11 – Omega Man

Seeing Atrus projected on the tower roof surprised Jordan, Rachel and Maddy. They had expected Saavedro to have replaced this message as well. But as they listened to it, it became clear why he had not done so.

"You've done well, my sons," said the imager in Atrus' voice. "But there's still one task ahead of you. The linking book you see here connects to an age called Narayan." The three of them looked at each other. "It's a very delicate age, where civilisation has emerged in response to the world's imbalances. It's also the first inhabited age I'm sending you to alone. But don't be afraid. The knowledge you've acquired will show you the way in. Use it, and see all that Narayan has to offer."

The image faded to black, and silence fell.

"Well," said Rachel, breaking the silence, "they sure did that."

"Saavedro left that message there to remind Atrus how he described Narayan to Sirrus and Achenar," said Jordan, still looking up at the roof. "How he... instructed them. How naive he was."

"What do you think Narayan is like now? A dead world?" asked Rachel.

"There's only one way to find out," said Maddy. The three of them looked at the innocent, lilac-covered book sitting in the now open cage.

"Atrus?"

Catherine and Brittany stepped out of the elevator at the top level. Atrus was sitting at one of the many desks situated around the room, writing furiously.

"How are you going, Atrus?"

"Oh, very well, my love," replied Atrus enthusiastically, stopping and looking up from the book in which he was writing. "I'm designing a garden age. We can use it for resting and relaxing, as well as for travel through D'ni. But most of all I'm designing it as a tribute to Grandmother."

Catherine picked up the book and skim-read it quickly. "Looks good, Atrus. What's it called?" She passed the book to Brittany.

"Well, I haven't worked that out yet," admitted Atrus.

Brittany was attempting to understand the script in the book, but failing. She knew a little D'ni, but this was very complicated and completely beyond her.

"I don't understand a word of this," said Brittany, handing the book back to Atrus.

"Well, the book script is very complicated," said Atrus, picking up his pen. "I'd better get back to it."

Cold.

That was the first thing Rachel thought as she materialised on Narayan. It was cold. She pulled her coat around her and surveyed the room.

This was not how she had expected Narayan to be. She was standing in a smallish metal room. Around her hung a variety of tapestries, and in front of her was a short flight of stairs up to a larger area. Up there, another flight of stairs curled around to what was presumably an upper level, and a shield of ice blocked her from entering what looked like a gondola dock. And around eveything, a second, much larger ice shield isolated the metallic chamber from the rest of the age.

Maddy linked in behind her, followed by Jordan. The three of them walked quietly up the smaller stairs to the open area. Two small dome-like items were the dominant features of this area, as well as a lever that could point to either one of them. The domes were obviously supposed to open, but they would not, presumably as they were unpowered.

With nothing to do down here, Rachel led the way up the curved stairs, motioning for quiet.

Saavedro froze. Footsteps. He was sure he could hear footsteps. Wait... yes, definitely. At last... Atrus was here. With one hand, he picked up his trusty hammer, and with the other, the Releeshahn book. He arranged his features into a triumphant expression, then pressed the door button with his hammer.

Jordan, Rachel and Maddy looked around the upper level. There was nothing here, except a door at the far end of a long metallic walkway and a red lever. Jordan pointed at the lever, and mouthed "power". They stepped forward.

A clank echoed from the door at the far end of the room. The three of them froze. Even as they watched, the door swung open and Saavedro stepped out. He looked triumphantly at the three of them, but immediately his expression became fixed, then the triumphant smile started to dissolve.

"What..." His voice was low and angry. The door closed behind him, and he advanced slowly down towards the three of them. They shuffled backwards.

"You're not... Where is he?" demanded Saavedro. "Look, I know he's here. I have his book." He waved the Releeshahn book angrily. "So where is he?" He raised his hammer threateningly. Rachel, who seemed to have been elected as de facto spokesman since she was at the front, shook her head, unable to speak. Saavedro lowered his hammer slowly as the truth slowly dawned on him.

"He didn't come?" Rachel shook her head again. Saavedro sighed deeply. "I take Releeshahn from him, and he sends you instead." He looked at the three of them again, before turning away. "You idiot."

Rachel started, but realised that he was no longer talking to them, but to himself.

