by Lara Morgan
An estate hoverbus made a low humming noise as it waited for passengers, but it was mostly quiet. At this time of the day the bulk of the population was at work in the city. Smearing some balm across her lips, Rosie approached the bus. It was AI-operated and the doors swished open in a blast of cool air as she reached it.
“Destination?” an automated voice asked.
“Um, Darling Grove,” Rosie said.
“Resident ident, please.”
Rosie hesitated. “I’m visiting.”
The AI was silent for two seconds then a short flash of blue light swept her face from an invisible detector above the door.
“Please be seated. Journey time, four minutes, thirty-six seconds.”
Apparently, the machine didn’t consider her a threat. Rosie sat in one of the eight seats in the oblong bubble-shaped interior. There was a soft whirring sound then the bus abruptly took off, heading up the road towards the estates. They passed a snub-nosed car at the top of the hill then turned right and sped down a long narrow lane that cut through a section of trees and rock. The high wall of Darling Grove estate was at the end and the bus let her out with the terse call of “destination” and a dim chime.
There was no one around as she typed Shen and the dwelling number into the keypad.
After a while a black-and-white image of Juli blipped onto the screen and grinned.
“Hi.” Juli’s voice sounded hollow. She waved at Rosie then disappeared again. Rosie stepped back as the huge gate buzzed and, with a click, a small portion swung open allowing her to slip through.
Ahead of her a paved road wound away through the trees and gardens that were so lush, they looked fake. Tubular solar lights were set in sunny patches on either side of the drive and every hundred metres or so was a short pole with a box on top and a number on it, marking the start of a driveway.
Rosie wiped sweat off her face with her forearm and turned down Juli’s driveway. It was quiet except for the occasional sound of a bird or insect, and the heat of the road rose up through the thin soles of her shoes.
She hadn’t known Juli very long. The past year had been her first at the Central school her aunt had found for her – she’d said it would be a good place to have on her resume if she wanted to get into the Orbitcorp Academy. But a girl from the Banks going to school in Central wasn’t exactly popular. Hardly anyone ever spoke to her, which wasn’t too bad; she’d never had, or really wanted, many friends. Her last real friend had been a boy at her old Banks school, but he’d moved away just after her fourteenth birthday. Ever since then she hadn’t wanted to make friends with anyone else – especially anyone in her apartment block, where there was nothing but little kids or gang wannabes. Juli had been new also, and friendly. She seemed less stupid than the other kids, and she and Rosie were at least interested in some of the same things. She’d come with Rosie to the Old City after all.
Juli was waiting for her at the front door when she arrived. Her house, like the others, was surrounded by a wide UV barrier shade and more of the lush trees. Rosie glimpsed a private energy grid through them.
The Banks had one huge grid for the whole area and Rosie couldn’t remember the last time they’d gone more than three days without some kind of power outage. She bet Juli’s family never had one.
“Hi.” Juli was barefoot, her hair tied up in a ponytail. “Come in. Mum’s not home; we can have ice-cream.”
Ice-cream? Rosie had had ice-cream about five times in her life.
She followed Juli through the entrance into the house.
Juli’s home was all one level and built around a central courtyard. It had plaswood floors and big rooms with high ceilings and sliding doors made out of slats that let the breeze through.
“Did you bring the box?” Juli asked as she slid open one of the doors to the hallway and led them towards the kitchen.
“It’s in my pack.” Rosie closed her eyes as a blast of cool air washed over her from the kitchen ceiling fan.
“So what do you want, berries and cream or chocolate?” Juli was at the freezer dispenser.
“Chocolate.”
“Excellent choice.” Juli made the selection and seconds later two wrapped blocks dropped into the dispenser tray. She handed her one then jumped as three loud beeps sounded.
“Juli!” A woman’s voice came out of a speaker and a face appeared on the cool unit’s display screen. “I knew you’d do that as soon as I left. Hello, you must be Rosie.” Juli’s mum’s gaze moved briefly to her.
