Psion Beta (10 page)

As soon as Li Cheng Zheng finished his introduction, Kobe jumped up and announced, “Let’s break in the pukes with Star Racers.”

Several Betas voiced their agreement.

“
Do you guys want to play?” Al asked Sammy and Brickert.

“
Sure,” they both said. Sammy had very little experience gaming, but had always enjoyed watching the other kids play when he and his mom walked by the gaming stations in the shops.

“
Don’t embarrass yourself, Kobe,” Kaden said.

Kobe made a rude noise. “Right. Like any of them have played it.”

“
I have played it, actually,” said Jeffie.

“
Oh, you have, have you?” Kobe asked, now even more interested in her. “Well, it just so happens that I’m the best here. King of the hill if you will.”

Groans of dissent came from all corners of the room. Ludwig threw his gel chair at Kobe’s head.

“
Well, I am,” Kobe told them as he ducked it.

“
Talk is cheap,” Kobe’s brother, Kaden, said. “Let’s play.”

“
Pukes—I mean, nukes—first,” Al announced. “Brillianté, Levu, and Martin can play with them.”

“
Why us?” Brillianté asked?

“
Because you’re not very good,” Kobe responded with a smirk. Brillianté shot a blast at Kobe which left his hair messed up.

Al, Marie, Kobe, Kaden, and Li Cheng Zheng, took the five nukes into the VR stations. Each of the eight stations were built like small cubicles with the same brilliant white walls Sammy saw everywhere else. A pilot’s chair and flight controls furnished the interior. A small projector hung overhead. Kaden, who looked very little like his brother and acted even less like him, explained the rules to Sammy and demonstrated how to work the controls to move, accelerate, shoot, and shield.

“
Just like this?” Sammy repeated what he had seen Kaden do.

“
Exactly.” Kaden’s smile was friendly. “You’re a natural.”

Sammy took his seat, and the playing area darkened while the projector turned on. The cubicle gave the perfect illusion that he sat in the cockpit of a fighter docked inside a gigantic star cruiser. He fingered the controls to practice, remembering everything Kaden had said. To his left and right, he saw identical racing fighters, only with different occupants. The projected image of Brickert looked back at him and grinned giddily.

Cool
, Sammy thought.
Very cool
.

Numbers appeared counting down to the start of the race. When it reached zero, Sammy fired his reverse thrusters and shot backwards into the dock, banging his ship on the back wall.

Oops! Wrong way.

Fortunately, three of the others had similar problems accelerating as well. Only Jeffie shot clean out of the launching space. Sammy fumbled with the controls until he was able to gently ease the fighter out of the dock, then he took off into space with the others accelerating beside or in front of him. He sped past Brickert’s ship, which seemed unable to fly in a straight course, and followed flashing green arrows that guided the racers. It surprised Sammy how quickly he acclimated to the controls. After only a minute of flying, the ship was merely an extension of his body.

A red light appeared on his control panel. This, Kaden had said, meant one of the racers was targeting him. He punched the shield button, and directed the shields to the rear to absorb any hits he could not shake off. This meant he would lose some of his speed, but it was better than being blown up. After experimenting with a few other maneuvers, he shook the ship targeting him.

Out his left window, he saw Jeffie trying to accelerate past him. He moved left to cut her off. She went up and over him to prevent this, so he held back and fired on her engines. She easily shielded them, but he accelerated nose down and came up under her, firing on her belly. According to Kaden, this was the only part of the ship that could not be shielded. After a brilliant, but momentarily blinding explosion, Sammy went full speed ahead to reach the carrier first without any more difficulty.

The projector turned off, and Kaden came in congratulating him. “Pretty good flying.”

“
Thanks,” Sammy responded. “How’d you see it?”

“
The screens out there show the whole race like a movie so we can watch everyone.”

Sammy got up to leave, but Kaden stopped him. “Hold fast. Let everyone else switch seats for the next race. You and Brillianté both stay since you were first and second.”

“
Gotcha.”

“
I’ll see you in there this time,” Kaden called out as he headed for his cubicle. “Good luck.”

As Sammy waited, a huge grin formed on his face.
No wonder they’re hooked on the game. It’s a rush!
The race was intense, and with the holographic projection perfectly synchronized with his controls, the illusion of space was almost too real.

Six new players took their seats while Sammy waited impatiently. The projector came to life once more, and he saw new faces in the fighters next to him. Kaden and Al were on opposite sides, and Marie sat on Al’s other side giving him a thumbs down.

The countdown began. At zero, Sammy shot out of the carrier with the others. The outside racers jockeyed for a better inside position. He fired his reverse thrusters just enough to get behind the small crowd of ships. Three ships moved in to occupy his space. Sammy fired on Kaden and Al. The ships on the outside pulled ahead of the middle ships and cut in toward the middle. When Sammy took out Kaden’s ship and drew even with Al, Al gestured for a temporary truce.

Together they targeted the enemy fighters in sequence, destroying them all until only they remained. They both sped toward the landing ship trying to get into the best position, circling around each other’s ships. As the intensity picked up, an odd sensation settled over Sammy.

He saw.

Just like the chess game
.

He went into a nose dive exactly as he’d done against Jeffie, but this time he counted on Al recognizing what he was doing. Instead of actually diving, Sammy did a shallow dip and sped forward while Al went nose up to protect his belly. Sammy threw open his thrusters and raced forward. His target warning went off and he shielded Al’s fire. Although it cost him in speed, he had gained enough distance to beat Al into the cruiser and win again.

From the cubicle next to him, Al cried, “You punk! You’ve never played this before, huh?”

“
Never,” Sammy said with a confident grin.

“
Sweet flying! Let’s see who wins the next one. Watch out for Kobe—he’s not all talk.”