"You actually thought this would work?" The expression on Saavedro's face was now incredulous as he berated himself. "You thought that you could force him into coming here, fixing things... why? Why would he rewrite Narayan? Because of your messages? Because of your paintings?" His voice was raised now, and he was angry. He raised his hammer and pointed out at the outer ice shield. "Look at your world. Look at what's left of it. When are you going to get it through your thick skull that you do not matter to him!" He screamed the last part at the top of his lungs, causing Jordan, Rachel and Maddy to recoil still further.

Saavedro's shoulders slumped, and his expression changed again, this time to resignation. "No one could be alive out there," he muttered under his breath. "No one..." He turned back to the three of them and advanced on them until he was about two feet from Rachel, then stooped so they were eye to eye.

"We're stuck here, you know." He said it very matter-of-factly, then backed off a little to continue. "The linking book back to J'nanin is gone. Left behind when I linked out of Atrus' study. He straightened up. "And as for getting in to Narayan... well, look around you. This chamber is the only way in! And Atrus installed some kind of shield. And I have never been able to get past it." There was force behind his words, pushing them across to the three listeners. "Not once in all these years. So you're just as stuck here as I am." He sighed and backed off ominously, raising the hand containing Releeshahn. "At least until I open this book... and I show Atrus what it's like to watch your friends and relatives die." He turned to return to the door, but stopped half way and returned to his position nose to nose with Rachel. His next words were slow and very ominous.

"If you do find a way out of here... I suggest you think very carefully before using it." He straightened up, with a malicious smile on his face. "Because the one thing I know about linking books: the doors they open..." he raised his hammer threateningly again, "...don't close behind you..." Twirling his hammer expertly, he retreated to the door and stepped back inside, giving his terrified audience one last look as the door closed on him. Jordan, Rachel and Maddy looked at each other, worried.

"What do we do now?" hissed Maddy.

"We're going to have to try and work out what those domes downstairs are for," replied Jordan. He walked over to the red lever and turned it. A buzz of power flowed through the air, and the three of them made their way back to the safety of downstairs. Jordan touched the leftmost of the domes. It whirred and rose into the air, opening to reveal a rather strange sight.

Inside the dome were three circles. On each of those three circles were four smaller circles, each containing four even smaller, interlocked circles inside them. If Jordan touched a segment of line, it lit up orange.

"What are we supposed to do here?"

"Atrus said..." Jordan was thinking back to the message that they had heard on the J'nanin imager, "...to use the knowledge we've gained to find our way in. What does that mean?"

They were silent for a while, before Rachel gave a sudden yelp and pulled out Atrus' journal.

"Look here," she said, "at some of these passages where he's trying to work out the best age-building mantra for Releeshahn. Some of these things his grandmother taught him. The mantras are all in bold. See?" She pointed to one entry. Maddy leant over her shoulder to read.

"'Energy powers future motion'. Okay, fair enough."

"There's more." Rachel flipped ahead several pages and pointed out the next one to Jordan, who read over her shoulder as well.

"'Nature encourages mutual dependence'." He paused. "I think I can see where you're going with this."

"There's still more." Rachel turned more pages and found the next one. "'Dynamic forces spur change'. And the one he decided to use in the end..." she turned more pages, "'Balanced systems stimulate civilization'."

"I think I understand," said Jordan. "Each of the three ages we've visited from J'nanin has been founded on one of these mantras. Like Edanna – plants, animals... nature. All interdependent. Nature encourages mutual dependence."

"Oh!" exclaimed Maddy, catching on. "So Voltaic. Electricity, machines, all that stuff. Energy. Movement. Energy powers future motion."

"Exactly," smiled Rachel. "And Amateria. The rollercoaster, constantly moving. Dynamic forces. All sorts of things happening, changing. Dynamic forces spur change."

"So... what of the last one?" asked Jordan.

"The fourth age," replied Rachel. "One where there's a bit of everything, and a civilization emerged. Balanced systems stimulate civilization. Here. Narayan."

"That's really clever," said Jordan, admiring Atrus' work. "But what does it have to do with this?"

Rachel pointed at the tapestries hanging around the area where they linked in. They were adorned with strange symbols, underneath which were English words of all sorts. Jordan saw words like "encourage" and "energy".

"I think," said Rachel, "that those strange symbols are Narayani words. We have to put them into the domes to make these mantras."

"And what will that do?" asked Maddy.

