Year 1254 Post-Unification
Janos Fierce found himself starting at the bottom of a mug, trying to remember when he'd finished his ale. With the mass of people in Jameson's today, it took a while before he caught the barkeep's attention. He signaled with two fingers up and received an answering nod, then went back to looking at his mug, the bottom latticed with cracks and looking particularly fragile.
"Not supposed to look so droll after you graduate from university, Janos. It's a great accomplishment, cheer up," Croy said, sending a soft punch toward his brother's shoulder.
"Hard to be cheerful, times like they are." A passing waiter, not noticing or perhaps not caring, bumped his chair, knocking Janos's oxygen mask to the ground, and a bit of pungent stew sloshed onto his pants. He grunted.
"Hey, it's not your fault the project is going south. Everybody thought we had more time, else they wouldn't have begun the project in the first place. There's no way you could have anticipated the hits we've taken on our resources. And who knows, maybe all we need is a boy genius to figure out how to speed up the process!"
"You can't speed up a planetary seeding, Croy. Early terraforming wouldn't be finished for another twenty five years, and even then it's hard to say if we could start to colonize at that stage." Janos rapped his knuckles on the table, casting a layer of dust into the air. He sighed. "I studied ecogenesis so I could put my feet there one day. Feel my life's work come to fruition and know that it meant something. To me, to our people. A new home close enough to our first that people wouldn't be mortified by the prospect of going. Now with the mandate to leave, it feels all for naught. And what, we'll go search for a new rock just to hope one of the prospects is fit for humanity? And just to hope that we'll be able to farm and gather enough to keep the population alive? People won't go along with it, Croy, they're too tied to this place."
"Well, it's clear your cynicism has grown since you went off to university. Look, I think it's amazing that you even got to work on Project Earth. You've been dreaming of it since before you came out of the womb. Don't let the media drag down those goals. We've still got over half a decade to figure things out. Besides, their estimates are always fluctuating. I doubt the transports will be fully ready in five years, not for this population. And the union wouldn't risk transport estimates past when our resources run out. Who knows, we may have a dozen years before they set off." Croy downed the last bit of his own drink and set the mug down. "Keep at it, Janos. Use your education while you've got the chance. We may need 'ecogeneers' again someday on our future planet," he said with a smile.
"Maybe you will," Croy raised his eyebrows, "but I'm going to finish Earth." Two more mugs were set between them.
Year 1273 Post-Unification 11 years post-departure
Janos Fierce gazed out the window of his seed ship, finding a scene that brought a swell of loneliness and sorrow. The faint speck of his old home was just sliding out of his view as he continued an orbit around Earth.
He wondered, for not the first time, if he should not have gone with his brother, with his people as they left Mars. Or even if it would have been better to remain on Mars, with the few million who chose to stay behind, fearing the unknown of interstellar space. He wondered how long they lasted, what with the conditions worsening. Carbon emissions had been substantial in the few years prior to the departures. That, plus the massive organic harvesting to prepare sustenance for the transports had left the planet nearly devoid of life. It threw the weather and environment askew, leaving little more than a heaving ball of dust. But then, weren't most planets just that. His home was simply evidence of nature's raw defense against the growing pathogen of humanity.
It had been nearly six years, reckoning from his home's time, since his professor and comrade Dr. Eldreth had passed, six years since he had had anyone to speak to. Had it not been for that man, Project Earth would have been shut down years prior to the departure, but he had miraculously convinced the Union to let himself and his student Janos take the seed ship, with intent to continue the project after the departure. And so they had.
Janos pushed himself away from the window and walked down the hall, past the food closet and to the cloning chamber. Four dozen humans, cloned from DNA of the most diverse volunteers on Mars thirteen years ago were still developing, encased in fluid chambers and yet ignorant of life and their future. He hoped they would be enough to seize the opportunity of his gift, Earth.
If only humanity hadn't been so ignorant, blinded by greed and prone to wars, they would have begun this project far earlier. It was those egregious errors of human character that would have to be kept from these, humanity's new beginning.
Janos would send them down alone, when the planet was ready. And he would have to fool them of their origin. Seeding the planet with a host of other organisms, sending down skeletal remains synthesized from old DNA collected from ancient creatures on Mars, giving Earth it's own unique history. It was what he had spent the last fifteen years doing with Dr. Eldreth, and it was what he would continue to do until the planet was ready. Until these humans could survive, unsullied by humanities faults.
Year 1281 Post-Unification 25,000 Earth years before the common era
The pods alighted on the ground in the middle of the central-most landmass only moments before, and Janos watched the young humans from his ship's telescope. By his third orbital pass over the continent, they appeared to be moving, ripe for discovering their world.
He longed to join them, to feel the cool dirt between his toes and the ocean waves on his skin, to know the pleasure of company again, but he knew he could not. They would need to be left to their own, lest he drag his people's vices to this new world. He would, however, have his matter join the natural cycles of the planet he created. Though he may not consciously experience it, he would forever be a part of it.
He went to the control room to set the ship for a path to the sun; three minutes until ejection from orbit. He put on his jump suit, leaving the chute on a bench, and made his way to the airlock, not once looking back to the ship that had been his house for nearly as long as he'd been on his home planet. Janos opened the airlock, grappled to the side of the ship, and pulled himself to the side facing the planet. With a deep breath, he jumped.