12 Days of Fiction 2018, Day Five
An Interview With Primus, Part V
Something keeps nagging at me. My instinct tells me Primus is hiding something. Is he lying, or just not telling me all the truth?
“Why now? Is it only because the technology wasn’t ready? I feel that’s not all there is to it.”
“Well seen, Ms Vonn. I told you I thought you were the best. Indeed there is more. You asked me before why am I here, why am I still the director. I told you that, in part, it is because this is my home.”
“Yes.”
“Well, there arrives a moment when you have to leave your home. Start a new life.”
Another surprise.
“Are you leaving then? Retiring? I have to say, that doesn’t seem fit in with what you’ve told me so far.”
“You misunderstand me. We are leaving, all of us.”
“All of you? Leaving? But… where? Star City is your home, you built it…”
“The planet, Ms Vonn. We are leaving the planet. We are going to reach for the stars.”
My assistant floods me with new data. All the astronautical projects that the ahumans have sponsored, all the advancements in materials science, all the breakthroughs in energy production in the last three centuries.
“Allow me,” Primus says, and a holographic display appears. It’s interactive, and my assistant latches on to it immediately. I can see everything.
“You… you, Primus, have been working on this… forever.”
“Humans are explorers. We always have been. Something has always been pushing us, edging us forward, making us seek new frontiers and breaking them. We spread throughout land, then sea, and then air and conquered them, to the point of almost ruining our planet. We leaped out to space, and then we found the greatest barrier.”
Primus speaks. I know what he says because my assistant is recording, but I am watching the display in front of me. It looks like a science fiction story, but I now this is real.
“The distances are called astronomical for a reason. Storytellers have always invented ways to travel interstellar distances, but science is stubborn, and refuses to give. I’m not saying that, perhaps in the far future, we won’t be able to find some means of transport we haven’t thought of, or of producing energy so efficiently that it allows us to travel between the stars. But for the moment, all we have is this.”
He points at the display.
“We call it Traveller. Originally it was an asteroid, one of the family of Near Earth Objects that have orbits close to our planet’s.”
“Asteroid minery. That’s why you sponsored that.”
“Yes. Traveller is now hollow and rotating, giving us artificial gravity. It is our fully furnished O’Neill cylinder. We have installed engines.”
“And that is why you pushed for safe nuclear fusion.”
“Yes.”
The display opens, and it lets me explore the Traveller’s interior. I see the dwellings, the trees, the animals, the artificial sun. There are lakes and even clouds.
Then it dawns on me.
“You… You ahumans have been responsible for human advancement in the last centuries.”
“Directly or indirectly, yes.”
“So… You have been guiding the human race.”
“Yes.”
“Why? Who gave you permission to do that? Who died and let you play god?”
“I am sorry. Playing god was never my intention. I simply had this idea, and worked toward it. In my way, I recruited the other ahumans. And we also managed to achieve some of the greatest improvements in science and technology along the way.”
“And now you leave? Your work done?”
“We are leaving, yes. It’s what we all want. Consensus. We have everything we need aboard Traveller, as you can see. We can endure an interstellar travel of any length, but we’re aiming for the Alpha Centauri first. It should not take much longer than twenty-five years, but we can also just let our minds rest for long period of time if we need to.”
Primus makes a gesture encompassing his office and the whole of the city.
“We are leaving all of this behind, for all of you. You can use it as you see fit. All our files will be open. Our companies, our factories, our laboratories, will be yours.”
“When do you leave?”
“Now, Ms Vonn.”
As I look through the windows of Primus’ office, I can see plumes of smoke rising from below.
Spaceships. Nobody ever really understood why Star City was given that name, or located exactly on the Equatorial line. Now I do.
“I must bid you farewell now, Ms Vonn. Please follow the indications I’ve given to your assistant to find your way out.”
I see the door of a private lift slid open. It’s not the same I used when I arrived. Primus turns around before leaving.
“I am sorry if I have disappointed you, Ms Vonn. I just wanted someone to tell this story.”