"I don't know," admitted Rachel. "But it's worth a try, isn't it?"

Jordan and Maddy agreed, and they set about gathering the symbols. Rachel stood by the dome to enter them into the circles, whilst Jordan and Maddy hunted for the words on the tapestries.

"Energy..." muttered Rachel, "power... future... motion." She tapped the last segment, and the circles which had been orange as she was entering them in suddenly glowed white. "Ah!" she exclaimed. "Something happened. This must be the right thing to do."

They continued with the next mantra. "Nature..." said Rachel as she tapped the segments, "encourage... mutual... dependence." This mantra glowed white as well.

"And finally... dynamic... force... spur... change." The final mantra glowed white, and the dome closed and sank back down. With a dull hiss and hum, the smaller ice shield – separating them from the gondola dock – swirled and vanished.

Ever cautious, the three of them proceeded into the newly-opened area, walking on eggshells. Apart from the gondola, the area contained only a flight of stairs leading down to a room similar to the one they linked in to, but with different tapestries. Here, they found additional words – balance, stimulate and system.

"What about civilization?" asked Jordan. "It's definitely not here."

"I think I saw it upstairs," replied Maddy.

They proceeded back to the stairs, but Rachel paused at the bottom and looked to her right. There, on a pedestal in a small alcove, sat a green book emblazoned with the word "Tomahna".

"This is our way out," said Rachel. She picked up the book and opened it. It was a functional book – there they saw the Tomahna sunroom reflected on the page. Rachel closed the book and stowed it in her satchel. "All right... come on, let's get on with this."

Back in the upstairs room, the three of them went to the second dome. Rachel touched it. It whined in protest and refused to move.

Jordan, noticing that the lever was still directed at the first dome, grabbed it and swung it around to point at the second dome. The inner shield reappeared, and this time the second dome opened at Rachel's touch.

"Looks like only one shield can be down at once," muttered Jordan. "Go on, Rach. Let's see what happens."

Inside the second dome, as they had predicted, was space for four words to be entered – a single mantra. "Right..." muttered Rachel. "Balance. System. Stimulate. And what was civilization again?" Maddy darted over to the tapestry and relayed it back to Rachel. "Here goes," said Rachel, and tapped in the symbol for civilization.

The final mantra glowed white, and for a moment, nothing happened. Then there was a hum, which quickly escalated into a roar, as the outer shield dissolved, revealing Narayan in all its glory. The chamber was bathed in orange light. Outside the chamber, the three travellers saw a sea of clouds, and in the distance, a large tree-like structure – just a little bit like the one on Tay. But astonishingly, there were lights on in this tree structure – which, they realised, could only mean one thing.

Running footsteps pounded on the stairs, and Saavedro came running down the stairs, his hammer hanging at his belt and the Releeshahn book clutched tightly in his hands. He stumbled to a stop in front of the grate that let him look out over the clouds.

"My god..." He was thinking exactly what Jordan, Rachel and Maddy were thinking – except for him, this changed everything.

"Oh, my god..." He turned to his silent audience, a stunned, disbelieving smile on his face. "They're... alive? How did you..." He took a non-threatening step forward and peered around the three of them at the dome behind them, then smiled again. "The fourth symbol..."

He sighed, clutching at the Releeshahn book and thinking furiously. After a few seconds, he reached out and gripped the lever, pulling it back to point at the first dome. There was a rushing roar as the outer shield reappeared and the inner shield disappeared. Saavedro turned back, despair suddenly flooding his features. He gripped the lever and turned it back again. The outer shield disappeared, only for the inner shield to reappear. Saavedro put a hand to his forehead.

"No... no..." He gripped the book tightly. "They give me hope, only to destroy me with it..." Something dawned over his face suddenly, and he paused. He turned back to the lever and turned it again, causing the outer shield to reappear and the inner shield to disappear.

"But you see," he said, turning to the three of them, "I still have something that he wants. Something which he sent you three to bring back for him." He held up the book with his left hand. "Releeshahn." He pointed out at the gondola. "Drop the outer barrier. When I'm out by the gondola, switch the shields so the outer barrier is open."

"And in return?" asked Rachel.

"And in return," replied Saavedro, "I'll give up Releeshahn." He turned and walked out to the gondola dock, standing by the docked craft, and pointed with his free hand out at the lever.

"Do it!"