Chapter Fifteen

I chose the second room on the left. All of the doors seemed the same and at the end of the day it didn't really matter which room I selected.

"Please place your hand on the plate next to the wall," a robotic voice requested. I obliged.

"Esadore, you room will be ready in ten, nine, eight, seven..."

I looked around at the others. They were all hearing similar messages when they held their hands up to the glass plate next to the doors.

After several seconds, the doors slide upwards.

I slowly walked into the narrow space that eventually opened up into a much larger living room area. The back wall was all glass and looked out onto Merak and a sea of white pillars with large glass spheres sitting on top. It looked like miles of glowing lollypops.

There were so many questions racing through my thoughts. I shouldn't be standing here alone right now. I needed the rest of the team. We shouldn't be in different rooms. How would we know if we were safe?

Walking back out of the room, I came face-to-face with Theo.

"What do you think?"

"I'm not sure what to think right now."

"What room did you select?"

"I haven't decided."

"What does that mean?" I took several steps backwards.

"It means I haven't decided. Honestly, I could care less about a place to sleep. We need to be working. I hate this waiting game. Why do we have to wait an hour until we get any information?"

Just then Gave appeared outside of his room. "Hi guys. What are you doing?"

Both of our heads snapped in his direction. "Hey," Theo jutted out his chin.

Gave laughed. "Sometimes you two are a little too obvious."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Get a room. That's what I mean," he hit Theo on the shoulder. "A room together."

My lips pinched together. Had I really heard Gave correctly? I looked over at Theo. His eyes seemed so captivating.

"Do you want to share my room with me?" I looked at him, suddenly feeling a little uneasy. We had danced around one another for the past few months. I was trying to channel some of the "Old Esa," but nothing I said or did ever seemed right around him. He would come in close and then pull away. It was the same game over and over again. I was growing exhausted from his constant mood swings. I knew we both wanted more, but there seemed to be a large wall between us at all times.

He shook his head. "No. We need our own space."

"Okay."

I let out a soft laugh. "I'm not surprised that's your response. As always, you are difficult and frustrating."

The rest of the team approached. Audrina looked over at Theo and then back at me. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing," I responded. "Let's go find the meeting room."

A face suddenly appeared almost as if it was coming out of the wall. The liquid formation said. "I will take you to the room designated for your meeting."

White light engulfed us as our bodies were moved from the hallway to the inside of a large room that overlooked what must be the city.

Dr. James walked in, followed by what appeared to be six normals. They all stared straight ahead. One of the girls stood out more than the others. She looked similar to what I looked like before I was turned by Dr. James, except younger, much younger.

"Sit down everyone," she barked.

We all obliged. I wanted to disobey her again, but my curiosity had gotten the better of me.

"Esadore and team, I have pulled six of my top performing soldiers from Merak and will be pairing them with each of you. It will be like the buddy system. You will teach each other and learn from one another."

"Why do we have to be a part of this? We don't plan on staying here for that long," I leaned forward ready for verbal warfare.

She let out an annoying shriek. "Ha! I love your fight. No one is leaving. It's impossible. You are all live on Merak now and I'm working on creating even more Ciphers, but in an effort to speed up the process, you will all be paired with one another. You will eat, sleep and work with your partner for the next few weeks. We will monitor all of your improvements."

"Are we working together or is this just another way to babysit us?"

Her eyebrows shot up. "Very good question and the answer is both. I don't trust any of you. I am a very good developer and creator. So good in fact that I made it to where you can use free will and think on your own. That was my biggest mistake. Trust me, with my new Ciphers that will be ready within the next few days, which will not be an issue. I have learned from my many mistakes and don't intend to repeat any of them."

I continued to stare at the other six. None of them had white hair. My eyes scanned all of their faces and landed on the one with the girl with dark brown hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. The part down the middle was a straight line. She glared back at me. Even at such a young age, she looked as if she could take on anyone or anything and easily be the victor.

"Are all of these new soldiers from Merak or are any of them from Earth?" I asked, wondering more about just one of them.

"Both, but I'm not going to tell you which is from where. I want you to all try and figure it out. This will be a part of your training. You need to understand strengths, weaknesses, the outside climate and most importantly about the enemy. It is quickly approaching and if we can't stop it, then we will all die.

"Enemy?"

"Yes, there is a large force out there rapidly approaching Merak. It came to our planet twenty-five years ago and nearly took us out. We've been watching it for many years. It is scheduled to be back when the two moons become one. We had tried to leave and inhabit Earth, but soon realized it wasn't the right spot. Your technology was centuries behind and the planet is too close to the sun."

"That's why you never go outside and kept homes underground," I looked out into the sky. Merak's two moons loomed in the sky.

"Yes, now you understand."

I thought back to the day that we had landed near NorthStar and looked over at Paul. "I always thought the apartment we landed in was odd. It seemed very old and didn't really have anything inside that looked as if children had once lived there, but you told us it was our family home before the Century War."

Paul laughed. "I had only been in that place once before when I was watching over Troy. He had proven to be the perfect distraction. Troy, what an interesting specimen. He really was trying to take over Earth, but we had no clue that by challenging him it would start such a big war. It was a great test for us. Hopefully, our final gift to Earth will be the fact that we killed their biggest enemy...Troy.

"I'm sure all of the remaining humans think you've done them a big service. You killed millions of people, and left nothing but scorched ground. Did Troy know that you are aliens?"

"That is such an ugly word. We are not aliens. We are merely from the wonderful planet of Merak. You will soon see that our technology is light years ahead of that awful place you called home."

"Why don't you just let us go back and then you don't need to worry about finding us babysitters?" Luther said.

"That's not in the plan. I created all of you and now I need you to fight alongside of me. Now, standup and I will pair you all off.

"No," Audrina said.

"And what's your problem with that? You are property of Merak. Now, it's time to stop being so rude," Marie said.

"I'd still like to see some sort of documentation that has my signature and says that you can do whatever you want with my body," Luther leaned back in his seat.

"I don't need anything like that. I brought you back to life. Remember, you were dead. If it weren't for me, your body would be buried underground."

"On Earth, we usually like to have those sorts of things documented. You know, so people don't just go around killing others," Luther continued to be defiant.

"I rescued you and when I asked if you wanted to be saved...you all said yes."

I looked over at Samuel. "But Samuel is different, isn't he? He's not a Cipher. He just used someone's body to hide his true self."

"That is correct, but I still have many wonderful plans for all of you. We will survive the evil coming towards Merak and we will become the rulers of the galaxy."

"If we survive, will we be able to go back and save Earth?"

"Help us and maybe I will agree to help you return," she said in a sickly sweet voice.

"And you will also let us take the normals that you kidnapped from Earth?" Theo asked.

"Yes."

We all lined up and let Dr. James pair us up. I knew we couldn't really trust her, but at least there may be hope in us being able to return to Earth.

I was partnered with a male named Erik. He was taller than me and bald.

Theo got a shorter female with curly gray hair.

I looked around at the rest of the room. We were all partnered with someone of the opposite sex. Gave was paired up with the girl that reminded me of what I looked like before being changed. She had her arms folded across her chest as she looked around the rest of the room. A look of disgust on her face.

"Now that you are all paired. Let's head down to the course. This will get you to start working with one another."

The others hadn't said anything since they had entered the room. I figured this would be a quiet partnership if Erik didn't talk.

I looked over at him. "My name is Captain Esa James."

He nodded and then put a hand on my shoulder. "I am Erik. We will work together."