Sword Nation 1: House of Rahilius (A Dystopian Sci-fi Romance Novel)

by A. J. Ross

  "By the time my parents found out about it, over seven-hundred thousand of the tickets had already been sold. They refused to send me alone to Delu, they didn’t want the hassle of auditioning for Graiis, and they had the money to get us to Kayora. Sixty million a ticket.”

  “Money?”

  “Yes, money was everything on Earth, just like it is here.”

  “We don’t have anything like that on Graiis,” she said. “Everything belongs to everyone. There are Griician cities and human colonies, but they don’t mix. We've heard terrible things about people from Earth, so the Grii don’t trust them. You know, they actually tried to murder Grisian one night. He was so angry he almost killed every male on Graiis. Luckily for them Grisian has a soft spot for children. He gave the kids a chance to change his mind.” She smiled, “It was an exciting time, and they did well. Grisian was impressed, but couldn’t completely ignore the betrayal. So in the end he decided only the males born on Earth were to die. It was a hard day for the people.”

  “And what about you? Was it hard for you?”

  She was thoughtful. “No. I understood Grisian’s actions. I find it interesting that people believe they should wage wars in places they don’t belong, and try to take things that don’t belong to them.”

  “And yet,” he interrupted, “you’ve agreed to help train my army against Rahilius.”

  “Rahilius killed my father,” she snapped. “The situation here is different. We’re talking about injustice and cruelty, not entitlement.”

  “Fair enough,” he replied.

  “So? Sixty million a ticket?”

  He nodded, continuing his story. “They woke us from sleep for a few days once a year. I would get to exercise and see my parents and some other families and their kids. It wasn’t luxury, but it was okay. I saw very little of the Kayorians during the voyage. Insignificant at the time, but I would later come to understand their absence as deliberate evidence they did not intend to give us an equal place in their society. They were conditioning us.”

  His voice lowered, and his eyes fixed on something far in the middle distance as he spoke. “When I woke up from Cryo the final time I was fourteen and we had landed. I knew then there was a problem as soon as we began to evacuate the shuttle. They were pulling and shoving us out, and people were being separated. I watched them strip both my parents naked, and separate them. One side for the naked males, and the naked females on the other. They sprayed everyone with water. Many were knocked down from the high water pressure.

  The Kayorians spoke among each other in Kayor. I couldn’t understand the words, but I could sense them, each one mired in some deeply sickening sadism. They mocked us as if we were beings without consciousness, or intelligence. They would negotiate among themselves, and exchange money. People were chained together and herded like cattle.” His emotions were high, and his pupils darted back and forth as he pictured everything in his mind as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. His tone was bitter, “We were all so exhausted and weak from the ten-year voyage. Our muscles were out of use. We were disoriented and our minds were still foggy from the effects of the cryo. They knew we couldn’t do anything. Physically, no one had the strength to do anything. Some tried to ask the Kayorian guards what was happening, but they were beaten down to the ground right where they stood.”

  He scoffed. “I remember looking up at those monsters, hoping they would like me, and realize I gave them no reason to treat me the way they treated my parents. At that time, I was still very much a child. Fourteen, but with the intellect and comprehension of a four-year-old.

  They took me and put me with several other children. For whatever reason they didn’t remove our clothes. I remember looking around at the terrified faces of the other kids who were smart enough to know we were trapped. Many of them were visibly shaking from the trauma of a day we would never forget.

  Myself and many other children were taken to a facility and locked up. I never saw my parents again. I spent the next five years in that cell. They called it a dorm, but we were locked in there at night. All the while, more ships kept pouring in with more unsuspecting victims.

  The other children and I were put in school and taught Kayor. They gave us different surnames. They used their holy book to convince us of the divinity of the Kayorians, and of our inferiority. They were gods, holding sole power to grant us peace, or take it away.”

  His mood lightened and he leaned back in his chair. He spoke nostalgically, “Almost a year after we were first put in the camp, they added another boy to our dormitory. He was two years older than me, and seemed to have a stronger perception than any of us.” He looked directly at her, his blue eyes clouded with flecks of gray. His voice filled with passion and conflict, “He was full of hate. Hate, and an absolute certainty of what we were and could be as humans. He convinced us power was no more than the will to act. He taught me the value of sacrifice, and became the first hero I would ever have. Everyday, he would battle against the power of Kayorian doctrine for control of our credulous minds. Every night, we would plot and scheme against the Kayorians.” He chuckled, “We made a game of it.

  People were disappearing from our facility at twenty. Maybe they were put out into society with the rest of the slaves or maybe not. We were afraid to find out. Then there were stories, horrible stories about people being used as test subjects for developmental medicines, chemicals, and poisons. We started planning an escape. By that time, Kurt, my hero, was long dead due to non-conformity, and we had learned to feign ours in the presence of our instructors. He was gone, but the fire he had set ablaze in our hearts burned hotter everyday.

  We were allowed to bathe once a week. There were drains in the shower rooms large enough to fit through. We were terrified because we had no idea where the drains would lead, and none of us even knew how to swim. But at nineteen I had already thrown away my life; or any optimism for the future, so why not throw it away again? At least this time it would be my choice, and on my terms. My friends agreed to risk their lives with me.

