The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 (25 page)

That sounded like a lie to me, a diplomatic way to cover something up. How much trouble had the Keepers created for themselves by summoning the Space Jumpers? They broke a treaty that has been in place for one thousand rotations. And they did it to protect us? Why would they jeopardize their relationship with the Trading Council — over knudniks?

“Did something go wrong with the staining?” Max said.

“Not at all. It was performed flawlessly,” Theylor replied.

“Except now we’re marked forever,” I said.

“That is true,” Theylor replied. “But I assure you that this is for your own safety. One of your kind died —”

“One of our kind?” Dalton cried. He stepped toward Theylor. “He was a human being, and he was my friend!”

No one said anything. Dalton looked around at each of us as he held back his tears and clenched his jaw.

“I am sorry if I offended you, but we want to make sure this will never happen to you again. We are not used to looking after so many . . . children,” Theylor said. “Now we will know if you are close to danger, like in those tunnels you found.”

“What were those tunnels?” Theodore asked.

“They lead to the ocean on Orbis 2,” Theylor informed us. “They were used to fill the cooling tank when it was first built. They are still used occasionally to refresh the tank water. You are lucky you were not in the tunnels when that happened. But that is behind you now. You will continue your work. The Softwire will help prepare Toll for the Crystal of Life, and you will soon enjoy the Festival of the Harvest. It is a wondrous experience. It will be like nothing you have ever seen,” he added.

“And after that, after the crystal is cooled, you will let the Samirans go, right?” I said.

“Of course,” Drapling said. “It is Keeper decree.”

Drapling leaned toward Theylor and whispered something. Drapling left the room, followed by Theylor. No one said another word.

The Festival of the Harvest celebrated the arrival of the Crystal of Life, an immensely powerful crystal mined from the center of the moon Ki. It happened only once every seventy rotations. All four rings of Orbis celebrate in their own manner, but the biggest celebration was said to be on Orbis 2. Since the crystal would arrive at Odran’s, our home was the center of festivities with every event either starting or finishing at Toll’s cooling tank. At least that’s what Max found out. She had become obsessed with the arrival of the crystal and began spending every moment talking about it.

“Why do you think Odran hasn’t discovered a way to float the crystals yet?” Max asked us. It was just before our sleep spoke, and the three of us were sitting on Max’s sleeper.

“I don’t know,” Theodore said.

“Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to,” she remarked.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I was in his quarters. He has everything he needs. He could build another ring if he wanted to,” she whispered.

“So?” Theodore replied.

“If the Samirans were free, then he wouldn’t be the Samiran Caretaker anymore,” I asserted.

“Exactly,” she said.

“And he wouldn’t be able to rub elbows with the Trading Council anymore,” I said.

“I don’t care,” Theodore moaned, and slipped off the sleeper. “I’m tired. Can we talk about this next cycle? I’m sure we will.”

“What does that mean?” Max said. I think she was slightly offended.

“Nothing,” I said, smiling. “C’mon, let’s go to sleep.” I jumped off the sleeper. “Sleep well, Max.”

“You too,” she replied.

I knew I needed to speak with Toll. I could feel something was wrong. From the pit of my stomach, I knew that Toll and Smool were going to be stuck here. I knew Odran and the Council were going to keep the Samirans working, dragging those crystals until they died.

Once everyone was in their sleepers, I crept out to the tank to look for Toll. I hid in the shadows to make sure the small flying search crafts I had seen earlier were gone. Once atop the platform, I took the summoning staff that Odran used and struck the button on the deck twice. As the sound rippled through the cooling tank, I panicked. Would Toll even speak to me? I had betrayed him. The anxiety swelled inside me like rising water. When Toll surfaced, I was gagging on it.

“I’m glad to see you are all right,” Toll said, and I stood up.

The sight of Toll made me burst out, “I’m sorry about Toll Town. I never thought about the toonbas. I didn’t want to tell anyone, but Switzer did something very stupid —”

“Please, Johnny Turnbull, I am not angry with you; its time had come. But please be careful what you say. They cannot understand
me,
but if anyone is listening, they will understand
you.
”

“Oh.”

“Why don’t you go and get the salve. I will have to pull soon, and it will help me. I will wait here.”

“Absolutely,” I told him, and sped off toward the storage room.

I was so relieved that Toll was not angry with me. I had betrayed my friend.
I will never do that again,
I decided before I reached the storage room. After I gathered the materials I needed, I turned to find Odran blocking the entrance.

“Toll Town,” he gurgled. “Such a sweet name, isn’t it?”

Odran dipped into his tank. It made his eyes glow yellow and his voice sound thick.

“You were listening?”

He extended his arms through the opening in his tank and produced a small circular device from its base. His actions were slow, and he fumbled with the instrument as he fed on the slop inside the tank once more.

“Brilliant idea — the staining, that is,” he remarked. “I knew you would be upon that big dumb creature the first chance you got.” Odran held the device up. I assumed he used it to track me.

“What do you care? I’m sure you make enough profit by stealing from the crystals.”

Odran laughed, or at least he tried to. His mouth was overflowing with the goop from his tank. “Is that what you think I do, Softwire?” Odran maneuvered his tank closer to me.

“What do you want?” I asked him. “I’m tending to Toll. He’s waiting for me.”

Odran sloshed around once more and somehow shut the storage-room door behind him with a clank. A loud click told me I was locked inside with the deranged creature, but I refused to show him fear. I knew most doors at Odran’s opened with keys, but if he could close that door from within his tank, then there must be a computer device controlling it. I pushed into the device locking the door. It was a simple program and I manipulated it with ease. A simple nudge with my mind, and the door opened. Odran spun his tank around as I moved toward the exit.

“Just wait and see what I can do with that thing you’re floating in,” I said, trying to sound as threatening as possible.

