Terraformer

by Scott McElhaney

  “It’s not what you think, baby,” I could feel her face against the back of my shirt, “I do this all the time. I’m rude and I… I seem to discard people that I love. I’ve lost far too many people and none of those matter anymore. I lost those people for a reason. I lost them because something better awaited me. You, Cuttar. What matters right now is that I absolutely positively cannot lose you. I love you and I need you. I didn’t throw you away. I saw hope on the horizon and I ran to it. But that hope wasn’t for me. It was a hope for us.”

  I released the breath I had been holding. I twisted around so that I could face her while she still held me.

  “I’m fragile, Sydney. I know this isn’t good considering… well, considering how abrupt and abrasive you can be sometimes. But it doesn’t change the fact that this fragile person loves you, so I’m willing to risk some nicks and scratches. You and I… we’re like a glass figurine that had fallen in love with a hammer. You were so willing to be held when we thought we were going to die, but when hope reared its head, you literally threw me aside like I had been a horrible hindrance to you. It hurt.”

  “I’m so sorry and I totally see what you’re saying. The Sydney from just a few years ago wouldn’t have understood. She would have written you off as someone who simply didn’t understand. But this Sydney… the one who is holding you… she knows that she’s abrasive, hurtful, and oftentimes very rude. She knows that she’s the one who appears carefree and careless. She appears carefree and careless, but she most certainly isn’t. This woman in your arms needs you as much as she did when she was crying and fearful. This woman… Cuttar, this woman would give absolutely anything to keep you for the rest of her life. You are a treasure and you are a necessity. Without you, my personal terraformer, this ‘planet’ in front of you dies. No matter how rigorous and strong this planet seems to be, it dies without love. I need you, Cuttar, just the same as I needed you when you saved my life.”

  She melted me in those arms of hers and I was certain that she knew it. I couldn’t find the words, so I replied simply with a tender kiss. That wasn’t enough for her apparently because she insisted that I say something.

  “I’m fragile and I love you with everything I am. I’m always yours, but please be prepared to pick up the pieces now and then. Maybe keep some Super Glue or duct tape around to fix me when I break.”

  She chuckled as she held me tight, “I’ll try to keep the hammer from chipping the figurine in the first place. Oh, and we’re not in danger, by the way.”

  “No?” I asked.

  “The trucks are lifting the ship and carrying us into their hangar. It was the only way they saw that they could tow this ship into the mountain. We’re still as welcome as they originally led us to believe.”

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  We located the ship’s airlock near the aft cryogenic room, not very far from the disposal where I had discarded the bodies. Neither of us had ever considered accessing the airlock before, so the heavy steel door with the small circular window had gone unnoticed and ignored until now. She entered the three digit code to unlock that interior door, then spun the manual latch. The metal door emitted a hiss as it broke the seal and opened for the first time in nearly thirty years.

  After we opened that door, we discovered the inner airlock to be a small room no larger than a typical elevator car. Hanging on one of the walls were three emergency EVA suits with clear bubble-like helmets next to each suit. Since we had believed we were coming to a nicely terraformed planet, these suits would have probably been meant for emergency exterior repairs or something similar. I noticed retractable lifelines also attached to the waists each suit.

  Suddenly, the floor moved beneath us, causing us both to stumble and catch ourselves on the wall. The whole ship seemed to jar again shortly afterward, this time probably settling onto the ground inside their hangar.

  “Before we open that exterior hatch, let’s go back to the bridge to see if we can get a visual now that the scoop shouldn’t be pressed against the window,” she said, taking my hand in hers.

  We quickly departed the airlock chamber and left the door open while we made our way down the long corridor toward the bridge.

  “I hope these people understand that this ship belongs to us,” I said, “I mean, I was sort of hoping for us to keep our conjoined bedroom. It feels like home to me.”

