“Do you have any idea how to—how to do—whatever it is?” Sammy struggled to find the words to describe something he knew nothing about.
“No,” Brickert said, shrugging.
“When do you see your family again?”
Brickert looked at him incredulously. “Don’t you know? Sorry. I assumed they told everyone. We won’t get to see our parents until we graduate. Didn’t they tell your family that?”
“Of course,” Sammy covered quickly. “I— I just wondered since maybe you are closer to home . . . you know, maybe they’d come visit or something.”
“Nope. It was really hard leaving them, too. Tonight will be the first night I’ve ever spent away from home.” Then Brickert suddenly became suspicious. “You’re not going to tell anyone that, are you?”
“No. Course not,” Sammy said. “You can trust me.”
And he meant it. Brickert seemed loyal, much like Sammy’s friends in the grocery store. Brickert’s youthful innocence brought out a tamer side in him that he hadn’t felt in a while. Sammy lost himself in his memories, missing Feet and Gunner and others. Brickert had to clear his throat to get Sammy’s attention back.
“Sorry,” Sammy mumbled, “just thinking.”
“You didn’t tell me how you found out about being a Psion,” Brickert said. They were both sitting on their chairs wearing the new uniforms. Sammy had his feet propped up and Brickert was settling in as though he was about to hear a good story. But Sammy had a chance now to make a clean start with a new crowd; he wanted to make the most of it. Someone knocked at their door at that moment, saving him the task of thinking up a lie to tell Brickert.
Sammy got up a little too fast and crossed the room. The door opened to reveal a tall skinny boy with light-brown hair and blue eyes wearing a gold and white jumpsuit. He was definitely older than both Sammy and Brickert. He wore a monstrous grin on his face.
“Hey!” he exclaimed. “Can I come in?”
“Sure,” Sammy responded, moving out of the way to allow him room.
“Albert Hayman,” he said, shaking their hands heartily. “Everyone calls me Al. The commander asked me to keep an eye on you guys. Make sure you find everything okay.”
“Thanks!” Brickert answered as if he had just won the lottery.
“What’re your names?” he asked.
“Brickert.”
“Sammy.”
“Are you two the only nukes?” Al asked.
“What does that mean?” Brickert asked.
“Nukes . . . New recruits. Newcomers. Don’t either of you game?”
Both Sammy and Brickert shook their heads.
Al rubbed his forehead. “Well, that’s going to have to change if you want to fit in. Who else came today?”
“Three girls with us,” Sammy answered.
“Really? Five? Wow. Biggest group I’ve ever heard of.”
“How long have you been here?” Brickert asked.
“Me? I’ve been here forever. Over five years. Almost six now that I think of it. Second longest of anyone here right now, and I finish in about nine months.”
“How many Betas are there?” Brickert asked, definitely eager to get his important questions answered. Sammy didn’t bother reminding him Byron had already told them the answer.
“With five new recruits that brings it up to . . . twenty Betas.”
“Does everyone get along?”
“For the most part. If you can tolerate being called a ‘nuke’ or worse for a few weeks. Are you guys hungry?”
“I’m starving,” answered Sammy. In fact, he could not remember eating since the pizzas on the night the Shocks had come. Thinking about the Shocks reminded him of something else. “Al, what day is it?” he asked.
“It’s the eighteenth.”
“No, what day of the week is it?”
“Er . . . Sunday,” Al replied slowly.
Sammy had been chased from the grocery store on Thursday night. Two days completely gone, and I have no memory of what happened.
“Come on,” Al said, interrupting Sammy’s thought. “I’ll help you get food.”
“Where’s everyone else?” Brickert asked Al as the three of them walked upstairs to the cafeteria.
“Well, we spend so much time inside that on Sundays everyone just wants to get out. Plus, the commander doesn’t want anyone inside during tours. Says it distracts the recruits.”
Once in the cafeteria, Al gave them a more detailed explanation on how to work the RoboChef. Sammy ordered his favorite, a creamy chicken cordon bleu. The RoboChef made it perfectly. Brickert asked for a hamburger. Al ordered something Sammy had never heard of before. Fifteen minutes later, they were all eating.
