Rebellion in the Shadows

Six guards walked me to my room. They left me at my door. I punched my code into the panel and stepped inside. Kirtis was at my desk with my burla in his lap. When he saw me walk in, he stood up quickly and Tomma jumped to the floor and lzaily licked his paw.

“The gods Talaya! What happened this time?”

“Prelle is dead,” I said.

“She’s dead? How?”

“We dropped the guys in the forest like we were supposed to, but Sidarc knew about it. He didn’t know where we left them, but he knew that’s what we were doing.” I went to my coolant box and grabbed some water. My hand was shaking enough that water sloshed out of the cup.

“He knew? But we didn’t tell anyone. I had Prelle use your friend from Boulder, so that the mission would be low key.”

“Whyla wasn’t Z,” I said. He picked up a book and whipped it at the wall, reminding me of my tantrum a few nights ago.

“Meanwhile here, shit got worse. MP’s everywhere and they all carry the damn tasers now,” he said.

“Did Prelle have family?” I asked.

“Yeah, a sister and a dad somewhere I think.” My heart dropped. We would need to tell them. There was no chance of getting anyone out now. No civilians or Flying Force people. We would be lucky to live through the night.

“What are we supposed to do now?” I asked.

“I have no clue, can’t risk much, though can we?” he said. A knock on the door had Tomma running into my bedroom.

Su’jee and Rotowey were standing outside my room.

“You are relieved of your duty for today,” Rotowey said to Kirtis. It was clear to see why he was so happy. A shiny new rank was on his collar. He was now officially higher up in the chain of command than Kirtis, a Privy Mate.

“I don’t think so buddy, you can take that pin and stick it in your ass if you think I am going to take orders from you.” Rotowey smiled.

“It’s on Master Guardian’s orders,” he said. As soon as he said it, Kirtis was in his face.

“I don’t see Master Guardian here, do you?” Their noses were almost touching. Rotowey brought his shock prod forward. It had gone on long enough. Kirtis didn’t need to get himself electrocuted over this. I sprang in between them, facing Rotowey with a hand behind me keeping Kirtis from moving forward.

“It’s not worth the trouble,” I said to Kirtis.

“You’re excused.” Rotowey said. Kirtis glared at him.

“I’ll find you at dinner,” he said giving my shoulder a gentle pat before leaving.

“Sorry Talaya,” Su’jee said before I closed the door.

Dinner was more guarded. Su’jee, Rotowey, Etulay, and another nameless guard escorted me to the cafeteria. They didn’t wait at the door, all four walked to my normal table with me and sat down, one on either side of me and two behind me. Kirtis was already there and looked very frustrated with the company I brought along.

“Can I sit?” I asked the nearest guard, some stocky unpleasant looking man that I didn’t know.

“Eat.” He grunted the words like some sort of a caveman. My body plopped onto the metal cafeteria seat. Etulay dropped my tray in front of me and it landed with a loud clang.

“New friends?” Kirtis asked.

“Yep, and they’re obsessed with me.” The meal in front of me didn’t look appetizing at all. With one hand propping my head up, my other hand used the fork to push the food around my plate. My attempts to eat ended after the first tasteless bite. I turned to the caveman guard behind me.

“Actually, I’m not hungry. I need to walk my burla, on the long path that starts by the benches near the trees.” Kirtis nodded when I turned back, understanding my easy code. I didn’t bother clearing my tray and walked out. Trailing behind me, all four of my annoying guards.

Tomma found Kirtis first. He was ahead of us on the path, walking our direction. When they met, Kirtis bent over and picked him up. To our great annoyance, the guards were just a few steps behind, but it was better than sitting at a table with them. It was dumb to think they would let me walk my burla alone. We walked along in silence until Kirtis spoke, his voice almost at a whisper.

“I don’t think I’m Sidarc’s favorite anymore.” There was a bench ahead and we both sat down when we were next to it. Kirtis put one arm on the back of the seat but the other pet Tomma in a half absentminded way. He was speaking so quietly, that I scooched over until I was right beside him. The guards stopped six feet away, too close for comfort and Tomma pounced out of Kirtis’s lap. We both watched as he sped off chasing bitter birds around in the grass on the other side of the dirt path.

