The Best You Could Get

  Had I not left an arrear in just one subject out of the forty-eight subjects I studied in college, I might have joined in a permanent position in India's most-valued space-research company.

With that one paper incomplete, the company could only hire me as a trainee for three months period, I could be made permanent if I completed this probation successfully. The last day of my trainee period should have been today. But due to some technical problems in the system, there was a delay in creating an employee id on the date of my joining. To compensate for that delay, I have been given one more day.

By the time I made myself available at the meeting room, 99% of the exit formalities were already completed. Surrendering my laptop and disabling my employee id card were the last two items pending. During the probation, no matter how hard I tried, I knew my scores might not be able to balance out the gap in my education. That was how the scoring system worked in the company.

People judge me because I am educated but not employed. Because of this, I have distanced myself from using social networking websites because I dread the question, "What are you up to?". This affects my ability to network, and the depressing cycle continues.

Some of my friends are employed, but that has only complicated things. I am talking about being in the wrong job. It all depends on how many right things fall in the right place at the right —time not in any one single person's hand. Of the many right things that have to fall into the right place at the right time, I can only influence the ones that are under my control, right? I should at least do that, right? No matter how hard you try, getting a job that you deserve and that perfectly matches your skills and expectations is a rare combo that only happens to a gifted few. Apathy dread for Monday mornings, envy on people who got the right job, boredom, fear due to an imposter feeling frustration could ruin your life if you are in the wrong job.

I was in dire need of a breakthrough effort that would count me for the permanent position I deserve. But I realized on the last day of my probation, I only have too little time left to prove anything.

"Listen carefully.” Ratan’s words startled me out of my reverie.

"That is not to say that the earth will soon be destroyed, but that destruction is not far off. Titan, the moon orbiting Saturn, has an environment inhabited by humans. The work of exploring the landscape and establishing a colony on it is going on. The challenge for us now is to find out who among the people on earth are fitful to live in the new world. Ten billion people currently live on Earth. We are entrusted with the task of finding out who among these are fully qualified citizens of the New World. Have you prepared any filtering methods for this?” Ratan–lead of our colonizing team–asked.

“I have an idea. There are about fifty of us in this room. Why should a fifty choose the fate of ten billion? Instead, notifying people by radio could get us more possibilities, from which we can narrow down to the best one, by analysis and research.” I said.

"Danny, space travel is a very, very expensive job. Sending ten billion people to a new planet is no easy task. Can you imagine how great a revolt would be if you went to them now and told them that only a few of you would survive in the new world?” Ratan said.

“Sorry. The immigration system cannot be set up overnight. I honestly thought, ten billion people would eventually be shifted stage by stage to Titan, and that you were asking for filtering methods for who should be taken, in what order of priority.”

I was just expecting him to say something, but to my dismay, Ratan said nothing.

"Then isn't everyone really going to the New World?" I asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of my voice. The whole meeting room became calm as if it was a word war between me and Ratan. I realized; it painted a picture as if I was the only 'problem creator'.

Ratan nodded left and right strongly.

"As I already said, space travel is a very expensive one, Danny. There is no place to take everyone, not enough vessels, not enough workers. In a nutshell, we must put together a long list of what's not with us." Ratan said.

"This is quite disappointing. Everyone has the right to live. When we are not God, who are we to decide who should live and who should die?” I asked, still confused if I was handling it the way I should have. Me being the only one voicing out abundantly made it clear that I wasn't.

"Danny, if you are so involved in this, you may find and suggest us a way to shift ten billion people to titan at an affordable cost,” Ratan said.

Everyone who sat in that meeting room stared at me, I saw mixed emotions on their faces.

I didn’t really know what to say. I had not raised that question with a carefully carved-out list of suggestions to propose instantly.

I just said, "I need some time to think."

Everyone turned, and glared at me, the one thing that was common in all those glares was a smirk.

“All right. Even if one of us has alternative ideas, we cannot continue with the show. Danny says he's coming up with a solution. It’s an opportunity to show that it is the inner motive of all of us, that ten billion people should go to the new world. So, Danny was given a day. Let's give him his chance.” Ratan said with a wicked smile.

With that smile of his, I knew I was going to be popular on the last day of my probation.

~ * ~

The first time my heartbeat felt like a telegraph sounder machine typing morse distress code minutes before Titanic was sinking. No matter how much I thought, I could not come up with a practical solution to shift all ten billion to the new world.

