Terraformer

by Scott McElhaney

  “Okay, if the bear is watching the game too, then I’m sorry, but I’ve got to know,” she turned to me on the sofa, “What’s his story?”

  I laughed, then held up the bear and made him face her, “Do you have something against bears watching football?”

  “Umm, yeah! When the game we are about to watch is the Steelers against the Fairbanks Polar Bears, I need to know about the bear. Spill it!”

  I couldn’t help but to grin as I looked over at her on the other side of the sofa. She had her legs tucked up underneath her, looking immensely comfortable in that oversized jersey. She still didn’t even realize that I knew nothing about football or even why this stuffed animal was such a threat to the Steelers.

  “Well, since I’m the only one sharing things this evening, why not just get naked and expose it all? Right?” I said.

  It sort of irritated me when she merely shrugged and nodded, “Yes, let’s see Cuttar Larkin in nothing but his birthday suit!”

  “You’re really sort of ticking me off, just so you know. It’s not easy to upset me, so I thought you should know this,” I said, “It’s all ‘give’ with no ‘take’. I’m not sure how familiar you are in regards to relationships, but they’re often give and take.”

  “Okay! And yes, I do understand what it takes to keep a relationship healthy. Tomorrow is going to be all about Cuttar’s ‘take’. I’m putting it all out there for you tomorrow. Now, please tell me about the bear!”

  “Hmm,” I pulled the bear back and pretended to protect him, “As you already know, my father died while I was still very young and impressionable.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Prior to his death, I had been going through a rough patch at night. As a matter of fact, I had been suffering from nightmares almost every single night. Could you imagine waking to the sound of an adolescent crying every single night?” I looked over at her.

  I realized just then that she had resituated herself and now had her legs drawn up into her arms the same way the girl in my drawing had been seated. She seemed to be more interested in my story than the football game that was paused on the screen.

  “Anyway, at some point, Dad presented me with this plush polar bear and told me that it had special powers to fight off nightmares. He said that as long as I slept with this bear, I could actually pull him into those dreams to fight for me. If I found myself in a frightening scenario, all I had to do was realize it was a dream, then call upon the bear that I was holding,” I said, “Do you realize that this very bear has saved me from several fictional villains I’d drawn in from the movies, at least three crocodiles, a lion, and two sharks? And yes, I know it’s all in my mind. But as a scientist, you can’t argue against the results from my childhood.”

  She looked down at the dingy white polar bear in my arms, then she looked up at me. In that moment, I realized that I hadn’t taken my gaze off her the entire time. In truth, I had been downloading this woman into my memory banks with plans to draw her exactly as she looked right then. This was a solemn and peace-filled creature who seemed to be relaxing in a very comfortable setting.

  “Okay, the magical bear stays,” she said, as though her decision was all that mattered.

  And just like that, she switched the game back on and focused her attention onto the screen where someone on the Steelers’ team caught the ball and started running with his head down. I really wanted to go plug in my videogame console to the screen in my room and play something on that system, but Sydney’s enthusiasm and excitement over the events of the game really began to intrigue me. I wanted to have this sort of excitement over a sporting event, so I paid close attention to the game, learning the rules and goals of the game before the second quarter even started.

  Since her team was the Steelers, I chose to root for them as well. That was easy to do as I started to realize just how talented that team really was. I even found myself commenting on some of the more impressive plays. By the start of the third quarter, the score was 28 – 10 and it didn’t seem to me that the Polar Bears stood a chance of even coming back. By the end of that quarter, the score was 42 – 13 and it wasn’t even really fun to watch anymore. Perhaps that’s why I somehow dozed off during the middle of the fourth quarter.

  TWELVE

  I awoke sometime in the middle of the night sprawled out on her sofa, covered up with a soft blanket. I also happened to be holding onto a full size bed pillow in my arms. The room was dark except for the area right in front of the couch. This portion of the room was bathed in the flickering light caused from the muted video playing on the screen. A movie had been left on, perhaps in an effort to act as a nightlight.

  I sat up and looked around, noticing that Sydney was lying in her bed facing in my direction, lightly snoring. I almost snickered when I realized that she was holding onto my one-eyed polar bear, hugging it like a little child would. I got up from the sofa and cautiously made my way through her suite. I was just about to head into my own suite to use my bathroom when I realized it made more sense just to use hers.

  I shut the bathroom door and turned on the light, discovering right away that she had totally unpacked all her bathroom essentials. The sink was lined up with lotions, haircare products, toothpaste, and facial cleaners. The shower curtain had been left open, revealing a damp shower that had very recently been used. The damp towel on the floor also made it clear that she had taken a shower after the football game.

  A moment later, I finished up, washed my hands, and then shut off the light as I headed out into her room. I started for the door to my suite before I caught sight of her lying there with her eyes open.

  “Are you going to sleep in your room?” she asked.

  “I sort of thought I might,” I whispered, “What time is it?”

  “One-thirty. I gave you a pillow and a blanket,” she said, pointing back toward the sofa.

  “I was… wait, you want me to sleep on the sofa in here?” I realized just then that she was still holding onto that bear as she appeared a little frightened.

