This is the 8th free sample of Oranje, I’ll be posting up to the end of Chapter Ten for free. You can buy it here, or if you’re interested in getting a review copy of the book, you can contact me via email or on twitter (links to both on my website).
Links to the previous free samples:
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Isi could feel people’s eyes on her as she walked through Berners-Lee. Her path took her through the residential districts, flats packed high to the ceiling far above, and each painted a bright colour or pattern on its front. She liked being the focus of a crowd, but this was different. They were voting on whether they thought she was worthy of being part of the Three, and it felt as though everyone was judging her as they watched her walk past. Some waved, and others dropped what they were doing to talk to her. A few painters, busy transferring their fevered imaginations into vivid colours on the walls, had held her up for almost twenty minutes. Most people just watched, their conversations going silent as she approached and breaking into quick chatter when she’d gone past them.
Her feet took her towards one of the few areas of green that existed outside of the cultivation domes on the station. The parks were something of a luxury on a station where every square foot was precious space, but they helped give people an escape from their rooms. As she rounded the corner, she saw what made this particular park special, a huge statue and the White Elephant. The latter was an impressive building, five stories tall with a front of stark white and glass. Its nickname had come from how much it stood out and for how little it was actually used—a sore point to many given how hard they had to fight for space. A few murals were visible on its sides, the bright colours dulled by time.
The statue was huge, almost thirty feet tall. It depicted three figures in white, two women and a man. They wore simple clothes, and masks covered their faces but showed their bright eyes behind. They were the Three, or at least the first group ever sent out. Their outfits would be almost the same as the one she would wear if the vote passed. The masks and white clothing made them all look alike, to show they represented all Curators and not just themselves.
A waving arm caught her eye. Representative Melo stood outside the White Elephant, waiting for her. He was back in a suit today, a light grey affair, again with matching makeup. She shifted her bag higher onto her shoulder to stop it slipping off and walked to him.
“Good morning, Isi.” He beamed. “I hope you slept well.”
“As well as could be expected, I suppose.” She had spent a restless night on the Net, reading everything and anything she could. “Do you know how the vote is going?”
“No one has access to the results of a vote until it’s finished.” His eyes ran over her bag. “Do you have everything you need?”
She gripped the handle tighter. “I do.”
“Then let’s head inside.” He led the way, but his gaze focused on her grey hair. “I said you will need to have your hair as your natural colour when you’re part of the Three.”
“This is the natural colour of my hair,” said Isi with a slight blush.
“Ah.”
As they got closer to the building, she noticed the glass on the front was one way, giving no one on the outside any hint as to what was going on inside. There were two guards at the door, both in very different, highly personalised and colourful uniforms. They saluted Melo as he walked past them, and the sleek white doors slid open to let them inside. She had to shield her eyes as the interior was stark white, and they took a moment to adjust. They were in what looked like a reception area, but Melo led her to a door on the right and pushed it open.
More white and glass confronted her, as well as two people sitting on an elegant sofa.
“Here she is,” Melo said to the two men as they stood to greet him. “Isidora—sorry, Isi—this is Magnus Kimura.” He indicated a tall, thin, and pale man with long hair and a beard. He wore an intricate costume in the latest style. A hint of blush was on his cheeks.
“And this is Pablo Khanna.” He gestured to the other, of medium build and height, with olive skin and an impressive moustache. He wore the simple robes that were the style of many in the older generation. She hugged them both.
“It’s great to meet you both.”
“Magnus is head of one of the committees, and Pablo used to be a representative on the Council.”
“I thought I recognised you,” she told Pablo.
“Nice hair,” said Magnus.
“Thanks,” she said as she ran a hand through it.
“Natural?”
She nodded. “I’ve got a genetic condition.” She pointed to her face and turned her gaze away from him. “It’s also why I also look a bit odd.”
He took a moment to look at her more closely. “Oh, I hadn’t even noticed.”
She blushed a little and turned to shake Pablo’s hand.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Isi,” said Pablo. “You caused quite a stir at the last debate.”
“That seems to be the reason I’m here.”
“Nonsense, it is just a great example of why you are,” said Melo. “It’s not often I am beaten like that. Shall we sit?”
