There was a strange humming sound coming from the right side of the tracks.
I tried my best to ignore Iya, instead turning back to Maya. “But aren’t you afraid of being attacked from the sky?” I asked. “I would have thought you would be attacking each other’s cities all the time? Why not build underground or something?”
Maya smiled, as if what I had said seemed cute. “It’s never come to that, this city has never been attacked … or at least not that I know of. Both of our capital cities have gun emplacements so large and powerful that it would pretty much be suicide to attack.”
A hovering vehicle was barrelling down the tracks from the right, and the humming grew louder. It slowed, eventually coming to a stop in front of us. Its doors opened upwards, again by themselves.
As I entered, I ducked my head low, hoping the door wouldn’t suddenly give way and fall on top of me. The others entered after me. There were several rows of slats inside the vehicle, all of them empty. Maya took one of the front seats, next to the window, and I sat next to her. Iya and the other two soldiers sat at the back. Maya looked out the window at the starry sky. I felt a jolt as the vehicle pulled away from the station and rapidly accelerated.
I looked at Maya. “I have to ask … were you born here?”
She broke away from her stargazing with an insulted look on her face. “Are you asking because of the colour of my skin?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. Aren’t you Nomadic? It’s just that I was told it was rare for Dominion soldiers to have darker skin.”
She sighed: “You’re right about that. People ask me that question all the time and, normally, I would be offended. I mean, I’ve worked so hard to be respected and even feared, and yet people still ask me that.”
She looked down at her feet. “When they say it, they say it because I’m somehow worth less than a soldier who was never a Nomad to begin with,” she said before looking up to me again. “But you are a Nomad like I was. That’s why they chose me to show you around.”
“I guess so.”
I looked outside the window at the city as the vehicle hurtled down the track. I couldn’t help but notice how neat and clean the city was. Maya folded her hands on her lap.
“So, wasn’t Tau supposed to help show me around, too?” I asked.
“She’s still debriefing, you put her through a lot.”
“Debriefing?”
“She’s told us everything she can so far. I’m sorry to hear about your grandfather,” she said with a sympathetic frown.
So it was Tau who told them. How could she betray Eno and I like this, after I saved her twice? I angrily averted my eyes away from Maya. However, it wasn’t her that I was angry with, for Maya appeared to have a genuine interest in my feelings.
She locked eyes and shook her head. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now but … my mother taught me the Nomadic last rites. Tomorrow we could hold a little ceremony for him?” She smiled reassuringly.
I attempted a smile, too. “Wow, that would mean a lot to me, thank-you. Is that allowed here, though?”
“Well … officially it’s not. But I think you’ll find most of people in this city quite accepting.” She smirked mischievously. “And if anyone complains, they’ll answer to me, okay?”
I nodded in agreement. “Okay.”
She stood up and held onto the handle railing on the vehicle’s ceiling. “This is our station.” The vehicle came to a stop, its door again rising for us. Maya motioned to the station outside the window, so I stood up and one by one we all exited the vehicle.
Maya gently held my shoulder. “This procedure you’re about to take … I’ve taken it myself. So … don’t be afraid, at worst you’ll turn out like me.”
I let out a polite laugh, and Iya let out another groan. I was smiling, too, but deep down I was terrified. What would this assimilation procedure they were talking about entail? What was going to happen to me?
I followed Maya up the steps towards a dark-grey facility behind the station. In truth I wanted to leave right away, I wanted to portal all the way to any one of the settlements I had visited over the cycles. But until I removed this tracking device and rescued Eno, I’d just be endangering our lives.
My knees felt weak, like my body was trying to tell me to turn back. “Um, this assimilation thing?” I hoped Maya might be able to put me at ease.
“A team of scientists will take care of you. They use a mixture of Acolyte powers and technology to change someone’s very being. One will focus on your mind, she’ll change the way you think. The other will focus on your powers, she’ll work on awakening your true potential, because let’s be honest, you were a bit slow in our encounter the other day.”
A thought occurred: what if, during their work, these scientists accidentally set off the acid capsule near my spine? I felt queasy thinking about it.
We entered the facility and walked down the grey corridors. There were soldiers posted everywhere. Scientists were performing experiments in the various laboratories we passed. We walked through another corridor and passed a room where rows of strange white capsules were suspended from the ceiling. There seemed to be people inside of them, children perhaps.
“I’ll bring you here at the end of every day, and they will gently put you to sleep for the procedure. Then I have the honour of taking your sleeping body back home to your bed. You’ll wake up tomorrow, hopefully a better person.”
She grabbed my shoulder and stopped me. “And, if I can give a piece of advice? Don’t fight it. You’ll end up doing permanent brain damage the more you resist. The first lesson you’ll be taught will just be: don’t kill one of your own. I’m sure you already agree with that lesson, right?”
I scoffed. “Well, Mira needs to relearn that lesson. She threatened to kill me if I didn’t obey you people.”
Maya shook her head derisively. “Of course she wouldn’t, that’s just scare tactics.”
