The next day, Adam arranged for a guided tour of the planet. The students eagerly wanted to show off their projects. He had a good grasp of his people’s projects, both official and secret, but not so much with the students, so he was ready to learn a few new things about his planet. Jork and Vorts joined, and when he wanted to take the yacht, Vorts chuckled and said no.
Adam looked at him, confused, as they made their way to a reinforced transport, to his surprise. The professors didn’t seem to think it was strange, so Adam decided to shut up and not come off too ignorant. The transport was quickly filled up by the students, professors, and their assistants. The transport took off. It was the size of a bus and quickly rose to the atmosphere where Kinita Sumina, the geologist student, stood up. “As you know, we set off the volcanoes to release the gas within. It worked. The atmospheric pressure has now reached the desirable level; we have an atmosphere we can work with. If this had been the atmosphere during the initial survey, it would alone have made them increase the planet's level as it is now. The atmosphere protects against radiation from the sun and allows liquid to flow due to its pressure, which means that you can see outside: water, liquid water. We now have access to fuel. However, as you know, we now have another problem. As you know, setting off volcanos leads to a lot of volcanic dust and other gasses that we don’t want to be spewed into the atmosphere. The genius part of Mr. Wrangler was selecting one area to set off the volcanos. Continent Three, we are working on the names, and I refuse to let the kids name them.” She glanced at Adam who just grinned back. “So, while there is some fallout on our side of the planet, we have managed to keep the fallout away from us; with a weak forcefield that allows them to keep the dust contained yet allows the wind to pass, we have been using artificial suns by Mr. Wirt, which helped us modify. As you will see, we are going high in the atmosphere to let you observe.”
Adam looked out the window and realized what he had not before: one-third of Dirt was covered in a giant layer of black clouds. Around the edges, he could see a shimmering field, and he turned to Jork.
“I didn’t know you could do that. Could it cover the whole planet?”
“Yes, but I'm constantly repairing them. They are working on 110% capability and doing something they are not really programmed to do.” He replied.
“A few students are working on a similar problem, dealing with super volcanoes and the after-match. I am sure a few would love to help with this project. They can bring their equipment and blueprints. One is working on a prototype to collect and repurpose the fallout.” Professor Jar-dric said, and Adam turned to look at the pad he was showing him. He had rarely heard Jar-drive speak; the Ghort had chosen a genderless exoskeleton and was a conservative from what he could understand. The Gorts, after all, were gelatine-like creatures in need of those suits to move about, and they either embraced one sex completely and were very open about it or, like this professor, muted, trying to be as neutral as possible. From what Adam understood, the conservative was a shrinking part of the Ghort society.
“Well, as we discussed yesterday, I'm willing to sponsor programs that will benefit the terraforming of Dirt. “ The professors immediately jumped at the chance, and Adam smiled. “They can come here and finish the project if they want and use the cloud to test it.”
“That will be quite beneficial for all of us. I will inform them as soon as possible. They are mostly Ghorst, so I hope you do not mind.”
“Why would I? To me, you are all aliens, and I happen to like aliens, so I don’t care how you look. You know, humans don’t care; we are one of the species that interbreed and have been known to enter marriage without species. “
“You can interbreed? That is rare.” Professor Jar-dric replied, seemingly pleasantly surprised. “Do you need genetic assistance for it or natural?”
“From what I know Natural, it was a big surprise when it was discovered. We don’t know why, but there is the theory that we are one of the engineered species from ancient times and that all engineered species can interbreed.”
“Do you believe that?” One of the assistants asked. She was a Duishin named Sarna Daiar, she was a little excited at the idea and Adam smiled.
“I don’t know. I only know humans have crossbred, and it was a shock when it happened for Earth but not for the species that believe they were engineered. Anyway, let's get back to the topic. The volcanos and forcefield. “He was getting a little uneasy about the comments; he was not interested in this; Vorts, on the other hand, seemed to be and started to talk to the assistant.
Adam looked out the window at the cloud and back at Jork. “You moved the base building, right? There is no way we can build down there. “ He was glad to change the topic.
Jork wiggled his hand. “Just a little, it’s on the edge. Harder build, but it's close enough, so what do you want to call this one?” They all looked at him as the shuttled divided into the chaos of the volcanic ashes and aftermath of the volcanoes; he saw a few were still smoldering, and he chuckled.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“I think I know; I saw this really old movie, and it was a fantastic one. There was land there just like this called Mordor, so let's name the base after that for now. Once it clears up, we can change the name. “
As they spoke, a giant cube of frozen nitrogen descended into the hellscape, guided by the drones toward a large volcano. Adam looked at Jork.
