Atherton #3: The Dark Planet (No. 3) (5 page)

able to imagine. It made him see the place differently than he'd

ever seen it before.

"Dr. Harding drew this a long time ago," said Dr. Kincaid.

"Before anyone was brought here, back when the world of

Atherton was a much lonelier place."

He looked at the two boys and the girl.

"In the beginning it was only Dr. Harding, Vincent, and me. Can

you imagine? The whole world of Atherton and only the three of

us. It was so quiet then."

Dr. Kincaid was thinking of a time when the three men had

walked together along the rim of the Highlands, like walking in

a new and empty Eden. He remembered having the distinct

feeling that it was devoid of not just people, but of a soul as

well.

"You were saying?" said Vincent, rousing Dr. Kincaid back to

reality.

"You see there, Edgar?"

He pointed to a crack in the surface of Atherton that had the

appearance of a narrow letter
V
on the map.

The drawing revealed the bottom of Atherton as a series of

much larger V-shaped segments pointing toward the bottom.

Some of the
V
's were thin, some were wide. Between them

were vast, open spaces of--of what? It was hard to say if it was

water or glass or something else. One thing appeared certain:

The entire area looked unclimbable in the extreme.

Dr. Kincaid stepped back from the table and lifted his walking

stick, pointing it straight out. "We'll find that crevice about an

hour's walk in that direction. And somewhere far below there,

the hidden place we seek to discover."

The walking stick was pointing away from the lake and to the

left of the new grove. Edgar didn't have to look where the

walking stick was pointing. He already knew where the crevice

was.

"You don't have to show me where to go," said Edgar.

"Don't tell me," said Vincent, his eyes lighting up.

"You've already climbed there, haven't you?" asked Samuel.

Edgar looked at the faces around the table sheepishly.

"You've been doing it without tel ing us!" declared Isabel,

punching him in the shoulder.

"Be careful!" Samuel said sarcastically. "He's going to need that

shoulder to climb with."

"I didn't want to worry you," said Edgar. "But this is good news! I

already know the place. And I have to tell you, that V-shaped

crevice is a really good location to climb. The gravity doesn't

pull me in as much there, and if I go down a little bit farther --"

"Down a little bit farther!" cried Isabel. She wound up for

another shot at Edgar. "You're mad!"

Everyone, not just Isabel, did think Edgar a little bit out of his

mind, especially after he divulged the whole truth. He

confessed that he'd been secretly climbing at night, as he had

always done since he was a little boy.

"Do you mean to say that you've been climbing all this time?

From the moment Atherton became flat?" asked Dr. Kincaid. He

could hardly believe his ears.

"I've already done a lot of exploring down there."

"Then you must know about all the --" Vincent began, but Edgar

cut him off.

"I know about some of the challenges. But they're nothing I can't

handle. It's not so different from the climbing I've always done."

In truth, the challenges were enormous, but he didn't want his

friends to know about them. Vincent took Edgar's hint and didn't

ask anything more. If Edgar really had gone straight down from

the crevice on the surface of Atherton, then he'd probably been

closer to the docking station than he knew.

"I suppose this means we don't need to train him," said Vincent.

"It appears he's in fine climbing shape."

"Indeed," said Dr. Kincaid, wondering how Samuel's father

could have missed Edgar slipping out night after night. But then

Edgar was a tricky and quiet sort of boy. Dr. Kincaid had to

imagine it would be hard to keep track of him.

"I guess we're going to be doing this more quickly than I

expected," said Dr. Kincaid. "The only question now is whether

or not Edgar can actually find the docking station."

Vincent knelt down in front of Edgar, Isabel, and Samuel and

looked at each of them.

"I have only had one job to do on Atherton, and you all know

what it is."

"To protect us," said Samuel. He loved Vincent for his bravery,

his skill with weapons and fighting, his singular mission to

make sure everyone was safe.

Vincent shifted his gaze to Edgar alone.

"Allowing you to do this goes against every thing I was sent

here to do. But I can't help thinking we were meant to reconnect.

What if we could do some good for the Dark Planet?"

"We could bring some of the children here," added Isabel.

"Maybe so," said Vincent. "But this is the thing. We've only used

the docking station a few times, and we've never gone there the

way Edgar will be trying to go. Our way to the docking station

was always through the inside of Atherton, the way it was

meant to be approached. What Dr. Kincaid is proposing is that

you go to the docking station from a direction we know nothing

about."

"Actually, we know a little," said Dr. Kincaid, and then he turned

the map over and read the words scribbled there.

"Below the crack in the surface lies the longest shard and the

crossing of the bridge of burning stone. Beware the keepers of

the gate. You must be quick and quiet."

No one else spoke as the true measure of what Edgar might

have to face came into view. Edgar would not be entirely alone

on the underbelly of Atherton.

Something was down there, awaiting his arrival.

CHAPTER 4DOWN THE LONGEST

SHARD

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Edgar. The meeting

was over and Samuel and Isabel had gone to the grove, leaving

Edgar alone with Vincent and Dr. Kincaid.

"We can't arouse too much interest," said Dr. Kincaid. "Atherton

is stable, but only a year ago every thing was in total chaos.

People are final y settling down and feeling normal again. I

should never have involved Samuel and Isabel to begin with."

"But why can't they come with us, at least to the edge?" asked

Edgar.

"Samuel and Isabel have parents," said Vincent. "They can't

disappear all day and night without drawing attention, and once

you start they'll want to stay as close as they can. Chances are

this little adventure will lead to nothing at all, and if that's the

case there's no reason to get everyone worried about the Dark

Planet. I agree with Dr. Kincaid. The best thing to do is to go

alone for now."

