The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 Read online

  I thrust the metal prod at Switzer, striking him in the chest. Switzer cried out in anguish and dropped to his knees. Someone else screamed, too. I looked at Odran. He was smiling — I think he enjoyed it. But I couldn’t look at the other kids. I had attacked a human at the orders of a Citizen. I hated myself at that moment more than I hated Odran.

  I stared at Switzer shaking on the ground. His eyes were filled with tears, but he fought to prevent a single tear from hitting the floor. Letting the others see him cry was a worse punishment than getting zapped by the prod, I figured. I wondered which Switzer would make me pay more for — the zapping or making him cry in front of everyone.

  “Make sure all of the work is completed on time. This is the rotation of the Harvest, and you have no time to waste,” Odran said, and turned away. “I’ll leave the enabler with you in case you need it again, Softwire.”

  I looked down at the device, then let it slip from my hand. It clinked against the stone floor. Enabler. What an ironic name, I thought.

  After Odran left our room, Dalton tried to help Switzer to his feet.

  “Leave me alone,” Switzer told him.

  “I don’t care what’s on that scroll. I’m not doing anything for that bucket of sewer water,” Dalton said.

  “Yes, you are,” Switzer replied, and pushed himself off the floor, sitting up slowly.

  Another kid, one who always avoided Switzer at all costs, asked, “You all right?”

  Switzer nodded and tried to stand, but his knees wobbled. Dalton grabbed his arm.

  “You’re hurt,” Grace said as she helped steady Switzer. “Why don’t you sit on my sleeper?”

  Several of the kids moved aside, making room for Switzer. Where were the insults, the threats? I waited for some forewarning of the damage he was going to inflict on me, but none came. Then Max walked over to Switzer and said, “No, use my sleeper; it’s closer.”

  I think I hated that the most.

  “What’s on the list?” Switzer finally said to me.

  “Don’t worry about the work, Switzer. We’ll do it,” Max said, and looked at me.

  I focused on the screen scroll Odran had left, and the instructions appeared in front of me. I was to assign some of the kids to feed the Samirans, while the others were to prepare Odran’s quarters for guests. It seemed Odran was having some sort of dinner party. I didn’t see what any of these chores had to do with the Harvest, though. Odran was just using us.

  Max, Theodore, and Ketheria offered to feed the Samirans while some of the others went to tend to Odran’s party. Grace and a couple of others followed Max, and I let Switzer do what he wanted. We did not speak to each other.

  At the bottom of the list were my instructions: wait near the tank until the Samirans wish to speak with you. That was it. So be it, I thought. I didn’t want to be around anyone right now, and I didn’t think anyone wanted to be around me.

  I hiked the steps of the cooling tank and took the light chute to the top. I sat on the platform and stared across the water. The results of my new responsibilities had a very familiar feeling. I had felt this way many times on the Renaissance: alone, isolated, always looking in from a distance. It’s not what I wished for, but then what did I want? Validation? Praise? Gratitude? Like I was going to get any of that here, I told myself as I squinted across the ocean of pale green water. I thought I could see lights flickering just below the horizon. Is that where Toll and Smool live? I wondered. Did they build some sort of dwelling down there for themselves?

  The scroll told me to wait, but how long? I glanced down the steps, wondering if the others were finished with their chores. I didn’t want to go back just yet, though. I moved toward a small O-dat located on the far side of the platform. While I waited, I decided to dig out some information on the Samirans by pushing into the central computer. When I slipped inside the computer, though, a mesh of yellow light beams crisscrossed in front of me and obscured my vision. The beads of light seemed to follow me wherever I looked, blocking my access. They appeared harmless enough, so I tried pushing through them.

  Everything flashed white as if an alarm went off, and my brain curdled from a bolt of electrical shock. It was just like being zapped by the enabler.

  I pulled out of the computer. “Vairocina?” I said out loud.

