The Energy Crusades

by Valerie Noble

  "Get up," I ordered, keeping my voice low and calm. He hunched against the wall and kept his face down. I went to grab him but the resisters blocked me.

  "Don't touch him!" Kaia flew to my side and all hands dropped from me instantly. They cleared out of our way and stepped back, giving us a straight shot to Jason. They were obeying her and it was disquieting. Why? What did they want with her?

  "Stand up, Jason," her voice was calm, steady. He stood and lifted his head up to face Kaia.

  "Take off your glasses please," she asked him. Malik and Tory stepped up and stood just behind Kaia and I. Jason hesitated a few seconds until Kaia raised her hand as if to call the glasses off of his face. Instead, he held up a hand to stop her, and then removed them himself.

  "Kaia," he reached for her as I'd seen him do in the tunnel. His face was full of hope. Hope and love, the emotions plain upon his face as if he had a right to them. It made me sick.

  He didn't look me in the eyes but I could see him. It felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. Jason looked exactly like me.

  "Did you change your mind?" he asked, taking a small step toward Kaia. Before he could touch her, my hand flew to his neck and I shoved him back against the wall.

  "Who are you?" I demanded. It was like looking in a mirror.

  "I want the girl," he choked. "We'll protect her, Ajax."

  I reached back to hit him as hot anger flooded through my veins. Kaia quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me away from him.

  "No!" She made me look at her, and my anger was quelled momentarily. I looked into her face and thought about how Jason looked exactly like me. She kissed him. He looked exactly like me. Those thoughts kept running around in my head. I stared at her longer than was necessary and I could see the smug little look on her face. She knew I saw what she saw and there would be no way to deny the resemblance.

  "Join us, Kaia, and we will show you the truth. You saw the disc we sent? We've been watching you, waiting for you. Ajax is not the one you want or need."

  She kept her hand on my arm as she faced Jason.

  "You don't know me, Jason Paris, none of you do. If you did, you'd know that I would never leave my Crusaders. There are six of us, not one, and six of us will stay together. Give us the information and we'll be on our way." She didn't seem moved by the way his expression was full of love for her. I wondered if she could see the same emotions on my own face.

  "You don't know what you're saying," Jason insisted, his agitation evident. "The information belongs to us. Let me be your other half, Kaia, and I'll stay by your side forever. All you have to do is open your mind and give me a chance. You will see that what we are doing is for you, for all of mankind, and for the future of Planet Earth." He paused a moment before adding, "If you take the information, it will be bad for your brother too."

  The last bit sounded like a veiled threat and I'd heard enough.

  "Don't ever threaten us again," I told him, letting my anger spill onto him and all of the resisters in the room. Once again, I let my voice surround them as I spoke. "Don't threaten us by saying you will follow us, track us, and try and steal Kaia away. We will die before turning her over and if anything happens to her, it will be bad for your sister," I finished. He couldn't hide the surprise on his face, but he tried. We might not have been sure the girl on Danu was his sister, but his expression confirmed our suspicions.

  "He's not the one!" Jason started to yell. "I've protected you! I've watched what you've done. I know what you are. The Resistance was united to—"

  "Jason! That's enough." Another young man stepped in front of Kaia, blocking Jason. He bowed his head at her. "We apologize. We cannot turn over the information. We will let you leave freely now, but we will continue to track you. We will track your brother, too. We will do anything to make you come to us."

  Kaia said nothing in return.

  "Are you ready to go home?" Her eyes settled on me with her question.

  I nodded, and she confirmed with Malik and Tory as well.

  "Let's go home," Tory agreed.

  Kaia held out her hand to me, and I took it. We started to walk away, but before we left, I had one last thing to say to Jason.

  "If you ever put your hands on her again, if you ever so much as put a finger on her, I'll kill you." I meant it too, and probably would have done a lot more damage had I not been hampered by the resisters. Jason remained silent but the smug look on his face was maddening. He almost smiled at me.

