He stepped back. The tension between us eased. He knew his limits. Whether he could kung fu or not, it wasn’t going to do him any good when I froze his ass in time. He parted his lips and bit down, his teeth clicking together. Something shot between his lips and stung my neck. A pin-prick. I rubbed the left side of my neck, the spot already numb.
“What the hell did you just do?”
“I am sorry, dear Socket. The message has been delivered.”
Something wiggled inside, bumped against my throat. I turned, pressed harder. My entire neck was numb.
Broak backed further away. I swung wild and fell to one knee. The wiggling went to the back of my neck and pierced my spine. I tried to scream but my throat was dead. My lips worked silently. I tapped my cheek, activated the nojakk, attempted to call Spindle. I couldn’t make a sound. I crawled on my knees, reaching for the tower, but Spindle was thirty feet above the ground.
Broak watched. I drooled a long string onto the floor. The wiggling sensation penetrated deeper. Numbness traveled down my spine. It reached the bottom and exploded. Fire erupted.
On my back. Colors bright. Timeslicing.
D I S C O V E R Y
Lullaby
In timesliced silence, I lay still. I could see the ceiling now that the hovering platforms had thinned. It was a hundred feet above. It was blue. Like the sky. I could not feel the hard floor beneath me or the wiggling sensation in my neck. I couldn’t move and I was alone. I’d die like that.
Just wish I could say goodbye to someone.
Unconsciousness came like a black fog, rolling in from above, eating up the remaining hovering platforms and gobbling up the walls. It came for me, creeping over my face. But something was moving within it. There was sound.
Pivot crawled over me and the black cloud scattered. He slid his fingers behind my head, probing a spot burning on my neck. I trembled, hoping he would get the message TO STOP DOING THAT!
He picked me up. The room spun.
In several blurry moves, we dropped into a dark, musty tunnel where the light was gray and the ceiling smooth. He put me down and his hair fell over his face. He listened like a morning bird, pressing his fingers on the back of my neck, again; this time harder and deeper. Like driving nails. Pain burned into my skull and down my spine. I was helpless to stop him. Unable to scream.
The source of pain was in my neck, branching like lightning, searing me from the inside, until Pivot pulled something out. I fell limp and relieved, taking tiny gulps of air. Pivot leaned against the wall, his knees pulled up. Something squirmed in his hand like a long crystalline horsehair.
[An accelerator.] His face was slick with sweat. [Your energy centers are now attempting to prematurely bind.]
“Broak did that.” My teeth chattered.
[Yes.]
“Why?”
[Your awakening is failing.]
I pushed off the floor and winced. Small sparks shot down my back, crackling just under the skin. “I can still feel… things happening.”
Pivot gently pushed me back down, placed his hand on my chest, turned his head and listened. He touched several spots. The Adam’s apple in his throat bobbed up and down and a low hum vibrated through his hand. The humming was soft and numbing but the sparking pain fought back. I closed my eyes while Pivot moved his hand across my chest and hummed in different pitches. Sometimes loud. Sometimes soft. It tried to carry me off to a dreamy place, but jagged rips of pain yanked me back. He hummed louder to soften the blows. And then I would drift again.
Mmmmmmm. The sound travelled into my bones.
Warmth oozed inside and the pain receded.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
I floated away and left the hurt in my skin. I saw Pivot hunched over my body with his hand on my chest and humming. I continued to float upwards and away. I tried to swim back but I was helpless. Despite the pain and agony back there, I wasn’t ready to leave. Not yet. Please.
I went through the ceiling and into the ground above. I rose through the compacted soil and red streaks of iron. Roots appeared, branching out with little white tendrils, tiny hairs sucking moisture from the pore space. Higher still, there were more roots and insects feeding on them. I passed through it all and emerged above ground, into the sunlight.
A breeze rustled fallen leaves across the slab. Pivot was against the grimmet tree. Grimmets crawled down his arms and hung from his fingers. His lifted his head. A man walked up the stone slab with a bundle of blankets. He wore the uniform of a Paladin but his hair was long and face unshaven. Father.
