Fiction:Experimental Design/Day 1

'''Day 1 of Experimental Design is here! To view the rest of the chapters, simply scroll down to the bottom of the page, where you'll come up to a navbox for all 6 days. Enjoy!'''

"Earth. A small, rocky yet wet world orbiting a slightly above average yellow dwarf star at the measly distance of 93 million miles away. Her surface was inhabited by many species, a number small in comparison to other planets beyond the Sol System, but not minute by any means. She was ruled, however, by one species in particular: the humans. A species that had once been so bent at destroying itself and others, but thanks to near-fatal environmental disasters on their home planets, had since changed in ideology. Now, in the 25th century, the human race was determined to save their home planet. And they were determined to safeguard life at all costs possible... and possibly even CREATE it."

"3:25. Sheesh."

Toby sat at his desk overlooking Downtown Atlanta, bored and somber as any half-drunk, half asleep human biologist might be after a long tour of the Alpha Centauri system. As usual, there was no life to be found on any of Alpha Centauri A's gas giants' moons. As he saw it, it was nothing more than an excuse created by the Earth Federation to give the disgruntled biologists and environmentalist something to do on their "time off." As if exploring the Amazon wasn't enough he thought to himself. He looked out the window. The blues, purples, and greens of the Atlanta skyline were evidently sharp and crisp, glowing with a deep hue that resonated starkly under the Georgian sky. Under normal circumstances, Toby saw the human monuments as blasphemous to nature and theology. But on this particular night, Toby was too discontent with his body to begin another debate with himself on human progress' dangers. Even he could understand the beauty of those artificial colors in his tired state.

Suddenly, a loud knock filled the room. "Ah!" Toby cried out, startled. He looked in the direction of the knocking noise, which came from the door on the opposite end of the small dorm. "Erm, who is it?" Toby called out instinctively. "James," a low, sullen voice replied. "Um, I have some papers from the office for you from boss." Toby sighed, frustrated. Another assignment already? "W-what is it, exactly?" he asked.

"Paperwork you need to fill out so that you can go on your next trip, to um... let me check." James paused for a moment, then continued, "Oh, it's to Rigel!"

But Toby had slammed his head on his desk by then, and the sheer force of the impact was enough to knock him into a deep sleep. Nothing was going to wake him up now. Not even science.

A seemingly short five hours later, Toby woke up to see a beautiful sun slowly rise over the skyscrapers of the city. Rise and shine, he thought to himself. He was slow to stand up, but when he did, he stretched his aching joints and spine ever so tenderly. His body was still readjusting itself to the Terran gravity, and strangely he felt slightly taller. He looked in the mirror, though, to confirm this notion. He was still 6' 1".

Toby quickly showered and changed clothes, and in only a matter of fifteen minutes he was already out of his small, temporary apartment and in the lobby of the massive building. There was James, sitting at a coffee lounger, with a white porcelain mug in one hand and an electronic newspaper in the other. Toby walked up to him quickly. "Sorry about last night," he said in regret. "I was tired, you know."

"Oh, no worries!" the calm, laid-back man only in his twenties, said to Toby, who took a sip of his coffee and put the paper down. "But," he said as he grabbed a pile of papers in a manila folder at his side, "these still need to be filled out by the end of the week. It's another mission for the Organization." Toby sighed, taking the papers with great discontent. "Where is it?" he asked, intent on knowing what planet or moon he would be forced to venture upon next.

"Not sure," James said calmly. "But it's not as if they're going to send us anywhere too dangerous. We've barely been in the Organization for a year. They wouldn't do that. They just... couldn't." James stood up, putting the newspaper under his arms. "Now come one, we need to head to the office downtown ASAP."

The pair went to the monorail station under the base of the skyscraper. In about fifteen seconds after boarding the train, the two were at their destination. "Much faster than the trains in Tokyo," Toby remarked. "Or in New York," James said.

Toby and James then went into an elevator, which shot them up to the top of Atlanta's tallest skyscraper in only a matter of seconds. The two left the elevator, both somewhat surprised by the speed and efficiency of Atlanta transportation. They then walked down a long, spacious corridor, and stopped at the very end, where two large, metallic doors stood firmly pressed into the ground. "Ring the buzzer," Toby said, pointing to a small black button on a sleek metallic dashboard. James gave the button a slight nudge, and the door opened immediately. The two walked in, not sure exactly what to do. Immediately behind them, the large doors slammed shut.

Toby and James walked into the quite and void room. As they walked, they looked out the massive window that made up the outermost wall. A large amount of sunlight poured in, and below them they could make out the inconspicuous shapes of flying and rolling cars alike. "We're high up," James remarked. They stopped at yet again another set of double doors, and again pressed a button on a metal dashboard. This time, though, it was an intercom, not an opening door that replied to them. "And this might be whom, exactly?" a voice called from the intercom on the dashboard. "Erm, it's James, sir. And Toby, too!" James said back. "Oh, well, then just who I expected. Come on in!"

The doors opened simultaneously, revealing an short, skinny, and elderly man sitting behind a metallic desk that may as well have been larger than its master. "Ah, James and Toby! Just the people I needed to see! Please, come on in!" The two walked in, looking around the large office curiously. They noticed that the old man had many fine odds and ends hung up all over his wall, mostly photographs of various wildlife that he had discovered or encountered on various other planets. The two doors suddenly closed behind them.

"Well, Mr.- hmm, what is your name exa-?" Toby was stopped in his tracks as the old man interrupted. "Please, call me Mr. Collins." "Okay, Mr. Collins, what exactly do you need us for?"

"Hmm... it is, well, a very important mission. Well, it's not really a mission, per se, but rather an experiment.