Terraformer

by Scott McElhaney

  I put an arm around Sydney and drew her close to me, having seen her begin to tense up. This, of course, was due to her sudden disappointment, which could quickly flow out as an outburst of anger.

  “Even had you been an entire community of terraformers, I think we’d have still been hard-pressed to find someone of Sydney’s intellectual level,” I offered, squeezing my wife to me in a side hug.

  “Thank you, baby, but I’m confident there’s some important information I can still gather from amongst these people,” Sydney kissed me on the cheek.

  “Oh! You two are… you’re, uh, together?” Hanlon asked.

  “Yes, Sydney is my lovely wife,” I offered.

  “Okay…” he paused as he took a step back and rubbed his chin, “Well, there are some other pertinent things we need to discuss with you two if you plan to join our community in a more permanent fashion. Until we have that talk or until a decision is made on your part, we have to firmly insist that there be no procreationary activity between the two of you in any way. This is of the utmost importance.”

  Sydney laughed, “Procreationary what? Are you referring to consensual sex? You’re suggesting that I can’t bang the heck out of my own husband today, tonight, or tomorrow, presuming I hadn’t made a decision about where I’m permanently residing?”

  He cleared his throat, visibly uncomfortable now over the imagery her words brought forth. I was uncomfortable as well, but mine was more along the lines of envisioning Sydney on top of me ‘banging the heck out of me’. I had to shift my legs just then to resituate myself.

  “Umm, yes, I guess you could say it that way. There are three options for all citizens and two of those options are decided upon by the married couple. The third option is decided upon by a three-person judgement committee. We’ll obviously discuss this later, however. I’d like us to-”

  “We’ll discuss it now!” Sydney interrupted, “You see, because the two of us have already been… well… we just…”

  I didn’t appreciate her next word, or the three sentences that followed. I liked to consider what the two of us had shared as quite simply ‘making love’ because we truly did treat each other in a very sweet, tender, and intimate manner. But those words she used just then were vulgar and clearly used in an effort to get a reaction from Hanlon. By the time that she had blurted that word a fourth time, I took her hand in mine and tugged her toward me.

  “I’m sorry, Hanlon, but-” I began.

  She twisted quickly toward me and jabbed a straight finger barely an inch from my right eye, “Don’t you apologize for me, Cuttar! I meant every word I’d said and if you know what’s good for you, you won’t speak for me anymore. I just made a promise to this guy about what I’m going to quite ferociously do to you tonight, so if you want me to keep that promise, you’ll hush!”

  She stared at me for a moment with that fingernail near my eye. I merely nodded, intending to stay ‘hushed’ so that passionate promise wouldn’t be broken. I saw a smirk form on her lips as she probably had read my mind just then. She then turned toward Hanlon, allowing me to keep her other hand in mine.

  “Now, tell me, Hanlon. What are my three supposed options?”

  He cleared his throat as he looked from Sydney to me. I could fully appreciate his current state of uncertainty.

  “Well, in our society, you can choose temporary birth control which can be administered to the male via a syringe every six months. You can also choose permanent birth control, administered to the woman via minor surgery. These are options that we will gladly assist with should you decide which option works best for you.”

  “And what’s the other option that we don’t get the freedom to choose?” she asked.

  “Well, there is still a choice! You see, you do get to choose to go before the judgement committee. You can do this once a year if you want!”

  “Out with it!” Sydney hollered, causing both of us to jump.

  “The judgement committee determines who is allowed to come off birth control and to procreate. If you’re very lucky, you may even be allowed to do it more than once in a lifetime. My own parents were permitted to have two children. My brother and I are eighteen years apart in age!” he seemed proud of that odd statement.

  “Well, the judgement committee will never be meeting with the two of us because we are most certainly going to be living our lives in a nice little ship in that hangar of yours. We’ve learned enough in the past hour already to make that assessment, thank you very much!” Sydney said, “But for now, would you be so kind as to show us around and let us determine if there’s a chance to turn this planet around?”

  To my infinite surprise, the man before us simply shrugged, then gestured toward the door behind him.

  “Welcome to Sacred Mount. Let’s see what we have to offer each other!”

  THIRTY-ONE

  We followed the man past the steel door and into a brightly-lit corridor of chiseled stone. This was the first true evidence that we were actually inside the mountain. Gray metal piping bolted into the stone ceiling above us served to protect the wiring that ran between the light fixtures. I ran my hand along that cool, rough wall as Hanlon eventually brought us to an ordinary set of double wooden doors with silver doorknobs. These interior doors gave a more welcoming appearance than did those steel hatches behind us.

  He opened the door and gestured for us to lead the way in. Sydney and I were still holding hands, having chosen to walk side-by-side behind Hanlon. So, together we walked into what now appeared to be a t-shaped stone corridor. The lighting again was quite effective in dispelling the darkness that one would expect to find inside subterranean caverns.

  Hanlon closed the door behind us and gestured toward the corridors branching to our right and left.

  “As you can see, this lateral corridor leads to stairs at both ends. Those will take you up to the lower-level greenhouses if you’d like to check those out. If not, we can take the long corridor over here that leads to the main portion of our community,” he invited, “You tell me where you’d like to begin.”

