The Energy Crusades

by Valerie Noble

  Tell me, he said, as the others nodded off around us.

  He is your cousin, I began, knowing exactly what it was he wanted to know. I let my memories of that night fill his head, from the moment Atticus knocked on the door, until Ajax closed that same door in my face. I didn't hold anything back. I felt him anger at some spots, and sadden at others.

  When I was done showing him, he sat quietly, holding in his thoughts. He reached behind his head and undid his necklace, then secured it around my own throat. Warmth filled me. Around my neck, the necklace was at home. It belonged to me, like the boy who had worn it his whole life. He gave me his necklace and pledged his love for me. I reached for my wrist and fumbled through my clothing to find my cuff. I unfastened it hastily and held it out. Ajax pulled his sleeve back and allowed me to secure it around his wrist. He sighed with relief once it was there, visibly relaxing, even more so than before.

  It's done then, he smiled at me. We will cement the bond between our families, whatever comes next, whether I am an Unviable or not.

  I tilted my head up to his and he kissed me softly, quietly. He touched his forehead to mine again.

  Whatever you are, I am, I reminded him. Maybe we weren't exactly the same genetically, but we were something similar, I felt sure of it.

  Jason is wrong, Kaia. For me, it does have to be one or the other, you understand that, right?

  I understand. But we both know the only reason he was able to get close to me was because of his resemblance to you. It was always about you.

  A flood of his emotions cascaded over me as he kept his forehead pressed against mine.

  Eventually, we drifted off to sleep, exhausted from the day and also from sharing our feelings after having kept them bottled up for so long. My head stayed upon his shoulder as I nodded off, basking in the way he surrounded me and made me feel safe and loved. Whatever we had to face tomorrow, I was ready. I had Ajax now. I felt invincible.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Reformation

  When I opened my eyes again, a soft white light was shining on my face. I was lying on a bed in a warm room.

  "Hello, Kaia," Commander Renier's voice greeted me. I bolted upright immediately.

  "Where is Ajax?" Panic gripped me. Where was I?

  "Ajax is fine," he answered, his voice calm. He sat in a chair across from me.

  "Is this a healing bed?" My voice wavered; I could hear it. "What have you done to me?"

  He smiled benignly. Calm radiated from him and his manner was easy and untroubled. Despite myself, I relaxed a bit. "I haven't done anything to you but make you warm. Is the bed not comfortable? Even if it is a healing bed?"

  "How did I get here?" I whispered. The room was bare except for the bed, the chair the Commander sat in, and the light above my head. There were no windows and only one door, and it was closed.

  "I walked into that sad little shelter on the side of the mountain and I took you. Didn't you realize I could do that at any time?"

  If I had realized he could do that, I probably never would have slept at all.

  "Why?" I asked, blood rushing through my veins. How was this happening to me?

  "What does the Resistance want in those mountains?" he asked quietly. I hesitated a moment before answering, considering the question.

  "To control the communication outpost?" I thought it was obvious, but the answer seemed too easy.

  "Or so they would have us think," the Commander smiled. "Why then, did they give up the post as soon as a certain girl was taken out of the equation?"

  My face grew hot and I closed my eyes momentarily, hoping what he said wasn't true.

  "They have also captured your brother on Danu. In the mountains. While taking control of a communications outpost. So tell me, why do you think they lured you into the mountains in the first place?"

  "Tiergan—" My heart was in my throat. I couldn't believe his team could be captured. "Is he okay?"

  "Why don't you ask your friend Jason Paris?" The comment hovered in the air between us as he got to his feet. "I want you to take a walk with me, Kaia."

  I got out of the bed as a growing sense of unease enveloped me. Worry for my brother and his fellow Crusaders filled my mind. I didn't even want to consider the Commander's last comment or what he meant by it, and I didn't want to defend myself. If Tiergan was in trouble, all I cared about was helping him. Everything else paled in comparison.

  I followed the Commander out of the room and into a long hallway.

