Grant woke up and drew in a breath. Instinct made him keep his breathing shallow enough to be inaudible as his ears pricked up. He could hear two people talking. Both women, which made it unlikely he was still in Prison.
"Amazing to me that the last one is a Green Letter."
"Don't let that prejudice you. He gets as much a shot as anyone."
"Why is he asleep? After this long, you'd think he'd rested enough."
"He's not asleep. He's pretending to sleep, so that he knows who's in the room before he admits he can hear us."
Grant snorted, and opened his eyes. Two women. Both of them were young and very attractive. Grant had rented, bought, and sold many women in his life, and wondered if he could even afford these two; but their outfits said they weren't in his room for that. "Where are we?"
"By your maps, California." Rika reported, and gestured to the other woman. "This is my friend, Karen."
"How did I get to California?" Grant stood, and found it was far easier to move than he remembered. "What's going on?"
"Well, there's no easy way to start this." Rika said with a deep breath. "Karen has done this a hundred times. I haven't, but even I know this time is different." She spread her hands wide. "The first thing you need to know is that you're safe, and that you can leave here at any time."
"Really." Grant looked around. The room wasn't plain, but it was so carefully abstract and mass produced, it could have been anything from a motel to a hospital, to a private house. "And why is it important that I know that first?"
Karen turned to Rika. "You'll never break it to him gently."
Rika nodded. "I know. Grant? What's the last thing you remember?"
Grant considered the question. "The hospital wing. I just got done with an… employee. I took a nap, and-"
"And then here." Rika nodded. "It has, in fact, been almost 900 years since you went to sleep."
Grant stared at her blankly for a full ten seconds. And then burst out laughing. "It's an audacious con, pretty lady. But I'm paranoid by nature, which is why I'm not dead yet."
"Ha. 'Yet', he says." Karen commented blandly. She went to the window, in no particular hurry, and drew back the curtains.
Grant followed her with his eyes… and promptly forgot her as he looked out the window.
~~/*\~~
"The Last Returnee." Nick commented, gazing up at the window. Even thirty stories above, his eyes were sharp enough to see the correct window. Nine hundred years had raised the human race to near-mythic ability. "Feels strange that it should be a gangster."
"It's your algorithm." His brother pointed out. "Yours and your wife."
"I know." Nick chuckled. "In some ways, it was easier to handle the Returning when we couldn't predict any part of it. Knowing who the people are going to be is like… Humanizing the Heavens."
Hugh shook his head. "I don't buy that. After the first fifty centuries, the Last Day-ers were able to understand enough about Jah to teach millions about him. But there was a lot they had to take on faith. The early Israelites had to take things like staying clean on faith; and it was centuries before we figured out why. Over the last thousand years, the list of those things we can't comprehend has grown shorter. But even if we can figure out the order of the Returning after a thousand years of observation, we don't have the math to figure out interactions, how people will react to each other, who will just 'run into' a new arrival, and what effect that may have on their choice…"
"Or how to bring people back from the dead at all." Nick quipped. "But they're working on that."
"Are they?" Hugh was surprised.
"Lots of people would love to have their pets live as long as they do." Nick excused. "So, how's Megan?"
Hugh sighed. "You know, after an extra four hundred years, you'd think the 'empty nest' feeling would be a distant memory."
"For you, or for her?" Nick countered. "Megan's 'nest' hasn't been empty in centuries. Now it is."
Hugh sighed. "I know. I'm on my way there now; as a matter of fact."
Nick checked the time. "I have to head back to the central Foundation. Give my favorite niece a big hug?"
"I will."
Nick switched off the call and Hugh vanished from the room.
~~/*\~~
In his own apartment of the Original Arcology, Hugh headed back into the living room, where Kasumi was pouring a second cup of tea from her traditional set. Her own set had been given to Megan; but the original ceramic Masters had been returned and continued their craft. "So. I summoned an Auto to take us to Megan. How do we handle this?"
