A third leg. A fourth leg. A few more legs. Okay, the whole thing is covered in legs now. How many eyes? Three for now. The arms are going to be made out a bunch of circles. Oh, the hair! It'll be one long line that spirals off the page.
"Demeter?" Professor Thanes beckoned to her as the rest of the auditorium erupted with the chatter and packing up that signaled the end of class. Demeter sat near the front out of habit, but Introduction to Meteorology was too easy for her and she was bored as usual today. Demeter, like most of the other kids, took this particular class mostly for its Professor. Jon Thanes was renowned across the six colonies for his studies of the Earth's atmosphere and was an officer of the Alternative Recovery of Earth's Atmosphere (A.R.E.A.) Council.
"-Y-yes sir?" Demeter slapped her notebook closed on her doodles once she realized that both class was over and that Professor Jon Thanes had just called her out by name.
"Can you stay behind for a few minutes? I'd like to have a word," he said. Demeter froze. She felt the blood leave her face. He had seen her not paying attention out of all of the students in this gigantic lecture class! Demeter guiltily gathered her things and met the professor down at the front as he walked a cart of materials towards his office.
"Sir, I'm sorry th-"
"Do you feel challenged by this course?" Professor Thanes interrupted.
"...Honestly, sir, not really. Meteorology was part of my mom's job and sh-"
"Yes, I know. I worked with your mother," he said as if he expected Demeter to know that already.
"Oh, wow! I didn't know that sir, that's really cool!" Demeter's anxiety was gone and replaced with excitement. Her mom had never told them that she worked with Jon Thanes. Maybe she assumed nobody knew who he was.
"You were in the top 3% of the class for 8 months, Demeter. I've kept my eye on your classwork since I realized who you were- who your mother was. Recently your grades have been slipping and I'm not convinced that it's due to an increase in the difficulty of the material. I see your mother's intellect in you," Professor Thanes was putting away materials in various drawers in his office, but stopped as he went on, "I regret that hers was wasted on the Pilgrimage when there was so much progress to be made right here on Earth!" Demeter was starting to dislike the way her Professor was talking about her mother, but before she could say anything he changed the subject.
"Demeter, I have a team on The Tesla conducting some of my most important research. Every single member is absolutely brilliant, but we've been in need of a younger mind and I see true potential in you. I can make sure you continue to advance your education, but I'm offering you a full-time spot on the team." Demeter didn't know how to respond. She just stood there, mouth hanging open. "I'm leaving for The Tesla after class next Friday. A substitute will be finishing teaching for the semester after that. I'll give you until the end of class that day to decide." Demeter thanked him unintelligibly and hurriedly left to climb the stairs out of the auditorium.
"Oh, and Demeter?" the professor called out when she was halfway up, "you should know that this research isn't exactly approved by the A.R.E.A. Council, but it is vital to the restoration of our Earth!" Demeter waited a few seconds to let it all sink in, looked over her shoulder and forced an appreciative smile, and then left. All she could think about was what Pallas might say when she told him.
Life on The Northerner, where Pallas and Demeter lived now, was a bit different than it was on The Phoenix. This space colony was the first one completed and the first one to accept humans during the exodus from Earth. It was also the first to become overcrowded while The Phoenix, where Pallas, Demeter, and Atlas had called home their whole lives held the lowest population. As a result, when Pallas and Demeter transferred onto The Northerner they moved into an all-too-common group home with more than a dozen other families. The food was worse here. The Wilderness rooms were mostly broken. The halls were dirtier because the appointed custodians didn't care about their jobs. They just took the paychecks and rubbed shoulders with their bosses' bosses. Many things about this space colony felt corrupt.
