The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 (14 page)

“Hello, Johnny Turnbull.”

I spun around and saw Toll floating at the edge of the tank. He must have finished pulling the purple crystal that had arrived the other cycle.

I immediately noticed a long red gash near the corner of Toll’s huge mouth.

“You’re hurt,” I said. The cut must have been as deep as my fist and three times as long as my arm.

“The ropes are too close to the edge of the bit sometimes. It is a hazard I endure.”

“What’s that?” I said, pointing at two dark-purple platforms on each side of Toll’s body.

“These are for you. Put that jacket on. The magnetic straps connect to my harness ropes. They use a small charge to move with you. I will hold very still while you get on,” he said.

“Get on? You mean I’m going to climb onto those things?”

“Were you not instructed on the procedure?”

“Yeah,” I said as I accessed the illustrated instructions I had uplinked earlier. I
was
getting on that thing, and I was taking the pails and the brushes with me. Then I was going to apply the salve in those buckets onto that nasty gash. I could hardly believe my own thoughts.

“Put the buckets on first. Use the locks provided for them on the platform.”

“All this technology here and this is how they help you?” I grabbed one of the heavy ten-liter buckets.

As the instructions said, I put the jacket on last. Toll positioned himself close to the edge, and I reached out to grab the harness.

“Are you sure this is safe?” I asked Toll. I did
not
want to touch the tank water.

“Purrfeckly,”
Toll said from under the water.

“What if I fall in?”

Toll lifted a little out of the water. “You won’t,” he said.

And I didn’t. Once on the platform, I attached the safety strap to the harness and secured the buckets.

“Hold on,” Toll said, and with a great heave he lifted himself to the edge of the tank. His hands grasped the edge of the tank, lifting me at least four meters above the water line. The platform I stood on automatically leveled off.

“You may begin,” Toll said.

I cracked the computerized seal on the first bucket, and the lid disappeared. Inside was a pale blue cream, thick and smooth. I dunked the brush into the ointment and moved toward Toll’s wound.

“Wow. Does it hurt?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I’d seen Toll’s skin before, but never up close like this. It looked like a wet rock, bumpy and crevassed, but where the rope cut in was soft pink tissue just like a human. The deep crack ran from Toll’s mouth, where the bit sat, and extended back for about two meters. The crack was wide enough to stick my head in, and it was bleeding and infected. I took the brush and stuck it in the wound. Toll shook.

“Sorry,” I said, and proceeded to go more slowly. I sat on the platform with my knees against Toll and painted his wound with the brush.
I will have to use all four pails,
I thought.

“Why do you pull the crystals if it causes you so much pain?” I asked.

“I have no choice. The survival of my species depends on it,” he said. “The planet of Samira is a water planet. At one time we swam our world at the top of the food chain. We built great cities underwater, and our population reached the billions. Then the Arelions came. They hunted us for food, building huge colonies above the water and using technologies we could not hide from. For centuries they ruthlessly pillaged our planet.”

“Why didn’t you fight back?”

“It was not our way. We had no capacity to fight. We never needed one. We attacked their structures, but they just built more. We tried to hide, but they found us. There was nothing we could do. We were heading toward extinction.”

“What
did
you do?” I asked. My problems suddenly seemed to pale in comparison to Toll’s.

“The Arelions captured several Samirans alive, which they displayed on their home planet. A softwire, like yourself, saw them and encoded them with an implant. After some work, my fellow Samiran told him everything.”

“A softwire? You mean a Space Jumper?” I asked.

“Yes. The Space Jumpers were aware of the damage the Arelions were causing on our planet. He offered us a deal.”

“A deal? To be a slave on Orbis?”

“The Space Jumper said they would take two Samirans from the planet and bring them to the oceans on Orbis. In exchange we would work for two thousand rotations on the ring.”

“Two thousand rotations!”

“Samirans can live for hundreds of thousand of rotations. It was a small price to pay for such a great gift,” Toll said. I felt his huge body shiver as I went too deep with the brush.

“Sorry.”

“We did not have the technology to leave our planet. The Arelions would have slaughtered every last one of us. Our great race would have disappeared.”

“So you agreed?”

“The Space Jumpers battled ruthlessly with the Arelions to get myself and Smool off the planet. They did not want to give up even two Samirans. It was brutal, but the Space Jumpers were successful.”

“And now you are here.”

“For a thousand rotations we worked in this tank with the Space Jumpers before they were banished. That is how I met your father,” Toll said.

My father?

Toll said it as if it was no big deal, as if it was common knowledge.

I put the brush down and just sat there. The words repeated in my head.
My father.

How? It’s impossible,
my mind told me.

“There is no way you could have known my father,” I said, and suddenly I felt anger. “Why would you say that, Toll? Why would you say you knew my father?”

“I’m surprised this angers you,” Toll replied. “I will not talk about it any further.”

I applied the ointment, but I did not speak to Toll. Why was I so angry?
Was Toll playing a trick on me?
It was not the first time, however, that someone from Orbis had mentioned my father. Madame Lee made similar remarks, but I could only assume that she was lying. That’s what she did.

There was a chain ladder that ran across the top of Toll’s head and down to the platform on the other side. As I finished with one wound, I crawled across to the other, dragging the bucket with me. I made another trip for the brush.

My father died on the
Renaissance.
My father was human. I had told this to myself many times after Madame Lee
claimed
to know my father, too. She also said he was a Space Jumper. I didn’t believe her either.
But what if she was right?
Space Jumpers were ruthless enforcers that guarded the Keepers. I had seen one before. How could my father be a Space Jumper? There are no human Space Jumpers. Space Jumpers are aliens.

