A Visitor to the Future - 128 - Charter
Part Two - The Inner Solar System
It had been several months since my trip to the Netherlands with Tungsten. Life was going well - my therapist was really thrilled with my progress, Chissom and I were reaching the end of our Human lessons, and I'd been writing a collection of short stories which I planned to publish - nothing groundbreaking, just some random ideas I'd been working on. The weather was calm and bright as I looked out of the window of our currently parked dronecraft and across Antonia's vibrant and well-maintained gardens. She walked around the winding paths and toward our vehicle, waving as she did so. Antonia had been busy working on a new variety of flower-bearing bushes for a festival, so I hadn't seen much of her for the past few weeks. I looked down at the wording of Tungsten's invite again as we waited for her to arrive. "If you're all free today, could you join us for lunch?" it read, "I have some news to share." Sarkona and I had accepted the invitation, only stopping to pick up Antonia on the way.
"Hello, strangers! Good to see both of you!" Antonia said as she boarded, smiling and giving us both a hug. I laughed - Antonia might not have seen us in person, but I messaged her often enough. Still, I was happy to see her.
"How are the bushes coming along?" I asked, knowing that they'd been giving her some difficulty.
"The less said, the better!" she replied, seeming slightly exasperated, "I was glad to have a distraction today. The Biodev is giving me some problems. Maybe if I come back to it fresh, later, that'll help."
"Want to talk about it?" asked Sarkona, always keen to help.
"No!" said Antonia, shaking her head and sitting down as the dronecraft began to rise into the air, "I'm determined to figure this one out for myself. I'll let you know if I'm completely out of ideas though. What I do want to talk about is this cryptic invitation. It isn't like Tungsten to be so elusive!"
"Yes, that's true," said Sarkona, "Which is why I accepted straight away."
"What do you think it means?" Antonia asked us, "Nothing bad, I hope."
What followed was some harmless fun in the form of incredibly unlikely guesses about the invitation. The most outlandish was that Anode was abandoning her interest in Aldev to instead become a baker - which was funny because Anode had never had much interest in food, going so far as to call it 'background noise' that she simply ignored.
As the conversation continued, the dronecraft accelerated and we rapidly drew closer to Crensolt. I'd yet to visit the sprawling metropolis myself, but I'd read about it often enough. It was one of the largest cities on Earth, occupying a significant part of south-western Finland. Someone had told me that it had been built and re-built several times over the past thousand years - first as a hub for some of the early Multispheres, but then eventually re-shaped to better fit the modern design sensibilities of the Consortium. As we flew over the outskirts, I could see that was definitely the case, with large open areas, canals, and parks. Pine and spruce trees sprang up in patches and rings around medium-density apartments topped with dronecraft pads and connected by cycle paths. You could be in almost any city on Earth with that view.
As we drew closer to the center and crossed a river, things suddenly kicked up a notch. The building height tripled and raised roadways became the norm, lined with automated buses and criss-crossed by monorail and tram tracks. The individual dronecraft pads that we'd seen on the outer buildings were now absent, replaced with dronecraft terminuses which littered the landscape to support the significant numbers of dronecraft which hung in the sky. Yet still the buildings rose up higher and grew in footprint as we moved closer and closer to the center, easily surpassing the tallest buildings of IJmuiden and then those of Paris. And at the center, towering above every other building was one of the largest structures I had ever seen. A single impossibly large and imposing skyscraper was placed as the focal point of the city. The rational part of my mind knew that it couldn't be as tall as the space elevator in Anchor, but in contrast to the unassuming and simplistic spindly shape of the elevator and spacious architectural style of Anchor, it seemed like the dark structure had been intentionally designed to intimidate. Overhangs and angled surfaces cast shadows across the dark tones of the building, and unlike the smaller, modern skyscrapers which surrounded it, transparency wasn't a key part of its design. It reminded me of an ancient obelisk in way, a feeling only strengthened by the length of the dark shadow it cast on the buildings behind it.
"What is that building?" I asked - I felt no need to point it out, it was obvious which one I was referring to.
