Atlas Abandoned

Fissure (3 years since the alarm/ 1 year since the crash)

A third leg. A fourth leg. A few more legs. Okay, the whole thing is covered in legs now. How many eyes? Three for now. The arms are going to be made out a bunch of circles. Oh, the hair! It'll be one long line that spirals off the page.

"Demeter?" Professor Thanes beckoned to her as the rest of the auditorium erupted with the chatter and packing up that signaled the end of class. Demeter sat near the front out of habit, but Introduction to Meteorology was too easy for her and she was bored as usual today. Demeter, like most of the other kids, took this particular class mostly for its Professor. Jon Thanes was renowned across the six colonies for his studies of the Earth's atmosphere and was an officer of the Alternative Recovery of Earth's Atmosphere (A.R.E.A.) Council.

"-Y-yes sir?" Demeter slapped her notebook closed on her doodles once she realized that both class was over and that Professor Jon Thanes had just called her out by name.

"Can you stay behind for a few minutes? I'd like to have a word," he said. Demeter froze. She felt the blood leave her face. He had seen her not paying attention out of all of the students in this gigantic lecture class! Demeter guiltily gathered her things and met the professor down at the front as he walked a cart of materials towards his office.

"Sir, I'm sorry th-"

"Do you feel challenged by this course?" Professor Thanes interrupted.

"...Honestly, sir, not really. Meteorology was part of my mom's job and sh-"

"Yes, I know. I worked with your mother," he said as if he expected Demeter to know that already.

"Oh, wow! I didn't know that sir, that's really cool!" Demeter's anxiety was gone and replaced with excitement. Her mom had never told them that she worked with Jon Thanes. Maybe she assumed nobody knew who he was.

"You were in the top 3% of the class for 8 months, Demeter. I've kept my eye on your classwork since I realized who you were- who your mother was. Recently your grades have been slipping and I'm not convinced that it's due to an increase in the difficulty of the material. I see your mother's intellect in you," Professor Thanes was putting away materials in various drawers in his office, but stopped as he went on, "I regret that hers was wasted on the Pilgrimage when there was so much progress to be made right here on Earth!" Demeter was starting to dislike the way her Professor was talking about her mother, but before she could say anything he changed the subject.

"Demeter, I have a team on The Tesla conducting some of my most important research. Every single member is absolutely brilliant, but we've been in need of a younger mind and I see true potential in you. I can make sure you continue to advance your education, but I'm offering you a full-time spot on the team." Demeter didn't know how to respond. She just stood there, mouth hanging open. "I'm leaving for The Tesla after class next Friday. A substitute will be finishing teaching for the semester after that. I'll give you until the end of class that day to decide." Demeter thanked him unintelligibly and hurriedly left to climb the stairs out of the auditorium.

"Oh, and Demeter?" the professor called out when she was halfway up, "you should know that this research isn't exactly approved by the A.R.E.A. Council, but it is vital to the restoration of our Earth!" Demeter waited a few seconds to let it all sink in, looked over her shoulder and forced an appreciative smile, and then left. All she could think about was what Pallas might say when she told him.

Life on The Northerner, where Pallas and Demeter lived now, was a bit different than it was on The Phoenix. This space colony was the first one completed and the first one to accept humans during the exodus from Earth. It was also the first to become overcrowded while The Phoenix, where Pallas, Demeter, and Atlas had called home their whole lives held the lowest population. As a result, when Pallas and Demeter transferred onto The Northerner they moved into an all-too-common group home with more than a dozen other families. The food was worse here. The Wilderness rooms were mostly broken. The halls were dirtier because the appointed custodians didn't care about their jobs. They just took the paychecks and rubbed shoulders with their bosses' bosses. Many things about this space colony felt corrupt.