“Hi.” Rosie smiled tentatively. Juli’s mum didn’t look happy.
“Come on, Mum,” Juli said. “It’s just one ice-cream and it is the holidays.”
Mrs Shen’s eyes narrowed. “All right, but only one. There’s vegetable mee goreng for lunch – make sure you eat that and no more junk!” She pointed a small finger at her daughter. “I will know if you do.”
“Sure, Mum.” Juli smiled.
“Good, I’ll be home by two o’clock and don’t go outside, the UV is too high.”
There was a little ping and the screen went back to a picture of a tropical island.
Juli turned to Rosie and rolled her eyes. “Sorry ’bout that. She still thinks I’m five and links the unit to her com. Let’s go to my room.”
They headed across the kitchen and through the shaded central courtyard. Juli’s room was as big as Rosie’s entire apartment. She had a huge bed, a walk-in wardrobe, a virtual gaming system and a massive comnet screen set into the wall.
“Come on.” Juli flopped down on the bed and activated the screen to music. A heavy repetitive beat filled the room, overlaid with lilting flute and a holo image of a black woman in a shimmering dress singing in Chinese.
“Ugh, I hate Chino-funk.” Rosie sat down cross-legged beside Juli and held the ice-cream in her mouth as she pulled the box out and dumped her pack on the floor.
“Me too.” Juli swished her finger back and forth over the control pad. “How about Moko?”
“He’s not bad.” Rosie turned the box over carefully near her ear. “Definitely something moving inside.”
Juli was staring at the 3-D image of the singer gyrating in her room. “He is blasting pretty, don’t you think?”
Rosie glanced up. “Too pretty.”
“No such thing,” Juli scoffed. “Hey, any idea what that design on the box is yet?”
“No. But I asked my aunt if I can look at her resource files. I might be able to find something when she gets back.”
“Back from where?”
“Mars, or the space station. I’m not sure. She’s an Orbitcorp pilot.”
“Serious? You never told me. Is that why you’re so good at the flight simulator?”
“Yeah, well, I guess so,” Rosie said.
“Hey,” Juli giggled, “remember Reub’s face when you annihilated him? I swear I thought he was going to implode.”
It had been fun beating him, thought Rosie with a smile.
“He deserved it,” Juli said. “He is totally toxic.” She shook her head and stared at the screen for a moment then turned back to her. “So, does your aunt live with you too?”
“Uh, no.” Rosie fiddled with the buttons on the box. “She lives in Central, at the Orbitcorp complex. We don’t see her that much.”
“How come?”
Rosie sighed. “It’s just … um. It’s complicated, you know.”
“Yeah, right, families, eh?” Juli said. “Don’t she and your dad get along?”
“No, well …” Rosie hesitated. “My mum and aunt used to be close friends before she married Dad, but Mum was really against Orbitcorp and what they do – you know all the exploration of other planets. She used to say they’d destroyed Earth and were doing the same thing to the rest of the universe.”
“My dad’s the same. He hates them,” Juli said.
Rosie nodded and said, “When Aunt Essie started working for them they had a big fight and Dad got involved and …” She shrugged. “I don�
��t think they’ve talked much since.”
“Holding a grudge?” Juli said.
“Something like that. But since Mum …” She paused, unable to say the words.
“Your aunt’s been trying to help out?” Juli said.
“Yeah.” Rosie gave her a small smile. “But Dad’s, well, he’s kind of messed up and he doesn’t like what he calls her charity. Aunt Essie basically forced him to let her pay for school.”
“Parents,” Juli said. “I hope I never get that stupid.”
“Yeah.”
For a moment there was silence between them, filled only by the music, then Juli said, “Let’s open the box.”
“Good idea.” Rosie picked it out of her lap and tilted it.
“The buttons must open it.” She pressed one of them. “A combination of some kind.”
“But there could be hundreds,” Juli said. “Any ideas what to try first?”
“Don’t know.” Rosie sucked slowly on the last chunk of her ice-cream. “We could try simple combinations, like one push on the first one, two on the second.”
