The softwire : Virus on Orbis 1 (5 page)

“Theodore, you go first. Then the others will follow,” I said.

“Me? No one’s ever followed me,” he replied.

I looked at Max. “Maybe you should go first. They
will
follow you,” I said.

“I don’t know about this,” she argued.

“Please,” I said, and chased after my sister.

Ketheria was quick. She had made it outside the processing room before I even got close to her. An alien with taut leathery skin and wide red eyes squawked at Ketheria when she bumped into him. Where she thought she was going, I had no idea. When I finally grabbed her shoulder, Ketheria thrashed about in my grip and would not open her eyes. I’d seen her do this many times while she slept in her nurture pod on the
Renaissance.

“Ketheria. Ketheria! They’re not going to hurt us. We’re valuable to them.” But Ketheria would not budge. “We have to do this. Everyone gets them.”

A frail creature dressed completely in white stopped in front of Ketheria. Its skin glowed, and it gazed at Ketheria with big pupils of solid blue. The alien caressed Ketheria’s forehead. My sister opened her eyes, but the alien did not say a thing. Then Ketheria smiled. The alien removed its hand and slipped away. Ketheria took my hand and led me back to the processing room.

“What did that alien do, Ketheria?” I looked back, but the crowd had consumed the alien. My sister just looked up and smiled.

When we returned to the processing room, several children were already showing off their new implants. The Keepers sat the kids with implants in front of displays that were similar to the O-dats on our ship but far simpler — just clear sheets of computerized silicon. Then one of the Keepers attached a thin clear cable to the neural port on each child.

When she was finished, Max got up and darted through the crowd. “It’s nothin’ — look!” She pulled her hair away, and just behind her right ear was a narrow black port, no more than a centimeter long. Max’s skin was a little red, but she said, “I didn’t feel a thing.”

“Slaahn drot bahmneya te foolnum che mung,”
said one of the Keepers.

“What did he say?” I couldn’t understand. It sounded like nothing more than vowels and tones with the occasional throat noise for emphasis.

“Ha! He didn’t understand him. I did,” Max said to another girl. “I already uploaded my translation codec.”

Ketheria and I were in line and slowly moving toward the R5. One appendage of the bot braced the person against the seat while the other administered the hardware.

“Amazing technology!” I heard Max say behind me.

The only thing I heard coming from the Keepers’ mouths were weird sounds. They were directing the children with the new hardware, who obviously knew exactly what the Keepers were saying. I admit, I was eager to get mine.

Ketheria was next. She was no longer afraid. Whatever that alien had done, it worked. Before Ketheria took her seat in front of the R5, Theylor was back. He took me by the shoulder again.

“Please, come with me.”

“But my sister. I —”

“She will be fine now,” Theylor said as he led me to one of the empty O-dats. “Take a seat please.”

Am I in trouble?
I wondered. Nervous, I followed his instructions.
Do they know about the files I took?
That would be impossible. I wanted my implant.

“Johnny, I want you to —”

“How do you know my name?”

“I know a lot about things, as you will soon discover,” Theylor said. “Now please face the screen.” A few of the other children gathered around. “I want you to concentrate on the screen. Without touching the screen, I want you to scroll through the files.”

“That’s easy,” I told him. “Anyone can do that.”

“Yeah, right,” Switzer said, now standing behind me.

I scrolled through the files without touching the screen. This was something I always did. I thought everyone could do it.

“Johnny,” Theylor said, “I want you to locate a file named Translation Codec. The computer will automatically compensate for your language.”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Do not think. Feel. Grasp the file with your mind. Visualize it in the front of your forehead — like one of these displays. Make it part of yourself.”

I thought about the file, and there it was on the O-dat. Usually I just asked Mother for something like that.

“Now I want you to scan the file and store it in your memory.”

“He can’t do that,” Switzer said.

“Yeah, Theylor, he’s right,” I said — although I hated to admit that Switzer could be right about anything. “I don’t think I can do that.” Max came to my side. Ketheria was there also. A lot of people were gawking at me now.

I didn’t know how to scan a file with my mind. What was I supposed to do? I looked harder, but nothing happened. “I don’t get this,” I told Theylor. “Why can’t I just have my implant?”

“Concentrate,” he said.

I thought of the file opening up. I pictured it jumping into my brain. I felt silly.

“I can’t do it, Theylor.”

“See?” Theylor said. “You should find this very easy.”

“But I didn’t do anything,” I said.

“I am speaking to you right now in my own language,” he said. His lips moved slightly out of sync with his speech. “You understand what I’m saying, do you not?” I nodded. His pronunciation was much clearer, too.

“What did double-dome just say?” Switzer asked. Obviously he had not received his implant yet.

“JT, you can upload the files with your mind!” Theodore said.

“That’s so awesome!” Max said.

“You are a
softwire,
” Theylor announced.

“A what?”

“A softwire. I have never known of this ability in the human species, but you
are
a softwire.”

“What does that mean?” I asked. The crowd was getting louder and larger. Now the other Keepers joined in also.

“It means that you can access any computer by simply standing near it. Many computers transmit data back and forth. You are able to access this stream and the data within a com puter without any additional hardware. You do not need the implant. That is how you could talk to Mother on your seed-ship.”

How does he know about that?
I wondered.

“I told you he was telling the truth,” Max said to Switzer.

“Hmmf,” was his only reply.

“Are there any others?” I asked. I didn’t want to be the only one again. I had lived with being different for thirteen years on the
Renaissance.

“There are none on Orbis,” Theylor said. “Although softwires are extremely rare, all Space Jumpers are softwires.”

