The sound of the sea organ, chaotic in its own calm way and yet sublimely beautiful, inundated the windy, salty air. The waves crashed gently against the stone boardwalk, caressing it endlessly, its slow, steady rhythm underlining the main melody of Ivanivka's coastal wonder. Lately the sea organ, being the only one in the world, had begun to attract tourists to the city of Ivanivka, allowing it to grow, if not as large as Pleneris to the far south, larger than most other cities in the northwestern corner of Wunamaj. But today was a peaceful day, undisturbed by the incessant noise of visitors. Only four voices could be heard that day in that part of the northwestern coastal haven.

It was only "day" because the moon Svet happened to be on that side of Wunamaj and thus drenched the city in its faint silver light, but in truth it was dark always. The inhabitants of Wunamaj knew the difference between 'light' and 'dark' only because they were able to produce artificial light, and indeed the people in charge of city affairs in Wunamaj had recently started considering a proposal to drench the city in artificial illumination, at least during "night", but the debates about it had both grown more violent and passed to a secondary level since a more ambitious proposal had reached the ears of the world.

Two of the four voices were calm, distant, faded voices that blended for minutes at a time into the music of waves and sea organ --one natural and the other artificial, but both fueled by the same force: the wind-- and then stood out for a word or three only to fade out of understanding again immediately after, which made it impossible to tell whether they were getting closer or farther away. A couple, or parent and child, or friends, but no doubt just two people taking a stroll down what was generally considered the most beautiful part of town.

The other two voices belonged to two figures whose legs were still; they weren't going anywhere. Both of them stared at the vast blue nothingness that stretched out as far as the eye could see and beyond, all the way to the opposite coast of the single continent on Wunamaj, but they were engaged in an important conversation, one which would help shape the course of history.

"Have you considered the cost?" asked one voice.

"In number of lives?" asked the other.

"Yes."

"Perhaps a thousand or two. This is a small city; there are only forty thousand people here."

"And you would sacrifice that many lives for this cause?"

"Wouldn't you? Or would you rather continue the endless arguing, let tempers rage till blood boils and patience dies, and eventually be forced out of Ivanivka to save your flesh from acts of terrorism?"

"You think it'll come to that?"

"'Course. Didn't you hear of what happened in Pleneris? If our side is willing to resort to terrorism, the enemy sure is."

"Enemy... You speak as though this were a war--"

"Isn't it?"

A pause. "I don't know. Perhaps you're right. Perhaps it is inevitable."

The mere thought of it was horrible. The people of the entire world would start killing each other for the first time in history. Countless lives would be lost, entire cities would be burned to embers and ashes, and the outcome would decide the planet's future forever. A fateful turn of events, no doubt.

On the other hand, technologies would be developed, especially in physics and medicine, and, the owners of both voices thought, if the right side --their side-- won then the world would become a better place. A risk worth taking, they thought.

After a moment's silence, one of the voices spoke again: "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"The sea?"

"Everything. The way the waves flirt with the shore, plunging into it one second and slowly pulling away the next; the chill breeze that makes so much music; the color of the sea..."

"Perhaps it'll turn out to be a different color after everything's done. Your know how everything looks bluish and pale in the dark but some things take on different colors under a light."

Both men smiled.

"Maybe."

"So you'll gather the weapons?" The other one asked after a while.

"Yes. Will the men meet here?"

The man who had asked the question about the weapons pointed at a nearby building that hadn't been finished yet. A few cranes stood like lifeless skeletons around the dirt and the rubble --they looked like demons, forecasting the doom of world war or some other nameless horror--, but otherwise the hollow, half-finished shell of the dome-shaped building was devoid of signs of life. It looked more like the remains of a building after it had been bombed than like one that was being built, although, of course, the men wouldn't know that.

The other man nodded. "Give me a few hours. I don't know how long this will take." He set out along the boardwalk slowly.

He came upon a large building, dome-shaped like the rest of Ivanivka, but this one actually consisted of five domes -- two large ones in the center, two on the left side and one on the right side. All five overlooked the sea and had the words "Ivanivka university of science", along with which department it was, carved in vast letters above the entrance. The man walked towards the building to the far left, which was the newest and was carved with the words "Ivanivka university of science - weapons research and armory".

There were people walking into the university and out of it, mainly the two main buildings but also the three flanking ones. Professors and researchers mostly, although a few early students were there too and all kinds of people, even some not associated with the university in any way, were constantly entering and leaving the one to the far right, which was the university's library. The diurnal shift of classes would begin soon. He grimly realized that he had stood too long at the sea organ talking to his comrade. He cursed himself. He turned towards the library and walked in. He was also a student at the university, although most of his classes belonged to the night shift; but his working shift at the library was about to begin.

--

When his shift finished and the next man in charge arrived, he walked out of the library and headed towards the armory once more. Although the library was permanently open and permanently busy and both departments --physics and mathematics; and chemistry, biology and medicine-- had people leaving and people entering throughout both shifts, he was the only person walking into weapons and armory at that moment.

It was a fact that most of the researchers who worked at weapons were pro-Seredina, or against the demolition of the moon that shielded the world from the sun, which was a notion that discomforted him and the reason what he did that day almost cost him his life.

He headed towards the armory room, which was vast -- it took up one-fifth of the weapons building. Although he went there almost every day to talk to some of his professors and take increasingly-active part in some of the research, lately some tension had grown between him and most of the scientists there, including some of his teachers, because of his opinion on the Seredina conflict, and he met with some rather-unfriendly faces. He ignored them; they woldn't bother him for long.

Most of the building, because it was potentially susceptible to attacks, had been built underground, and even the part that was above ground was thickly plated with a protective armor. Nobody could tell how well it was plated because weapons were a very new thing and so far nobody had attempted an attack on the armory or even tested any weapon extensively, but generally people assumed that the armor it had was sufficient.

The armory room was a long room that ran down the middle of the building, extending from one end of the building to the other, two floors below ground level. It was lined by shelves on both walls and down the middle, and all shelves were packed with weapons, which were mostly distributed by sections: needlers on one side of the central shelves, a few light swords to the right of where he had entered grenades right after that, and rocket launchers in the far left corner, just to name a few weapons. While no city in the world had all weapons in existence, Ivanivka had a large selection of them and each kind in large numbers.

"Oi!"

He stopped and turned around. Somebody had spotted him before he had been able to enter the room. One of the most outspoken pro-Seredina researchers was yelling orders at other people.

"Boskava is trying to steal weapons! He's pro-demolition! Stop him!" After this, the scientist ran towards the door of the armory room, towards Kive Boskava.

Kive didn't wait to see who was after him. He swiftly got into the room and hid himself behind one of the shelves. He always carried two needlers and a few grenades with him, but now he had a whole armory to defend himself with -- and to be attacked with. Waste not, he thought, taking two needlers from the shelf nearest to him rather than use his own ammo up. When the scientist who had given him away entered the room, Kive unleashed the power of his favorite weapon on him. Fifteen or twenty transparent needles flew towards the unsuspecting scientist, stuck into his body and, before the man could even start trying to remove them from his skin, released an electric discharge which caused an explosion the size of the man's body.

But more men were coming in, stepping over the carbonized corpse of one of the chief researchers in the university. Among those men were many scientists, all of which had played important roles in developing and building what Kive was now using to kill them and some of which had been dear friends of his in the past, before the discovery of Seredina and the realization of what that big black empty circle that sometimes appeared in the sky really was. Kive had hoped to be able to sneak away with the weapons and only have to kill those who stood up against the battle the ivanivkan pro-demolition group was planning, but instead an important percentage of the university's staff and --the gods forbid, as Kive liked to say even though he was an atheist-- perhaps even some students would be killed. This would be a black day.

Kive snuck behind columns and under shelves, grabbing weapons as he moved away from the door he had entered from and occasionally shooting a man or two down with his needlers -- each time from a different position so he wouldn't be spotted, and each time a barrage of firepower of all kinds would assault the spot he had shot from, but he was never there anymore because he was constantly moving. They had started grabbing weapons, like him. I just hope more of them don't come in through the other door, Kive thought.

But the door on the opposite side of the armory did slid open and men did come in through it, a few of them even carrying weapons of their own, the others grabbing something as they walked in and started looking for him. Crap. He would have to hide better and shoot less.

As he dodged behind a column, he felt a sharp sting on his back. After a second or two he felt a small but painful shock going into his body. He turned around and saw needles flying swiftly towards him. He didn't even have time to see who was shooting at him before he moved aside and got behind a wall. To his surprise, though, the needles turned in the air and followed him. So it's not in development anymore. It was the new model, which fired special needles that homed in on anything that moved. Luckily for Kive, however, it was still in development and the guidance system hadn't been perfected. The needles did follow him to some extent, but they couldn't turn sharply enough and crashed against the wall he was hiding behind, shattering to glassy shards.

Starting to get a bit desperate but nevertheless keeping his mind together, Kive grabbed a machine gun and started shooting towards where he thought the man who had attacked him was. Bullets, blood and enemy needles flew everywhere, and then there was a large explosion somewhere. For a moment, everybody stopped shooting and turned to see what had happened. This moment was enough for Kive to move from his hiding place to a new one, shooting down two men as he did it and a third one right before settling into his new spot. Then he looked around. Somebody had thrown a grenade, no doubt, but--

Another explosion, this time farther away. Whoever it is isn't attacking me. Kive peeked over a low shelf full of machine guns and saw a few men standing at one end of the room and another one entering through the door on that side and joining them. One of the men had a rocket launcher. The others had machine guns or needlers and were shooting at the men who had been attacking Kive just a few seconds before. Among the newcomers he recognized Zelko Vin, one of his calculus teachers from an earlier year. Kive smiled slightly before peeking out of his hideout to shoot at the opposition.

