sensation as he continued flinging himself forward using the ladder rungs. As close as he was getting to the outer ring, he felt like there should be gravity. But there wasn’t. Only more cold, dark air.

The shaft going from the small inner ring to the large outer ring like a spoke was one hundred meters in diameter for the entire half kilometer. In the dark, AldaÑ—r couldn’t see the sides anywhere. The light on his helmet was too dim and the air too thick with floating clumps of dust to make it all the way to any of the sides. And so all he saw around him was darkness as he pulled himself down the ladder.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such darkness…

“HirjÅ‚i!” AldaÑ—r whispered, voice muffled by the mask, “where are you?”

...

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