Rebellion in the Shadows

Lumpy oats; Again. Even with my stomach begging for food after my run, that was intolerable. A comm from Notawa at zero-five told me to start the run without her, but she never showed. Each lap alone made me more upset about the last few days. Notawa found me before the first bite reached my stomach, and she wasn’t alone.

“Good morning,” I said with a grumble.

“Good morning! I was just welcoming Kirtis back,” Notawa voice was high and full of energy even if her puffy eyes showed how little sleep she had gotten. I didn’t say anything as I shoved another bland mushy spoonful of food into my mouth.

“He will be joining us for studying this evening and for sparring this morning. Do you mind if we sit down?”

“Why not? Nothing could make this meal worse,” I said.

“OK perfect!” she said. The sarcasm either went over her head or she decided to ignore it. They both set their trays on the table. Kirtis hesitated but sat down next to me.

Notawa tried her best to get the conversation moving.

“Nice weekend?” she asked.

“No.” Both Kirtis and I answered simultaneously.

“I had a nice time off yesterday. Took the scherlot to my kids, got to see my family and we had a wonderful dinner together.” Neither Kirtis nor I spoke.

“Did you ever find the lab?” Notawa asked.

“What?” My head snapped up.

“No, sorry I was talking to Kirtis. He was looking for the lab Friday.” I took a deep breath.

“Yeah, I found it.” Kirtis had his head propped in his hand and was letting his oats dribble off his spoon in front of his face.

“Maybe we should just go to physical conditioning.” Notawa said after another ten minutes of silence. No one argued. Kirtis picked up all our trays and dumped them, then we left together.

Arwago was the first person I saw when we came into the training room. He gave me a curt nod. Everyone in our party saluted him before we split into our groups.

I missed Zarleque, but if there was anything to give Master Guardian credit for, it’s knowing how to get the best out of me. Kirtis was a more formidable opponent. He would knock me down, then I would knock him down. This back and forth continued throughout the class, until we were both exhausted.

Kirtis was stronger, but I was quicker and more flexible. It made us almost a perfect match, the Command Central Computer had paired us together for a reason. It may have had something to with conflicting personalities too. I had never worked this hard with Zarleque.

“Talaya, back on your feet,” he said with a grunt.

“Kirtis, I think we can be done for the day.” I was on my back, panting. He had gotten me in a leg lock that had rattled my ankle.

“Class isn’t over for another two hours,” he said. I sat up on the mat. After that first class, they had lined the training room floor with them. Tesser and her lab junkies saw us about to begin again and moved closer. Nothing like an audience to get me more nervous than I already was. I adjusted the velcro on the right glove and held both hands up in front of my face.

He went straight for my nose, like every time. I dodged. He swung with his other fist— it clipped my cheek. That hurt. Fingers clawed at his upper arm. It was slick with sweat and impossible to get a good grip. My hand slipped and Kirtis took that opportunity to try to hit me again, this time going for my throat. I moved too fast and his fist struck a piece of my shoulder instead. I stepped back and threw the entire weight of my body plowed into him, but his balance was too good. He didn’t move an inch. I jumped back before he could grab hold. He stared daggers at me, but we weren’t done yet. I dived at his legs and knocked him to the mat. Everything became jumbled on the ground. Usually, I was the better wrestler and he knew it. I rolled to my side and grabbed his arm. My legs pushed off his body to gain more leverage, extending his arm uncomfortably far.

He knew he was stuck. The group that had gathered clapped a few times to encourage us, but Arwago jumped forward. “That’s enough! Let’s get ready to get in the pool.” Kirtis still struggled. I wasn’t about to let him go until he gave up.

“Talaya!!” Arwago said, in his best attempt at anger. It didn’t bother me at all, he could yell all he wanted but I wasn’t letting go until Kirtis gave in.

“Argh!” Kirtis let out a scream and finally went limp. I let go and jumped back quickly. He lay where we split apart, winded.

