"Ajax?" she met my eyes briefly, but fixed her attention on her son. He sighed heavily and sat up. I didn't dare look at him, my stomach queasy at being caught partially dressed and in bed next to my professor's son.
"You're sleeping, Ajax?" She asked him, and I heard her voice catch. A flicker of emotion crossed her features, one I couldn't quite place. Hope? In a rush, the air seemed to shimmer all about her skin and I swear I saw her glowing like…like a Descender? I shook my head as if to shake the image from my eyes, wondering if I was imagining things. The memory of her hands upon my back in the healing rooms and the way my skin tingled beneath her touch flooded my thoughts, and I recalled her unusual gait and unnatural hair color. Professor Baal's head pivoted in my direction as if she heard the thoughts in my head. Whatever I had seen a moment ago vanished in an instant, and a new thought popped into my head: I was imaging things.
I held her gaze, unwilling to let go of what I'd seen, although I felt her trying to clear my memory of it. She had powerful mind control.
"May I have permission to leave campus today, Professor?" I took a chance on catching her off guard, hoping she'd grant me permission without thinking about it too much.
"Yes, I'm sleeping," Ajax chose to speak up before she could answer me. Her presence retreated from inside of my head as she regarded her son again. I could no longer see any sort of glow about her. Maybe I was imagining things.
I saw Ajax nod at his mother from the corner of my eye. Her gaze stayed upon her son for what felt like an eternity while beads of sweat collected at my temples. Whatever private thoughts passed between them were interrupted by the buzzing of a mailbox inside her pocket. A wave of nausea swept over me. Of course it was my mailbox, and I had a sinking feeling about who was calling. Did this have to be the moment Professor Baal chose to return it to me?
"I'm actually looking for you," she said, fixing her piercing eyes on mine. "I've had enough of your brother." She accepted the file and my brother's voice filled the room.
"Good morning again, Professor," he began, politely. "I see you still find it necessary to keep my sister's mailbox, even though she has done nothing but be an accomplished Athlete—"
"Save it, Tiergan," she cut him off, clearly having heard his speech before. "I was actually just bringing it to her, but it took me a while to find her." She handed my mailbox back to me, only suddenly, I didn't want it. She left the room as abruptly as she'd entered.
I held the device in front of me, stunned by the turn of events. "Are you in bed with Ajax?" Tiergan looked stunned as well. Whatever he had expected to happen when he called Professor Baal this morning, it wasn't this.
"Umm," I stammered. Was I? "No," I managed to say. I was embarrassed, but the realization Tiergan had been calling my mailbox continuously and pleading my case to the Professor made me giddy. I wanted to hug him. He did things for me, even when I didn't realize it.
"Then why are you in bed next to him this early in the morning?" I looked at Ajax, who only smirked at me. He seemed to be enjoying this.
"Actually, I am in bed with Ajax. I slept with him last night." I said the words but knew they didn't sound quite right. I only meant to tell the truth.
My brother's face flushed red and Ajax reached over and grabbed my mailbox. He wasn't smirking at me anymore.
"Don't lose it Tiergan, she didn't mean it like that." He shot me a dirty look. "She slept in my room okay? That's all. I can sleep when she's next to me," he admitted.
Tiergan didn't say anything at first. He looked from one of us to the other and then said, "You sure did change your tune real quick, didn't you? It wasn't long ago you were pretending you didn't know her."
"Tiergan, please don't," I pleaded. He flashed a look at me, his face softening as he met my eyes.
"I miss you, little sister."
"I miss you," I answered back.
"At least she gave your mailbox back. I succeeded in bugging the heck out of her, which is much easier when you're light years away," he grinned, and even Ajax smiled. "I called you every day, at least once, but usually two or three times. I can be a real pain, you know Ajax?"
"Oh, I'm aware," Ajax answered, unfazed.
"I wasn't the only one calling either," Tiergan smirked. Ajax glared at him, and maybe they would have gone on staring each other down, but I wasn't having it. It'd been too long since I was able to speak to my brother.
