The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 (23 page)

Vairocina just stared at the waterfalls and said, “Maybe, in time, everything will be revealed to you. And maybe no one will ever know. You will be forced to carry this burden forever. But dwelling on it will not help you deal with the situation at hand. All that you talk about is outside your circle of influence. Your time with your friends, with Ketheria, and every moment you have on Orbis, right now, is what you need to concentrate on. That’s all you really have. The rest will come to you when you are ready. It always does.”

Switzer won’t be coming back,
I thought. But there were lots of kids on the
Renaissance
I never saw anymore. I didn’t feel the same way about them. But then they weren’t . . . dead. Switzer was dead. Why shouldn’t I be happy? He conspired to make my life miserable, and he could no longer torment me. I should be celebrating, but I wasn’t. My chest felt heavy, and it was hard for me to swallow.

And then I woke up.

Charlie was sitting at the edge of my sleeper.

“Switzer’s dead, isn’t he?” I asked, and Charlie nodded. “And my arm went with him. This is some fake robot arm. Am I right?” Charlie nodded again.

“But not just any arm,” the computer doctor interrupted. “This arm has many advanced features that your species is incapable of. Along with pain, torque, and strength variances, you may upload digital files using your softwire abilities to store for transfer somewhere else. Isn’t it wonderful? You are almost like a real, walking computer.”

“I’d rather be a real, walking human, thank you,” I informed him.

“I can appreciate that, but let me tell you, it was such a unique experience to build the neural net in accordance to your softwire abilities. I should show you —”

“Not now, please,” I said to the computer. “Charlie, what does all this mean? What’s happening?”

Charlie didn’t answer.

“I heard you when they were working on me. I heard you arguing with someone. I heard lots of things, Charlie.”

“And that is why we need to talk. Tell me where you got the toonbas, JT.”

“So you know?”

“This is serious, Johnny.
Very
serious.”

“Is Toll in trouble?”

“Why would Toll be in trouble?” he asked.

Charlie tilted his head slightly, focusing on me and waiting for my response. They were unaware of Toll’s role in all of this.
They don’t know everything,
I realized. I needed to be very careful with what I said. I knew Max and Theodore would not say a word. I needed to think. I needed to talk to my friends.

“I’m very tired right now, Charlie. Can we talk a little later?”

“But what about the questions you wanted answered,” he said.

“I’m not the one asking the questions now,” I replied.

Charlie leaned forward, his face warming as he whispered to me. “I’m your friend in all of this, Johnny. Do you understand that?” I nodded. “I’m on your side,” he added for emphasis.

As Charlie left the room, I thought,
my side.
I really hated it whenever
sides
were chosen. I leaned back in my sleeper, examining my new arm and buying time until Charlie was well out of range.

“Vairocina?” I whispered.

She answered in my head without appearing. “Yes?”

“Can you get a message to my sister and my friends? Can you get them to come see me as soon as possible?”

The space bent in front of me, and Vairocina gathered into focus.

“They will not come,” she said.

“Of course they will.”

“They are confined to their quarters until the staining,” she said, almost as if warning me.

“Staining?”

“It has been decided that every human child in Odran’s possession will be tagged with a genetic stain. Your DNA will be marked with an inert codon — an amino acid that can be tracked by several legal, as well as illegal, devices.”

I didn’t know which was worse, her emotionless tone or her information.

“Can I remove it? Can I get rid of this stain?”

“Never,” she said.

“Is it dangerous?”

“That all depends on who wants to find you.”

“I won’t let it happen. They can’t do this to us. We’re human beings,” I said. Anger seeped out into my body, even my new arm. “Who do they think we are?”

“You are also their property,” she argued.

“I did not need to be reminded of that.”

I squeezed the railing of my sleeper and watched my knuckles whiten as the blood was forced from my hand.
There’s blood in my new arm?
I squeezed harder, forcing all of the color out of my arm. I pictured the blood being forced out and spraying over an open void. The blood ignited flames that leaped out from some deep, dark part of me.

The railing under my right hand snapped like space-frozen plastic.

Did I do that?
I looked at Vairocina. She too stared at the broken railing.

