by PJ Haarsma
“Stop!” I screamed, but Madame Lee only laughed.
I pushed into the destructive programs, but their codes changed with every attempt I made to breach their security. I pulled out of the demon program. There was nothing I could do but watch Madame Lee’s army of data soldiers pulverize the central computer.
“I said everything!” she screamed at them as one of her demonic foot soldiers turned on me.
I felt the program latch onto my computer form. Its electrical claws wrapped around my face and drained out all the energy I had left. I instinctively tried to pull out of the central computer, but the program would not let go. It had me. My mind’s eye flickered between the images of destruction and blue static.
With one jerk, Madame Lee’s monster ripped my essence from my body. My mind flashed bright white as ice-blue energy currents filled my veins and sent a burst of silvery flame charging through my bones and out through my fingertips. Static electricity crackled across my new form. I was completely inside the computer, just like Vairocina, but I knew that I was also still in my old body, caught between two realities. From deep inside my head, I felt my physical form slide off the chair back in the room with Theodore.
“JT!” I heard Theodore screaming. “JT, what’s wrong! Wake up!”
Theodore shook my body, but I could not respond. I could hear and see him, but I was unable to move. I felt as if I were looking up at him from the bottom of a very deep well. Theodore ran to the door.
“Max! Max! Come quick. JT is hurt.” I didn’t hear anything for a while after that. He must have left to find Max.
The break from my physical form, although painful at first, left me bursting with the energy of the entire central computer. I steadied myself using my new limbs. Madame Lee’s demonic programs were no match for me now. Manipulating them was as easy as tossing trash from Weegin’s conveyor belts. I no longer pushed into anything. I was in everything. My mind reached out to a billion data points at once. I sucked knowledge from every source on Orbis and from every corner of the central computer. Dismantling each program would be as easy as thinking about it. A stream of fiery electrons shot from my hands as Madame Lee’s demons scrambled for cover. The explosions left nothing but pieces of code floating in the air.
“Stupid little tricks,” Madame Lee said as I turned on her. She released a fireball of electricity that sprang high above me and thundered down on my new form. To her horror, I simply absorbed the energy.
“That’s it?” I said, and reached in and grabbed her face with my right hand.
“Don’t!” she cried. A rush of electricity shot up my arm as I ripped Madame Lee from her program. She screamed in pain as the space around her crackled and sparked. I threw her form to the ground, where the central computer immediately began to dismantle the essence of Madame Lee, sending chunks of code to the trash.
“You can’t do this!” she screamed, almost begging.
“Yes, I can,” I said. As I watched Madame Lee thrash about, now under the control of the central computer, I felt a distant sensation of my physical form being moved. Caught in two places, I could at once see three scavenger robots encasing my real body inside a glass and metal disposal crate. The part of me that was still in that body could vaguely see them building the coffin around me. As Theodore returned to the room, I screamed from inside the computer that I was still alive, but no one could hear me.
“Stop!” Theodore screamed, too, but the drones would not let up.
Theodore kicked one of the robots, but it only paused momentarily before continuing. Theodore could only stand and watch as they welded a coffin around me.
He threw his arms around the closest drone and pulled it away from my lifeless form. There was nothing I could do. Inside the computer, I retraced my steps as the drone zapped Theodore with an electrical charge. He fell to the ground and then scrambled to the door.
“Max! Max!” I heard him shouting.
“The sails on the building have begun to turn. What’s happening?” she said.
I could still hear her running down the hallway. My senses were alert, but they were fading — fading fast.
“They’ve got Johnny. I can’t stop them.”
“Who’s got Johnny? What do you mean?” Max pushed past Theodore to see the drones completely entomb my body inside the glass and metal coffin.
“Stop!” she screamed, but the drones were no more responsive to her than to Theodore.
“Look, the globes on the walls are filling,” Theodore shouted.
