The Complex was near the center of the desert. The old concrete buildings were crumbling from decades of sand and harsh sun. Some of them were inhabited—it was hard to tell which ones.
Sam looked out the window. A piece of trash blew past, and he saw one person walking down the street a few blocks away. That was it.
I wonder how many people still live here.
Probably not many. Most of them had moved to nicer places years earlier. He’d seen someone at the resupply station the other day, and it might have been the same person he was seeing now.
It could be just the two of us left.
The building he lived in was empty, yet it was still his job to maintain its infrastructure. So he did, for some reason. The automatic trains still brought supplies, for some reason. The Complex was still here, for some reason.
He looked out another window—out at the park. The park was located just above a natural aquifer, which supplied barely enough water for some unkempt grasses and weeds. Those were the only green things for miles around.
Then, up in the sky, he saw a cloud.
Wait.
That wasn’t a cloud. It was an airship.
The airship landed gently in the park. Two people got out, carrying a little vehicle—a wind-powered cart with a clay pot in the middle. There was a tiny plant growing in the clay pot, with a glass dome over it to protect it.
They set the vehicle on the ground. The wind blew. The vehicle twitched but didn’t move.
So they took it back inside. One of them went into the engine room and returned with a toolbox.
After making a few adjustments, they went outside again.
The area was pretty well abandoned at this point, and everyone left in the Complex had lost their sense of curiosity years earlier. So the airship crew were alone. Just them, their machines, and the crumbling buildings.
They set the vehicle down on the sidewalk and let it run a little ways.
A while later, they tested it again. Each time it worked a little better.
A few days later the vehicle made its first successful test run. It made it all the way to the end of the park.
So they started building another one.
And another one.
And another one.
They flew on after ten days, leaving a herd of the tiny machines behind them.
The Complex seemed silent and empty now that the airship was gone.
But then the wind blew. Hesitantly, the vehicles started to move. Some of them rolled straight out into the desert, climbing dunes and crossing valleys. Others rolled around the Complex, down sun-baked streets and over cracked concrete.
And one of them fell into a hole and broke apart. Sam found it a short while later. Its plant had just blossomed—the flower was smaller than his fingernail.
So he picked up the pot and carried it into the building.
For the first time in his life, he felt a sense of peace.
What's Real:
- Wind-powered mechanical robots exist. Artist Theo Jansen has built several, known as Strandbeests. NASA is also currently studying the possibility of sending a wind-powered mechanical robot to Venus.
- Airships are real—they’re not used much anymore, but they could potentially become more popular in the future. They’re often called “blimps,” but this term actually refers specifically to lighter-than-air vehicles that have no rigid support structure. They’re also sometimes called “dirigibles,” which means “steerable.” A dirigible can be steered, unlike a balloon which simply drifts with the wind.
- Research shows that houseplants have a variety of positive effects on human psychology.
References:
The March of the Strandbeests. Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 2011. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/09/05/the-march-of-the-strandbeests
A Clockwork Rover for Venus. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2017. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/a-clockwork-rover-for-venus/
Introduction to the Aerodynamics of Flight: Aeronautical Nomenclature. NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office, 1975. https://history.nasa.gov/SP-367/appenda.htm
Health and Well-Being Benefits of Plants. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. https://ellisonchair.tamu.edu/health-and-well-being-benefits-of-plants/