“Mom! I’m off!” The call came almost like a scheduled alarm for the young soaper of Varn —the village just outside the A&R HQ.

“Listen to TJ if he gives you any warnings.” Erich’s mother responded through the opened glass-pane window.

“Gotcha!” Erich responded with his picked-up lingo before racing off in the almost dredged path he had formed between his house and the spot he and his friends met-up beside the bus stop.

“Careful.” A tourist yelped as they spun out of his way with an arm full of groceries.

“Sorry.” He called back with his head flipped to the side without missing a beat in his step. “Can’t miss the bus.”

In reality, he had plenty of time, but he still hadn’t quiet grasped reading the mechanical watch-face, so he tended towards being early.

Eventually panting his way over to the group of six children waiting at the stop, he waved a hand while catching his breath.

“We’re going down-river today, right?” Gye asked TJ, who held a small padded tablet in his hands.

“I thought so, but I guess they are doing something with the road so the bus can only take us upriver.” TJ explained, generalizing the words the bus driver had told him on his way here earlier. “It works out though, there is a wide sand-bank about three miles upstream that looks like really good ground.”

“Did you bring the things?” Erich asked, finally catching his breath and looking around for the large fork shaped device they’d designed to lighten their load covering large areas.

“Trident MK. I” TJ announced with a flourish, pulling out a half dozen small plasma-cut pitch-forks.

They were around fourteen inches in length with four dull indents at the tips for placing magnets into. After placing a bag over the entire device, they could now cover ground four times faster. In theory.

“Best part is. We made all of it.” TJ explained after handing them each out to the small group who’d kept up the game for this long. “And I mean all of it, these things are made from the iron we collected. Pretty cool right?”

“What?” Torin quietly muttered in disbelief before the others could fully grasp the meaning of TJ’s words. “That powder can make these, seriously?”

“I’ve been saying you all need to come see the forge. It’s awesome, my dad can take us on a tour!” TJ bragged with a prideful snort.

“Bus!” Erich shouted, spotting it first after growing bored of digging with the metal tines.

Just as he’d said, bounding down the paved asphalt road was the old gray-hound bus that encircled the area once per half hour.

Skidding to a halt as it reached them, the doors open and a crowd filed out with an assortment of people mixed in.

Waiting their turn, the kids finally raced up the steps after the final passenger stepped off and blended into the crowd of the village square.

“We going up river?” The wrinkled old bus driver asked TJ as he stepped into the cab and hands off the stack of magnets to him.

“I guess so.” TJ reluctantly said pulling out his tablet and pointing out a spot near the sandbar. “Can you get us up near here?”

“No problem.” The bus driver nodded, glancing over the roadmap on his own GPS. “Should be a ten-minute detour.”

“Thanks!” TJ chirped, motioning his friends back to the rear of the bus.

Waving his hand, the bus driver tapped a few icons on his GPS to indicate the change in route. This way if anyone using the app wondered why the bus was late, they could see the adjusted ETA.

Stick too many brains on a problem and the solutions will start becoming entirely different all together. But if it works, it works he supposed.

“All aboard?” The bus driver called out the door a final time before shutting it and returning it to gear.

First, they would take the normal route back towards the Arna & Reynolds complex but before they crossed the bridge and took a left, they instead turned onto a small side road that traced the river all the way to the lithium mine a hundred miles to the north.

Stopping after a few minutes, the kids leaped out and TJ confirmed that he still had cell service. Once the Bus driver was satisfied that they would be properly careful, he looped around and followed the road back towards HQ.

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Many of the flower gardens and shrubs hadn’t fully survived the move, so now as the bus pulled-up, instead of tulips and rose bushes, there were now beautiful local flowers and small sprouts that amazed the earthlings who saw them.

Coming to a halt at the entrance gates, the bus released the handful of people returning before once again repeating its route.

Stepping off, full from a pork-like sandwich with a heavy dollop of an odd savory whipped dressing, Henry Pyre adjusted his belt as he stepped up to the guard post. “Returning.”

“It’s good right?” Gus asked from inside the small security booth, remembering the reason the exec had used when explaining his trip.

“So good.” Henry admitted with a shake of his head. “I don’t want to know what the sauce is, I’ve heard–”

“Oh, yeah. You just gotta eat it and not worry.” Gus nodded with understanding. “You’re all good Mr. Pyre”

“Thanks Gus.” Henry waved, retrieving his badge and turning back towards where he’d parked his car.

Mat-Sci had long been relegated to the outskirts of the complex; the discrimination had existed for decades of the long A&R history. If you ask Henry, it was preposterous, you blow up one or two research facilities and all the sudden they are classifying you as a risk to yourself and others.

Nonetheless, he was forced to drive a whole five minutes around the complex to get from the security gate over to where his office was shoved.

