The uTopia - once the humanity greatest hope not only to survive, but to thrive and rebuild - now the ultimate trap enslaving countless number of people. Many modern thinkers and historians are asking themselves how could it happen and what made so many humans neglect reason and logic to get themselves in this mess.

The reason was simple: they had no choice.

During Earth's twenty first century, there were numerous breakthroughs in medicine, which allowed to treat most diseases and age-related conditions leading to unprecedented increase in longevity. Problems like cancer, organ or limb failures became as easy to fix as common cold was to cure in the first decade. Which was made extinct, by the way, just like flu, HIV, malaria and many other diseases. Nearing the eight decade, people's lives could literally be extended indefinitely - and easily enough, that almost everybody were able to afford it. Populations boomed. Entire countries were consolidating into gigantic megapolies, making the concrete jungle more common than any other habitat, natural or not - including the sea, now almost filled with huge city ships sailing on every available scrap of water.

Although resources were scarce, people were getting around that, coming up with more and more sophisticated ways of mining, goods manufacturing and beyond: fusion power plants ensured energy availability for the next billion years, huge magma mines provided raw metals and materials, synthesizers and genetically-engineered organisms gave more food than anybody needed as well as oxygen to breathe. On the eve of twenty second century, sun dawned on almost thirty two billion people. It seemed that technological progress will overcome all problems, at the same time steadily improving the standard of life.

One invention perfected around year 2112 changed all that. The molecular assembler - a device capable of manipulating atoms using sophisticated nano-machines to create literally anything the owner could imagine - or, usually, get blueprints for. Laws of physics still applied, of course, and you needed to provide raw atoms as input, but it seemed a new age of universal prosperity was coming. Put a lump of coal, nitrogen bonding catalyst and water, wait a couple minutes and you got fresh steak. Put some iron, carbon, copper and bits of other minerals - voilŕ, the newest skycar model.

There was only one drawback to this contraption: due to large amounts of alpha and beta radiation being used in the process of nano-assembly, it produced a substantial amount of unstable isotopes as its by-product, requiring costly recycling and utilization. It often cost more than two hundred times more to safely utilize them than to buy the raw materials and energy. And there were people, entire corporations even, who put raw income over the environment and simply dumped the dangerous and deadly waste wherever they could, delivering discounted products and making huge profits.

It was the main reason for massive public outrage, new tough government regulation and even wars when some countries were themselves abusing the newly created global environmental laws. Within three years of the technology becoming common knowledge the air became dangerous to breathe without a filter and continued to deteriorate at a dangerous pace. Oceans were turned into a toxic slump even sooner. Some radical environmental groups took drastic steps to use nano-assembled thermonuclear weapons to reduce the world's population, hoping to reduce the speed at which Earth was being destroyed, but the main outcome was increasing the radioactive pollution even more.

Newly created archologies and off world colonies were targeted first, seen as havens for the richest elite being built at the expense and with disregard for Earth's environment - which was almost always the case, since huge amounts of nano-assembled goods were needed to create an internally self sustaining environment.

Chaos and havoc quickly spread.

It took two more years to reduce world's population by a factor of ten. Many died from terrorism or war activities, most - simply from the radiation, killing them more quickly than even the miraculous medicine could fix. Almost all remaining hope for survival died when the final project of the world's governments - the Atlantis, a two thousand mile radius ship, submerged in the middle of the pacific was blown up by multiple nuclear detonations near the hull - planted by people who could not afford the ticket inside - outraged and exacting their hatred by using home-assembler made tools to filter some uranium and deuterium from the oceans to be fed to a simple blueprint for an efficient twenty megaton bomb. It was simply impossible to guard half the ocean against every threat and when millions of people were independently trying to assault it... it was only a matter of time.

The most optimistic forecasts at the time did not give more than two more years for any larger settlements to survive - it seemed only pockets of humans would remain, vaults amidst ruins of once proud civilization. Even cockroaches would not survive the man-made cataclysm in the works - perhaps only some bacteria, deep in the parts of oceans with limited water circulation. Desperate for a way to save the remaining people - or at least enough to ensure the survival of the human race - the best researchers were trying everything. Even the craziest ideas of mad scientists were taken seriously now - as long as they gave at least the smallest chance of succeeding in providing a safe haven. Some of them turned awry and contributed to the global extinction.

Pan-american energy and research conglomerate's project "u-habitat" - from micro-habitat, later renamed and popularized under the name of "u-topia" or eventually - the uTopia, was one of such crazy ideas. Deep under the Andes mountains - or at least what has left of them after the second war for Antarctica. It aimed to employ theoretically known for some time already, but sparsely used, the non-singularity atemporal matter-phase dilation field generators to turn relatively small chambers into huge fertile valleys. The NS-aTM-PDFG, simply known as dilation generators, were seemingly strange devices that could be used to compress space and "multiply" matter within a confined space.

The mechanism was simple: use a set of efficient superconductors and powerful fusion generator to produce a massive electo-magnetic field inside. This field, when properly managed, will bend the space itself and make the interior of the machine more capacious than when dormant. It will also cause matter to "multiply" in order to retain the same total energy - as atoms in this "smaller" space have less mass each, which requires more of them for the entire system to have the same energy. Early devices were completely useless and the technology was generally ignored, as they allowed to increase the volume of less than a cubic inch by barely a thousandth of a percent - still measurable, but maintainable only in vacuum, since the mass multiplication manifested in huge gamma outbursts - since atoms were unable to create 1.00001093 copies of themselves each, effectively destroying any equipment when turning the device with any content inside - or if any mass, say.. larger than a pikogram, tried to enter the dilated space.

The uTopia scientists first managed to increase the multiplication factor to 2 by using even stronger closed-loop self-powered superconductors in special patterns and then managed to make atoms duplicate rather than burst energy outwards by coupling their field waveforms in stable positions - creating two perfect, smaller copies of each particle. They were not completely self-propelling, of course, but managed to maintain stable dilation field with minimal external electromagnetic emissions - and therefore only minute amounts of energy needed to be provided from outside, at least comparably to early prototypes.

Further improving the process allowed to copy entire molecules rather than just loose atoms and even repeat the duplication making more mass and more space. Eventually they settled on manageable 40 cycles, which compressed the space length a little over 10321 times. With improved equipment, they were able to turn five meters high and a hundred meters wide and long square hangars into over thousand kilometre large spaces with over 400 thousand square miles - differently put, about 50% more than the surface area of Texas. And they could produce a lot of these machines - even within within the confined space of deep underground ex-military base, that they were operating in. Each one filled with rich soil for plants and huge stacks of materials for anybody to use.

Dilating - that is shrinking - anything was a difficult process and took some time to perfect. Eventually they figured how to force mass/energy waveform representing any small enough object to manifest in exactly one perfectly the same, except being scaled down, instance when entering the dilated space under special circumstances - and extract the extra energy to speed up the construction of other chambers. It was, at the time, one-way only operation, but they believed they could reverse the process, if given enough research. They also discovered they can use NS-aTM-PDFGs to "teleport" between different chambers and possibly from and to any given one - as long as the scale factor was the same across the teleportation and the mass dilation remained the same. In other words - they could connect all these chambers into a single civilization via specialized devices.

And thus, they had all the tools necessary to quickly create a safe, clean, miniaturized environment - hence the uTopia name. The first chambers were built, but constructing and seeding them seemed like a terribly strenuous and time-intensive process for the shrunk population, as they would be greeted only by heaps of base molecules - miles high piles of soil, sand, metals next to miles deep bays of water - all stretching for hundreds of miles in every direction. Preparing them before dilating would be pointless, as the process would not preserve desired land shape and form. Therefore, configuring special deflection fields into the generator function, they were able to send teams of several full sized people to enter the already dilated space and manipulate it, sculpting beautiful landscapes - mountains, plains, rivers, coasts, islands - entire continents built and seeded with plants for the future inhabitants. Of course they were rather rough - as detailed as a relative 10 thousand times bigger person can do with basic tools. It was assumed that over time, the occupants, erosion and nature forces would take care of the rest.

The deflection capability was also refined over time, creating a very sharp, almost impenetrable outline just on the skin and clothes surface also allowing the caretakers - as the maintenance crews became called - to breathe the local air - being un-dilated on the fly using the superconductor reserve energy - which was simply recovered when they breathed out and the air was again dilated. It only worked, however, for simple materials and was noisy enough to kill all life - so they did not have to worry about any micro lifeforms to contaminate the maintenance space, even if they were able to survive outside of the dilated space. All of which allowed the caretaker teams to go through the zones sculpting quickly. The researchers believed this process is the key to reverse the shrinking - should it ever be necessary or desired, but failed to pursue it further on behalf of more pressing matters.

And thus, an alternative was created. An alternative to slowly waiting outside for death to come - pioneer as one of the citizens of the uTopia and begin a new life in a fresh, clean world. Of course there were harsh laws and restrictions - most notably, mindful of how Earth was destroyed, the molecular assemblers were completely banned inside of the habitats. The only allowed ones were controlled and maintained outside and used to build products which were then teleported to one of the chambers, with all pollutants being safely removed from the facility. Due to restrictions on amount of assemblers based on the amount of available space and energy, habitat-internal manufacture of goods was strongly encouraged. Additionally, thanks to several slick tricks with the all encompassing dilation field, any fission weapons were made much less efficient - making any nuclear bomb barely stronger than a firework - on top of the fact that it would be virtually impossible to construct one, due to scarcity of uranium (which simply was not put into the source chambers). Also almost all high-tech nanobot weapons did not work due to subtle noise of the dilated space.

Eventually, the most carefully guarded facility in the world, massively promoted and advertised in the outside, the project soon attracted many people. Millions of immigrants quickly turned into billions - for obvious reasons, almost everybody preferred to move inside, instead of being vaporized by one of nuclear explosions regularly rocking most of the planet's surface - or even worse, waiting to die in pain in one of the shelters.

How were the chambers colonised? The process was simple - all started with a sculpted terrain, left for a period of two years to allow vegetation to grow - later shortened to one, due to large amount of immigrants - a single chamber. It was sealed to disallow any maintenance crew to enter as long as there were any humans inside - it was recognized that eventually, the terrain may need to be re-sculpted, since the chambers lacked many natural terraforming facilities, such as volcanoes or tectonic plates. Depending on the amount of water available in the chamber, human influence and erosion would eventually turn into plain or swamp even the highest mountains - even though some chambers had ranges even twenty miles high, when the sculpting crew wanted to create something "original". In the need of re-sculpting, the plan was to have a caretaker team enter the previously evacuated and disconnected zone to redo the terraforming and allow colonists to settle again.

When it came to the colonization, the first wave of immigrants had the toughest job - being deployed only with a handful of vehicles, tools and materials - they had to build the foundations of the civilization. Deploy farms, mines and factories before they run out of the prefabricated resources. The management was reluctant to provide much more from external micro-assemblers, as supplying them with micro-matter was problematic and they preferred to focus on creating ever more chambers to make space for refugees that were constantly flocking in.

Despite all that, with modern technology and plenty of resources in the environment around them, most of the pioneers succeeded - building clean and efficient cities, starting food production and making themselves independent from the outside world - except externally powered lamps producing "sunlight", rotating in daily and yearly cycles - emulating time of day and seasons. They also brought different plants and animals to create more natural environments than cities and even artificial pockets of wilderness - as nature will claim any land when it is left alone for a decade or so. Soon those various settlements would connect within a single chamber to start trade and cooperation, and then cross-zone highways would be created by manipulating the dilation field, connecting multiple of them. Within a year, a solid self-sufficient organizational structures emerged, which soon turned into countries and alike. People lived with each other peacefully, since there was plenty of room for expansion - it was just a matter of connecting another, uninhabited zone for newcomers to settle. Countries were dividing rather than trying to conquer each other - to better reflect the beliefs and value systems of people living in given areas. And of course - no civilization inside any of the chambers could possibly act against the managers of the uTopia for long, as their littlest action could turn an aggressor into a smouldering ruin or give enormous advantage to the other side, and who were simply against any kind of war.

And thus, a paradise was born. In 2120, three years after the official opening, the total number of humans alive outside of the uTopia was calculated to be below one million - based on various communications and observations. Eight years later, the last external contact went silent - suggesting that the facility has remained the only refuge of the humankind. And it flourished. Three years later, in year 2131, the first census showed that little over two billion immigrants total has given more than double that number of children already - and some of which has matured and were looking for a place of their own - often in different zones, creating new societies and even declaring new countries.

The only problem was slowly deteriorating conditions for the management staff - even using molecular assemblers and advanced robots, they were unable to create a reasonably large space for themselves to live, resulting in simple and dull facilities, with barely any excitement - or anything to do, in fact. The brilliant researchers, that created the place, found themselves migrating to the zones. Seeking to spend their eternal life in a more alive and entertaining environment, while leaving a smaller and smaller staff guarding more and more automated facility. After several decades even the sculpting before colonization was abandoned, in favour of simple robotic-made environments shaped further by local immigrants.

After numerous restrictions made to the equipment, it seemed they were only a shade of once all-powerful management staff, being there only to watch for any unexpected errors or anomalies in the equipment, being denied the ability to affect the zones in any way. It was still sought by some people, solitary types - for instance. Or the ones, who did not trust some eggheads to be miniaturized. Either way, with every year there were less and less people on the outside. They were still called caretakers, even though they were not doing anything for the ones in the zones directly.

And thus, humanity thrived. The robots were constantly expanding the uTopia facility, building and connecting more chambers than humans could ever use. People inside were constantly expanding, colonizing more and more zones, spawning rich and booming cultures everywhere they settled. All went perfectly smoothly for several generations - as 3-4 decades were still commonly called, even though everybody could live as long as they wanted - not including accidents and murders, but those were insanely rare.

Nobody really knows what happened next. Or - more specifically - why or how it happened. All cross-zone and external links simply died. One second they were fully functional and allowed millions of people to move across the zones, not to mention billions to communicate with each other and even with the caretakers - the next one, all highways turned back into regular dilated space - sometimes cutting cars and trucks in half - and communication links became just a bunch of useless electronics.

Many zones found themselves stranded from their normal food sources in other chambers - or simply overpopulated, which caused billions to die. Billions more killed each other in attempts to grab as much land and resources as possible within a single zone they found themselves locked in. Some zones even went back to stone age - with advanced equipment destroyed or simply never delivered there - what for would a farming community need a smelting or electronics-assembly equipment - and realized they are unable to assemble any industry without fossil fuels and available ores.

But in most places, civilization survived and people more or less peacefully tried to undo the effects of the Failure, as they called it - to get out from a multitude of traps they suddenly found themselves in. They quickly learned it is simply impossible to get out. Without access to NS-aTM-PDFG controls, the electro-magnetic field was like an impenetrable wall - strong enough to deflect or destroy anything even normal sized and they were thousands of times "smaller". Which created another impassable obstacle - in order to return to normal world, they would have to supply thousands of times the energy of their mass, to properly de-compress the space. It was simply hopeless.

The questions everybody, who knew how the uTopia was made, kept asking themselves were: where are the caretakers, why haven't they done anything - or what have they done, if the current situation is their doing. But many people, younger generations mostly, were previously just living there without paying any attention to the external world and its history - many zones, notably the newer ones, were left without any information about what could have happened - why has the gates turned off. Years and then decades passed without any answers. In the year 2392 - for anybody who still counted artificial years from the birth of an ancient prophet - the Caretakers returned.

What people fortunate enough to survive found puzzling, was that the Caretakers did not know what exactly happened either. They only had stories and theories about the communications shutdown - as they called it, as opposed to "the Failure" for the micro people. One theory said there was a rebellion within their group and they cut any contact with the zones - and therefore any control the scientists had over them - but it didn't explain why they had no idea what happened. Could all conspirators die and leave them with no knowledge? A second theory suggested the fault was incidental and it left the remaining maintenance crew struggling to survive and try to repair it under harsh conditions of heavily restricted and automated workplace - also many holes. Another one guessed it may have been associated with the machines becoming sentient and playing a terrible joke on their creators. But nobody knew for sure - and even more theories tried to explain strange situation they found themselves in.

The strangest one was, there were only women left - that fact baffled absolutely everyone. Maybe all males went into the zones looking for adventure and excitement before the incident? Or perhaps they killed each other off leaving only their spouses? A gender war perhaps, or some disease killing only members of a single sex, a feminist surgery and mind-washing dormant program that eventually activated and turned men into women, a computer error during yearly prostate exam... again those were all parts of various theories, circulated for decades, but the fact remained there were only five woman Caretakers. They lived supported by medical life extension systems, using assemblers for food and simple goods - as assembly of anything more sophisticated became blocked by the operators within the zones. Who were, it seemed, afraid of their possible exploits - at full size, they could pose a grave danger to the infrastructure.

But that was it, five women, who were bored to death, being deprived of access to any interactive entertainment or human contact outside their group. Left only with a bunch of recordings and each other, for over a hundred years. Unable to reproduce since their medical equipment was apparently locked for the cloning or any kind of external insemination functions. Yes, five women who, after decades of futile attempts, finally managed to break some of the codes and security mechanisms that, until then, have been stopping them from accessing the facility's administrative functions and tools - were suddenly able to use some - including, most notably, the teleportation program that was once used by the maintenance crews to sculpt the land before sealing the zones.

Yes. The Caretakers have returned. And they were fucking ten miles tall.

Nobody could have dreamt, not even in their worst nightmares, what happened next. The carnage was worse than anything they have ever seen. The - so called - Caretakers visiting the micro zones... it did not matter whether they were playful or cruel... they were both, switching across the entire spectrum depending on the mood or how bored they were - regardless, both curiosity and anger caused millions to flatten under their standard worker sneakers. Even littlest parts of their bodies - like a tip of a finger, or a strand of hair - touching the ground resulted in mayhem and death of thousands. Zone after zone, in groups or alone, they ravaged through what was left of the civilization using the people for their own fun and pleasure.

It became even worse when one of them, Erica - the informal leader of the group, discovered they can actually become pregnant using the tiny sperm - after playing numerous times with largest cities she could find, a casual medical check has shown a pregnancy. They rejected any reasons they could think about how this could have happened, except an option that deflection field may have de-compressed the sperm which then reached her egg. This was suggested by the fact, that within the group, she was the most passionate to fill her pussy with once magnificent creations of the powerful civilization, especially relishing in skyscrapers and ships.

In their newly acquired desire to have children, the rest has all started to do exactly that, gathering any amounts of micro men they could find and just ramming them in their cunts. Usually it they were fine with any people, including children, since distinguishing and selecting mature males would be a waste of time - and asking them to gather themselves was pointless. It was probably the worst way to go for any civilization - no contact with anybody outside their zone for hundreds of years and then a sex hungry indestructible giantess appears and starts to grab literally every man-made creation large enough for her to hold and push it down her pussy. One after another, however, they all became pregnant within weeks.

Strangely enough, their medical equipment was able to process birth and supply medical care for the babies. And so all six (Rachel gave birth to twins) girls were growing quickly to become later named as the first generation to join the five goddesses in their pantheon, ruling over miserable excuses for humans, the microscopic slaves and toys that people became for them. The second "generation" - as they called it to distinguish different groups age, even though they came from the same mothers (and crushed remains of their fathers were forever lost in heaps of goo excreted with tons of concrete, steel and other "packages" they used to fill up with) - born three years later, had only 3 girls, Kate, Nicole and Amber - since Lauren's pregnancy failed and Rachel decided to withdraw from this, being the only one to feel some kind of remorse or compassion for the little people. They were followed by triplets from Lauren five years later and another girl Erica gave birth to the next year - the four of them were promptly called the fourth generation.

All girls grew up learning to use, and abuse, their power over the little worlds leaving a number of once glorious hubs desecrated with their piss, crap and puke (apparently even giant children do that) - often much to delight of their mothers. Even leaving them to deal as they pleased with the micro people had terrible effects. Simply no human construct could sustain playful touch of such little girl, resulting in burning metropoly centers scarred with hundreds of feets deep and wide valleys as well as crushed suburbs and farmlands.

After almost eleven years of happily destroying and decimating tens of thousands of zones, with hundreds of billions dead, the five women discovered the sad fact about civilization - it takes much longer to build, than to destroy. Especially for a bored giant woman or girl. They had to give the people time to rebuild - and they even restarted the colonisation program, although being unable to reconnect the chambers (whatever happened during the shutdown/failure left those systems disabled), they had to move the little people by hand, literally - regardless of whether they were willing or not - which created many social problems and strange situations in both new and old zones. Namely - religions and strange value systems.

It changed when Lauren and Lisa (Amber's mother) continued to play in the remaining chambers freely - risking the future of humankind - hard decisions had to be made. Erica once again surfaced as the leader type and with other's support forced them all to catalog the zones they had visited and the ones that should still contain undamaged civilizations to randomly divide between them and lock teleportation access for others. This way if any of them was irresponsible enough to "run out" of humans, only she would suffer for that - having to painstakingly carve and support survivors rebuilding from the ruins. Survivors who would probably hate her for what she did. They could also allow others to visit various zones as they pleased or even give the entire ownership - which quickly became to be a definition good taste to do on various birthdays and other occasions. Notably, it became a norm for the first generation, that any mother should give her daughter some reasonably advanced chambers upon the 18th birthday as a sort of "graduation" gift.

And thus, the humanity was reduced to mere toys and slaves - each and every one of them basically owned by one of the women that could, without much effort, obliterate them all completely or instead help rebuild and rise again as a proud race they once were, although it seemed they would never rise above the goddesses ankles.

 

 

Kate lies on her back in the warm rays of afternoon sun. She finally has some time to relax, after strenuous activities, she had to perform during the last two weeks. She tries to remember some of the events and plan her actions for the near future.

Which was when she got her first zone, on her 18th birthday, the "graduation". She was expecting some more - all girls from the first generation got at least several each - but Amy, her mother, said that this is a special one. Very old - from the first days of the colonisation, described in the zoneiary as "a cultural center" - the meaning of which she had to look up later - and never previously visited. Everybody attended the party and she could feel jealous eyes on her - it was a real treat. She was the first girl from her generation to celebrate graduation - and the others were especially jealous, even more when she stated she wanted to spend as much time as possible alone in the prize zone. She even got exchange offers from Courtney and April from the first, but she declined as she did not want to feel ungrateful to her mom.

As time passed, however, she started suspecting that Amy simply wanted to buy her with quality over quantity, since she was massively colonising on her own for several years now and did not want to spare any larger number of chambers - to keep the lead in the ranking, it seemed. Well, whatever the case, Kate does not feel bad with it. Especially now, being completely wasted after setting up her oversight.

She would never think it would take so much time and effort. Her mother can easily establish three new colonies a week, when she is in the mood for that and does not have anything better to do. Of course colonising is a completely different matter - when you take already trained and obedient little people to relocate them into a new zone. The worst you have to worry about is them dying of hunger or killing each other - and supplying the equipment is easy when you have several other worlds, which can manufacture it. You could even do it without access to the assembler...

Yeah.. the assembler. They only have two working instances right now and one of them is locked by Amy all the time. Kate did not want to ask her to allow her to use it, since favours usually need to be paid back with something extra. If not her mom, then somebody else would find a way to bind her with it - Erica was especially avid to make her influence known with all younger girls and would have found a way to put Kate in her debt, just like she did with practically everyone in the first.

