Rebels (15 page)

The earth is soft and wet under my bare feet, the sun a ball of fire setting in the distance, casting its orange-gold across the water's glistening surface. They are perfect cohabitants, the sun and the sea.

“Ocean hasn't existed for centuries,” Marius says. “Before the Great Catastrophe, nature could not be controlled. Nature could hurt you, for it was violent and untamed, just as we once were as well.”

Now the sun is harvested, rain collected, and wind harnessed for proper use. It all occurs far above the highest island in the Aero-Crown. If Indra were a living being, the Aero-Crown would be the heart. The blood it pumps gives power and light. But it is a machine. Its power can't match that of the sun or the ocean. The grand fountain atop the Independent High Council, a wonder only Indrithians of the Utmost Importance are privileged enough to see, would be but a drop in this ocean.

I try to mentally record this moment high up on the cliff, knowing that, most likely, this will be the last of my Archive adventures with Marius.

Proper Cohabitated Women have obligations. They don't play with zingers, and they don't muck about in Archives. These activities are not considered Proper and they certainty don't serve the Greater Indrithian Good.

As soon as I understood Mother was an idea greater than an air harp, I had come to wish Marius was mine. Then we could visit Archives, even after I had cohabitated, and few would dare question. But Marius isn't my mother, couldn't be even if she wanted. According to
The Book of Indra
, “A solitary offspring is permitted per Cohabitated Unit, and that child must originate from said Cohabited Unit's genetic resources.”

Etiquette Tutor forced us to memorize this section.

And then there is the unspoken secret: Marius already has a child. I have overheard the gossip since I was young, though Waslo and Marius have never confirmed it. Perhaps a genetic mutation, I conclude—a child even smaller than Marius—they have chosen to conceal for fear of public ridicule.

In a strange way, I'm jealous of her. Or him. Perhaps we could have been good friends.

“It's not so bad,” says Marius suddenly. “Cohabitation.” Her voice ricochets across the water, then surprisingly returns to her. “Perhaps you will fancy one of the Young Men.”

“Perhaps I will find my own Waslo,” I say, imagining no fate worse.

She laughs, a tinkling sound. “You will do better,” she says. I turn to her, eyes wide. “Do not appear so greatly shocked, Livia. You are a smart young woman. You must know that Waslo has given me a great deal, elevated me to an enviable status. Of course, due in large part to my own guidance of him, but that is beside the point.”

“Do you love him?” I say, the words slipping out before I realize what's been said.

“In a manner of speaking, I suppose. I respect him. I applaud his success. I bask in the light of his accolades. That is love enough for me.” She sighs. “I love him for choosing me. I was lucky to find anyone at all.”

I nod, understanding. She looks off into the ocean.

“Waslo saw something no one else was capable of seeing. ‘You are little on the outside,' he told me. ‘But inside you tower over the others.' He let me be strong. In fact, he welcomed the strength.”

Marius turns to me. I've never seen her expression so fierce.

“He worshipped your father, of course. Would have followed Armand to the ends of Indra and beyond. Your father was a brilliant man, and Waslo was devastated when . . .” She shakes her head. “When it was over.”

Please keep going,
I think.
Tell me. What happened to my mother and father?

I don't say that of course, for I already know her response. The same I have been given for as long as I remember.

“You will be a Citizen of Importance, my dear. Just like Waslo. Just like your father before you. After you cohabitate, you will carry out his legacy.”

“Genetics? Unlikely, since Life Guide refuses to impart this knowledge. Perhaps if I had access to my father's research . . .”

“Is that what you want? Truly?”

I nod. I feel I want his research more than anything. It's my birthright.

“I'm sorry, my dear, but I was told that disappeared when your father . . .” Suddenly, she grows pained.

“Perhaps the High Council recovered it. Waslo could speak with them.”