He knelt next to Pivot and pulled the blankets open. A baby struggled in the light, his eyes clenched. He opened his toothless mouth and let loose a cry that woke every last grimmet hiding inside the tree’s hollows. They shot from the branches and stormed overhead, casting an ominous shadow over the child.
Pivot turned his face up and grinned, his sightless eyes searching. While my father looked young, Pivot looked exactly the same. He touched the baby’s chin, stroked his cheeks and touched his nose. The child stopped crying, wrapped his whole hand around Pivot’s finger. Pivot’s laugh came out like a hoarse bark.
The grimmets shifted and laughed, too. The child’s gaze moved through the colorful cloud and the grimmets wrestled to get in front, sticking out their tongues, thumbing their noses for attention. Fights broke out. They whipped each other with their tails and pulled each other’s ears. The baby squealed with delight. The grimmets crowded closer, making goo-goo and ga-ga sounds. Pivot waved them off.
“He’s got my eyes,” my father said. “And his chin’s square, too. He’s going to be strong. And independent.”
That was me in the blankets. I hoping this was a dream and I wasn’t watching my life pass before me.
My father placed the bundle in Pivot’s arms. Suddenly, I was swaddled in the blankets. I’d become the baby. I could feel Pivot rocking me side to side. I felt his chest heave when he barked out laughter and the grimmets’ wings beat the wind onto my face. I reached up for his face and caught a handful of hair. I pulled his face closer, felt his breath stream onto my cheeks. I felt so safe.
Pivot rubbed his nose against mine and cooed a lullaby, a sound humming deep inside his throat. It started with a single note, vibrating long and low, and then drifted up and down. He closed his eyes, moving his head to the rhythm of his wordless song. The grimmets joined in, their little voices humming a higher pitch.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
There was nowhere to go. Nothing to do.
MmmmmmMMMMMM.
The world was perfect in that moment.
Mmmmmmm.
mmmm.
The ground quaked. I jerked into the rock and resurfaced. The tree was empty. Pivot was gone. My father was, too. A dust cloud swept over the rock carrying fallen leaves.
I went down again, hard this time. Past the insects, roots and rocks, and slammed into my skin like brick on brick. My teeth clamped. Something hardened like an iron fist in my groin. I convulsed. Another knot tightened in my stomach. My chest knotted. My throated constricted. Electricity ripped through me. Pivot’s touch faded in the gloom.
The awakening had arrived.
I couldn’t remember Pivot picking me up or how long he’d been carrying me. I could only see the tunnel fall away behind us. His legs were blurred below, moving inhumanly fast. The walls were flying by. My hair was plastered to my face, but I no longer felt fiery pain. I was just numb.
Where are you taking me?
[You must awaken.]
The tunnels were endless and all the same. Sometimes we took a left turn, sometimes a right. We passed through an archway outlined on the wall and dropped, then we went through another archway and dropped again. Vertigo churned my stomach. With each drop, the air turned colder and heavier. Pivot slowed, turned the last corner and put me on my feet. He held me up so I wouldn’t fall.
I faced an archway at the end of a tunnel. The last stop.
Somewhere deep inside, I felt a
quiver. Something I couldn’t ignore. It was time to face my demons. “I’m scared, Pivot.” My lips were fat. “I admit it.”
He held me firm. [Even heroes experience fear.]
“I’m no hero.”
The archway buzzed. I pushed back into Pivot. He held me tighter, then let go. The doorway drew me closer. My feet scuffed over the gritty floor. I reached back for Pivot but I was sucked through to the other side.
Agony returned.
The room was small and the walls etched with symbols. Blue light pulsed at the other end. BOOM-boom. BOOM-boom. Voices came from the light. They wanted me to come closer. I locked my knees but my right foot slid forward. I tightened up, leaned back, but the voices pulled. My left foot moved. Left, right, left I shuffled toward the light against my will. The voices were a jumbled crowd, talking among themselves, but the closer I got, the clearer they became.
