Wormhole Pirates on Orbis (15 page)

“Oh, no,” Max cried.

It was Charlie. He stood at the edge of the glass with two security drones, and he was pointing at Buzz. Theodore and Ketheria saw him as well, but Charlie had not seen them sitting up in the stands yet. Theodore was trying to pull Ketheria away, but when Ceesar’s friend bolted, the ruckus grabbed Charlie’s attention. He looked up and spotted them. Charlie’s head spun from Buzz to Theodore and finally to us, standing on the playing quad.

“Your friend?” Ceesar asked us.

“Guarantor,” Max replied.

“Well.” Ceesar raised an eyebrow, surprised. “He wouldn’t sign you up to play?”

Charlie and the security drones skirted the playing court, obviously heading to cut us off at the ready room.

“What do we do?” Max said.

But I knew there was nothing
to
do. We were caught. I had disobeyed Charlie. He would be furious.

“Nothing,” I replied.

“Well, I don’t share the same plan, Softwire,” Ceesar hissed, and he and Buzz bolted for the tunnels.

“How does he know you’re a softwire?” Max asked, puzzled.

“Doesn’t everyone?” I said.

“Why would you do that?” Charlie growled, pacing the chow synth. He was certainly angry, but I saw something else I couldn’t make out in his eyes.

I was sitting at the table with Max and Theodore while Ketheria nestled herself on the floor. Charlie was rubbing his hands through his hair. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Grace and Dalton secretly watching from the hallway. I’m sure a few other kids were doing the same thing. It was embarrassing, and I felt my face grow hot.

“I strictly said no Citizens’ League.”

“But we saw the alien who stole the stridling,” I pleaded in defense.

“And they challenged
us
to play,” Max offered.

Charlie wasn’t buying any of it, though. “When you saw the alien, you should have come and gotten me or told any Citizen nearby.”

“But we weren’t allowed to be there to begin with,” Theodore reminded him.

“You could have reached out to Vairocina, Johnny,” Charlie pointed out. “She could have notified security in an instant, and that thief would have been caught.”

“His name is Buzz,” Ketheria informed Charlie.

“Probably not his real name, but thank you just the same.”

I asked Charlie, “What are they going to do with him?”

“That’s security’s concern now, and it does not justify your actions.”

“What are you gonna do to us?” Theodore asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Our punishment? What’s it gonna be?” Max said.

“Odran used to make us sleep standing up,” Ketheria told him.

“Or he wouldn’t feed us,” Theodore added.

“Remember the time Weegin almost pulled Switzer’s nose off?” Max said with a tiny giggle.

Charlie was shaking his head and mumbling something to himself while he stared at his feet.

“I’m not like your other Guarantors,” Charlie whispered. “I’m not here to punish you. I want to protect you.”

“Protect us from what?” I asked.

“From things like joining the Citizens’ League!”

“But why?” said Max.

“Yeah, our other Guarantors didn’t care what happened to us. Look at JT’s arm,” Theodore pointed out.

Charlie threw his arms up in frustration and growled. He paced the floor some more, then stopped in front of me.

“I can’t protect you inside the arena,” he snapped. “They play by different rules, and Citizens’ wagering can lead to cheating, accidents, and even death.”

“But we’re good, Charlie,” Max protested.

“You lost today, did you not?” he reminded her.

There was no denying that. Ceesar and Buzz played incredibly well. That tracker possessed speed I could only dream of. His experience showed, and his skills came naturally to him.

“They were fast. They’d be hard to beat for anyone,” I said.

“Not anymore,” he hissed.

“Why not?”

“Not until security releases Buzz again, and knowing the Citizens, that could be quite some time.”

“They captured Buzz?”

“That’s why I was there. I didn’t expect to find
you,
” Charlie replied. “I trusted you guys.”

“Can I talk to him?” I asked

“What! Have you gone stark raving mad? Why would you want to talk to that criminal? What could you possibly have to say to him?”