“The RoboChef isn’t going to break, Sammy,” Al said, watching him with disgust and awe. “You can slow down.”
Sammy almost choked through his laughter. “Sorry, I just—it’s really good and I’m hungry.” His diet while living in the grocery store had consisted of anything he and his friends could nick without being caught. And the cordon bleu tasted like a home-cooked meal.
“Mom isn’t much of a cook, eh?” Al asked, now smiling again.
“Something like that,” Sammy replied.
Brickert glanced at Sammy, but continued eating his burger. While they ate, Al kept up a steady stream of information about other Betas.
“Kobe and Ludwig are habitual practical jokers—watch out for them.”
“Are there brothers here?” Sammy asked. “We saw a door that had identical last names above it.”
“That’s Kobe and Kaden. The Reynolds twins.”
“Twins?” Brickert repeated. “Cool.”
“Kind of a funny story how the commander found them, actually,” Al continued. “They were playing one of those VR fighting games. You know the ones you can control with your mind? Street Fighter, I think. Anyway, Kobe, he’s the one I just mentioned, he got really mad and blasted Kaden across the room. Kaden did it right back. By the time the commander got there, they’d caused a ton of damage and the cops were dragging them to jail.”
Sammy and Brickert both laughed with Al.
“Can you show us what it is we . . . can do?” Sammy asked Al.
“Sure. What do you want to see?”
“Anything,” Brickert said.
“Okay,” Al answered, and then, after looking around, pointed to Brickert’s half-empty glass of water. “Watch that glass.”
Sammy and Brickert stared at the glass, and Al held his hand about ten centimeters away.
“Watching?” Al asked.
They both nodded anxiously.
The glass moved away from Al’s hand all on its own at a steady speed toward the end of the table. It stopped only centimeters away from the edge.
“WOW!” Brickert exclaimed with unabashed applause.
Sammy swore softly. He had to admit it . . . it was cool.
“Thanks,” Al said. “We used to have contests to see who could get the glass closest to the edge without falling, but the commander made us quit. We broke too many.”
Just then Al’s com came alive and a holographic screen dropped down over his eye.
“Hey,” Al said. “Yeah, we’re in the cafeteria, bring the girls up and have Kaden bring the guys. Okay. Bye.” When his screen went away he informed them, “That was Marie. She’s the oldest girl. Looks like we’re going to have a little get-together in the rec hall. So everyone can get to know you.”
The rec hall was empty when they got there, so Al took time to show Sammy and Brickert more than what they had glimpsed on the tour. Sammy couldn’t help but be impressed, and everything astounded Brickert. The rec hall took up almost half of the floor. It had a miniature VR gaming area similar to what Sammy had seen in the best malls in Johannesburg, a small movie theatre, and lots of other games like pool and foosball. Plus, there were two racquetball courts, a basketball court, and an indoor turf field—all of it pristine.
“Dang, this place is nutty,�
� Sammy commented to himself when Al finished showing them around.
They waited in a sitting area next to the VR center where Al had arranged almost two dozen gel chairs into a circle. Sammy and Brickert took adjacent empty chairs as other Betas trickled in. Marie came in with Natalia, Kawai, and Jeffie. She was a pretty girl with dark hair in a ponytail. She sat next to Al, and they began chatting at once. Sammy tried to catch Jeffie’s eye so she would take the other chair next to him, but she didn’t notice and sat with the other girls across the room.
“Where’s the pukes?” a loud voice called from just outside the door. It belonged to a tall, athletic kid with spiked, bleach-blond hair ending in darkened tips and a cocky smile that filled the lower half of his face. “Where are they?” he said again, doing a mock duck hunt. “I just got back from the store with some fresh diapers. Commander Byron said they haven’t been potty trained yet.” Several other boys about his age followed him in, laughing at his joke. After glancing around the room, the blond boy sat down next to Jeffie and held out his hand. “Hi.”
Jeffie smiled and shook his hand. “Hi.”
“I’m Kobe,” the blond kid said, his voice rich with charm. “Nice to meet you. Do you need your diaper changed?”