Images mixed with blue static filled my mind’s eye. The drones pushed my coffin, which hovered a meter above the ground, toward the door. I could see Max through the glass as she put her weight against the coffin.
“Forget them — help me push it back,” she yelled, but the drone zapped her before Theodore could react.
“Ow!”
The drones pushed me past my friends. Max scrambled to her feet and banged her fists against the glass. Theodore jumped on top of the glass tomb, and two robots zapped him at the same time. He fell to the floor. Max stared at Theodore’s unconscious body.
“JT! JT! Wake up!” she screamed, but I could do nothing. I raced through the computer, hoping I could get to my body at the connection point. I needed to find a way back — now.
Max frantically tried everything she could to get the robots to stop, but nothing worked. As she searched for something to distract them with, I heard a hissing noise. Blue gas began to fill my tomb. Max screamed as the gas crept along my body.
Without thinking, she grabbed the closest robot and lifted it above her head. The robot zapped her several times, but she would not stop. She brought the robot crashing down on the glass coffin, shattering the top and destroying the robot.
The coffin fell to the floor while red flashing lights blinked from the two remaining robots. Max kicked one and they both scrambled away.
“I should have done that earlier,” I heard her say as she pulled my body from the debris.
Max slapped me on the face several times.
“Johnny! Johnny!”
“Is he all right?” Theodore, still a little groggy, came around the corner.
“I don’t know. Help me get him back to the O-dat.”
They struggled down the hallway and set me inside the room. It was very hard to see them now. I slipped farther down the well.
“Johnny!” Max slapped me very hard.
I could no longer sense my own flesh as a brilliant shard of golden lightning shut down my brain.
The bright white opening at the end of the well came rushing toward me, only to fade away again and again. As it came close once more, I lunged my entire essence at the light, knowing it was my only salvation.
Reboot. My eyes flickered open, and I gasped real air into my lungs. My head throbbed as I focused on the fixture in front of me.
“You have been doing that quite a few times, I am afraid.”
“Theylor?”
“It is good to have you back,” he said.
“But how . . . I . . .”
“Humans are a very strange species. Full of surprises, I must say. You showed great resilience. The cosmic energies in the building Madame Lee kept you in were unusually high.”
“Ketheria? Where’s Ketheria? I have to get . . .” I said, struggling to orient myself.
“Ketheria is fine. Relax, everyone is safe now, thanks to you.”
“Madame Lee? The war? What happened?”
“Madame Lee’s ship is gone. She has fled Orbis.”
“But I killed her,” I said.
“You may have done just that,” he said. “Your message to Drapling took some time to understand, I’m afraid, but your friend — I believe his name is Charlie — was smart enough to believe you.”
“So it worked?”
“You should have come to us much sooner. We were monitoring Madame Lee’s army for some time. Neewalkers do not come cheap, I am afraid.”
“Sar Cyrill
us?”
“With the help of Torlee. They were friends at one time. We did not know how Madame Lee would strike our defenses. We should have suspected she might try to use you. That is the same reason we needed you inside the central computer.”
“I forgot about that. Do I still have to go? Can I say good-bye first?”
“Do not worry about that anymore. We have Vairocina now. Once again, thanks to you.”
“Vairocina?”
“She was instrumental to us in destroying anything Madame Lee put in the computer. She will be a valuable asset to Orbis as long as you remain here with us. She has grown very fond of you.”
“So I don’t have to live in the computer?”
Theylor shook both of his heads. What a relief that was.
“How did you learn to communicate with Vairocina?” Theylor asked.
“After Charlie mentioned the ones and zeros, I realized she was trying to communicate with me the only way she knew how. I knew she was just code, in a manner of speaking, but still a living being all the same. She must have come to Orbis 1 in such a manner that she never received the translation codec.”