Charlie was waving his arms in the air. His face was almost purple. My shoulders felt heavy, and it was hard to hold my head up. Charlie’s tongue-lashing was worse than any punishment a Guarantor could dish out. The only thing preventing me from feeling total remorse was the fact I hadn’t used his personal data key. It didn’t help much, though. “I’m sorry, Charlie,” I told him.

“Promise me you’ll stick to the Illuminate league.” His voice was icy.

I nodded. “We’ll join the school league.” But I couldn’t promise him. I hated breaking promises, especially to Charlie.

Next cycle, Theodore did not speak on the way to the Illuminate. In fact, he couldn’t even look at me. Trouble was the one thing Theodore tried to avoid most, and I had dragged him straight into it. I was going to have to apologize to him, too.

Max, on the other hand, drilled me on the game, especially the sort. I told her we needed to set a strategy before the next game with Dop. I also decided to ask Riis if she knew which stages he favored, or to point out areas where Dop was strong.

“Unfortunately, I know Dop very well — too well for my liking. Why don’t you check out some old scopes?” Riis suggested, standing at her locker and changing the color of her hair to iridescent blue.

“Scope,” I said. “You mean a tetrascope?”

“Is there any other?”

“They’re forbidden to humans.”

“Not if you’re playing Quest-Nest,” she said. “In fact, you can’t play without them. Everyone scopes each other to see how they react in the game. Your helmet is fitted so anyone can ride.”

“Ride? What do you mean by
ride
?”

“You use the scope to get inside the players’ heads,” she said, tapping on my skull. “See through their eyes, feel what they feel, practically
be
them.” She closed her locker and added, “I hate it when I know someone is scoping me. But, you’d better get used to it if you’re gonna play Quest-Nest.”

Theodore’s mood instantly changed when I told him about the tetrascope. Back on Orbis 2, he had tried to use one during the Festival of the Harvest, but the technician had refused him.
No humans!
I remembered him saying. Now Theodore would get his chance.

Throughout the corridors of the Illuminate, everyone seemed to be talking about my upcoming match with Dop. Kids were huddled in hallways chatting over old games that they projected on their pobs.

“It would be golden to have one of those pobs,” I told Max and Ketheria.

Ketheria stopped me in her usual cryptic tone. “It’s their
pleasure
you envy, but that’s something you already have.”

“Huh?” I said, shaking my head.

“You’re searching for joy from the trophies those kids can buy. It’s not a
real
pleasure,” she continued.

“I think you should do as Charlie says, and go be a kid,” I told her.

She gave me her usual shrug, as if I were too simple to understand, and wandered up the hall. Inside I knew she was right, but I still wanted a pob.

The cycle of our match against Dop finally arrived. Max and I kept pretty much to ourselves, discussing every possible variation of the sort we could think of. She was eager to try the
MAGICAL
stage, but I was still hesitant. She gave me a quick rundown on the basic understanding of OIO, but I couldn’t figure out how cosmic streams of energy were going to help me get past a crazed frontier pilot or a holographic Neewalker.

It was impossible to concentrate on my studies before the match. Theodore and I were working on the same problem — constructing a triangular-based prime pyramid, and I have to admit that he did all of the work, but I was glad that he was talking to me again. When the spoke finally ended, Theodore disconnected quickly. I could tell he was anxious. “I can’t wait to try the tetrascope, but I can’t decide whom to ride.”

“Scope Dop,” I told him. “You already know how I play.”

Dop was waiting for me outside the Illuminate. So were another hundred or so kids. “You’re going to need this,” Dop hissed, and threw a helmet at me. “I don’t know a knudnik who can afford one, and I refuse to accept some pathetic excuse to cheat your way out of the beating you’re about to receive.”

“Crush him, Dop!” someone yelled from the crowd.

“Yeah, bury that stinking knudnik!” was another cry.

The helmet was old and corroded. The visor was cracked, and the back of the neck was much larger than Dop’s. I tossed it back at him.