"Talk to me Tiergan. What's happening on Danu?"
He told us about how they were trying to track a band of people they believed were part of the Resistance. Their communications were continuously being intercepted, and they finally traced where the disturbance was coming from. They were headed into the Indium Mountains.
"Call every day," I reminded him, before he had to close our connection and get some sleep. On Earth it was morning, but on Danu, the sun had long since set.
After speaking with my brother, I went to my own room to wash and dress. I spent the day with Ajax. First, we went to the Healing Rooms to check up on Tory and Balor. They were both much better, and a touch bitter about having to stay in there an extra day. Malik worked alongside the Healers in order to train and also stay close to Tory. He hurried Ajax and I out, before we could be too much of a distraction, intent on Tory and Balor getting fit and healthy, so we could resume our training as soon as possible.
"Tennis?" Ajax shot me a grin as we left the Healing Rooms. I nudged his shoulder.
"You sure you're up for it?"
He shook his head and let out a little chuckle. We loved to battle it out on the tennis court. I'd never met anyone who could match my stamina on the court the way he could; not my brother, not any other Athlete I'd encountered. We could spend hours hitting to each other, back and forth, and we no longer bothered to keep score. Just as when we trained together, sometimes he was better, sometimes I was, and we just balanced each other out.
"Let's eat first," he said, and I followed him to the cafeteria.
All day long we stayed together. He accompanied me to each of my classes, sat with me as I worked in the food lab, and then faced me across the tennis court. Finally, as the light was fading in the sky, we had a light dinner and headed for the perimeter of Virtual Guards beyond the Energy Field. Professor Baal had given permission for us to leave campus after dinner, and I ran across the lanes in anticipation of seeing Derek.
We halted at the line of Guards, displaying the insides of our wrists for their inspection. They allowed us to pass, bowing to me one by one as we did so, the same as when I entered the University. I felt my cheeks color and kept my face away from Ajax. The bowing continued as we left the University behind.
My pace quickened as we neared our block, until I was practically running by the time we reached Derek's. Ajax had lingered behind, but now caught up, taking my arm a moment, and coming to stand at my side. I took a look at my own home, its garden mingling completely with Derek's. It was all one big garden, truly, for my parents cultivated it and fed Derek as they fed themselves. Their lights were on now, but I didn't want them to see me. It was Derek I had come to visit.
Looking into the front windows, it seemed as if the interior of the house was a well-organized, cozy space. Derek had figured out long ago how to mask his windows to hide what was truly going on inside. After the death of his parents, he'd left the University and resisted all manner of earning energy or conforming to the Reformation. He blamed the Descenders for the death of his parents, who died while serving on their Crusade out in the deserts where a microbial outbreak spread like wildfire in the harsh, dusty climate. They'd been working to salvage the resources from the windblown, hot lands to the southeast of us, when the virus was stirred up from the dust and spread swiftly among the Crusaders working there. There'd been speculation about the Reformation being slow to respond, slow to heal when called upon, and it was an idea Derek held onto. He was an only child, left an orphan had it not been for the Baal and Robi families, who took him in and raised him among the
ir own children. Tiergan and I helped provide his energy so he could continue living in the house his parents built.
Ajax tapped on the door and we waited. I was torn between being angry Derek hadn't come to visit, and being ecstatic about seeing him again. The two emotions battled inside of me, but Derek allowed for none of it. He opened the door, casual as ever, as if no time had passed at all, and leaned against the doorframe as he regarded us with the same wry expression he always wore.
"I see you got my message," he said to me, lazily. Behind him, the house looked nothing like what the windows promised.
"I see you took your time sending it," I answered, anger winning out over happiness. "You can't bother to come see me?" He smiled his slow, crooked smile then reached out and pulled me into a bear hug, squeezing tight and kissing me on the head.
