The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2 (5 page)

“Where are you taking us, Weegin?” I asked.

“Do as you’re told,” he replied.

I looked at Ketheria.

“This is not good,” she muttered, shaking her head slowly.

What was Weegin planning? I heard shuffling in the darkness ahead of us, but I could see nothing.

“Weegin, I want to know where we are going,” I pleaded.

“They owe me,” he said. “They owe me.”

“Who owes you what?” Max said.

“They
owe
me!”

The back of the space station was clothed in darkness. Not the kind of darkness you stumble through to find the bathroom, but the kind you don’t want to go near. The air tasted like rust, and the feeling that something was lurking ahead of me grew stronger. I held up my hand to see with the light from the rope, but the glow wasn’t strong enough.

Weegin dragged us deeper into the shadows.

“Stop. I won’t go any farther,” Grace protested.

“You will,” Weegin growled and yanked the light rope once more.

“I don’t want to die,” Grace cried.

“No one’s going to die,” I reassured her.

“We don’t have to do this, JT,” Max said. “This is not right.”

“So much for your beloved Orbis,” Switzer whispered to me. “Kinda wish you listened to me back on the
Renaissance,
don’t you, split-screen?”

“Be quiet. You’re not helping,” I said.

But he was right. I had a bad feeling about this, but what could I do? Weegin was still our Guarantor.

Grace began to whimper. We huddled tightly together and shuffled deeper into the unknown. The only light was the pale blue glow of the rope that linked us together and tied us to the crazy alien.

Weegin stopped. I could see nothing, but the alien found a door and thumped on it with his fist. A red light blinked on above the door.

The light sent
things
scurrying back into the shadows.

“Tewk, twek,”
came from behind the door.

“Crawdon,”
Weegin said, and the door disappeared.

“What’s happening, JT?” Theodore whispered.

“Why can’t we understand them?” Max asked.

“What does
crawdon
mean?” I said.

No one answered. I don’t think anyone could. What we saw standing in the doorway left everyone speechless. An enormous alien, draped in a thick emerald cloak with a carved metal collar, towered over Weegin. The back of his collar was attached to a metal plate that molded over the alien’s head and bolted to his skull. Metal piping extended from his mouth and curved around his head, attached to crystals where his ears should have been. The creature looked down at Weegin, examining him with piercing red eyes, his brow a permanent scowl. The alien glanced at all of us.

“
Traack
want
shool
make
gleet,
” Weegin said. I could only understand every other word. It was as if my codec was not translating everything. I knew this wasn’t right. I had to get help.

“Vairocina?” I whispered. But this time my friend did not reply. “Vairocina?” But still nothing. “Max, do you understand what they’re saying?” I asked.

“Only pieces.”

“Me too,” Theodore said.

“Vairocina?” I yelled inside my head. Why was she not responding? Vairocina always responded.

The big, ugly alien let Weegin pass. I looked at Ketheria. Her eyes were closed. I tried to take her hand, but Nugget now had both of them.

“Vairocina?” I called out once more as Weegin pulled us through the door and down another corridor.

Red globes hung from the walls, illuminating the hallways. Inside each globe something moved, but I could not tell what it was.

“I don’t like it,” Max said.

“I’m not afraid of this,” Switzer boasted.

Theodore was mumbling, “Three hundred twelve, three hundred thirteen, three hundred fourteen . . .”

He was counting his steps again. “Good idea,” I whispered.

There are twenty-one of us,
I thought.
If we all worked together, why couldn’t we drag Weegin back the way we came? What about that guy at the door, though?
I didn’t like thinking about running away. It’s not what I wanted to do on Orbis. I was trying to make a life for myself here.

“Get in,” Weegin snapped. He was stopped in front of three shallow rafts that fit snuggly in a narrow trough. “Get in!” He jerked on the rope, making Ketheria stumble.

“Where are we going, Weegin?” I asked.

“Get in or I’ll
cheelo
into the water,” Weegin said. He spoke each word slowly, as if giving time for our translation codec to work, but the codec still failed to translate completely.

“This isn’t the way to Magna, Weegin. I want to know where you are taking us.”