No, she wanted to do everything herself - not relying on anybody else's help. She even refused Amy's proposal to share some little people that could teach her new subjects the basics - which, she promised, would speed things up a lot. Kate had no idea how right she was, but she did not want to seem weak and change her answer.

When it comes to the assembler use, their temp wristcoms do not allow locking the results to person, so they tend to be awfully often appropriated by somebody else. Only the mothers have personalized ones which can do that - and much, much more that only they can. So it happens, the things she wanted to manufacture were just as commonly useful among the tinies that everybody would like some - if not for the trouble of externally arranging proper quantities of micromaterials, then configuring the blueprints while checking if it is not rejected for one of seemingly millions possible reasons and finally being forced to wait several days for the products to be finalized for teleportation.

The only two functional micro-assemblers they have were early mobile models and only possess very small throughput. They have several much faster normal size assemblers, but obviously nothing produced by them is useful for tinies. There are also several industrial-sized micro-assemblers with dedicated micro-matter storages, which could produce anything thousands of times quicker if not more - but are disabled since the shutdown. They even have many more blueprints available - you can see all them in the menus, along with huge stock of materials and empty queues - but they refuse to produce anything. They are not broken or anything - status is green all over, just "disabled"...

This way she had to hunt the only assembler possibly available to her for weeks before her birthday, to finally get what she wanted when she gets some zones - as she was hoping for some more, since her mother had hundreds of them. At third attempt she managed to successfully receive them - first time missing the delivery time by fifteen minutes only to find empty result box and the next try being locked by Erica, probably just to make her life harder, since everybody knew she did not care much about her zones.

Once she could get her results, she quickly hid them in one of the mother's zones, since dilated products can only be moved to virtual storage units - which temps did not have - or one of the zones directly. Amy has so many zones that she cannot keep track of what happens in all of them, but Kate is only allowed to a handful of them, but she was not worried about her - mother may be extremely annoying and boring, but she is not bitchy enough to waste her own daughter's work.

What worried her was that most of her zones she, that has access to, is in rather poor condition and the littles there would probably like to use the goods themselves. Not that she would not like to help them, but she needed some basic objects in case her zones were even worse - and also as a gesture of good will. Not to mention that it took her a lot of effort to come up with them and it should be Amy who cares after their own zones. Kate suspects, however, that she simply is not allowed to more healthy zones - what would mother give her access to them? So in order to stop the tinies she made a foot tall vertical platform in the empties location she could find for the items in several inch large containers. She figured it to be high enough for them not to be able to climb and too large to transport by air.

It took almost two days to even establish two way communication - and despite her best attempts to assure them she means no harm, she could still see some explosions and fires even then - which suggested things down there were not at all well. She could not sleep the whole time, worried if they kill each other off or worse... She shrugs remembering stories about failed training attempts, she heard from the firsts. People seem to be going crazy once a ten mile tall young woman appears out of nowhere and demands them to do things. Suicide waves and religious cults are only the beginning of what can happen. And she only had one chance to do it right...

Fortunately her little people were moderate enough. For the last two weeks, she kept checking the population status on her wristcom - it has only decreased by a couple hundred thousand since her arrival. The teleportation program seemed to optimise for the least populous region, but she still noticed a several hundred crushed under her feet. Trying to pick least civilised spots to step on, she approached the closed city and eighteen thousand less on the counter later the started explaining what she wanted them to do. Some of them were accidents from machines she heard little people are using to move around - "cars" or "vehicles". She never needed anything like that, since everywhere is in the walking distance in the facility or the zones. Others were, well, pressed deep into the ground under her sneakers.

Still shuddering remembering how anxious she felt, when the real decrease started in the following couple minutes. Being easily visible from every single point in the zone - terrain was mostly flat with only minor bulges and ponds - she assumed people must be going crazy. Scared she continuously assured them not to fear her, but she knew that sound did not travel fast too far. Kneeling her voice can reach ground in her immediate vicinity almost immediately. Three or four feet apart, however, the sound is being dilated and moves barely more than an inch per second, which requires almost twelve hours for it to go across the diagonal of the zone. She was not exactly in the corner, so it must have taken a bit less, but still much, much longer than for the light.

This way they would hear her comforting voice for hours that came around the zone. At least she hoped it would calm them. She also quickly asked them to pass the news by whatever communication means they had. She had an entire speech prepared, to which she was able to stick for the first minute or so, after which the dropping counter plus points of light popping up here and there kept distracting her.

Eventually the counter's descent slowed down and she began to notice them moving in a more organised fashion. Within the speech, she asked them to clear the immediate vicinity around her, not to risk their lives - but that idea must have come naturally to them even without her request.

When she was confident she could find a spot of empty land, she placed down the containers she had prepared earlier - some medicine, food, basic tools, clothing articles and such. She has already noticed they are probably advanced enough not to need them - but you never know... and apparently nothing makes the littles appreciate your presence more than a huge stockpile of food during a famine or medicine for a plague. Even if they didn't need it, it would show that she wishes them well. She gave a lot of thought to what she did on this very day - unlike other girls, most of whom simply waltzed around their new playgrounds simply demanding blind obedience "or else". No, that was not her style - at least not with her first zone.

She recalls the first problem she encountered was that the town she crouched next to was rather small - which made communicating back difficult for them. She did not want to relocate, risking crushing more littles so she kept suggesting them to rearrange some colorful objects into shape of letters, but eventually it began to darken and they started turning their building lights off and on accordingly, which she could just barely see when squinting her eyes. The first words came out rather panicky-like - "SPAREUS" barely fit across the village, which provoked a flood of reassuring and comforting promises again. It must have calmed them, as the words started making more sense later. She still keeps being surprised by the effect she has on them - and in the beginning she must have really seemed like a purely godlike being.

It took them a fairly long time to reconfigure lights correctly - and she kept guessing it until they blinked some of them confirming, which entire process took a long time to even give her basic answers about requests she asked earlier. They did not have much to say after that, so, content with the execution of necessary things, she just limited the "conversation" to her questions about how the society was organised and them answering yes or no. That was dashed with various requests, like:

"make sure not approach me with any airships" - when she learned they have some, as it was almost impossible to see and avoid them when moving and she hated the tiny prickles they make when colliding...

or:
"establish a single governor for me to talk to", when she found they were a group of "states" ruled by "comitis". She looked up what states meant on her wristcom quickly, but unable to find anything on the latter simply carried on - and only much later found they meant committees shortened to fit. Yes, longer words were problematic... another small fact she did not think about.

Eventually as it began to dawn, they confirmed most of her requests being either done or underway. The day made this way of communication impossible, so she could just wait and reassure them every now and then. Since the city was fairly small, it did not have any industry necessary for what she needed next and transporting sound equipment to construct a sort of headphones took them a long time. If only the assembler wasn't that restrictive and allowed her to prepare the necessary parts beforehand. She was also offered a device like that by her mother - made by her tinies, but foolishly refused. Maybe it was good thing, she thinks now - this way her littles should feel more self-confident, given that they already accomplished something for her, well - sort of.

The construction itself was not the worst part, however, it was when she took the device and it literally fell apart at her slightest touch - she immediately apologised sincerely and quietly blamed herself for it, but she later concluded that it is not that simple for somebody so tiny to prepare a contraption strong enough her to use. It took three more failed attempts for them to construct a device she could successfully pick up and actually hear. The first one had very short range - she almost fell, which would be very, very bad, she shudders remembering this - and worked for a short time. She even thought she broke it, but fortunately it was almost night again and before she dropped it on the pile of failed prototypes, they used lights again to write her that the "battery" has run out. She had to look it up in her wristcom...

Fortunately she has a much better version now, they not only reinforced it with more steel plates - although it does not seem strong at all.. - but also made several copies in case it broke and told her it has some sort of chemical batteries which will last for hours. They warned her it is some kind of acid and it may hurt her if it breaks - but she just told them not to worry. The thought still made her smile - to think they could somehow hurt her... Anyway, she was at first unsure what they are suggesting and quite amused when she got it.

One person talked to her for most of the time - a local leader of some kind, "meyor" or "mayor" he called himself, if is she remembers correctly. Sometime just before the dawn of the third day, the voice changed and introduced himself as James Crawford - newly elected governor of the united land who continued from there. "Well, nice to meet you" she responded with girlish giggle - which confounded him a bit. She still has problems figuring out how formal should she be with them - but obviously he was used to be treated somewhat differently.

All in all, after two sleepless days she was able to communicate with them properly and had been promised that they are a peaceful nation and "citizens" everywhere were informed that so is she, not only means no harm but also is trying to help them. They informed her that they do not really have any problems she can immediately help them with - excluding links to other zones, which she explained are beyond her control. When it comes to the informing part, by now they should have already all heard their voice slowly reaching every single location in the zone. She wonders if that has become annoying for the littles already - I mean, how long can you withstand the constant yapping she provided. And despite all the anxiety and excitement of her arrival, they must have had things to do. "Were they able to sleep at all?" she wonders now. There were just so many things she missed during her seemingly careful planning.

The most unpleasant thing was how long it takes for them to do anything - it was not their fault really, just the scale was so much different - her few attempts to assist ended up terribly - and in many apologies. And crouching down almost motionless has quickly become unbearable for her - she had to switch positions a little, but managed not to move her feet for more than a fraction for an inch before she could confirm how much area around her was already evacuated. Despite their best efforts of surveying the land underneath, the counter dropped by a couple hundred when she sat down carefully. It felt sad that almost every action was killing some tinies. Thankfully it improved over time, she notes.

During her survey, they reported that main problem they are struggling with is the overpopulation, since they are limited by the number of food synthesizers and amount of farmland available - she promised to check if she can provide the former, but could not help with the latter. And they have a lot of mouths to feed - the zone population is a little over 46 million. This is more than five times the most populous chamber she has heard of - thankfully this information is available for the owner and only when she is inside.

At first she considered it as some sort of glitch and only cared about the changes - but later the number was confirmed by the meyor and really astonished her. She is still absolutely sure that Amy would have never given her something so valuable if only she knew. But she most likely simply did not care about checking it before... "Which is so typical of mother", Kate thinks. On the other hand it could have been almost empty, because some zones went almost dead after the shutdown. She heard displeased stories from the firsts about gifts with only some native tribes roaming around. Some have even forgotten or distorted the language, making them completely worthless. She could always complain to her mother in that case - but she was not sure if she would give her anything better instead.

Even though they have a working system of life-extension, the leader assured her that they learned to deal with it peacefully over time. She was told later they have implemented "a sophisticated economical and political system of limiting the breeding" - the adult reference made her blush - "while maximising usefulness of both individuals and the groups as a whole" - or something like that. She still has absolutely no idea what that means, but it is just one of so many things that are simply so different from her life experience that she does not even try to comprehend it. Learning some facts she still sometimes feels like visiting a completely alien land. She realizes it is to large extent true, when she thinks about it.

Coming back to the space, she even made it worse - as she needs some room for teleportation and various activities, therefore there is a large patch of land - a rectangle almost twenty miles by thirty, that was promptly evacuated for her. Now it is very thoroughly flattened and even deepened a little making a tiny cliff - well, relatively tiny. She did not dare to look at the population counter when she was "claiming" it by stretching out days later - being sure that some lost tinies were still there - and switched to some other wristcom view instead.

She told them the food she brought with her should help to offset this lack of space temporarily, but in the long run they need to come to other arrangements. She profusely apologised for that - but they have not questioned or complained about it. They never do about anything really, she realizes now - is the land really so nice and happy or are the leaders holding the truth from her?

She did not see any pollution, garbage or slums around during the two weeks, she notes, but it is hard to spot details from her perspective... Most of the land indeed looks better than anything she has seen in any other zone - tidy cities, most with high skyscrapers with virtually no suburbs for land efficiency, organized and well cultivated farmland and space efficient multi-level transportation network. She was worried to walk fearing to break it, but they assured it should be endurable enough - as long as she is careful, she hoped they were right. But she can be wrong about the happiness as it all almost seems too good to be true... It would be helpful to organize some random interviews.. to see if regular people agree with this opinion. But is is her who must pick little people to speak with in order to be sure she is not being deceived. She chooses not to worry about it now and instead continues to relax in the setting sun while remembering the events.

After meeting the leader, she eventually left for her quarters to get some sleep - it was actually him who suggested this, when she admitted that she too needs to rest every once in a while. She agreed to leave only after he assured that they will be fine at least fifty times. He never failed maintaining seriousness and integrity, despite what she realized now must have been a terribly annoying behaviour from her.

The next days she was desperately trying to get access to the assembler - outside the zone she was again pushed around and hardly noticed, a strange feeling after two days of being cautious to the point of hardly moving at all - to get some food synthesizers. To her dismay, constructing them requires eighteen days - still almost two weeks out, since she was only able to run it on the seventh attempt.

The temp wristcoms they had lacked many functions - including any wakeup timer, which made it difficult to catch the moment when the previous job completed. She could check how much time was left at any time and it was very precise, but watching the clock for extended periods of time could drive anybody insane. Fortunately, she quickly realized she had tinies to track the time now and simply asked to notify them some time before a particular slot. She was optimistic about this arrangement, since the accepted rule of sharing the assembler is that when somebody completes a job, she passes the control over to whoever run the job the most time ago. Of course when she tried to run her first jobs, she was usually ignored, since she had no zones back then.

The collision with reality reminded her never to think ahead of herself - since you cannot argue with the mothers and, strangely enough, Erica and Lauren suddenly started using it very actively. She almost exploded after getting "Oh but you can wait a little" for the third time. It is also true, she now thinks, that a long job like that must be driving anybody who wanted to use the assembler literally insane - being forced to wait over two weeks - but there is no time difference between making one food synthesizer or fourteen - the limit - so she maxed the request. This is how the assemblers work - provided there is enough materials, of course - but she made damn sure of that.

Which also makes many women potentially anxious to get their hands on the results, as is likely the most sought for item for improving the lives in any zone, especially that dilation field restrictions make it impossible to create them within the zones. The synthesizers are basically limited edition assemblers - only barely optimised for a limited range of products, she recalls from the school. But they are physically incapable of making anything except various types of food - and also function within the field. Regular issue assemblers are locked out. She is fuzzy about how that was accomplished and - more importantly - why, since the normal ones they use for food and clothes are crucial for them. She simply cannot imagine life... Yes, another one of those things.

So the next days composed of trying to catch the assembler and training her littles further. She was overjoyed with their progress in many areas and saddened that some things will take a very long time or are not even possible at all. One day she realized how humbling and wicked it must be for the entire civilization to learn they are suddenly owned by a young woman. She promptly shared the technical information about teleportation, assemblers and these kind of things - wishing them to understand her limits in this area. She tried, however, to avoid giving them many answers on how the rest of the world is organised - partly because she did not want them to be scared, some because simply not knowing them - but most often, simply because she was ashamed of how it was.

For instance "what is the organizational structure of the Caretakers" baffled her... Anything along the lines of "well, there is my mom and she kind of listens to Erica" did not seem like a smart answer. She finally settled on a vague description that it is generally informal, with all responsibilities for any given zone granted to a single woman. She wishes though others would actually feel responsible for them...

Other time they asked why is she always using female form when referring to one of or all of the Caretakers - and it them took some time to understand and cope with the truth. They drilled down on the vague replies, asking further questions like "So only females were selected to care after the dilated populations after the failure, yes?" - she has no idea why they keep calling it that, while everybody knows it was the shutdown - but eventually she had to admit that there are only eighteen humans she knows to be alive on the outside, and that is including her - with only several having significant experience or knowledge. She was still trying to conceal the fact she was only eighteen - eventually, after she carelessly asked the leader about his age out of curiosity, it simply seemed impolite to avoid an answer when he in turn inquired mannerly. Especially given his answer - that he lost track after three hundred. Her mother was barely half that and it seemed like forever already. But she believed it.

Yes, the last two weeks were crazy for her - she even got actually attached to her littles, noticing small improvements they kept introducing to the nearby area. For instance one day she entered the zone just before dawn, anxious to continue, and spotted a regular line of lights just on the border of area she marked for her private usage - she looked at them puzzled, but the brilliant simplicity of the contraption hit her quickly. When they tried to apologise they set it up without her consent, she just trivialized it and noted she felt silly for not suggesting that earlier. Another time she noticed a number of balloons - what she later learned they were called - hanging above her spot higher than she was tall ready to signal should any problems arise, even if she was not wearing the headphone. Sometimes she thought they were now training her instead of the other way round.

But the most problematic moment came when she really had to allow somebody else in - since trying to keep the zone to herself would be perceived as selfish and weird. The same behaviour lead to isolation of Rachel and they even threatened to lock her out of zones - even though she was one of the mothers! She could easily see them taking it away from her or at least locking her out for some time to teach her good manners. So she was forced to allow somebody in - she finally figured that she could reason only let her generation "sisters" - Nicole and Amber, as if she wanted to keep it as their "secret".

So now she just content with relaxing lying on her back and enjoying the music. Ah yes, the music - they set up some sort of "amphitheatre" and got some artists to play for her. She never heard real music before - they called it post-electronic-world genre and she loved it. A strange harmony of sounds and voices that made it seem impossible that only three people were making it.

There it was - she thought of them as people just now.

But the music - they must have been really talented. The songs they sang on birthdays sounded like noise in comparison - and only if being generous. She was shocked to be discovering new things every day. And music was just the most recent one. At first she tried to lay on her side, leaning closer and trying to see them - but she was scared that some lock of hair would escape her hold and strike the ground and decided to back away. She made a mental note get a haircut as soon as possible. But she also noticed that the proximity seemed to affect their performance negatively - which actually makes sense, when she thinks about it now. She couldn't see much anyway - just a couple dots barely moving around.

Then they told her that she was "definitely their biggest fan" - and she quickly looked up the definition for 'rotating device used to cause air circulation for ventilation, made obsolete by osmotic nano membranes'. She thought it was a bit rude of them to say, as she was already trying to breathe as softly as possible, but then she could not blame them - the scale difference was still surprising her, even after two weeks. So she just apologised briefly and laid carefully on her back just next to the edge. A moment earlier they suggested to put another headphone into her other ear to hear "stereo". She was unable to look it up as she found herself submerged in a sea of sound - just like she were there. She even has to open her eyes every now and then to make sure she is still laying on her spot.

And she enjoys every moment of it, feasting in this treat for ears when something shadows the setting sun. She opens her eyes confused - to see Amber standing over her. She also notices the music silenced - looks down to see one of Amber's feet standing firmly where the amphitheatre was.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!? How many times did I tell you not to walk outside the specified area?" Kate says while trying to get up. Amber was always the rebelling type, not to mention avid for destruction - even her own mother had forbid her to use any of her zones afraid for their continuity.

"Oh did I? Sorry.." - she answered with obviously faked apology.

"Not to mention it is already light up - you would see it even looking up!"

"I told you I am sorry, big deal."

"I should have never given you open access here, why did you even..." - but stops as Amber backs away in the classic 'I don't hear you' move. Several feet away from Kate the sound becomes dilated and slows down creating a funny mute image. And when the ignoring person moves back forward, she skips the whole quarrel hearing barely a ring of compressed sound. But the spot was not big enough for this to work, so she would have to enter the surrounding ground.

Kate jumps forward catching her just before that happens.

"What are you doing?" Amber asks, this time genuinely confused.

"You..." Kate starts, but suddenly hears a voice from behind her:

"Ladies, please - you behave like some micros, one more moment and you'll start a war or worse..."

"Hello, Nicole", Kate can only murmur - shaken after Amber's nasty actions.

"So nice for you to show some manners, I would think you were lost among micros already." Nicole continues meanly "But Amber, you could also show some.. we are not here for fun, after all."

"And to what do I owe the pleasure?", Kate asks trying to regain composure as they form a triangle to hear each other well.

"Birthday planning!" Amber exclaims and Kate looks surprised.

"Yes, which probably requires some explanation.", Nicole continues, "As you probably have noticed..." - "but her birthday is two days away already and Amber's isn't due for two more weeks - what kind of planning can she have in mind?", thinks Kate while also being worried for her tinies - "and we need to... Kate, are you even paying attention?"

"Sorry, got lost there for a moment" - dangerously close to accusations for being weird or "caring for micros", the worst offence. She hoped that littles outside the amphitheatre were fine, but does not want to look at the counter not to give herself away.

"Amber's mom is a bitch, which means she probably won't get any zones and we need to prepare for that" Nicole recaps and pauses.

"What do you..." Kate starts.

"We are going to set up colonies and give them to Amber to show how great friends we are!" Nicole finishes with her usual insolent approach for other's opinions and plans. Kate thinks about it and although it sounds like a good idea - give the nasty kid something to play with so they would leave her alone. And Nicole could not care less about her zone as long as she publicly remained her "friend". One possibility broke the appealing image, which was...

"So we will need just a couple million micros from your zone to establish them nice and tidy..." Nicole continues - which makes Kate die a little inside, thinking of all her tinies that would surely be tortured and killed abducted from their homes. She must not let that happen.

"Woah, woah... that's never been done - it's the mother who always gives the zones on graduation."

"That's exactly why it's going to work - nobody will see it coming, not to mention how great we will all look, caring for each other and all."

Yeah right.. caring... why is then, that she suggests this conveniently a couple days before she gets her own zones - when it would be inappropriate for her not to donate some of her own. But Kate showing she sees through her brilliant plan would turn Nicole into a real monster. Amber may be bored and unimaginative, but one thing she has learned well about Nicole over the years is that she will not accept anything diminishing her social standing and do anything to prevent it. She needs to take another approach.

"But wouldn't it seem desperate? Especially that we would have to prepare specifically for this - everybody knows I only have one zone..."

"Oh, you're looking for problems everywhere - it does not need to look spontaneous for us to show off"

"But I mean the size, nobody makes colonies larger than several thousand" - she was exaggerating, 50-100 thousands was the usual size to properly kickstart the new zone. Anything less would require a lot of support - and that would mean work for the Caretaker...

"Well, you've got a point there, but we need at least a hundred thousands", well - that did not sound that bad, "each, and at least four colonies to look real nice", Kate suffers a bit with each escalation and decides to end bargaining quickly with as low as possible reasonable number.

"Wouldn't two be enough?"

"But it's just tiny colonies" - Amber complains.

"Precisely - don't be cheap on your friends Kate.. you must have at least thirty million micros here. What difference does it make?"

"It's not the number, it's a principle of the thing!" - Kate almost screams out, but manages to keep the thought to herself. That would be bad. "Three then, it makes it easy for each of us to only make one and if Amber creates hers under your ownership, it will make you look extra generous..." - flattery always works on Nicole, the only danger now is she will suggest five...

She contemplates the idea and must like it as she says "Let it be your way, then" - trying to bullshit her image as agreeable.

"Seriously, am I the only one who sees through her tricks?" Kate ponders.

"Hey, what about me in this discussion?" Amber throws in childishly.

"You shut up - do you want three colonies or put faith in your mother?" Nicole cuts any discussion short. Thankfully her obscurity is on Kate's side - this time...

"Fine!" Amber shouts and teleports out.