We entered through the doorway at the end of the corridor. A team of scientists were waiting. They all had white streaks in their hair. I walked in and sat on the table in the centre, already set up for me.
I was starting to fade out and I couldn’t even hear what the scientists were saying. Everything was fuzzy, as if I was going deaf. Maya approached the two scientists and greeted them, but they paid her no attention, instead locking eyes with me.
They advanced, laid me on the table and adjusted some straps around my arms, legs and head so I couldn’t move. One of the old scientists picked out a needle from a nearby tray and pressed it into my neck. I didn’t fight back, it was hopeless, my mind was going to be taken by these people and I was never going to be the same again.
12. Assimilation
I sat up and rubbed my blurry eyes. It felt as if I was going to throw up. On the other side of the darkened room there was an open door. A toilet sat on the floor inside the second room, so I threw the warm sheets aside and ran to it. I knelt beside the bowl and tried to vomit but nothing came up.
Somehow, even though my eyes were closed, I was able to see my surroundings. It was as if I was outside my own head and looking at myself from afar. I was wearing light-coloured clothing, a swirling mix of white and green. My brown neck-length hair, normally unwashed and coarse, had been cleaned and tied up in a neat tail. Even my grubby skin had been cleaned.
The duality of my perception was a sickening sensation. I tried throwing up again, and this time it came up with a disgusting taste. I felt awful. With my eyes still closed, my second perception shifted and I saw Tau entering the previous bedroom and switching on the lights. What was happening to me?
Tau wasn’t wearing her armour but rather a more formal military dress instead. She had her blue streaks put back in, too. As she made her way to the bathroom, I brought my sleeve to my mouth and wiped away the sick that still clung to my lips. She poked her head around the corner of the doorway. She saw me bent over the toilet.
“Woah, Sacet, are you okay?
” she said with a look of surprise.
“Does it look like I’m okay?”
I kept my eyes closed for fear of throwing up again if I opened them. This other perspective was spinning out of control, and I couldn’t seem to focus on what I wanted it to. I was seeing everything around me all at the same time, even things that were behind walls.
“Fine, I’m sorry for asking. Is there anything I can do to help?” she said, now upset, as if I was the one responsible for how I felt.
“Look, just … just … give me some time, alright?”
“Sure, we’re waiting for you outside when you’re ready.”
I was still angry at Tau, but I couldn’t recall why. It wasn’t really her fault that we got captured.
My second perception watched as she left the room and out into the living area. I was finally able to control this … thing. My mind followed Tau as she sat down at a glass table with Maya, who was reading something. I tried to look farther past the living room but my vision went fuzzy; it gave me a headache.
What happened last night? All I remembered was being taken to that facility and then … being put to sleep. What did they do to me?
No, more importantly, what did they do to Eno? Where was … that’s right, he was in the Prison Quad, being forced to work. And if I didn’t do as they told me, they might kill him. This wasn’t fair; he and I didn’t belong here.
I was hesitant about opening my eyes, but the sickness-inducing swirls of my mind were under my control now. I opened my eyes again and saw the brown sick water below me. The smell was awful. I stood up, made my way over to the sink and twisted the handle next to the faucet. Leaning down to wash my face, I gurgled and spat out the revolting ick that was still in my mouth.
“Uck …”
What was this power? Did the scientists boost my abilities this much overnight? Were they expecting this to happen? Maya told me they would only be amplifying my powers, not changing them. It would be best if I didn’t tell anyone about this, the less they knew about what I could really do, the better.
I walked back into the bedroom and looked towards the closed window. The curtain had darkened the room but sunlight still leaked out from behind it. My second set of eyes saw the balcony behind the window curtain, but I couldn’t seem to make out the view from the balcony itself.
Walking over to the window, I parted the curtains and took in the stunning view of the city. The tall buildings were covered with windows and balconies attached to them. There were people moving about inside their homes on the other side of the street.
I opened the glass door and stepped closer to the edge of the balcony to peer down into the streets. They were filled with people walking in all directions. The crowd’s discussions and other noises of the city travelled up to my ears. My vision spun and I felt sick again. I withdrew back through the windows into my bedroom.
Raising my hands to cover my eyes, I tried to compose myself. This sickness didn’t seem to be going away any time soon. As I walked over to my bedroom door, I tried to focus on what my own two eyes were telling me, rather than these images of my surroundings that bombarded my mind. I turned off the light switch next to the door and left the room. It was odd, this was the first door that needed to be pulled open.
The living area was joined with a kitchen and dining area. They were all in one large room, which overlooked the city with a balcony of its own from the dining area. Iya was sitting on an elongated cushioned chair, staring at the ceiling.
“Good morning,” Maya said from the dining table. She wore a similar military uniform to Tau, who was also sitting at the table.
“Feeling better now?” Tau inquired while standing to pull out a chair. “Have a seat.”
I ambled over and sat next to them. I was still dizzy and even though I was looking at the table, my second perception was spinning all over the place. Maya put down the strange, see-through device she was reading from to give me her full attention.
