Wormhole Pirates on Orbis (29 page)

“That’s a lot of assumptions,” I said. “I can think of a dozen things that could go wrong.”

“Got a better idea?”

“No, but if we’re going to use Vairocina, then there’s something I need your help with,” I told him.

“I can’t do this, JT,” Theodore said, holding the chow synth knife over my arm. Vairocina floated in the air above us as we attempted to install the neural port into my arm ourselves. Everyone else was asleep.

“The incision should be higher, Theodore. The connectors are located closer to the elbow,” Vairocina instructed.

“I can’t,” he hissed.

“You have to. She’ll tell you how to do everything.”

Theodore’s hand shook as he lowered the knife.

“Wait,” I said.

“What?” he complained, pulling away.

“I forgot to turn the pain sensors off,” I said, and I interfaced with the controls inside my mind’s eye. “There. Cut me.”

“Oh, cripes,” he moaned.

“And quit shaking; you’ll make a horrible scar.”

“Actually, if he makes the incision small enough, the skin will knit itself back together by next spoke and you won’t notice anything,” she said.

“Keep it small, Theodore.”

“I can’t take this pressure!” he said, placing the knife against my skin.

“A little higher,” she said. “A little to your left. Now!”

Theodore pushed the knife into my skin. I didn’t feel a thing. It was like watching him cut plastic, except that he was slicing into my arm.

“Now pull the knife ten centimeters away from his elbow,” she said. Theodore did as he was told, and a thick stream of yellow fluid followed his blade. “Good. That’s enough.”

Theodore sat back on the kitchen stool, exhausted. “I can’t believe I just did that,” he breathed.

“Now put your fingers into his arm and pull the skin apart. Try not to tear it,” Vairocina instructed.

“Oh, come on, you’re kidding me! Can’t you do it?”

“I don’t have the same ability as a normal holograph, or I would,” she said. “You have to do this, Theodore.”

He sat up, scrunching his face, and carefully inserted his thumb and index finger into the hole he had made in my arm, forcing more yellow fluid out.

“Push the synthetic muscle aside and you should see a small chip. Attached to it will be a small blue ribbon. That’s what we need. That’s where we will make our connection.”

“This is disgusting,” he said as he nudged the artificial muscle tissue aside. It made a squishing sound.

“There it is,” I said.

“You should be able to disconnect it easily,” she told him.

Using his other hand, he reached in.

“It’s too small,” he complained.

“Try,” I said.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“No, you’re not. Just grab the ribbon.”

“But I can’t.”

“Ow,” I yelled, and Theodore jerked back, disconnecting the ribbon.

“Why did you do that?” he screamed.

“It worked, didn’t it?” I smiled.

“We’re almost done,” Vairocina said. “JT, can you move your fingers?”

I tried to wriggle them, but they did not respond. My arm was useless. “No,” I told her.

“Good,” she said. “This is where we must connect the port.”

I passed the port to Theodore. Attached to the device was a similar ribbon to the one Theodore had just disconnected inside my arm. Once he attached it, Vairocina said, “We don’t have long. Soon a synaptic connection will start to grow and we will not be able to remove it.”

“What do we do?” I said, a little panicked.

“We need to attach it to any device linked to the central computer,” she said.

I pointed to the counter and said, “How about the chow synth?”

“That will work,” she replied.

Theodore shook his head. “We traded it,” he reminded me.

“You traded the chow synth?”

“You were there. We had nothing else to give Sul-sah. Besides, we can eat at the Illuminate.”

“We need something quickly,” Vairocina urged us.

“What about a pob?” I asked.

“No, it needs to be directly linked to the central computer to handle the size of my program.”

“The light chute,” I said.

We both moved toward the counter, and my arm fell limp to my side, the port swinging wildly.

“Careful,” she warned us.

I wished Max were there. She knew how to take anything apart. She may not have always put things back together, but she could have done this. Theodore and I just stared at the chute.