"There, it wasn't that hard, now was it?" Nicole adds insinuatingly and vanishes herself leaving Kate lost in thoughts.

Some earlier "discussions" they had in here were already problematic enough to explain for her tinies - yuck, she hated how everybody called them micros, it sounded degrading and de-humanizing.. but that was probably what it was for... She tried to picture the Caretakers as somewhat reasonable. Well, maybe not that - but at least she managed to avoid the darker parts... And every time they came here they all looked like a bunch of angry teenagers. Which they were, after all, barely out of puberty and menstruation, still angry at their mothers - but ten mile tall teenagers brought a completely new meaning to being bitchy.

When Amber came here for the first time and playfully approached one of the nearby larger cities - trampling a number of towns and villages - the population on her counter dropped below 45 million... obliterating more tinies in five seconds than Kate killed since she got the zone. And hardly even noticing it - unable to comprehend at first why was Kate mad at her or why was she asking to back walk on her footsteps.

Well, they were raised this way, Kate guessed.. but still - no imagination whatsoever, she was terrible. When she asked Nicole not to crush anything, she looked at her strangely, but at least managed to listen - still killed some by poking a village or two... Kate promises herself just now that when they graduate, she will make their visits allowed only with her permission and will keep them to the absolute minimum.

Even her conversations with the tinies has changed since they first arrived, they became a little bit more distant, less personal and sometimes even seemed a tiniest bit forced on their side.

After briefly surveying the damage - thankfully it was minimal, as the amphitheatre was set up in relative wilderness, just fields around it.. a shining bright treat for a kid to break... she shuddered - she started considering how to ask her littles for three hundred thousands sacrifices. Should she lie about what is really going to happen to them? Maybe no explanation would suffice.. but it feels like she owes them something. Perhaps just a veil of ignorance - after all she is not absolutely certain of what is going to happen to them...

Without a plan formed, she crouches and reaches for a headphone. They told her they set up a network of mikes and remote transmitters so she can speak from wherever on her spot and they will be able to hear it immediately. At first she felt as if they taken some of her privacy, but when she thought about it... it was them who were deprived of everything. Now she feels like she just betrayed them, failed their trust, unworthy and pathetic.

Putting the headphone on, she already starts talking senselessly:

"Um, hey, I wanted to..."

"Three hundred thousand volunteers?" - came voice of their leader just as she put it in her ear.

"Erm, yes..."

"It will be done."

"Thank you" - she can only say and immediately leaves unwilling to show herself bursting into tears. The headphone is disintegrated by the generator filters...

 

 

 

 

Amber is pissed. She just left Kate's zone, got back to her quarters and still feels utterly disappointed about how that turned out. Nicole promised her - well, maybe not promised, but mentioned millions of micros at first to get her to talk with Kate - Amber was ashamed, feeling like it was begging - and in the end just agreed to some measly quarter million!

Ten years ago she could use that much before breakfast... and often did, shit. The ridiculous rules mothers set up feel so awful to her. And not just her - nobody talks about it openly, but some women know, or suspect - it may be just a rumor, that her mother didn't kick her out of the zones because she cared about them - she simply wanted them for herself. Probably ran out of micros there pretty quickly too, knowing her cravings. Hell, Amber has no idea how she was coming up with those in the first place... She felt the ones Lisa got on the original distribution were long gone.

But now she is mad. Mad at Nicole for being such corrupt bitch and at Kate for.. shit, Amber does not even know what is it that she wants. Previously Amber thought that she was simply greedy - and she could not blame her for that.. the scraps they were living off now were ridiculous. Even the firsts had it better - especially with their graduation gifts. Not to mention the upsetting fact that Erica and Lauren are somehow able to provide the thirds with enough micros to be happy with... or maybe they were simply raised differently and are content with less. Ha! It feels more like they were born to late to learn what real fun feels like and now don't even know what they are missing.

But what Kate was doing shocked her. Lying down enjoying herself - and no signs of destruction or killing.. What the hell? For the brief time Amber observed her, it seemed almost like she was amused by the micros, entertained by them - as opposed to using them for fun. That seemed like some Rachel's deviation rather than normal behaviour. Everybody knows the micros were boring - how could they create anything of note - and unworthy of compassion - they all wanted to be like this... pathetic and helpless, so why not let them have it all.

But she thinks maybe she was wrong. Maybe Kate was simply enjoying herself thinking about what she was going to do. Or perhaps she just let them have some hope only to crush it later - this would actually make sense, since she refused to take training micros from her mom. They did facilitate things a lot, but tended to also share all the little details of what was about to happen with the trained zone. And if Kate kept them unaware of what's coming to them.. that would actually be better than simply playing with them outright. Kate was always quick to figure out how to have even more fun.

Ahh, how much she would love to get some happy time with Kate's zone.. just think of all those millions of micros... She could finally get some sexual gratification - the restrictions were set up right before they entered puberty and she did not feel like fucking one of the other girls yet. But micros.. yeah, they were a different story. She tried to do just that in Lisa's zones right before she kicked her. Which was probably why that happened anyway. But she could not find much satisfaction. It felt nice, knowing how their pathetic lives ended in her cunt, but she could never get her hands on enough micros to actually stimulate her. Imagining their fear in such hopeless situation usually helped though.

Maybe she could talk with Kate.. just a little fun would do - she could even play the bad girl, to make them think that Kate actually protects them, "was that fight all about it?" she wonders. And finally, even watching Kate destroying their hopes might be enough at first - the thought alone makes her wet. She starts fingering herself, but the sole idea turns out not to be enough to finish herself off. Shit.. sometimes she missed the puberty, when given the right mood and some happy thoughts about recent events were enough to get her really going. PMS and bleeding were a real bitch though.. altogether, the stoppers they were on since 16 made it better. Still fingering was much more fun back then. Or maybe she just got used to it and simply needs more stimulation now? Her thoughts go back to whether Kate will even let her play with her micros.

No.. Amber is sure she will be able to join in eventually - Kate was always nice and sharing, you just had to wait for it. On the other hand she did not remember having any fun with Kate since around the firsts graduations. She did quickly start following the firsts, since it was so much easier to get them to share some micros than from their mothers - especially Lisa. What if Kate feels rejected by her? It's not like they somehow had to play together, just.. the firsts always considered them to be too young, immature, so they had nobody else to enjoy company of than each other, really. They did that before the firsts graduations at least, yeah - there never seemed to be enough showing off for some of them afterwards.

But now she is sooo bored... She browses through their statuses on her wristcom to see if she could scrounge some micros or at least join some party or something. Kimberly seems to be very happy recently - maybe she would like to share something? But no.. she does not respond to her mesg. How about Andrea? She always seemed to be willing to meet with her, probably because she was the least popular of her gen - if not to have some fun, they may talk about some stuff to take Amber's mind off things. Yeah, that would do. As she writes some "by the way" kind of mesg, she hopes Andrea would have some extra micros to enjoy.

"Oh you should drop by, just give me half an hour" - a response arrives shortly, which is good - very good. Amber quickly prepares herself, brushing her hair and fixing her dress. Even though it was still the standard Caretaker uniform, she knows how to make it pretty. And she wanted to look just that - the firsts were continuously getting more serious, caring about their own images and who they are dealing with. They also became more careful with their zones - trying to keep some spare micros here and there just in case. Even repopulating and colonizing some - it meant one thing - less fun, if any at all, actually. Courtney, for instance, have not thrown a party in over a year.. and Amber is sure she still has quite many decent zones. April and Heather only spare others some scraps. Greedy bitches...

But she does not care about that now. After about twenty minutes she mesgs Andrea if she can come in and receives the zone details. She waits for the confirmation - hell, almost all firsts switched everything to manual permission mode. For her at least - but she heard they are not so trusty among themselves anymore either. Once April told her that she should be thankful they let her in at all, but that did not change what Amber though about this.

When she enters the Andrea's zone she notices she knows this place. Some women, like Kate, are able to remember the coords of multiple zones and know where they are going to before teleporting, but she never really cared about that. It's either she'll have some fun or not - who cares about where she is going.

This zone was kind of special, though. Andrea explained her once how she organized her zones so that she treats micros nicely - relatively speaking - which encourages their reproduction and everything. When she wants to have fun, she takes some to one of three zones she keeps specifically for that purpose. It must be fun for the micros preparing to settle a new zone only to learn they will be dead shortly. It has some disadvantages as well, but right now Amber does not care about it, really. She also likes how Andrea actually tells her some stuff about managing zones and all... other firsts don't want to share their "secrets" - like it was a fucking contest or something! And mothers.. well, being able to speak with any of them seriously is an accident rather than norm. Not to mention she was increasingly certain the school was total shit when it comes to things that are actually useful.

But Andrea inviting her here suggested that some fun is coming. She also loved the fact that only Andrea was here - many parties recently ended with others laughing at her and even sometimes skipping her while splitting micros. Andrea did not have enough shit in her to do that alone with her, no - she must be planning something.

Either way, she lays down on the ground fiddling with something a dozen away from Amber or so, and looks up to notice their eyes meet. After Andrea signals her to come closer, she promptly moves forward. Stupid micros and their micro fields - they cannot talk at this distance. She learned that it does not pay to be bitchy with the firsts. Mothers usually ignored that - but also her when it came to inviting others for fun. Well, they did not pay much attention to any kids, actually, but she was only angry they did not invite her. She moves carefully trying not to leave the trodden path and when she is close enough, she speaks:

"Hi An, what's cooking?"

"Am, nice to see you.. just shh and look..."

She looks down. In front of Andrea lies a standard iron plate - they quickly learned they can dilate solid simple objects as they enter the zones and flat plates were useful for many things. As she leans forward, she can see something else.. like... yeah, definitely two lines of micros on the sides of the plate. One is still irregular, but as she watches, they seem to move into the shape.

That was strange.. she thought what for Andrea may want them to position like that - it didn't make sense for dragging vag, there are not enough micros to even register for that. They were too little apart for nipple drag - and not enough as well... Licking them off the plate would be disgusting - to put their tongues where some micros walked.. besides it would be much easier to simply drop them into their mouths.

"What are you.." - she started, but Andrea interrupted:

"It's a little trick Kim figured out just yesterday." - She referred to Kimberly. Shit, they had a party yesterday and I was not invited! - "It may look strange, but it feels very nice. Just watch." - she pulls a tube of some sort from her pocket.. no, it was far to big for micros to produce - four inches or so. It must be the shell of some plastic pen from the assembler, she figures as she spots a torn off ending.

What happens next baffles her - Andrea puts one end to her nose and the other down next to one of the lines and, sealing her other nostril, sniffs softly while dragging the shell. She can see no sign of the micros from that line left when Andrea rotates her head to the side and closes her eyes. Is she enjoying this? It seems really weird... how could it even feel nice - she hates when anything falls into her eyes or nose - it irritates her a lot, but micros...

"It's more economical than the other ways and can still make you wet", says Andrea and hands her the tube - "Here, you try."

Amber carefully takes the tube from her and slowly lowers down to get on her fours. She preferred not to annoy one of her.. if not the only real friend - by squashing some town by laying down like Andrea. Especially that she just let her in on a promising treat.

"Are these.. locals?" Amber asks - it makes a big difference whether the micros are brought from another zone or locally gathered. With locals there are chances that fair amount of them will be missed by their families or friends - while imported ones may have been told they will be fine and will colonize and shit. The remaining silly micros may even believe that story and not be worried about them. But she would not mind using imported ones, just.. knowing if they were locals would make it so much better.

"Ha! Locals... and volunteers!" - Ambers eyes widened. Stupid micros sacrificing themselves for some silly loved ones. Maybe for some pregnant females or children... Yesss.. they will be surely missed - and remembered. That is even better than she hoped for. Hell, she could probably climax just after squashing them alone - and if Andrea said it was better... She really needs to find out how she makes the micros to do that - usually reaping them only works by picking up entire town and strongly encouraging to move onto the remaining section of the plate by bulldozing the village slowly. Some still don't move and get crushed - but it seems that usually survival instincts prevail - even if that saves them for only a moment. It also adds some extra fun to the play. A simpler alternative is to deal with the settlement right out - but only bigger cities introduce any special sensations and they are soo rare... But volunteers.. she was never able to make the micros move onto a plate like that on their own. Well, obviously not just like that - they must be encouraged somehow, but.. Yeah. she must learn how she managed to do it.

Speaking of whom, Andrea looks down to see that some of them have already broke away from the formation and speaks:

"Hey, remember what happens if you don't..."

Amber wonders what she means - obviously an arrangement of some kind, did she promise them something? Hell, later - now she just wants to enjoy this as she prepares to repeat what Andrea did earlier. She cannot help but notice that it looks like some of the micros are actually dragging others to form the line - with her face so close to the plate.

"Just carefully, lock your nostrils around it and relax, slowly moving forward with a casual breath-in. Don't force it - or it'll go straight to your lungs." Andrea advises.

Amber tries to do just that. At first she realizes she must be sniffing too fast, but fortunately also moves the tube away from the line and some of the micros remain, so she tries again - this time softer. It hits her like a delicate tingling, almost as if she was about to sneeze - but much lighter. She can actually feel them inside! And the feeling remains with her for some time. She cannot help but gasp and moan.

"See, told you so!" Andrea exclaims while punches her in the arm. Surprised she loses balance and falls on her side and then onto her back - now she simply does not care...

"Useful little trick, isn't it? It gets boring after a while, so you need to alternate it with other ways - but feels great, doesn't it?"

"Yeeaah.." she can only reply. After a moment opens her eyes and notices Andrea has already stood up and looks at her joyfully.

"I'm leaving, You want to stay for a while?" - she nods still enjoying the sensation. "Okay, suit yourself" - she hears and notices how she browses something on her wristcom for a while and vanishes. Too long for only the teleportation, not enough for messaging and invitation - she must have saved the pop counter, what a bitch... No trust whatsoever - she even feels provoked for some destruction just because by that realization, but figures out that Andrea was nice for her and does not want to ruin it...

She also quickly notices that she will not need anything more than the memory of such experience coupled with the local volunteers to climax - "Was Andrea shitting me about that?" - she thinks, but it does not matter as she quickly comes... Untrusting bitch even will get some help with repopulating, she thinks as she dozes off.

 

 

Nicole lays on her back in one of her mother's zones trying not to move at all. She thinks about her little growing web of intrigue. The plan regarding the graduation was just the beginning – the Amber's one, of course, even though right now she is readying for hers today.

She lets out a long yawn – she had to get up early today, actually needed to ask Erica to wake her up because these silly temp wristcoms simply don't seem to have any functions.. - but regrets opening her mouth a bit, when she feels a tiniest prickle on the tip of her tongue. She forgot they were still working on her lips. Oh well, they will have to get other vehicles and crews to do that, she concludes sealing her lips. But she reminds herself not to repeat this, since she did not want to be late for her party – or show up without the makeup.

It always frustrates her how long it takes for micros to apply it.. and how much heavy machinery it seemed to require. So many micros and equipment... She had to lay still for hours not to prepare for any celebration... She is surprised, however, that she actually felt the massive vehicle exploding on her tongue. Huh.. at least that's how the micros described it... Although many machines were actually noticeable for her – many years ago she would not even think the micros were capable of constructing moving contraptions that big. Buildings were a different matter – and even then anybody could put up a bunch of dirt together to make bigger towers than the micros did.. or whatever was it they were using to make them.

And of course even despite the machines “massiveness” it still took hours for several of them to apply lipstick. She did not even feel others that fell deep into her throat... pathetic. She remembers how mothers praised not having to do it themselves – as apparently before the shutdown they could manufacture various tools for improving ones look. Cosmetics they were called – if she recalls correctly – and now their restricted assemblers are unable to produce them.

She heard it took mothers a long time for micros to come up with some materials and ways of applying them that would not break while de-dilating on their skin. She hasn't really paid any attention in school to what the mechanism was, but the implication is that she cannot remove anything from the zone that is not very closely on her. She can move things across the zones, but not out to their quarters. It was so annoying, the micros had to make sure the materials settle in and properly de-dilate... It would be so much easier to do it herself – especially how the micros seemed to fail miserably at everything like just now.

She also thinks how ridiculous it is to get off by crushing micros or whatever it is the others are doing with them. She sometimes even feels amused watching the ever more ways they come up with to use micros on her bodies or whatever – but it just feels so silly.

Sure, ramming some buildings in her pussy or ass was nice every now and then – but given the current scarcity of micros, you couldn't do that too often. And why would want to you, in the first place... how horny some women must be to constantly look for micros to stimulate themselves with. Amber for instance always seems to look for something to crush, play with or whatever she is doing with micros nowadays. Ridiculous, but also good for Nicole – it will be so much easier to ensure Amber's obedience by offering help with obtaining what she needs.

That is the real power – being feared and respected, making others listen to her and do what she wants. Sure micros do all that – but it is so trivial to make them.. just enter a zone and you are done. No, the real power is to influence other Caretakers. She has always envied her mother that... How is she doing that anyway – other mothers seemed too experienced and powerful for this. She could see the effects of Erica's authority so many times – sometimes even when everybody else wanted to do otherwise, she managed to turn them around – and seemingly without any threatening or fighting and often not using any logical reasons. Like when she forced everybody to conserve micros.. why would she even care about that? She remembers how Rachel was trying to convince them for years using various arguments with no effect – but when Erica said so, it just happened.

Well, it was probably the same with them as with Amber and Kate – once you knew enough about them, learned what makes them tick, you could steer them to accomplish your goals. She wonders what is it that really interests Kate – up until recently Nicole thought she was a lot like her: some play and pleasure with micros, some conversation with others, also liked getting some appreciation for whatever she was doing... just everything, maybe except the control part. But recently she just vanished in her zone – even before she was preparing for it. What was she doing down there? Well, whatever – as long as she was her friend, it does not matter.

Oh yes, she thinks of Kate – sweet, sweet Kate. Her smooth skin, shapely breasts, deep brown eyes and straight dark hair, curiously . She wonders how most women prefer to keep the hair rather short to make its care easier. She was taught to keep it economic as well, but it did add a certain.. style the person's look. Only Lauren and Kate let their hair grow below neck and she knew Andrea's mother was spending a lot of time and effort to maintain a nice form. Well, it wasn't her effort, obviously – she simply has a lot of micros to do that... - the hygiene pods they have could hardly be used for anything more than cleaning body filth and odor – and to have them work on her hair.. she has never seen the facilities Lauren uses, but they must be very complex. As for Kate, it seems she has it naturally smooth and soft – which makes her ever more beautiful, in a way. The funniest part about Kate's hair though is that she only got it recently, when preparations for her graduation were more important than getting a cut... Maybe she should grow hers as well? Maybe these long manes would bring them even closer together?

But Nicole isn't exactly sure what attracts her to Kate. Her beauty isn't especially sophisticated – any some other girls looked like this.. just not quite. Perhaps it is just her plain nicety that she appeals to Nicole – they were always friends. Or at least as friendly as Caretakers can be to each other – it seemed.

One more thing that surely makes Nicole want her intimacy, is that Kate is not easy. Nicole is pretty sure she is still a virgin – sure they had some fun with micros, but if she had any real sex, then Nicole would know about it. The very idea to have sex with any mother seemed absurd - you could just as well want to be fucked by a wall or have intercourse with the medbed, although she suspected Amber might have tried the latter... Kate was not wicked and devious enough to use the thirds somehow and the last possibility was one of the firsts - but they would immediately make the fact well known – it became sort of contest among them who will be first to fuck the next generations. Amber was easy for instance, she imagined all it took for her to give in was a party with a stash of micros. Nicole hated herself for giving her first time so easily – when you have a perspective of immortal life, the first time every kind of activity you perform becomes very special. And sex is most certainly the most intimate and personal... It is certainly not nice when somebody makes a trophy out of it. Yes, she really blames and hates firsts for it – and her mother that she did not warn her – and others for... in fact she could find reasons for hating everybody.

Maybe except Kate.. sure they had problems, they fought at times, even hurt each other – but always seemed to get together smoothly. Was this the reason Nicole found her attractive? If so, that could be dangerous – she has seen this time and again: emotions are dangerous. The only possible reason to show them is to suggest others that you are natural, genuine. Even exercising anger is pointless – she learned that from Erica. She was never angry – or at least has never shown it. Displaying emotions made her predictable.. made her vulnerable... made her weak. And this is why she must not show Kate what she really feels for her. Her mother knew better than that. And she tried to follow her.

But now she has to finish her makeup and prepare for her party. This is so boring, why couldn't those micros work any faster? Are they purposely messing with her? No.. they were just so pathetic...

Speaking of pathetic, her thoughts went back to her friend's graduation – is there anything that could go wrong with it? Lisa sometimes joked how she would love to get some more fun with micros. An obvious sign of running out of them – but would she really be sick enough to disappoint Amber by not giving her anything? Nicole is hoping for it... More – she assumes it. Lisa does not seem able to control herself when it comes to playing with micros. She was able to convince Amber that this surely will happen – and everything would break, should she be wrong with this.

Well, maybe not everything. She would still have Kate – but she needs to work on her some more. The doubt and even questioning her plan seemed a bit too much for reasonable concerns. Was she hiding something? Nicole definitely needs to pay closer attention to her. And of course she will always have Amber submission, maybe not that unquestionable if the plan fails – but still. It feels like she could have her right now, if she wanted. It will become even easier after today's graduation – when a mere mention of some fun with her newly acquired micros should make Amber do what she wanted. But Nicole would not want to do it with her.. or would she? The thought of being licked by her stiffened her nipples – maybe the problem was not the feelings for anybody, but the simple need for sexual gratification? Should she play with the micros to make sure her behavior during the party is reliable?

No.. she will handle it. She needs to practice her self-restraint to be able to make the best out of tough situations. Today is not one of them, hence the practice is safe. She has everything planned: the graduations, how to deal with Amber and Kate, how to increase her standing with the firsts and maybe even some of the mothers – she will finally be like them, with her own zones and everything – which meant no more ridiculing and making fun of her. She will only need to prove that she is worthy.

Yes, everything is ready. Nicole even went through the trouble of colonizing already – she was a bit surprised Kate came to her with the micros ready so fast after their little discussion. She seemed really disturbed and unwilling to share.. was she actually concerned about the others perception of this plan? And more importantly – was Nicole actually wrong to go with it? It seemed great, no – it was great. What could go wrong? In the worst case they get some laughs, not for the first time.. and in the best – well, this was something new.. something than the firsts have not ever done, something that will strengthen her influence over Amber and Kate. Yes, it was foolproof.

And the colonization... it was simply ridiculous – the micros was unable to do anything, constantly relied on her, asked her to do things... like what was she do... help them? Ridiculous... she just dropped the suckers in the zone Kate claimed for her – Nicole will get the ownership after her graduation – then moved some micros from one of her mothers zone to make sure they are all properly trained. She did not want to risk leaving them after Kate's training – maybe she failed to do it properly? It was weird to try to teach new micros the proper behavior by explaining it to them.. Why not just give them some already trained ones and make sure to stress that if they all don't behave properly – like in the other zones – well, they just better do that, because they were damn hard to come by and she did not want to waste them pointlessly.

