To whomever reads this:
You have linked to this Age by touching the linking window of the Myst book. Stay calm.
For your own safety, stay in the log cabin until we find you. To signal us, set the
clock to 12:00.
I re-read the note out loud. I doubt that it would really calm down anyone that Linked to Myst for the first time, but Atrus and I agreed that the note would be better than nothing. As far as I knew, the Myst book was still sitting open on my bed, turned to the page with the Linking Window. If anyone else were to use it, they'd end up trapped here like I was.
The note was tied to a stick stuck in the grass right beside the dock. On the dock, I had painted the words, "DANGER. DON'T TOUCH THE IMAGE" in large block letters. Anyone looking at Myst from the Linking Window should be able to see this. If not, then the handwritten note would tell them what they should do. Sorry, but you really should have paid attention to the first warning.
Atrus was standing at the top of the steps watching my every move. He shared my concern about others accidentally linking to Myst, but for different reasons. I didn't want any of my friends or colleagues trapped here with me; Atrus didn't like the idea of a D'ni Descriptive Book left in an Age he was unable to retrieve it from.
I turned back to Atrus. "Do you think this will be enough?"
"It's all we can do," he replied. He turned around and walked up the path towards the library. I expected him to enter the library, but he walked past it towards the rocket ship. He looked back towards me and asked. "Are you coming?"
I followed Atrus as he walked into the rocket ship. He walked towards the bow of the rocket ship and adjusted the slider controls that would grant him access to the Linking Book to the Selentic Age.
It was only two days ago that I freed Atrus from the D'ni holding cell. But despite the fact that I helped him repair the Linking Book, he didn't even bother to spend any real time in Myst until now. He spent the rest of the day in D'ni working on a large book that sat on his makeshift desk.
The Descriptive Book for the Selentic Age appeared in the bubble dome and Atrus reached out to touch it. His body glowed a bright yellow, and then it faded as the matter in his body was sucked into the Linking Window of the book.
I stepped up to the bubble and touched the surface. An electrical current flowed through my fingers, extending into every nerve ending on my body. A light eminating from nowhere surrounded my vision on all sides, and I felt myself being linked from this Age to the next.
The rocketship on the Selentic Age was identical to the one on Myst, except the musical insturments didn't work. Atrus was standing just outside of the rocket ship surveying the area.
The Selentic Age had a thick foggy atmosphere that reduced visibility to about 50 feet. A light wind blew across the barren landscape.
I caught up to Atrus. "So tell me again," he asked. "Where exactly is the Myst book?"
"In my home," I replied. "It's totally deserted right now, and it should be for at least two months."
"And how did you find it?"
"It was given to me by the sole survivor of a family of archeologists. Her three brothers had disappeared years ago. Up until this point the book was hidden away in a box."
"Disappeared?" Atrus repeated.
"Yes," I said. "I had only started college at the time, but I remember it was pretty controversial. There were no scheduled expeditions, no advance warning that they were leaving, and in the end, no bodies were ever found. Nobody's sure where they are, but they were officially declared dead about 5 years after they disappeared."
"Interesting," Atrus said. I wasn't really sure where this was going. If the Miller brothers had the Myst book at one time, could they have linked to Myst Island. Did Atrus know where they are?
We followed the path towards the few surviving trees. Even though the sun wasn't easily visible in the Selentic Age sky, I could tell it was setting. I had never experienced night in the Selentic Age.
Atrus set his backpack down and opened it. He took out a complex tripod and telescope, similar to the scope I had seen in the Stoneship Age.
"The problem is," Atrus said as he opened the tripod. "The Myst Book is essentially trapped where you are. You can't take a Book with you to another Age if you use that Book to link to the other Age. If I took another Linking Book to your Age and destroyed the Myst Book, then I'd simply be repeating the original problem."
"So what do you want done about the book?" I asked.
"The Myst Book cannot be used as a link anymore," Atrus said. "Ideally, if and when we find a way to get you back to your Age, you must protect the Book at all costs. Make sure nobody even knows of its existance."
"Can I use it?"
