Twell and the Rebellion (7 page)

Shanna groaned rudely and shoved
a headrest over her face. Kina glared at the general direction of
her head with such outrage I was immediately convinced that though
she might be well bred, she was certainly capable of defending
herself and her beliefs.

“
I…I like my partner,”
Lavi offered. “I mean it was a bit awkward at first, but now we
have spent some time together, he’s not so bad...” Lavi blushed as
she trailed off.

Shanna emerged from under the
headrest and sat up. “But what if he was totally gross and you
couldn’t stand him laying a hand on you?” Shanna demanded fiercely.
“Would you mind then? Or would you just hope you got over it
eventually?”

Lavi frowned. Her bright
eyes clouded over and I experienced a serious case of
deja
vu
. It was only a few moons ago I’d been
battling the same issues. Those thoughts had been silenced for a
while because I was ga ga over Jonaz and still hoped we could find
a way to be together. But it didn’t change the heart of the matter.
I could hardly get snitty with Shanna for feeling the same way,
even if she was as irritating as a firebug sting.

“So where’s your match then?” Kina demanded.
“Does he know how you feel?”

“Peace keeping in his home city.” Shanna’s
expression was unimpressed. “Not much of a fighter, apparently, so
I can’t even imagine how we’d be a good match. He knows, but he
doesn’t want to know…if you know what I mean.
”

“Listen,
Shanna
,” I started off calmly, “I
understand your point, but I can’t see what good you’re going to do
mouthing off about it, especially out here under the watchful eye
of people who
really
support the laws of our world. I mean seriously,
you’ll be right in the moga poo if any officers overhear
you.”

“
But you see, I don’t care
if I land in trouble.” Shanna’s green eyes lit up with defiance.
“In fact, I hope I create enough noise to be heard and make people
wake up.”

Now I was gaping… then back to
glaring again. “If you’re so against conformity and obeying our
leaders, what are you doing here?” I demanded. I’d taken a step
towards her without realizing it, and she rose off the bed in
response, her gleeful expression demonstrating how much she was
relishing stirring me up.

“
I’m following my own
heart to be here,” Shanna replied, her eyes flashing with
conviction. I acknowledged that because it was exactly how I felt.
Still, I was so unnerved by the similarities in our thoughts I
wanted to shout at her or throw something, maybe even use my
powers, which were beginning to tingle enticingly in the back of my
mind. I wanted to do anything but admit she was right, because I
didn’t like the way she was going about it.

We stood staring brazenly at
each other and probably would have continued to do so all afternoon
if two cushions hadn’t come sailing through the air at our heads at
such a speed I knew they hadn’t been thrown by hand. Ducking, I
plucked one out of the air while Shanna’s hand shot out to stop the
other. It hovered mid-air before she sent it flying back with force
at the thrower. It froze half way between them both, pushed into a
standstill by the force on both sides.

Then it dropped to the ground as
Lavi collapsed onto her bed in a fit of laughter. “Sorry!” she
gasped when she finally composed herself. “I just felt the need to
lighten the mood. We do have to live with each other, so maybe we
can have these sorts of discussions somewhere where we don’t
sleep?”

“
Yes,” Kina agreed through
thin lips. “Or perhaps we can keep our differences of opinions to
ourselves? I for one do not intend on listening to heresy and
propaganda when I came here to focus on something far more
important.”

“
I’d like to say it’s a
free world and I can say what I want, but sadly we seemed to have
devolved from that level of humanity,” Shanna snapped at her.
Tossing her head, she spun around and stomped to the door, taking
care to slam it as hard as she could on the way out. So
dramatic.

“
I’m really sorry about
that,” I muttered in embarrassment as I turned back to my
unpacking. Then I spun towards Lavi. “You’re telekinetic? Shanna’s
telekinetic! Kina?”

