Psion Beta (9 page)

“
Amazing, huh?” Brickert said, gesturing to the clothes. “I’ve never worn anything like this before, I’ll tell you.”

Sammy had worn seamless clothes before, mostly when his parents took him to fancy parties and important ceremonies, but he thought it best not to mention it as Brickert probably came from a poorer family and was embarrassed easily.

“
Where are you from again, Samuel?” Brickert asked, trying to sound casual.

Sammy choked back a laugh. “Call me Sammy. No one calls me Samuel, not even my parents, except, well, unless I made them really mad.”

“
Sorry.”

“
Don’t worry. I’m from Johannesburg.”

“
You’re—you’re the first black person I’ve ever met,” Brickert said. Red spots grew on his cheeks just as they had during the orientation.

This time Sammy’s laugh came out. “You kidding?”

“
I’m—well—from a very small town.”

“
I’m actually only half-black. My mom—my mom’s about as light-skinned as you,” Sammy said. “How did you find out you were a . . . you belonged here?”

“
I was fixing up our shed with my father and accidentally hit my finger with the hammer. I got so mad I blew a hole clear through both sides! It was a cheapo shed but my father saw the whole thing. Made me get checked in at the hospital. He was freaking out. I was there about three hours with all these confused doctors before Byron came in dressed as a doctor, too.”

“
Byron came?” Sammy asked.

“
Yeah. I think he recruits everyone. He told me and my folks about this place, and then let us talk it over for a while. When we agreed, he said I’d have to wait a few months for the next recruiting period to end before I could come.”

“
So you’ve known for a long time now?”

“
Yeah. He said I shouldn’t try to experiment around or tell anyone. We had to sign stuff saying we’d keep it a secret. My family tells everyone I’ve gone to a boarding school in Melbourne, Australia for the next several years on scholarship.” Brickert chuckled. “Me? On scholarship!”

“
Do you have any idea how to—how to do—whatever it is?” Sammy struggled to find the words to describe something he knew nothing about.

“
No,” Brickert said, shrugging.

“
When do you see your family again?”

Brickert looked at him incredulously. “Don’t you know? Sorry. I assumed they told everyone. We won’t get to see our parents until we graduate. Didn’t they tell your family that?”

“
Of course,” Sammy covered quickly. “I— I just wondered since maybe you are closer to home . . . you know, maybe they’d come visit or something.”

“
Nope. It was really hard leaving them, too. Tonight will be the first night I’ve ever spent away from home.” Then Brickert suddenly became suspicious. “You’re not going to tell anyone that, are you?”

“
No. Course not,” Sammy said. “You can trust me.”

And he meant it. Brickert seemed loyal, much like Sammy’s friends in the grocery store. Brickert’s youthful innocence brought out a tamer side in him that he hadn’t felt in a while. Sammy lost himself in his memories, missing Feet and Gunner and others. Brickert had to clear his throat to get Sammy’s attention back.

“
Sorry,” Sammy mumbled, “just thinking.”

“
You didn’t tell me how you found out about being a Psion,” Brickert said. They were both sitting on their chairs wearing the new uniforms. Sammy had his feet propped up and Brickert was settling in as though he was about to hear a good story. But Sammy had a chance now to make a clean start with a new crowd; he wanted to make the most of it. Someone knocked at their door at that moment, saving him the task of thinking up a lie to tell Brickert.

Sammy got up a little too fast and crossed the room. The door opened to reveal a tall skinny boy with light-brown hair and blue eyes wearing a gold and white jumpsuit. He was definitely older than both Sammy and Brickert. He wore a monstrous grin on his face.

“
Hey,” he exclaimed. “Can I come in?”

“
Sure,” Sammy responded, moving out of the way to allow him room.

“
Albert Hayman,” he said, shaking their hands heartily. “Everyone calls me Al. The commander asked me to keep an eye on you guys. Make sure you find everything okay.”

“
Thanks!” Brickert answered as if he had just won the lottery.

“
What’re your names?” he asked.

“
Brickert.”

“
Sammy.”

“
Are you two the only nukes?” Al asked.