With much regret to have raised my voice, I opened my laptop and started browsing through the various colonizing solutions that were successfully adopted in the past. When I realized I must have something to back my own words up, I didn't even have 24 full hours. I realized my sincere effort to win a job has been thoroughly botched up. But at the same time, I also knew that I could not perfectly fit in all kinds of jobs possible. I could be the wrong person for this job.

A person's skills are dependent on his physical and mental abilities. His skills in general should let him advance to the subsequent stages in his growth plan while contributing to the overall wellness of the social system he is in. By keeping him engaged, by offering him challenges continuously, his skills should keep him focused on things that would add better value to his life. Otherwise, his skills cannot be considered driving him in the right direction. The only way I can ensure I am clinching the right job is to speak my heart and that was exactly what I did at the meeting.

Mars was where the early colonization attempts focused on. Its similarity with Earth by size and rotation speed was striking. Terraforming later became an unfulfilled dream. Later, scientists sought a silica aerogel solution in a targeted approach. The downside of this solution is it cannot support all the ten billion.

Next in the series was Ceres. It was not even a planet — a simple asteroid smaller than earth's natural moon. It has water in the form of ice with very mild gravity. Obviously not a good choice for human colonization.

Next was Titan, one of Saturn's many moons. Water resources, nitrogen, and other hydrocarbon reserves marked Titan favorable for human colonization.

Suddenly, I stumbled across the feeling that reputedly made Archimedes run naked in the streets of Syracuse shouting 'eureka'. I figured it was my breakthrough opportunity that I must break through thoroughly. The next day, which was technically my last day — in the recurring meeting, I shared with everyone what I conceived.

"Danny Ceres is no longer in the consideration list of habitable celestial bodies. It was evicted a very long time ago.” Ratan said.

"I am not talking about colonizing Ceres Ratan".

"Instead, I hope it can be used as a shuttle service,” I added further.

‘Shuttle service?’ Ratan asked, with his brows furrowed as he was trying to make sense of what I just said.

The other scientists and researchers in the room stared at Ratan and me alternately. Whatever they whispered among themselves, I cared too little to know. To make my point firmly, I knew I must first ignore their demotivating gestures.

“Let me explain. Transportation costs are a barrier to the transport of ten billion people from Earth to Titan. Space travel could take years. My take is Ceres can be a suitable alternative for a low-cost carrier that could shift people from Earth to Titan if we could make it somehow go back and forth between Earth and Saturn.” I said.

"What do you mean?" Said Ratan in total disbelief.

“Very thin gravitational pull prevents Ceres from being colonized. But that is the perfect requirement for a shuttle service. If Ceres goes between Earth and Saturn in an elliptical path, all we have to do is to erect hibernation chambers on the surface of Ceres. In the absence of gravity, any vessel can be landed on and lifted off without much hassles any number of times. This is not possible on other habitable planets like Mars." Martin said.

“All right. But I think you have forgotten to consider the basics. Ceres orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter” said Jacob with a smirk.

"Every time a probe leaves the Earth for another planet, it imparts a small impulse to the Earth in the opposite direction, like the recoil of a gun. Luckily for us–but unfortunately for moving the Earth–this effect is incredibly small. Ceres is a much smaller asteroid than Earth's natural moon. Its circumference is just six hundred miles. All we must do is move Ceres in this way that it goes between Earth and Saturn in an elliptical path. We have orbital maneuvers like Hohmann transfer for that. We have used it successfully many times on satellites.” I said.

No one, including Ratan, spoke for a few minutes after that. I was not sure if they understood what I said. I also became silent, not knowing what to say over it.

"I take what you shared in this meeting to the upper management," Ratan said.

No matter what anyone says in the meeting, the minutes of the meeting will be prepared to share across the board.

The meeting that day ended a few minutes later. I lost hope and came back to my seat and started packing my things. Right then I received a call at my extension. Gerard, the company's chief executive, and partner, asked me to come to his room. As I hurried to his room, I saw Ratan already seated diagonally opposite to Gerard. I had to take the seat next to him, obviously.

“I have read today's MOM. It will not take much time for me to reject your proposal," said Gerard.

“Why? May I ask the reason?” I asked. The very thought that I would surely be evicted from the company in a few hours without remorse emboldened me to ask any question without giving a thought about its fitment to my survival.