“I don’t need your charity,” I said. “I can play without one.”

But Dop would not take back his offering. He thrust the helmet into my chest.

“You can, but you won’t. I paid for that relic, and I plan to make a nice profit letting my friends ride a softwire.”

“Just take it,” Max whispered, and Dop threw another helmet at her. That helmet looked like the one Riis wore to school every cycle.

“Let’s go,” Dop shouted to the crowd. “I’ve got a taste for humans today.”

Some laughed; some rushed to the light chutes. No one was going to miss this.

Once we were at the Labyrinth, I asked Dop, “Who’s your bait?”

“That’s the best part,” he whispered. A huge grin snaked across his face, and Riis stepped out from the crowd, helmet against her hip.

“You!” I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t seem fair. I looked at her helmet. It
was
the same as Max’s. I always thought Riis used the helmet for a stridling or some other transportation device. But this meant she had been playing Quest-Nest every single cycle.

Dop must have caught me staring, and bragged, “Only the best.”

I looked at Max. She whispered, “Let it go, JT. Think about our strategy.”

“Where do I get the tetrascope?” Theodore asked, obviously unconcerned about the change of events.

“Follow us,” another kid said, and Theodore shouted, “Good luck!” over his shoulder as he followed the aliens like old friends.

I pushed past Dop and heard him snicker. It took everything not to smash my helmet against his stupid face. I wanted to beat Dop more than ever now.

Once inside the arena, Max whispered, “Make him pay in the game.”

“Oh, he’ll pay,” I hissed.

“Let’s go to the goal, Max,” Riis said.

I didn’t even try to go to the Citizens’ ready room. I went straight to the knudniks’ entry crystal. Besides, I needed a moment or two to figure this out. Why did I care that I was playing Riis? It was Dop I wanted to beat. Was that his tactic? Well, it wouldn’t work. I was going to do everything in my power to make sure Dop was going to purchase twenty-one pobs when this match was finished.

In the knudniks’ ready room I placed the unusual helmet over my head. It smelled funky, like burned cabbage or something, and the metal was corroded from eons of oxidation.
Does it even work?
I wondered. But when I slipped it on, I felt a strange sensation between my ears that wrapped around the base of my skull, as if someone were pulling my hair against the grain of my scalp. The cracked visor fizzled and popped, aborting any attempt to display the data I would never see.

Then I suddenly wondered,
Did my father wear one of these? Did he wear
this
one
? It certainly looked old enough. In an odd way, the possibility was comforting. I was here to do a job, and I planned to do it well. I stepped onto the crystal, and the energy field sprang up in front of me. After a moment it started to pulse, picking up its pace. But when it stopped, it did not land on me. My stomach dropped, taking my confidence with it. I stood and waited while Dop controlled the first stage of the sort.

The wait felt like a light-year. What would he pick? He couldn’t fly, I knew that much. Dop’s essence was more plant than bird or aquatic being. And he breathed oxygen just like me, so I knew he wouldn’t pick
GAS
or
LIQUID
. Or would he?

Finally the diamond shapes faded up on my screen:
MECHANIC
,
KINETIC,
and
PSIONIC
. I instantly reached for
MECHANIC
. I wasn’t taking any chances. The diamonds spun away, and almost immediately they returned with the options:
PHYSICAL
,
MENTAL
, or
BIOLOGICAL
. That was
fast.
Did Dop have some sort of plan? I was hesitant to pick
BIOLOGICAL
this time, since Ceesar had beaten me so easily with it. My gut told me that Dop was dumber than he let on, so I wanted to choose
MENTAL
.
Never underestimate you opponent,
a voice inside my head said. I needed to play to my strengths, and right now that was my robotic arm. I could control torque, strength, pain threshold. I selected
PHYSICAL
, and the shield turned to stone.

While I waited, my confidence was beginning to creep back in.
Take it easy — you don’t know what’s behind that wall.
But I was ready. I wanted this. My head was clear and my mind focused on one thing — victory.