Beyond the Farthest Star: Chapter 31

“You’ve discovered what?” Noel asked incredulously.

“It’s a giant city!” Miles said excitedly. “You’ve got to come and see it. It looks like the city was buried intact, for the most part. There’s no telling how big it is!”

“The lost city of Tikal,” Noel said thoughtfully. “I guess it is possible. If the original city was buried long ago, the recent rain and seismic activity could have unearthed it. I would think, though, that there wouldn’t be much of it left by now. After all, the city would have been buried for five thousand years! How could anything have survived? Metals tarnish, rust, and disappear; machines break; papers degrade; buildings crumble…”

“Come and see for yourself!” Miles urged.

Noel shook his head. “I think you must be mistaken. Amy, what do you think about all this?”

“I think he’s right. This is something you have to see with your own eyes to believe.”

“But…” Noel said reluctantly.

Amy and Miles had found Noel in New Tikal’s waste treatment facility, struggling to connect it to a series of new water lines that he had just installed. He was deeply involved in a series of infrastructure projects, and even the discovery of a legendary city wasn’t quite enough to motivate him to leave. As intrigued as he was, he hated abandoning something before he had a chance to finish it.

“Now, don’t think that I’m not interested in your discovery. That’s not it at all! What you have to understand is that I’m just really busy right now. It’s going to take me at least another week to get this project finished, and then there’s the new aquifer that I want to investigate. There’s just so much that needs to be done around here! We finally have so many spare resources that the mayor is letting me do things that have needed to be done for ages. This is an opportunity that I just can’t pass up! Chances like this don’t last forever.”

“Let your underlings handle it,” Miles urged. “They can surely lay a few pipes. You have something much bigger to investigate – and much more important. What you find in that city could change the future of Mars forever.”

“I guess you have a point,” Noel said reluctantly. “It would be irresponsible to ignore your discovery altogether. And, who knows, perhaps there really is some truth to the fabled treasure of Don Elliott. Maybe–”

“That’s the spirit!” Miles said enthusiastically. “Hang on to that thought and come along with us. I’ve already gotten everything loaded into the Raptor. We’ll take you straight to the site!”

“All right,” Noel said. “I’ll come.”

Even after he agreed to join them, however, it took Miles and Amy more than an hour to actually get him away from New Tikal. Noel had a long list of instructions to give to his assistants, and he went over the blueprints for the new water lines no less than six times. Miles finally told him that his engineers could figure out the rest on their own and pushed him right out the door.

As the Raptor climbed out of the canyon that housed the entrance to New Tikal, Noel began to relax. “Perhaps I have been a bit too busy lately,” he remarked. When the tank finally left the canyon road and began driving through the grassland he gasped in admiration. “The planet’s transformation has been remarkable! Things have progressed far quicker than I would have ever expected. I wonder if one day we’ll see forests again?”

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Amy said. “There’s even an ocean out there, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.”

“I’ve never seen an ocean before. I’ve heard they were quite popular, though, back in the day.”

“You’ll love it!” Miles commented. “Just wait until you see the beach. Now that’s a fine way to spend an afternoon. Provided that the beach isn’t on a hopelessly depressing planet, that is.”

“Is that where the two of you have been hiding?” Noel asked. “I’ve been wondering why you were gone for so long. In fact, I was starting to get a bit worried.”

“No, we haven’t been lying around on the beach,” Amy replied. “Well, not exactly. We’ve, um, been working on a construction project together. I actually don’t care much for the beach, but that’s just my opinion.”

“You don’t care much for the rain either,” Miles pointed out. “Come to think of it, is there any part of the outdoors that you enjoy?”

Amy thought for a moment. “Well, there is a lot to be said for small furry creatures. They’re so adorable! Oh, and then there’s my dog Alex. Poor Alex! I wonder how he’s been doing lately? I haven’t seen him for months – I hope he’s ok! I’ve just been so preoccupied with everything else that’s been going on. After I’m done here I’ve just got to go see him.”

“Your dog?” Noel asked. “Do you mean, as in the four-legged animals that were used as pets thousands of years ago? You have a dog?”