"Good question." Kasumi agreed. "I guess the best thing we can tell her is that she's done a good job."
~~/*\~~
"It was a job very well done." Hugh offered, a few hours later. Global travel was fast and efficient now.
"I know." Megan sighed a little, looking around the empty halfway house. "Thing is, when you and Kas adopted me, you sort of vowed never to step back. The difference between being a parent and a Foster Parent. When I found homes for my Lost Boys and Girls, I had to let them all go. One after another. For centuries. Hundreds of them by the time we were done…"
"But if I do not have love, I am nothing." Kasumi recited from memory. "How many of them have you to thank for convincing them that they can be loved and wanted forever?"
"A lot of them didn't think they deserved to be loved at all." Megan agreed as they started to walk outside. "Four hundred years, trying to heal the hurt left on little ones by bad adults." She shivered. "Y'know, the only reason I was able to tell those kids such a thing with a straight face is because you both did it for me; back in the dark ages."
Hugh laughed. "Y'know, my mom would go into tears regularly, talking about how fast I grew up. You've been an adult for centuries, and I still feel like it was yesterday you called me 'dad' for the first time."
Megan smothered a smile. "The job… is done." She pronounced quietly. "Almost all of my life has been about bringing people in from the cold. There's nobody left to come in. The Returning is finally Ending as we speak. There are no widows and orphans left."
"You sound sad about that." Kasumi commented.
"I'm not. But my post in the Transition Committee is about moving on from expired jobs; and my first assignment is my own Dormitory." Megan locked the door to the empty building behind her. "And there's still a demand. I get couples calling me, asking if there's anyone left in my Orphanage." She shook her head. "I'm not sure why there's so many all of a sudden. Surely people who want kids can still have them."
~~/*\~~
"Not one person born in eighteen months?" Rachel repeated. "That confirmed?"
"Well, it took us a while to verify it; because nobody's quite sure when it happened." Nick reported. "I don't think it started all at once, and with everyone young forever, it's not like anyone's been in a rush. Most of our population growth has come from the Returning, which has been winding down for decades. I mean, is there such a thing as a professional Midwife anymore? There's just not enough demand for it."
"So it took a while for the numbers to collate." Rachel nodded.
"Congregations don't usually report births to each other. Only attendance figures." Nick let out a breath. "Not one birth in a year and a half. The Returning has wrapped up… Humanity is static. How is that possible? Name one time when the population wasn't going up or down at all!"
"I can't." Rachel admitted. "Wonder what the New Guy is made of, if he has the dubious distinction of being one of the youngest people in the world; after dying of old age."
Nick checked the time. "Connection goes Live in twenty minutes. Karen's welcoming the New Guy. Think she'll make it?"
"I can't imagine she'll miss this." Rachel put her notes away. "You ready?"
"Since I was five years old." Nick promised eagerly. "What about you?"
"Not quite as long, but my OS dream of a sustainable earth is kinda taken care of." Rachel admitted with a warm smile at her husband. "I spent almost ten years thinking it'd never happen; and centuries on Restoration. Can't imagine what it's like to put your 'Quest' on hold for so long."
"Well, what can I say, five hundred years have taught me patience." Nick admitted. "But this is a good solid second. Wish we'd done this a few centuries ago."
"We weren't there yet." Rachel excused. "Look at it this way, we've got forever to do this now that we've started."
~~/*\~~
Grant's head was on a swivel as Rika and Karen led him through the Center. The Printers were in a common room, so there were some people about. The general population didn't seem to be that fussed about him; though Grant could tell they were all aware of him. It didn't feel like being watched, it felt like he was a low-level celebrity. The kind that you noticed, but didn't talk to.
But Grant was watching them right back, intrigued by what they were doing. He had caught glimpses of a much larger city in the distance, but what was in front of him was unreal enough. The Printer Room felt a little like a library, only instead of bookshelves, there were a dozen empty pedestals. As Grant watched, a man went to one of the pedestals, and tapped briefly at the controls. What looked like a small army of silvery ants came pouring into the open space, and started climbing over each other for several seconds, before running back into the 'pedestal' and leaving behind an elegant mechanical clock. The man picked it up and took it with him. The whole thing seemed very routine.
