Looking for the Age of Aquarius
Chap 10 ("What Storm Is This That Blows So")
I was walking to my locker before school started when Byron suddenly jumped out, startling me, and pulled me aside roughly. If this was his way of not attracting attention, he was off his rocker.
"What the…" I hissed as I realized that he was dragging me into a men's bathroom, disregarding the bright yellow plastic janitor's sign with the words 'Do Not Enter' on it in bold black letters.
"Let go of me," I said, yanking my arm free as the door closed.
He turned and put something on the door to jam it closed, then turned to face me. I'd never seem him act this way and it was frightening me. "Watch your back around Teri," Byron told me his tone firm.
"Why?" I asked. He was acting so strange. Byron hasn't spoken to me in public or allowed himself to be seen with me in school since he joined the Trags. Furthermore, he reported strictly to Ian now, only contacting me if necessary and in the most clandestine ways possible, and the few times we have meet, Byron's directions were so complex it made me feel like an agent in Mission Impossible. Like that Mexican restaurant for example. Years of reading spy novels, I'm afraid. And adventure movies. So his behavior this morning was really odd, almost scary.
"Just do it, Mahureen," he said in a warning tone.
"I'll need more than that," I said, but I took a step back from him.
"Don't be stubborn," he said, remaining where he was.
"I'm not. I'm late for class, and you're telling me to be careful of a girl who hasn't done anything to me – in fact, she doesn't even talk to me."
"I overheard Teri talking to three men who do not attend school here," he stated.
"Men," I said, wondering what he was on about. "Can you be more specific? Tell me or I'm leaving."
"In their twenty's. One dark skinned, one a bald Caucasian with upper lip fuzz, but I know the third: Larry, one of the Iwabas tribe recruits that I've seen before around the Trag house. Larry keeps to himself, mostly, sharpening his knives. The others are new, I think, or stationed elsewhere. All of them are bleached. They left when Roman spotted them."
I cocked my head slightly, not getting the implication. Normally I'm not this dense, but so far he wasn't giving me enough to piece together. "Teri talking to Trags isn't news – her mother is supposedly leader of the Trags." But why warn me about two new Trag recruits that don't attend school? "Look, Loraine told me she saw Roman approach Teri this morning and demand that she tell him what she was planning – if it had anything to do with Emery. She said Teri brushed him off, however when she started to walk away from him, he grabbed her arm, but she shrugged him off again. She didn't say anything about Teri taking to strange men. What's was going on?"
"The guys turned and walked off as soon as Roman spotted them. She was speaking to them in Sonidv, which caught Roman's attention. I did hear her say she'd handle the job inside and that they had until sunset to do it. But the bald one I don't know confronted me and snidely told me to run off to class, so I couldn't hear what was said between Roman and Teri," Byron explained. "However, Larry, the one from the Trag house told me to be on watch and that she may need my help with Drake and Roman."
"Drake and Roman – help doing what?" I asked, suddenly wondering if maybe Teri had to do something to Drake. The punishments for desertion or ratting them out was death, or so Sephen told me, and once a Trag – well, Vega took their oaths to mean for life.
"He didn't say, only that I was to be on hand to help her if she needed it," he said.
"But what did Teri tell the men to do?"
"That's being handled, Mahureen," Byron said but I shot him an incredulous glare. "To be ready. As soon as the school lockdown is over, take the stuff to the Sector. I don't know what the stuff is."
"Oh shit – a school lockdown? A bomb threat of some kind?" I said, trying to think what would cause a school lock down. "I'll call Ian."
"I already did," Byron stated as I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
"I'll keep an eye on Teri," I said, putting my phone back.
"No, that's my job; you're to stay away from her," he said and left the bathroom. I followed him out, getting a few odd stares that I had to brush off as I walked to my locker.
I saw Teri putting things away in her locker as I approached mine, but she turned away, looking down the corridor. I did too and spotted Roman approaching. He stopped; apparently whatever was said between them before wasn't over, from the look on Roman's face, he wasn't finished talking to her. Teri gave him a knowing smile – a 'I know something you don't' type.
Just then Emery arrived and stopped, but Roman's attention was on Teri. "Hey," Emery said. But Roman didn't respond right away so Emery shrugged and walked away before Roman turned to answer her. But instead of walking up to Teri, Roman made a quick glance at Teri, then followed Emery.
The look on Teri's face spoke volumes, jealousy and then disappointment. She didn't like the relationship between Roman and Emery.
She glared at me as she walked by. Not surprising.
In English lit, Drake glared at me as I stood murmuring the words of the pledge of allegiance. Yes, I'm was a hypocrite, faking a pledge I didn't mean, but it's part of the cover. I looked at Loraine, who was doing the same, then looked at Drake again. His expression changed to a look of comprehension. At least I hoped it was comprehension. I mean, he already knew Loraine's secret, he'd been in my bedroom after all.