  “Would you mind? Again, there are a bunch of dead people just down the hall. Surely you-”

  “No problem! You know what? It makes perfect sense that we should look out for each other,” I said.

  “Seriously, you don’t mind?” she asked, leaning up on her elbow, “I mean, I could sleep on the couch and give you the bed if that’s better.”

  “No! I seriously don’t mind! Go to sleep, Sydney, and just know that I’ve got you’re back. I’m here for you,” I added, making my way over to the sofa even as we spoke.

  I sat down onto the sofa while I situated the pillow near the end. Then I drew the blanket up over me while I managed to get comfortable.

  “Thank you, Cuttar,” I heard her whisper, “And thanks for not making fun of me.”

  “No need to thank me. Like I said, it makes perfect sense,” I replied.

  THIRTEEN

  The next time I awoke, it was clearly sometime in the morning and the lights in the room were all switched on. I sat up and quickly verified that her bed was unoccupied and as a matter of fact, she’d already made the bed and left the polar bear situated between both pillows.

  I stood up and folded the blanket when I noticed a slip of yellow paper at the foot of her bed. I finished my task of folding the blanket, then I draped it over the back of the sofa. I then ambled over to the foot of the bed and lifted the sheet of paper with the loopy script on it. The curvy neat handwriting was clearly that of a precise female. It read: “We’re probably in orbit right now, so I decided to go to the bridge to run some scans. Even if you have no interest, could you please check in with me periodically anyway?”

  I set the note down, then pondered those words on that paper. Death had seriously taken its toll on her, causing her to constantly be in a state of discomfort, fear, or worry. The woman had insisted that I sleep on her couch, and this was only after she’d abducted my childhood security blanket-slash-bear. Now she wanted me to c
heck in now and then, probably to make sure that I was still alive.

  It was time for us to consider drastic measures. I might not have known a whole lot about this ship or its operations, but I did know enough about a few of the functions my money had funded. I decided that I’d hold off on my morning shower until after I labored to bring some peace to my roommate.

  I immediately made my way to that ‘always-open-door’ of the bridge. That was when I was startled by the frightening image of an ugly brown and green planet rising from the bottom portion of the windshield. If it weren’t for those white clouds that littered the planet, I would have wondered if we’d arrived at the wrong planet altogether.

  “Where are the oceans?” I blurted, causing Sydney to swivel around and acknowledge my presence.

  I lowered my gaze from the enormous floor-to-ceiling windshield to discover a stranger seated at one of the command consoles. I almost didn’t recognize her at first, though now I could see that it was Sydney who had been sitting there smiling at me.

  “Welcome to Inglenook, Cuttar,” she said, gesturing toward the windshield behind her, “We’re the first to see that planet in over a hundred years.”

  I was still in the process of examining Sydney Harper. Today, she wore nothing but a small pair of white gym shorts and a body-hugging black tank top. As if that weren’t enough to capture every ounce of my attention, I could swear that she was wearing makeup for the first time ever. Something was clearly different about her face and in a good way. Granted, she was very pretty anyway, but now her eyes seemed a little larger than I’d remembered and as such, they were lovely.

  She had evidently noticed my long moment of pause while I’d been gaping at her like an awestruck weirdo. I shook my head, gathering my wits as I purposely glanced back over toward the outside view.

  She swiveled back around and pointed toward the planet, “The oceans aren’t blue anymore like we’d been led to believe from the past satellite images. Algae has obviously taken over the oceans, making them appear green instead.”

  “Wait, the green is the ocean?” I approached her workstation, then stood next to her as I placed a hand on the back of her chair, “I thought that was the land!”

  “Your mind is drawing from your experience with the Earth. Green to us naturally means landforms and life. Here however, green still means life, but it’s now only in the ocean. The land however is apparently dead.”

  “No,” I breathed.

  I felt her look up at me, causing me to naturally meet her gaze. I felt an ache inside my chest, wishing that the two of us had been romantically and physically compatible. She was infinitely beautiful and her clothing choices today made the struggle even harder for me.

  “I am currently running about twenty-some scans on the planet. A few of those scans will be quick, while others will take a full twenty-two-point-five hours due to the planet’s rotation speed. Actually, the majority of the scans will take a full day,” she said, returning her attention to the screen at her terminal, “Want to hear some good news?”

  “Yes, please!” I shook my head as I looked at the grim scene outside of the ship.

  “Well, temperatures are reasonable as far as human life is concerned. There’s still a liquid ocean, obviously. There’s still rainfall which for the most part should be fairly clean. No acid rain,” she sounded chipper as she rattled off these statistics, “Basically, that’s not Mars down there. If we merely pitched a tent, we could literally survive on the surface. Obviously we’d need to pitch a few greenhouse tents as well, which we don’t have, but you get my drift. Technically, we could go down there and survive.”

  “If we were a terraforming ship,” I said, completing her sentence.

  “Yeah, we lack a lot of important things we should have brought along with us. But we didn’t know,” she said, rising from her seat and turning to me.

