The Broken Destiny

by Carlyle Labuschagne

  “My pillow,” I said soberly.

  I looked around again, lifted the blankets and franticly peered under the bed. I was looking for a specific pillow. Sam had given it to me when we were nine. Abruptly, my device rang, making us jump, vibrating against the hard surface of the windowsill where we must have dropped it earlier. I felt my heart skip a beat. I leaped forward, but Sam was there before me.

  “Ava’s phone. Is this the Ghostbusters?” She teased. We both giggled. “Hello, Maya.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Yes, she is. One moment, please.” She chuckled as she handed the device to me.

  After attaching the earpiece, I chatted with Maya.

  “Hey. It’s about time you called,” I said softly. “I have nothing to wear; can I come over to your place? I’m pretty sure you have something I could use for tonight’s bonfire.” I said in short breaths, already in panic mode.

  “You’re coming!” I shouted excitedly.

  “Yes. Why wouldn’t I be going?” She paused. “Oh, wait. It’s the whole ‘I’m Minoan’ thing, isn’t it? It’s because I’m Minoan that I can’t just come on over,” she bantered dryly.

  Professor Greenling was staring angrily at us from across the courtyard for being late to assembly once again. Whatever, it’s the last day of the school cycle, I thought to myself. Sam and I hurried to join our classmates. Dean Anderson came into view. Her broad shoulders were firmly set in a tight, padded, navy jacket from behind the shiny and silver, metal pew. Mechanical wings stretched from the neck of the podium, representing our military dominance. Her badges flapped in the wind. She patted them into place with her right hand, while her left hand rested on its metal frame.

  “Children,” she said sternly, nervously fumbling with the microphone on her shirt.

  The microphone screeched as she slapped it into place. She had always had a bit of stage fright, but no one dared to assist or correct her. She probably would have snapped their heads right off if they did.

  “Congratulations on another successful cycle on Poseidon.” Her voice boomed over the assembly square.

  Absently, I stared at the reflection on the glass tower behind her as dark clouds stained the early morning lilac sky. I imagined what it would have been like, had the Military not been our dominating division. The clouds pulled closer together. The rains are coming soon, I thought and felt the ripple of excitement course through me. It had been too long since this planet had signs of changing seasons – of life.

  “As you all know…” Dean Anderson’s voice came crashing through my thoughts. “…every end of cycle we have a bonfire on Pearl Beach. Recent events however…”

  Every single gaze seemed to land on me and my peers booed loudly. Dean Anderson stepped aside for Anaya, her chocolate brown hair blowing in the breeze as she lifted her hands for the crowd of restless students to quieten down. Her hair hung loose, contrary to most Minoan woman her age, a sign that she was unmarried. It was strange for a Minoan her age not to be married, but Anaya and her sister Arriana weren’t typical Minoan women. Anaya’s warm smile warmed my mood and the twinkle in her eye steadied the nervous beat of my heart.

  She said something about having the bonfire at Silver Cove instead. Soft whispers made their way through the group.

  “Children!” Anderson’s voice silenced the crowd. “Thank you, Anaya,” she said and bowed. “We thank the Minoans for their kind gesture and accept their offer with dignity. Let tonight be a symbol of new beginnings.” She looked up at the darkening sky before continuing. “With the return of the new cycle, we will open our school to the first Minoan students. I am confident…” She nodded affirmatively before continuing. “…every one of you will make sure that they are accepted and received with big smiles and warm hearts.”

  Warm hearts, warm hearts? She is kidding right? The Council knows not what a heart is, even if it laid beating right before them, I thought to myself. My mind whirled to the statements in my mother’s journals; experiments… blood… surgeries… dead babies… dead mothers… deformities… death! Our kind might have been created to survive the harshest of conditions, but it almost always lead to an early death. Talk about failure.

  Somewhere behind me, a boy’s voice protested and I jerked as he spat on the floor. I shook my head in disgust. If anything, the Council only bred racist pigs. My shoulders tensed. I was about to turn around to see who the perpetrator was when Sam squeezed my hand as she waved at François, who eagerly and shyly waved back at her. He seemed almost smitten, but knowing Sam, it was part of her entrapment game, and once she had her way with him… But, there was something about his shyness that didn’t add up. Is it all an act?