Edgar felt terrible about deceiving his friends. They would want

to come along, to see him off and be there when he came back.

If they found out he'd left without them they'd feel betrayed.

"If you're sure that's the way it has to be," said Edgar, not hiding

his displeasure.

"Let's go to the edge and see where our conversation leads us,"

said Vincent. "I'm still not sure about any of this. We may well

be turning back before we know it."

But Edgar was sure. He knew he wouldn't rest until he found

and entered the docking station. He needed to do it to fill the

hollow feeling he'd so often endured: he was motherless--not

like an orphan, but truly motherless. And Dr. Harding was dead

and buried at sea, so Edgar was also fatherless, too. Samuel's

parents and Dr. Kincaid and Vincent had been kind to him, but it

wasn't the same. He had a powerful urge to find the Dark Planet

and discover more about his past. If there was some part of

himself hidden there--a note, a picture, a drawing--anything that

would tell him more about the place of his making, he would

keep on until the treasure was found.

"I believe I'll stay here," said Dr. Kincaid. "It's an awfully long

walk. The two of you can scout things out and return with

news."

Vincent lifted the rocks from the edges of the paper that lay on

the table, rolled it back up, and slid it into his belt. He looked

wearily at Dr. Kincaid and started down the path with Edgar

close behind. Along the way they spoke of how far Edgar had

gone down before and what he had encountered.

"You can't tell Isabel," said Edgar.

"It makes no difference to me what you tell your friends," said

Vincent. "I'm only interested in keeping you alive."

Edgar began telling what he knew, reluctantly at first, but

quickly became immersed in the telling.

"There's a lot of paths on the underside of Atherton that lead to

nowhere."

"What do you mean?"

"Everything is shaped like this," said Edgar, holding two fingers

in the shape of a
V.
"The paths down the side start wide and

end narrow. Between the paths there's a glassy sort of orange

that can't be climbed. It's smooth, like glass, and it's warm.

There's one path that goes farther than the rest. It's all kind of

hard to explain."

"Keep trying," said Vincent, curious but stern. He was

determined to find out how dangerous it was down there.

"The farther down the longest path I go the warmer and lighter it

gets. It's actually easier climbing in the light, and the surface is

warm but not too hot to touch. The top of the
V
or path or

whatever you want to call it is really wide, like a hundred feet. It

gets narrower as I go and there are wider sections of glassy

orange. It's like being surrounded by a warm lake of, I don't

know, I guess like a lake of fire under a thick pane of glass. I

think it might be too hot to hold at the very end, but I don't know.

I've never gone all the way."

"The bridge of fire is all the way at the end, so that's challenge

number one," Vincent noted. "If it can't be done there's no point

going down at all."

"I didn't say it couldn't be done," Edgar said defensively. "I was

close. I could see the very end. It's only about twenty feet wide

down there, but there's plenty of room for me."

"Are there any other obstacles you're not telling me about?"

asked Vincent suspiciously. "Anything that makes you think

about the words on the map?"

Edgar thought of what Dr. Kincaid had said.
Below the crack in

the surface lies the longest shard and the crossing of the bridge

of burning stone. Beware the keepers of the gate. You must be

quick and quiet.

"There are holes," Edgar revealed.

"What do you mean, holes?" asked Vincent.

"About halfway down the longest path I start to find holes in the

stone. I think something is living in them. I hear things."

"What do you hear?"

Edgar couldn't describe the sound. He shrugged. "I can stay

away from them. There's room for me to quietly slip past."

"I don't know," said Vincent. This new element made him

nervous. How he wished he could climb as Edgar did and find

the docking station himself. "You should have told us this

before. Dr. Kincaid will want to know."

They were near the crevice at the edge of Atherton and Edgar

felt the familiar sense of his feet being pulled gently in front of

him. It was a feeling he had come to love, a silent signal that

climbing was close at hand. The pull would grow fiercer the

closer they got, and along with it, Edgar's desire to touch the

side of Atherton with his hands. He couldn't stand the idea of

turning back.

"You know how fast I can climb," said Edgar. "I've been down

there a bunch of times already and nothing's come out of those

holes."

Vincent knelt down in front of Edgar and looked at the boy with

a mix of concern and hope. Edgar didn't know quite how to read

the expression.

"None of this is going to matter if you can't reach the bottom of

the longest path," said Vincent. "According to the map, that's

where you'll find this thing called the bridge of fire and the way

into the docking station. But you're going to find something else

as well and we don't know what it is."

Vincent was torn between his duty to protect this boy and the

need to reconnect with the Dark Planet. If there was a chance

Edgar could find his way safely to the docking station it could

mean saving thousands more.

He thought of all the things Edgar had already accomplished on

his own. He'd climbed a mile up to the Highlands and two miles

down to the Flatlands. There was no reason to believe Edgar

couldn't climb quietly past a few holes in search of a way to

reconnect.

"Don't go any closer to the holes than you absolutely must to

get by them," said Vincent, reluctantly making up his mind.

"Now listen to me, Edgar. After you find the station you have to

turn back. The last thing we want is for you accidentally to end

up on the Dark Planet without us. That would be a disaster and

it could happen if you're not careful. The docking station is-well, it's what we call automated. By that I mean it can do

certain things on its own."

Vincent shook his head. It was impossible to explain how the

station worked and what would be found there. It was all so