Jayden's Cybermountain

by Katrina Cope

  “That’s really cute,” Jayden said. He reached down to touch one as it was feeding. It didn’t seem to mind, so he was able to linger, feeling the tight, little curls of wool on its body. Once the lambs were full, they backed away from the feeder and started to play with each other. Their little bodies were springing around in different positions as they twisted and flipped their back legs in various directions. They even play-fought by doing little springing steps toward each other and butting their heads together. It made Jayden laugh. He looked up to see that Charlie was also smiling at their fierce playfulness. But then Charlie looked in a different direction, and Jayden saw the look on his face turn into one of serious concern.

  “Look out, Robert! Run!” he yelled. Jayden looked in the same direction as Charlie and saw Robert bending over to pick something up off the ground. He suddenly straightened and started running as fast as his chubby legs could carry his large body while looking over his shoulder at the full-grown ram that was running toward him. The ram had four large horns and ran with his head down, ready to butt with full force. Robert ran surprisingly fast for an overweight boy. However, because he was running in one direction and looking in the other, he didn’t get very far. He soon tripped over a large tree root and ended up facedown in a mud puddle.

  A few of the other students standing nearby saw Robert fall and, seeing his face all covered in fresh mud, couldn’t help but laugh.

  Aaron stepped in to distract the ram from his friend. He did a dance and waved his arms, jumping up and down while moving closer to the ram until it noticed him. When the ram looked his way, the ram decided that this person dancing was a more interesting target than the one who was stuck in the mud. So he started to move toward Aaron, who took off at a fast run. Aaron was so fit from martial arts that he proved a good match for the ram. He continued to distract him away from the other students by heading toward a distant fence and jumping over it. The ram remained on the other side of the field, too far away from the other students to be tempted to chase any one of them. When Aaron was safely on the other side of the fence, he turned his back on the ram, bent forward, and wiggled his bottom. He tormented the ram with a, “Na na na, na naah na!”

  - Chapter Ten -

  The Surrogates

  The afternoon snack break was over. As the students left the dining room, Jayden asked, “What lesson do we have now?”

  “The most epic lesson ever,” Robert answered excitedly. His face was now freshly washed.

  “I second that,” Aaron agreed. “In this class, we separate into groups. In each group, we have the tech heads like Robert, and the ones who are better at Tae Kwon Do and physical techniques, like me. We’re still kind of in the same classroom as the two rooms open in the middle between each other, and we have the same teacher.”

  They walked across the marble common room, turning into a short hallway before coming to the entrance to the guest area. Entering the room, Jayden saw several large screens against the walls. In the middle of the room was an open space with large mats in front of the screens. The room was dark, so the screens were lit up brightly and clearly. The second room was attached by an open door. In this room, there were many computer screens on desktops. This room was lit more brightly than the first room.

  On the far side of the second room was a tall, thin man who was balding. His remaining hair was a little long—long enough to comb over the top of his head. His back was toward the students and he was bending over the back of a computer as if he were trying to either connect or fix something. When he heard the students arrive, he turned around to reveal his thin, pointy face and large glasses. He smiled, revealing his oversize teeth—it looked like it might’ve been his best effort at showing warmth toward the students.

  “Good afternoon, students. I see we have our new student, Jayden, here with us today.” He gazed at Jayden and again smiled his sweetest smile. “Welcome. Welcome.”

  “Thanks,” Jayden said with uncertainty, not quite sure why he suddenly felt so uncomfortable. Perhaps it’s just those teeth, he thought to himself. Or maybe it’s those massive glasses? I can’t quite place it. He seems nice enough, though. Mentally, he shrugged it off.

  “Good afternoon, Professor Showden,” said Eva. “What exciting task do you have for us this afternoon?” She looked like she was almost jumping with enthusiasm.

  The professor took a deep breath before saying, “Well, my dear, I am going to have you pick electronic locks today with your operating system.”

  “Yes!” she exclaimed while grabbing the air up high with her hand and pulling it down to her side in a fist.

  Jayden was puzzled.

  “Mr. Robert.” the professor said.

  “Yes?” Robert asked, looking at him.

  “I will have you control that ladybug of yours on the system and have you search for more interesting happenings in the suspect school.”

  Robert also looked happy.

  Professor Showden took another deep breath. “Aaron.” Aaron looked up. “You’ll be operating the surrogate again because you’re naturally better at that than anyone else. Jayden, it’s too soon to know what your talents are, so we’ll just have you wandering around observing what the other students are doing. I believe you’ll find it very interesting because it’s like no other subject you’ve ever seen before.”

  “Yes, Professor,” Jayden said.

  Professor Showden continued with the other students, giving them their instructions for the class while gesturing with his long, lanky hands. Jayden watched closely as his friends were setting up for their lesson.

  “What goes on in here?” Jayden asked Eva.

  “Well, this class is made up of several different operating systems, and each of us who’s been at the Sanctum for a while has a unique ‘talent,’ so to speak. We practice this talent during the lesson and sometimes expand our skills into other areas. My talent is puzzle solving. I’ve got a natural gift for solving number, letter, and shape problems. Robert’s talent is robotics, and Aaron’s is physical fighting.”