Grant looked back and noticed Rika smiling at him. "You had Assembly Lines in your time, I believe. We've… upgraded somewhat over the years" She told him cheerfully. "First thing you'll need is a Device of your own. They're pretty intuitive."
Grant followed her over to another Pedestal, and he took a closer look at it. "How does this work?"
"Have you ever played with Lego?"
"No, but I've seen it before."
"Years ago, the High IQ types figured out how to pull apart things at a molecular level. You could literally evaporate garbage and sewage away to nothing. Some years later, they figured out how to build machines that could work at that level; and it became possible to put those molecules back together again differently. Seventy years ago, they refined it enough to build complex products." Rika gestured at the silvery liquid. "Later, I'll show you a drop of that stuff under a Microscope. It's amazing."
In the time it took her to say all this, the liquid had finished its work; and left behind a Device that looked a lot like a single piece of black, polished glass. Rika picked it up and handed it to him.
Karen watched with a smirk. "We've had those things for the last thousand years. Just so you know, we've upgraded that quite a ways too; but most people aren't comfortable with the idea of implantable tech. A significant portion of the population come from a time when that thing in your hand would be either science fiction, or black magic." She shrugged. "They'll get there eventually."
"Been my experience that people have to get ready for the world, rather than the other way around." Grant commented.
Karen nodded. "Where we are now is not 'in your experience'." She said simply. "We make it a point not to force out anything that will stumble people. It's not kind to overload people before they're ready."
Rika nodded. "And this is what I continue praying, that your love may abound still more and more with accurate knowledge and full discernment; that you may make sure of the more important things, so that you may be flawless and not stumbling others."
Grant was about to ask, when the Device in his hand lit up and gave him the scripture in writing, along with supplementary material. For a moment, he just gazed at it, turning the thing over in his hands, fascinated. The smartphone era was in full swing when Grant was last alive, but he'd been in prison long enough that he'd never owned one. "You're just giving this to me?"
"If we ever need one, they're not hard to find." Karen gestured at the Pedestal. "Now, if you'll excuse me; I really don't want to miss the Launch Party; if you can handle things here." Karen said this to Rika, unable to keep the smile off her face.
"Go." Rika told her with a smile. "You've waited a long time."
~~/*\~~
Karen slipped into the Conference Room just moments before Rachel and Nick arrived. Everyone cheered when they saw the leaders of the program; and Nick waved for everyone to settle; before turning to his wife. "Speech?"
Rachel turned to her team. "Well, I can't imagine I have anything to say that you don't already think for yourselves. But that never stopped us before."
There was a round of laughter. Contemplation and Discussion was the favorite pastime of the world now.
"Most of us are here because we all know what we want to be doing for the rest of eternity." Rachel said with a warm smile in Nick's direction. "When word came down that humanity would be limited to Earth for the first Thousand Years, everyone understood; but a small percentage of us were horrified. We all know the reasons why, and I think for the most part we agree with them wholeheartedly; but for those of us who have been raring to go since OS, this won't be paradise until we're out there; seeing the whole universe."
There was a chorus of agreement to that.
"Well, this isn't that." Rachel said, as though admitting a great secret. "But hopefully it'll scratch the itch until the… the Thousand Years are over."
Another round of excited applause. Rachel clocked that reaction. Her response was subtle, but she knew Nick had seen it. "Nick, would you care to say something?"
Nick bit his lip. "Um… Me first?"
Everyone burst out laughing. The sentiment was a popular one right now, even among people who made a point of putting others before themselves.
Nick chuckled a bit. "Alright, seriously: I want to say thank you to everyone, for giving so much of their time and effort. We could all spend eternity doing whatever we wanted; and it's very wonderful to work with people who want the same thing as you." He looked around. "And as much as I like the idea of taking the credit for the Pathfinder Project, you're all here for Contact because you've been indispensable. It took hundreds of people to get this 'off the ground', but it was us in this room who made it work." He turned to Rachel. "Rach?"
