Beta Planet: Rise (11 page)

Geon ran his fingers along the top strap of his goggles and said, “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Sabien shrugged and responded, “Only a matter of time, G. It’s happened to me a couple times already. Oh, by the way, when using the comm system, same as your cuff, make sure to say my name first if you want to talk to me only. If you say ‘team’ first, all the racers and Coach can hear. And you’ll be offline for anyone not in the race.”

Geon nodded and the two changed into their suits and headed out to the waterways.

Oh my God.

The sight was incredible. Some of the students had already begun swimming to warm up and some of them had already begun riding their boards. Geon gasped as students zoomed around the water while standing crouched on the boards, one foot in front of the other. One student hit a water ramp and went flying furiously into the air, grabbing on to the front of the board and spinning 180 degrees. He hit the water smoothly and continued riding forward, this time with his opposite foot forward. It was incredible to see for the first time and Geon’s heart raced with anticipation.

Another rider nearby jumped into the air with the front of the board pointing to the sky, then pivoted the front of the board so it was perpendicular to the water, and dove straight into the water. Geon thought it was an accidental fall until the student came flying up out of the water about ten feet ahead of where he dove under.
Unbelievable!

“C’mon, G. Let’s get in the water and get warm,” Sabien said while motioning to a rounded pool-like area to the side where student were swimming around. They put their boards down and both jumped in. The cold of the water was shocking to Geon at first, but he noticed his suit began to immediately warm up when he hit the water. Within a minute the water felt tolerable to him. It felt good to swim again and he dove down under the water and could see fairly clearly within a couple feet in front of him. Without direct sunlight, the vision was limited, but the goggles definitely helped. He shot to the surface and spit a stream of water into the air, laughing with delight.

Sabien laughed and said, “I knew you’d like it. You’re a natural aquatic, bro. Kumuki on the other hand, not so much. He loves it, but it’s not exactly his strong suit. Watch. Hey Kuki!” Sabien motioned to Kumuki, who was splashing around on the side of the waterway. “Dive in, Kuki!”

Kumuki smiled and jumped up on the side bank of the pool and prepared himself, crouching down, palms together and arms raised over his head.

“Here it comes,” Sabien said with a smile.

With a slight spring downward, he then pushed back up and jumped up into the air, without any rotation of his body. He landed perfectly upright into the water, feet first, with his hands still together and his arms stretched out over his head. Geon and Sabien laughed while other students in the pool and on the side chuckled as well.

“It’s the rotating part, you know,” Sabien said between his laughter. “It gets him every time. Okay, you feel warm yet? You ready to make some waves?” Geon nodded and the two headed toward the course.

They both got in the water and Sabien showed him how to strap into the board.

“Okay, it’s simple but
very
subtle. The slightest motions of your feet will determine the path of this board. If you start left foot forward, like me, then you lean your left foot toward its left edge to move forward. The more you lean, the faster it goes. To apply the hydro-brake, lean both feet inward. Now to turn you need to remember ‘toe-heel, heel-toe,’ okay? If you want to turn right, then push your left heel down and raise your left toes and push your right toes down and raise your right heel. If you want to turn left then do the opposite. If you want to switch to right foot forward stance, then it’s the same thing but in reverse. To move forward, push the right edge of the right foot down and the left edge of the right foot up. Got it? Good.”

Geon nodded but was already confused.

“Take it slow out there and don’t try any tricks or obstacles yet. I’ll keep an eye on you, but I need to do a couple laps first and let these guys know who’s top dog around here! Especially him,” he said while motioning to a student who was slowly maneuvering the course while staring at Geon and Sabien. “Shivender AKA Shiv Barron. Part Indian, part British Caucasian. He’s good but a real worm. He’s known for being ruthless on and off the course, and has even taken down his own teammates to position himself ahead. Watch out for him and the big goon he hangs out wi—”

Just as Sabien issued his warning, Shiv came flying over to them full speed on his board and skidded to the side just in time, pushing a wall of water over the two of them.

“Who’s your new friend, Sabien? You decide to give up on JetSurf and pursue synchronized water aerobics instead?” He let out a hearty laugh.