Eventually, moving from one corner to another, he ended up next to Zelko. As his old teacher hurled a grenade at the pro-Seredina scientists, Kive let out a few shots from the machine gun he had taken and turned to Zelko.

"I almost got killed waiting for you. How's Maja?"

Maja was the professor's wife. "She's well, thanks for asking. Listen, you get out of here with the weapons, i'll clean this up. More of them will come."

Kive glanced at the other people who were fighting on his and his teacher's side. He knew most of them from sight and a few of them from talking to them. He had asked Zelko for reinforcements, but he had counted on more of them, and he didn't want to let people he knew and trusted die for him.

"Go, Kive," Zelko said, dodging a barrage of non-homing needles and shooting back at his attacker. "You can't die here, you have to deliver the weapons to the army! You have to live, you, not us!"

At that moment Kive realized that his old professor was not only right but also as comitted as him to the cause they were fighting for. Both of them would give their lives for it. That was enough to set him in motion. Hegrabbed as many weapons as he could hold in both hands, ran towards the door his reinforcements had come in through, and unloaded the weapons into the jeep he had arranged for Zelko to bring into the building. Then he went in for more weapons. He lost a complete rocket launcher's ammo shooting at pro-Seredina people to defend himself, and countless weapons were destroyed by the firepower of other weapons, but he had expected that; it was impossible to shoot inside the armory room and not damage at least one of the weapons it held.

After the jeep was loaded to its full capacity, he drove the jeep down corridors and into a lift, got out of the lift and pressed the button for ground level, got back into the jeep and drove it, along with all the weapons, out of the building. He drove by the sea all the way to the construction site, left the weapons there and returned for more.

When he got there he found half of his reinforcements dead and many of the weapons destroyed, damaged or out of rounds. He grabbed as many as he could, put them into the jeep and drove out again.

The next time, he found the weapons building under siege. Infantry, combat jeeps and combat hoverbikes had the building surrounded. They were being attacked by a few dozen men on foot, but they were easily holding their own.

"You bastards, how can you even think of it? You'll scorch the world!"

From this scream from one of the footmen from the stronger side, the side that had the armory under siege, Kive knew that that side was pro-Seredina. He stayed just within sight of the situation and tried to think of a plan. He had enough grenades to take out the jeeps and a few hoverbike drivers, and after that he could find a way to steal one of the hoverbikes and try to take out the rest and all of the infantry... No, it would be too risky. Besides, he was well aware of his poor aim with grenades. Then he remembered his own hoverbike. He ran home --his apartment was only a few hundred meters away--, hopped on his sporty black combat-adapted hoverbike and drove the thing back to where he had left the jeep.

From there he started shooting at the pro-Seredina forces, trying to cripple their vehicles. After losing four jeeps, they finally responded to his attack by sending all of their remaining vehicles after him. Before he even began to retreat, though, the pro-Seredina forces realized that they couldn't leave the building undefended and divided their forces. Now only a few hoverbikes and one jeep were moving towards Kive.

An expert hoverbike pilot, Kive was able to avoid all of the enemy firepower directed at him and take out two of the hoverbikes. But the man who operated the jeep's gun turret was starting to get a few bullets into his hoverbike's right wing, so he was forced to fall back. Still avoiding shots as best he could --though his maneuverability had decreased because of the damage to the right wing--, he managed to kill the gun turret operator and two more hoverbike pilots. The final hoverbike suddenly began circling him, still shooting at him, and the jeep driver seemed to be trying to run him over.

Kive knew full well that he couldn't defend himself on two fronts, so he threw a grenade at the jeep and drove into the city, away from the sea and his attackers. Then he turned around and, seeing that his grenade had missed, used another one. This one got the jeep's whole front half, killing the pilot and damaging the vehicle somewhat. Kive was then able to easily take out the last enemy hoverbike.

But now he had to return to the armory, and there were still two-thirds of an army waiting for him there. He couldn't call for reinforcements because the university's pro-Seredina group had the upper hand in numbers and if the pro-demolition group at the construction site was decimated it wouldn't stand a chance afterwards in the real battle.

Kive checked the combat jeep. It still worked. He drove it within sight range of the armory and used the gun turret to sniper the remaining hoverbike pilots and gun turret operators. With this done, the enemy not having seen him yet --it could have been the pro-demolition infantry still fighting against them that had taken out all those men--, Kive proceeded to cut through the enemy defenses on his own hoverbike, shooting down any man who stood in his way and moving too fast to be shot. He did this a few times, allowing the rest of the pro-demolition forces to finish off the pro-Seredina forces.

A moment's peace.

Kive sat back on his hoverbike and closed his eyes, but only for a moment. After two deep breaths, he drove his bike home and ran back to the university.

"They need help down there!" he told the remaining men. "I'm going down for more weapons. Come with me. Hopefully there are still some of us left inside."

Kive --by jeep-- and the rest of the men --on foot-- went into the building and down to the armory room. There they found silence and ruins. There were no pro-demolition warriors left from the ones that had helped Kive earlier, only a handful of pro-Seredina warriors who were killed off immediately after Kive told the pro-demolition army that they were part of the enemy.

As Kive wiped a tear for his old teacher away and looked around for weapons that still worked properly and had enough ammunition, he heard a faint voice: "Kive, is that you?" He recognized it immediately as Zelko's.

"Mr Vin!" he cried. He ran to where the voice had come from and found the man emerging from under a pile of broken weapons and debris. "Are you complete?"

"Yes, fortunately," Zelko replied, smiling slightly at Kive's strange choice of words. But his smile disappeared instantly. "I hid beneath this pile after they killed the last of the men who were fighting with me. They looked for me, but they couldn't find me. I suppose they were just leaving when you came; the sounds of their search had started to die out."

"I'm sorry for taking so long, Mr Vin. They had the whole building under siege. I almost got killed trying to get in here."

"That's two times you almost get killed because of me. I'm terribly sorry, Kive, i--"

"No, that's two times i almost get killed because of this war. And i doubt they's be the only two times."

Zelko smiled. "Well, let's go, we have weapons to deliver," he said in a less grim voice.

Both of them loaded the jeep with whatever weapons were left and drove it outside. The other men, once outside, took the remaining vehicles and followed Kive and Zelko to the construction site. There they explained to the impatient pro-demolition army what had happened and gave out weapons. Kive noticed several combat vehicles gathered near one of the walls of the unfinished building and smiled at the man he had been talking to several hours earlier.

Again Throil was on the run. He didn't know who was after him this time but yet again someone or thing wanted him dead. He wouldn't let it do that but its hard to convince people who call you their meal ticket. "Over there!" was all he heard as bullets started to fly again.

"Why must these idiots want me" Throil muttered as he pulled out his machine gun. As the first man turned the corner he held the trigger down and watched as blood and bullets filled the air. The man himself was dancing as all the rounds pierced him.

Many oaths were sworn as the second and third men turned the corner. Their partner lay against the wall covered in blood and the only thing that told them Thoril was there and now moving again was a freshly spent clip. "Can't wait for the next man" Thoril silently thought to himself as he reached into his pocket and pulled a fresh clip out. "Only two more better calm down on the shooting, but then again where's the fun in that! He thought.

"I see him over here!" the man raised his machine gun and started to pour bullets into the space he thought Thoril was still in. Thoril did take a bullet or two but he wasn't dead and that was all that he cared about. As the first man emptied his clip anther caught up and started to fire where the first man had. As soon as the first man had a new clip in he started firing with his partner.

"Well they sure like to waste ammo." Thoril thought. He put the machine gun back into his holster on his back and pulled out a grenade and one of his pistols. First he threw the grenade at them. As soon as they realized it was a grenade flying at them they both stopped firing and starting running. Thoril had two perfect shots. He got both of them in the back of the head. Dead center, after that he went picked up the grenade. The dummies thought I would waste a good grenade on them Ha!. After searching both of the dead men he found two clips of machine gun ammo and a cash card, he took all three. After giving himself all the money, he went back to the first dead guy.

He had a .50 caliber colt in one pocket and a cash card in the other. He would have taken the .50 cal but it didn't have any rounds. He did help himself to the money and one of the man's legs before taking back exiting the abandoned home. It was just another day to Thoril.

They had gotten out of there alive, but only out of luck, and the worst was yet to come. Kive knew it would only get worse and worse until the conflict was over. First he had been caught by surprise by a few men in a place where he could easily hide and counterattack; then he had found himself trying to break a siege with merely two vehicles, his driving ability and the distraction factor of other men fighting on his side; now he would take part in a battle for his city, a battle where thousands would die; if he survived and the pro-demolition forces managed to take Ivanivka for their side, surely other cities had also been taken by one side or the other --he knew of one case, and he didn't believe that city and Ivanivka to be the only two cities with that fate--, which meant that a world war was coming; and improvements in technology --which meant more-powerful weapons-- and decreases in army sizes would only make it harder and harder as time went by. He sometimes wondered whether, even if the pro-demolition side won the war, the survivors would even be able to do what they had fought for. And sometimes he wondered whether the war would ever come to an end. He figured destroying Seredina while the fighting was still going on would be the only way to stop it. But he had heard about how the pro-demolition group in Pleneris had had its anti-Seredina-missile research facility discovered and destroyed, about how an attempt at preventing the war had failed and ended in the addition of one city to the enemy's ranks. And if preventing it had failed then stopping it after it was under way would be near impossible.

"Kive!"

He found a hand on his shoulder and a familiar voice breaking his chain of thought. He turned his head and saw that both hand and voice belonged to Marek Alic (pronounced "Alich"), one of his classmates from university.

"You were lost in thought, mate. What were you thinking?"

"That this conflict, if it escalates into a war, will ruin the world no matter the outcome," Kive replied. Afterwards he reasoned that this might not have been the best thing to tell someone, especially not someone who was about to risk his life in bloody combat, but he didn't care much. It was the truth --that was what he was thinking--, and Marek wasn't all that close to him even though they had gone out together a few times in the past and he did enjoy a good conversation with him.