Rachel smiled, so happy for him as she spoke. "No, nothing to add beyond thanks. We've been working on this for the last three centuries; and it was definitely a team effort. I worked on all sorts of Projects in my life, and there were always one or two 'Alphas' while the rest carried out their plans. This group wasn't like that. I've never worked with a better team."
"And coming from her, that's the highest compliment we can get." Kevin Bagley put in.
Rachel grinned. "This is true. Special thanks go to my husband, who developed the Drive; and to Karen, who's work with the Nemo was a precursor to the Pathfinder Ten."
"Don't leave yourself out, love." Nick put in. "You were the one that figured out the Comms. Faster-Than-Light communication. Even today wouldn't be possible without it."
As if to answer him, the console-light flicked to green.
The light set off a chorus of cheers and whistles. It went on for quite a while. "Alright, folks; we each get an hour. Random drawing, to be fair."
~~/*\~~
The 'Launch Party' was happening in a meeting room with a viewing window. The window turned opaque or one-way at the push of a button; but at this moment, there were only two people watching. Rika smirked at Grant. "I told you we could go see anything. Why here?"
Grant shrugged. "I figure if it's a con; then Karen would be going somewhere 'off-stage' once she left the room." He gestured at the window. "They can't see us?"
"No." Rika promised. "They've been working on this for a long time." She explained. "Your generation had international calls. You ever notice a delay? Just a moment or two? That was caused by the signal having to travel around the world, and then back again. Time delay to the moon, three or four seconds; time delay to Mars; forty minutes. When they landed space probes on Mars, they had to program orders into them, and knew they wouldn't get an answer back for almost two hours."
Grant watched as one of the team was fitted with a headset. "So what are they directing now?"
"Ten new devices, called Pathfinders. Three on Mars; five orbiting Jupiter and her moons, one parked on the moon a week ago; and one's heading out of the Solar System, to the next star over." Rika said with a smile. "But what makes this different, is that this team cracked the light-speed communications barrier. We'll be able to direct them in real time, like driving a remote-controlled car. With the cameras and feedback they put into the probes, the experience is fully-immersive. The idea is to have a virtual presence there. Those guys are effectively the first people to walk on other planets."
"To what end?" Grant asked, intrigued.
"The probes on Mars? When people are hooked up to them, that's a workforce of five, building a place that people can move into. The ones orbiting Jupiter? When these guys are driving them, they'll be able to land on the moons." Rika explained. "When these Thousand Years began, we were told that our job was to restore what had been lost. But we're getting towards the end of that time now, so some people are looking to the future. It's well deserved for all the work we've put into Earth. I'm told that when it started, we had no idea how big a job it was going to be."
Grant looked over. "For example?"
~~/*\~~
Nick Alman was flat out drooling. The headset gave him the perspective, and control over the Pathfinder probe in real-time. Something that hadn't been sent to other planets before. The observation packet gave him clarity of images so complete and precise, he was, for all practical purposes, on the moon right now, gazing at the Earth.
"Still with us, babe?" He heard his wife's voice call.
"We had no idea, Rachel. No idea at all." Nick responded, and he could hear the croak in his voice. Hundreds of years of life and education was washed away instantly, and he was a blubbering child again. "I read my first Flash Gordon comic when I was a little kid. Black and white sketches of other planets in newspaper cartoons. I've been 'filling in' the blanks for almost a thousand years, waiting for this view."
"It must be amazing." Rachel said wistfully. "I've been looking at pictures of Earth from Space since before A-Day. My father's generation was the first one to get orbital shots. A beautiful blue-green jewel. By my generation, all the land masses had been sucked dry and strip mined, until the ocean was gray and the land was pale brown all over the place… and it was still the most beautiful thing anyone had ever seen." Her voice turned emotional. "Nine hundred years of Restoration. It's probably better than it's ever looked."
