I gathered my courage and called Kathi. She spoke to Dreiser. We suited up and went out on the surface. Chimborazo was immense; the furrow of regolith it ploughed before itself was close to the science unit. The Smudge ring was covered in a layer of grit.
Chimborazo towered over us, ridged and immeasurable. A fearful wind blew. I remember the date. It was the second day of Month One of the year 2072.
Then came the noise, a call of some kind, like bugles and cellos combined.
The three of us stood our ground. The mighty thing reared up. We had a glimpse of pronged exteroceptors and a kind of mucus curtain. From the curtain shot a pale stalk, perhaps like an elephant’s trunk, withered in appearance, with a mouth and labia, moist, at its end. This strange protrusion penetrated the ring.
Again the trumpet note of triumph. I gripped Kathi’s hand. Liquid surged. Dreiser said faintly, ‘Amniotic fluid!’
The enormous creature seemed to back away and settle down. It became motionless.
On the churned regolith lay a thing resembling a small boulder. I went forward and lifted it with ease. It was comparatively light. As I carried it in my arms into the science unit, the thing began to open up.
After billions of years, Chimborazo had managed to reproduce itself, pumping both male and female cells into the receptive fluid…
So the great yearning for Utopia spread on Earth. It brought about revolution first of all in Europe, that fertile ground of so many past upheavals. Was it Chimborazo’s influence that made us unite as one, as never before? Be that as it may, we must believe we achieved Utopia of our own volition. We must believe in free will and the strength of will.
Now my daughter Alpha lives far away from me, while I myself am even further from Earth than Mars is. She has a man and a child, so her life is fruitful and, I suppose, happy. I will never see her again, or embrace her, or kiss her little daughter.
At least it is a consolation to know she will enjoy the promises of what to me is the inaccessible future.