“Jeffie,” she replied with an even bigger smirk. “And no, thank you.”
Sammy’s ears got warm as he watched Kobe expertly work his magic on Jeffie. Then Kobe introduced himself to Kawai and Natalia with the same fanfare.
“So Al,” Kobe said, “Are we going to sit in a circle and sing Cowabunga?”
“Something like that,” Al chuckled.
“Maybe we should just skip the talk and get straight to the nitty-gritty,” Kobe said. “Who’s good at gaming?”
Several people laughed.
“Told you,” Al said to Brickert and Sammy with a wink. When all twenty Betas had arrived, the group got quiet and all eyes were on Al. “What?” he asked sheepishly.
“You’re the one who called us here,” Marie said.
“Fine. Let’s just go around and introduce ourselves to the new guys.”
“And girls,” Jeffie added.
“Right,” Al said, “and girls.”
From the names and accents he heard, Sammy guessed they had a small sampling of almost every ethnicity on the planet in headquarters. Fortunately, English was NWG standard language, and everyone spoke it fluently. The names also told Sammy that seven of the twenty Psions were siblings from three different families.
No one paid much attention to Sammy when he gave his very brief introduction, and he didn’t mind. This crowd was so different than his friends. He hadn’t heard anyone swear, and a few of them talked in very proper English. Gunner and Honk sometimes liked to see how many times they could curse in one sentence. Don’t these people know how to relax? But then he remembered how he had once been a lot like them.
When Brickert’s turn came, Al pointed out that he was the youngest Psion ever. Kobe snorted and muttered under his breath, “That runty puke definitely needs his diaper changed,” to the kid sitting next to him, who nodded and snickered. Brickert, who hated the extra attention, overheard Kobe’s comment and his cheeks turned bright red. When Jeffie introduced herself, she received several open-mouthed stares from most of the other male Psions. On the other hand, several of the girls glanced back more than once at Kawai’s strange bracelets and feathers, but she seemed unabashed as ever about her unusual style.
As soon as Li Cheng Zheng finished his introduction, Kobe jumped up and announced, “Let’s break in the pukes with Star Racers.”
Several Betas voiced their agreement.
“Do you guys want to play?” Al asked Sammy and Brickert.
“Sure,” they both said. Sammy had very little experience gaming, but had always enjoyed watching the other kids play when he and his mom walked by the gaming stations in the shops.
“Don’t embarrass yourself, Kobe,” Kaden said.
Kobe made a rude noise. “Right. Like any of them have played it.”
“I have played it, actually,” said Jeffie.
“Oh, you have, have you?” Kobe asked, now even more interested in her. “Well, it just so happens that I’m the best here. King of the hill if you will.”
Groans of dissent came from all corners of the room. Ludwig threw his gel chair at Kobe’s head.
“Well, I am,” Kobe told them as he ducked it.
“Talk is cheap,” Kobe’s brother, Kaden, said. “Let’s play.”
“Pukes—I mean, nukes—first,” Al announced. “Brillianté, Levu, and Martin can play with them.”
“Why us?” Brillianté asked?
“Because you’re not very good,” Kobe responded with a smirk. Brillianté shot a blast at Kobe which left his hair messed up.
Al, Marie, Kobe, Kaden, and Li Cheng Zheng took the five nukes into the VR stations. Each of the eight stations were built like small cubicles with the same brilliant white walls Sammy saw everywhere else. A pilot’s chair and flight controls furnished the interior. A small projector hung overhead. Kaden, who looked very little like his brother and acted even less like him, explained the rules to Sammy and demonstrated how to work the controls to move, accelerate, shoot, and shield.
“Just like this?” Sammy repeated what he had seen Kaden do.
“Exactly.” Kaden’s smile was friendly. “You’re a natural.”
Sammy took his seat, and the playing area darkened while the projector turned on. The cubicle gave the perfect illusion that he sat in the cockpit of a fighter docked inside a gigantic star cruiser. He fingered the controls to practice, remembering everything Kaden had said. To his left and right, he saw identical racing fighters, only with different occupants. The projected image of Brickert looked back at him and grinned giddily.