  I'll always be the first boy she ever kissed, he taunted me silently.

  It took all of my willpower to show no reaction whatsoever, but how could he know that? I forced myself to turn away as if I couldn't hear him.

  We left the way we came, through the window and down the outside of the building. Caden and Balor were waiting on the ground with our transporters. We hopped on and flew to the edges of the city, back through their makeshift wall.

  "What happened? Did you get the information?" Balor was impatient.

  "No," I answered. "Professor Baal ordered us to leave peacefully. But at least now we know how to break their transmissions. Good job, Caden."

  "What are we going to tell her?" Caden asked somewhat worriedly. I didn't have an answer. I knew what Caden meant, we all did. What were we going to say about what happened? Should we admit they'd asked for Kaia? It should have been an easy decision but none of us knew what might happen to her if the Teachers, and the Reformation, knew the Resistance wanted to trade and I was uneasy about it.

  "We'll talk about it at home," I answered, my thoughts too troubled to make a decision.

  "Don't you have anything else to say, Ajax?" Kaia squeezed my hand — hard — and gave me a satisfied little smile. Malik started to laugh.

  "You too, Malik. You didn't believe me either," she reminded him.

  "He looks exactly like me," I admitted.

  "And?"

  "You were absolutely right. I'll never doubt you again." I couldn't help but return her smile. Still, he had kissed her and I hadn't…couldn't. Whatever my feelings, she was far too important to lower herself for an Unviable and I wouldn't ask it of her. She could do better. I only hoped she wouldn't start to believe that Jason Paris was better.

  "What about you, Malik?" She persisted. He grinned from ear to ear.

  "I'll never doubt you either. And, it sure does explain things doesn't it?"

  She ignored his last comment and I called for our portal. It was time to go home.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Commander Renier

  I stared across the table at Astrid and my brother, noting, as I always did, our missing compatriot. Once, the four of us had been inseparable. We'd had the same goals then, before Abra lost her nerve and jumped to her death. Now there were three of us. I was beginning to think the two in front of me had lost their nerve as well.

  "They all told the same story," my brother pointed out. "Why don't you believe them?"

  "Why do you?" I countered. Yes, they had all told the same story even though I had surprised them by waiting for them in the Weapons Room, there to intercept them when they walked back through the portal from the ruined city. I separated them and questioned them immediately, allowing no time for them to form any sort of cohesive story if they hadn't done so already, and I didn't want Astrid or Audrick to get to them first. Something had happened in the ruined city and I wanted to know what it was.

  "They told the same story, yes," I continued, when Audrick remained silent. "But what about the other Crusaders? The ones who said the Resistance asked for a trade?" My patience was wearing thin. What were they hiding from me and why?

  "What about it?" Astrid asked, nonplussed.

  "What about it?" I repeated, while my emotions turned red all around me. "We need that information Astrid, as you very well know. Let's make the trade and be done with it."

  "How do you expect to do that? None of the Crusaders seem to agree on what the Resistance wants to trade, and some never even mentioned
a trade."

  "YOUR Crusaders never mentioned a trade!" I shouted at her, bringing my fist down on the table. The whole thing shook, but those two remained as still as statues. "The Resistance asked to trade a girl, so which girl?" I turned toward my brother. "Why don't you bring me Kaia Robi and we'll start with her."

  "No," was his response, quiet and unfazed. "We don't know what they're asking for, or who they're asking for. Why would you consider trading one of your top Athletes?"

  "Why should I care about a human girl? Trade her and be done with it."

  "Why should we care about some information stolen years ago? Why now Alaric? Maybe the information is no good anymore." Astrid's blue eyes bore into me and her anger pierced my skin as hot as an iron. She was angry with me; I knew it, felt it. But why? Maybe I hadn't told her everything about the information, but I still thought we were on the same side. The infant mortality rate on Danu was skyrocketing. Pretty soon, there would be no children of our kind at all. There were no Danunian children any longer on Earth. Those that came years ago, like the four of us, were among the last to be trained to live here. We were slowly becoming extinct, and we needed humans to keep us alive.

