Wormhole Pirates on Orbis (33 page)

Theodore glanced over at Ketheria and moved under the O-dat.

“There are eight teams left,” he mumbled, reading off the screen. “Riis is still playing. We could get her next, you know.”

I stared at my sister. What was she now, eleven years old? This wasn’t what eleven-year-olds were supposed to be doing. She should be playing or going to school, anything else but this. How could I make her go into the labyrinth? How could I force her to take the life of another living creature merely for the sport of it? It’s not that she couldn’t stomach it; she just wouldn’t do it, even if it meant letting them take her life.

“You’re not much older,” Vairocina whispered inside my head.

“That’s different,” I replied, forgetting that Vairocina could read my thoughts.

But was it different? How come I could kill so easily? Why wasn’t I repulsed when I shot the talon at a creature I didn’t even know? Or when I blew up those rattle baskets with the Garins still inside? I felt nothing. Zero. Had I become some sort of monster? Is this what the Rings of Orbis had turned me into?

The room pulsed green.

“Oh, no!” Theodore cried, still staring at the O-dat.

“What is it?” I said.

“We’re fighting Banar!”

“So?”

“If survival is our goal, I’d much rather be fighting Riis,” Theodore replied.

“He’s just another opponent.”

“JT, you don’t understand. I’ve scoped this guy. He doesn’t just play the field. He plays the opponent. He’ll kill you just because he can. This is
bad.
”

I thought of the opponent slumped at the bottom of the waterway. Switzer had played his opponent. I would have to do the same.

Ketheria stood up and put her helmet on.

“No, Ketheria,” Theodore said. “I’m going to do this.”

“Theodore, no offense, but I play better than you,” she told him.

“Yeah, but I’ve scoped this guy. I know Banar’s weaknesses. I know how to beat him.”

Ketheria took her helmet off as the room pulsed once more.

“Then let’s go,” I said.

We headed down the hall with Ketheria trailing.

“How did they beat him last time?” I whispered to Theodore.

Theodore glanced back at Ketheria and murmured, “They didn’t. Banar has never lost.”

“Never?”

“Ever.”

I hesitated before stepping into the sort. Despite the fact that I felt more comfortable playing as the tracker, Theodore’s ominous warning made it hard to concentrate.

“Push those thoughts away,” Vairocina whispered.

“I’m trying,” I said.

“You must try harder.”

I stepped onto the crystal embedded in the floor and I was instantly encased in an energy shield.

“Play to your strengths; don’t try to play your opponent,” she said, but it was more of an order.

What if I don’t get to choose first in the sort? What would Banar choose? Why didn’t I ask Theodore?
I was doing a very poor job of concentrating when the sort flashed in front of me. I would choose first!

I immediately stabbed my finger at the
SOLID
triangle floating in front of me. I wasn’t taking any chances. I was good at any of the selections in stage two of the sort. While I waited for Banar to choose, my confidence was beginning to flow back. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to face
LIQUID
or
GAS
in the match.

Banar was taking his time choosing the second stage. That was odd, I thought. Then the sort flashed red with the information:
YOUR OPPONENT HAS PASSED
.

Passed?

Why would Banar pass? I was instantly worried. What sort of strategy was he using? Did he want to pick in the third stage? Why? What was so important in the third stage?

“You’re panicking,” Vairocina whispered.

“Of course I am!”

“This is good. You are in complete control now.”

“But why did Banar pass? Who passes?”

The words
PLEASE CHOOSE THE 2ND STAGE
flashed in front of me.

“You’re assuming he did this on purpose. Maybe he’s just as upset that he missed his choice.”

I doubted that. Banar was up to something, and it was freaking me out. I reached out to choose
MECHANIC
.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Vairocina warned.

I withdrew my hand. “Why?” I cried.

“Banar has been playing Quest-Nest for quite some time, and his conquests are legendary. I’m sure he’s proficient in every weapon imaginable, and some more than others. If he’s aware of your playing habits, he will know that you choose
MECHANIC
90 percent of the time. He’s assuming you will do it now and therefore he’ll choose a style of weapon in the third stage that he is extremely skilled with. Remember, Banar plays his opponents.”

