Ch7: A Tense Pacific City

Pacific City, The Floating City of Dreams. 2nd of January. 1000 Solar Era.

ETA to Pacific City is ten minutes. Please secure your seatbelts and prepare for landing.

Athena couldn't resist peering out of the plane window. She could see an endless metropolis surrounded by many truncated island rings.

She had heard about Pacific City. Seen images of it. Yet none of that could quite compare to her current bird's eye view of the city. 

One might think that it being a floating city, it would be like an island. This was not so. It was a vast sprawling plain of metal, glass and vegetated skyscrapers that stretched into the horizon. These vegetated skyscrapers were a staple of cities-- it served to improve the air quality of highly urban areas.

To Athena's knowledge, the concentric truncated island rings functioned as protection against storms and tsunamis. They also served as the basis for expanding the city. With every expansion, additional island rings would be built.

As for the city's location? It was so named the floating city of dreams, being right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. An international city, unaffiliated with any nation, the center of the Earth Feds, the final training location Athena had to visit prior to her deployment to space with the EFSF.

As the plane flew closer into the city, despite the plane's altitude, Athena soon could only barely see a shadow of the ocean and the truncated island rings.

As for how this city was built? Athena wasn't quite sure. But she knew that Pacific City was not unlike an iceberg. Most of it was submerged, and one of the functions of the structure and system under sea level was to produce the freshwater that the population needed.

The plane gradually descended onto a strip, and Athena settled the butterflies in her stomach as the plane landed and rolled into a terminal.

Although she was excited, she also felt anxious due to yesterday's developments.

The prior night, as she was celebrating the new year with her relatives at the end of their Tokyo trip, the Martians had announced their independence alongside a number of the belt's colonies.

She picked up her luggage and passed through the security check that observed her fingerprints and iris. She then walked through a biosecurity corridor that analyzed her body's whole structure and movement pattern.

Her second aunt and uncle had returned to Pacific City the night before, and they were already waiting for her arrival. Both her aunt and uncle seemed troubled and only gave her a quick hug. They then promptly entered a self-driving vehicle.

As the vehicle began taking them to Athena's temporary residence provided by the Earth Federation, they passed by large hovering holographic screens in the air. One was a Martian politician announcing their independence. The other was the newly anointed president of the Earth Feds, a dark-haired man with Mediterranean features who was quite young. To Athena, he appeared to be in his forties.

Athena controlled her neuro circlet to sync to the holographic screen with the new president.

I, Alexander Varoufakis, thank you all for your support! These are trying times, but I, as your hundred and forty-ninth president, pledge to do my very best to chart a course through these troubled waters!

He beamed and began waving to his supporters.

Athena disconnected from that holographic screen. Her first impression of the new president was that the man was a fool, but also pitiful. The Martian independence movement was clearly a source of trouble that the beaming man didn't seem to quite understand. At the same time, this poor soul would have to be the scapegoat of any political fallout over the issue.

They soon arrived at an apartment complex that belonged to the EFSF. Athena confirmed her identity through similar security checks to the airport, obtained her keycard, and quickly dropped off her belongings before returning to her aunt and uncle's vehicle.

As she got closer back to the vehicle, she saw her aunt furiously scrolling down a holographic screen. When she entered the vehicle, she overheard her second uncle John.

"...go. Look, Selena. There won't be any resolution anytime soon. Let's just enjoy our day off, alright?"

Her second aunt, Selena, glared at John for a few seconds, but then cutely waved her hand and dismissed her holographic screen.

"I agree." Athena chimed in. She knew what her aunt and uncle's minds were stuck on.

Only then did the initial tense atmosphere of the day begin to fade away as the vehicle accelerated away.

"Girl. I promised you that I'd… abuse my privileges and show you around. Here's our first stop! E-cube Corp!"

Her aunt was wrapped around John's arm, making Athena feel a bit like a third wheel. But that did not dampen the thrill of this visit.

The three entered a black metallic complex framed by blue neon lights that glowed even during the day.

John talked to a receptionist and a humanoid robot showed up, promptly leading them through staff-only high security doors.

Soon, Athena found herself looking through double-paned glass at tightly fitted workers manipulating a number of machines with their neuro circlets.

"E-cube. One of the great achievements of material engineering. Built on the concept of imitating nuclear power. Energy is consumed to construct the special compound that is the e-cube. A trigger process is used to activate the energy stored within the bonds of the e-cube compound, thereby releasing the energy. It is fully safe, unlike nuclear energy. The e-cube's energy release can be easily controlled through said triggers over a wide range. If you observe through the window, our workers are using many devices to convert energy into the e-cube blocks. The energy density within the e-cube compound is comparable to uranium."

This must be a robot that guided any curious minds through this facility, Athena figured.

They continued following the robot, who narrated historical events of the E-cube's creation as it brought them throughout the facility to examine the many processes involved.

