The softwire : Virus on Orbis 1 (17 page)

I accessed another security panel, looking for something, anything, to use.

Help,
I pleaded silently.

Then a blinding flash filled the hallway. In an instant the Neewalker was disarmed.

“Space Jumper!” roared the Neewalker, and the others spun around, ready for combat. For the first time I saw fear on their faces. The air seemed to buckle and a Space Jumper materialized next to me. He was like no one I’d ever seen before: he was huge and equipped like a military machine. With one swoop of his arm, the Space Jumper scooped up all three of us.

“The slopcrawler!” I yelled.

The Space Jumper reached out with his other hand and grabbed the slopcrawler around the neck, and then we were gone. My mind washed away, replaced with flashes of the cosmos, and I lost all sense of balance. But the thing I remember the most, the sensation I could not shake as my body tumbled through time and space, was the overwhelming stench of feet.
Yuck.

An instant later we tumbled from the Space Jumper’s grip and landed in an open field. The Center for Science and Research building was nowhere in sight. I stared in utter amazement at our rescuer while Max, still on the ground, crawled away.

“The slopcrawler!” I said.

All that was left in the Space Jumper’s right hand was a fistful of goo.

“I’m sorry,” the Space Jumper said. “But you are safe and far from trouble.”

His mechanical voice was amplified through a mouthpiece that was attached to his molded helmet. The Space Jumper searched the field using a small telescope attached to his left eye. The other was covered in dark green glass.

“How did you get on Orbis?” Max asked.

“There was a distress call from another Jumper,” he replied.

“He wasn’t with us,” I said.

The Space Jumper looked around again; he seemed anxious. “Follow the curve of the ring toward the crystal moon,” he said. “This will get you home.” Then the air buckled once more and the Space Jumper was gone.

“Wait!” Max yelled. “Don’t leave us here!”

“Wow,” was all I could say.

“How will we get home now?”

“Follow the crystal moon,” I said, still staring at where the Space Jumper once stood.

“How? There are two of them.”

I looked up. It was true; one to the left and one to the right.

“Do you think our hero forgot that fact?” she asked. “Yuck, they were disgusting.”

“Who, the Neewalkers or the Space Jumper?”

“Both,” she said.

Ketheria tugged on my sleeve and pointed at the moon to the right. She started walking in that direction. I looked at Max and shrugged.
We have to get home.
I followed Ketheria. Max glanced up at the moon on the left, shrugged, and fell into step behind us.

The three of us walked in silence toward a forest of trees and enormous crystal rocks. We kept the moon in front of us, just like the Space Jumper said to. The ring’s horizon reappeared over the top of the forest, curving up and disappearing into the thin clouds. There was no sign of home.

“I wish I had had more time to talk to the slopcrawler, you know, about the drive,” I said, breaking the silence.

“What would a computer drive from Earth have to do with Orbis?”

“My point exactly!”

“No. Boohral was always complaining about the Keepers. About how he mistrusted them and how he was convinced they were trying to take back control of Orbis.”

“But they have nothing to gain,” I said. “If anyone is sabotaging the computer to get some sort of control, it can only be the Trading Council.”

“Why? Their businesses depend on it. That seems kind of dumb, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know,” I told her. “The way Theylor made me work the computer — it felt like he was using me to figure something out.”

“But what?”

I stopped and turned to my friend. “There’s something in the computer, Max. Someone put something in the computer, and the Keepers are trying to find it.”

Max rolled her eyes and shook her head once more. “Not this again. If there was something in the computer, the computer would know and spit it out. It’s that simple.”

“I can get in there. How come it doesn’t spit me out?”

Max shrugged. She didn’t have an answer.

“I wish you would believe me, Max.”

“It really doesn’t matter what I think. If the slopcrawler was right and there is an army of Neewalkers somewhere on the ring, it can only mean that they’re getting ready for a war.”

“Well, I didn’t fly halfway across the galaxy just to get blown up,” I told her. “Don’t you wonder if there isn’t more? Something bigger, something better?”

“No. I’m thirteen.”

“If this
is
it, if our parents were just fooled into working for these aliens, then I’ll help Switzer steal the first starship he can find and we’re out of here.”

“Don’t tell him that. He’ll hold you to it.”

I stopped when I reached the edge of the forest. Ketheria was already several steps beyond the tree line before I noticed it.

“What’s the matter now, JT?” Max asked.

“I’ve been here before.”

“Yeah, right.” Max grabbed me by the arm, but I pulled away.

“In my dreams. I once thought I was chasing Ketheria through this forest, but it wasn’t her. I think it was the thing I found inside the central computer.”

Ketheria cautiously stepped out of the forest.

“A dream? Now you’re telling me the thing you think is screwing up the central computer is also in your dreams? C’mon, I’m hungry,” Max said, moving into the forest without us. Ketheria waited for me and we walked in together.

The forest unfolded precisely as in my dream. I looked up to see if that horrible red bird still circled the treetops. Ketheria followed my gaze as if she knew exactly what I feared. I stopped at a large boulder whose shell was cracked, letting the purple crystal core shine through. The last time I saw this rock, the number ten was carved into the top of it. Ketheria ran her hand over the spot I was staring at.

Unlike in my dream, however, Ketheria stayed by my side and the winged red creature never arrived.

“Don’t worry, Ketheria. Max is right: it was just a dream.”

I heard the sound of rushing water. It grew louder as we walked through the forest.

“Is there water near Weegin’s World?” Max asked.

“Not that I know of.”

Were we going the right way?

