Earth's Revival

3 - Terraforming Acrora

Rory didn't understand.

"How are we supposed to do that?" he asked.

Ross shrugged. He sat at one of the desks.

"Don't they know that there's no way to speed it up? Your machines are already pushing their limits. It'll still be five years until Acrora is habitable. That's fast enough, isn't it?"

He waved off Rory's comments.

"The terraformation machine is my invention, and I will fix it if they want me to," Ross said.

The way he said it was so definite and final. His tone was hard, his eyes narrow, and his entire body tense.

Rory was almost nervous to speak up. The reason why humanity had been able to colonise on Acrora was because of Doctor Ross. Years ago, before Rory was born, Ross developed terraforming technology -- a process that would give any planet an Earth-like environment.

It was his masterpiece: creating a new earth. His life's work.

"What if it can't be improved?"

Ross opened his mouth to speak, but a loud buzz sounded throughout the Lab. Someone was requesting entrance. With a sigh, Ross went to open the door to the Lab.

Ross was the only scientist in Trision with a living pad attached to a laboratory. Consequently, their apartment was slightly smaller, but it meant that they always had access to the Lab.

Both the Lab and the pad had Ross's footprint -- a giant mess. Rory would try to clean it as often as he could, but he found the process annoying, and both areas would inevitably revert back to their original disastrous state. Entropy: that's what Ross always called it. It wasn't until recently that Rory began to appreciate that joke.

Ross found his way to the door. Before answering it, he looked directly at Rory.

He gestured to the whole room. "Tidy this up a bit?"

Rory made a face. So did Ross in an attempt to mimic the boy.

The Lab was a beautiful white room. Lining its walls were computer screens. Two chairs sat at their own screen. On the computer desks, pieces of scrap paper with pencil scribbles were scattered everywhere. Beside one of the screens was a scanner, which is where Rory started his cleaning process.

He turned on the computer. As it loaded, he proceeded to collect all the scrap paper. They were mostly calculations he or Ross had scribbled down or a few ideas for different projects. He put the papers in the scanner's tray. With the push of a button, the images from the scraps uploaded onto the computer while the paper was delivered to recycling.

He glanced over at the door where Ross was talking to someone. He didn't let the guest in and kept her at the door. Rory couldn't see who it was, but he recognised Jei Nao's voice.

He was tempted to stop working and listen in on their conversation. It would be a bad idea unless Rory were looking for a scolding.

He kept his head down and continued to work silently. The words that Minister Nao and Ross exchanged were quiet; Rory could barely hear them.

In the middle of the lab were three long tables. "Table" was too kind of a word -- they were more like giant cubes that stuck out of the grated floor. Miscellaneous tools were scattered across its surface. Wrenches, screwdrivers, drills of all sort. Rory pressed a panel on the side of the table which opened up a storage compartment for the tools. He organised them.

Occasionally he glanced up at Ross but mostly kept his attention focused on the task at hand. Ross had been there for a while, talking with the Minister. How long had it been now? He glanced back at the computer. At least three minutes now. How long did conversations usually take?