by PJ Haarsma
“The pod is in perfect working order. I noticed a slight supplement deficiency and instructed the nutrition pad to release small amounts of vitamins D, C, and B6 throughout the night. Proper neural stimulation occurred as scheduled. Your sister is simply having a bad dream, and as you have instructed, I have alerted you.”
“Shh,” I whispered, ignoring Mother and slowly coaxing Ketheria to settle down. “Shhhh, Ketheria, everything is all right.”
After a while, Ketheria’s thrashing stopped. Through it all, she never woke up. I placed her back down in the nurture pod and wiped some of the sweat from her face.
“Please close the lid, Mother.”
Now I stared at the lid of my new sleeper, still waiting for sleep to come. I looked across the room: Dalton and Switzer were already snoring. That was fast, I thought.
“Theodore?” I whispered, but no one answered.
“Theodore?”
Why wasn’t I asleep? I was certainly tired. I rolled over, and that’s when I heard someone knock on the door.
“Hello?” I tapped the sleeper’s controls. The lid slid back. Everyone was still sound asleep.
Another knock.
“Ketheria?”
I went to the bedroom door. It wouldn’t open. My vest! I needed that stupid skin to open the door.
“Hold on, Ketheria,” I whispered. I had to get to her.
I put the skin on over my pajamas and went back to the door. It still wouldn’t open. I put my hand over the sensor, and just like before, I could see the computer codes blocked — so much for a self-correcting computer. Now the bits of data were fighting with each other. They weren’t even trying to get through the glitch. The code pulsed and distorted, shooting streams of green and yellow in every direction. I went to remove the block, but the code swarmed around it.
“Freak, freak, freak,” the data chanted, flashing angry childlike faces.
This is computer code, I thought. I reached out and swatted the faces away. I saw the block and flicked that out, too.
The door disappeared.
Instead of the storage foyer, however, I stood in front of a beautiful bright green forest. The trees were just like the one I had seen earlier on the ring. There were trees as far as I could see. Some with green leaves, some with orange. I even saw a tree with purple leaves. How did I get here?
I saw a girl running through the forest in her plastic nightgown. “Ketheria, wait!” I shouted. But she only ran deeper into the forest.
I would not let Ketheria go by herself, so I stepped into the forest and chased after her. The grass felt cool and damp under my feet. I bent down to touch it. Ahead of me I saw huge bushes and yellow rocks. I even saw a six-legged creature with a long bushy tail staring down at me from a tree. The whole scene made me nervous, yet I was intrigued by everything I saw.
“Ketheria, come back!” I shouted. “Look, there’s some kind of animal here.”
Ketheria, however, would not listen. She ran from tree to tree, trying to touch each one. I followed her, hoping to sneak up on her, when a monstrous shadow drifted across the trees. I looked around but saw nothing. Where was Ketheria going? I needed to find her. I did not want to think what would happen if whatever had made that shadow got to her first. I pushed on, my throat very dry.
In the distance I saw Ketheria stop at a bed of vibrant pink and blue flowers. I almost caught her when she bent down to pick one, but she saw me out of the corner of her eye and bolted.
“Ketheria!” I called after her.
The trees grew taller and taller, and the forest became denser. The deeper I went, the more the forest changed. I saw things I’d never seen in any database: ponds of slimy gold goo, strange gnarled vines that moved out of the way as I approached, and low silver clouds that danced among the trees. The clouds looked like they were playing a game with each other. I also began to sense that more than one . . . thing . . . was watching me.
The shadow passed across the trees again.
What if I couldn’t find the way back before I found out what was following us? I stood on a rock to get my bearings. The sky was much bluer now. It was almost glowing, but there was nothing to guide me home. I saw Ketheria go deeper into the forest.
“Ketheria! That’s too far!”
I chased after her, but she was moving very fast now — much faster than I knew she could run. And then she was gone. With a jolt, I realized I was now alone. Where did she go?
“Ketheria?”
