10 Minute Tales

Mar 7

They walked back to the shuttle, Alyssa deep in thought.

"Are you gonna tell me yet?" Queenson huffed, crossing his arms in annoyance. Alyssa blinked, almost flinching.

"Sorry... all she told me was that I had to ask the president what it meant to be human."

"... what it means to be human, huh?" He frowned, thinking. "She didn't tell you anything else with that mumbo jumbo?"

"Sir, just because you don't recognise it doesn't make it mumbo jumbo..." It was Alyssa's turn to fold her arms. "It's an ancient language dating back to the early days of pre-Ascent humanity."

"Yeah, yeah, I didn't mean it like that, sorry." he huffed, looking out a window. It showed the planet far below. It basked in what little daylight it had, looking almost serene from this distance. "... no luck with the underground water deposits, then."

"We aren't expected to get the first major one up for a century yet."

"A goddamn century..." Queenson's stern gaze softened, showing the sorrow he felt. "It'll take less than that for pollutants to screw the planet over in those damn domes."

"You know, there's a section of the population that doesn't think we should terraform it anywhere near as much as we have. They'd have us focus the work on making the buildings we have more efficient, less wasteful, until we're self-sustaining."

"We both know that wouldn't last long-term." They had made it to the shuttle bay again. "Humans like multiplying too damn much. The domes would limit how much space we have, we'd need the planet just to stay off of each other's throats." He climbed the staircase, shoving the door open and stepping in.

"Well, I'm sure there would be some problems if we let it get out of hand..." she ducked her head as she entered the shuttle, gratefully taking her seat. Avo was maintaining an offline Error, tinkering with a panel in her back, and didn't even look up. "But we could take steps to control it."

"Controlling the population? Kinda sounds like what the president's up to."

"N-no, not like that, I mean..." she sighed. "I don't know how to explain it..."

"Attention, passengers of this shuttle." Vanguard's booming voice cut the conversation short, making everybody jump. "You have returned to this shuttle with an unusually long quantity of time remaining. Since our scanners detect three lifeforms and one A.I., we shall not yet clear you for launch. Please prepare yourselves for departure in advance." the voice cut short. Queenson and Alyssa glanced at each other.

"... as long as we're not controlled by A.I. freaks like that, I guess living in a dome can't be too bad." Queenson sighed.

"I don't know, getting away from that might be ideal..." Alyssa replied, shuddering gently.