“Dammit,” he shouted and smacked the padded ground. Arwago stood in front of the crowd.

“The rest of the lesson will be in the pool. The resistance of the water will strengthen musculature and reduce injuries to each other. Everyone in, PT gear is fine.” He was trying to take the attention off me and Kirtis. It worked, pairs of people moved to the stairs at the opposite end of the large pool. Only Kirtis and I remained where we were.

“Kirtis. Tank time. Let’s go. Everyone needs to get in!” Arwago said with a shout.

“My arm won’t work, it’s too messed up.” He was still panting and holding his left arm awkwardly. Arwago stood over him so Kirtis added, “Sir. I can’t. My calcumat says its broken.” He tilted his flashing screen towards Arwago. It looked broken to me. He attempted to bend it at the elbow but winced and gave up. No one spoke for several minutes until a familiar deep voice broke the silence.

“Talaya, get into the pool.” Master Guardian had sneaked into our training session again. He was surrounded by multiple FFPs all wearing the same black uniform and scowl.

“Kirtis is excused,” he said with a dismissive wave. The attention from him and everyone else upset me. Tesser was on his right side. She spoke in a low voice and showed him something on the tablet. He looked very pleased with whatever it was. I started towards the pool but another scientists brought me a small, strange machine before I got there. It was jet black and the size of a burla. There was a mouthpiece at one end, while the rest was some sort of small tank. Tesser came over and tried to explain how it worked.

“This is called a recycler. The beads inside take the poison from your exhale like the CO2 and convert it to the non-poison that a person normally breaths. The tank has a supply of nitrogen. Don’t ask me what the beads are because I can’t tell you, and you wouldn’t understand it anyway. I know its heavy but once you’re in water it won’t matter as much,” she said, breathless by the end. I looked over to Arwago.

“It lets you breathe underwater,” he said to me, then turned to the class. “Stay in your pairs and practice the jiu-jitsu moves first.”

Everyone started to step into the shallower end of the pool. A few of them gasped at the temperature, it must not be heated. In the shuffle of steps and the splashes, Master Guardian’s voice rang out.

“No pairs, just Talaya,” he said with a smirk.

“You want Talaya in there alone?” Arwago asked.

“No. I want each of them to wrestle with her,” he said, pointing to the entire crowd of trainees.

Gasps rang out around me. I looked at my fellow trainees, the people that were supposed to be my team to try and find anyone to back me up. No one was eager to go against Master Guardian.

So, I threw my hands into the air. “Sounds great to me!” I said. Master Guardian watched as I yanked the breathing thing out of Tesser’s hand. I glared at him, not letting my eyes leave his until I jumped backwards into the pool.

The cold water instantly soothed my sore body and I sank to the bottom. I took in stale breaths for a few seconds until the first person dropped to the bottom next to me.

Notawa. There was no end to the ways Master Guardian would try to mess with me. Of all the people in that class, she was the one that I wanted to spar with the least. That was the worst part of the day. Not because she was strong or a good fighter, but because I had no interest in hurting her and her heart wasn’t in it either.

She tapped out almost immediately. It became a trend with each person that came in went much the same way. No one thought this was fair to me. Even Arwago came in and had his turn. By the end, I was surprised Master Guardian himself didn’t jump in to try.

As I left the tank, hours later, dripping cold water everywhere, no one stood in my way. I didn’t talk to anyone and made a beeline straight to the dryer at the edge of the room. Two seconds later, I was dry and walking to back to my quarters, quietly cursing Master Guardian the whole way . My calcumat rang and Santeeg’s voice filled the hall.

“Advanced reconnaissance training begins tomorrow. It will be located outdoors, report time zero-eight-fifteen. Attend your other classes as scheduled.”

Notawa caught up to me as I walked down the hall. After sparring with me, she had stuck around training in the pool to watch me. A trail of puddles led to where we were standing. She smiled and waved as she walked closer. I stopped and crossed my arms, impatient for her to catch up.