I lowered my head as I sat down and considered the ramifications. If he knew that Loraine was Tgorasad, then it wouldn't take him long to realize that Jason and Justin were, too. Thankfully, with Byron keeping his distance, he was safe, unless Drake remembered that he used to sit with us as well.
And he's angry at me because he thinks I deceived him. He thinks I'm a Trag who's spying on him. Grrrrreat.
Of course, Sophia knew all of us were Tgorasad. I glanced at Sophia. She turned to look at me, and I gaped in shock. Make-up – a full on dark, smoky-eye, smoldering look and dark berry colored lipstick, but on her it stood out because it was so different from her normal look. New hair cut, new edgy look to her clothes and now this goth-ish look?
In chem, we had lab. I approached the worktable not knowing how to act around Drake. "Should I get the equipment we need?" I asked. The assignment was NH3 production from ammonia, then to experiment with the solubility of ammonia in water.
"Sure," he said.
I collected bin of equipment we needed for the two experiments as Drake had left to get the concentrated ammonium hydroxide solution for the first experiment and a bottle of HCl(aq) for the second.
We worked in silence, both doing the experiment side by side. Drake let me place my syringe in beaker of hot water first. I checked the temp – it was a perfect 65oC.
As the gas generation started to fill up my syringe, I removed the latex syringe cap while keeping it directed upwards as Drake watched. I slowly rotated the syringe 180o in order to control the reaction of the mixture in the syringe, careful to not let the pressure of the liquid make it spray out. Around the room, others who were at the same stage had trouble and a few of them their liquid vigorously shot out of the syringe. "If you keep the angle the same and rotate it slowly enough, it won't shoot out," I told him.
Beside me, Drake had started to do his rotation of his syringe.
I recapped my syringe and carried it to the water basin on Mr. Jacobson's demonstration table. "Excellent, Maureen," he said as I squirted the liquid out at close range above the surface of the large basin of water. "Go do the next one." As I turned, I saw Drake in line.
We did the next three experiments, but as I had already done these with David Kraft at the houses in my chemistry lessons, I knew what to expect. It might be cheating, but I had the observations already written out on my i-Tablet. Naturally Drake's results were the same as mine, but I did smile at Drake's reaction to the second phase as the plunger of his syringe rapidly pulled inward a little faster than he'd expected.
So, you're okay staying as lab partners? I wanted to ask Drake as we cleaned up, but for some reason I could tell that he didn't want to talk about it. If he was all right with it, so was I, and I could almost sense that in time, things might work out, but for now, if I didn't push him, he was okay with the way things were.
On my way to nutrition break, I saw Julia leaning against the wall watching a video on her phone. I was about to ask her what she was looking at when she showed me the phone. "Secret's out," she said.
It was a clip of the video sent to us from Collier of Roman kissing Emery. "How?" I asked.
"One of the Sector guards got a copy and posted it online – it went viral," she said, pushing off the wall.
"Great?" I hoped it wasn't Collier.
As I followed Julia to the store room, I asked, "Should we? I mean…"
"Might as well, it's all over school," Julia stated. She knocked and opened the door. I walked in after her.
Roman and Emery looked embarrassed, then relieved it was us – well, Emery did. Roman's eyes narrowed when he saw me. "Hey guys," Julia said casually. "You can come out now. Everybody knows."
When the four of us walked into the cafeteria at break, it was true, a lot of people were watching the video on their phones. Grrrreat. Roman and Emery got quite a few odd looks and a few sneers. Atrian-human mixing: no one was ready to this to happen – nor wanted it to. The Red Hawks were going to be up in arms over the video.
Julia told Roman and Emery what she said to me about the SEU guards downloading the video.
"Hey Roman, what are you having for lunch?" a boy named Kyle asked. "I hear Grayson's sloppy seconds are on the menu."
Roman stepped forward to confront him, to defend Emery's honor, but she grabbed his arm and said, "Don't."
Sydney, a black boy in our year said, "Humans, Atrians… I suppose you'll get down with anyone or anything, won't you?" to Emery. Roman look livid.
Then surprisingly, Taylor stepped in between them. "And yet you can't seem to get with a girl of any species, can you?"
Sydney looked angry for a second, then Kyle tried to laugh it off, and he and Sydney walked away.
Taylor turned to Emery and Roman. "Don't listen to those Neanderthals, I think what you're doing is really brave." She looked over Emery's shoulder, and I turned my head, seeing Drake standing there. I know he'd heard everything.
He made a small smile and walked away.
"I'm usually the pacemaker. I'm glad your paving the way this time," Taylor stated.
"Thanks, Taylor," Emery said.
"I'll see you guys later," Julia said, and I walked off with her.
