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  “Call me when you want to practice,” Orlando said.

  JD gave him a nod, letting Orlando know he approved of this. In a way, it was very un-Orlando-like. He didn’t often seem to go out of his way for anyone. Maybe he’d rub off on Angela in a good way with his no-nonsense sort of attitude.

  Cadence was motioning for JD to come over. She even touched his arm when he got there, using it for support as she stood from the couch. Something he did must have made her proud.

  “We heading out?” she asked. Why did everything with her have to be so confusing? Wasn’t this some kind of a signal that she wanted him?

  Just get over yourself and tell her. It’s the only way you’re ever going to know for sure.

  Chapter Four

  Alan stormed back to his quarters. Both of his roommates were there and watched him go to his bunk in a huff to grab his workout clothing. Neither said a word, and he didn’t expect them to. They’d been living together for a long time already and had barely said more than the occasional polite greeting to one another.

  It saddened him because if he was going to bond with anyone on the ship, he would have thought it’d be with the people he spent the most time with. They, like most of his peers, avoided him as if he had a plague. Bonding with them was already hard enough since they were both female, but the fact that they wouldn’t even give him a chance made things more difficult. Theirs was the only mixed gender room which said a lot about how highly Alan was thought of. There had been another guy with them, but he transferred out to a different ship as soon as he possibly could. The women had taken the time to talk to this guy, but never Alan.

  After changing in the bathroom, he stepped out of the quarters to go find the ship’s physical training facilities, and ran into Sir Tuliy in the doorway. His roommates noticed this and immediately straightened their postures, ran their hands through their hair, and blushed. Sir Tuliy, the great prodigy, was worth it apparently.

  “My apologies,” Alan mumbled and tried to move around the other young man. It was good he hadn’t been hurt. Alan was significantly taller than Tuliy, as well as stronger. He was well developed, probably the only thing most on his planet would consider good-looking about him. Cadence complimented his appearance often, but back home Alan was considered below standard when it came to physical beauty. Which made Earth interesting, because there he was considered exceptionally attractive with his dark blond hair and blue eyes. Being tall was a good trait to have, not a bad one. A lot of things were different in those regards.

  Tuliy ran a hand through his vibrant red hair, gave a polite smile to the women in the room, and then returned his attention to Alan. “I should apologize. I wasn’t paying much attention, and providing you with a warning about my visit would have probably been preferable. Especially since you are going out now. I can come around another time if you have plans.”

  “I’m only going to work out.” The physical activity would lessen his frustration.

  “Would you mind if I joined you? I haven’t done my exercise for the day.”

  “If you wish.”

  “No, if you wish. I do not want to intrude on you. We’re friends, right?”

  “Yes,” Alan said softly. The term was appropriate but surprising. Tuliy could befriend better and more fitting individuals than him. The fact that he didn’t worship the ground the man walked on was a quality that was appreciated. If the situation were reversed, Alan would be exhausted from everyone “sucking up”, as JD would say, to him too.

  A small smile formed on Tuliy’s lips. “Wonderful. Stay here, I’ll change in a moment, and you can properly say goodbye to your female visitors.”

  “They aren’t visitors. I don’t need to say goodbye to them.” He glared back at his roommates. They flinched slightly and pretended to look away as if they weren’t paying attention, but he was glad they were, and that the message had gotten across. The last thing he’d allow to happen was for them to try and use him to get close to Tuliy. As much as he wanted to believe better about his comrades, he also knew how this ship worked. Almost everyone looked out only for themselves.

  Tuliy raised an eyebrow. “Come with me to my quarters then. I wasn’t aware you were living with women.”

  “It’s not something I like to broadcast. Much like most of what I do here,” Alan said. Sir Tuliy was the only one who knew anything about what he did on Earth, except for Sir Oriol. In fact, if it wasn’t for Tuliy, he might have dropped out of the military altogether. Dishonor was almost preferable over some of the things he had to put up with.

  “Perhaps I can fix things. I can’t imagine it being comfortable to live with women you don’t know well. They aren’t family or romantically involved with you. How awkward.”

  “It can be.” For the most part they managed. The only hard part was changing and showering. Alan was considerate of his roommates. Them, not so much. More often than not they would undress in the middle of the room as though he weren’t there, and then get angry when he caught a glimpse. It wasn’t fair. He refused to complain. The last thing he wanted was to be weak.

  Tuliy laughed. “You are a gentleman. Anyone else I know would have elaborated beyond that. It’s why I like you. Leave it to me. I’ll pull strings.”

  “I appreciate it, but I don’t want a special favor.”

  “Isn’t that what friends do? Look out for one another and help them with their problems?”

  “It’s a minor one.”

  “Don’t let your pride keep you from experiencing better things in life. Yes, it’s a favor, but a small one. Plus I think it would benefit everyone in the end. If you’re uncomfortable, I can’t imagine how they feel. This shouldn’t have happened to begin with. It’s not morally right. If women and men who are betrothed cannot live with one another, why should those who are strangers? It sets a poor example.” Tuliy led him to an elevator and they went up to the highest floor available for housing. Located right underneath the bridge of the ship, few lived there. The captain, the first mate, two other higher officers—Sir Oriol being one of them—and Sir Tuliy, apparently. Alan had no idea he was that highly thought of. Well liked and respected, but to that degree? It was what JD called “mind blowing”.