“
That’s right, puke,” Kobe gloated as he walked by. “Don’t get a big head. Only I’ve earned it.”

Al was right. Kobe played very well. He started on the outside, and quickly eliminated two ships on his side, drifting inward and targeting Sammy. Rather than shielding, Sammy sped in front of Al. Al’s ship took the force of Kobe’s fire and detonated. Knowing from experience that Kobe would be blinded from Al’s explosion, Sammy quickly reversed his thrust and fell close behind Kobe, hoping Kobe would think he had picked off both ships.

Kobe set his sights on the remaining two racers. When they were both gone, a whoop came from a nearby cubicle.

He thinks he’s won
.

Sammy dived down, just as he had with Jeffie, and came up targeting Kobe’s unprotected underside.

KABOOM!

Poor puke never saw it coming
,
Sammy thought with glee.

With no ships left in the game, Sammy sped off to the cruiser and gracefully landed—three games, three victories.

“
No way!” Kobe’s voice boomed as he came down the hall toward Sammy. “I blew you sky high. How did you get behind me?”

Just as Kobe appeared at Sammy’s cubicle, Al put his hand on Kobe’s shoulder, laughing hard. “No, no, no,” Al jeered. “Don’t be mad just because you got beat. Sammy—just—absolutely brilliant!”

Al and Sammy exchanged fives. Kobe just stood there, demanding to know how Sammy had won. Sammy shrugged ominously and walked out past him. He almost gave Kobe the bird, but better wisdom prevailed. Al was laughing too hard to explain anything, and this made Kobe hopping mad. Sammy didn’t like Kobe, and he wasn’t going to stand around and talk strategy with a guy who got in his face.

“
Puke luck,” he heard Kobe’s voice grumble in the cubicle.

The comment angered Sammy, but he realized Kobe had a point.
How did I pick up on the game so fast?
I was pretty good at the games back in the grocery store.
Maybe I’m just good at games
. He exited the VR cubicles and saw Brickert beaming at him and Jeffie scowling.

Determined to make a good impression on her, Sammy approached her with an outstretched hand and a smile. “Good game?”

Jeffie rolled her eyes and walked past him into the cubicles. Everyone else congratulated him or remarked on how impressed they were with his playing. But none of it meant anything after seeing Jeffie upset. Suddenly she seemed a lot less attractive.
Stupid girls.
He turned to Brickert. “Tired?”

“
Not really,” Brickert responded. “Are you?”

“
Yeah, kinda. I think I’m going to bed.”

On his way down, Sammy got the urge to stop at the cafeteria. The idea of having so much food available on a whim excited him. He helped himself to a large bowl of coconut ice cream, his favorite. His mom and dad used to make it for him on his birthday.

He thought of everything he had been through over the last several days, even months—everything was so jumbled.
Maybe I’ll just wake up tomorrow on a stack of cardboard boxes in the store
. . .
or in a white room for loonies.
Within the year, he’d gone from a home, to the Grinder, to being a runaway, and now here as a Psion Beta with some weird powers (if he even had them). Everything in his life now was based on Byron’s promise that he had an anomaly.

A simple bowl of ice cream became too emotional for Sammy. Without really knowing why, he was blinking tears from his eyes. He was scared and missed his mom and dad more than he had in quite some time. He wished they’d been there when he’d taken the oath to protect people. His father, especially, would have been proud of that.

Someone came into the room, and he turned to see Al.

“
Hey, I was wondering where you’d—” he stopped as he saw Sammy’s face.

Sammy tried to turn back before Al noticed, but was not quick enough.

“
Are you all right?” Al asked, moving over to sit next to him.

“
Yeah,” Sammy quickly answered, “I’m fine.”

“
You need to talk?”

“
No! I mean—no, it’s nothing, I was just thinking about . . . stuff,” Sammy reassured him. Talking about feelings reminded him too much of the one-on-one and group sessions in the Grinder.

“
What kind of stuff?”

“
Just stuff,” Sammy replied in his most casual voice. “What did your parents think about you coming here?”

Al seemed caught off guard by the question, and he took a moment to think. “It was really hard for me and my dad both when I came here,” Al said. “My dad was worried.”

“
And your mom?” Sammy asked, thinking back to what Brickert had said about his family. “What did she think?”

Even more time passed before Al answered this question. “She was really . . . proud of me. Really proud.” Sammy heard a finality in Al’s as he said this. “You sure you’re all right?”

“
Yeah,” Sammy answered, “seriously, I’m cool.”

Al gave Sammy a friendly pat on the back and left. Sammy sat in silence for a moment, thinking about the conversation.

Feeling more tired than ever and embarrassed about being caught crying, he dumped the rest of his ice cream and went to his room. Without much thought, he undressed, put his com on the charger, and turned out the lights.
A bed
, he thought when he hit his soft pillow.
If Feet and the others could see me now. Sleeping in my own bed. Posh.
Then he fell asleep. He only woke up once during the night to the sound of muffled sobbing; he was not used to sleeping above a very homesick roommate.

6.
Headquarters

“
Good morning, Psions
. Good morning, Psions. Good morning, Psions,” a calm and soothing female’s voice repeated over and over again, stirring Sammy from his sleep.

His eyelids cracked open, and he saw his body covered in sheets. The familiar scent of moldy cardboard was strangely missing.

Who’s snoring below me?

“
Good morning, Psions,” he heard again, and then he remembered: he was a Psion. He reached for his com. Putting it on made everything real again. He couldn’t help but be excited, especially when he thought about his training. If everything went well, he would find out if he had these abilities everyone talked about. Just as he thought to wake up Brickert, a loud thud shook the bed.