Sabien mimicked his laugh and stopped abruptly, rising slowly up out of the water on his own board. “Talk all you want, but you still know who’s top seed here. And as soon as I get Geon on the team, he’ll be positioned ahead of you, too!”

Shiv seemed shocked at Sabien’s comment and looked back at Geon with a scowl. “We’ll see about that,” he said as he zoomed off, Sabien close behind him. Sabien turned to look back at Geon and yelled over the hum of the jetboards, “G, REMEMBER WHAT I SAID AND START SLOW!”

Start slow
, Geon thought as he watched other Jetsurfers fly through the air, twisting and manipulating their bodies every which way before landing perfectly flat again into the water. Every so often, though, the sound of a huge splash was heard as a rider would lose control or miss-time his jump and end up face first into the water.

Why did I even agree to this? This looks completely insane. Okay, Geon, you can do it. Slowly apply pressure to the left side of the fo—

With a sudden jerk, the jetboard took off, throwing him backward and putting the front of the board in the air. Geon cried out as the board flew left and right and then backward into angry oncoming riders.

“WHAT THE—”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

“GET OUT OF THE WAY, ROOKIE!”

“GO BACK TO THE KIDDIE POOL WHERE YOU BELONG!”

Geon tried to formulate a sincere response while still trying to remember what Sabien said about the controls. “Sorry, fellow students! My apologies! My first day! Please help! Sorry again! First timer coming through! For the love of God, please help! Excuse me, miss! HELP!”

In the lenses of his goggles, he could see his speed, tilt, depth, and other data. The numbers were fluctuating rapidly and a small red light was blinking on the side, indicating “User error!”

As the board snaked in and around the other riders he was able to turn it back around to head the right way, but he still couldn’t get it to slow down. The harder he tried to control the board with his foot pressure, the faster and more erratic it seemed to move. Sabien’s voice came in through the side of his goggles.

“GEON! Where in the galaxy are you going? What’s the rush? SLOW DOWN!”

As Geon flew through the waterways he hit the bumpy wake from the other riders, which sent him bouncing furiously up and down.

“Sabien… I-I-I-I’m-t-t-t-trying-to-to-to-to-s-s-s-slow-d-d-d-down-b-b-b-b-but-I-I-I-I-c-c-c-c-can’t-f-f-f-f-find-the-the-the-b-b-b-b-brakes-s-s-s-s-s-s!!!”

Sabien yelled again, “JUST KEEP IT STRAIGHT! I’LL BE RIGHT THERE!”

By now, almost all the students had stopped their own practice to watch the hysteria unfold. Coach Rin had also paused his conversation with some students to see what all the commotion was.

As Geon turned his head back to respond to Sabien, there was a sudden gasp among the crowd and Sabien yelled in his speaker once more, “GEON! FACE FORWARD! TURN BACK AROUND! THE RAMP!”

It was too late. Geon was hurtling toward the largest of the water ramps with zero control and no ability to swerve out of the way. As he turned to face the ramp, in that very moment when he realized that the only option was to take the jump, everything around him seemed to pause. He felt his skin tingle from head to toe and he felt his heart rate and breath slow down. The world around him blurred and the only thing he could see clearly was the ramp in front of him. He took a deep breath, listening to the voice in his head.
Be brave Geon. Be brave. You can do it.
The entire gallery had gone quiet and even Sabien knew he couldn’t reach him in time. As he approached the incline of the ramp, Geon crouched down and prepared for the launch.

The sudden impact of the hard, slick ramp against his board threw what little balance he had completely off, and he began wobbling forward and backward as he slid up the wet surface. The back end of the board flew up in the air, so he reacted by pushing his back foot down as hard as he could, which resulted in the back end going down and the front of the board flying up toward the sky.

Just as he neared the edge of the ramp the board twisted violently and he went sailing through the air. It was in this moment that time stood still for a moment. He could see the faces of everyone looking at him, as if frozen in time, and he pictured his family and his friends watching him as well.

If this is my last day on Earth, at least it was a good ride
.