At first she wanted to just move a lot of micros from one of her mothers zones and not even bother with Kate – but she seemed to have ways of finding who did such thing... and stealing micros was like the worst thing to do nowadays. Playing with them without permission could be reasonable – especially that why would the owner even let the offender in? “Here feel free to come to my zone, see my micros – but no, you cannot play with them at all...” - it feels like a fucking joke. That's why what Kate is doing is so weird – but she must have her reasons, Nicole settles. No – sneaking a lot of micros would only expose her to be ridiculed again...

Besides, this way she had an opportunity to make Kate submit to her authority. And it felt great – even that she does not care about Amber getting anything, really...

She looks at the time and notices that micros have fortunately finished working on her lashes and eyelids – she hated the irritating feeling they made when falling into her eyes and they had to walk on them while she kept them closed. She could not feel them on her skin, of course, but inside the eye it was annoying. They were such a pain to get rid of... Whatever – she should have waited for them to tell her they are done with it, especially that it is getting dangerously close to start of the party – she simply does not have time for yet another team to replace any losses, hence she closes her eyes and just waits. “I swear if they take much longer...”, she thinks trying to calm herself.

She wishes she had enough time to also get some work on her feet – that required her to lay on her belly since the micros were unable to get onto. Usually that is not a problem and she rotates waiting for them to do both sides and enjoying the time away from other Caretakers, but yesterday was busy colonizing and simply did not think of it and today she does not have the entire day. How did they call it when she asked for it today? Unable to climb “the vertical cliff of her foot” - while she is laying on her back. She made sure to crush their representative for suggesting something was wrong with her feet - whatever “cliff” meant. They should really work on their manners, stupid micros. And they should have figured out a way to do what she wanted them to do! It's not like it would improve her look – the damn standard sneakers completely cover the foot making showing off any makeup impossible – but it may have improved her mood. Either way, she cannot wait to get her hands on some real wardrobe... But now she returns to her plans.

“Is there anything else I could do during the graduations?” – she wonders. She could not work the mothers, it was obvious. Trying to get anything useful from them was like talking with micros... When it comes to the firsts, she already knows enough and the only problem is that they do not respect her. You cannot influence anybody if you are not taken seriously by them, she learned pretty quickly. She already has a firm grasp on the other seconds, which leaves.. well, the thirds could definitely use some herding, so happy and careless. It suddenly hits her that it was strange in a way – Erica seemed to control other mothers and almost own the firsts – but she never really tried to pursue the further generations. Did she leave them for Nicole? Was she actually testing her to see if she can rise up to be like her? The implication if this was true were quire profound...

In any case, she concludes that she needs to work on the thirds now as well. Even if anything fails, it could be a backup plan.

And then is told via a headphone that the micros have finished the work on her body and are now moving the last of... - but she is already getting up. “The suckers will never learn”, is her last thought before teleporting to the party.

Part I – Designing a giantess friendly environment.

Adam Ferdam is a joke. Or at least his entire life was so far. Even his parents figured that out before he was even born – and gave him a name that would rime with his last name. A small detail – but it seems everybody he introduces himself to notices that, “Oh, what an almost rhyming name” - he gets that a lot. And it seems to make everybody taking him less seriously, including himself.

Even though he was getting 9+ rates, he only finished his school by the age of 21 – the average was about 17. He always preferred to have some fun instead of studying and since there was no upper age for it... Well, many people did have lots of fun in their teens – but the school was also fun, and really easy – so You did not need to worry about much. Hence the average was usually low. But for him finishing school meant having to become more serious. Some college? The University? His parents of course wanted him to get to the latter – and with his attitude tests scores he would have little problem getting in. But then he would have to actually do something...

That's why he is “studying” architecture in local city college. Apparently his parents have great sense of humor – and for a couple years they simply thought it was a practical joke. What difference does it make what you do with a couple of years if you have a perspective of eternity. They recounted how they used to rebel in their thirties or forties – just around the Second Reorganization, when everybody had reasons to rebel. Well, his father did rebel then, at least – mother is, as she likes to put it “ancient” and her early years were quite different...

Either way, when they started complaining about it, he asked them if they mind paying his taxes – and of course they answered no, it is not a problem and that he can take his time – but in the same sentence complained how they wanted him to do something with his life. Adam simply preferred to listen to the former.

After 37 years of living more or less with them, he is tired – he has no idea how they managed to stay together for almost 60 now... was it because they were both equally annoying? He wondered sometimes.. if his mother was over hundred seventy when she met and liked her father of barely eighty.. was she a cougar? Doesn't matter. Their relationship is, as almost all of them, unofficial – only joined by.. well, living, working, traveling, paying taxes, sleeping together and – probably most importantly for Adam – raising him. But they could go away from each other any moment they wanted – which would create some problems for him... But he assumes he is good for another 40 years or so.

And in another two or three more years he will get his college certificate.. but he doubted he would be able to make enough on his own to pay his taxes. Architects weren't exactly wanted nowadays. Like her mother mocks him... “But isn't everything built already?” Well, she has a point – but surely someday people must.. change their construction taste or something.

So he is biding his time and tries to extend his education for as long as he can. It is not easy, unfortunately. The college bureaucracy is unbearable – in order to get two weeks of free time, he had to keep sending requests to teachers, group leaders, units and various less known organizational entities for almost a month. Apparently nobody thought of a unified system to defer one's studies and tests. Everybody prefers to attend them in a timely manner. Time is money, after all. But now it wasn't his money – and mom and dad, annoying as they were – surely aren't poor, both employed in the Security Works. Thats why they wanted him to do something meaningful... Maybe someday.

So he enjoys his private holiday in their part-time owned countryside house. Well, technically apartment – but since the other one was currently empty, he was enjoying the quiet isolation. He even managed to borrow his parents skycar... took much longer than a month to arrange that one. They were always seemed worried that he would take every risk possible while driving it - even now they only agreed to borrow it when he agreed to only use autopilot. Sure.. for take off and landing, perhaps – but everything else.. as long as he keeps away from large buildings and avoids sudden turns, they had no way of checking if he is using auto or not.

They were nagging him ever since he wanted to have some real fun and turned off his engine mid flight. “How could You risk something like that?” “Aren't you worried about yourself?” “You know meds wouldn't pick you up!” - were the arguments they used, but come on, every skycar had backup systems, not to mention it would enable auto if he fallen low enough. It was deep in the farmland anyway, so except some fines there would not be any problems.. almost all farm machinery was automated nowadays, creating no human risk.

He even pointed that he was equipped with a parachute - “But.. how could you even think about using that thing!”, mom was especially worried about his safety – since she learned to appreciate the longevity over time. But it was so hard to get some real thrill nowadays as everything was tightly controlled and even simulated experiences were no fun when your brain got used to the idea that you respawn when dead. Was he thinking he would also respawn outside VR? Nah.. that thought was silly...

Besides, who cares now.. just relax, enjoy his nine more days of peace... maybe even he could get out to try this new countryside market they opened a couple hundred kilometers away – apparently it had real, fresh and actually farmed fruits and vegetables, identical taste with the originals... His friends said it was pretty fun. Which in their vocabulary meant only worthy if you are bored at 8 or more on the scale of 1 to 10. What couldn't genetic creations accomplish nowadays...

He would rate his boredom at 10, but no, fruits do not interest him. He needs something.. more exciting. So instead, he just lays on the balcony in the early afternoon sun.

“What the heck?”, he spots something very large in the distance, “Who would put some balloons in the shape of...”, but.. the figure seems to be moving, just barely breathing and looking around is noticeable. Wait, breathing? It must be some illusion... Adam instinctively tries to use his shortcuts to enter the VR menu, but.. his fingers do not hold the controller – and this is the real life.

He keeps looking at the phenomenon – was it some ad now? It would be unusual to put it in the probably the most remote point of the entire zone – nothing but farmland and towns with maintenance engineers and visitors like him. On the other hand it should be visible from the entire state – but.. who could manage to set up something that huge so fast, seemingly in a blink of an eye. Especially that it seems like a girl – but it is impossible to estimate its size lacking any point of reference.. at least a couple kilometers judging by the distance. Lets see.. whitish outfit, some sort of sneakers with orange “C” on the side. Her trousers also have C on the outer sides, same with a sort of.. shirt? Who wears those.. or who would advertise them? The outfit is basically asexual, but he can clearly see it has a female figure, dark eyes, black neck-long hair, decent tits. One thing that does not make sense is that she seems to be a bit... chubby? When was the last time he used that word? Where does he even learn it? Not much, but.. to advertise with a non-ideally-slim figure? Either way, he figures that this C must be the key to all this. Trying several searches on his com, he finds no product that would match – maybe they will be launching it shortly as...

It moves... She moves... How could anything move that fast? Was it some hallucination of his? Perhaps they perfected holograms as he hears no sounds of her walking...

But he can feel them shortly – every step is followed by a small quake after 5 or 6 seconds.. small, at this distance. Adam notices how she walks very carefully, putting down her feet softly, carefully surveying the ground almost as if she was afraid of... No, wait – he must be hallucinating, right?

“Let's see the news feed”, he thinks while putting on his omni.

“... still unable to believe what we are seeing. It appears she is nearing the 87/13 crossing town. Ladies and... “, he removes it, since he has better view from his balcony than the reporter... wait... “Map destination 87/13 sky”, his com opens the suggested air traffic paths – direct approach 71 kilometers. But even as she is crouching now, he can see her as if she was just...

Wait, does she.. speak? Is she speaking now? It looks almost as if she is actually talking while looking down at the ground – the town, probably. But he cannot hear her due to the distance, he figures. He puts back his omni, searching for a news feed closer to her just as he can hear noise, just like.. thundering footfalls, he realizes. It takes over two minutes for the sound to reach him, which means.. if he waits a bit, then her voice should also reach him. But how is this even.. 70 kilometers to 87/13, she looks more like 10 kilometers tall – maybe even more. From here, he can clearly see her side, the C's on the shirt, the smooth simple hair, the side of one shoe, her arm gesticulating softly – his eyes keep jumping up and down, left to right.

If it wasn't for the local town houses getting smaller further into the distance, he could swear he was standing – no, laying down - on the ground and she was crouching only several meters from him. Suddenly he can hear a loud, but soft, like.. girlish, happy – but perhaps also concerned, young voice:

“Hi, I'm Kate, nice to meet you. I don't want to hurt you guys, so just be careful and don't...” It is so surreal to see her talk and sound to reach you only after some time. And she does not want to hurt us? Suddenly the weight of the situation hits him.. if she was really... She is so huge that she can easily crush the entire town flat with.. a single step? Or clap of her hand? She could reach him in.. several seconds?

But “she does not want to hurt us”. He never felt so excited and anxious in his life. He tries to pay attention to what she is saying again and it seems that she continues to talk how she would like them to vacate the area around her – but she is crouching in the middle of nowhere! As long as she does not crush the town it does not matter where... Oh no, she can't see it. She must be aware that people are too small for her to notice and she is afraid to crush somebody.. She really does not want to hurt us.

One more thing Adam notices, is that even though she is asking for various things – well, at times they seem more like orders – she never stops to wait for any answers or even confirmation, just carries on. That is not the usual way to speak, but since she probably cannot hear the people anyway...

But then she begins repeating herself, asking to be careful and that she means no harm, and how we do not need to worry... What is happening out there that she is so troubled...

Lets see... news feeds will probably all transmit her omni, without any other information. Heads! Nothing seems interesting – crazy talk for the end of the world, unpopular since things settled down after the Failure. Lots of “You will not believe what is happening” and such. Hmm.. “Caretaker appears in south-west state, communication and transport restoration imminent?” - a caretaker? He learned in some history classes on uTopia about them.. weren't they the engineers and specialists left outside the chambers to make sure the facility functions correctly? But a couple decades after the Failure everybody assumed they must be... she looks all but dead. In fact, she seems more worried about them than about herself. Babbling about their safety and everything... She did not seem very mature to be a caretaker... and why on earth would one of them ever enter the zone full sized? Well, the Failure must have broken the communications really badly – and now, after almost a hundred years, they must be trying to fix it. Maybe she is not that young, just meds were more advanced out there? The ones they had were able to keep people's natural look within the range of early thirties – so he already looked roughly as old as everybody else. Anybody younger was considered immature, kids... His parents did not have problems with calling him a kid or a boy even up until 26 – and it only changed when they found him with some girl in bed... They even made fun of him calling him a “man” since then.. for 6 years...

But no.. she does not seem to be on the mix yet, unless they solved all of its slight side effects – and at this size he was pretty sure she looked very young. 20? Maybe 19.. a sweet age, just around the time when you mature and really become fully adult. Physically at least. And she definitely looked like an adult - but why no makeup at all? Or incredibly well concealed. But a woman would at least put some lipstick and eyeshade.. even a professional at work. If she was his size, he might consider her somewhat interesting, especially given the unusual raw look. But he would no longer consider such age sexy. Attractive – yes, appealing – perhaps, but after he reached mid thirties, kids were right out – it was fun, but after sex you could barely have a conversation. Not to mention they always seemed to want gifts and such... If they can't work yet – like him – don't they have parents?

And at this size she seemed just... overpowering. Like, a commercial skyscraper cluster, but no.. she was so much bigger. If she laid down.. – but even then hardly anything would be comparable to her... Cities are very condensed, rarely upto 4 kilometers in diameter. Reservoir lakes perhaps? They are some 8 kilometers across if he recalls correctly – she could barely bathe in the largest ones.

Right then, Adam makes a decision. He gets to the skycar and is going to fly to her to see her up close – if the sight was thrilling from this far, then how it must feel from the 87/13. And if she changed her mind about hurting them, there was nothing that could stop her from doing that – and even then, it would be easier to run away in the air.

He starts an engine and leaves the roof ignoring traffic rules but simply rolling towards her. When high enough, he kicks off the other one and speeds up to maximum. It will still take a good 8 minutes... she carefully walked a seemingly longer distance in less than two... Maybe it was a bad idea to approach her?

He turned the news feed – they were reporting of the newest developments, a lot of accidents around the zone – everybody seemed to focus all their attention on the new landmark. There was a mention that many religious cults saw this as a sign to transcend, others were simply too scared and simply passed their life to somebody else. There was a report from Zonin – the state on the other side of the zone - even crouching down she was easily visible on the horizon.. although significantly hazed by the atmosphere. “That must be a sight as well..” Adam thinks – at his current distance of 50 kilometers he can see her perfectly clearly in the usual dry southwestern summer air.

The strangest thing is that even that Adam is flying towards her – at the skycar's maximum altitude of three kilometers, even below her kneecaps – the illusion makes her looming monumental form seem even bigger and further away. His brain simply cannot properly process human form at this scale. Soon he is unable to perceive her as a person, being only able to notice specific parts of her body as if separate, enormous objects – her hands carefully lowering onto the ground between her legs, which in turn seem like humongous towers built at an angle – her bosom is already obscured by her legs, as she is still crouching – but her concerned, pretty face impends from the sky.

His attention is brought to navigator's warning lights – which he quickly finds alarm of coming close to a restricted airspace – usually established only around centers of the cities and important places, like water reservoirs or major transportation hubs. He contacts the regional controller, only to hear an automated voice of the Security Service system, warning him that he is dangerously close to the restricted space and needs to turn away immediately – have they arrived at the scene so fast to take control of the civilian traffic as well? He requests a contact with a human – knowing enough about flying around SS facilities that the request blocks any automated actions and it will probably take enough time for him to land, tour the place while taking in the sights and fly away before they contact...

“Flyer 9361/Z/73/AD, you are nearing the restricted area, what is your imperative, over.” - he can hear a female voice, with tone screaming of decades experience in SS – and only seconds after his request.

“Um”, surprised and trying to figure out how to reply, “I was... asked to pick up some friends in the town... I heard about the evacuation... over?” - he bluffs and is unsure how to interpret the silence on the other side. If he turned back now, it would invalidate his story, so just holds on to his controls bracing for how they react.

“9361/Z/73/AD, your access is confirmed” Adam hears the operator say and disconnect without even asking for confirmation. Damn, they must be running amok out there – SS was known to be the most bloated and bureaucratic institution in all the states – the fact that it seems to be the one remaining federal agency is probably the main reason for it.

He is shocked to see how all restrictions markings vanish from his navigator overlay, he expected them to grant him 87/13 approach vector, but it seems they simply allowed him to freely roam around! He wonders if he could fly closer to the... But no – they would probably react to that as quickly as to his request. Still he is only barely able to stop himself from changing course to approach the shapely calfs...

If she was immense before, at eight kilometers away the sight could barely fit into the skycar's limited field of view. Adam wonders if he should use his omni to transmit front cameras broader view, but gazing at the with his eyes seemed so much more real and thrilling... he is also certain that if he saw this view in the binocles, he would simply assume it must be some sort of visualization, just like he felt watching the reporter's feed at the appartment.

And the town was even closer to her – maybe three kilometers away from her sneakers, each of them was easily wider than the entire town – but her face, he still perceived it as a separate entity, leaned towards it much more forward from high above. She was just explaining how she would like them to prepare some means of communication, like “colorful objects”? It sounded a bit.. childish... He wonders if anybody is actually still left down there – the SS seemed to act so quickly, that they might have taken steps to evacuate everybody already. He did not think about it when he bluffed – but they bought it, so he assumes he is good for now.

As he descends somewhat erratically – landing on manual control was never his thing – he loses the sight of her face and then even the enormous legs in front of him. He chooses not to look into the left window, since any distractions right now might be bad – and auto would turn the skycar inside out, unable to figure out any sense out of the surroundings. The image recognition algorithms probably were not exactly used to analyzing a sight of ten kilometer tall girl... Or bigger – was she even bigger? Before her view moved to his side, he could think she could be dozens of kilometers high.. but that was impossible since the zone's roof are less than fifty kilometers above the ground and she wasn't reaching it, even while standing up.

He will need to check the heads to see if anybody figured her size already – people always seemed ingenious to figure out everything about any event that was happening around. But right now.. the landing... Damn, autos should do that, balancing the skycar in horizontal position while slowing down both forward motion and descent required paying attention to nine different readings and visualizations, a good handling of the reduced-feedback controls and most importantly – a lot of experience with flying acrobatics. Usually if he wanted to land manually, he would first slow down to almost zero and then descend – while maneuvering his exact heading. But right now, he just wanted to get out of the skycar and see.. her in full size.

Would the systems save him if he did something wrong – he wonders. His altitude was already too low for auto or safeties to react properly, and the only thing he has is the parachute.. he heard that they have a minimum height required to open, is he already below it? “I can do this” he thinks and continues descending towards a seemingly large enough square at the side of the town.

The touchdown is a bit rough – he was a bit too excited to properly decelerate – but everything looks okay, so he leaves the skycar and... “Oh god, this is just...” he thinks...

Overwhelming.

The reference to “his god” was just something he got used to when dating a girl a couple decades back – a catholic cultist, apparently, with an annoying habit of pushing her “God” into every situation it could fit. “Oh my God” “Thank God” “Good God”... but when they left each other, it seemed like in the most difficult situations he could recall one of her sayings. “Oh god” always reminded him of her screams during sexual fun they had together.. and lots of.

But now the dark brown eyes are so far up in the sky, and yet they are still so big, that the illusion is she is looking directly at him, even though they are probably fixed on the town in general. All the while talking about.. things. But he ignores the thunderlike voice – which is coming from her barely parted lips, as if she was talking carefully. Naturally beautiful lips, he thinks.

For at least several minutes Adam can only gawk upwards, completely shocked.

When finally able to collect himself, he is surprised to realize that now the voice seems in sync with the lips – he was already used to them being like two separate concepts. It is strange that it takes them only a fraction of a second to reach him from several kilometers above – while maybe ten or twenty times further away it took minutes. But Adam adds it to the list as another strange thing about her as he tries to view her as single entity – incredibly, amazingly, astonishedly, unbelievably, incomprehensibly humongous being.

Eventually, he again starts to listen to the voi.. to her talking, but nothing changed since she crouched down – all the same kind of chatter she filled the air with for almost half an hour now. While he is trying to figure out what it can possibly mean – a figure approaches him. Preparing to explain his reasons for being here – as obviously he has been standing on the square for a good ten minutes now, Adam is asked with the man almost shouting into his ear:

“Are you doing anything important here?”

“Well, I wasn't really.. I just wanted to...”

“Then come with me” - he is baffled by the request. He was expecting the person to send him away, or at least demand an explanation...

“But.. where? What for?” - he asks trying to catch up with the man, who simply turned around and is now walking back to wherever he came from.

“You seen her?” - the man asks rhetorically, pointing upwards – in the direction of the woman - “She asked us to try and contact her and we're doing just that.”

“But wait.. how...”

“That's just what we're trying to figure out now.”

“And who are we?”

The man stops and turns towards him - “Jack Hendricks, mayor of the place until an hour ago has been unknown to everyone – and three others.”

As they go to their destination – which turns out to be the city management building – Adam learns that most of the people drove away before anyone could figure out what is going on and when she asked them to communicate there was only the mayor, two maintenance folks and one tourist left – all of them have simply assumed, that if she wanted to, as she put it, “hurt them” – even despite what she was saying – the distance from her simply would not matter.

And they were left with an impossible task – how to communicate with somebody, whose tips of shoes easily reach the highest skyscrapers.

They had a good view of her from the street in front of the building, where they tried to discuss the possibilities. Adam learned they have tried contacting SS, but getting even a word of information from them was like purchasing land... simply not happening. The city was also mostly deaf – they only told them to do whatever she wanted. Like they could actually defy her... So now they are five people – and doing exactly what she suggested was no use, obviously. Even if they reprogrammed the farming vehicles to form letters of some kind – as they haven't figured out what to even say, it would still take hours for them to move into position – and she was constantly watching the city, so how would she even notice the message...

All the time they discussed, Adam tried to glance over her – noticing the subtle movements of her body. Breathing, casual shift of weight, supporting herself with a hand... Even the most mundane action was magnified to the boundaries of his comprehension.

Since the sun was already slowly setting down, they figured they can try to contact her by setting up the city lights to form words. They quickly found that SS has apparently already taken over the control over public controls – streets and the park illumination will all be dark. They are left with manually going door to door and switching each buildings central switches. They will be lucky if the Service does not bring the power down – but they could not do anything else.

Adam suggested at some point that they could use his skycar to get out of there.

“Why, like she seems dangerous at all?” - the tourist replied, causing uneasy smiles. It was true – even though they did not have to scream anymore to overcome her voice even next to each other – she was still occasionally reassuring them of her intentions not including hurting them or destroying anything. But dangerous... an automated truck train was dangerous since it may not stop if you walk onto its path – the image recognition patterns again... And it seemed like she was infinitely bigger than anything they ever had come into contact with...

When it comes to her reassurances, it was strange what kind of words she was using – why didn't she just say that she cares for them, or – even better – what she intends to do after they are able to communicate back with her. And why on earth would they assume she would immediately hurt them – sure, fear was the first emotion when anybody saw her, but how many times did she think it was necessary to repeat the same words to make them understand, they had nothing to worry. Well, at least not intentionally – one of the maintenance guys noted at some point... On the other hand maybe she assumed that the civilization was destroyed and they might not understand her? It did not make sense – she may not be able to see individual people, but clearly the town was civilized – and many cities may have been some distance away, but still big enough for her to notice. They did not know what to think about problems like that.