In fact, if there were any redeeming qualities about The Northerner besides that it made it easier to forget about their problems from before, it was Pallas' remarkable ability to fit in here. The same rude, scrappy behavior that used to isolate him and get him in trouble actually brought him a sort of celebrity status with his peers. He quickly gained the admiration of a small gang of kids who were similarly orphaned, angry, or otherwise bored. These kids, all slightly younger than Pallas, would follow his orders no matter what kind of shenanigans they mandated. So far, in the year they'd been here, Pallas had only gotten into trouble with authority figures once prior to acquiring his little army. That was when he beat up another kid who was doing the exact same thing.
The door to the group home flew open as Pallas and a couple of his minions stomped in, hunching over with laughter. Everyone else in the home, including Demeter, was getting ready for bed. It was common knowledge among the kids through gossip that Pallas' gang was starting small fires all over The Northerner as some sort of initiation or dare game.
"I have to talk to you, Pallas," she tried to get him to be serious for once, but he was blatantly ignoring her. It didn't take long for her to give up trying.
Demeter did her best to ignore them as they bantered, but lately it seemed like every action; every word that came from the vicinity of Pallas or one of his goons was overly inciting, instigating or obnoxious. It was starting to drive Demeter crazy in the cramped quarters of the group-home, since her life was crammed into a 10 square foot area next to Pallas' and he always had visitors and his visitors always made picking on Demeter one of their priorities when they were around. It was as if her brother encouraged it.
"Hey! Deemy! Dummy! Hey! Hey. Hey. Hey," one of Pallas' friends was standing next to Demeter's bunk teasing her as she rolled over to face the wall, pulled her blanket over her head.
"Go be annoying somewhere else," she mumbled. Demeter figured if she ignored the kid long enough, he would eventually go away and Pallas would go to bed. On the contrary, after about 20 minutes a few more kids showed up and they started talking about their grandiose plans to pull off some sort of big prank in the cafeteria. She didn't want to know what they were doing, wasn't going to convince them to leave, and certainly wasn't going to get any sleep at this point, so she got out of bed, grabbed a sweatshirt and some sandals, and left.
Wandering the halls of The Northerner was a very different experience than on The Phoenix. Before, you could easily find some solitude in the hallways and various utility rooms if you kept to yourself and didn't bother anybody. Demeter used to go sit by herself in big, empty halls and watch the Earth spin slowly through the giant windows. It was so peaceful for her. On this colony, though, it was never dull. There was always a rush of people going to work, from work, or running errands. The halls smelled worse, miscellaneous rooms were all filled over capacity with storage, and spots that might have been tolerable to sit and keep to oneself often had drug addicts who lost their way home, but were cognizant enough to hide from patrolling soldiers. Demeter laughed to herself as she passed one such addict, thinking 'Here I am, 12 years old, and my legal guardian couldn't care less what I'm getting into.' She knew she'd have no trouble getting permission to go to The Tesla if she ended up deciding to go with Professor Thanes.
Since Demeter spent so much time exploring the station, she had found one place to go that nobody else ever seemed to discover. One of the Wildnerness chambers that was well barricaded due to seemingly eternal maintenance was actually full operational. Someone must have forgotten to fill out a form or tell the right maintenance worker about it. Maybe the maintenance worker, like most of them, just didn't care enough about their job to do any work. Whatever the reason, Demeter was thankful and, when nobody was paying attention, slipped into the Wild. It was set to a cold, snowy environment and had been that way ever since she discovered the room.
It was snowing so Demeter flipped up her hoodie. Her chilled feet quickly went numb in her sandals, but she knew where she was going. Demeter hurried up a small mountain with a cave where she had stashed thick socks, blankets, and some other supplies. Everything was still there- a sign that nobody had found her spot. Over the next week or so, Demeter spent more time here than she did anywhere else- especially in her own "home." She'd study, pretend to talk to Atlas and her parents, and embrace the frozen solitude.
"Did you see Tommy's hands?" laughed Pallas. Demeter was packing her suitcase when he came in with some friends. He shot her an almost concerned look before going back to his conversation.
