Awakening on Orbis (34 page)

“I always knew you two had a thing,” Switzer added, and Max smiled.

“I do,” I told her. “But it wasn’t my idea. This idea was presented to me a long time ago, but I refused to listen.”

“Tell me! Don’t be so cryptic,” she begged.

Theodore, Grace, and a few other kids from the
Renaissance
had gathered around me. I looked over at Switzer. “It was really his idea,” I told them, thumbing in his direction. “Before we ever arrived on the Rings of Orbis, all I ever thought about was coming here and starting a new life with my sister. Remember our observation deck?”

“Of course,” Grace answered.

“Well, I would lie there dreaming about what my life on the Rings of Orbis would be like.”

“We all did that.”

“Yeah, but I had imagined a utopia. A place where they handed out chits and no one went sick or hungry. It was childish. In my imagination, this was a perfect place. I gobbled up every story they planted in Mother and wished away every moment so I could get here sooner. Even when Theylor told us about our fate, I refused to let go of my dream. I would not even consider that the Rings of Orbis might be a cruel place, motivated by greed, a place where success was achieved only by sacrificing others.”

“It wasn’t always like that,” Drapling cried out. “The Rings of Orbis were different. The Trading Council changed everything. This is why the Scion is here.”

“Shut up!” Switzer growled. “Or I will come over there and do it for you, you two-headed space freak.”

“I should have listened when Switzer convinced you guys to take the
Renaissance.
”

“No!” Max said.

“Let him talk,” Switzer argued.

“If I had known back then that I was a softwire, I could have pushed into the ship’s computer, or at least I should have tried. You don’t know how many times I have thought about that moment, over and over and over again. I know now that I should have listened. We
should
have taken the
Renaissance
and never looked backed.”

“What are you saying?” Theodore asked.

“I say we do that now.”

“The
Renaissance
is gone, split-screen,” Switzer reminded me.

“No, he wants to steal a new starship and leave the rings,” Max said, smiling.

“Have you flipped a chip?” Theodore cried. “We can’t steal a starship. Who’s going to fly it?”

Switzer’s face sparkled with surprise, quite a feat for such a scarred mug. He put his hand up and grinned sheepishly. “Captain Ceesar, at your service,” he gloated.

“And Switzer and I have been versed on a zillion different spacecraft in our training,” I added.

“It’s still crazy,” someone else complained.

I turned to Max. “Isn’t this what you always wanted? We can be together, all of us, away from here. No Scion, no Tonat, no Space Jumpers. Just
us.
We can find a new world to live on, and we’ll never look at the Rings of Orbis again.”

“Where did the Keepers go?” someone asked.

I turned and they were gone. “Drapling?” No answer.

“I don’t think Twin-Top ran off to book us a seat on the shuttle,” Switzer said.

“If we’re going to go, then we go now,” I told the group.

“Wait!” Grace cried. “Can we think about this?”

“What for?” Switzer said, throwing his arms up and stomping to the back of the room.

“We don’t have time,” I argued.

“Just wait!” Grace said.

Grace and two other kids broke into their own group, then four other kids did the same. Theodore glanced at them.

“It will be all right,” I told him.

“I know it will.” He stepped toward me. “Of course I’m with you.”

“I think it’s perfect,” Max said. “Especially the part about us being together. Not just you and me. I mean, of course I love that, but I want all of us to be together, even Switzer.”

I looked over at Switzer, who was now perched on a metal shipping crate. Ketheria was next to him. They were whispering about something, and I could only assume she was forgiving him for everything he had done in their past. Inside, I smiled (I wouldn’t dare let Switzer see me). Their reconciliation was necessary if we were going to live together on a starship again. I could not even guess how long it would take to find a new home.

“They have a lot to discuss,” Max whispered.

“He’s different now,” I told her. “He’s not the Switzer we used to know.”

Max took my hands and turned me to face her. She was intoxicatingly close to me. It took everything to keep my eyes open.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t,” I said.

“No, I want to. I wasn’t fair to you. I ignored the pressures they placed on you. I did not want to admit what they had done to you,
to us.
I’m so sorry. I love you, and I don’t ever want us to be apart again. It just hurts too much.”