  “Yes, Johnny Turnbull,” she answered, but did not appear. Her voice echoed inside my head the same way the ship’s AI did on the Renaissance.

  “Something in the central computer just tried to fry my brain,” I said.

  “Let me examine your location,” she said.

  “You know exactly where I am?”

  “Of course.”

  I widened my jaw, making my ears crackle. What was that?

  “Someone has used a quantum encryption device to restrict access to any computer in your building.”

  “Can you break it?”

  “You need their secret key. Even with unlimited computing power, I could not generate such a key; the laws of physics prevent it. The data travels as a stream of photons. Anyone who attempts to interact with the photons will cause an irreversible change in the particles. Earth’s very own Heisenberg uncertainty principle —”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you saying?”

  “I’m afraid you’re really, really locked out,” she said.

  “Oh.”

  “Someone has gone to great lengths to keep their information private.”

  “Or to prevent a softwire from entering,” I said.

  “What were you trying to find?” Vairocina asked.

  “I want to know where the Samirans live.”

  “In the cooling tank,” she said.

  “I know that, but where in the tank?”

  There was a long pause.

  “Vairocina?”

  “I cannot find any information that answers your question. Shall I keep looking?”

  “No, forget it,” I told her.

  “More creatures than Toll and Smool live inside the crystal-cooling tank. An entire ecosystem thrives inside there.”

  “I never thought of that.”

  “A new crystal is arriving from Ta,” she said.

  “How do you know?”

  “I am always monitoring activities where you are.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you are my friend,” she said. “You are my only friend.”

  It must be lonely for Vairocina, too, I realized. I knew about her before anyone else on the Rings of Orbis. No one believed me when I told them a little girl was inside their precious central computer.

  “I’m glad you’re my friend,” I said. “When is the crystal arriving?”

  “Now.”

  High above the tank, deep in the black ceiling, a circle of twenty or more ruby-red lights pulsed in unison. This was followed by the distinct sound of metal chimes. I stood and looked around, but no one came. There were no workers, no sign of Odran, no fanfare of any sort.

  The lights stopped blinking and remained bright red, and the area inside the circle crackled with electricity and then disappeared. It was an energy field like the field portals at Weegin’s World. Across the horizon the water rippled. One of the Samirans was on the move.

  A purple ball of fire descended through the opening in the ceiling. It hissed and sparked as the color of the glowing crystal shifted between purple and blue. I could see a long metallic bar, curved and polished, hanging from the crystal by thick ropes that disappeared into the glowing ball. The crystal itself was hanging from the same type of greenish-gray ropes that attached to a spacecraft, which was now visible hovering in the ceiling’s opening. The craft was tiny — a slick, white flier, marked up from many trips between here and the crystal moons was my assumption.

  The craft descended until the metallic device hanging from the crystal kissed the water. I could see one of the Samirans coming closer. It slowed and then broke the surface.

  It was Toll.

  He opened his huge mouth and c
lamped down on the metal. It fit perfectly, sliding back to the corners of his mouth.

  The Samiran began to swim slowly as the purple crystal was lowered into the water. By the time the purple firestone was submerged, Toll was swimming at full speed and the ropes released the crystal. The entire procedure was performed flaw lessly, the result of two thousand rotations of practice, I thought.

  The craft continued to hover within the open ceiling portal as Toll swam away. The empty ropes hung motionless a couple of meters above the water, as if waiting for something. Was there another crystal? I watched for some time as Toll came about and returned to the same spot.

  Once again I watched Toll break the surface of the water. Crouched on the top of his head was a creature dressed completely in a slick, black material. Even its face was covered. When Toll passed under the cable again, the slender thing sprang up to grab the cable.

  It missed.

  Toll did not slow down, and the alien landed off balance on Toll’s back, almost tumbling into the water. He steadied and quickly jumped once more, catching the cable with his right hand. Now he was only centimeters above the tank and his feet kicked at the water. Toll kept swimming forward, and the burning crystal rushed toward the creature. What would happen if he couldn’t climb the rope? I wanted to shout out, to tell him to get moving.

