1 Jan 2012

Beyond the Farthest Star: Chapter 38

Posted by joncooper

“I, for one, am impressed,” Amy remarked.

“Noel has indeed done well,” the Sentinel replied.

Amy and the Sentinel had materialized several hundred miles away from the restored city of Tikal. Rather than appear within the ruin and draw attention to themselves, they decided to use the planetary network of nanites to view the city remotely. What they saw was quite remarkable: the buried ruin was no longer buried. In what must have been a tremendous effort, the entire ruin was now aboveground and all of the dirt that had once hid it was gone. On top of that, basic services had been restored to nearly the entire city. The repaired skyscrapers were now home to more than a hundred thousand permanent residents. Tikal showed all the signs of rapid growth, and extensive restoration work was still being done throughout the city. The town appeared to be bracing itself for another massive influx of visitors. Meanwhile, its sidewalks were full of people, its streets were full of cars, and its office buildings were full of workers. The city was a thriving, bustling place.

“They’re certainly ahead of schedule,” Amy said. “I thought it would take them a lot longer to get this far! Maybe Miles and I made the challenges too easy.”

“Or maybe these Martians are simply highly motivated. Keep in mind that there are still nearly two million people living in the underground city. Even at this rate of growth, it will take at least another decade or two before this city overtakes the old one in population.”

“If it ever does,” Amy replied. “It’s possible that people will always live in both cities.”

“It is possible, but it does not seem likely,” the Sentinel said. “There is a great deal of maintenance work that has to be done in order to keep the underground city operational, and all of the best and brightest workers have relocated to the surface. The old city will find it difficult to keep things in good repair, and once its critical systems fail the city will be evacuated – whether the surface is ready to accept them or not.”

Amy nodded. “You have a good point. Speaking of workers, I see Noel but I don’t see Miles anywhere. It looks like he hasn’t joined them.”

“He is still living in his underground bunker,” the Sentinel replied. “From what I can tell he is in good health but he is quite old, and that is beginning to take its toll. Perhaps he decided that the ruin was a young man’s challenge, and decided to stay in his bunker and enjoy the comforts of home.”

“You could be right,” Amy agreed.

“Is there anything else that you would like to see?” the Sentinel asked.

“Kind of. You can go on back to Tonina, if you want. I’ll catch up with you a bit later.”

“Very well,” the Sentinel agreed. He then disappeared, leaving Amy alone.

After he was gone Amy took a good look around. “Well, I guess this is as good a place as any. This should have been done a long time ago. It’s time to build a monument.”

Amy closed her eyes and connected to the network of nanites that saturated Mars. Once she had made the connection she mentally retrieved a set of blueprints that she had created earlier. After taking one last look at them to make sure that it was exactly right, she uploaded it to the nanites. When they had finished building it, she opened her eyes and looked around.

A few moments ago the girl had been standing in the middle of a rolling prairie. Now she was standing in the middle of a small, well-kept graveyard. Throwing caution to the wind, Amy had decorated the place with trees – giant, old-growth trees.

That looks pretty good, she decided. My family may have no physical remains, but this place can still serve as a memorial to them. They deserve more than to be scattered into the void of space and forgotten. Amy then began creating gravestones, one at a time.

It took her about six hours before she created the last one. After the last one had been set in place she sat down on a bench and looked out at the horizon. By now it was late afternoon. In a few hours the sun would set and the stars would come out. When that moment came she would leave.

About forty-five minutes later, though, she had a visitor, She heard the noise of the Raptor long before she saw it. The rumble of its motor gradually grew louder and louder, until it suddenly cut off. A few minutes later Miles entered the graveyard and ambled down the sidewalk. As he walked by the old man glanced at her and nodded. Then he continued on past her and began reading all the tombstones she had created. When he had finally seen them all he came over to her. “Let’s walk,” he said.

Amy looked up at him. “How did you know I was here?”

“Oh, it was easy enough. My orbital satellites started beeping at me and told me that a graveyard had appeared out of nowhere. I decided to come over and investigate.”

“Your orbital satellites!” Amy exclaimed. “You have orbital satellites?”

“Yes, I do. In fact, I’ve had them for centuries. Don’t look so surprised! After all, I’ve been able to leave Mars and travel in space for more than a thousand years now. Didn’t I tell you that?”

“Well, sure, but I didn’t know you had put satellites in orbit. I can’t believe I never noticed.”

“Did you ever look for them?”

“Well, no, I didn’t,” Amy admitted. “But why do you have satellites?”

“To keep an eye on things. For a long time I used them to monitor the decay rate of the Martian atmosphere. Now I mainly use them for mapping purposes. Your graveyard was pretty easy to spot, by the way. There aren’t any other trees that large on the entire planet.”

“There will be, about two hundred years from now,” Amy said. “It will be beautiful.”

“I don’t doubt it! So, will you go on a walk with me?”

“Where to?”

“Oh, just around. Tell me about these people.”