After nutrition break I went to my locker, and I saw Drake standing at his. I was tempted to go talk to him, to try and sort things out. But I saw Grayson walk up to Drake. Whatever Grayson said, Drake turned around to face Grayson, angrily saying, "I'm not your bitch."
I froze, leaning on the edge of my locker, looking at my phone, recording it, so I could see them clearly reflected on the screen and from the corner of my eye.
Grayson said something softly, and Drake checked both ways down the corridor, before facing his locker. Grayson said something else, indicating with his hands, but I couldn't hear anything, until Drake turned and said, "Roman's innocent in all this," defensively.
Grayson shook his head as he continued talking.
Drake turned his head and for a moment I thought he'd spotted me watching him, so I pretended to laugh softly as if engrossed in a video.
Drake once again looked at me, then back at Grayson, his arms crossed and his expression half way between annoyed and angry as he watched Grayson walk away. I quickly opened up Lukas' blog and was surprised that he hadn't updated in three days.
"Eavesdropping?" Drake asked, and I even flinched a little because of his tone.
"You-tube," I said. "Or I was. Loraine emailed me a really funny one." It wasn't a lie; she had – that morning. I saw it in the car with Jason. "I was checking out Lukas' blog – he hasn't updated since being released from the hospital. I thought he'd have posted something by now."
"Yeah, right," he said. He hit the locker next to him, but I simply looked up at him and smiled.
Nope big guy, you don't intimidate me. You're too swoon worthy, and you've a protective nature, not a brutish one. I knew that much about him for certain, not that Drake wouldn't do what had to be done, if he had to. "Bad day?" I asked, actually concerned.
"You could say that," he said and walked away. At least he's talking to me again. Not that that was all I wanted, but it was a start.
At lunch, the weather was getting cloudy – rain-like cloudy. Some people were surprised by the change, others ignored it. I mean, yeah, we get rain, but our weather doesn't change up this dramatically this fast normally. I met up with Julia, and we walked to the cafeteria together. I saw Lukas shoo off some students taking Emery's and Roman's pictures as I walked in, calling them 'bottom feeders,' glad that he still had his sense of humor.
Julia and I spotted Erik, and she headed toward him, but as we drew near, we heard him say, "I mean they are a different species; their babies will probably have flippers."
Ouch.
Julia stopped in her tracks and said, "Nice," then turned, and we walked away. Not that I condoned producing half human-half Atrian offspring (me and my Ikseyan had set a edict prohibiting that), but his remark cut at me, too.
Erik rushed up to us, well, to Julia, "Oh c'mon, it was a joke," he said.
Julia turned to say something, but Miss Benton, called out, "Miss Yeung," and said she needed to speak to Julia in private, glancing pointedly at me, then smiled at Julia.
Julia looked worried. What was it that had Miss Benton so focused in Julia? It had to be her DNA, or was it? "Julia?" I asked, but she shook her head. "I'll be here if you need me – for anything, I'll be here," I said.
Julia nodded and walked away.
"What is that about?" Erik asked.
"I don't know, but it can't be good," I murmured, then shook it off. "I'm sure it's nothing. Her grades are great."
"Miss Benton has been singling her out a lot lately," he stated.
So he's noticed it, too, has he? "Yeah, she has…"
"Maybe we should…?"
"Check on her? Yeah, that's probably a good idea," I said and went after Julia, wondering where Miss Benton took her.
Suddenly the news feeds came online. And the school storm windows were coming down. WTF?
In the video feed, Arthur Brench was in a yellow rain slicker and holding his microphone with both hands as he talked about the sudden unseasonable hurricane that had hit Louisiana, mystifying meteorologists, as it slammed the southeastern part of the state. Behind him the trees were swaying and there was torrential rain…
We were shuffled into the cafeteria by the teachers. Miss Benton announced that we were permitted on the first floor only and to stay away from the windows and the glass doors. But I didn't see Julia anywhere.
Drake and Roman were talking over by the food service, Drake with his arms crossed. Roman looked worried, but Drake shifted his weight and dropped his arms with a serious, contemplative expression. Suddenly Roman went up and attacked Grayson, who had only been talking to Emery, and snarling, "Touch her again and I'll kill you."
Drake reacted immediately, shouting, "Stop, stop," as he grabbed Roman's arms. "If the guards see you throw the first punch they will be all over you."
Grayson backed off, and Roman went up to Emery, but then shook his head and ran off. Drake left, possibly to follow Roman.
Odd. I turned to find Justin standing next to me. "Justin, something is really off."
"Maybe he doesn't like being locked up?" he said offhandedly.
"He grew up in the Sector," I pointed out.
"Relax, it's probably the storm," Justin said, waving it off. "He's probably wanting to check on his people and can't, it's made him edgy."