A few in the crowd whispered. I had read about Space Jumpers on the
Renaissance.
An odd, raw-edged sort of panic caught hold of me.
I don’t want to be a Space Jumper,
I thought.
I just want the implant. I want to be like everyone else for a change.

“Everyone, we must continue with the arrival process,” Theylor said. “Please get back in line if you have not received your implant.”

“If he can do that, then so can I,” Switzer declared, and sat at the screen. He scrunched his eyes and concentrated on the file.

“Come now, please. Your implant will be sufficient,” Theylor said, and gently nudged him.

Switzer slammed the table and stood up.

“It’s pretty awesome you’re a softwire,” Theodore said. “Did you know?”

“Not a clue. Well, there was the whole Mother thing.”

“I wonder what it means. You know, to be the first human softwire.”

I didn’t have a response for him before Max slipped into our conversation. “I wonder what other things you can do. I can’t wait to try it out,” Max said, and smiled.

I looked at Theodore, but he just shrugged. Max seemed pretty comfortable with me now as she reached up and searched behind my ear where the implant should be. She was already planning on taking something apart.

“Hey, stop that,” I told her.

I turned my attention to Switzer, who was finally getting his implant. The R5 pushed Switzer’s face into the chair and inserted the implant. Switzer got up scowling and rubbed behind his ear. He brushed past me and whispered, “Freak.” But I just turned away. I wondered how my newfound gift would be received on Orbis.

Once all of the other kids had received their neural implants, Theylor guided us back through the New Arrival Processing’s main lobby. With my new translation codec and a little help from the central computer, I was able to understand everything the other aliens were saying. Tall ones, small ones, even really weird ones all spoke in a language I could understand. But I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about Theylor’s revelation.

A softwire? Space Jumpers?
Everyone knew that Space Jumpers were fearless humanoids who slipped through space and time. We had read all about them on the
Renaissance.
Space Jumpers had roamed the rings since the Ancients controlled Orbis, and they were the elite force that protected the Keepers against the First Families during the War of Ten Thousand Rotations. But the Citizens, most of them descendants of the First Families, still feared the Space Jumpers and had forced the Keepers to banish them from the rings almost a thousand years ago. How could I possibly have anything in common with them?

“Excuse me,” Max said as she maneuvered around a small dusty alien that looked as though it had just come out of the ground.

“You excuse me! You surface dwellers think you can walk wherever you want. Well, I’m standing here right now. It’s not often I’m aboveground, so please let me stand here.”

The alien sucked in as much air as its crusty little body could hold. It looked quite angry, puffing up in front of Max in an attempt to look threatening.

“The aliens understand you now also,” said Theylor, who came up from behind and stood in front of the alien. “Their codec translates your language to theirs, but it does not translate gestures, cultural differences, or
manners.
” Theylor glared at the alien, who shriveled back down. “For that, you will attend social classes.”

Theylor led us away from the enraged alien and across the atrium to a large tubelike passage.

“Children, gather around, please.”

We circled around Theylor. Ketheria was at my side.

“We will now proceed to the assignment sector. We will board the spaceway for transportation to the other side of Orbis 1, where you will meet your new Guarantor.”

When Theylor finished talking, the tube filled with a sleek transportation device that looked a lot like a monorail. The large doors of the metal vehicle slid up, and we all followed the Keeper onto the spaceway. I sat in one of the many seats, and it immediately shifted and conformed to the shape of my body. Two armrests emerged at my sides, and I ran my hands along the smooth, polished material.
Is everything this nice on Orbis?
I wondered.

“A gravity cushion will hold you in place,” Theylor said. “Once the spaceway reaches the outside of the ring, you will be in zero gravity. Without the cushion, I am afraid your ride would not be very comfortable.”

The monorail slid into outer space, clinging tightly to the shell of Orbis 1. I felt something push down on my body, an invisible force that kept me in my seat. It must have been the gravity cushion. I glanced at Max. She was laughing again, looking around to see where the force was coming from.

Then the floor of the spaceway appeared to fade away beneath my feet. Everyone gasped at the illusion. I saw Theodore tap his toe on the floor to see if it was still there. I noticed Theylor staring through the floor at the moons, Ki and Ta.

“Orbis certainly is a beautiful place, Theylor,” I said, trying to start a conversation.

“The crystal moons have been very fruitful for us,” replied Theylor’s left head while his right remained fixed on the moons.

“I’m surprised more people — I mean, you know . . . other species — don’t try to come here,” I whispered to him.

“Oh, they do, but it is not allowed. Population control is an important part of our work here, along with protecting the sanctity of our moons.”

“Theylor, can I ask you a question?”

“You are free to ask anything you like, Johnny Turnbull.”

“What happened when we arrived? Did something go wrong with the central computer?”

Theylor did not respond right away. I thought maybe I’d hit a sore spot.

“Theylor?”

Theylor turned both heads toward me. “There is nothing to worry about now, but you must understand something. The central computer is a brilliant and magnificent machine. It is a necessity to our life on Orbis. More so than even the oxygen you need to stay alive.”

“Like Mother was on the
Renaissance,
” I said.

“Yes, and more. If Mother had failed on your journey, you would not be sitting across from me right now,” Theylor said. “If the central computer failed, neither of us would be sitting here.” He paused. “Our existence depends on the central computer. The Ancients spent much time and energy in building it. Some of the technology is still a mystery to us to this day. The central computer self-corrected the event that happened when you arrived, but the fact that the event happened at all is still very disturbing to some.”

Theylor turned both heads back to the moons. There was a lot I wanted to learn about my new home, especially about the central computer, but I sensed the conversation was over.