Marek stared at him for a moment. Kive turned his attention to the other conversations that had broken out around him, many of which, to his surprise, were completely unrelated to the imminent Ivanivka battle. He turned back to his own thoughts, this time different ones. He kept remembering the siege on the weapons building and how he had been forced to break it. The "could-have-been" scenario of him dying in that small battle kept coming back to the surface of his thoughts. He recalled the part when he had fought against six times as many men as him, all in vehicles at least as big as the one he had, and survived --only because he was a better driver and shooter, but that might not always be the case, he knew--, and it suddenly occurred to him that his hoverbike would need a bit of repairing. After this was over he would take it to the vehicle workshop in Ivanivka. He really ought to learn how to do it by himself, but, well, he hadn't yet. He figured he would learn when --if-- he and the rest of the army had taken Ivanivka. Then he started wondering whether all the people who worked at the workshop weren't pro-Seredina and whether there'd be anyone left that could help him with his hoverbike. He might have to take it out of town, which didn't completely appeal to him.

He was thinking about this when he heard someone yelling something about the upcomning battle. "So when do we begin fighting?" the man was asking.

"Well, we're all here, ain't we?" someone else replied. "And the weapons have arrived. Ask me, we should start now."

"Shouldn't we have a plan, a scheme?" another one chipped in.

"What do you mean? We kill anyone who likes the world being dark."

"I mean, what do we attack first, what do we do after we've attacked it, what military strategy do we use, that kind of thing."

"I say we capture key buildings first," Kive suggested. Faces turned his way to listen to what he had to say. "Government headquarters, factories, university, communications facilities. After we have comms we can use satellite video to trace their retreat, follow them and finish them off. Or somebody can hop on an ultralight and keep us informed. Either way we'd need at least one intact jeep or walkie-talkie at all times."

"You forgot the armory, mate," somebody he didn't know said.

"There's nothing there. No ammunition, few operational weapons, and lots and lots of dead people. I just came from there, so i should know."

"You're our weapons provider?" the man asked, surprised. "In that case, thank you, sir."

"Don't mention it," Kive replied. "As for fighting strategy," he continued, already getting caught up in military matters, "i suggest sending scouts by either foot or hoverbike first, followed by combat jeeps, followed by combat hoverbikes. The jeeps would deliver the main blows to enemy lines, being the most resistant vehicle we have and giving the gunman an elevated position and thus a better line of sight than infantry, and the hoverbikes would give support firepower and chase off individuals who decide that their life is more important than the fate of the world. The infantry would infiltrate the key buildings i was mentioning earlier and take them. After that, somebody at comms can just broadcast a message for civilians to know what happened."

"I think it's a good idea," Marek said after a second's silence. Some others nodded. Apparently, it was generally agreed-upon. Quicker than he had expected it to happen, Kive saw people get into vehicles and assemble the army as he had described it, scouts first, vehicles second and infantry last, some of them making sure their weapons worked as they took their places, others fastening grenades to their belts, and all in a fairly ordered manner. War being unknown to all people in Ivanivka except for Kive and Zelko, they didn't know the horrors of it; and, their dedicatedness to their cause being as great as Kive's own, they didn't stop to think about the possibilities. Even Kive and Zelko didn't know full well what exactly war was, and the general enthusiasm had invaded Kive's mind. He was feeling better than when he had arrived with his old professor and the last load of weapons. With a grin on his face and a determined mind, he hopped into one of the hoverbikes.

--

The pro-demolition army marched on, slowly but steadily, towards the main building of the ivanivkan government. They didn't find an enemy army waiting for them, just the usual number of guards there. Most of the guards quickly scattered about, although three of them joined the army, being pro-demolition themselves, and the infantry was easily able to infiltrate the building. Kive himself drove his hoverbike into it. All there was inside were offices, halls and stairs. No guards, no enemy army, no resistance at all. No questions were asked and no members of the government were left alive. The only incident was a sudden strong trembling of the whole building which was unlike anything anybody there had ever felt. Someone from the army then emerged from the top of the building, took down the flag of Ivanivka --dark-blue with a yellow crescent in the center-- and raised in its place a beautiful pro-demolition flag --red with a yellow sun in the middle and a black ring around the sun-- he had presumably made at home.

When Kive and the infantry left the building, they found the rest of their army already engaged in combat. The enemy forces consisted of a line of combat jeeps, a lot of infantry and a vast vehicle Kive had never seen before. It looked like a fortress on wheels, except they weren't exactly wheels, but more like moving bands, one on each side of the bottom part of the vehicle. A single thick tube protruded from the front of the thing, and out of it came something very similar to rockets or grenades, except they were more powerful.

Kive had never seen a tank before, and neither had anyone who had lived all their life in Ivanivka --with the exception of whoever had built it and whoever they had shown it to--, and all of the pro-demolition infantry was very shocked. The people who had stayed outside in the vehicles had had some time to get used to the sight, but they were not shooting at it, and Kive soon saw why: a grenade thrown at it by one of his comrades didn't even scratch it.

Immediately after he saw this, Kive started shooting at the enemy. He even took out one of his needlers and used it as he operated both of the hoverbike's cannons with his other hand.

After many on both sides were down, Kive realized that the tank would ultimately be the pro-demolition army's doom. He swiftly circled it, examining it, and found a ladder attached to the back side of it. At its top there seemed to be a hatchway of sorts, and presumably people entered the thing from there. He got close to the mobile fortress, jumped from his hoverbike onto the ladder, and climed to the top. From there he had a nice view of things, which he used to take out a few pro-Seredina jeep gun turret operators before he started trying to determine how to open the hatch.

It took him a full three minutes, what with having to dodge enemy fire --they had realized he was there-- and counterattack, to realize that the hatch could be opened merely by pulling it open. There were no locks. He quickly opened it and dropped inside. There was a single cabin, which was about as big as the interior of a jeep and was inhabited by two people, one of which drove the thing and the other of which operated the cannon, or so it seemed to Kive from the split-second glimpse he took of the control board before breaking the necks of both enemy warriors. He didn't have the strength to throw the bodies out, so he moved them aside and sat on one of the two seats. He looked at the board. There was a single screen at the center, which took up about half of the space on the board and showed the scene outside -- aided, it was apparent, by a live high-resolution video camera. To the left and right of the screen there were indicators of engine heat, ammunition, fuel, damage to defensive plating --which, as Kive knew even before looking at the indicator, was at zero-- and other things. The indicators on one side of the screen seemed to be identical to those on the other side, except for the fact that the fuel and engine-heat indicators on his side were smaller than the ones on the other side and the ammo indicator on his side was bigger than the one on the other side. He guessed this to be because he was sitting on the cannon operator's seat and switched to the other seat. Then he kept looking at the control board. Below the screen and the indicators were driving controls very similar to those found on a jeep: pedals and something that looked a lot like a wheel. There was no gear-changing handle, however. Apparently this thing only has one speed, Kive thought. He took the wheel and stepped on the pedal he guessed to be the gas one, and forward the tank went. Kive smiled with pure joy and excitement and then grinned with pure evil. He started running the remaining pro-Seredina troops over. Between him and the rest of his army, which was holding its own more easily now that the tank wasn't shooting at it, they finished off the remaining pro-Seredina forces.

After the battle was over, Kive emerged from the tank. He looked around and spotted his best mate, Jen Krijec (pronounced "Kreeyech"). He hadn't seen him before that day, and it pleased him to find his best buddy fighting at his side and still breathing. He waved at him and signalled for him to go towards the tank.

Kive leaned back against the edge of the entrance to the tank and looked around as he waited for Jen to arrive. The army had held pretty well. But what he looked at for a loonger time was the sky. Stars dotted it everywhere except for an empty black hole to the west-by-southwest. The silhouettes of buildings broke the sky, and the faint circle of Svet --it was almost full moon-- shone over the world, over all the blood that had been spilled that day. They looked like two opposite deities, two sworn enemies that ruled over the heavens, one blacker than the deepest blackness, visible only by the absence of stars where it hung, and the other brighter than the myriad little dots of white, those tiny lamps up there in the sky. It was beautiful.

Then something that was beautiful in a different way caught his attention: the pro-demolition flag his anonymous brother-in-arms had hoisted over the government headquarters, waving in the wind and illuminated by the artificial lights at the top of the building which had previously illuminated the city's age-old flag. It gave him courage to keep fighting until the city was taken.

Jen stopped before the tank that was now Kive's and asked him how the hell to get up there. Kive explained to him about the ladder and the hatch and invited him into the tank. After having had a good luck around and acquainted himself with the cannon's controls, Jen closed the hatch, fired a shell into the sky and told Kive to drive towards their fellow warriors. As Kive drove the thing, he saw the people outside cheer at Jen's celebratory shot and at their victory. He couldn't help but smile.

--

Taking the rest of the city was easy. The army faced opposition one more time, as they were moving from communications to the university, but the enemy army was smaller and less organized than the one that had attacked them at the government hq and lacked something big: a tank. Leaving a small number of vehicles at each of the buildings they took as a precaution, the pro-demolition forces proceeded to secure their supremacy of the most important northwestern town. A short but definite message saying that Ivanivka would thenceforth be officially pro-demolition was sent out at every radio frequency for anybody who was listening, and the flag waved proudly over the government hq. The few pro-Seredina survivors were chased off and eventually killed, so everybody that remained in Ivanivka was either pro-demolition or neutral. The losses had been great, and a few buildings had been heavily damaged, but, save the bodies of those who had died in the battle, everything, especially the pride of the army, still stood. Most of the city was intact, and there were still enough professors at the university for classes to resume a few days after the terrible battle. Kive got his hoverbike fixed, kept working at the library and, after a few days, went back to weapons development, although most of the survivors, especially those who were interested in politics, wanted a new governor to be elected, since the old one had been killed when the government headquarters had been taken, and a large proportion of them wanted Kive to be that governor, arguing that it was he who had gotten them weapons, established their war plan and taken the enemy tank and so it was thanks to him that the battle for Ivanivka had been won, although in Kive's mind the battle had been won thanks to everybody who had fought in it. Political matters would be solved in time; for now, Kive just wanted and needed a rest from most Seredina-related matters. As for the tank, it was kept, along with surveillance cameras and a team of guards to keep it from being stolen, near the sea organ to symbolize the battle for Ivanivka and the triumph of the pro-demolition forces. It would be used again when the world went to war and cities attacked other cities, but for now, just like Kive Boskava, it would rest.