  “I leave you with one more piece of advice…”

  “Rock on!” Robert’s voice came crashing through from the other side of the courtyard, making my heart jump to life with excitement. I was now suddenly more aware of the military student’s presence than I had ever been before. This pleased me, as Troy was part of them; soon I would be too.

  “Yeah!” Chris shouted from behind me.

  Dean Anderson smiled. “Very well…” Her thin, wrinkled lips pulled together. “…rock on!” she yelled, and for the first time I noticed a playful side to her. This too, was an act.

  “You are dismissed” Vice President Vermaak announced. I turned to find my new friends. The military students all saluted in unison. I smiled. Chaos erupted around me. I stumbled numbly past everyone, pushing people off me as they bumped and pushed back, some even glowered as I passed, and others just kept staring. I didn’t care anymore. I was looking for Robert. I knew Troy would be with him and my heart raced at the thought of seeing him again. What would I say to him once I saw him? The crowd dispersed into scattered groups ahead of me, and through a gap in the crowd, I saw Troy getting onto his bike – his dark, golden hair fluttering on the breeze as he pulled off. My heart threatened to drop with disappointment. He hadn’t even seen me! I so dearly hoped that he hadn’t ignored me. I hoped that he just hadn’t noticed me. The wheels of the bike screeched as he sped away. I stood there with a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  “Little Ava,” Shane said as he came toward me, his gait confident. He walked like he owned the place. “I didn’t think you would come looking for us. Are they that boring?” He gestured with his head for me to look over my shoulder.

  I turned to see Tatos, Maya and Sam standing in a semi-circle. Both Sam and Maya’s arms were folded over their chests. I smiled at that; they could be so protective of me.

  “My old friend!” Dave shouted out, suddenly appearing beside me.

  He held out his hand to Tatos as he neared. Tatos accepted it and they man-hugged, keeping one hand locked in the handshake while the other patted the other one’s back brutishly. Sam looked amused as she neared, a wide grin forming and a twinkle in her eye. Oh boy, I knew that look.

  “I don’t believe we’ve met,” she said bluntly extending her hand toward Shane. “I’m Sam, Ava’s best friend.” She glared playfully at me. “At least I was, until I found out she was hiding someone sexy away from me.” Her eyes went from Shane to Tatos and then to Dave.

  Maya giggled madly beside me as she hooked her arm into mine. Some stares came from across the square; interacting with Minoans was not favorable amongst our kind. Well, what they didn’t know was that a whole lot was about to change.

  “I’m sorry for what happened between Troy and…” Dave started, but Tatos cut him off with a gesture of his hand.

  “Their fight is their own,” Tatos said plainly, his face as motionless as always.

  “Chief!” Robert shouted.

  I spun around and felt very disappointed when I saw that Troy was not with him. What had I expected anyway? He probably has some other girl to seduce, I scolded myself. I know his kind. He’s just another bad-ass womanizer who thinks everyone owes him something. I mentally smacked myself on the forehead. I was silly to think he’d be interested in me. My nastiness left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was
used to being hurt, but not made a fool of by boys. I had guarded myself from this for a long time. Lately, it had become almost impossible to guard myself against anything anymore. I felt my stomach sink at that thought. Sam jumped to full alert at the sight of Robert and leaned ever so slightly toward him as he neared. She had never been subtle when it came to boys. Their eyes met and Sam did something I had never seen her do before. She blushed and looked away.

  “Ava,” Tatos bowed.

  I bowed back, as did the rest of the group.

  “Sam!” Dave called out. “Have you met Greg?” he asked, pulling Greg by his arm toward her. Robert seemed to tighten up. I smiled at Greg and he returned it warmly. He bowed in greeting to Tatos. Dave had to stand on his toes to reach the top of Greg’s head so that he could drill his knuckles into it. Greg pushed him away playfully, fixed his hair and winked at me.

  Extending his hand to Sam, Greg said, “The pleasure is all mine.”

  Sam beamed. I recognized Greg as the dark-haired boy who had winked at me as we had walked away from the fight the previous night.