Cool, Sammy thought. Very cool.
Numbers appeared counting down to the start of the race. When it reached zero, Sammy fired his reverse thrusters and shot backwards into the dock, banging his ship on the back wall.
Oops! Wrong way.
Fortunately, three of the others had similar problems accelerating as well. Only Jeffie shot clean out of the launching space. Sammy fumbled with the controls until he was able to gently ease the fighter out of the dock, then he took off into space with the others accelerating beside or in front of him. He sped past Brickert’s ship, which seemed unable to fly in a straight course, and followed flashing green arrows that guided the racers. It surprised Sammy how quickly he acclimated to the controls. After only a minute of flying, the ship was merely an extension of his body.
A red light appeared on his control panel. This, Kaden had said, meant one of the racers was targeting him. He punched the shield button and directed the shields to the rear to absorb any hits he could not shake off. This meant he would lose some of his speed, but it was better than being blown up. After experimenting with a few other maneuvers, he shook the ship targeting him.
Out his left window, he saw Jeffie trying to accelerate past him. He moved left to cut her off. She went up and over him to prevent this, so he held back and fired on her engines. She easily shielded them, but he accelerated nose down and came up under her, firing on her belly. According to Kaden, this was the only part of the ship that could not be shielded. After a brilliant, but momentarily blinding explosion, Sammy went full speed ahead to reach the carrier first without any more difficulty.
The projector turned off, and Kaden came in congratulating him. “Pretty good flying.”
“Thanks,” Sammy responded. “How’d you see it?”
“The screens out there show the whole race like a movie so we can watch everyone.”
Sammy got up to leave, but Kaden stopped him. “Hold fast. Let everyone else switch seats for the next race. You and Brillianté both stay since you were first and second.”
“Gotcha.”
“I’ll see you in there this time,” Kaden called out as he headed for his cubicle. “Good luck.”
As Samm
y waited, a huge grin formed on his face. No wonder they’re hooked on the game. It’s a rush! The race was intense, and with the holographic projection perfectly synchronized with his controls, the illusion of space was almost too real.
Six new players took their seats while Sammy waited impatiently. The projector came to life once more, and he saw new faces in the fighters next to him. Kaden and Al were on opposite sides, and Marie sat on Al’s other side giving him a thumbs down.
The countdown began. At zero, Sammy shot out of the carrier with the others. The outside racers jockeyed for a better inside position. He fired his reverse thrusters just enough to get behind the small crowd of ships. Three ships moved in to occupy his space. Sammy fired on Kaden and Al. The ships on the outside pulled ahead of the middle ships and cut in toward the middle. When Sammy took out Kaden’s ship and drew even with Al, Al gestured for a temporary truce.
Together they targeted the enemy fighters in sequence, destroying them all until only they remained. They both sped toward the landing ship trying to get into the best position, circling around each other’s ships. As the intensity picked up, an odd sensation settled over Sammy.
He saw.
Just like the chess game.
He went into a nose dive exactly as he’d done against Jeffie, but this time he counted on Al recognizing what he was doing. Instead of actually diving, Sammy did a shallow dip and sped forward while Al went nose up to protect his belly. Sammy threw open his thrusters and raced forward. His target warning went off and he shielded Al’s fire. Although it cost him in speed, he had gained enough distance to beat Al into the cruiser and win again.
From the cubicle next to him, Al cried, “You punk! You’ve never played this before, huh?”
“Never,” Sammy said with a confident grin.
“Sweet flying! Let’s see who wins the next one. Watch out for Kobe—he’s not all talk.”
“That’s right, puke,” Kobe gloated as he walked by. “Don’t get a big head. Only I’ve earned it.”
Al was right. Kobe played very well. He started on the outside, and quickly eliminated two ships on his side, drifting inward and targeting Sammy. Rather than shielding, Sammy sped in front of Al. Al’s ship took the force of Kobe’s fire and detonated. Knowing from experience that Kobe would be blinded from Al’s explosion, Sammy quickly reversed his thrust and fell close behind Kobe, hoping Kobe would think he had picked off both ships.
Psion Beta (Psion series #1) Page 7