Chapter 30

Back in Kat's POV

I bring the Jeep into the garage, greeted by a larger than expected welcoming committee. Not only is Lala here, looking positively radiant even the morning after her day at the spa, but the whole werewolf team is here, as well as Narishma.

I run over to Lala, giving her a good inspection. Her fur is so soft, I've got to find out what they used. Plus her skin is amazing, and she's got perfectly manicured pink nails with white french tips and little stars in the middle. I'm about to congratulate her on her appearance when I notice something truly odd. The index fingers on 3 of the 4 werewolf team members are painted exactly the same as Lala's.

"You look amazing Lala. And to celebrate your first real day off, we've done all the reports for you before we returned. All you'll need to do is file them."

Lala cheers and runs to the paperwork case in the Jeep, quickly sorting it all before bouncing back to Narishma and handing her the whole stack.

"Here you go boss, mission report finalized and filed!"

Everyone's laughing at her enthusiasm now.

"Before you all go" Narishma breaks up our fun time "I've got a development plan for you to go over Karl. The rest of you should come too, seeing as you'll be living here for the foreseeable future."

"Development Plan?"

"Yes, with everything happening in the world at this point, we've decided to build a Shelter City on top of the base. Giving refugees a shielded place to be, more room for non magical security staff and a safe trading area for local farmers and merchants afraid of heading to the city as chaos starts to rise. We're hoping things don't get too bad, but just to be safe, we're starting construction now with the Earth Mages and the architects we've got on site now.

The goal is a fully self sustaining city on a nine square mile footprint. That's as large as we can feasibly go with the mana we draw off the Ley Line junction the base is built on.

Before the shield starts to weaken or require additional input that is."

Narishma lays out the design plan for us, and I must say, this place is glorious.

Ground level is mostly green space. Parks and walkways, with living spaces being built like a spider web above the ground. A nine mile square grid of glass sided apartments and walkways, a 40 story veritable maze with huge greenhouse domes built above it at the top of the support pillars.

According to the design team, a third of the space is left as a pathway for light to reach ground level, so every home will have natural light and the ground level parkways will be lifestyle friendly.

But on the practical side, the first level of structure, other than the support and access pillars, will be 4 meters, or roughly 15 feet in the air. So even if the barrier and ring wall are breached, an enemy force won't be immediately into the homes of our future residents.

Mary looks both horrified and impressed at the same time, which reminds me of the way she grew up, everything all in one block, never leaving.

"This is beautiful and all, but how will anyone get in and out of the city itself? The wall isn't in the city design plans, and there appears to be no parking for incoming deliveries or visitors?"

"Oh, sorry, the ground level plans are in this pouch here. The Below ground plans are separate from the above ground city plans, since they'll be done by different specialties within the Mage Corps."

Narishma pulls out a simple, but functional plan for a ring wall, with cargo vehicle access, loading docks, a huge subterranean parkade and various storage tanks and bunkers. It seems the design department has really thought of everything.

Karl takes me and Mary each under an arm, Lala still sitting in his lap "I guess we've got something to strive for while we work now. Keep our zone in order until we can build ourselves a new city out of a bunker complex."

"What will we call it?" Lala's here with the truly important questions.

Narishma is giving us a shifty look "Well, you know what happens when you leave naming to the design team. The tentative designation is 'NDSC01NR214A'. Which was the design number of the winning effort. We'll hold a contest to come up with a better name at some point."

"Will this be an all species city? Or a magical human enclave?" Jake chimes in with a pretty good concern. If it's built by mages, for mages, how friendly will it be to werewolves, witches and others?

"We're set to welcome everyone, the design team added long hallways between zones with no other function, to make long running paths for exercise if that's what you're concerned with. Some of the ground level is set to be planted as a forest, tended by our handful of resident druids, which I'm sure your wolves will enjoy."

Jake looks ecstatic, in fact, I don't see a single concern left on anyone's faces.

The meeting breaks up after another hour of discussions over the plans, and we are all excited for what's up next. The longer we can keep things under control in our zone, the longer the mages have to build us a fancy new city.

I decide to take a walk around the lower levels of the base, and the enthusiasm is everywhere. Having something to look forward to other than preventing the end of the world as we knew it has really helped the mental health of the base. Even the base maintenance technicians, well known for their long hours and over consumption of caffeine look a bit less haggard and depressed than usual.

Eventually I find myself in front of the training hall, wondering what to do with my day now that I've settled the thought of founding a city, run on magic and full of every known species, built in the middle of nowhere being an actual plausible thing. This day has been mentally exhausting. The arrival of Jake's 4 man team behind me breaks me from my reverie, and reminds me of the first thought I had when I arrived at base today.

"Hey guys, lovely manicures you've got going on there."