The computer doctor chimed in. “You will need to control the strength output of your new arm. It really is amazing. You have to let me show you how to use your softwire abilities with the interface I installed. Now you have access to pain thresholds, strength, torque, and temperature limits, as well as a host of other unique functions.”

I stared at my new arm.
I think I can learn to like this.

At the beginning of the next cycle, Charlie arrived again. Only this time he was here to escort me back to Odran’s.

“Everyone is waiting,” he said solemnly.

“To begin the staining?” I said.

“You know?”

“Vairocina told me.”

I wanted to ask him if it would hurt, but I was embarrassed. I could take the pain. I could take anything they threw at me, but I still wanted to know if it would hurt.

A private shuttle waited at the steps of the medical building. I never saw anyone use a private shuttle on Orbis, not even Keepers.

“When are you going to tell me who you really are, Charlie?”

He looked at me and smiled but said nothing. Then he patted me on the head. It felt condescending.

“So much for ‘sides,’” I replied.

Charlie chuckled as the shuttle pulled away. “You kids are smart,” he said. “Smarter than any kids I’ve ever known. Smarter than they give you credit for.”

I sat in silence as the shuttle glided out of the sunlight and into the dark blue shadow the ring cast upon the buildings. Some were tall, some domed, but every one was simply identified by different colored lights and nothing more. There were no frills to these buildings, as you might find at the Center for Wisdom, Culture, and Comprehension on Orbis 1. No, Orbis 2 was all about efficiency. It was a slick machine. A machine built for profit.

I sat and wondered what was going on in those buildings. Were there other knudniks being stained or forced to work for their keep? Were they longing to escape, too? I flexed my right hand. It felt alien.
I
felt alien.

“At the hospital, you asked if Toll was all right. Why? Does he have something to do with this?” Charlie asked, breaking my trance.

“No,” I said quickly.

“You wouldn’t tell me even if he did, would you?”

“There’s nothing to tell,” I told him, then accessed the interface the doctor had showed me to work my new arm. The small screen blinked into my mind’s eye, and I poked around the controls the way someone would after installing a new program. Everything was automated, linked to my hypothalamus, and there were an amazing array of options at my disposal. I couldn’t wait to show Max.

I saw the Samiran Caretaker’s building in the distance. The massive dome curved up to the horizon. A rim of yellow light spread out just below the roof of the building.

“Why are you so against us being stained?” I asked Charlie. “I heard you arguing with someone back at that place.”

The shuttle came to a stop, and Charlie got out and turned toward me.

“Like any civilization, Orbis has its problems. They are similar to many of the problems that made Earth such a horrible place. Greed, power, blind faith, all of these obsessions make people do things they shouldn’t. Once you are stained you can never hide from this. You will forever be a target to those who use others for their own personal gain. I did not want that for you.”

“I can look after myself,” I told him. “Don’t worry about me.”

“And sometimes the stain can create problems within your own DNA,” Charlie added.

“Like what?”

“Not so much with you but with your generations to come.”

“That’s what you’re worried about. If I have children someday?”

“It’s far more complicated than that, JT,” he said, and turned up the steps. “Come — they’re waiting.”

With my questions conveniently avoided once more, I followed Charlie into the great hall and past the mountainous stairs that led to the top of Toll’s tank. I looked into the water, eager to see my friend. At least I hoped he was still my friend, but there was no sign of the Samiran.

Skipping across the surface of the tank were ten slope-winged aircraft, each with a trio of rotating searchlights, sifting through every drop of water. My heart sank to my stomach as what I feared most was happening right before my eyes.

“What are they searching for?” I asked Charlie, knowing full well the answer.

“Why don’t you tell me?” he said, looking at me for a reply, but I offered none. “We don’t have to play this game, you know.”

“What game?” I could not break my promise to Toll — not again.

Max and the other kids were waiting behind Odran when we arrived in the dormitory. Six Keepers hovered near a strange device I’d never seen before. Theylor and Drapling were among them and looked up as we arrived.

Ketheria ran up to me the moment she saw me.

