Awakening on Orbis (23 page)

“You really like this life, don’t you?”

“It’s better than what I used to do.”

We finished our meal in silence. We were both exhausted and sore. It even hurt to stand up. As I limped back to our room, I hoped I might get some sleep, but it did not come. I lay in my sleeper, thinking about what Switzer had said, about the reputation of Space Jumpers elsewhere in the universe. I thought about how they were feared. Max had heard those stories as well. I’m sure a lot of people on the rings shared the same sentiment. I wondered if Max would ever take me back now.

Over the next few cycles, I watched Switzer begin to dominate the trainers during the Quest-Nest drills. I then decided that instead of sitting there and grumbling about it, I would watch him and learn. Switzer was good, often combining two movements at once. But when I tried to repeat the task, it was simply impossible for me.

“Don’t give up!” he encouraged me.

And I didn’t. Whenever I trained with him, I stayed close, trying to reenact his movements even if it resulted in a painful drop to the floor or being blindsided by a moving obstacle.

Despite my exhaustion, I still wasn’t sleeping.

One spoke, I caught another Honock in the observation deck. This one did not resort to calling me bad, but he was still afraid of me. I wondered if they had always been afraid. Had this individual almost been killed by a Space Jumper, only to be reincarnated as a machine and forced to live among us? How horrible would that be? No wonder he thought I was bad.

“Do the Honocks ever ask to go home?” I asked Brine Amar during one session.

“No. Why do you ask?”

“I’ve seen them in the observation deck, looking out at the stars, almost as if they were reminiscing about something. I thought they might be thinking about their former lives.”

“Honocks are not designed that way. Yes, some of their personality is maintained, but you really must think of them as machines, just as you would a cart-bot or an android.”

Before I left, though, he made the oddest request.

“Could you do me a favor?” he asked. “Would you play in a match of Quest-Nest with Randall Switzer? I would enjoy that very much.”

“Me? I guess. Sure, why not? Whom will we play against?”

“No, I want you to play against Randall Switzer. You will use one of your instructors as your partner.”

“
Against
him?”

“Yes. Do you mind?”

“Um, no. I guess not.”

“When?”

“Now.”

Instead of training this spoke, it appeared I was going to enter the labyrinth and play against Switzer. When I arrived, Switzer was already waiting, as were most of the other Space Jumpers I had seen in the Hollow.

“Just like old times,” he said.

“You know?”

“Yeah, my guy asked me to play you.”

“Mine, too. Don’t you think that’s weird? I mean everyone in the Hollow is here.”

“Why should I? I’m looking forward to watching you lose.”

Switzer yanked the helmet over his head and launched into the labyrinth. One of my trainers walked up and asked, “You want to be the bait or the tracker?”

“Tracker,” I said under my breath, and pulled a helmet off the wall.

The labyrinth on the Hollow was different from the one I had been using on the Rings of Orbis, in that it did not have a sort. I was glad that I did not have to think of a sort strategy to use against Switzer. I was comforted by the fact that I would not be floating in a vacuum while trying to navigate multidimensional mazes after the door opened. No, this match would be familiar to me. This would be just like on the
Renaissance.

Waiting for the computer to set, I felt the sudden urge to run. What if I was wrong? What if it was different here as well?
But you’ve already been practicing here,
I reminded myself.
Concentrate!
When the door peeled away, it was like stepping back onto the
Renaissance.
It was exactly the same! I sprinted along the curved purple walls and jumped over the blue lights embedded in channels on the floor. I knew the first obstacle of metal crates was just ahead to my right and the immobility cube would be waiting on the other side.

I dragged the metal crate next to the other two and used it to hop up and over a half wall. I grabbed the immobility cube and then used the ladder I knew would be there to sidestep two more obstacles, just as I had done so many times before on the
Renaissance. This is almost too easy,
I thought. It was obvious to me now that Quirin had designed our Quest-Nest on the
Renaissance.
Didn’t they know I had played this version many, many times before? Was this some sort of trick? It certainly must have been boring for Brine Amar to watch.

I was ready for the four frontier pilots hiding in the deep trenches past the next doorway. An additional immobility cube and a plasma rifle took them down before they even started to scream. I ran across the darkened room, past a sparking electrical circuit that provided the only light. I was about to run through the doorway when I stopped.

The door was on the wrong side of the room. It should have been on the left, but it was on the right, on the other side of a snaking electrical wire that was torn loose from the wall. I wouldn’t even have even thought about it if everything hadn’t been so exact up until this point, right down to the color of the lights and scars on the walls. It was a complete reenactment of the
Renaissance.

Except for this door.

I approached the door and saw that it was slightly open, as if someone had tried to open it but it had jammed. Had Switzer already been here and messed with the door to slow me down? I searched for some sort of control panel near the door, but there was none. I peered through the crack and saw a pink light flickering on the other side, so I figured this was the way to go. I even tried to pry it open with the butt of my fedaado blade, but the door was stuck.

I flexed my arm, used my softwire to adjust the torque and pain levels and then clobbered at the door with my right arm. The metal buckled, but I knew I was going to have to destroy the door to get through. I had to admire Switzer for jamming it like this. The delay was definitely going to set me back.

I pounded on the door several times; each effort widened the crack a little more. When I peered through again, it was mostly black beyond except for the beams of pink light that crisscrossed the darkness. I figured it was coming from some light source on the wall. With one final lunge, I hammered at the door, and whatever had jammed it came loose. The door jerked to the right with such a jolt that I lost my footing and fell forward, through the opening.

It was a hole.