(just a little feedback of what happened to Endarr Vol)

Endarr Vol, after escaping jail in Fazera, got a small job in The Lonely Glass tavern. He then managed to get a job in the police corps (apparently the police in Fazera have some problems with their long-term memory), and was sent to Thadekta, a city where crime just doesn't appear to rest.

Walking down some streets, he somehow appeared in the central plaza just when a debate between the pro-seredina and the pro-demolition parties. Endarr Vol, being strongly against technology, walked all the way up to the podium and started to speak about the dangers in destroying Seredina. Nevertheless, the crowd started yelling at him, so he killed one of them and ran away, although me managed to speak with a few pro-seredina radical men.

After a day or two, Endarr Vol and the radicals got together and stormed the pro-demolition quarters (getting a little help from the police department). After killing all the guards, Endarr Vol entered the building, captured the scientists who were working on the missile, destroyed all evidence, and returned to the police headquarters with the captured men, hoping to get some kind of reward or promotion...

ooc: Iw ill introduce Deceits ultralight, and some of its modifications.

Deceit was on his Ultralight flying towards the resaerch when, to his surprise, a group of men he had never seen came flying towards the research center. They had a flags attached to some of the ultralights that said Pro-Demonlition. Deceit knew this was trouble. As they came closer, he fired a grapling hook wich at his enemy, hitting his target, he allowed it to drag behind, then he fired his secnd little toy, a homemade missle, which ignites on contact hitting the light fabric with his missle, the first one of the three crashed into the water, his glider like ultralight in flames.

Deceit then closed in on another ultralight, and flew directly over head of the man who was carrying the weopon that was to be used on the Research facility. It was a strange weopon, just powerful enough to blast a hole in the wall of the prison, and let a massive leak, destroying most of the research. Deceit opened his cockpit top, and drew on of his light swords. He cut off the tail of the very small, bird like glider, forcing it to go out of control, and crash on a small house, the man was attacked by unhappy villagers.

The third man turned and fled. Deceit would not let any of this group get away, he was determined teach this woman a lesson. She was good though, dodging Deceits missles.Deceit hit the thruster on his jet shaped ultralight he had personally built. Catching up very quickly, he opened the cockpit, activated the auto pilot, and jumped out onto the girls ultralight. The sudden change in weight dropped it down about 20ft. He pulled himself ontop of it, and force open the top of the cockpit. He pulled her out and she kicked him, not getting much force. He pulled a rope out of his bag and tied her up, and then trew onto the back of his ultra light, in which there was a trunk like space. He jumped down kicking the trunk shut, then hopped in the cockpit, and headed home.

When Deceit arrived back at the research base, he got out and look over his ultralight, still in perfect condition. He headed down stairs to the elavator. From there he continued down to the main entrance room.

"Greg, there is a freind in the trunk, put her in my room. I wish to speak with her."

"You dirty little... OWWW!!" Deceit had punched Greg.

"Your the dirty ***hole!!" Deceit hopped onto the other elavator and took down to the fourth to last floor B47. The last three where confidential.

There was a small window designed to let in little light, the room itself was about 12 x 18ft, made for many to be held at once, but this room was strictly for Deceit and his 'guest'. The floor was covered by a moss, that was healthy in jsut about every way, and clean, for moss. His bed was just a large pile of this moss with a thick blanket thrown over it. His entire room seemed to consist of moss, except the super computer that took up a fourth of the room. most of it built in the other room, this was also built by Deceit.

The girl was dropped off in Deceits room, then the door was closed and locked from the outside, though Deceit could unlock it from the inside with the proper code. Three guards were stationed outside, incase she tried to escape. Deceit untied her, and offered a seat with a polite bow. "So, what were doing with that piercing bomb. They were designed for mining excibitions, and yet you were going to use one to blow a hole in our facility and destroy our research." He smiled with confidence.

"You are truly a genious, the prison records I found were right. You began this entire Pro-Seredanina opperation, and yes, I was supposed to destroy it, and you. The genious behind it. I simply do as I am told."

"Well then, if that be the case, go to bed, I am leaving for the next few days to go to the coastal and inland regions, and to get away from these islands we all know and love as the Victorian vortex.

Endarr Vol put on his sergeant badge and saluted the Colonel. Then he returned to his quarters inside the police station. Although he had been promoted, he wasn't completely happy. He couldn't get his mind away from the scientists, the missile, the plans to destroy the satelite... Although he had stopped this project, other scientists in other cities could have been getting closer to achieving the destruction of Seredina.
After maditating for a while, he called for Vadek, the companion which had helped him destroy the science lab at the pro-demolition headquarters.

Vadek came in polishing his sergeant badge, pruod that he had been promoted.
"Vadek, it appears you are the only man I can trust here, since you showed me you're strongly against the destruction of Seredina... You have been in the police corps for quite a while now, so I assume you know stuff...", said Endarr Vol in a deep tone.

"What kind of stuff?", asked Vadek, quite confused.

"Places, people, names... or at least some information... I need to stop this madness, and I need your help."

Vadek paced around the room for a while... "I see... Well, I am quite impressed by your conviction to your ideals, not to mention your qualities and capabilities as a warrior..."

Endarr Vol's eyes widened, as if a ray of hope had entered through the dark clouds above his head. "So... will you do it?"

"Meet me by flag pole outside the training grounds as soon as the midnight fog starts to appear," said Vadek as he took his pipe into his mouth and lit it. Then he left, leaving Endarr Vol to ponder about what had just happened.

OOC: Yay, excellent posts.



IC:

Hyeronimus Fawn was not a man who cared much about the world anymore. He performed his tasks mechanically and without passion, he rarely voiced an opinion and often was careful not to have one, he was easily bored by any kind of action, and he never gave any sign of caring about the recent Seredina conflict or its consequences even though he secretly believed the demolition of the moon to be a terrible idea. But when the security of the city it was his job to serve had been threatened directly he had had no choice but to respond with quick and decisive action, precisely the kind that bored him: the threat had to be neutralized.

It had been a missile research facility near the center of Pleneris and yet well-disguised: it looked like just another house, and houses are never suspicious. But when increased activity had been spotted for several days in a row and no explanation had been given the government had set its eye on it and eventually proceeded to investigate the matter. And, as head of the spy network in the city, Hyeronimus had been right at the head of the investigation.

When three spies had failed to emerge from the building after having been inside for several hours, an armed squadron had been sent to it with orders to bring back information even if it meant killing people. This had revealed what looked like a house to be a research facility of some kind, and further investigation --and a few more spies' lives-- had eventually revealed the full truth about it: it was used by the local pro-demolition group for research on a missile that could be launched from the ground and yet had the explosive force to destroy the moon that hid the sun.

Partly because he had seen this as a chance to do something about the Seredina situation without being publicly labelled pro-Seredina and partly because it was his job to protect the city of Pleneris, Hyeronimus had declared that "the development and production of a weapon with such destructive power is a threat to the safety of the plenerii population and indeed the population of the world" and ordered the facility shut down. When the pro-demolition group had refused to cease its activities, the reluctant politician had been forced to resort to brute force, and so he had gathered a group of killers trained by the government for not-completely-diplomatic purposes and given them orders to eliminate the building and all personnel that worked in it.

The missile research facility, though the size of a house on the surface, was vast below it. Most of the city's most respected scientists had turned out to work there secretly. But Hyeronimus was not a man who asked questions or stopped to think about the moral implications of his duties, so he had had the facility infiltrated by his squadron. But years of expertise at silencing people had not been enough for the killers to be successful; they had been eliminated by suspecting, prepared and well-armed lunatics who wanted to set the world aflame with the fury of a blazing sun. And so an increasingly-annoyed Hyeronimus Fawn had had to bide his time while an army was trained and heavy warfare was built.

Days later the facility had been attacked again. It was inevitable that it would be even better defended than the previous time, but that had been something Hyeronimus had been well aware of. His army had not been one of expert warriors or specialized killers, of course, but at least it had had tanks, which was not something the pro-demolition group at the missile research facility had had among its ranks or been prepared for. Armored mobile fortresses that appeared indestructible to anybody who didn't know their weak points, they had advanced mercilessly, first sieging the enemy facility and then, when all outer defenses had been neutralized, reducing it to rubble.

The tanks' role had ended quickly, as they hadn't been --and still weren't-- well equipped to handle rough terrain or descend and ascend more than a few centimeters properly. Infantry and combat hoverbikes had descended into the depths of the missile research facility and steadily destroyed all laboratories and slaughtered all scientists and defenders.

But the pro-demolition group, upon realizing that defending their underground chambers was a lost cause against such well-armed and heavily-armored troops as the government had called to its service, had still attempted to deal a hard blow to the pro-Seredina half of the world by preventing Pleneris, the so-called capital of the world, to join it. They had left the ruins of their little underground world and turned towards the biodome of Pleneris.

To destroy the biodome in any city would be to kill that city, for biodomes were still the primary source of food in the world and the only one cities relied on --fishing was not practiced anywhere anymore--; but to destroy the biodome in Pleneris would also be, symbolically, both a blow to Pleneris as the city that invented the biodome and a blow to the way of life of humanity all over the world. Since that lifestyle was being threatened by the pro-demolition groups, they would have had no problem dealing such a blow to it and indeed had attempted to deal it.