Either way – since they only had three sets of electrical tools – and quite frankly, both Adam and Dick – the tourist – had no idea about how to use them anyway, they were left with a couple hours before dusk, while the mayor and the maintenance guys were going door to door – often breaking in – and opening circuit boxes, reconfiguring them to allow quick switching and then moving to each room with any windows to turn on the lights.

The two suggested they could help with the last part, but heard it was a quick task and the mayor wanted to make sure it was done right. Yes, obviously any outsiders cannot do the job correctly... But Adam did not mind – this time he has some time to observe her, sharing his thoughts with Dick.

At times it seems just as if she is also observing them – but the entire town is empty.. Is she able to see them? Maybe as the tiniest dots on the ground? Nothing else was moving so perhaps... They surely were able to see her. Even the tiniest details of her her clothes and all exposed skin. There were realizing so many strange little facts – like why her hair was rather ragged, as if she did not bother about her haircuts at all. It was nice, naturally healthy and smooth – but it was obvious it received hardly any care at all. Same with many other parts of her body – uneven and plain fingernails, unpreserved skin, even no jewelry at all. She seemed clean and healthy – so perhaps at least meds were working on the outside.

They also talked a bit about each other. Dick asked how did the SS let him through – and he just answered he got creative in explaining his reasons to be here. Adam learned Dick was sort of a researcher for InterMedCare – one of the bigger cosmetics and medical supplements provider in the states, hence his knowledge on the matter while evaluating Kate – as they started to call her. Although it still seemed a bit strange to call the visitor by her first name, especially that she did not know them at all. Probably wasn't even aware of their individual existences.

They both almost jumped out of their skin, when they noticed her enormous hand reach forward. Adam wasn't really scared – it all happened too fast to even think about anything. They watched as her enormous finger patted the city park seemingly softly – but still breaking many trees and lampposts, as they could hear. “What is she...” - was his only thought when her hand was already receding.

“Nice plants you have there” - they heard. Well, mostly “had” – they realized when they looked towards the park. It's particularly interesting how she managed not to damage any surrounding buildings though.. the park was rectangular, maybe forty meters wide and a bit more long – she only used the very tip of her forefinger. As if to just barely feel the touch of the “plants” - and not touch anything else. Has she got experience in dealing with tiny things? It seemed to give them some hope – maybe she actually knew what she was doing.

Adam still can clearly recall her hand high above an in front of them, with the arm stretching into infinity. It completely shadowed them – even given only her single finger was pointing forwards and actually obstructing sunlight... Dick admitted a bit later that at first sight of it, he wanted to hide somewhere - anywhere, but just absolutely nothing seemed appropriate...

But they are now running around the town switching lights on and off according to the plans they received on their coms. The town is small, but several rows of houses seem to be just enough to “write” a single word or so. He remembers hearing what they need to display first - “spare us”... which did not make any sense – “Hasn't Kate just spent last four hours on repeating that she is not going to hurt us?” he asked – but the mayor replied these were orders straight from the city. Oh, so they finally managed to tell us something – how nice of them. SS seemed still mute – but they will probably do something in a couple of days, Adam thought. They were also confused that Adam used her name – they were always referring to her simply as “visitor” or “her”. Sometimes “caretaker” - but they were unsure if she was one of them. But why would she introduce herself if they weren't meant to use it?

Adam is slowly beginning to think of her as sort of concerned young woman who maybe was given a task to establish basics of communication with them. Maybe others were preparing to come to bring tools and fix everything, just wanted to make sure the people are ready to receive them? Even making sure they have enough space to move around, or even stand was important – but how could they be sure about it before appearing here – however it happened anyway. If she happened to appear in... or rather on a city... He can only shudder at this thought.

At first, it took them forever to set up the letters right. They were far away from properly displaying the message, but at some point she must have figured out what they wanted to say and exploded in reassurances again. Adam had to cover his ears, as she apparently used her normal voice when suddenly became anxious. Was she normally this loud? The “quiet” one she used earlier still reached the ground louder than anything he has ever heard, outside games and simulated experiences – and her head was kilometers above them... When she was surprised by the message, it seemed her voice was reverberating through his entire body. He could clearly hear her even trying to cover his ears – the words seemed to be coming from all directions. When she finished after maybe fifteen minutes, his ears still rung. “We surprise her one more time and I will go deaf”, Adam thought...

She seemed content when they shut down the lights and hid the message – and started asking them basic questions about how they were organized, who was their leader and such – but it took over five hours to answer just several of them. Eventually she figured to only ask yes/no questions and they could answer them by simply switching several lights in a cluster of houses off or on – depending on whether they needed to change the answer. He did not think about it – she may be young, but she also seemed pretty clever.

One question she asked they did not know the answer to – whether they are working on selecting a “governor” - and were unsure how to proceed, but after they did not change anything, she just laughed softly noticing they haven't blinked and said “Oh, you don't know? Does not matter.” and continued with a next question. It was also surprising how she simply overrode their political system of elected comities cooperating across all the states by asking for “a single governor for her to talk to”. A complex system of rules, voting systems, relations between various organizations across all the states created across several decades made obsolete by a young girl – as he learned later the authorities actually started working on it immediately after she requested it. They heard everything she said – although at a distance. Well, in this case they probably had to wait an hour or so for her voice to reach the city, unless they tapped into some local mike. But she was careless about such “demand” - should he call it that? It seemed actually reasonable.. it would have taken her several years to understand the interconnected economical and political system they had here. And many things would certainly surprise – if not shock – her. He remembers trying to understand the scale of the changes that took place after the Failure, but it was still baffling him how they managed to get all that done so quickly and mostly peacefully... But maybe she was right. It was just the way how she carelessly added “it does not matter”...

So while running around the four houses he was supposed to switch lights in, Adam is beginning to like her. It seems like a strange feeling, but Kate obviously cares about them – and wants to learn details about their organization here. He is not attracted to her, he does not think so – after all, given her size he is not sure if he could think about Kate sexually even if she were naked...

No, he is her tiny one-side friend. One that she can only perceive effects of mush effort of – and even then, only barely.

Sometime before the dawn, three SS skyjets arrive – even despite her specific request not to approach her with “airships” - was anybody actually using that word after nineteenth century? Or was it twentieth? The SS guys take control of the situation – continuing to answer questions, which – without explaining anything or even saying much, so he is left merely with an opportunity to observe a barely lit monumental form of hers and listen to her subsequent questions. At least she is no longer babbling about “not going to hurt you, I promise, I don't want to you to be worried, (...)”. Funny how she usually worded it – for instance not “you don't have to be worried” for instance, but rather “I don't want you to...”. Maybe the organization outside has became more authoritative than theirs?

But he just laid there, in a middle of an empty town and basked in the impossible.

When the next day came, they no longer could communicate with her this way – but it seemed SS actually started doing something about this situation, as many heavy vehicles arrived. Carrying a lot of equipment and materials. Nothing seemed like weapons – at least they weren't crazy enough to attempt that. He wondered if she could even feel any attack they could muster. Most of it looked like prefabricated materials to make what she called “a headphone” so she could “hear them”.

It was funny how they never cared about who he was or what he was doing there – and they even offered him the rations. The regular ones, probably most common in the Service – somewhat flavorless, but surely better than nothing. Since SS carefully secured the area, he had to stay far away from the construction sites outside the city and it did not seem so dangerous when she reached for some products sometime later in the day.

It was kind of amusing to watch the result of work of hundreds hardened officers and engineers apart at her touch. Kate began to apologize immediately – but judging by the lump of broken and crushed metals that fell from her hands it was the constructors that did not appreciate her strength.

And so we were again – for the next quarter hour or so – bathed in her soft voice explaining how she must have held it too tightly and that she did not think it would happen and so on... When Adam closed his eyes, it actually felt kind of relaxing – to have a seemingly all-powerful being care for them. Maybe some of those cultists were right, after all? Maybe there was a God out there – it seemed like right here, right now – Kate was their Goddess. Or at least an angel. He eventually fell asleep on a roadside bench, basked in her love and caring.

He is woken up by a strong quake. He looks around panicked and realizes Kate must have sat down just now, since the outline of her head is further away. Much later he learned that once they got a working speaker system to talk to her, they answered her that the area underneath her is empty and she can sit down. It is already dark now, but he can see some buildings in ruins – or falling apart. The quake threw him off the bench, so no wonder the buildings also took some damage. After composing himself, he notices large amount of commotion around him. It seems that the Service already took some of the buildings for whatever use they needed them – and now many of officers are wounded or dead in the ruins. It feels sad – he is sure that all she wanted to do was sit back. It must have been irritating for her to stay in the same position for such a long time. He gets up and tries to help with rescue efforts that are in progress. He can hear Kate saying “Oh, sorry” - obviously she must have realized the fires and wanted to apologize.

What surprises him is that only after a minute or so, she resumes any conversation she might have. At first it makes him angry – how could she just ignore them, couldn't she help them? But then he realizes the sad position she is in... even if she wanted to help, they were simply too small for her to do anything. Her smallest finger would have crushed the remains completely instead of saving the wounded... No wonder she wanted to take her mind off what happened. But why would the SS officers even enter any houses? Were they setting up something? He never found out what really happened here.

They quickly manage to recover most of the wounded and dead – and soon there are hundreds of bodies laying on the streets. Thankfully they all had locators to aid in the search and they brought some equipment from the construction sites that managed to save some trapped in a timely manner. He realizes that is he had entered any of those homes – he would be probably dead or forgotten, trapped until death. The entire town was almost destroyed. By the simple act of her sitting down – he was certain that Kate did not mean that, but... He remembers the quakes of her careful footsteps back in his apartment. And now her entire body sliding backwards to hit the ground – and so much closer. Was this how the people felt in the town upon her footfalls? Was this the reason they all ran away? Was this what they were afraid of?

He tries to listen to what Kate is saying to clear his mind. It seems they are finally able to talk with her more efficiently. Unfortunately this means that he is no longer sure what they are discussing. Sometimes she is speaking using longer sentences, but usually it is just yes or no – like they used to, only this now it was their questions. Whoever is asking them, at least. And even then, after this recent tragedy, it is nice to listen to her – sometimes almost confounded by a question, but usually just carefully listening to what they say and replying briefly.

While he is walking around thinking to do now, somebody from the Service finally approaches him – it is pretty obvious he is an outsider, no uniform and just wandering around. She questions him what he is doing here and why hasn't he been evacuated. He answers truthfully – even about the part where he lied to that airspace operator. The earthquake and its results traumatized him so much.

“But why haven't you left with the remaining three men?”

“I wasn't even” - he is interrupted by Kate saying “I don't know” - as if supporting him with what he was saying - ”I didn't even know they were leaving...”

“Figures, it was chaos around here back then.” The officer - he later learned her name was Mary, ponders for a moment - “Do you want to leave now?”

After what happened to him in the last two days, he is simply lost and unsure what to do, so he answers – again truthfully - “I don't know.”

“Look, we are trying to get anyone around here to work for us. But people are in the surrounding towns are mostly terrified – or already fled. And with the recent events around the states, the Service is stretched thin. But if you want to leave, we will try to organize a transport for you to...”

“I can help” - Adam answers without thinking.

“Good, follow me.”

Once again, he is recruited to serve Kate – he does not know where this will lead him, but he isn't afraid – not of her, anyway.

Kate left shortly after dawn. But was back with them on the next day – and the “conversations” resumed.

Days move slowly, at first he was helping with some physical labor – but then they realize that he has some architectural training and they can use somebody like him on the site. He tries to help – there were a lot of people trying to come up with designs and constructs to deal with this new problem, but without understanding of the situation, it does not help much.

He takes part in a omniconference where various engineers are discussing how to avoid what happened in the town. Specialists that are sitting hundreds of kilometers away, are suggesting ideas like digging steel-reinforced bunkers that could protect against quakes and even possibly direct impact – as if she was some kind of a weapon.. - others saying we could reinforce some of the existing buildings or proposing construction of high towers that would amortize the shocks. When he is finally asked what he thinks about these ideas – he simply says:

“I think that... Anything that we do is meaningless if Kate” – which confuses them, just like everyone who hears him calling her by the first name.. - “does not know where all the people are. If she moves near them, they may die – either from the shock, falling buildings or other effects...” He pauses for a moment when he realizes people's scared expressions, but continues: “I think we can only make sure the is aware where they are and hope she is careful enough not to cause their deaths“ - he does not want to say “kill” them - “like bright colored uniforms and tents, maybe some heavily lit towers to indicate smaller settlements nearby...”

A long silence comes next, after which they continue suggesting another “smart” ideas – but eventually agree to recommend things he suggested plus several of their own, which he still thinks will not help at all.

He still likes to watch and listen to Kate, although she no longer talks to them – only discusses various things using the headphone and deprived of the context, he is rarely able to figure out what she means. She seems less childish now – perhaps it was that she no longer was so anxious about everything. Or perhaps the earthquake that almost killed him changed his perception of her. Not that he is afraid – he still trusts she cares about them, it's just that... how can you protect somebody you cannot see?

The authorities released very little information about what they found out during their interviews – and simple “yes”, “no”, “about eleven” or “eighteen” he could hear from Kate did not explain much... Although the last part was shortly preceded by her asking the new “governor” about his age – Adam did not even know who he was – but... If she really was eighteen years old, then it would confirm his worries about the girl's childish ways. Could they trust her? Or were they just a toy for her – which she is simply careful not to break?

But one day it all changes once again. Just as the sun is setting down, Kate is walking around her “spot” - a roughly thirty by fifty kilometers large area – give or take a couple – although she used miles to describe it. Are they still using the imperial unit system out there? From what he remembers from school, almost all zones used metric system – it simply did not make sense to mix them in such multinational environment. That is, before the Failure, of course – nobody knows how it is now, maybe they all turned to imperial units now?

But as Kate is walking around her spot, she obviously seems more anxious than usual – playing with her “wristcom” as she calls the device on her hand – it seems like somewhat larger and less functional version of their coms, but who knows what other functions it may have? And then suddenly – another girl appears. Completely without warning, he is shocked by this – they were used to Kate vanishing and appearing every day, but they have never seen another caretaker before. And yes, she confirmed that she is a caretaker and that there are others. But to know about their existence is one thing... to see two giantesses standing next to each other is something completely different. Especially that Adam has rarely seen Kate standing up, she usually sat down or even laid on her belly quickly after arrival – and sometimes changed her poses in the meanwhile, but generally only stood up shortly before leaving.

And the new girl is similarly clothed, has blond hair, slim build and – most importantly – is equally huge, give or take a couple hundred meters – since it is hard to compare their heights from this perspective. To see them both standing up brings the memories of the quakes and possible destruction, if they are not careful. Adam trusts Kate to do just that – but the other one? What happens next is simply beyond belief – the new girl's face turns joyful and she speaks something – but her voice will reach him only after a minute or so – and moves... simply walks beyond the spot Kate marked carefully digging lines with her fingers – and enter previously unharmed area. Kate never left her spot – after the first days she never walked anywhere – just sat or laid in there. And the new girl simply steps above where he is standing – if she put her feet about a kilometer to the left and a bit closer – he would have been flattened. The resulting quake is still very strong. She is not walking carefully like Kate – she just moves towards she has noticed somewhere. Which appears to be the city – Ankar, the city of their state – the closest to where she appeared.

When he stands up, he looks around – hopefully nobody should be hurt as they used his idea to use tents rather than place Service employees in some buildings. Unless she stepped on anybody – and he thinks it was already beyond the perimeter they set up around the Kate's spot. But what will happen next – the new woman did not seem to care about them at all, if she approaches the city in this manner, then...

Thankfully she slows down nearing it – maybe she just did not know they were here? He was already used to not being noticed by Kate – it makes sense the other girl simply missed them. Maybe it will be alright, after all – they just need to wait for Kate to explain...

His thoughts suddenly come to a halt as the new girl reaches into the city. Crouching down, it seems like.. she... is playfully... poking it? Even despite the distance, he can see a top of the highest skyscraper fall down – almost in slow motion, compared to vastly faster movements of the caretakers... He can see Kate following her – but she is still careful and moves more slowly – in the meanwhile the other girl reaches into the city again and... tries to pick up another building? But... Adam is shocked – what is she thinking? Are we like toys to her? He watches in horror as a part of a tall tower – broken off its base – rises from the ground to some height, before it is crushed between the giantess fingers... The huge blocks of concrete and steel will impact other buildings and... But even that is nothing compared to the girl can possibly do – he is unable to comprehend what is happening. Doesn't she know there are people in the city? And millions of them? Those buildings easily held a thousand of apartments each... with thousands of people – is she stupid to be so careless?

Fortunately before she is able to do any more damage, Kate reaches her and pulls her back – but one of her leg shoots forward and... the sneaker crashes into the city, bulldozing its side and sending huge boulders roaming across the entire zone! As Kate is trying to get the other girl up and draw her back to her spot – he can hear what the was said at the beginning: “Cute” - in a happy, girlish voice.

We were “cute”. Like some.. toys... Was it really all she had to say? No name, not even a greeting... Adam was unable to understand the consequences of this. As Kate drags her closer, he can hear how they seem to be... arguing? Like.. Kate was obviously angry at “Amber”, it seems the other is called. They are coming this way... and the sudden footfall thunders and quakes shock his very being. Miraculously they both miss him – it seems Kate steps carefully over the cliff of her spot, but the other, Amber... her foot crushes maybe a hundred meters from him. He can see an orange C letter symbolizing the “caretakers” looming like the moon high above the ground. He is sent flying backwards a dozen meters and fortunately lands inside a field... others are not that lucky – either colliding with some tower, falling on a vehicle, or... hundreds are probably crushed under the shoe.

It rises taking some bodies of his new comrades with a layer of soil – others are probably plastered deep into the ground. He still struggles to understand.. why... why? Why!

Bits and pieces of the conversation reach his consciousness: “know you should be careful” … “not mean it” … “how could you do” … “if you ever” - and he passes out from pain, shock and apparent loss of blood.

He awakens on the next day to find that his spine was broken on that tragic day. He learns that nobody has been told how many people died, but some local officers have estimated at least three hundred thousands by the aerial footage what remained from the city. Possibly up to half a million.

Half a million. HALF A MILLION PEOPLE! And nobody knows what happened – why did “Amber” do that. They all listened to the conversation that followed, but it was very simple and almost generic.. it seemed almost as if it wasn't the first time the giantesses were arguing like that. But that would mean... No, Adam has no idea what happens – just like everybody else. One thing was certain – they both vanished shortly and have not come back since then.

He is sure that Kate will come back and she will tell explain it all to them. She will tell them everything is going to be okay, that she fixed it and that we have nothing to worry about it in the future. That it was just a huge, tragic misunderstanding and that everybody is really sorry about what happened. Maybe the “Amber” did not know there were people in the city? It seemed.. strange, but... how else could she even do that... No, he does not need to worry about it, Kate will fix it. He is sure about this. But he needs to help her. He needs to help her make sure it never happens again. He keeps thinking while he lays on the heavy surgery medunit.

He thinks about all the possibilities. Perhaps they should mark the cities somehow? They seemed already huge and “hard to miss”.. except for the giantesses – everything seemed tiny compared to them. So what if they marked the ones with people inside... but that would mean every city! Maybe it happened because it was already late and the light was not so good and she was just thinking that something... Adam is unable to think what could have made her do that, but at least he knows how to solve the visibility problem – at least to a certain degree. But first, he needs to get a new com – his old one must have been lost in the field.

Explanations are problematic – nobody from the architects he remembers from the meeting seems to understand his idea... Eventually he was able to meet somebody who agrees to pass the idea upwards. Great – knowing SS it will take a couple days... but on the other hand they seem to be all working more efficiently since the Kate's first arrival. Especially where it matters... He will have to see.

The next day he figures it must have been noticed by somebody high up – as orders come to concentrate on setting up his “lighthouse” perimeter – to make sure the caretakers can see the borders of the spot. A somewhat hopeless, but possibly useful idea – as he starts to view it.

Only hours later most of the two hundred meter tall towers is already standing up and connected to a redundant underground energy grid. Even if it got broken in several places – most of the lights should still shine. As the night approaches, they are running the final network tests and most of the lights are on. He is somewhat proud that his idea was implemented so quickly, but already started to doubt it will help at all.

Suddenly Kate appears in her spot – and looks around the changed environment. It is still not completely night, so Adam can see the puzzled expression on her face, as she reaches for one of the headphones – probably to inquire about the meaning of this, but stops in her tracks, smiles and says:

“Hey guys, great idea with the lights. They will surely help!”

Adam feels exhilarated – his own idea, first noticed by the authorities – is now appreciated by Kate. And he helped her! He knew everything will be alright – now she only needs to explain them everything and reassure them and...

Almost a week later he reminds himself that the explanations never came. He had no idea what that meant – Kate never even apologized about “Amber's” behavior – which made sense, if it was not her fault, but.. she never actually seemed to speak anything about it. Even in the cryptic conversations she and the governor had – who he found in the meanwhile to be nobody else but the James Crawford. If anybody can deal with this, it is him – but given the events of the last two weeks... Adam was not sure about it.

He is now standing next to a music arena he designed for her – just next to the perimeter, heavily lightened and with bright colors – everything he thought was necessary and sufficient for any caretaker to spot it... But is that good or bad?

During the week since Amber, yet another giantess came in twice – and she behaved normally, well, at least compared to the other... And everything would be great except for what she spoke – it seemed she hardly acknowledged their existence - just.. wanted to have a word with Kate about things he did not understand... During the first visit, they did not even mention her name – so it left them in the dark, calling her “the newest one”. Neither did Kate mention it afterwards. It was just like Amber's “visit” – absolutely no warning, she just appears out of nowhere and approaches Kate – to be within her voice range – as we are calling the area of increased velocity of their voices. He heard some theories, but... it does not matter really.

Yes, the first time was the worst – maybe because they hoped that since she behaves rationally, then it would mean that perhaps the “Amber” was an exception. Some kind of freak – unpredictable and unimaginative. But as they talked...

Kate complained about what Amber did – which would be great if only she didn't use the word. “Micros” - it burned in his memory. Even though it was the first time he heard it, he immediately knew what it meant. But.. it felt plain wrong. “WHY NOT PEOPLE?” - he screamed in his head - “WHY CAN'T NOT YOU SAY SHE KILLED PEOPLE! MURDERED AND SLAUGHTERED!” He has no idea what is she talking with the governor, but apparently this was not one of the topics... But back then he could forgive Kate that – she must have had a reason. He was still certain she cared about them. She have never done anything to suggest otherwise.

But the newest one... The worst part was what she replied to the complaint...

“Don't worry, you have plenty more...”

Like we were.. their property, some kind of.. toys or... he did not even want to think about it. He still hoped that Kate will protect them, but was no longer sure about... anything. It was slowly beginning to seem like some kind of sick joke. The next time she arrived they learned her name when Kate welcomed her with “Hi Nicole...”