  She squeezed my hand in hers and looked at me, “They don’t know anything about us, so let’s make that clear to them from the start. As far as they’ll know, I’m the captain and this is my ship. It’s not a ship owned by the Space Administration and it’s not a ship paid for by Larkin Industries. This is my ship. Agreed?”

  “Certainly, Captain.”

  She chuckled, “And we’re married, just the same as if we went through all the legal hoops and paperwork back on Earth. They don’t need to know any details about when or where we got married.”

  “You’re off the market – check!”

  “Hey! You’re off the market too, pretty boy!” she laughed.

  “I’m owned and operated by none other than Sydney Harper,” I said, “Check!”

  “‘Owned and operated’,” she repeated with a laugh, “Yeah, I guess you could call it that. You’re mine, after all.”

  We entered the bridge where we immediately discovered a place beyond the windshield that didn’t appear to be subterranean at all. The world out there looked just like the inside of any airport hangar back on Earth. There were no stone walls or ceilings riddled with dripping stalactites. The walls, as a matter of fact, were smooth and white while the high ceiling was gray with metal crossbeams to support the roof. Light fixtures hung from those crossbeams at regular intervals, dispelling any possible darkness throughout the giant room.

  The enormous front-loader/dump truck was parked about fifty feet off to the right of the ship and a person was currently climbing down the tall ladder welded to the front fender. I couldn’t help but to notice that the front tire was twice the height of that man. I also noticed that he wore no breathing apparatus, suggesting that the air outside the ship was breathable. That was the moment when Sydney pointed toward the far wall where several people were now entering the hangar through an open set of double-doors.

  “Should we go introduce ourselves?” I asked.

  “It’s going to have to happen sooner or later.”

  “Then let’s do this,” I said, taking her hand back into mine.

  TWENTY-NINE

  The welcome inside that hangar wasn’t quite what Sydney and I had been expecting. We weren’t met by any of the community leaders, but rather by a small group of medical personnel instead. Sydney wisely locked the ship and then we allowed ourselves to be ushered through a sturdy glass door that led directly into a medical quarantine room. All the while, our hosts never showed any sign of real curiosity or excitement over the concept of two visitors from Earth stopping by. For the most part, the only words spoken thus far had been in the form of directions.

  “We’d like to take some blood tests, hair follicle samples, and cheek swabs in order to rule out any deadly pathogens you might have brought with you from Earth,” the gray-haired man said, gesturing toward the two padded chairs, “Please, have a seat.”

  “Yeah, it’s really nice to meet you too! I’m the Harper of Harper Larkin,” Sydney said, extending her hand toward the older gentleman.

  He stepped back as he seemed to take the two of us in, “Listen, we live under a strict code when it comes to population control, water purification, and food production. Even the slightest unexpected change can throw off the whole balance that we’ve perfected over the years. You should probably know this being that… well, that with the addition of you two, there will be two families here who will now have to wait many more years before they will be permitted to have children. And that pushes all the other families who have been waiting to have children back as well.”

  His emotionless and discourteous words startled me. I looked to th
e others, wondering if there was a warm-blooded human being amongst the lot of them.

  “I see. That would explain this cold welcome we’re already getting,” I said, crossing my arms, “You’ll be happy to know that Sydney and I are content to live on our ship and to eat the substantial amount of food we’ve brought along with us. We won’t even use your water. So, why don’t you dust some of that snow off that cold shoulder of yours and learn how to treat a couple of well-educated terraformers who are here to examine ways to save your entire planet.”

  He almost gasped as he looked from me to Sydney. Yeah, I lied about being a terraformer, but in case they were misogynistic as well as being plain old rude, I figured pretending that we offered them both a male and female terraformer may serve to help our cause.

  “Well, then I apologize. It seems that we were misinformed. Please forgive this cold reception and let’s get these tests over as quickly as possible,” he said.

  “Misinformed about what?” Sydney asked, “About us being able to take care of ourselves, or about us not being a couple of useless idiots?”