  When I chose to hide the cure, the solution to our breeding problem, I hadn't considered all of the consequences, or how great a betrayal it would seem to the two in front of me now. Of any of us, I never thought it would be Abra to give in to despair. She was always my rock. I couldn't accept she might actually love the human she'd been mated with or her half-human children.

  When I hid the cure, I did so thinking it was the right thing to do. I hadn't planned on keeping it a secret forever. I only wanted to see how many children could survive without it. At the time, I believed I was creating a superior gene pool from which to build an entirely new race. I still believed it was possible.

  I steepled my hands in front of me and reeled in my emotions. I needed to command them. I needed to stay in charge.

  "Let's talk about the girl then. Give her to me and I will find out what is so special about her, besides those purple eyes, and I will decide if I want to trade her or not."

  "You might be the Commander, but you still have a cabinet to answer to. We will decide together." My brother tried to force his will on me. I blocked it and he continued speaking. "I will never consent to turn over our top Athlete. Isn't this what we're training them for? We want her to breed, Alaric, not be traded so she can breed with our enemy." He had a point; we did want her to breed. We needed her to breed. And we wanted her to breed with an Unviable. We let humans believe those half-breeds were unsuitable, when really we just wanted to make sure the majority of the population would be put off by such a declaration.

  So far our plan had worked, almost too well. Humans avoided breeding with Unviables, but Astrid had assured me she would make sure our number one Athlete would mate with one of her sons.

  "It seems you picked the wrong son, Astrid," I told her, dredging up an old argument. Cadmus was the better son; we all believed that. Yet, she had chosen Ajax, the sullen, gloomy boy who, as far as I could tell, had no redeeming qualities. Who in the world would want to mate with him? When I questioned him, I found nothing endearing about his dark personality. He remained emotionless as he told me nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the ruined city. The girl herself, this Kaia Robi, was almost as emotionless as he was. Oh yes, she blocked me from her mind and remained as emotionless as she could, but I felt something leak at the end. Fear. I relished the small bit of feeling that leaked from her skin.

  "If you don't like my choice, Alaric, then trade her, by all means. I'm sure our enemy will be glad to get their hands on her," Astrid countered.

  "It's harder to tell who is an enemy and who isn't," I pointed out, and Astrid's anger surrounded me. She didn't like what I said about Ajax; she always defended the boy. I was losing my patience with her human-like attachment to those children. "We need the information more than we need the girl. Once, the four of us were on the same team. Why do I feel that has changed?"

  "Four of us?" Astrid spoke up, her voice quiet but laced with rage. "I count three. And quit acting like a fool. We don't know who they are asking for, nor should we care. My Crusaders will recover the information and we will make no trade."

  "I'm acting like a fool? You two are acting like fools when you think you can hide Kaia Robi from me. I've been playing along with you but I'm growing weary of this game. Let's bring her in here, cut off one of her arms, and see what happens, shall we? Bring in her parents, too. I'll test them in every way possible to see what they're made of as well."

  "They're humans, Alaric!" Audrick slammed his fists on the table this time. "How dare you question us! Do you think we're stupid?"

  "So you've tested them?" I asked, keeping my voice low.

  "Yes," he answered, "Of course we have."

  "And why would you have to do that?" I had him there, I could see the anger dissipate and his face pale ever so slightly. "Bring her to me," I repeated.

  "No," Astrid insisted. I swiveled toward her.

  "Don't you find it curious that the only crusaders who never mentioned a trade were your Crusaders, Professor Baal?"

  "They weren't the only ones. You will not take the girl."

  "Oh, that's right. There was another Crusader who never mentioned a trade," I smiled at her, and then turned to my brother.

  "Bring that one to me. Let's see what he knows and why he's lying. Let's use him against her."

  "No," he answered.