“
You guessed it.” Kina
finally smiled with genuine warmth. Because it was the first time
I’d ever met anyone with the same powers as me, I felt fascinated,
elated, and slightly threatened all at the same time. We all beamed
at each other for a long moment before we were interrupted by a
familiar bossy voice. Nope, still not Mira. It was Maza’s voice
resonating through our sleeping quarters from a speaker somewhere.
Talk about intrusive. She was asking us to report to the meal
quarters immediately.

We walked together in a shy type
of silence until questions began to bubble out of Lavi. “How long?”
Her blue eyes sparkled with curiosity.

“
Always,” Kina replied
promptly.

“
Same.” I
grinned.

“
Can you rotate 360
degrees? What’s the heaviest weight can you move? Can you move
another human?” The questions flew between us and it seemed we were
about evenly matched, which I supposed was thanks to our previous
training. It felt good to talk about my powers and I shared my
training progress openly. But there were some achievements I didn’t
want to talk about, and I kept silent about my experience with the
Abwarzian invaders.

Suddenly Lavi stopped dead and
stared strangely at me, her mouth dropping open again.

“
What?” I demanded,
paranoid my hair was doing something weird, or worse, I’d had
something on my face all morning and no one had told me.

“
You’re… that girl.”
Something like recognition flickered in Lavi’s eyes and they grew
bigger and wider than seemed possible.

“
What girl?” I asked, but
a curl of dread was already circling tightly in my
stomach.

“The one who fought the
trainer at the water caverns and...” she
broke off the same moment understanding registered on
Kina’s face. She paled, staring at me like I was a ghost. It had
never crossed my mind that anyone outside of Caran would have heard
about my battle with Raze, but now here I stood with two relative
strangers gawking at me like they didn’t know what I might do next.
It was the last thing I wanted or needed.

I’d almost lost my life
because one of my trainers had a crazy
vendetta against me. Raze had been the only person I’d ever
met who’d known my parents, Marquois and Genesis, or could tell me
anything about them. I now knew they’d been soldiers, like I would
soon be and that Raze blamed my father for his family’s death.
Apparently, my father had insisted he and Raze stop at my crèche
first, on the way to find Raze’s family when the Abwarzians
attacked the city of Caran. My father never found me; the centre
reduced to a pile of rubble by the time he got there. Then, by the
time they then got to Raze’s own partner and two children, none of
them had survived. Raze never forgave my father or mother, not even
when they died trying to protect each other from the Abwarzians
they’d all sworn to fight against together. Instead, he let the
rage twist and rot his heart over the years so that by the time he
came across me in training he was a man so full of hatred and
revenge it oozed out of his pores. I was wary of him long before he
revealed his issues.

While we were capturing the
Abwarzians who’d invaded our underground water ducts, Raze murdered
the alien girl I’d captured and gravely injured some of my friends,
all in an attempt to finish me off. I managed to escape his fate
for me, but it had come at a cost, forcing me to use my powers to
end his life.

“I guess I am.” I shrugged
before walking on. The bounce from my step was eradicated, my head
hung low. After a moment, Kina and Lavi flanked my sides and we
walked in silence for a bit.

“
We won’t tell anyone,
don’t worry,” Kina said gravely while Lavi nodded her
support.

“Thank you.” I hoped my
tone and expression conveyed my sincerity, because the less people
who knew about my past the better. I’d finally begun to feel like I
fit in with my peers, no longer afraid to be different. The last
thing I wanted was to stand out again, and especially for all the
wrong reasons.

Joining the stream of
students flowing into the spacious hall, I took in five long white
tables with matching bench seats taking up the entire length of the
dome, while two self-serve buffets of food and beverages were
arranged at opposite ends of the room. I spotted Sazika and Mira
already seated on the middle bench with Jonaz. As if he somehow
sensed my presence, Jonaz turned and looked over his shoulder at
me. His dark hair and eyes were striking against the black of the
uniform and a thrill rolled over me as he eyes held mine, his mouth
curving up in the way that made my heart skip a beat.

