Trion Rising, page 10
“This is an illegal gathering!” the probes announced in unison as three black-suited securities pulled people away from the front, where Jesmet still stood with his instrument. “For your own safety, return to your homes immediately.”
In other words, concert over. The securities had made sure of that. And if anyone wondered why they were being asked to disperse, most people didn’t take the time to ask. Now three or four more securities joined in, circling the musician as if they would surely arrest him.
“Oriannon,” Brinnin urged her, “Come on. Please!”
“No, wait.” She stood on tip-toes to see her music mentor calmly replacing his scarred old instrument in its velvet-lined hard case. Brinnin nearly tugged her arm off before giving up.
“You’re crazy,” said Brinnin, finally pulling away and disappearing into the crowd.
Crazy? Maybe Brinnin was right. But Oriannon couldn’t help watching as the silent crowd separated down the middle and Jesmet himself walked past gape-mouthed securities. One of them raised his hand as if to activate his baton once more, but something changed his mind and he lowered it again. A moment later Jesmet stopped short directly in front of where Oriannon stood, and Oriannon could hardly look up.
“Sorry your friend had to leave, Oriannon.” He smiled and rested his hand on her shoulder, as if they were discussing a piece of music in the lunch line. As if nothing had happened. “But as they said, the concert’s over. Better to go home now.”
Not yet! Actually, she would rather have sat and listened to his music just a little while longer. But she wasn’t about to admit that to Brinnin or Margus. Not to the mentor, and maybe not even to herself.
But she had no choice. Because without another word Jesmet simply walked away, leaving behind all the probes, the securities, and the wondering crowd.
12
Oriannon Hightower!”
The next day Ori snapped to attention at Mentor Narrick’s words, but a moment too late. He looked over his astronomy textbook and frowned at her.
“Mentor?” She brought up her most innocent smile; it was worth a try.
“Since you seem so interested in staring out at the sky today, perhaps you could answer a couple of astronomy questions that, by the way, you might expect to appear on the upcoming Level Eight examination.”
She could do that.
“So tell us,” droned their third-hour mentor, “how many klicks to the nearest of our three suns?”
Caught off guard! She felt her face redden a shade and promised herself this would not happen again. Slowly she brought her hand to her ear.
Want to know the answer? came the small voice.
No! she answered, then paused. I must not have read that book.
If she had, she would have known. He laughed. Margus— not the mentor.
Either that, or you’re forgetting, again.
I am not!
“Did you hear me, Miss Hightower?” Mentor Narrick tapped the toe of his sandal on the floor. Good thing he didn’t hear any of the back-and-forth.
Fifty-two million … Margus sounded smug. Three hundred, sixty-two thousand…
Margus, don’t!
But she couldn’t help hearing. How would Margus know? The numbers sounded right, so she repeated them aloud as if from memory, watching Mentor Narrick’s expression melt from nasty to somewhat less harsh.
“Hmm.” He frowned once more. “Close enough. But in the future, Miss Hightower, I’d appreciate your entire attention during the lesson. Even eidichs need to study.”
“Yes, of course, Mentor.” She added the proper amount of meek, submissive tone to her voice so he would continue with his speech about the volcanoes of their twelve moons circling the big planet.
I thought you knew that answer, Oriannon. Margus was all business now. Didn’t we study that, once?
I don’t care. She sat up straight to stay awake and gave him a hard stare to let him know she meant it. I want to know what happened to you at the concert. What were you doing there?
Same thing as you.
“And when these volcanic eruptions …”
Yeah. But why did you tell me to leave?
Margus shook his head and pressed his lips together, as if he wasn’t going to answer.
You saw what happened. I just didn’t want you to get hurt.
But you knew it was coming.
Sure I did. Jesmet playing, the Assembly looking for ways to fire him. Didn’t you expect it too?
Fire him, sure. But that was something else.
Margus didn’t answer. And perhaps she should have known the answers, the way he said. But by now old Mentor Narrick was on a roll with his planetary lecture. He would talk for at least the next thirty minutes on everything from orbits to the pull of gravity, in detail. He would explain anything, of course, except the shadow-side of Corista, one of the twelve moons of …
Ori’s mind drifted once more as she gazed out the tall bank of ornamented glass windows facing the school’s central plaza and its hanging gardens full of bright yellow orsianthius flowers. Nothing made sense anymore except Jesmet’s music. But now even that was gone.
A rap at the classroom door interrupted Mentor Narrick’s lecture and Ori’s daydream, and all the Level Eight students turned in their seats to see a pair of black-uniformed securities quietly step inside. Mentor’s face went pale— for just a moment— but he recovered just as quickly and stepped forward to intercept the two men.
“A problem?” he asked. Obviously. Why else would a tight-faced security interrupt a class? Usually they hardly even came on campus; only for problems.
They said nothing at first, only opened a handheld comm at him to show an image. The apprentices didn’t have to wonder long when Mentor Narrick cast a worried glance straight at Oriannon.