  We escaped. The pipes dropped us in the river where we were carried along kicking and fighting to keep our heads above water. It was so cold; I knew for sure I was going to die. I remember grabbing on to the branches of a tree and pulling myself from the water. I don’t remember where I went first, or when I found my friends . . .”

  “You all made it?” she asked.

  He nodded. “From my dorm, yes. After we escaped, we tried to search for our families but of course their names had all been changed. Not to mention the difficulty of finding anyone with the courage to give us any information. People were being beaten and starved into compliance, and what choice did they have? They didn’t understand the Kayorian language. They had no property, weapons, or influence. The few with the courage to resist were wiped out quickly, and those who remained had been mentally castrated. That made it easy for the Kayorians to do whatever they wanted to us.

  And it turned out, those who left the Education Camp at twenty were able to enter an elite above ground society with the official job of ‘ensuring the peace and well-being of all humans on Kayora,’ but we all knew what their purpose really was. Kurt had warned us the Kayorians would try to keep us divided. The re-education curriculum was highly effective in snatching away our empathy towards others and replacing it with selfish arrogance. What did surprise me though, were the other people who became a part of this society.” His expression was pensive, and he spoke to himself as if he were reading his own thoughts aloud. “The older ones. They never went to the camp. They were just . . . chosen. How convenient. I always wondered if these were the same men who had negotiated our travel to this planet, and if they knew beforehand what the Kayorians planned to do with us. If that’s the case, what does it say about us, as humans?”

  “Does that really matter?” she replied softly. Her big brown eyes were equally soft, and surrounded by long, dark, curly lashes. They peered deep into him, far beyond his words and their i
mplications. “If I say some people are good, and others inherently bad, does that make our world any easier to understand? We are all just products of a series of choices, whether bad or good. We don’t see it as it happens, but with each bad choice, especially when born from pure motive; I think it becomes harder and harder to recognize the difference.”

  His eyes studied her face ardently as she clearly defined a hopelessness he had embraced the day stepped foot on Kayora. This was the path of every intelligent creature in existence. One choice after another. Her sense of insight made him feel exposed and vulnerable in the most exciting way. As if she knew the path he had already walked, and the one he was destined to. Her words captured a complex balance, condemning his cause yet strengthening his resolve in the same breath. His face flushed, and he turned away from her.

  “Did Rahilius not pursue you?” she asked after a few moments, her tone as soft and low as it had been before.

  He nodded, “Yes, we heard the patrols were after us. Luckily the Kayorian guards weren’t overly interested in searching our city below ground. They searched for only a couple of weeks, then I suspect they reported us dead. Many were happy to help us hide, especially when we told them of our attempted re-education, our escape from the lab, and our desire to fight back against the Kayorians. We made promises. Promises that until just a few days ago, seemed impossible.” He looked at Braii with Gentle eyes, “Until you came.”

  A moment of silence was shared between them, then he asked, “What about you? How did you end up here? And in Grisian’s house? Were you a slave?”

  Braii shook her head. “I lost my parents in a fire when I was young. I was given a psychological evaluation after the incident, and the Grisian just decided to keep me. He thought it would be good for Griicio-human relations.”

  “Did he . . .” Erwin looked embarrassed, and there was pain in his eyes as he quietly said the words, “Did he touch you?”

  “No,” she quickly assured him.

  He nodded, and his tense face immediately relaxed.

  “The Grii don’t touch anybody,” she said plainly. “They don’t have sexual organs as we do. The women have reproductive organs, but male and female never need to have physical contact to reproduce. There’s one Griician male on the whole planet. He releases his spores a few times a year, and the females in the vicinity of the palace absorb them and become pregnant. Every Griician child born on Graiis in the last fifty years, is one of his.”

  “That sounds terrible,” he said with a smirk. “Having a planet full of your offspring, but none of the pleasure that comes along with creating them.”

  “Well,” she shrugged, “that isn’t what’s important. His spores have given life to-”

  Erwin interrupted her, “Did you say it wasn’t important?” His wide eyes narrowed onto her face, and he asked in a curiously flirtatious tone, “Princess, have you ever been with a man?”

  “My name is Braii,” she replied defensively. “And yes. Of course I have.” She thought of her last night with Lincoln. He had held her in his arms. “The last time I saw him he kissed me,” she said softly, her eyes filling with sadness.

  Erwin felt a twinge of jealousy. He lived his life tied to the memory of his wife, yet he felt insecure hearing Braii was also tied to someone in her past. “What will happen the next time you see him?” he asked.

  “If he’s alive and we are reunited, we will marry and have children.”

  “Children,” he echoed. “You have such pure dreams. I hope the world gives you everything you desire.”

  They exchanged glances. He saw the confidence in her eyes, and she saw the deep sadness in his.