But now he stands next to the amphiteatre they built for Kate and watches her enjoy the music. He never liked bands like the Red Elector.. they seem to make up their lack of skill with the noise they produce in the background. Most of the post-neo-multi genres did that. She admitted she never heard music before – and Adam no longer wondered what that meant – but why not something nicer, even pop-rock would be fine, not to mention some classics to start with the basics. He was never a great fan of old orchaestral music, but you had to admit they surely were skilled and it affected every other kind of music afterwards. But he heard they were the first group to agree to come here, to play for Kate onsite. And the high-ups wanted Kate to experience real “personal” artists... rather than just a recording, so here they are.

Kate still seems to enjoy it – which is great. He always likes the happy expression on her face. It still gives him hope. But now she is lying on her back learning the advantage of the stereo over single headphone – he was barely familiar with the concept, as omnis use full field-positional sound generators to produce not only full spectrum of sounds, but also imitate the exact direction of the source, within angular seconds. It's good she likes it, but he feels sorry he cannot see her face. Her regular breathing still manages to calm him. Right now she seems like a mountain that he can hide under, during a storm.

But he notices that “Amber” appears in the distance. The band seems not to notice this – it is getting dark outside and they are in a bright surrounding. He wants to scream they need to warn Kate to save them – but quickly figures like it is not necessary. He feels safe next to Kate – she is their protector, their guardian angel. “Amber” will not dare to come here. Unfortunately, she does – and as she raises her destructive foot over them, Adam just stands there and wonders how many other things he was wrong about. At least he managed to surprise his parents and will die with some actual professional experience - designing a giantess friendly environment.




Part II – And the Death found me.

My name is Justin Maxx and I live in the Village 85. It wasn't always called that. Once it was a city of little over nine thousand souls known as Barmonton – a time and place that now seems like heaven. What happened? One day, as I was returning home from the local bakery, our Caretaker came round and plopped a half kilometer high pole with a sign on top presenting a handwritten number “85” right in the center of the city. Much earlier, we could see Her standing at a distance presenting a speech – which usually heralded bad news. It seemed Their every idea made things worse and worse. And as it turned out later, this one was surprisingly efficient at that.

But after putting Her sign, like a spear through the heart of their city, She then manipulated the monstrous device on Her arm They once called “wristcom” and moved away without a single word – apparently assuming that we will be informed what that means when Her speech reaches us in a couple hours. We could see Her leaning down towards other places before and this process continued afterwards. Only now we knew what She was doing, but we still had no idea what She wanted from us.

Unable to hear what She said yet – and nobody in the city was able to read lips – most of us simply followed Her actions anxious how it will affect our lives. We thought we were already in a very bad situation... only few months earlier, the city has had a population of about 23 thousands – that was, before the Foot came. Multiple conversations could be heard around where I stood and even some people seemed to hope that maybe this may bring an improvement. After all, so far most of Her actions were spontaneously destructive – and other were inspired by Her fellow Caretakers or seemingly taken to impress Them. This was actually the first time we could see something like an organized plan being implemented. If only we knew... But even then – what could we do?

After She seemed to be content with the signs distribution, She started making paths – as those enormous canyons were called by Them. Almost two kilometers wide – or double the width of her shoes – and over a hundred meters deep, those paths were consequently trodden by Her shifting her unimaginable weight from foot to foot while moving forward to form a roughly rectangle board dozens of kilometers large. It must have contained hundreds of settlements, effectively isolated from each other unless you had a professional mountain climbing equipment, which was uncommon in a previously mostly flat zone – with major exceptions being depressions formed by Her or other Caretakers before.

She finished Her work even before Her voice reached us and just stood there for a moment surveying the entire site only to operate her “wristcom” and disappear. Some of us were really scared right now, including me – were the news so bad She was unwilling to remain here while we had to listen? But She returned after only several minutes, wielding a pile of huge metal walls or plates. She put them on the side and only used one to even the edges of a remote canyon. We could clearly see Her actions despite the distance – as always. And now it was truly impassable – even if you somehow managed to get down, you would surely got crushed or worse while unable to climb the other side. She then started placing the plates on the paths – apparently they weren't walls, since it seemed She was positioning horizontally.

But as She was working on the edges, her speech finally reached us...

“I don't like the tendency of the population to continuously decrease”, it announced in somewhat annoyed, young woman voice, “so I figured you micros need a little incentive to repopulate and came up with a little plan...”

It was already unbelievable. How could She blame... Tears formed in my eyes when I remembered my dead wife and many friends. Was She actually blaming us for Them continuously murdering “the population”?

But as I continued to listen, the hell we were already in turned to some sort of sick, nightmarish horror, then turned to something even worse.. and continued to worsen for the entire length of the speech.

She was..
She...

With tears of hopeless anger I wanted to kill Her right where She were, carelessly composing Her fucking plates that she explained were to stop us from moving away from our “designated sites” – under the risk of crushing entire “villages” should she see anyone running away from them.

I even walked towards her with my hands turned into fists – hopelessly watching the unchanging perspective. Something I would consider a mirage only a couple years earlier. Or more like a sad, wretched joke... but this sight was a common reality by then.

Still, it felt like the final moment of the worst nightmare possible, just when the unthinkable horrors would leave the darkest parts of the mind to wake me sweating and with pounding heart to realize it was only a dream. That things like that don't really happen in the real world. Because if they could, then... they would be called Caretakers.

But the awakening never came. In fact, instead arrived the full realization of what She just did.

She turned the place into breeding ground. Like some fucking cattle – only sentient and aware of their fate. A realization that either never occurred to Her – or did not seem to make Her feel bad about it. I still am not sure which possibility is worse. Her monotonous, almost bored, voice had just explained how there were rules and conditions to determine villages that were “doing well” and would be “rewarded” - and the ones that did not register an “increase of population” would receive a “penalty”.

She wanted to cultivate us and even for villages to compete with each other as the results would be judged by “the local improvement compared to the average percentage of population increase across the sites”. And that she will record the current population for comparison – it must have been what she was doing with her device. Scanning us, counting.. like... NO!

Even after almost an hour passed, it still seemed like a freaky joke – I expected Her to turn towards us with a smile and say “Happy Halloween” or something... but it never happened. She just continued to even the edges and compose Her plates.

But it was then when I realized even scarier fact. “I...” I couldn't move. My muscles refused to work. “I have to...” I could only fall down on the ground crying and desperately trying to avoid what awaited me. “I have to go home and...” I felt that maybe if I killed myself then things would be better – but was unable to force myself to do it.

Because... “I have to go home and explain my five year old daughter what the Caretaker meant...” I shouted at nobody in particular. Unfortunately, I heard even worse confessions in response. When I regained control over my body and returned home eventually, I simply couldn't do it. I could not tell her that the only perspective that awaits her in life is growing up, giving birth to several children and then being “reaped”... did She actually use that word? Maybe I just misheard Her, maybe She meant... No, I told my daughter that everything is going to be alright, that I will not let anything bad happen to her. I wish I could possibly make that happen.

But time passed. We learned to deal with it. Some actually thought our lives became better – it seemed we did not have to fear Their games anymore, as if She was protecting us now. If only it wasn't for the terrible fate that awaits us. Some people actually did kill themselves – some tried to run away, hopefully to reach some regions unaffected by “the Caretaker Plan”, as we began to call it. I felt sick hoping they splattered on the base of the cliff, worried for my family. The Caretaker did “deal” with two escape attempts She noticed in other villages. At least we hoped there was less competition now. She even helped us to copulate several times, assuming that we do not seem to be taking it seriously. She.. She made me... I did... No, I could not admit to myself the truth that I raped several women.. and sometimes felt I almost enjoyed it at the time...

Eventually I even took in a widow I remembered I might have... I helped her with the last months of her pregnancy. She must remember it too – as she has only spoken two words to me in three months that passed since then and I still want to forget them. She gave birth to a beautiful boy. I was not sure if he was my child, but I treated him as such. Another angel in hell, next to my little Sophie. She is six now and still does not fully understand what awaits her. I want to keep it this way for as long as possible. Yes, I will do whatever I can to protect my little angels. Me and my partner – I do not even know her name - even recently started having sex to “compete” without ever talking about it. The sad necessity seemed to finally have reached us. I think she may be pregnant again, since she visits the bathroom more often now. And not only to pee or defecate.

It sometimes feels scary to watch the changes in the people – and even worse in myself.. Unknown strangers are asking women with enlarged abdomen about health and their living conditions, concerned about their pregnancies. Even though many relationships are made between random people purely to impregnate – often with mutual consent, the involved parties turn to care for each other even outside of gestation and bringing up the childen. It seemed the desperate and hopeless situation they were in was bringing the good parts of people, they never knew about. I.. I just could not force myself to try to ask my partner for forgiveness or any emotion.

But now as I am trying to distract myself from the reality as much as I can in my home after work, the Caretaker appears in a distance. I can see Her through the window as She fiddles with her arm for a moment and moves in our general direction. She moved around a lot recently, especially since the babies from first pregnancies were born, scanning and seemingly comparing numbers – so I am not really worried now.

It does not change when the earthquakes stop when still dangerously strong, which suggests she is close to us and even though I can no longer see Her I assume She is probably scanning some village in the neighborhood. It all changes when she speaks in thunderous voice:

“Village 85” - the first time she addresses us directly - ”Your growth rate is unacceptable. I think it may be due to improper male to female ratio, so you have a choice. Either some men volunteer or the site will need to be reset. You have five minutes to gather.”

I was a little surprised, since it never happened with any village before – were they doing that much better than us? But I look at my partner, think briefly about my angels and simply stand up heading towards the doors. Her voice shocks me as I hardly remembered how it sounds:

“Wait”, she pauses for a moment while I turn to her and await what she intends to say, “I love You.” I quickly nod and leave.

The Caretaker hovers over the village like an incoming doomsday, but I do not raise my eyes to look at Her. Walking casually, I notice a lot of men coming towards the central square from around the city. Nobody speaks. We all seem to quietly agree about what must be done if we are to save our loved ones. A moment after I enter the square, the voice from heavens instructs us “The ones on the square are enough” - when I look back, I see some men backing away before following in my steps. “Yes - go and make sure that next time the rate is better”, I want to scream, but the grave seriousness of the situation forbids it. I can see Her hand approaching. An enormous, young, shapely hand that usually brings death and destruction. This time however, she brings a contraption I can recall as some sort of transport container for us, “micros”. She used it a long time ago to move some more people in. The can-shaped object turns out to be several times bigger than any building in the village. It crashes several houses and a couple dozen men. My only concern at the moment is that it may reduce the population slowing down the growth. I do not care about myself - I wonder if anything else than death can possibly await us – since She just specifically stated, that so many males are not necessary here. I estimate the container to be at least hundred meters high, a bit less wide. Maybe higher as from this point I have no point of reference. The Caretaker's face looms infinitely distant in the background and her fingers have already backed away. But it does not matter.

We start boarding the craft even before She orders us to. It turns out the interior consists of number of stairs to more levels - but we all easily fit on the first one – and rows upon rows of chairs with numerous seating belts. She never orders us to sit in them, but that's just what we do. Some men seem to change their mind realizing the hopelessness of the situation and try to leave the contraption, but others remind them of why they are here – or even forcefully drag to the seats when the first does not help. I get seated and await what happens next. We are suddenly snatched into the air – and even though the acceleration should have killed us, we are fine. I heard once that these things are made with some technology that smooths the movement of the contents – which allows Them to move more around comfortably while transporting “micros”. Still some men unfortunate enough not to have in the seats by then fell through the entrance – as there is no door – and screaming fall to their certain death.

Or maybe they were actually lucky? I consider leaving the safety of my seat to speed up my death but eventually decide not to risk upsetting the Caretaker. Some men make choose differently.

Most of us however, soon arrives at the apparent destination after blurry movements outside make it hard to determine how far are we gone. I hope my family will not see my fate – usually not knowing was better. But now it mostly depends on how verbose She is about our orders – if she explains us what to do in detail, then everybody in the zone will know our end – regardless of the distance or whether they have a line of sight or not. It just happens that She was usually very keen to do that to her “micros”. I see as an Iron Plate stretches far beyond the entrance – or now exit – in front of me. “Okay, get out”, we hear – even louder than in the village, she must be leaning really close, but somehow.. different – as if more playful or anxious. It is the end then.

I unstrap and head towards the exit. Looking back I can see Her already laying down beneath the transporter, looking down from kilometers above us even though Her chin was almost on the ground. The perspective is impossible to describe – while on the ground, She almost looked like a joyful young woman unable to wait to play with Her toys. The problem is that I know I am one of those toys. But I decided a long time ago that I will do whatever it takes to save my family. I will not fail. We will not fail.

She orders us to “Split up and form two lines, here”, She points her finger to the side of the Plate next to her “and here” - which is on the other side. Regardless of what She wants to do next, I prefer not to look at Her when I walk to my doom. I do not want to look Death in the eyes – but I will be happy when she finally reaches for me.

But as I turn my back to Her, an even worse thing happens - another Caretaker appears out of nowhere far out in the distance. I walk thinking if we can stop two Caretakers from destroying our villages. Can we fulfill their wishes? As the Other one moves closer, I can see it is actually even worse – looking at those empty eyes hungrily examining us now, it feels that if we somehow do not satisfy her curiosity, the Other one may do so much more than merely kill us. She said that She only wanted some men – but it seems that now the Other one shows a part of Her true self – and I can easily see Her continuing trying to settle her insatiable hunger with everybody the Other one can find - turning on other villages, sacrificing more and more people in her pursuit to fill Herself – and eventually my family, and my angels.

I want to ask her screaming what does the Other one want from us – but it would be as futile as nagging a hurricane to change its course and not destroy a home. I cannot think of a closer approximation than an old early twenty first problem – from before humans learned to affect the weather controllably. But she was not a force of nature, no. By looking into those empty eyes, I realize now that I was wrong comparing Her with a hurricane. There is nothing even remotely as cruel and unyielding as a Caretaker can be and while our She seems to somehow care that we reproduce, the Other will at nothing.

During this chain of thoughts other men push around me not seeing the futility of the situation. The Other one is going to first kill us, then turn to our tearful loved ones. I stay a little behind the group and some men are starting to look back at me to see if I will not try to run away. Despite knowing we have failed, I resume moving forward. Only – as the Other one is coming from the left, I immediately move to the far right side of the slowly forming and marching line and eventually reach the very end, just as we reach the intended area. Give or take a couple dozen meters – since the plate had no points of reference. It seemed our position satisfied our Her as She smiles.

I notice they started talking a moment ago – but shocked and hopeless I missed the beginning of Their conversation. They are conversing now just like two girls would discuss a new treat they found out somewhere. We are this treat, of course. Maybe in the end They will be satisfied after killing just us? The Death has strange ways, it seems.

Then I remember the comparison to a hurricane, just as strong wind smacks me in the face – no, pulls me backwards strongly - almost as if...

I turn backwards and see Her finishing to suck the other half of the men into her humongous nostril using some sort of monstrous tube created for this. When She pulls Her head back in obvious enjoyment I ask myself what kind of person could do this to Her fellow humans. But then I realize something I knew for a long time without noticing it. Something obvious and simple. Something that explained all the terrible things that have happened to us ever since It appeared in the zone for the first time.

“It is no human”, I say out loud, “It is Caretaker” - I meet several scared faces on my right - “It is Death.”. Apparently this is having quite some effect – several men actually try to run away from It, but It speaks and they go back. The Death itself is hungry for them. And It does not like waiting. They must not make It wait if they want to give their families more time. But the Death will find them too. There is no escape. There is no way to deal with It.

Every men I can see from here trembles from fear, cries, begs to be saved or otherwise fails to understand. The other Death leans closer to suck their souls as well. I am ready. I close my eyes and feel the wind pull me to Death but somehow I am not Dead. Is Death playing with me? I open my eyes to see It coming again. I feel myself flying through the air. But again – I am not Dead. It feels as if the Death took me into It's hungry mouth and then spat back out. When I hit the ground, I pass out.

Waking up I see only One Death. And It is playing me. Left me to live even that I wanted to sacrifice myself for my family. For my angels. I try to stand up but see that my left leg is broken, bleeding. Is this a test, oh Death? Are It tempting me to save my life to devour my loved ones? I will not fail them!

But no.. I notice that Death is playing with Itself. As if it was amused by my failure to attain It. Have I failed? No, I cannot fail. Despite my injury I begin to crawl towards It, then carefully get up and limp towards It. I will not fail You, Partner. And I will not fail You, Angels.

Even despite that It already stretches high into the sky – It is still a long way ahead of me. As I continue to move towards It, I start to feel weaker, probably from my would. But I cannot bleed out before I reach It. I must not fail.

I collapse. Unable to go further. I did not even reach the end of the plate. I am sorry, my Angels. I am sorry I failed You. I am sorry I did not sacrifice myself to Death. I hesitated and It rejected my sacrifice. My conviction was not strong enough. It has tested me and I failed.

I lay there waiting for Death to discard me for good and suck the souls of my family. But It never moves. Ground trembles from It's apparent satisfaction with my failure. I am sorry for not reaching It, oh Death. Spare my family. They do not belong to It, oh Great Death. Please accept my sacrifice.

Suddenly the trembling stops and when I look up, I can see It's glossy hand reaching for me. I offered myself to It. And the Death found me.




Part III – How can she not see me?

Brian Leibner is walking on the eyelid, trying to cover any spots with shading solution that the vehicle moving in front of him might have missed. He is supposed be thinking about ways to improve the process, make it more reliable and safer for the workers – but can only think about his early retirement in three weeks. Yes, it has become too much for him, what was he even thinking all those years ago when he applied for the job?

He heard from a friend that it is quick and well paying job. The manicure detail for the Caretakers – how they called themselves, but they only ever seen two of them. The mother – it seemed, although they were only seen them suggest it once – was always considerate, but he always thought she simply did not want to kill too many of them, so she could still get their services.

The young one was more problematic. Especially earlier – when she was “playing” with workers desperately trying to finish their assignments before she forgets about them and... There were so many ways she could and kept killing them.

But about seven or eight years ago, it began to change, as if Nicole – what they heard several times her name was – was learning from her mother. Everyone was still afraid of the job, so they kept ramping up the benefits – which eventually convinced him to try.

That and the talk he had with one of his friends – he told Brian, that it is safe – you just have to know what not to do. And which specializations to avoid. Foot detail was his favorite one – especially after the mother seemed to stop using their “services” and Nicole was the only one they had to serve. Back in the beginning she barely wanted them to work on her feet, so he literally fought for the transfer.

Life was good back then. The pay was good – very good, in fact – and he had a lot of free time. He could roam free around the city, provided he was ready to come in whenever she appeared within a couple minutes. Both Caretakers seemed to hate waiting for them to start their work...

But nights were always safe, he could party and have fun as much as he wanted, as they were never teleporting in late. As long as he could wake up in the morning to assist, he was free to spend his money on drinks, drugs and anything else he wanted. He did not even need hookers – the “manicurist” was now a sign of special social status – like doctors once used to be, he heard, before the medbeds came.

Yes, life was good – he remembers how he could easily leave the bar with three gorgeous women looking for a place to spend a night in – and they were all trying to fuck him, happy to give him something back for his work protecting the society. And to use his money on food, drugs, clothes and what have you – at least during the night – but he had enough, so who cared, he could share. And the truth was that they were mostly poor – and sometimes he even gave them some cash to take care, after they made him happy.

Most people were living in relative poverty – compared to a fairly stable society they had before the first Caretaker came. But people died and others had to spend their time rebuilding, struggling not to starve while being cruelly hunted by the giantess – it seemed. It changed when she came up with the idea that they can service her. It seemed disgusting, but at least their situation improved. They were especially reminded of the fact when she even brought any “immigrants” - as they called forcing some people in other zones to enter the transporters to be dropped here. She figured she needs more population to do the job properly... and those new arrivals told stories.. terrible stories about how things were elsewhere.

At least they survived, and even managed to slowly rebuild. It did not change when the mother seemed to start letting her daughter use their “services”. She was bratty at first – if you can call crushing entire towns and “playing” by that. Usually “playing” was the worst, she had so many cruel ideas about it – like when she put her enormous hand on the ground and “walked” her fingers pretending they were some kind of a monster – and from under them they really were... Many people died around Brian on that day, he recalls. But eventually she seemingly matured and just limited herself to enjoying their work.

Like her mother, she never seemed to appreciate it though – they always simply demanded them to do what they had imagined, even if it required tremendous amounts of effort and even their lives. Sometimes the giantesses were able to understand that people could not do something they wanted, but only.. sometimes.

But when he was convinced by his friend that as she grows up, things should continue to become better – so he joined up and was assigned to work on her fingers at first. Things were hard back then – she would still often twitch or move one her fingers, which caused people to fall to their deaths from the heights of dozens of meters. He managed to survive her mood swings, one time was only barely able to hide under her fingernail when he noticed she was examining her other hand – heralding that she would soon rise the one he was on as well, sending everybody unfortunate to be on it to their doom. He remembers being petrified almost dangling down the abyss below his haven, as she carefully watched her fingers, completely unaffected by the terror she just caused. Another time he was thrown off them, but managed to open his parachute in time and land – and even was fortunately missed by her spread fingers coming back down, as she speechlessly demanded them to continue, dissatisfied with the result. As if she could not wait for their managers to tell her they were done...

But it happened fairly rarely, unlike stories he heard about earlier... Hell, he could remember himself watching her humongous form on the horizon “playing” with the workers – back before when he joined in. The fact that everybody could see the atrocities she performed, was the main reason everybody was afraid to work directly on her.

There were a lot of support crew – in various factories and other installations, coming up with specialized materials they used to “make her pretty”, as she once demanded, was not easy task. He did not even see how it could be possible – even if he ever managed to see anything about the Caretakers as pretty, it was lost after only a couple weeks of the work. Everything about them was just humongous and terrifying. Sometimes he felt that they have no chance of satisfying her new demand and she will just kill them all. He heard people spent years trying to figure out substances that would not break, or change color and consistency upon de-dilation on the Caretakers skin. Sometimes the spray, or paste they were applying even was specifically designed to do that – turned into the final form only when already on the skin. He was still fuzzy about the process and especially scared of “de-dilating” himself.. it seemed they were working so close to being turned into a mashed pulp of minerals by the invisible force field... There were also stories...

But thankfully by the time he joined, things were already mostly figured out. But there were so many people working on it, that the entire organization became unwieldy. The managers were seemingly unable to adapt to change in the customers intentions or behaviors in a timely manner, which often caused people to die.

He learned that the hard way right before deciding he will kill, if forced to, in order to get away from the finger detail..

Fortunately a spot opened up, as they used to specific cases of death rate among the workers – and he was transferred, thanks to his long employment and good efficiency. Well, almost a year was considered long on the fingers back then. He heard it has improved a little, but he was still having nightmares from the work – not only she could not feel or see them on her nails, but always seemed to be disappointed by the outcomes of their work – and yet, almost always managed to not communicate what exactly was wrong about it... “You call that a nice color? Fix it!” - he still trembles at the recollection.