“I thought you said it might have been an accident that he passed!” I reminded her.

“It might have been that, too, but I still wouldn’t choose
MECHANIC
. I would choose something that allows you some sort of stealth advantage. You might make it through the match without ever confronting Banar.”

The sort flashed again, and I selected
PSIONIC
.

Almost instantly, the fourth stage selection came back to me.

“He knows you will choose
PHYSICAL
,” Vairocina warned me.

“And he’s right. You said play to my strengths, and this is my strength,” I told her, holding up my right arm, and then punched the
PHYSICAL
diamond floating in front of me.

“Here we go,” I mumbled.

“Good luck.”

“They used that expression on your planet?”

“No. They don’t believe in luck.”

“Neither do I.”

The force field dropped away and left me standing in a shining round chamber. Some sort of metallic-colored force field wound around the floor. All around me, thick chrome support beams reflected the cobalt-colored floor. The beams angled outward and were placed close enough together to lock me in. The only visible exit was a black hole placed at thecenter of the chamber.

Standing over that hole was my opponent, Banar.

He hesitated, as if he was just as shocked to find me standing there as I was to see him. His upper body spun toward me, and he lunged over the hole. Two huge pieces of his shoulder armor clicked into place as he readied to attack me.

Only one thought entered my mind.
Survive!

I lunged at Banar. I had no intentions of engaging him. I simply wanted to make it into that hole before he crushed me. Hoping for the best (or at least a soft landing), I dove headfirst into the darkness. Banar howled in anger. His acrid breath stung the back of my neck as I dropped underneath him.

I curled into a ball, ready for the impact, but there was none. Some sort of invisible gravity field had caught hold of me and was slowing my descent. After a moment, I found myself floating, suspended in another, larger room. A dim golden light streaked the glossy walls.

“The room you just left may be the first of the fourteen chambers of the labyrinth,” Vairocina said. “If you can simply make your way through each chamber ahead of Banar, you might have a chance to leave this match unscathed.”

“I like that plan,” I whispered in reply.

I looked up, expecting to see Banar drifting down the cylindrical chamber behind me, but he wasn’t. That’s when I realized, though, that I was drifting
downward.

“The exit might be on the wall,” I cried. “If we pass it, we may have no way of reaching it again.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Vairocina said. “You would be out of the match and Banar could go on to win. No one would get hurt.”

“What if they put in Ketheria to take my place? I can’t take that chance. We have to find the way out of here.”

I flailed my arms, forcing my body to spin around, and searched the walls for some evidence of a door or a lock, anything.

Below me I saw some sort of marking — four circles that protruded from the wall, each with an iris made of three triangular sheaths of etched metal. One of the circles was quite large — large enough for someone to slip through. I began flailing my arms again to try to move toward the shapes, but I was dropping too fast.

Then I heard Banar. The chamber echoed with his roar, and I looked up to find him diving headfirst toward me.

“You have to get out of his way!” Vairocina cried.

“I’m trying!”

Banar reached toward me with both arms — thick battering rams of jointed black metal. I was directly across from the circles on the wall now.
That must be the way out of here,
I thought, and flailed my arms once more.

“I’m not gonna reach it!”

I looked up at Banar. He swept the air with his right arm, as if testing it.
If he hits me . . .
I thought.
That’s it! If he hits me, I might just make it to the wall!

“This is going to hurt,” I said.

“JT . . .” Vairocina asked.

“Turn off the pain sensors in my arm, please.”

I reached up, trying to get closer to Banar. He was moving quickly now, grinning wildly and swinging his right arm faster and harder. I needed him to knock me toward the hatch.

“This isn’t going to work,” Vairocina cried. “What if he crushes you?”

“He won’t!”

I raised my right arm to protect myself.

“Prepare to die, Softwire,” Banar growled.

I made myself as tall as possible, and Banar reached back with his right arm. He grunted as he swung at me.

“Now, JT!”

