Old Mars

“The cities were the repository of memories,” she said. “Somehow you all lived together—the living and the dead. Past and present in tandem. No wonder we couldn’t understand. It was too much, so we interpreted it as music.”

He nodded his long, thin head. “So many of us are lost. The voices of the ancestors, ground to dust by you rushing children.”

“We didn’t understand,” Tilda said. “But Miyako became the bridge, didn’t she?”

“And you and your father listened.”

Tilda looked over at Noel-Pa. “But I’d like to take my father home now.”

“Body and spirit are separated. And yours is not the call he will answer.”

Tilda woke, scrambled out of bed, and ran to her father’s room.

“That’s crazy. You want to drag a sick man out into those ruins?” Daddy-Kane said.

“I’m sorry, I have to agree with your dad.” Ali gestured at the bed. “He’s getting weaker by the hour. The move might kill him.”

“Right now he’s dying by inches. Isn’t he?” she demanded of Ali. He hesitated, then gave a slow nod. She turned back to Kane. “Please, Daddy. What have we got to lose? I’m telling you, he’s gone to the city. Like Miyako. He doesn’t think there’s anything to come back to. You have to convince him, lead him home.”

Kane chewed at his lower lip. Looked over at the bed. The sheet seemed to barely rise and fall over Noel’s chest. He looked to Ali, who just shrugged helplessly.

“I don’t think there’s anything more I can do.”

Kane slowly said, “My mom heard the music. She wanted to die in the Martian city, but Dad wouldn’t hear of it. She begged me to help her, but I took his side. He took her to Lowell City. To the hospital.” It was a confession as raw as acid.

“Don’t take his side this time,” Tilda pleaded. “Noel-Pa doesn’t have to die. He just needs a reason to live. Please, Daddy.”

For a breathless second, it hung in the balance, then Daddy-Kane jumped up and grabbed Noel’s envirosuit. With Tilda’s and Ali’s help, they got him dressed. Kane lifted Noel into his arms.

“My dad’s forbidden anyone to go into the city. You’ve got to cover for us, okay?” Kane asked the young man.

“You got it.”

Determining that Stephen was in the orchard dome, they hurried to the garage and the crawlers. As they rolled across the dry lake bed, a dust plume rose like a phoenix’s tail behind them. Then they were at the city, and a wide boulevard stretched before them.

“Is there someplace in particular we’re going?” Daddy-Kane asked.

“Yes.” Tilda was staring intently through the front windshield. “I know the way.”

The walls of the buildings gave back the echo of the crawler’s big engine, and the ever-present Martian wind sighed and whispered through the streets. A flash of movement had Tilda’s head jerking around, but it was only a dust devil. Slowly, an overlay of the memory city formed over the ruins. She could see the gaily dressed crowds, the streamers and kites dancing in the wind, the rainbow hues of the towers. The music was all around her.

“Jesus Christ!” Daddy-Kane muttered. “Is that …? I hear it.”

She guided them down now-familiar turns and streets, until the temple stood before them. “Up there. We need to take him up there.”

Ozymandias was on the top step. When Tilda climbed out of the crawler, he gave her a slow nod and vanished.

Kane gathered Noel in his arms, and the trio climbed the steep, high steps. Inside, the swirling patterns on the walls were faded and broken in places, and sand gritted beneath their boots.

The music was like a river roaring past them, breaking like a prism into visions of alien lives and memories. Her father looked down at her, his face tense behind the helmet’s faceplate. “I can barely think. I don’t know what to do.”

“Call him back. Tell him … you know what to tell him.”

Kane nodded, knelt, and placed Noel on the floor of the temple. Then, taking Noel’s gloved hand in his, he said softly, “Wake up, honey.” Noel moaned and stirred slightly.

This is going to work, Tilda exalted.

Her ScoopRing chimed, a dissonant note in the Martian song. She wanted to ignore it, but its insistent clamor was starting to shatter the melody. She answered. It was Ali.