  Trying not to stare was a difficult thing for Alan to do. The room was by far nicer than anything he’d ever seen in his life. A large, spacious entryway with tile on the floor was the first thing he saw. Off in the distance he could see dark leather, furniture in front of a huge flat-panel screen. To his left was the dining area where a wooden table for four sat underneath a crystal chandelier. The kitchen was also visible from there. Sir Tuliy had his own kitchen. Why didn’t he use it instead of eating the food made for the rest of the Juniors? Whatever they served the majority of the ship, Alan knew it wasn’t as good tasting or nutritious as it should have been. Not too far away was a hallway Sir Tuliy walked down where Alan assumed the bedroom was. The entire quarters were about five times as large as the single room space he lived in.

  “Feel free to make yourself comfortable. You don’t have to stand in the doorway if you would rather not,” Tuliy said from his room. Alan didn’t move. His comrade wouldn’t take long to change. Only a handful of minutes passed until Tuliy rejoined him, now wearing his workout clothing. He went into the kitchen and pulled out bottled water for them both.

  Alan took the bottle Sir Tuliy offered, even if he wasn’t sure he wanted to. If it was meant to be a gesture of friendship, and not gloating, then it would have been rude for him to reject it. It would taste delicious. The water on the ship was fairly decent. More often than not he took his drinks from the water fountains or the sink. There was a slight recycled taste to it since all of the water passed through the same system repeatedly. It wasn’t the same as the water he drank while he was on Earth. He’d had water from the “tap”, as JD called it, and he could taste the minerals, but in a way it was a lot fresher than anything from the ship. The recycling process was much different. The purified water he
drank on the planet was heavenly. Cool, crisp, refreshing.

  “Thank you,” he said at last. The two made their way to the gym in silence. He wasn’t quite sure what to say, and a lot of his emotions were still running high from his frustrations. Perhaps that’s what he should have been talking about. Sir Tuliy would understand, right? Was that why he wanted to see Alan? Did he know something was wrong? How to bring it up, though.

  “Do you run?” Tuliy asked.

  “Yes, we can start with that.”

  They started with an easy jog to warm up. He kept his eyes focused ahead of him, and chewed on his lower lip. “Why did you come by to see me today?”

  “The pleasure of your company, but I’m also curious about a few things I had heard from Sir Oriol in a meeting we had earlier today. He alluded to you having another separate mission of sorts.”

  “So you’re looking for knowledge. I see. There isn’t much to tell. I’m doing the same thing you’ve been tasked with. Finding the teenagers who were injected with this drug is everyone’s priority.” Alan tried to shrug it off as if it weren’t a big deal. In a way, he was a little disappointed. He thought Tuliy had meant it when he said they were friends. Given their circumstances however, this might be the only thing for them to forge their relationship on. They didn’t have anything else in common that Alan was aware of.

  Tuliy’s brow furrowed, and Alan noticed the man was having a hard time keeping up with him. Was it because he was so much taller than Tuliy? Or because his fellow Junior was not in the same shape? He slowed down some, and noted how much easier Tuliy breathed.

  “My priority is to find The Doctor and end his experiments,” Tuliy said.

  “So a slight variation of mine. I don’t know what you heard that’s left you so curious.”

  “The way Sir Oriol worded it. How you were going to do your thing. I wanted to see if he was in fact taking my advice.”

  “Another favor?” Alan couldn’t help but roll his eyes, and was surprised to hear the other man laughing at the gesture.

  “You are becoming a lot like the Earth youth. You do realize this right?”

  “I’ll take it as a compliment. It’s an expression I’m starting to grow fond of, but I know it’s probably better for me to keep it subdued if I’m not in proper company.”

  “I’m happy to hear you don’t think of me as such,” Tuliy said with a small smirk.

  Alan shrugged. “Perhaps I’m trying to understand why you find my company pleasurable.”

  “We’ve discussed before how I enjoy the fact that you aren’t licking my boots, so to speak.”

  “‘Kissing your butt’ is another phrase I’ve heard from my charges.”

  “That too, which is good because I’m not worth those gestures.”

  A fact that could be debated, because Alan could think of a lot of reasons why the man was worthy of the praises he received. He was a prodigy after all. The past battle location had been a huge success for their tribe, the Rosalotuve, or red tribe, because of Sir Tuliy’s expertise. Alan would never admit it out loud, but this peer was part of the reason he’d enlisted in the military to begin with. After all, Alan’s father was a high ranking general, so it must run in the family genes. If this man, who couldn’t have been much older than Alan, could do it, then so could he. Tuliy earned his accolades. No one could deny it.

  “As for the favor, I wouldn’t call it that. More like an observation,” Tuliy added.

  “Yes, you told me how I’m apparently a bigger asset floating on my own and being thought of as a lesser member of the ship. How it allows me to see more. I don’t think that’s what I’d attribute my success to. I’d say that it is more because of how I treat my charges, even if they are confusing.”

  “How so?”

