It is late into the night. As a small restaurant prepares for closing, the young cashier counts the few dollars and reports to the manager. He sits in his office smoking his last cigar, sloppily dressed in a wrinkled button-up shirt and stained khaki pants, staring down at the red papers on his desk. The kitchen worker scrubs the cracked and chipped plates and cups in the cold reused dish water only strained through a spaghetti colander to get last week’s special out of the sink.

I’m the cook Elvion (El-vee-on) Nova but, everyone calls me Nova because Elvion is such a common name in Aidon. I have been working here since my parents were murdered after finding Black Technology deep in Sorrows Cave. The power hungry nation Gandalia (Gan-dal-lia) has violently murdered my people in hopes of gaining more of the alien technology. Other countries watched our people die and offered us no support, not even our allies; they want the Black Technology just as much as Gandalia but don’t want to go through the mounds of bodies to get it. Their greed has driven us to a third-world country in just ten years, completely eliminating towns and cities as they see fit. There aren’t more than 20,000 of us now—most are women and children. Our small town will be the last to fall—the capitol of the once large and proud Aidoshian (Ay-dō-shē-an) nation.

I am now old enough to join the Brotherhood. They enlisted me last week. Both my brother and sister died in the Brotherhood protecting an Aidoshian elementary school and, at the cost of their own lives, held the line against Gandole (Gan-däl) troops until we could evacuate. I was a student of that elementary school. It was the last time I saw my brother and sister alive and the first time I saw a Myrmidon—that monster of a machine. Timpuji (Tim-pōō-gee), the manager of the restaurant, was my father’s closest friend and best man in his wedding. Without a second thought, he took me in and since then, we have lived in the capitol. We heard stories of people trying to leave the country. The few who managed to turn around and make it home would seldom return sane; their sanity was taken from them by some great beast. Those that did keep their reasoning told horrid stories that rattled us to the core. The Aidoshian government crumbled long ago and its army slaughtered. We are Aidon’s only defense.

“Nova, closing time,” I hear Timpuji call from the next room. From the sounds of his heavy footsteps he was already on his way upstairs.

“I have a meeting today with the Brotherhood, so I’ll be going there when I finish up here.” His footsteps stop then start back down.

“You should stay away from that Brotherhoodlum nonsense,” Timpuji states as he enters the kitchen. “If we don’t provoke the Gandole, they’ll have no reason to attack us. Mostly women and children live here… The last thing we need is a bunch of extremists making things worse!”

Kai, the cashier, quickly runs in the room to see what’s with all the yelling. Both Kai and Fantasia, the girl washing dishes, were saved by Timpuji around the time he took me in. Ever since, they became part of our new family and we have been together here in the capitol. We did have another in our group for a little while, but she left us for the Univer Knights.

Kai is a general in the Brotherhood, though he does not have the heart to tell Timpuji of this. He is five years older than I am and, always stands up for what he believes in unless it is against Timpuji’s wishes, though it did not stop him from joining the Brotherhood. He is surprisingly strong for his size and trained in several deadly Aidoshian martial arts. He has the Tears of Univer tattoo on his forehead, an ancient Aidoshian practice for a warrior of Univernism. The tears are represented by three rain drops stacked like a pyramid, with two on the bottom and one right above.

“What’s going on in here?” demands Kai as he swiftly looks over at both of us.

“Nova told Mr. Timpuji he joined the Brotherhood,” Fantasia responds happily, as she continues to scrub the remaining dishes.

“At least I’ll be making a difference in the Brotherhood and if I die, I’ll be a hero! What have you done, old man? All you do is stay locked up in this shop and pretend the Gandole army is not slaughtering us like animals. We can’t live this way anymore!” I yell as whole-heartedly as I can.

“You think I don’t know what’s going on outside these walls,” Timpuji says in a stern voice. “You think I haven’t grown tired of stepping outside when it is filled with the foul stench of a failing nation! I go to bed every night and thank Univer I have you kids in my life, because if it weren’t for you, I would have died long ago! Univer teaches us that violence cannot defeat violence!”

“Where is He then? Where is Univer now, huh? We are His people, aren’t we? What are you waiting for, Univer to show His wrath? He is a dead God and I don’t need the words of a God that can’t save one person! If He were our God, if He were a real God, He with His boundless power would have saved us long ago, don’t you think? I don’t see the golden chariot carrying Univer as He throws lightning bolts so powerful they split the sky and shake the earth, do you?”

Timpuji stands and looks me dead in the eyes but, he doesn’t say a word. Kai walks from the doorway over to me. He punches me square in the face with such force I fly off my feet. The world seems to roll in slow motion as I fall to the ground. Why did I say something like that to the man who freely took me in and cared for me in such trying times when taking care of oneself would be so much easier? Still, I want him to see things my way. So why can’t he understand?

“You’ve gone too far, Nova. I can’t stomach seeing this anymore. How could you speak to this man that way?” Kai asks angrily. “Have you forgotten who has been taking care of you for over a decade!”

“All finished!” Fantasia shouts blissfully oblivious to the conversation.

In an instant, the still tense air churns as Timpuji manages a smile, “Good work, Fantasia. And you did it all by yourself too.”

“Yeah,” she says in an innocent voice while swirling her hands in circles in the dishwater making little whirlpools. “Well, um, Nova helped me.”

“You can do it by yourself tomorrow, but for now, go get ready for bed, okay?”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Timpuji!” She hops over me and carelessly skips out of the room.

It is understandable for her to act out like that. Of the three of us that Timpuji took in, she is the eldest. She is two years older than Kai, but three years ago she was part of another Gandole rebellion group called the Univer Knights. One night they tried to escape the country. Kai and the Brotherhood went to stop them, but it was too late. She was the only survivor. Since that day, she always acts like a child—her psyche was twisted in such a way that she cannot face the horrors she witnessed that night. I envy her sometimes. She lives so care free; as if pain or death can be soothed with a smile.

I rise to my feet after she walks out of the room. I can feel the sharp glares Timpuji and Kai are giving me—as a razor across my skin, but still I cannot bring myself to look them face to face. How can I after what I said? To disrespect Timpuji and Univer is so far from my usual self; I am a stranger to my own soul. To look Timpuji in the eyes would be the same as saying I am his equal which is far from the truth. Though I cannot back down, I cannot disregard the fact I am a child in this house. I walk out of the room still refusing to look at them, and I find myself staring at the front door debating whether I should leave or try and explain myself.

“Don’t go!” I hear Fantasia’s distant voice come from the stairway.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Don’t go, Nova. Something bad is coming!” She screams. “If you go, I might not ever see you again,” her eyes wet with tears.

“Who told you that?” I ask her, a little on edge.

“I can feel it. Univer says so. Please don’t go, Nova.”

“Univer told you? That seems a little farfetched. I’ll be back in an hour or two, okay? Nothin’ bad is gonna happen to me. I promise.”

She smiles and nods her head before turning to walk back up the stairs. I decide no matter what happens, I’ll live and fight for all within the last city of Aidon and I swing the door open. Still I can’t shake the ill feeling I got from Fantasia’s words.