Awakening: The ALPHA Generation

When it’s my turn to choose my Squadron, I have no hesitation picking Defense. Despite my efforts to look calm and reserved, I can’t hide my smile when the Redeemer behind the desk welcomes me into the next phase of training.

“You can report to the Defense wing next Monday morning at six thirty to begin.” He hands me a few papers with Certification of Enlistment stamped at the top, followed by text that gives me more details on the requirements and expectations.

I thank him and leave, making my way down wide halls until I reach the main lobby again. I carefully put the papers into my bag, pull out my Clikbook, and send a message on our group chat, telling Xander and Elle that I’m done. Elle responds within seconds, followed by Xander, who complains about me waking him up so early.

I glance down at my watch.

It’s almost ten.

Exactly, he responds.

You mean you’re still sleeping? This comes from Elle.

You mean you’re already awake?

I laugh softly and ask them for a meeting time. We agree on getting together at Elle’s house in half an hour, much to Xander’s dismay.

I slip the Clikbook back into my bag and start walking. Elle only lives a few blocks from the Redeemer Centre, so I take my time, looking at the sky and examining passing people.

Elle’s house is small and homey, with a humble garden out front, courtesy of her mother’s hard work. The woman stands on the porch now, watering the hanging flower baskets. She gives me a warm smile when she sees me.

“Hi Mrs. Dalal,” I greet her.

“Hello Nat.” She places the watering can on the porch and pushes a strand of dark black hair away from her face.

“Is Elle home?” I ask, although I already know the answer.

“Ellen is in her room. You’re welcome to go up and see her.”

“Thanks.” I let myself in. The house is familiar to me from days spent here, trying to escape my own home and the troubles that lied there. Here it was always warm and happy, safe from the shadows that lurked in my own home. When my parents weren’t there for me, Elle’s were. When the silence of my home was too heavy, the Dalals lightened it with laughter. This is like my second home, and the Dalals my second family.

I go up the stairs and head for Elle’s room. My friend sits at a desk in the corner of her room, tapping away at her network base. The screen floats at eye-level, showing strings of codes and images. Elle’s graceful fingers fly across the desk, tapping against projected keys.

“Hey, Elle!”

She startles and glares at me over her shoulder. “There’s this thing called knocking, Nat.”

“Sorry.” I rap my knuckles against the wood of her door. “Better?”

She rolls her eyes, but a smile is forming on her lips.

Elle’s the spitting image of her mother. They share the same almond-shaped eyes and long, silky dark hair. Their skin is the only difference; Elle’s is a golden bronze, while her mother’s is rich and dark.

“What’re you working on?” I lean over her shoulder to look, but am quickly lost in the waves of numbers. “Is this that thing you were telling me about last night?”

“Oh, no, this has nothing to do with that.” She stops typing and swipes across the board, changing the view. “I’m coding a new system that will alter my techwave usage. It’ll minimize them into microwaves instead. This system will use pairs of numbers lined in a certain order to modify the way the waves travel.”

I blink. “Right.”

She turns to me, her eyes lit with excitement. “You see, once I do this, I’ll have a much faster connection that will dominate the previous-“

I hold up a hand and stop her mid-rant. “Elle, you’re losing me.”

She spins in her chair to face the screen. “It all makes sense if you think about it.”

“Which I don’t,” I point out, flopping onto her bed. “What did you think of the Renewal Ceremony?”

"The technical side to it was amazing.” She stretches, the bones in her back crackling. “Did you get your mark?”

I wave my wrist in the air. She leans over and takes it in her hands, examining the black lines across my skin. “Pretty cool. Did it hurt?”

I pause. “A bit, I guess.”

“How did the machine look?” She gasps. “Did it use a laser imprint? No, wait, a micro-needle! It was a micro-needle, wasn’t it?”

“Whoa, calm down.” I laugh. “It might have been."

“You should pay more attention to those things.”

“Well, I’m not a tech-nerd, so...”

She swivels around in her chair while rubbing her own wrist. The seat squeaks with every turn.