"I've seen you, little sister; don't you doubt it." When he let me go, we followed him inside. Derek was the only human I knew who carried any substantial extra weight. Shorter than Ajax, and much wider, his cheeks were chubby, clothing unkempt (he didn't wear an energy suit), and his light brown hair flopped greasily into his eyes. He took a seat on the couch while I looked around.
The house was a bit of a maze, packed floor to ceiling with a variety of things Derek had collected throughout his twenty-one years. In the kitchen, stacks of food lined every surface: counters, tables, chairs, and floor. Most of the food items were illegal due to their over-processed nature, but Derek loved the sugary, spongy cakes with cream filling that never seemed to spoil or lose their yellow color. He had a fascination with pre-war humans, including the kinds of foods they ate, and he would scour ruined cities, foraging for many of the items filling his home. Ajax and I had accompanied him on many such missions before I left. So had Cadmus and Tiergan. Most likely, the Baal brothers had continued the quests with him, while my brother and I were shipped off to play tennis.
Derek collected actual books, which were stacked floor to ceiling in every room of the house, and also toys he called matchbox cars, which were tiny replicas of vehicles once used as transportation on Earth. Ajax and I had spent many hours reading books or playing with those cars, whenever we could steal a bit of luxury time. I felt a pang of jealousy on missing out while the Baal brothers got to spend a lot more time with those treasures from the past than Tiergan and I did.
Derek's other passion was technology, both old and new. In the living room, a whole wall was taken over by a dozen or so monitors. On some of these, he would play video games, such as they used to play before the oil wars. On others, he monitored various parts of the outside world.
"How did you get these cameras in place?" I asked, fascinated by all we could see from the seat of his couch. One camera monitored the exterior of his house. He also monitored my parents' home, the Baal home, the hallway outside my dorm room (both mine and Ajax's doors were visible), the Energy Field (there was his riderless bike, pedaling away in the fading light), and many other places I did not recognize.
"It's easy, if you know what you're doing," he answered. And then one of the images caught my eye. My heart did a flip flop in my chest.
"What is this?" I questioned, stunned by the image of the building we'd just encountered on our training exercise. It looked the same, but different.
"What do you think it is?" Derek answered, avoiding the question. Ajax cleared a space, and sat beside him on the couch. I shoved some books from a chair and sat facing them, trying to forget about the building and what it meant. There were other reasons I came here.
"Where have you been, Derek?" I asked, unable to hide the hurt in my voice. I reeled in my feelings as tightly as I could.
"I've been right here, Kaia."
"Why haven't you come to visit me? I'm all alone here."
"You have Ajax. I knew he was with you. Plus, you know I like to stay under the radar. If I enter the University, they scan my wrist. My bike is always there," he smiled.
"You thought Ajax would be good company for me?" I asked, looking from one of them to the other. Ajax showed no emotion on his face. "He doesn't even remember who I am."
Derek laughed. "Ajax is Ajax. I knew he'd take good care of you. Did he tell you Cadmus thinks he's going to marry you?"
"He mentioned it," I admitted.
"How happy would Mother Baal be if you married one of her sons?" His grin got even wider.
"Maybe I'll just marry you then," I told him, grinning back.
"Sure, that makes sense. Marry one of those tall, handsome Baal's, or the fat kid from next door. Seems like the obvious choice." He and Ajax had a little chuckle over his joke, but I didn't think it was funny.
"I'm not getting married at all. Especially not to Cadmus."
"Oh really? And The Reformation will just allow their top Athlete to remain childless? You are the epitome of what they want Kaia. And what they want is for you to breed." Heat spilled into my cheeks and I knew they were bright red.
"But not with an Unviable, right?" I reminded him. I met Ajax's eyes and he didn't look away, but still, he showed no emotion.
"That's what they say but we all know they don't tell the truth. Perhaps they are marking those they want the rest of the population to think are not suitable mates. Mother Baal is part of the Reformation, yet she thinks her sons are perfect mates for you. Why do you think that is? Don't believe everything they tell you, Kaia. They want you, they always have, and they want to control you."
