Wormhole Pirates on Orbis (37 page)

“I honestly thought it would be bigger. Folklore whispers that the treasure can buy a trillion starships, but I’m sure that’s an exaggeration. It doesn’t look big enough. What do you think’s in there, yornaling crystals?”

I didn’t answer Switzer. Something felt wrong. I couldn’t stop thinking about the Trust’s warning. I glanced down at the chamber shrinking away from me. Nothing in the room looked special now that the treasure and its craft were headed out. Maybe the Trust had hidden the Scion’s identity somewhere deep within the abyss that was slowly consuming the vacant room. The metal carcasses of the broken bots seemed like such a weak defense for their prized secret. I breathed deeply and consoled myself with the idea that we were leaving this place without exposing the identity of the Scion. It was no longer my concern, I told myself. Instead I needed to concentrate on getting off the Rings of Orbis, since Switzer’s plan was a fantasy at best.

Despite my doubts in Switzer’s revelations, the craft drifted up and through the iris as promised, arriving at some sort of auditorium. I instantly recognized the Chancellor, and he immediately noticed us. Armed guards jumped into position upon our arrival.

“I thought no one knew you were doing this, Switzer,” I said, motioning to the guards. I had never seen live security aliens like this on the rings, only security-bots.

The Chancellor’s private army raised their weapons and rested their aim upon us. Switzer seemed prepared for his virulent reception and grabbed the treasure, pulling it close.

“Wouldn’t want to hit this, now, would you, Chancellor?”

“Do not fire!” the Chancellor called out, wildly swinging his arms above the heads of two aliens hunched over a bunch of O-dats. The small aliens tapped furiously on the O-dats, stopping only to glance at the craft as we rose steadily within the auditorium.

“Hurry!” the Chancellor shouted at them. “Why can’t you stop them?”

“We’re trying,” one of them pleaded.

“They’ve taken control of the flier somehow,” the other complained.

“It’s the Softwire!” yelled one of the Citizens.

“Kill the Softwire!” someone else hollered.

“Better get closer to me,” Switzer said as a volley of blistering plasma screeched past our heads.

“Stop! Stop! You’ll damage the treasure!” the Chancellor yelled.

Ketheria caught Switzer grinning. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she said to him.

“Of course I am. Look at them — they’re pathetic.”

“I would still like to know how they knew you were coming.”

“Me, too,” Switzer mumbled under his breath.

More and more Citizens scrambled into the auditorium, then stopped the moment they spotted us. One of the aliens, dressed in some sort of transparent armor, toppled over two other Citizens trying to enter the room

“Get to the roof!” he shouted at them. “They’re going for the roof!”

“Shoot the flier, then!” the Chancellor barked.

“But sir, the engines will explode.”

The Chancellor grunted so loud that spit flew from his puckered mouth. His eyes, bulging with rage, searched each Citizen in the room, frantic to find a solution. When none of them spoke, the Chancellor turned to Switzer and snarled, “You won’t live to enjoy that treasure.”

But Switzer only laughed at him. His confidence was high now, and it surprised me. Switzer actually planned to walk (or, rather, fly) right out of here.

“JT, several traces have been placed on your staining,” Vairocina whispered in my mind. “I think we should call the Keepers.”

“Don’t,” I told her. “I think we might actually be leaving.”

The ceiling began to peel back, revealing the distant stars.
Which one will we head for?
I wondered. It was actually happening. I could feel it. Secretly I had hoped that Max and Theodore were on the roof, but I knew they wouldn’t be. I’d never convince Switzer to come back for them, but I would jump back to the ring in order to get Max.

“It’s too easy,” Ketheria said.

“What do you mean?” I replied

“Something as valuable as the treasure, and he just walks up and takes it?”

“He hasn’t left the ring yet,” I reminded her.

“That’s the easy part,” Switzer interrupted.

But I didn’t see anything easy about it. At least forty more armed aliens were now waiting on the roof. I saw Switzer searching the horizon for something. Seemingly unsatisfied, he began searching the sky.

“Where are they?” he grunted.

“Who? Who’s not here?”

“His ship,” Ketheria said. “Have your goons let you down, Switzer?”

“Shut up,” Switzer barked. “They’ll be here. Or else.”