  "You are in the Cassiopeia Grid, at the headquarters for the Reformation Republic." He began narrating our walk as we strolled around the headquarters. There were several buildings in the compound, all one-story structures situated within easy walking distance of each other. Many of the buildings were quite large, as was the one we were currently in, but austere. There was no opulence to them, no luxury. The surroundings were simple and functional, much like a University.

  "This is my compound in particular," he continued, showing me around his private quarters. His things were modest and spare. He had an exercise room next to where he slept, outfitted with a running machine. "Even I earn my energy, Kaia. Did you know that? Everybody who works for the Reformation Republic, human or Descender, earns their own energy every single day."

  He stopped walking and looked at my face as his words sunk in. I hadn't known he earned his own energy, I assumed the Reformation was powered by all the human energy from the many Crusades that served it. We began to walk again, stopping at a door to pull on jackets before heading outside. While not as cold as the Helena Mountains, the Cassiopeia Grid was also in the grip of winter, and a blanket of snow crunched beneath our feet as we walked.

  The Commander stayed at my side, though I would have preferred to walk behind him as befitted his rank. Also, I wanted to study him. I cast sidelong glances at him as we walked. Each one was met with his own eyes, catching me as I studied him. He wore a red energy suit. Red was the color for the Reformation, but I had never seen him, or his advisors, wearing such a suit and his looked well-worn and properly used.

  We entered another building and the smell of lavender engulfed us.

  "This is the Healing Building," he informed me, gesturing at the multitude of healing beds in front of us. "It is the most advance Healing Center on the planet. Humans come from all over to heal and rehabilitate." It was the most luxurious of all the buildings I'd encountered, ever. Comfort of the patient was clearly the top concern. The beds looked plush, outfitted with soft blankets and a multitude of pillows. Each had its own monitor nearby and from what I could tell, the patients could view whatever they wanted. The entire space was warm, calm, and a general sense of peace hung in the air. The Healers went about their work quietly, stopping to acknowledge us with only a slight tip of the head, seemingly unruffled by the Commander's presence. We stopped by each patient's bed and he visited a few moments, laying his hands on them and bringing them comfort. Love poured forth in the room; I felt the emotion in the air, thick and sure, and all for the Commander. He spoke softly and gave encouragement.

  "Do you see what your energy has helped to provide?" he asked me, when we had stepped back out into the cold.

  "Yes, Commander," I answered, humbled by what I had seen.

  "You are at a crossroads, Kaia; don't think I can't see that. You're starting to question what you are, and what your life has been about. I felt the same way at one time. When I came to this planet, I was a young boy, much younger than you are, and I had to leave behind everything that was familiar. I wasn't simply leaving home; I was leaving my entire planet, forever." As we walked, he told me his story, speaking in a soft voice about coming to a destroyed planet and making it his life's mission to rebuild it.

  "I loved someone once too, does that surprise you?" he asked, looking into my eyes again. His own filled with pain, the emotion of hurtful memories sweeping over the two of us.

  "Yes," I admitted. "What happened?" I knew next to nothing about who he
was on a personal level.

  "My companions and I were sent here for a purpose: to rebuild and re-populate the planet. To teach humans a healthier, cleaner way of sustaining their lives and to ensure the planet would be a safe home for both humans and Descenders. We were sent to Academies and trained for this purpose in much the same you've trained as an Athlete. We became so adept at studying human nature that some of us let our alien characteristics recede, and adopted human characteristics." He turned his head to look down at me. "Do you understand what I mean?"

  "Some of you pretended to be human," I answered, more pieces of the puzzle falling into place inside my head. "Why pretend? We live together peacefully and work for the common good, right? Aren't we on the same side?" Once again, I wanted the answers and I didn't want the answers.

  "Are we?" he tilted his head as he continued to look at me. "The common good is a tricky idea." He walked on, clasping his hands together behind his back. "I always thought I was doing what was best for the common good, but many would disagree with me. My own race is in decline, and we stand on the brink of extinction. Danu is dying, much like Earth once was. We came here to build a new home, to do things right. What we need is the best possible gene pool to ensure the survival of our species."