"In Pacific City, we have large amounts of solar and wind energy. The underground cores also create energy through the ocean's salts and tidal power. Any excess energy is directed to us to store said energy as the E-cube."

"In space, we have many plants that directly convert and store radioactive energy from the sun. Any source of energy found from asteroid mining can also be converted into e-cubes. Pollution is of minimal consequence when created in space."

"The founder of the e-cube once said this. 'We are the saviors of humankind. Fossil Fuels? An environmental disaster. Renewable energies? Unreliable for industrial purposes. Using batteries to store excess energy? An inevitable result of chemical waste in the far future with the lifetime of batteries. Nuclear energy? A political concern. Nuclear fuel will eventually run out as well. We are the true saviors of humankind. Without us, there would not be today.' "

A rather arrogant man to be sure. A long-dead man. But none of the three on tour could refute that E-cubes effectively powered every system in the world. The neuro circlets they all wore had a tiny compartment for miniature e-cube blocks.

They exited the complex and returned to their vehicle and off it accelerated again.

"Next stop… Neurorevo!" John announced, pretending to be a tour guide.

Athena's heart thumped in elation. Neurorevo wasn't the only one in the neuro circlet and device business. But, it held a dominant position. The E-cube corporation, on the other hand, was very much nearly a complete monopoly in all aspects. Well, to Athena's knowledge, multiple vendors had the rights to create the E-cube, but the technology was fully owned by the E-cube corp, and all these vendors had to basically acquiesce to their demands.

They soon arrived at a silvery-white complex completely different from the E-cube's jet-black rectangular block. Neurorevo's complex instead had many beautiful curves from multiple oval pods overlapping each other, and when combined with the reflective silvery-white color, practically made the whole complex sparkle in the pacific sunlight.

Once again, her uncle John spoke to the receptionist, who was very much human-- Most companies maintained the importance of a human touch-- and subsequently, a robot guide appeared to lead them through the complex.

"Neurotech. It all began with unique cases. A young child was injured in an accident and lost half of her brain. Yet, as she grew, her brain adapted and she regained all functions in her body. Then, we succeeded in connecting a bionic arm to a war vet who had lost his arm."

"Thus, an idea was born. What if we, starting at a young age, attached multiple devices to a child's brain, allowing the child to effectively have multiple arms? There were many ethical barriers, but eventually, we succeeded."

"Then another barrier placed itself before us. Some people seemed to have a heightened ability to control multiple devices efficiently. Thus, we had to find a way to determine the potential of a child to control multiple arms."

A simplification to be sure. They followed the Neurorevo robot guide into an area that had many different devices.

"Next, we needed to design a system for the devices, and thus required the participation of the brightest minds around the world."

Athena had always had a much better impression of Neurorevo compared to the E-cube corp. Now, she understood why. The Neurorevo system had no choice but to engage and cooperate with many creators to build its ecosystem. The E-cube corp, on the other hand…

The robot proceeded to demonstrate many of the ancient prototype devices that awed Athena who observed with rapt attention.

Then, explosions rocked the complex. The three felt an earthquake in their location and lost their footing as an alarm sounded.

Attention, Intruders! Alert! Please find a safe room!

"Please follow me," the humanoid robot guide ordered.

The three, though stunned, immediately returned to their feet and followed the robot.

Her training kicking in, Athena moved ahead and peered around a corner of the hallway they were traveling through, wishing to avoid any of these said intruders.

"Is it the Martians?!" Her aunt had quickly jumped to a conclusion, based on the fact that the Martians had announced their independence a day ago.

"I don't know." Her uncle slowly replied.

Athena made sure there were no intruders on their floor and they followed the robot down a flight of emergency stairs that led them to the ground floor.

"Guests. The underground bunker is in that direction," The robot indicated, pointing with his finger toward a slope that descended into the ground.

Athena saw no intruders in the surroundings, and thus sprinted forward to ensure that there were no assailants hiding just beneath the slope to the underground bunker.

However, she suddenly found that the ground she was on was trembling and radiating cracks.

"Athena!" yelled her second aunt.

But it was too late. The ground crumbled open and Athena felt herself falling along with rubble.

"Ahhh!" Her vision flashed white as she screamed in agony when she landed. She must have fallen a few storeys, and she heard a crunching sound from her left leg. She knew that was a broken bone. Her right ankle must be severely injured as well, as she also felt an intense pain radiating from that area. Luckily, she had been on top of the crumbling rubble. Otherwise, she would have been crushed to death.

In front of her was a Nexarm that was rising to its feet and climbing out of this basement floor! Athena ignored her pain and hurriedly used her arms to drag herself around rubble to a safer area. She did not wish to be crushed by the twenty meter tall Nexarm. She made sure to carefully move her left leg to not exacerbate her injury. The adrenaline coursing through her veins certainly helped.

Her decision to move away and hide behind a set of pillars saved her life.

