Chapter Eleven
I discovered that the team’s calculations were not precise. This was the biggest threat to my safety. They were certain of the sequence of events to come, but not of their exact timing.
First would be the settling. This started when the conjunction neared and the temperatures dropped. I had seen signs of it when the basin mist started to condense into rain. The cold air squeezed the moisture from the atmosphere. On the surface of Neworld, this resulted in a blanket of heavy snow that brought normal daily life to a halt for several days. Down in the Basin, the snow turned back to rain. Finally, the skies over all of Neworld cleared. If people ventured from their snowbound homes to the edge of the rim, they would see it for what it really was—an alien world waiting to be explored.
According to the plan, on the second night of High Conjunction, which was the darkest, coldest night of our calendar, even the column of mist rising from the Fount would settle and the winds it created would die. The following Solrise would begin to warm the Basin and revitalize the Fount. I would have about ten hours to descend, make my observations and return.
Sean and Seamus took me up to the sphere for an orientation. Once up in the walkway, I could see the two massive spools of cable that would be my lifeline. The twins explained that by suspending the sphere from two cables, it would not spin.
“Do you know how far down will I be going?”
“We could never get an exact reading because of the winds the Fount normally generates,” said Sean. “Those spools up there each have 3.7 kilometers of cable. We think the depth of the Below to be about 3.4 kilometers. We won’t lower you beyond 3.2.”
Seamus guided me over to a control panel. Just beyond the panel hung the sphere. “The cables are marked in units of a tenth of a kilometer. We'll lower you to 2.8, then wait for your signal.”
“Signal?”
“Yeah,” said Sean, tapping one of two small phosphorescent lights on the console. “In the sphere you’ll find two static boxes. One is marked ASCEND and the other DESCEND. Three swift turns on the DESCEND box will signal us to lower you another tenth of a kilometer. If you crank the ASCEND box, there’s no stopping until you’re home.”
“And how do I go down and come back up?”
Sean took a piece of paper from the console, crumpled it, and tossed it over the railing. “You quite literally fall down.”
“But it’s a controlled fall. About an hour and a half for the initial descent,” said Seamus, indicating a series of sizeable metal levers. “And those spring coils assure your return. As you fall, they tighten. To come back up, warn us with your signal. Then start releasing the balance bags—those canvas bags filled with scrap iron. The more bags you release, the faster you’ll rise.”
Sean opened the mesh door to the sphere. “There’s only room for one in there. Climb on in. The shape and open structure are meant to reduce the weight and minimize any effect winds might have on it.”
There was a mesh floor about a quarter of the way up the sphere. Below it was a static box, its crank protruding through the floor.
“That little box over there, with the cushy padded seat, is where you’ll sit on the descent. To get your bearings, when you sit there, you're facing east. Got it?”
I nodded and point vaguely in the direction. "East."
Seamus grinned, “And the seat is hinged. Go on, open it.”
I did as Seamus instructed and discovered the box contained a chamber pot.
Sean laughed. “Can’t have you shittin’ or pissin’ in the Fount of Life, can we?”
I closed the seat and shifted my attention to the static box crank.
“This must power the bottom light,” I said, then pointed to two wheels mounted to either side of a glass covered portal that was positioned near the floor opposite the seat. “What are these for?”
“They allow you to direct the bottom light. The floor will be covered with a padded mat for the trip. Many of your observations will be done kneeling and peering out that or one of the other floor ports. Crank it up and try it out.”
It took at least thirty stiff cranks to get the beam of light to full intensity. Within a few minutes, I was able to get the hang of how the wheels directed the beam of light.
For the next day and a half I learned all I could about my task. I requested a couple of modifications to the sphere—the addition of two, waterproof pouches for art supplies and finished drawings, and direction markings etched into sphere's vertical supports to help me reference the relative positions of anything I might observe.
“With your memory, why take your sketching tools?” said Bedford. “Take more time for your observations and draw when you return.”
“I need to sketch while I’m down there—just in case… you know… if something happens to me, you'll get to see at least part of what I saw.”
– End Chapter Eleven –