“Perhaps. We have petitioned for anything they may have found, but all we hear back are empty promises. Remember, you'll be a woman soon, and now is the time to wipe the slate clean.” Her mood
shifts more drastically than I expect, and it's clear what the loss of my father's friendship meant to her. “I'm being silly,” she says, brushing hair from my face. “I'm spoiling our time together.”

“No,” I say, trying to hide how crushed I feel inside.

“There was a great deal of power in knowledge, your father's knowledge especially. He was . . . visionary.” Marius reaches out, takes my hand in her own. “But you . . . you are his finest creation.”

Now we are facing each other. Even the ocean is overwhelmed by the privacy of our council. “Promise me one thing,” she says, staring into my eyes, distracted by what she sees there for a second. How my eyes do not match.

We have done this before
, I think, remembering suddenly.
The first day of Socialization Club, when I worried your collar might choke you
. Only then I was looking up at Marius, and now I must look downward.

I nod, just as I had then.

“You must be the ideal Proper Young Woman at your ball. For Waslo. For me. Because we owe it . . . to the memory of your father. And to the citizens of Indra.”

At that moment, I understand: she may love me, but that is beside the point. Above all else, I am her duty. The obligation she has spent my lifetime fulfilling.

It is almost freeing, the sudden knowledge: I'm completely alone in the world, even more so than I imagined.

“I promise,” I tell her, and she smiles as the sun is replaced by the moon.

I stare into the horizon, the reflections of long-extinct stars shining off the long-evaporated ocean water.

That is when I sense the desperation.
Someone is watching
, I think, turning quickly. Just fast enough to glimpse a black-cloaked figure, hood pulled low, eyes peering out from beneath, glimmering and alive.

Shadow people have dead eyes
, I think. Or so we have been taught.

Marius follows my gaze. “Splendid, Livia!” she says quickly. “I knew you would understand.”

She pulls out my access chip and everything disappears.

Excerpted from
The Population Control Forces Academy Cadet Holo-Handbook,
Chapter 45, Section 8

Immediately following completion of Final Simulation, Cadet will appear before Population Control Forces Panel for performance assessment. At that time, Cadet will receive orders of their placement within the PCF.

Immediately following placement orders, Cadet is granted twenty-four hours in which to collect belongings, clear out pod, and report for active duty.

As ordered by the Independent High Council, Cadets' placements are permanent. Cadets have been carefully chosen, and PCF placement is nonnegotiable.

As a PCF Cadet, you have been carefully chosen and rigorously trained for one purpose: protecting our Great Indrithian Society.

This is the greatest honor of all.

I'm ready to kick dustball ass. Now I just need the signal.

My black mission suit gleams, the silitex molding to my curves like a second skin. I've secured my body plates, pulled the straps extra snug. My new blaster, the Dust2Dust Model 750 they hand out before exams, is packed with four hundred charges.

I straddle my air speeder, the engine humming beneath me. Kane straddles his ride beside me, grinning in that way he has, upper lip curling like nothing matters. Like this exam won't determine our entire forsaken futures.

I narrow my eyes at him. He's still grinning. He'll do what he wants, always has. It makes me crazy. It's also the reason he's my best friend.

“Focus on yourself, mudgirl.” I don't have to turn. I can picture Cassina's cold blue eyes staring through the security goggles. Her hair, so blond it's almost white, is sheared at her chin like a helmet, with ends sharp enough to cut you.

My hair is long, dark, and wild. The cadet groomer gave up on me years ago. Set his clippers down and said, “Not much I can do here.”

If only Cassina had done the same thing.

“Too much mud in your ears?” she says, her voice ringing clearly through my earfeed. Even above two dozen engines I can hear her say, “You make me sick.”

She's trying to psych me out, of course. I know how that airborne princess works.

“You bottom out here, they'll dump you back to the very bottom. Let the mudpeople eat you alive. But does anyone want you?” Her voice plays at being hard. “You just appeared one day. All alone in the world, no one giving a damn whether you lived or died.” She laughs. “Not much has changed, I suppose.”

