Who Mourns for Methuselah?

This fan fiction takes place some 80 years in the future from the time frame of the Astro Boy canon. Please note that Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka, and all rights to him belong to Tezuka Productions.

Chapter 3

The week's time passed slowly, during which Astor spent his time reminiscing with his siblings and children, as well as searching his own soul for memories. A phone call came in with the news of the birth of his first great-great-granddaughter, Lilly. There was also an email for Cobalt that had resulted in a bit of secret conversation between him and Uran, which Astor expected he would hear about soon.

Sure enough, Cobalt and Uran together approached Astor as he was packing the small suit case that he had brought with him the evening of the funeral.
"You've decided not to stay with Adam and Emily?" Cobalt asked him.

"I'm still not sure. I have other luggage at home that I will pack if I do decide to bring the rest of my belongings over here. Right now I'd like to spend some time alone at my own home before I return, assuming I do move in with my son. I need some time to think." Astor said. "I assume you and Uran are heading out now yourselves."

"That's what we'd like to talk to you about." Uran said.

"I got an email a few days ago from the space agency. The Terraforming on Mars has been going very well. In fact, it is several years ahead of schedule, and they are considering the introduction of some more Earth species of both plants and animals." Cobalt explained

"This time they are going to include some of the endangered species of animals that we've had a bit of bad luck with on Earth." Uran added. "I'm going to join my brother on Mars. I've been offered the lead on this project, and I've decided that I'm going to accept it."

"That's great!" Astor said. "I can't think of a better pair to get that job done."

"Astor, there is one more thing." Cobalt said. "I've been asked to look for someone to assist with the logistics of the effort. Uran will be handling the actual work with the animals and plants, you know the animal husbandry and biology stuff. I've been offered the position of Mars base commander, following the promotion of the current commander to an off planet position. We still need someone to oversee the remaining Terraforming operation. I had been filling in with that, but now I will be too busy as base commander. I'd like you to join me and take over that position."

Astor's jaw dropped. He was about to say something about not wanting to leave his family behind when Uran interrupted.

"Astor I think you should take that position, you'd be good at it. If you say here you'll just be sulking in self pity. Your family adores you, but they've also grown apart from you. That's the problem with 'greats', we get thought of as fossils. The youngers are very tightly knit together, they prefer to see us once in a while, but not all the time. I know that's a bitter pill to swallow, but it's the truth." she said.

Astor thought about that. In the past few years, Adam and Hoshie were the only ones that kept in regular conversation with him, the rest of the family he heard from only on birthdays and holidays. The younger ones were too busy with their own immediate lives, and he understood that. He also realized that Uran, Cobalt, and himself would still be around long after his flesh and blood family had passed on. He would eventually have only his memories to keep him company. Maybe it was time to move on and start the next phase of his existence before he had nothing left.

"When are you two leaving?" Astor asked.

"Probably in a month or two. The base will send me another email when they are ready to actually start the project. Uran will have to take care of the initial details on Earth for the selection and transport of the plants and animals that will be introduced first. We'll need you on Mars sooner to help make sure that everything is ready for their arrival. I think the two of us will travel together and Uran will meet us later." Cobalt said.

"That should give me enough time to get ready." Astor replied. "In the meanwhile, why don't the two of you move in with me. I have a spare bedroom, so we won't be crowded. I'll need to put the apartment on the market. At least the units in my complex are in demand and are selling quickly. If I'm lucky maybe I can close on it before we leave."

"OK." Uran said. "That does solve one problem for me."

"Me too." Cobalt said.


During the next few weeks Astor made the rounds visiting all of his grandchildren. They were all outwardly happy to see him and they all expressed their sorrow for his loss, but Astor could see that Uran was right. He had become a bit of a relic, admired and looked up to perhaps, but something of a living bit of family history in any case.

"Are you sure about this Dad?" Adam asked. "Emily and I would really love to have you stay with us."

"I'm sure son. As much as I don't want to admit it, I'm going to be around long after you and Emily are gone. Losing Cora was very painful to me, but it was also a normal part of human existence. Having to bury you would seem very unnatural to me. We'll keep in touch if you want to, but I think I need to move on and find what's next for me. I've come to realize that Cobalt and Uran are all that I will eventually have left in the future. Our three lives are intertwined in ways that we never realized until now." Astor gave his son and daughter in law each a hug.

