The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 (29 page)

A type of stonewort covered everything in the control room, which made it impossible for me to decipher the controls. Ketheria dove in and wiped away the algae with her hands. Nugget followed her lead. They uncovered a long glass portal that gave us a view of the escape tunnel and the enormous doors that led to the ocean — the doors we needed to open.

“Vairocina?” I called for my friend.

The air bent, and Vairocina gathered in front of me. “Yes, Johnny?”

“Can you use my stain to locate where I am?” I asked her as Ketheria glanced at the hologram.

Vairocina said, “You are in the control room for the ocean doors leading to the crystal-cooling tank. What are you doing there?”

“I need to open those doors,” I informed her.

“I don’t think that is wise, Johnny,” she warned.

“It’s a must. Can you help me?”

“Of course, but I believe this will attract much attention.”

“I’ll live with that. But I can’t tell what anything is. Everything is covered with this crusty red slime.”

“I will fix that.”

Four tiny valves opened in the ceiling, and a tangy mist filled the room. The algae clumped and slipped off the controls.

“May I ask why we want to open these doors?” Vairocina said.

“We’re going to save a child,” I told her.

She smiled. “I always enjoy playing with you, Johnny Turnbull.”

“I don’t know if I would call this playing.”

I stood in front of the controls and pushed into the computer. I felt the electrons rush across my face and saw the glowing inside of the computer before me. I had to find a lock or file to open the doors. I sped down a corridor, past chunks of data streaming to some unknown destination, and stopped in front of the main portal. Vairocina was already waiting.

“What took you so long?” she teased.

“Reality,” I said.

“The ocean doors still need to be opened manually from the control room. There should be a large circular control. Spin it clockwise,” she instructed, disappearing through the portal.

I pulled out of the computer and grabbed the wheel. It was about a meter tall with four spokes. It was stuck.

“Help me here,” I said.

Ketheria and Nugget joined in. Nugget used his big feet to pound on the spokes.

“Keep going!”

The wheel finally budged.

The instant the wheel began to move, an alarm sounded and a wailing siren filled the air.

“Keep spinning it!” I shouted over the piercing noise.

The wheel spun faster as we turned it, and eventually it was spinning by itself. I watched through the glass portals as the seal on the gigantic doors cracked and separated. Glaring red lights flashed from the top of the doors as the water began to cascade through the growing opening. Huge amounts of water poured in like the waterfalls of Magna. Ketheria and Nugget cheered as the tunnel filled with the ocean water.

“What’s that?” I yelled, looking down the tunnel. Something sparkled just out of my sight.

At the back of the room was a small arched doorway. “Through here.” I pointed and sprinted through the opening. It led to a railed walkway that stretched the length of the escape tunnel high above the water. The water from the ocean roared past us like a million starships taking off.

Then it stopped.

About one hundred and fifty meters away, a force field, just like the ones that protected Weegin’s field portals, held the water back. The tunnel was filling, but only in the section directly below us.

“Vairocina!”

“I see it. The field is a protection device. It was triggered when we opened the doors, which we were not authorized to do.”

“Get rid of it,” I said.

“I tried. I can’t. The water must be removed first. As I said, it’s a safety device.”

I had to do something. I could see the door to the cooling tank only a few hundred meters away.

“We tried, JT,” Ketheria said.

“Don’t talk like that. We’re not giving up.”

“There
is
one way,” Vairocina said.

“See?” I looked at Ketheria. “Do it,” I told Vairocina.

“The field will fail only when it is breached. Breached by something . . . alive. It’s another safety device designed to prevent anyone from being crushed by the water.”

“Something alive? Like a person?” I asked.

Nugget jumped up and said, “I will do it. Nugget will help.”

“No, you won’t,” Ketheria argued, grabbing him by his water suit. “Thank you but we’ll find another way.”

“I’m afraid there isn’t one,” Vairocina informed us.

“I have an idea,” I mumbled, then ran along the balcony toward the blue force field.

Ketheria chased after me. “What are you going to do?”

The flesh around my arm
felt
alive. If I pinched the skin, my arm hurt, although I was able to turn that sensation down. Would the force field detect the difference?

“The chance of death from the crushing water is ninety-eight point nine percent, Johnny,” Vairocina announced.