I will smash your face in
, I think for the first time today. It's not a new thing. She's rabid because she doesn't have my focus. She's a victim to her nerves. She throttles her air speeder at the head of the pack.

We're all waiting for the green light.

For our final exam, Cassina's leading this mission. Indra help us all!

◊  ◊  ◊

Indra has put miles between civilization as we know it and Rock Bottom. This is to ensure that only those who want to get there have the determination to traverse the tunnelways and suffer through the heat that builds the deeper you go. The silitex regulates our body temperatures, but it never feels completely comfortable.

Cassina leads the pack, and the rest of us stay in formation as we bend around the turns and merge into the narrowing passage. One mile out and we go into silent running, cutting down our engine power to mask our approach. We cut our illuminators by 90 percent, but my eyes have no trouble with the darkness. The rest do their best to avoid sheer drops that go express to the core. The placement panel will examine our recorded biorhythms on our return. My adrenaline is off the charts.

Like I said, you have to want to be down here. I do and I have much to prove.

Cassina signals for a full stop. We hold in silence, awaiting her next order. What's come so far was the easy part. Now we have to track down the scavenger leader and detain the locals.

Kane's head is bopping up and down, as if he's saying,
Come on already.
Even now he keeps it light.

“Lex? You'll take point from here on in,” Cassina says.

I look at her. She mistakes it for confusion.

“That means you'll be scouting the perimeter.”

I heard her the first time. There is silence on the earfeed.

A one-way. No return. A ride to failure.
That's what all the cadets are thinking.

Clearing a room is dangerous enough. Clearing an entire mud cell is even worse.

Being the first one in? Suicide.

There are other options. Logical options. Send in a recon team for initial surveillance, disorient the enemy with a warning flash-buster. But sending in a single cadet? We all know that is core-low crazy.

It's a setup. Of course I know that. Everyone does. Send me in, get me killed off.

I know the others are waiting on the earfeed to hear my okay. My mind is racing. The fear is very real.

I go in first
, I think.
Get demolished immediately. Cassina orders team to rush location, surprising already disoriented enemy and taking the mud cell out.

Cassina leads us to victory.

I fail.

Theoretically, she could make this work. But it goes against everything we've been taught to value. The plan shows blatant disregard for her fellow cadets. For the people who have been trained to have her back.

That's about as core-low as you get.

Cassina hates me even more than I thought. She hates me enough to jeopardize her mission captain status.

Of course
.
It isn't that big a risk. Not for her.

She'll risk low results and still get a great placement. Either way, she'll be fine. And chances are she's probably thinking everyone will remember the victory. Not the sacrifice that made it possible.

Then I notice something. I'm smiling.

“Okay,” I say, breaking the awkward silence. I hear someone gasp. “Order received, Mission Captain.”

I'll take out every single one of them. Every single dirt scavenger. By myself. Just me blasting my way through those dirtmongers.

I'm ready. I've always been ready.

And being alone? That's nothing new.

“Okay, Cadet,” says Cassina, uneasy.

Maybe she thought I didn't have the guts. Maybe she's realizing the truth. Maybe Cassina's thinking:
Wow, I really am evil.

Most likely not.

“Cadet,” she says, her voice strong again. “Take defensive position and await the go—”

A voice buzzes in. “No,” it says. “No, Cassina.”

Kane
.

“Excuse me, Mission Captain,” he says. “What I mean . . . I'd like to volunteer to accompany Cadet Lex. Make it a two-man clearing mission.”

“Wait,” I say. “I can do it by my—”

“Mission Captain?” says Kane, his voice rising over mine. “Do I have the go-ahead?”

He called her out. Stepped up for a fellow cadet. In that moment, I know she hates Kane as much as she hates me.

“Fine,” she hisses. “Just get the job done.”

◊  ◊  ◊

Rock and concrete. The smell of human waste. Leftover bits of humanity: a deflated zip ball, mounds of stinking, soiled clothing. Thick black mud bubbles up to our ankles. Some sort of rubbish dump. Or maybe this is just another day in Rock Bottom.