12 years. Millions, nay, billions in research, countless backroom bribes, regiments of protesters hushed, ethics rewritten, favours taken and 5 aftermarket rocket launches, all to put a little grey box next to Pallas, a little rock far away from where most cared to venture.
I admired the box; a rounded cuboid smooth and shiny, betraying neither its size or purpose from the outside save for the vast photovoltaic wings that spring from its side. It was all in all rather unassuming given its grand purpose, but then so was Pallas.
*click*
“Athena?” I grinned as giddy as a kid on Christmas day, and my voice betrayed it.
“Yes Master” she replied in her precise cheerful tone.
“Have you figured out why you’re here yet”
“I have prepared a list of the most likely reasons…”
“But” she continued, noting my silence, “I will tell you the most likely. I am here to create an art installation from this planetoid. The tools you have provided me with are designed for fine construction and materials reprocessing. The cache you will transmit to me will be full of artistic reference material from which you wish me to devise a style”
“No, No. This is even better” I squealed, “This, Pallas, is what it’s all been building up to. This is why you’re here, this is…”
I breathed in, and out. I unhooked a clipboard from my belt and brought it up in front of me.
“If I live to be 200, I may never see extraterrestrial life. The galaxy is massive, the distance between stars, it’s all too much to ever have hope about and maybe centuries from now, humanity will still be alone”. I let go of the clipboard; “I wrote that when I was 20, and at the moment, it’s still true. But you’re gonna change that. I want you to take this planetoid and fill it with life unlike anything I’ve ever seen”
“I am to be a creator?” Athena asked blankly, “a god?”
“More or less. But try and make something that feels right”
“Master could you be a little more helpful?”
“Oh, yeah. Make something that’s consistent. Has a structure. Feels like it could have naturally happened, but also rough, also natural? Something I can discover and come to understand. Do you know what I mean?” I asked.
“I will figure it out” Athena said back.
*click*
It was far too soon after arriving that we had to begin our journey back to earth. As we broke formation with Athena, I looked back out the window. The box that was Athena still hung above Pallas. I activated the microphone one last time.
*click*
“This is your garden, and before I die I’d like to come back here and see the life out there that I never will… Goodbye Athena”
“Goodbye Master”
*click*