She sat down in a chair beside the sofa, and Melo took one that faced them all. Their bright colourful clothes clashed with the pure burning white of the furniture.
“Pablo and Magnus arrived here a few hours ago,” he said.
“I didn’t realise I was holding everything up.”
“Don’t worry about that. There is no urgency just yet; the key thing is that you are all here.”
“I had plenty to read anyway, with the latest breakthrough on the data flood,” said Magnus. “We’ve not wasted any time.”
“I’ve been trying to catch up on some of that myself—too much to process at once,” said Pablo.
“You don’t need to worry yourselves with that too much,” said Melo. “There are others working on searching through the data for the information we need.” He waved at the empty room next to him where two avatars appeared out of nowhere. “Let me introduce Nairobi and Amanda, pseudos who will be helping you with your task.”
Amanda’s avatar, a woman with white skin, messy red hair, and drawn-on eyebrows and dressed in a long flowing coat, smiled. Nairobi’s, a painting of black lines with white and coloured blocks that Isi recognised from somewhere, seemed to smile as well, or at least as much as the 3-D representation of a painting could.
“It is wonderful to make your acquaintance,” said Nairobi.
“Amanda is leading the effort to break through the data block and find out exactly what’s going on. Nairobi’s in charge of organising all of the pseudos that are part of this effort. Both of them will be your main source of information once you’ve begun your journey.”
“Doesn’t all this depend on us being voted in as the Three?” said Isi.
“I don’t think any of you need to be worried about that. This vote should be a formality.”
“I hope you are right.” She ruffled her hair.
“He is,” said Amanda with a wink. Her voice had an almost musical quality.
“If we assume we all get approved, what happens next?” said Magnus. “It’s not like we can just get into a craft and wander around September.”
“That is what I wanted to talk to you about today. If this situation is as bad as it looks, we cannot afford to waste any time. You should leave as soon as possible after the Three ceremony, but who you talk to is up to you to decide.”
“I know we have a history with the Republic and Union, but we should contact them first; they’re the best placed to help us,” said Pablo.
“That has to be worth a shot even if they don’t listen,” she said.
“I agree,” said Melo. “No matter how uncomfortable it makes me, it is the logical choice.”
“They are also well placed to find out for sure what happened to Oranje,” said Nairobi.
“So what happens if they don’t listen to us?” said Magnus. “I mean, we don’t really know what’s going on yet. We need a backup plan.”
“We need to find the people who can help,” she said. “The priority has to be finding out what happened to Oranje, as Nairobi said. Once we know that for certain, we can spread the news around, show people what is happening.”
“That’s my job,” said Amanda. “Well, that and finding out who’s blocking us.”
“I think we need people who are sympathetic towards us. No point in us visiting people who will just ignore us.”
“That could complicate matters,” said Melo. “If the Republic and Union see us only talking to people with similar political ideas, they could view it as an attempt to undermine them.”
“Well, what else can we do? If the nations are unlikely to help us anyway, does it matter if we piss them off some more?” Isi had a mischievous smile on her face, but Pablo gritted his teeth.
“We cannot fight these outsiders ourselves. If they attack September in full force, we will need the Republic and the Union to fight them.”
“Can we rely on that?” She looked at the others. “They seem pretty focused on this war they’re building up to. What if they ignore this threat until it’s too late?”
“If they ignore it, we’ll have no hope of stopping these outsiders,” said Melo.
“That’s not true,” said Magnus. “There are many out there who are not happy with the Union and the Republic. You only need to check the Net for five minutes to see that.”
“Ever since our last intervention in the other nations, that unrest has been growing,” said Isi. “The freedom of access to the Net we ensure has given people a chance to talk about a different path. There is talk about September as a whole and not the Republic or the Union. We need to support those views; they can help us unite people against this threat.”
“That risks even more,” said Melo. “We have to rely on the nations for help. If we support people who want to overthrow or change them, it will make it harder to achieve what we want. We could just end up becoming more vulnerable instead of less.”
“This whole mission is a risk,” said Magnus. “That shouldn’t stop us from doing what we need to.”
