The Start of Eternity/The Last Gardener

"...mankind is ever going over a mountain." -Henry David Thoreau

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
...the ridiculous romantic literature that is popular on the Moon: silly tales of imagined civilizations on Earth.

Moon Henge
Some people say that the city pyrotorium is built over a lava tube and that everyone's ashes fall down into the same dark hole, no matter which Henge you have selected. Of course, another legend says that there is a frozen cometary nucleus down below the city foundation where there is what remains of a great glob of water, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia that was used to blast out the cavity within which the city dome was constructed. I don't mind the idea that a little bit of Torkten will now be sucked up every time someone needs to tap that store of light atoms.

There was no crowd on hand when Torkten went down to whatever is down there. If there is ever some future age when people care, let it be known that the skydisk cult's Henge was used. I've always liked the dramatic burst of radiance emitted by that Henge. Me and two robots were the only ones there to see that last spark of Torkten. Our people had long since forgotten about the entire Earth Garden project, so nobody even noticed when to came to an end.

In any case, I'm sure he would have complained bitterly had he known that his bones would some day be dug up and brought back to his birth place. Torkten certainly thought of himself as an earthling. So, you ask, how did it come about that his last wishes were not respected? Okay, I owe an accounting of my actions to posterity.

Earth Garden
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