“Or else what? If we don’t have a way out of here, I don’t think you’ll have much of an opportunity to punish any of them,” I said.

“Shut up!” Switzer said, and swung at me, knocking me to the floor.

“Stop it!” Ketheria screamed. She knelt next to me and whispered, “How can you want to do this now? How can you even think of leaving the others — to go with him? The brother I knew would never do that.”

“I can
jump,
” I whispered back. “I’ve done it already. I can come back and get them.”

“How? Without a belt?”

“Yes.”

“And you are absolutely sure you can do this?”

“Yes!”

But could I?
Was
I absolutely sure? I had tried to jump when Banar came at me and nothing happened. It wasn’t until . . .
Ketheria.
It wasn’t until I thought about
her.
How could my ability to jump be attached to my sister? It had to be a coincidence. All I needed to do was concentrate more. The moment Ketheria was safe, I would jump back and grab Max and Theodore.

Ketheria was staring at me, her big brown eyes scanning my mind.

“Don’t do that,” I told her. “I don’t know what I’m thinking, so don’t trust everything you read.”

“It’s what I don’t see that worries me the most.”

“There they are!” Switzer shouted. “Get ready to board ship, everyone. We are cleared for departure.”

There was a ship coming, a shallow but broad flier, ample enough for us — and anyone else on the roof, for that matter.
We are actually getting out of here.
The ship was moving quickly. Three armed fliers chased the craft, and all four of them were exchanging fire.

“Be quick! The boys are bringin’ her in hot!” Switzer called out.

Once I was on that ship, could I jump back to Orbis? Could I actually do it? I was suddenly mad at Ketheria for making me doubt myself. I
would
do it. There was no choice for me. I sprang to my feet.

“What do we have to do, Switzer?” I asked.

“You can start by opening that treasure. I don’t need the damned case, just what’s inside it.”

“Switzer, I told you I’m not the Scion.”

“I’ve done my homework, little man. You are the Scion, whether you want to believe it or not.”

“I’m
not.
”

“Listen to me, Dumbwire. We’re not kids anymore. At least, I’m not. This is not the time to get
tricky.
Open the treasure, and I’ll get you off this revolving hunk of junk.”

“You’re getting me off the ring because I stopped those bots. That was the deal.”

“Open the treasure!”

I reached out and grabbed the treasure to prove to Switzer I was not the Scion. The golden lights orbiting it sparked and gathered speed. The colored knobs changed from a pinkish-purple to a deep amber shade as the treasure vibrated in my hands.

“But . . .”
The Trust told me that I wasn’t the Scion. They told me I was the Protector. Was it all a ruse?

“See! What did I tell you? It didn’t do that for me,” Switzer exclaimed.

The treasure began to distort and elongate. I looked at Ketheria; her eyes were closed and she was mumbling, or moaning, I couldn’t tell. Above her in the sky, I saw a dozen large wheels spinning vertically in the air. One by one they landed on the roof ahead of our spacecraft, which was now under fire from the guards on the roof. Each circular flier carried a Keeper, and as they came to a rest on the roof, the aliens disembarked and moved toward us.

The treasure vibrated erratically in my hands, and I struggled with it to keep my grip. It was bright red now, and I could feel the energy from the thing spreading into my body. If this thing was going to open, I wished it would hurry up and do it.

I’m the Scion?
It was more of a question than a statement. I wondered what it meant. What was going to happen now? Surely people could see me. I saw more and more Citizens gathering on the roof.
So much for keeping the Scion’s identity a secret,
I thought.

Switzer’s escape craft settled over us, and three wormhole pirates descended from the belly of the ship using thin black ropes. The one closest to Switzer tossed him a plasma rifle, and Switzer immediately began picking off the guards on the roof.

“They’re not firing at you!” Ketheria yelled.

“They would if they could, little girl.”

“Move back!” a Keeper shouted. “Do not return fire!”

The Keeper was Theylor. He was moving quickly. The Chancellor was behind him. Then I saw Athooyi with Max. Athooyi’s guards were with them, but it didn’t matter. Seeing Max made me feel like everything was going to be all right. She looked worried, almost panicked, but then her face drifted out of focus. Her image blurred with that of the Keepers. In fact, everything seemed to soften and smudge together.