  Dave knocked him back, hitting him in the ribs with such force that it sent dust flying around their feet. Their boots, which had been shiny and black beforehand were covered in brown dust afterward. Robert joined in soon enough.

  “I was just being polite to the ladies!” Greg yelled from under an arm lock.

  I got the impression that Greg was very mischievous. In fact, the whole gang shared the same characteristics. It always seemed as if they were up to no good, a flicker of darkness appearing in their eyes sometimes.

  “Boys!” Sam said, rolling her eyes and pulling me aside, leaving the boys in a group scuffle of some sort. “I can surely live without them,” she noted, quoting yet another Earth movie before excusing herself and leaving to catch up with François.

  Sam and I loved quoting scenes from our favorite Earth films. We kept a mental score of who remembered the most quotes. So far, Sam was in the lead. My mind had been occupied by way too many other things, not to mention the dozens of questions and self-proclaimed answers swirling around in my mind. I couldn’t help but think that there was more to my Broken bloodline than Kronan had told me. He had only recounted part of the story and I felt a gaping hole where some sort of fulfillment should have been.

  Tatos carried Maya’s trunk on his right shoulder all the way to our wing of the school. His face remained immobile the entire time as many stared our way. As I walked beside him, I glanced up, mapping out the hard lines on his face. I wondered how old he was. He seemed more mature than his fellow warriors, aged by a sorrow I recognized in myself; the sorrow of not being able to tell the people around you exactly how you felt. It could bear down on you so hard and so heavy, threatening to break you from the inside out. I could see a flame of burden burning behind his bluish eyes. I could relate to that. I felt like I owned everything that had happened and everything that was going to happen; I seemed to be the only one who was worrying about the whole mess. I wondered what Tatos was hiding. What was eating at him? As always, Tatos’ hair was tied neatly in a fine plait that hung down to his shoulder blades; an array of colored beads were woven through the plaited hair. Together Maya, Tatos, Anaya and I, walked all the way to the south wing in silence. Our apartment was quite a far way across from the massive assembly area. Anaya kept some distance behind us, buried in her own thoughts. We all knew something was coming our way. It was as if we could sense it and it was driving us slowly mad; everyone thinking it was only them, scared to talk about it in case it brought on more questions we did not want the answers to. The sun glinted off the glass on the great high-rise of labs behind us as we headed into the park set right in the middle of the girl’s wing. This made up the perfect Science School, a towering achievement of modern science on a dying planet – an ancient one at that. Despite what it signified in my life, I both loved and hated science. I didn’t believe that everything could be explained through science. In fact, if it were not for human’s infatuation with science, we would not be vulnerable to this so called Change. If that were not enough to instill my hate for military science, I argued that the forests must have come from somewhere and that water couldn’t be made from scratch. The fact that our human ancestors came from bacteria was highly debatable in my mind – I would not accept that. If that was the case, then how do you explain a soul? I queried to myself. I didn’t see how our ancestors could have been experiments as well. That idea was too morbid to explore. I wondered where our souls came from and where it had all started. As we neared our wing, I gazed up to the mountain of glass behind us as it towered over part of the forest, submerging it in iridescent colors of yellows, gold’s and blues. It truly was a beautiful and magnificent structure that reached into the skies. On a clear morning, the sun hit the tower at the perfect angle casting a warm glow into our apartment, the rays submerging most of our bedroom in a warm beam of light. On cold mornings like these our beds were the warmest place to be, and probably the reason why I overslept most of the time. We came to a halt in front of our apartment. A big metal tower now overlooked our wing. It reminded me that things were still very serious. It sat on the corner where a modest private park used to be. What was once a meek tree house was now a metal spike that loomed over our little corner of the world. I watched as one of the guards made his way into the tower. Tatos put the trunk down gently on the little patch of lawn just beneath the stairs. I walked to them, excited and nervous, but glad the other girls were not around as they would for sure have said something horrible to my Minoan companions. Anaya and Maya trailed behind in silence. They too knew that Maya’s presence into our dormitories was one for the history books of our time. As the front door slid open, Tatos’ body sprung into full alert, his shoulders tensing and his eyes ablaze. I shot Maya a look, but she didn’t notice as she was leaning down to wipe the dust off her trunk. I then glanced at Anaya and Tatos who were exchanging a look. Tatos looked down at me and placed his hand on my shoulder stopping me.

