The Pillars of the Sky

Around the edge of the crater plain, just before the land starts to rise, there are 101 chunks of crumbled vertical rock like this:

Or like this:

Most are between 50 and 150m high, though there’s a huge one in the middle of the plain by the Central Peaks that’s nearly 400m even though it’s just a broken shard.

They’re all broken, of course. They were never anything else. They would never have stood high enough to hold up a skydome over Copernicus without breaking under their own weight, and the dome would have fallen to pieces anyway, if it was made of anything that pre-Expansion humans could have got hold of.

Being around Carys has got me quite used to symbolism. And one of the things that the artist is saying here is clearly that our ancestors could not have done this, configured as they were. The people of the Moon might have respectfully rebuilt their world in the image of the dreams of Medieval and Industrial humans, but the result is no more reflective of that distant time than the people themselves are.

No-one and nothing is human any more.

Rick had a go at explaining it to me as we walked across the hard stone plains between the pillars. ‘The Company is huge. Everyone in the system is part of it, one way or another. We’re all – together. One mind, one purpose. I miss that here.’

Naomi said, ‘We’re not built to be human-scale entities. Not for long. You saw the problems we were having with Rick. I can keep things under control for a while but not indefinitely. If we’re separated beings we might have – disagreements. Arguments. Fighting, even. And that’s a part of the human heritage we’ve had to – remove, in order to survive.’

‘What about me?’

Naomi kicked at a loose white stone. ‘Well, you are what you are. We have to follow the rules.’

Later it started to rain, and we rejoined the Art Trail as it climbed the escarpment. Ava took my hand. ‘I did tell you that you’d be alone,’ she said. ‘Naomi – or – or me, we can look after you for a while, but – like you said, you’ll have to follow your own path.’ She paused. Her head was bowed forward. She was wearing a bright magenta jacket and the rain was dripping off the hood, slow drops falling to the stones of the path. ‘It’s – kind of weird here, for us. There are so many people and things that go back so far. It’s more than one thing. But it’s a good place for you to grow, to, well, become whatever you need to be.’

‘But you said you enjoyed looking after me.’

‘Yes, I do! But – we made…’ Her face twisted. ‘A collective decision.’

‘As one person,’ said Carys. I hadn’t noticed him walking up behind us.

‘So you’re a Company…?’

‘We split up again,’ said Ava hastily. ‘But I have a bit more of the medical support Knowing now. In case I need it.’

‘It’s your decision,’ added Carys. ‘You can have Naomi, or Ava – or me, if you like. But only one of us.’

I turned to Ava. ‘I don’t know that much about ancient history. But I’m sure five people can live together for a few years without starting a war.’

Ava just stared at me and silently shook her head.

The water on my face suddenly became a little bit warm, there was salt on my lips, and I realised that I was crying.