He knew he was hurtling through the air but didn’t have a strong idea of which way was up and which way was down. His body twisted and turned as glimpses of the sky and water flashed in front of him.

Just brace for the impact, Geon
.
The air-cast will save me.

E
verything came into clear view again and he felt the board slowly coming down on the water. Ever so gently, he rocked his left foot forward, and the jetboard landed almost perfectly flat to the water and slowly accelerated forward. Sabien grabbed him from the side and pulled him back, slowing the board to a stop, the two of them sinking into the water.

The sound that followed was the entire gallery of students shrieking with utter delight. The sound of Kumuki screeching over the other students could be heard from where they stood and the expression on Sabien’s face was of part shock, part horror, and part delight.

“G! What in the world? Do you know what you just did? Oh my God, that was incredible!” Geon, still out of breath, tried to respond over the noise of the students. “Sabe, I didn’t… it wasn’t… I was just out of contro—”

“Never mind, G! I knew you had it in you. You just pulled off one of the most difficult flip-twists with a perfect landing. It was beautiful!”

“SABE!” Geon exclaimed this time more forcefully. “I didn’t even know what I was doing! It was an accid—”

“G, I don’t care what it was. You’re a natural and that was one for the books, my boy! Now let’s get you out of this water before you blow it. You see Coach Rin over there? That’s the closest to a smile that I’ve ever seen from him.”

Geon looked at the coach who had his arms crossed and a scowling grimace on his face.

“More importantly, G, do you see all the girls looking at you over there? Welcome to your first day of school. You have
arrived!”

Geon was embarrassed and wondered if anyone knew it was an accident.
They must know. Yet no one seems to care. They’re all cheering for me.
It was exhilarating. He saw Bonsi and Vaya standing in the gallery and clapping their hands and whistling. Other students were back-fiving and Kumuki was wildly waving his arms in every direction, to the dismay of the students nearby. Only Chiah seemed unfazed by the incident, standing nearby and unemotionally sipping from his drink and staring off into the distance. From the corner of his eye he noticed Shiv, arms folded across his chest with a furious glare on his face.

As he and Sabien took their boards off and walked out of the water and toward Coach Aquila, Sabien put his hand on Geon’s shoulder and said, “Coach, I asked for a week, but with talent like this, I only really needed an hour. Pretty good right?”

The coach stood staring at Sabien and slowly turned his gaze on Geon. “We’ll see, Mr. Jabari. We’ll see.” He turned and walked away.

“G, that’s enough practice for you today. Why don’t you hang out with Kumuki until I’m done here.”

Geon nodded and went to the storage room to change clothes. When he joined the other students in the gallery, he was greeted with warm smiles and more cheers. Students approached him and asked him his name and where he was from. Geon was shy at first but politely answered everyone’s questions. He noticed that no one asked about his family or parents.

So many of these students must have lost family and loved ones
.
It makes sense that they wouldn’t ask about something so personal in this new world.

He told them that he was Allea’s brother and lived with Sabien and Kumuki. Bonsi and Vaya also came to greet him. Up close, he could see they were both very pretty, but with very different features. Bonsi had very fair skin, sparkling, small eyes and very straight, long, black hair. Vaya was darker, with shorter wavy hair and small petite features, except for her large eyes, and light brown freckles on her cheekbones.

“Geon, is it?” Bonsi said very softly with a smile. “That was really amazing out there. Especially first a first timer.”

“Yes,” Vaya chimed in loudly and abruptly. “That was truly a remarkable performance of unintentionally acrobatic athleticism!”

Geon stared at her, mouth open and frozen, not knowing how to respond. She smiled and winked at him and gave him a playful back-slap on the arm. “It’s okay, your secret is safe with us!” The two of them giggled and went back to their seats. Geon could feel his face flush as he sat back down.

“Geon, you think you could teach me tuh do that?”

“Kumuki, I don’t think I could ever do that again,” Geon quietly said, out of earshot of any other students. Kumuki sat staring, eyes bulging and mouth wide open.

“I wish I could do that. You were flying!”

Geon smiled, thinking about it for a moment.