I pulled out my phone, but I didn't have enough bars to get a signal. Damn. "I'm not edgy," I said trying to get a connection by moving the phone. I got a connection error indication. "The news feeds are working…"
"Different; radio waves and broadcast feeds – and you can pick the schools Wi-News system." Justin put a hand on my arm. "Like you were saying?"
He was right, I could pick up the news feeds through the school digital services, and maybe the internet, but not make a phone call. Is everyone all right, I typed and sent to Ihmen.
She didn't answer right away. However, I didn't get a mail delivery failure notice.
"I'm going to try and get a signal," I said and started to walk away. I walked down the hallway, but couldn't get a good signal.
"Mahureen, there you are," Loraine said, almost skidding to a halt. She looked down the hall and moved closer to me. "You're right in your suspicions of Miss Benton. She said and I quote, 'I have to go play teacher,' as if her teaching is a cover. But worse, I overheard Mr. Burke ask Miss Benton if he could test blood samples here."
"What?" I asked, taking a moment to process what she said.
"He's using her lab to test blood samples," she stated.
"Here on campus? Whose blood?" My gut told me it was Julia's. "Shit – ciper," I said, surprised they would be so bold – here and at school. "But with the storm, maybe he can't send emails. And if so, maybe we can corrupt the files."
"And the phones are down – well, most of them; everyone's complaining – disturbance from the storm," Loraine said.
Mr. Burke was alone in the lab. "Shoot. I need to find Julia," I stated. "Stay here and if he leaves, do what you can to erase the evidence – and nab his computer. I doubt they will want their personal organic chemistry project in the school computer system."
"Right, they wouldn't," she agreed.
"If you see Emery, or the guys, get them to help you," I suggested, wondering where Byron was. "I'll send Justin and Jason to back you up."
I found Emery in the corridor. "Have you seen Julia?" I asked.
"No, not for a while now," Emery said. "Last time I saw her was in the cafeteria."
"Before Miss Benton asked to see her?" I mumbled. "That was an hour ago."
Erik came around the corner and upon seeing us, hurried over. "Emery, have you talked to Julia today?"
"Not since this morning," Emery said. "Why?"
"I said something stupid and now she's avoiding me," Erik said, the remorse in his voice almost made me forgive him. "Could you check on her for me?" he asked us both.
"Yeah, we'll go find her," I said, and he thanked me. Maybe there was hope for the berk yet.
We searched for Julia, running through the hallways.
"Hey, Emery, has – did Julia accept that internship with Miss Benton? Has she said anything about it to you?"
"No, she didn't," Emery said. "Why?"
"Whatever Miss Benton wanted with Julia, I don't think she's given up. She pulled Julia out of the cafeteria earlier," I said, checking a empty classroom. "I already checked Miss Benton's class room, office and her lab."
We searched in more earnest and found Julia sitting on a secluded bench, crying.
"I don't know what Erik said, but I think this storm is officially making every boy in this school go insane," Emery said as we approached.
Julia laughed, but she was holding her hand cupped over her right arm.
"You okay?" Emery asked, but I could see she wasn't.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied.
"You most definitely are not," Emery said, walking up to her.
We sat down on either side of Julia. "What is that?" Emery asked, making Julia move her hand. "Is that a needle mark?" Emery asked, echoing my own thoughts. "Jules, what is going on?"
Julia started to cry, "I can't—"
"You most certainly can," Emery insisted. I put my hand on her shoulder.
"You have to keep this between us?" Julia said. "It's Miss Benton, she's only working here so she can get close to the Atrian seven to figure out how to make ciper work."
"That's her study, isn't it – ciper?" I asked.
"You know?" Emery asked me.
"I suspected. I didn't have any proof," I admitted. "Does she know you were cured by ciper?" I asked Julia.
"Yes, but she doesn't know that Roman had to mix it with his blood," Julia said. She looked at Emery. "I should have told you weeks ago. I was just so scared."
I put my arm across her shoulders.
"She threatened to poison my dad. I didn't know what to do," Julia said, and I could understand her fears.
"It's okay," I said, but if they had her blood it was only a matter of time before they worked it out. "You're not alone any more, we'll fix it. We have to get your blood sample and contaminate it, and corrupt his data on his computer," I suggested. "I'll find Lukas, maybe he can erase the data. I have my herb kit. There are Atrian herbs that effect memory, like khayler. Only I have to squeeze the puff pod under Mr. Burke's and Miss Benton's nose to make it work. The more they inhale, the more it modifies their memory." I doubted I could get them to share a glass of beer with me, so pæmbek and pozatku are out of the might – but it erases all memory. That could go detected.
"But we have to get Julia's blood before he runs the tests," Emery stated.
I nodded. "My cousin Loraine is outside Miss Benton's lab, keeping an eye on Mr. Burke until she can get to his computer."
