Beyond the Farthest Star: Chapter 1

A battered, metal vehicle slowly lumbered across the Martian desert. The Raptor – named after a bird of prey that had gone extinct millennia ago – had treads instead of tires, and a cylindrical body that could seat a dozen people but was rarely home to anyone other than Miles. The nose of the vehicle was made of a transparent plastic. Years of driving through sandstorms had scuffed it, reducing visibility. The grainy sand had long ago stripped every bit of paint off the hand-crafted machine, and the bare metal that remained was pitted and stained. Yet, despite its age and condition, the Raptor continued to serve its purpose well – transporting its reclusive inventor from his hideout in the wastes to the buried city of New Tikal.

Miles had left his refuge far later than he had intended. He had known for months that the containment stabilizer on New Tikal’s aging zero-point-energy plant was on the verge of failure, but he found it difficult to summon enough energy to do anything about it. Miles was an old man – far older than anyone knew. He was the sort of person that had always been around. The few technical people that were left in New Tikal took him for granted, believing that he would always be there to solve their problems. Only Noel Lawson truly understood how fragile Miles had become. His extraordinary life was coming to an end, and he knew it.

As his tank lumbered over the sand dunes he glanced into the rear of the cab, making sure that he had remembered to bring the part he had made. As old age set in he found himself becoming more and more forgetful. One thing he was quite positive of, however, was that the part would fix the colony’s present crisis. It had taken more than a month to build it, most of which was spent examining the ZPE generator he had in his refuge. Long ago he had found one buried in the sands of Mars, and he had taken it home and spent years getting it to work again. That was a lifetime ago, however, and his technical skills were not what they used to be.

I just can’t keep doing this, he thought to himself as he steered the Raptor around a rock. I’m getting too old. I don’t know what they’re going to do without me. Their life depends on this part, and I’m the only one left that understands the technology. Unless something remarkable happens they’re not going to outlive me by very much. Mars is dying, and it’s going to take all of them with it.

Miles glanced at the sun and studied its position in the sky. “The sun will be setting in a couple hours,” he announced to no one in particular. “Another day has come and gone. We’re one step closer to the end.”

In the distance he could see giant metal towers rising out of the sand – a sign that he was getting near the colony. The towers were more than a hundred feet across and nearly a thousand feet high. Inside them were fans and compressors. Their purpose was to suck in the thin Martian air and pump it underground to New Tikal, so its residents would have air to breathe.

It had been centuries since anyone could walk around on the surface of Mars without some type of protective environmental suit. The air was too cold and thin to allow life to exist on the surface. The only creatures that managed to survive were the giant monsters that lurked in the radioactive wastes, feeding off the dangerous energy of the planet’s ruined cities.

The thought of the rad-creatures caused Miles to take a quick glance at the scope. Although he was giving the ruin of Tikal a wide berth, he was still cautious. The creatures were violent and unpredictable and often acted in irrational ways. He had only had to face them twice, but both occasions had left him scarred and nearly dead. Miles had no wish to encounter them a third time.

As he approached a wide canyon he noticed that a new air tower had been built. He sighed. That’s only going to help you for so long, you know. Eventually there won’t be any air left to harvest. This planet is dying and won’t be able to support life for much longer – even life that’s underground. But I suppose you’re doing the best you can. I wish I knew how to help you, but I don’t. I’ve done all I can do.

In the side of the canyon there was a broad, winding road that led down into the ground. Miles steered his vehicle onto the road and carefully guided it around the piles of rubble and broken rock. The road was rarely used and tended to be in poor condition. Miles had repeatedly urged the city to maintain the road, pointing out their dependence on people like him for emergency supplies. His cries fell on deaf ears. Resources were scarce, he was told, and they couldn’t afford to waste them on trivialities. Miles would be more tempted to believe this if the mayor didn’t have his entire family on the payroll, with each one earning an exorbitant salary and living a decadent life that would have made most people blush.

It took Miles nearly twenty minutes to drive the craft to the bottom of the canyon. Once there he rolled up to the door, picked up his communicator in his hand, and activated it. “This is Miles, requesting clearance to enter the city.”

He was a bit startled to get an immediate response. “Clearance granted!” Noel Lawson’s voice came over his cabin speaker loud and clear. “Come on in. Hey, where have you been? You were supposed to be here hours ago!”

“Sorry,” Miles replied, as the giant doors to the colony slowly opened. “It hasn’t been a good day.”

“I suppose I should just be grateful that you came at all,” Noel replied. “I don’t know what we’d do without you. But we’re cutting it awfully close this time. It’s been all I can do to maintain field integrity! Once that goes–”

“We’ll be fine,” Miles said. By now the doors were fully open, and he drove the Raptor into the facility’s airlock. “I’ll give you the part as soon as I’m parked and we can install it tonight. It won’t take more than half an hour.”

“All right – I see you coming in now. Signing off.”

