The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 (3 page)

“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I’m not looking for one.”

“Who you talking to?” Theodore whispered. I hadn’t seen him come up behind me.

“Good-bye, JT,” she said inside my head.

“Vairocina,” I told him.

“A game of Ring Defenders?” Theodore said, and plopped on a nearby foam lounger.

“Why not?” I replied as he started the game.

“What were you talking to her about?”

“Replicators,” I told him.

“I’ve been thinking about those, too. I wonder what Weegin plans to do with his.”

“Why?”

“Well, think about it. He can make anything he wants. If you had a replicator, what would you do?” he asked me, leaning in.

“I don’t know, but you just lost a whole fleet with that move.”

“C’mon, there must be something you want.”

“I want a lot of things, just not a replicator,” I said.

“Like what?”

“Well, I want to work, you know. To do something useful around here. Prove to these people that I’m worthy of Citizenship. But I want it to be something I choose; maybe use my softwire. Weegin certainly hasn’t taken advantage of it. I also want my parents’ files back, but I know that will never happen. I want to know why we’re here. I want
answers,
” I said, a little worried that I was preaching again. “I don’t think a replicator can make any of those for me, Theodore.”

Theodore was staring at his feet when he said, “You know what I want?”

“What?”

“I want a Space Jumper’s belt so I can jump off this ring,” he whispered.

I just stared back at him. He was serious. Theodore had never spoken like that before. He always just did as he was told. He had never once talked about escaping.

“Do you think I could do that?” he asked.

“If anyone could just jump, why doesn’t everyone do it, then?” I said.

“I think you just need practice.”

“I don’t know, Theodore. They have to be illegal for more reasons than that. And besides, you know what the penalty is for trying to escape.”

“If you were a Space Jumper . . .”

“I’m not, Theodore.”

“But Madame Lee said your father . . .”

“She was lying,” I told him.

Theodore didn’t say anything else about the belt. He just looked out the window at the holographic garden. We sat in silence, and I caught Switzer staring at us. He must have listened to our entire conversation.

That night the dream-enhancement equipment of my sleeper steered me toward the crystal moons of Orbis, glowing bright purple and orange against the empty void of space. But just as I was about to touch down on Ki, I was ripped from my dream. I awoke to find Weegin standing over me, thumping his fist on the lid of my sleeper. His beady red eyes glowed brighter than the moons in my dream, and his raspy breath stank of burnt hair.

“Weegin, what’s the matter?” I asked him, trying to focus.

“It doesn’t work,” he growled. The crevices in his face appeared deeper than normal, and there were dark crimson circles around his eyes.

“What doesn’t work?” I whispered.

“It doesn’t work. Get up.”

“Weegin, are you all right?”

“Get up now. You must make it work,” Weegin pleaded, almost out of breath as he shoved the lid of my sleeper back into the wall.

I did as I was told and slid off my sleeper.

I followed my Guarantor through the darkened sorting bay in my plastic pajamas. The robot cranes slouched over us as I trudged behind Weegin toward his private lift. It was the same lift I’d taken with Ketheria, Max, and Theodore the night Madame Lee stole my sister and forced me into the central computer to destroy the Keepers’ security devices.

“Weegin, have you slept?” I asked the alien after he stumbled into the lift. He was having trouble keeping his eyes open.

“No time. No time,” he mumbled.

The door to the lift disappeared, and Weegin paused for me to exit. A trail of stench led me to his glass cubicle. We had left the
Renaissance
in complete disorder, but then
we
were kids. Weegin’s office was littered with unanswered screen scrolls piled everywhere, and it looked as if Nugget had clawed or chewed every single item in the place. I was shocked at the mess and searched for the smell that was coaxing the dinner tablet from my stomach. Then, in the far corner I saw it. It was another larva that Weegin must have been nursing. Only this one was dead.