I curled into a ball, and Banar’s metal-plated arm swished over my head.

“Stay still, coward!” Banar cried as I stretched out again. He was so close now that I could see his large steely eyes and fiery red pupils. Banar bit down and swung at me with his backhand. I held my arm out and prepared for impact.

Banar’s crushing blow split the skin along my arm on contact. My fingers flexed backward in a grotesque and unnatural position. I’m certain real bones would have snapped off from the convulsion that ravaged my arm. I slammed into the wall almost instantly. The air gushed from my flattened lungs, and my helmet slammed against the bottom of the metal hatch. I pawed at my throat, trying to breathe. Every bone in my body cried out in anguish, but I flipped over and scrambled for the hatch. It was now about two meters above me. As the air seeped back into my lungs, I looked over my shoulder and tried to focus my eyes on Banar. He scrambled frantically, trying to swim back up the chamber, but he was only descending faster.

“JT, you’re slipping!” Vairocina warned. The impact with the wall had ignited a siren in my head that blurred my vision. The circular opening was nearly three meters above me now. I tried to flex my fingers, but my arm refused to obey.

“My arm! Can you fix my arm? Something’s wrong!”

“Try now!”

My arm surged with a tingling sensation. I adjusted the settings for maximum force and drove my fist into the metal wall. A bolt of pain struck my brain, and the wall buckled, not a lot, but enough for my fingers to grip on to the edge of each indentation. I pulled myself up and smashed my fist into the wall again, and then again, until I had built a ladder of holes back up to the escape hatch.

“You did it!” Vairocina cried.

“It’s not over yet,” I breathed. “This is just the beginning.”

Each level of the labyrinth presented a different obstacle course for me to negotiate. Vairocina worked on my arm as I raced through each task. On one level, I stumbled upon three Neewalkers sleeping near the entrance to the next level. A dimension cube that I had found in the previous level allowed me to move unencumbered past the fetid beasts.

I reached Theodore without ever spying Banar again. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was stuck at the bottom of the second level of the labyrinth. Theodore cried out when he saw me. The crowd, however, reacted with a mixture of cheers and hisses. I guess they wanted to see their hero more than a human softwire.

Banar’s bait was still locked behind the energy field waiting for his famous tracker to release him.

When Theodore’s energy field dropped, he leaped out and gasped, “You made it here first!”

“C’mon, there’s a lot of ground to cover before the labyrinth shifts,” I yelled, and turned for the exit.

“What’s wrong with your hand?”

I held my hand up. My fingers were bending backward again.

“That’s just a little glitch. Vairocina is working on it. C’mon!”

Banar’s bait banged on his electronic cage, igniting a shower of sparks to which the crowd erupted in approval. We didn’t stick around for his next act.

I wanted to retrace my steps through the labyrinth as quickly as possible, since I already knew what lay waiting for me. Theodore could simply follow my lead without ever having to navigate a new obstacle. But if the labyrinth shifted on us, then it was a whole new game.

We passed the first three stages of our return with minimal effort. Theodore began counting the escape buttons: large gold crystals embedded in the walls that would allow you to swap out players on your own team. I think he did it to keep his mind off Banar. There was one for each level, and each button we passed meant we were one stage closer to the finish. For me, those escape buttons did not exist. I knew that if I pressed one of those crystals, Ketheria would be there, waiting — forced to play against the monster, Banar. I was trying to ignore the buttons.

On the fourth level, Theodore had trouble scaling the slanted cubes we needed to navigate in order to get to the exit. I was forced to backtrack to help him.

“It’s my shoes!” he cried. “I can’t get a grip.”

I stretched out from the top of the last cube and extended my arm. “Just grab hold. I’ll pull you up!”

Each stalled moment eroded my confidence and allowed my anxieties to seep out. I watched Theodore struggle over the top of the last cube.

“Hurry, Theodore,” I breathed. “We’re almost out of ti —”

The labyrinth shifted, cutting off my last sentence.

The corridor in front of me sealed shut while the wall to my left disappeared. I spun around to find Theodore lagging behind.