A man pulled a blanket around his shoulders and slumped at his desk, watching lines of rapidfire data stream across his multiple computer monitors. He took a swig of lukewarm synthetic coffee from a chipped ceramic mug emblazoned with a corporate logo and grimaced. A stack of unread intranet message notifications vied for his attention from the corner of one screen.

There was a deep rumbling. The sounds of the massive thermal turbines kicking in some distance away. The stale air began to circulate. At least he could be grateful for that.

A knock at the door.

“Enter,” the man responded curtly.

The door tentatively swung open. Another man in a business suit stepped one foot inside, nervously adjusting his tie.

“Administrator Mengele, I’m sorry to bother you…”

“Get in and shut the door.”

The man obeyed, and the two were alone in the windowless office.

Dropping the blanket over his faux-leather executive office chair, the administrator stood and stretched. He walked over to a side table and refilled his cup from an insulated carafe, not bothering to offer his subordinate any.

“Status report,” he commanded, appraising a motivational poster on the otherwise bare wall instead of looking at the other man.

“Yes, Administrator. The servers are all online. The transmission signal is strong. The backup generators and failsafes have all been triple checked. Vital signs are–”

“Tell the engineers to check the failsafes again,” he interrupted. “And the tunnel?”

The man pulled out a small PDA and checked his notes.

“The tunnel is stable. As stable as it was on Zero Day. Fluctuations are within the acceptable range.”

“Good… good,” the administrator murmured absent-mindedly. He rubbed the stubble on his chin. When was the last time he left this office?

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The poster on the wall depicted a place called ‘Joshua Tree National Park.’ It might as well have been the Lost City of Atlantis, or one of the moons of Jupiter. The slogan on the poster read, ‘Bloom Where You’re Planted.’

“I called you here because it’s time to begin Phase Two.”

“S-sir?” the subordinate asked with surprise.

“You heard me. It’s time. We’ve delayed too long.”

“But, we haven’t yet solved the—”

“The Board will believe whatever we tell them. And the politicians have no choice but to go along. Just because it hasn’t been solved, doesn’t mean it won’t be solved. Have a little faith.”

“What about the… incidents? Average subscribers are one thing, but the high profiles ones…”

The administrator sighed. He walked over to his desk and, with his free hand, pulled back one of the steel balls of his Newton’s cradle–a gift from some forgotten company holiday party. He released the string, setting in motion the pendulous back and forth clack, clack, clack.

“Did you know that the greatest city in the world once also had the highest murder rate per capita? Sometimes there is a price to pay for living in paradise. A cost that the majority finds acceptable.”

“But last week our legal team received an official subpoena from the JCS. There is mounting pressure to account for the shareholders who–”

“Initiate the Theseus Protocol. That will keep the beancounters and bureaucrats off our backs for a while. Once the second migration is complete, there will be a lot less scrutiny. Indeed, they’ll soon be bowing down and kissing our feet with gratitude. They’ll be erecting monuments in our honor as the saviors of the human race. Just in time for our next stock offering too. Tell the team to begin the process. This will be our greatest undertaking yet. Dismissed.”

The subordinate hesitated. Rather than leave the office as instructed, he timidly cleared his throat.

“What now?” the administrator snapped. He turned and for the first time fixed his bloodshot gaze on the other man.

“What about the… Third Law? We increase the population by that size, won’t there be–”

“That’s just a theory, Höss. Idle speculation. That being said, I take it recruitment for the Volunteer Program has slowed?”

“We’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel,” the other man said grimly, checking his PDA again. “We can check other–”

“What those lazy volunteers need is more motivation. The carrot and the stick! Incentives! Punishments! How close are we on Patch 6.65?”

“We are in regression testing.”

“Fasttrack it. We can iron out any glitches later. Dismissed.”

“But sir—”

“I said dismissed.”