Atlas Abandoned

Invasion (3 years since crash)

"I think surface, which is why I think we don't need to worry so much."

"Why not?"

"Where are they gonna set up shop out at the colonies' front doors? Nowhere. They want to land. They're gonna land on Earth and you know what? They can hang out on Earth for all I care."

"It's still our planet. We have people down there now, too."

"Yeah well who's fault is that?" Pallas stopped entertaining the conversation, stuffed another piece of bread in his mouth and looked away until the Sergeant got up and left.

Demeter watched through the window as Esther gathered up another sample of soil out in the dirt outside of the lab. She was wearing a full-body environmental protection suit and as she waddled back inside the lab, which was a simple, airtight room made of metal paneling that they brought down on the ship, which it was connected to in the back.

Esther came back inside and Demeter jumped up to ask how she could help.

"Uh, yeah, put the suit away," Esther said while focusing on the soil sample. Demeter did that for her. She was used to that task, anyhow. When the suit was properly cleaned and stored, Demeter wiped the sweat from her forehead and approached Esther's station to see how she could help further.

"Hey Wiz," Sam called her over from his workstation, "Can you wire these results to James at Lab 3 and Jessica at Lab 4 and...whoever wants to pick up at Lab 17?

"Uh, sure, Sam," said Demeter before she could even say another word to Esther. She was used to doing this sort of task, too. In the last year, following Demeter's team- now known worldwide as the infamous Lab 1- very illegally but very popularly absconding to the surface, many other rebellious groups of impassioned people followed suit. Dozens of other teams of scientists, farmers, and engineers took advantage of the unraveling regulation and military security and control of transport and got themselves down to the surface. It had gotten to the point where Lab 1 had been the founding ship of what became a city on the surface! There must have been 40 ships that had congregated in the same geographical area, and each ship had built at least one building to help them contribute. More ships were coming down every month. Their community became known unofficially as Tesla City. Even the A.R.E.A. council ended up supporting Tesla City by sanctioning supply drops for the farmers to help provide everyone with food. Engineers and technicians owned the tasks of connecting these buildings both physically and electronically. Tesla City was booming and Demeter was the root cause.

She didn't feel very special about it, though. In fact, as she grabbed the digital files from Sam and transferred them into the ancient computer they had to use between labs, she thought about how she had yet to take on any truly significant research projects since they landed on the surface. It had all been very clerical, janitorial, and assistive at best. Demeter had been biting her tongue for this long, though. After all, these people had taken her in, homeschooled her, and let her be part of the team. She was part of the team, right?

"Professor Thanes?" Demeter gathered herself and wanted to confront their ringleader about how she felt underutilized. His workstation was isolated in the back corner of the room and he rarely got up from his desk to interact with the rest of the team. He was listening to music and didn't acknowledge Demeter. A small vial fell and broke by Chen's desk.

"Aw shit. Hey Wiz, come help me c-"

"I'm not AGS-5, Chen!" Demeter snapped and let her frustration out with a yell across the room, garnering looks from everybody. Thanes had heard that through his music and set his work down.

"Demeter, come with me," The professor escorted Demeter into the main ship where they spoke privately. Demeter voiced her concerns and explained that she felt far more capable than she had been given opportunity to show so far. Professor Thanes nodded with a look of concern, but Demeter could tell he was phoning it in.