[Who is it? This is unexpected. He is young... so young. This isn’t right. Should he awaken? It’s too late for him to turn back.]
They argued in circles, no voice sounding the same. Meanwhile, the room was volcanic. I was afraid to look down. Is that my skin dripping?
There were hundreds of voices now. Unseen fingers probed my body; feeling and studying. Deciding. Their minds penetrated me, looking through all the dark corners of my past. Memories opened, flipping too fast to recognize. They consumed the entire catalog of my life and all the intimate details, the ones I’d forgotten and the ones I wanted secret. I was completely exposed. Naked.
The voices stopped. The probing halted. In unison, they spoke one last word.
[Awaken.]
The blue light freed me from my skin. There were no walls. No ceiling or floor. I was somewhere in-between. The light was a ball the size of my head. Or maybe it was the size of a planet. There was nothing to compare. Maybe I was as big as a planet. The surface swirled blue and white. Liquidy. It pulsed, alive. I’d seen this before.
A virtualmode portal!
I reached for it. I don’t know what I reached with, I didn’t have hands, and I don’t know why I did it. Something urged me to. I reached and reached, through endless space.
The voices chanted far away. They buzzed inside me, built tension until it felt more like humming than buzzing. The more I reached, the louder it felt and the tighter I became. The thinner I was until I felt so thin I didn’t even exist.
There was a warm sensation when I merged with the portal. It filled me. Then I knew that I was not breaking, I was not thin, but I was full. I was everything, as if I was dissolving into the universe.
blip.
There was nothing. I think I screamed, but there was no pain. There was just nothing. I continued to dissolve into deep darkness until, for once, I felt complete peace. For once, I understood what this life was all about, and yet I couldn’t say what it was. I could only be there. I could only experience it. I understand.
I faded into a dreamless sleep. Part of me hoped I would never have to go back to the skin, but I knew that wouldn’t be. There was still so much to do. And so many people I couldn’t leave behind.
D I S C O V E R Y
Unforgiven
It was sometime later, I woke. A dim light radiated under the bed. All kinds of things came out of the dark. Lookits hovered over me. Long mechanical arms extended from the walls, tending to a thick band wrapped around my left arm where tubes came out, one filled with blood, the other blue. I licked my lips. A lookit pressed against my mouth and squirted something.
They did their jobs like a surreal nightmare. Maybe it was the blue fluid pumping into my arm or I was just too tired to make sense. Or maybe the abnormal just seemed normal.
One of the mechanical arms touched my forehead and I was sleepy again. I woke a few times but no one was there. I dreamed that little creepy things crawled inside my head, went through my memories, putting everything back in place before I woke.
Then one day, I woke fresh and clear. The room was bright. I threw my legs over the bed and sat up. I touched my nojakk and asked for the date. Thursday. Three days had passed.
Broak tried to kill me.
I didn’t ache or burn and none of my skin melted. I felt light and strong, my spine solid as a hundred year oak. Hot spots hummed along my back from my tail bone to the top of my head. And there were smells. Lots of them. The air was filled with thousands of distinctive scents. There were traces of people, servys, and food in the air and places they touched along the wall. There was a distinct tangy, steely scent. Spindle. And another scent mingled with it, another person was in the room with him. She smelled like jasmine. I sensed her on my wrist, the back of my hand, my shoulder. Mom was here.
I’ve awakened.
A tray extended from the wall with neatly folded clothes. I pulled the shirt off the pile, held it by the sleeves. It was dark, dark purple. The pants, too. I got dressed and the tray folded into the wall.
“You are feeling well?” Spindle came into the room.
I just looked at him, not knowing what to say. He had to know what happened, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he walked in like any other morning. He put his hand on my chest, put his fingers to my neck. His face flashed multiple colors.
“Your vitals are perfect. You may follow me.”
“Wait.” My voice sounded different. Deeper, maybe. Richer. “Where are we going?”
“Your preliminary judgment.” The colors on his face muted. “The Paladin Nation will decide your immediate future.”
His skin was cooler than usual. His voice wasn’t really Spindle-like, either. It was more business-like. More robot-like.
