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

Patrick Carman

Contents

THE WORLD OF ATHERTON

PART ONE: THE DOCKING STATION

PROLOGUE: The Silo

CHAPTER 1: Over the Edge

CHAPTER 2: The Dark Planet

CHAPTER 3: Edgar's Secret Revealed

CHAPTER 4: Down the Longest Shard

CHAPTER 5: Across the Burning Bridge of Stone

CHAPTER 6: A Leap of Faith

CHAPTER 7: 4200

CHAPTER 8: The Docking Station

CHAPTER 9: The Raven

PART TWO: THE SILO

CHAPTER 10: The Forsaken Wood

CHAPTER 11: The Key to Mulciber

CHAPTER 12: Spikers

CHAPTER 13: Into the Silo

CHAPTER 14: The Way of the Yards

CHAPTER 15: Powder Blocking

CHAPTER 16: The Centurion

CHAPTER 17: L-I-F-T-B-5

CHAPTER 18: The Vine Room

CHAPTER 19: The Widest River

CHAPTER 20: The Passageway of Lies

CHAPTER 21: Dr. Harding's Laboratory

CHAPTER 22: Hope

CHAPTER 23: On Gossamer's Wings

CHAPTER 24: The Yards

CHAPTER 25: The Chill of Winter

CHAPTER 26: A Spiker on the Beach

CHAPTER 27: The Chill of Winter

CHAPTER 28: The Story of Atherton Finds Its End

For Skip, fellow traveler

THE WORLD OFATHERTON

If you read
The House of Power
or
Rivers of Fire
but it's been a

while since you turned the last page, you might benefit from this

brief reintroduction to the story and the characters of Atherton. If,

on the other hand, you know nothing of the climbing boy Edgar,

the mad scientist Dr. Maximus Harding, or the collapse and

inversion of the three levels of Atherton, then this introduction

will be helpful reading. See you on the inside!

Atherton is a made world, forged by the mind of a madman. It is

inhabited by volunteers from the Dark Planet, a future Earth

ravaged by pollution and overpopulation. Every inhabitant of

Atherton has undergone a kind of memory retraining, leaving

them under the assumption that Atherton is the only world that's

ever been, the only place they've ever known.

Atherton was originally created on three circular levels, each

one smaller than the level below it. The lowest level--the

Flatlands--was a vast, barren, and largely unknown place. The

middle level was known as Tabletop and contained most of

Atherton's people, all of whom were poor laborers charged with

maintaining the groves of fig trees or herds of livestock (sheep

and rabbits) that provided all means of sustenance. At the top,

the lush and beautiful Highlands were inhabited by the ruling

class, who controlled the sole source of water.

The Flatlands, Tabletop, and the Highlands were all separated

by treacherous cliffs that established almost complete

separation between the lands. But that distance exists no more.

By the time the third book of Atherton begins, the world of

Atherton has undergone a complete transformation: The

Highlands descended until no cliffs remained and the ruling

class was forced to come face-to-face with the people of

Tabletop. Soon after, the joined lands of Tabletop and the

Highlands collapsed as well, until they became level with the

Flatlands. The world was, quite literally, flat. The images below,

drawn by Dr. Maximus Harding, will help you better understand

what happened to Atherton in
The House of Power.

As Atherton changed, people from all three levels were forced

to confront one another, choose sides, and ultimately decide

whether they would stand together or apart against a mounting

threat that arose from the Flatlands. Though many lives were

lost, most chose wisely. For the transformation was not yet over:

The center of their new world was sinking, and the source of

water, whose origin was under the House of Power, rose until

the entire center of Atherton was flooded. It turned into a vast

lake, teeming with life for all of the survivors.

After the flood came peace. It was all part of the plan of the man

who created this complex satellite world, Dr. Maximus Harding,

who perished in the flooding of Atherton. But his plan did not

end with the redemption of this refuge from the Dark Planet.

The Dark Planet
will reveal the whole truth of the matter.

THE KEY CHARACTERS

OFATHERTON

DR. MAXIMUS HARDING

The creator of Atherton, Dr. Maximus Harding, was a

mysterious man of science who drifted into madness over a

period of years. Dr. Harding created not only the fantastic world

of Atherton, but also the remarkable boy, Edgar. As one might

imagine, Dr. Maximus Harding had a severe Dr. Frankenstein

complex. When Edgar was hidden away against Dr. Harding's

will, the scientist fell into deep madness and despair. It was

then that Dr. Harding's alter ego, the cruel and treacherous Lord

Phineus, came into being. Lord Phineus ruled over all Atherton

for a time, but in the changing world the truth emerged and Dr.

Harding was restored in the end. He died in the cataclysmic

flood, leaving Edgar, his most precious creation, to find his own

way in the world.

EDGAR

A young orphan and gifted climber who lived in the fig grove on

Tabletop, scaling the cliffs of Atherton in secret. In his search for

answers to Atherton's destiny, he became the only person on

Atherton to have climbed above to the Highlands or below to

the Flatlands. Through a series of events, Edgar discovers his

true identity: He is the penultimate creation of Dr. Maximus

Harding, the maker of Atherton.

SAMUEL

A boy formerly of the Highlands, he had lived within the House

of Power under the watchful eye of Lord Phineus until he

escaped in search of his new friend, Edgar, who appeared

mysteriously one night from the land below.

