It was the day after meeting Professor Adin. Reev woke up and got to the washroom in the blink of an eye. In the background there was a voice saying, “Do you want me to turn off the upcoming alarm?” “Yes, go ahead and do that,” said Reev.

Walking out into the streets, there were not many people around. There were already two people sitting in the pod as he entered. After a minute there was a background voice saying, “Please select the destination to start.” But he didn’t react. After a notification sound, it repeated again. Suddenly Reev startled and said out loud, “Agro Farm Unit 587.” The doors closed and the pod started moving.

“Did you say you are heading to Agro Farm Unit 587?” the old man spoke up. Pivoting slowly, Reev asked, “Are you speaking to me?”

“Yes, you were saying the name Agro Farm Unit 587. I am travelling to that place, so I was just wondering if you are also heading there,” the man answered.

“Oh, that — sorry about that, I was trying to communicate with Jeev. But yes, I am working there as a research scientist. Do you also work there? I can’t remember seeing you there,” replied Reev, while looking at the light trails through the glass of the pod. He couldn’t see anything more than that. Meanwhile, he was still thinking about the previous day’s conversation with Professor Adin.

He was wondering about what the professor might decide about the project. Would he accept the proposal? He also remembered that the professor had told him that he was not the only person to make the decision. He would discuss the proposal with the research committee and everything would be decided based on their vote. He also remembered that the professor had said he very much liked Reev’s different approach to the problem and would advocate for it to his best ability.

“Hello, are you listening to me? It seems like you are thinking about something,” the old man said.

“Sorry, I got distracted by my thoughts. What were you saying?”

“I was saying that I am not an employee there and am just going there to meet someone,” the old man replied. Thinking that Reev was not interested in the conversation, the old man went silent for a few minutes. He looked outside at the stations passing by. Finally they reached the Agro Farm station. Both of them got off the pod and started walking towards the entrance of the facility.

The old man scanned his palm and the system asked him to wait in the common area for 30 minutes. He looked around the place and sat on one of the chairs there. People were coming and going. After a few minutes, Reev came and sat on a nearby chair, and again the meeting with the professor came to his mind. He wanted to stop thinking about it, so he started a conversation with the old man.

“Hello sir, can I ask who you are waiting to meet?” asked Reev in an undertone.

“I came here to meet my daughter. You might know her — she is also a research scientist here. Her name is Maia.”

“Oh, you are Maia’s father! I am Reev, and both of us work on the same project,” Reev exclaimed. A sudden smile appeared on his face, but his heartbeat rose. “It’s nice to meet you, sir. She didn’t tell me you were coming to meet her,” he stuttered.

“She didn’t know about it until yesterday. I came here for work and thought of meeting her,” the old man explained.

“She had told me about you working on some committee for the country’s infrastructure and living standards development. What do you all do exactly?” Reev questioned. He nudged to the edge of his seat and leaned slightly forward. His eyes were wide open now and he had completely forgotten about the things that had been bothering him since morning.

“Oh, that’s a long story, kid. This journey started when I was just 15. At that time there were not many good learning centres, but I luckily got into a good one. I started working as an assistant in the planning committee for some extra credits, but later realised I really liked it and have been pursuing the same ever since.” Meanwhile, more people started to arrive at the facility and some were leaving. Reev didn’t seem to care about anyone — he was fully engaged in the conversation.

“What was the committee formed for?” Reev inquired.

“A few decades ago the world didn’t look like what it does now. There were a lot of differences in economy and living standards in different parts of the country. It had accumulated over a long course of history,” said the old man.

“Not trying to be arrogant, but I can still see those differences, sir,” Reev whispered.

“I get your point, kid. You see, people tend to naturally relocate to where there are more opportunities and resources. So that effect will still be there, but what you are seeing now is barely the tip of the iceberg. This difference used to be like the gap between an ant and an elephant,” the old man countered.

A background voice reminded Reev that his shift started in 15 minutes. Maia was entering the facility just as they were immersed in their conversation. Both of them missed noticing her, but Maia spotted both of them and interrupted their conversation by greeting her father first, then looked at Reev with surprise.

“Do you know my father?” Maia gasped.

“No, no, we just met in the pod and later came to know that he is your father. Nothing to worry about,” he teased her.

“Wait a minute, Maia — we were in the middle of something. Let us finish and then you can take your father,” he continued.

“We were just talking about my work, Maia. So kid, listen to this — people who lived in remote or suburban areas got less and less access to resources and opportunities. The people who lived in overly populated areas were becoming overcrowded and hard to manage,” explained the old man. Maia gasped and sat down on a nearby chair with a slight smile on her face.

“We restructured the whole country into 10 states, each with 10 or more cities. Each city was categorised as tier 1, tier 2, or tier 3 based on its current status. This tier was decided based on goods production, population density, and people’s living standards. Our plan was to balance these differences in a way that benefits both sets of people,” the old man continued.

“Dad, I know you will never stop explaining and Reev will never stop asking questions about whatever you tell him. So you two should continue this another day. Reev needs to go to work now and I only have permission for 30 minutes,” said Maia.

All of them laughed. Maia and her father strolled towards the cafeteria. Reev hurried off to work. As he left, Reev started wondering — if people are so focused on opportunities and resources, what would happen if there were never enough resources to satisfy all of them?