Separation

For four days, the four of us woke up early in the morning, had 3 breaks, and then headed straight to bed when we had achieved what we had planned for that day.

Tom was in charge of the most important task, making observations of the interactions between the chemicals. He did this by inserting two different chemicals into a machine which would then spit out a chemical equation, as well as lots of other data, which he would then record down.

Ralph was in charge of interpreting the data and translating it into something I could actually understand. He would then pass it to me for me to look at and try to glean any meaning from it. Honestly, it was quite obvious that removing me from this procedure wouldn't affect anything.

On one of our breaks on the fourth day, I parted from the two of them and went to go find Kyle.

"There's nothing that I can add to the team! I don't have the education to understand the many terms and structures that Tom and Ralph communicate in! There must be something else I can do."

Pulling aside Kyle from the security room, he showed a sympathetic expression to my plight.

"I understand you feel a lot of pressure from all this, but there's nothing I can do to help you. There are many procedures involved in official experiments and we can't just add anyone to them. And for the unofficial experiments, I'm afraid it will just result in what you are experiencing right now."

Kyle shook his head and then gave me a pat on the shoulder.

"If it's too much pressure for you, maybe you can discuss with Tom and Ralph to do their own research, while you can try your own style. Maybe you'll be able to discover something."

Comforting me, Kyle then sent me away with a wave and re-entered the security room.

Taking his suggestion, I headed back to the canteen where Tom and Ralph were conversing with each other and sat opposite them. I took a deep breath, then poured out all the stress that had been piling up for the past 3 days.

"I'm sure we all know this, but in our current team, I can't keep up with the two of you. I don't understand what all these data mean, and Ralph even needs to spend time to translate all the information for me. It's highly inefficient and honestly I feel like I'm just holding the team back. So I would like for us to change the way we do things. Mainly, I think the two of you can continue doing what you are doing. After all, you are the professionals at this. However, I want to try doing things my way. Maybe this way we can cover more ground. If not, I feel really guilty for not pulling my weight in the team."

Finished with my confession and proposal, I gave a sigh of relief for finally getting this suffocating feeling off my chest.

Opposite me, Tom and Ralph shared a glance that seemed to hold an entire conversation, before nodding their heads to my proposal. If I had stayed in the team any longer, I would just be adding more work for them. All of us knew it.

Getting our team separation out of the way, the air felt cooler and lighter in my lungs as I left the table to pick a meal from the vending machine.

Bringing my food back, Sazzy then ran at full speed from Tom and Ralph's side to my own.

[Listen! The two of them actually set this sort of team arrangement to pressure you! They wanted to see how long it took before you decided to break off the team arrangement!]

Hopping with a red face beside me, Sazzy glared at the two men opposite us.

"I kind of suspected that."

Scooping my food into my mouth, I secretly conversed with Sazzy while keeping an eye on the two who were speaking with their eyes again.

"It felt quite obvious after the first day that they were trying to test how long I could go on. Kyle also said it himself, that even if I switched teams, I would face the same thing. Honestly, I can't keep up with anyone here because of the different education levels. Not only that, joining any team probably makes them feel as if they are babysitting someone. After all, I am not one of them, and it's quite obvious based on how we act. But Tom and Ralph can't just ask me to leave everything to them. It's probably because it's seen as rude in their community, or maybe because of some other factors. You can feel it from the tension when we are doing work together."

Gathering the remaining food and scrapping the plate as I ate the plate clean, the four of us walked to the dishwashing machine, inserted our plates, and then left for our workplace once more.

[But that sounds like they're snubbing you!]

"It can't be helped."

I gave a soft sigh under my breath, only for Sazzy to hear.

"After all, what else can they do if they're suddenly paired up with someone who knows nothing about the project they were doing, and who was their superior. They probably felt it was better to pressure me to leave the team so they could increase the efficiency of their work. Not only that, but working together with someone who was clueless about whatever you said, and having to constantly interpret for them would get tiring after a while. For both the listener and the interpreter."

