Rebellion in the Shadows
Chapter Sixteen

The next morning, I woke up late, having slept through my first and second alarms. The only reason I woke up is someone was banging on my door.

“Talaya!” There was panic in Notawa’s voice that made me jump up.

“What?! The gods alive, give me a minute!” Still in my pajamas, I unlocked the door. Notawa came bursting into the room. Her face looked more frightened than I had seen it before. When she saw that I was fine, her shoulders relaxed,

“What happened to you?!” I must have looked as terrible as I felt. Sleeping had been difficult.

“Nothing,” My body thudded as I fell into the chair at my desk. I couldn’t stop yawning.

“You already missed breakfast and have five minutes until Reconnaissance training.” She grabbed my uniform from the drawer under my bed.

“Can the yelling just stop? Please, for a minute?” I grabbed my calcumat and started for the door.

“Um Talaya, maybe you should put on your uniform?” I stumbled back into my room to grab my uniform; I hadn’t noticed she was holding the one I needed.

“Reconnaissance Talaya Your new Reconnaissance uniform come on! You’re going to be late,” She threw the uniform in my direction, but I still ended up picking it up off the floor

Classes had already started for the day and the Reconnaissance training area was far. It wasn’t great to be late to any class, especially not on your first day. When we got there, only a few other students were waiting. Kirtis was in the class, and two others I didn’t recognize. Counting me and Notawa that put the entire class size at five whole people. When we arrived, I was surprised to see the instructor running the group. He was only a Reconist. He shot me a scathing look but didn’t say anything about my tardiness.

“Now that everyone is here, we can begin. Sit or stand anywhere. Reconnaissance is mostly blending into your background, but more than that, it is becoming invisible to senses other than sight. There are many ways to do that in the wild. Does anyone have outdoor experience?” I was not the only one that raised their hand. Kirtis also had his hand in the air.

“Really?” I squinted my eyes at him. “I thought you lived in the city?”

“Not my whole life, and mind your own business,” he said.

“Can we get back on track here? It’s pretty simple, for today we will learn how to make a fire. Each person will be given a small pack. Inside will be filled with essential tools that will enable you to remain undetected, instructions are on your calcumat, also heads up there will be an exam,” he said. When he tried to help one of the students it was pretty easy to tell, he had never made a fire before.

The instructions on my calcumat were complex. Most people would not know how to build a fire, and this wouldn’t help them. Survival skills of any kind were a lost art on Amacuro. There was no need for the knowledge when everything humans did was regulated by computers.

The wild is a scary place. Terrifying hostile animals stalked the forests, jungles, and even the polar regions. Creatures here had abilities we had never heard of before coming to Amacuro, certainly none of the Earth creatures. Humans had learned to domesticate some, and fear others. Especially the purthis. It had abilities that were near telepathic. Like my burla, who could influence my emotions, or the scherlot that could convey their own feelings through contact. The purthis had the ability to cancel out all sound around them. They were giant, flying razor-toothed predators that caused a lot of problems when we first arrived on Amacuro. Even if one didn’t kill my mother, I still had plenty of reasons to hate them.

My knowledge of the forest was given to me by my father. On one of our last trips to the Durok Mountains, he had showed me how to build a fire. It had been a long time and I wasn’t sure I remembered how. Notawa bounded behind me, her arms just as full of twigs and brush as my own.

“What now?” she asked. We were supposed to be working alone.

“Is there a Firestarter? Like a little metal thing or matches?” I asked. We both dug through our survival bags.

The pack had nothing of the sort, no matches or lighter. The guide was somewhat helpful but scrolling through it took a long time. While I was working on replaceing out how to make fire, a gasp came from another student in the class. Flames were flickering brightly out of Kirtis’s fire. He was bent low to the ground and stared at the flame. When he saw my stunned face, he smirked.

“You gonna break my fire too? Arm and face aren’t enough?” he said.

I ignored him and turned back to my own fire. Eventually it was burning just as brightly.