ISABEL

A wily, bright girl of the grove and longtime friend of Edgar's

who can use a sling with great skill. Samuel met Isabel in his

search for Edgar, and together they embarked on a quest that

trapped them under the House of Power during the great flood

of Atherton. Their harrowing escape led them through the fiery

center of Atherton--known as the Inferno--where Isabel nearly

lost her life.

DR. LUTHER MEAD KINCAID

An old man of science, presumed at one time to be Edgar's

father, but later discovered to be a mentoring figure to Dr.

Maximus Harding. Dr. Kincaid has lost control of the world he

helped build and now hopes to somehow reconnect with the

Dark Planet, where Atherton was first envisioned.

VINCENT

A protector of people on Atherton, he is charged with watching

over Dr. Kincaid. He is the only other adult on Atherton who

knows the complex history of Atherton and its mad maker, Dr.

Maximus Harding.

MAUDE

A feisty woman from the Village of Rabbits, one of the three

villages on Tabletop. She previously helped Edgar escape Sir

Emerik and becomes one of a handful of leaders of the free

world along with Horace and Wallace.

THE DOCKING STATION

I go now beyond the forest and the field,

Where winter lay exhausted on a distant shore.

I will find you on the untouched paths of the sea.

DR. MAXIMUS HARDING

INTO HIDDEN REALMS

PROLOGUETHE SILO

It was the middle of the night when Red Eye and Socket came

into the barracks and started walking between two long rows of

beds. The bottoms of their boots were metal and so was the

cold floor they stood on. Every step they took was like a deep

and clanging word of warning. But it was their voices--like angry

dogs that had been woken in the middle of the night--that woke

the children.

"Don't... you... move!"

"One of you's out of bed!"

The voices cracked and echoed through the Silo, bouncing off

steel walls and rusting rivets.

The rows of beds were as old as the Silo itself, and all the girls

who slept in them awoke at once. The springs of thirty metal

mattress frames jumped to life and made a sound like an

orchestra preparing for a concert. Though, to be fair, none of the

children in barracks number three had ever heard a violin or a

flute or an oboe. There was no place for beautiful music in the

strange world of the Silo.

"Stay put!" barked Red Eye. "No moving from those beds!"

"Or get the
bender
!" added Socket. The word slithered out of his

mouth as a long and raspy whisper. He knew there was nothing

children in the Silo feared more than a swat from the metal

whip.

Each of the children became perfectly still, and the springs in

the beds beneath them echoed into a chilling silence.

The lights were left off, which made the presence of these men

at the foot of the beds all the more frightening. They carried the

most dimly lit lanterns one could imagine in their left hands and

thin, metallic rods in the other.
Benders.
All of the children had

felt the sting of a bender for one cruel reason or another. They'd

seen the long, thin bruise it left behind.

Red Eye and Socket reached over their backs and let go of their

weapons. With a whirl, then a
clang,
the benders were gone.

They seemed to have been devoured by a hidden, hungry eater

of metal.

"Don't you move!" repeated Socket.

The two men each lifted the end of a bed to check its weight.

When they were satisfied each bed was heavy enough to

contain a child, they ceremoniously let the bed drop back to the

floor with a teeth-rattling
bang!
--followed by a shocked yelp from

the child within.

"We know one of you's out of your bed," seethed Red Eye. "We

saw you!"

Bang! Bang!
Two more beds were dropped. Someone let out a

shriek.

In the silence that followed there arose a new voice. It was the

small voice of a girl who, only a few moments ago, had opened

the door to the barracks, wandered out into the long hallway,

and let herself be seen by Red Eye and Socket. She spoke

softly, but with great purpose.

"You didn't see me."

The voice came from above Red Eye and Socket, and then

bang! bang!
The two men dropped the bed rails they were

holding and reached over their shoulders. The benders

reappeared with the sound of snapping metal.

Red Eye and Socket stared into the darkness, holding their dim

lanterns high, Socket tapping his bender anxiously against the

metal toe of his boot. Red Eye swung his back and forth in the

air overhead.

"We see you!" he cried. "Come down from there!"

But the girl who'd gotten out of bed had other plans. Her name

was Aggie and she knew Red Eye and Socket wouldn't turn the

lights on. In fact, if they could have it their way, the Silo would

have no lights at all, because lights hurt their eyes. And this

was what Aggie wanted.

To hurt them like they'd hurt her best friend, Teagan, a few

hours before.

"You don't see me," repeated Aggie.

And they didn't. Aggie was crawling through the spiderweb of

rusted steel girders that ran all through the ceiling of the

barracks. And she was fast! Too fast for Red Eye and Socket.

The two men had an idea of what was about to happen, though

they could hardly believe it was possible.

"Don't you do it!" cried Red Eye. He began fumbling in his

pockets, searching for something.

Aggie hung from a beam by the door, holding steady above a

certain white knob sticking out from a slick metal wall. The

white knob that was for Red Eye and Socket only.

Aggie glanced down at the two rows of beds and saw that all

the heads were covered with blankets as she'd instructed.

Satisfied that everyone was safe, she let go of the beam. As

Aggie fell she pulled her goggles down over her eyes from

where they'd rested on her forehead. When she was within

reach of the white knob, she grabbed it and pulled. The room