“True. No one from her species has ever traveled the wormhole. Vairocina comes from a solar system at the very edge of the universe. Her people are a very old species of immortals. Through the millennia they rid their system of disease, war, famine — anything that would shorten their life cycle. When they were tired of their physical form but still wished to be in contact with their loved ones, they simply uplinked their consciousness and personality to a digital community. Very old and wise, this virtual community provided wisdom and guidance for every new generation.”
“But Vairocina looks so young. How did she get in there?”
“When she was six years old, her physical form was damaged beyond repair in an accident. Her parents begged the Elders to uplink their daughter’s consciousness so they could still communicate with her. They loved her very much. Never had such a young consciousness been placed in the community. She rebelled. She ran away. Vairocina jumped across the galaxies inside any device she could, anything she could store her consciousness in, as she searched for a new body. She ended up here in the belief that Orbis, with its riches, was a magical place.”
“She will never have a physical form again, will she?” I asked.
“I am afraid not, but now she has a purpose. A purpose on Orbis.”
“One I am very excited about, too,” Vairocina said.
“Vairocina?”
“Hello, Johnny.”
“I can hear her in my head,” I told Theylor. “Just like Mother.”
He stood up. “Johnny, greatness has been thrust upon you, and you have performed with a dedication and a maturity that is a tribute to your species. I know you may not like the role you have been given, but sometimes it is not up to us to choose. Sometimes our purpose is shown to us, as it was with you. You have saved Orbis, and everyone is grateful for it. I am very interested to see the role of humans in our future. You will always have my admiration, Johnny. Now, please rest. Vairocina, if you can hear me, let Johnny rest now.”
“I’m afraid he cannot hear me, JT, but you will not have time to rest. You have more visitors.”
Just as Vairocina spoke, Ketheria, Max, and Theodore entered my recovery room.
“Guys!”
“I thought we lost you,” Max said, and smiled.
“It’s good to see you, Johnny,” Theodore said.
“Thanks to you two,” I told them.
My friends surrounded my bed. My sister stood next to me. Theylor rubbed his hand on Ketheria’s head. “She’s been through quite a lot,” he said. “You might find your sister a little different.”
“I’m glad you’re safe,” I told Ketheria.
She smiled and moved toward me. Max’s eyes flashed with an excitement I didn’t understand.
“What?” I said.
And then I heard something I never thought I would.
My sister squeezed my hand and opened her mouth. “I knew you would come back,” she said.
“Here it comes!” Theodore Malone shouted.
“But we’re not ready yet!” I yelled back, scoping the sorting bay for any sign of it. I snatched the hand laser off the floor and hid it inside my vest.
“Give me that,” Maxine Bennett protested, and took the tool from me. She pointed it at the scavenger-bot now dissected on the metal floor in front of us. “This is the last one. If that thing gets its paws on this before we fix it, who’s gonna clean this place up? Not me,” she said. “I plan to do more on this ring than just pick up after Switzer.”
I did too. I just hadn’t figured what that was yet. I strained my neck to see past the huge cranes rooted on the inner dome at the center of Weegin’s World. There was no sign of it.
“Fine, Max. Then you keep working, and I’ll find some way to block the lift,” I said, standing up and tearing back toward the other kids.
“Better hurry, JT,” Theodore said from across the sorting-bay floor and to my far right.
“You could help,” I told him, but Theodore shook his head. He was safely out of the way, perched atop one of the electric-blue sorting belts. The belts were placed every meter or so inside the curved factory. Theodore waved me over to join him on the gaseous device, but I needed to make it to the second-floor lift, located between him and the last belt.
Our roommate, Randall Switzer, was dozing on that farthest belt. I could see a portable O-dat clutched in his oversize paw. It was a weak attempt to prove his intelligence, but I knew the lazy malf only wanted to nap.
I heard the lift squawk into action. Theodore stood up on the belt. “It’s on the lift! Forget about the bot, JT — just run!”
I froze. From where I stood, I couldn’t see the lift, but I could definitely hear what was on it.
