for
ruining their own planet.

When the bartering of
water was eventually restricted, the Abwarzians became violent
without hesitation, using a horrifying array of technology to fight
us. Their weapons were advanced beyond ours, and some of it was so
inhumane it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The only
reason we defeated them was because we outnumbered them in size and
numbers, but even our numbers were severely reduced by the time it
ended. Then our leaders noticed that the new generation, my
generation, were starting to evolve new senses and abilities. After
that, there was no escaping their notice or interference for people
like me.

Last year I’d broken into
Caran’s intelligence centre to find visual proof of their threats
when I’d still been unsure if I wanted to fight. The images showed
total carnage, melted bodies in the streets, our cities reduced to
ashes and rubble. More terrifying than that was their complete lack
of mercy. While their bodies seemed small and weak from lack of
minerals in their desalinized water and diet, their sharp, dark
eyes held a dangerous strength that foretold their desperation to
survive. There was no mercy or compassion in their expressions,
only a vicious victory as they slaughtered our women and children.
Seeing it for myself scarred me for life, but it also convinced me
I’d do anything to protect our people from ever facing the horrors
of their race again. I was afraid to lose my own life of course.
Scared witless, actually. However, I was more afraid of the
remaining people I loved being hurt, not to fight back.

That wasn’t all I discovered
though. We found images we weren’t supposed to see, of our own
people mistreating Abwarzian prisoners in war camps. Worse than
that, we’d executed them all, both men and women, displaying our
own lack of mercy as we sought our own revenge. These were things
we’d never been shown or taught in school. Our history painted us
as victims of the war, innocent of any war crimes or blame. But I’d
seen different. The images we found revealed the sheer terror on
their alien faces, while hopelessness pooled in their eyes. I
recognized their fear because it matched that of our own people,
and it tore my black and white education of our enemies apart. I
knew we had our own dark side, our own capacity for cruelty.

When I recalled the Abwarzians
we’d caught in our underground aqueducts, I remembered both fear
and hate on their faces. It was a new idea I’d been slowly coming
to realize; that maybe to them, we were just as barbaric as we
considered them to be. It also made being a solider harder for me,
because now I knew there were no easy answers, no sure way to
understand who was right and what was wrong.

These were thoughts I could
never share. I would be severely punished if the G.B. found out
what I knew, and my people had no idea of the truth anyway. Comians
seemed to accept and believe whatever the G.B. told them, following
their leadership without question. It was the way it had always
been, but now I was starting to understand that people believed
what they were told because it was safer. Because it was easier to
believe all was well if that’s what you wanted to think. And it was
much easier to accept what they told us when doubting was socially
frowned upon. It created an uncomplicated, ordered world that the
post war generation desired.

Yet for the few of us who knew
the truth, it was like holding a ticking bomb. I was afraid to
throw it and hurt my people, yet I couldn’t keep holding onto it
without fear of exploding myself.

“
Twell?”

Jerking out of my thoughts, I
met Shay’s eyes and grimaced. I’d been lapsing into my own world of
thought too much lately, and my concerns weren’t another burden I
wanted her to bear on top of everything else she had going on.

“
Goodnight, Shay.” I stood
and dropped a kiss on Shay’s forehead and her expression switched
to a look of pride I really didn’t deserve. I was glad she wasn’t
getting too emotional about me leaving. Shay wasn’t normally the
crying type, so I still felt guilty when I recalled waking up in
the hospital after the attack to find Shay sobbing at my
bedside.

Inside my bedroom, I went over
my luggage one more time, smirking at the recollection of me
fussing over my hair and make-up on the first day of training. I’d
quickly realized it wasn’t a fashion show once I started wearing
bruises instead of eye shadow. I’d already said goodbye to my best
girlfriend, Meela. Things had been slightly strained between us
after the attack, because she’d felt I’d kept life changing
information from her. She’d been right, I had. But the worst part
was that the G.B. had kept it from me, despite demanding my skills.
We were okay now, and she was going into a popular career in water
sourcing and protection, as the Governing Body had suggested for
her. I’d known she would, happy to comply with the G.B.’s plan for
her future. She’d never minded how they dictated our lives. Not
like me.

Anyway, as the new colony on
Como was only three generations old, there were many deep chasms of
ancient water still untouched and undiscovered. Now the need to
protect them was even more urgent. Meela felt like it was her own
way of doing something to protect Como since she hadn’t developed
any extra abilities like I had. Nor did she have any desire to
enter the army like my other friend and her match, Dash. Lanky and
easy-going, Dash followed my progress in training with more
enthusiasm than me at times and often with much jealousy. He’d
almost been killed in the attack on our school, and still bore the
scars over most of his body. Yet despite Meela’s apprehensions,
he’d stubbornly applied for the normal army of Caran and was
ecstatic when he’d been accepted. I was concerned for his safety
too, but I understood. His passion to protect Como had been
something I’d coveted not so long ago.

However, there were some
people I wouldn’t have to leave behind, and the main one who played
continually on my mind was Jonaz Maven. At first, I couldn’t stand
him. Seriously. I really, truly despised the guy. There was
honestly no other who could offend and irk me; really make my blood
boil like
Mr.
Sickeningly Popular. Where
I’d hated, but conformed to our Governing Bodies rules about
partnering, Jonaz openly flouted them. It made my head spin trying
to keep up with the ever-changing parade of girls who came
willingly and adoringly into Jonaz’s clutches and just as quickly
sobbing and broken-hearted out of them. We weren’t even supposed to
date at all because it was totally taboo. We were meant to wait
until we were genetically matched at a hundred and eighty moons old
and expected to obediently follow the law without questioning. But
I questioned it. And I resented it. I also intended to fight it,
when the time was right.

They said it was for our own
good. How else could we build a genetically superior race capable
of combating our enemies? It did make sense, if you looked at it
without emotion, to match those with powers and to breed out the
weakest genes. But I was a teenager, so taking the emotion out of
it was about as possible as winning a wrestling match against a
wetland wilder beast. Inside, I raged and rebelled, and then Jonaz
challenged me. He was convinced he’d rather experience passion,
even if it was only fleeting, than trust our Governing Body to
provide the perfect partner who might not match our hearts.

I’d been convinced at the start
Jonaz didn’t actually have a heart, just a yummy body and the kind
of chiselled features designed to make normally sensible females
forget they have brain cells and throw themselves shamelessly at
him. (I kid you not, all dignity abandoned.) But I’d been wrong
about him. Well, sort of. Yeah, girls went soppy around him, but
that was because apart from his looks, Jonaz had the bravery to try
to live the way we all secretly wished we could. Where he appeared
arrogant he actually hid the hurt of a cold and loveless childhood
and was desperately seeking the warmth and care of just about
anyone who’d give it to him.