Beta Planet: Rise (16 page)

“Indeed it is,” she responded with a smile. “Class, this picture shows one of our oldest, fully functional mechanical artifacts. It is a gas-powered boat, kept in Oden Bay down by the Open, and once a year you can actually see it in action at the Annual Water-is-Life show!”

“The Open?” Allea responded to Geon, explaining that it was the informal name for the open sea.

“We’re forbidden to go there under any other circumstance, because of the dangers of the water,” she exclaimed. “In fact, the show itself has been cancelled numerous times in the last five years or so. Can’t even remember the last time we went.”

“Now of course, the boat eventually gave way to electric hydroids, which eventually gave way to Vimbox-powered PMVs, so this would likely be the only one you ever see again,” Enui stated. “The mechanics are quite rudimentary and it’s really quite primitive, loud, and a bit smelly, but interesting nonetheless!”

As they walked further, Enui told them that the only known library in the entire zone was located at the museum.

“Do any of you students remember books? Actual, paper books?” she asked. Only two students put their hands up. “Well, here at the Museum of Our History, we have a small, but beautiful collection of some of our past, preserved in the form of ink and paper. The room is strictly off limits, of course, for authorized personnel only—”

“CARE,” Sabien whispered.

“But to give you an idea, it contains books and magazines of fiction, science, math, history and events, and other cultural mementos. Even I, one of the museum’s curators, don’t have access. This is because even a slight change in temperature or air can damage them. It’s very important to preserve these items, you understand?”

The students continued down through the hall, looking at all the interesting exhibits, until they finally reached the last one. In front of them was a large sign and in a circle around it, floating images of amazing places around the world:

Amazing
.

“Can’t imagine what it would be like actually seeing these.”

The other three turned and simultaneously smiled at Geon, to which he responded by checking to make sure there was nothing in his hair or face.

“Imagine no longer, brother,” Sabien said with a wink. “One of these happens to be fairly close to here, and we’re going to take you.”

“Which on—”

“FIREWATER! It’s amazing! It’s hot but also cold!”

“Can’t wait!” Geon responded, with a back-five to each of the other three.

“I bet the underwater people live there!” Kumuki exclaimed, seemingly excited by the possibility of visiting it.

“Um. What’s that, Kumuki? Un-underwater people?” Geon asked, looking at the others for some sort of reaction. Sabien and Allea were smiling from ear to ear but said nothing.

“Yeah! The underwater people that Aurora told us about!”

Kumuki’s eyes were bulging out as he excitedly jerked his head back and forth to look at each of the three of them. Geon, not knowing how to respond, politely stood and slowly nodded his head. Finally, Sabien broke the silence and stepped in, patting Kumuki on the back.

“G, you should have seen her.”

“Oh, brother, here we go again,” Allea scoffed, rolling her eyes upward and stepping away from them.

“G, Aurora was sooooo…
wow
. Just
wow
. I mean really, just,
wow
.”

“Thank you, Sabien,” Geon responded, “for that incredibly detailed and specific description. ‘Wow’ was it? Hold on let me type this down.” He pretended to type out something on LifeCuff as he continued on slowly. “Aurora was quite wow. W-O-W, right, Sabe? Wow. Okay. Got it.”

Kumuki nodded vigorously and smiled and Sabien laughed and backhanded Geon’s arm.

“If you’d only seen her, G. You wouldn’t know how else to describe her either. She used to go to our school but transferred to a different sector. I wonder how she’s doing.” His fingers gently tapped his chin as he thought.

Geon leaned in close to Sabien so that he was out of earshot of Kumuki and whispered, “So, do I even need to ask what this underwater people business is about?”

Sabien laughed quietly and shook his head. “Not a clue, as usual brother. Another one of Kumuki’s classic misinterpretations I’m sure. Although, I heard there was a pack of migrating mermaids heading our way. It
might
be that!”

They both laughed and joined Allea and talked about their upcoming trip to Firewater. Just then, Bonsi, Vaya, and Vilu joined them and the seven of them talked about going to see the new wonder of the new world together.

