Chapter 10: The Pursuit of a Dream

“Those… those people were my great great grandparents,” Celia murmured, her voice filled with awe and wonder as the holographic video displaying Alto’s memories closed.

“Really?” Alto asked, “come to think of it, I never asked for your name.”

“It’s Celia,” she answered, “Celia Reiss.”

“Reiss…” Alto murmured, “I suppose that does make them your great great grandparents then. It's no wonder why you remind me of them, especially Amelie.

Celia blushed, unsure of how she should feel about being compared to an ancestor from a long time ago.

“Well then, Celia,” Alto continued, “I’m curious to know if you share the same ambitions as them as well. Do you also dream about creating rockets and accomplishing space missions?”

“All the time!” she blurted out without thinking, “all the time… but… I don’t think I can…”

“I see,” Alto said, “then it seems the both of them were right; that in the far future people born with the talent and passion to go to space will be held back by the options presented to them.”

Celia frowned. She didn’t like hearing an outside observation at her situation, but she knew he was right.

Alto gave her a gentle pat on the back after seeing her sad expression.

“Let me ask you a question” Alto said, “if you were given the opportunity to pursue your dreams of going to space, would you take it?”

She looked up at him with a puzzled face.

“Why do you ask?” she inquired.

“Because I’m giving you an opportunity right now,” he said, “I am an Autonomous Lunar Terrain Observer. Not only am I created to explore the moon, but I’m also equipped with all the training and features an astronaut needs. You’re an engineer correct? As long as you can build a rocket, I am more than capable of taking it to space.”

Celia’s expression grew solemn again. She knew that. The same idea had occurred to her when Alto had revealed what his purpose was, but just like before, she still had reservations about the idea.

“That expression tells me that you’re not sure,” Alto points out, “can you tell me what’s making you so uncertain about all of this?”

“Well… first off it’s illegal,” she pointed out.

“You’re afraid to break the law?” he asked, “then what were you doing in the landfills? Isn’t that a restricted zone?” 

Celia died a little on the inside.

“...How did you know?” she sheepishly asked.

“It was in my memory drives,” he reminded her, “the landfills are a restricted zone; it was why Alaric chose that place to hide me. He said that if someone was brave enough to sneak into a restricted area to find me, then they should at the very least not care about the law to some extent. You’re the type of person to break rules that you don’t agree with, right?”

Celia pursed lips in a guilty expression before silently nodding her head.

“Not to a great extent, but generally yeah…” she murmured.

“Great!” Alto exclaimed, “we can work on that, but for now, what else are you worried about?”

“What about funding?” she asked, “there’s no way building a rocket is cheap, even if we can synthesize materials nowadays. It’s not like we can synthesize large chunks of metals either, and we still need to pay the synthesizer for the resources it takes. Plus, where would we even build the rocket? We need a whole launch pad, and a place to store fuel and multiple operating systems and stuff to make the rocket launch.”

Alto thinks for a bit, trying to come up with a solution.

“Well nobody said that launching a rocket would be quick,” Alto shrugged, “it will take some time but we can figure it out. If we can find an old space center, that’s half of our problems gone. The real problem lies in creating the rocket.”

Creating a rocket huh? I can probably figure that out… she thinks to herself as she clenched her fists to try to ease her nerves, This entire conversation feels illegal to have… but still, the idea is exciting… it’s not like I want to be a general robotics engineer for the rest of my life… I might as well try something while I’m at it right…? Or maybe I’m just being lured into starting my criminal career…

“All of this seems like a lot of work…” she said, “plus it’s only going to be the two of us.”

“And we’re never going to find more if we give up here,” Alto countered, “your dream isn’t just launching a rocket into space isn’t it? You also wish to see the space program come back as well right? I’m sure there’s plenty of people out there who feel the same way as you, never realizing their dreams and ambitions because they feel like no one else is on their side. Well I’m telling you right now that I’m on your side, and you need to pick up that torch and pass that hope along to other people as well. Show them that they are also not alone in their pursuit of going to space. Your great great grandparents’ biggest regret was letting the space program fail. Don’t let that become yours too.”

