The Dark Planet

They all nodded, at once excited to be out of the Silo and

  scared speechless by two close calls in a row.

  It was a maze of pipes and ducts hidden in the ceiling, and all

  the while they could see out of the tiny square holes in the

  grate. Once they stopped short, hearing someone moving, and

  watched as a black head of hair passed beneath them and

  moved on. But finally, with everyone's nerves frayed to the point

  of breaking, they arrived at a place where they were forced to

  stop.

  "This looks right," said Edgar, seeing the concrete wall in front

  of them. It was an impasse but for a round hole above their

  heads.

  "It's a retaining wall," said Aggie. Everyone looked at her

  inquisitively. "It holds the building up," she explained. She had

  never told anyone at the Silo, but her father had once been a

  craftsman. She knew a little bit about how things were

  constructed.

  "Once we pass through the hole we need to drop back down,"

  said Aggie, holding out her hand so that Edgar would give her

  the piece of paper. "That will put us on the other side of one

  door and leave us only one more to go through."

  Edgar tingled at the idea of entering the room behind that door,

  because he knew what was there. The door was marked on the

  map with an MH for Maximus Harding.

  "You first," said Edgar.

  Aggie handed back the piece of paper and wriggled through the

  opening to the other side. She stood and looked back at

  everyone.

  "Looks good over here," she said, but Vasher wasn't so sure.

  Every step away from the Silo had been a little bit more difficult

  for the oldest and most anxious of the bunch.

  "Are we sure about this?" he asked. His twitching wrist betrayed

  how nervous he was.

  Teagan touched Vasher's arm. "It's going to be okay, Vash. Just

  hang in there a little longer."

  They were all afraid of being so far away from home. The Silo

  was all most of them could remember in any great detail, and

  even though it was a dreadful place to live, it had its comforts.

  They were fed, clothed, and given a bed. Life on the outside felt

  wide open and dangerous in a way none of them wanted to

  think about.

  Vasher looked back toward the Silo, wiped his brow, and shook

  his hand as if it had fallen asleep.

  "You ready, Landon?"

  "You bet I'm ready!"

  Landon passed through the hole feeling as free as a bird out of

  the Silo. He could imagine living among the hidden pipes and

  beams, sleeping up there and sneaking food. Teagan was next,

  then Vasher, and finally, Edgar.

  "What's wrong?" asked Aggie, seeing that Edgar had a troubled

  look on his face.

  "It feels like we're forgetting something. I keep thinking of that

  diagram with the exploding dots and those words--Hugin and

  Munin. What if it means something important?"

  "We'll have to cross that bridge if we come to it," said Aggie.

  "But right now I think we're standing in front of your dad's

  laboratory. Don't you want to look inside?"

  No one had ever said it quite that way before. Your dad. Edgar

  nodded almost imperceptibly. How had he ever managed to get

  here, standing in front of the dial that would open Dr. Harding's

  laboratory on the Dark Planet?

  "Fourteen... twenty-seven... twenty-one..."

  Edgar reeled off five more numbers and then the door clicked

  and popped open, much like the door to the passageway of lies.

  He pushed and the heavy door moved, silent and fluid, as if it

  sat on a layer of water.

  "It looks deserted in there," said Aggie. Dr. Harding's laboratory

  hadn't been used for over a decade. It had barely even been

  entered. Murky shadows hung heavy over every part of the

  enormous room.

  Everyone filed inside cautiously and the door was shut behind

  them with a soft click. The lab was lit from the outside by a giant

  windowpane that hung out over the water. The window was

  tinted in such a way that they could see out, but the light coming

  in was soft and dim.

  "No need for goggles here," said Teagan, glad she didn't need

  to pull them down off her forehead.

  The window rose high overhead in a wide half circle. Outside

  smog lay low on the waves of the ocean where Edgar spotted

  the long jetty of piled rocks and the shadow of Captain

  Grammel's ship.

  The view of the outside world took everyone's breath away. No

  one besides Edgar had seen anything other than metal and

  machines and buzzing fluorescent light in a very long time.

  There were the vines in the vine room, but this was completely

  different. This was outside!

  "I think that's where the passageway of lies leads to," said

  Vasher, mesmerized by the vision beyond the glass. "Socket

  told me once. Down the path of rocks and into the ship.

  That'swhere you're going. And you're never coming back. He

  laughed and laughed. I thought he was just being mean, but it

  looks like he was telling the truth."

  Edgar was overwhelmed by the room. So much about it

  reminded him of home and of his father. Models of Atherton at

  different stages were every where. A glass-encased chamber

  was filled with dead fig trees like the ones in the grove back

  home. Baskets and pulleys and ropes hung from the towering

  ceiling. Though he'd never been here before, he knew this

  place better than anyone else on the green team.