“Is there anything we can do or are we kidding ourselves here? Do we honestly have a chance at stopping him?” I whispered. Air puffed out of his mouth all at once and his frown extended into his eyes, making that dark blue appear almost gray but he brought his arm onto my shoulder. White fluffy clouds drifted overhead in a soft breeze that sent leaves skipping across the path.

My eyes snuck a peak at the hand on my arm and the faintest of smiles fell on my lips. I dipped my head before letting it rest on him and closed my eyes. Wafts of the standard issue government soap smelled sweet on him, even if it was mixed with a lingering scent of smoke from stealth training. Flutters built in my stomach and I looked up to him, surprised he hadn’t swatted me away yet, but his eyes looked off into the distance.

“We have already done so much; Kaynotee and his family, and the four other civilians.”

“My mom, my dad, Notawa, Prelle.”

“We could sit here and list people we have lost all day. Giving up isn’t an option and that’s all it would make me do.” Anger danced in his eyes and he pulled his arm off my shoulder. His other hand reached over to the grass and yanked up a handful. His fingers worked at each of the blades, splitting them and tossing them aside.

“What are the chances I will make it off that shuttle alive?” I asked. My head rose off his shoulder and I watched his frustrated fingers tear at the grass.

“Zero. He told me as much before he stopped trusting me.” The news should have shocked me, but it didn’t.

“Then what are we supposed to do? How can we—”

“I’m going to kill him.” I snapped my head to look at him, searching his face for any hint of a joke. There was none.

“Kirtis, you can’t be serious,” I said, suddenly very worried about his safety.

“I am. I have done a lot of things I am not at all proud of. He has forced me to, but it has made me hard to beat and I am going to kill him.” He was serious. I gaped at him, trying to figure out what to say. If Kirtis tried to kill Sidarc, he would end up dead. That wasn’t an option but trying to convince him while he was all worked up was a bad idea.

“Come on, let’s go back inside before Rotowey decides to shock us all the way back to my room,” I said. Kirtis wouldn’t dare do anything that stupid and he wouldn’t get the opportunity anyway, Sidarc was too well protected. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was going to try. Hopefully, he was just being emotional. No one would be crazy enough to try to kill Master Guardian by themselves.

***

Master Guardian was determined to keep Kirtis and I apart. He ordered me to spar with a new partner during physical conditioning after that. Su’jee challenged me more than I wanted to admit. Our first match ended in a few seconds I was forced to admit, Kirtis might have been allowing me to win.

It was during that second sparring match with Su’jee that I was interrupted by a beep from my comm. My body monitoring chip still hadn’t been replaced, and it was weird noise. Not like any ring that was previously programmed into my calcumat.

“Can I take a break? I need some water,” I said, unstrapping the protective gloves.

“Sure, Talaya.” She was sweating as much as I was and started to guzzle her water as I left the room.

The message read, ‘follow the signal’ then there was another beep. It was directions. Su’jee was nice enough, but there was no way I could follow the directions alone. My guards even followed me into the bathroom now.

“Su’jee?” I called into the hall. She came outside, no shock prod or any look of alarm.

“Can we go for a walk?” I asked. My eyebrows went up

“We are supposed to be sparring,” she said with uncertainty.

“I don’t have time to explain, but I need to follow these directions.” I didn’t fully trust her but was out of options.

“Follow my lead,” she said, and stood next to me. She draped my arm over her shoulder. We walked out of the Physical Conditioning Center like that and into the hall. Rotowey was standing there and blocked our path with his shock-prod.

“She passed out after I hit her in the temple, she needs medical,” Su’jee said. I was surprised at how believable the lie sounded.

“We can call a Corpsman here,” he suggested.

“No, she might pass out again while we wait, you know they take forever. Stay here in case Master Guardian needs to know where we went.” Su’jee was already shuffling us down the hall, I was doing my best to look injured. She had hurt me enough during our short sparring session, that it wasn’t that hard to do.

“We’ll be back,” she said over her shoulder. Rotowey stayed at the door and we hobbled down the hall. When we were a safe distance, she took my arm off of her and I projected the directions. Together, we jogged towards the room it was leading us too.

As soon as we walked through the doorway, my calcumat beeped and another message came in.

“Room clear?” I typed a quick yes and stopped breathing. Su’jee stood over my shoulder and we both waited in silence. My calcumat rang displaying something that made my heart race.

incoming comm-Arwago