Celia stood there dumbfounded, surprised that Alto was even capable of saying such things.

I guess repairing his memory drives must’ve brought back his older self that I saw in the memory... He’s a lot more talkative now and he asks a lot more questions… she thought to herself, taking note of his changes.

Still, she felt unsure about all of this. A part of her worried that she would fail, and failure meant big consequences. She could go to prison for years and be barred from obtaining an engineering license.

For most of her life, she had told herself that she would be content with just being able to engineer small things if she couldn’t build a rocket, but if her engineering license was revoked then she wouldn’t even have that. There would be nothing in her life to look forward to if she couldn’t even do the thing she loved the most, and if that was the case, she wouldn’t know what she would do from there.

Upon still seeing her uncertain expression, Alto walked over to her and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Dreams aren’t supposed to be easy to accomplish you know?” Alto said his tone much more gentle than before, “Amelie once told me that dreams are like shooting stars; they shine brightly in the night sky, and can seem so far away sometimes. If you’re curious enough to grab onto their burning bodies you’ll realize it’ll hurt the longer you hold on, but if you’re brave enough to stick with it, you’ll go on a journey across the universe so unforgettable that you won’t regret it, even if you don’t make it to the end. Something I learned from both of them was that as time goes on, you'll be more disappointed in the things you didn’t do than by the things you did do. I have a lot of time to build up such regrets, but just like your great great grandparents, you don’t. The regrets will accumulate much quicker, and before you know it you’ll be too old to accomplish your dreams on time.”

Celia looked down at the ground with a solemn expression, her eyes tracing the lines of the tiled solar panels on the rooftop as she pondered what she should do.

Once again I’m given the choice to pursue my dreams…If I give up now, Alto would have to go find someone else to do it, and I’ll never be offered another chance at this anymore. If I don’t act now, I’ll have to spend the rest of my life building stupid robot prosthetics until I’m old and filled with regrets just like my great great grandparents... Am I really okay with that? Building stupid robot prosthetics? Creating stupid robot prosthetics… stupid robot prosthetics… robot prosthetics… robot…

“AARRRRGHH!” she suddenly shouted, “I’M TIRED OF BUILDING STUPID ROBOT PROSTHETICS!!! Why do I have to work on a project right after the break?! Why is it worth 20% of my grade?! Why am I even taking this stupid class?! It’s all that stupid Tropodome’s fault! Who’s stupid idea was it to make that thing anyway?! What do you mean we have to close off the skies because of it?! I wasn’t there when they decided on that stupid plan! Why do they get to be the ones to decide I can’t accomplish my dreams?! How is that fair?! You know what? Screw them! I don't care about the Tropodome! I’m going to build a rocket and launch to the moon, and show everyone just how awesome the real stars can be! No more stupid due dates! No more stupid history tests! And no more STUPID! STRINGY! BROKEN! CHICKEN DRUMSTICK LOOKING! ROBOT! PROSTHETICS!!”

After she finished shouting, Celia stood there panting, out of breath. Despite this, she felt like something heavy was finally lifted off her mind, as she slumped down onto the floor of the roof.

For a moment, the two of them lingered there silently, the morning sun was now above the clouds as the golden yellow of the brilliant dawn was beginning to fade into a clear blue sky.

After a while, Celia looks over to Alto, and despite it being hard to tell from his emotionless blue eyes, she could somehow sense that his true feelings were ones of happiness and contentment.

Now that I think about it, he’s been waiting to go to the moon for over a century since his creation… she realized, I can’t even begin to imagine how much he wanted to hear someone else say they wanted to launch a rocket to the moon, even if it was just compulsory.

“I’m glad…” Alto finally said, “to hear that. Alaric told me that the first step to pursuing your dreams is declaring them. It might seem useless, but the truth is that if you can’t even do something as simple as stating what you want to do, then how do you expect to accomplish the harder task of actually doing it? Which brings us to the next point, Celia. I’m counting on you to stick to your word.”

Celia nodded.

“And I’m counting on you to keep me in check."