Awakening on Orbis (6 page)

“Dodu! Clean this mess!” he shouted, and an alien appeared at his side, snatching the broken dishes off the floor.

“Is this comfortable for you?” Kasha asked me.

“Please don’t do this,” I told him. “Please don’t make a fuss.” He saw me looking at the other patrons.

“I understand. The Tonat wishes to have privacy. I will respect this.” Kasha stood up and clapped his hands. Four aliens rushed from the back, dragging metal stands, each draped with purple cloth. Kasha directed them to place the dividers around my table. I only groaned and shook my head.

“You’re coming out with us more often,” Theodore gushed, stepping around the cloth dividers with the others.

I looked at Max. Her pained expression rattled me more than the café’s odor.

“I’m sorry,” I said to her.

“It’s not your fault,” she mumbled.

“Are you crazy?” one of the kids said, eavesdropping on our conversation. “You’ve got it made here, JT.”

“Shut up,” I told him.

Max sat to my right while Theodore sat across from me. Grace dragged a stool across the floor and squeezed next to Max. She and Max had grown closer, ever since Grace started hanging out with the tall boy with black hair. I couldn’t remember his name because he was always changing it. Even on the
Renaissance
he was always trying different names, the same way Ketheria would rummage through other people’s clothes and try on different shirts.

The other kids were also trying to squeeze through the dividers, and the table was getting a little crowded.

“This is ridiculous,” I said, standing up and pushing back the dividers.

Kasha flew to my side, wringing his hands. “Is something wrong?” he gasped.

“We don’t need these, Kasha. Thank you, but we can eat without them,” I told him.

“As you wish.” Kasha clapped his hands once more. The aliens returned and dragged the barriers away, scraping the metal against the concrete floor. Some of the other patrons were staring now. Not my favorite feeling in the world, that’s for sure.

I sat back down. “A lot of people on Murat act like him,” Theodore pointed out.

“It’s weird. I don’t like it,” I told him.

“Better get used to it,” Grace said. “Especially when Ketheria gets here.”

That worried me even more.

“Forget Kasha. I’m just glad you were feeling well enough to join us,” Max said, slipping her hand onto my knee. My mind became focused on her warm touch. “How did you find us?”

“I jumped here. Can you believe it?”

“What?” she said, pulling her hand off my knee. The empty space now felt like a hole in my leg.

“Wait, it’s not like that. It was an accident.”

“Well, you’re acting like it’s golden to be one of those vile mercenaries.”

“No, I’m not,” I pleaded. “You know I don’t want to be a Space Jumper. I told them, no way. You have to believe me. I told the Keepers. I told Hach. I told everyone. I didn’t
try
to jump. I couldn’t control it.”

“I believe you, but do you really think the Citizens on the rings will? Do you think they’re just going to let you pop around the rings as you please? You know how they feel about Space Jumpers around here. If someone sees you and complains, you’ll be banished for sure, whether you
say
you’re a Space Jumper or not.”

I never thought about that. “I guess you’re right,” I mumbled. I was staring at my feet. How could I have been so stupid? If I were banished, I would never see Max again.

“You have to start thinking like that, JT. We’re still knudniks.”

“I’m the last person you have to remind.”

“Really?”

I looked up at Max, but she was already talking to Grace as if the two of them had been in conversation the entire spoke. Max hated anything to do with space jumping, especially when it involved me.

“What do you mean by ‘an accident’?” Theodore asked.

I turned to Theodore and sighed. “It was weird,” I said. “I was roaming around in the dark, trying to find some sort of control panel, when I bumped into something and the next thing I knew I was at the back of some trading chamber in Murat.”

“How did you do that?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t
try
to jump, it just happened,” I whispered.

“You better get that looked at.”

“Get what looked at? It’s not like I have some sort of switch that I turn on and off. I don’t even have a belt.”

I sat back as Kasha and the others arrived with bowls of steaming liquid and placed them in front of us. I could see chunks of meat and vegetables bobbing in the brown stew. It smelled like cinnamon and apples.

“This is the dish my father served to me as a boy. An ancient recipe my people share during the Hudshuka. Now I make it for you. Please, enjoy!” Kasha exclaimed.

Kasha passed out an assortment of mismatched spoons, one to each of us, and then crowded in next to me. He was grinning wildly, waiting for me to try his dish. I only asked the Universe that it would taste as good as it smelled.

I dipped the spoon into the bowl and scooped up the broth, trying to avoid the chunks of meat until I knew what they were. I lifted the spoon to my lips, blowing on it gently. Kasha leaned in even closer as I tasted it. It was sweet with a meaty thickness. I liked it. I smiled and nodded to Kasha. “It’s good,” I told him. “Really good. Thank you.”

Kasha bolted upright and clapped his hands. “He likes it! He
really
likes it! The Tonat likes my
hudspa.
The Tonat is eating at my café. I will rename this dish after the Tonat,” he cried, turning back toward me.

“I am not the Tonat,” I seethed through clenched teeth.

“I don’t understand. You
are
the Tonat. You will be the greatest Space Jumper ever to step on these rings, and
you
ate my food.”

“I am not the Tonat!” I yelled. I felt my face flush with rage. Kasha was staring at me. “Stop looking at me!” I slammed my fists on the table.

And then I was gone — again.

I tumbled backward onto a soft patch of grass and leaves, my hands still ringing from the contact with Kasha’s table.

“This is ridiculous!” I screamed, and fell back onto the ground. It was darker here, wherever
here
was. I looked up at the lights sparkling on the far side of the ring. Was that Murat? There were more patches of twinkling lights spread across the ring but none in the vicinity of where I landed. Where was I now?

“Vairocina!”

Drapling sent a small shuttle to pick me up. By the time I arrived back home, everyone was already sleeping.

