Wormhole Pirates on Orbis (23 page)

I turned back toward the arena and saw that Max and Ketheria were having trouble in their match. I was worried that Max might be distracted, but it was Ketheria who started the game off slow. Was she getting sick again? I couldn’t tell, but Max picked up the slack once she was outside the goal. A skilled toss of an immobility cube by Ketheria at the last nanosecond helped them squeak ahead at the finish.

“Good toss,” I told Ketheria when she came out.

“Lucky,” she mumbled.

“You feel all right?”

“I’m fine now.”

“Athooyi still here?” Max whispered.

“Yeah, but Ceesar left when your match started.”

“Do you want to stay and watch the other kids play?” Ketheria asked. “I think Grace is up next.”

“I want to speak to Charlie,” Max replied.

“Me too,” I agreed.

“Help! Help me, somebody!”

That was the first thing I heard when I stepped through the light chute. Max and Ketheria were already running toward Theodore’s cries.

“Theodore!” I shouted.

“What’s wrong?” Max yelled from the front hall.

I hadn’t expected him to be home. I thought he was at the shed, scoping someone. I raced through the house, following the sound of his voice.

“Where are you?” I called.

“Out here!”

All three of us tore for the garden.

Theodore was standing on the stone path, leaning over Charlie’s body.

“Please, wake up. Wake up,” he pleaded.

“Charlie!” Ketheria screamed.

“It wasn’t my fault,” Theodore wailed, his faced streaked with tears. “I didn’t know! I really didn’t know!”

“Know what?” Max cried, and knelt next to Charlie.

“No!” Theodore screamed. “Don’t touch him!”

Max pushed back from Charlie.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Theodore sobbed.

Charlie’s body convulsed as a small white spot moved out of his nose and across his upper lip. It was followed by another and then another. Soon, every crevice of Charlie’s body was filled with these tiny white creatures nestling into any warm spot they could find on our friend.

“Charlie!” Ketheria yelled, but he did not respond. His eyes glowed yellow, and his mouth was now stuffed with the silky creatures. They gathered around his ears, in his armpits, and traveled over his body.

Ketheria looked at me, and I did the only thing I could think of. I called Vairocina.

“Yes, JT?” she said.

“Charlie’s hurt. Can you call someone?”

“Absolutely.” Vairocina only paused shortly before saying, “Someone will be here shortly.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Ketheria pleaded.

Vairocina floated over Charlie’s body.

“He has been infected with a parasite. I have seen it before. It was quite common in my star system, but the parasite is found only on plants. I do not know the effect it has on humans, but I know it is quite fatal to some plant species,” she informed us grimly. “I’ll inform Health Services of his condition.”

“How did Charlie get it?” I said.

“Cala did it,” Theodore confessed.

“Who’s Cala?” Max asked.

“He pulled a spike from one of the plants in the garden,” Theodore said. “Then he stabbed Charlie with it.” There was shame in his voice.

“Theodore, what was Cala doing here?”

“Where’s Nugget?” Ketheria cried.

“I’m sorry, Ketheria. He tried to help. He tried to save Charlie, but he got in the way.”

“Where is he?” she screamed at him.

Theodore pointed down the path. Nugget’s big feet poked out of the bushes.

“Nugget!” Ketheria cried with every muscle in her body, and ran toward him.

“Don’t let her touch him, JT,” Vairocina warned. “The parasite is very contagious.”

I raced toward Ketheria and grabbed her before she flung herself onto Nugget.

“Let me go! He needs me!”

“No, Ketheria. Help is on the way. They’ll make him better. You can’t touch him.”

“Nugget!” she cried, falling limp in my arms. “Nugget! No!”

The dome over the garden crackled and separated to allow a small craft to enter the estate. The wingless vessel hovered a meter above the ground and dispatched a medical lift, which dropped to the ground. Three people emerged, dressed in skin-tight protective gear, and immediately descended upon Charlie and Nugget. Two other emergency team members exited the craft and corralled the four of us inside the house. We were quarantined while they administered tests on us to see if we, too, were infected.

“Why did you bring Cala to the house, Theodore?” I demanded as the emergency crew removed a plasma censor from my head. I rubbed my fingers in my hair, trying to remove the awful tingling sensation.