“Remove the keypad,” Vairocina instructed.

Theodore ran back to the kitchen and returned with the knife, attacking the panel.

“Just pop the cover; we need to get out of here next cycle,” I told him.

With a click, the cover of the keypad fell to the floor.

“Look for the same type of connection,” Vairocina said.

“There’s too many,” he said, panicked.

“It’s there,” she said forcefully.

“How much longer?” I asked her.

“We need to hurry,” she whispered.

“I got it!” Theodore exclaimed. “Put your arm up here.”

I held my arm while Theodore pushed his fingers back in and made the connection.

“That will work. I will just be a moment. Do not do anything until you hear from me again. Do not break that connection,” she said, and disappeared.

Theodore and I stood there, looking at each other.

“Thanks,” I told him.

“Do you think she’ll be able to get us out of Inner Tromaine?”

“Once she’s inside their computer, she can do anything,” I assured him.

“How’s
she
gonna get out? Of your arm, I mean.”

I’d never thought about that part. “I don’t know,” I replied. “Maybe we should bring the port with us.”

“I’m not doing that again,” he said with a grimace.

“JT, is this normal?” Theodore asked, looking at the connection he had made inside my arm.

“What?”

“Those things,” he said, pointing. “Is that supposed to happen?”

Thin, snaking tendrils were worming their way from the port and attaching themselves to the connector in my arm. “I don’t know,” I said. “Vairocina?” But there was no answer.

Theodore reached in to disconnect it. “Don’t!” I shrieked.

“Where is she?”

“You can’t break the connection yet,” I said. “Vairocina!”

“JT, there’s more. They’re going deeper. What are they gonna do?”

Where was Vairocina? Why wasn’t she answering? Theodore was right; the port was making a deeper connection. I could never get it out now.

Suddenly I heard Vairocina call my name inside my head.

“Pull it!” I shouted to Theodore.

He ripped the port away. The tendrils from the foreign device sparked and burrowed into my arm. A sharp pain stabbed my arm and ran up to my head, giving me an instant headache. I felt dizzy, and my arm tingled despite the fact that I had turned off the pain sensors.

“JT?” Vairocina said, louder and clearer than ever before. She felt more present than my own thoughts.

“The port started doing something like it was trying to connect itself,” I told her.

“Tell Theodore not to remove it yet,” she said.

“Too late.”

“Then reconnect your arm.”

I reached in myself, fingering the tiny connection, and the ribbon connected with a click.

“Try to move your fingers,” she said.

I did, but they hesitated. I moved my thumb, but my index finger wriggled instead. It took two or three tries to get it right. “Something’s not right,” I told her.

“What’s wrong?” Theodore asked.

“We need to repair your arm,” Vairocina said.

“We don’t have time. The Chancellor’s Challenge is the next cycle!” I shouted.

“What’s wrong? It doesn’t work?” Theodore asked again.

“Get some sleep. I’ll see what I can do,” Vairocina said. “There’s a lot I can do from in here. I just hope I have enough time.”

“Me, too,” I mumbled.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong? Are you talking to her now?” Theodore begged.

“Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s fine. You did great,” I told him. “Let’s get some sleep. We have a game to win.”

But I didn’t sleep much. How could I? I might very well be dead next cycle, and so could my friends. If I was the Scion, why was there no protection for me? Why would they throw me into the mix of things on the Rings of Orbis? Was I supposed to protect myself? Was it a test? I hated tests, especially ones where I could die.

I got up before everyone else and sat in the garden near the same spot where Charlie had been killed. For some reason, it comforted me. I was trying to get my arm to respond more quickly before anyone else noticed the damage, but Vairocina said she needed more time. As I flexed my fingers, I followed a comet hanging in the darkened sky and wondered what my father would do. Nothing came to me. How could it? I really didn’t know him. All I ever heard of him were stories, rumors, or even lies. His personal files, the ones encrypted on the
Renaissance,
were lost to me forever. I could only guess what he would do. It was not a comforting feeling.