“Be still!” Odran shouted, but Ketheria didn’t listen. She threw her arms around me and squeezed as hard as she could. Odran glared at us. His bloodshot eyes told me that he was angry. I had failed at my job on Orbis 2, and I didn’t think he was going to let me forget it.

“Are you all right?” Ketheria asked.

“I’m fine.”

I looked at my sister. There were small scratches and bruises on her face and arms. I looked at the other children. They looked battered and bruised also.

“The work is getting tougher,” she whispered. “The Harvest will be here soon.”

“Where’s Nugget?”

“He’s hiding in our room.”

“I want to begin,” Odran demanded.

Charlie led Ketheria and me back to the group of kids and then stood with the Keepers. He looked at Odran and then turned his back to him as he spoke with Theylor. Odran was forced to move. This was surely an insult to Odran.

Max and Theodore missed all of this. They surrounded me with a barrage of questions. Grace pinched the skin on my right arm.

“Ow!” I yelled.

“Charlie told us,” Max said.

“It feels real,” Grace said. “I don’t believe it. That’s his own arm.”

“It’s true,” I replied. “They’re not lying.” I held my arm up to the light in order to show them the mechanics inside.

“Wow!” Max burst out.

“It looks real, but just like the doctor said — it’s not mine,” I informed them.

“You mean you have to give it back?” Theodore exclaimed.

“I mean it’s alien, made right here on Orbis. It’s robotic or something,” I said.

Max inspected it closely. “Unbelievable. How do you open it?”

I pulled my arm away in shock.

“I’m just kidding,” she said.

“At least you’re alive,” Ketheria said.

“More than you can say about Switzer,” another boy said.

Grace whispered, “He’s not the only one who’s different.”

“Yeah, Dalton’s not the same,” Theodore added.

I looked at Switzer’s best friend. Something
was
missing. His shoulders were slumped forward, and he was staring at the slabs of stone on the floor. I wanted to say something, but what? I knew Dalton only as someone who agreed with the rotten things Switzer said. Dalton saw me looking at him and turned his back to me.

“I think he blames you somehow,” Theodore said.

“Me?”

“It’s what you didn’t do, I think,” Grace said.

“I tried to stop him,” I protested, but she just shrugged.

“Let him be,” Ketheria said, slipping her hand inside mine. “It will pass.”

Yet I couldn’t help thinking about it.
Why did I feel so responsible for Switzer’s death?
I didn’t put that belt on him. I didn’t push whatever switch he found to make the belt work. Somewhere deep inside my brain, though, I did feel that I could have done more. I could have protected him, but I didn’t and now he was dead. Sometimes I felt so completely unprepared for my life.

“Children?” Charlie waved for us to come over to the Keepers.

The other kids shuffled toward Charlie, but I held Ketheria, Max, and Theodore back.

“Did you tell them anything?” I whispered. “About what I told Switzer?”

“About what’s in the tank?” Theodore asked.

Ketheria shook her head. “We didn’t say anything.”

“I can’t believe they’re still searching for them,” I said.

“JT,” Max said, putting her hand on my shoulder, “they didn’t find
anyone
in the tank. Not a single being.”

“That’s impossible. I saw them with my own eyes. I spoke with Tang. They asked me to join them.”

Theodore shrugged. “Maybe it was a dream.”

“It wasn’t a dream!”

“Come on, everyone — over here,” Charlie ordered.

“Well, it sure got a lot of aliens asking questions around here,” Max said.

“Especially at that ceremony thing,” Theodore remarked.

I asked him, “What ceremony?”

“Theylor performed an OIO ceremony after Switzer died,” Max said.

“To offset the negative energy released into the cosmic stream because of Switzer’s sudden death,” Ketheria explained.

“Where do you get this stuff?” Theodore groaned. “Figures — she helped him.” Theodore nodded toward Ketheria.

“It was beautiful,” Max said.

“Children, please,” Theylor pleaded, and Theodore turned toward the tall alien at the other side of the long room, past our sleepers.

“Wait,” I said. “Even if you didn’t believe me then, you’ve got to believe me now. When they were fixing me up, I overheard them talking about punishing us for going into Toll Town. They think we were trying to escape.”