  Before we could answer, we heard the echoing voice of someone hollering for Hanlon. That drew our attention over toward the stairs at the end of the left corridor. A blonde woman was descending quickly down the stairs as she waved a little too excitedly in our direction.

  “Corsica! Perfect timing!” Hanlon hollered toward her while she quickly approached.

  As the blonde lady neared, I could see that she was an exceptionally beautiful and curvaceous woman of somewhere between thirty and forty years. She could have easily passed for a model back on Earth. I felt Sydney squeeze my hand pretty tight just then, perhaps in warning.

  “Please! I had to meet you two before you ran off to god-knows-where!” she spoke with a lot of energy and excitement, “You’re the terraformers, is that right?”

  “I’m Sydney and this here is my husband Cuttar,” she said, reaching out to shake the lady’s hand, “And yes, we’re the terraformers who hail from the Frontier.”

  “You can call me Corsica. If Hanlon would be so gracious as to allow it, I’d love to take you topside,” she said, her eyes moving quickly from Sydney to me.

  “If there’s anyone in our community who may be as optimistic as the two of you, it would most certainly be Corsica. As a matter of fact, I was going to set up a meeting between the three of you as soon as I could,” Hanlon said to us, then he turned his attention to her, “You’re free to take them if you want.”

  She clasped her hands together and looked like she was about to leap from excitement, “Then would you two please come with me so you could get an idea on how far we’d come already?”

  “Sure, lead the way!” I offered.

  And just like that, Hanlon headed off in one direction while Corsica gestured us toward the stairs that she had just descended a moment prior. Sydney kept a firm hold on my hand as though she might have feared I’d leave her if she let go.

  “I’m the HOGA or the
Head of Greenhouse Agriculture and I’m excited to hear your opinions on the future of Inglenook,” she said, still sounding a lot like an excited kid on Christmas morning, “Will you be living amongst us, or are you going to keep your quarters on your ship? I only ask because I have a special place set aside for you if you do decide to reside here with us. You would, after all, probably be working very closely with me and my people, so why not live closely as well? And I was thinking-”

  “Please!” Sydney interrupted abruptly, “Calm down a little and leave some space in between your questions so that we can answer.”

  Corsica paused right there at the base of the stairs as she turned to us looking slightly hurt or worried by Sydney’s reprimand.

  “I’m sorry?” Corsica said.

  “No, I apologize. It’s just that you were talking so fast. And you asked us a question without allowing us to reply,” Sydney said, waving her off, “Your people have already made us feel a bit unwelcome and then they tried to lay out some rules about our private married lives. So, while we would be glad to work together and we’re anxious to see what you have to offer, Cuttar and I are going to exist as a separate self-sustaining nation inside the confines of the Frontier.”

  Corsica leaned in close and then took hold of Sydney’s hand as she now began to whisper, “Let me guess – children? They socked you with both punches all before you even had a chance to get to know us? Please tell me I’m wrong.”

  “Well, I got the punch in the gut regarding the rules of my womb if that’s what you mean. What’s the second punch?”

  Corsica shifted, looking a bit uncomfortable. She stayed close however and continued to whisper.

  “That you two have pushed several people’s chances to have children onto the back burner simply by your presence,” she sighed.

  Sydney nodded, “Yes, you’re right then. We got socked with both punches already.”

  Corsica groaned as she leaned back against the stone wall. She then looked from Sydney to me.

  “On behalf of everyone, I apologize sincerely for that. There should have been a little more discretion and at least some proper education about our world. As you can see, we’re simply not accustomed to receiving visitors or immigrants,” she whispered, “It’s not an excuse, I know. I just apologize and hope you won’t let that cause you to already have a low opinion of me.”

  “As of this moment right now, I’m already forming an opinion that you might be the most intelligent and reasonable person here. I can’t speak for Cuttar, but I accept your apology on behalf of those people and I hope you understand our choice to exist as a separate nation,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Corsica breathed, then turned toward me, “You’ve been silent all this time. What about you?”

  “We… we sort of lied to you,” I shrugged as I stepped back, “I’d been silent because I’m in way over my head. You’re about to discover here shortly that I don’t know the first thing about terraforming or agriculture. The man who fell in love and married Sydney is nothing more than an uneducated and perhaps spoiled billionaire who technically owns that ship in the hangar. I’ve been ducking into the shadows since we’d arrived, frightened about the moment that the lie comes to light.”

  “Cuttar!” Sydney turned to me, placing a caring hand on my shoulder, “Don’t pretend to be something less than what you are. I understand that you’re humble, but you physically saved my life and you had plenty more to offer since then. I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable when we implied we were both terraformers. I just wanted you to get the respect that you honestly deserve.”

  “I was only fearful that if I spoke, or misspoke actually, I might mess this all up. You’ve had it all under control so far, Sydney,” I said.

  She kept her eyes locked on mine for a moment, then she sighed and turned to Corsica.