“And from electrocution?” I asked.

“Forty-eight point three.”

“That will have to do,” I said as I bolted across the long metal walkway. Green and yellow sparks crackled above the waterline as the ocean filled the passageway. It was already more than two-thirds full.

“Johnny, wait,” Ketheria begged.

“It’s the only way,” I told her. “Besides, I’ll only stick my arm in. What can that hurt?”

The energy field blocked the entire tunnel and even across the walkway that skimmed above the waterline. I stood in front of the force field, peering through to the doors at the other end.

“We’re so close, Ketheria,” I said.

I couldn’t turn back now, but I was scared. I accessed the pain sensors in my arm and turned them off. I banged my artificial arm against the railing.

“See? I can’t feel a thing,” I told her.

“Several terminals have been accessed searching for your whereabouts, Johnny,” Vairocina informed me.

“What do you mean?”

“There are many people looking for you right now,” she said. “Mostly Citizens and Trading Council members.”

I couldn’t wait any longer. Soon it would be too late. There was no choice.

I thrust my arm forward and into the energy field.

A lighting bolt of crystal-blue fire shot up my arm and collided with my brain.
So much for the pain sensors,
I thought as I flew backward. At least I was still conscious.

“Johnny!” Ketheria screamed.

The sound of the water thundering down the tunnel was mixed with a crackling that filled my head. Everything I looked at seemed overexposed, and my arm hung numb and lifeless at my side.

“It worked,” Vairocina exclaimed.

“Johnny, are you all right?” my sister said. Nugget knelt next to me, too.

“I think so.” My voice was thick and the words stuck in my throat. “Give me a moment.”

“You don’t have one, Johnny. They have reached Odran’s,” Vairocina informed me, but I wasn’t listening. Everything was still foggy.

I looked at my arm. The water suit was torched, and the flesh on my fingers was fried right down to the metallic bones. They hesitated to move as my mind reconnected with the wiring.

“Remind me to cover these fingers up before Max sees them,” I told Ketheria, and chuckled. She wasn’t laughing.

“You could have killed yourself!” she screamed at me.

“But I didn’t. Come on — we’re still not done.”

The tank filled quickly. The water gushed past us faster than we could run, faster than the falls of Magna. It hit the door at the end of the tunnel with a thunderous boom. Someone replied with his own boom.

“That must be Toll,” I said.

“Hurry, Johnny. They’re entering the tank,” Vairocina pleaded.

“Who is? Who’s entering the tank?”

“The Sea Dragons.”

I had no idea what Sea Dragons were, and I didn’t want know.

“We can’t go this way,” Ketheria said as we headed toward the tank doors. “We have to use the Linkian.”

“When the tank doors open, Johnny, the remaining part of the tunnel will fill and flush you out to the ocean,” Vairocina said. “You cannot stop it. You must leave here.”

We raced back along the railing and through the control room. We pulled the water suits over our faces as the material molded to our heads. I moved to the ladder.

“Stop!” Ketheria cried. “Your suit. You can’t go back into that water. The suit won’t protect you now.”

She was right. My suit was gone right up past the wrist.

“You have to wait here,” she said.

“But I can’t. You heard Vairocana. This whole place will be flooded.”

“Pull your arm inside your suit,” she ordered.

“What?”

“Just do it. I’ll tie it off and we can get out of here.”

I tucked my arm back into my suit, and Ketheria tied two knots in the material now hanging at my side. The Linkian never moved from its spot. We climbed carefully onto its back with Nugget between us and charged down the power-flow shafts. The return was much faster. I was ready this time when the Linkian rolled on its side to slip through the grate leading back into the tank.

But I was not ready for what I saw inside.

Circling just below the surface were four creatures with large metallic heads, long, bony bodies, and metal wings made of sharp, curved spikes. Huge searchlights on their undersides penetrated the water. They each had two jointed robotic arms extending from their torsos with long, vicious claws that reached forward as they swam. I could only assume that these were the Sea Dragons. One of the monsters swung two large crystal balls on thick chains as if they were toys on a string. The shining spheres looked as tall as me.

“Vairocina, can you see this?”

“I’m afraid I can.”

