Shedding Off the Former

Weighing the Options*

Earth. The gem of the known solar system, with its endless oceans, majestic forests, and bountiful flora and fauna that inhabit its landscapes. The home planet of humanity...my home. But with all of Earth's majesty, humanity still finds the need to imagine that there is more out there in the deepest parts of space...

Speculations of other life in the universe have never been confirmed, and no evidence has come to light that supports recent sightings of aliens as anything more than a plane or helicopter. From what we know...we are the only sentient life form to exist in the known universe...

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The wind whipped through the bustling city, its frigid teeth biting into exposed skin and tearing at the clothes that passerby hugged to their bodies to keep warm.

"We would ask that citizens please comply with public orders and return to your homes due to the freezing temperatures. Your cooperation is appreciated and noted towards you and your family's social score."

The hollow metallic voice seemed to echo off the frozen rooftops and cracked concrete sidewalks, burying itself insidiously through the layers of clothing as if another form of the cold. A few looked up to stare at one of the many drones floating above the streets, emitting a steady amount of steam from its rocket propulsion engines as the snow hit the jets of fire. The rest kept their heads low and simply hustled along as fast as they could down the sidewalks.

'General store...medical center...and medical again...'

Staring out of the second floor window of my apartment I had a nearly unobscured view of the entire street, though the layers of forming ice had started to make it harder to see. A sip from the coffee mug in my hand eased my aching head and chased away what little cold made its way through the less than ideal insulation. The television that sat within the living room was tuned to some rerun station of old western movies, most of which I had seen for the umpteenth time. It did not help that these movies were seen as "culturally safe" and "mentally stimulating" by...them. Not a whole lot of material was granted those rare titles, and so I had been forced to watch the same things over and over again. It all just becomes noise after awhile.

"I'd give anything to even play League again..."

I chuckled hoarsely at the thought, the same joke having been said a thousand times between the few friends I had that remained. It seemed like that was all I could do now. Wish for things to be different...wish that I had cherished what I had instead of being a teenager who thought that nothing would change.

I sighed heavily, which caused the steam to billow out and fog up the glass, and sat up to walk over to my computer chair. Work had been cancelled for the next few days due to the ice storm and I needed to find something to entertain myself during my "quarantine." It was a rare occurrence indeed that they would even consider pausing work hours at the repair shop, especially considering the order we had received not even a week ago. I had been in my office looking over the production plans for the next month when an email from the owner himself came through on my end. According to him a custom set of large-scale engines was set to be developed within house, despite the fact that the company had been designed with the equipment and tooling for making small scale motors for things like motorcycles. When I asked why we were attempting something like that I was told that the district government had such a large order for a new project of theirs that nearly all local engine manufacturers were being called on to shift production to this new design.

'Damn it...'

An aggressive sip of coffee was my only recourse to chase away my growing irritation at trying to come up with some method of upscaling the manufacturing process. The break in work would not help matters as I had no way to start implementing some of the smaller changes I could accomplish before needing to organize the larger changes, such as the new tooling machines being purchased and shipped in. Luckily for me, a look through my computer did not show any emails indicating any immediate fires needing to be put out. A small mercy compared to the headache I had. A few message posts from my friends and colleagues on the public chat boards showed that everyone was basically in the same position as me right now: bored.