  “Well, a little of both, I guess,” he said, gesturing toward the two chairs.

  Sydney and I both sat down while the two younger nurses went to work on our arms. They collected their blood samples, cheek swabs, and hair samples before moving quickly toward all the lab equipment on the other side of the room. All the while, the older man seemed to watch the two of us with a newfound appreciation.

  “Why’d they send terraformers? I heard that you two didn’t expect to find the world to be so dead,” he asked.

  “Inglenook was never a hundred percent complete. There was still work to be done,” Sydney said, “Now it looks like we need to start from scratch after all that you’ve destroyed here.”

  “Us?” he laughed, “Leviathan is to blame for the world you see today! You guys woke the sleeping dragon and then went so far as to overfeed the hideous beast. Don’t blame us for your half-hearted research!”

  “Leviathan? What’s the sea serpent from the Bible got to do with this desert wasteland?” I asked.

  “This planet wasn’t dead when our ancestors started slamming icy comets into it. Don’t forget that even prior to any terraforming, there were already frozen poles as well as a small swampy ocean near the equator,” he said, “Whether those dragons had lived in that swampy sea at the equator or whether they were hiding out in the subterranean oceans at the poles is neither here nor there. What we do know is that there are perhaps hundreds of alien sea serpents or dragons that reside in these oceans and they grew fat on all the fish that had been introduced. So, once the oceans died, the atmosphere started to change, and plant life started dying next. The planet is dead because of Leviathan. Kill Leviathan and perhaps we can work on saving the planet.”

  “No,” Sydney muttered, “That can’t be right.”

  “No? Take a seabass from one of the fisheries and dangle it from a fishing line in the Eastern Sea. I’d give you five minutes before you catch your first glimpse of Leviathan,” he snickered, “I imagine he’s going hungry now living only on algae and plankton.”

  She shook her head as she gaped at him, “Then if we can’t save the oceans, we can’t save the planet.”

  “Welcome to the real world, Harper Larkin. Now you can appreciate why we live as we do.”

  “Sir?” one of the nurses approached the older gentleman, “They are truly human and they pose no risks as near as we can tell.”

  “Human?” I laughed, “Was that really a concern?”

  “We share our home world with aliens – alien sea dragons. Prior to that discovery, mankind was alone in the universe. So ask me again – was it a concern?”

  “Touché,” I said.

  He nodded as he looked as us, “Well, you’re apparently free to visit our people. Welcome to the hidden nation of Sacred Mount. You’re free to exit through that door over there.”

  THIRTY

  When we passed through that door, I finally understood why the hangar didn’t appear to exist inside the mountain. We found ourselves inside a metal and glass corridor that separated the giant hangar from the mountain. So perhaps the hangar itself was left over from the days when there had been a true airport on the planet. While the air on Inglenook was breathable, it seemed that they were prepared for the day when it wasn’t. Without plant life and photosynthesis, it wasn’t hard to figure out what the atmosphere would one day be like.

  This long corridor allowed us to see the mountain as we approached since the domed roof and the majority of the walls were made from glass which was streaked with rain rivulets. I kept a hold of Sydney’s hand as we approached that giant mountain. Besides the two of us, this hundred-meter passage was unoccupied.

  “Leviathan?” I whispered to her.

  “We would have known if there was any evidence of alien life on this planet,” she shook her head, “Besides, what would a giant beast have eaten all this time? You couldn’t have a big sea serpent living in a relatively small ocean while nothing else down the extensive food chain shared its swampy world. Trust me – there’d have been some signs.”

  “So, what then? They’re making it all up?”

  “No, it makes perfect sense actually considering how fast these oceans died. It’s the only explanation that works with the evidence all around.”

  “Then what? There is a dragon?”

  She looked at me, perhaps to gauge whether I was toying with her or not. I’d already become familiar with that paranoid look of hers, so I knew that it meant I was on shaky ground.