  "Your species, Commander?" I had a sinking feeling the survival of the human species was not his priority.

  He kept his gaze straight ahead and allowed a bit of his feelings to hover between us. Sorrow, regret. "I cannot have children, Kaia. I will never have a child of my own. It is the males of our race who are unable to breed. The females are still fertile. We need a new race that combines the best of both of our species."

  "Then why hide it?" I asked again, but he didn't give me a straight answer.

  "I had to give up the woman I loved for the common good. Would you be able to do the same?"

  We re-entered the Commander's headquarters and I followed him down hushed corridors. He opened a door into a conference room. A large, oval table nearly filled the space, but only two people were present in the room.

  "I trust you recognize your Coach and Professor?" He held the door as I walked past him into the room. I bowed to them immediately, trying to mask the look of confusion across my features.

  "Sit down," the Commander touched my shoulder as he passed me, taking his seat at the head of the table. I sat in the chair to his left. Coach Renier and Professor Baal sat across from me, their faces as expressionless as masks.

  "Are you done with your little game, Commander?" Professor Baal addressed him, her voice tense. "Cadmus is in trouble on Danu and you're wasting time."

  "I'm wasting time?" he raised his voice slightly as red threads shot through his hair. He reached out and took hold of my arm without looking in my direction. "From where I sit, it's the two of you who have been wasting my time. Trade this girl and be done with it!" His fingers dug into my flesh.

  "No!" Coach Renier slammed his fist down on the table. The brothers glared at each other for several moments.

  I stole a glance at Professor Baal and she reached a hand up to her neck, as if she had an itch, but she let it linger there, one finger tracing a small line across her throat. In response, I felt the heat of Ajax's necklace, of my necklace. The stone lay on my chest beneath my energy suit and I felt it pulse with heat. She knew. She knew her son had given me his necklace and that we were bound to each other. The thought pleased me somehow, and I let the smallest of smiles tug at the corner of my mouth.

  "You know you have no intention of trading her," Professor Baal turned her gaze back to the Commander. "Get to the point of this meeting-"

  "You do NOT command me, Astrid Baal!" The Commander cut her off. "Don't presume you know what it is I want, because what I want is to cut her open and figure out exactly what she is, then find a way to duplicate her."

  I pulled my arm from his grip and found my voice. "Cut me open?" It was difficult to speak up in front of such an audience, but I had to have a say in what was to be my fate. The Commander turned his fiery gaze to me. "What is it you think I am?" I asked him, not flinching away from his eyes.

  "What you are is a hybrid," he answered, the slivers of red fading out of his hair. He seemed to calm down a bit. "The very thing we've been trying to create and perfect for years."

  "How do you know that?" I asked him. Tiny beads of sweat began to form at my temples and my stomach felt queasy. I didn't like the direction of the conversation at all.

  The Commander smiled in the friendliest of ways. With the gesture, some of my fear of him ebbed. I remembered what my coach had said about the Commander believing he was good and I tried to consider his point of view, but it wasn't easy.

  "I had you for an entire night," he told me. "Obviously I tested you in every way I could while you slept. I also put a tracker in you."

  My blood went cold upon hearing I had been experimented on without my knowledge

  "Alaric!" my coach shouted. "How dare you! You do not decide the fate of this girl; we all do!"

  "Life is about compromise, brother. I'll take the tracker out if you let me cut her open. Or, you can leave the tracker in, and send her to Danu. Either way, this girl is a Reformation Athlete and she will do as we command her." He paused and turned to meet my eyes again. "You worry about what you've given to the Reformation, right Kaia? That you might be a slave, rather than working for the 'common good' as you put it?"

  "No, Commander. I am proud of what I've done," I answered him. I wouldn't back away or let my fear paralyze my senses.

  "If humans don't have to earn their energy, how long do you suppose until disease creeps back in? Look at your history books to remind yourself what the human condition was like before the Oil Wars, before we came along."