“You ladies should definitely come,” Sabien interjected. “I know Geon would appreciate it, being that he doesn’t have many new friends, aside from us familial ones of course!”

Sabien smiled at Geon and raised his eyebrows quickly, as if subtly telling him to take the next step.

“Um, yea,” Geon nervously replied. “I mean, I have
some
… friends. I wouldn’t say I have
no
friends. I mean… what if, it would be nice, if you girls… want to…”

Vaya was grinning from ear to ear as she stared wide-eyed at Geon, finally interrupting him and proclaiming that they would love to join and to let them know when.

“Looks like we’ve got our first dates set, brother,” Sabien whispered to Geon with another back-five.

“Are you sure the girls know that?” Allea exclaimed sarcastically as they headed out of the museum and to their afterschool activities.

JetSurf practice that afternoon went much better for Geon, who had begun transitioning from basic maneuvers to hard turns, acceleration, and “avoidance tactics,” which Sabien said was important when trying to overpass other riders. This came in very handy when Geon made too hard of a turn and found himself surfing into oncoming traffic again.

Sabien explained that slight bumps and elbows were permissible by sport rules, but that some players, like Shiv, take advantage and will try to knock other players into the water.

“It’s better to learn how to duck, cut, and dive, rather than get into a bump-war with another rider,” he said.

Later in practice, Geon attempted a board dive, first by crouching while moving quickly, then jumping upward in the air, and trying to pivot the nose of the board down to take him underwater. Unfortunately, much like Kumuki’s own body dive, he couldn’t get the board to pivot and came splashing down in the water the same way he started.

I’ll save that move for another day.

Back home after practice, they found Mama V in remarkably much better shape and spirits. They gave her LifeCuff back, and sat together and told her everything about their visit to the MOOH. Mama V was still, knowingly nodding her head as they explained the horrific images of death and destruction from their planet’s past. They talked about their families and parents and other loved ones. Kumuki didn’t remember much about his family and how they died, but remembered having happy memories as a child, watching animated films and eating lots of different delicious foods. Allea and Geon shared stories of their own family and their past. Sabien was mostly quiet, not sharing much about his family, making a joke about how he too missed the food of the old world. Geon could sense that Sabien had a hard time opening up and didn’t want to crack through his tough exterior with such a sensitive topic. But he also sensed that Sabien loved his parents deeply, just by the tone that he used.

Mama V nodded and sighed heavily at each of their stories. She appeared genuinely saddened as she became lost in her thoughts and memories of the old world.

“You children know Mama V don’t like to talk about dis much, but I too lost someone very special to me. He vas my partner, my friend, my love. A brilliant man and innovator.”

“Sivi,” Allea interrupted, directing her attention to Geon.

“Yes, Allea dear, Sivi. He vas
taken
from me. He vas a very rare soul and I too miss him every day. We all have loved ones lost. It is our bond. But we have each other also. You are my children.”

She told them how much she cared for each of them and to never let anyone do the thinking for them.

“You are your own person, so alvays be true to YOU, okay?”

The four of them all agreed. The burden of the day’s weighty material upon them, the four of them went straight to bed, but just before Geon entered the podroom, Mama V grabbed him and said softly, “Geon, my baby. You must know dat Mama V love you and is proud of you, okay? I’ve had a great life and vatever God chooses for me, I am okay vit. But you are special, Geon. You must
alvays
follow your heart. Follow your instinct. You understand? Okay, my love, sleep now.”

Geon wondered why Mama V was telling him these things now, and hoped that everything was okay with her. Once in his pod, mentally and physically exhausted, he fell quickly asleep. Late that night, with everyone fast asleep, Geon found himself partially awakened at the sound of something in the room. Uncertain if it was a dream or not, he ignored it and turned to the side to fall back asleep. Just then, through the open crack in his pod, he thought he saw the blurry figure of Mama V in their room, who appeared to be doing something to each of the REMpods. He closed his eyes and opened them slightly again. The figure he thought he saw was gone, and the only thing left was the darkness and shadows cast by the pods and ambient glow from each of them.