Someone giggled behind me. I whirled around, and in the distance I saw Ketheria sitting on the yellow rock I had just stood on.
“Ketheria?” I moved closer.
Her faced blurred as if she were trying to take on a different shape.
“Ketheria? Why won’t you stop? You’re making me angry,” I scolded her, hoping the tone of my voice would make her stop.
Then, just as if the computer had shut off a light, she was gone. It was as simple as that. I looked around, but there was no sign of her, and I did not know which way was home. The monstrous shadow passed over again, this time on the grass. I looked up. Nothing. I walked over to the yellow rock.
I glanced down and saw the number ten etched into the rock.
10
It looked like a child’s initials carved for someone to see. I touched the number. Was every rock numbered? Why would someone number a rock?
Suddenly — wham! — something huge slammed to the ground next to me. The monstrous shadow now covered me completely. I looked up and saw a giant flying creature circling over my head. In one clawed foot was an enormous stone like the one that had just missed me. I jumped from the rock and began to run.
Another stone crashed down, just missing me. The ground shook beneath my feet as I bolted away.
I turned to see the vibrant red creature dive straight toward me. Its fiery wings streaked across the green and purple trees. Everything was much more colorful than normal. This doesn’t feel real, my mind kept telling me. Where did Ketheria go? Why didn’t she stop? Then the screeching started: the same horrible sound that had rattled my bones when the central computer malfunctioned during our arrival. I tried to look at my hands. As they slowly came into focus, I felt the scorched breath of the fiendish creature on the back of my neck. And that is when I understood.
I was dreaming.
I awoke with a start and bumped my head on the lid of the sleeper. I ripped off the headset and stared at it in my hands.
“Wow.”
I looked over at Switzer and Dalton, still snoring. I put the headset next to me and tried to go back to sleep — without it.
The next morning everyone exchanged stories about the dream-enhancement abilities of their new sleepers.
“I was flying,” Grace said.
“I was exploring the crystal moons,” someone else said.
I didn’t tell anyone about my nightmare.
Ketheria came up to me while I was thinking about the number ten carved into the rock.
“Did you have a good sleep?” I asked her. She nodded in reply. “I spent the entire night chasing you around my dreams.” Ketheria gave me a strange look. “Tonight I think you should stay in your own dreams.”
The common area looked entirely different. It was now filled with tables and chairs. A plate, a glass of water, and a piece of cloth were placed at every seat.
“The room changes with our needs — one room, several purposes. Very efficient,” Theodore said admiringly.
“Very Weegin,” I replied.
“What’s this?” he asked, taking a seat.
On each plate were three tablets.
“That’s breakfast, split-screen.” Switzer scooped a pink tab let from Theodore’s plate. “Mmmm, bacon! Better than Mother’s chow synth.”
“Hey, that’s mine!”
“Oops,” Switzer said, and swiped another tablet.
Switzer moved down the row, gobbling up each person’s pink pill. By the end of the row, however, Switzer’s shenan
igans caught up with him. He doubled over, clutching his stomach. As Weegin entered, Switzer straightened and reached for a glass of water.
“Children, be careful with your breakfast. Eat each tablet slowly, with a full drink of water. The tablets expand in your stomach. You will quickly begin to feel very full. The water helps expand the molecules of the tablets.”
Everyone gawked at Switzer as he stared back wide-eyed over the top of his water glass. He had eaten twelve pink pills in a matter of seconds and just washed them down with half a glass of water. No one touched his or her breakfast. We wanted to see if Switzer would explode. He put his glass down and laughed.
“This is nothing. I’ll eat everyone’s breakfast.” And with that Switzer gave a loud burp. Ketheria, who stood with Grace between him and Dalton, stared intently at Switzer. After a moment, she took a step backward and then reached for Grace to join her.
Switzer grabbed his stomach and threw up all over Dalton.
“Eewwww! That’s disgusting,” Grace said as Dalton wiped Switzer’s vomit from his face.