“What are those spheres?”

“Oh my! Copper-infused crystal bombs. Once detonated, they will destroy all life inside the tank,” she said. She sounded defeated. With what I was looking at, I couldn’t blame her. Suddenly, I wished I had my other arm back.

I looked back at the doors and I saw Toll. He was out in front protecting the others still on the Linkians. Ketheria pointed to Smool, who was resting near the bottom of the tank. Her belly was very swollen, and all she could do was watch.

In turn each of the Sea Dragons dove deep and charged at Toll. My huge friend was doing his best to hold them back, but each time a Sea Dragon attacked, it slashed Toll with one of the long spikes on its wings.

“We have to stop them!” I shouted. “They’re computers. I can simply disable them.”

“I’m afraid it’s not that easy.” Vairocina informed me. “Whoever sent them into the tank knew about your abilities. The brains of the Sea Dragon are real flesh and blood. You will not be able to push into these monsters.”

I watched helplessly as two Sea Dragons attacked at once. Toll managed to grab one with his right arm, but the other jabbed his thick flesh with a spike, forcing him to let go.

“They’re going to kill him!” Ketheria screamed.

The Sea Dragon with the crystal copper bombs set one down on the floor of the tank and swam to the opposite side to lay down the other.

“They’re going to kill us all,” I said.

But why would they do that?
If they killed the unborn Samiran, then who would pull the crystals? The Trading Council was not that stupid. The bombs were just an empty threat. A decoy to make us give up.

I leaned close to the Linkian and said, “Let’s help them.” I felt the Linkian stiffen. “Hold on!” I shouted.

We charged at one of the Sea Dragons and swooped over the monster. The Linkian struck the creature with one of its thick tentacles. The Dragon staggered but thrust out its clawed hand, ripping the Linkian’s flesh. Blood from the Linkian and from Toll smeared the water as we darted through the tank.

“What can I do?” I shouted.

“Run!” Vairocina said. “I have bypassed the security controls. Swim to the gate.”

The enormous doors of the cooling tank cracked open. I instantly felt the pull as the tank water rushed past to fill the last of the escape tunnel. The other Linkians carrying the knudniks from Toll Town raced toward the opening, but so did the Sea Dragons.

Toll got a lucky break as the rush to the doors distracted an attacking monster. The gigantic Samiran caught the Dragon by the throat. It lashed back and forth inside Toll’s grip, but one quick snap from Toll broke the Dragon’s back and it sank to the tank floor.

That’s when Toll saw me. His eyes were on fire. Toll was fighting for his life and the life of his family. There was no choice for him; there was no thought of defeat. If this was his last stance, the last moment of his life, he was going to die a Samiran. But I was not going to let that happen.

I saw Toll turn toward the open doors, but a Sea Dragon was already there, waiting to strike.

“Vairocina, I’m going to charge that Sea Dragon. When I do, close the doors to the tank,” I told her.

Vairocina resisted. “But . . .”

“Just do it!”

I bolted straight at the Sea Dragon who stood between Toll and his freedom. We dove from the left and distracted the Dragon with a smack of the Linkian’s powerful tentacle.

“Now, Vairocina!”

The Sea Dragon was preoccupied with our attack. When it finally realized that the doors were closing, it was too late. The Dragon was pinned between the two doors. It could not swim forward or backward into the tunnel. The Sea Dragon was trapped. The beast flailed and screeched as it was crushed between the giant doors.

“Two down, Vairocina. Open the doors again!”

The Dragon with the crystal copper bombs had planted both devices and was now joining the attack.
Ignore them — they’re not real,
I told myself.

Two Linkians, each with about twenty passengers on its back, circled one of the remaining Sea Dragons, slowly tangling it with the wire used to pull the crystals. There was no way the Dragon could break the wire, but that didn’t stop it from trying. It pulled hard on the wire, furiously swimming backward and yanking one of the Linkians off balance. The knudniks on the back of the purple alien tumbled to the bottom of the tank. Some tried to swim but most just sank. The Linkian let go of the rope and dove to retrieve the flailing knudniks, but the last Sea Dragon swooped in, brutally slashing the graceful creature. The Linkian’s blood gushed from the wound and engulfed the battered defender.