“We won’t. I promise.”

“All right!” Grace said. “We’ll go. But Switzer cannot be in charge. It has to be Ketheria.”

I looked over at Switzer, knowing he would protest, but Switzer was staring over Ketheria’s shoulder. His faced showed no sign that he had heard the group’s objection.

“Switzer?” I called out to him.

“What’s wrong with him?” Max whispered.

“Switzer!”

“What?” he grunted, shaking off his trance.

“They won’t let you be captain. They want Ketheria,” I told him.

“What?” Switzer protested. “I’m the captain.”

“Then no deal,” Grace said.

I glared at Switzer.

“Fine,” he grumbled, although his protest was unusually weak. “But I’m not calling her Captain Ketheria.”

Ketheria glanced at Switzer. “I’m ready,” she said.

“There’s still a war going on out there,” I warned them, “and Switzer’s right: Drapling didn’t leave to reserve a seat for us. It’s a long way to the spaceport, maybe four kilometers.”

Just then I heard a
WHUMP.
In fact, I felt it. Even the air pushed against me.

“What was that?” Grace cried.

“We better hurry,” Max whispered.

“Can’t you jump there and take us?” Theodore asked.

“First, there are too many of you to jump at once with Switzer, and I don’t have a belt to help.”

“I don’t know how far my cloaking works, either,” Ketheria said.

“We can’t risk it. We need to stay together and move as a group.”

The building shivered from another blast, coaxing the dust and debris from the ceiling.

“Can we go?” Grace demanded.

“I will take the lead and Switzer will follow last. Everyone else pair up and keep Ketheria protected. Charlie, you stay with her, in the middle. Don’t talk to anyone, and keep your head down!” I yelled.

People began pairing off, moving Ketheria to the middle. Max came up behind me. “I’m with you,” she whispered.

“Stay close,” I said, and kissed her on the cheek. I thought of Vairocina’s warning. “But not too close. Give yourself some running room.”

I’m not dying this cycle.

Once outside the building, I could see intense fighting still raging to my left. The knudniks appeared to be holding their own as the Preservation Forces hunkered down into a building at the edge of Murat.

“Don’t look,” I whispered to Max as I stepped around the aftermath of Switzer’s cannon.

“Oh, that’s disgusting!” Grace cried.

My plan was to race around the far side of Murat in order to reach the spaceport. The military aircraft (and there were a lot of them) were converging over the center of the city, so most of the conflict was happening there. The detour added a kilometer to our run, but there were too many of us to risk getting caught in the skirmish. I was certain that once we reached the spaceport, operations would be so chaotic on the landing pads that Switzer and I could jump inside a ship and leave orbit before anyone even knew we were there.

“Ketheria, what’s the range on that ability of yours?”

“I don’t know,” she called out.

“Then stay close, everyone!”

I treated the city as nothing more than an obstacle course. To me, it was just another map in a game of Quest-Nest, and my bait was the spaceport. Actually, my bait was a shiny new spaceship ready to take me to my new home, far away from here.

As we raced past the busted buildings and abandoned trading chambers, I concentrated on the prospects of a new life and it sparked an excitement in me. The energy moved my legs forward unconsciously, and I occasionally glanced behind to make sure everyone was keeping close.

We moved as one group over barricaded alleys and crumbled buildings, slowing only when a quick climb seemed faster than finding a new way around a fallen structure or mountain of garbage.

“I didn’t know things had gotten so bad here,” I called out to Max.

“The Trading Council really wants the rings.”

“They won’t go without a fight.”

“You weren’t the only knudnik who thought the Rings of Orbis should have been their utopia.”

We had run about a kilometer when I was forced to pull up.

“Stop!” I cried out.

In front of us was an enormous hole in the ring. Some sort of bomb or missile had destroyed an entire city block, preventing us from going any farther. I couldn’t tell what had caused the damage, but whatever it was, it was big. Scary big.

“I hope they ran out of whatever did that,” Theodore remarked.

The guts of Orbis 4 lay open at our feet, like some kind of busted space shuttle abandoned by its mechanic.