"I suppose you might go back to using the name Astro again?" Adam suggested.

"Either that or Atom." Astor shrugged. "Or I might just call myself something else. But you are correct. I think Astor's existence is about over. Under that name I was almost human for nearly 80 years. But in the face of the mortality of everyone I ever loved, I now realize that deep inside, I'm still a robot after all."


Astor and Cobalt had their bags packed for their trip to Mars. They had delayed their voyage as long as possible, and the fact that NASA had made two berths on a 0.7C ship available to them had given them more time to spend on Earth. Uran was still taking care of details on the Earth end of the project, she was now scheduled for Mars departure in a month's time. Her voyage would take nearly half a year's flight time as the cargo ship bringing the plants and animals was a standard rocket flight.

The day of departure arrived, and the three siblings met at the spaceport.
"Don't worry about your apartment, Astor," Uran said. "I'll be handling the closing for you about a week before I need to leave. I'll be staying at the Cape after that, until I leave. I'll see you guys in about seven months!"

Uran spent at least ten minutes with her goodbyes to Cobalt and Astor, and she stood and watched as her two brothers boarded the space liner for Mars. Only after the final boarding call, and the closing of the hatch did she turn and leave.


It was Astor's first trip into space in nearly 80 years. The acceleration didn't bother him, though from the look on Cobalt's face he realized that his brother was not as comfortable. Astor remembered that Cobalt had never been able to fly on his own, he had either used strap on jetpacks attached to his boots, or had been carried aloft by Astro. In either case, Cobalt had been a pilot or a passenger. As Astro, Astor had been like a bird, flying had been part of his being. That was something he now realized he had missed.

The trip to Mars took about a week, much less than the six months that would have been required by conventional rocket. Although the space liner was called a 0.7C ship, in reality it didn't travel quite that fast. It took time to accelerate to 70% light speed, and they couldn't stay at the velocity for very long before they started to decelerate back to 'normal' speed for landing. In a way, the voyage had been like taking an ocean liner from NY to England. True, the entertainment wasn't quite as good and the food was still the usual NASA space fare, but it wasn't all business like the crew taking the cargo ships were subject to. Cobalt, who had never known life as anything other than from a robot's point of view, spent most of the travel time reading reports from the Mars base. Astor, on the other hand, spent his time with the human passengers, keeping himself amused.

The approach for landing was uneventful. Astor remembered how as Astro he had been in charge of one of the first expeditions to Mars following the failure of the very first maned exploration attempt. Robots were still being treated as slaves in those days, and it had raised quite a few eyebrows back then when then NASA director Moss had put him in charge of a space command. Following the discovery of an alien invasion force from outside of the the solar system, Astro had earned the respect of his fellow astronauts. That was also the turning point for his career in the IOS, and his world wide notoriety.

As the ship circled the planet before landing, Astor could see just how much had changed since he'd last been there. Green plants covered much of the equatorial zone of the planet. There were many lakes and some even larger bodies of open water. The Mars base, which had once been a small military like facility, was now a good sized city housing many colonists. The atmosphere was thicker, almost like on earth, but with higher oxygen content, and the sky was now a deep blue in color.

"Space suits and air tanks are no longer required outside of the base, Astor." Cobalt said. Astor's brother had been watching him look out of the ship's view port during the decent. "During the day the temperature near the equator, where the base is located, hovers at a comfortable 50 degrees F. At night, warm clothing is still necessary for the human personal, as the thinner atmosphere can't hold heat in as well as on Earth." he added.

As soon as they had disembarked from the space liner, the brothers headed for Cobalt's quarters at the Mars base. "I'm being moved into larger quarters in a few days." Cobalt told Astor. "Partly due to my increase in rank here, but also because there will now be two of us sharing the space."

Astor gave his brother a questioning look, but Cobalt waved him off.
"Don't worry about it. I've requested a dual apartment. We will share a common area, but we also have our own separate set of rooms with separate doors. We can each avoid seeing each other if we want to, so you can have some privacy if you need it."

"You know I wasn't thinking that!" Astor told Cobalt.

"I know. I just want you to be comfortable, and have an easy time adjusting. If you need anything, I won't be far away." Cobalt said.

"Thanks Bro." Astor replied.

A.N. Will someone please leave some comments in a review? What do you think of this vision of the future? Should robots like Astro live forever? I wonder if they want immortality. What do you think?