"Something's happening."

"What do you mean?"

"Something's happening on the planet we left."

"Which one, Treha or Vetes?"

"Vetes. Something's happening there."

"Did they send another one of those people?"

"They must have. But this time, it's different."

"How can you tell?"

"They seem to actually be making progress."

"Is that so?"

"They've already gone a large way towards restoring the atmosphere. If this keeps up, they may actually be on track to restore the planet's ecosystem."

"A Human doing something constructive? That's certainly a new development. Perhaps they've finally begun to change for the better."

"One Human's progress does not redeem the entire species. It hasn't been that long since they stole Treha from us. There has not been enough time for them to progress mentally. If nothing else, their relentless dedication to restoring Vetes is a showcase of their stubbornness. They want another one of our worlds for themselves."

"I always admired their dedication. If there was anything that they shared with us, it was their willingness to persevere."

Riley took a deep breath and entered the supervisor's office. "Mr. Rayth, do you have a moment?"

"Ah, Mr. Orren. What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to ask you about the Planet Crafter that I've been assigned to oversee."

"Refresh my memory."

"Convict GP-B971-L."

"Oh yes, I see. What about him?"

"Well, he's been making a lot of progress lately, more than most any other Planet Crafter usually does. I wanted to ask if it would be possible to maybe see some leniency for him?"

"Leniency?" Mr. Rayth tapped a few buttons on his keyboard, bringing up the file. "The man was responsible for 48 deaths, Mr. Orren. I can't imagine he's really earned it even at this point. From what it seems, his planet hasn't even fully developed a breathable atmosphere."

"Don't people get released early for good behavior?"

"The terms are clear. Planet Crafters are only released when they finish their task. We don't release people from the green mile for good behavior, it's the nature of their sentence."

"Okay, well..." Riley thought for a moment. "What if we make a bit more of a spectacle out of it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, think about it. People like a story of success through adversity, and Planet Crafters so rarely succeed. What if we drum up some public interest in it? We don't need to film every moment of his life, but we can give people something to root for."

Mr. Rayth cast Riley a skeptical, but not immediately dismissive, glance. "Are you suggesting we turn a convict's sentence into public entertainment? This isn't a Roman arena, Mr. Orren, Planet Crafting is tedious and monotonous work. It's very un-sexy."

"Well yes, but we can just make people aware of it. I mean, how popular is being a Planet Crafter?"

"It isn't."

"Exactly. So what if we helped to make it popular?"

"Mr. Orren, what exactly is your goal here?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You seem to forget that we're not trying to make celebrities here. Planet Crafting is deadly and unappealing work. It's not something that we're trying to encourage. People become Planet Crafters as a last resort, because they want to try and avoid an outright execution. Now, I'm wondering why exactly you're so dead-set on trying to make Convict GP-B971-L into a spectacle, why we should bend the rules for him?"

"I...I just thought that-"

"People have a lot of thoughts here." He waved his hand, sending the files on his desktop away. "I'm willing to overlook your enthusiasm as a fluke. This is the first Planet Crafter you've been assigned, yes? It's extremely unlikely that they'd do so well, and I'm worried you may have a poor first impression here. Planet Crafters have a 99.7% fatality rate, and Convict GP-B971-L is an anomaly, not something to be idealized. I'm happy he's doing well, but that doesn't mean we should make any special accommodations for him."

Riley felt his spirits deflate like a punctured balloon. "Yes, I understand sir."

"I know you're a bit disappointed, but this is unsavory work. I had hoped you would know that coming in, but I suppose people just have to learn through experience."

"These are still, people, sir. I'm just hoping that we could possibly do something to help them. I mean, don't we want them to succeed?"

"We do, but that doesn't mean everyone will. Sometimes they just get a bad lot with the worlds they're on."

"But aren't their planets assigned to them?"

"That'll be all, Mr. Orren." Mr. Rayth went back to his work, waving Riley out with a dismissive gesture. He walked out of the office feeling defeated. The most frustrating thing was that he wasn't wrong. He worked in criminal justice, just an exotic form of it. They probably had starry-eyed idealists come in every other day offering some radical shift in how they dealt with things, and he'd made the mistake of assuming that even if Asher was doing well then he'd get some kind of special treatment.

Planet Crafting wasn't an expedition, it was an execution. When they sent you down to a planet, they didn't want you to return. Asher had to know that. What did that kind of realization do to a man? What sort of thoughts went through the mind of a man who knew he was condemned, who knew that he'd been sent somewhere to die?

Sol 101
467 kTi

I wonder what's on TV right now.