  "Your father was amazing," said Aggie, examining all the tables

  filled with scientific tools and gadgets, the rows and rows of

  books with sliding ladders rising to the high ceiling, the giant

  chalkboards covered in scribblings beyond anyone's

  comprehension.

  Everyone else had scattered in different directions, picking up

  strange objects and peering around corners.

  "Look at this!" said Landon from somewhere deeper in the

  laboratory. He'd found a wide table filled with skeletons and

  bones and drawings.

  "You guys?" Vasher stammered nervously from deep inside the

  chamber. He was staring at something behind a soaring shelf of

  teetering books.

  "What is it, Vash?" asked Landon. Everyone gathered around

  Vasher. Behind the giant shelf of books stood Gossamer, huge

  and menacing and all in black, staring down at them.

  Teagan felt sure it would spring to life and shred them to pieces

  with its great black horn. She screamed and ran for the door.

  CHAPTER 22HOPE

  Teagan's voice bounced off the high walls, but Gossamer didn't

  move.

  "It's not real," said Aggie. She inched up next to it and touched

  the leg. It felt real, but it didn't move. The model before them

  stood twenty feet high but Gossamer was much bigger than

  this--four or five times larger, in fact.

  "It's from the story!" said Landon. After getting over his shock he

  was elated to find that this creature might really exist. Could it

  be possible?

  "It's Gossamer!" he said. "He's on our side. He's here t
o help us.

  Wake up! Wake up!"

  Landon waved his arms even though he knew it was only a

  model of something Dr. Harding might have made.

  "Even if it's not real it means Dr. Harding wanted to make it,"

  said Teagan. "This whole story is real, and every thing Edgar is

  saying--it's all true. He really did make a place for us, after all."

  "Where does the piece of paper say we should go now?" asked

  Vasher uneasily. To him, Dr. Harding's laboratory felt like a

  madhouse.

  Edgar pulled out the map and they all gathered around

  Gossamer's feet. All but Aggie. Without anyone noticing she

  had drifted back behind a rising shelf of books. She had seen

  something there on a pedestal that had made her curious.

  "Um, Edgar?" she said. "Remember when we were in the vine

  room and you told us your story? What did you call the thing

  you flew here inside of? The spiky black ball?"

  Edgar crept over to Aggie and followed her gaze.

  "The Raven."

  "That's what I thought."

  Suddenly, everyone was gathered around Aggie and they were

  all looking at the same thing. A model of two black ravens

  perched on a dead tree limb, their eyes locked on the green

  team.

  "They're spooky-looking birds," said Landon, a shiver running

  down his back. "There were a lot of them on the beach where

  Captain Grammel picked me up. I hate the sound they make."

  "Do you see what I see?" asked Aggie. Her voice was shaking,

  almost angry.

  "Oh, no," said Vasher.

  "What? What is it?" asked Edgar.

  The base of the pedestal on which the sculpture of the ravens

  sat was carved with words Edgar could not read. Teagan read

  them aloud, growing more concerned with every word.

  "'Hugin and Munin from the fallen age of Norse, who fly the

  world over and question the living and the dead.'"

  Edgar scanned the piece of paper frantically until his eyes fell

  on the diagram.

  "Hugin and Munin are ravens!" declared Landon. "But that

  means --"

  "How could I be so stupid!" Edgar cried. "This diagram shows a

  block of something with the words 'Hugin' and 'Munin' in the

  middle. The block explodes into little particles. If Hugin and

  Munin are ravens, then the Raven I came in on needs whatever

  that block is."

  "You need a powder block from the Silo," said Aggie, surer than

  she'd ever been about anything in her life.

  "Dr. Harding, you're a genius!" said Landon, not fully

  understanding what a bad piece of news this was.

  Teagan rolled her eyes.

  "He might be a genius but he's not making this easy for us."

  "Don't you see?" said Landon. "He had to keep it all separate

  so people wouldn't know what he was real y working on. We've

  been making something super important all along, we just didn't

  know it until now."

  "Well, now that we know, we're going to have to go back and

  get a powder block." Teagan sighed.

  Edgar thought of how heavy and awkward the blocks were.

  Getting back into the Silo would be a trick of its own, but

  carrying a powder block all the way back to the lab? It wouldn't

  be easy. And that was only the half of it.

  "The Raven is in the forsaken wood," said Edgar. "I thought I'd

  be able to go back there alone and meet you all somewhere or-I don't know. I hadn't thought that far ahead. But I don't think I

  can wander out there carrying a heavy block of powder with me.

  I barely made it into the Silo to begin with. And since we're on

  the subject of the Silo, can we really risk going back there?"

  "Wait!" said Aggie. "Let me see that map."

  Edgar handed it over and Aggie scanned it.

  "There! Right there!" she said, trying to keep her voice down but

  having a hard time doing it. She read the words they'd all seen

  before and already forgotten, the tiny sentence under the box.

