Few and Far Between

Chapter Two: A Slight but Noticeable Change

Niamh woke the next day to her alarm sounding. She took a quick shower in the dorm bathroom, making use of the time before anyone else was awake, before dressing in her usual outfit- a plain coloured t-shirt and skinny jeans. Taking her hoodie from the hook by her bunk and pulling her hair back into her usual ponytail, she put in her earphones and sat on the edge of her bed to read before leaving for work. An unexpected text from Abby, an intern a year older than Niamh who worked at the desk across from her, alerted her to the unfortunate fact that she was indeed late. However, this happened quite frequently and Niamh was undoubtedly one of the hardest-working and most consistent apprentices so she tended to get away with little more than a gentle reminder to keep track of time. She put away her book and hurried to the lab. When she arrived there was a strange air about the room that she didn't recognise. The second she reached her desk, Abby leant over and whispered to her. 

"What a day to pick to be late! You'll never guess what's happened!"

"Why?" questioned Niamh, "What's going on? Everyone seems weird."

Before Abby could answer, Josh- their supervisor- hurried over.

"Niamh! So glad you've arrived. Has Abby told you what's going on yet?"

"No, she was about to before you came over though." A little blunt, Niamh realised afterwards, but she had never really seen the point in not being direct.

"Oh, cool, well you'll never guess what's happened!" Josh's face seemed to light up at the idea of sharing this news with someone else.

"Ok then, so what is it? Clearly I won't be able to guess." Niamh half-joked.

"A planet." Two words, but two of the most exciting words Niamh had heard in quite some time. The Omicron hadn't passed a planet for at least a decade, since their main purpose wasn't really focussed on planetary exploration but rather more general scientific discovery. That didn't mean that they didn't explore planets though. The colony was equipped with a full fleet of small ships that could land and even pilot back to dock if necessary, and was rumoured to have a special communication link with earth purely to alert them of any habitable planets that they discovered. Another rumour said that the deep storage room had basic supplies for setting up a new civilisation and that if they ever did find an 'earth B' then a team would be sent to set up a community and prepare for any groups of earth citizens that might be shipped out to them. Personally, Niamh didn't believe rumours. She liked to prove things herself. But, planets did have a lot more research opportunities than generic space rocks, and so she was understandably pleased with the news.

"AND," Abby cut in suddenly, pulling Niamh out of her thoughts, "apprentices will be allowed to propose research too! So put on your thinking cap, Niamh, because we are finally getting some real work!"

If anything this news was even better than the planet. Apprentices never got to plan their own research, just read through and adjusted promoted workers' plans instead. She supposed that a whole planet would have too many options for the promoted scientists to cover by themselves, and that would be why they got to help out. But honestly, Niamh didn't care why. She was getting her first real work as a research planner, and it felt amazing.

The next few weeks saw a slight but noticeable change in the effort and workload in the RP lab. Everyone held a sense of expectation as they wrote up experiment after experiment, planning tests on the air, the water, and everything in between. Niamh was excited, naturally, but after the initial surprise and the wave of happiness that came with her new responsibility, her emotions toned down to become much more similar to how they were before: quiet, reserved, and generally passive. She gladly settled into her new work routine, even starting to arrive a little earlier and leave a little later to get more done, occasionally taking time out of her lunch break to finish up a particularly interesting experiment. This was what she enjoyed doing, this is what she was going to be doing for most of the rest of her life, and she was definitely going to get everything she could out of the experience.

As Niamh grew up, never really expressing her emotions in any strong way, people close to her began to wonder. Was she still feeling everything they were? Why did she keep so much to herself? Did she choose to be so dulled down or was there some kind of mental blocker inside her? Niamh was never one of those people though. Even after her parents' accident, when she stopped feeling anything, she kept going on with her life. She stopped doing a couple of the things she usually did but that was the extent of what she let anyone see- why would anyone want to see more, anyway? She never felt sad, necessarily, but she felt hollow, lonely, dull, without those two people who had always just... been there. Niamh had never before had to question why someone would support her, just knowing that her parents were there to do that, and then one day that was gone, and she did question it. When her uncle brought her dinner after she didn't turn up in the canteen one evening, she questioned why. When Zoe sat down next to her in the common area at school and just calmly rubbed her arm, she questioned why. She never asked her questions, just filed them away in her mind like a neat stack of papers and let them be. After a while, the questions stopped coming so frequently, and in time she returned to how she felt normal, planning out routines, listening to music, reading books, and as the people who she had silently questioned drifted away she didn't feel sad. No, why should you feel sad for something that you knew was fleeting, that you marked down years ago as impermanent and left alone? Her emotions didn't get duller when she lost her family. She didn't start ignoring them. They had simply never been intrusive or loud or so bright she just had to share them with the world, and that was ok. That was Niamh.

After almost three weeks of planning, writing, and re-writing experiments, the atmosphere in the lab felt so heavy with anticipation it was hard to believe you couldn't cut it like a cake. In just a day, every single research planner who had anything to show for their weeks of study would be meeting up with a venture scientist in an appropriate field to discuss logistics and go over any unusual elements of the experiment. Niamh wasn't the biggest fan of meeting new people, but since all they would have to talk about had been thoroughly planned out beforehand she was feeling good. Her experiment was nothing special, really, a simple test on water or other liquids to search for signs of animal or plant life. As an apprentice, she wasn't expected to come up with anything revolutionary, especially not for her first proper job, but Josh did seem to like her approach to the task. Niamh had managed to cut a few of the more tedious steps out of her plan and hoped that her changes would be appreciated by whoever she had to pass the task onto. As practically the first step in the chain of experimentation and analysis, research planners pretty much just had to do a good job explaining to the next group before settling back into their mundane tasks again.

Tomorrow, they would pass on the planet and all the excitement it came with, and everything would be just like it was before.