“Did you get the comm? Reconnaissance training! It sounds awesome.”

“Sure, super awesome. Another way for Sidarc to mess with me.”

“The Space Academy is new. We don’t know what to expect. The computer recommended we train in these things, so we are. Anyway, Kirtis is meeting us at the cafeteria for lunch in ten minutes.” She had already started that direction when I stopped her.

“Notawa, you’re soaking wet. Let’s go to your room and grab clothes at least.” She looked down at her dripping PT gear.

“No, no it’s fine.” She tried to walk that way again. I grabbed her on the bicep.

“That’s ridiculous. I doubt they would let you eat like that anyway. It will only take a few minutes.” I led her towards her room before she could protest. When we got to her room, she unlocked the door and tried to slide in without me following.

“It will just be a second,” she said. I jumped in behind her.

“Do you have some of the trajectory notes? I didn’t keep them after last time we studied it.” I went to the study area to grab them and she just stood and watched me for a minute. The room was messier than the last time I had visited, and I noticed a tank in the corner with my scherlot in it.

“You didn’t give him to your kids? Isn’t that why you took the day off on Sunday?”

She left to her bedroom to get clothes and half-shouted from inside.

“I just kind of decided that they already had one, so I wanted to keep him here with me.” I went to his tank and touched his head. The weakness from his hunger was overwhelming.

“He thinks he’s starving. You better feed him before we go.”

“Actually, I didn’t have time to grab food for him.” She returned to the room with dry clothes but wet hair.

“He loves rolls. Do you have any?” I went to her cupboards and saw them empty.

“No, I don’t. We can grab some at lunch for him,” she said. She had already started to leave the room.

“You don’t have any snacks or food at all?” That was strange. Everyone kept something in their rooms.

“I was busy this weekend, I didn’t really have time to shop. Plus, I always eat at the cafeteria,” she said.

“Busy doing what?” I asked. Something wasn’t adding up.

“Busy at home with the family. It was a long Sunday with them.” She was practically shoving me out the door at this point. I pursed my lips and stared at her as she locked the door behind us.

“Is everything alright? You would tell me if something is wasn’t. Right?” She took a deep breath.

“Everything is fine. Don’t worry.” She tried to give her most reassuring smile. It didn’t ease my mind in the slightest, but it was enough to make me drop the topic.

Kirtis met us at lunch with his arm in a sling. He went through the line, but holding the tray with hone hand after the buffet line proved too difficult.

“Let me,” I said and took his tray. He frowned but let me carry it to the table. Afterwards I grabbed my own tray and sat next to him. The scowl never left his face throughout lunch, but he kept his mouth shut other than to slurp his soup. When we were almost done eating, I got a comm from an unknown contact.

“Da’Fergo at 117West T550-TJH042401 2730.” The jumble of letters and numbers was easy for me to decipher. Da’Fergo was the biggest city on the planet, only a couple hundred miles away. The T-550 was followed by my initials and birthday, and the final set of numbers was a time. Someone, I assumed Arwago, wanted me to fly to Da’Fergo late tonight.

“Another alert?” Notawa asked peeking over.

“No, just low blood sugar,” I said, swiping the screen away. Kirtis looked at me funny just as his alert went off. With his arm in a sling, he couldn’t swipe it away. I leaned over and did it for him. It was the same message. Notawa watched but didn’t ask.

“I have three new chapters to study on ‘advanced reconnaissance techniques’ to get us ready for tomorrow,” she said out of the blue.

“Sounds like a hoot,” I said.

Kirtis smiled at the sarcasm and said, “I would love to join you, but I have physical therapy for my arm at fifteen-fifteen. I better get moving, don’t want to be late.”

“That’s two hours from now. Besides, I was told they will come to Talaya’s room to do the exercises.” He huffed but didn’t object. If you didn’t stretch the arm properly after the bone regrowth, it could end up stiff forever.

