Spheres of Influence-eARC by Ryk E Spoor Page B

huge, but you couldn’t quite grasp that size in your mind until you were inside . It was kilometers long, although Holy Grail had chosen a docking point very near the entrance.
    The entrance itself reminded him of the gates of Enma-Sama’s fortress—a tremendous, massive portal that if closed would be almost impenetrable, but was always open. A line of lights showed the straight route deeper into the Sphere.
    “Guess the others’ll be at the Guardhouse,” Gabrielle said.
    “Guardhouse?”
    Ariane smiled. “Gabrielle’s name for the mini-settlement we’ve built near the real entrance to the Inner Sphere. I suppose it’s not a bad name for it if it does become a settlement.”
    He led the way, following the line of lights, and the full scale of the interior of the Sphere hit him. It is like a world, a world of dead air and no light. He shivered suddenly, against his will. It is like…a tomb. A tomb of Hyperion.
    Fear was not a common emotion for him—one so rare, in fact, that it took a moment for him to acknowledge it. But when I feel it, it’s always over…this. DuQuesne promised me a shining new world, of gods and monsters and bright skies. I know he must be telling the truth…but here it is dark. It smells of death, of things long, long gone, the realm of the forgotten dead. He started to quicken his stride towards the brighter area in the far distance, noticed that he was starting to outpace the others, forced himself to slow. They are not as soft as most people, but they aren’t nearly as fast as I am. Even so, he was impressed by how quickly Ariane was walking; he realized she was anxious to get to her other friends and find out what might have happened while they were gone.
    Even though it seemed to take a long time, it was actually only a relatively few minutes before the brightly-illuminated area surrounding the Inner Door, hexagonal tiled floor now clean for probably the first time in millions of years, shining a brown-gold in the lights set up by the impromptu colonists. Wu found himself breathing a sigh of relief as he entered the lighted area and smelled ahead the scent of other living people, food; even the undertone of working machines was welcome after passing through that cavernous, silent, dead space.
    A figure about his own height appeared in the doorway of one of the three buildings and suddenly sprinted towards them. “ ARIANE!”
    He stepped reflexively between Ariane and the newcomer, who skidded to a halt in confusion; another, much taller, man who had been emerging from the same doorway also paused.
    “Wu!” Ariane’s voice was reproving. “These are our other friends.”
    Their scents didn’t seem hostile, and obviously Ariane knew them; DuQuesne also smelled happy to see the others, so he stepped back.
    The smaller of the two unfamiliar people immediately embraced Ariane, giving Wu a curious glance in passing. “Good to see you back, Ariane!”
    “Good to see both you and Tom, Steve,” she answered, hugging the other, smaller man hard, and then giving a similar hug to Tom; she then turned to Wu. “Steve, Tom, this is Sun Wu Kung; Wu, these good friends of mine are Stephen Franceschetti and Thomas Cussler.”
    “I am honored to make your acquaintance,” he said, and bowed low.
    “Glad to meet you too…Wu Kung?”
    Thomas Cussler shook his hand, studying him closely. Then his head snapped up and he stared at DuQuesne. “Is this—?”
    “Yep.”
    “We’ll talk about that later. We’ve got a lot to talk about, Steve.”
    Steve looked around at the others and then looked at his friend Tom. Scent…oh, they’re that close. Important to remember. “I knew it. That Doctor Shoshana.”
    “She’s here, then.” DuQuesne made it a statement.
    “Not here , not now, no,” Tom answered. “She went on to Nexus Arena to meet with Carl and Laila.”
    “She had all the right credentials,” Steve said. “Here taking a firsthand look for the SSC and CSF. Staff scientist