"Nah," he barked, shaking his head emphatically. "Nothing about this whole crazy thing has been a coincidence."
And I knew exactly what he meant. I looked out the port. The garage was silent, cool, and alien.
Presently, it struck me that Bruce was overdue for a report. "Hey, Bruce. What's up?"
"Sorry, Jake. We have an anomaly here."
"What sort of anomaly?"
"The pipette is reading out more information than is possible for its capacity type."
"Okay. There may be a very good reason for that, which I won't go into. Is it formatted correctly?"
"Yes, it is formatted according to specifications with which our system is compatible. That is no problem."
"Okay. But there's a lot of data-is that it?"
"I have reached the limit of my available working storage space."
"Oh. Well, can you tell me what you've got so far?"
"I can, Jake. It is a map of the Skyway system."
"You recognize it as such?" I asked.
"There is no mistaking it. In layout and format it matches the maps we have available in our auxiliary storage, the maps of the Expanded Confinement Maze: There is one problem, however. None of the new map material coincides with any of the available material."
"You're saying that the new stuff shows unexplored, uncharted road?"
"Yes, Jake."
"Bingo."
"Pardon?"
"We found it."
"Yes, this would be very useful material if its authenticity and accuracy could be established."
"You're telling me," I said.
"Am I telling you? Yes, I am."
"What we have to do, then, is search the new data for congruences with the maps in storage."
"That would appear to be a potentially productive course of action."
"No doubt," I said. "Any problem in that?"
"No. I will simply erase and reload as I go. However, the job may take a good deal of realtime."
"Go to it," I told him.
"Yes, Jake."
"And Bruce? Lighten up, okay?"
"I'm sorry, Jake. Could you please phrase that differently?"
"Remind me to do some work in your basic vocabulary area."
"I'll log it now. Shall I cancel the command to `lighten up'?-which, I'm sorry to say, is not a valid command."
"Cancel." I laughed.
Carl was staring at me.
"So you finally got it," he said.
"Yeah. I got it, all right. I keep getting it, right in the seat of the pants."
"You got the Roadmap. The real one. Where did it come from?"
"A shining white goddess appeared unto me, saying, `Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, and a big pain in the butt. By the way, have a Roadmap."'
Carl nodded slowly. "Uh-huh."
"You think I'm kidding?"
"I'll believe anything."
"Then believe it. That's how it happened. Prime's not alone here. There's another force present. I figure it's a force opposing the Culmination. Or it could be another part of the Culmination, a dissenting faction, maybe. Which doesn't make a lot of sense, if I understand what the Culmination is supposed to be about, which I don't: So there you have it, whatever it is."
An hour later, Bruce was still hard at work. "A lot of data, huh?" I said.
"Yes, Jake."
"Well, keep at it."
"Yes, Jake."
While we waited, Carl and I gave the women a hand. We packed all the trash into plastic sacks, which we set out neatly on the floor of the garage. Maybe Arthur took out the garbage around here. Then we swept the place out, vacuumed, scrubbed, and generally tidied up. When the trailer was finished, we set ourselves to straightening up the cab and aftcabin, gleaning five more sacks of crap. I was surprised by the amount that had accumulated. But thirteen beings in a confined space produce quite a mess.
"Well, at least it smells a lot better," Darla said.
I sniffed. "Yeah, the dirty-sock odor is gone. I still get a whiff of our lumberjack friends, though."
Darla rolled her eyes. "Oh, those two, antiperspirant is a scarce commodity on Talltree."
"Or maybe sweat is plentiful." I sat down in seat. "Bruce, how's it coming?"
"Situation still anomalous. There is a great deal of data."
"Uh-huh."
"I've located a congruence."
Apparently the driver's
"Huh?"
"Just now. I've found a section of the Ten-an Maze."
"My God."
"Now I have all of the Terran Maze located. Yes. Yes. And here is the Expanded Confinement Maze. Reticulan Maze, Ryxx Maze, Beta Hydran Maze, and the rest of known Skyway routes."
"Now," I said, "your next job is to find Microcosmos."
"Microcosmos? Can you please define that?"
"The name of this world. You should have data on it in storage."
"Understood… searching… found. Yes, a section of Skyway is here. However, I see no indication of a portal."
"If you can find Microcosmos on the master map, there might be one indicated on the reverse face of the planet. Okay. What I want you to do is chart a route from Terran Maze to here, working backward. It won't be necessary to have a visual route layout. Just keep a tally of lefts and rights. That will be our way home."
"Understood," Bruce said. "Beginning job now."
I turned sideways and looked back at Darla, Lori, and Carl. "Well, we know a few things. For one, we know that the Skyway isn't infinite. I don't know how many gigabytes the complete map takes up, but it's a finite number."
"It has an end," Darla said. "We knew that, didn't we?"
"I think we're talking about a circle here. No beginning, no end. If your hunch is right, we can get off this platter and get back on the Skyway."
Bruce said, "Jake?"
"Yeah?"
"The new maps are a bit unusual in that they show some routes marked in a different manner from the rest. Comparing these with the data placed in storage by the previous supervisor program='
"Sam."
"Yes, that was its informal designation. Comparing these with Sam's data, I would say these are Roadbug service roads."
"Sounds like it," I told him.
"If these roads can be utilized, the route would be much more direct."
"No doubt," I said. "That's how we got here. But I don't know if we can go back that way. In fact, without Carl's car, I'm sure we can't."
"Then I will disregard them."
"Lunch, anyone?" Darla said. "I've whipped up something out of what was left of the rations."
"You're on."
We ate. The fare was a shade downscale from what Prime could offer, but somehow it felt good to have a meal in the truck again. Which was strange, since we had been on Microcosmos slightly less than twenty-four hours. My sense of time was completely out of whack. It seemed as if we'd been here a good deal longer. I thought about it, and decided it must have been the dream. The dream had spanned billions of years and unthinkable distances, and I had a lingering sense of having traversed those vast times and spaces.
Bruce finally completed his task. It had taken him two hours.
"Display the planetary layout of Microcosmos," I instructed him.
And there it was on the screen. It looked as though most of the prominent features were indicated, and I had a hunch we could depend on these maps to be accurate and comprehensive. There were other roads besides the ingress stretch of Skyway: They meandered across the terrain, some deadending near buildings and complexes, others going all the way to the rim. I searched out an efficient route to the edge of the planet.
"I wonder what you do here?" Carl asked. "Fall off the world?"
"I wonder." I eyed a thin ribbon of highway that seemed to have its start near Emerald City. "This looks interesting. But how do we get from Emerald City to the beginning of the road?"
"Beats me," Carl said.
"Okay, Bruce. Let's see the other side of the coin."