"Coresannea Primary Tower," Sarkona said, "Or CPT for short. I don't think we'll be visiting it today."
"How tall even is it?" I felt the need to ask, "I'm having a hard time telling! Scale loses all meaning when you're looking at something like this."
"At least one-thousand, five-hundred meters, I think," said Sarkona, "It's probably the most controversial building still standing in Crensolt."
"Why is that?" I asked.
"It's a remnant from the pre-Consortium days. Coresannea were an extremely controversial Multisphere," explained Sarkona, "CPT may be an engineering wonder worth preserving, it is technically a historical wonder, but the corporation that built it was... unethical to say the least."
"That's an understatment!" said Antonia, "They were one of the main Multispheres that used and profited from CI slavery, even after the UN's ban."
Sarkona shook their head, but then chuckled, "Regular people have lived there for hundreds of years now, including CIs. But I can't think why anyone would want to live in a building like that, engineering wonder or not. I suppose it looks quite novel, but it's also super gloomy. I like windows and natural light wherever practical."
There was a beat of silence as all three of us stared at the looming building. Sarkona was right, it was a wonder. Its appearance and stature invoked awe in those around it, but I couldn't help but wonder whether it was the wrong sort of awe to inspire. Knowing what CIs like Gatecrash had been through due to Multispheres like Coresannea made the intimidating building seem even more oppressive. Perhaps the residents viewed it differently, though. I thought back to what Aida had once told me about Anchor - maybe if you lived in Crensolt for long enough, CPT just became another part of the skyline.
I took another look around the view in front of me, scanning grid-lined streets which were barely visible from this height. "Everything here looks so different from the cities I've seen so far - it's all so dense," I said, "Not just the tower - or CPT, I guess I should be calling it. Oh, wait - is this a historical preservation thing too?"
Antonia answered, "Yes, they're preserving a clear example of how not to do it in my view. It's like living in a rock. The center still needs work."
I couldn't help but laugh at the bluntess of the analogy, but she was right. The streets here were grey and lacking character, the only break in the drab tones an occasional gap where a park had taken the place of a skyscraper. We semi-circled around CPT before our dronecraft took us to a vacant spot in one of the terminuses. There was a note of familiarity to the atmosphere here - just like old London, the streets here were designed for a much higher capacity than they were currently being used for. I was glad - if it had been too busy here, it would have felt suffocating. I could understand why the city center wasn't at capacity though. Given a choice between living in the historical center of Crensolt and what I now realized were the re-developed modern outskirts, I knew which one I'd choose.
From the terminus we took a tram to our destination, one of the smaller skyscrapers. Stepping into the spacious lobby, I saw a small display not disimilar to to one in Alexandra's office on the Peeping Tom - it was dedicated to West Crensolt Genetics, a multisphere operating out of the building hundreds of years ago. Photographs of various individuals holding awards and all manner of exotic animals were hung across the walls. As I was thinking about why the name seemed familiar, a voice rang out across the lobby.
"Over here!" shouted Gatecrash, standing in an open elevator. We approached, greeting the CI - who I noticed was looking different. Their face and hair looked the same as ever, but their limbs and hands seemed bulkier, composed of a dense alloy instead of the light polymer that I was used to seeing. "Don't mind the modifications," they explained, "I'll explain shortly."
The floor that we arrived on was a lavishly-appointed restaurant, reminiscent of the most luxurious high-society establishments of my own time. Any fabric surface that could be made of silk was, including tablecloths, curtains, and interestingly draped curves of various shades of blue which ran the length of the ceiling. Countertops and tables were polished marble, and metallic parts of chairs were sparkling brass. It was needlessly oppulent. Gatecrash walked us over to one corner of the room, where Tungsten and Anode awaited at a large table. Tungsten stood up to greet us, but Anode remained seated. She pointed under the table to show us why - Dela was asleep, flopped backwards over her lap, tongue hanging out contendedly.
"She tired herself out," explained Anode, "We had an idea to see if we could find any other lyxnes on Earth and set up a playdate in the place they were designed. There was one in Crensolt - you just missed them. It was fun! Possibly too much fun!"
