7. Sides
Tass told Dekabyn about Nerra the next day. He looked thoughtful once she'd finished.
"Who'd he get into a fight with, then?"
"Don't know. Sixth-levelers, I suppose." She said the words carefully.
Dekabyn looked away. "Look, I'm not going to go and start fights...I'm just going to stand up for myself, okay?"
Tass had been thinking about this all night. "But the thing is...we're making it worse for ourselves, Dekabyn. Everytime one of us fights with them, whether we started it or not...it just lowers their opinion of us low-levelers."
"Low-levelers?" Dekabyn practically spat the words out. "Tass! They use that term to insult us, and you bloody well told me off for insulting them back! Sixth-levelers! Whose side are you on?"
Tass felt her face going bright, bright red. "I'm sorry, Dek...I forgot. That term gets thrown around so much, on the holovision and things..."
"Low-levelers," Dekabyn snarled, and this time he actually did spit on the hard metal floor. "It's driving me crazy. All the stuff I've been hearing...you know how that senator got shot a few months ago?"
Tass nodded, although in all honesty she'd forgotten about it.
"Well, they're still going on about it, because he was shot while he was visiting the..." he scrunched up his face "...low levels...and they're saying how none of us children have any hope or future growing up there...and my mum was furious..."
"Really?" Tass had met Dekabyn's mum only a few times, but had liked her.
"Yeah. Do you know," he said suddenly, looking her right in the eyes, "that just a few years ago...okay, more like ten...the Senators had this idea that involved taking away the children of anyone below thirtieth level and having them be fostered by people better off...and they were going to entirely reconstruct the whole place as well and have them not be houses anymore...Tass, our parents would have had nowhere to go, and no-one would have cared!"
Tass felt her breath catch in her throat. Oh stars, there's so much I haven't been paying attention to...more than just History, that's for certain...
"But they...changed their minds, I take it," she managed to say.
Dekabyn gave a hollow laugh, and didn't say anything. He looked at her and then ran on ahead, not waiting. She could practically sense his frustration.
Tass had the words "Whose side are you on?"echoing in her head all morning.
At lunchtime, it became evident that Dekabyn was deeply ashamed of what he'd said. He bought her lunch (despite her protests), he helped her with her Mathematics, and he carted books around for her all day. By the time they were about to go home, Tass realised she hadn't worked on her project at all. Still, she didn't care...she was too busy being both pleased and worried. A strange combination.
Still, she felt like she understood her brother's actions a little better now.
"Tass," Dekabyn said nervously, as they walked past classroom after classroom. "I...er...you don't have to be on a side, y'know. And maybe I don't want to be on one either."
"Thank you," Tass said, and felt slightly stupid for a reason she didn't know. "We can be our own side, if you like. We won't start fights, and we'll show them all what we're made of by...well, by winning I suppose."
Dekabyn actually put his arm around her. "Good idea."
There was a noise behind them and they both turned around. It was Faith. Dekabyn dropped his arm rather quickly.
"I...er...I have something to show you," she said.
"What?" Tass asked.
"Come with me."
She led them into an empty classroom. Tass followed. Dekabyn followed as well, although rather reluctantly. Inside the room there was a table with a glass on it.
"Faith, what's..."
But Faith held her hand up for silence. "Watch."
She raised her hand, then lowered it again and turned to Tass and Dekabyn. "Oh...and you might want to go to the other side of the room."
She placed the piece of broken glass on the table, held out her hand and raised it. The glass started to rise into the air...
...and so did the table.
"Damn," Faith muttered. She lowered her hand again, and then lifted it. This time just the glass rose. It rose, and rose...it reached the ceiling...Faith was concentrating pretty hard...
Then it fell. It smashed. Tass and Dekabyn ran to the middle of the room.
"How'd you-" Dekabyn began.
But Faith wasn't listening to him. "It's true...I can do these things..."
"Faith-"
"My parents are going to hate it," she said with a groan, sinking into a sitting position on the floor. "They always said...well, a lot of things about the Force and the Jedi and all that...oh, what if they..."
"They won't," Tass said, in as calm a voice as she could. "I think you ought to go home, Faith, go home and tell them."
"I can't," she groaned. "You don't know what...look, my great-great-or-whatever-grandparents gave the Empire money to help them kill people with powers like this! And they didn't even care if they were Jedi! They used to kill kids!"
Tass gawped; she hadn't known that the Mélenion's dislike of Jedi had gone quite that far.
"Kids?" Dekabyn said in disgust. "Your family gave money to..."
"Dek, this isn't the time or place!" Tass snapped. Faith was starting to whimper. "Faith, would you listen? They're not going to disown you or anything. I mean, there isn't a war on right now, right? They wouldn't have any reason to...oh for heaven's sake...look, don't be so worried!"
"Easy for you to say!" Faith said, tears pouring down her face now.
"No it isn't..." Dekabyn said, but Tass shot him such a look that he shut up.
"Listen," Tass said, kneeling down near her friend. "Me and Dek are actually going to the Jedi Temple soon, okay? Because of all the extra work I've had to do, we're going to do some research there. We can ask the people there...maybe you won't even have to tell." she finished lamely.
"Okay..." Faith sniffed.
"They might...oh, I dunno, they might have developed some clever way of getting rid of the things in your blood that make it happen. I dunno."
"Can I come with you then?" Faith asked.
"No," Dekabyn said.
Tass considered this. "Your parents would wonder why you'd gone."
"I could lie about it."
"It's probably best if you don't." Tass said firmly. She had no desire whatsoever to let a nice few days out be ruined by Dekabyn and Faith's bickering. "We promise to ask, okay?"
Faith nodded.
"Now, we'd better clean this broken glass up."
She didn't do any more of the project. She felt slightly guilty about it, especially after the lecture Regimesh had given her, but she did have enough time in which to finish it, she thought. Besides, the noise the construction workers were making outside were distracting her.
She went to the window, pulled up the blind and looked outside. Across the endless strips of metal and lit-up buildings she could just about make out a building covered in little lights-that must be where they were working. They had to be taking the building apart brick by brick, or something silly like that.
Honestly, they don't have to make so much noise about it.
There was a large explosion from the window then. She heard Nerra, in his own room, give a yell.
"It's just the workers!" Lelleri called from downstairs. "You two should be asleep, you have school tomorrow."
Tass went to look outside again. The building had almost vanished, and there was a ship hovering near it down, probably delivering more equipment.
She lowered the blinds again and went to bed.
