Beyond the Farthest Star: Chapter 26

“Well, that was interesting,” Miles said.

Amy smiled. “I think the word you’re looking for is awkward. But, yeah, I’m glad Steve came back, and I’m glad we’ve sorted things out. It was good to see him again.”

Miles nodded. “One day you’ll have to tell me why you call him Steve. There’s got to be a story in that.”

“Let’s stay on task here,” Amy replied. “Remember, we came here because we had a job to do! Xanthe and Earth can wait. We need to stay focused on Mars. I don’t want to leave that world half-finished. I’ll complete what I’ve started and then I’ll move on to the next challenge.”

“All right. But before we begin, can you do something to spruce up this place a bit? As I was saying earlier, this is the most depressing planet I’ve ever seen! Can’t we build our city in a more cheerful work environment?”

Amy smiled. “Sure! Go right ahead.”

“Do what?” Miles asked, confused.

“Go ahead! Change the planet. Use those shoelaces of creativity that I gave you! Show me what you can do.”

“Oh,” Miles said, a bit taken aback. “All right. I’ve never done anything like this before, but I guess we’ll give it a try and see how it goes.”

Miles reached out with his mind and connected to the nanites that saturated the planet’s atmosphere. After he established a connection he tapped into the realtime planetary data feed that the nanites were producing. A quick scan of the data revealed that the entire world was as bleak and unappealing as the beach they were standing on.

Let’s go for something cheerful and homey, Miles thought. After studying the command library that the nanites offered, Miles executed a series of commands that dissipated the clouds and warmed the planet’s atmosphere. Once the sun was no longer obscured and the temperature had stabilized, Miles issued more commands to transform the planet’s rocky, barren soil into rich, fertile ground. He then spent more than an hour using the nanites to plant forests, dig out lakes and rivers, and add greenery and life to every square inch of the surface.

“That’s much better!” Miles said at last. “Now that’s a planet worth living on. I could settle down here.”

Amy laughed. “I see you like trees!”

“Oh yes! After you go a thousand years without seeing a single tree you really start to value them. There’s just something beautiful and majestic about them! On top of that, your nanite library has the codes to create varieties of trees that I’ve never even heard of, and I just couldn’t resist trying them out. I could easily be wrong, but I don’t think Mars has ever had redwood trees. They’re fantastic! I had no idea a mere tree could grow that tall.”

“You’re probably right,” Amy agreed. “I don’t think redwoods ever grew very well on Mars. They’ll grow here, though – you saw to that! You did a nice job of balancing the ecosystem, by the way. The planet’s temperature and atmosphere should remain stable for millennia to come.”

“Thanks! You know, that was more fun than I’ve had in ages. World-building is a hobby I could really get into. By the way, what is this planet named?”

“It actually doesn’t have a name. I hated this place too much to name it. I didn’t want to give it that dignity.”

“Really?” Miles replied, surprised. “But how can you live on a planet if it doesn’t have a name? Do you just call it ‘That planet way over there with no name’? You’ve got to call it something!”

“All right, then go ahead and name it! What would you like to call this place?”

Miles thought for a moment. “Jasmine,” he said at last. “I think that will work.”

Amy looked puzzled. “Isn’t that the name of a spice?”

“It’s actually the name of my late wife,” Miles explained. “I think she would have loved this place.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were married.”

“It was a long time ago,” Miles said. “Almost two thousand years ago, in fact. She died before I developed the nanites. I never forgot her, though.”

“Well, Jasmine it is!” Amy replied. “This planet is a great place, but I do see a problem. There is one tiny detail that you left out.”

“Really? It all looks pretty good to me! What did I miss?”

“Oh, nothing, except for a big open desert where we can design our city! That is why we’re here, isn’t it?”

Miles laughed. “So it is! All right, let me take care of that. Then we can get to work!”

The two of them spent the next month on the planet Jasmine, designing the city that they would hide in the Martian desert. Amy based the design on the original city of Tikal, but upgraded its technology to something that would have been at home in the finest worlds of the network. After they had constructed the city itself they started working on the hard part – finding creative ways to break it.

They quickly discovered that this was not an easy task. Their goal was to create a series of sequential challenges that would keep the citizens of Mars busy for at least a century. That meant the city had to be fixable in stages – first this section could be brought online, then that one, and so forth, with each challenge building on the next. By grouping the problems in stages it would be possible to start living in the city from the very beginning, and to expand into the city as each new problem was solved.

But designing the challenges in a way that made them appear natural, and not just arbitrary obstacles, proved to be exceedingly difficult. Each new hurdle had to be just barely out of reach, in order to encourage people to grow and push themselves in a new direction. Amy and Miles spent days trying to figure out how to space the tasks so that they were neither too easy nor too hard.

At first the entire city would be buried, with the exception of a couple blocks. The buildings in that section would be damaged, but their problems would be minor: just patch up some windows, repair a few walls, fix some wiring, and the buildings would be ready for habitation. The reward would be a base within New Tikal that offered food, shelter, climate control, and a place where thousands of people could actually live and work.

But there would be limitations. There would be water, but only in limited amounts. Electricity would be available, but it would be weak and uneven. As the engineers traced down the problems they would encounter more challenges. Fixing the power supply problems would mean repairing an aging ZPE reactor that was broken just enough to where it could be fixed with some study and effort. In doing so they would find another section of the city – a vast manufacturing area that, with some work, could be used to produce all sorts of goods and raw materials.

So, step by step, Amy and Miles designed a city that would teach the foundational principles of physics, engineering, chemistry, and management. The final challenge, when the people of Mars had mastered everything else, was a ruined spaceport that was carefully hidden. Within it was a starship that could be repaired and used to leave Mars and travel to the stars. There they would be faced with the greatest challenge of all: rebuilding the ruined worlds that had once housed Ranger colonies. The stars would be waiting for them – if they could find the strength to reach out and take them.