Weegin grabbed Grace and pulled her to the water’s edge. The kids closest to her were forced down also. Grace screamed as Weegin wrenched her hand over the water.

“It’s your choice,” he said, baiting me. “
Tey
Hoolies would
chi
a snack.”

Grace stared at the water, crying. The black surface rippled. Grace yanked herself back, but Weegin held tight.

“Don’t, Weegin!” I shouted, stepping onto the raft. “You win.”

I don’t know if Weegin was lying about the Hoolies, but no one said a word as we loaded ourselves onto the narrow rafts. The metal skiffs then drifted along a river of black water that sucked up the light bleeding from red globes mounted to the walls. A heavy dampness crept over me, and the only sound was Grace’s sniffling. She was attempting to compose herself after Weegin’s threat, but she still flinched every time the water rippled.

“Do you smell that?” Max whispered.

A sweet aroma lingered in the air.

“What is it?” I said.

“I don’t know.”

The narrow channel finally emptied into a wide cavern, maybe three floors high. My raft came to a rest at the edge of a large pool crowded with similar skiffs.

“
Treck
Core City
shool tok
edge,” Weegin said, stepping onto the pool’s concrete banks.

“What did he say?” Max said, and Theodore shrugged.

“I don’t know. Just follow him,” I told them. “Unless you have a better idea.”

Weegin yanked the light rope, and one by one we stepped onto the landing. The rope shrunk as we gathered together. Then Weegin climbed a narrow stone staircase that curved up and along the damp wall and ended at a small arched tunnel.

“What is this place?” Max asked.

“It’s not a good place,” Ketheria said as we followed Weegin through the arch.

Farther down the tunnel, torches of purple fire lit the old stone walls. Weegin stopped in front of a large, fleshy, humanlike alien draped in blue silk. I could hear the high-pitched chatter of several smaller aliens crawling all over him. They looked like bugs, yet they seemed to be talking to each other. The big alien guarded another archway glowing with a red light that reflected off the creatures as they munched on whatever they could pull off his body. He grunted something at Weegin, but I could not hear him over the shouts and other sounds coming from the red hole in the wall.

“JT, ask Vairocina where we are,” Theodore said.

“She won’t answer,” Ketheria said.

“How do you know?” I asked. “Vairocina?” I whispered, but there was still no response. “Vairocina?”

“It’s no use. She can’t hear you,” Ketheria said.

“Why?” Max asked.

“Because the central computer is not online here. There is no connection to the computer that runs Orbis. That’s why we don’t understand what everyone is saying,” Ketheria said.

“How do you know?” Theodore asked.

Ketheria tapped on the device the Keepers used to control her telepathy.

“It doesn’t work?” I asked her, and Ketheria shook her head. “You can read our thoughts?”

Ketheria nodded.

“Then they must be using a smaller computer to translate each other. I can understand some of the words but not all of them,” Max said.

“The smaller computer can’t translate fast enough,” Theodore guessed.

“If the central computer is off-line, then this whole area must be outside of the control of the Keepers,” I said.

I was used to being connected to computers. In a weird way it gave me comfort.
I don’t like this,
I thought.

“Me either,” Ketheria said.

“Don’t do that,” I told my sister.

When the alien finally let Weegin pass, we filed through the red-glowing door and gathered on a landing perched above a wide staircase. Nugget reached up and took my hand. He held on to Ketheria with his other. We were at the top of a huge room. Hanging on the back wall were three floors of balconies with aliens huddled around pots of seeping smoke. The yellowish haze collected over the center of the room and stung my eyes. I watched one alien point at Ketheria’s headpiece and then snatch up a pile of crystals on his table to the protest of a trio of bald creatures. There must have been a hundred aliens. Every one of them fell silent when they saw Weegin desend the stairs with us in tow.

“This can’t be good,” Max said.

Weegin tugged on the rope, dragging us to a thick counter that looked like it was carved from a single stone.

“
Cha
now
Paka
koo,
” he barked at two identical buglike aliens. The one farthest from Weegin reached under the counter, and a green spotlight cut through the smoke, exposing a small stage in the center of the ground floor.