“Two years,” she says softly. “I’ll join in two years, when I turn eighteen.”

“They’d accept you sooner if they knew what was good for them. “The Tech Squadron needs you.”

“Oh, I think they can wait.” She tugs at the single black braid flipped over her shoulder. “I’m not a prodigy or anything.”

I’m about to respond, when a shrill squeal comes from down the hall, followed by the light pattering of feet. I grin, knowing what’s about to bound through the door.

“Davey!” I exclaim as the toddler runs into the room on chubby legs, cheering my name between bursts of giggles. He climbs onto the bed and hugs me around the waist. I hug him back. “How're you today?"

“Good!” He lets go and, catching sight of my wrist, takes it in his tiny hands, eyeing my marking. “What’s that?”

“It’s my mark.”

“Mark?”

“A Redeemer mark,” Elle explains from her desk.

“Ooh.” He reaches out to touch it.

“Davy!” Elle’s mother calls from down the hall. She appears a moment later, shaking her head to herself. “Come on, honey. Let’s leave the girls alone.” She comes over and gently takes his hand.

He waves me goodbye, and then follows his mother out.

I lean back on my palms and smile. “Your brother’s so cute.”

A grin spreads across Elle’s face. “I could say the same about yours,” she mumbles, then ducks to avoid the pillow I throw at her head.

“Calm down, Nat, before you break something,” Xander says as he walks into the room, kicking off his shoes and sitting on the floor.

Elle looks at the door in confusion. “When did you get here?”

“Just now.” He clasps his hands in his lap dramatically. “Now, are we going to talk Cliks?”

“I think I have something bigger to discuss.” Elle expands the screen of her network base. “Yesterday after the ceremony ended, I was exploring the techwave regions.”

“Like any normal person does on a Sunday afternoon,” Xander says.

Elle gives him an exasperated glare and continues. “I was just flipping through them, trying to find an easier way to reduce the waves of my Clikbook. There are millions of them. It’s interesting to see exactly how many regions there are. It gives you an idea of how many device groups are in the Remainder.”

“Isn’t the techwave database secured by the Redeemers?“ I ask. “I didn’t think you could enter it.”

“Normally, no, but a bit of trial and error can get you anywhere.”

Xander’s eyes widen. “You hacked into a Redeemer network?”

“No! I wouldn’t do that. I just entered through a loophole in the system. It’s been done before.”

“Who else would do that?”

She sighs loudly. “Someone with tech knowledge. Any more comments, or can I get on with my story?”

Xander raises his hands in surrender.

“Thank you. As I was saying, each Sector has a techwave database, that’s divided into billions of sections, organized by device. It’s amazing, really.”

Techwaves are yet another Redeemer creation. After the Renewal, they replaced any pre-Bloodletting technology with techwave regions, individual networks packed away in a giant database. Every piece of tech was connected by techwaves. It was cleaner, healthier, and altogether easier than anything we had before.

“All of the regions seemed to be secured and checked,” Elle goes on. “But when I got into the Midpoint’s database...” She takes in a sharp breath. “I found something. An unchecked region, completely unaccounted for.”

Xander’s comments have stopped, and the room has fallen into dead silence. I can hear my own heartbeat drumming in my ears.

“You mean...” I can hardly get the words out. “You mean the Redeemers don’t know about it?”

Elle nods.

“Holy....” Xander’s voice trails off. “That’s... that’s illegal. And dangerous. Who knows what’s in there?”

“It gets worse,” Elle says. “I tried to hack into it, but it was impossible. The security was unimaginable. I’ve never seen anything like it. I tried for hours, but couldn’t make a dent.”

“That means...” Xander glances over at me.

“Someone’s hiding something,” I finish.

The room falls into silence again, all of us just staring at each other as our anxiety grows.

Xander breaks the silence. “What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know.” Elle lets out a breath. “But…well, who would be hiding something? Not the Redeemers, and not anyone loyal to them. So that leaves...”

I let out a breath. “The Truth?”

She nods.

“No way.” Xander rubs his eyes, dragging in a deep breath. “No way. The Truth? What could they possibly be hiding?”