In the center of all the garbage sat the replicator. It looked simple enough: a shiny metallic cone inverted over a small, black circular base. On the base sat a glowing blue dish. The whole thing stood just taller than my knees. Weegin stumbled next to it and placed a small crystal on the dish.

“Make it work,” he ordered.

“I don’t know, Weegin. Maybe Max should . . .”

“Make it work!” He screamed so loud I jumped back. Weegin dropped to his knees and caressed the peculiar piece of metal.

I moved closer and knelt next to Weegin. I scanned the device for a chip or any computer device I might be able to manipulate. But there was nothing — just some simple circuits that worked the lights. Basically the inside was empty. Weegin had been scammed. He’d purchased a dud.

“Weegin, I don’t . . .”

“You’re all I have. You have to make it work.” The alien was begging now.

“But . . .”

“I’ll give you ten percent of everything I replicate. You must!”

“Weegin, it’s not . . .”

“Fine, then, half! Half of everything,” Weegin said spitefully.

“It doesn’t work, Weegin. The replicator’s a fake.”

Weegin just stared at me. His face shifted under his tough, wrinkled skin, and if he possessed any emotions, I mean real emotions of sorrow, he was fighting desperately to hold them back now.

“Don’t you want to stay with Weegin?” he said, almost whimpering. “Don’t you want to stay at Weegin’s World?”

I hesitated. I shouldn’t have, but I wasn’t good at lying. Weegin was no telepath, but he read my mind at that veryinstant.

“Fine,” he said, and his tone grew meaner. “There are worse out there than me.” Weegin stood up. Any emotion on his face now turned to anger and mistrust.

“Weegin, I read the screen scroll from the Keepers. I’m sorry. I know you have to give us back.”

“Not if you make this work.”

“But I can’t.”

“You’re worthless!” Weegin said, and kicked the replicator. It flew across the room and shattered against the wall.

“Weegin . . .”

“You owe me!” he shouted so loud it could have woken the dead larva.

“Owe you what?”

“Get everyone up. Bring every child to the recreation room,” he said. His voice was firm and filled with a dark determination.

“Why?”

“Do as you are told!”

“Please, tell me what you’re doing.”

Weegin moved to the edge of his office and looked out over what was left of his business.

“The scroll said I had to take you back, right?” he said.

“Yes . . . ,” I replied.

“But it didn’t say when, did it?”

“Well, I think it said immediately.”

“Fine, then. We leave tonight,” Weegin said.

Was I really worthless? Was Weegin right? What
was
I doing on the Rings of Orbis? I was glad to be leaving Weegin’s World. Surely there had to be some purpose for me on the rings. I was eager to see what the Keepers had in store for me. I mean, I had helped them avert a war against all those Neewalkers. And it was me who set them up with Vairocina. Maybe they would reward me with an important job — one that didn’t lock me inside the central computer but that proved I was capable of more than sorting trash.

I was still fantasizing about my new job by the time everyone gathered in the rec room. All twenty of us huddled in different groups, chatting, as we waited for Weegin.

Max turned to me and whispered, “Theodore said the replicator was a fake.”

“Just a shell,” I told her.

“What’s he going to do now?”

“I don’t care. Anything’s better than this place,” Switzer said, and sprawled himself on a lounger. “I’m glad we’re leaving.”

Secretly, I couldn’t help but agree with him.

“Trip! Time for trip!” Nugget shouted as he entered the room, followed slowly by Weegin.

Weegin’s shoulders drooped as he walked toward us. His eyes were half closed, and he shuffled more than walked. He mumbled, “Is everyone here?”

“Yes,” Switzer said.

“Weegin, why —” Max started to ask.

But Weegin snapped at her. “Enough with your questions. Grab your stuff and follow me.”

Nugget spun on his heels shouting, “Time for aucti —!” But Weegin clipped him in the back of the head with his walking stick. “Shut up, you annoying little runt!”

Nugget frowned, rubbing his bald head as he retreated back toward Ketheria.