The audience of aliens burst into cheers. A thick creature with four metal tubes protruding from a mask that covered his face reached out to Ketheria. His brown robe stank of rot, and his gloved hands were wrapped in some sort of glistening wet weed. Weegin slapped the alien’s paw away and jerked the light rope toward the center of the room.

“What are you doing, Weegin?” I asked.

“
Che
quiet,” Weegin snapped.

The cheering grew louder.

“No!” I stopped and grabbed the rope. The crowd responded with more shouting. “What are we doing here?”

“I’m getting my payback. That’s what I’m doing,” he said slowly. “Now come here!” Weegin grabbed Nugget.

“No!” the little alien yelped.

“Leave him,” Ketheria shouted.

“Not for sale,” Weegin snapped, pushing his son aside.

“For sale?” Max said.

That’s when I noticed more than one alien counting crystals on the tables. I saw another hurriedly waving over smaller robot drones, which then scurried back to the two aliens at the main counter.

“You can’t sell us,” Switzer protested.

“You’re supposed to take us back to the Keepers,” I reminded him.

“They have a decree,” Theodore said.

“I will be
drrek
gone before anyone
eesh
aware of
tey
transaction,” Weegin said.

I saw Switzer staring at me. He looked at me with a smirk, slowly shaking his head.

“Really thinking about that opportunity you gave up on the
Renaissance
aren’t you, dumbwire?” he said, referring to his futile attempt to hijack our seed-ship.

I was. I could not think of any way out of this. I could not talk to Vairocina or alert the central computer. I could not break the rope Weegin used, and even if I could, I didn’t think I could make it out of there. I couldn’t figure out what to do. There were no options.

The large alien in the smelly brown robe was now next to me. He put his hand on my head and shouted, “They’re diseased!”

Weegin whipped around and pulled me away from him. The crowd was on its feet. Max tried to say something, but all I could see were her lips moving in the racket.

“He lies! He’s crazy!” Weegin shouted to the crowd. “They are healthy. Perfect condition. Soon they will be of breeding age.”

“Weegin, please. Stop this. You can’t do this to us,” I begged.

“I am doing it,” he growled at me.

“
Dreekt
ten
foort
crystals. For the
semel
female!” yelled one alien, standing on his stool.

“Ne, ne, ne!”
Weegin yelled back, quickly waving his hands above his head. He stepped onto the stage and pulled us up with him. “
Ne Dreekt.
You must take
trell
!” he shouted.

The alien who bid made a hissing sound at Weegin. One of the small aliens, with a narrow forehead and big eyes, pushed the large, cloaked alien aside and stepped onto the stage with Weegin.

“We have to do something,” Max whispered.

“I don’t know what to do,” I said.

“Who would expect anything else? That dumbwire isn’t worth the brain it’s stuck in,” Switzer sneered.

“What? If you’re so smart, then you do something,” I told him.

“I will.”

The bug-eyed alien began to speak. Its voice resonated throughout the entire arena, and everyone grew silent. The alien spoke slowly so every word was translated.

“Joca Krig Weegin . . . is offering . . . these twenty . . . human children . . . for trade,” the alien shouted.

“This can’t be happening,” Max said.

“Trading begins . . . at forty thousand yornaling crystals,” he added.

More than one alien laughed at the price. Others sat back down at their smoking pots, shaking their heads.

One alien yelled out, “Not for the whole ring.”

“One child is a telepath. The other is . . . a softwire,” the buglike alien announced.

There was a brief moment of complete silence before the entire crowd erupted into a fierce bidding war. A tall slender alien whose spine and ribs appeared to be outside its body stepped forward and bid forty-one thousand yornaling crystals. Another bid forty-two thousand, then forty-five. Then a large, burly alien with long teeth and thick, gray skin shouted out ninety thousand. I couldn’t keep track, things were happening so fast.

“JT?” Max whispered. There was panic in her voice.

If there had been some kind of computer translating the alien languages, then maybe I could have used that to link back to the central computer. Didn’t
they
have to do that, I wondered, for air control or waste management or the zillion other things the central computer controlled on the rings? I didn’t know, but it was my only shot.