“They said they’ve already launched our workforce. About three hundred people should be here in four days. They said we have three weeks to have this planet conditioned and ready to start taking on new citizens,” Idris said. “They are unsure how long it will take for the nuclear winter to occur, but they are looking to get as many people as possible off the planet until they know.”
“How are we going to accommodate that many people that quickly? We can barely support ourselves here, right now!” Garrett exclaimed. “They’re all going to have to work.”
“I agree.” Idris nodded. “If we’re going to make this work, we’re going to need great planning, and every person who lives here is going to have to pull their own weight. We will need to make that clear. I assume that these people we will be receiving would do anything to have a second chance.”
“It’s a good thing we are going to have more help. We’re going to need a lot more, and different housing, it sounds like,” said Ronald Walsey. I remembered him from the very first meeting we’d ever had on Earth. “We will have to start looking into more basic, simple housing. We’ve been working on beautiful homes for everyone here, and that's going to have to change.”
“Listen, we are going to have to make some sacrifices,” Idris began. “I know we all envisioned how it was going to be here. This was supposed to be our world. It still can be, but we have to be willing to give up some of our ideas of the future to make room for more people.” He paused. “Who’s willing to do that?” His eyes searched the crowd.
We all had been wishing that we could help everyone back home in some way, and now we were going to get the chance. I stood up. It happened so quickly, I wasn’t even fully aware of what I’d just done. I just did it. I stood there alone, looking around at my peers who did not rise with me. “This isn’t about us anymore,” I said. “This is about creating a better world, one where people want to help each other. We don’t have a choice, but I think we should make the choice to rise to the occasion! When have you ever been tasked with saving the world? Ever? I don’t know about you, but it sounds like this is the right thing to do.”
Before, I would have never taken a stand. I was shy, and not a people fan. Since getting to know my teammates, though, my views had changed. This was my family.
Garrett rose beside me, followed by Jane, then Ronald. Soon enough, everyone was standing together, looking towards Idris, smiling.
“Let’s do this, then!” Idris yelled. Everyone raised their hands and cheered.
Chapter Twelve
Everyone got straight to work, preparing for the new workforce that was on its way to Circadia. The TV crew worked on building as many ‘wattle and daub’ huts as they could manage to give people a place to stay as soon as they arrived. Having something to keep busy was key to keep from going insane, and it would give the newcomers a leg up on the new planet. Three hundred huts was a lot, but the crew intended to make quick work of it.
The nutritionist teams began planning how to feed all of the people that Circadia would soon become host to. There wasn’t enough of the freeze-dried vegetables for all of us, and we were unsure what they would be bringing with them, if anything. The amount of pigs we had brought would be sufficient, eventually, but not at the moment. They needed time to reproduce and multiply, and they couldn’t do that efficiently if we were depleting their numbers rapidly. So, edibility testing on Circadia’s native plants began, quickly followed by testing to see how much protein was contained in each plant.
The edibility testing was primitive, at best, and taken from basic survival skills that used the same principles. First, the teams started by fasting and only drinking water for eight hours. After the eight hours were up, they would take a plant that grew abundantly and deconstruct it into pieces: root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit. They would then rub one part of the plant on their skin vigorously and wait for fifteen minutes. If there was no reaction, they would determine how they would cook it. If they intended to boil it, they would boil the plant and then hold it on their lips for fifteen minutes. If there was no burning or tingling sensation at this point, they would then hold it on their tongue for fifteen minutes. If there was no reaction, they would chew it and hold it in their mouths for fifteen minutes. If there was still no reaction, they would swallow it, and wait another eight hours to gauge a reaction.
If at any point there was any kind of adverse reaction, they would rinse, dilute, and induce vomiting. It was a long and tedious process, but necessary since there were no books on the plants found on Circadia. The nutritionists had to be sure the plants they would be eating and feeding people would not poison the population. For the most part, it seemed that there were quite a few native plants that were edible, but after weeks of testing, the ten or so people on the nutrition crew who were doing the testing looked grotesque. Many had blisters on their lips, and some looked like they’d spent their lives vomiting for hours on end. We thanked them for their service, although it didn’t feel like enough.
The nutritionists also worked with the chem team to determine