“
What does that mean?” Brickert asked.

“
Nukes . . . New recruits. Newcomers. Don’t either of you game?”

Both Sammy and Brickert shook their heads.

Al rubbed his forehead. “Well, that’s going to have to change if you want to fit in. Who else came today?”

“
Three girls with us,” Sammy answered.

“
Really? Five? Wow. Biggest group I’ve ever heard of.”

“
How long have you been here?” Brickert asked.

“
Me? I’ve been here forever. Over five years. Almost six now that I think of it. Second longest of anyone here right now, and I finish in about nine months.”

“
How many Betas are there?” Brickert asked, definitely eager to get his important questions answered. Sammy didn’t bother reminding him Byron had already told them the answer.

“
With five new recruits that brings it up to . . . twenty Betas.”

“
Does everyone get along?”

“
For the most part. If you can tolerate being called a ‘nuke’ or worse for a few weeks. Are you guys hungry?”

“
I’m starving,” answered Sammy. In fact, he could not remember eating since the pizzas on the night the Shocks had come. Thinking about the Shocks reminded him of something else. “Al, what day is it?” he asked.

“
It’s the eighteenth.”

“
No, what day of the week is it?”

“
Er . . . Sunday,” Al replied slowly.

Sammy had been chased from the grocery store on Thursday night.
Two days completely gone, and I have no memory of what happened
.

“
Come on,” Al said, interrupting Sammy’s thought. “I’ll help you get food.”

“
Where’s everyone else?” Brickert asked Al as the three of them walked upstairs to the cafeteria.

“
Well, we spend so much time inside that on Sundays everyone just wants to get out. Plus, the commander doesn’t want anyone inside during tours. Says it distracts the recruits.”

Once in the cafeteria, Al gave them a more detailed explanation on how to work the RoboChef. Sammy ordered his favorite, a creamy chicken cordon bleu. The RoboChef made it perfectly. Brickert asked for a hamburger. Al ordered something Sammy had never heard of before. Fifteen minutes later, they were all eating.

“
The RoboChef isn’t going to break, Sammy,” Al said, watching him with disgust and awe. “You can slow down.”

Sammy almost choked through his laughter. “Sorry, I just—it’s really good and I’m hungry.” His diet while living in the grocery store had consisted of anything he and his friends could nick without being caught. And the cordon bleu tasted like a home-cooked meal.

“
Mom isn’t much of a cook, eh?” Al asked, now smiling again.

“
Something like that,” Sammy replied.

Brickert glanced at Sammy, but continued eating his burger. While they ate, Al kept up a steady stream of information about other Betas.

“
Kobe and Ludwig are habitual practical jokers—watch out for them.”

“
Are there brothers here?” Sammy asked. “We saw a door that had identical last names above it.”

“
That’s Kobe and Kaden. The Reynolds twins.”

“
Twins?” Brickert repeated. “Cool.”

“
Kind of a funny story how the commander found them, actually,” Al continued. “They were playing one of those VR fighting games. You know the ones you can control with your mind? Street Fighter, I think. Anyway, Kobe, he’s the one I just mentioned, he got really mad and blasted Kaden across the room. Kaden did it right back. By the time the commander got there, they’d caused a ton of damage and the cops were dragging them to jail.”

Sammy and Brickert both laughed with Al.

“
Can you show us what it is we . . . can do?” Sammy asked Al.

“
Sure. What do you want to see?”

“
Anything,” Brickert said.

“
Okay,” Al answered and then, after looking around, pointed to Brickert’s half-empty glass of water. “Watch that glass.”

Sammy and Brickert stared at the glass, and Al held his hand about ten centimeters away.

“
Watching?” Al asked.

They both nodded anxiously.

The glass moved away from Al’s hand all on its own at a steady speed toward the end of the table. It stopped only centimeters away from the edge.

“
WOW!” Brickert exclaimed with unabashed applause.

Sammy swore softly. He had to admit it . . . it was cool.

“
Thanks,” Al said. “We used to have contests to see who could get the glass closest to the edge without falling, but the commander made us quit. We broke too many.”

