And a little child

On Mars, scientists nurture human infants in gradually altered atmospheres and environments so they will grow physically adapted to the planet. As the children mature they develop tall, hardy bodies and breathe freely in the thin air, and a generation emerges that rejects its Earth-taught guardians. The plot follows the teachers' shifting emotions from pride to alarm as their creation claims Mars as its own, and the piece interrogates engineered evolution, emergent cultural identity, and the ethical fallout when creators lose control of a people they deliberately fashioned.