"I can believe that." Nick whispered. "I've shown those pictures of Earthrise from Apollo to at least thirty Returnees. I didn't see it myself until I was Raised. It just… changes everything, seeing the world for what it really is."
"A lot of people in my generation looked at how small the Earth was compared to the universe, and saw it as a sign that God didn't exist." Rachel countered. "For me, it was proof positive that He did."
"Y'know, back in the first half of the Thousand Years, they talked about how the Earth was created as a place for us to live, and for us to cultivate and make beautiful as we filled it with good and purposeful things." Nick offered. "When the Thousand Years end, I wonder if the rest of the Universe is the same."
"Find out in one more century, love." Rachel smiled. "A thousand years ago, I thought that was wildly unfair. Now… I don't know, I have enough to do in the meantime."
"I could spend all of it just admiring this view." Nick commented.
"Now now, no time for slacking off." Rachel teased. "We don't charge for Comms, but if we did, I calculated the price of using the Quantum Communicator at about the cost of fifteen million credits per second."
"Right." Nick sighed. "So, you've given me a probe I can control and work like I'm actually standing on the Moon right now. What first?"
"Start setting up a landing site." Rachel told him. "You know the plan, you wrote it. We've been landing pre-fabs in that area for thirty years. Optics say the nearest one is in your three o'clock position. Remember, you'll be doing this in one-sixth gravity. When we link you up to the Pathfinder on Mars; it'll move slower. And when we're there in person; we'll have to live with the Gravity." Rachel grinned. "So enjoy getting the work done the easy way. We've only got a hundred years."
Nick actually giggled. "They were right, Rachel. Every Astronaut, including the ones that have walked where I am right now? All the ones that came back… They all said the same thing. Seeing the Earth all at once is a Religious Experience all its own." He blinked away tears under his headset. "They were right."
~~/*\~~
"Seen enough?" Rika asked.
Grant had been observing the 'Launch' silently, and he nodded. "If this is the 30th Century, why are we still Earth-Bound?" He asked suddenly. "Everyone living forever, I get that. But why would it take a thousand years to start looking in the direction of Space? All the sci-fi said it would be less than fifty years after my time. What set them back?"
Rika smiled a bit. "Nothing set us back. But we were directed that our focus was to be on Earth until the Thousand Years were ended. It turned out to be good advice. Tens of billions are living forever, and the world is in harmony."
"Which is no small miracle, I admit." Grant nodded. "But my point is, all the sci-fi had ideas on what the world would look like in a hundred years, or three hundred; or five. Nobody really went this far; and…" He waved a hand. "Nobody tried for time travel, or colonies on the moon; or an immortality serum?"
"Spaceflight is being prepped for immediately after." Rika told him promptly. "Almost everyone ever born in history is walking around the world… And believe me when I tell you, eternal life is the least of what makes this world a paradise. The Death Barrier was a project we worked on for a while, but it was never a priority project, given that we all live forever anyway." She turned to the door, where Belle had come in just in time to hear that. "Ah, Belle." She nodded to her friend. "There's a room available at the Dorms?"
"There is." Belle confirmed, watching the 'Launch' herself.
~~/*\~~
Megan had returned home. Travel time across the world was short these days, and communications were so perfect that it almost didn't matter. Hugh and Kasumi got the call after dinner. Their daughter called by holo, projected into the room with them; as though they'd never parted ways that afternoon.
"So, I heard from Rika." Megan said lightly. "She says the first meeting went well enough."
"What's he like?" Hugh asked.
"According to my daughter, he's… cagey. The sort of person who doesn't like to give away much about what he's thinking, and always tries to read minds."
"Kind of a given for a green letter." Kasumi quipped. "What does Biggs say? He has a knack for seeing around corners himself."
"Biggs is trying to work up the nerve to tell me something." Megan admitted. "A feeling I'm familiar with. The thing about having all the time in the world is that you can always put off the difficult moments."