“Awesome,” another boy said.
Dalton was covered in it.
“Quick thinking,” I said to Ketheria.
“Yeah, thanks,” Grace said.
“Switzer, clean yourself up and then get back here and clean this mess up,” Weegin ordered.
Switzer threw up again.
“That’s a lot of food for such a little pill,” I said.
“And I’m deducting half a chit for this mess,” Weegin said. “You” — he pointed at Theodore — “where is your skin?”
“In my room.”
“You are to have that skin on at all times. Half a chit.” Weegin was on a roll. He went to the front of the room. “The first spoke of each day will be spent in social studies. Here you will be uploading educational and social programs through your neural implants and engaging in social interactions with other ring residents. The sessions are located in the Wisdom, Culture, and Comprehension building on Orbis 1. Travel time: point two five diams. Eat up.” Weegin turned to leave. “Oh — I will show you how to travel there today, but only today, so pay attention to how to get there and back. If you’re late for work — half a chit.”
Switzer threw up one more time.
After a short ride on the spaceway, Weegin ordered all of us into an open-air tram. I wanted to talk to Theodore about my dream, but I never got the chance. I became so engrossed in my first trip to the city that I quickly forgot about the forest and the red bird. As the tram raced along channels cut through the gleaming metropolis, the zillion strange and unfamiliar things I saw quickly clogged my senses. I only hoped social studies would offer me an opportunity to fill in the gaps of my Orbis education.
“What’s this city called?” I asked Weegin.
“Nacreo,” Weegin replied. “The city of government. All business and dealings for Orbis happen on this ring. Most of them in this city. It’s the capital.”
The tram came to a rest and Weegin announced, “This is it. The Center for Wisdom, Culture, and Comprehension.” If I hadn’t known my Guarantor better, I would have thought he sounded a little sarcastic.
Once off the tram, I strained my neck searching for the top of the immense structure. It was larger than any of the surrounding buildings, and the distant starlight made the polished surface glitter against the thinning atmosphere high above the surface of the ring. Within these glass walls, I hoped I might get some answers.
“Let’s go enhance my investment,” Weegin said, and snickered.
I watched a group of four Keepers move smoothly past us, each clutching a bundle of narrow gold cylinders. Weegin followed them up the steep quartz steps.
“Move it, everyone. Time is money,” he hollered over his leathery shoulder.
The inside of the Wisdom, Culture, and Comprehension building was a maze of glass walls and thick beams of colored light that seemed to connect the different levels. The place was filled with aliens, like a spaceway station. We weaved through the crowd, crossing floors adorned with patterns of shimmering stones, and caught the attention of aliens perched on benches carved from blue and magenta crystals. The glass walls curved and bent in every direction, making it easy to lose your bearings.
“JT! Hey, look up!”
I looked up and saw Max three levels away. She was with her group, as were the other children and their Guarantors. She waved at me from the line, and I waved back. Torlee, the Guarantor with all the pink skin and the bubble on his head, was there also. He scowled down upon us and shoved one of the kids back in line. Theodore and I raced toward the spiral stairs to catch up with Boohral’s group, despite Weegin’s shouting.
When I caught up to Max, she asked, “What’s your Guarantor like?”
I shrugged. “I can’t complain. Look what he did to Switzer’s nose.”
Max searched the crowd and giggled when she caught sight of Switzer’s swollen snout.
“How about those sleepers?” I asked her. Maybe she could help me understand my dream.
“I know, aren’t they great?” she said.
“Any nightmares?”
“I thought that was Ketheria’s problem,” she teased. “You afraid of your new sleeper?”
“Of course not,” I lied. “I was only concerned for Ketheria.”
Now I felt silly. I decided not to mention my dream after all. I’d wait and talk to Theodore about it.
“Move along — you’re not here to chat,” Weegin barked, and pushed me forward.
