found.
"Do you see how that cloth soaks up the grease from the
cooked rabbit? The crystals are something like that. They fall,
like an endless winter ice storm, and as they fall the smallest
particles of the poison on the Dark Planet are collected. But the
real magic happens after that, because the crystals aren't like
the cloth. They don't hold the things they touch, they make them
disappear. Not every thing the crystals touch disappears, only
the things that have sought to destroy the Dark Planet."
"But what happens --" Samuel started, but Isabel stopped him
with a brush of her hand.
Dr. Kincaid, determined to tell the whole story at once, stopped
and filled his mouth with a hunk of bread Samuel's mother had
made. He followed with a gulp of water. Then, when he was
sure they were going to stay quiet, he went on.
"The shards that don't get used up in the air fall to the ground as
rain, and you should see what happens when they hit the
oceans and land. You can almost feel the Dark Planet being
scrubbed clean, getting healthier by the hour as the rain falls
and falls and falls. Pollution of every kind sizzles and steams
away. It's nothing short of spectacular.
"Ten days ago Vincent and I both noticed the rain getting
heavier. But when we woke three mornings ago the rain had
turned softer again. By the time we left there was almost no rain
at all at Station Seven. And guess what? We weren't wearing
masks outside when we left, and neither was anyone else."
Everyone circled around the fire smiled at once.
"It took Gossamer a little longer to clear out the wood than we
thought it might. You've never heard anything quite like a
dragon going to battle against an army of giant Cleaners and
Spikers. Days and nights of fighting, until only the queen Spiker
and a very tired black dragon remained. Gossamer is a warrior
beyond anything I have ever seen. Vincent and I spent the
better part of an entire day watching from Station Seven. The
smog had cleared from the forsaken wood. Fallen trees and
creatures lay every where, and we were able to watch as
Gossamer destroyed the last and biggest of Dr. Harding's
mistakes. It was the scariest, most awe-inspiring show I've ever
seen or ever will see.
"But do you know what the best part was? Through it all,
Gossamer never once breathed fire on anything. He was too
afraid of burning down a single tree or accidentally setting the
Silo on fire. He took one look at the Silo and somehow knew it
was filled with children. He protected it above all else, and I
don't think a Cleaner made it within a hundred yards of the Silo
in all the days of clashing."
Dr. Kincaid paused a moment, pulling once more on one of
those floppy ears of his. Then he shook his head with a smile of
wonder on his face.
"Do you know, I don't think Dr. Harding ever really grew up? For
him, saving the Dark Planet was a story that had to be told, not
a problem that needed to be solved. I wonder if we thought
more like he did, more magically, if we'd have figured things out
always terrified of anything that flew. Even small bugs bothered
him, but especially birds. And to think he made Gossamer to get
rid of all the terrible things he made by accident. Sometimes our
biggest fears must be overcome in order to find our way. I
suppose Dr. Max Harding knew that better than anyone."
Dr. Kincaid stared at everyone. It appeared that he'd come to
the end, and Edgar was the first to venture a question.
"Why didn't you bring anyone back with you?" He was thinking
of Hope, but also of the other children in the Silo.
"We can't do that, Edgar." It was Vincent, who had been sitting
silently next to Dr. Kincaid the whole time. "We can't start
shuttling people back and forth between the two worlds.
Atherton wasn't made to accommodate everyone on the Dark
Planet. Now, thanks to Maximus Harding, we think the entire
planet will survive--so long as they learn from their mistakes.
We're sending the Raven back to the docking station, where it
will stay."
Edgar wanted to protest, but he knew Vincent was right. Things
could get very complicated if people from Atherton wanted to go
back and others were constantly showing up from the Dark
Planet. What if Atherton failed as the Dark Planet had? There
was only one sure way for that to happen: invite a lot of people
from the Dark Planet to bring their things and live here. Edgar
could already imagine Atherton turned into a place of metal and
machines. The best solution was to cut the cord for good now
that the Dark Planet had been restored.
Vincent walked to the Raven, went inside, and returned with
something in his hands. "Hope asked me to give this to you."
He held out a wooden box and no one knew who should take it.
It was from someone they loved and were never going to see
again. Edgar felt like he was part of the green team now, but he
didn't think it right to take it himself, so he waited until Aggie
reached out and gently took the box from Vincent. It was a lot
heavier than she'd expected.
"Open it!" said Landon.
Aggie undid a string that held the box shut and took the lid off.
Five more boxes were hidden inside.
"Are these what I think they are?" asked Aggie. She handed out
the five small squares, each of them a perfect two-inch square.
"Those aren't really boxes you're holding. I mean, you can't
open them. They're actually solid glass of a kind that's pretty
hard to break. Otherwise we might have all of Atherton crawling
with vines."
"But what's inside?" asked Isabel as she watched Teagan turn
it in the light and peer inside. Everyone on the green team
knew, just like Aggie knew.