"Not alone? He's the type that would do unquestionable things, if it served his purposes," Julia stated.
I agreed. "Be careful. Loraine has a herb kit, too. Tell her I said to do anything necessary to protect Julia's secret; she'll know. I'm going to find Lukas," I said and took off to find Lukas. I found Sophia and Lukas in the school computer lab. He was monitoring the storm. "What's up guys?" I asked. "Lukas?"
"Lukas has tracked the storm," Sophia said. "It started over the ship?"
"The ARDhet?" I asked, moving to where they were working. I could see the graphics on the screen.
Sophia nodded. "If someone initiated the anti-gravity thrusters, it would create a low pressure field," she said.
"That could cause this sort of disturbance," I finished for her, utterly astounded. "But who would do that? Humans can't engage the mechanical functions of the ship, can they?"
"I don't know," Sophia said with a shrug.
"But that means that the drives, power sources and all the main engineering are all still intact," I said, realizing what that implied. "The humans aren't dismantling the ship."
"But then why?" Lukas asked.
"To study it, obviously," I said. "If they can copy our drive technology…" I shook my head. "The access codes were not numerical, but random combination of kwandon, numbers and," I looked up. I was about to say elemental symbols, but stopped myself in time. Oops.
"How do you know so much about the Atrian ship…?" Lukas asked, then his eyes widened.
Oh, no, had he caught on? I was so stunned by what Sophia said, I'd said too much and now he knew – if he knew. "From my family connections…" I said cautiously. If he was shocked by the revelation he didn't show it, though, he seemed, well, pleased for some reason. That had to be good, right? Augh, I had to be more careful.
Lukas' mouth opened, but the lights went out before he could voice his thought, or questions. The computers all went blank.
"You can trust him," Sophia said, and I saw Lukas' silhouette nod.
Gads I hoped so. I glanced around; we were alone, now was a good time to ask him about the day he was healed. "I have to," I realized. I turned to look at him, thankful that the emergency lights kicked on. "Lukas, there is something I wanted to ask you, two actually."
"Okay…" he said slowly.
"Do you know what happened to you – why you were so sick?" I asked.
"An Atrian herb called black ciper," he replied.
I nodded. Great, he knew. Good he wasn't freaking out about it. "And do you know how you were cured?"
"Ciper," he said. The lights came back on and so did the computers.
Sophia shook her head. "No, black ciper – we had to use black ciper to heal you."
"No, Sophia," I said and sat on a stool. "There is more to it than that. Do you know if Roman purged him afterwards?"
"Nooo," Sophia said slowly as Lukas tapped the keys making his program come back up. "Purging. Oh, no. Do you have to?"
"Yes, it's imperative that he should have," I said. "Sorry, Lukas, I'm talking about you as if you're not here."
"It's all right?" he said. "So what are you saying? Is there a problem?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so. Black ciper can cure you of an attack, heal the lungs, but the spores are not out of your blood. Left untreated in the system, the black ciper spores are basically living as parasites inside of the blood stream, eventually they will bond with your DNA – well they do in Atrians, I'm not sure about humans."
"Sophia told me about black ciper," Lukas said. "You're saying that people who are infected with black ciper still carry the spores in their blood – unless they are purged?"
I hoped she'd explained everything thoroughly. "In Atrians, the black ciper will attack and change the normal ciper in our physiology, mutate it, change the ciper genome in their DNA into black ciper and the person then becomes a black ciper host. Over time, the victim can release more spores into the world through their – well, skin if you're Atrian – I'm not sure how if the host is human. Breathing maybe? When you die, the spores react with the decomposition of the body and grow."
"It will produce more black ciper," Lukas said as if more to himself than to me or Sophia. He looked up at me as if shocked. "You're Atrian!"
I nodded, surprised. He knew. But then why…? Doesn't matter, he knows.
"I thought you could be, but I wasn't sure – because you're always with," he pointed to Sophia, "or Drake, and you're always talking about Atrian stuff, the Sector and the Trags with Emery and Julia… But you're actually one of them – not just a Atrian enthusiast like Julia?"
Gads, he'd overheard us – when? Not at school? In The Bug? Or… doesn't matter – he had. I really have to be more cautious of who's around. There was a bigger problem at hand to think about. "Yes, I am and, Lukas, and if you'll let me, I need to purge you, before the black ciper gets into your DNA."
I looked at Sophia. "And I'll have to purge Roman, or he'll have to be purged—"
"Roman didn't cure Lukas," she said. "I did."
"And you weren't purged?" I asked, and she shook her head. "I can do it – well – my healers can." I turned to Lukas. "I'm asking you a lot, asking you to trust me – to trusting my healers, asking you to do this, but—"
"I'm still getting my head around you being an Atrian," he said.