Explaining the possible reasons to Sazzy, I felt a little silly trying to defend people who were in a sense rejecting my presence. But I didn't feel any hostility or malice from the two, mostly just helplessness and a feeling of being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Also maybe some guilt.

Reaching our workplace, the two of them swiftly packed the materials up. Tom was hauling all the containers back onto the cart, while Ralph picked up several devices and handed them to me.

"This round device is the barrier that we have been using. This cube one is a simple analyzer. It should work for raw ingredients in small amounts. The data it gives out is easy to understand. The cylinder is another type of analyzer, but for liquids."

Shoving them onto the counter, Ralph then gave me a small printed map of the research department which marked out where to get all the chemicals needed, where to get the devices if I wanted more varieties, as well as the device repair station to place broken devices. He also sent me a link on my personal terminal a manual for each of the devices he gave me.

Obviously being too prepared, I gave the both of them a pat on the shoulder and sent them away from my research table.

"Now that they are gone, we can start on doing experiments that we are more used to!"

I stretched for once in four days and relaxed my shoulders. I could also freely talk to Sazzy without having to sneakily type on my personal terminal.

Setting up the barrier, both for appearance sake as well as a safety precaution, I took the bottle of preservative. Peering at the amount of liquid left...it was obviously not enough.

I left the barrier with Sazzy to go pick up some more ingredients.

[Honestly you could be more mad with them! They were so obviously prepared for this. You could smell their guilt a mile away!]

Sazzy rolled her eyes as she continued to complain about the pair.

Grabbing the ingredients at the necessity store, we then headed back to the counter while chatting with each other to lighten the mood.

Once at the counter, I created more batches of the preservative. Then I pulled out my notes on what kinds of ideas I wanted to try out. Only when I had created a long enough list did I go to Kyle to ask for any alternatives. Although I felt that there was only one answer at that point.

Shaking my head from these depressive thoughts, I focused on the first thing on the list.

According to research I had done, although there wasn't much information about Hostia and Bellum cultures, there was quite a bit of information on the occupation of the planets by the Colonizers.

Since they had colonized hundreds of planets before they had met with the first war, and chick had been created before the war, there was a lot of news regarding what the colonizers had brought to all their colonized planets.

As the 'most technologically advanced race', there were many records of the Colonizers bringing their technology to the 'lesser planets', as the Colonizers referred to the planets they colonized. When I had briefly skimmed through all these records, I noticed a very common pattern.

A lot of the food the colonizers brought with them was simple. incredibly simple. And they mostly brought their own ingredients and cooked them in pots and pans. Surely the 'most technologically advanced race' had a valid reason for using such 'primitive' cooking methods instead of bringing their complicated machinery?

I was not the only one who questioned this. Many people online were speculating that the space ships didn't have enough space to store their big giant machines. After all, it was considered a less technologically advanced time than now. Another popular theory was that the Colonizers had focused so much on technology that they neglected their food industry.

But these two reasons felt a little weak. Surely giant machines weren't the only things that technology could develop? And it felt a little bit ridiculous that their food industry was at boiling and frying, even if it was neglected. Maybe there was another stronger reason why boiling and frying were the only cooking options left for the colonizers. Something that wasn't obvious enough for us who lived in the modern age to realize.

I skimmed through the records again.

'Technology', 'Advanced', 'Primitive', 'Food'.

Squinting my eyes, I felt as if I had the answer on the tip of my tongue.

Suddenly, a message from Ralph came, saying that he was inputting the data from their experiments into a doc, and that if I had any questions I could text them and they would try their best to answer it for me.

Hearing the notification sound, I felt a lightbulb light up in my head.

Electricity! The planets they colonized didn't have electricity! And after long space trips, including meal times on board the space ships, they couldn't bring anything that ran on electricity since it would just become heavy junk on a less technologically developed planet!

I searched up descriptions of the food items the Colonizers had brought, and confirmed that the dishes they had brought contained meat that was known to produce chemical X when ingested. But since they brought it to other planets, they must have known a way to neutralize the poison of chemical X. And that way must have been done either through boiling or frying!