Juli shrugged. “Go for it.”
Rosie wiped her hands on her shorts then began to press the buttons. Nothing happened.
“It wouldn’t be that easy.” Juli smiled.
For what seemed like hours they tried different combinations, but the box remained shut.
“We should just force it open. I think my dad has some tools somewhere,” Juli said.
“No.” Rosie sucked on her teeth in frustration. There had to be a way to get in. She tried another combination. One press on the first, two on the third, then one on the fourth and one on the second button. Still nothing happened.
“Stupid thing!” Juli exclaimed and slapped her hand over the seal on the lid.
A soft whirring sound came from the box and then a click and the lid sprang up slightly from the sides.
They stared at each other and grinned. Then Rosie pushed up the lid.
CHAPTER 5
Inside the box were three objects: a small grey device, a key made of a piece of oblong metal attached to a circular disc, and a round, dark-green pendant.
“What the …?” Juli pulled out the device. It was the size of her palm and had a hinge on one side and a clasp on the other.
“It looks like an old digi book,” Rosie said.
Juli flicked the clasp and opened it. There was a blank screen on the right and a numerical keypad on the left.
“Or a diary.” Juli reached back in the box and picked up the key. It was the length of her little finger, but only half as thick, and had a series of indents and raised dots along one edge.
Juli raised her eyebrows. “Wonder what this is for?”
“Could be anything.” Rosie frowned and picked up the pendant. She ran her fingers along its smooth, rounded edges. It was small – only two centimetres in diameter – with a hole near one edge, as though it were made to be hung from a chain. The shape of a triangle was carved deep into it on one side and on the other was the flaring sun with the horse and rider rearing over it.
“The same as on the front of the box,” Juli said.
Rosie turned the pendant in her fingers. It was quite beautiful.
“Do you think it’s from a necklace?” Juli said.
“Maybe,” she said, but privately she didn’t think so. It looked like it was made for a special purpose, not just for jewellery. But for what? She closed her hand around it and put it in her pocket.
“Hey, Juli.” She reached for the key Juli was holding. “What does this remind you of?”
Juli frowned. “What?”
“Maybe this.” Rosie pointed at the key that activated Juli’s comnet.
“A comkey?”
“Yes.” Rosie felt excitement building inside her. “The pattern on the side is almost the same.” She pulled the comkey out of the slot, abruptly shutting off the music. “It could be someone’s personal comkey.”
“And if we put it in my comnet, it might link up to its home databank and tell us who all this stuff belongs to.” Juli bounced up off the bed. “Let’s try it.”
Rosie hesitated. “It could be viral, or the Senate could link in and find out. It could belong to anyone.”
“So? Who cares about the Senate? Just do it – it’ll be fun.”
Rosie considered it. Well, if anything went wrong, she guessed Juli’s parents could afford to fix it.
“Don’t worry.” Juli took the key. “I’ll do it.” And before Rosie could stop her, she pushed it into the slot of her comnet.
For a moment nothing happened, and then the screen turned bright blue and a series of numbers and letters began appearing at the top in seemingly random order. Long lines of them filled the screen. Two lines became three, three became four, coming faster and faster, lines of them, letters and numbers, filling up the screen. Rosie watched nervously.
“This isn’t right.” She looked at Juli. The blue light was reflecting on her face as she tried to read the rapid sets flowing down the screen like digital water. Rosie had never seen a comkey make this happen before. Usually, a greeting came up from Microcorp, or a jingle started playing, but not this.
“I’m taking it out.” She reached forward.
“No, wait.” Juli grabbed her hand. “Maybe it’s just searching for the right address. It could be really old.”
Rosie waited, watching the screen fill with nonsense. Her stomach clenched; she had a bad feeling about this. “It’s not working,” she said.
“Just a minute. It’s slowing down.”
Now on the last line that would fit on the screen, the letters and numbers were slowing and then, when there was hardly any room left, a semicolon appeared and stayed there blinking for a few seconds. Rosie and Juli watched it, holding their breaths as words started forming.
