Beyond the Farthest Star: Chapter 27

After a month of intense work and countless hours of debate and experimentation, Amy and Miles at last agreed that the new city was complete. With a feeling of tremendous accomplishment, the two of them stood back and looked at the metropolis that they had created. The city was almost entirely buried under a mound of sand, as it would be when they reconstructed it on Mars. Using the nanites, however, they could peer beneath the sand and see the maze of riddles that they had created. They were both very pleased.

“So are we going to move this city to Mars?” Miles asked.

“Oh no!” Amy replied. “No, we’ll recreate it once we get back there. Trying to move this city all the way across the galaxy would be a huge pain, and there’s really no reason to do it. After all, since we have the digital blueprints for the city we can just give them to the Martian nanites and let them do the work. It won’t be a problem.”

“So what should we do with this copy of it? Are we just going to leave it here?”

“I don’t see why not! After all, it’s not going to do any harm to let it just sit there. Besides, our friends might come here one day and discover it!”

Miles laughed. “What a shock that would be! They’d probably go crazy trying to figure out how a duplicate of Tikal ended up on an abandoned planet on the other side of the galaxy.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’ll know what’s going on by then. I think that once they reach the network they should be told about what we did. There’s no reason to keep the secret from them forever. We’re trying to help them here, not mess with their minds! Later today I’ll contact the Stewards and make sure that they know to tell them, when that day comes.”

“For that matter, you could tell them. After all, for all practical purposes you’re immortal! You’re still going to be young and spry 500 years from now, or however long it takes for them to reach this place.”

“I actually wasn’t planning on being here that long,” Amy replied. “I was kind of hoping that after I finished my work I could go home to my family. There’s really no place for me here in this galaxy. I don’t fit in.”

“What do you mean? I understand why you wouldn’t want to live on Xanthe, but you will always have a home on Mars. It’s your native planet, you know! You have as much of a right to be there as I do. Besides, I think Noel would be pretty disappointed if you left.”

Amy shook her head. “It sounds like a great idea, but it wouldn’t work. If I start hanging around people they’re eventually going to learn that I’m not like everyone else. Noel hasn’t figured it out yet, but it’s only a matter of time before even he realizes that I have vast powers. Once people start to understand that I can do things they can only imagine, well, they’re going to panic. The government would see me as a security threat and would eventually try to assassinate me. There’s no way they’re simply going to trust that an immortal with unfathomable power would never lose her mind and try to take over the world – and I don’t blame them.”

“That’s kind of a depressing outlook on life! Couldn’t you just live as a normal person? You don’t have to use your powers, do you?”

“I’m an immortal,” Amy pointed out. “I can’t get sick or injured, and after I reach maturity I will never age. People are going to notice, Miles.”

“They never noticed with me!”

“That’s because you live alone, far from everyone else, and only rarely enter society. That’s really not the sort of life I’m looking for. I have no desire to spend the rest of time living all by myself on some empty world, making once-in-a-decade trips to Tikal.”

“Couldn’t you set yourself up as a legendary figure?” Miles asked. “For example, you once told me about Christmas. Wasn’t there some fat red person associated with that holiday? Someone happy who gave away toys at a steep discount. Couldn’t you be someone like that?”

Amy laughed. “No, Miles, I’m not going to turn into Santa Claus. The key thing about Santa was that no one ever saw him. If the government ever thought there was a real person out there with seemingly unlimited power, you can bet they’d try to find a way to ‘neutralize’ him. Governments like to have a monopoly on power, you know. Besides, absolute power is corrupting! How do you know that I won’t someday lose my mind and become an evil dictator?”

“I guess I don’t,” Miles admitted. “It just – I don’t know. It just seems really unlikely. I can’t see you doing that.”

“I’m only fourteen, you know. I’m not even an adult yet!”

“That’s true,” Miles agreed. “Say, when is your birthday? I don’t remember ever seeing that in the records.”

“July 23,” Amy replied. “My sister and I were born in 1853, for what it’s worth.”

“Wow! I mean, I knew that, but it’s still amazing. You were born a really long time ago. You’re a part of history. I bet historians would love to sit down and talk with you. So much of that period has been lost. Time and apathy has destroyed so much.”

“It doesn’t seem that long ago to me,” Amy said softly. “The way I remember it, last summer Tikal was still standing and my father was still the governor of Mars. It really wasn’t that long ago.”

“So what are you going to do?” Miles asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll just wait and see what turns up.”

Miles nodded. “Well, are you ready to return to Mars?”

Amy hesitated. “Not quite yet. The basic terraformation of Mars won’t be done until April 1st, and I don’t want the city to be discovered until after that. I’d like to wait until then.”

“You know that’s more than a week from now. What are you going to do in the meantime?”

“I think I might go visit the Sentinel. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent any time with him. I’ll see if I can lend him a hand.”

“Well then, I think I’ll return to Mars,” Miles said. “Jasmine is a nice planet, but I think I’m ready to go home. Besides, I need to check up on Noel and see how he’s doing.”

Amy nodded. “All right – that sounds good. I’ll see you later, then!”

“Wait!” Miles called out. “I need you to transport me back to Mars – I don’t seem to be able to do that. Oh, and you probably want your shoelaces back.”

Amy shook her head. “No, you can keep them. They are yours, after all, and they go so well together with those orange shoes!”

Miles looked down at his shoes. “Oh my – the shoes! I forgot all about the shoes. I could have used the nanites to change them, couldn’t I?”

“Among other things,” Amy laughed. “I’ll deactivate the shoelaces when I return you to Mars, but you can keep them as a memento. I don’t see any harm in that.”

“Then I’ll keep them, then. Thank you.”

“I’ll see you next week!” Amy called out. With that, Miles disappeared. After making sure that Miles had arrived safely at his home on Mars, Amy disappeared as well.