“This just happened,” I said. “The dust has hardly settled and parts are still burning. That must have been the sound we heard back at the hideout.”

“We can’t cross this,” Max said.

She was right. To my right I could see rows of factories turned into mountains of rubble by the explosion.

“Just go around it,” Switzer ordered.

“We can’t,” Max said. “I’ve been here before, handing out taps in the city. Those factories go on forever. That would be a very long detour.”

“It looks like someone knows what they’re doing,” I said.

“They’re cutting off access, keeping everyone in the center,” Switzer pointed out.

“Or they’re making it very difficult for anyone to leave,” I added.

“There’s only one person who knows what we’re trying to do,” Max whispered.

“Think Double-Dome would risk baby-malf’s life like that?” Switzer asked.

I frowned at him.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

I looked to my left. The long street still sparkled, a reminder of the city that once was. Only now it led directly into the conflict, a route I wasn’t prepared to take, but I saw no other choice.

“We don’t have to go all the way in,” I told Switzer. “We could work our way in just a little, to cut back over and up.”

“I know this street, too,” Theodore said. “Every alley dumps into the center of Murat.”

“Maybe we should send a reconnaissance group out and map a route to avoid that,” I offered.

“No, JT,” Max said. “If one goes, we all go. We stay together now. You said so yourself. Think of the staining.”

“I agree,” someone else called out.

I looked back up toward the factories.

“We could jump —” I started to say, but Max cut in.

“No,” she snapped. “Look!”

Far down the street, I spotted two enormous hover tanks as they rounded the corner. Behind them was a wave of Preservation Forces. I couldn’t tell if they were retreating or moving toward us. Circular fliers spun overhead, firing into the crowds.

“Look! Knudniks!” Max cried. They were fighting the Preservation Forces hand to hand. “We’re trapped.”

“Let’s move!” I cried. “Everyone into the alley!” I pointed to an opening in the building between the hole and the fighting moving toward us.

“Vairocina,” I called out. “I’m stuck in the city, trying to make my way around Murat’s industrial core. Can you see where I am and find me the shortest route around it?”

“I am unable to locate your whereabouts, JT. The manner in which you are blocking the staining is very effective. More than three dozen attempts to trace your location have been attempted — unsuccessfully, I might add. If you give me a bearing, I can pull up a schematic to help you navigate,” she offered.

A small speck tumbled toward us like an extinguished star giving up its spot in the night sky. The speck grew larger, and for a moment, I didn’t comprehend what it was. In fact, I was mesmerized by the curve of its trajectory as it sailed past my head. Only when the thing disappeared inside the factories next to us, did I realize.

“No!” I cried, but a deafening
WHUMP
rolled over me, flinging me backward as the air seemed to disappear, as if it was being sucked into outer space.

The ground vomited as I hit it, tossing me back up and mixing me into the debris. The blast from the explosion refused to subside, as if it were taunting me. I couldn’t get a bearing on anything, or anyone, and it felt as if someone had set the ring spinning out of control. Suddenly, I slammed to a stop. A large hunk of factory followed me to the ground and crushed my robotic arm. I pulled my arm out and watched my fingers curl back, almost touching my wrist. The pain shot up my arm before my fingers snapped back into place, lifeless.

“Switzer!” I cried out. Even I was surprised that this was my first word.

I turned into the swirling debris. “Max!”

I tried to focus on something — anything to make my world settle, but everything was in motion.

Charlie slumped, lifeless, on the ground.

Theodore crawled on his knees.

Grace wandered, bleeding.

Switzer was nowhere to be seen.

“Max!”

I jumped out of the chaos, to a place just beyond the explosion. I refocused and saw another gaping hole in the center of the street as debris swirled about the opening as if some vortex had been ripped open by the blast. I could see some people standing; some were lying on the ground. Some I could hardly see at all.

“Ketheria!”

The Preservation Forces were now at my heels, but they were too busy fighting the knudniks. I jumped back to the highest point of the rubble and refocused atop the aftermath and inside the growing tornado. I tried to flex my crushed arm again, but it would not respond. It flopped at my side, useless.