"I'll answer your questions later, but yes, I'm Atrian. Actually a little more than that. You know that Roman is in line to be high Iksen of his people," I siad and thankfully he nodded, listening intently as if taking this all in – and in stride, bless him."Well, I'm the Atriarch Iksen of the Tgorasad, Amwur Atedi of my people, high seat of the Tgorasad Ikseyan – the Tgorasad Hwatab."
He nodded so I continued, to stem off the question of my markings,, but I also wanted Sophia to understand, too. "Normally the Ibseyzu - the Iksen consort - is chosen so that the blood of the Amwur Atedi, me, is of all the tribes: but sometimes – as in recent times – it leans toward one tribe a bit. While my great-grandfather's blood was fairly even, my Grandfather Nededa's Ibseyzu was half Sævad and half Cæveh, but my father was a full blood of the Sævad tribe. His markings were pale – very pale – as were his mother's. Sævad markings are usually lighter than the others, but even among my people mine are exceptionally light. It's called ubludnak, hypopigmentation—"
"I know what that is, my aunt has it," he said. "So why aren't you in the Sector with all the rest of the aliens."
I let the slur off with a chuffed laugh. "Not all of us were on the ship when it crashed." His forehead creased, so I added, "Life pods and drop ships."
"Ah," he said nodding. "So some of you avoided capture."
"We're not bad people, but yes, there are some of us in hiding. Please don't turn us in." He was taking this well, I thought, considering.
"Cure me and I won't," he said, and I was immediately relieved.
"Will you come with me after school…?" I looked at the shuttered windows. "Or when they finally let us out of here?"
"Sure," he said.
"You too, Sophia," I said, not really a request.
She nodded in understanding. "Of course," she replied. "I've been wanting to see where you live, anyway."
"Now I have another problem I need help with involving Mr. Burke, Miss Benton's assistant," I said and told them what I knew. "You can't let anyone know that Julia possibly has activated ciper in her body," I pleaded with Lukas.
"If she does, so will I, right? I'll have ciper in my body…?" he asked, and I nodded.
"It's highly likely, depending on how much was used – but after the purge – yes, your body will have ciper bonding," I admitted.
"Then her secret – our secret – and yours – are safe with me. I wouldn't want to be a lab rat, nor do I want my friends to become one either." He stood up. "Let's tell Gloria what we know about the ship and Miss Benton and her goon. She'll call the national guard, and they will shut down the ship."
"Lukas, wait, what if it isn't an accident, what if someone wanted to cause the storm?" Sophia asked.
"Only an Atrian knows how to do that," Lukas stated, and he looked at me. "Would…?"
"No!" I said emphatically. "No, we keep a low profile, stay under the radar and try to blend in and survive. This Integration Program is essential for us – if it succeeds then we—"
"If it was an Atrian then no more integration; no more freedom; they can send us all to the crate," Sophia said. I could tell that that frightened her, and Lukas apparently could, too
"Look, I don't want that to happen, but this storm is tearing up my town, and I can't stand back and let that happen," Lukas said.
"Look, the storm it's – it looks like it's winding down," Sophia said. "Give it ten minutes, then we go tell Gloria."
"Okay," Lukas said, watching the screen. I hoped Loraine, Emery and Julia were having luck destroying Julia's blood evidence.
"But we do need to tell her about Miss Benton and her taking the blood of a student," I said.
Finally, Lukas was appeased that the storm was in fact, winding down. We left to go talk to Miss Garcia.
"Let me do most of the talking," I suggested. "There are some things I don't want said to her."
"You told me," Lukas said.
"I'm trusting you," I replied. Besides, if his blood became infused with ciper, as I suspected it will, he'd have to keep it a secret, and I knew he wouldn't want to become a lab rat anymore than Julia did.
We spoke to Miss Garcia, and I told her that Miss Benton and Mr. Burke were planning to forcibly take Atrian blood for experiments on ciper, and that they suspected that Julia's recovery was due to ciper because she was friendly with them.
"That's preposterous! Roman and Julia didn't know each other when Julia had been hospitalized, and she certainly didn't have any connection prior to that as far as I'm aware, so her suspecting Julia of being cured by ciper is completely unfounded," Miss Garcia said. "I happen to know that they had formed friendship after Julia came to Marshall High."
Okay, at least I hoped so – I mean no know connection other than her being Emery's best friend. All things considered, she took it well. Naturally she was furious about one of her teachers taking blood from a student and threatening to do so to the Atrians under her care.
However, Miss Garcia called the national guard and the SEU. The national guard came rather quickly, surprisingly fast. I hoped the government hadn't worked out that the anti-gravity thrusters on the ARDhet had been activated, but if they had… I'd have to discuss those ramifications with my Hwatab tonight.
We followed Miss Garcia and the officers of the National Guard to look for Miss Benton.