“I’m not sure,” Elle says. “But whatever it is, it’s big. Like, end-of-the-world big. Why else would they need those defenses?”

I stand up, gripping the bedpost to steady myself. “We have to tell the Redeemers. Now.”

“Hold on,” Xander says. “What if it’s not the Truth? This could all just be a false alarm.”

That stops me for a moment. If we’re right, then this is a serious threat, something that could destroy the world again. But if it’s not, we’ll be the kids who hacked the Redeemers and threw the Remainder into chaos over a hunch. I’d lose my position, my dignity, or worse. I’m a risk taker, but I’m not stupid.

A headache begins to form behind my eyes. “But if we can’t tell the Redeemers, what do we do?”

“Well, there is one thing,” Elle says. “If we hack into the region, we can find out if it’s a real threat or not. If it’s not, we can forget it ever happened. And if it is...” She pauses. “Well, then we’ll have to tell the Redeemers.”

Hacking into the region could either end very well, or very badly. I point this out of Elle, who shrugs.

“It’s our only option, Nat. I mean, unless we just ignore it, turn a blind eye-“

“No,” I say. Doing that would be even worse. We know something now, a potential danger to our Remainder. We have to do something.

“Then I guess hacking is our only choice,” Xander says. “How will you get in, Elle?”

“Um, well, that’s the thing.” Elle smiles sheepishly. “I can’t. It’s beyond my level.” She holds up her hands, fingers splayed. “Imagine it like a brick wall. The entire region is surrounded by layers and layers of defenses. It’s impenetrable.”

“So, it’s impossible to get through?” Xander asks.

“Not exactly.” A smile creeps up the side of her face. “There’s a type of tech made especially for this type of situation. Hackers call it a brick-breaker. It scans the network for weak spots and then breaks down the codes, making a loophole to get in through. You can slip in and out, leaving no evidence you where there.”

“Where can we get it?” I ask.

“Only the Redeemers have permission to use it legally. Maybe you could ask to use one…?” I shake my head quickly, and Elle sighs. “Then the only way to get one is through Era.”

Xander stands up quickly. “Era? Are we thinking of the same thing? That could get us in big trouble.”

"Associating with the black market is a crime," I agree. "And lawbreakers are Flawed."

“You won’t get in trouble if you don’t get caught,” Elle points out. “Besides, most of the stuff Era sells was created by the Redeemers, altered to be better. It's not too different from borrowing it from the government, right...?” She looks to me for support.

I look away. This is our duty to the Remainder, but is this really the right way? Thousands of scenarios flash through my mind. If we’re caught, we could be Cleansed. I might never see Darren again. How would that effect him? He’s already been through so much. I can’t abandon him like that.

But I don’t think Darren would want me to ignore this issue, either, although he’d probably prefer me to go to the Redeemers.

I take a huge breath. “So, our only option is to do business with criminals?"

Elle nods.

I sigh. “Okay. Fine - for the Remainder.”

“Where’s the nearest Era location?” Xander asks.

Elle pulls up a map on the screen and points to a city. Its name glows under her finger. “The nearest branch is in Coastline.”

Xander blinks at the screen. “How did you figure that out?”

“Cliks,” she responds, as if that’s a suitable enough answer.

I sigh to myself. Of course it would be in the biggest, seediest city in the Sector. But we have to go. I take my Clikbook from my backpack and open the Nex schedule.

“Darren’s out of town today,” I say as I scroll through the time options. “He won’t be back until tonight, so we should be good to go…” I find a Nex that leaves in a few minutes, note the location and time, and close the Clikbook.

Xander clears his throat. “Don’t you think he’ll be mad when he finds out?”

I smirk. “Who says he’s going to? C’mon, Xander, it’s just a trip to the city. It’ll be fine.”

“I’ll stay here,” Elle says. “Maybe I can find out more about the region.”

“Sounds good. Are you coming, Xander?”

He sighs. "Guess I have to."

“Great.” I smile, shouldering my backpack. “Let’s go catch that Nex.”