“He wanted to see where I lived. I thought he was my friend. I didn’t think he would do
this,
” he replied.

They pulled the same device off Max’s head, and she said, “Well, you thought wrong.”

“I said I’m sorry.”

I asked the attendant, “What are they going to do with Charlie and Nugget?”

He — or she; I could not tell because the outfit completely molded the alien’s body — mumbled through the material that blanked out the attendant’s face. “They will be placed in stasis under quarantine as we attempt to remove the parasite.”

“How long will it take?” Ketheria croaked.

“That depends on how strong the victim is,” the attendant replied, and stuck another sensor in my ear.

“Ow!”

“Sorry.”

“But they will survive, right?” Max asked.

“I can’t say. This is a very nasty parasite. We should have been notified sooner.”

Ketheria swallowed hard, fighting back her tears. Max took her hand, and I glared at Theodore.

“What? We have no way to notify anyone about anything. All this technology, and we can’t even contact someone. We’re knudniks. What are we supposed to do?” he snapped.

“Where’s your pob?” I said, looking for the device.

Theodore covered his ear where the device
should
have been. He wouldn’t answer me.

“You sold it, didn’t you?”

“I traded it,” he argued.

“To whom?”

“To Cala.”

“That’s how you could go to the shed, isn’t it?”

“What’s the shed?” Max whispered.

“It’s where Theodore goes to use the tetrascope,” I informed her.

Theodore held his head in his hands. I was furious with him. He wasn’t thinking when he brought Cala home. But something in Theodore’s eyes made my heart jump.

“There’s more, isn’t there?” I said.

Theodore nodded.

Before I could pry him for more information, Theylor stepped into the room.

“They’re clean,” said the attendant.

“Thank you,” Theylor’s left head said while his right smiled at us. “Humans do seem to have an affinity for conflict.”

“I’m sorry, Theylor,” I said.

“No, I am sorry that I have not seen you sooner. We are forced to leave the Citizens to themselves on Orbis 3. They prefer it that way, and unfortunately, it limits my time here.”

“Nasty bunch, those Citizens,” Max mumbled.

“Not all of them,” the Keeper offered in their defense. He looked around the room. “Who was here when the attack happened?”

“I was,” Theodore confessed.

“Where were you three?” he asked us.

“At the Labyrinth,” Max replied.

“Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt Charlie?” he asked.

We looked at each other, shaking our heads. “Nobody,” I said. “Charlie stays at home most of the time.”

“Did the central computer see anything?” Max asked.

“Most Citizens use a blocking device — a bubble, if you like — that can prevent the central computer from prying into their affairs. One was activated over this estate when the attack occurred.”

“Then a Citizen must have been behind the attack on Charlie,” I exclaimed.

“The attacker was not a Citizen,” Theylor informed us.

“No, he was a wormhole pirate,” Theodore said.

My head spun so fast when Theodore announced that Cala was a wormhole pirate that I hurt my neck.

“How do you know this?” Theylor asked him.

“He told me.”

“What?” I yelled.

“Well, he didn’t really tell me; it was something he said when he attacked Charlie.”

Theylor remained patient and asked, “What did he say?”

“Yeah, what did he say?” Max pushed him.

“He said, ‘No one sees a pirate coming.’”

“That’s it?” Max said.

“It is an expression,” Theylor informed her. “But it does not mean that he’s a wormhole pirate. The attack on the shuttle when you came to Orbis 3 was the first time a wormhole pirate ever ventured out of their dimension. I highly doubt that one is roaming freely on this ring.”

Max started to say, “But we —”

“Know nothing else,” I said, cutting her off. I had a hunch that Cala wasn’t the only wormhole pirate roaming Orbis 3. First Buzz and
then
Cala. Ceesar must be a wormhole pirate, too.

“Do you know how to find Cala?” I asked Theylor.

“I am afraid he has disappeared,” he replied.

But I knew how to find him.

I would have had to be a split-screen not to see the connection between Buzz, Cala, and Ceesar. Of course they were all wormhole pirates. But what were they doing on the ring? And what was the connection to the shuttle we arrived on? They certainly weren’t afraid of getting caught. They played in the Labyrinth right out in the open. Someone must be protecting them. Athooyi? If I was going to find Cala, that’s where I would start.

“You’re thinking about something, aren’t you?” Max whispered.

