Fesn there, they were anxious to visit the museum. It contained artifacts of the original inhabitants of the Big Ball and some clues to the history of its current inhabitants. It also contained a vast collection of art spanning all of human culture.
= = =
The old man had begun to walk as old as he looked by the time Percival brought them to the park across from the museum, yet when the glorious structure came into view, the old man seemed to forget his fatigue and discomfort. Percival had intentionally approached the museum so that it would remain hidden from view, until they walked up the slope behind the park and cleared the crest of the rise, causing the Great Museum to rise into view like a fantastic glimmering green moon.
After pausing to admire the view, they walked downward through the park and stopped to rest on a knoll by a lake, entranced by the view of the Great Museum, and by a second view of its reflection in the calm water. It was the largest museum in the Big Ball, filling an entire cubic frame of highways. Cables of transparent material that shone like beams of light anchored the globe to the glowing box of highways. Percival explained that the globe was thought to mimic an external view of the world they lived in.
Percival found some pride in the well-manicured park scenery that fronted the Great Museum. He had often worked on the crews that trimmed the lawns and shrubs and cleared the debris. He purchased soft drinks for his group from a park vendor and they sat on the green grass slope while Percival tried to calm his nerves. He dreaded taking them into the museum. There was only one entrance to the museum. It was at the top of the globe, fed by descending transparent ramps from each bordering highway. The one entrance was also the only exit, making the museum a trap.
"Everything here seems to exude art and style," the old man commented. "Who built this place?"
"No one knows," Percival answered. "Legend says that when we came from Earth, whoever was here simply went away, leaving it for us. We call them the Builders. There are clues everywhere about them but no one has the skill or interest to study them. We only slave and survive."
"The Builders were human?" the woman asked.
"That has always been the assumption," Percival replied, "but the reason for it has long since been obscured by time and legend. I think there may still be clues, some of which could be kept in the museum."
"Your people must have come from the North American continent on Earth," the woman - Fidelity - said. "Before they built the space elevators. The only way you could have come was by a gate. You must have had help."
"Yes, I agree," Percival replied. "I have thought about this myself. We have no records, no written history. I had hoped one day - if I lived long enough - to work at the museum and explore it for old things from the past, to see if I could find some facts about our history."
Each inadequate answer Percival gave them led to other questions and he knew he would never dissuade the three from entering the trap of the museum. They were curious people, too curious, fatally curious.
Percival accompanied the three to the top of the Great Museum and hesitated to follow them inside. Standing at the lip of the entrance, Percival explained how to drop into the hole and let the weightless chamber control their descent to the first circular concourse below.
The old man smiled, scratched his beard, and shook his head. "I wonder if any of my work is here in this incredible place so very far away from Earth."
Percival gave him a puzzled look. "Your work?"
"Rafael is a painter," the boy said.
"We could look for it first," the woman suggested.
"No, no," the old man responded. "We both know it very well. You want to see a Fesn and so do Samson and I! Let us wander around. There must be a more pleasant kind of people here in the museum."
Percival was also a curious human being, and these three strangers fascinated him, even as he knew they also threatened him. He had to stay with them and accompany them into the museum.
The woman and the old man exuded skill and knowledge, far surpassing anyone he had ever known in the Big Ball! Percival also craved knowledge and felt as if he was in the presence of major gods of data. The old man made hundreds of comments about the styles and colors and compositions of things, making Percival see so many things as if for the first time. This was not just facts plucked from good data augments; it was fine understanding of the facts and their implications and extrapolations. These were very well-educated people! The woman could explain about the engineering required to make the Big Ball work, while also voicing insightful comments and questions about the way people acted and went about their daily lives, making Percival see his life and home from new perspectives. He could not leave these people. He could not tell them to go on alone. He could not admit he was scared to death to remain in their presence while the Fleet surely pursued them.
Yet Percival almost forgot about the Fleet as he accompanied the three visitors through the museum. The old man spoke so learnedly about the art they viewed. The woman could recall facts about pieces of art with such ease that Percival realized she had to have a better data augment in her body than he knew existed in the Union. Fortunately for the tired old man, the museum was well maintained and had powered walks to almost everywhere in its vast spherical interior. Percival received a good education from the pair of strangers, learning much more about the treasures of the museum than he would ever have learned on his own.
"The founders of this place are of great interest to me," the woman said, after the deluge of art seemed to saturate their appetites for the moment.
"And no Fesn in sight," the old man said with great disappointment.
"There is another alien race known to us," Percival said, wanting to intrigue the old man further. "I have never seen one. I guess they still exist. It almost seems dangerous to speak of them. If you do see one, do not harm it or even speak to it, unless ordered. Do exactly as it orders."
"Another alien race?" the woman inquired, before the tired old man could react. "What do they look like?"
"You will know when you see one. They are said to be immortal."
"Would they appear dark and sparkling and amorphous?" the woman asked.
Percival was shocked at the description. "That is yet another thing! You have seen a gatekeeper? I thought they were extinct!"
"I saw one on Earth. What is a gatekeeper?"
"You know you came here through a gate," Percival prompted, excited by this news. There was something important about these strangers to the Big Ball that they did not seem to realize.
"Yes, and they have always been the holy grail of space exploration," the woman said. "And these creatures guard the gates? You have many gates here?"
"I don't know. There was one gate on Earth, built by the other aliens. Gatekeepers used to operate the Earth gate. They had the mathematical ability to compute the addresses."
"Fleet!" Someone out among the connecting walkways in the center of the Great Museum yelled again: "Fleet!" Everyone around them froze. Then, with fear and resignation on their faces, people began moving upward toward the exit.
"They're after us!" Percival nervously declared the obvious. "Everyone who exits will be examined, then the Fleet will go through the museum and abuse anyone who stays."
"Leave us, Percival," the woman ordered with a voice he could not ignore, even if he wanted to. He made some feeble expressions of resistance but a single push of the woman's hand sent him upward to the distant exit.
= = =
"Follow me and don't talk," Fidelity told Rafael as she picked up Samson. Seeing it had already emptied, she entered the next small theater and led the way among shining and spinning mobiles to the far wall. She searched and found a wide door behind a decorative concealment. This was where she supposed the museum employees brought in the artwork. It connected to a hidden system of access to all of the display rooms and theaters. She assumed there would also be another system of transport that brought art and supplies to the museum. Perhaps there would be an exit not covered b
y the Fleet.
The passages lay mainly between the display rooms and the outer shell of the museum sphere. Fidelity had not seen any kind of external feature in their initial approach to the Great Museum. There were no doors marked as emergency exits. She had not been able to see what structures lay beneath the green sphere, on the opposite side of its entrance. She chose to follow the maintenance passageways downward, where she hoped that utilities and other services connected to the museum.
The artificial gravity was much weaker in the maintenance areas, possibly to ease the effort of moving bulky objects. This also gave Rafael some relief to his fatigued body. The system seemed built for foot traffic, although parts of it were wide enough for vehicles.
Fidelity led Rafael into the widest passageway they had yet found. Many other passageways branched from it. A large platform lay in the middle of the floor. Small ramps angled up each side of the platform. Gaps between the platform and the ramps and the floor suggested the platform could move vertically. Patterns of wear in the floor and the scatter of debris such as packing material reinforced Fidelity's assumption it was an elevator platform, and she looked for its controls on nearby walls and found nothing. As she studied the platform itself she discovered old markings almost scuffed away by use that were embossed at each corner of the platform. She put a sandal on one of