I sat in the harness and continued my chore.

“Your father sat there once doing the exact same thing you’re doing,” Toll said, breaking the silence.

“You’re talking about it again.”

“Do you not wish to learn of this?” Toll asked.

“My father was a human that died on the space flight here. There is no way he could have been on Orbis a thousand rotations ago,” I told him.

“Your father and I made a deal. He spoke of a very important mission to a strange new planet. A planet called Earth, where he would return with a special offspring from the human race. I now realize that was you. Your abilities are needed on Orbis now that Space Jumpers are no longer on the rings.

“Many rotations after the Space Jumpers were banished, your father jumped to Earth in slow time, and then on your flight back, time dilated. It stretched. Time is different for Jumpers. The Earth that exists now is not the Earth you left. Time is a very strange thing. Orbis aged, too, as you manipulated the speed of light, so it
is
possible that he was here a thousand rotations ago
and
died on that space flight. The Keepers have only ever sent one Space Jumper to Earth, and that was your father. You have a great purpose here, Johnny Turnbull.”

I was no longer applying the ointment. I just sat there staring over the water.
Purpose?
I wasn’t too fond of the “purposes” they handed out on the Rings of Orbis. What if I wanted to choose my own purpose?

“Can I show you something?” Toll asked.

“I don’t know if I can take any more, Toll.”

“The seat you are on — open it and remove the garment. Then put it on,” he said.

I stood up, almost in a daze. Inside the seat was a slick, purple-black suit.

“Toll, I saw —”

“Put the suit on.”

I did as Toll instructed. The material was soft and pliable. It stretched and contracted to fit me perfectly, as if the material possessed a mind of its own or as if someone had manufactured it just for me. I don’t know which thought scared me more. The last piece I put on was the hood. It completely covered my face and formed a perfect seal around my neck.

“Toss the brush and empty buckets on the deck,” he said.

“I’m going to get wet, aren’t I?” I said.

“The suit will protect you. Can you see?”

“Perfectly,” I said. Despite the black material over my face, I could see right through.

“Now climb to the top of the harness and get ready.”

“Ready for what?” I scrambled up the rope and sat on top of Toll’s head. I could have sat all my friends up here with room to spare.

“Hold on!”

Toll pushed off the edge of the tank with his gigantic fins and twisted in midair, pummeling the pale green water with a huge splash. With one forceful pump of his mighty tail we set out across the fake ocean. Toll swam just above the water so I could see everything. The speed, the air, and the rushing water — it was amazing. I was free!

Toll swam so fast that when I looked at the water, it was nothing more than a blur. We sped toward the horizon, and the tank’s platform shrank behind me. Soon I could see nothing but water.
If only Max and Theodore could see me now,
I thought.

Toll moved up and down, leaning from left to right as I clung to the harness on top of his head. He dipped into the water splashing it all over me, but I didn’t feel a thing. The suit protected me completely.

Toll began to slow.

I looked down and saw the water sparkling with lights, illuminated from deep inside the tank. Silver, blue, and gold flickered in the waves as Toll circled the mysterious glow.

“It’s beautiful, Toll. What is it?”

“Another question for another time,” he said, and resumed his frantic pace back across the water. I gripped the harness while Toll tore through the waves. The ride ignited my insides. I never felt anything like this before. I was
happy.

Toll finally reached the platform and grabbed the edge. A million more questions raced through my mind as I returned the water suit to the container on the harness.

“That was incredible, Toll. I can’t wait to tell my friends,” I said.

“But you must not tell them about the lights,” he said.

“Why?”

“I took a great risk to show you that. A risk to myself as well as others.”

“Oh.”

I think Toll could tell I was disappointed. It was the kind of “oh” that said “What good was it if I can’t tell anyone?”

“I want you to trust me the way I trust you,” he said. “I am not lying to you when I speak of your father. He was a great person — strong, honorable, and trustworthy. I see the same in you, Johnny Turnbull.”

I looked at my feet. I felt bad for thinking of myself, but I didn’t know where to put Toll’s words. My mother and father were scientists — from Earth — and they were dead.

“I’m sorry, Toll. I need more proof,” I said, looking at him.

“It will come, my friend. It will come.”

Toll sank into the water. I watched as he swam back toward the secret lights. What was out there?
Who
was out there?

Orbis was a strange and curious place.

“Who do you think it was?” Max asked.

She was back from Odran’s workshop but still healing, confined to the dormitory for one more cycle. I was glad to have her back, and of course she acted as if nothing had happened. I sat on her sleeper with Theodore, recapping the story of the alien climbing the cable to the flier. I said nothing of Toll’s claims about my father or the lights in the tank, but it was difficult to keep them from my thoughts. I wanted to know more.

“I don’t know,” I told her. “The central computer wouldn’t let me in.”

“How come the bio-bots in the water didn’t kill the alien?” she asked.

“It must have been the suit,” I said. I wanted to know how he got in the tank. Did his presence in the tank have anything to do with the lights? I couldn’t make things add up.

“Did you ask Toll about the alien when he took you for the ride?” Max said, cautiously scratching her bruised eye.

“He avoided it.”
But he did let me see the lights,
I thought.

“Do you think I could take a ride on Toll?” Theodore said.

“What were you doing when this was happening?” Max asked. “When the alien was
escaping.
” She whispered the last word and looked quickly around the dormitory.

“You don’t know he was escaping,” I said.