  “They like to remind me of how I’m not the boss, of how they are their own free people. That they’re the ones doing me a service, not the other way around. Only one or two of them understand the severity of the situation, and even then I don’t think they see it in full. One minute I’m hearing complaints about how they’re young and I’m expecting too much, and the next it’s I’m babying them when they’re adults.” Alan glanced at Tuliy and wondered if he was having similar problems. He had Earth charges as well. It’d been proven by specialists that engaging the youth of the planet was a more successful route than using the adults.

  Tuliy smirked as he ran, taking a moment to wipe some sweat from his brow. “This is where I’m going to have to disagree with whatever method you’re using. It’s clear they don’t respect you. When I first found my charges, they were of a similar mentality, but I soon broke them of that. They wanted to be equals with me, and that only leads to chaos, my friend. If there is no hierarchy established then your group will work in anarchy. You’ll always disagree. Show them you are not their boss, but their superior. Boss implies this is a job, that they will be paid for their services. While there will be rewards when all of this is over, they also need to understand this is a war. If anything, they should be thanking you for helping them. After all, they could have been chosen by another tribe, or injected, or killed.”

  “How did you get them to listen?”

  “I didn’t give them choices. My charges are four youth from across town. Two of them have parents who are part of another tribe and were informed of the situation a long time ago. They’ve grown up knowing this day was coming, and were well trained. The other two are a brother and sister pairing who are slightly older. Twenty years old in fact. The girl is harder to control, but I do not trust the boy at all. He cooperates, but there is something unsettling about him. Maybe I’m paranoid because he works for the government.”

  “You have it a bit easier if they were expecting this,” Alan pointed out.

  “I do, but for those who weren’t prepared, I gave them the option to join me or continue on. But once they joined, they were to obey everything, and they didn’t get any more choices. They are contracted to me for at least a year of service. You told me before that one of your charges had quit? That would not be tolerated with my group.”

  Alan sighed, remembering that night all too well. Orlando had left the group in a bit of an overdramatic “hissy fit”. This seemed common for him. The boy was spoiled as was obvious by his upbringing. There was no parental unit in his home, and he had everything he wanted. While he appreciated the use of his mansion and the unlimited funding being poured into the cause, Alan would trade it all for the assurance of strong loyalty from Orlando.

  “When we first started, I told them if they didn’t like the job they could leave,” Alan said softly. He stopped running, and started to cool off with a walk.

  The otherwise boring track was starting to loop around in front of the windows now. Staring out into space was one of his favorite things to do. He’d never thought much about the great expanse of the universe. It hadn’t been one of his dreams to travel through the galaxy. Alona, his betrothed, talked about the stars a lot on their dates, and he humored her by listening, but it wasn’t until he stepped aboard a ship for the first time to leave his planet that he fell in love with it all.

  Space was beautiful and endless. There was peace in the eternal star-studded blackness. From where his ship was positioned he could see Earth in most of its beauty. They stayed in sync with the same location, so he didn’t get to view some of the other areas of the planet. Someday he’d like to see the area referred to as China, and get a glimpse of the wall that was supposed to be so large it could be viewed from space. He couldn’t imagine a man-made structure being so huge, especially one made before modern technology. There were other marvels like this as well. He enjoyed seeing the mountains the most. While he could see a good deal of the range that divided the United States of America, he also knew there were even larger more glorious ones elsewhere. The best part of seeing Earth from far away was that if he took a moment to pretend, he’d imagine it being Altura instead. Both looked almost identical from afar, the only differ
ence being the shapes of the continents.

  “You’re kindhearted,” Tuliy said and stared out the window as well. He ran a hand through his red hair before grabbing his water bottle.

  “Good, that is the kind of heart I was told to have.”

  “As were we all. Just don’t let it blind you. Remember, you don’t want to be their friend. Now that they’ve gone on a mission and say they want to help you, I would recommend putting your foot down more. Your charges might not like it much, but in the end they’ll be thankful. It could save their lives.”

  “And here I thought you liked my style.” Alan laughed quietly.

  Tuliy laughed as well. “I do. It’s just a suggestion. I thought it might make things easier for you to get more done. Your strengths lie in your ability to explore. Did you know that you’re one of the few who can teleport at will without the help of a technician? It must be so much easier to go back and forth without having to get permission and check in.”

  He did know that. Though his powers were common back home, they were rare on the ship. Surprising actually, since he figured it’d be so useful. Instead there was a plethora of aggressive gifts. Fire shooters, psychics, and those who could move faster than the eye could see, littered the vessel. He wondered briefly what it was Sir Tuliy could do. The man had never displayed his powers for all to see. Alan himself had three he’d been born with, and another two which were attached to jewelry his mother had given him as a farewell present. Having more than one power naturally wasn’t incredibly common. It was the only thing which made Alan feel special.

  Alan sighed. “I’m trying to figure out how to deal with them. My charges aren’t like yours. They have no training, no clue what’s going on, or an understanding. I think this is like a dream, or maybe even fiction to them. The one who cooperates the most with me talks a lot about how this is something he’d fantasized about. There’s a fine line between giving them a taste of hard reality, and sending them overboard.”