CHAPTER 45
ICARUS
WHAT’S GOING ON?
Icarus remained with Atlas and Ship after the rest of the crew left.
After Icarus spent a bit of time talking to other locals, he wanted to join Atlas on this rediscovering journey. He wanted to encounter his world through the same eyes he’d used to explore the alien world—through eyes of nonjudgment and curiosity. In order to accomplish that, Icarus and his Ship changed their appearances. Icarus changed his avatar away from his recognizable duck to what he’d looked like before becoming a simulation—not that many people knew what he’d looked like before. And Ship changed his appearance to be that of a middle-aged man.
He had one of the eleph-ANTs secretly move his matrix to Atlas’s RV, too. That way, he was able to be more present, rather than hopping around through the Starnet satellites around the planet. He was able to be confined, mostly, to a robotic avatar.
He still streamed into universities and lecture halls to give his talks, but they were becoming less common as he began to lose interest in sharing the same story over and over again.
“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” Icarus said as Atlas and both of their Ships touched down in the very center of the glass ring.
This was the only section of Titan that wasn’t covered by anything. Entering that space gave a completely unobstructed view of the galaxy.
It was quite a popular destination for travelers because it gave the people of Titan some of the best views on the planet.
Up in the sky was a clear view of the gas giant they orbited around. And below it was a view out into space. Once a rotation, there was a clear view of the star in the center of the system.
This was the only location on the ring where light wasn’t reflected off large mirrors to create an illusion of a natural twenty-four-hour night-and-day cycle. People in this section of the ring understood the world that they were on to the fullest.
It was quite common for people who visited the section of the ring to report feeling so small. They reported realizing how small they were. Seeing the fact they were in orbit around a massive gas giant often gave visitors the feeling that their problems didn’t matter. And it also showed people how far humanity had come, no longer confined to living on a rock ball the size of a planet.
Everyone on Titan intellectually knew this was the single biggest planetary construction humanity had ever completed. But they often forgot that because it was designed in a way to hide that. Titan had mirrors creating a consistent day-night cycle. It even used centrifugal force to create a feeling of gravity. These and many more factors hid the fact it was essentially a very long tube, wrapped around a very large planet near the center of a solar system.
Coming inside the glass ring made all of that very clear.
“The glass is so clear. How often is it cleaned?” the Ship of Atlas asked as they walked out of the RV and began moving toward the small crowd of people also taking in the view.
Icarus shrugged because he didn’t have a clue.
The four of them walked in silence as Icarus admired everything in front of them. It really was magical. He was standing on top of a glass wall and could see out to space from all angles. He’d built this planet and hadn’t really explored it like this before. As he looked up, he watched the way the curved glass magnified the gas giant above. He watched as the reds and blues swirled and mixed together. It almost looked like a marble—only it was moving. The shapes and hues changed, albeit slowly. Icarus thought about it some more; it was probably one of the five wonders of the universe. No other planet, even in Ange’s worlds, had a view like this.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Icarus was so engrossed in what he was looking at he didn’t notice people approaching them.
“Can I get your autograph?” one of the male strangers who was walking by said to Atlas.
Then Icarus realized it was a small family. There was a husband and wife, and they both had young girls on their shoulders. Maybe one was three, and the other couldn’t be much older than one.
At that very moment, Icarus was glad he’d changed his avatar so that no one would recognize him. Not that he didn’t want to be kind to his people. He just wanted to enjoy the view and wanted to stay deep in his contemplation.
“Of course,” Atlas said, grabbing a pen out of his pocket. He began writing on the little postcard that had Atlas’s face on it. “Who should I write this out to?”
“My name’s Aaron, this is my wife, Shannon, and our two girls, Hailie and Ariana.”
Atlas bit his lower lip and started to write.
Icarus was impressed. Atlas had taken the time to write a very long and kind message to this little family. He hoped they really appreciated it.
“Do you mind if we grab a photo?” the woman, Shannon, asked.
Atlas nodded.
When Icarus went to move away from the photo, Atlas grabbed his arm as if to say, You’re in the photo, too, and you need to remove the avatar.
Icarus obliged, and as the photo was being taken, he used the hapticgraphic projectors to change the look of his and Ship’s avatars back.
The family didn’t notice, so Icarus worried he hadn’t done it right.
Icarus’s fears were quickly quashed when, two minutes later, he heard a scream of joy from the family when they were about twenty meters away—evidently studying the photos and realizing whom they’d met.
Icarus winked at them as they turned around and waved.
“Did you ever consider building a weapon?” Icarus asked Atlas. “Or did you rule it out as soon as Peter asked you?”
“Are you talking about a weapon to fight the Atua?”
Icarus nodded. He was genuinely curious about Atlas’s thinking. He wasn’t one of the people abducted by the alien spacecraft, so he didn’t have the negative feelings toward them like the others did.
“I seriously considered building one. I even had a few ideas of using micro–black holes to increase the power of a laser so much that we could destroy a planet in one go.” Icarus moved his head away from the view out into space and began looking at the people around him. “Then I began talking to strangers and realized it wouldn’t be the person we attacked that I would be hurting. It would be the ordinary aliens. They would have been the ones that my weapons would hurt. I don’t want to hurt people.” Then Atlas paused for a moment and almost whispered, “And I don’t buy Peter’s argument that it would only be a deterrent. Eventually someone would use it.”
Icarus nodded; he thought the same really. It was a genie that couldn’t be put back in a bottle. Not that it was probably going to stop humans from building a weapon if humanity and the Atua did ever get into a small battle. But if Atlas built it, he would somewhat feel responsible if it was ever used.
There was a collective aw from everyone around them as people began to stare up into the air and point.
Icarus followed their gazes.
There was a massive hunk of metal floating above them. It looked jagged, as if it had been ripped out of something larger, as if a large metal tree had been pulled clean out of the ground and all its roots were still intact. Icarus couldn’t really put his finger on what he was looking at. It was so huge, yet so wrong. It didn’t make sense. They wouldn’t have a spacecraft traveling this close to the rings.
“Isn’t that one of our defensive turrets?” Ship asked pointing at the megalithic object.
Then it clicked to Icarus. It was. This was one of the large weapons strategically placed around the ring. These were built into the structure in such a way that they would never be able to fire on the ring itself. It was a safety protocol that meant even if their weapons were somehow hacked, they’d never be able to hurt themselves.
Icarus wasn’t involved in the maintenance or security of the planet anymore. So he wondered if they were cleaning it. But then why would it look like that?
Icarus looked closer and saw there were hundreds of small eleph-ANTs and probes all with wire connections to the ship pulling it and moving it around.
“Icarus,” his Ship began saying. “Did you get a message?”
“No.” Icarus had turned off all his external communication devices. He wanted to be completely present in the moment. “Why’s that?”
“I received several urgent messages from the president and the military leaders asking for our location. If I’m understanding this correctly, the Atua contacted them and threatened to destroy the Rings of Titan if they don’t hand you and me over to them within thirty minutes.” Ship paused for a moment. “I only just turned my phone on now. These messages were from fifty minutes ago.”