The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 (22 page)

I dreamed of a wave, like the waves in Toll’s tank when they first dragged me out of the water. In my dream I could see everything, hear everything — the rushing water and the people shouting. But the sounds and images faded as I felt a wave of consciousness sweep across my body.

“He’s getting stronger,” someone said.

“When he’s ready, I want all of them stained.”

“Absolutely not.”

“You have no choice. It’s that or death.”

“That’s ridiculous! It’s dangerous to stain them, let alone unfair. These children have done nothing. How can I convince you of that?”

“It has already been decided.”

And then the deep, cold darkness took me under again. I dreamed of Toll Town. I dreamed of Tang. I wanted to be with them. People were leaving Orbis, and I wanted to go with them. Everyone was getting ready, even Switzer. I followed Tang through the streets of the underwater shelter. All the other aliens waved at us and smiled.

“Good luck!” one shouted.

“May your journey be guided by cosmic streams of love,” a Nagool master said, his arms outstretched as he shuffled beside us.

“Where’s Toll?” I asked Tang, but he would not respond. “Tang, where’s Toll?”

I ran up next to Tang and reached out for his shoulder. He was cold. I turned him toward me and stepped back. His thin skin was streaked with blue tears, and his eyes glowed from excessive crying.

“This is your fault!” he screamed at me.

“What is?”

“That!”

Tang pointed over my shoulder to the buildings of Toll Town. Giant flying machines systematically destroyed each building. The flying monsters, all metal and bone, swung enormous chains, at the end of which were huge, gnarled spheres. When the balls struck, the building exploded, flinging debris everywhere.

Aliens screamed and ran from the monstrous machines, but Tang marched on through the flying chunks of concrete and metal. Water rushed in as the crystal ceiling cracked, but still I followed Tang.

He led us to the portal where I’d first arrived with Toll.

“There you go. Are you happy?” Tang said, pointing into the water. But I could not look. I was afraid — afraid of what he was pointing at. Was it Toll? Was he dead? I could only look at Tang.

“Look!” he screamed, but I wouldn’t.

“I didn’t mean it. I didn’t want to break my promise, but Switzer . . .” I looked at Max and Theodore, but they stared into the water; everyone stared into the water.

“JT?”

I couldn’t look.
What if it was Toll?
my mind screamed.

“JT? Can you wake up?”

“Vairocina?”

The sound of my friend’s voice yanked me out of my nightmare. I opened my eyes. Where was I? This was not my room. Silvery control panels lined the walls of the dimly lit space, and there was a medicinal smell to everything. My sleeper did not have a lid except for a dome that circled the headboard. A row of empty sleepers lined the wall.

I sat up. At least I tried to sit up, but my right arm offered no assistance. It simply lay at my side for a moment before moving, almost as if it possessed a mind of its own, a mind that wasn’t paying any attention. A thick metal band of sensors and flickering lights clung to my arm a few centimeters above my elbow. I tugged on the device, but it would not budge.

I attempted to wipe the sweat from my forehead, but my arm felt like it was asleep, prickling before coming awake. And then, as if trying to catch up, my right hand did as I wanted and wiped away the sweat. It took a moment for the wetness on my fingertips to register.

“You are conscious ahead of schedule,” a mechanical voice said, but there was no one else in the room. I knew that on the Rings of Orbis that didn’t mean I was alone. “Keep the arm moving. That is exactly what you need.”

“Who’s there?” I said.

The dome that circled the head of my sleeper hummed to life. A thin, pale yellow energy field sprang from the headboard and engulfed my sleeper.

“I am here,” a voice said, the energy shield sparkling with each word.

The outline of a round face collected in the field over my head. It darted back and forth as if reading O-dats in some dimension I could not see.

“What are you looking at?” I asked.

“Well, you, of course. I need to know why you are awake.”

“My arm isn’t,” I informed him. “It’s like my arm is still asleep. What’s this thing around it?”

“That is not your arm,” the computer replied.

“What do you mean it’s not my arm?” I said.

“I mean . . . it’s not
your
arm.”

The round alien face in the energy field stopped over the center of my sleeper. Its large eyes looked in different directions at the same time while continuing to search controls I couldn’t see. I willed my arm to move. Reluctantly it positioned itself in front of me. It certainly looked like my arm. I compared it to my left arm. It was identical in every detail except, when I held it up to the light, the arm was semitransparent. The light passed through my skin, making it appear grayer and slightly blue. I could see shiny silver bones, flickering lights, and computer hardware. He was right; this wasn’t my arm.

“I did a nice job, won’t you agree?”

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“Your species, if I have researched correctly, would call me the doctor, or
a
doctor, or even Doc.”

“What does your species call you?”

“Oh, no need for flattery. I am a computer. I will give you the best care programmable.”

“Did I hurt my arm?”

“You do not remember? One moment, please . . . that’s right. The incident has been dampened in your cerebral cortex. Your simple brain will take some time before the chemicals wear off. You will remember in time.”

What was this computerized first-aid box talking about? The last thing I remember was coming back from . . . Where was I coming back from? I was . . . I couldn’t remember.

“That arm, that very expensive arm, is the property of the Rings of Orbis,” the computer doctor said.

“Orbis? Where is my real arm, then?”

“I am restricted from giving you that information. Three fingers, please.”

“What?”

