“All the planning and effort,” Joe said bitterly. “All these years of success, and now this!”
“Is it some kind of accident?” Rosalie asked. “Did we do something wrong?”
“I don’t think it’s anything we did,” Joe said.
Max tensed, imagining that something had set a trap for his world.
Joe stood up suddenly and stuck his hands in his coverall pockets. “Makes no sense at all!” He shook his head. “My old friend Morey would go nuts over this. He’d say we were all dreaming, and try to wake himself up.” He glanced at his timer. “Have to get to my nine o’clock shift.” He looked at Max, then at Rosalie. “Try not to worry. We must keep up our routines.”
“We’re prisoners, aren’t we?” Max asked.
Joe sighed nervously and clenched his right hand. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Where will you be?” Rosalie asked.
“The maintenance teams will probably be at the drive housing, checking to see if this could have been caused by some kind of malfunction.”
“Who are we kidding, Joe?” Rosalie said suddenly. “We’re not lost, and there’s nothing wrong with the habitat. We’re inside a giant sphere. Someone built it, and it’s not anybody we know.”
Joe nodded. “Both of you try to get some sleep while I’m gone.”
Who would want to capture us? Max wondered as his father hurried away.
Unable to sleep, Max tossed and turned in bed. He dozed for a few moments, then fell from a high cliff and woke in a sweat, seeing his world trapped inside something bigger. What was the big sphere, and where was it? Who had made it, and for what purpose?
A gentle breeze blew into his room. He got up and sat in the open window to cool off. The inner countryside was peaceful in the nightglow. He looked up at the houses overhead, half expecting them to tear loose and float into the center space. Whenever he thought of Earth curving the other way for thousands of kilometers, with only a thin layer of air protecting life from space, the hollow and the levels around it made him feel safe; but now he almost wished that he were on Earth, which he might never see because something had swallowed his habitat.
What was outside? Was something waiting there, preparing to tear the habitat open? He imagined giant alien machines ripping through the asteroid’s crust, looking for the small human creatures within. What did the aliens want? Had they set the giant sphere as a trap?
Suddenly Max wanted to explore outside the habitat. Then, just as suddenly as it had come into him, the impulse died. He leaned back against the window frame and closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and saw two figures coming up the path to his house—Emil and Lucinda, dressed in shorts and hiking shoes.
What were they doing out so late, and why were they coming to his house? They came to his window and looked up, as if they expected to find him sitting here.
“What is it?” he demanded in a whisper.
“Come out,” Lucinda said.
“What for?” Max asked, trying to see their faces in the nightglow. It was a prank of some kind, he thought, then realized that even they wouldn’t be trying to fool around at a time like this.
“Hurry!” Lucinda shouted.
Max hesitated. “Do you feel it, too?” he asked. “What’s going on?”
“We’re not… sure,” Emil said. “I want to see what’s outside. I
have
to see what’s there!”
It was not a prank, Max realized. Something was very wrong with all three of them.
“I’ll be right out.” He went inside, found his shirt, shorts, and hiking shoes, and dressed quickly, then put on his coveralls. He usually wore them as extra protection when his father took him along on his maintenance route in the narrows of the engineering level. Where was he going now? It didn’t seem to matter.
He went back to the window, sat with his feet over the edge, and jumped the two meters to the ground.
“Well?” Max asked.
Emil turned away and started down toward the main road. Lucinda followed. Max hesitated, then marched after them.
“Where are we going?” he asked as he caught up.
He got no answer.
“Come on, Emil, where to?” He quickened his pace until he was walking between the pair.
“Outside… I think,” Emil managed to say.
“What?”
“Something wants us outside,” Lucinda said firmly, as if trying to convince herself.
“But we’ll be stopped,” Max objected, feeling dreamy and lost.
“Emil knows a way out that isn’t used much,” Lucinda explained without looking at him.
“As soon as we open a lock,” Max said, “it’ll show up on the watch displays.”
“We’ll be gone by then,” Emil replied.
“We can’t!” Max protested. “We have no idea what’s out there.”