"He was screaming like 'waaaahaha!' and waving his arms like a bird!" snorted one of the kids, running around doing his best impersonation.
"Is he hurt?" Demeter chimed in since they were standing near her.
"Don't worry about it. Someone tripped the alarm so we ran. He'll get taken to the med-bay and be fine." Pallas shrugged off Demeter's concern and turned back to the other kid, chuckling.
"Wait, are you really going to let him take the fall for you? I'm sure you started the fire. You've been starting all of them, haven't you?" Demeter had lied to keep Pallas out of trouble too many times, and other kids had similarly taken the blame for his shenanigans in the past. Pallas never took responsibility for any of this.
"What do you care? I bet you want to see me get hauled off."
"I can't take care of you anymore! I'm sick of always getting left behind with your messes!" she yelled.
"In case you haven't noticed, Dummy, I don't need anyone to take care of me! I'm older than you!"
"You're going to get in more trouble than you can handle one of these days and I don't want to be dragged into it anymore!"
"Good! Neither do I! So go take your suitcase and live somewhere else! Did you forget I didn't want you to come here anyway? I don't want you here!"
"You're pretty mean to your only family."
"Family? Our family left on that ship. Our family doesn't matter anymore."
Demeter walked out briskly with her backpack and suitcase without saying goodbye. She didn't look back, not because she was trying to hide any tears, but because in the heat of that moment she truly stopped caring. Demeter went to her Intro to Meteorology class, finished her work quickly, and doodled until Professor Thanes dismissed the class early. They made eye contact and all he needed was a nod to know she was coming with him to The Tesla.
Over the next few days Demeter was overwhelmed by the luxurious accommodations she was given on this station, the almost unbelievable and open-armed friendliness of the rest of the research team, two of whom had agreed to be her mentors and homeschoolers, and the ferocious passion Professor Thanes had for his research. He had really put every bit of his heart, soul, and bank account into this. The lab had equipment more advanced than she'd ever seen on The Phoenix and they were completely overstocked with even the most trivial supplies. There were also huge tanks of soil from Earth- something she had only heard about before. Demeter hadn't been formally debriefed on the project yet, but she didn't mind. She felt like she could spend the rest of her life working with these people.
Pallas eventually learned where Demeter had gone. He was proud of her, but was also pretty proud of himself. He had created his own empire. There were nearly 100 kids all over The Northerner that reported upwards to Pallas. He would orchestrate food fights, create flash mobs during school lectures, beat up bullies- but only if they deserved it- and had developed a system that usually kept his people out of trouble and out of the med-bay. Usually. He was their leader. Now this felt like a family.
Private Welzer was an 18-year-old, freshly minted Mammoth. He had graduated from Mammoth Basic Training at the top of his class and was able to choose which colony he wanted his first rotational deployment to take place in. Having grown up on The Northerner, Private Welzer wanted to give back and so passed on the more attractive colonies in favor of that one. This came to the pleasant surprise of his fellow graduates who got to pick their rotations next.
The Private wore a proud smile on the shuttle ride over. He wore a wrinkle-free, starched uniform as he rubbed his freshly shorn buzz cut, still not quite used to it. When he got to the Mammoth headquarters where he was stationed he looked over his immaculate desk and dust-free inbox already full of outreach assignments on silicon holo-discs. He took a deep breath and, ready to earn his Mammoth patch, Private Welzer sat down with purpose. He placed down a couple personal items to make it feel like home, grabbed the first assignment, activated his projection video-phone and, with the zeal of a new graduate who wants to give his very best to his employer, dialed the video-mailbox at Pallas' and Demeter's group home.
"Hello, you have an important message waiting for you regarding the status of your loved ones' Mammoth Reconnaissance & Retrieval attempt. Please visit your local Mammoth HQ for a secure viewing of the message. Have a great day." Private Welzer hung up, chuckled at how easy that was, and tossed the completed assignment disc in the recycle bin before grabbing the next one.