In a similar way, to prevent the biodome in any city from being destroyed would be to save that city from starvation but to keep the Pleneris biodome from destruction would be, in addition, to reinforce Pleneris as savior of the world, first by ending hunger and then by protecting its legacy. It was a heavy burden the plenerii government's army had carried that grim day.

The pro-demolition group's effort to destroy, or at least damage beyond repair, the structure upon which life in Pleneris depended had been a great one but had also faced an equally great opposition. The population of Pleneris had not had time to react, but the army Hyeronimus's colleagues in the security branch of the government had built had proven to be capable enough to stop it. As the last pro-demolition terrorist had lifelessly fallen to the bloodstained and charred ground and silence had settled, the city of Pleneris was allowed a moment to breathe. But just a moment; 'twas till the dome's technicians had determined that the damage the dome had taken had not affected the food production that the city could erupt in a party seven days long and the city's military leader could call off his army. Hyeronimus had sat back on his chair, almost --almost-- letting a smile line his face, and allowed himself the pleasure of a cold drink.

Now, although the incident had brought the plenerii government a popularity they needed much those days and Hyeronimus and the rest of the government were hailed as heroes in Pleneris and several surrounding cities which news of the incident had reached, things had gone back to the mechanical routine that the old diplomat hated so much and he had resumed his usual boring job. Pleneris had not proclaimed itself pro-Seredina, although in effect that was what it was because nobody pro-demolition was left in it, and nothing, except the number of people in the streets and the general mood of the population --they had entered a kind of tense, depressed state with traces of fear and suspicion after the celebration had ended--, had changed. But a faint nostalgia now resided in the back of Hyeronimus's mind. Though he had despised those days because he hated action, it had been the first time in the second half of his life that he had felt like he was doing something of importance. Now everything was grey, boring and senseless again.

The building where he had his office overlooked most of Pleneris. His building's entire outer shell, like that of most plenerii government buildings, was completely made of glass and so was in effect a giant window, so all offices inside had a good view of the city, and the higher one went, of course, the better the view was. Hyeronimus's office wasn't at the top of his building, but he still had a view his inferiors envied. He could see the biodome, which was at the heart of the city and thus close to all of the government's buildings, and that meant that he could also see the ruins of the destroyed research facility. His spies were still investigating what was left --everything: documents, laboratories, the structure itself-- in order to learn from it, so it would remain intact for another while before finally being covered and buried under a new building or house.

Pleneris was a city of tall, slender buildings in the shape of quadrangular pyramids. The tallest buildings were two hundred meters tall and merely twenty or thirty meters across; the only building which wasn't pyramid-shaped was the biodome itself. From far away, the city looked like the lower jaw of some terrible fanged creature. Hyeronimus had seen it from the dropship that had taken him from Pleneris to Valia many years ago and then again on the way back to his hometown, and he often wondered whether the city might not be becoming just that: a terrible fanged creature, a monster of a city --three million people!-- with a corrupt government which he was part of and a dwindling reputation: prosperity and technology had become commonplace, most of the people who were still alive had been born already in the age of biodomes, and Pleneris's old status as the city which had started the current world order was becoming a memory and would soon fade out of existence completely except in history books. Its enormous size still hinted at its glorious past and at the fact that it had once been the only city with abundant food, but other cities were catching on -- Thadekta was pushing on a million and a half inhabitants, and other cities, especially to the southwest of the world, were not that far away and gaining quickly. What was the world coming to?

Thinking about the shape of Pleneris from far away took him back to his memories of the years he had spent in Valia. He had never felt comfortable being so far away from home, but the memories would not die no matter how hard he tried to kill them. He remembered the days when he hadbeen only one of the government's spies in only one of the world's cities -- spies which, with different faces and names, still served the plenerii government by flooding it with information from all other major cities in the continent. He and the others had helped establish somewhat of a supremacy in the sense that Pleneris was never behind any other city in anything. This "supremacy" of sorts had ended when technology and goods from everywhere had started being traded with everywhere else and the global railroad system had been completed, effectively unifying the world and eliminating the advantages some cities had over others, but Pleneris still kept spies, perhaps from inertia, perhaps from paranoia, perhaps in case something happened to that global equality.

Something was indeed happening to it. The world was becoming a curious thing now that trust between cities was being replaced by paranoia and hatred: some cities still traded with others, believing that that way they could remain at the top of the technological tree at the expense of other cities remaining at the top as well, while other cities had shut down all contact with the exterior, isolating themselves --and whatever technology they produced, especially in the field of warfare-- and this way ensuring that they would always have something the rest of the world didn't -- at the cost of also missing out on things the rest of the world had. And there was also every level in between: cities that traded materials and goods but not technology; cities that allowed people to enter and leave but did not trade anything; cities that had built walls around themselves but still allowed the passage of information and people into, out of and through them; and so on.

But eventually, Hyeronimus knew, the world would become fully divided, a line would be drawn in the map separating pro-Seredina towns and pro-demolition towns, and everything would settle into a state of "normality", the only difference from the past normality being that instead of the world being unified in commerce and travel it would be split into two sections, each unified in commerce and travel and each at war with the other. Cities would be open to trade, immigration, emigration and technological exchange once more, but they would only be open to half of the world and closed to the other half. And then those two halves would crash head first into the other and everything would go to hell. Something like this had never happened in Wunamaj before, and Hyeronimus thought it should be interesting for a change. Finally something that broke the monotonous, tedious life he led, if he made it long enough to see his mental scenario become real and unfold. He was really looking forward to this war.

That was how Hyeronimus Fawn decided to resign from his job, leave his office and position to the least mentally-challenged of his immediate inferiors --he didn't trust any of them, so he couldn't leave his office and position to his most trusted inferior-- and make sure the situation turned into a war. And he would be the first one to volunteer to go out there and die for his war.

But Hyeronimus knew not where to begin. The head of the world's largest spy network wouldn't be trusted anywhere where he was known, so he would have to leave Pleneris. And Valia, the only other place he knew, wasn't an option either. A risk worth taking, he decided after some thought.

He looked at a map in what was not his best mood --his best mood was a bored, weary, indifferent mood; whenever he wasn't indifferent he was annoyed; he harbored no hope of that situation ever changing, and he had learned to live with it-- and picked a city that wasn't too close to the monster that was Pleneris but wasn't on the other side of the world either.

Remaining neutral was starting to become a dangerous option. Amelis knew she needed to make up her mind eventually, otherwise she would be caught up even worse in this tidal wave of events. There had been an extensive amount of research done on either side coming up with two conclusions; Seredina should be removed, or it should stay. Amelis couldn’t decide which she was more for.

If Seredina was destroyed, the planet of Wunamaj that had once been in darkness would receive light, but in the process it may even become scorched. Amelis wasn’t sure if perhaps Seredina had been placed where it had to protect Wunamaj as a blessing of whatever god there was, or if it was depriving them of something greater.

Yet, she sometimes had trouble focusing on these ideas. She couldn’t come to a conclusion over which ideal she favored, thus she remained neutral. But, perhaps she still had time to organize her thoughts. She should be safe from radicals on either side of the spectrum for at least a little while longer. All the same, she just couldn’t take her mind off matters.

Walking through the halls of the University, Amelis went to the place she knew best; the University Library. So many documents were kept here, it was like a treasure mine for her. Best of all, or perhaps this is one of the problems, the area where the documents on Seredina were kept was her area of isolation. These were not confidential government documents, simply research done on Seredina that had been released to the public years ago and kept for safe-keeping, and the occasional read, at the University. Unfortunately, in Amelis’ mind, not many knew of that upper floor of the library. For some reason everyone seemed to think there were only six floors, not seven. A massive library to some, so perhaps they simply figured whatever was at the top was not worth mentioning...

Regardless, Amelis wasn’t too opposed to nobody else being up on the top floor while she did her individual research. It saved her from unnecessary distractions, and from tumults of students trying to ask her questions about the subject at hand all at the same time. She loved teaching, really she did, but sometimes it became too bothersome. She loved the research, loved the kids...but she also valued individual time alone, and whenever she wasn’t up here at the top floor of the library, she never seemed to receive it.

There had been a time when she taught a small group of children back in the thieve center Thadekta. She knew it wouldn’t make for much of a living, but she had deep sympathies for the children there. They came to her for knowledge, and she gave it to them as best she could. But more often than not, students would have to stop attending her classes because of either a family crisis or they weren’t able to pay. Amelis didn’t require, back then, for people to pay her, but they insisted if they would entrust their children to her they would.

Only one boy she had seen attend her classes had ever stayed through every one, whenever she had them. Amelis smiled a little, leaning back into her chair. That one little boy who had been no older than six, or at least he looked no older. He always looked in through the window or even the vents on top of the building just to learn from her classes. Such curiosity wasn’t common and Amelis knew that. She left a journal for him to write in, though she suspected he didn’t know it at the time. That was her feeble attempt to nudge his interests further into the realm of reading, the class she taught back then.

Sighing, Amelis wondered if he ever kept up with his writing. She never met him, and so she couldn’t even be sure he was alive even today. If he was, Amelis silently wished the best for him.

Turning her attention back to her books, she took her mind off of Thadekta and brought it once again to the conflict over Seredina.

Deceit Continued to fly towards the city of Pleneris. He knew it was illegal to use personal transportation, but it was quicker than public, and with his possition in the research that he was doing, quite dangerous. As he reached the mainland, he cloaked himself.

He soon reached a small cavern hidden under water close to the shore of Pleneris. He hid his ultra light in there, and then went to Pleneris, entering the city in the very dark shadows. He walked around for a minute, then found what he was looking for. A very tall building, about the tallest in all of Pleneris. He entered, and took the stairs to one of the upper floors. He looked around until he found a door with the name sign Hyeronimus Fawn, and he walked in.