When we cleared the forest, the sound of rushing water became deafening. We stood at the edge of a deep pool that spilled toward a majestic palace cut into the side of a giant waterfall. Smaller rises around the palace created more waterfalls, some of which even passed right through the walls. I could not see where the water was coming from or where it was going. It was as if the water was only used for decoration. Lush plant life was everywhere, and several of the red birds that I once feared now soared over the water looking far less dangerous than before, almost beautiful.

“That doesn’t look like home to me,” Max said.

“Who do you think lives here?” I wondered aloud.

“I have no idea.”

As I looked closer, I noticed that the palace was more like a small city. I looked down and saw several marbled stones rise in front of us and hover just above a pool of crystal clear water, as if beckoning us forward. Ketheria stepped onto the first one.

“Wait, Ketheria. This is not the way home,” I said, and another stone appeared. Soon there was an entire path that guided us to the unknown city.

“I’m following her,” Max said.

“Fine.”

With Ketheria in the lead, we stepped carefully across the stones and through the mist rising from the water cascading all around us.

“Keepers,” Max said, pointing to the two-headed creatures scurrying around above.

“Is this where they live?” I said, as I stepped off the last of the stones and onto a broad stairway that rose up and into the city.

“I don’t know, but they’re in an awful hurry.”

When we reached the city, we strolled through the streets undisturbed as Keepers rushed by us, hardly noticing we were there. Fresh fruit hung from vines, and every stone, every piece of metal, was carved in intricate patterns and symbols. And water was everywhere. It rushed through channels and spilled into pools. In some places, the water rushed upward, as if it was immune to gravity.

Max attempted to stop a Keeper by reaching for his purple robe, but all he did was stare at her with one head while charging forward, guided by the other.

“Something’s wrong,” I said. “I can feel it.”

“They must know the Neewalkers attacked the Science and Research building,” Max said, and Ketheria nodded in agreement. Then Ketheria reached up and plucked a thick, fleshy fruit from a tree.

“Be careful, Ketheria — you don’t know what that is,” I warned her.

Max took the fruit from Ketheria and sniffed it.

“Smells sweet.” She bit into it as Ketheria tried to take it back. “Softer than an apple . . . it’s really good, JT.” Max held it up for me as the juice ran down her chin. I declined and Ketheria snatched it away. “Careful. It’s hard in the middle,” Max added.

I saw a Keeper pass through a small archway at the end of a cobbled lane.

“We need to ask one of these guys how to get home,” I said, and I followed him. We turned the corner, and the alien descended a flight of stairs that appeared to go under the building.

“That’s not the way home, either,” Max said, staring down the darkened flight of stairs.

“C’mon, someone down here should be able to tell us how to get back.”

The stairwell was damp, and the fresh, earthy smell of mold was strong. The stone steps led so far down I couldn’t see the end of them.
If Theodore were here, he would be counting the number of steps right now. Maybe I should, too,
I thought.

The stairs reached a series of cavernous rooms with rows of odd, identically shaped pillars. This place was nothing like the surface. Small circular craft, each navigated by a single Keeper, hovered across the pillar tops. The only light, a cool greenish glow that cast creepy shadows on the metal-plated walls, came from these vehicles.

Max peeked down the rows of pillars, watching the green glow as the vehicles descended deeper into the underground. She rubbed her forehead. “I would love to look inside one of those machines, but I’m not too crazy about this, JT,” she said.

“Don’t worry,” I reassured her. “I’m sure Theylor is here somewhere.”

She looked around the enormous cave. “But it’s impossible for a room this size to exist under the building we just entered,” she said.

“Dimensional displacement,” I replied.

“What?”

“Pretend you live in a digi and you’re holding a bucket. . . .” I started to explain Theylor’s lesson but hesitated after seeing the incredulous look on Max’s face. “Forget it. C’mon.”

The path of pillars opened onto an oval room filled with a soft golden glow. Several of the craft hovered, as if waiting. The air was thick, sweetened by a tangy smell, and the room was deathly quiet. I could even hear myself breathing. I moved off the path and away from the pillars.

“This way,” I told the girls, and stopped on a balcony high above a crowd of Keepers, who were circling a pool of slick black water. I could see symbols flickering from lights hidden deep in the pool.

“There’s Drapling,” Max said.

“Shhhh.”
I sensed we would not be welcome. “Don’t even breathe.” I worried someone would find us before we found Theylor.

Drapling stood at the top of the pool on an ornate riser carved from the same stone that decorated the city. I peered down on the ceremony. Drapling raised his arms above his heads and spoke loudly.

“Reality is the result of our thoughts!”

“So say the Descendants of Light,”
chanted the other Keepers.

“The Ancients are the Original Architects!”

“So say the Descendants of Light.”

Every time the Keepers responded, strange symbols formed inside the pool of black water: the same symbols Theylor had used when he accessed my O-dat during my stay at the Science and Research building. Each time Drapling spoke, the secret writings swirled away and were replaced by a new set of symbols.

“Only when we believe things are possible will our reality change!”

“So say the Descendants of Light.”

Drapling lowered his hands, and seats rose from the ground around the pool of black water.

Max whispered, “I think we should get out of here, JT. I don’t see Theylor, and I don’t like that Drapling guy.”

I held up my index finger. I wanted to see what they were talking about. I wanted to know what those symbols meant.

“We were incarnated on this ring to labor for the Ancients,” Drapling preached from his stone. “To harvest the life-giving crystal from Brother and Sister moon and, through the great wormhole, spread this quintessence throughout the universe.” Drapling paused and leaned forward. “While we wait, powerless, for a sign from the Ancients, our duty to them has been defiled. Those among us who strip our Brother and Sister for profit have infected the Supreme Intelligence. They wield their power not to spread the message of the Ancients but for their own personal gain. We have begun to serve them more than we serve the Ancients!”