“We could have done so much,” he mumbled, admiring the open storage-room door.

“I’ve heard that one before. You aliens love to team up with humans.”

“We’re not much different, you and I. When I was very young, I left a perfectly good planet just as you did. The Trading Council promised me life on an oasis where crystals rained down every day and I would no longer have to be poor.”

“You seem to be doing quite well for yourself,” I interrupted.

“No thanks to them,” he replied. “You see, all they wanted were a few rotations of my life in exchange for a lifetime on the Rings of Orbis. What was a young Centillian to do? Work was already scarce, and I received a mere pittance for it on my home planet. So I came to Orbis, where I was assigned to a Guarantor. Do you see how we’ve led such similar paths?”

“So?”

“But this is where our stories differ slightly.” Odran drew closer to me. “Your Guarantor, that imbecile Weegin, made you sort through trash. Mine had me tortured. While the Keepers thought I was laboring inside my Guarantor’s factory, he was actually harvesting my skin for fat Citizens to wear as jewelry. Expensive jewelry.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, “but that doesn’t —”

Odran thrust his tank toward me, pinning me against the wall.

“Where are they!” he screamed. “Tell me!”

“Who?”

“Ones like
you.
” His waterlogged skin slid along the glass. “Freeloaders, knudniks, always trying to retract their agreements when they have it so easy. I had to pay with my flesh, and
they
were going to pay me. But now they’re gone, thanks to you.”

“Who are you talking about, Odran?”

“The knudniks in Toll Town, you fool. How do you think they got there? They just walked in?
I
put them there! I never wanted you here. I had a perfect setup, until you came along. Now tell me where they went!”

“That’s why you put me in the tank. You tried to kill me. Is Toll involved with this?”

“Of course he is. He started it.
I
learned about it when I was a knudnik. Without him, they would never trust me. They love that big buffoon. The Samiran language befogs the prying eyes of the central computer and keeps them concealed until passage off the ring can be obtained. It worked perfectly.”

Was it true? Is that why Toll was willing to stay for the Harvest even though his work rule was over? But wouldn’t he be upset then, too, now that I had exposed Toll Town?

“I don’t believe you,” I said to him. “You would never let a knudnik escape.”

“Not for free.”

“But we don’t have money.”

“You would be surprised what someone will steal in order to gain their freedom. Your friend would have succeeded if he hadn’t been so stupid.”

“My friend?”

“The one that died. Why do you think I let him go into Core City and trade those trinkets? How do you think he even found those tunnels?”

“Switzer was trying to buy his way out of here?”

“Just like the rest of them,” he said.

“You set him up. We never would have found that F.O.R.M. room if it weren’t for you. You killed Switzer.”

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong. You had a far greater hand in it than I did. Wasn’t it you who informed me how Switzer was so eager to escape the very first cycle you arrived here? How did you say it?
Jump the ring,
wasn’t it?”

He was right. I did tell him that. But I didn’t cause Switzer’s death.

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“That wasn’t very convincing.”

“You’re to blame. You make them steal from their Guarantors. It’s no wonder Citizens hate knudniks. How can anyone blame us for wanting to escape?”

“Tell me!”

“Tell you what? I don’t know where they are. When I left Toll Town, everything was fine. I don’t have a clue where everyone went. Maybe they escaped.”

“Do not lie to me,” he growled.

“Or what?” Max said, standing in the open door with Theodore and Ketheria.

Odran jerked his tank toward the door.

“What are you doing here?” he cried. “Get back to your room!”

“We just came to help our friend with his chores,” Theodore said.

Ketheria stepped toward Odran and said, “You disappoint me.” She stared at Odran.

Odran tried to move away from her as if her glare were causing him physical pain but his tank hit the wall with a clank. He was trapped.

“You play at things you know nothing about. You are an imposter,” she said quietly.

Odran slumped in his tank. Ketheria’s words seemed to affect Odran deeply. The alien moved his tank to the side, freeing a path for me to leave.

“Go and ready the Samiran,” he ordered me. “This is an important cycle.”

I grabbed the supplies and slipped out of the storage room with my sister and my friends.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“What were you doing?” Max asked.

“I wanted to talk with Toll. Odran was listening,” I told them.

“You better watch out for him now, JT,” Ketheria said. “He really doesn’t like you.”

I told them what Odran said. I told them about how he profited from the knudniks in Toll Town and how Toll was involved.

“And you believe him?” Ketheria asked.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Max said.

“He’s waiting for you, isn’t he?” Theodore said.

“Do you mind if I go by myself?” I asked them.

Max shook her head. “No, we’ll keep an eye on Odran.”

“Be careful,” Ketheria warned me.

“I will.”

When I returned, Toll was waiting for me. He looked different to me somehow. I didn’t know what to say him.

Toll noticed my change immediately and said, “Something’s troubling you.”

“I ran into Odran.”

“He’s wondering where everyone went, isn’t he?”

“So you know? You
are
involved with him. You’re making these aliens steal from their Guarantors so they can hide out in Toll Town. Were you going to charge me? I bet you said that stuff about my father just to hook me in. Well, I don’t believe you.”

“Are you going to get on?” he asked me.

“That’s your response? No, I’m not. I don’t want anything to do with you anymore.”

I threw the oversize applicator to the ground and turned back down the steps.

“Johnny. Come back. Please let me explain.”

So he could twist it and make me believe everything was all right? So he could lie to me like everyone else? I was tired of it, yet how
could
I just believe Odran — over my friend? Didn’t he have the right to defend the accusations? I certainly hadn’t liked it when I had been accused on Orbis and no one gave me a chance to tell my side of the story. Then I thought of the digi — the picture of Toll with my father. I turned back toward Toll to listen one more time.