{OOC: I hope this somewhat holds justice to what you envisioned for Thadekta; a city of crime and corruption. If not, I can edit.}

Looming over Dominic was the tall Thadekta Center shopping area. It was a very reliable place for him to go in order to get necessary supplies, but more often than not he had to “borrow” things. Not everyone in Thadekta was a thief, naturally, but the majority of citizens there were in the crime business. There was the occasional tourist who would visit by but be unsure of whether or not they really wanted to be there. The Thadekta Center was a place where such people could go without too much worry of being caught up in a big crime incident; that’s not to say there won’t be small ones scattered throughout the Center. There had been an upgrade on the police in the city, and the Center was one of the places that received attention.

Regardless of its reputation many of the people of Thadekta, Dominic included, don’t want to resort to thievery. It’s simply their only choice. For many that are of the same mind as Dominic, the fact that more attention is being giving to the poor city is a good sign. It means that perhaps the local economy and well-fare of the city will be able to improve. Poverty would be vanquished and overall the crime should decline.

However, Dominic knew that objective was still unseen at this point in time. Efforts were made to better Thadekta, yes, but none of them as of yet had done much good. The jails were flooded and the prisons not very well maintained. Dominic himself was living proof of that fact. He had been caught stealing things on a few occasions, but had always found a way to escape. Especially considering the state of the city, it was not publicly broadcast that there were escapees. It really wouldn’t matter, as most of the population are criminals. But, regardless of that, the police don’t alert the public when someone escapes.

Dominic entered the shopping center. Of course many people knew him, even if he was supposed to be in jail. There was no room for him anywhere, so police let him remain free. Compared to others, he barely presented a threat. It was this sort of corruption Dominic wanted to change. While it would mean he would have to serve jail time, it would help with the general appearance of Thadekta. It wasn’t broadcast that this happened, but people living here knew, and those who were lucky enough to move from the city also knew. Most likely in these situations, news of this spread. In fact, Dominic hoped it would. He wanted to see conditions here improve, not remain as they had.

He even thought he knew a few people who had come to Thadekta before moving off again that would be able to help the city. There were the occasional travelers he met and told them to help the city, but he figured they assumed he was simply mad. That probably didn’t help the reputation of the city any either.

Taking his mind of Thadekta’s obvious short-comings, Dominic entered the shopping center. He didn’t want to look at what he was walking into, but all the same, he had to. It was a large building, many shops lined the walls. However, what they lacked in clerks was made up for with merchandise. Dominic caught many people stealing things when a clerk wasn’t looking, and he was sure others saw them as well. Yet no one spoke a word. It didn’t matter, there would be no place for them in jail. Fights broke out in small corners of the store. People fought over stolen items that they wanted, or stole items that did belong to someone else. Gang fights were common in Thadekta, and Dominic had to be especially careful. He had been followed by a few of the street thugs, but they hadn’t made actions to hurt him. Dominic half suspected they wanted him to join them.

The very things he had been thinking about previously could not escape his mind. He didn’t understand why they had to live this way. Some people enjoyed it, yes, but others had no choice but to do what they did. Something Dominic had heard might happen was inmates who had been sentenced to jail time for over a year, which most all were, would just be shot so there would be room for others. Dominic couldn’t understand the justification of this, but it was just going to show what he had been saying. Thadekta was beyond repair at this point, whatever others had been saying. He was sure whatever happened with Seredina possibly couldn’t be worse than what he lived through everyday, so he could care less what happened with the rock. If it got blown up, sure, that was all great. If not, then life would go on as it always had, plummeting downwards in a spiral that never reached the bottom.

Sighing, Dominic made his way through the crowds of innocent bystanders and thieves alike. Making his way to one of the vendors that was a food line; one that Dominic trusted more so than others, he noticed also somewhat pityingly that unlike other cities he and his fellow citizens needed to stand in long lines before they were fed. It got to the point where sometimes Dominic found he went without food some days simply because quite frankly he didn’t want to stand in line for an entire day. Even if it was food, he felt his time would be better spent otherwise. Though today the lines seemed to be small. Perhaps it would be worth it for him to eat today.

Moments later, after retrieving his food, he turned around to go eat at a table. Suddenly he realized he was missing something. Checking his jeans pocket he found his journal wasn’t there anymore. Dropping the fruit, Dominic ran after the boy who took his belonging. It contained all of his memories, all of his feelings. Losing it was like losing a friend; his only one in Thadekta.

He figured the boy must have taken it while he had been standing there thinking. But, why wait around for him to see that he had taken it? Perhaps he was meant to follow, wherever the trail led. That journal meant something to him, he couldn’t let it simply slip away. It was the only thing in this corrupt world that even kept him remotely sane.

OOC:

I've noticed a recurring mistake. Food isn't sold anywhere in Wunamaj. There are no food shops; the closest thing is small taverns or restaurants, where the small price they charge is for the time they spent cooking the food, not for the food itself. Since there's enough food in Wunamaj to feed its entire population many times over and every single city --even the poorest ones-- has a biodome, food is free (in most cities it is distributed periodically to the people by the governments, and, while there might be slight variants in some of the poorer cities (for example, people having to stand in line to get their daily ration, like in soviet Russia), everybody will always have something to eat unless she/he doesn't live anywhere near civilization).



IC:

Kive Boskava didn't want to rule Ivanivka. He wanted to continue attending his classes at the university, developing weapons and working at the library, not to have to be locked up in an office making decisions about things he wasn't trained for. There were plenty of politics students still alive; why not pick one of them? The people wanted him, that was why. But he didn't want to rule. He was a scientist and a warrior, not a politician.

He refused to become the governor of the city. "Make someone else governor," he told them. "My friend Jen Krijec studies politics. He can govern."

"If you're so uninterested in politics, how did you two meet?"

"We're friends since school."

"Hmm."

In the end, Kive agreed to participate in some the most important decision-making in Ivanivka on the condition that he wasn't forced to do so at any given time. Jen was made governor, and his first action, which was immediate, was to close down transport from Ivanivka to Pleneris and prevent all trains from Pleneris from entering Ivanivka. In his judgement, this would protect his city from the evils of a pro-Seredina city; he declared that transport to and from any other city that became pro-Seredina would be closed down in the same way.

Both Kive and Jen realized that being coordinated with all the other pro-demolition groups and well-organized was essential, so they were in agreement about the importance of contacting the pro-demolition groups in nearby cities and uniting the north of the world as a single force.

Kive was one of the messengers who were to carry this proposal of unification to the rest of northern Wunamaj. He was sent to the nearby city of Severnaja, which was nine hours from Ivanivka by train. The journey, which was via Iliza, a small city very similar to Ivanivka where another messenger got out of the train, went quickly for Kive, and soon he found himself in a city that looked much like Ivanivka except for its size -- it was considerably smaller and obviously didn't have a sea organ, so it really looked more like the brief glimpse Kive had caught of Iliza than like his hometown. The city's similarity to his own comforted him; it felt like he wasn't all that far from home.

Though the cities to the northwest of Ivanivka were few and small, it was important to know that they wouldn't attack Ivanivka from behind while its pro-demolition group was fighting on another front, so Kive, like the rest of the ivanivkan messengers, had orders to eliminate the city if he could not recruit it. In order to complete this alternative mission if it became necessary, Kive had been armed with a flamethrower to burn the plants inside the biodome and starve the people to death. In his eyes and those of the other pro-demolition people that were most faithful to the cause, it was a necessary, if horrible, sacrifice.

Kive's first job would be to locate the pro-demolition group, naturally. This would undoubtedly take a while, and it discomforted Kive a bit to have to put his classes on hold while the rest of the university continued without him, but, as the possible death of one or more entire cities, it was a necessary sacrifice. As he walked along the northern coast of the world thinking about this, he suddenly got a call in his portable communication device. It was from Ivanivka.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"Kurt Vaali," a voice said, "secretary of defense and security affairs of Ivanivka. Governor Krijec has additional orders for you."

"And what might those be?" an attentive Kive asked.

"During the battle for Ivanivka, one of our soldiers deserted the army and left the city for an unknown location. He was not a well-known warrior, just someone we picked up from a prison in the Victorian Vortex. A few hours ago, the three ultralights destined for the Vortex were taken down. We believe that this is the work of the same man that escaped."

"I'm listening," Kive said.

"We do not know anything about the man. Your job is to find out who did this, confirm or deny our suspicions about it being the same person, and eliminate the guilty person or persons."

"I see. Are this man's whereabouts known?"

"Well, we believe he is on one of the islands on the Vortex, although he might have left after the attack on the ultralights. You shall not be alone in this mission, Mr Boskava; all other agents sent to the northwestern cities will be given the same orders. In any case, your first priority is your current mission; the death of this traitor is secondary."

"Very well," Kive said. "Consider the job done, Mr Vaali."

"Over and out, Mr Boskava."

The first thing Kive did was to learn his way around Severnaja. The town was small, so it was easy not to get lost. The main part of the town was the coastal part, and most of the inhabitants seemed to spend most of their lives there. That was also where the train station was. Then there was a small residential area farther into the land. The biodome stood exactly between the two regions. Finally, a few clubs and bars surrounded the rest of the city, forming its outskirts. It was a pleasant little city. Most businesses near the center had signs with the name of the business in neon lights, which was something Ivanivka didn't have. It was an interesting idea, and Kive thought that the people back at his hometown ought to consider it. Then again, in a larger city such as Ivanivka the light might be too much for people's eyes.