  She turned to her computer, clicked the mouse a couple of times, and then turned back to Jayden. “To make things easier, the three of us work together on the same project but in different areas so that we can combine our skills. We practice these talents in this lesson to help us specialize in these areas so that we can use those talents to make the world a safer place. There’s been a lot of terrorism going on around the world, and we’re working to fight against it. It’s even better fighting it from a distance. It keeps us safe during the process.”

  Eva’s operating system had finished loading, so she turned back to the computer to start her work while Jayden peered over her shoulder.

  “What are we looking at here?” he asked Eva while they studied a number pad.

  “What we have here is an electronic PIN pad. My job is to work out the PIN so that Aaron can go through the door. Robert hasn’t recorded this one as he’s been in a different area.”

  “How do you work out the PIN?”

  “Well, first I zoom in to try to detect any fingerprints or dirt that may have built up on the pad.” Eva’s screen zoomed in as she spoke, and she scanned it with an extra strong magnifying glass. Five numbers appeared to be a little dirtier than the others—and one of those numbers was even more so. “See the five numbers?” she asked Jayden.

  “Yes. It’s five, one, three, nine and seven.”

  “Yep. That’s right. And see how the three is even a little dirtier than the others?”

  Jayden nodded.

  “Well, that usually means the number is used twice in the password or access code, so it’s going to be a tricky one. I have to work it out within one minute of the first button being pressed, or an alarm will go off. So don’t interrupt me for a minute while I work on this.”

  She put her head down and started concentrating. Jayden watched in silence as she tossed different numbers around and started entering them into the PIN pad on her keyboard at
a rapid rate. While looking at the screen, she appeared to be entering them with what looked like someone else’s hand. It moved to the numbers that she typed on the PIN pad in front of her. She had tried many PINs that were unsuccessful, but she kept trying, looking more strained with every entry that failed.

  Jayden watched the clock on her computer in front of her as it counted down the seconds one by one, and he saw beads of sweat forming on her forehead. It was all beginning to look pretty grim until she only had about ten seconds left, when she finally scored. The soft buzzer sounded on the PIN pad, and the door opened.

  Next thing he heard was Aaron yelling through the door. “Awesome work, Eva!”

  Eva smiled in response to Aaron’s comment and relaxed, clearly relieved.

  “Attagirl, Eva!” said Professor Showden, giving her a wry smile. Eva looked proud.

  Jayden moved on to see what Robert was doing. Robert was looking at a computer screen, which also looked like a small, mobile camera. He had earphones on over his ears, so to get his attention, Jayden had to tap him on the shoulder. Robert took one earphone off and looked up at Jayden.

  “What work are you doing?” Jayden asked.

  “Well, I’m controlling a robotic ladybug from the computer. I have the ability to move it to any place I wish, into any room where I need to go. Sometimes I will even have it land on Aaron’s surrogate’s shoulder. Once there, I can listen in on conversations with the microphone, and I also have a video feed to see what’s going on, so I can record with both methods.”

  “So it’s literally like being a ‘fly on the wall,’ but you’re a ladybug instead of a fly?” asked Jayden.

  “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “And this is the feed from the ladybug that you made—the one that Eva told me about in graphics?”

  “It sure is.”

  Jayden looked at the screen in front of Robert. It appeared that he was watching a classroom full of students. They were all dressed in what looked like white lab coats and seemed to be doing science projects.

  “Who are you watching?” Jayden asked.

  “I don’t know where they are for sure, but I do know it’s some top-notch ‘smart’ school. Apparently, Avando is having us watch this school, since he believes they’re up to no good, and that they make weapons for the terrorists. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s very interesting to watch some of the inventions they come up with.”

  “That’s very true,” Avando’s voice sounded behind them.

  Both of the students jumped in surprise.

  “Ah. Good afternoon, Avando,” Robert said. His face had the look of shame of a child who got caught in the act of doing something naughty.

  “Hi,” Jayden said, and his voice involuntarily rose. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat. They hadn’t actually done anything wrong, but both had been caught talking about Avando behind his back.

  “Afternoon, boys. How is your work going, Robert?” Avando asked.

  “It’s coming along okay. Not too much is happening at the moment.”

  “Fair enough. Keep a good eye on the students, though—they may just do something sneaky on the side.”

  “Yes, Avando,” Robert responded with respect, turning his head back to look at the screen.

  “How’s your first day going, Jayden? Are you settling in well?” Avando asked.

  “Kind of,” Jayden replied with hesitation.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “Well, it’s a lot to take in and to catch up on—let alone to earn the good grades you expect us to.” After a pause, he said, “Not that I’m complaining. I’m just not sure if I can do it.”

  Avando creased his brow as if he were in deep thought. With his thumb and forefinger, he stroked his chin several times.

  “I understand where you’re coming from, Jayden. However, grades are too far off for you to be worrying about them now. You seem like a bright kid who’s keen to learn, and you’ll have plenty of help.” He removed his hand from his chin. “I think you just need to relax a little in your new surroundings, and it’ll all start to come to you after a while. Very few who really try end up losing their place at the Sanctum.”