I wanted to go to him, but
his table was full and Kina and Lavi were already moving towards
another table. Torn, I dithered for a second, before I saw Jonaz
mouth something at me. It looked like
‘soon
’, although I couldn’t
be sure because I was useless at lip reading and usually the one
who forgot myself and screeched back “
What?”
much to my friend’s
horror.

To my dismay, I realized
I’d landed at the same table as Avin and Shanna. Miss Mouthy sat
directly across from me, but Avin was further up the table. While
he was far enough away I wouldn’t have to speak to him, I felt the
presence of his gaze like a physical thing and was painfully aware
of heat slowly flooding my face. Flustered, I sat down, angling my
body away to block him from my vision.

I’d just reached for a vial of
energy juice when Maza appeared again, stepping up onto another
platform in the centre of the room between all the tables. Three
burly looking soldiers accompanied her, all wearing the same grim
expression that was becoming all too familiar. Comians were
generally very friendly, peaceful people. Yet Comians who served in
our Armies seemed to be different. They were more serious and
colder, as if all the bad things from worlds like Abwarz had seeped
into their spirits and irrevocably changed their perception of
humanity. It was unsettling, because not only did I fear ending up
like them myself, I feared to face the things they’d seen to make
them that way in the first place.

On second inspection, I realized
one of the men was my old trainer Brazin. Then it clicked. It was
his voice I’d heard on arrival. He stood looming over us all with
his massive hands clenched to his side, his hardened features
emotionless as his sharp eyes raked over the students before him.
His gaze flickered past me and then skipped back for a second,
before moving on without acknowledgment. That was Brazin, as warm
as the wetlands.

While we ate, the trainers took
turns lecturing, scaring us, and generally putting us all off our
food. They said things like “You’re going to physically hurt more
than you’ve ever hurt before,” (I could hardly wait) and, “This is
reality now. We will expect the highest level of skill from all of
you.” (Duh, obvious!)

“
Where’s the part where
they tell us what’s really going on out there?” I muttered as I
tuned out of the most boring speech ever.

“
What do you mean by
that?” Kina’s tone was sharp, her expression already screaming
disapproval.

I wondered if I should test the
waters and decided to at least dip a foot in. “Well, you know, will
they tell us exactly how much danger Como’s in, now that we’re in
the Army?”

“
But what’s there to
know?” Lavi sounded perplexed. “The G.B. said civilians are safe
guarded against further attack.”

Shanna rolled her eyes at the
same time I snorted. “You trust these people, who tell us nothing
in everyday life, to tell us when something out of their control is
going down?” Shanna sneered. “Really? I’m ashamed to be in the same
gene power pool as you.”

Lavi’s wounded expression along
with Kina’s outraged one was both disconcerting and disappointing.
I hated to side with Shanna, but apart from my own friends who knew
what I knew, she was the only other person I’d met who seemed to
possess as strong a doubt of the G.B.’s transparency as myself.

I opened my mouth to try
to explain myself better, but Maza’s words pierced my attention.
“Deserters will be found, returned here, and severely
disciplined
.
”

A ripple of shock ran down the
room, over my shoulders, and down my spine. No one spoke, no one
dared. But the question mark branded every face. What would happen
to us if we didn’t want to fight? Were there any choices left?

I found myself glancing at
Shanna and sure enough, her expression was a blatant advertisement
of objection. Catching my eye, her eyebrows disappeared somewhere
up near her hairline in the triumphant equivalent of
‘
see
?’ Setting my jaw I looked away, determined to ignore the
increasing resentment niggling at my will.

Maza’s speech concluded by
informing us we would be split into training with cadets of the
same powers for the first three moons. I pouted at the realization
I wouldn’t be training with Jonaz and my friends. Then I groaned,
because of course it meant I would be spending plenty more time
with my new bestie, Shanna. She grinned at me in a way that had me
itching to crawl over the table and wipe the smirk of her face.