We all filed into the hollow social studies room. The cylindrical space was eight levels high and encircled a common area located on the bottom floor. Theodore and I entered on the second floor. The humans took up three entire levels. I looked up and watched other aliens fill the remaining floors.
Max walked past me and said, “They’re children of Citizens.”
“Children?” I caught glimpses of the Orbis emblem, as well as other markings I could not recognize.
“Did you think we were the only ones?” she asked, and stood in front of an O-dat three stations away from me. Every floor was lined with O-dats, each with a neural link.
“I don’t know.” Actually, I hadn’t thought about it much.
“Boohral says the Keepers want us to interact with the other Citizens if we are ever to become Citizens ourselves.”
When we become Citizens, I said to myself, and watched the many different children attach to their O-dats. I spotted an alien who was a smaller version of Boohral.
“That’s Boohral’s kid,” Max said, catching me staring.
“Boohral has a kid?”
“I think he’s more of a clone,” Max said, and attached her neural link.
I stared at the alien children and wondered what it would be like to have parents. Even a clone for a father might be nice. I thought I might ask them about it.
“Supervisor. I am Supervisor Keetle,” said an alien, growing from the common area on the first floor. There was no other way to describe it. The alien simply emerged from the solid floor, taking shape as he, she, or whatever rose up into the center of the cylindrical classroom. “As supervisor, I will supervise your uplinks and integration of the information into your memory core. You may call me Supervisor Keetle.”
“She gonna repeat everything like that?” Theodore whispered from the station next to mine.
Apparently, she was. “Information. Anything you uplink is only information. It is up to you to use this information with practice.”
I looked at Theodore, and he covered his mouth so Keetle wouldn’t see him laughing.
“Behind you. Located on the wall behind you is your very own link with the central computer. Turn and face the uplink behind you,” continued Keetle, never moving from her spot. Her narrow face seemed to look at each of us at the same time.
“She must be some sort of material projection,” Max said.
“Gives me the creeps,” Theodore said.
“Familiar.
Please become familiar with the controls. To become familiar with the controls is your goal today.”
I turned toward the display and picked up the hardwire link. This won’t be much use, I thought.
“Connect. Please connect your neural link, everyone. That is, everyone but the Softwire. The Softwire does not connect. Would the Softwire please show himself?”
Why would Keetle single me out like that? Why did everyone on Orbis have to know I was different? I stayed put.
“Softwire, please move forward,” Keetle ordered, and Theodore nudged me to obey.
I slowly moved to the rail. Everyone from the fourth floor and higher wanted to get a look at me. I guess by now my arrival was common knowledge. The news of a human softwire had spread quickly. I felt like one of our science experiments on the Renaissance — like a bug under glass. I still didn’t know what my softwire was good for except opening a few doors.
“Turnbull. Johnny Turnbull, you may access the data files in a manner that is most comfortable to you. Johnny Turnbull, please return to your station.”
This was one time I didn’t object. I gladly slipped away from the glares of the other students. Max and Theodore were already attached to their neural links. I stood there and stared at the screen. What do I do now?
“History. The history of the Rings of Orbis is very important. History will facilitate your existence on Orbis. Please use the history files to practice control. Remember to uplink in small portions only,” said the monotonous alien.
A small icon labeled History floated on the right-hand side of my screen. Scrolling up and down the screen was simple; it was uplinking the file that was foreign to me. I practiced what Theylor told me and closed my eyes to visualize the file. It floated in front of me. I could see lines of code that contained the text from the file. Each file was divided into sections. I concentrated on the first link.
“Uplink,” I murmured to myself.
Instantly, the stream of code leaped from the file straight toward me. All at once I knew a lot more about the Ancients, the alien civilization that once inhabited the rings. The scholars believed that the Ancients harvested powerful crystals from the moons and distributed their energy throughout the universe. This information instantly became a part of my memory, fitting in with the pieces Mother had taught us on the seed-ship. I now knew that the Ancients used the wormhole to move the crystals to other galaxies, but I still did not know why they left. No one did.