After making it through the airlock Miles drove his tank into the city’s underground parking lot and brought it to a stop. He was disappointed but not surprised to see that there were only a handful of other vehicles present. At one time there had been dozens of independent colonies and settlers, but now there were only a few left. Everyone’s putting all their hope in New Tikal, he realized. I suppose they don’t realize that it’s on the verge of death. Or maybe they do and this is just the last hope they have.

Miles stood up, put the containment stabilizer in a bag, and stepped outside. After he made sure that the tank was locked and its alarm system was engaged he began slowly walking toward the elevator that led down to the colony. Before he reached it, however, Noel had ran up to him.

“Woah there!” Miles said. “It’s good to see you, but what’s your hurry?”

“What’s the hurry? Are you serious? We’ve had six class-nine alarms today, Miles – six! We’ve got to get the reactor fixed now or the colony won’t make it through the night. You do have the part with you, don’t you?”

“I’ve got it right here,” Miles said, patting the bag that was slung over his shoulder. “Did you get clearance to move the colony onto reserve power so we could bring down the ZPE?”

“Kind of,” Noel said. “I just told Mayor Thornton that I was bringing it down whether he liked it or not. He wasn’t happy, but honestly, I don’t care. I don’t have time for his usual dithering.”

Miles smiled. “You’re not going to win very many friends that way, you know.”

“Probably not, but let’s face it: if I waited around until I actually got his approval, we’d all be dead. I don’t have time to deal with incompetence right now.”

Miles and Noel stepped into the rickety metal elevator. Noel pressed the button that would take them down to the city’s power plant. The elevator shuddered, then started slowly descending. They could hear its machinery creaking as the floors went by, and occasionally there was a sharp grinding noise. It made Noel nervous, but Miles was too old to care. At his age there was very little that could frighten him.

Miles noticed that Noel was fidgeting. “You see to be in a hurry today,” he remarked.

“You bet I’m in a hurry! I’ve had everything lined up for hours. All we need is that part and my team can get right to work. Where have you been, anyway? We were expecting you around noon, you know. If you hadn’t shown up when you did I would have started sending out search-and-rescue teams. I was almost convinced that old Lizzie had gotten you.”

Miles sighed. “I know. I should have come earlier, but as I said it’s been a bad day. Some friends of mine died rather unexpectedly, and to be honest I’ve taken it pretty hard.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Noel said, his tone of voice changing. “I had no idea – I hadn’t heard anything about it. Who died?”

“You don’t know them. They lived – well, they didn’t live around here. But I had a lot of hope for them, Noel. I really believed that they would save us. I thought that they would fix this planet and put things in order again.”

“Fix the planet?” Noel asked. “Do you mean politically, or ecologically?”

“We’re all dying,” Miles said abruptly. “You know that and I know that, even if Mayor Thornton doesn’t want to deal with it. The air is getting thinner, the water table is being depleted, and the machinery that keeps New Tikal running is wearing out.”

“Well, of course it is! This place was built two thousand years ago, and all we’ve ever done since then is repair whatever stopped working. That’s why we’re in this mess! I keep telling them in the open meetings that we need a new approach, but they won’t listen.”

“No, they won’t,” Miles agreed. “They never have – not in your time, nor your father’s time, nor in all the centuries since this colony was built. That’s why we’re in this mess. Nobody cared about tomorrow, and tomorrow has finally arrived. If someone doesn’t repair the atmosphere and bring this planet back to life then we’re all going to die. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but I’ll wager you anything you care to bet that this colony won’t last another century. If someone doesn’t do something we’re history. There won’t even be anyone left to write about our demise.”

“And you thought your friends could help? I mean – I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but that seems to be pinning a lot of hope on them. Can anyone terraform a planet?”

“Of course,” Miles said irritably. “If we had started a couple hundred years ago we would have been finished by now. In fact, if the colony started today and put all of its energy into it we just might be able to make it. The science isn’t the problem, Noel. What we don’t have is the will to act. That’s what’s been missing for the past two thousand years.”

“You’re probably right, I guess. I can see that. But I don’t know what we can do about it.”

“I don’t either,” Miles replied. “That’s why I had such hope for my friends. I was sure they could do it. I just knew it! But now they’re dead.”

“Who were they?” Noel asked.

Miles shook his head. “I’m sure you haven’t heard of them. I’m probably the only person around here who knew them. They were the Strykers – Amy and Amanda Stryker.”

“Never heard of them,” Noel said thoughtfully. “Were they originally from this area?”

“They were born here a long time ago,” Miles replied. “But they’re gone now. They were murdered by a thoughtless man.”

“I’m sorry,” Noel said. “I really am.”

“I am too. Our future may have died with them, Noel. I wish I had better news for you but I don’t.”

“Let’s take one thing at a time,” Noel said. The elevator doors finally opened and Noel quickly stepped out. “Right now we’ve got a ZPE to fix. Let’s get that done so the colony can live through the night. Then we can figure out what do about the future.”

“All right,” Miles agreed. The aged man then followed the engineer down the long corridor.