Atrus thought about my question for a minute as he attached the telescope to the stand. "Why would you want to? At this time, I can't even guarauntee that I'd have a stable means of getting you back to your Age. What works once may not work ever again.
"No. I'm sorry but I can't promise anything. Not yet. If I can get you back to your world, and if I feel that you can safely travel back to Myst, I'll have a way to Link to your Age and tell you in person."
"How would you find me?" I asked. One thing I never established was where on Earth the Myst book had ended up.
"How does anyone find anyone else in your Age?"
"We have addresses," I said. "You could look up my home on any map."
When the telescope was finished, Atrus pointed it up towards the hazy gray sky. The sun had almost completely set. The stars in the sky were dim, and I could occasionally make out red streaks flying past the horizon.
"Did you ever meet the Miller brothers?" I asked. "Did they ever travel to Myst Island?"
Atrus looked through the eyepiece at the night sky. "No, I never met your friends. But there is a chance that they may have linked to Myst Island at one time."
"When?"
He looked up from the telescope to face me. "Years ago, before recent events took place, it wasn't uncommon for us to leave Myst Island for days or weeks at a time. Myst was our home, but we felt secure leaving it since we controlled all of the Linking Books that lead to it. Of course, we didn't know what had happened to the Descriptive Book until you turned up.
"Some time ago, I had returned to Myst Island with my family and I noticed that some of the Books were open. I didn't recall using the Books recently, so I was curious as to who was reading them. I investigated briefly, but in the end I concluded that Catherine or one of my sons had taken the Books out and forgotten about them. I never questioned the incident again until you mentioned it to me."
"What Ages could they have visited?"
"Everdunes, Channelwood, you name it," Atrus said. "If they Linked through one of the Books that was destroyed in the fire, then there is no way we could get to them."
"But, the Ages you Wrote on Myst must have had Linking Books to bring you back to Myst, right?"
"Yes, but in most cases the Books were well hidden. It could be that they linked to another Age from Myst, but never found their way back."
I began to feel nervous. If the Millers had traveled to Myst, anything could have happened to them. They could have linked to an unstable Age and vanished. They could be trapped in an Age that they had no way out of. They could have had the misfortune to run into Sirrus and Achenar. I was given a plausable solution to a mystery no other archeologist could possibly solve; and yet behind that answer were many more questions.
Atrus sensed my uneasiness and turned back to the telescope. "I could be wrong you know. Maybe your friends never used the Myst book. We have no way to prove it one way or the other."
True. There is no proof they used the Myst Book. But their possesion of the Book increased the number of possibilities as to what could have happened to them.
I looked up and noticed more red lights streaking across the sky. "What exactly are you looking at?" I asked.
"Meteors," Atrus said. "This Age goes through changes." He took out his journal and made some notes. "I used some variations of passages from the Riven book and wrote them in this Age."
"Riven?" I asked.
"It's another Age. The Fifth Age that was Written by my father."
"So why did you copy the passages?"
"Experimentation. I wanted to study how those particular passages affected planetary orbits."
"Did you learn anything?"
"We always learn something," Atrus said. "Everything we do generates a learning experience. From everything I Write I learn something by direct observation or objective conclusion. If I don't learn anything from observation or conclusion, I determine that my observation isn't strong enough or my conclusions are flawed."
"But what did you learn from using the passages?"
"The orbit of this Age is fine. The orbit of Riven is fine. However, Riven's orbit contributes to other factors that makes Riven unstable."
Atrus pointed up towards the sky. "See the meteors?"
"Yes."
"The meteors are the remains of another planet in this system. At certain times of the year, the Selentic Age and this other planet get close enough, that smaller meteors break away from the main group and fall towards the planet."
"So how long will the meteors be a threat to the Selentic Age?"
"Probably for a few days or so. We're still far off as it is. The meteors will not destroy the planet, but they will present a problem every year."
"What if this island is destroyed. You could loose the Linking Book back to Myst Island."
"I always take precautions to ensure that I make it back to Myst."
"Atrus?"
"Yes?"
"What will happen to Myst Island? What will you do when you find Catherine and rescue her?"
Atrus put down his journal and looked at me. "I don't know."