Better Gardening 1

Commissioned by Kejmur

Better Gardening

Chapter 1

-VB-

His eyes stared out of the window.

This was normal.

What was not normal to his monkey brain was watching something he never thought he would ever see.

Earth.

Or rather, a planet like Earth. It was white at the pole, green and blue spread throughout with slivers and patches of brown and grey. It was a planet, and he who never dreamed or considered being an astronaut found himself looking at a planet in person from high orbit … within a space station.

He looked around, and noticed that he stood in a wide hallway that spanned at least a hundred meters in width and a quarter as high. The white metallic floor glistened from the sunlight and the blue metallic wall on the other side of the hallway looked duller than the floor. The pristine glass wall that he had been looking through spanned the entire length of the hallway and maybe even beyond.

Where was he?

Deciding that he wouldn’t get any answer by standing still, he picked a direction (left) and walked. It slowly dawned on him that this part of the space station was circular because he was slowly making a left turn as he continued down the massive hallway.

Finally, he noticed something new along the dark blue metal wall.

A door.

And not just any door like one of those service doors but a grand double door with words written above it.

Control Room.

Seeing as he didn’t know where else to go, he directed himself toward this Control Room and walked right up to the door.

He waited and waited…

“This isn’t proximity sensor controlled door, is it?”

After looking around, he found a jutting metal panel to his right. It might have been a hand scanner or something like that at a first glance, and it was.

Hesitantly, he placed his own hand over the hand scanner, and it immediately flared to life. A line of light running horizontally along the scanner moved up and down the scanner a few times before the scanner shut off.

And the door opened.

“Wow…” he muttered to himself as he walked into a small chamber filled to the brim with screens and NASA-styled mission control panels. Some looked ancient - like pre-1950’s -  while others looked hyperadvance with holograms and crystal ball controllers.

Then top center nine screens across the room lit up and a face showed up with the screens seamlessly merging for a better view.

The person looked like a mannequin, if it was alive and not a stiff and frozen caricature of life.

“Greetings, administrator.”

“... Who me?” he asked.

“Yes. You are the administrator of Station NLS-9.”

His mouth opened and closed. He had been about to ask something before he realized he had other questions that needed to be answered first.

“Before I ask about this … station… can you tell me how I got here and how I ended up becoming the administrator?”

“Of course. According to the station’s files, you volunteered to become an administrator of the NLS Station series along with nineteen billion others. You have been chosen out of a lottery system along with a million others. Congratulations. You would not have been considered at all if you did not meet the qualifications.”

The person’s words spun in his head for a moment… a few more moments before it finally sank in. “I … don’t remember volunteering for this.”

The person nodded. “You would not. Part of the procedure which elevated you to become an administrator involved memory erasure of most of your memories to ensure that your past life does not interfere with your current life. Please, do not be alarmed. You are a clone of your original self.”

He stared at them before he blinked the sudden vertigo out of himself. “Okay. If I am the administrator … then who are you?”

“Pleased to meet you, administrator,” the person smiled, showing something other than the blankness that they had been speaking with since the start. “I am MANA, an acronym for Manual Administration Navigation Advisor. Many administrators liked to call me Mama.”

“Wut.”

“It is up to your preference, administrator. We will now discuss your role as the administrator of Station NLS-9. NLS Series of space stations are named such for it too is an acronym: New Life Seeding-”

“Are you seriously going-?”

“-and all administrators are expected to seed new worlds with a variety of flora and fauna from across the multiverse-”

“-ignore your own comment about-?”

“-and to facilitate your job, you have the resource of the entire station to work with. This includes -”

“-do you have that kind of fet-?”

“-portal creation devices that will allow you to access any worlds that you wish to visit!”

She’s ignoring him - and Mana was definitely a she because who else got called “mama”?

He stared at her inerrantly and she stared back as if she hadn’t just ignored him for the past ten seconds.

“... Fine. My name is …”

What was his name again?

“... Hey, Mana, what’s my name?”

She stared at him in surprise. “Oh dear. That part of the memory isn’t supposed to be erased. Please hold on a minute as I look up your file.”

She blinked off from the screen, leaving him alone in the command center by himself.

After a minute, she was back.

“I have your file, administrator. Would you like me to display it on the screen closest to you?”

“... Please.”

One of the consoles to his left lit up and he walked up to it.

He saw his own face for the first time since waking up on this station.

Short black hair, sharp jawline, high cheekbones, and narrow eyes. Hmm. Odd fellow.

Oh wait, that’s him.

“Name… Daniel Dulent. Rank: station administrator. Age: -. Holdup, how am I three thousand years old?”

Mana blinked. “Yes… whoever did your memory modification needs to be reported to the Bureau of Mentality.” She “cleared” her throat. “Administrator, you are from the planet Stratos IV, an ecumenopolis glitterworld with more than fifteen trillion residents. It is famous even among other glitterworlds for its medical advances.”

“... What is a glitterworld?”

“Glitterworlds are planets whose society, government, technology, and military has advanced to the point where citizens are supported in whatever they wish to do even without having to work a day in their life.”

“Wait, I left that behind to become an administrator?!”

She nodded. “It is common for many glitterworld residents to feel a lack of self-actualization where they do not toil a single day in their life.”

“... Huh.”

“Well, then, administrator. Since you are now aware of who you are as well as what you are meant to do, do I have my first order of business?”