  “Corsica, you should probably know that I was the only terraformer who survived cryogenic sleep. And I only survived because of this man’s efforts. I continue to keep my head on straight because of this man, so although he might believe he isn’t as important as a terraformer, he’s a hundred percent essential to me. I’d appreciate it if you understood that while we proceed.”

  Corsica smiled and then offered a quick nod as she looked over at me, “I’m married to a good man as well and I know exactly what you mean. Would the two of you care to see the greenhouses?”

  THIRTY-TWO

  I had gained a newfound respect for these people before we even left the soil shed. While Sydney might have been mad at these people for accepting their deteriorating world, I only saw ingenuity and communal wisdom.

  When we had come to the top of the long stairwell, Corsica opened the door and gestured us in. We found ourselves inside what might as well have been a ten-by-ten foot metal storage shed with a central light fixture hanging from the angled ceiling. To the immediate left of us were shelves loaded with a multitude of unknown gardening supplies, tools, and perhaps fertilizers. To the right I discovered a very curious array of tiered soil bins. They almost resembled 35-gallon glass aquariums that were each filled with different colors of dirt. I was about to ask where we were when Corsica spoke.

  “This is one of many soil sheds. We call it that for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that we don’t just farm food up here,” she said, leading us toward the odd soil aquariums, “We farm our own fertile soil while at the same time breeding and farming earthworms. This, over here, is one of a dozen earthworm/soil farms. Should we ever find ourselves in the midst of a failing greenhouse, we always have enough fertile soil to bring it back to life.”

  “Wow,” Sydney breathed, “Surely you could scale this up, couldn’t you?”

  “We already have and we continue to do so about every ten to fifteen years,” she said, almost defensively, “We have a process where we manufacture all the glass and metal necessary for these greenhouses and soil sheds. We add a new soil shed and three greenhouses on an average of every eleven years. Even now, we are leveling another shelf into the mountainside. This will mark the tenth story of greenhouses.”

  I noticed that while Corsica spoke, Sydney crossed her arms and continued to shake her head. She was finally pacing in front of the soil bins when Corsica paused.

  “No, if you continue along like this, you’ll eventually just have a glass-encased planet. Granted, it’s the only way to begin the process. But how long before you remove the glass and allow nature to take over?” Sydney asked.

  “Isn’t that what we already tried? Nature doesn’t abide by the same checks and balances that we do.”

  Sydney pointed to her and grinned in appreciation, “Nice! So you recognize that our current enemy is that unpredictable and wicked woman we call nature. But inside an enclosed environment, we can limit nature’s control. Would you agree?”

  “Sure, of course! A greenhouse is exactly that!” she turned to her.

  “But a greenhouse is a manmade structure with an absolute magnitude only hindered by our imagination.”

  “Come on! It’s limited by supplies, soil, seed… the list goes on! Please don’t start dreaming that big just yet,” Corsica said.

  Sydney held out her palms defensively, “No, please don’t get me wrong. What you’ve got here is amazing and I’m already impressed to learn that you’ve been steadily growing your farming capacities instead of merely maintaining. I’m simply pointing out that you are already terraforming albeit on a small scale. I have to ask – how are you doing in regards to seed?”

  The two of them faced off in this debate over by one of the soil bins while I wandered near the shelves on the other side of the shed. I mindlessly examined some of the old, rusty trowels, spades, forks, and pruning shears.

  “We have an abundance and we keep it all stored in three separate places. And before you ask, yes, we do still have grass seed from back before the planet died,” she replied, “We’ve actually planted some grass in a few of the larger greenhouses.”

>   “You know where I’m going with all this,” Sydney said.

  “And you’re moving way too fast,” she argued, “I’m with you in regards to saving the planet, but I’m not willing to sacrifice quality materials, soil, and seed on a whim.”

  “Me neither. But you don’t understand what I’m suggesting. I’m stating that glass is a never-ending resource as long as we have sand, so why not create a super-massive city-size greenhouse? You’ve proven that we can terraform on a small scale here. Why not take the next step? What if we attempted a full scale Bio-Dome?”

  That caught my attention, so I now found myself watching the two of them. Corsica appeared to be at least pondering Sydney’s suggestions.

  “Listen, I absolutely love your enthusiasm, especially considering that you haven’t even seen how impressive our greenhouses are yet. I just think you need to slow down enough for us to consider the cost and even gauge if we could produce enough fertile soil for such an endeavor. Your speed of thought is frightening me if I’m to be honest with you,” Corsica said.

  To my surprise, Sydney nodded. She then looked over toward me to find that I had been watching their exchange.

  “You’re right. Let’s see the greenhouses and then gather some info onto paper,” Sydney said, “Do you have a notepad and a pen I could borrow?”

  “Certainly.”

  THIRTY-THREE

  If ever there was a question whether these people would have been capable of building and maintaining a city-size greenhouse, the answer would have come quickly once I entered that third greenhouse.

  Right when we exited that shed, we found ourselves in a long and relatively narrow building of glass and metal. This was clearly a greenhouse built only for the production of root vegetables such as carrots, radishes, turnips, or beets. Whatever was being grown here, the produce remained hidden beneath the green sprouts in the many long troughs of soil. The earthy scent was heavy in the air.