  "'Hugin will come if you call him.' So we can call the Raven--we

  just have to figure out how."

  "I think you're right!" said Teagan.

  Aggie beamed. She loved how it felt to contribute something

  important.

  "Now all we have to do is get a powder block all the way from

  the Silo to here so we can keep going," said Edgar, thinking it

  sounded like a near impossibility.

  "What was that?" said Vasher. There was a slight sound from

  the door as it opened quietly, but there were no footsteps. Edgar

  put his finger to his lips. Everyone stayed perfectly still behind

  the wide, tall shelf of books. Commander Judix had entered the

  room, rolled smoothly across the metal floor, and sat before a

  black table in her chair.

  Peering around the corner of the shelf, Edgar watched as

  Commander Judix, someone he'd never seen before, took

  something out of her vest pocket and placed it on the table. It

  was a black disk, like the one Edgar had in his own pocket, and

  he knew what the table would do.

  The surface lit up, a blue glow reflecting on her face. She was

  so pale and cold looking, like she was more dead than alive,

  and the blue light only made her more frightening to look at.

  She hovered over the table, her hollow eyes watching as the

  firebugs moved, and then all the children heard an audible

  intake of breath.

  "The way is open once more," she said, her voice full of

  wonder. If Edgar could have seen what she saw, he would've

  known there was a pulsing blue cluster where the Raven sat in

  the forsaken wood. She had found his way back to Atherton.

  "The boy will have the key," said Commander Judix, her voice

  shaky with excitement. Her whole existence could change in a

  flash if only he didn't slip through her fingers. She turned in her

  chair, stopped short and went back for the black disk, grabbed it

  and was off. The table went dark again and Commander Judix

  rolled to the back wall by the door, touching buttons on a

  communication box. "Shelton? Shelton!" she cried, but there

  was no answer and she cursed the box.

  Turning her chair around, she began rolling fast--straight toward

  Edgar and the others--and Edgar pushed everyone back. She

  parked before another communication box and reached as high

  as she could to touch the very top glowing button. This time

  there was a hissing as it came to life.

  "Shelton! Answer me!" she frantically screamed into the

  speaker.

  More static, and then his distant and crackling reply: "I'm here,

  Commander. What is it?"

  "Go straight to the launch site! Go now! The Raven has

  returned."

  A static-fil ed pause, then Shelton's bemused voice slowly

  resumed.

  "That can't be. It's some kind of trick."

  "It's not a trick! It's him!"

  It struck her then that maybe Dr. Harding himself was back-could it be? It was impossible for her to imagine, but there it

  was. Maybe he had brought the boy back for some reason.

  "Dr. Harding may be there, in the vessel. If he is, bring him to

  me straightaway. Now go! And be quick about it!"

  "We
're turning now," said Shelton, stil sounding skeptical. "But

  it's a dangerous place. The instruments show it crawling with

  Cleaners. I'll have to take it slow."

  "Go!" yelled Commander Judix. She was so agitated it made all

  of the green team back away in fear until they were as far away

  from Commander Judix as they could get. She pushed the

  second button down and screamed again.

  "Socket! Answer me!"

  Commander Judix had pushed the button that made her voice

  heard every where in the Silo, but Socket wasn't about to reply

  to the angry voice.

  Commander Judix slammed the third button down, which rang

  the barracks where Hope spent all of her time.

  "Hope! Pick up!"

  A second later Commander Judix got the reply she was looking

  for.

  "What seems to be the problem now?"

  "Excellent! You're there. Now listen, Hope. I need you to hold

  the new boy until I get there. Do you understand? Don't let him

  out of your sight and just stay there. I'll be right over."

  Hope had been right. The whole world was in chaos again.

  Things were spinning rapidly out of control.

  "I'll try to find him. He's working with the green team, but Socket

  just came by here in a mad rage looking for them."

  "What do you mean, looking for them? Where are they?" She

  was incredulous.

  "I don't know, Commander," said Hope. "This is what you get

  when you put two fools in charge of your Silo. I'm sure they're

  somewhere."

  "Find that boy!"

  Commander Judix slammed her hand against the button and

  screamed in frustration. The green team watched as she

  wheeled her chair in a half circle and rolled away toward the

  door.

  Edgar peered around the corner to be sure, and when he was

  positive Commander Judix had left the laboratory, he stepped

  out from behind the shelf.

  "She's really horrible," said Landon. "Even worse than I

  imagined. No wonder this place is so terrible."

  "And she knows who you are," said Teagan as she looked at

  Edgar. "She knows Dr. Harding made you, so she must also

  know there's a chance Atherton is really out there. She wants to

  go there, I'm sure of it. That's why she's so crazy. She wants off

  the Dark Planet and she'll do anything to get her way."

  Aggie agreed, but she had something else on her mind. She

  walked right up to the communication box and pushed the third

  button down.