"Biggs has never been able to say 'no' to you for long, sweetie." Hugh counseled. "If he won't say it, ask him. He'll tell you." He gave his daughter a look. "But it's not his 'difficult moment' we're talking about right now, is it?"
"No. I've been putting one of my own off for too long. And I guess it has to be you and mom, because there isn't really anyone else I can ask." Megan admitted, and spoke carefully. "Dad… does Rika seem… familiar, to you? Appearance-wise, I mean?"
Hugh sighed. "So, you noticed it, then?"
"I did." Megan said in a small voice. "At first I thought I was imagining it. There was a time, just after she died; when I was seeing her face everywhere. But that was centuries ago, and now I'm sure. Rika… My daughter is the spitting image of Erica. How is that possible?!"
Hugh took a deep breath. "Oh, sweetheart…"
"I searched Erica in the Tree. She didn't have any siblings. Her mom didn't…" Megan wrung her hands crazily. "It's not like she's identical, but when she was about eighteen years old, the light caught her the right way and I suddenly had a flashback. I've been seeing it more and more for years. It's like she came back from the dead."
This was a more loaded statement than it seemed. Erica Knowles was permadeath, and had been since very early in her Returned life. Megan had been there to see it happen with her own eyes; and it nearly drove her away from her own barely-forming relationship with Jehovah.
Here we go… Hugh lowered his voice a bit. "Before she died, Erica confided to me once that she… was pregnant. It was just before she met you. Given that she was homeless at the time, she aborted the pregnancy; then went to a church to talk about it. The church in question ran an orphanage of its own... That was how she happened to be there, the day you met."
Megan clapped a hand over her mouth. "I never asked." She whispered. "I never even asked why she was there that day."
"You were eight years old at the time." Hugh excused. "The reason her family doesn't know is because she was long gone from them by then." He hesitated. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It only came up once. Erica was terrified that she'd crossed some uncrossable line. She wanted to know if I knew what happened to the baby."
Megan shivered hard. "Me. It was centuries later, but her child was given to me."
"There could be no better choice." Kasumi said seriously. "Megan, that girl was a mess, but she took you in immediately when she thought you were in a bad, unloving environment. She couldn't give you a real house, or a place in school; but she loved you to pieces. And that was the most important thing you learned from her."
Megan was crying. "I really thought I was over this. Over her. I really thought I had gotten past it."
"Megan, you devoted your life to taking in kids who had never been loved; and finding them homes. You did it without getting paid, you did it almost on your own. Just like she did for you. A single mom to half a dozen kids at a time. At least, until Biggs came along."
Megan sniffed, and wiped her face. "Yeah."
"You've learned to live without Erica, but don't pretend she isn't a big part of your life." Kasumi said gently. "The very best part, in fact. The part that loves; and takes care of people who need it. She'd be proud."
"We certainly are." Hugh put in. "I would also add that a lot of the kids who come through your care have never trusted or been cared for by any adult. Erica did that for you. Some days, I think the only reason you ever came to trust us in the first place was because of her."
Megan shivered. "When do we ever get over our past?"
"We are over the past. But we're also where we are because of it." Hugh promised her. "It's not a bad thing. And in another hundred years, I have a feeling it's going to be very important to remember where we started."
~~/*\~~
"Well. It's not so different from where I started." Grant nodded, looking around the Dormitory. "Standard rooms for newcomers?" It was a spartan room, with very little furniture. It was like a prison cell when compared to the elaborate beauty of the city outside. Outside, it was like something from a movie, where everything had function and beauty combined.
This room was bare on all sides. Grant couldn't really tell what the walls were made of. They were solid and gray like concrete, but felt more like some kind of glazed plaster. Grant recognized the room for the 'have-not' side of this new world. His eyes flicked to the door automatically, wondering if this young woman had walked him into another Prison Cell without him realizing it.