For a second, Kive thought about artificial lighting as an alternative to the destruction of Seredina: if every city were illuminated by lights permanently, perhaps there would be no need to demolish the moon. But he quickly dismissed the idea; whatever artificial light humans could produce would never amount to what the sun could give, at least from how bright the sun looked like in the pictures the orbital satellites had returned. Besides, not all the world would be lit up, only the larger cities, and this would be as unacceptable to Kive as it would be to any other person truly in favor of the demolition.

Kive realized that he had been standing still for too long and started walking around. He stopped for a drink at one of the bars he saw, and just as he was about to leave he spotted a small pro-demolition badge on the jacket of one of the customers. The badge looked exactly like the flag that had been waving at the top of Ivanivka's largest building for many days now. He approached the man and sat down at his table.

"We're on the same team," Kive said before the man could say anything. He pointed at the man's badge.

The man looked down at his badge and then, smiling lightly, back at Kive. "I got this at one of the stores around here. I see you're not from around here, or else you wouldn't be surprised to find a pro-demolition person. Most of the people in this city are pro-demolition. The rest just shut up and go about their business pretending they're neutrals."

"So what's stopping the city from declaring itself pro-demolition?" Kive asked.

"The fact that nobody had thought about it, i guess. We didn't think it was necessary."

"Quite on the contrary. If there is a place where all the pro-demolition people get together, you can take me to it and i'll explain."

"Not really, but you could tell it to all of us here. I don't think anybody in the bar is pro-Seredina except for that chap over there." He pointed at a lonely man sitting in the corner and drinking something that didn't look very healthy.

"Well, we'll have to get rid of him, then, won't we?"

"If you think it's necessary," the man replied. He called one of the barmen and asked him to kick the pro-Seredina bloke out. When this was done, he turned back to Kive and smiled. "You can make your announcement now, Mr..."

"Kive Boskava." Some nearby men and women had heard the word 'announcement' and were paying close attention to Kive and the other man. Slowly, gradually, the whole place fell silent and all eyes fell on the table the ivanivkan was sitting at. "I come from Ivanivka," Kive said. "I don't know if the news has reachered Severnaja, but Ivanivka has declared itself pro-demolition. Now, i'm sure you all know that this situation will soon become a war. If that happens, we'll all stand a better chance if we're united. So i've come to Severnaja to offer an alliance with Ivanivka. The two cities would be open to each other in everything and would work closely together to achieve the demolition of Seredina. Think of it as though Severnaja and Ivanivka were one city. Eventually, with luck, the whole north will be united in this way and we'll easily be able to eliminate the isolated and disorganized pro-Seredina troops and cities. Would you be willing to accept this alliance?"

"Well, i would," somebody said.

"And me," somebody else said. Five seconds later everybody was saying "and me" and raising their hand.

"Yes. What i'm saying," The first man who had said "and me" continued, "is that the people inside this bar would. But we're hardly the people who run this city."

"I thought so," Kive replied. "Whom would i have to speak to in order to officially establish this alliance, and where can i find her or him?"

"You can try the governor of Severnaja," one man said. "He's usually at the government building." He and his company laughed.

"You should talk to the people at foreign affairs," a woman told Kive in a kinder tone of voice. "Their offices are in that building." She pointed at a normal-sized building through the window. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Kive said, getting up and walking out of the bar. He headed towards the building the woman had pointed at. It looked normal, but it had a white flag with two wavy lines running across the bottom half, one dark-blue and the other a lighter shade of blue. Noticing that some of the larger buildings in the city had identical flags, Kive guessed it to be the city's flag. The foreign affairs office had no neon sign, but Kive knew that he was in the right place when he walked in and heard many different accents.

Kive asked to talk to the secretary of foreign affairs and had to stand in a long line. When he finally made it to the front, he was asked to walk down that hall and up those stairs and step into the second office on the right, and thank you for coming.

"How may i help you?" the secretary said after Kive had closed the door behind him and sat down.

"I come as an ambassador of sorts," Kive said. "Am i speaking to the foreign affairs secretary?"

"One of."

"Excuse me? One of?"

"Yes, Mr..."

"Boskava."

"Yes, Mr Boskava. There's four of us. Any proposal has to be agreed on by at least three of us before it becomes a decision. Now, what proposal do you have for us?"

Just great, Kive thought. "I bring an alliance proposal from Ivanivka. I hear most of your city is pro-demolition, is that correct?"

"You could say so, yes," the secretary answered.

"Ivanivka has declared itself pro-demolition and is seeking to unite all northern pro-demolition cities into a single force, so to speak. Any decision affecting one city in this union would affect the whole union. All of the armies would be united and fight as one. Better organization, a larger army, better defenses... I can think of many advantages and no disadvantages."

"I see, Mr Boskava. These decisions you speak of, would they be made in Ivanivka?"

"No, sir. All cities would have a saying in all affairs."

"Aha. And if one city were to be attacked all other cities would come to its aid?"

"That is correct."

"And every city would be obligated to help every other city with what it could?"

Kive nodded.

"If such an alliance were to be formed and all allied cities were to fuction as a single body, i take it there would be no point in having multiple governments. A single central government would suffice. I suppose it would make sense to form it in Ivanivka, as this is the largest city in the region, but i honestly don't see how the rulers of the other cities, Severnaja included, will agree to have their power reduced."

"But they wouldn't, really, sir," Kive began. "Each ruler would still look after their own city, and there would be a council, formed by all of them, which would get together to make decisions. There would be one person to moderate this council and to break ties in votes, but this moderator would have no additional power over the council. And yes, i suppose it would make sense to make the ivanivkan ruler the moderator."

The secretary seemed to consider this for a second. "So all council members would have equal power in matters concerning the whole alliance, with the exception of the moderator, who would have one extra vote which he would be able to use only to break ties in votes?"

"That is correct, sir."

"Well, Mr Boskava, the other foreign affairs secretaries and i will have to discuss this. If you'll excuse me, i'll be sure to have an answer for you by tomorrow at this hour. You can come then, if you wish, and just say your name to the person who let you in today and ask to speak with me. I'll tell them not to make you wait."

"Which name should i ask for?"

"Tare Juuren," the politician said.

They shook hands, and Kive walked out of the building. The first half of his job in Severnaja was done.

Shaking the journal in the air, the teen ran as Dominic chased after him. This boy was faster than Dominic was used to chasing, which was a little bit of a surprise. He had done his fair share of running throughout his childhood, and was consequently on the speedy side. But despite his overall speed, this boy was obviously much faster than Dominic.

Suddenly the boy came to a halt, and so did Dominic. He wasn’t foolish enough to tackle the boy and take what was his. He knew there were others hiding behind him. In essence, he had just got cornered into a trap. Whoever these people were must know him relatively well if they knew he valued that journal so much. Either that, or they simply made a good guess.

“We’re glad you came,” One of the men said, taking the journal from the boy. He flipped through the pages. When he closed it, he was evidently pleased with what he saw. Pocketing the journal, much to Dominic’s distaste, he had two of his goons grab Dominic’s arms to hold him back.

Dominic saw them come, but he did not move. They had weapons he did not, so it would be a bad move for him to try and resist. Besides, he didn’t know what they wanted yet. It would be smarter for him to listen to what they had to say than just run off. What if they actually had something worthwhile for him to listen to? Even if that wasn’t the case, regardless if there were more of them than him, he would make sure he got out of this alive.

“This is merely a precaution, Mr...”

“Rostropov,” Dominic said softly.

“Yes,” the man said again, eyeing Dominic warily. “We think you can help us. You are of the same mind we are, are you not? You want to find a way for this city to halt in its corruptive upbringing?”

“Would be nice,” was the soft response.

“There are a few of us here who have been trying to gather others together as well. We would like to make change come to us. This place is too corrupt for anything productive to happen. We need to leave this city and find one of the more prestigious ones where we can bring this to their attention. Nothing is getting done to make this a better place. We want to see that change happen,”

Dominic met the eyes of the man who was speaking to him. “Tell me more first,”

= = = = = =

Suddenly stopping from her writing, Amelis looked up. Standing before her was a young woman, looking in appearance to just be a college freshman. Was she one of her students? No, she didn’t look like it. Still, seeing someone else standing and looking at her silently was disturbing, most of all because she should have heard her coming in.

Smiling kindly to the young woman, she smiled. She would have spoken first, but the woman initiated conversation before Amelis even opened her mouth.

“I was wondering what your opinion over Seredina was,” the student began. “I’ve been trying to make my mind up about it, but I haven’t been able to decide for myself. I was just wondering what you thought about it all. I’ve been meaning to take one of your classes, but it never fit in with my schedule. Lots of people have said you’re very good, so...I wanted to hear from the best,”

Amelis’ heart dropped after the first sentence. Someone else here to badger her about that confounded rock. She was shocked though when the student said she was held in such high regard. However, flattery on that level never held much with Amelis, so it didn’t now. She simply gazed calmly at the girl before she began to speak, making sure to choose her words very carefully.

OOC: Hey, sorry its taken me so long to make a first post. College has been killing me and to spare some time I did some skimming. Let me know if there's something major I should know that I might have missed.

IC:

The dry desert, normally void of all form of life was disturbed, a lined wave of dust being kicked up by a small hoverbike roaring through the arid wasteland. The person on the bike had his body leaning, nearly becoming one with the bike itself. The roaring engines were dulled by the helmet over the persons head, covering his head along with an orange colored tinted visor over his eyes. The individual on the high speed vehicle seemed to be heading towards a group of vehicles parked, as if waiting for someone or something. As the person neared the group, the bike slowed down, stopping in a curved, diagonal position as it was parked. As the individual got off of the bike, the helmet was removed, actually revealing a beautiful young woman, her blonde hair kept back in a simple ponytail which had only gone down to the end of her neck.