"They're the flowers that never bloom, from the Silo," said
Teagan. "Only these ones did bloom!"
Dr. Kincaid just nodded. He could see the wonder in their eyes
at the sight of the flowers they held. They were shaped just like
the Raven with pointy leaves fanning out in every imaginable
color. A miniature raven of every color and hue.
her best to imagine Hope saying the words to them.
"'For the green team, so you know you're gone but never
forgotten. With love and affection, Hope.'"
Aggie turned the paper over and found a much longer note on
the back.
"'I sat on the beach with all the children from the Silo and
watched the waves come in last night. We breathed the clean
air and roasted fresh fish from the sea. They begged and
begged to hear about Dr. Harding, so I told them, only this time
we all looked up and imagined you there, watching over us.
The story is finally told to the very end, with a happy ending,
after all.'"
No one spoke. It was as if every thing that needed to
be said
had been said.
Dr. Kincaid had one more surprise and he pulled it out of his
own pocket.
"Landon," he said, "one day soon Gossamer will return to
Atherton and make his home here. He'll go back inside Atherton
where he belongs. But I promise I'll take you to see him at least
once. In the meantime, I found this in Dr. Harding's laboratory. I
think it was the first of many models, because as I recall, he
always started small and made things bigger until they were too
big for his imagination to hold."
Dr. Kincaid held out a model of Gossamer about four inches tall.
It was perfect in every detail, right down to the black spike on its
nose and the claws on its feet.
"This is way better than a flower!" said Landon, taking
Gossamer and smiling bigger than any of them had ever seen
him smile before. "And I'm holding you to it, Dr. Kincaid. We'll
go together and I'll protect you. He'll listen to me."
"That sounds perfect," said Dr. Kincaid.
After a while they packed up their things and started off, but not
before Vincent put the black disk inside the Raven, set its
course, and dashed out the closing door. They all watched it
disappear over the edge on its way to its final resting spot. On
the way back Edgar and his friends heard about what had
become of Commander Judix, Station Seven, and Captain
Grammel. None of them had fared well in the end, least of all
Grammel, who was thrown overboard by his crew and washed
up on the shore near the yards.
When they arrived back at the grove the party at the Inn was in
full swing. There were a few thousand people living on
Atherton, but this was a private party of about fifty of Dr.
Kincaid's closest friends. There was plenty of Black and Green,
just as Briney had promised, and lots of laughing and dancing.
After a good deal of celebrating, the sky grew dark and the
seven friends huddled together by the door of the Inn. Soon Dr.
Kincaid emerged, then Vincent. The nine of them snuck away
as they'd long planned to do. Twenty minutes later, the group
was standing within a stone's throw of the edge of Atherton.
"Please be careful," said Dr. Kincaid. He'd said it many times,
but there was something about a steep drop-off and seven kids
that worried him. "Vasher, keep Landon at your side."
Vasher nodded, and then the nine were crawling the final
distance, feeling the pull of gravity on their arms as they went.
They all arrived at once, even Dr. Kincaid, who loathed
crawling on his old knees. But he had to be there when they
looked over the edge. He'd made them wait two long months,
and now they would see for themselves.
Aggie, Teagan, Landon, and Vasher had seen the Dark Planet
only once when they'd first arrived, but they could remember
how dirty and dead it had looked.
Now, Aggie was able to believe that not only people could be
transformed, but the whole world could be, too. "It's beautiful,"
she whispered.
"I can't believe how different it looks," said Isabel. "It's so blue
and green."
"It's the way it's supposed to look," said Dr. Kincaid. "The way it
was made to look before we got our hands on it. The blue is
water--lots of clean water--and the green is land."
"What's the white?" asked Vasher.
"Snow and ice," said Dr. Kincaid.
"We'll have to change the name of the Dark Planet," said
Vincent. "It's not dark anymore."
"Why not call it by its real name?" asked Dr. Kincaid,
remembering what the Dark Planet had been called before.
"I don't know. It seems we could do better. New world, new
name--don't you think?"
Dr. Kincaid mulled the idea, but it was Teagan who shouted out
the name that stuck.
"It's the Blue Planet now," she said. "Blue is the best color of all,
and our old home is bluer than anything I've ever seen."
They stayed there for a long time, looking down at a world once
broken. Edgar couldn't help thinking of Dr. Harding. He was so
proud of him and all that he'd done, proud enough to never call
him his maker again.
"My father did this," said Edgar.
"Hopefully, they won't make the same mistake twice," said Dr.
Kincaid, gazing at the Blue Planet. "Because we're not likely to
see anyone like your father come along again. He was one of a
kind."
They backed away from the edge of Atherton and began
walking.
"We better get back to the party before they eat up all the Black
and Green," said Dr. Kincaid, his arm around Landon. Landon
broke into a run, holding the little model of Gossamer so it
looked as if it was flying over his head. And then everyone but
the old man was running, racing each other back to the Inn,
laughing and dancing in the grey night of Atherton.