  "No?" I asked him. If I was human, I would have raised my eyebrows at him. "Bring me Atticus Martin, or bring me the girl. It's your choice, but I will have one of them now. And, I'm growing tired of asking the two of you for anything, do you understand me? I am the Commander and I will command the two of you, cabinet or not. Right now I'll go along and pretend to ask for your opinion, but in the end, I will have the girl no matter what you do."

  Chapter Eighteen

  Social

  I woke up in a panic, heart thudding wildly in my chest and shirt soaked with sweat. The Commander was in my dreams yet again.

  "Kaia?" Ajax stirred next to me and lifted his head. "Again?" he asked.

  I got out of bed and walked to the windows. Below me, the campus was dark. I stared at my reflection in the glass and tried to stop the shaking in my body. Ajax stood up and walked to my side. It didn't matter. Even with him here, I was terrified. Not even his presence could soothe me these past few nights as the Commander probed me in my dreams. What was he looking for? There would be no rest for me until he left the campus altogether and returned to the Cassiopeia Grid.

  "Why am I so afraid of him?" I whispered, still shivering.

  I'm afraid too, Ajax answered inside my head.

  The Commander surprised us in the Weapons Room upon our return from the ruined city. We were all questioned, separately, by a high-ranking member of the Reformation, but I was questioned by the Commander. When he was through with me, I left with a sick feeling in my gut and wandered as far away from the Weapons Room as possible. I had no idea if my friends were done with their interviews but I couldn't shake the Commander's presence.

  In a daze, I found myself near the tennis courts and hoped to find my coach. A few of the Students called to me as I walked, and I would lift my head and wave, as if nothing was amiss. The sun was low in the sky, but it wasn't yet dusk, and all around me the Students hurried about their business.

  As I neared the Athletics Building, Coach Renier must have sensed my presence. I heard his voice in my head.

  Stay away.

  I turned away reluctantly, and walked toward the football fields hoping to find Atticus. The football players were out there, practicing as long as there was light, but I saw no sign of him. I wanted to know if his team had been questioned by the Reformation and what they had experienced in the ruined city. Since I had nowhere to be, I sat down in the bleachers and watched the practice. The air was growing colder as winter approache
d, and as the sun sank in the cloudless sky, so too did the temperature. A cool breeze blew vibrant leaves to the ground, and I sat there, cold and gloomy, waiting for Atticus to appear, but he never did.

  "You're safe with me, Kaia," Ajax whispered in the dark, drawing me back from my reverie. I met his eyes and let a small smile form on my lips. Neither of us was safe, but at least we were together. When he found me on the bleachers after the interrogation, he told me he hadn't said a word about the trade. And then, one by one, our fellow Crusaders joined us and said the same thing. None of us had mentioned a trade. Unknowingly, we had all told pretty much the same story — the truth, with a few omissions. I stared at them, overcome with emotion because of what they had done to protect me.

  "Thank you," I whispered to them. The five of them huddled around me on the bleachers next to the football fields. We linked arms and drew our heads together in a group hug, holding each other fiercely and solidifying the bonds between us.

  My thoughts were troubled after my meeting with the Commander, but at least they spared me from concentrating too hard on the festive mood all around me. The Students were gearing up for the promised Social and the campus was abuzz with excitement for it. My fellow Crusaders, except for Ajax, joined the merriment of the other Students and discussed excitedly what they would wear, whom they would dance with, and what kind of music the University would play. There was even talk that President Ross planned on showing motion pictures all night, old ones made before the Great Oil Wars, the kind that told stories just for entertainment. Those archaic films were of a type not made anymore, but could still be viewed for pleasure, along with anything else in the media archives, provided you could spare the energy it took to view them. That the University might show them for free was a great luxury, and another blow to my ego as an Athlete. We had never been 'given' air time to watch such things. But, as before, when I tried to find Atticus to commiserate with, he was nowhere to be found. I kept to myself and stuck to the tennis courts, trying not to be a downer for my friends.