  “Is there someone who stays with you that might be involved…” he began, but Anaya cut him off.

  “Ava, Tatos needs to inspect your apartment before you enter.”

  I nodded and Maya stood closer to me, suddenly aware of the tension. Tatos hurried past us, but before he could step inside, the door quickly slid shut. He spun around, an impatient look in his eyes. I had forgotten that Ox had a database of biometrics in her system, and that Tatos was not in that database. I swiftly made my way to the door. Tatos looked straight ahead as the door swooshed open once more and he made for the stairs. He turned, looking for confirmation. I nodded and he continued up the stairs. Maya and Anaya pulled Maya’s trunk inside. Suddenly a screech sounded from upstairs. It was Sam. Soon after, Tatos came crashing down the stairs, looking flushed. Anaya and Tatos hastily bowed and left in an extreme hurry.

  “Knock next time!” Sam yelled from the top of the stairs.

  We burst out into laughter. No one had expected Sam to be there.

  One in the afternoon came too soon. Maya and I had spent the entire morning rummaging through items of clothing. The contents of my cupboard, her trunk, as well as a few pieces of Sam’s clothing were scattered all over the room. I couldn’t even see the surface of my bed. The floor was just a lump of brightly colored dresses, skirts and beautiful coats – mostly Maya’s.

  “Hey,” I said, looking over at Maya’s pile and then back to mine. “Where did you get all these clothes from?” I asked bluntly, knowing full well that Maya’s adoptive family were talented seamstresses. I thought perhaps throwing a hint her way would win me an item or two. In our little city, our clothes were very much for survival; comfort and uniform.

  Sam laughed out loud, her ginger curls bouncing up and down, long legs stretched out before her on her bed while she dyed her nails a blistering red ink – a bottle purchased eons ago from the Minoan market. As end cycle break approached, Sam went full out on pampering herself, wanting desperately to exp
ress her individuality. She thought it was ingenious. I thought there was no point as she would just have to remove it before school began. Scrubbing her nails with harsh chemicals had stained them yellow and cracked her skin the previous time she had tried this.

  “Now you’ve had it,” Sam said playfully as she tried to dry her toenails by frantically waving one of my books over them. I stared with a grin as she extended her toes to the ceiling, giving them one last look before we headed out.

  Maya stared at me candidly, resting her eyes on mine with strong intent. “What?” she said, shrugging innocently.

  Stumbling clumsily across the room as a soft camisole wrapped itself around my ankles, I pulled a beautiful white coat from my bed, light patches of tan fur snaked around its collar. On Poseidon, animal fur was a luxury. If Maya schooled in our city next year, she would have to hide the coat for sure.

  “Oh, that. Kronan gave it to me,” She shrugged nonchalantly. “He often brought a whole bunch of stuff from his trips…” Maya quickly shut her mouth, a whisper of panic in her eyes as she shot a gaze toward Sam.

  “Oh, it’s fine,” I said softly. “I don’t hide things from Sam.” My eyes moved to meet Sam’s.

  “Yeah,” she said through a mouth stuffed full of baked chips. “I know everything about the traveling mirror, poisonous darts and sexy warrior men.” She grinned.

  I felt my cheeks heat up as Maya’s hard glare fell on me.

  “No, not you, too.” She pointed her finger at me, taking a step in my direction, being careful not to trample any clothing.

  “Ava,” Maya waved a thick, black sock at me, her tone becoming serious. “I need you to stay away from him,” she said.

  I shot her a quizzical look.

  “Told you so!” Sam yelled at me and toasted herself with a peach.

  The great thing about technology was that whatever you wanted you could have, whenever. Any fruit was available, no matter the season – at a fee, of course. I think Sam spent most of her allowance on food and beer. I had no idea where she stored it though. She was way too skinny for the amount of food she consumed. Sam was a busy, busy girl so I guessed that it all burned off quickly. She was, however, both chilled and fierce at the same time, still managing to be a tomboy without looking like one. She could have been a movie star in another time, on another planet.