Solar Umbrella (Book 1)

Chapter 10: SpaceOne

WITH THEIR VICTORY in place, the group finalized their plans, had parents sign off on their legal mumbo jumbo and everything was in motion. They had to do some media stuff where they were on the news or interviewed for websites. Parker hated it. They had people fuss over his hair and put makeup on him and tell him what to say and what not to say. It was annoying. Generally, he and DJ stayed fairly quiet and let Kate and Ibrahim do the talking. Parker was happy to admit that they were much better at it and they seemed to like it. Ibrahim especially was a natural and the interviewers tended to focus on him anyways. They were surprised at one interview by the founder and CEO of SpaceOne, Glenn Johansson who had put up half the prize. A tall, thin man, he had gray sneaking in at his sideburns and in his beard. His face looked weatherbeaten, like he had spent much of his life outdoors. He shook their hands and told them how impressed he was and all that stuff. It was pretty cool. He also told them that he would join them, in person, for the launch and trip to LunaOne, the resort on the moon. The group had spent time reading about him and seeing him for years in the media, so it was a great surprise. They had some time to talk as a team after the interview was over as they were getting their makeup removed.

"Seriously you kids, I was insanely impressed by your entry to the competition," Johansson told them as a woman wiped down his face. "When we first proposed the competition, I have to admit that it was mostly a marketing scheme I could write off. Sure, I had hoped for some cool ideas, and I really and truly do look for ways to support science for kids, but yeah. I was in it for the advertising more than anything." He tilted his head down at them as if to apologize, then smiled widely. "Your ideas, your code, your designs for the robots. All of it was seriously legit. I'm overloaded with this whole space tourism business or I'd offer to buy some of this stuff off you. You should consider getting a lawyer and making sure this stuff is your intellectual property. There's money here."

Parker looked at him. He felt like his eyes were popping out of his head. "Dude, are you serious? We're already going to the moon, but you're telling us we could make money off of this too?"

"Parker! Don't call him dude, this is Glenn Johansson!" Kate shouted. She had a smile on her face though. She was just as excited as him.

"You can call me whatever you want, kid, as long as you keep coming up with ideas like this. Seriously, any of you can shoot me an email when you're done with school. I'll hire you on the spot," Johansson told them, taking a second to look each of them in the eyes. "Listen, I get excited about stuff and talk too much. You've done amazing work and I'm very impressed. The offer stands, but I should let you focus on the trip. I'll see all of you next week for the launch, it's going to be a lot of fun. Let's enjoy it!"

"Did you guys read about the other team that won?" Ibrahim asked as they took the transit home. He was reading something about the competition on his tablet.

They were heading home after their final interview and their talk with Johansson. This was the end of the line for them, the last time they'd see each other before the launch and trip to LunaOne. It had been a busy week or so with packing, media, legal and finishing up everything for school. Parker was looking forward to a break. In space. A break on the moon. What an insane thought.

"Share that with me?" Parker asked Ibrahim.

Ibrahim flicked up on his article and it appeared on Parker's tablet. DJ and Kate started reading as well. Might as well read about the team they'd be seeing soon enough. Turns out the team that won the other half of the competition was from Russia. The article was an interview with Alexander Euguene who seemed like he was the leader of the team. They had entered both of the competitions, which surprised Parker. He couldn't imagine how much work that would have been. They attended a prestigious state sponsored school in Moscow and the article hinted at a lot of support from the government, but Parker could tell this Alexander guy knew what he was talking about from the interview. They won the "increase food yield" portion of the competition, but their idea for the collection side was an interesting one as well. It centred around having regular people harvest food on their own. Having food producing plants line city roads and parks and just let people eat from them. You could also have students in schools take on areas to harvest and supplement their school meals. Prisoners or paid city workers could also be incorporated into harvesting. Some interesting ideas, and they had created a simulation to model it along with a lot of data, but nothing real to look at and hold like Parker's group had produced. Their winning idea on the other side was something that amazed Parker. He understood their plan, but he had no idea how they had accomplished it as high school students. It was certainly worthy of the prize, and it worked with their other proposed plan. Parker's concerns about having food producing plants burn up in the heat and sun could be allayed with the work they had started here.

"Are you guys reading this? I can't believe high school students came up with something like this!" Parker said to the others as he finished the article.

"I don't really get it," Ibrahim admitted. "So, they basically hacked photosynthesis to...what? Eat up more sun?" He wrinkled his nose, trying to piece it all together. "That's...like, insane."

"Exactly!" Kate smiled, resting her head on Ibrahim's shoulder. "They did what we did with our digital code, only they've rewritten the genetic code of plants. It looks like they did it with corn specifically for the competition, but I'd imagine their idea would carry over to any other plant."

"It's really a clean solution," DJ added, nodding his head. "It's like Kate said. Just a different type of coding. Curious."

Parker considered their idea. It was an elegant solution. The group had taken enzymes that already existed in nature—in bacteria and yeast and taken them and inserted them into the corn plant itself. The result was a beefed up photosynthesis that actually thrived on the sunlight and increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The result was a plant that converted more sunlight to energy, grew faster and fixed more carbon from the atmosphere than the original version

"It's a little spooky though," Ibrahim added. "All this life evolved over millions of years. Hacking the evolution of living things could have some unintended consequences down the line."

"I mean we hacked the whole fucking planet for hundreds of years. The atmosphere isn't supposed to have these levels of carbon in it, let alone the level of increase we've forced on it since the industrial revolution," Parker replied. "I'm sure nature will catch up eventually, but I'd like human beings to be here to see it."

Kate nodded. "The way I see it is that we've disrupted the cycle so much already, we only have two choices. We can either try and return the planet to some semblance of what it should be, or we have to live the best we can with what we've created. I think this is a solution that is right in the middle. It's capturing more carbon than before, which helps return the Earth to the state it should be in, and acknowledges that the world isn't going to change in the snap of our fingers."

"I guess that's a good point," Ibrahim agreed. "I like the idea of food being able to grow out in the world without special greenhouses or massive amounts of water. It's definitely a solution to the problem. I just wonder about down the line."

"We don't have the luxury of worrying that far anymore," DJ added sullenly.

"Besides, have you seen what corn is supposed to look like?" Parker jumped in. "Before humans started messing with it, it was like an inch long and had 10 kernels on it. People have been modifying food forever. This is really just a different way. If we took nature all the way back to how it's supposed to be, we'd all starve."

"It's true. We've had a hand in changing everything on this planet. Although, maybe that's part of the problem," Kate said finally. "In any case, the solution is genius in its workings. It's exactly what the competition required. I can't wait to meet them all."

The train pulled up to their station and the group said their goodbyes. They would meet again in two days for their flight.