“I understand your concern. You want to save all the ten billion people. Your solution makes us consider you as one of us. But what is said in your solution is against the company. Now the question before us is whether to hire you in this company or not. I challenge you to convince me, why do we need all ten billion in the new world. If you succeed, you will have your job.” said Gerard.

I deeply felt that he could have directly asked 'Why should I recruit an average like you?' Instead of asking indirectly. I took a deep breath, air-filled in my lungs.

"Take, for example, a classroom in a school. If sixty are studying in a class, not all sixty are going to become researchers and scientists. Half of those sixty would not be suitable, even for menial jobs. Now here is my question. What good is a world with such average people in it? These people will not be bound by an order anywhere. It is hard to inculcate values in them. If humanity has gradually progressed to where it is right now, it is not because of people like them.” said Gerard.

I felt compelled to justify why his company needed an average. Not just for the sake of justification, if this job and my skills are a perfect fit for one another, then I should be able to give, if not a perfect answer, at least an answer that would convince Gerard.

“I understand where you are going with these questions. May I ask, when was Albert Einstein born?” I asked.

“In Germany in 1879”

“What if time had chosen Newton in place of Einstein and Einstein in place of Newton?"

“Einstein might have discovered gravity instead of relativity. His life might have passed in that. He could not have even dreamt of the theory of relativity.”

“Exactly! If Einstein had been born before Newton, it would have been possible for Einstein and Newton to have discovered gravity and relativity, respectively. Right?"

Gerard and Ratan sat staring at me without words.

"Newton was not born to discover the force of gravity. The same way Einstein wasn't born to discover the theory of relativity. Inventors are mere names. They merely mark the instances in time when the right connections were made on the right set of dots. Newton and Einstein discovered what they discovered as they set out to order the unordered before them. They merely tried to connect the right dots and came up with something meaningful. But inventions have always been consistent over time, one led to the other. Needs have arisen all the time. The only constants in this overall orchestration are order and irregularity. So if human superiority needs innovation, if innovation is to be the purpose of the regulation, then there should be a place for irregularities too. Without irregularity, an order is unlikely to exist. It is amid disorder that a sense of order is born. So there should be a balance between the order and the disorder, Gerard." I said.

"In other words, your company has thousands of professionals who have been in space research for about twenty-five years. How many people have proposed this solution before that solves that uses Ceres as a shuttle service?” I asked further.

As Gerard stared at Ratan for an answer, Ratan said, "Zero."

“Today is my last day in the company. However, you cannot deny the fact that this solution has come from someone like me who has always been an average performer with a lower score than everyone else here.” I said.

Gerard stared at me thoughtfully.

~ * ~

Six months later, on a giant screen in front of me, I am monitoring the positioning of the Ceres asteroid in an elliptical orbit between Saturn and Earth, using giant thrusters. The asteroid from now on will be used as a shuttle service between Earth and Saturn. It will be fitted with hibernation chambers that will allow humans to undergo long-distance journeys. We are taking advantage of this to relocate ten billion from Earth to Saturn's moon Titan through several stages.

In the future, Earth will be an uninhabitable planet, while Titan will be the new address for humans in the cosmos.

It’s been six months since I have been made permanent. But I should admit, I have discovered the space researcher who was hidden inside me for so long.

I would say it was my average brain that functioned like a 'lens' to see what others missed to see. Everyone thought of colonizing Ceres. The thin gravity of the asteroid and the lack of atmosphere in it seemed a major downside to them. But my average brain saw what others failed to see as going back and forth was all I do all the time. Ceres was the best I got, and someone like me deserved it. In a way, it was my average performance that saved me from falling in the trap of wrong bests I might have otherwise ended up at.

I would say it was my average brain that functioned like a 'lens' to see what others missed to see. Everyone thought of colonizing Ceres. The thin gravity of the asteroid and the lack of atmosphere in it seemed a major downside to them. But my average brain saw what others failed to see as going back and forth was all I do all the time. Ceres was the best I got, and someone like me deserved it. In a way, it was my average performance that saved me from falling into the trap of wrong bests I might have otherwise ended up at.

To summarize, the best you deserve need not be the best you get. The best you got maybe the best deserved by someone else. The best way to get to your right best is to first give up your wrong best and become deprived. You then must keep ignoring the wrong bests that come your way until you strike the right one.