Despite his protest, Max kept pace with them, now half unwilling and half unable to stop himself. He looked at Lucinda’s narrow waist and bare legs, expecting her usual glare of contempt, but she only stared ahead.
“We both dreamed of being outside, in the sphere,” Emil said. “Didn’t you?”
“No,” Max said with a sinking feeling, “I didn’t.”
“But you were in our dream,” Lucinda added in a cold tone.
“That’s why we came to get you,” Emil said. “We’ve got to go, and you have to come with us.”
“Are you afraid?” Lucinda asked,
“No, I’m not,” Max answered, trying to keep up with her. “I feel the things you do, but what is it?”
“We’ll find out,” Emil said, “and we’ll be the first. Aren’t you curious?”
Max swallowed hard. Sweat ran down his face as he marched. He felt as if he were sleepwalking, and wondered why he couldn’t just turn around and go home. It reminded him of when he had been little and would follow his parents anywhere.
“Where’s this way out?” he asked.
“Behind the sunplate,” Emil said. “There’s a tunnel that leads out at the end of the long axis. The locks open and close manually.”
Max looked up at the glowing sunplate. His father had mentioned such exits. They were there because the designers had believed there should always be manual backups for all automatic systems.
Max wanted to go, but tried to resist. “Maybe we should tell someone,” he said.
“We’ve got to go by ourselves, Max,” Lucinda said as if reading his thoughts. “Can’t you tell it’s important?”
“Yes,” Max heard himself say. The words seemed to come from a distance, as though they had been spoken by someone else.
The sunplate grew large ahead of them. Time raced. Max’s heart beat faster as he kept up his pace. He looked around the darkened hollow, experiencing it with heightened senses, breathing the cool air and smelling the soil and greenery as if they were alien things. He felt as though at any moment his body would grow large and burst through to some greater world outside.
Emil and Lucinda stopped just below the sunplate. Max caught up. It towered above them, balanced dangerously, its moonlight turning the grass around them black. He looked back at his house. Its lights were on, and he knew that his mother had awakened and found him gone. She would be calling his father at work by now.
“Under here,” Emil said, dropping to his knees. Max and Lucinda watched as he crawled under the rim of the glowing sunplate. She followed. Max glanced back at his distant house, then dropped down and crept after her.
“I’ll have the utility light on in a moment.” Emil’s voice echoed down the tunnel.
Finally, a red light went on, and Lucinda’s dark shape rose up in front of him. He stood up and followed her to where Emil was cranking open the first lock.
“Come on,” Emil said, and squeezed through the partially open door. Lucinda went after him. Max slipped through after her.
Emil was already cranking the next lock. When it was open just enough to get by, he went through, and Lucinda disappeared after him. Max followed, feeling vaguely surprised that they wanted him along as he went down a long stretch of tunnel cut smoothly through the rock.
“Here’s the outer lock!” Emil shouted, grabbing the crank.
“Don’t!” Max shouted, peering ahead in the red light. He rushed forward, feeling as if he had just awakened.
Emil and Lucinda waited for him in silence.
“All the locks are open behind us,” he said. “If there’s no atmosphere outside, we’ll be sucked out, and the habitat will start losing air.”
Emil turned the crank. Max wanted to stop him, but couldn’t. His mind knew the dangers, but his will was quiet. He took a deep breath, expecting decompression, but the door only slid open.
Emil went through. Lucinda blinked, then went after him.
Max followed, feeling confused. The tunnel turned ninety degrees to his right, and he saw Emil and Lucinda in a circle of white light. They disappeared into the glare. Somehow, there was air outside the habitat. The giant sphere had been built by oxygen-breathers, whatever else they might be, Max thought. Or maybe by beings who were expecting to trap oxygen-breathers.
The light dazzled him as he came to the opening. Then, as his eyes adjusted, he saw Emil and Lucinda below him, standing on what seemed to be an endless glass floor. Blue-white light was everywhere, even coming up through the floor. Emil and Lucinda stood as if something had frightened them into immobility.
“What’s wrong?” Max called.
Emil looked up at him. “I’m not sure,” he said. “This surface is disorienting.” His sister stared at the floor. “Is it safe?” Max asked.