“Oriannon,” he told her, his voice low. “Please go with these securities to the Health Center. Immediately.”
Still the two securities didn’t even look at her, just stood with their arms crossed, now in position at the door. Mentor must have seen her eyes widen too, and his voice softened even more.
“Just go, Oriannon. You don’t have to take your books; they’ll be here when you get back in a few minutes. It will be fine if you do what they say.”
For a moment Ori wondered what would happen if she launched herself out the window to the garden below, wondered if Jesmet might be up to healing every broken bone in her body.
But now the two securities shifted at the door, waiting.
Be careful. Margus whispered in her earbud, and she glanced over to where he was slouched in his back-row seat, in the corner of the room.
Easy for him to say. She had no choice about going this time, but she didn’t have to open her mouth. She could hold back the memories, hide them in some secret part of her mind, cling to what she knew was inside. So she drew herself up like a Hightower, glaring at the securities the way her father might have done.
The securities ignored her until she reached the door, then gripped her arms on both sides as they hurried down the hallway.
“Health Center, huh?” She tried to keep her voice from breaking. “But I’m feeling great. Haven’t been sick in years. Not even the sniffles. Dad says it’s the air around our house. The altitude really clears out our lungs. What do you think?”
Neither of the men answered, just continued around the corner and into what would have been the sparkling, bright white domain of Nurse Anno, the school Health Center Supervisor. Only instead of cheery sunlight the nurse had shaded all the clinic’s windows with black, casting them into dark shadows. What was this about?
Ori shuddered when she saw how most of the nurse’s regular equipment had been shoved into a corner and covered by a gray tarp. The fact that the room had been chilled at least twenty degrees didn’t help either. Another cart had been wheeled into place, topped by a small, humming laptop computer projecting a blank blue hologram screen into the air just above.
Where had she seen this before? She locked her legs at the sight, which only meant the securities grunted and nearly knocked her onto her face as they all entered the room.
“No!” Ori tried to backpedal and wiggle free, screaming and flailing at the securities with all her strength. She even tried to grab the nearest face shield, but her fingernails didn’t even scratch the polished black plexi surface. “Do you know who I am? You can’t do this!”
But they could and they did. Even over her screaming and thrashing they lifted her onto a cold magnesium examining table. A moment later she heard a buzz and felt her skin crawl as the hair on her head stood straight up and they strapped force field grips to her forehead, wrists, and ankles. Not before she managed a swift kick to one of the securities, though— straight to the chin.
“Ow!” Ori murmured. Her toe throbbed; the security had hardly flinched. Time for Plan B.
“I’ll call my father,” she threatened, and her heart beat so wildly she could hardly make herself speak straight. “He’s in the Assembly, you know. He’ll have your badges so quick—”
“No need to get excited.” Nurse Anno made her appearance through a side door, sweeping the securities off with a wave. Finally!
“What are they doing to me?” Ori tried to move against the force field straps across her legs, arms, and forehead. But the more she struggled, the tighter they clamped down on her, pressing her back and shoulder blades down even more painfully. “Somebody’s making a big mistake here.”
“Unfortunately no, sweetheart.” Nurse Anno crooned and leaned closer, then cast an annoyed glance over her shoulder.
“She resisted,” explained one of the securities with a nameless shrug. If he’d stood any closer, Oriannon might have managed to spit in his face shield.
“But you didn’t have to be so rough.” She turned to Oriannon and rested a more gentle hand on her shoulder.
“Now, Ori, they’re just doing their jobs, honey. I’m sure they didn’t mean anything.”
“Yes, they did. They—”
“All right, never mind. I just need you to hold still for me a moment. Relax. Can you do that for me?”
“Do I have a choice? This is crazy! When my dad hears about this, he’s going to …”
Oriannon tried every threat she could think of, but the nurse just smiled sweetly as she pulled down a small scanning head attached to a spring arm and positioned it just over Oriannon’s forehead. The scanner’s blue light bathed Ori’s face, instantly numbing her lips and making it hard to speak or even blink her eyes.
“Why …” Ori managed to mumble, “are … you doing this?”
Now the nurse went on in a sweet, chirpy voice, as if she was simply cleaning a patient’s teeth or fixing a bloody nose— instead of getting ready for something obviously much more sinister.
“I’m so sorry, dear. I know this is unpleasant for you, because it’s unpleasant for me too. But all you have to do is relax and we’ll have this over in just a few minutes. You won’t feel a thing.”
“Won’t feel a thing? No! Please! I’ll tell my father, and he’ll …”
She wasn’t quite sure what her father might do. One of the securities chuckled, the one who’d spoken just before.
“Does she know her dad was the one who signed the brain scan order?” he asked under his breath, but Oriannon heard him all too well.
Nurse Anno snapped her head around to glare at him.
“You’re not needed here any longer. Leave us.”
The security took a step backward but crossed his arms in defiance and stayed inside the door. No, he wasn’t leaving. So the nurse sighed as she leaned closer and held Oriannon’s squirming shoulders down with her two hands, but gently.