“Excellent!” the stocky instructor said, “You two, pair up and show the others how to do it.”

We had almost everyone’s fire going in a matter of minutes. We sat near the last one. Notawa’s squeaky swears came out from the pile every few minutes. She had shooed us away after our initial instruction, determined to get it going by herself.

“So, you were raised in the forest by wild purthis? It would explain the attitude and the scars,” I said. We were sitting a few feet away from her.

“Exactly, and every Tau Ceti Solstice, I turn into one.” He broke another twig in half and added it to Notawa’s pile.

“Damn,” Notawa said. Kirtis leaned over to look at her smoldering pile of sticks.

“Just blow into those red ashes, it will get going,” he said to her. He stayed close to her fire and I leaned back against a small tree.

“Notawa, just let him do it so we can go.”

“No, I need to learn this,” dhe said, puffing a strand of her hair out of her face. Her cheeks were all red from the effort it was taking.

“You’re being stubborn, and I’m hungry,” I said. Kirtis used a stick to dig out a small hole in the middle of the warm coals.

“Just blow,” he said to Notawa. She did and the whoosh of a flame came to life. She jumped up to say thanks to Kirtis, but he was already leaving the group.

“That was almost friendly for him.” I said to Notawa.

“Yeah, it was weird. Same with the last night,”

“Last night? When we were studying together?” she asked. I winked at her.

“Oh! Did you…?” Her face went to beet red.

“No, last night when we went on the ‘night ops.’” I had whispered the last part so only she could hear it. We were headed up to the headquarters, the instructor behind us was burying our small fires.

“Night ops?” Her face was beyond confused.

“Right, we can talk about it later then,” I said. She probably didn’t know about our missions just like I didn’t know about hers.

“Is that like a code or something?” she asked.

“Later,” I said, when two Coordinators got close.

The rest of the day went quickly. After Reconnaissance training, I had calculation class, then lunch where I studied with Notawa and Kirtis, then velocity regulation. Throughout the day, I hadn’t even had time to think about my dad or anything else I had learned the night before. After dinner was a different story. Everything seemed rawer and fresher when I was alone. It was lucky that it wasn’t for long.

Notawa had to go to her own room. She had been vague about the reasons and I suspected that she was doing some night ops of her own. After that, I didn’t ask questions. I scrolled through the secret comm sheet while snacking in my bed. It was a much-needed quiet relief. I decided to message Arwago to bring me Tomma. Instead, Tesser messaged me back.

‘Your room in 10.’ I moved from my bed to the chair at my desk but didn’t change out of my pajamas. Right on time, she burst in without knocking.

“Here’s your animal.” She held out Tomma, who didn’t look pleased. “I have some useful information, but it kind of takes away from theories we have generated. Can I have some of the wheat fluff?” Half of what she said was lost on me. She grabbed a handful and while chewing, continued, “I did what I said with the DNA and combined it with the physical profile, then mixed that with the characteristics algorithm. I got a hit.” A mouth full of food did not make it easier to understand her.

“Someone hit you?” I asked.

“What? No. I got a hit. But that’s not even the interesting part. I mean it is very interesting that we found him, but the most interesting part comes from your DNA.” She stood still for a moment and smiled.

“Wait, you guys found my dad?” I asked.

“Yes! What do you think I have been saying to you? The problem is, the coordinates that were returned back to us, they’re strange. I just want to confirm the location, and I was actually told not to tell you because we are afraid you will try to get him,” she said, then took the bowl of wheat fluff out off my desk to pace the room with it.

“Who told you not to give me the location? If my dad is in trouble somewhere then I am going to help him, end of story,” I said with a scowl. She looked at something on her wrist then projected it onto the wall closest to me.

“Arwago did it, he said not to tell you. I wanted to show you something here that I discovered.” She scrolled onto a page that looked like complete nonsense. Zoomed into the portion that interested her and stopped. A piece of the fluffy snack was stuck in her disheveled hair.