  Now!

  With one huge lunge the alien twisted his body, swung his left arm around, and grabbed the cable. With two hands securely on the rope, he began the long ascent to the waiting flier.

  Who was that? What was that? Where is he going?

  I caught a glimpse of Toll’s huge green eyes before he dove into the water and headed for the horizon. Did he see me? I stood there and watched the alien reach the flier. Once he was inside, the lights in the ceiling blinked off, and the hatch sparkled shut.

  I found Theodore in the open dormitory. “You wouldn’t believe what I saw,” I told him. I sat on his sleeper. “Hey, where is everybody?”

  “Some of the others got sick.”

  “Sick? Why?”

  “You ever fed a Samiran? Our new chore is quite the adventure.”

  “What’s that smell?” Something was off. I moved closer to Theodore. “Something really stinks, and I think it’s you.”

  “That would be left over from the gruel. I tried to wash it off, but it just won’t go away.”

  “The food tablets? For the Samirans?”

  “Some tablet,” another girl said, walking past Theodore’s sleeper. “I’ll never be able to eat again.”

  “It’s awful, JT. We have to pack these creatures into tubes after we cover them with some sort of slop — vitamins or something. It’s like they know where they are going. They’re gonna eat them, live. I almost threw up.”

  “What are you talking about? Who is?” I said.

  “Toll. The Samirans. It’s really disgusting. I don’t think I can do this, JT.”

  “Where’s Max?”

  “The food fought back. The little aliens figured out we were sending them through to be eaten. One of them nailed Max pretty bad, knocked her out. She’s with Odran.”

  “Ketheria, too?”

  Theodore nodded.

  I turned and bolted for the door. “Where are you going?” Theodore shouted.

  “To find Ketheria.”

  “Wait, Odran does not want to be disturbed,” Theodore yelled after me.

  “Too bad,” I said, and Theodore followed me out the door.

  Odran’s room was not far from ours. I burst through the doors and stopped. Crystal sculptures, alien silks, and art taller than I was hung in every nook and corner. Warm light washed the maze of tiny tiles on the floor, and the spicy smells I remembered from the trading chambers on Orbis 1 replaced the sweet smell of the bio-bots. Either Odran was paid extremely well for his services or he found another source of income.

  “Johnny!” Ketheria said. She sat on a small stool made from . . . bones, I think. Thick, yellowed bones. I could not imagine what sort of alien died for that piece of furniture. Ketheria played with a shiny, coiled wire that dangled a purple crystal.

  “Are you all right? Where’s Max?” I said.

  “Odran’s with her. She’ll be fine.”

  “What happened?”

  “Some of the food started to fight back,” she said.

  “I heard? How can food fight back?”

  “You would be surprised,” Theodore said, shaking his head.

  “It was sad,” Ketheria added. “They knew their fate. They knew they were going to be eaten, and they decided they didn’t want that to happen.”

  I watched my sister as she thought about her own words. She stared past me but then quickly shrugged and shook her head.

  Twirling the wire in her fingers, she said, “Let me check your nodes.”

  “I’d rather see Max. Where is she?

  “This way.” She got up but stopped. “Wait. Odran is not in his tank. Don’t get upset when you see him.”

  Theodore and I looked at each other. Not in his tank? I didn’t know he ever came out of it. This was going to be interesting.

  Ketheria led us through several rooms filled with the same kind of art and rich furniture until we reached Odran. Interesting was not the word I would use to describe the site of Odran out of his tank. Frightening would be good. Horrifying maybe even better, but interesting just didn’t describe it.

  Odran was suspended by cables as he hovered over a stone slab.

  “Max!” I shouted, when I saw my friend unconscious on the table.

