Jonathan sipped at his coffee as he waited for the project manager to come in. His first year was up and he was now on the final day of probation. He had a clean record and a stellar review from his supervisor. The full-time position was as good as his.

Sure the work was tedious at times, complex equations that required teams of scientists and large scale computer farms to perform basic simulations. Endless lists of data that needed days of server time to crunch into something sensible. Something that they could use to ensure the project’s success.

The Mars project was inching along, and hopefully, would bear fruit within the decade. Some of the smartest people were on the project and with SpaceX as the main partner, it was only a matter of time until they had the first people flying there.

The door opened and Jonathan glanced up to see Richard Smith enter. The man had a smile on his face and a cup of coffee as well. In his year working here, he had seen Richard only twice. His hiring day and the mid-year company meeting.

Jonathan stood up and the two shook hands.

"Congratulations Jonathan, you made the cut," Richard said as his wrinkled face smooth out with his smile. He seemed both elated and stressed at the same time. Then again, all of the upper management was always under stress.

"Thank you very much. I told you that I was worth a shot!” Jonathan exclaimed as he returned the smile with a brighter one of his own.

“So you did,” Richard replied as he tilted his head towards the door. A universal sign of let’s go for a walk.

“Well Jonathan, we have to fill you in on some things. First, eat this vitamin,” Richard instructed as he handed over the small oval-shaped pill in one of those pop out, sealed packages.

Jonathan nodded and did as told. He just made full time and all workers had to take the supplements. A rule that was put into place as the ridiculous work hours were stressful to the body.

The job paid well and the company was not shy about giving you proper pay. The downside was 60 hours a week was practically a minimum.

Richard nodded as he watched the man eat the pill. The two men slowly walked out of the meeting room and made his way over to the race track. It would be deserted at this time and they could properly talk.

“So what do you mean by, “fill me in”?”

Richard took a slow sip of his coffee, the decades of management experience allowed him to prevent spilling a single drop of the wonderful work fuel.

“Well, now that you are full time, and the fact that you just ate the antidote, means that I can tell you about the project’s foundation and why the full-time people seem to happily work over 60 hours a week.”

“I…. what do you mean Antidote?”

“Well the company and, more importantly, the government has total control of the project, and everything is hush-hush.” Richard drawled as he smiled again while they entered the exercising facilities. With the hectic work weeks, the place was always deserted on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“Hush hush?”

“The project is very important Jonathan. Very important. So important that we use nanites to ensure its secrecy. The vitamin pills that we provide are a constant source of nanobots that are encoded into your memories while you work here. If you have them, you remember your work. If you quit and they die off, we become a hazy memory,” Richard explained as they began to slowly lap climb the stairs and onto the race track. A large, 10km circle that stretched around the exercise area and the lobby.

“So optimal landing coordinates are kept secret to prevent… ISIS bombings?” Jonathan asked as he though the entire thing was a joke.

“Your half right about the bombs, but not the place. We need secrecy to prevent us from being attacked.”

“Seriously? Why?”

“I know it’s a weird truth, but that is why we are here talking. You showed the proper ethics and devotion to the project. You are working to save the human species.”

“Seriously? How?”

“We found things. Terrible things at the bottom of the ocean. Things so horrific that the council itself has halted all public research and development of ocean exploration. We tell the public that we don’t need to and don’t have the means to and we will instead go to space.”

“Define terrible. I mean it's not like there is a gigantic rift in the ocean and super monsters will come swimming outright? Cause then why aren’t we developing super robots to fight them?”

“Wow,” Richard said as he stopped and stared at Jonathan.

Jonathan stopped and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at Richard’s shocked expression.

There was a moment of silence before Richard shook his head and continued forward. Fearing he had just messed up, Jonathan quickly moved forward as well.

“Uhh. Sorry. I. Uhhh.” The new full-timer stammered as he realized this could be serious.

“You are actually right. Hit the nail on the head.”

“Seriously? What?”

“There really is a giant rift in the south part of Mariana’s trench. Without modern military ships, you can't even make it halfway. We also do have giant robots. Project Gundam is already on its second-generation while Project Jaeger finished the prototype and will be tested next week. It's actually where the majority of the military budget goes into.”

“I just quoted a movie! Atlantic Edge!” Jonathan replied as he furrowed his eyebrows. This suddenly explained their ridiculous military budgets for years now. Also explained why the new presidents all said they would change the military but never did.

“Yes, the council made that movie so that when the rift is exposed it will be less shocking. I hear Atlantic Edge 2 will have a second rift found out and the Jaegers will be defending a colony ship to invest our hope in space.”

Jonathan gawked at the man.

“Haven’t you noticed the rise in sci-fi films? Space exploration is becoming a reality. We just need to nudge the people towards the right mindset. Hollywood does this very efficiently,” Richard explained and chuckled as he moved on.

“So we have giant robots and potential aliens attacking us?”

“Yes.”

“So what is so important about us then?”

“We do not know why it is connected to Earth. As for you and me, we are designing the foundation of space expansion. When we can launch stuff into space more efficiently, we will build a colony of space stations with the Mars Initiative and also start to colonize Mars.”

“Why mars?”

“Mars itself holds no real value. We just need a staging ground in case the rift opens prematurely. We can already start sending people out, two full colonies are already finished, but we can’t start yet. The people are not ready.”

“How did we find this rift?”

“Our ancestors found it. They had already fought them off millions of years ago but we were devastated. We lost our culture and our knowledge. It has taken us this long to rebuild.”

“So is there a ETA for our doomsday?”

“Yes. That is why secrecy is important. People are foolish Jonathan. They are smart but can be easily lead astray. Hence why we only let the full-timers know. Those nanites will cement themselves in your mind now and you will become a valuable worker for us.

“How much time do we have?”

“This is something we still don’t know. However, compared to decades ago, the rift has started to react. Have you noticed that our world has seen more disasters lately? Global warming, earthquakes, and tsunamis? This is all because of that rift turning on. It is sending out pulses of energy and we are doing everything we can. This is what we are working on. Fighting for. Welcome to the front lines Jonathan. It's going to be stressful.” Richard finished as he stopped and turned around. He lazily walked away and sipped at his cold coffee.

Jonathan stopped and stared out at the blue skies outside. He knew that if he went out to town right now, it would be like it was yesterday. A peaceful day. Yet, now he felt hollow. This peace, how long would it last?