“Work! Work! Now work!” it screamed over the machine’s metallic hum like a distress beacon.
“It’s getting off the lift — now,” another kid said.
I turned back toward Max. “Leave it,” I shouted at her.
I took my chances and charged toward Theodore.
I hadn’t even broken stride when my feet were knocked out from under me. Before I hit the floor, a heavy, clawed foot (the worst kind) thumped against the lower part of my vest, knocking the wind out of me.
“I see you with tools. Where you get tools?” it screamed at me.
“I’m fixing the scavenger-bot,” I shouted back. “You broke them all!” But I knew speaking to him was useless. The bald little beast just tilted his head whenever I spoke, as if amazed I could make sounds with my mouth. It was worse than trying to reason with Switzer.
“My tools!” he said, and pushed down on my chest.
When I was first assigned to Weegin, almost one complete rotation ago, my Guarantor always cradled a yellowed larva in his thick, three-fingered hands. He nursed that puffy thing phase after phase, and I never once bothered to ask him what it was. No one did. Weegin answered most questions with a twist of your nose or your ear, or even a painful yank on your hair. If he had wanted me to know what it was, he would have told me. But the mystery was gone now. Two phases ago, right after I fought the Belaran, Madame Lee, inside the central computer, that puffy lump of flesh hatched into the little monster that stood over me as I gasped for air.
“Who gave knudnik my tools?” he demanded, and lifted his disgusting foot off my chest.
Previous confrontations with Weegin’s offspring taught me to give up early since he never understood a word I said anyway. I simply curled up on the floor, clutched my stomach, and waited for the oxygen to find its way into my lungs. Looking satisfied with my condition, the undersize monster set his beady eyes on Switzer.
The alien was not exactly a miniature version of Weegin, as you might expect. His hands were far more muscular, and his legs appeared thicker and stronger than they should for a Choi from Krig. The bald protégé stalked the corridors of Weegin�
��s World with his lower jaw thrust absurdly forward, the result of a severe underbite. A row of pointed teeth curled up and over his top lip as he marched around barking orders at everyone. Somehow this pink little maggot thought he was in charge.
He ran straight at Switzer and slammed the operation button next to his head. The sorting belts hissed into motion.
“Work. You. Big thing. Work now!” he yelled, and stood guard so no one could get at the controls.
Theodore had jumped to the floor. Switzer, however, remained soundly asleep. Even the clatter of the awakened cranes did not stir him.
“Maybe he’s deaf and dumb?” Theodore said.
“Switzer!” Max shouted, but he did not move. Switzer kept right on sleeping as the blue mist holding him up headed for the chute. The chute was a hole in the wall that led to a furnace burning deep beneath Weegin’s World. It was a drop Switzer would not survive. Max and another kid tried to get to Switzer, but Weegin’s hatchling snapped his large, protruding snout at anyone who moved.
I pulled myself off the ground. “Distract that thing,” I told Max, and she chucked a wrench at him. The alien turned on his heels and stomped straight toward her, his lengthy claws clacking on the metal floor.
“Tools are expensive!” he screamed.
I stuck my hand in the greenish-gray radiation gel used to protect our skin when there was junk to sort. I slid over to Switzer and reached my hand under his nose. The ghastly smell — rotten meat mixed with crusty socks and a touch of recycled toilet water — did the job. Switzer wrenched his head away and fell to the floor as Weegin dashed out from his glass bunker. I ran to an O-dat at the other side of the bay and accessed the local computer network with my softwire. I shut the cranes down instantly.
“Is it here? Speak. Is it here yet?” Joca Krig Weegin shouted from the second-floor balcony that jutted out over the sorting-bay floor. He hoisted his knobby body onto the railing and canvassed each one of us with his bloodshot eyes.
“Is what here, Weegin?” said a voice from the tall glass doorway.
I spun around to see the Keeper, Theylor. His purple velvety robes swept the floor as he entered Weegin’s World.