I
was
going to save Max, though. That much I knew. Once Switzer released her to me, I would get us out of Inner Tromaine before any of us set foot in their labyrinth. I refused to risk their lives in the Chancellor’s Challenge. And when we were safe, I was going straight to the Keepers. I was finished playing their game. If I was the Scion, I wanted answers, all of them. I would use whatever powers were available to me to figure this out. Even if I had to rip them out of the central computer myself. Knudnik or not, I was going to get my way. A voice inside my head — not Vairocina’s, not a voice I had ever heard before — told me
that’s
what my father would do.

I stood between Theodore and Ketheria as we stared up at the extraordinary gates of the Chancellor’s Challenge Labyrinth.

“Who are they afraid of?” Theodore said, gawking at the curved steel doors, inlaid with a blue energy field.

“Us,” I said.

“Can Vairocina see this?” Ketheria asked.

“I don’t know. Vairocina, do you see what I see?” I asked her out loud.

“Somewhat,” she said. “I’ve made a rudimentary connection to your optical nerves, but I need more computer power to get a clearer image.”

“What did she say?” Theodore asked.

“She said, ‘Kind of.’” It felt like I was on the
Renaissance
again, listening to Mother. I was the only one who could talk to her, and the other kids were always asking me what she said — the ones who believed me, anyway. There weren’t many.

I searched for Switzer in the crowd, but it was difficult to see. Blocking the entrance to the Challenge stood a large group of Nagools, their arms outstretched in the Circle of Life. Five or six more aliens scurried about, stopping anyone who would listen to them.

“Stop the Chancellor’s Challenge! Stop the Chancellor’s Challenge!” they protested.

“Why?” I asked a female dressed in a red robe slashed and torn in different parts.

“They cannot return their cosmic energy to the great Source when they die in this manner. The violent death of each player releases destructive energy. They require cleansing before their source is returned to the Universe,” she said, almost begging.

Another alien, eager to have someone listen to his pleas, joined in. “If you do not pay to watch, or gamble on such atrocities, they will stop the games,” he added.

“But we’re here to play,” I informed him, holding my arms out and showing them the fight suit I was wearing.

The effect was the same as if I had kicked each of them in the stomach. After they digested my statement, they laid their hands upon me, moaning and pushing me toward the Nagools.

“Are you enslaved to perform this heinous act?” the male whispered as the female wailed, grabbing the attention of the Nagools.

“No,” I said, “Well, yes, we’re knudniks, if that’s what you mean.”

“You’re all playing?”

I nodded and said, “We’re all dressed the same.” It only made them cry out more. Soon all of the protesters circled, nudging us toward the Nagools.

“Let them be!” someone shouted. It was Athooyi. Next to him stood Switzer and Max! Both were dressed in fight suits just like ours. Why?
Do they expect Max to play?
I wondered. The protesters lowered their heads and shuffled behind the Nagools. The Nagools, however, stood proudly and took the positions of the protesters.

“I urge you to release these ill-fated beings,” one Nagool said, his voice calm like still water.

“I have the right to enter them in the contest,” Athooyi argued, and the Nagool lowered his head, bringing his hands together.

“You do — and I have the right to protect the Universe. Please allow me to cleanse them before they meet their death,” he pleaded.

I wanted to tell the Nagool
No thanks.
I wasn’t planning on dying just yet.

“Do as you wish,” Athooyi said. “But be quick.”

Then it hit me. I thought of Tinker’s reaction the other cycle. If I
were
the Scion, like Switzer said, wouldn’t the Nagools notice it, too? It was the perfect time to make my distraction, and better yet, we weren’t even inside the gates yet. I rushed toward the Nagool. The alien, with frozen white skin and the Circle of Life spiral marked across most of his face, reached out to me with long, pale arms.