by Aileen Erin
Except for the study area and the lockers, the warehouse was just one massive open space that looked like it could fall down on our heads at any second, but thankfully, it was studier than it appeared. My students didn’t care about aesthetics. The tiny fee they paid was barely enough to keep the lights on. My students came here to learn how to fight, and that was the only thing that mattered.
We finished the warm-up and the students bowed. I took in the twenty-three people standing in front of me. Their spines stiff. Most wore some type of active gear, but a few were in pajamas. I didn’t require white karate gis or hand out colored belts. None of that was important in here. My only goal was to make sure these Earther kids survived the walk home from school every day.
“Good job, everyone.” The girls relaxed their stance. This class was my beginner level. The students were only a few years younger than me—fourteen-ish, give or take a year—but they seemed like babies to me. Probably because none of them lived under constant mortal fear like I did. I was pretty sure that kind of danger had aged me faster than most, but rampant crime—especially personal assaults—were at an all-time high. If these kids wanted to make it through the next decade of their lives unscathed, they were going to have to toughen up.
“We’re sparring tonight.” That got me a few smiles. Most looked a little nervous, but no one looked particularly freaked out. “This is going to be fun. I promise.” I gave them a smile, hoping to put them at ease. “It’s important to try what we’ve learned on an opponent. Roan!” I yelled for my best friend to join us, and he waddled out from behind the curtain where he’d been putting on thick, head-to-toe padding.
“You all need to feel okay about beating the crap out of someone, so Roan’s going to be our punching bag.” Roan somehow managed to wrap an arm around me even with the constraining pads, and I nudged him softly. “Don’t be afraid to rip into this guy.”
“Hey,” Roan’s light green eyes filled with laughter, and he tugged on my braided hair. “Don’t listen to Maité. I have plans tonight. Don’t want to mess up my face.”
“That’s why you’re going to put on the mask I gave you,” I said.
“You didn’t tell me Yvette was in this class,” Roan murmured in my ear. “Been trying to get a date with her sister for years. Think she’ll put in a good word for me?”
“Roan.” The word was a warning, but he looked at me with wide, innocent eyes. I elbowed him in the stomach—this time harder. He let out an “oof.”
Roan wasn’t the least bit intimidating. At three inches shorter than me and a little too energetic to be anything but adorable, he was more like a speedy teddy bear than anything else. He could keep up with me and made me laugh constantly. Which is why he’d been my best friend for nearly a decade, but his timing needed work. “If anything happens to them because you were goofing off when—”
“Come on, Maité. I’ll do my job here. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make this fun, okay?”
“This is too important to mess up,” I whispered. The truth sat like a ball of molten lava in my stomach. Life was dangerous out there for all kids. They had to be able to defend themselves. “All right. Who wants to go—” A sharp burn ran through my finger and I couldn’t stop the curse from flying out as I shook my hand.
A couple of shocked gasps came from my students.
“Sorry. I…” I glanced to Roan, not sure how to fix this.
He looped his arm with mine. “One second. Gotta talk strategy with my girl before we start.” Roan dragged me toward the make-shift locker room.
“We’ll be right back,” I said looking over my shoulder at the class. “Try doing bunkai number eight to stay warm. Yvette? You help lead.”
Yvette nodded. “You got it.”
That gave us a second, and by the look on Roan’s face, I was about to get an earful.
“Jesus. You’re going to get us killed,” Roan whispered as soon as we were through the curtain. At least he wasn’t mad enough to forget that if anyone—even one of my students—found out I was a halfer, we’d both be as good as dead. “The implant still bothering you?”
“Bothering is too nice of a word.” I bit down on the tip of my finger for a second, feeling the microscopic chip beneath my skin. “It feels like a hot poker is stabbing my finger. The alerts from my contact lens were bad, but I turned them off and I’m still feeling the frequency shifts.”
“How often?”
“It feels like every other minute, but maybe more like every ten. I thought shutting down my email would help, but… I hate it.” I spat the words out. It was the truth. I hated every damned second that this piece of shit tech sat under my skin. “I have to get it removed or else I’ll end up cutting it out or—”
“No. You can’t. Not after everything we went through to get it in the first place. The fake ID. The sketchy doctor. And I could get in so much shit if they find out I was the one who replaced your blood sample. No fucking way, Maité.” He stepped closer to me, and I could almost feel the heat of Roan’s anger. “We’ve talked about this. You gotta start blending in better. Most people have their neural lace implanted straight onto their brain by now, and—”
“But I’m half alien.”
“Don’t say that word.” His tone was outraged, but for no good reason.
“It’s not a dirty word. It’s what I am. I’m half Aunare. And that side of me is stronger than the Earther side. My kind can’t have implanted tech. I’m too sensitive for it. This will kill me—or worse—drive me insane. There’s no way I’d survive lacing my brain, so don’t even start with that again.” A neural lace hardwired all of a person’s apps, calls, games, and everything else they wanted straight into their cerebral cortex for maximum convenience. Earthers loved it, but if a simple finger implant and AR contact lens nearly drove me crazy with jolts of fire-hot pain, that kind of tech would kill me for sure.