At the foot department – as they jokingly called it – things were more calm. Not only she did not want them to work on it more often than once a couple weeks, sometimes even a month, but also did not want to make them “pretty” - she always seemed to wear full sneakers covering them completely. They only had to make sure they “massage” them real good – it seemed unreal to apply such names to what they were doing. But at least driving the massive tracked vehicles they used to do that with, did not require many people. Less victims of the mood swings, their overwhelming teenager girl was sometimes experiencing. And the caterpillar treads were critical for climbing up or descending from her soles, as well as for crossing or avoiding the building sized folds of her skin. Over the years he learned every single detail of each of her feet – every fold, every tiny wrinkle, every little depression of the young skin – compared to the enormousness of everything around these features at least...

And the knowledge was critical. There were only three dozen of workers driving those machines – almost everyone had many years of experience, training alone took several months. The machines were large enough to be felt by her – that was their main purpose – and it was crucial to know what path would “massage” her and where she would be irritated – and also constantly pay attention to the subtle signs suggesting she may twitch when “tickled”.

Yeah.. he remembers explaining some of his lovers how he would maintenance their feet if he worked on them and even sometimes using tiniest flakes to simulate the effect – it seemed to arouse many women greatly, especially being able to see it happening outside on the gigantic girl. It seemed to allow both him and his “customer” to forget about their problems for a little while and enjoy the situation. If only he could do this at his work...

But yes, life was good back then.. it almost makes him wonder what is he doing up here. Well, it was... but then she started to enjoy her foot service more – even sometimes came in just to get some of it in the morning only to return just before dusk. Previously she would usually require them to work on her other features and only sometimes finish with some “relaxing massage”. While driving those things once every two weeks for an hour may be acceptable, having to pay full attention to everything around him – mindful that a tiniest error may cause not only his death, but also the death of his comrades...

That is why experience, training and even trust was so important – they learned a single vehicle would not suffice, and if she – shall that never happen – shakes her foot to stop a tickle.. they would be all mashed into a pulp by the acceleration long before crashing kilometers away, followed by her mortuary giggle.

He managed to handle the stress for a long time, it just felt he needed to – but servicing her once every day or more was taking all strength from his life. He would fall on the bed in the refreshment room shortly after returning from an assignment only to being woken up by his some manager to get back again there. It seemed that even twelve hours of sleep a day was not enough to rest with those strenuous activities...

She has changed her preferences so quickly that they had no chance to train more staff – they started working with apprentices to show them how to do it, but it took so long for them to learn... It became even worse after what they were afraid of happened – he was driving up the outer side of her foot, relaxing in the relative safety of the “cliff”, as they called the less nerved but still stimulating part – when suddenly felt a tremor, he feared the worst – but it was actually her other leg rising into the air by little and sending half his team to...

The depressing realization hit him... he still had seven more years on his contract for feet care – that was another reason why people avoided those jobs. Due to highly anxious and volatile nature of the employment, they needed to make sure they have enough staff to satisfy her – regardless of any recent massacres. The managers simply had to maintain continuous operation. All workers were employed under threat of automatic death sentence, should they leave their posts... and some more specialized functions were long-term contracts. What made him even sign up for this! He no longer had anybody to blame for convincing him, since Max was long dead, as he did not manage to get away from her nose, when she... But that sneeze seems like ancient history right now, covered by countless more tragedies that followed.

He had to carry on his tasks, even despite the state he was in – they tried to offer him raises, motivated by explaining he keeps others safe.. but he kept trying to negotiate some early retirement. It was rare, but given his long employment and traumatic experience, perhaps...

Eventually they agreed when he was really bad, risking another failure – did somebody break like him that caused it the first time? Given his substantial experience with the Caretaker, he was reassigned for five months to analyze possible means of improving various other operations they had to run. Sometimes he just had to watch from distance, thinking what can go wrong with how they are running things, other times – like now, he was actually on the site helping other workers while trying to come up with safer ways to do the job. They had many people working that before their retirement – that was why the procedures were so refined and even though sometimes something went wrong – usually safe.

So he counted days left for him to be able to get out of this place and tried to avoid any danger. It seemed fine, Nicole was even relatively reasonable nowadays – as if her maturing taught her to recognize their work. She looked like adult woman now, all features in place – and if she was regular size, he could easily consider her pretty... Just now he will never be able to consider her monstrous features alluring.

Most of the work took place on her face – and thats where he spent most of this time. Fortunately he was able to avoid any work on the lips... at least so far.

Working the cheeks seemed surprisingly simple – if it wasn't for the height and often subtle twitches. Applying a sort of moisturizer was the first part. Although they would love to perform as much as they could using automated vehicles, most functions simply required human operators to adapt to the changing conditions. The only things that were run remotely or automated were some of the preliminary cleanup vehicles and the airships that provided trucks on the skin with the fluid. It seemed to relax and smooth the skin, but also made it more dangerous – he heard that entire trucks could be de-dilated to ash if stuck in the ooze, so it required careful maintenance – hence the human drivers. After the composition de-dilated and sunk in – and it was the main reason it was taking so long, the cheeks and eyeshades were by far the most time-consuming operation – they had to go back there and apply subtle colored substances to either smooth her look or outline certain features – after they painstakingly learned her preferences.

The main problem was that the last part required smaller trucks and even people to go out there and apply it manually. There were chasms of liquid ready to open upon the slightest pressure and suck any unfortunate workers in. He remembers a terrifying sight of a guy in full suit – being partially turned into bloody ash as he de-dilated in the mix... They could not help him in time, and the screams were just... At least the risks while working on the feet were quick.

But he tried to explain that he is not specialized in these kinds of things – so they assigned him to analyze any machinery, they were using up there. He usually tried to track any signs that he knew of irritation or any muscles below the skin preparing to move, in order to warn them in advance. He had several training sessions where he tried to share his realizations – often was proved wrong by more experienced co-workers.. face skin simply worked differently than the soles. Still he explained some ways and signs he noticed up there that may be worthy to know of.

Now he is supposed to do the same in the middle of her eyelid – and here, the main problems are the wrinkles and lashes spiking up from the skin. If the vehicle applying the shade is too small – it may not be able to cross some crevices and faults and if it is too large – it may get stuck between some hairs. They will probably want him to examine the lashes detail – but right now he is trying to focus how to upgrade the operation down on the skin. Suddenly he notices one of the things that everybody is afraid of around here – the driver of the truck he was following must have tried to cross the split between the eyelids and fell into it as they parted slightly – creating a deep crevice. It must be to steep for him to back off, but... he realizes in terror that the driver escapes his cabin! “What does this idiot think he is doing!” he thinks quickly – normally, if she opened her eyes they would all be sent outwards by the movement of the lashes. Most of them – at least, but vehicles are long enough to be caught by them. If they weren't... well, anything much larger than a human would almost certainly irritate her eye – which would result in a massive massacre. He learned earlier that it happened twice so far – and nobody wanted to repeat it. Not only would she rise up, killing anybody on her, but also risk sudden movements trying to shake the irritating agent from her eye. Once she managed to remove it while still sitting down, the other time... she walked half-blinded to the nearest water storage. He heard almost a million people was crushed under the feet or buildings falling apart from her steps... The managers even thought if they could prepare some water closer around here, just in case that happens again, but the cost of creating a large enough artificial lake was so far beyond them.

And right now it seemed like exactly this would happen. To make matters worse, he thinks that the recent movement of the eyelids suggests she will be opening her eyes – and it was not some lightweight personnel transporter – the truck was full sized, double decker, heavy shader dispenser, with multiple arms to also supply workers... If she opens her eye and it fells down...

He jumps forward asking a confused co-worker to get to the drivers seat and try reversing – it is their only chance – as he surveys the situation. He communicates to the managers that they will need all the available vehicles around his location to pull it asap. Fortunately, the truck did not seems stuck – with the tank treads moving and the pushing and pulling of all workers who were nearby, it finally backed away. “We were lucky, this time...” Brian concludes as he tries to move out of the trench – but suddenly founds his support move into the distance. He can see the truck being safely catapulted into the distance by the traction – but he falls right into her eye...

Great. He heard that for some strange reasons, it seemed that the eye solution does not cause people to de-dilate, they suspected it had something to do with its density or watery consistence – so even though it was very dangerous, he heard about people getting rescued after falling in. He watches to any signs for irritation, but fortunately he and three others – that were unable to get out – aren't enough to cause it.

He is scared out of wits by the eyelids closing back over him – miraculously he managed to survive.. and his suit will supply him with some breathing time, but... will she be compassionate enough to wait for others to save him? He doubted that... in fact, Brian does not think the managers will even mention that – not to enrage her. Any suggestions about what she could do to help them ended rather messily.

And so he awaits his death by de-dilation or drowning – whichever comes earlier... Thinking what was it that he did wrong. Should he run away like that suicidal driver? They were all dead already anyway, he thinks. When anything went wrong, it wasn't about saving themselves, but rather trying to save others – didn't that guy realize that? How could anyone put somebody so irresponsible in such position...

But he is surprised to see sunlight again and watch the world rotate, as she seems to be sitting up. His last hope is that maybe “Nicole” will find a moment to help him out of his predicament.. after all those years he served her... But she is probably not even able to notice him... “I'm in her freaking eye!” - he thinks as she seems to be preparing to teleport away - “How can she not see me?”

Kate thinks about the sixteen days since Amber and Nicole visited her. She was surprised how quickly her littles managed to get so many Volunteers. She heard it took forever to gather even several thousands – but the next time she returned to her zone to make sure that no more damage was done, they were already waiting. She quickly gave Nicole her batch – and control of one of three zones she just claimed. If she is distracted enough and Amber forgets about the whole deal – which would not surprise Kate – then she may be able to save one hundred.

But other than taking care of the colonization, she did not want to go back to her zone. She was now unsure what she wanted to do with them. At first she was simply worried how fast she was killing them – it was the first time she actually could see the population.. and it declined dangerously fast. She heard many stories about entire zones dying because of their owners harsh actions and prepared for the first properly, but... Kate never expected herself to get that emotional about the tiny people. True she wasn't having any fun in the last couple years – ever since Amber started partying with the firsts.. it simply was no fun alone. But she never thought she would actually be that concerned about them. If her slightest moves caused thousands to die, then how many has she killed in other zones – playing with Amber, Nicole and others... She did not care about that, so why should she now. But somehow she felt guilty about.. something. Was it giving in to Nicole? Sure she felt manipulated, but that's what she does... and even then it wasn't that bad.

She does not know what to think about it. Maybe she will be able to talk with Rachel during the party today? Kate thinks about her look – she was slightly laughed at during Nicole's graduation. They said that being adult, she should have some taste and have her “micros” work for her. She dismissed it by saying how it was barely two weeks. Still, two more weeks after that she has not changed anything. Her hair was still long, past her neck – she remembers Nicole watching her closely, was she trying to make fun of her? Whatever the case – she needs to finally cut it... She suddenly remembers how tedious it is to shorten it. Kate heard how once there were tools and even machines that helped with that – but right now they have no help, just a pair of knives they call “scissors” and her own hands. They used to cut each others hair, but now... she was simply too angry at both Amber and Nicole to ask them to. And she just did not care that much about her looks... Maybe she should ask her to tinies do it? They seemed to come up with such smart ideas for everything...

But no, it would probably take much longer than what she has before the party, so she just calms it and continues working on her suit. She can always use the same excuse. Funny how nobody seemed to care much about anything during Nicole's graduation. Sure it was perfect – just as it should be, Erica would not allow anything less, but... The graduations seemed so much more interesting when the firsts had them. A chance to meet everyone, have some fun. Her was just tedious, she could not wait to enter her new zone, but everybody seemed to want to talk with her and her mother even advised her on the side that she is supposed to entertain the crowd – it was her party. Kate never understood that – if they are celebrating for her, then why was she supposed to perform so many things. She never liked any parties, everyone is constantly trying to impress everybody else – but graduations were the worst. This last one went unusually quiet... sure the zone it was in has been still completely decimated, but every mother assumed that would happen.

“I wonder how Amber's graduation will go..” - she was still hoping that Lisa does give her anything and then Nicole should forget her little “plan”. It was ridiculous.. couldn't she just give her some damn micros herself and let Amber deal with them? Kate is really annoyed remembering the conversation. Maybe if she returns the tinies back to her zone, she would no longer feel guilty?

With that thought she leaves for the party. They always started in the cafeteria, where they sang songs and ate the cake, but she is no mood for eating right now – so she just purposely decided to be late for that. “Let Amber eat her damn cake herself”, she thinks. It would not be nice not to show up at all, but when she enters there are only two thirds left and the party is gone – to either change or already to the zone. She copies the coords from the table and teleports herself.

Thankfully only a handful of women is already here – she needs to apologize “sincerely” for being late, how she had some unexpected problems. That kind of things usually makes her feel bad, especially if there are many spectators around. But when she enters, Nicole comes to her:

“Oh, Kate – how nice you could join us!” - Amber stands saddened a bit behind her, so Kate tries to apologize:

“Hi, Amber – look, I'm sorry about missing...”

“Oh it does not matter, just come over here!” - Nicole is surprisingly happy and almost drags her towards Amber. Kate wonders what is the reason for this joy – when they are standing far away from anyone else, Nicole continues: “Just as I thought, Lisa even took one of Lauren's zones for the party – I overheard Andrea talk about how she remembers it from her childhood. If only Amber here did not screw up...” - Nicole gives her an angry look - “and actually colonized anything or if you reminded her of it...” - she turns to Kate, but offers less offensive look. “Still, with two zones, we should be good!”

“Yeah, great” - says Amber, apparently very happy about the perspective of receiving some measly two zones for her graduation. Nicole got six or seven zones from Erica, if Kate can recall correctly – just within the usual range of gifts firsts got. Kate does not want to say anything about this, so she just looks around – only to realize they are standing in the middle of a fairly populated area... Amber must have taking it out already, before more of the guests arrived. Knowing that backing off would be seen as weird behavior – and even then she would probably kill even more of them, she just continues to watch their friends, as Nicole tries to comfort Amber that it is not that bad and in no time she will have much more. There went her hope.. Kate thinks.

Eventually when Nicole leaves to meet some newly arrived guests – although it should be Amber doing that – Kate tells her other friend:

“Happy graduation.” - seeing how Amber seems angry at her about this, Kate decides to leave her – trying to avoid crushing too many people. Amber will probably finish them despite that...

While Kate wanders around, trying to think about her apparent guilt about the micros, more guests come in and eventually Erica comes in and signals everybody to gather round. Kate notices that Rachel arrives even later – being the last of the Caretakers to come.

As they close in to form a dense circle – for everybody to hear what Erica will say, even though they all now what it is.

“And so we welcome our new adult Caretaker, Amber (…)” - she continues explaining how they already gave her all the functions available for mature women, how she can now fully participate in the community and that now she should receive her gifts. Amber could not look more worried – it seems she already sees it happening... a disgrace, pathetic daughter of ecstasy-drunk Lisa. But instead she sees Amber's mother rising her wristcom and while putting in the commands, she says:

“Although it is only two zones, they are fairly populous, so you should have plenty of fun with them” - spotting Amber's suddenly surprised and delighted expression, Kate turns towards Nicole who is on the other side of emotion spectrum, it seems. Still she manages to hold herself back while Lisa finishes her speech and everybody claps and cheers congratulations for Amber. So, after all, she will be able to regain her trust in herself – just as soon as...

“And two much smaller, but just as solemn zones from her best friends, the seconds!” - she hears Nicole exclaims. The resulting cheer is much smaller – seems more like a commotion, but still she manages to get some girls to clap for that. Kate feels hatred coming up within her... how could she do this to me... she said, she promised... Well, just like her “promises” for Amber, they weren't very serious, it seems. Unfortunately Kate has no option but to give Amber the colony – if she refrained from that, she would not only seem the seconds laughable, but also make grave enemies from Nicole and Amber. While the latter would probably forget about it shortly – especially as she will be discovering her new toys, Nicole.. Kate just has to give Amber the zone.

Somehow she does not feel that bad about it... She was expecting this to happen and... Kate does not know how to feel about this whole fuss. At least she will not have to explain her micros the shameful details why this all happened and why is she returning the two hundred thousands back... Although she hardly explained any of the details behind what has happened in the week preceding Nicole's graduation... Maybe it was not the guilt, just her lack of social skills acting up? She rarely wanted to talk to anyone, but perhaps her friends seconds... and even that only when she felt like it.

But she cannot stop thinking about the music and how she felt when Amber killed it... was it how the “weird” Rachel felt? Kate figures she will need to talk to her later, when the party splits into various groups...

But now some mothers congratulate Nicole the maturity and courage to do such an innovative thing – nobody seems to bother Kate about it. Good – she feels like she could shout how she hated this idea and those were her micros in the first place... Very bad...

Kate learned quickly not to make enemies. It may be tough to keep friends around you, but it is very easy to turn anyone into her enemies. Except some mothers, it seemed... they simply do not care. She wonders if she ever be like them while walking around. Others have already started playing around and not really paying any attention to her, so she just casually checks the time – she needs to pick up the synthesizers batch in thirty five minutes... She wondered if they set up the party exactly to collide with that – If she missed it, or even left too early, it would look bad. She needs to wait a little more and then try to sneak out... If nobody noticed her, she may even be completely fine.

While walking around and thinking how her zone does not have many plants around – just farmland everywhere, she spots Rachel alone in a nearby corner of the zone. Looking around to make sure nobody would hear them, Kate approaches her. Their eyes meet shortly, but Kate looks down to avoid any settlements and only stops when notices Rachel's legs.

“Um, hi” - she starts, unsure how she can ask about her feelings... If it was any other mother, she would not even dare to think touch those topic – even Amy, who may be the most relaxed of them all, but still.. Everyone would call these things “crazy Rachel ideas”... so how will Rachel describe it?

“Hello, Kate, what's on your mind?” - she already noticed that something is troubling her. Kate thinks if she is too obvious, if so then others may see that as well and... But no, it was probably because nobody approaches Rachel without a specific reason. Even when they were in school, they hardly talked to her outside of the lessons. Unsure how to put it in a more convoluted way, Kate just speaks:

“I just thought.. I've been wondering about if they.. if micros are people too?” - Kate finally asks in unsure manner. She is half-expecting ridicule, thats how everybody would react, she hopes that maybe Rachel would eventually explain her her problem, especially if she feels the same way – in school she was always trying to do that. What she is not expecting, is:

“Yes” - she hears the answer with a tiniest note of emotion in her voice and perhaps.. wides her eyes a bit? It slowly fades, however. Kate thinks - “Yes – what would she mean? It's not like...” - she figured those thoughts must have been some strange effects of music or something.. but now it's just...

“Why do you ask?” - Rachel takes a more defensive position, her voice just as neutrally bored as other mothers.

“Oh nothing, never-mind, sorry about wasting your time.” - she turns around and expects Rachel to catch up with her to ask for the details, as she so often did in school when Kate started thinking about such strange things. Sure they were never so direct and formalized, but... And the answer. Is she becoming like Rachel?

Kate does not want to show her troubles to others and since the time is almost up, decides to teleport back to the facility. When she reaches the assembler, she notices that the batch is still running, with the display showing busy status. But notices Kimberly and Jane – from the firsts and thirds, respecively – already waiting around it. She can deal with the third simply with ridicule, but Kimberly... She wonders how to approach the problem that she seems eager for her synthesizers.

While thinking about it, Kate suddenly jolts hearing a casual voice from behind her.. Lauren...

“Hey, hey.. what do we have here” - she wonders while playing with the assembler's controls. This was the worst.. Kate could deal with a first, she would probably need to give her some, but... she could not argue with a mother. She tries to approach the topic as carefully as possible:

“These are to help my micros...” - she usually complained how she only got a single zone and that it only has barely twenty million micros – she had to give some number that would be believable. Maybe she can make Lauren feel bad for her...

“Oh but if they managed to survive a hundred years, I'm sure they will not all die in a couple weeks, now will they?” - it is happening, she will take all of them... “But this is not what I came here. You seem to have run away from Amber's party awfully fast” – Kate fears she will mention her talking to Rachel... - “I wasn't even able to invite you to a little party in my place in a couple days” - Kate finally resumes to breathe trying not show her nervousness too much. Mothers have this.. strange habit of always wanting to invite to the party personally.

“Uh, sure – I'd love to” - Kate answers without bothering about any details, a party at a mother was a necessity.

“I'm so happy to hear that... As for this little batch here.. I'm sure they don't suddenly need all of them and I hope You were planning to share them with others, right?” - another relief, maybe Kate will be even able to salvage something out of this...

“Of course, do any of your micros need...” - trying not to give her emotions away.

“Oh, half will just do, thank you for you concern” - Lauren finishes the conversation in motherly style and turns back to the console to split and reconfigure the delivery.

“Hey, and what about me” - Kimberly tries to interfere to get something for herself. Kate heard she is trying to somehow rejuvenate any of her zones, and just a couple synthesizers would surely help, but why hasn't she simply ordered them herself in the years she had her zones...

“You, have no interest in this, my dear.” - Lauren saves her from a possible fight over the remaining units.

“Ugh... whatever!” - she leaves resigned.

Wait.. is this just one of their power plays? Showing “good will” while at the same time reminding of Kate's subjection to the mothers? Kate feels she could hit her if it was the truth... but she feels it was. She realizes it was the same kind of games Nicole was playing, only much, much more sophisticated and refined. Lauren wants to be her “friend” while making sure she will be due to her help. The same games being the cause of which Kate being afraid to ask any mother to help her with locking the first run...

They don't talk more, as the assembler finalizes its work and displays the green status – Lauren finishes her work, probably sending her half to nowhere... why would she care? “And the rest to your zone?”

Kate moves forward anxious to fiddle with the controls - “No need for this to take anymore of your time - I can handle this.”

“Okay then, see you in two days then – I'll send you the details.”

When she leaves, Kate checks the status of the batch – and it shows half of the products available for delivery, which she quickly finalizes to one of the empty zones – that only she has access to, assuring her full control over her food synthesizers.

Nicole is angry.

All her plans.. and for nothing. At least they weren't ridiculed – at least so it seemed. But when Lisa offered the zones, their gifts became meaningless... “maturity and courage” - that's all they said! She feels betrayed. Somebody must have known and prepared that set up – Nicole was sure that Lisa was unable to come up with such zones. If she had them for more than ten minutes before the party, all Amber could get would be ruins and scraps of population. The only question was who did it. Who knew about her plan and so carefully prepared this trap.

She thinks about the possibilities. The firsts would not do it, the zones would be too valuable for any of them to waste them for Amber. And they had no way to figure it out in the first place... The only ones that knew were Kate and Amber herself.

During the party, Nicole suspected Kate – she was so reluctant to give her micros and tried to settle that they will only use the colonies, if Lisa gives nothing. Maybe she betrayed her to to get them back? That's why Nicole went with the plan anyway, to make sure that does not happen. But now it does not make sense – Kate gave her colony as well and although she did not seem very positive about it – it did not look like she missed them. Who would some two hundred thousand micros... Maybe she simply looked bored and wanting to leave?

Besides it's not like she could come up with such zones anyway. She would have to cooperate with some mother, at least. And Kate would not do that – she was not this type of person. It does not add up.

It must have been some other mother – or mothers, Nicole trembles. If they wanted to get her, then it would not be a problem. Every one of them had dozens if not hundreds of zones, probably many of them just as big. It feels like they would not think twice about such possibility to play with her, it seems. But how would they find out what she wanted to do? One of her friends must have told them! Maybe it was Amber – desperate to get anything? But no.. she was not that good at such games. No, she would not be able to pretend so well, either.

