Twell and the Rebellion (5 page)

“You don’t know her well
enough.” Jonaz’s tone was low and hard, and my stomach knotted
tightly in response.

“Yet,” Avin calmly replied.
Jonaz turned into a stone pillar at my side and I fought the urge
to check for his pulse.

“Oh for planet’s sake,” came a
sudden sneering voice from behind Avin. “Are you going to waste all
that testosterone over a stupid genetic match?” A fierce looking
girl with shoulder length, choppy black hair appeared beside Avin,
her strong chin raised in defiance while bold, mossy green eyes
darted around, daring anyone to challenge her statement. She glared
peevishly at Avin and Jonaz and then giving me the once over,
demanded, “You don’t look like a pushover, you got to be here after
all…makes me wonder why you’d let one guy be decided for you let
alone let two get territorial over you.”

“What?” I retorted. “That’s not
what’s happening…”

“Oh don’t bother.” She rolled
her eyes, her tone bitter with frustration.

“This is Shanna.” Avin grimaced.
I felt Jonaz take a deep breath and the muscles in his arm around
me relaxed a little.

“I don’t need you to introduce
me,” the girl snapped in a way that reminded me of myself. Suddenly
she grinned, and the effect was a little wicked, her eyes gleaming
with new interest. “Shanna X’Ane.” She punched Jonaz with such
un-lady like force in the arm he winced. Her hair wasn’t even
brushed and somehow her uniform was already crumpled. Also, not a
lick of facial enhancer was to be spotted. Fashion conscious she
was not.

“Is your partner here?” I made
the crucial mistake of asking.

She froze, the grin sliding into
a sneer so malicious I had to stop myself from recoiling in
fright.

“I have no
partner,
”
she hissed out the word as if I’d just said something
dirty.

“But…” I trailed off in
confusion. She was obviously of age and it was Comian law. She had
to be full of it.

“Because I’m not accepting it,
that’s how,” Shanna retorted at such aggressive volume, anyone left
on the craft not aware of our fun little discussion was now all
ears.

“Don’t mind her; she’s no friend
of mine.” Disapproval dripped richly from each word as Avin eyed
her with distaste. “What she fails to acknowledge is that some of
us are more than happy with our selected partners. I for one am
sure I couldn’t have made a better decision myself.”

I watched entranced, as his
silver eyes seemed to swirl and pull me forward.

“And Twell, I’d really like it
if you would come and sit with me.”

Shanna snorted rudely at the
same time Jonaz moved. His arm abruptly left my shoulders and I
watched in alarm as he leaned towards Avin, his hands clenched into
fists at his sides.

“But haven’t you already
been partnered?” Sazika’s small voice wobbled into the
conversation, directed at Shanna. Moving to stand beside Jonaz, her
face pinched with concern. It was enough to make Jonaz check
himself and pull back. I glanced at Mira and saw she remained
rigidly unimpressed. Observing the scene, her mouth puckered up as
tight as a moga’s backside.

“Officially, yes,” Shanna
admitted. Fully aware that everybody was listening she continued.
“But we don’t care for each other, so we will not submit.” Gasps of
shock filled the craft, followed by hushed silence. The
conversation had turned dangerous and taboo. Surely if the army
officials were listening from the cockpit they would have
intervened by now.

“Keep your voice down!” Mira
warned, her face a picture of paranoia.

“Why should I?” Shanna demanded,
her voice still cringingly loud in the shocked hush of the craft.
“Why are you all so weak and willing to sacrifice your own desires
for a law that’s barbaric and cruel?”

A murmuring response
filled the cabin
.
“Illegal she could be
contained...”

“Can’t believe they would rebel
so openly…”

“Against the Governing Body…who
do they think they are?”

“How on Como do they think
they’ll get away with it?”

I realized with horror they were
not just referring to Shanna, but also to Jonaz and myself. Before
anything further could be said, the door to the cockpit flew open
and an army official stuck his head out, eyes narrowed.

“I heard raised voices, is there
a problem here?” His head swivelled from one shocked face to
another as he tried to identify the source of the noise. We all
impersonated statues, as if that might somehow help us to escape
his notice. Nobody answered.