  Jayden felt a little relieved.

  “Now, why don’t we go and see what Aaron is up to?” Avando suggested.

  They left the computer room and went into the other room, which had the large screens on the walls. Each large mat that was placed in the middle had a student standing on it, facing the screen that was immediately in front of the student, with a chair not far behind. They were doing all different, strange, and wonderful things, and if it weren’t for the screens, they would have looked a little absurd.

  Some students were walking on the spot, some were running, and some looked as though they were fighting thin air. Each screen had a different scenario that a student was dealing with and, in turn, the screens were responding to their actions.

  Avando and Jayden stood in the middle of the room, where all the students’ backs were turned to them while they concentrated on the immediate task before them.

  “This is the virtual room,” Avando whispered in Jayden’s ear. They watched as Aaron reached to open a door by its handle. It all looked like a big game of charades, since the door wasn’t in front of him in the real world. However, if you looked at the screen he was watching, you could see the door handle moving, and the door opening so that a person could walk through the doorway. They watched as, once the door on the screen had opened, Aaron started a walking movement, which in turn reflected the movement of the image on the screen.

  From where they were standing, it looked like they were walking along a short hall into a classroom full of neat rows of desks and chairs. On the far side of the room were many windows with fresh snow gathering around the edges of the outside sills. Looking through the windows, they could see the continuously falling snow. The room itself had a few students spread out in different locations.

  “Hi, Brendan,” said boy wearing a blue school cardigan waved from the other side of the room. Aaron gave a wave in return before walking to the back of the room to find a desk. When he appeared to be standing in front of it, he reached behind him and grabbed the chair in the real world. This movement was reflected on the screen, and he sat down.

  The brown-haired boy on the screen who had just waved to Aaron followed Aaron’s on-screen person and sat next to him. Not long afterward, a girl with brilliantly red, curly hair and a pale, freckled complexion joined them in the classroom, followed by another boy with brown hair.

  The newest boy spoke. “Hey, Brendan. Howzit going?” Without waiting for an answer, he said, “I haven’t seen you for a while.”

  “Where’ve you been?” asked the girl. Jayden could see the curiosity on her face.

  “Hey, Hayley and Dryden. I haven’t been doing too much—just a little extra studying,” Brendan lied.

  Jayden watched as Aaron spoke softly, but he could hear that the conversation on the screen was at the ordinary volume of a normal conversation.

  “Oh. If we’d known that, we probably would’ve joined you,” she replied. “We can always do with some extra studying.”

  “I’ll try to remember next time,” Brendan said, shrugging it off.

  “You can be quite vague sometimes, Brendan,” Hayley said with a wry smile. Her green eyes searched Brendan’s face.

  The surrounding classroom continued to fill up with students, since it was nearly time for the class to start.

  Jayden asked Avando quietly, “Does Aaron stay for the class in there as well?”

  “We try to keep ‘Brendan,’ Aaron’s surrogate character, in play for as long as we can. Otherwise, suspicions may be raised if he’s missing too much,” Avando responded quietly in return.

  “What happens to the surrogate when Aaron isn’t operating it?” Jayden asked.

  “We’ve got a team from other classes who are working on the different surrogates at various times to keep
them all operating as much as possible. When we can, we have downtime. It is what has just taken place, which is probably why this girl called Hayley is questioning where he’s been,” Avando responded.

  “Sounds like the work is high-maintenance. Won’t they pick up on the fact that something’s a little odd?” When Avando gave him a puzzled look, he continued, “I mean, different people act in different ways—and even speak differently. So, even though the outside looks the same, the surrogate would act differently when another person is operating it.”

  “Very clever thinking!” Avando exclaimed as his eyes lit up. “Yes, that is true. So to try to eliminate this problem, we’ve chosen similar characters to act behind the surrogate, so the others who act as Brendan will act and speak in a similar way to Aaron.”

  “Who builds these surrogate robots? They would be extremely advanced.”

  “Why, Professor Showden of course,” Avando said with an amused smile.

  “Really?” Jayden’s eyes widened as he turned to search for the professor. Perhaps the uneasy feeling Jayden felt earlier was simply because the professor spent too much time with technology, and was not used to working with people.

  Avando adjusted the position of his walking stick in a way that suggested he was about to move away. “Well, it looks as though it’ll be a fairly uneventful lesson today. I think I will take my leave and continue with other matters. Keep watching, Jayden.” He put a hand on Jayden’s shoulder. “Learn as much as possible. One day it may be you in Aaron’s position—or perhaps you’ll be his sidekick.” He began to walk off.

  Jayden was a little startled by that statement, but turned back to continue watching both the screen and Aaron.

  ~~~~~

  THE LAST LESSON of the day turned out to be general duties of the kitchen. The students piled into the large kitchen with Ms. Helen directing them to their positions.

  “Good afternoon, students. We have lots of hungry mouths to feed again, so let’s get cracking.”