Rika tapped her fingertips together and an image suddenly appeared, projected across her palm. Grant stared at it in disbelief. She smiled at his reaction, showing him the display. It was like something out of a catalogue, showing off various ways to decorate a room. She flicked back and forth between them. Various interiors, from futuristic stainless steel, to a stately manor cabin, with rich timbers and thick carpets. "Pick your taste."
Grant had made a living by not flinching when surprised. In his way, he'd forgotten how to be shocked. The blatant science fiction between her fingertips was just another device. The world had invented dozens of them while he'd been in Prison. He looked at the image she displayed, flicking through a series. He picked one that appealed without bothering to check the rest. "That one."
Rika nodded and gestured at the room. The image in her palm vanished, and the walls started moving, a silvery shower of liquid running down from the walls, pooling and shifting at their feet. Grant stepped back automatically. The silver goop started collecting into specific places, and then expanding straight up, like something was inflating a chrome bubble underneath.
Grant's poker face was a fact of his survival, but this had him gaping; as it became clear what was happening after less than thirty seconds. The room was transforming itself into the design he'd picked. There were even dividing walls growing through the center of the large space. He stared at the room, uttering awestruck curses in a reverent whisper.
Rika grinned. "Give it another ten minutes; and it'll be finished. Everything prints. The furniture, the carpets; vehicles, whatever appliances you need… When you move out, the room will break down to what it was when we came in, ready for the next person who stops at the Dormitory. People can travel the world and bring their home with them."
Grant set his jaw. "So easy." He commented. "Everything is so easy for you now."
Rika chuckled. "Not everything. But historically, the hardest part of life was finding a place to live and enough food to eat. People dedicated their whole lives to keeping both those things happening. Wouldn't the world be an amazing place if you didn't have to work day and night just to stay alive?"
"I had both needs sorted by getting arrested." Grant dared her.
"A trick that won't work for you here, given that we don't have any prisons." Rika told him.
That got Grant's attention very quickly. "What?"
~~/*\~~
"So, the Chariot Project is effectively finished." Nick said proudly. "You got the full tour, I trust?"
"I did." Captain Carmen Diaz nodded, head still on a swivel. "It's amazing, Nick. You really pulled it off."
"Ohh, it was a group effort. Maybe the biggest group effort that the Expo ever pulled off." Nick turned to the wall behind his desk where a huge schematic of the ship was displayed, and he gestured at each segment in turn. "Rachel came up with the Anti-Grav formula, or we'd never get it launched; big as it is. The Arcology Project was instrumental in figuring out how to create a long-term laboratory and living space in a sealed environment; food and water recycling came from the Restoration Committees. Crew training and Human Resources are very different in this sort of lifestyle; and the Service Corps had enough former Submariners to help us select our people. The Foundation has everyone from Galileo to the original Apollo Teams calculating orbital paths for our first mission. The Nemo's Crew let us beta test more than half the new tech in her. We've learned more about how to include organics and garden life in high-tech spaces than we ever thought possible when we started The Chariot Project."
Diaz had joined him at the schematic. "Centuries and centuries of work."
"Of learning." He corrected her. "The work was here, but what we learned was worth more than a millennium of actual time in space. The whole world putting the pieces together."
"And it's thrilling to get a full Tour from the Project Manager himself." Diaz nodded to him. "But I can't help but wonder what made you extend the invitation. I haven't been part of the Expo in years."
"All that's left to do is final crew selections, and organize our mission priorities." Nick explained. "Mars, we have learned, is less hospitable than we gave it credit for. But it's still our first stop. The Ship could conceivably fly forever. But to properly study each of the planets and moons in the solar system, to say nothing of moving on to other stars; we're going to need ways to explore them that are adaptable. Aircraft design is limited by gravity, atmosphere, a few dozen other things. So we either build a dozen different craft; or we build something that can fly anywhere."
Diaz froze. "My airships."