“They’re my friends and family,” Amy explained. “Most of them died when the Emperor attacked Tikal. You wouldn’t know them.”

“I know, but I want to know them. After all, if they knew the Lord then I’ll meet them one day. In fact, I may meet them rather soon – I’m not getting any younger. Can you tell me their stories?”

Amy stood up and took the old man’s hand, and the two then began walking around the graveyard. Amy led Miles to every gravestone, and the old man listened as she talked about each friend and relative, relating various stories about their life. The sun slowly sank toward the horizon, but the two figures ignored it.

When the sun had almost set they reached the last tombstone. Amy was surprised to see that there was someone else already there. A middle-aged man was kneeling in front of the stone, studying it closely. “Noel?” she asked curiously. “Is that you? What are you doing here?”

“Amanda Stryker,” he said aloud, reading the humble stone monument in front of him. “July 23, 1853 – November 27, 7239.” He stood up and looked at Amy. “Your sister was quite a woman, you know. Feisty, strong, and confident. You really didn’t want to get on her bad side.”

Amy smiled. “That was Amanda all right. But she was kind too, and thoughtful. She had a lot of heart.”

“That she did,” Noel said. “I’m glad I had a chance to meet her.”

Amy looked at him, surprised. “What? When did you meet my sister?”

Noel took a deep breath and relayed everything that he had seen the night the mayor died. When he was finished Amy looked at the Sentinel in shock. “My sister was here, Steve. Can you believe it? She was here on Mars!”

“We really should thank her for coming,” he replied. “If she had not been here to save Noel then history would have turned out quite differently. At the moment his life was being threatened we were in no position to help him.”

Noel spoke up. “I’ve been wanting to ask you about that for years! What happened to you, Amy?”

“I was actually trapped in a temporal anomaly,” Amy explained. “The people on Xanthe had created a time trap to force Steve and I into the distant future. Fortunately, Steve was able to free us before we time-shifted too far. If it hadn’t been for him we’d still be there.”

“Oh,” Noel said. “Well, I guess that would explain it.”

“You mean you believe me?” Amy asked, surprised. “Seriously? That’s not like you! Where are the snide remarks and sarcastic quips? Where are all the comments about me not having all my mental faculties? Have you gone soft on me?”

Noel winced. “I will admit that for a long time I thought you were crazy. After meeting your sister, though, I realized that perhaps Miles was right after all. It really did seem kind of unlikely that the planet would magically terraform itself right after you showed up. Plus there was the tiny fact that the stars returned at the same moment you did. What finally convinced me was when I saw this graveyard suddenly spring into existence. There is no way that trees that large could suddenly appear on a moment’s notice. They had to come from somewhere.”

“So you noticed the graveyard too,” Amy said, sighing. “Apparently you also have access to the telemetry data from Miles’ satellites. I’m going to have to be a lot more careful.”

“What?” Noel asked, startled. “Miles has satellites? Do you mean space satellites? Miles can actually launch rockets into space? I can’t believe it! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Whoops!” Amy exclaimed. “I thought you knew.”

“We’ll talk about that later,” Miles told Noel.

“Um, ok,” Noel replied. “So, Amy. I don’t mean to pry or anything, but why did you build this place?”

“Well, no one else was going to. In fact, no one else even remembers these people! But I do, and I miss them.”

“Ok,” Noel said. “Is this connected to some ancient ritual or something? Because I’m not sure–”

Miles interrupted him. “Tell me something, Noel. What are graveyard for?”

“Well, they’re the final resting places of the dead. They’re where we go to say goodbye. Honestly, it seems kind of morbid and depressing to me.”

The old man shook his head. “That’s actually not the case. Amy did not come here to say goodbye; she came here to say ‘I’ll see you later’. For those who believe in Jesus, death is not the end. One day the graves will open, the dead will be raised, and these very people will go on to live forever. What Amy has done is built a monument – not to their death, but to their resurrection. She is looking forward to the moment when the mortal will be swallowed up by immortality, and the corruptible will put on incorruption.”

“But their bodies are gone! There’s nothing left. Their very atoms have been blasted into energy.”

Miles smiled. “I think the Lord will be able to handle that.”

By now the sun had set and the stars were shining. The night sky was cloudless and beautiful – full of brilliant points of light that lit up the darkness.

“Are you ready to go?” Miles asked.

“Almost,” Amy said quickly. “There’s just one more thing that I need to do.” The girl made a quick motion with her hand and her sister’s tombstone changed. Below the dates a group of letters appeared.

Miles read them aloud. “’Gone to be with the Lord – will be back soon.’ I like it.”

“I think I understand,” Noel said.

The girl looked around. “I think that’s everything, Miles! I’m ready to go.”

The old man nodded. “Do you have the time to stop at my place for a few minutes?”

“I think I can work that into my schedule. What about you, Noel?”

“Oh, I’ll make the time,” he said. “I’ve been working too hard lately anyway – I could use an evening off.”

Amy smiled. “Very well! Then let’s go.”

With that, the three of them vanished.

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