“Why?” He looked at Jork, who was smiling excitedly.
“School project, Mrs. Arah Poter and the kids wanted to see what happens. It will melt, but they will get some kick out of it. It's just a cubic kilometer one. As you can see, there are a few drones following it. That’s them watching from the classroom.” He saw Jork was a little too excited to do this little experiment as well, but part of him wished his teacher had access to somebody like Jork when he was at the orphanage; the kids there would have loved it; he saw the professors were watching like little children as well.
They probably knew exactly what would happen, but there was something about knowing that childish curiosity allowed this to happen, and it made him smile. He started to wonder just how many students they would send. Yesterday, they agreed to build a base like Piridas connected to three domes, one being a dorm that can hold a thousand students, five kilometers north of Piridas. With staff, it would be able to hold fifteen hundred people; he doubted they would fill it up, but they would pay rent for it, a nice little side income. Jork had put a few projects on hold and started the construction.
Adam thought about it. It would take about three months with ten workers, which was no longer a problem, mostly due to Jork and a bigger crew. The place might be finished within a month if they are lucky. He turned his attention back to the tour as they flew along lava rivers and lands so filled with ash they could barely see a hundred meters, flying blind and then stopped hovering over a pole stuck in the ground as Kinita Sumina explained how their early access had granted them the ability to place these sensors all over the area just as the second round of volcanoes had gone off. The sensor uses nanotech to dig itself down and allow it to monitor the geological effects of the volcanoes on a completely different scale. They were going to set up a new volcano in a month's time and would place these sensors all around as a grid as well as monitor it from weather satellites. After exploring Mordor, they left for the south part, where they came to one of the small seas that was rapidly growing bigger. They stopped by a half-built base with three droids working. The research base was ten-man-sized and was meant to be underwater, and with Adams's permission, Adam revealed one of those underwater reach bases would be an M-Polo base; the project was called Maranda, a famous underwater city from a Dushin legend; the kids had named it. Adam started to realize that he was starting to have a few too many M-Polo bases, and he would have to buy more licenses.
Ced-dry Miga was excited at that news and then explained how they were building four such bases around the planet on places they knew would be a hundred meters below the surface when the poles were finished melting. This would also allow all the oceans to connect, and they could start research on seeding the planet. Adam just watched. This was going pretty fast for him. There was so much missing, and the professors seemed to be missing things as well. Ced-dry Miga explained that the beginning would be introducing and feeding algae and fertilizing the ocean with Nitrogen-enriched soil. Apparently, the volcanoes and the Nitrogen from Onic added to the ground soil allowed them to make fertilizers. It was on a small scale now, but they would be able to industrialize it with more engineers. The goal was to cover one continent with this fertilizer and place CO2 transformer around the planet.
They had strategically placed twenty of these converters already and started spilling out oxygen. The whole process, including building more such devices, could take everything from five years to five hundred, depending on how many they can build and at what size. They should also be able to start seeding the sea with small life once the algae has reached a big enough number. That would include a forcefield and controlled areas in the beginning to safeguard the flora. They did expect several failed attempts until they could perfect the process. Then the ship took off again and set course for the big surprise, and they flew north, where they found a large cave blocked by a force field. They flew through and entered a large cave. Adam saw they had set up a reactor near the door and that some cables were going inside and out of the cave. Inside, they came to a large cave with an artificial sun on the ceiling. Adam realized he should have kept a much more careful eye on the students as they, proud as a little kid, showed off a cave about 100 meters long and 50 meters wide with a small pond and grass on the ground; he thought he saw some bushes as well. Mir-na opened the door before anybody could react, and fresh air poured in.
“This is our little secret experiment. We have done what Adam is trying to do on a small scale, planet size, and it worked, as you can see. Green grass, a few plants, and the pond have algae and actually fish, the smallest we could find. We are going to introduce bugs here later. As you can see, we have monitors attached to the ceiling and two drones with a charging station further in. “
Adam chuckled as he walked around and let the students and professors chat. He just wanted to walk around and check the cave. He walked down to the pond and looked inside, seeing some movement. He looked at the students and shook his head in amazement. “If you want to, you have a job waiting here when you graduate. I'm very impressed.”
They looked at each other and then agreed. Jork gave them high fives, and he realized he had been played. The tour was not for the professors. It was for him. They wanted to stay after they graduated. This had been their job application. Professor Jayko congratulated them, and Adam laughed as he got inside the shuttle.
“Let's get back; tomorrow, we must bring the professors back to the Hub, and I must pick somebody up.”