Emil nodded. “Jump down.”
Lucinda looked surprised, as if she had just awakened.
Max stepped out from the opening, and landed next to her. She backed away from him in fear.
“What is it?” he asked.
She shook her head and closed her eyes in dismay. “I don’t know.”
The floor seemed solid enough to Max. He peered into the hazy brightness, then turned around and faced the habitat. It loomed above them, its gray, rocky surface looking out of place on the clean floor. Part of the great mass seemed to be cradled below the surface.
“So, what now?” he asked, turning to Emil.
“I’m not… sure,” the boy replied. “One thing’s wrong. The habitat isn’t spinning now, but we had normal gravity inside. Something is maintaining it—and it doesn’t feel different out here, either.”
Lucinda still seemed disoriented. Max looked at her with concern. Eyes still closed, she seemed to be listening to the silence.
“What do you hear?” he asked.
“We’ve got to go that way,” she said, pointing away from the habitat.
“Why?”
Her eyes opened, and she looked directly at him. I don’t know, but something wants us there.”
As they started across the bright floor, Max felt that he had to keep going. He came to himself suddenly, stopped, and looked back at the habitat. Emil and Lucinda walked on. “Wait!” he shouted after them.
They halted and looked back. Lucinda seemed dazed; Emil shook his head. They hurried back to him.
Max stared at the habitat. As far as he could see to his left, its five kilometer-long mass was more than half submerged in the smooth floor, trapped like a rock in ice. He looked up, searching the brightness for a ceiling, but could not see beyond the blue-white glare.
Again he felt unsteady, as if he were trying to wake up. Emil staggered and reached for his sister’s hand.
“We’ve been lured out here,” Lucinda said in a trembling voice.
At any moment, Max expected the beings who had built the sphere to appear.
“Who are you?” he shouted. There was no answer, not even an echo.
“So what now?” Emil asked.
“I think they want us to go in that direction,” Max said.
“But who are they?” Lucinda asked.
“Nobody we know,” Emil answered.
“What will they do if we don’t obey,” Lucinda said, “force us again?”
“They could have just forced us all the way,” Max replied, “but they don’t seem to want to do that.”
“I’m not so sure,” Lucinda said. “And why did they pick us and not anybody else?”
“Then let’s go home,” Max said.
Emil looked uneasy. Lucinda turned and gazed into the bright distance. “Maybe we should explore,” she said. “It might be important.”
Max felt queasy. He didn’t like the idea of something probing his mind and bending him to its will. He was tempted to turn back, just to see if the strange compulsion would seize him again.
“Lucinda’s right,” Emil said. “We should find out what’s going on.”
Max nodded, realizing that they no longer had to be pushed. Were the aliens that clever and knowing about human beings? “All right, we’ll go,” he said. Lucinda pointed. “It’s still that way.”
Max went ahead. After a while, they stopped and looked back at the habitat, now a dark, mountainous outline in the blue haze.
“Look!” Lucinda shouted as they turned away.
Max strained to see ahead, and made out a tall column. He moved forward slowly, noticing that the structure seemed to have no top, but just went up into the brightness and disappeared.
As they approached it, Max saw that the giant column was transparent. Stormy gray and white stuff roiled inside. They came up close and touched the smooth, cold surface. Emil circled the structure and reappeared at Max’s left.
“It’s about twenty-five meters around, he said.
“But what is it?” Lucinda asked.
Max looked up at the endless column and felt fearful. He turned back toward the habitat, but it was hidden in the brightness now. “Remember,” he said, “the habitat is back that way.”
“What is this thing
for
?” Emil said, clearly fascinated by the column.
Max sat down against it, so he would face toward the habitat. Lucinda came and stood over him. “Where is all this? Why is the habitat here?”
Emil dropped down next to him. “This is great, isn’t it?” he said with a nervous laugh.
Lucinda sat down cross-legged in front of them. “Something wanted us out here. Or was it just us?”
“Come on,” Max replied. “If this is something you two wanted to do for yourselves, I’m the last person you’d take along.” He looked into her green eyes, expecting her to nod scornfully in agreement, but she looked away.