She wore very strange clothing, if you could even call it that. It looked like a one piece body suit which contured to her body and various curves, showing her accentuated breasts and glutes. The suit was thinly plated in armor of a red-orange color, the thin plates of the armor circling her body in verticle lines. A rather large needler was held on her belt, along with what looked to be several grenades, along with a walkie-talkie. Held to her right thigh was a small, strapped black pistol. She walked calmly over to a group of gruff looking men. Five could be counted, most with their arms crossed or leaning against their cars.

One of them scratched his goatie as he lifted himself off of a large kind of truck vehicle. "You're late again boss."

"On the contrary." She was quick to reply. "I'm always on time because nothing gets done until I show up. So since we start when I grace you with my appearance...you would only be late if you showed up after I did."

"You're mental processes feels kinda off to me." Said another man, younger than the first, probably only as young as the woman, both being in their twenties.

"You can say I'm late or call me crazy but...may I ask you one thing?"

The young man waved his hands as they fell to his side, just wanting to get on with things. She nodded with a kind smile. "If I was not here and it was just left to you kind gentleman...where would our money come from?"

The five men stood, staring at one another or just looking down at the ground or the dark sky. Meanwhile, the young woman had folded her arms, lightly tapping her foot on the raw ground. "That's what I thought. Now hurry it up and set things up boys. We've got some money to make!"

OOC:

No problem, Exire. Posts 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 12 contain stuff that has had important consequences in the world, so you might want to read them. This post doesn't, so you can skip it, but it does have stuff that's useful if you ever plan to make a post involving the underwater colony.



IC:

They were the first people in the history of the world to watch with their own eyes the underwater parts of the colossal plants that shot upwards from the ocean floor, splitting into short, slender branches occasionally and seldom reaching the surface. Earlier generations had only seen pictures and videos of them taken by robotic submarine cameras and caught brief glimpses of the parts just under the surface while swimming and diving, and pre-biodome wunamajians had relied on the few that did make it above the surface near the coast for survival for millenia. It was incredible to have such an important historical element right before their eyes, out of reach only because of the thick double plastic windows that isolated the city from the water. And now and then a curious sea beast would bump into the plastic and, confused, swim away immediately after, though this didn't happen every day, for there were very few of those formidable animals left and they were all locked in a tragic war with each other which would only end when all but one was eaten by its kin and the last one starved to death.

Not that they could see very far away, even with the powerful artificial lights they were already using to illuminate the water around the unfinished submarine city, for water is much denser than air and light cannot travel as far, but what they did manage to see was beautiful enough. And who knew what mountain ranges or canyons lined the ocean floor, what they would encounter in the depths of that vast, unexplored blue world. Some of them dreamed of a civilization that had conquered both land and sea, of a world where no patch of water was without illumination from the lights of some nearby town, of entire coasts covered by immense cities emerging from the continental wall.

But not Uli Orumov. He was happy enough working on the current project to spend his days and nights fantasizing about hundreds of cities like the one he was helping build. For him, one was enough for now. It kept him busy day by day and gave him a cozy feeling of homeliness: building was all he had ever known, it was his whole life. It had been his father's life and death back in his hometown of Severnaja; the old man's last eight years had been a slow death, really, a steady decline after that tragic accident which had cost him his arm and forced him into the retirement which would eventually kill him. Although Uli had learned to be careful while working in order not to suffer his father's ill fate, he could never be too careful, he could never keep himself from enjoying and living his job to the fullest. Indeed, an accident years earlier had cost him the last two fingers on his left hand, rendering his name a curiously accurate one: 'uli' was the ancient severnajan word for 'eight'. But Uli had never suffered from that accident and even had the good temper to laugh about it with his friends.

He took a deep breath --not that he needed it; each worker had a helmet connected to an oxygen tank fastened to his back-- and began to haul another stone plate for one of the walls of the living quarters in the fifth level below the surface. Ground level was level zero, and every level from there was minus-one, minus-two and so on until they reached the bottom of the ocean. They had the framework of seven levels already, although only two had been completed and three more had fully-built shells. It went slowly, and deeper levels would demand progressively more time and better materials as the pressure increased.

Building walls had always been Uli's favorite part of any project. He was laying the very basis of what the structure would look like to its inhabitants; everything else made this basis look pretty or gave it a purpose, but the walls were the very bones of the building.

These were not thick plates, as they did not have to hold back several atmospheres of water, but they were still heavy. It took quite a few men to carry each one to its place and then to pass it through the thick metallic columns that were the bone marrow of the city after another man had drilled a hole through the plate, and the job was made ever harder by the fact that they were doing it underwater: a thick medium to wade through, bulky suits to move in, and the ever-present --though with a minimal probablility-- danger of getting in the way of an angry sea beast that had wandered too close to the boundary between its aquatic world and the dominion of humans. And on top of everything they had to get out of the water every hour or so to refill their oxygen tanks. Submarine construction units had not been built yet, although several workers, including Uli, had proposed it independently at different times and their development was supposedly under way.

After two more plates, Uli swam a few hundred meters away from the city, stopped, turned around and gazed at the work of hundreds of men, all of which had been under his supervision for almost the duration of the construction. They were building a city! Not a building or a complex, but an entire city under the vast blue nothingness that had until just recently kept humanity trapped in the dry part of the world!

With the city's lights on permanently, he could see a couple of sea beasts gliding through the water, their long necks and fanged heads turning this way and that as their four great fins propelled their heavy bodies forward, and several dozen men, tiny compared to the massive monsters whose home they were invading, silhouetted against the endless blue and the city sticking out of the continental wall. A few dozen men; the others were probably working inside, protected by the massive windows that spanned the whole city. Five such windows were in place already, one for every level whose outer walls had been built. They were thick double windows, at level minus-five over two meters across: a meter for each plastic slab and about thirty centimeters of an electrically-charged, semi-solid, shock-absorbing material that prevented the inner slab from taking any damage even if the outer one was broken and which was kept in place by its molecules' adherence to each other and by giant magnets placed inside the floor and ceiling; the inside of the city was protected from the powerful magnets by a fine film that covered the floor, the ceiling, the inner side of the outer walls and the inner side of the inner window and disrupted the magnetic field to prevent it from damaging the electronic equipment inside the city.

Uli understood well the basics of the science that made the underwater city possible and, to a lesser extent, some of the more technical details of that science. He had helped develop the shock-resistant material and calculate the pressure the outer walls and the windows would have to be able to take at each level. He also knew how to operate just about all the construction-related machinery that had ever been built, from ancient cranes and bulldozers --which he had used for less-ambitious projects on land for over fifteen years-- to the new construction units and robotic equipment which were used indoors after the shell of a level had been completed and the level had been drained of water -- some of which had been developed by the underwater colony team itself. The other workers respected and obeyed him, and his superiors trusted him. He had quickly been made construction supervisor of the underwater colony, but building was his passion and he would never stop doing it no matter his position, so he still spent most of his working hours getting his hands dirty next to the other builders.

As Uli swam back to the city and helped move one more wall into place, his stomach began growling. He swam inside, got out of his suit and headed towards level minus-one, as that was still the only level with a biodome, for a lunch break. The plans included a biodome in every level, but, the colony's entire population currently consisting of no more than a few hundred workers, scientists and supervisors, a single biodome was enough to feed everybody for now.

The word 'biodome' wasn't entirely correct in this occasion, as it was not shaped like a dome. Rather, it was a large chamber close to the center of the city, which was barely two kilometers long and three or four hundred meters wide. The chamber itself, a rectangular prisma like every other chamber and room in the city, held the biodome and all of the support buildings, where the plants' conditions were regulated and research in genetics, biology, chemistry and every field in between was conducted, but the kitchen was in a smaller, adjacent chamber and the food was served in the huge lunch room that surrounded both kitchen and biodome. The living quarters on every level would be placed along the window from one end of the city to the other, and everything else would be farther inside. The only public sections that would have a view of the exterior world would be the lunch rooms, one per level. Uli and the other engineers had been careful to allow the population the greatest comfort possible at all times of leisure when they had drawn the plans for the submarine city.

He looked around for familiar faces, but he didn't know anybody currently in the lunch room except by sight. He walked over to the bar where the orders were taken and asked for "anything without those big round red fruits, because they give my stomach a hard time". Food in every city in Wunamaj was free, there being enough to feed the world many times over, and the underwater colony, which was to be named Morava, was no exception. After Uli was given a plate with a generous ration of boiled fruits and spiced leaves, he walked to an empty table and sat down to eat.

About halfway through his meal, a young woman sat down at his table. Uli had seen her around a few times and was pretty sure he had heard somebody calling her Merle, but he had never talked to her.

"Mr Orumov," she greeted him, smiling. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

"My pleasure," the builder said, smiling back. "Merle, right?" he asked after a moment's hesitation.

The woman nodded, smilng again and letting out a tiny laugh. "Merle Arkar," she said cheerfully. "I'm in the materials team. I believe i've seen you there a few times, Mr Orumov."

"Please, call me Uli," the large builder said. "I helped develop the intervitrial polymer," he told her proudly.

"Yes, yes, i remember. I had just started."

"Hadn't we all?" Uli asked. "It was at the very beginning of the project."

"What i mean," Merle clarified, her voice slightly muffled by the food she was chewing, "is that i wasn't here since the beginning. I signed up for the project a few days after it began. You guys finished the polymer the next day."

"You have an excellent memory," Uli said, genuinely surprised a bit, "remembering a face you saw only on your first day of work, one face among hundreds." He let out a low whistle.

Merle looked down, smiling and blushing. "I've seen you around after that as well, usually when you're up here. But i do get told that about my memory a lot."

They continued eating and proceeded to talk about work. Uli was enjoying the company quite a bit and lost track of time.

"Once i saw you while you were pushing one of the outer plates into place," Merle said. "I think it was for level minus-four. I took a little shuttle out and saw you on the way back."

"Ah, so the exploration shuttles are already functional? I thought they were still building them."

The scientist shook her head.

"Well, i guess i'll have to take one out and enjoy th