Beyond the Farthest Star: Chapter 30 (revised)

Ten days later, Amy met Miles outside his underground bunker. A few months ago his bunker had been located deep in the arid Martian desert, but the terraformation project had made drastic changes to the landscape. When Miles emerged from his home he was greeted by a vast blue sky that was dotted with fluffy white clouds. The rain had stopped and the air was warm and humid. The endless miles of sand had disappeared, replaced with a rolling field of fresh green grass. There was a sense of hope and life in the air – something that had been missing from Mars for a millennia.

“It’s beautiful!” Miles exclaimed.

“It’s April 1st,” Amy replied. “Right on schedule! Mars is really looking good. I wish I could have accelerated the growth of trees, but that seemed a little risky. Even Noel would have had a hard time explaining how an old-growth forest could suddenly appear in just a couple months.”

“You know, you’d think that he would know better, but on the other hand I wouldn’t put it past him. His powers of imagination are quite vast. Noel is absolutely determined to find a natural explanation for all of this. He is convinced that all of these changes are just a part of an ordinary planetary cycle. The countless anomalies don’t trouble him at all.”

“Which is exactly what I was hoping for. That’s the whole reason I did it this way – to keep myself out of the picture. I really don’t want anyone to stop and realize that their whole planet started changing right after a strange girl appeared out of nowhere. I’m not interested in attracting that kind of attention.”

“Well, I don’t think you’re in any danger. These people just aren’t that curious. Do you realize that everyone is still living in New Tikal? I made a trip there last week and found that they’ve already taken the new atmosphere for granted and have gone back to their old lives. I guess the novelty has worn off.”

“Everyone?” Amy asked. “Even Noel?”

“Well, Noel has actually been pretty busy lately. He’s planning on borrowing the Raptor soon so he can drive around and see what’s changed, but right now he’s trying to adjust the life support systems in the city to take advantage of all the new resources. The atmosphere towers have to be changed, the water system needs to be adjusted…”

“Then I guess we’d better get to work and give him a new set of challenges to face! It’s time for him to leave the nest and move boldly into the future. So, what do you think – should we put the city right behind that hill over there?”

“Sure, why not? Although I see that you’ve made the same mistake that I did – there aren’t any patches of desert lying around! Everything is green, as far as the eye can see.”

“Goodness, you’re right! I don’t know what I was thinking. All right, then, let’s fix that. I think we need to make a slight adjustment to our plans. Let’s put the city right over…there.”

Without warning, the ground began trembling. A few miles away the soil rippled as if it was made of water. With a sudden crack, the ground parted and a fissure opened. The hole quickly grew in size until it was nearly half a mile wide.

Miles gasped. “I didn’t know there was a fault line around here!”

“There’s not,” Amy replied. “But thanks to that remarkable and unexpected earthquake, we now have a path to the lost city of the ancients. Now I just need to put the city in the fissure.”

“But the fissure isn’t big enough! At best it could only hold a small section of the city.”

“Which is exactly what we want. The rest of the city will be buried underground, just as we had planned. The only difference is that instead of hiding it under sand, it will be hidden under dirt and rock. I think it’ll still work. It will take more effort to dig it out, but they have the manpower to do it.”

Miles saw Amy close her eyes and make a quick gesture with her hands. In the distance he saw the ground around the fissure rumbling, as if something was happening beneath the surface. Over the next few minutes the ground shook, and then all became quiet again. Amy opened her eyes and smiled. “That should do it!”

“Where’s the city?” Miles asked. “I still don’t see anything.”

“I’ll show you,” Amy replied. A split-second later both of them were standing at the top of the fissure.

“Oof,” Miles exclaimed, shocked at the sudden change in location. “I wasn’t expecting that! Please let me know next time before you transport me across the planet. It’s a little unsettling.”

“Sorry – I forgot that you weren’t connected to the network anymore. But look down there!”

Miles looked down into the fissure and gasped. At the bottom of the chasm he saw buildings rising out of the ground. The metal structures looked old and worn, but they were still largely intact. At the very bottom he could see broken streets that were littered with debris. More skyscrapers could be seen partially buried in the sides of the fissure. Judging by the street layout, it looked like the city continued on to the north, just beneath the surface.

“It’s beautiful,” Miles said. “It’s exactly as we designed it. But how are they going to get down there?”

“Oh, they’ll have to build a road. I guess that will be their first challenge. They should be able to manage it, though. After all, if they can’t build a road then they have much bigger problems.”

“So what do we do now?” Miles asked.

Amy smiled. “We go to New Tikal and tell them what we’ve found.”

“What if they don’t come? You don’t suppose we’ve miscalculated, do you? I mean, it should work, but–”

Amy shook her head. “From what I’ve heard, people have been risking their lives for centuries trying to find the lost treasure of Don Elliott. Do you really think they’re just going to ignore this? That city isn’t phony, you know; it really does contain treasure. Not just treasure in silver and gold, but something far more valuable – knowledge. No, they’ll come all right! I’m not worried about that.”

“Then let’s go!” Miles replied.

Before Amy could move, however, Miles grabbed her arm. “Let’s not go that way, though. I think it would be much better if we took the Raptor. That way we could use it to actually drive people back here, like civilized people.”

Amy grinned. “You mean like people who haven’t discovered the art of teleportation yet. All right, you have a point – I guess that would be less suspicious. Lead the way, then!”