about the inside of Atherton, the bottom of Atherton, and the
world outside of Atherton. Vincent, knowing Dr. Kincaid's
wishes, sought to find common ground among the five.
"All of you must understand something very important. We're
only hoping to reconnect with the Dark Planet, not go there. If
the docking station can be reached from the outside--and that
has yet to be proven"--Vincent shot Dr. Kincaid a glance before
continuing--"our hope is that it can be used to contact the Dark
Planet. What happens after that is anyone's guess, but one
thing is certain: No one from Atherton is going to fly off into
space anytime soon."
"Then why are we doing it at all?" asked Isabel. "Why risk it?"
"Because Dr. Kincaid believes..." started Vincent. But he
couldn't bring himself to lay the whole burden on the old
scientist. "We both believe that connecting is the important
thing. Letting them know we're still alive is the first in a chain of
important events. Nothing else can happen until they hear a
voice from Atherton."
Edgar swallowed a last big bite of food and washed it down
with a gulp of cold water.
"I'm full," said Edgar, whose mind seemed to have gone
somewhere else. "I don't need to eat again for a couple of days
if it comes to that. When can I leave?"
Dr. Kincaid loved Edgar's spirit of adventure. He couldn't help
smiling while he chastened the boy.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Edgar. There's a lot we have to
consider."
Vincent removed the plates and food and unrolled the paper
from Dr. Kincaid's walking stick. He placed rocks at each corner
and everyone huddled close, looking at a three-dimensional
map of one side of the bottom of Atherton. Edgar could see the
top edge--the Flatlands--and every thing that lay hidden below,
all the way down to the bottom. It was a view of Atherton from
space, which was a new idea for Edgar.
"Who made this?" asked Samuel. It was a marvelous rendering
of the world in which he lived from a viewpoint he'd only been
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.
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 a
lways 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
&nb
sp; 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
alien to Edgar.
"Just promise me you'll turn back once you get there. What
you're trying to do is enter the docking station from the way out
of Atherton. Dr. Harding left us a map and a few words, so he
must have imagined it could be entered this way, but no one
has ever done it before."
Then Vincent said what he was truly thinking, the only thing that
seemed to make sense as he stood before a boy who could
climb like a spider. "Something tells me Dr. Harding imagined it
would be you who would follow this path someday. There's
certainly no one else who could do it."
Edgar could hardly wait to start down the side of Atherton. "I can
do it, Vincent. I know I can."
Vincent touched Edgar on the shoulder and turned more
serious. "Remember--turn back the moment you feel the
slightest concern. The heat can tire you out and make your
hands dangerously slippery from the sweat. Don't make the
mistake of thinking you can do more than you're capable of."
The two began walking once more. Very soon they were on
their bellies, crawling up close to the place where Edgar would
start. In this particular spot, the flat surface of Atherton had
cracked wide open. The crevice started at the edge of Atherton
and jutted in for a hundred yards, where it created a gap of fifty