  “The poles are covered in significantly less ice now than what there had once been. And just like Antarctica back on Earth, there could have been a beautiful and mysterious world hidden beneath all that ice,” she said, “I recalled that there had been evidence of a liquid ocean beneath the north pole here and so we’d have never known if there was life in that hidden ocean.”

  “Wow, just imagine,” I breathed as we finally approached a large metal hatch.

  Sydney started to reach out her hand toward what appeared to be a control panel at the right side of the door. Before she could touch any of those buttons, the door emitted a loud metallic clang, then it moved away from us a couple inches. After that, it emitted an awful squeal as it now opened inward on its heavy hinges. That thick steel door now moved toward the left, revealing to us a wider and shorter tunnel that led to another similar metal door. This could have very possibly served as an airlock, although it didn’t seem to be necessary at this time. Perhaps in a hundred years though?

  “What if we can’t get back to the ship?” I asked, causing her to stop and look at me, “Like, what if they lock us up inside this place? Those doors look pretty heavy and sturdy.”

  “Well, if you’re having second thoughts, let me know. I’m a little more open to staying on the Frontier now that it seems this planet might not actually be salvageable,” she said.

  We both stood just inside the doorway, still close enough to the glass passageway that we could run back if we wanted.

  “I’m with you wherever you go, Sydney.”

  “Yeah, but you see - I’m not willing to be locked up here if these are a bunch of disgruntled people who merely view their new guests as two more mouths to feed,” she said, “Seriously, baby. Want to go back?”

  A metallic noise drew our attention toward the other door at the end of the short passage. We both watched as that door opened with a groaning squeal, inviting a bright beam of light into the passage. The beam grew wider as the door opened further.

  “I’m with you, Sydney. Which way do we go?” I whispered.

  “Harper Larkin?” a male voice called.

  We both turned in time to see a tall, thin man entering the airlock through the brightly lit doorway.

  “That’s us,” Sydney called toward him, “We’re taking a moment to consider our options.”

  “Options?” the man moved briskly toward us, now appearing to be very
clean-cut and youthful.

  Although he had a commanding voice that seemed to have rose from an older gentleman, he appeared to be no more than twenty-five or thirty as he drew near. His black hair was parted to the side and it shimmered from either the extensive hair product or water. That perfectly pressed gray suit with the black tie made me feel a little underdressed.

  “Yeah, it seems like we might be hindering some people here who are looking to have children soon. We couldn’t impose and besides, we’ve got enough food and water to sustain us on our ship,” Sydney stated.

  “Then you’re clearly not imposing at all. If you wish to use your ship as your place of residence during your stay, please feel free to do so. I’m sure it’s already become home to you in some ways. I can appreciate that,” he said, holding out a hand to her, “My name is Hanlon and I’m the current president of Sacred Mount. Please understand that you are most assuredly welcome here.”

  She shook his hand and then he turned to me and shook mine.

  “I’m Harper and this is Larkin. We actually prefer to go by Sydney and Cuttar. First and foremost, we’re very interested in discovering if this planet can be salvaged at all. With the heart and mind of a terraformer, I find it hard to accept that frightening desert out there as a lost cause,” she said.

  “So it’s true then,” he nodded, “You really are a terraformer?”

  She replied only with a quick nod.

  “Well, I hate to disappoint, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone of your intellectual level here to collaborate with,” his shoulders seemed to sag at such an admission, “You see, all of our attention is focused now on survival, so the math and the sciences have sort of fallen by the wayside as we continually bring up the next generation of farmers, fisherman, and textile engineers. Food and clothing is what it’s all about! Isn’t that, after all, how it’s always been throughout all of human history? Sure, we can replace food, clothing, or shelter with money and then we can work hard for even more money. But at the end of the day, the money is used to buy shelter, clothing, and sustenance. Since the dawn of man, it’s always been about the procurement of food, water, and shelter.”