Virus on Orbis 1

Virus on Orbis 1 introduces Johnny Turnbull, his sister Ketheria, and a group of orphaned children who are forced into slavery on the rings of Orbis. It opens on board Renaissance, a human seed ship where JT lives with 200 other children, orphaned in space. After their parents have died in sleepers, apparently due to a malfunction, the children are raised by a ship's computer known as Mother. JT's biggest problem is in dealing with Switzer, the ship's bully; otherwise, he lives a quiet and unassuming life watching over his mute sister, Ketheria...except, JT has one oddity: he communicates telepathically with Mother and claims to receive answers in return. JT always wonders what kind of fantastic world his parents once desired for a new home. Now, as Renaissance arrives at Orbis 1, he is going to find out.

Orbis 1 seems wondrous. Yet the children are immediately shocked to learn that they will be expected to fulfill their parents' contract for their passage. Their freedom which they once enjoyed on the Renaissance is quickly reduced to slavery. Now their new "Guarantor", Boohral is a heartless Citizen. Intrigue builds. JT and the Orbisians soon learn that JT can enter computers with his mind, then later with his essence—that is, JT is a "softwire" (the very first human softwire) and it is this use (or abuse) of telepathic computer-interaction which propels The Softwire series forward.[3] Since the Orbisian Universe is run by an enormous, self-correcting, central computer, JT's gift is great cause for concern. Many Citizens aspire to possess him so that he can be used for their own gain. JT just wishes to be normal.

Unfortunately, the central computer begins to malfunction. Suspicion is immediately cast upon the young human softwire. JT is imprisoned. He remains there for scientific study until a breakout (aided by Space Jumpers) sets him on a journey inside the central computer. Meanwhile, the Keepers and the members of the Trading Council suspect one another of creating an Orbisian civil war. No one believes JT's claim that a being, living inside the computer – a virus – is responsible. As the situation spirals uncontrollably, the Keepers give JT a choice: life permanently inside the computer to avert the war, or death. Neither is acceptable.

JT gets his chance to seek his own solution when he is kidnapped by Madame Lee, the despicable head of the Trading Council. She needs JT in order to gain control of the central computer, to destroy the Keepers security on Orbis 1. Then she will march on Magna, the city of the Keepers, with her army of fishy Neewalkers. Meanwhile, she holds JT's sister prisoner, and threatens to kill Ketheria if JT does not do as Madame Lee commands.

Madame Lee spins an astonishing tale asserting that JT's father was a Space Jumper. She claims he tired of living in exile and despised the discord on the Rings of Orbis. She says he left for Earth to complete a final mission for the Trust – one that Madame Lee did not want fulfilled. She claims responsibility for the deaths of all the adults aboard the Renaissance.

JT refuses to accept that his father was anything other than human, and is filled with vengeance for his father's death. He formulates a plan to communicate with the virus to get her to help him warn the Keepers of Madame Lee's plans. But his plan is fraught with danger: if he is separated from his physical body for too long, his body will die and he will be condemned to live inside the computer for all eternity. JT finds the virus as she struggles for survival against the self-correcting central computer, and he works quickly to give her a translation codec, the means to save her from destruction by copying herself into a new destination. JT soon learns that the virus has been fighting Madame Lee's corrupt programming (which was responsible for the many malfunctions) and the virus is a benign consciousness with a name – Vairocina. As soon as JT and Vairocina get through the Keeper's security portals to warn them of Madame Lee's army, JT and Vairocina find that Madame Lee is waiting with more vicious programs: one which contains Madame Lee herself and her scheme is to control all of Orbis by controlling the central computer. Suddenly JT must battle monstrous digital soldiers, gaining power by losing connection with his physical form. He rips Madame Lee's essence from her program and she is systematically dismantled and sent to the trash. In the end, JT narrowly escapes death, and gains an important ally in a new friend: Vairocina.

Throughout his ordeal, JT questions the decisions made by his parents whom he never knew. Yet he holds onto a positive spirit as he contemplates the significance of the Rings of Orbis: a strange civilization beyond the security of the seed ship which he left behind.