The New Humans

Chapter 38

When he bent over to check on him, Adam uttered a sound. At first it seemed like wheezing. "Help me," he said in a whisper, as if in his condition there was still something that could be done.

Ash would have given him water if he had any, but there was no need because a jet of plasma struck Adam and put an end to his suffering. Ash turned. Crane held a smoking rifle twenty yards from him, with another man.

"Happy to see me again?"

Ash said nothing. How had Crane found him?

"You will take us to the vase now. Adam just made us lose time."

Ash stood up and started to walk.

In a short time, they faced a staircase identical to the one Ash had just climbed with Adam. If the air was as rarefied as before, Ash wouldn't make it. He had used up all his breath in the first climb.

"What are you doing? Why did you stop?" asked Crane.

"There must be another way," said Ash.

"If the ball says to go here, we go here."

Ash stood still for a moment, uncertain what to do. Crane was looking beyond the end of the staircase. "This goes on for three miles to a platform that leads to a floating dodecahedron. Is this where we need to go?"

What? How could he possibly know that? The suit. His vision was enhanced. Now that Ash thought about it, he must have used that sight or hearing to track him and Adam, even from miles away.

When Ash didn't move, Crane said, "Every second you waste, your friends and your sister are closer to death."

Ash cursed Crane and started up the staircase. As he expected, after a few steps the air became more difficult to breathe and his fatigue increased with each step. Each leg seemed to weigh a hundred pounds. Ash dragged his feet and stumbled.

"Get up." Crane kicked him in the belly.

Ash felt a sharp pain. He tried to get to his feet, but his body did not obey him any longer. At that moment, the phrase Get up, Ash appeared on the ball. He remained motionless, amazed. The ball had never called him by name.

Crane noticed Ash was reading it. "What does it say?"

"Nothing," said Ash. "It says to keep climbing."

"Show me."

Ash held up the ball. The phrase disappeared, and Keep climbing took its place. He took a deep breath, pulled himself up onto his arms and with sweat dripping down his face began to crawl. One step at a time, gritting his teeth, Ash came to the end of the stairs.

Then, with the air becoming breathable again, he struggled to his feet. The third member of the group was also staggering and had difficulty breathing. Crane didn't make a sound instead, as if nothing affected him.

They entered the dodecahedron. Ash covered his eyes to shield himself from the light reflecting off the golden walls. When he was used to the brightness, he recognized the pentagonal shapes and the engravings on them. They had reached the memory room.

"What does the black ball say?" asked Crane.

It didn't say anything. Ash didn't need it. He had to go the center of that room to get the vase—but they didn't know that. Rather than take them to the vase with the ouroboros, he could have made them wander that labyrinth until he at last found Mr. Feynman. He pretended to look at the black ball and said, "Down there."

They walked along the corridors. Every time they approached the center, he pretended to read something on the ball and went in another direction. He didn't say a word; he didn't want Crane to perceive the lie in his tone of voice. It seemed to be working because the two of them followed him without asking questions. Meanwhile Ash was mentally reconstructing the order he would have to give Mr. Feynman whenever he met it, but that was not easy at all. NAMNYEF RETSIM MEHT KCATTA must have been it.