3 Dec 2011

Beyond the Farthest Star: Chapter 29 (revised)

Posted by joncooper

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 just 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. Besides, it’s not necessary. Since we have the digital blueprints for it we can just feed 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 just let it sit there. Besides, someone 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 an exact 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 once they reach the network they should be told about what we did. There’s no reason to keep it a secret forever. After all, we’re trying to help them, not mess with their minds! Later today I’ll contact the Stewards and make sure that they know to tell them.”

“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 them to reach this place.”

“I actually wasn’t planning on being around 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 can understand why you wouldn’t want to live on Xanthe, but you will always have a home on Mars. It is 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 other people they’re eventually going to find out 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 know 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 simply no way they’re 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.”

“Well, that’s certainly a depressing outlook on life! I see your point, though. But couldn’t you live as if you were a normal person? After all, 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 Mars.”

“Couldn’t you set yourself up as a legendary figure?” Miles asked. “For example, you once told me about Christmas. After digging through the historical archives I was finally able to uncover an obscure reference to that holiday. Wasn’t there some fat red person associated with it – a happy guy who gave away toys at a steep discount? Why not become 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 that 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.”

“Oh my! I mean, I knew that, but it’s still amazing. You were born a really long time ago. You’re a part of history, in more ways than one. I bet there are historians out there who would love to sit down and talk with you. So much of that period has been lost to time.”

“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. I never dreamed I would end up here.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know. I just have a feeling that something will turn up. If it doesn’t then I don’t know what I’ll do.”

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 then. Right now is just too soon.”

“You do realize that the first is more than a week from now, don’t you? What are you going to do in the meantime?”

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

“Well, in that case I think I’ll return to Mars. Jasmine is a nice planet, but I’m about ready to return home. Besides, I need to check up on Noel and see how he’s doing. Someone’s got to make sure that he doesn’t get into too much trouble.”

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

“Hold on there!” 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’ll 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. I’d hate to break up a matching set.”

Miles looked down. “Goodness – the shoes! I forgot all about my shoes. I could have used the nanites to change them into something not quite as garish, couldn’t I?”

“Among other things,” Amy said, laughing. “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 it will be an honor to keep them. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome! I’ll see you next week.”

With that, Miles disappeared. After making sure that Miles had arrived safely at his home on Mars, Amy disappeared as well, leaving the planet Jasmine empty.

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