“Of course I have a dog! He’s amazing. I bet he’s been terribly lonely, though. He’s never been left alone for this long before. He must be so worried about me!”

Noel sighed. “Amy, dogs have been extinct for thousands of years. You can’t possibly have a real, live dog. There aren’t any left.”

“That’s what you think,” Amy replied. “Just wait until I introduce you to him. If you’re nice I’ll tell him not to bite you.”

“I’m sure it will be an honor to meet your imaginary dog,” Noel replied.

Miles interrupted. “You know, we’re going to need a road around here at some point. The Raptor can cut through the grass just fine, but we don’t want to do too much damage to the landscape. I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to be traveling from New Tikal to the chasm we’ve discovered.”

“Perhaps,” Noel said. “If the site is as significant as you claim then it will probably attract thousands of people, looking to find whatever they can scavenge.”

“I think it will do a lot more than that,” Miles replied. “If I’m right about this, what we’re looking at is the start of an entirely new colony – one located on the surface! I think it may be time for us to leave our underground homes and return to the open air. That is where we belong, Noel – up here, in the sunshine. It’s not good to live in the shadows.”

It was late in the afternoon by the time they finally reached the fissure. Miles parked the Raptor a couple hundred feet from the edge of the newly-formed rift, and the three of them exited the vehicle.

“It certainly is a big hole,” Noel remarked. “And it looks pretty deep, too! I don’t remember there being anything like that in this area.”

“It’s pretty new,” Amy commented.

Miles led the way to the fissure and pointed at the city below. Noel crept cautiously toward the edge and glanced down. When he saw the city that was stretched out in the chasm he gasped. “Why, there must be at least a dozen buildings down there!”

“And I bet there are even more hidden underground,” Miles added. “The earthquake only revealed part of them. It could extend for miles!”

Noel stared at the buildings in astonishment, taking in their every detail. “The architecture definitely dates back to the 19th century. Just look at that detail! In fact, the buildings almost look familiar. Is it possible that this is part of the actual capitol of ancient Mars – kept intact, underground, for all these years?”

Amy smiled and handed him a rope. “Care to scale down into the fissure and find out?”

It took nearly an hour for the three of them to climb down to the bottom. Noel had never done anything remotely like rock climbing before, and Miles had to show him how it worked. Under normal circumstances Noel would have been very hesitant to rappel down the side of a thousand-foot cliff, but his excitement over the lost city outweighed his sense of caution.

After they finally reached the city the three of them spent the remainder of the afternoon scouting out the abandoned buildings. Noel wanted to spend the night there and continue exploring the next day, but Miles pointed out that they hadn’t brought any supplies. Despite this, Noel ended up tarrying so long that it was actually dark by the time they climbed out of the fissure and returned to the Raptor.

“That was amazing!” Noel exclaimed, as Miles drove the tank back to New Tikal. “I really think that with a little effort we could get that city operational again. The electrical systems appear to be mostly intact, and the buildings still have a remarkable degree of structural integrity. I’d love to know what sort of metal they’re made of! For them to have been buried for so long, with so little damage – well, it’s just astonishing.”

“It does seem pretty unlikely,” Amy commented.

“Now, I do think our work is cut out for us,” Noel continued. “It’s not going to be easy to dig out the rest of the city, but I think it’s certainly possible. If everyone in New Tikal lends a hand we should have more than enough manpower.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to persuade them?” Amy asked.

“Oh, absolutely! Just wait until I tell them what we’ve discovered. The technology I saw today was just incredible – incredible! This is generations ahead of anything we’ve got today, and represents a huge leap forward. Who wouldn’t want to live in the city of tomorrow?”

“True,” Amy said. “But, if you think about it, isn’t that actually the city from yesterday?”

“Quite to the contrary! I think that city is our future. It could revitalize our entire culture! It’s a fantastic opportunity.”

“All of this is going to take some time, you know,” Miles commented. “There’s a lot of work that has to be done before you can start moving people in. You’ll need to put together a scouting party first and spend a few weeks mapping the area, so you can get an idea of what you’re dealing with. Then you’ll need to put together more teams to–”

“Believe me, I know exactly what you mean, and I’ve got it all covered. Tomorrow morning things are going to start happening. You just wait and see!”