  Odran jerked around at the sound of my voice. The lower part of his body, a fleshy mess of tentacles, was scooped together in a metal bucket that hung from the wires. Cables and tubes ran from the bottom of the bucket and tapered off into the shadows. His skin was a sickly pale pink color, severely wrinkled from the solution he spent most of his time in. More tubes ran from his nose, and a whole set of small cable sensors bore into his skull. His skin was swollen and red where they penetrated his flesh.

  “What are you doing here?” he snapped. “If you have nothing to do, then go and help the others prepare for my guests. Those are my orders. You are not to be wandering around.”

  Theodore stood there staring at Odran, not saying a word.

  “You’re ugly to me, too, you know,” Odran said.

  “What did you do to Max?” I said.

  “I did nothing. She was injured while she was working. A simple infection, but you pathetic humans are so fragile. Get back to your room.”

  I ignored Odran and walked up to the stone slab. Max lay there, her vest removed. She smelled worse than Theodore’s old socks, and her hair was covered in a gray slime. A large purple bruise covered her swollen left eye, and a deep scratch ran down her neck. Part of it was covered with a plastic patch sprouting little sensors that Odran monitored with a handheld device.

  I looked around the room. Odran was working on other things, too. There was a cart-bot dismantled on another stone and some wetwire device blinking in the corner, its flesh and wire pieces strewn about the floor. Max was just another of Odran’s broken possessions.

  “I don’t think the other kids should do this work anymore,” I told Odran. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “You don’t think,” Odran said, almost chuckling. “You have no right to think. The well-being of Orbis is my goal, not the health of you or your friends. Now get out of my way before I punish you for your rudeness.”

  Ketheria tugged at my vest, but I was too angry seeing Max lying there. I felt responsible. She was only here because I could talk to the Samirans.

  “This isn’t what we’re here to do,” I said to Odran. “This isn’t right. You’re only doing this because you don’t like me for some reason. What did I do to you?”

  Odran wrenched his metal bucket forward, forcing the supporting chains and wires to slide along the ceiling. He was next to me in an instant.

  “I will not tolerate this attitude, you worthles
s mass of carbon. You are under my roof and you will do exactly as I say, whether you like it or not,” he seethed, his teeth clenched. “No rations for you. You can starve for all I care. Now prepare my meal!”

  “Johnny?” Ketheria begged. I just stared at Odran. What he was doing was not right. Ketheria tugged on my vest once more. “Leave it,” she whispered. “Come.”

  “Odran, you can’t —” I started to say, but he cut me off.

  “So you still want to argue? Fine. Then nothing to eat for any of you. How do you like that? Shall we continue with this stupid conversation? I can let your pathetic little friend die, right here. It’s your choice. I love a good debate,” Odran said. “Or you can stand with the others and watch me eat.”

  “Johnny, stop!” Theodore pleaded. “Fix Max, Odran. Now, please.”

  Ketheria took my hand and dragged me out. Theodore followed us. My feet were heavy. I wanted to stay and fight Odran. I hated him. With everything inside of me I hated him for what he was doing to my friends.

  “Do you think that was smart?” Theodore asked as we walked through the building. “You don’t need Odran as an enemy.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “We’ll you should, JT. You’re starting to sound like . . .” Theodore stopped. His words stung.

  “Switzer?” I said.

  Theodore did not answer.

  “Look at you. Look at Max,” I said. “What if Ketheria gets hurt next time, or worse, one of you gets killed?” It was a possibility. How could he argue? “Maybe that knudnik is right.”

  “Who is?” he said.

  “Switzer. Maybe we should find a way and get off this ring.”

  “No, we shouldn’t,” Ketheria said.

  We walked in silence toward the dining hall that Odran used to entertain his guests. We reached the round room as several aliens were arriving. I counted four. Some of the other kids were lined against the wall waiting, including Switzer. He stared at me as I entered and took my place. Suddenly, I wanted to tell him I was sorry. He had to realize I didn’t want to hurt him. But I knew an apology wasn’t going to happen. There was too much friction between Switzer and me. I don’t think he would have accepted it anyway.