A Secret Piece of Life
    The world’s greatest botanists had finally done it.  They created a plant capable of withstanding the horrifying dangers of space.  One that harnessed particles and radiation to sustain itself, all while withstanding the absence of heat, and the airless vacuum, of space.  “This plant will revolutionize the future of colonization,” They said.  “This will be Earth’s future.”  It  would finally save the Human race.  And then I woke up.
    My eyes opened to see the darkness of my empty room.  The noise of the air recycler was mesmerizing, all the while reminding me of the dream I had just experienced.  Then my alarm brought me back to the cold, harsh reality that was my existence.  I could no longer sit in bed and ignore my responsibility as a recycler repairmen.  I had to get up and go to work.
    I got out of bed, got dressed, and got my morning coffee, then sat at my table and turned on the tv.  It was on the news channel, the only thing on in the mornings, talking about more rioting breaking out at electric power plants and lumber mills, people wearing rebreather masks with signs that say ‘FIX OUR PLANET’ or ‘GOING GREEN WON’T KILL US’.  They were right.  Our planet was dying.  But nothing we could do would stop the big companies from making more money on our planet’s resources.
    I finally reminded myself that I had a job to do, so I stood up, put on my rebreather so I wouldn’t asphyxiate in the now toxic atmosphere, and left my house to go to work.  While on the drive to the office, my mind wandered to what it was like before:  Blue skies, greenery everywhere, animals out in the open, instead of in biomes; great, lush forests with humongous leaf covered trees.  I wish I could have seen it for real, if only for a moment.  But instead, I had pictures from the library, and photos taken by relatives some time back.
I was finally at my office.  It was a large brick building with a sign on it that said, “Wright’s Recycler Repair and Accessories Depot.”  Recyclers were, as you probably would’ve guessed, used to turn our “old” air into “new” air.  The air that wouldn’t try to kill us.  The only strange thing was, when I got to the front door, it was open slightly.  Which meant that either the door was broken, again, or someone had gone inside quickly.
When I got in, there were no lights on.  I took my flashlight from my shirt pocket and clicked it on, so I could make sure I wouldn’t be surprised by anything.  I looked around, and noticed that nothing was out of place.  Not in the lobby, anyway.  I went through to the stairs, so I could go down into the repair shop, where all of our recycler parts were kept.  It wouldn’t be the first time someone would try to steal recycler parts, in hopes that they could fix their recycler for free.  Joke was on them, twice, because recycler parts need an activation signal that only repairmen carry.  Sadly, the outcome wouldn’t be too good for them.
Nothing in the shop was out of the ordinary, so I headed to the top floor, where our receptionists would accept calls, and then call to alert us there was a repair needed urgently.  When I got through the first office door, nothing struck me as odd or strange.  That was until saw it.  At first, I didn’t notice it with my flashlight on, but when I finally saw it, I knew something was up.  Carefully, I walked over a to cubicle with a lamp on, expecting the absolute worst to pop out and frighten me.  But, when I got to the desk, something else surprised me. 
Upon the desk, sitting under the light, was a plant.  A real, green, honest-to-God plant.  It wasn’t withered, it wasn’t brown, it stood tall, for an office plant.  And then I noticed a note sitting under the pot that the plant was nestled in.  I gingerly picked it up.  It had been addressed to me.  I began to shake, and I was sweating uncontrollably as I opened the white sheet of paper.  It read:
I have been watching you for a very long time.  At first, I thought you weren’t capable of the care necessary for this responsibility, that is, until I began to study you more.  That was when I realized you were perfect.  You want to see this world change as much as I do.  You want to go back to the green pastures and lush forests that we once had, that we were deprived of as children.  You...want life.
And so it is you, that I entrust with the gift of life.  This plant is the very thing you have been dreaming of.  It has the ability to grow in any condition, climate, or circumstance.  It will grow, as long as it has sun and water, and when it blooms, it will be the most beautiful thing you  will ever have seen.  Then, when it begins to wilt, it will produce seeds. 
Your job is make sure this piece of life lives to its fullest, and then to spread more life, through the seeds of the plant.  You will save this planet.
My knees felt weak beneath me.  I fell into an office chair in a daze.  Someone was trusting me with the most important task in the history of all of creation.  They wanted me to save the human race with a secret piece of life.