Just then Al’s com came alive and a holographic screen dropped down over his eye.

“
Hey,” Al said. “Yeah, we’re in the cafeteria, bring the girls up and have Kaden bring the guys. Okay. Bye.” When his screen went away he informed them, “That was Marie. She’s the oldest girl. Looks like we’re going to have a little get-together in the rec hall. So everyone can get to know you.”

The rec hall was empty when they got there, so Al took time to show Sammy and Brickert more than what they had glimpsed on the tour. Sammy couldn’t help but be impressed, and everything astounded Brickert. The rec hall took up almost half of the floor. It had a miniature VR gaming area similar to what Sammy had seen in the best malls in Johannesburg, a small movie theatre, and lots of other games like pool and foosball. Plus, there were two racquetball courts, a basketball court, and an indoor turf field—all of it pristine.

“
Dang, this place is nutty,” Sammy commented to himself when Al finished showing them around.

They waited in a sitting area next to the VR center where Al had arranged almost two dozen gel chairs into a circle. Sammy and Brickert took empty chairs next as other Betas trickled in. Marie came in with Natalia, Kawai, and Jeffie. She was a pretty girl with dark hair in a ponytail. She sat next to Al, and they began chatting at once. Sammy tried to catch Jeffie’s eye so she would take the chair next to him, but she didn’t notice and sat with the other girls across the room.

“
Where’s the pukes?” a loud voice called from just outside the door. It belonged to a tall, athletic kid with spiked, bleach-blond hair ending in darkened tips and a cocky smile that filled the lower half of his face. “Where are they?” he said again, doing a mock duck hunt. “I just got back from the store with some fresh diapers. Commander Byron said they haven’t been potty trained yet.” Several other boys about his age followed him in, laughing at his joke. After glancing around the room, the blond boy sat down next to Jeffie and held out his hand. “Hi.”

Jeffie smiled and shook his hand. “Hi.”

“
I’m Kobe,” the blond kid said, his voice rich with charm. “Nice to meet you. Do you need your diaper changed?”

“
Jeffie,” she replied with an even bigger smirk. “And no, thank you.”

Sammy’s ears got warm as he watched Kobe expertly work his magic on Jeffie. Then Kobe introduced himself to Kawai and Natalia with the same fanfare.

“
So Al,” Kobe said, “Are we going to sit in a circle and sing Cowabunga?”

“
Something like that,” Al chuckled.

“
Maybe we should just skip the talk and get straight to the nitty-gritty,” Kobe said, “Who’s good at gaming?”

Several people laughed.

“
Told you,” Al said to Brickert and Sammy with a wink. When all twenty Betas had arrived, the group got quiet and all eyes were on Al. “What?” he asked sheepishly.

“
You’re the one who called us here,” Marie said.

“
Fine. Let’s just go around and introduce ourselves to the new guys.”

“
And girls,” Jeffie added.

“
Right,” Al said, “and girls.”

From the names and accents he heard, Sammy guessed they had a small sampling of almost every ethnicity on the planet in headquarters. Fortunately, English was NWG standard language, and everyone spoke it fluently. The names also told Sammy that seven of the twenty Psions were siblings from three different families.

No one paid much attention to Sammy when he gave his very brief introduction, and he didn’t mind. This crowd was so different than his friends. He hadn’t heard anyone swear, and a few of them talked in very proper English. Gunner and Honk sometimes liked to see how many times they could curse in one sentence.
Don’t these people know how to relax?
But then he remembered how he had once been a lot like them.

When Brickert’s turn came, Al pointed out that he was the youngest Psion ever. Kobe snorted and muttered under his breath, “That runty puke definitely needs his diaper changed,” to the kid sitting next to him, who nodded and snickered. Brickert, who hated the extra attention, overheard Kobe’s comment and his cheeks turned bright red. When Jeffie introduced herself, she received several open-mouthed stares from most of the other male Psions. On the other hand, several of the girls glanced back more than once at Kawai’s strange bracelets and feathers, but she seemed unabashed as ever about her unusual style.