“Talaya look!” She pointed at something on the wall.

“What am I looking at here?” She was excited about something. Tomma jumped into my lap and started to happily purr. I looked down at him, glad to have the company during the craziness.

“That is a genome sequence, do you see the issue now?”

“No, what is it doing on my wall?”

“This pattern is unique. I have not seen it before, this sequence right here, it proves that we were right! We’\d been told, but without any real proof we weren’t going to assume anything. Arwago knew it, he knew it when she tried to send that signal from the lake, and now we are staring at the actual proof!” She had slapped her forehead like it should have been so simple.

“What is the proof? My dad’s DNA is proof he is found?” I was so lost. Where was my translator when I needed him?

“This is the proof, we have never seen that before in the history of time,” she had gestured to me. I thought maybe it had something to do with my burla and that is why she kept him.

“Oh Tomma!” I said and held him up for her inspection. He howled lightly and licked his paw.

“No. Alright…” she had stopped pacing, took another bite and closed her eyes. It centered her focus. When she started talking again the excitement was still there, but her words were slower and easier to understand.

“You are from Arkii.” She managed to get the sentence out before the smile spread across her face. I burst out laughing. A huge booming laugh that brought tears to my eyes and sent Tomma scurrying to my bedroom.

When it died down, I said, “I’m sorry what?” She got right in my face. Her sharp eyes studied every wrinkle. She was so close I could smell the food on her breath. One eye brow was raised; She was amused that I didn’t believe her.

“That’s absolutely not possible,” I said then stood up, “Come on Tesser, did Arwago make you do this? I think it’s in poor taste honestly.”

“I’m not kidding Talaya. Honestly look this sequence! It’s not on any human on our planet, your telomeres are a different length and you have a less dense bone structure! I am surprised you haven’t broken more bones.” My eyes shot open wide. All through my childhood, maybe once a year, I had broken a bone. It was something my mom had laughed off, but my dad absolutely hated. “It’s come as a result of a slightly different atmosphere and gravitational power. Its right here in the simulation I had the computer run. Our atmosphere is less oxygen rich; I mean I would need to know the exact ratio on Arkii, but I am 98% sure. Which might not sound like a lot, but I never go above 99% because of unexpected variables.” Her words had lost their meaning.

“Is Arwago around?” I asked. He would know what to do with this information.

“No way, that’s near impossible to get us in the same place at the same time. Not after that little stunt you and Kirtis pulled. But yes, your dad! He is located. We are formulating a plan. All that we know right now is he has passed urine. Which may seem like a random, sort of gross fact, but really its important because it was at a standing urinal which means he is probably fine. Or at least able to walk and pee.”

“He’s really alive?” I asked with tears in my eyes.

Tesser walked over to me and threw her arms around me. She squeezed hard for such a tiny girl. My arms stayed at my sides and my wide eyes darted around the room. I didn’t even think she liked me, much less cared if I was upset. She pulled away and looked me right in the eyes

“We will come up with a way to get to him, or rather Arwago will come up with an impossible plan, and I will figure out a way to make it possible.” She rubbed my shoulder, her brows still up in the middle. “Keep your comms on. That’s that for now, we are good here. I will update you on your father once a day. I should probably go. Your animal was fun. I think I will get one someday. Maybe it will improve my social skills?” She had started for the door.

“Wait, Tesser! My dad’s DNA, is it…?” I didn’t want to say ‘alien’ or ‘not human’ as I was still not convinced, “Is his DNA like mine?”

“No. Actually the difference is from the other line of parentage, your mother, Lalota, right? Yes, it is on the matriarch side of the DNA. Digi-comm me if you have more questions, I really have to go.” She left my door wide open but had stolen my bowl.

I stared at where she had been standing and thought about everything she had said.

Alien.

There was some sort of mistake. I drifted off to sleep a few hours later trying to convince myself that Tesser was wrong, that she had somehow misread the results. Still, I knew in the back of my head, Tesser wasn’t really the type to make mistakes.