“That’s a nasty tic you’ve picked up. I hope you don’t make it a habit,” said Queykay, stepping out from the shadows.

“Tell me about it,” I replied. I tried to slip past him, but he reached out and caught me by the shoulder. I turned and looked at him.
What now?
I thought, but Queykay didn’t say anything. He just stared at me, studying my face. It was creeping me out.

“It’s not my fault, Queykay.”

He pulled his lips back, sucking in air as if charging his lungs to speak. His teeth were narrow and pointed and just as white as his skin.

“What!” I asked.

“The Scion arrives next cycle. You may not be the Tonat, but I’m certain she will ask for you. Do not mess this up.”

“Ketheria? Ketheria is coming?”

The alien let go of my shoulder and turned away without a word.

“Queykay!” I called after him. “Mess what up?” But he was already gone.

I woke the next cycle to the hum of cart-bots. I stepped outside my room and saw a dozen motorized baskets writhing through the corridors like the jointed tail of a sea dragon. The only other time I had seen this much commotion was during the preparations for the Harvest of Life back on Orbis 2, and that only happened once every seventy rotations. I reached out and snatched a peachlike item from a bowl of fruit. It was one of the few items I could actually recognize on the carts, besides the enormous bouquets of flowers.

I stopped a Honine carrying three bolts of silk and asked him, “What’s all this for?”

“The Scion is coming,” he gushed, and hurried past me.

“When?” I yelled after him in vain.

I turned to go back into my room and found Max standing in the doorway.

“Hi,” I said softly.

“Can we talk?” she said.

“Sure.”

Once we were inside my room, the door closed behind us. The building was big enough that each of us had our own room, but they weren’t really more than large closets with a sleeper. Max found a spot on the floor and leaned back on a pillow against the wall.

“I’m sorry about last cycle,” she said. “I didn’t realize how bad it was.”

“Me neither. That’s what I tried to explain to you.”

“You don’t have to, JT. As much as I don’t want to accept it, you
are
a Space Jumper.”

“I’m
not
a Space Jumper. Being a Space Jumper requires training. It’s something I have to choose, and I haven’t chosen it.”

“Why not?”

“You know why not.”

“Say it again anyway.”

“Max!”

Max stood up and wrapped her arms around me. “Say it,” she whispered.

When Max was this close to me, I usually wasted most of my time worrying about when it was going to end. This time I forced myself to focus on Max.

“It’s because of you. I’m doing it for you. You know that.”

Max pushed me away.

“For
us
!” she said.

“That’s what I meant. I made you a promise.”

“But you understand
why,
don’t you? I don’t want you to do this just for me.”

“But Max, I don’t really understand.”

“Space Jumpers are horrible, JT. They’re trained for one purpose — to destroy things. They’re hired killers, just like Neewalkers. They have no life outside of the Trust, and they certainly don’t get to make any choices for themselves. I know that’s not you, JT. If you choose that path, there will never be an
us
!”

I slumped on her pillow.

“I don’t know who I am anymore, Max. When I came to the Rings of Orbis, I just wanted a home. A place to belong, to grow up. A place to have some
fun.
But I don’t get to have any of that.”

“Me neither, but we still
can.
We simply need to stay out of their way. The Keepers, the Space Jumpers, the Citizens, the Neewalkers, they’ve been fighting since the beginning of time. They’re not going to stop whether you’re a Space Jumper or not.”

“Then what
am
I, Max? I’m certainly not normal.”

“You’re mine,” she said, and climbed into my lap. “That’s all I care about.”

“I know
that.
”

Max frowned.

“I mean, c’mon, Max. They’re not telling us everything. First the softwire thing, then Ketheria becomes the Scion, now I’m bouncing through space if I sneeze. I don’t get it. It has to mean
something.
I’m really beginning to believe we’re here for some other purpose.”

Max didn’t say anything. She just stared at me for an uncomfortably long time.

“What?” I said.

“No, we’re not. We’re a bunch of kids from Earth. You’ve said that a million times. It’s just a freak coincidence what happened to you and Ketheria. How come no one else from the
Renaissance
has any of these abilities or powers? Don’t you find
that
strange? If someone had planned this, then why aren’t we all softwires, or Scions, or Space Jumpers? Why just you guys? Look, we have one rotation left, and then we can go do what we want. They’ll forget about us, pin their hopes on some new knudnik, and we can live life the way you always said we would.”

“That’s another thing. What’s
that
going to be like? I don’t think I can live like those other knudniks in Murat. It’s horrible.”

Max sat back. “I know,” she mumbled. “And it’s so sad. Do you know some of them become knudniks again?”

“Drapling told me. I’m certainly not going to make that choice.”

Max kissed me. “We’ll figure it out together, all right? Nothing’s changed. Everything is still the same. Nothing will come between us.”

There was the sound of a chime in the room, and then the door opened. Queykay was standing there. I thought I noticed him grimace slightly when he saw Max in my lap.

“Your sister is here,” he said. “She’s asking for you.”

Before I realized what I was doing, I had pushed Max away from me and rushed toward the door.

“JT!” Max complained.

I turned and found her on the ground. Had I pushed her that hard?

“I’m sorry,” I said, and helped her off the floor. I made a mental note to make it up to her later.

“I want to see her, too,” Max said, pushing me out of the room.

It was easy to tell where Ketheria was. All the knudniks who had been working in the building were now crowded around the open door of the room where I’d made my first unwanted jump. Max and I tried to nudge our way through the crowd, but they were having none of that. I looked at Queykay, and he rolled his eyes.

“Move back!” he demanded, and the crowd parted. Then he turned to me and said, “The Citizens should be thankful that you’re not the Tonat. I doubt you could make the Scion’s enemies very nervous.”