“How could you tell?”

“You’re pulling at your hair. You always pull at your hair when you’re about to do something you shouldn’t,” she said.

“I pull my hair?”

“Always.”

I stopped pulling at my hair. Max smiled.

“There is something I want to check out,” I whispered.

Once the emergency crew stabilized Charlie and Nugget, they elevated their bodies into the craft still hovering over our garden. We watched as security-bots scrounged the grounds for any evidence left by Cala. There must have been twenty of them combing the immense garden. Ketheria stepped around the bots to reach a small group of Keepers who had come to help tend to the crisis, huddled on the path. She yanked on Theylor’s purple robe and pointed up at the craft hovering over the garden. “Can I go with them?” she asked.

“You can visit them in a few cycles, after your classes. I will leave you the coordinates,” he said before introducing Ketheria to the other Keepers.

The Keeper Drapling entered the compound with a flourish. “Is everyone all right? Who was hurt?” he demanded. “I came as swiftly as possible.” Drapling knelt next to my sister and quickly examined her. When he seemed satisfied, he did the same to me.

“What about us?” Max mumbled.

“You all seem to be fine,” he said, casually checking Max’s ears. “Who was attacked?”

“It was the adult,” Theylor informed him. “Charlie Norton.”

After a very long pause, Drapling said, “Oh, I was worried it was the children.”

Max spun toward me, stifling a laugh. I swallowed a laugh, too. When we first met Drapling on Orbis 1, the Keeper was always very cold toward us. In fact, I was convinced he hated us. Yet ever since our staining last rotation, Drapling had changed. Now he was nice. Almost too nice, as if he were forcing it, making up for lost time, I guessed. It was something we just couldn’t get used to.

“We’re fine, Drapling. Thank you,” I assured him.

“We will search for the attacker at once,” he announced. “I will see to it personally.” His robe swooshed as he turned to the other Keepers. “Theylor, may I speak with you?”

Drapling dragged Theylor inside, and we turned to watch the small spacecraft slip through the dome.

“Who’s gonna take care of us now?” Ketheria asked.

“We’ll take of ourselves,” Max assured her. “We’ve done it before.”

I glared at Theodore.

“What?” he said.

“What do you think?”

“Don’t worry,” he mumbled. “I have no intention of sneaking out. I’m finished with the tetrascope.”

“Johnny Turnbull,” Theylor called me from the house. “Would you come inside, please?”

I did as I was told and met Theylor at the top of the stairs leading to the house. “I am leaving you in charge,” he informed me. “Temporarily, until we assess your Guarantor’s condition. If things are not better in a few cycles, I will return to assist your reassignment.”

“To a new Guarantor?”

“Of course.”

“No! I don’t want another Guarantor. I want Charlie.”

Theylor’s left head looked back outside while his right head focused on me. “You need to prepare, JT.”

“Prepare for what?”

“The situation is very severe for Charlie and Nugget. I worry most about Ketheria and how she will respond if Nugget dies. I know about her spells. You do not need to worry, as those are just growing pains, but it will be much harder for her if she loses her friend.”

What was he saying? “It was just a plant, Theylor. You can make them better, right?”

Theylor smiled, not a happy smile, but rather a
What-do-you-want-me-to-say?
smile. I felt my stomach drop to my feet.

“I have posted security around the estate and sealed the dome from further entry. You are to contact Vairocina immediately if anything suspicious happens.”

If I ever got my hands on Cala, I would make sure he paid for this.

“JT?”

“Sure, Theylor,” I assured him. “I can take care of things.”

Theylor frowned. “Johnny, I am aware of your history dealing with these matters yourself. I even find it commendable. But this time, it is not necessary. Please leave this to the Citizens. The Keepers are not active on this ring, but I’ve been informed that the Citizens of Orbis 3 will do everything they can to apprehend this person. I have an added concern for your well-being because Drapling believes that the attacker may have been after you, since you are a softwire. We are simply unaware of the motive at this time.”

I didn’t say anything to Theylor. I lived on a ring where my status was slightly above that of a broom. Did he really believe a Citizen would spend a single chit trying to solve this, let alone protect a knudnik? No, if I didn’t take care of this myself, then no one would. If Drapling was right and Cala attacked Charlie because of me, then I would find Cala and expose his motives myself.