“Keep it civil, cadets. We still
have a long journey ahead of us,” he barked as he slammed the
cockpit door shut the door again.

The intervention seemed to
bring on some common sense for Shanna because she stalked off,
plopping down into a seat with a huff. I could hear her muttering,
“all brainwashed, planets help me if I don’t go crazy with these
mindless fools to keep me company day after day…”

It was one thing to disagree
with the G.B. Quite another to blatantly advertise it at top note
for no other purpose other than shock value. I sensed she was
someone not to be messed with. Someone I’d be happily avoiding at
camp.

Sazika had actually used
her powers, invisible beside Jonaz. The soldier hadn’t even seen
her. Clever girl. Avin sighed and I tentatively met his eyes,
unable to mistake the frustration I saw in them. His patient smile
had faded, replaced with an expression of weariness and, more
surprisingly, sadness. Should I have sought him out and sat with
him? Is that what I was supposed to have done? Maybe if I’d studied
the download on appropriate partnering behaviour as I was supposed
to, I’d have a better idea. But of course I hadn’t. It was still
sitting as an unopened file, and I wondered idly if the G.B. knew
it was still marked as unread.

“I’m sorry, Twell, I didn’t
intend to cause a ruckus.” Avin’s tone dropped, heavy with
disappointment that our second encounter was far from what was
expected of us.

“It’s okay,” I said awkwardly
and unsure what a ruckus was. “Let’s just go sit down.”

Jonaz’s expression as I
reluctantly followed my match, was a kicker. It seemed the wisest
thing to do in the circumstance, but it also felt brutal. His face
adopting a mask to rival Mira’s, he took a seat several rows in
front with Sazika and didn’t meet my eyes again. Avin stopped at
the start of a row to indicate I could take the window seat.
Rattled by the whole encounter I sat shakily down. I could almost
hear Avin’s mind whirring as he settled beside me and I studiously
avoided eye contact, shy with unfamiliarity.

Before we even had a
chance to buckle in, I heard the doors slide shut. Next thing, we
were propelling into the air so fast I forgot to bring my stomach
as I slammed back against my seat. Flinging his arm across my chest
Avin reached above me, yanking down my harness. This warm breath
touched my cheek as he clipped me in before securing
himself.

“Thank you,” I said
stiffly as I met his eyes. He smiled in answer, but didn’t seem to
expect anything more. The sensation of him looking out for me was
strange. I didn’t know him. What obligation did he have to look out
for me? Oh, that’s right, a legal obligation. I thought about
Jonaz’s natural protectiveness towards me and knew it was going to
be a problem. We were heading into training for a war. The reality
was that there was no way Jonaz could be at my side for everything
I was about to face. There was also no guarantee he would be with
me if we had to fight the Abwarzians. The last thing I wanted,
should the war happen, was for Jonaz to forget about his own safety
because he was too busy worrying about me. I could take care of
myself. I had my own powers after all.

Pressing my face against the
cool window, I felt a pang of uncertainty as Caran flashed by
underneath me. The direction we were flying was as new for me as
the direction my life was taking. It was all so unfamiliar and up
in the sky, sitting next to a virtual stranger, I felt untethered,
yet bound. The shimmer of the silver lakes looked familiar yet
somehow different to the wetlands I’d grown up playing around. The
ghostly pale desert sands were almost identical, yet they shifted
into unknown peaks and troughs, and their barrenness seemed
isolating as we travelled further away from the world I knew.

The silence in the pod broke
into a trickle of half whispered conversations that grew gradually
louder. Murmurs grew to the normal hum of chatter as introductions
were made. In no way did I usually consider myself to be a shy
person, but with new people, it could take me a while to be my
usual spirited self. Everyone looked so completely normal there was
no way to tell what their power was because it wasn’t as if they
sidled up and said, ‘Hi I’m Izia and I can set things on fire with
my eyes!’ Yet the whole craft buzzed with unspoken curiosity. We
would find out soon enough what we were all capable of.

Feeling Avin’s eyes on my
face
my treacherous cheeks began to burn,
making it impossible to pretend I hadn’t noticed.