“What was he gonna say, Weegin?” I asked. “Where are we going?”

“I said move!”

“But wait . . .”

“
Wait! Wait!
You have no right to tell me to wait.” Weegin was no longer slumping. “You are
still
in Weegin’s World. You
still
belong to me,” Weegin said, thumping his chest with his fist. “You will do anything I tell you. Now move!”

“Come on, Weegin,” Switzer said, pushing his way up next to him. “I got my stuff. I’m ready to put this place behind me.”

Weegin looked at Switzer. He lifted his chin slightly, but he did not get angry. He simply stood there, trembling. Then he looked around at each one of us.

“Come on, Weegin. Don’t go soft on me now,” Switzer said.

“Shut up,” Max said.

“Weegin?” I nudged him.

“I have no choice. You have no choice. It is in the hands of the Keepers now.”

Weegin slumped once again and shuffled toward the door.

“Move! Follow!” Nugget shouted.

I followed my Guarantor across the sorting-bay floor and out of Weegin’s World. I admit I was very excited, even though I didn’t have a clue where I was going.

The trip on the spaceway lasted long enough for me to realize just how much my feelings for Orbis had changed in one rotation. On the
Renaissance
I couldn’t wait to land and start my new life. Even when I learned I would be forced to work to pay off my parents’ debt, I still believed there was a better life for me on the Rings of Orbis. I clung to the fact that my parents must have known what they were doing, even if I didn’t understand why. They chose to come to Orbis. No one forced them. Yes, it was a complete malfunction that I had to slave away for a bunch of ungrateful aliens, but what choice did
I
have? I couldn’t escape. Switzer tried that on the
Renaissance
and failed. If I tried and failed here on Orbis, they would put me to death. I could never take that risk because I wouldn’t even try to leave without Ketheria, and I would never risk Ketheria’s life like that.

So I put all my focus on Orbis 2. At least I was going back to the Keepers now, and I liked the Keepers. Well, I liked Theylor anyway. Despite the fact he had wanted to stick me inside the central computer forever. It wasn’t his idea, I told myself. He tried to warn me. I trusted Theylor.

“Get up!” Weegin barked at us once the shuttle docked.

“You think you’re gonna miss him?” Theodore snickered.

“Like a foot in my face,” I whispered.

We followed Weegin into the spaceport while Nugget ran about pushing us all together with his big snout.

Whenever I thought of the spaceport that shuttled passengers to and from the Rings of Orbis, my mind was always filled with images of exciting journeys to faraway stars. It had been a while since I’d been here, but I vividly remembered the wonder and awe I felt the first time I walked across that vast polished floor. Back then I really believed that anything could happen and I could be whoever I wanted to be on Orbis.

But this time was different.

The oversize crystals floating high above me. They seemed to cast their warm pink glow on everything but us. The sweet music that filled the air soured every third or fourth note, and the smell from the cascading flowers seemed more on par with the radiation gel back on Weegin’s World. I watched the Citizens stride powerfully through the atrium, dressed in rich cloth and sparkling jewels. I looked at my friends. Max’s vest was scratched and dented. Theodore’s boots no longer matched, and my sister traipsed behind him dragging an old tattered shipping bag stuffed with little souvenirs. That’s when it hit me. Even though I still wanted to carve out a better life for myself on Orbis, just as I had when I first arrived, things were different now.
I
was different. This time I knew my position on Orbis. All of this was built for them, not us. I was here to work for the Citizens — I was just a knudnik — and that’s all that seemed to matter to them.

I couldn’t help but wonder if that would ever change.

As I walked with everyone, I saw a small creature standing beneath the gigantic windows that lined the atrium. He was not wearing a Citizen emblem, and he was clutching a tattered and soiled sack.
Definitely a knudnik,
I thought as I stopped to watch him. He stood a little taller than Ketheria, and stared out at the space barges docking on the ring. He gazed at the enormous barges with longing, almost love.