A tall balding man wearing a brown suit stumbled into Janice Stebbin’s office. He nodded to her politely. “Is this the local office for the Department of Preservation?”
“It is.” Janice smiled. “How may I help you?”
The man took a seat in front of her and withdrew a small crystalline cube from his pocket. He placed it on the desk, and all at once a hologram filled the air. It showed a proposed pipeline that, according to the scale, spanned a few hundred miles from the Lithium slurry-fields to the Office Port Refinery.
Immediately, large red circles appeared over multiple sections of the pipeline’s plans. Janice zoomed into one with a frown.
“As you can see there are quite a few issues here. Let’s start with this one.” The hologram displayed a site that resembled a boring empty field. “This is where the Battle of the Crab Apples took place. Without a Dictate of Emergency Infrastructure from the Office of History, you won’t be allowed to build through it or tunnel under it.” She zoomed around the area, mumbling to herself. “Not here… That’s where they buried the dead. And that’s the orchard that supposedly started the conflict… And that’s the Cheddar Manor…” As she changed the hologram’s view-port, she manipulated the proposed pipeline by dragging it this way and that. Eventually she was able to place it in such a way that the first conflict-circle cleared up. “There! That should work.”
The man slunk. “That rerouted the pipe fifty miles outside the proposed area!”
Janice gave a small nod. “Yes. Sorry.”
The man sighed. “I guess if I don’t have a choice.”
“If it’s any consolation, I’m not immune to Preservation, either. My husband and I tried to build a shed three years back, and well, it turns out our backyard was an old android burial ground. Long story short, the shed’s located three miles down the road.”
“It’s no wonder the off-planet colonies are shooting ahead of us in technology. They don’t need to deal with any of this red tape.” The man grumbled.
Janice gave a small shrug. “True, but they lack our rich culture and heritage. Don’t you think it’s worth preserving our bountiful history?”
The man merely gave a small harrumph as Janice did her best to work through the hologram’s next conflict. “Oh, this isn’t good. You want to place your line through a 20th century landfill.”
“Yes? Is that a problem?”
“Landfills built before the Recycling Revolution are considered protected sites of mineral significance… Ah, but if you route the line this way, then double-back, this problem should clear up.”
The man slunk further as he stared at the hologram. What had been a two-mile section of pipe had evolved into a monstrosity that snaked in the wrong direction for thirty miles before making a U-turn and nearly returning to its original point.
“You can’t let me just dig through there? I promise not to remove any soil, and will pay for any archaeologists we might need.”
“I’m sorry sir, but this is the best we can do. If the ancients hadn’t left behind such a rich collection of unique sites, things might be easier, but they’d also be a bit less interesting too, doncha think?” She winked.
The man merely grumbled.