"So I shouldn't trust Professor Baal? Come on Derek, you're always so suspicious of the Reformation, like you think they have an evil plan."
"Don't you think taking children and enslaving them, enslaving a whole race of people is evil?"
We'd had this argument before so I let it drop. Derek refused to believe the Descenders were peaceful beings, on Earth for the betterment of the human race. I needed to believe it. I needed to believe I was an Athlete and not a slave… but still, my mind drifted to the cave dwellers.
"Why are you watching our rooms?" I asked, shifting topics.
"I watch those who watch you."
"Nobody is 'watching' me!" I protested. "Derek, please tell me the truth." He stayed quiet for several moments, thinking about things. I wanted to go into his mind, but I'd taught him how to block it, unfortunately.
"If they're not watching you, then why do they try to hide you? Why do they keep your eyes covered up?"
"I don't want to be a freak. I wear the glasses because I want to."
"You're not a freak," Ajax spoke up for the first time. My heart leapt crazily in my chest.
"Neither are you," I answered, meeting his blue eyes.
"I kind of think you're both freaks," Derek teased. "But you need to start growing up, Kaia. You need to think about things. Why does Coach Renier, brother to our dear Commander, keep you hidden? What is he worried about? And who does he serve?"
"Stop it. I love my Coach. He trained me, he trained Tiergan."
"For what? I'm not saying you shouldn't love him; I'm saying you should start asking more questions."
"Okay. Why is it you have a camera on that building?" I pointed at the monitor with the image of it and the surrounding cliffs.
"Now that's a good question," Ajax added.
"There's another way to live," he answered, grinning like he always did. "Which team are you on?"
"Aren't we all on the same team?" I answered, as Ajax's mailbox began to ring. We watched as he removed it and looked at who was calling.
"Mother Baal?" Derek guessed, correctly.
"We have to go soon," Ajax answered.
"She's calling you back. She knows where you are at all times, I guarantee you."
"We're her Crusaders. Ajax is her son. Why wouldn't she know?" I pointed this out to him, but he always saw hidden meaning in everything.
Instead of rushing back to the University, we ignored the summons and let our conversation fall away. We spent the evening reading to each other, playing games to try and guess the contents of the pl
ethora of canned food Derek hoarded, and telling each other old stories from our childhood. We lovingly made fun of Tiergan and Cadmus, easy targets since they weren't present, and only after several stern warnings from Professor Baal did we head back to campus. I tried to get Derek to promise he would come visit, but he would do no such thing. He said he was always with me, even if I couldn't see him, and that he was on my team, whatever that meant. I left with more questions than answers.
Ajax and I walked quietly back to the University. My thoughts were troubled and he must have sensed it.
"Why do you think we're different?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. He stared straight ahead and didn't look at me.
"Are we different, Ajax?" I dreaded the question but I knew the answer. There were a lot of things Derek was right about. When I was a little girl, it felt like I was different than everybody else. Everybody else except Ajax.
"I think so," he answered.
I think so too, I answered, unwilling to say the words aloud. What am I?
What am I? He asked back. Neither of us had the answer. We continued on in silence. As we neared the campus, Ajax stopped and made sure my glasses were firmly in place. The sun was gone by then, and my lenses were fairly clear, but they still masked the true color of my eyes.
Who am I hiding from? I asked him.
"I don't know," he answered out loud. There was nothing else to say.
Back at the dorms, standing in front of our doors, I was conscious of the fact that Derek could see us if he chose to look. He hadn't mentioned me sleeping in Ajax's room, but I felt sure he knew it, either from witnessing it or from Tiergan.
"Will Tory be back, do you think?" I whispered.
"She's out of the Healing Rooms if that's what you mean, but she won't be in your room." He pushed my door open and headed for his own without as much as a 'good night'.
The Energy Crusades Page 16