"Designed for earth-atmosphere, and lighter-than-air flight. But you change the pressure in the envelope, toughen up the material; you could fly those airships on any celestial body with any kind of atmosphere without needing anti-grav." Nick smiled at her. "You've lived on your airships for most of the millennium. You've got more airtime than any ten pilots combined. Feel like living in other skies for a while?"
Diaz trilled. "Oh, I'm in."
Nick smiled. "I had hoped you'd say that." He slid a polished oak box over to her. "And since you're on the crew now; you may as well get your Mission Patch."
Diaz opened the box and found a round cloth patch, and her smile only grew. Nick had named his new spaceship the 'Stargazer'.
~~/*\~~
Ingaret Godlefe had been born a servant girl in a time when women were rarely permitted to have formal education. Having Rachel be her guide on arrival was no doubt a direct decision from Heaven, and it had changed her life in so many ways.
When the call came, Ingaret smiled at the name of her oldest friend and accepted. Rachel was projected beside her immediately. "Hey, you." Rachel said warmly. "I saw your airship coming. How'd it go in Australia?"
"Barrier Reef is officially better than new." Ingaret reported. "Those Coral grafts took better than we thought. And the Subnautical Domes are monitoring the habitation rates. Karen sends her love."
"You know what that means, right?" Rachel breathed. "It means the Restoration work is… is done. A nine hundred year project, and it's finished!"
"Gotta feel good." Ingaret offered. "I came to the party late. You? You were there when the first redwood trees were planted. You were there from Day One of the Restoration, and… Now we're finished."
Rachel actually laughed. "I've been doing this for so long, it's hard to remember it was always a 'short term' goal."
"I've met people from the Last Days Era. They spent decades in preaching work. From childhood to old age. And then it ended. And they spent several centuries welcoming people back from the dead and teaching them. The Returning officially wrapped up this week, but most of us have gone decades without meeting new people."
"It's like when kids grow up. Last time they do everything; and the first time they do everything." Rachel murmured. "I've seen the whole human race grow up. It's… I can't even describe it. It feels like I'm watching the world end, and start at the same time."
Ingaret suddenly noticed the window. "Ohh, I never get tired of this view."
The Foundation was the origin of the Expo, where secular education and scientific research and development took place. It had been instrumental in helping Academics from the days of Moses onward to catch up with all the science they had missed; bringing their thinking more into line with how the universe really worked. Those that came through A-Day needed education as well, as the world began the Thousand Years; and the Expo trained them in new skills, as well as the old ones, giving people from all across the timeline enough common ground to build a world together.
The result had been a campus of higher learning that spread into an area the size of a small country. As the Expo diversified into several different locations, the Arcology Towers were built in the center of each one. The Foundation was now run from a Tower that reached almost out of the sky. The top thirty levels were a transparent dome, with a giant redwood tree in the middle, with several huge branches grafted into it.
The tree, more than a hundred meters tall on its own, was symbolic on many levels. It was a reference to the Genesis account, as the Expo was all about 'seeking knowledge'. It was also symbolic of how the Foundation had resulted, branching out into one new field after another. It was also an example of the work they had done. The Expo had created many innovations to help with the Restoration work.
(Author's Note: The tallest building in the world today is over 800m tall. The Sequoia Redwoods, considered the tallest trees in the world, grow to a height of 120 meters. The hardest part about writing this book is not turning it into a straight up Science Fiction novel. That said, I've made no secret of the fact that this 'vision' of Paradise is one where advanced technology and the most ancient of methods can co-exist side by side. Hopefully, that comes through. It took less than seventy years from the Wright Brothers first flight to Apollo 11's landing on the Moon. This book is set a thousand years from now.)
"That Dome still seems impossible to look at." Ingaret quipped.
"Couldn't have built it even three hundred years ago. Turning garbage into nanotech construction changed all the rules of what we could do." Rachel said with affection. "Y'know, something? That's the very first Sequoia tree planted during the Restoration. At the time, nobody knew for sure how long one could live, or how tall they could grow in a controlled environment." She gestured. "We still don't. But we'll be the first to find out."
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