  Lincoln went to see Tsamiit early in the morning. This was the day he would board a ship and travel to Kayora. He walked slowly savoring every breath of air on his home planet. He knew he was going to a place where people’s lives were regarded as nothing. He was going to a place where he would have to hide who he was, and find someone to help him search out Rahilius and the princess. Kiina had programmed the ship to land in a forest outside of the city. Lincoln would need to find one of the stairways leading to the underground city, and travel below towards Rahilius’s compound. He was only to emerge when he had gotten close.

  Thanks to Shang and the other engineers, Griician ships had been coated with a material similar to the Fiie. The ship could not be seen at slow speeds. He would travel with a meteor shower headed for Kayora, which the Lawreiis assured him would cover him from detection. The Kayorians only monitored mid-space, which was why the refugee ship had been able to leave the atmosphere before it was detected.

  This time they would likely be watching more carefully, which was why Lincoln needed cover.

  He approached Grisian Tsamiit. She examined him.

  “You’ve done well,” she said.

  “Thanks to your teachings,” he replied.

  “Did the Lawreiis give you what was promised?”

  He nodded. “I believe so.”

  “This,” she said as she handed him a box, “You will take it with you.”

  He opened it. Inside there was a Fiie with a Griician symbol he immediately recognized. It was the same one tattooed on his neck.

  “Now it is official,” she said. “If you complete your mission, you may enlist as a soldier in the Fiie army."

  Lincoln was overcome with gratitude. He could not even speak. He knelt at her feet.

  “Rise, ” she said warmly, “And go.”

  She instructed one of the guards to take him to his assigned carrier. His heart raced from long-overdue second thoughts. Was he really about to get into this machine and go off planet? Shang had assured him he and the rest of the engineering department would be standing by to drive the ship remotely if something unexpected was to occur, which was only a little bit comforting. He would be defenseless, and could possibly never return.

  Thank goodness for Logan who had agreed to look after his mother. Lincoln felt guilty lying to her, but he knew she would never survive her own imagination if she knew where he had actually gone. He knew Logan would do what he promised, and check on her every day. Logan also said he would have her over for dinner sometimes with him and his girlfriend. This was reassuring for Lincoln because he knew how damaging silence was to his mother’s mental health. She needed distractions to keep her from falling into depression.

  He boarded the ship. It was small, but adequate. The cockpit was full of complicated computer layouts. The moment he entered his face was scanned and a green light blinked. His name, date of birth, and destination came up below his name. He heard the doors seal and lock, and the vehicle powered.

  “Please be seated,” a voice instructed him. He sat in a chair, and straps came from the sides of the chair and restrained him. At the same time a needle pricked him.

  “Hey!”

  In less than three seconds he was asleep.

  In an hour or so he woke up. He was no longer restrained. He stood from his seat and wobbled a little until he found his balance. He immediately felt a strong sense of loneliness. He exited the cockpit and entered the main cabin. It was nicely furnished with a black couch in a half circle shape built into the wall. There was food and wine, three rooms with one bed each. There were bright white lights above, similar to the ones at the base.

  There was a remote control on the couch. Lincoln looked around for the projection device but didn’t find one. He picked up the remote. There was a blue button and a black one. He hesitated as his mind filled with ridiculous imaginings of the ship exploding the moment he touched the blue button. After several moments his curiosity got the best of him. He pressed the blue button. He heard the sound of moving mechanics, and two metal plates on the wall opposite of him slid open up. He gasped. It was nothing but open space all around him. He could see suns, moons, planets, and stars. He was whizzing past galaxies, but didn’t feel a thing. He was off planet.

  He felt sick to his stomach. He sat on the couch and literally stared out into
space. No wonder the ship had put him to sleep during take-off. He went into the bedroom and picked up the gift Tsamiit had given him. He held his Fiie in his hand and felt powerful. He thought about the fighting Silhouettes on the plane. In the second fight, Lincoln’s Avatar had been much better and faster than he had been the first time.

  He wondered why he hadn’t fought from within the Avatar as he had the first time, and why he couldn’t see his face on what he knew was his body? Was it really him fighting in the vision? What had it meant? Should he have just assumed the Lawreiis delivered to him what was promised? Now he wasn’t sure. It had given him very little instruction when he returned, and had not confirmed any enhancement.

  He lay down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling remembering the painful headache he had after going to the Lawreiis. He decided to trust his instincts. Even if the Lawreiis hadn’t doubled his abilities, he was still capable of wielding the Fiie as high as a level three in just two months. That was no small feat, and he was proud of himself.

  The quiet beauty of space left him longing for the company of his wife. He wondered if she had ever seen such things. She wasn’t in the army so it was unlikely she had been off planet before Rahilius.

  Rahilius. Lincoln was reminded of his mission. If his mission was a success, he would accomplish what he had set out to do from the beginning. Killing Rahilius would give the people of Kayora a chance to fight. He would bring them freedom, and still be able to keep his bride.

  No. He tried to think more realistically. Mr. Arthur had humiliated him because he hadn’t been able to see past his own imaginings. He needed to be realistic, but not negative. He didn’t want to imagine what terrible things may have happened to his wife under Rahilius’s custody. Whether or not he hurt her, she would more than likely be changed forever from her experience. Lincoln was certain of that, because he knew he would be changed forever from his.