A few minutes later, the pilot of the Nexarm seemed to figure something out and activated a set of thrusters that sent it out of the hole in the ground. Athena had moved far away enough on the underground floor that the blast made her hair flutter in the air, but otherwise remained safe.

Athena looked around for a flat and strong material as the sound of gunfire and high-pitched buzzing noise echoed back down the hole to her. She needed to strap her broken left leg, and her right ankle as well.

Surrounding her were many materials that she deemed were used to construct a Nexarm. That was lucky, as she soon found what she sought.

The neuro circlet bleeped around her head.

"Athena! Are you alright?" Selena anxiously questioned.

"Yes, aunt," Athena forcibly spoke through her pain. "Just a broken bone."

"Just?!" John had also connected to their call. "This… this terrorist is controlling six mini-tanks to rain fire on the police!"

"You're not in the bunker, right? Hide behind a pillar or something!" Yelled Athena in reply. She knew there was no way for her aunt and uncle to cross the collapsed pavement to the bunker.

She successfully strapped her left leg and right ankle, which allowed her to crawl at a faster pace through a door to another area.

She found herself in a second humongous room. The first thing she saw was another Nexarm lying flat on the ground. The second thing she noticed was three masked figures dressed in jet-black body armor in a heated argument around a computer. She quickly hid herself behind a tools cabinet. Luckily, the echoing sounds of gunfire hid the sound of her dragging her feet.

"Jack is alone out there clearing the route to the launch rail right now. Have you figured out how to connect the weapon and sensory systems yet?"

"You don't understand!" A woman's voice replied in frustration. "There's someone actively stopping me from connecting the devices. There's a counter hacker!"

"What do you mean? Just get through the security system like you always have and--"

"No, you fucking idiot! There's someone constantly… look, just think of it this way! There's someone constantly resetting the passwords and moving the gap of the security system around! Come on! Give me a hand! Just do what I tell you to do!"

Athena closed her eyes. She began contemplating what her course of action should be. She did not know who these three masked thieves were, but it couldn't be anything good that they were trying to steal these Nexarms. The Nexarms had even been equipped with weapon systems… Athena knew that most Nexarms had only been used for dangerous mining and construction purposes so far.

Although when she first joined the Earth Feds, she had only wanted to go to space, she had now seen how beautiful Pacific City was. She felt this jewel of the sea should be protected. It was where her aunt and uncle resided!

A will rooted itself in her heart, and she began crawling toward the Nexarm's cockpit. Every time gunfire sounded, she would endure her pain and shift forward, which was quite often with the constant rapidfire. She was close!

"Athena, where are you?!" John's voice suddenly sounded.

Her neuro circlet had whirred at the wrong time when there was no gunfire, and the three masked thieves turned and saw her on top of the Nexarm's chest.

"Ah!" The female hacker yelled as Athena, with disregard to her own injuries, heaved herself forward into the Nexarm's cockpit as she tolerated the pain in her left leg that came with the high effort movement.

Athena lambasted herself for forgetting to silence her neuro circlet. Luckily, she had gotten into the cockpit. If she locked the Nexarm from the inside, at the very least, no one would be able to steal this Nexarm.

"You nearly got me caught!" She seethed. Although her call with her aunt and uncle stayed open, she no longer heard them say anything. They had probably decided not to speak, not knowing her situation.

She tapped her forehead against a panel.

"Neuro circlet, sync."

The interior of the Nexarm lit up, and Athena felt her mind connecting with the Nexarm's AI controls.

Identity?

"Athena Watanabe."

Acknowledged. Welcome, Athena Watanabe, senior trainee of the EFSF.

"All systems lockdown."

Acknowledged.

The whole interior lit up in a dim neon red color.

System has detected a comminuted fracture in the user's left femur, and torn lateral ligament in the right ankle. Administer medical treatment?

Athena struggled into the pilot seat. "Thank you. Please begin medical treatment."

Amazing, the smooth interior spherical cockpit's walls opened up as multiple devices popped out. These devices attached themselves to Athena's two legs and immediately began moving in tandem.

Athena stifled a yelp as her left femur was shifted to align the bone.

Injecting nanobots. Injecting growth fluid.

If not for the current high stakes, Athena would have marveled at how the Nexarm's cockpit also functioned as an automated medical bay. Instead, she was half-worried that despite her efforts, those three masked figures would attempt to hack the lock she had placed on the cockpit of this Nexarm.

System has detected friendly communication channels. Requesting open communication.

"Accept." Athena could feel her two injured legs healing as she answered. It was best described as a sort of itching feeling.

"Is this er… Athena Watanabe? I'm a Neurorevo engineer. Haber's the name. I would like to request assistance," A man's gruff voice asked. He sounded stressed-- who wouldn't be with the current situation?

Athena groaned inwardly. She had done her part and protected this Nexarm. Her injuries haven't even fully healed yet!

"I need your assistance in retrieving the two stolen Nexarms, Miss Watanabe, the first transhuman."