It’s just a dream, Geon. It’s just a dream. Sleep now.

Chapter 8

Breakfast the next morning was loud and chaotic as usual. Kumuki was splattering an amalgamation of fruit sauces in his bowl, on the table, and on himself, Allea was attempting to tweak some design changes on a hologram for her TechSci Councours entry, and Sabien was making loud proclamations in the middle of the room.

“TODAY IS THE DAY! THE DAY IS TODAY! TODAY IS THE DAY WHERE THE DAY IS TODAY!”

“SABIEN! Vat is this nonsense? You shut dat potato hole of yours and eat something! Come Geon, baby, come and eat. Sabien tells me you have big day today. You have the… vat’s it, Sabien? The jet, surfing… thing? Right? Ya. okay you come and eat like a big boy now. Big boys need lots of energy okay?”

“TODAY IS THE DAY! THE DAY IS TO—”

“Sabien, for the love of god please fast forward and tell us what today
is
!” Allea exclaimed while frantically scratching the back of her head, seemingly frustrated with her design and all the distracting noise around her.

“AH, YES! THE DAY THAT HAS ARRIVED IS HERE,” Sabien announced, gesturing grandly with no seeming purpose or subject. “My good people, thank you for coming here today.”

Kumuki looked up at him and around the room and blinked a few times, while taking a large bite of his mash.

“I’m proud… and
honored
… to announce that, our very own brother, Geon Shay, will be taking his first time trials today and in doing so will thusly be officially making the JetSurf team!”

Kumuki stopped chewing for a moment and unintelligibly yelled something out, flecks of off-white fish sludge flying out of his mouth. Allea smiled and also looked up at Geon who was standing at the edge of the room, watching the madness unfold.

“Awww that’s great, brother! We’re so proud of you no matter what. We know you can do it. Have you been working on that flippy-twisty thing?”

“THAT… FLIPPY
…
TWISTY
… THING
?” Sabien cried out. “It’s called a flip-twist! And NOWEHAVENOTBEENWORKIGNONIT! IT’S ONLY ONE OFTHETOUGHESTTRICKSKNOWNTOMANKIND!”

Seeing that Sabien was out of breath and getting overly riled up, Geon motioned to the seat next to him and asked him to come and join him for a bite. Sabien finally complied but continued to talk about the upcoming trials.

“G, here’s the thing. You’re a really nice guy. Maybe too nice. Now Shiv, he’s
not
a nice guy. Maybe too
not nice
. You understand what I’m saying?”

Geon shook his head from side to side and said, “No, not really,” as Allea laughed from across the table.

“What I’m saying is this. Shiv will do whatever he can to take you out. I mean, that guy would take out Mama V to get to the finish line if he had to!”

Mama V stopped cooking and looked at Sabien. “Take me out? Where we gonna go, Sabien? Who is this Shiv character? Where is he taking me?”

“Never mind, Mama V. G, today is your day. You need to be prepared to do what it takes to win today. You gotta be TOUGH! Understood?”

Geon nodded as he swallowed down another bite of his putrid breakfast.

“You understand how this works right? One day before every competition with another school, we hold a time trial for placement. It’s a relay race, understand? And depending on the size of the team you’re battling with, it could be a five-man relay, it could be a ten-man relay. It’s usually about seven. Top placement surfers get to finish the relay. They’re the most important players in the game, because it can all come down to them, and usually does. So normally, I would be the last surfer in the race for my team. Got it?”

Geon nodded. He couldn’t help but feel nervous about the trials. He had been working on his movement and form every day after school, but still felt a bit wobbly and uneasy. As far as the tricks and jumps went, he still had not progressed to them yet. He wanted to share his feelings with Sabien but was embarrassed to admit it, mostly because of Sabien’s unwavering faith in him.