She gestured around the room. “So, this is my home. But I’ve been asked to share it with you for a while. You know, until you get on your feet and get your own place, and your own streaks. We’ve got a big day planned for you. First, we’re going to get a bite to eat, then we’re heading over to the Military Quad to introduce you to your trainer.”
I shook my head. “Food? Erm, I don’t think I’m ready for food, I’d rather sit here for a bit.”
“Still not feeling well?” Maya asked. “I guess we can stay for a little while and fill you in on things you might not know yet. Hmmm … do you know what our streaks all mean?” She pulled on the side of her fringe, which was mostly coloured purple, with blue tips.
I shook my head. It had something to do with ranks, but that’s all I knew.
Maya relaxed back into her chair and put her feet onto the table. “First thing you should know is that there is a streak colour and a tip colour. Streaks are for the detachment and tips are for the rank. I’m going in order of lowest rank to highest because some of the detachments are more important than others.
“The first streak colour is white, that’s for scientists or administrators, the people who run the place. They never fight, so they’re pretty boring. Next is blue, the basic soldiers, Tau for example. A red streak means you’re either in city defence, demolitions or an engineer of some sort. Green are the highly trained special operations teams: Spying, stealth, misinformation and snipers, that sort of thing. Yellow is the air force.”
Maya put down her feet and faced me with a serious expression: “And purple? That’s for Acolytes, you and me … and Iya over there, too.”
Iya still sat in silence, now looking around the room at anything but us. Her streaks were purple, too, but had red tips instead.
“What about the tips?” I asked.
“First is white, Initiate. It’s usually reserved for children or people who have just joined us, like you.
“After that is blue, or Trooper. And then red, the corporal of a squad. Green tips are for officers, they lead units. Yellow is for colonels, there’s only six of them in each detachment here in the capital city and the officers answer to them. Lastly, black tips make you a commander. There’s only six of them, too, one for each detachment.”
It didn’t mean anything to me at the time, but now I remembered Mira’s streaks. Like Maya and Iya, Mira had purple streaks in her blonde hair, but her tips were black.
I put my elbows on the table. “That Mira woman, she’s the Acolyte commander, right? I don’t like her … at all.”
Maya grinned. “Well, that’s a shame, because you’re going to have to show respect to all of your superiors now. Everyone in this room is your superior at the moment. Although, when you get your white-tipped purple streaks, you will outrank Tau. Acolytes are just more important people than the regular ones.” She smirked at Tau.
“Hardly a fair system,” Tau said.
Maya stood up from her chair. “Are you feeling better yet?” she asked of me. “I don’t know about you but I’m famished. How about you, Iya?”
Iya stood up and finally looked over to us. “Firstly, yes, I’m hungry. I’ve been telling you that for ages. And secondly, call me by my rank in front of the subordinates. You should be setting a good example for her,” she said with a glazed look in her eyes.
“Er … sorry corporal. Okay, let’s go,” Maya replied.
We all stood up from our seats and made our way out of the apartment and into the corridor. This hallway was decorated with something other than cold steel. We followed a long red rug that led down the hall to the staircase and descended it. The walls still seemed unnaturally sleek, but were now a pale yellow.
Tau caught up alongside me. “So, uhh, Sacet. About all that’s happened. Can you forgive me? I feel terrible about Eno. I didn’t realise you were trying to help him escape.”
My heart sank as I imagined where Eno was right now. “Fine, whatever,” I lied. “I guess it wasn’t your fault.”
“He
’ll be okay,” Maya added, focusing on the hallway.
Tau leant over as we walked, trying to catch my attention, then smiled at each of us. “That’s good, because I was hoping we could start over and be proper friends, all of us.”
Maya nodded. “Sure, I’m always needing people who’ve got my back.”
Iya snorted. “Count me out, I’m only here today under orders.”
Tau’s shoulders dropped. “Oh, ahhh, okay, corporal Iya.”
Strange, I assumed all three of them were living with me, but I think it was only Maya. “Okay, Tau. But I’m not even sure what I’ll be doing around here yet, other than being forcibly brainwashed every night.”
We came to the bottom of the stairs and walked down another hallway, passing apartment doors as we went.
Tau smiled. “It won’t be as bad as you think. You’ll start liking it here soon, I’m sure of it.”
The reception hall was filled with women coming and going out of the apartment complex entrance. They must have been civilians, because none of them had streaks in their hair like Iya, Maya and Tau. They wore clothing and dresses that showed off extravagant colours, like the clothing I was wearing. Some of them noticed us and avoided eye contact.
We left the hall together through the main entrance.
“I’ve made a morning booking at Alaia’s,” Maya said as she led us down the street. “It’s close by and I love their food, you’ll love it, too. Have you tried them, corporal? We can get something else if you’d prefer?”
Iya let out a groan. “No … and it’s fine. Whatever is fine,” she said.
As we walked down the street, I observed the other people passing by. They didn’t seem unhappy, but then did they know what atrocities their military committed around the globe? Could this be what they had planned for the whole world?
The entire place was decorated colourfully, just like the people. The walkways were lined with trees abloom, the buildings and storefronts were painted in vivid hues, and even the path below our feet was cut into decorative patterns.
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