“JT, the treasure has somehow penetrated your nervous system,” Vairocina warned.

She was right. The energy from the treasure had taken over my body. My hands appeared to have melted into the casing. My head was spinning, and my knees felt weak, like I was going to fall.

Then the treasure exploded from my hands and shot into the air toward the ship. “Now!” I heard someone scream.

Switzer yelled to his men, “Grab the treasure!”

Everyone began firing at once. The blood came rushing back into my head, but my eyes were now blackening around the edges.

“Move!” Switzer shouted, and shoved me out of the way.

A burst of plasma, a shot meant for me, hit Switzer squarely in the shoulder. He stumbled back, dropping to one knee as I fell from the flier and hit the ground.

“JT!” Ketheria screamed.

Switzer growled in pain. With his left arm useless, he shifted all his weight to his right leg and hoisted the heavy gun against his hip. He returned fire with such viciousness that the flier was set aglow by an explosion of purple plasma that rained down from his firearm.

“Do not hit the girl!” Theylor shouted.

More Citizens were moving toward me, and I scrambled to my feet, searching for the treasure. Ketheria was standing behind Switzer when the Ancients’ Treasure descended upon her. My sister lifted her arms to accept the object of so much attention. When the vessel touched her fingertips, it hovered for a moment before convulsing into a deluge of brilliant white light. The shock wave knocked Switzer from the flier, and the entire night sky lit up as if someone had fired a magnesium burner. Ketheria, her arms reaching up, stood motionless under the rapturous glow. The sparkles of gold light that had once circled the treasure now danced around Ketheria’s fingertips, displaying the same little spirals Ketheria had drawn when she was sick. The golden lights flickered from her fingertips and enmeshed inside her cupped hands as the playful lights began to build within the white glow. One by one the golden sparkles converged to assemble a chain — a DNA chain. The double helix spiraled in my sister’s grasp, rising up toward the ship before morphing into the shape of a little girl. The image was undeniable.

The image was Ketheria.

The crowd on the roof stood motionless. Even Switzer stopped and watched the miraculous event. The mirror image descended upon her and merged with Ketheria’s physical form. She did not fight it; in fact, she breathed deeply and smiled as the transformation completed.

Ketheria was the Scion,
not me.
The Ancients’ Treasure was the identity of the Scion. Of course the treasure could buy a million starships. The look on the faces of those watching told you that they had just witnessed the event of the millennium.

Ketheria looked up and smiled. Then the very physics that held the stars in the sky seemed to fail — in other words, all hell broke loose.

Switzer grabbed Ketheria with his bad arm, and the crowd gasped.

“Put her down,” Theylor demanded.

“I came here for a treasure and I plan on taking one,” he replied.

“Switzer, don’t,” I pleaded.

Switzer looked at me. “If you’re coming, then I advise you to come now.”

Theylor was near me. “You are the Tonat, Johnny Turnbull. You must help her. The Scion must stay with us.”

“You knew?”

“I know now. You must believe me. Do not let her get on that ship. Now that her identity has been revealed, she is at tremendous risk. Your sister is not even of age yet — she must still experience her awakening.”

I didn’t know what Theylor was talking about, but my desire to leave Orbis had weakened enormously.

“Switzer . . .” I turned to reason with Switzer, and everything around me went silent. I had been bubbled. I turned inside the green fog to see the Chancellor running toward me, his right arm outstretched. Theylor was arguing with him, but the Chancellor now had his sights set on Switzer.

Max had broken free from Athooyi and ran toward me. She banged her fists on the security bubble, her face streaked with tears. She turned and grabbed one of the Chancellor’s aides, but he pushed her away.

Switzer hoisted Ketheria in his arms, her feet dangling just below his knees. She did not resist. Another wormhole pirate swung a rope to Switzer. He grabbed it while firing at the Chancellor. He hit the Chancellor’s aide on the first shot.

If Switzer got on that ship, I would never see either of them again. Why wasn’t Ketheria resisting? The thought of Ketheria leaving without me ignited that feeling inside me once again. It was as if a rope had been tethered between the two of us and something had pulled it very taut. The closer Switzer got to the ship, the tighter the rope felt, only now it was ripping my skin with each tug.