We saw Emery trying to support Teri on the stairs… Roman, whose right hand was all bloody, was standing in front of Emery as if drunk, and Mr. Burke who was lying unconscious on the ground under a rather busted up, bloody wall. I rushed forward to Emery, ignoring the rebuke for the solider behind me. "What happened?"
"Yes, what is going on here?" Miss Garcia demanded to know.
"Mr. Burke was draining Teri of her blood," Emery said. "Julia, she's – she's up there," Emery said, pointing.
A guard tried to grab Roman, but Emery moved in his way. "He's been drugged or something," she said. "He's been acting off ever since lunch."
"Miss Whitehill, you and Miss Stone take Roman and Teri to the nursing office. I'll be by shortly," she said, firmly, an order, which the men responded to. "You two follow me."
The other two guards grabbed Mr. Burke by the arms.
I pulled Lukas back as the guards dragged Mr. Burke away, another herding Emery and Roman with them. "I'll be right behind you with Teri, I told the other guard." I leaned close to Lukas as he helped me with Teri. "We have to corrupt his computer – delete all data on the memory board," I said softly.
"Sure, I'll go," he said. "I'm on it, trust me – I'll take care of it."
I nodded as he ran off. I believed him.
We waited in the nurse's office, three guards watching over us as if we were under arrest. Teri needed ciper, ground lkythoi to help her rejuvenate… and diphrey for blood loss, but I had no idea what to do for Roman. I was relieved when Byron walked in with Lukas. "Miss Garcia said she needs help," Byron said in a rush. "Now – its urgent!"
After a quick conference, two guards ran off. As soon as the door closed, Byron, jumped the remaining guard and knocked him unconscious.
I pulled out my cosmetic bag of herbs and took out the khayler pods. "It will befuddle his memory – that's all. Push his jaw up, I've only two hands." Byron held Mr. Burke's head firmly to his chest with his hands clamped under his chin so he couldn't open his mouth. I pinched Mr. Burke's nose, held it for a few seconds, then released it, and squeezed a khayler pod in his face as he inhaled. "I have to do this twice," I said, pinching his nose again after he exhaled. Mr. Burke's eyes widened as he gasped for air, as I restricted his breathing. When I released his nose and pinched the khaylar pod, he inhaled quite a bit more of the pale spore dust the second time. Byron shoved a bit of zapomiec down the man's throat and forced him to swallow. I hoped he choked on it. "Good. Now the guard," I said.
"I never want to be on your bad side," Lukas said as we did the same to the guard, well, just the khayler powder.
"I don't do this to friends," I stated.
"Good to know, friend," Lukas said, as I checked the guards' pupils. He'd be fine.
I handed Roman some ciper. "I'm going to have to alter her memory as well."
"No," he said, but I shook my head and held up my finger.
"You, I'm willing to trust," I said, then pointed to Teri, "Her, no. Once we administer the khayler, you can give her that," I said, indicating the ciper. "I can give you ground lkythoi and diphrey, which you can explain how you came to have some to her later," I said then switched to Sondiv. "But I'm trusting you, Abour Atedi of the southern Itrejivil. Betray me and the Torgasad will not honor Jadex II's treaty; the agreement with the Itrejivil will not be upheld."
Roman's eyes narrowed. It was a threat, but he needed to know where I stood. "I understand," he said.
Byron and I used the khayler pods on Teri, then Byron left.
"Tell me he isn't Trag," Roman demanded, his voice a little calmer – more like himself.
I turned to face him. "I don't know what you're on, so I hope Emery can explain this to you later." She nodded, so I continued. "Byron and I grew up together; I trust him as a brother – love him as a brother. He is one of my strazhic ochrikujen. He infiltrated the Trags to keep me and my Ikseyan appraised of their activities outside the Sector. But he is and has always been loyal to the safety and welfare of the people – all our people – even the humans."
"So he's your spy?" Roman asked.
"He's family. He's doing what is necessary to protect the people – our people." I held my hands up. "I wish I could…" I dropped my hands. "You and I should be working together – not in opposition. I regret not telling you who I am when we first met, but it's not as if you and I became friends – you avoided me and didn't trust me, so I–I didn't know what to think of you. But believe me, everything I do is for our people – everything. Every day. I'm not your enemy." I turned and left, leaving him to deal with Teri.
I went to the cafeteria to find Justin and Jason, to inform them of all that had happened, and I saw Sophia talking to Lukas, so I joined them. "Thank you for not telling anyone about the ship," Sophia was saying.
"The storm let up," Lukas said. "But if what you said is true, then one of the Atrians is a terrorist," he paused to look at me. "The danger is not over yet, is it?"
I shook my head. "No, but I will have my Ikseyan investigate into who might have done this."