"No such thing!" said Gatecrash, sitting across from Anode at the table. We all did the same, making small talk and then ordering drinks from a wheeled automaton which attended the tables.
Soon enough, Tungsten got to the core of the matter.
"I'll get right to it," Tungsten said to the group, "I don't want anyone to worry for any longer than they have to. I wanted to let you all know that we're planning on heading home soon."
"Oh," said Antonia and I simultaneously.
"Yes, I thought you might say that," continued Tungsten, "And to be frank, I realized that I'd miss you all as well. So it's a good job that Anode came up with a fantastic idea that we wanted to run by you." Tungsten squeezed Anode's hand where it rested on the table.
Anode's cables shifted as she set about explaining, "Well, our travel arrangements had to be fairly quick - we're trying to get back to Mars before a suddenly announced Aldev competition later this year. We were planning to take a cycler back but they're too slow to make it. So we were thinking about taking a Charter."
"A Charter?" I asked, unfamiliar with space travel terms. I only knew cycler because of my time on the Promise of Sol.
"An on-demand spaceship," explained Sarkona, "Faster than cyclers but far less efficient. You could take one to anywhere in the system."
"Right," continued Anode, "Except I got talking to Gatecrash and I realized that would be stupid, because Gatecrash is going out that way anyway."
It was Gatecrash's turn to explain now. "I've told you all that I've been planning on spending some time at the edge of the system - well, for the last two months I've been working on my own ship - the Boiling Point. I'm ready to go - I've got all my spacing modifications ready and everything! But if I'm going that way anyway, I may as well take Tungsten and Anode with me - it'd be nice to have some company for the first leg of the journey."
"So we got to thinking," continued Anode, "Is there anyone else who might want to come along? Which brings us to today - we're asking you. Do you want to come along?"
"To Mars?!" I asked, dumbfounded.
"Yes, why not?" replied Anode, "Who better to show you around than me and Tungsten? The offer's open to all of you."
"Regolith is coming too," added Tungsten, "He has some business of his own on Mars."
The suddeness of the offer had taken me by surprise. At some level, I'd made the connection that people travelled to other worlds fairly frequently nowadays - but to actually be able to do it myself? I hadn't quite made that leap yet. The idea was infectious though - the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. There was still a great deal to learn about Earth, but in a way, wasn't that always going to be true? This could be a great chance - to travel with my friends, learn more about their culture, and see something that I'd never dreamed possible.
"Yes," I said surprising myself with how quickly the answer had come to me, "I'd love to come along."
Sarkona's face lit up in delight from where they were sat next to me, "In that case, I'm in too! I can't mentor Nat if you're on another planet to me."
I looked over to Antonia, whose bright expression had dampened a little. "I'm sorry," she said, "But I feel like I just got back from Mars. I'll miss you all, but I think I want to stay here for now."
"We'll miss you too," said Tungsten, cocking his head slightly.
"Sometimes I forget how young you all are," Sarkona said, "You'll see each other again before you know it!"
Antonia nodded sheepishly and looked across at me. I remembered what Gatecrash had said about goodbyes - with the extended lifespans of everyone in the solar system, did they truly get easier with age?
"So what do we have to do?" I asked, "Is there anything that I need to prepare?"
"We're leaving next month," said Tungsten, "On the 16th. Just meet us in Anchor and we'll head to the Boiling Point from there. Apart from that, I'm sure Sarkona can talk you through the basics?"
"Absolutely," said Sarkona, "Gatecrash, I'll let you know our travel needs? Seeing as you didn't have any humans on the crew until now."
"Don't worry about mass - just let me know what you need," replied Gatecrash, "The Boiling Point is extremely overengineered. Blaise helped with the design."
The excited chatter continued as everyone began to talk about the trip. Antonia's sadness at our departure was quickly replaced with her enthusiastic recommendations of places to visit on Mars. I could understand why she'd chosen to stay. We'd met at the end of her long trip back to Earth from Mars. For her, that trip hadn't ended that long ago - and knowing Antonia, she'd probably missed the green, open spaces of Earth in her time away.
Even knowing that, I wished that she was coming with us.