“So, what now? You get your dinky-assed implant taken out and then go back to using a wrist unit? And then what’s going to happen to you?”
“It worked before.” My words were mumbled. I knew I couldn’t go back to that. I’d stick out, and I already looked too Aunare as it was.
“It worked because we were kids. We all had wrist units back then. But in a few days, you’re going to be eighteen. You can maybe pass for sixteen—maybe—but not once someone talks to you. You act and sound much older than you are. And I get it. You’ve been through shit. But babe, by sixteen most people already have the neural net. You need this implant or you’re going to get caught. And we both know what happens then.”
He was right. I knew it, but I still wanted the implant gone. It’d been a couple of weeks, and the burning pain was getting worse. Maybe if I—
“No way. Stop it.” Roan cut off my thoughts. “I know that look. You’re about to argue with me, but you’re just being stubborn and you’re wrong. You’re just going to have to suck it up. SpaceTech will kill you if they find you. Your family and your friends. Anyone who spent any significant time with you. Which means me. You have to get your shit together and stop cussing every time that thing gets an alert. People will start to notice. Not everyone is as smart as you, but not everyone is a freaking moron either. And you’re not some ordinary halfer. If they find out exactly who you are, there will be war.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to find my Zen. “I know. I know. I’ll figure something out and—”
Someone tapped on my shoulder, and I spun. One of my newest students—Hillary—let out a gasp at my too-quick movement and I winced.
Shit. Shit. Just fucking shit. I’d moved too fast. Aunare weren’t like Earthers. They were an elegant race built for speed and fighting. It’s why I taught the class. Fighting for me was like breathing. But I couldn’t show these kids who I was. What I was.
When I taught my classes, it was painfully hard not to give in. Not to let my body move like it could. And in that one second, I’d given myself away.
Roan was right.
I hadn’t lived this long to be stupid now, but the implant was distracting me. It was making me too on edge, and I couldn’t afford to forget my Earther façade for even a for even a second.
Hillary’s eyes were wide as she stared up at me. She’d had a close call a couple weeks ago and ended up in my class a little battered and bruised, but I saw the will to fight burning in her. I wanted to make sure that next time, she’d fight and win. “Are you— Was that—” She was too afraid to ask what I was.
“Sorry. You startled me.” I’d found that if you explained a movement away as being scared or excited or some other extreme emotion, most Earthers dismissed it. They didn’t want to find an Aunare living on this planet, especially if it’s someone they’d been spending significant time with. Hillary had been here every night for three weeks.
“Oh. Sorry,” she said, and her shoulders relaxed. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“We only have twenty minutes left in class.” She swallowed. “I need the practice.” Her words were barely audible.
I immediately felt guilty. “Of course. I’m so sorry I got distracted. Apparently, I’m having a day.” I shoved through the curtain. “Okay, everyone. I promise to stay focused on your training the rest of class.” My finger burned again and I bit my tongue. I swallowed the coppery tang of blood in my mouth along with another curse that was begging to slip out.
This had to get easier. Didn’t it?
Maybe not. At least not for me.
These girls? I could help them. Volunteering here three hours a day, six days a week took its toll on me. Especially since I also had my shifts at the diner. But if teaching them to survive was the only thing I did before I got caught, then that was something I could be proud of.
“We’re going to work off of bunkai number eight—the one you were just practicing—while sparring with Roan. Each movement in the bunkai is something that can be used to fend off an attacker. Roan is covered in padding, so don’t be afraid to let loose,” I said as I settled back into teaching.
Everything was going to be fine. I could do this. I could stay hidden, teach my classes, and save my money. One day, I’d be light-years away from here and safe. Until then, I’d dream about making my escape from this godforsaken planet.
* * *
Chapter Two
* * *
About an hour after all the students left, I waited for Roan while he changed. He’d stayed through my intermediate and advanced classes to spar with me, sans padding. It was nice of him, especially since he knew I was going to kick his butt every time. It’d been good, but I was still on edge. I needed a second to relax. I needed to let my body really move, but I couldn’t do that, even with Roan. He could barely keep up with me at half-speed. I needed to actually unwind for one goddamned second. But now that everyone was gone and Roan was changing, all I wanted to do was go home and hide.
It was getting harder and harder to hold myself back, and I felt like I was fighting a losing battle. One of these days I was going to slip up—I was going to do something I couldn’t talk my way out of—and that one slip up was going to be the death of me and everyone I loved.
I sat at my desk in the dark and watched the news on the vidscreens. I could always tell my mom I was sleeping here if there was a riot or the police were out searching for their latest target. She wouldn’t love it, but spending the night in this shithole of a warehouse was better than risking my life to get home.
Supposedly, it hadn’t always been this dangerous. Way before I was born, SpaceTech—the biggest corporate conglomerate—took over all of Earth’s government. I didn’t know the specifics of it, but I hoped whoever thought that was a good idea was rotting in hell because it was an unmitigated disaster for everyone on Earth. As long as it didn’t hurt SpaceTech’s bottom line, they didn’t care what happened to us. Which meant we lived in a world with too much violent crime, corruption, and poverty.