  Sydney now took a hold of both of my hands and turned me toward her. I was confused by her closeness and her general attitude. We had been presented with a disaster, and yet now she was standing mere inches away from me with an unexplainable smile on her face.

  “You don’t get it, Cuttar,” she said, her eyes examining my own, “If you and I could survive on that planet with merely a sturdy tent and maybe an oxygenator, then surely the existing population would have found a way to survive as well. Mankind isn’t the sort that would allow a dying planet to obliterate them. It’s not our style.”

  “Ah!” I grinned, “So you expect to find some greenhouses and enclosed communities!”

  She winked at me as she nodded.

  “Nice,” I said, “So there’s hope.”

  “I’m never giving up.”

  As she sat down and returned her attention to her console, I remembered the reason for my hurried visit to the bridge. I’d rushed to the bridge with my messed-up hair, my wrinkled clothes from yesterday, and my bad morning breath in order to offer peace to my roommate. Then I’d gotten startled by the presence of an ugly planet and a beautiful woman, forgetting my original purpose.

  “I want to expel the bodies from the ship,” I said without prelude.

  “What?” her fingers paused above the keyboard as she shook her head.

  “Neither of us are comfortable knowing that we’re outnumbered by the dead bodies. It doesn’t matter that those rooms are locked and that their CWCs are sealed. We both know that they’re lying there just yards away from us,” I said, listening to the change in her breathing as she seemed frozen in place, “I can take care of it by myself. I’ll say a small prayer, then expel every person from the ship, one-by-one. It’s good for the sanitary situation of the ship, if you think about it. We need to-”

  “Yes,” she interrupted, almost as a shout, “I’d be indebted to you forever if you’d do this. I really want you to do this and I want it done as soon as you can. Will you, please?”

  I had clearly read her correctly. It had been the presence of those bodies that was keeping her in a state of fear and worry. She couldn’t hide it now. I merely nodded and then left the bridge. I was only a few yards away when I heard the ‘always-open-door’ to the bridge shut behind me.

  FOURTEEN

  One by one, I opened each of those chambers and carried the heroic member of the crew to the ship’s disposal. And one by one, I said a quick prayer just before I punched the ejection button. It wasn’t easy and in some cases, it was very unpleasant due to the aroma. Nevertheless, I kept at it until Sydney and I were all that was left on the ship. I then closed all the CWCs again and sealed off those rooms. That was finally when I returned to my room, I picked out a set of clothes, and then I took the longest shower of my life.

  I scrubbed all the death from my body, lathering myself in so much soap that the drain between my feet appeared to be clogged. Perhaps an hour had passed before I finally shut off the shower and began toweling off. The vent above me struggled in vain to clear the steam that had built up. The mirror was so significantly fogged up that even a swipe of my hand served no purpose.

  I cracked the bathroom door while I got dressed, then I grabbed the towel and swiped the mirror again. This time, I was able to see myself. I combed that thick hair to the side, then I ran my hand along my chin. I wondered if the amount of stubble would be worth digging out my shaving kit. In my old life, the answer would have been yes. But now that I found myself in a world where I would remain permanently single, I saw no need to clean up that stubble. I might as well have been sharing this ship with a good male friend who liked to just hang out and watch football games.

  Football games…

  That thought brought me back to my VID5 game system. She owed me some personal time and not just time playing videogames. She owed me a reciprocated view of her personal and most private belongings. Today was the day where she would have to submit to me!

  But that was the moment that my thoughts returned to the football game from last night. And that was when I recalled how wonderful and peaceful she looked on th
e sofa in her oversized Steelers jersey. And finally, that was when I realized that the mental image of her might eventually fade if I didn’t do something about it.

  I quickly brushed my teeth, rinsed my toothbrush, and then I tossed it onto the counter as I rushed from the bathroom. I hurried to my bed to grab those colored pencils and my drawing pad. Then I sat down on my sofa and immediately went to work.

  FIFTEEN

  The browns and beiges of the sofa blended together perfectly to form that nicely shaded pocket that held the pretty Steelers fan. The shaded wrinkles in that jersey showed that it was a little too big, but at the same time very comfortable for the woman who was slowly taking shape beneath that jersey. I was focused on her hair when I was startled by a ghostly word.

  “Me?” she breathed.

  I gasped aloud, having seriously thought I’d heard a ghost as the black pencil fell onto my lap. I hadn’t even processed that thought before I realized that Sydney was standing behind me. There could have been no doubt as to who was gradually appearing on the sketch pad before me, so I resigned to the truth.

  “I had to capture it while it was fresh in my head. It’s how my mind works,” I apologized, “Otherwise I lose all the beauty and the details.”

  “Beauty? Were you referring to the sofa or the jersey?” she chuckled.

  “Surely you know, Sydney,” I shook my head, disgruntled by her false expression of humility, “You’re obviously the most beautiful person to ever set foot on any starship. I know it’s probably nearing lunchtime, but I really needed to get the basics drawn out while I’ve still got the vivid image in my head.”

  “Are you kidding? You choose words like ‘obvious’ or ‘beautiful’ like it’s no big deal to you? I come to find you drawing a picture of me and you pretend it’s not a big deal to you?” she asked, sounding angry.