“What did they do to you?”
“Information classified.”
“What?”
“I am not classified to discuss the case.”
“What case?” I pulled him from the door. “Listen, Broak attacked me. He said some crazy shit about delivering a message, and then he shot this accelerator into my neck with his teeth…” Spindle’s face contained no color. “Are you listening?”
He pulled his arm away. “We cannot be late.”
The lights in the room dimmed. Spindle waited in the leaper, his shoulders thrown back and his head high. The leaper wobbled the moment I stepped inside. They did something to him, again. They stripped the Spindle out of him. Now he was just another servy. I started to say something, but he stepped through the door.
The room was enormous. Everyone in it wore the same color clothes as me. Mom was on the right next to the minty man, Walter Diggs. Commander Walter Diggs. His eyes were harder than the last time I met him, what seemed like a lifetime ago. Pike and two other minders with black wrap-around glasses were several yards in front of me. They were skinny waifs that were at least a foot taller than Pike and stood just off his shoulder a half-step behind him.
To the left, standing all alone, was Broak.
I clutched my fists and warm spots whirred along my spine. Time warped as the metaphorical spark glittered in my belly and I started after him. I had a message to deliver.
Spindle clutched my arm. “Control your actions, Master Socket. An act of violence will be dealt with severely.” His face darkened. “Crawler guards are on alert.”
I yanked my arm but his grip tightened. Broak stared ahead, unblinking. He didn’t plan on me surviving. The minders went through my memories; they would see what he said. They would see him spitting the accelerator. He would get what he deserved.
“Please step forward.” Spindle pointed at a circle glowing on the floor.
The spongy floor squeezed between my toes. Mom and the Commander stood with their arms locked behind their backs. Her lips were thin and her eyes red. The Commander had a soldier’s unmoving expression.
The room rumbled and sections of the floor rose up behind the minders, forming a horseshoe wall encircling us all. The room turned brown, the floor hard marble, and the ceiling sky blue. Men and women appeared at the top of the wall, like a panel of judges, from the chest
up. Soldiers’ expressions.
“Hearing 24489 of Socket Pablo Greeny,” a woman’s voice rang through the room, “is now in session. Evidence mined from Socket Pablo Greeny’s memory has been presented to the committee. Witnesses and the accused are present.”
A big man with slumping shoulders sat directly above the minders at the top of the wall. He looked around the committee and cleared his throat. “Socket Greeny.” His voice boomed. “Do you know why you are here?”
I shook my head.
“I see.” He looked down at notes or something. The rest of the committee kept hard looks coming. “You have accessed an awakening portal without authorization.”
I moved my mouth, searched for words, then found them. “Um, Your… Honor?”
“You may address me as Authority.” His deep set eyes hid under the shadow of his protruding eyebrows.
“Your Authority, I don’t know what this is all about. Broak approached me, initiated my awakening with an accelerator, which was like this squiggly wire he shot out of his mouth and went right in my neck.” They stared, no one saying a thing. “Look, I know this sounds crazy, your star pupil over there attacking me out of jealousy and all, but it happened. Just check my memories, it’s all there.”
The Authority held up his hand. “Broak is not on trial. It is you, Socket Greeny, that we are here to judge. I’ll confirm that you understand why you are here and we can continue.”
“Wait, he’s not on trial? How can… are you kidding? He tried to kill me!”
He held up his hand again and I stiffened under his psychic pressure. He looked around the circle and each member of the committee returned his knowing glance.
“Each of these members is projecting from around the world, so let me get on without further interruption. Your preliminary results are exceptional, demonstrating the highest potential the Paladin Nation has ever recorded. Including the young man to your left.” He nodded to Broak. “You have very promising timeslicing skills and have demonstrated superb psychic aptitude. For a cadet, that is quite impressive, especially at your age. And while you might claim cadet Broak attacked you out of jealousy, the minders have probed both your minds sufficiently and shown no evidence to support your claims.”
Socket 1-3 - The Socket Greeny Saga Page 10