This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Engletroll on 2024-10-29 03:48:01+00:00.

Part 1 . . Part 2 … Part 3 … Part 4 Part 5 … Part 6 … Part 7 … Part 8 Part 9 . Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17

Adam woke up the next day, and it was still raining. He got himself ready, went to the kitchen, and grabbed a coffee before going to the admin. It was still early, so the kids had not arrived yet. He asked the computer to transfer all the reports to his pad and then went to the lift. He took it to the observation deck and sat down as he watched the rain, enjoying the coffee. He slowly went over the reports.

It had become his morning routine, and this was how he had discovered all the hidden projects his employees had. The rain stopped around seven, and he looked at the wet ground. If he had been a kid, he would have loved to jump in the puddles. He thought momentarily, then headed down to his storage and opened his seed bank. He found what he was looking for, grabbed a shovel, and walked out. After he got into the suit, he walked out, found a nice spot about five hundred meters from the base, and started digging. WD-40 came over and looked at him.

“May I help you, Sir?” It asked. He looked up and chuckled at the number on its chest.

“Naw… wait, yes. A small fence around this plant and make sure it gets some fertilizer. Hopefully, it will grow up to be a nice tree.” He finished up and looked around. “I think we are doing a nice job. Hmm, maybe we should start a plant-spreading program.”

“Starting the program, searching the database for the best method.” It replied, and Adam chuckled. “I’m changing your designation to Druid. I will tell Jork and Vorts to help you with your mission. Oh, and not only appletrees like this, be diverse within logical parameters.”

“Affirmative. We’re building a small fence before starting a new program.” As he spoke, his designation vanished and became the words druid. Adam nodded to the droid, grabbed the shovel, and returned inside. When he returned to the administration, he found the two working kids were leaving as they had finished their duties. Vorts had seen him outside and asked what he had done, so he explained that he had planted an apple tree, and a droid had asked to help. He told them to add Druid’s new mission into the system and give it the resources, just as an experiment. Vorts started working on seed cloning as Jork launched a science droid to report Druid’s work; he named the droid pet and gave one of the engineers the job of creating a storage unit they could use. After that, they promptly forgot to give instructions on how to plant trees for two droids with a ten thousand-year lifespan.

Instead, they focused on the coming day, the student’s presentation, and Adam ‘s daily swim with Miker. They had a short meeting about the different projects and a few new ones that were being suggested. Adam had to hold back on a few as some got a little too excited about the oxygen in the air. It was still only 0.5% a long distance from the 21 to 22% they were aiming for. It was a good beginning, and the algae was starting to produce oxygen, as suspected. Vorts was working hard on the cloning process and requested ten more machines. Adam was going to look into it. He was, after all, going back to the Hub soon to pick up goods and deliver the professors.

Vorts suggested they should ally with the university, allowing them access at a price. Adam told him he had already thought about it, and that was one of the reasons for Min-na’s presence. Any deals could quickly be hammered out. After that, he contacted Min-Na and told her he would like a meeting with her after the presentation. She agreed as she was now tailing the professors and her granddaughter and enjoying the sights.

Adam then went to pick up Miker to go swimming. It was a happy reunion, and he was happy showing off his new swimming skills. Then they went to check the fish that had hatched in the other pool. The little boy showed him all the new things until they ended up in the kitchen, where they made Pizza for lunch. After lunch, He had to say goodbye to the boy, change, and meet with the professors and students. Besides them, a few others wanted to get an update and understand what was going on. The new crew was curious, and a few of them were highly educated.

The students did a great job with the information they had, showing the state of Dirt when bought, the scans done by the survey and Adam, and how they matched up. Then, they went into the difference in mindset and how Adam, with a relatively low budget, had managed to change the planet. If the same survey team had arrived now, they would have definitely marked the planet as potential for colonization.

They followed up by going over the major projects and their impacts, discussing ideas considered stupid, such as activating the volcanos and taking nitrogen from Onic. They still smiled at the name, how it had actually worked, and how they had adjusted when finding out seeding the sea and making fertilizer was a better method as it started the photosynthesizing process, creating oxygen and distributing nitrogen into the soil. Not only that, it removed the CO2 from the atmosphere as well. They might be able to make the air breathable much quicker than first assumed. All they needed was more algae and aquatic life. They also talked about mushrooms and moss to help with the process, which could be spread through drones as they spread the fertilizer over the land.

Adam was impressed as he listened and took notes; they then went into the production part of the terraforming. It had an abundance of the common metals in the system but little of the rare ones, making it not so ideal for mining, but it gave them access to materials for construction.

Then Jork came up, which surprised Adam. He spoke about what he had the potential to do on the planet out of the limelight of the university and mentioned Adams’s new company, which produces ships, drones, and now androids. Then Jork turned to Adam.

“Boss, are you okay with engineer students coming here for an internship?”

Adam chuckled as he facepalmed for a second, then looked at him and the professors who were looking at him.

“Hell, if the university wants to rent the wing, they can decide themselves what kind of internships and research projects they would like to do.”

He could see Professor Jayko eyes brighten at the thought. Min-Na smirked as she knew what would happen, so Adam continued. “I also plan to build a few more bases around the planet. You could be allowed to rent one as a department.”

“We will definitely look into that, yes.” Professor Jayko replied.

Jork smiled and continued, going over a few new patents Adam’s company had made, including a new explorer. Then he turned on the galaxy map to remind them that Dirt lay on the edge of a huge part of the unexplored galaxy. As all the planets explored in this direction, the locally known dead part was like Dirt: empty.

The professors suddenly became interested as they could see the potential for exploration and expansion via this new type of terraforming.

When Jork was finished, Vorts came up and started talking about the potential biological experiments they had started here. Showing them the files of all flora and fauna DNA Adam had brought with him, he then talked about how they had unique chances to experiment and find ideal flora and Fauna that could be a template for these barren worlds. Of course, this meant they needed more personnel and access to high-quality cloning programs. While Adam could provide funding, he unfortunately did not have access to the hardware and personalities. Something that the university could help with. Of course, if they thought this too much, then Adam and the company could contact other Universities. Galactic Federation Science and Exploration University (SaSU) was the best, but there would be a less important university that would love to jump on the chance.

Adam had to hide a smile. Vorts was the final speaker, and he was clearly closing the trap. When the presentation ended, the professors retired to the Wing to discuss the matter, as Adam had talked with Min-Na. They walked towards the administration but passed it and entered an empty office area; an administration droid an…

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