Shore beacon activated. Code entered. Target acquired. Searching …
“What’s that mean?” Juli whispered.
The flesh on Rosie’s arms prickled. “Target acquired” did not sound good.
“That’s it. I’m taking it out.” She shook Juli’s hand off and yanked the key out of the slot. Instantly, the screen went to fuzz.
“That was weird,” Juli said.
Rosie looked down at the still-warm key in her palm. The feeling that something was not right was roiling in her gut. “I wonder what ‘code entered’ meant. I’ve never seen comkeys come up with codes before, have you?”
“No.” Juli pushed her own key back in the slot. “Perhaps it was just some old database that was out of commission and the comnet couldn’t find it.”
“But why target acquired? That sounds like … I don’t know.”
“Like something out of retro-tel,” Juli said. “You know like that old Space Jump show.” She put on a deep voice and pulled a serious face. “Commander, we’ve found the fugitives – target is acquired. Should we shoot them with our death rays?” She got up on her knees, put her hands on her hips and pulled her chin into her neck, mimicking the commander. “Yes, Captain, shoot them, shoot them all. They are scum, they are toe jam. Squish them like bugs.” She made a gun out of her hands and pretended to shoot at the screen.
Rosie smiled. Perhaps she was overreacting. They were only words and, really, what were the chances of it meaning anything? It probably was just an old database like Juli said.
“Come on.” Rosie put the key back in the box. “Let’s check out that diary.”
“Okay.” Juli giggled. They went back over to the bed and propped themselves up against the pillows.
“Do you think it’s a com?” Juli said.
“Could be.” Rosie opened it up and touched a small button under the screen. It flickered into static and then slowly stabilised until it was lit by a bright pink background with little stars bursting all over it.
“Pretty,” Juli said. “I bet we need a code to access it.”
“Yeah, but it must have been owned by a girl. There’s no way a boy would hav
e stars.”
Juli leaned in and tried pressing some of the numbers on the keypad. “We’ll never figure out the code.”
“We got the box open.” Rosie examined the side seams and corners. “My aunt might have something that could decode it.”
“Yeah?” Juli picked up the box. “And when’s she getting back?”
“Um, she said Tuesday at nine, but I’ll check in case it’s changed.”
Rosie went to Juli’s comnet screen and touched the icon to connect to the Grid. She searched until she found Orbitcorp and the staff listings.
“Here,” she selected her aunt’s name, “yeah, it says her arrival hasn’t changed. It’s still Tuesday morning.”
“Okay, I guess we can wait until then,” Juli said. “But if you find anything, you have to ping me, right away. Promise?”
“Promise.” Rosie put her hand up as if she was swearing on something and Juli smiled.
“Total super.” Juli rubbed her flat stomach. “Let’s eat. My guts are eating themselves.”
Riley pulled his hat down low over his eyes, hiding his face beneath its wide brim. He wound his way through the Banks, carrying a heavy black pack.
The sun beat down on his shoulders and the smell of salt, damp and decay filled his nostrils. The potholed streets were full of people – some going places, most not. Groups crouched together under the shade of building overhangs and porticos or sweated silently seated at tables in the cafes and noodle shops. Signs written in three languages littered the scene proclaiming everything from dumpling soup to shoe repairs. Street hawkers shouted at him as he passed, but he ignored them. He was preoccupied. Pip had pinged him early to tell him he’d found out the identity of the girl who’d found the box. Rosie Black, a Banker. Riley was hoping he’d find her and see if this box was the one he’d been looking for. He’d sent Pip out to Central East though, just in case, to check on the other girl.
He skirted a tiny park. There were a few people sitting on the square of dirt, drinking out of a communal squeezer. He was sliding past them in the shadows of a nearby building, when the com alarm in his pocket started vibrating. He cast his gaze about, then ran across the park and down an alleyway between some empty shops. Rubbish and dirt littered the ground, and a sickly sweet stench pervaded the air but he barely noticed. He pulled the com from his pocket then went completely still as the automated message blinked at him.