I did not understand. Why was my arm (yes,
my
arm — it was attached to
my
body) — why was it acting so weird?

“Please hold up three fingers. I need to run a diagnostic procedure to understand why you are awake.”

I did as I was told. “I think my nightmare startled me,” I said. I felt a little embarrassed. And then I felt embarrassed for being embarrassed in front of a computer. I tried to shake it off. After a moment my right hand extended three fingers.

“Explain ‘nightmare,’” asked the doctor.

“Um . . .” I didn’t feel like talking anymore.

“Now two fingers, please,” the doctor ordered, and my arm responded a little quicker. “Good, it should be normal in no time.”

“When . . .”

“Now five fingers.”

My hand responded instantly.

“Look at you,” the doctor exclaimed. “It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Just wait until your arm starts doing things before you even realize you thought about it.”

“How long have I been asleep?” I asked.

A single moment of time flashed in the front of my forehead before the computer could answer. It was very similar to the effect I feel when I push into a computer. I was standing in a F.O.R.M. room with Switzer and my friends. Switzer put something around his waist.

“You’re starting to remember, are you not?” the doctor asked.

“Yes.”

“Good,” it replied. “Soon you will remember everything.”

“There are some things I need to understand,” I said.

“And I will explain them,” Charlie said as he entered the room. He clutched a small bag of toonbas in his left hand, and he was smiling. He’d been gone for a long time, and there were so many questions I wanted to ask. I was glad to see him.

“Hi, Charlie,” I said.

“Hey, buddy. How are you feeling?”

Before I could respond, a pain sprang from my fingertips to the very base of my brain. I looked at my new arm. Colored lights of red and yellow flickered just under my skin, pushing shadows across the metal bones. My body stiffened, and my eyes rolled back in my head. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to scream.

“My apologies,” the computer doctor said. “There were still several neural synaptic tests to perform before you awoke. Most of the hardware is linked using traditional wetwire methods, but it is your softwire capabilities that I must deal with now. I will try and warn you before it happens again.”

“What is he talking about, Charlie?” The pain was subsiding.

“Just relax. You’ve been through a lot, my friend,” he said.

“How long have I been unconscious?” I asked him.

“Quite some time, I’m afraid. It was necessary for the repairs they needed to do.”

“What repairs? My arm? Tell me what happened to my arm.”

“Here, I brought these for you,” he said, diverting my question.

Charlie handed me the sack of toonbas.

“It’s been a while since you’ve seen those, hasn’t it?” Charlie said, and smiled again. It seemed forced, though. He was fishing for something. I could tell.

And then another flash. The bag of toonbas was in my hand, and I was showing them to Switzer. I was trying to convince him of something. Something we would get in trouble for. I looked back at Charlie. He stared at me. Did he know?

“Of course. They’re Ketheria’s favorite,” I said. “She ate them all the time on Orbis 1.”

“You ever seen them here?” Charlie asked.

What was he looking for?
Then pain again, only this time stronger, much stronger. The pale yellow energy screen around my sleeper pulsed bright red.

“JT, you all right?” Charlie asked, but I could not answer. My arm was in control now.

“Emergency procedure,” the computer announced. “Suspending consciousness immediately.”

“Johnny!”

My mind tore away from the light. Blackness engulfed me once more as Charlie and the room slipped into a distant corner of my consciousness. I was alone again. Alone and dreaming.

In my dream I stood at the center of a bridge perched high across the thunderous waterfalls of Magna. I knew the Ancients had lived here once but now the Keepers resided underneath the city. I watched the water cascade over cliffs and pour through the streets, defying gravity whenever it pleased. The roar should have been deafening, but it sounded more like music, and the motion calmed me.

“I knew I would find you here,” Vairocina said. Only now she wasn’t a computer program; she was a real girl.

“Am I dreaming?”

“Oh yes,” she said. “But that never stopped me before.”

I smiled. I liked her company. “Can you answer some questions for me?” I asked her.

“I’ll try.”

“What’s with my arm?”

“It was destroyed when the unstable time field Switzer activated removed him and your arm from this dimension,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Where’s Switzer?”

“It is impossible to say, but most likely he is dead. Only softwires can activate a Space Jumper’s belt. It is extremely unstable, and no one can predict where a person without softwire abilities will go, if they go anywhere at all. None have come back to tell their story,” she said. “I’m afraid your friend is dead, JT.”

“He wasn’t my friend,” I told her.
But then why do I feel so bad?
I wondered.
Switzer’s gone? He’s dead?
“I’ll never see him again, will I?”

“Does this bother you?” she asked.

“There are a lot of things that are bothering me,” I said. “All those knudniks in Toll Town for one. So many people came to Orbis wanting something else, something better, and instead found themselves trapped. They’ll risk their lives to get out of working in these horrible jobs for people who don’t even care about them.”

“The Keepers care about you,” she said.

“But I don’t work for them, do I? I don’t think the Keepers know half of what’s going on here. You know, coming to the Rings of Orbis was all I ever thought about.”

“Me, too.”

“But when I see those people, I can’t stop asking myself why my parents would come here. And that’s another thing. My father! For all I know, my father might
be
from the Rings of Orbis. I can’t even begin to comprehend that. It doesn’t compute. And I don’t even know who to ask for help with that one. It’s driving me crazy, Vairocina.”