“The last time we sent out the Three was to stop the nations from trying to control the Net. Since then we’ve sat back, hiding from everything that has happened around us. We can’t do that anymore. This threat is too big.”
They sat in silence after she spoke, Pablo and Melo exchanging looks.
The representative scratched his ear. “All options will be considered. Ultimately, once your mission has been given, it’s up to you to decide what you do, though I would ask that you act with caution. This is bigger than anything we have done before.”
“That’s an understatement,” she said. “There hasn’t been an event like this since the Collapse. We’re in unknown territory here. We have to be prepared for anything to happen.”
“That doesn’t mean we should be reckless,” said Pablo. “Caution and patience are always needed in these situations.”
“I think we have plenty to think about,” said Melo, rising from his seat. “I will make sure we contact the nations and see what they say. I’ll start to create a list of candidates for you to visit once you’re confirmed and you depart. You will have final say in what you do, but again, please think long and hard about it.”
“I’ll help the pseudos with the research,” said Magnus. “It’ll give me something to do at least.”
“Thank you. Any assistance is welcome,” said Nairobi.
Melo turned to him. “Do you want to show Isi to her room? I would like to talk to Pablo in private. It’s been a while since we saw each other in person.”
“Sure thing,” said Magnus, getting up. The others bowed to them as they went.
She slung her bag back over her shoulder and followed him back out of the door and into a lift at the back of the reception area.
“Well, that went well.” She rolled her eyes as he pushed the button for the second floor.
“We’ve got tough choices to make. I’m looking forward to seeing what path we take.” There was the tiniest jolt as the elevator began its slow rise upward.
She looked at him. “What do you want us to do?”
“That’s the question.” He took a deep breath. “This is something we’ve never had to deal with before. No one has. It’s an opportunity for us to make a real difference.”
“I think we’re on the same wavelength.” She clapped her hands together. “Us Curators have spent so long doing nothing except protecting the Net. We keep it running to allow everyone access to all human knowledge, but we could be doing so much more. Why aren’t we trying to help every single human we can?”
“You really are an idealist, aren’t you?” He was looking at her with a mixture of happiness and admiration. “It showed in the debate you had with Representative Melo.”
“I’m still amazed it went as well as it did.”
“Really?” he asked with eyebrow raised. “A lot people want to see change. What you said spoke to many of them.”
“Then let’s hope we don’t let them down.” She shifted the bag on her shoulder.
The doors of the elevator slid open, and they stepped out into another white corridor. He led her past many doors.
“I think you’ve got plenty of support here, not just from humans but also the pseudos. Amanda and Nairobi are some of the oldest of them.”
They turned a corner and were faced with three doors. The one in front of them had her name on it; the one to the left, Magnus’s; and the other, Pablo’s. She opened her door and stepped into a large and spacious room.
“Oh, look,” she said. “More white.”
“I am detecting a colour theme in all this.”
She threw her bag onto the bed and opened the wardrobe. Inside was a space for her clothes, but most of it was filled with white clothes of all shapes and sizes.
“You think they’d allow us some colour.”
“Ah, but that would go against tradition.” Magnus winked.
“For a group who dislikes that word, we have managed to come up with quite a few of our own.”
“Just what us humans do.” Magnus leant against the door.
“Still, we pride ourselves on being so unique and doing whatever we want to,” said Isi. “It’s a bit of a contradiction.”
“You’ve met other people before, right?”
She rolled her eyes again, and he laughed.
“Lots of what we do doesn’t make sense when you think about it,” he said.
She pulled out the remainder of her clothes, bright swathes of colour on the white duvet, pausing as she went to put them away. “I hope we do the right thing.”
“That’s our job now as part of the Three, to try and change history for the better.”
She turned to him. “It’s more than that. We have an opportunity here. I don’t want to waste it.”
“I know, I agree, but the threat of the outsiders still has to be our main focus. Who knows what will happen out there.”
“I’m guessing there will be lots of surprises.”
“Well, I suppose there’s only one way to find out.” He smiled. “I’d better let you settle in.”
“Thanks, Magnus.” She gave him a brief wave goodbye. “See you tomorrow.”
“You too, Isi.”
He left, and she went to back to unpacking.
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