ShelterTale

ShelterTale Part 16

-Le several weeks timeskip-

Sans poured over the latest data sent by his observation robots: information from history books it had photographed, political geographical information, the latest cultural analyses. It had only been fifty years since monsters had left the surface, but that was an entire generation for humans. A few things had changed, though nothing was majorly different from what he remembered.

Sans was honestly a little surprised to see how slowly technology was progressing on the surface—they didn't even have computing devices there yet, let alone computers. Sans formed a hypothesis that the peace underground allowed monsters to focus on creativity and invention, while the surface was still incredibly dangerous. Humans had to worry about bad weather, environmental disasters, food shortages, wild predatory beasts, and other humans, while monsters faced none of that. There was also the surprising disadvantage that their wide area dropped on them: it was difficult to spread information and gather intelligent people.

Well, things progressing slowly was good for Sans. He didn't have all day to look over the data that constantly flowed in. The skeleton stood up from his desk and traded his lab coat for his favorite purple hoodie. He grabbed his half-empty coffee mug and teleported to the courtyard garden in the palace in new home. Asgore tended this place on his days off, along with a similar garden in the Home palace and one in his and Toriel's back yard. Artificial sunlight flooded down from the ceiling to keep the surface flowers healthy. Playing in the middle of the patch was Chara, Papyrus, and a little baby goat monster in a green onesie.

"heya pap. hey, chara. hey, asriel."

"SANS! GOOD OF YOU TO MAKE IT, BROTHER!"

"You're late as usual, Sans," Chara smirked.

"I was catching up on some documents I had to read," he answered, rubbing his tired eye sockets.

"OH! WAS IT ABOUT THE EXCAVATION?" Papyrus asked excitedly.

Sans thought back to a conversation they'd had almost a year ago now.

"BROTHER, SOME PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE CASTLE WERE TELLING ME ABOUT WHAT THEY MISS FROM THE SURFACE. SOME THINGS CALLED THE SUN AND STARS THAT LIT UP THE SKY. DID YOU EVER GET TO SEE THEM?"

Sans reached up to pat his little brother's head. "yeah, bro. i did."

"I WANT TO SEE THEM TOO, BROTHER."

"well, pap, you know monsters can pass freely through the barrier, but there's humans up there. it isn't safe."

"I KNOW THAT. I WAS WONDERING IF YOU AND DAD COULD MAKE A NEW SKY DOWN HERE. THEN EVERYONE COULD SEE THE SUN AND STARS SAFELY WHENEVER THEY WANT!"

Sans had stopped to think about it, then lowered his head, grinning softly, "for you, bro? anything."

And so Sans had talked about it with Gerson and Gaster and they'd come up with a way to make a sky in the underground. It involved harnessing the natural light and warmth of Hotland, digging a new area underneath it, and making lots of modifications to the ceiling. They couldn't dig down through the lava, so the plan was to dig under New Home and then work their way back under Hotland. They were getting to a point in the planning and budgeting that they were about ready to start digging.

"no, pap, it was something else, but the excavation should start in about a month. dad and i have finished just about all the preparations. we just need some time for the tools and workers to make their way here."

i need to run diagnostics on the big drills tonight, Sans thought, sipping the last of his coffee.

"What excavation?" Chara asked.

"SANS, DAD, AND GERSON ARE GOING TO MAKE A NEW AREA UNDER HOTLAND WHERE WE CAN HAVE A SUN AND SKY UNDERGROUND!" Papyrus shouted with glee.

"That sounds impossible," the ghost stated plainly.

Sans shrugged and peered into his empty coffee cup, setting it down and lounging on his side in a pile of petals. "it's gonna be a pain, but it will make a lot of monsters a lot happier." He held his hand to his mouth and yawned, "and paps is too young to remember what the sky looked like, so i wanna show him."

Chara looked at him with wide red eyes and then chuckled. "You can be cool sometimes too, huh Sansy?" However, only faint snoring answered her.

"OH, BROTHER," Papyrus sighed.