But SpaceTech was good at one thing—expanding to grow a stronger power base. Their colonization and trade routes spread across the galaxy and they’d found dozens of other species to exploit along the way. But in all their greed to find more profits and colonize more planets, SpaceTech finally met a race that was stronger, smarter, and had better tech than them.
From all the stories, it had been nice between Earthers and the Aunare for nearly a decade, but when I was three, SpaceTech assassinated all high level Aunare officials living on Earth, and then started hunting everyone else on any of their colonies with ties to the alien race. In less than two weeks, most Aunare or part-Aunare people living on a SpaceTech controlled planet were murdered. Except the few of us that got away.
That was why I forced myself to watch the news multiple times a day. I couldn’t get caught. Especially since me and my mother were the only two high level Aunare targets that managed to get away before SpaceTech could murder us. But there was a hefty reward for anyone who had information on us. And if someone actually turned us in, their whole family would be set for life and then some.
If things could get worse, I wasn’t sure how.
The news tonight was normal. One image caught my eye. A massive SpaceTech warship was landing on Terra 10—one of the colony planets on the edge of SpaceTech’s official empire. A report of increased Aunare activity in the area had more of SpaceTech’s IAF—Interplanetary Armed Forces—landing to secure the area.
If they said the Aunare were dangerous and they needed more forces in the area, then it had to be true. Right?
Except it probably wasn’t. I’d bet my day’s wages from the double shift I’d pulled at the diner that the Aunare weren’t even close to that colony. SpaceTech just wanted the humans to feel the alien threat all the time and used it to justify all the crap they did.
Slowly, all six channels—including the off the grid ones—changed to cover a new story happening on Earth. I flicked the button, linking all the vidscreens to show one large image: a half-Aunare guy, maybe a couple years younger than me, being dragged into an execution arena in Ohio.
Damn it. I looked away for a second but then made myself watch.
He was bleeding, dirty, beaten up. Whoever had found him and turned him in had clearly done a number on the guy. SpaceTech liked to make a big spectacle of murdering any person with Aunare blood or ties left on Earth. There was a sizable reward for whoever turned the enemy in. It wasn’t nearly as big as the one for me and my mom, but it was a game changer for most people. And they got the added bonus of having the best seat to watch the execution. I whimpered and squeezed my eyes shut, but that didn’t stop the sound coming from the screens. The guy pleaded for his life and the crowd yelled. Calling him names that should never be uttered. Not ever.
It wouldn’t be long before a pack of rabid dogs would be let loose in there. They liked to remind everyone that Auanre weren’t human. When this kid started fighting for his life, he’d move with his true, in-human speed. His skin would glow like it was lit from within. And, if he was from a strong Aunare bloodline, his tattoos would appear along his skin.
Once it was over, SpaceTech would come on the screen and tell Earthers here and across all of the colonies how the Aunare were the problem. The Aunare were the reason our lives sucked ass. The Aunare were why there was so much crime and poverty.
What a crock of shit.
“Hey,” Roan said as he gripped my shoulder. He’d changed into a pair of black pants and a bright blue button-down shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a shiny pair of Kicks I hadn’t seen before. He looked a little more dressed up than usual. “I’ve been calling your name.”
I shook my head and pointed to the screen.
“I saw the alert and hurried. How many times do I have to tell you not to put yourself through this shit?” Roan shut down the screens with a flick of his finger. “You okay?”
I nearly laughed at the absurdity of his question. “Is any of this okay? That kid will be dead soon and for wha
t?”
“It’s not okay, but—”
“But nothing.” I snapped. “There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s done. That kid did nothing wrong except exist and that’s how it is for all halfers. I have to hide or that’s happening to me. And if SpaceTech ever finds me, I’ll be wishing for the end that poor bastard is about to get right now. I haven’t even heard from my father since I was three, but that won’t fucking matter to them when they make an example of me in some horrible way. Or worse. Use me to start the war they’ve been wanting to fight for the last fifteen years.” The air was rushing in and out of my lungs in quick gasps and I knew I had to calm down. Roan wasn’t the one I was upset with. This wasn’t his fault. I shouldn’t be yelling at him.
I wiped a hand down my face as I tried to get it together. The mad started to fade, and a bone-deep exhaustion took its place. I wanted to break down. So badly. But if I started crying now, I didn’t know when I’d stop.
A searing pain ran through my finger and that was it. I was done. My eyes burned and I struggled to keep the tears from falling. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s been a long day. I worked a twelve-hour shift at the diner before coming here to teach and I need to get home and—” My voice broke and I cleared my throat, trying to cover it up.
He reached a hand down and I took it, letting him pull me out of the chair. “I’ll walk with you,” he said.
I took in his outfit again and remembered… “It’s gamer night at Starlite, right? That’s where you’re heading?”
“It is.”
“Then go. Have fun and forget about me and all my problems.”
“Come on, Maité. Don’t be like that. I’m not letting you walk home alone. Not tonight. Not when you’re upset.”