Sophia looked over at Taylor. Taylor looked really upset, so she went over to her.
"But even if it's not one of your people, that still means that one of the seven in school…" he paused. "What?"
"There are a few who are out here that are not – how do I put this? There are a few extremists who are not under me or my Ikseyan," I said, stepping closer to him so we'd not be overheard. "I know that no one under me and my council of elders did – would do this… But that's not to say I haven't heard about rouge Atrians, extremists, causing trouble – I have. And I try – we try every day to stop them and prevent them from doing anything dangerous, as any leader of a people would."
He nodded in understanding. "What now?"
I shrugged. "I meet with my elders and discuss this," I said. "But I will handle it on my end, I promise. This storm was as disturbing to me as it is to you, please believe that."
"I do," he said, and I felt relieved.
"Now, about you," I said, changing the subject.
"Let me call my mom, and I'll go with you," Lukas told me.
"Lukas, wait," I said. "It's… A purge takes hours. You'd have to spend the night, maybe even most of the day tomorrow."
"You mean skip school?" he asked.
I nodded. "I know you're not the type—"
"Oh, I'm the type, but I will have to get my mom's permission – or forge her signature if I miss school," he said.
"Wait, try this," I said digging into my herbs again. Across the room, I could see that Sophia was trying to console Taylor. I'm not sure what Sophia said to her, but Taylor kissed Sophia. Taylor glanced at Drake, who had a rather shocked expression on his face for about a second, then she walked away. However, Sophia touched her lips, looking bemusedly happy. Drake looked at Lukas and me, before walking away.
I turned to look at Lukas. "Sorry. It's called pozatku, it's a herb that when mixed with alcohol will make someone susceptible to suggestion. When she seems slightly drunk or sleepy tell her what you want, a half-hour later, when it seems to wear off, your suggestion will – she'll repeat your suggestion as if it was her idea and she'll sign the note."
"Like an inception." I didn't know what he meant, and he laughed lightly. "The act of instilling an idea into someone's mind by entering his or her dreams," he explained. "Even something odd like 'I want to spend tomorrow with Maureen?' My mom's a smart woman, she won't buy that."
"Something like that. Only try, 'I told my friend I'd help them clear away the storm damage from their house' or 'I want to help out with the storm damage as a community project' or something," I suggested.
"This herb won't hurt her will it?" he asked, eyeing it suspiciously.
I shook my head, smiling at him. "No, it won't. It befuddles the mind for a few minutes, making the user susceptible to suggestion. That's all. I promise. And unless you give her some weird suggestions like 'you're a chicken' or something, nothing will happen to her." He looked at me oddly. "I'm joking about the chicken thing. But my people, those trained and skilled in behavior modification, use the herb, like on troubled people, for rehabilitation, mental issues… but usually only under controlled instances because it does work – it leaves a very strong…" what's the human word? I tried to remember the word he used, "inception impression. But it will not harm her." I didn't want to tell him that I've had to use it a few occasions on humans – well, those of my family have, when a human we didn't think we could trust found out too much. I hoped Lukas was trustworthy; he seemed to be.
"Okay, I get it," he said.
I opened my contact list and hit share. "Here is my phone number," I said, tapping my phone to his. "Call me, and I'll come pick you up and take you to where my physicians are."
"Atrian physicians? That will be interesting. Okay, I'll call you as soon as I get my mother's permission," he said and walked off.
Outside on the way to our cars, I saw Julia kissing Erik, and Emery was speaking to Roman. Emery kissed Roman, but when she walked away she looked sad as opposed to Julia who looked elated when she and Erik parted. High school drama.
I approached Sophia before she got to the bus. "Lukas is coming over tonight. You should come over tomorrow, too, You'll need to be purged as well. I'll pick you up outside the Sector first thing in the morning." Her purging should go easier than Lukas', she didn't have spores in her lungs.
"Sure," Sophia said, and I think she was actually looking forward to it. Little did she know; the purging could be excruciating painful. I hoped the neuro-inhibitors worked. Erjin had been trying to improve them, his little project. Tonight, we'd find out if they helped or not.
"You can then hang out with us, and I'll show you how we live," I said. "We should have you home before curfew." I hoped so.
"By the way, Roman was under the influence of vatal," Sophia told me. "It's worn off, thankfully."
I nodded, knowing the herb. "I wonder who gave it to him," I thought aloud, and realized that it had to have been Teri. I wonder if that was why Byron warned me about her that morning. "I hope his memory of the day is intact," I said.
Sophia shrugged. "I think so, I'll find out if you want?"
"No, it's all good. I'll see you tomorrow morning – and bring a swim suit," I said and waved goodbye as I walked over to my cousins.
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Sorry this on got a little long. But there was a lot to put in here. Next chapter is not related to the series, but happens between the storm and the scene in episode 11.