  It wasn't good, I remembered. There was rampant obesity and chronic disease. People smoked on purpose and abused all manner of food and other substances.

  "Things won't be better if the Resistance were to take over, believe me. They'll just seem that way for a while," he finished.

  "That's enough, Commander," Professor Baal kept her voice low. We all turned toward her. "I want to protect this girl. You're right, we have tried to create a perfect hybrid and things have gone horribly wrong. It's not too late to stop this. Lift the decree on inter-breeding and let nature take its course. You cannot control this any longer and we've already lost too much. We can still do the right thing."

  "That's a beautiful sentiment," he answered. "Lift the decree, she says!" his gaze flew between the three of us. "By that logic, would you have this one breed with just anyone?" He tilted his head, looking at Professor Baal while gesturing toward me. Her face paled visibly.

  "No," she whispered, without hesitation.

  "No," my coach echoed.

  "You can't have it both ways," the Commander answered.

  "I pledged myself to Ajax Baal," I spoke up in a hurry, fearing it would be my last chance.

  "Well that is too bad," he answered me. "Because now it is time for you to do what's best for the common good. Astrid picked the wrong son for you, and we all know it. You and Ajax have failed miserably together as a team and now it is time for you to go to the superior son. You are going to Danu as an envoy. You will join Cadmus and pledge yourself to him, because that is what's best for the common good."

  "I did not fail with Ajax!" I yelled, unable to control my anger. "We've only just begun!" I insisted.

  In response to my outburst, the Commander remained as still as stone. He showed absolutely no emotion on his face.

  "Then you recovered the information?" he smiled broadly at me. I sank back down in my chair, defeated.

  "We will," I answered, my voice sounding too much like a plea.

  "You will indeed," he replied, "with Cadmus. You will go to Danu and find him and his companions. Then you will free them from the Resistance, by whatever means necessary. If you have to seduce Jason Paris to get the job done, then you will. You will do whatever it takes to bring me the informati
on."

  The three of them erupted into conversation, arguing and debating over what was to be done with me, who lied to whom, and who was keeping secrets. Professor Baal tried to convince the Commander to keep me with Ajax, but he insisted that Cadmus was the son with the best genes and by her own edict, he should be the one to partner with me. Even my coach couldn't come up with a decent argument, and the Professor's protestations were brushed aside.

  "You see? This is where you fail, Astrid." Commander Renier leveled a disparaging look at her. "Your human-like attachment to those children has made you soft. You can't even make the right decision for the most important girl on the planet right now. Perhaps you have worn out your usefulness."

  "Perhaps you have, Commander," she countered. But in the end, they agreed I was to go to Danu as the Commander wished. He dismissed me into Professor Baal's care, but kept Coach Renier behind for further discussion. I said my goodbyes to my coach, hoping it would not be for the last time.

  "Get her on an intergalactic transport as soon as possible," the Commander ordered. "And remember Kaia, you are a Reformation Athlete and you now have a tracker implanted in you. If you should fail, or veer off course in any manner, there is nowhere you will be able to hide from me. I can walk in and take you at any time, just as I did on the mountain. Remember."

  I would never forget it. I bowed to him deeply, hoping he could not see the color flood my cheeks as I bristled over his words. "Thank you for your time, Commander," I answered.

  I turned my back and followed my professor out of the room and out of the building entirely. I walked behind her feeling more confused than ever. Which side was the right side? Who did Professor Baal and Coach Renier serve? Were they part of the Reformation, as I'd always believed, or were they helping the Resistance? Did they know about Abra and were they working with her? What would the Commander do if he knew Abra was alive? Part of me wanted to believe he'd be happy — he'd listen to her and try and find some common ground with the Resistance. But that was a foolish dream. I'd seen the way the Commander could be wonderful and charming, and then turn, within seconds, into something frightening and power mad. He seemed a bit unhinged to me, like he was losing control and letting his emotions take over, as he accused everyone else of doing.