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When Mateo returned to the timeline the next year, his little ship was
sitting on Earth’s moon. It was absolutely not unheard of for an unmanned
vessel to show up like that, so no one questioned it. They would have
scanned it for threats, then left it alone on the dock. It was particularly
believable since it came from Varkas Reflex, where a lot of people no longer
had physical bodies. Even if it was from elsewhere, some people lived
exactly like that, in their ship’s core memory, with no physical body. He
fit right in.
Mateo teleported out of the vessel, and to the middle of space, where he
continued to teleport until he was back on Earth, hopefully having never
been detected by any sensors. He was now where Topeka once stood. Through
the dense canopy of the forest, the nearest arcology rose into the sky.
Instead of teleporting there too, he decided to go the rest of the way on
foot. Once he passed through the treeline, he saw that there was something
different about it. It was much smaller than a normal megastructure. Giant
cranebots were either assembling it or disassembling it. No, they were
definitely disassembling it. He looked around for someone to query about
this, but saw no one.
He jumped to Kansas City instead, where he found a normal tripod, still
standing at full attention in the woods. It felt different, though. He
couldn’t explain it. It was sort of quieter, maybe? He walked inside, and up
to the information kiosk. “Hello. I was just in Topeka, but before that, I
was off-world for centuries. They were taking one of the arcologies apart.
What can you tell me about that?”
The man smiled, and it did look like an organic man, but there was no way to
know these days without asking, which might have been rude. “The global
population is decreasing. If you have returned to the homeworld for a
permanent stay, you are in the minority. People are leaving. Many are going
to Varkas Reflex, still more to Castlebourne. Others go to Gatewood to start
their own colonies wherever.”
“And are we happy about this, or sad?” Mateo pressed.
“A bit of both, the informer replied. “It’s the end of an era. Earth was
once all there was, of course. Are you old enough to remember that?”
“Vividly,” Mateo answered. “I was born in 1986.”
“Ah. I was born in 1985. Respect your elder, son,” he joked. “Well, it’s
bittersweet, but many look back and see this as inevitable. Once we decided
to rewild our lands, there was no stopping it. What relative few buildings
are left take up space where wildlife cannot grow. The footprint is small,
but not zero. Each one taken down adds a slight amount of life back into the
world. Pushing those boundaries is an enticing proposition. What if we
removed all human presence? What if we returned Earth to the way it
was millions of years ago? We’re not specifically trying to go that
extreme, but again, a lot of people think it’s trending towards that,
whether we like it or not. We still boast the greatest population in the
galaxy, but we may not be able to say that forever.”
Mateo looked around the atrium. “It will become a museum. Your population
will never reach zero. The lower it goes, the more people will want to come
here to see such a low-populated Earth. Which will defeat the purpose, so
they’ll leave. Back and forth.”
The informer smiled again. “Like Gaia breathing.”
“Like Gaia breathing,” Mateo echoed in agreement.
“Matt!” he heard Leona’s voice call up to him from behind.
He turned around. “Hello, love. Sorry I had to go.”
Leona caught up to him. “It’s not just you. Romana is leaving too.”
Mateo nodded solemnly. “I thought she might. Is she here too?”
“I’m not even here. I projected my hologram from home. You need to
come back.”
“I can’t go alone,” Mateo reasoned. “I only have one, uhh...” He realized
the informer was listening to them, so he couldn’t finish that sentence.
Leona nodded. “Rambo had trouble tracking you, so we sent out a remote
search party, which led us to VR, which led us to Loa, who told us where you
went, so we started another search for you on Earth. Now here I am. Three of
us will come get you.”
“Thanks. I love you, and I’m sorry.” He turned back. “Thank you too.”
The informer gently shut his eyes and nodded his head respectfully.
Mateo went outside to a secluded part of the woods. Marie, Olimpia, and
Ramses appeared hours later, but not through a sling portal. They simply
materialized, which suggested that they went somewhere else first. He chose
not to ask about it, in case they were mad. He synced his slingdrive with
theirs, and they all went back to Ramosus.
Romana had gathered everyone in the lab already, so they stepped out of the
slingdrive chamber, and took a seat with the others. Well, Mateo stayed
standing.
“I spoke with Loa,” Romana began. “I know where Boyd is.”
“Did you try to reconnect with him?” Mateo asked her.
“No. She would not have let me, and I probably shouldn’t,” Romana went on.
“I’m not going to apologize or tell you that I regret what I did. Perhaps
one day I will, but not today, and not here. I have to leave. There are too
many hard feelings right now. Things spiraled quickly, and I definitely
regret that at least. We were a team, and I put that all at risk.
Don’t...interrupt, please. That’s how I feel, and I don’t think I can get
better around you. If I try to stay and repair things now, I fear it will
only be duct tape.
“The distance is what will bring us back. Distance in space, and in time. I
will be back. I don’t know when, but I don’t wanna leave you forever, and I
need you to believe that, because it’s true. I’m angry and hurt, but not
bitter. Some of the blame belongs to you, some to our various opponents, and
of course, I’m responsible for a great deal of it.”
“Where will you go?” Mateo asked. “Sorry if you’ve already answered that.”
“Earth, actually. When Ramses was there, he installed a forge core at an
undisclosed location, which will generate a mirror slinglab for us. This
will allow anyone to go back and forth without having to be in an array. But
I won’t be sticking around the lab. I may not even stay on Earth for very
long, and I don’t want any of you to follow. I don’t want you to try to
convince me to come home, or even just look out for me. I want to be alone.
I have to be alone. I hope you understand, especially you, dad.”
Mateo nodded. He obviously understood why she couldn’t stay here after all
this. When she said she would be back, she probably meant it, but would she
still feel the same way tomorrow? A week from now? Years into the future?
Was this the last time they would see her? “I won’t argue or stop you, I
really won’t. You can’t ghost us, though. We need to know that you’re okay.
You don’t have to check in every single day—that would be way too much—but
we do need proof of life, periodically. Can you do that?”
Romana smiled sadly and nodded. “I can do that. Maybe once a week.”
“Thank you,” Mateo said graciously. “If you need a ship, I left one on the
moon.” He handed her his dock token. “I love you. If you can’t say that
back right—”
“I love you,” Romana interrupted. “I love all of you. We’ll get through
this. I promise.” After hugging them one by one, she stepped into the
slingdrive chamber and nodded at Ramses. Once he finished tapping on his
console, she disappeared.
“Did you tag her as we discussed,” Leona asked, “so we can always find her?”
Ramses took a very long time to respond. “No.”