I was falling through the beams of pink lights that flicked on as I passed them.
This is going to hurt,
I thought, but I didn’t scream. Who would hear me, anyway?

And then I hit water. Water isn’t as hard as concrete, but it still hurts. I felt my right leg jam up into my hip socket and the water crash in on my face.

It was over. I had lost.

I looked up through the tiny beams of pink light, waiting for the labyrinth to turn off. The water would drain away, and I would be left with my sore leg and my loser self. I had wanted to beat Switzer. I knew I didn’t have a chance, but I wanted to beat him.

“Hey!” I called out when no one turned the maze off. “I’m down here. You win!”

But the water was not draining. In fact, I noticed that the water level was creeping upward, swallowing the little beams of pink light as it rose. Soon there were just as many pink lights in the water as there were above me.

Is this part of the match?

When I floated up to the door that I had fallen through, some sort of force field swallowed the opening before the water could spill out. The well, or tunnel or whatever I had fallen into, was filling up.

As I passed the broken door, I searched frantically for some sort of computer device. I knew I wasn’t supposed to use my softwire to aid myself in the game, but that was on Orbis. Everyone here was a softwire. Everyone was on equal ground. I searched the walls for something to push into, but I found nothing.
What put up that force field?
I wondered. Where was the computer that ran this thing, for that matter?
Surely there must be something around here to manipulate,
I thought.

I could see the top of the tunnel, only a few meters above my head. There wasn’t enough time to figure out why, nor was there anyone around who could answer my questions. There had to be a way out of here. If they weren’t turning the labyrinth off, then that meant the match wasn’t over. There must be a way out.

I swam to the edge and groped the walls for some sort of plate or panel, anything really, but the walls were smooth like glass. I couldn’t even find a seam, nothing except for the little holes where the pink beams of light shone. Was that it?

My hand was now against the ceiling. There was nothing else to try. I held my breath and dove under, close to one of the lights. There was nothing to interface with, so I tried to push in, but I found nothing. I moved to another light, hoping it might be different, but again, nothing. I surfaced, gasping for air. There were only about fifteen centimeters left for me to breathe in. Surely they wouldn’t let me die in here. This wasn’t the Chancellor’s Challenge.
Do I simply give up?
I wondered.
What if Ketheria was with me? Would I give up then?

I dove back into the water, searching for any light that was different in any way. Near the bottom, I spotted one that appeared slightly brighter than the others. I dove deeper, knowing that this was my last chance, since the water would surely be at the ceiling by now. In front of the light, I groped for a computer device but still found nothing! This time, I pushed in and discovered a single computer chip attached to a sensory timer. It was the smallest thing I had ever pushed into before, but at least it was something. I knew it had to connect to something larger. I forced myself inside the circuit and pushed against the resistance. It felt as if something was scratching at my skin, pawing for something to latch on to, something to hold me back with. The narrow corridor I found inside the chip then opened into a larger chamber of data cells stacked one on top of the other. I noticed that the one at the center was highlighted with a bright yellow glow as if it were a beacon to let me know I had arrived.

A simple manipulation of the data sequence, clearly marked for anyone who found it, set the tank on drain, and I felt the rush of water pull me down to the floor. The water drained through a grate that ran the circumference of the tank. I waited as the floor extended downward, enlarging the grate until I could simply walk out. My bait was waiting for me.

“Well done!” he cried. “You’re the first.”

“First what?”

“The first one to ever escape that trap. Nice job!”

The trek back was simple. The water obstacle was gone, and I exited the maze in front of the bait. Those watching erupted in cheers as we stepped out. A few Space Jumpers who had made friends with Switzer were coming up to me and clapping me on the back, hanging close to me and discussing the match with whoever walked up. I listened as some, in the excitement, even answered questions that were directed to me. It felt good.

Switzer was nowhere to be found.

Brine Amar walked up to me and said, “I must say, I am impressed. I’m sure your name will be carved into a rock around here somewhere. You should be proud of your accomplishment.”

And I was. A little voice tried to creep up and remind me how scared I’d been, how I thought about quitting.
But I didn’t,
I argued. I had figured it out and now I was here. The winner. If I had given up, I would have been the loser. If I had given up in real life, I would have been dead.

Switzer finally came out, shaking his head. “Nice job!” he cried. There were no jabs at my abilities, no taunts about next time. Switzer seemed genuinely proud of what I had done. “I couldn’t get out of that tank. I tried everything. The softwire thing didn’t help me at all.”

“Ah, you just need a little practice. I’ll show you,” I called out to him as he walked over to the group of Space Jumpers standing around me. I expected the other Space Jumpers to turn to Switzer and leave me to myself, but they didn’t. He joined us as if it was the most natural thing in the universe.

“Go on, smile,” he whispered. “You deserve it. You won.”

Things were different after our Quest-Nest match. I don’t just mean with Switzer and me, but with everyone at the Hollow. I enjoyed my friendships with Max and Theodore, and even my sister — in fact, I cherished them — but this was different. We were all joined by an ability we shared, a talent that had at one time made me an outsider, but not now, not here. Here you wore that ability like a badge. Your softwire was your admission to the Hollow, and it didn’t matter anymore if some alien had tampered with your genetic structure or you had come to it through your own natural evolutionary process.

Despite our past, I felt that a bond had now formed between Switzer and me. We were in this together. I had finally accepted that. The fact that we
had
actually been in this together from the beginning did not escape me, either, but I was glad we had found a way to overcome all that. I looked forward to his company, and he had even begun asking me for help with his softwire ability. Switzer and I had become friends.

Then I found Charlie.