“Are you nervous?” He smiled
expectantly at me.

“About what?” My voice pitched
higher than normal as I tried not to get caught in his gaze.

“The training. The war.”

Oh. Thank the realms he
wasn’t referring to our match.
“Of course I am.” It came out sounding more irritable than I’d
intended, and his eyes continued to probe until I squirmed and
pulled a face. “Well, how else would I feel?”

“Many ways,” he answered
solemnly. “Afraid. Inspired…patriotic.”

“Conflicted,” I blurted before I
could bite the words back. “War is complicated.”

Avin’s brows rose up in
surprise. This was not an answer he had expected. It was not an
answer expected of any loyal Comian and especially not a soldier.
“Then I think we shouldn’t speak of it now. Not here. But I’d like
to ask you again, later.”

My own eyebrows hiked up to my
hairline. Huh? What was he playing at? And what planet was this guy
even from? He seriously talked like our ancestors, like something
out of the classic old literature from earth. If he turned out to
be some sort of weirdo, I would feel totally insulted he was my
match. What did that say about me?

“Sure,” I replied instead. “And
you?”

“I feel willing.” His gaze was
still too penetrating. “It’s an honourable way to use the gifts
we’ve been blessed with.”

“Textbook perfect reply, the
G.B. would be proud,” I smirked. “Or maybe it’s a quote from our
texts. I just couldn’t remember, amongst the sheer volume of their
opinions.”

“Oh. Like that, is it?”
The disappointment mingled with discomfort on Avin’s face was
almost amusing.

“I think you already know it is,
Avin,” I replied. “So there we will have to agree to disagree.”

“Well there, I don’t agree. But
we have time to debate.” His tone lightened up and he gave me a
full and genuine smile. His face glowed and just like that, he was
mesmerizing. That was his power and I saw how it could be deadly.
For the enemy…or for me. Grimacing I turned away, leaning my head
against the window again. His words were gentle yet challenging and
it was disconcerting. There was so much to take in already, let
alone taking on a match who wanted to engage with me when I wasn’t
interested. I’d have to be aloof with him and stay on my guard. I
couldn’t let him in, because it wasn’t just his powers affecting
me, but his mannerisms as well.

Avin fell silent,
seemingly content to let me be for now and I was
glad. The war was coming fast and our part in it. Soon it
wouldn’t matter how we really felt. We would simply obey our
leaders and fight. Obedience was what it came down to in the end
and where I would face even more of my own battles.

Chapter
Three

I must have dozed off at some
point in the journey, because the next thing I knew Avin was
shaking me gently awake and the morning light had faded to the
muted haze of afternoon.

“We’re here.” He breathed
in an excited way that bought me back to fully alert. Nerves
twinged, low in my stomach as I fell into the shuffling line off
the craft and onto a huge landing. The first thing I did was merge
quickly into the identical black uniforms, successfully giving Avin
the slip. The landing was the same bone white shade of Comian
desert, and I realized the colour must be intentional, to
camouflage our landing site from space.

Looking around, I took in
the hundreds of cadets milling over the grounds, their voices
lifting as one low hum of energy in the stillness of the desert. It
was a little overwhelming to see how many of us there were;
hundreds if not a couple of thousand people my own age with gifts
of their own, all ready to fight for Como. Well, ready or not, they
were here.

I wondered how all the moons of
my life, the Governing Body could have kept such a considerable
number of our population’s capabilities out of the media and hidden
from the general knowledge of any Comian about their own people. Of
course, there was a general understanding now and the people knew
there was a special army forming. Yet they’d only been told because
the G.B. needed to save face in the aftermath of the attack. It was
pure damage control, so they could be seen to be providing a
solution. And we were that solution.

The average Comian had no
idea the Abwarzians were planning another attack, because the G.B.
had assured them we were prepared and wouldn’t let it happen again.
Nor could the average Comian imagine the Abwarzians were now so
desperate for water they’d already attacked again.
They’d
recently destroyed a whole army defense craft inside our own orbit
to send another clear message to our Governing Body.
. Surrender your water, or face war.