Arriving at the stout research facility, he was immediately bombarded with noise the moment he set foot into the lobby.

“What do you mean by ‘pink sand’?” A woman with a mop of red hair shouted clutching a beaker of charred-black paste while staring daggers at one of the tribal craftsmen who’d agreed to work with them in the lab.

“I mean pink sand. Eyes for nothing?” The man chucked back with a whirl of his head. “You look in the sand if its pink you add it. And then it becomes liquid, it’s not difficult.”

“You are gonna die Kon’Tok.” The woman cried out, slamming the beaker onto the table and nearly leaping over it to get her hands on the laughing artisan.

“Alright, alright calm down.” Henry sighed with exhaustion as he stepped between the two with the help of a few other researchers. “It sounds like you just need to get a sample of this stuff; right Kelly?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying.” The woman griped with her arms tossed into the air dramatically. “But he won’t go get it!”

“It was unnatural, flying like that.” The tribesman reasoned while hiding his eyes from a few of his peers in the lab. “You can go find it, it’s not hard.”

“I’ve added, just about every pinkish substance known to mankind to this beaker.” Kelly chanted, gripping the glass jar and nearly flinging it at the man opposite her. “And you won’t even go and find the one not known?!”

“Calm down, calm down.” Henry repeated, shushing her with a grip on the shoulder. “If he doesn’t want to fly, that’s his prerogative. But now that the roads mostly built, how about both of you drive there instead?”

“W- What?” Kelly asked, glancing between Henry and her mortal enemy Kon’Tok.

“It’s your experiment, and his expertise. Of course, both of you should go.” Laughing at the infuriated face of Kelly, he continued. “It’s only a few days, it’ll be a good bonding experience. What do you think Kon’tok, you alright driving back?”

“That is good.” Kon’Tok concluded after a moment’s thought. “I will prepare to travel back home.”

“See, he can be reasonable.” Henry chuckled, watching the blunt fellow calmly take the stairs up to the second floor converted offices where he’d been living. “Why can’t you be?”

“Me?” Kelly choked in exasperation. “I’m just trying to do my work. He is a menace and does nothing but distract us.”

“He’s also an expert in his own strange way, he solved ten of our biggest sticking points in his first week.” Henry reminded her with a nudge to the side. “That means he’s allowed to be eccentric.”

Grumbling to herself, Kelly realized she had no argument, so she reluctantly followed the man’s lead and left the building to gather her own belongings for the sudden trip.

Kelly was one of the fortunate few chosen to receive one of the first new constructions on the facility. About a quarter mile away, behind the treeline a large area was ripped apart as the new development of houses and apartment blocks were raised on the flat plain.

Now that the company was no longer bleeding money, they could finally start moving out of the cramped office buildings and hangar-apartments and into real purpose-built homes and living spaces.

It was a welcomed change for everyone and as more construction got underway, the relief came quickly.

Beyond houses, the first new businesses also sprouted from within A&R. A few were expected, branches of already established places moving into the new buildings being constructed, but others were complete new. For example, a group of women partnered with a clothing store in Varn and they’re now making and selling new outfits both in the village as well as in the new A&R Suburb.

There were also a group of musicians who decided to open up a small bar that could play live music, apparently the group found little success performing in the village, so they lobbied hard in order to have a bar as one of the first new projects.

Some nights it was pretty good, others it wasn’t worth walking within twenty feet of the small shack.

Driving past the entire strip without a glance, Kelly pulled around a corner and eventually into the parking lot of her small apartment building. Dropping the shifter out of gear she stepped out with a huff and dashed up the small stairway to her upper-floor studio.

“Oops, Sorry.” She stammered at the top step, nearly colliding with an old internship buddy as she rounded the corner.

“No, my fault I wasn’t looking.” Sophia calmly apologized in return with a weak smile while adjusting the back of an earring on her left side.

Glancing her neighbor up and down Kelly raised an eyebrow in contemplation. “Hot date?”

“It’s-” Sophia stammered, rolling her eyes around to envision how best to frame it. “No, not a date. Just enjoying our day off.”

“Oh sure, sure,” Kelly smirked with a snort in the air at the light perfume coming from Sophia’s neckline. “I recognize what I smell.”

“Oh whatever,” Sophia griped with another roll of her eyes, stepping past Kelly she breezed down the stairway throwing a final glance as she nears the bottom stair. “Oh, right the la- She’s gone.”

Shrugging, Sophia stifled a few complaints before stepping through the parking lot and wrenching open the door of her small 2-door Subaru. Sniffing the air as she shut the door she quietly mumbled, “It’s not too strong. Right?”

Deciding she’d consult Laura, she pulled out of the driveway and down to the newly opened bar for the odd, but definitely not, double date