“Please, Oriannon. I’m afraid he’s right. Our instructions come from the Assembly itself, and there’s nothing you or I can do about it.”
“The Assembly?” Ori couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It had to be a lie. Not her father! “But—”
“It’s for your own good, so just sit still or it will take even longer. I promise to make this as painless as I can.”
Still Ori wiggled and squirmed, trying to scream, trying to ignore the bitter taste that had come to her. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so surprised, the way her father had talked about Jesmet.
So now it had gone from “you won’t feel a thing” to “I’ll make this as painless as I can.” She fought it for as long as she could, but the blue light did its numbing work on her face, as tingling spilled down to her neck, as far as her shoulders and beyond. Finally she could not even feel herself resist any longer. The nurse stepped back.
What had happened to Ori’s great idea of hiding her memories? Because as the humming from the laptop grew louder, she could see the first of her thoughts projected right up into the middle of the room for all to see.
Oh, great.
The images came slowly at first, blurred and scattered, random. Views from their home on the Rift Valley Rim, where the air was thin and violet in Corista’s rare upper atmosphere. There was her Blue Terrier, Tunni, and her mother laughing over a meal, just the three of them, before her mother had died, when they used to laugh. If Ori’s tear ducts hadn’t been numb by this time, she would have sobbed. Nurse Anno adjusted the program, and the pictures cleared, flashed more frantically.
And the faster those pictures flashed, the more Ori could feel the horrible, dull ache, now from deep within her memory. The kind of memory her father called a special gift, given to only one in a million girls on Corista. The kind of memory that lingered for years and years, clear to the very detail, easy picking now for Nurse Anno’s projector.
One in a million? Thanks but no thanks. What good was a memory that she herself could not enjoy, that could only be stolen from her while she was strapped to an operating table? She winced at the sight of her school friends, orchestra performances out in the plaza, the rehearsal in the Grand Opera Hall …
“Does that hurt?” Nurse Anno made another adjustment. By now Ori couldn’t even move her mouth to complain. But yes. Perhaps not the way the nurse thought, but yes it did.
And finally the securities took notice, leaned in a little closer to see.
“Don’t worry,” the nurse told them blankly as she slowed down the memory transfer. “You’ll get what you came for.”
And that would be the crisp, clear images of Mentor Jesmet. There he was standing in front of the class, the first day he’d arrived at the school. Laughing with the kids. Jesmet leading them in their music, thrashing at the air with an ironwood baton. Jesmet with tears in his eyes, telling them another story about Shadowside.
“There it is!” One of the securities grunted and pointed. That would probably be her memory of the healing. He chuckled. Oh, they’d gotten what they’d come for, all right. Except—
Ori! Good thing she couldn’t flinch at the voice in her earbud. She was sure Nurse Anno would be able to hear it, though.
But the nurse only paused and looked around the room for a moment, then wrinkled her forehead as if she wasn’t quite sure of something. Perhaps it hadn’t been loud enough.
You hear me, Ori? Margus Leek sounded as if he was screaming at the other end of the line. Obviously he couldn’t be sitting back in Mentor Narrick’s astronomy class anymore. I’m in the utility room. Hello?
What was she supposed to do, yell back at him?
Okay, he went on, so I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m going to cut the power real quick. I saw this on an old movie once. Everything goes dark for a couple of seconds, right? When it does, run like crazy.
Like crazy? She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard a plan that sounded crazier, more insane.
Margus cuts the power like some kind of movie terrorist while I run around with a numb head and half a brain, and two securities chase me down in the hallway. This is perfect.
But she had no time to complain, even less to worry. Because a moment later everything in the room went black— including her memory scan in progress. The straps on her head and body let loose without a sound, and she felt as if she could have floated to the ceiling. She heard shuffling and grunting, someone bumping into a cabinet and things crashing to the floor.
“Hold on to her!” yelled one of the securities, just before a backup light glowed orange for a second, then flickered back out. Now was her chance, maybe her only one. Because Margus had obviously thought of everything— even the backup power supplies. Perfect.
“Oriannon!” cried Nurse Anno. “Please stay where you are. Your memory isn’t stable yet! You may cause permanent damage if you move.”
But the damage was already done. What else could happen? Besides, by then Oriannon had already rolled to the side and hit the floor. Her head tipped as if the tide of all her memories had just washed over her, around and back again. And she was just drift-wood now in this vast sea, unleashed, set loose, tossed about.
I have to run! Stung with a fright she’d never known before, she gasped for breath and forced herself to the surface of remembering. It might all wash over her again, any moment. Her head flopped to the side like a rag doll’s.
Move! She inched away from where the securities and Nurse Anno stumbled into each other. Too dizzy to stand, she crawled on all fours and headed for the exit. She knew she had only seconds to get out of there, so she’d better move faster.
Right now.
13
Out in the hallway Oriannon finally pulled herself to her feet, and she stumbled in circles for a few minutes as backup power switched on and lights returned.
“Oriannon!”
