T1 2024 -

“Just interpolate,” Derek had said in their Monday stand-up, his pixelated face a mask of earnest stupidity. “Model the gaps.”

Lin worked in urban climatology, which sounded noble but mostly meant she spent her days arguing with spreadsheets about stormwater runoff. The city had promised a green infrastructure overhaul by Q4—new permeable pavements, bioswales, a rain garden on every corner—but T1 was about approvals. And approvals required a feasibility report. And the feasibility report required data from the old sensors, half of which had frozen solid in the December cold snap. t1 2024

On the last Friday of February, Lin stayed late. The office was a mausoleum of abandoned coffee mugs and blinking router lights. She had finally wrestled the sensor data into a Frankenstein’s monster of a forecast, complete with confidence intervals so wide you could drive a garbage truck through them. She was attaching it to an email when her phone buzzed. “Just interpolate,” Derek had said in their Monday

Outside, the rain stopped. A single beam of low, watery sunlight broke through the clouds and hit her desk, illuminating the dust motes floating in the air like a million tiny, purposeless stars. And approvals required a feasibility report