***

Four hours later, we were still attempting to study. Worry for my father, exhaustion from training, and curiosity about that night combined to kill any focus I could normally have mustered.

“This is embarrassing,” I said after answering about twenty questions incorrectly in a row.

“It’s not embarrassing. We are asking a lot of you. Way more than anyone else. Honestly, I don’t know if I could learn all this in such a short time. I can see why you were picked for the next Master Guardian,” Notawa said. Kirtis sat in the corner, only participating when necessary. Otherwise, Tomma stayed curled in his lap, hums of happiness softly escaping the burla’s throat. Tesser had dropped him off two hours ago without a word. She had her goggles on and had almost thrown the burla at me when I opened the door. I watched Tomma with Kirtis, the little creature looked comfortable.

“You’re the only one that can. Everyone else thinks I am a privileged joke. Even Master Guardian is unconvinced.”

“He thinks you will be great trust me. I actually think it scares him.” She looked away from me.

“Why do you think that? What did he say?”

“What? Oh nothing. I’m just guessing.” But she hadn’t looked at me since she said it. Her fingers picked at a thread on her uniform.

“Notawa, do you meet with Master Guardian?”

“He likes updates on your studying and training,” I tried to adjust my head to force her to meet my gaze.

“Like you meet and talk about me?”

“It’s part of the job as a mentor. Don’t worry you’re doing great.” She flipped through screens on her wrist too fast to see what was on them.

“So you do meet with him?” I asked again. She nodded and pointed to projection on my wall.

“It’s no big deal. Let’s get back to chapter eight. Kirtis can you read it?” I hardly heard Kirtis mumble through the chapter. Notawa reporting on me to Master Guardian didn’t sit well. My eyes tried to follow along with the reading, but more often than not, they darted to Notawa.

Hours later, when they left, I laid down on my bed with Tomma and pulled up the encrypted comm sheet. Files and files of anonymous stories captivated me. Each one more terrifying than the last. They drew me into a world that I didn’t know existed. Amacuro wasn’t what I thought it was at all. These people, every single one, lived in a different reality. It was getting harder to believe that Arwago and Tesser were crazy.

The most common phenomena were disappearances. It sounded all too familiar. While families slept, they awoke to find someone missing without any explanation. Other times it was a note on the front door saying the entire family “moved” without any warning. Mysterious house fires, drone accidents, businesses taken over without reason, even property being seized for “government use”— it was making me sick.

Most of the stories involved some sort of disobedience from citizens that was followed by either a warning, a disappearance, or many times, both. People hated Master Guardian. They accused him of killing those that had shown any dissent. One word against the government, one false move, and your whole world could be flipped upside down.

Another file suggested that all the people that had been kidnapped were being held in some sort of prison at one of the many FF bases. My heart jumped when I read that, then fell deep into my stomach when the comments all branded the author as an optimistic fool.

The information was overwhelming. Hours went by as I scrolled through and read the many depressing tales. All the while, in the back of my mind, there was that little voice telling me that my father was missing, and he’d gone missing right after a tense exchange with the Master Guardian. Was he already dead?

One, in particular, stuck out to me. It was from a long time ago, almost twenty years. The only reason it was on the comm sheet was that someone had recently added information to it. A woman had been caught trying to send a comm signal to Arkii. The only reason she had been able to send the signal was that she was in the Flying Force and had stolen the technology. The Flying Force sent UP officers to her house, they confiscated the stolen technology, she was dropped a rank, and warned that she had threatened world peace. Afterwards, nothing had happened for weeks. She and her family thought it was over. Until one morning her husband had woken up to find her calcumat left on her bedside table and nothing else. Her clothes remained in their drawers, her favorite pin still on the counter near the sink, and their child still asleep in bed. She was gone without a trace, never to be seen again. And now, the recent update said the husband had gone missing as well.

I was certain that I had just discovered the real story of how my mom died.