A present from the terraforming crew (N-SIE)

• Three chapters: The terraforming crew, the thing having been built, and the aftermath

• Maybe a bomb planted by the crew to be set off in a few hundred years?

• First chapter

  • Some minority dispute the cause
  • Like a labour problem or something

• Second chapter

  • The finding out and the race to stop the calamity
  • Failure

• Third chapter

  • Announcing that terraforming was a bad idea and we shouldn’t do it again

“Alright let’s get this rim world terraformed”

Protag is just a cog in a big, intricate machine

How does the whole process work on a bird’s-eye level?

• Pest elimination
• Establish zones, place emergency beacons at each corner

Maybe it’s not a normal bomb?

• Could be an anti-terraforming bomb

• However, the last component(s) could only be made with materials from an already terraformed planet

• Needs a nitrogen-rich atmosphere

• Some kind of stasis field is either instituted or is as a natural product of the horror?

  • I prefer if it was natural, feels weird that they can have stasis fields but not synthesise materials

Kajetan and Mgbeke are AN ITEM

Should we follow Kajetan into the stasis field and out again into the future?

• Removes suspense for the second chapter
• Maybe an interstitial sub-chapter?
• Then should we follow Kajetan as he goes IN to wherever?

Maybe the planet itself is threatening to destroy the solar system so it doesn’t get terraformed

• Why does it not want to be terraformed?
• The planet itself gives Kajetan the impossible option of being complicit in a genocide and being indirectly complicit in the erasure of humanity

What is going to cause calamity?

• Maybe there’s evidence that terraforming isn’t permanent, that it can’t be sustained, and nobody’s listened to the people who raised these complaints?

  • Better to destroy this planet and save some lives than to have EVERY other planet die
  • Could be some ambiguity about whether the receding of the planet’s terraform is caused by the workers from phase 1 or by just the natural planetary terraform regression
  • Could still have Kajetan in stasis, keep it trippy and that?

There’s a cave?

Kajetan and Mgbeke’s deal was already known by the company but they didn’t persue it because it was more convenient to keep them

Phase 2: Tufts of dying grass ripping themselves out of the ground, revealing the return of the black ashy dust

Standing on the lush fields of Venus, looking over the brand new equipment and beautiful spaces that are completely abandoned

The terraforming of Jupiter involves a lot of turning gaseous elements into livable area

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbvZ4d3ifzQ

Maybe it’s not a bomb but they more subtly sabotage the terraforming effort to make de-terraforming happen more quickly

• Maybe de-terraforming isn’t even a thing but that detail’s left ambiguous
• Using some material which causes terraforming to not keep and degrade faster
• Maybe the material turns out to not even be present where they expected it to be

Make phase 1 significantly shorter?

• Kajetan plants the bomb, and the complication is how does he do it
• Might make phases 2 and 3 more boring if you know they planted the bomb
• Maybe same deal with unstable terraforming but Mgbeke is leading the charge
• But in actuality they didn’t do anything

Kajetan Jurkowski

• Traits: Thoughtful reserved introvert

Mgbeke Jelany

• Traits: Authoratative to others, bubbly to loved ones
• Able to put on the mask of authority, but it falls right off around people she cares about
• Logistical wizard