Disclaimer: Terra Nova is not mine.
No one is ever happy with my work. That used to bother me; I have learned to let the snide comments and accusations roll off my shoulders the way some of my mother's old books imply that water rolls off of a duck's back. I wouldn't know about that from personal experience. I have never seen a duck. Most people haven't. I am pretty sure that there are some in some of the agricultural domes, but most people have also never seen the inside of an agricultural dome either. It is surprisingly difficult to get an employment offer from one of them - they do more background checking and personal scrutiny than even the security teams for government officials receive. Most people would tell you that is only appropriate since the safety of the agricultural domes are a lot more important to the vast majority of the population than the safety of the entire enclave of the world's government officials altogether. We can replace government officials; replacements for the contents of one of the agricultural domes would be a lot more difficult to come by if it was even possible at all.
I should know - I've run the numbers. It started as a side research project when I was considering applying. After I turned down a job offer (the way they reacted it must have been the first refusal they had received in decades) in favor of my current employment, I kept a tab on the numbers as something to play around with when I find it difficult to sleep. That happens a lot. I may have learned to let other people's opinions go, but that does not mean that I do not do my share of second guessing and regretting that there are not always ways to make things work out the way myself or others may wish that they could.
Anyway, I know exactly how potentially fragile the situation with the agricultural domes can be. It isn't exactly a soothing way to spend a sleepless night, but I have compiled dozens of lists over the years of ways that problems could be mitigated or better managed. Then, I sit back and wonder why no one ever bothers to implement any of them. It really is not that complicated, and I am sure that there must be any number of people who look at the same statistics and details and arrive at the same conclusions. It is then that I know that I made the right choice - that is where the soothing for a sleepless night comes into play. I would have suffocated under the studied inefficiency of it all.
It isn't that I do not see my share of inefficiency inside of the Terra Nova project. There is plenty of that to go around. I stay out of it. I do my job, and I do it well. That is why no one is ever happy with my work. It is the same after each and every one of the pilgrimages (and I came on board right around the time that the third one was preparing to leave). I get the stack of information from the other side of the portal about the compound's building progress and agricultural expansion. I receive the reports on the scientific research as well as the latest population statements. I compile everything and write projections. I do modeling, and I have never given a presentation for which I have not already triple checked my work.
I determine the length of time before the next pilgrims can be sent through as well as the skilled laborer and lottery slot numbers that are to be filled at that time. It is a lot of work, but I like numbers. Numbers are dependable - you never have to worry about nuance or politics with them. That is why I stay out of the rest of it no matter how often other people try to draw me in for their personal agendas.
There are factions in every strata of our world that have their decided opinions on how the project should be run and what its purpose should be. That includes the interior of the project itself.
There are those that push for less time between portal passings. They want greater numbers to go through and are quick to call me heartless and overly cautious every time that I deliver a new report. They refuse to understand that concept of sustainable growth. They seem to think that the other side of the portal is full of grocery stores and pharmacies just waiting for them to step through and pick up what they need.
There are others who feel that the numbers of assigned slots are disproportionate. There are advocates for lottery winners only as well as those who want only scientists devoted to research and development as well as determining a method for making the portal a two way street to be allowed to have places. They plan for an entire world at their disposal to replace the missing things from this one. They do not care about sustainability for the other side either.
Then, there are the others who complain bitterly of the allocated supplies that travel to another world with no chance of replacement. If we want to send out colonists, then they should learn to make do with what they have is their motto. They should not continue to be dependent on things which they cannot create for themselves, and this world should not give up the things which we do have to promote the ease of daily living for a world which has many things which will never get.
They all have their points and their arguments. They all have at least one valid reason for their stance that I can respect on an intellectual level. What they do not have is control of the numbers. That belongs to me - at least, it does for now. So, I will stay out of their back and forth and their name calling. I will tune out their complaints and demands. I will do the job that I was hired to do, and I will do it well despite all of the protestations to the contrary.