Maybe they simply assumed she may be trying to do something to use Lisa's inability to give Amber something? It would seem risky – but since two zones were almost nothing to them...

And now it looks like Kate was right – the entire plan now seems pathetic and laughable. She tried to tell her, but she did not listen. This time Nicole had nobody else to blame. No – it was whoever gave Lisa those zones! They made Nicole look silly and weak.

She thinks which mother could do this. It may have been her mother, but then it was Lauren's zone that held the party... But it would be too obvious – especially how she invited them to herself afterwards. Amy? Would she have any reason to see Nicole suffer? Rachel would be.. unlikely, but she is so weird... Maybe it was all of them?

No.. Nicole is furious, it prohibits her from thinking straight. She needs to calm down, figure things out more slowly. She is angrily walking around one of her zones, even kicked some towns away during her thinking session, but it did not help. She needs something more, she needs...

She promised herself she would not do it when her mother almost caught her stealing her micros. It was only a couple thousands each, but she did it so many times... For a moment when her mother asked about the population in one of her zones decreasing, she felt almost like Amber, addicted to playing with micros – but in her own way. She promised she will never steal any significant number from her mother. It was simply too risky.

But now she has her own micros... Maybe she could, perhaps just a little? She needs to do something, but she needs to do it smart. Like an adult, she is. Yes – she moves to another zone, so other inhabitants would not be worried, grabs one of the transporters she requested and demands fifty thousand for colonization. Not too much and not too little – just the average amount for a new colony. She tells them the equipment is all there, so they do not need to take anything.

It takes them forever to gather, just like anything they do – but this time Nicole is not bothered, she waits while carefully watching the increasing amount of people. They slowly board the transporter – and finally, she hears “the colonists are ready”. Yeah right... micros are so naive.

She teleports to one of her empty zones and casually holding the transporter so they cannot see anything levels a roughly foot by foot area with her shoe. After sitting down, she smooths it, so that micros will not have trouble traversing it.. they seem to have so many problems with such simple things. She finishes her stage by digging an inch deep trench around it.

After checking the population – a bit over 48 thousands.. they cannot even count - she places the transporter in the center and orders them to get out. Little fuckers have no idea – and start leaving the can. They must not learn about her true intent before most of them is out – there is nothing more annoying than micros holing up in the transporter. Sure she can just crush it, but what fun would that be? They seem oblivious enough to gather in front of it – Nicole pays special attention if they are not running back, in which case she is prepared to pick it up to stop any more hiding in. Well, they would not hide for long, but still. She wants as many micros for her games as possible.

It is hard to see clearly, but when it seems they stopped moving out, she picks up the transporter and simply crushes it – noticing the population has not changed. At least this time they listened, good for them.

“You know what?” - she tells them while carefully laying down on her stomach to see the micros better and getting her face just next to the platform, with chin almost on the ground and speaks softly - “I changed my mind about this whole colonization thing. Instead we are going to play some games. You like games, right? I thought so! Now, to start with, here is my favorite” – she puts her right hand about five inches above the stage with her forefinger straightened and directly over the group - “I call it: I slowly lower my finger while you run away, doesn't it sound like fun?” - she finishes while doing just that, pointing for the center of the group. Most micros do not seem to react, so she adds: “I think you do not want to lose this one.” She moves the finger down so slowly, that all of them must have been able to escape. “See – wasn't hard at all!”

Thinking about the new possibilities she has now, she brings her left hand forward, to support herself while making the wristcom visible to herself and the micros. It shows the clock and population counter, which has decreased by about a hundred – apparently some haven't - “See, this is your score, you can see how you're doing.” She repeats this process – but this time slightly faster, so she notices the counter decrease a bit more, sixteen hundred or so. Rising her hand again, she looks at the bottom of the finger, seeing noticeable traces of micros – and where she gently pushed it, reddish dots can be seen. Nicole has so much fun doing this – and being able to see the population changes – that she continues to repeat this process several times – and the counter drops just below forty thousands. Eventually, however, the micros are so scattered, that she needs to look for any groups to play with them – which is no fun anymore.

“Okay guys, you did really well, my finger is no match for you! But now let's try something else – so you get back to the center.” She doesn't notice any significant movement towards it, so she begins to carefully scrape away the edges of the platform - “Here, I'll help you.”

Eventually the micros understand they need to get back to the middle and group again. She can see them gathering, but continues to reduce the stage to three or four square inch area - they will not need more space now anyway. It seems that the remaining thirty five thousands are already in the middle – apparently some did not get back. This time they form a pretty dense group, that could probably fit under her fingertip – but she can still easily see a colorful crowd.

“Okay, so.. All that running was fun, but I thought we could repeat the game without it – what do you think? I love that you agree!” - but as she raises her finger again and begins the slow descent towards them, she can see some people trying to run again – where are they going... But she moves her forefinger and pats two larger groups that are already away of the rest and says “Hey, I said no running away!”

Nicole likes the effect the gentle pats seemed to have on the remaining group – she thinks they must have fallen and were getting up. She playfully repeats this several times at the edge of the platform and even outside – and enjoys the results. But she eventually gets back to her modified game.

It seems that the thirty two thousand people stay still while watching the particularly slow descent this time. She can still see some movement – but does not see any noticeable groups trying to get away. Just barely before the finger reaches the micros, she stops and raises it back - “Ha! Did you like it? I knew you would! Lets try again.”

This time she holds the finger just above them for a moment to make them wonder if she will crush them, but eventually pulls it back - “See, I told you my finger is no match for you! But what if we...”

She licks her forefinger to leave a noticeable layer of saliva and moves it next to the group, slowly rotating it over them. “Remember no running!” - she speaks as the finger barely rolls over them. When she can see the counter starting to decrease again, she stops and rolls it back a bit. “Another game – a trust building exercise! You have five minutes to help your friends, go!”

She watches micros dangle from the cliff of her finger, glued by the saliva. Some of them seem to be falling down though – the counter is slowly decreasing – and eventually the ones on the ground try to reach up and save them. But they aren't doing very well, reaching maybe a millimeter or so – barely third of where their friends are, so she gets bored quickly and retracts her finger, licking any remaining micros up and says “I didn't think you could do it – lets try something else.”

Nicole picks one of her hair from her head – just an average, three inches long filament – and slams it into the group. Previously she would not be able to see any effect, but now the counter shows a decrease of several dozen every time she hits them. Funny.. even a single hair is too much for the micros.

With barely thirty thousands micros left, Nicole runs out of ideas for new games. She could repeat some of the ones she used years ago, but she is already content with herself. The playtime has really calmed her, so she just watches them effectively motionless in front of her face. She thinks that she needs to practice being convincing – and even though micros are so stupid and naive, they may pick up her lie – so she tries to use her most serious voice:

“You know what, you won – I'm tired of this, here, get onto my nails so I can get you out from here” - as she puts her right hand next to them with nails down and waits for boarding. Barely any micros move, so she urges them: “Are you staying here or what?”

When they seem to be content with this plan – probably regained some hope, those micros... - and get on her nails, Nicole very carefully rotates herself around the hand, so she is sitting now and slowly moves them in front of her - “Hang on now.”

They never seem to care about what is going to happen to them, but she needs them to hope now for what she intends to do next. She never liked ramming stuff inside her, but April – her older sister – has explained her how she may one day need to when she wants to have children, so Nicole tried to come up with some ideas that she would like when she does that. She did not like buildings – they prickle a little and are a bit cold. She could accept just micros, but they needed to really squirm for her to feel anything. Thats why she says “I never told you where I am moving you to...” - and shoves them into her quickly uncovered sex. They manage to tickle her just a bit before they die, but it is enough to stimulate her and eventually she gets herself off, a couple minutes later.

As she lays back and thinks calmly about the recent events, she figures it must be her mother that did this to her. It is simply the only explanation – nobody else would have the influence or resources to play everyone like that. Nicole needs to get out of this trap. She must not let Erica get control of her life – just like she did with the firsts.

But later realizes that what she did just now was very wrong. Manipulating and playing micros to have some fun and the feeling of power? It seems so weak of her – and she must not let it happen again. She now knows she is better than that... Anybody can accomplish this with micros – no...

“I need to manipulate other Caretakers now, as an adult” - she concludes.

She notices the population counter still shows three hundred – apparently some micros did not listen to her when she ordered them to get on... With simple strike of her palm she fixes that and leaves the empty again zone – to make new plans and regain the respect she had before this setback.

Amber lies on her back trying to enjoy the minute sensations around her body. The last few days turned out quite alright, despite Nicole's omens and general bad feeling she had as well. Her two zones are quite nice, maybe not as good as the other seconds got, but still – five plus six million was good, much better than what she was prepared for... She was not jealous about others – Nicole got seven zones or so, just smaller – two or three million each, to roughly match Kate's twenty million – Erica always has to be the best in everything – but even then Amber doubts Kate's zone is so small.. the amount of big cities could hold twice that many micros! Or at least thirty...

It does not matter now, especially how Lauren's micros are working on her breasts, hands and thighs... She told them to sit back and enjoy how a “Lady” should be treated – so Amber does just that. Maybe with some occasional twitch and tap to enjoy the feeling of sending hopeless micros to their deaths – but not enough to get noticed by Lauren just next to her. Yes, the invitation to Lauren's place came as a surprise as well, Amber does not remember firsts ever talking about such privilege. Maybe the Nicole's plan worked and they were taken more seriously? Either way – the colonies seem worthless right now... hundred thousands each? Pathetic.

“Oh, that hits the spot”, she thinks as some micros are particularly busy on her left nipple – which is actually becoming erect with the extra attention, but she tingling stops after a moment... did she kill them? Puny micros... but she does feel even better with this thought.

Amber opens her eyes to participate in the discussion – maybe if she is a nice friend, then Lauren will invite her over again? It feels like her zones will take forever to reach this level of training, the smaller one is barely familiar with basic rules and the larger... is not trained at all! So ridiculous.. every time she enter it, she feels more like playing with them than training... Good thing that the micros she moved from the other one to lead seem to be doing their jobs.

Just sit back and enjoy – is this how a Lady feels? If so then she definitely wants to be one! Trying to pay a bit of attention to what Nicole and Lauren are talking about she notices it's still the meaningless banter about how the graduations turned out – who cares, if it was up to Amber, she would give the zones and get out. Even the one the party took place in.. everybody seemed to have extra fun back there. She even heard Lauren mentioning at the end something about having to dump it on behalf of the micros being either dead or driven insane... Could micros be crazy? It feels too emotional for those dots...

But now she looks for an appropriate moment to join the discussion and after Nicole thanks again for the opportunity to see how an experienced adult organizes her zones and Lauren replies, a period of silence comes.

“Hey, Lauren – I do not want to be mean, but.. aren't You treating the micros here a bit too gently?” - she asks, trying not to mention Rachel or any other crazy things.

“Oh, Amber – how cute it feels that you seem to be confused about the basics” - Lauren replies ambiguously and continues - “When you arrived here, or when you were sitting down breaking the head platform” - yeah, they kept making fun of that, it actually felt bad now, since Kate and Amber were getting their haircare - ”when you looked down, what did you see?”

“Well.. cities, towns, plants?”

“Yes, but also...?”

“The cosmetics spots?” - Nicole throws away, unsure of what Lauren is getting to...

“Yes, they are also here, but what could you see in all those places?” - Lauren continues her line of inquiry, Nicole laughs, likely delighted by her friends apparent bewilderment.

Thinking about the question for a moment, Amber responds: “The micros?”

“Yes – the 'micros', but that is also your problem. Whenever you look down you see just micros. You probably want to play with them immediately, disregarding any logic and reason – not thinking about the consequences. I remember we mothers were like that once as well, a long time ago – but over time most of us learned it is better not to be hasty and learn to savour the feeling.” - fortunately they cannot see her, layng down on their backs with head looking up, when she blushes, feeling shameful about reference to her mother – which was obviously the point of the “most of” part, but Lauren continues:

“Now I can also understand how one may want to have some fun, but there are things beyond that. You can enjoy them in so many other ways – but it takes so long to figure out arrangements that satisfy you... It takes so long for them to figure out ways how to make you happy. Sure, I may sometimes participate in some quicker forms of fun, but it feels boring and repetetive – once you learn how to enjoy yourself more throughoutly.”

Amber thinks about this for a moment and unsure what she heard means and thinking about the school, she starts: “But isn't that what...”

“Look,” - Lauren interrupts - “I'm trying to say that I have also discovered other things. Where you see only micros – I also notice hairdressers, tit massagers and manicurists, as well as other professions...” - and giggles - “And it takes them not only a long time to figure things out, but they also require motivation and maybe even some concern. This is why you may perceive this zone as rather neat and tidy – in reward for them gratifying my needs, the least I can do is keep them safe.”

Yes. She made it absolutely clear when they arrived - “No cruelty”. Even with such hasty nature, Amber's would not try to openly act against a mother's order. Still, could she make her micros behave like this? Perhaps if she only had fun with one of her zones and trained the other to “gratify” her... Uh, a tingle on her thighs close to the pussy excites her a lot. Amber almost wants to push those micros in, but she does not want to anger Lauren and... this also feels pretty nice – maybe she could enjoy her micros as well?

Either way, after a long period of silence, Lauren adds: “This is probably just what Kate here is doing with her zone, isn't that right?” and laughs softly.

“Well... yeah... sort of...” - Kate responds. She has been awfully quiet the whole time.. maybe it's one of the effects of her lack of “social skills”. Well, it now makes some sense – but she does not need to keep all of them alive! “I mean seriously... no fun at all? How long it will take her to train them anyway...” - Amber concludes. It is also funny how even though Lauren asked them in the beginning to undress to enjoy some of the extra attention to some parts of their bodies, Kate thanked but refused, saying how - “she does not feel like it right now” and only accepted some haircare.

Hell, she could use some... her locks are clearly getting out of control – usually Kate's hair was short and smooth but now just randomly flowing below her neck... She could simply ask for Amber's help, maybe some cut... they could bond a bit while she helped. It clearly shows that Kate cut herself – such uneven and disorderly mane.. even Amber, who usually isn't much for the looks, feels a bit too messy.

Either way, Nicole starts complementing Lauren on how brilliantly she arranged her zone and how she would sometimes be so skilled and proficient... going back to the random banter.

Maybe Amber could ask for some haircare as well? She looks around at the crumbling towers around her head, that used to allow micros to work on the hair of whoever laid in the spot. She almost feels angry at the micros for not fixing it for her, but... Lauren mentioned that it takes much longer to fix this. Well.. they sure seem bigger than any building Amber has ever seen – even in Kate's zone, where some of the skyscrapers were really...

She wonders how fun would it be to have something like that in one of her zones to play with, she would surely be able to feel things like that properly... Not like those pathetic lumps of dirt she has, crumbling at the slightest touch. Yes, she will definitely need to order her micros to build like that. Even if she decides not to use the structures for anything more than some quick pleasure, it will be much more rewarding, she concludes watching how one of the towers actually remained mostly upright – after her crashing her head just next to them...

But Amber also tries to listen to some thoughts Lauren seems to be sharing with them now on how to be a mature Caretaker, especially now – after their graduations. How to make sure to diversify their zones applications – whatever that means, make sure to colonize, if they want to have a supply of micros for fun – and, most imporantly, learn to wait for the results...

Yeah, she can remember from school that everything takes so long, but she never expected it to be this bad.. wait “years” before a colony grows up? The gifts from Nicole and Kate look truly meaningless now... And all that about supplying them with materials and tools – sounds sooo boring!

Amber remembers how tedious and complicated it seemed, when Rachel was trying to teach them basics of assembler use in school – even with her help locking the results and double checking the materials, it seemed hard and unrewarding... after all, the micros would now really benefit from some tiny tools and devices, right?

Shouldn't they fix their own problems, anyway? That was Nicole's approach – she did not even bother to try that... Amber was half bored and.. maybe a bit curious. But to do it now? Especially with everybody seeming to want to use the assembler... She heard Kate complain slightly about Lauren taking half of her food.. “syntaetizers?” - whatever they were, just before they entered this zone. She would not dare to complain in the presence of Lauren, but while still in the facility... She knew they were her friends and would not tell.

Kate also mentioned how they would surely help her micros – even after Amber's actions... - how much shit is she going to keep giving her for that little play. Seriously, not even the entire city... and she has so many of them left! It should be Kate to offer her some fun. This behaviour of her is so greedy and needy. But Amber will show her, yeah! She will have more fun with her micros than Kate ever has in her zone!

With that thought she hears a mention them running out of micros, if not being careful.

“Whoa, but isn't like impossible? Even after the restrictions, there are so many of them everywhere...” - Amber interrupts Nicole and Lauren exchanging their views.

“Oh, Amber, acute as always” - Lauren comments - “there may be still lots of them left, but if we are not careful, then who knows.. in five or ten years... Sometimes I almost want to start doing what Amy does, colonizing like crazy – You'll see how in a couple decades she will be able to afford lots of fun... But I'm too lazy for that, all the effort – I just want to have 'some' fun while not exerting myself too much, right?”

“Of course, and how nicely done!” - Nicole, acquiescing as usual, resuming their “conversation”.

Amber is again puzzled... she heard Amy is colonizing hundreds and hundreds of zones, but... It has always escaped her why she would do that. It's not like she could have fun with the colonies, it's ridiculous – maybe when they are grown... But now she heard that requires a lot of effort... What if her colonies do not grow up properly? Maybe she should at least try to provide them with something?

Nah, if the stupid micros fail, she can always make new colonies – and bother about the problem later.

But what Lauren said.. “execting too much”... has she had to care about the micros for them to come up with such zone as this one? It almost sounds like one of the Rachel's ideas.. and it just does not make sense – but never mind. If something goes wrong, Amber can always ask Lauren or even Rachel for some advices. That's what the school was, after all – right?

All those questions and possible problems... Now she just lays there and tries to enjoy the tingling feelings she can feel here and there. The micros started work on her left nipple again – and although it seems less energetic, it is still fun – especially combined with the right, and the tiny sensations from the base of her boob.

Yes, she can now understand what Nicole meant by “other ways of having fun” so many times in the past – Amber heard her mentioning that Erica gave her daughter access to her salon zone, she must have experienced this previously. That is probably why she can chatter all the time – sometimes Amber is simply amazed by the little prickles and movements around her body. Like now she just cannot help but to let out a soft moan – which does not escape the attention of others, apparently being considered indelicate in a mature “party”. Was this what they are having here? None of the firsts games seemed so complex and deep... And also not close this rewarding...

“... but I think we have had enough fun here, we should finish up before little Amber here flows my land with her nectar, so girls just stay still for some time now, before I tell you you can stand up.” - Lauren concludes, apparently also instructing the micros to leave their posts. She did that several times before.. a couple seemingly unrelated words and they started acting differently on Amber's body. Why even bother with... but since she does not want to quarrel, she just remains still. Well, mostly... Amber hopes some micros were still on her fingertips when she twitches them a tiniest bit.

When Lauren announces all is ready and they can rise up, she does exactly that – and notices how nice Nicole and Kate suddenly look. Especially Kate – with her straightened and rearranged hair... the micros did not cut it, as much as just smoothed and organized it. It seems seems like Laurens style.. only more natural and friendly. Yes, Nicole is almost nude – just like Amber, only in her panties – and she thought about maybe having some fun with her friend sometime. There was nothing wrong with some playtime between friends, after all... But even though Nicole's nudity was nice and tempting, Kate seems now simply so much more attractive, even while being fully clothed – just like Lauren, who strangely asked them to disrobe despite leaving her own attire on. Clothed like Lauren, not attractive – even a thought of engaging in any kind of sexual activity with a mother feels disgusting... Yuck.

Anyway, playtime with Kate is just another idea to consider about after this “party” - Amber feels like she has discovered the pleasures anew. So much to think about...

As they say their goodbyes preparing to leave, she honestly thanks Lauren for having them and goes to her quarters to quickly get herself off, recalling the visit.

Lauren feels almost like Erica among those kids... They listen to every advice and bullshit from her mouth equally willingly, as if she was some kind of an authority for them now. She completely understands why Erica may have bullied the firsts to feel like that. It feels so.. energizing and vivid.

Even Nicole's obvious anger after her little plan graduation failed is amusing – hidden behind a veil of apparent curiosity in the parties and what Lauren thinks about “them” - as if she cared about anything she thought! Poor girl wanted to find out if she did this on purpose.. and of course Lauren could not tell her that, but she did not – when Lisa came to others mothers gathering once, well, without Rachel, naturally – and confessed how she has nothing of note to give Amber on her graduation... Amy stated the chamber she gave Kate was the last bigger one she had – the remaining population is stretched in the colonies, but she could gather some together...

Lauren simply assured that it won't be necessary, she should have one that should suffice nicely. Of course Erica had to give one that was bigger and so a nice gift came about. It may not have been very generous, but sufficient no to seem pitiful – if Lisa wanted to look any better, she should have thought about this earlier. At least she has no more daughters with graduations coming... and Lauren will need to think about her triplets soon.. just not yet. Yes, they gave Lisa's the zones in the very last moment before the party, obviously, and it turned out pretty well. Incidentally spoiling the trick Nicole had in mind... And the resulting anger...

Yeah, their emotions are simply natural and honest – well, most of them at least. It will be so easy to herd them.. like Erica did with the firsts – and tried to do with other mothers. She may even think how other mothers obedience to her is a sign of weakness, but.. Lauren knows better than that.

Rachel surely is trying to do something about Erica's current supremacy, with all her ridiculously logical and convincing arguments and attempts. Amy's seems to be trying to increase her own compliance score, colonizing like crazy – but it will take decades, centuries maybe to even put a dent on the 3/5ths rule... If that's what she wants to do in the first place, knowing her, she might be simply trying to replace Erica as the alpha wolf. Hell, Lauren would not mind that – after over a hundred years, she is also tired of Erica's shit. The biggest problem is to find an alternative – the current arrangement, however problematic and uneasy, has worked so far.

Well, for them at least – billions of people would not share this opinion. Poor uTopia inhabitants – splattered, crushed, pushed in various holes of their bodies... Well, they should have stayed outside and figured something out instead of getting trapped in this mess. Along with them, perhaps.. hell, what she would not give for a fully functional assembler to make some actually useful modern tools and toys... All this “power” may be fun - but also boring and so tedious to maintain... Or even better – if she had as little as a single man to fill her up real good... and not just those pathetic “massages”.

Which they seem to be getting better and better, by the way. Give the people some peaceful time and they will figure something out. Even at this ridiculous “micro” scale. Not too much – however... to think they entered the zones twenty years ago hoping that they will find some solutions! And from the disappointment and anger rose.. well, the current uTopia... a fucking joke!

But now she can just barely feel their attempts to satisfy her inside her cunt and asshole – she has asked them before the party not to be too “too eager about it”, but they still stimulate her. To think she used to play with the micro people like Lisa still tries to... So empty and wasteful. Now she knows they are better than that and even if not caring about them like Rachel does – or Amy may be, it's hard to say what her motives are – Lauren is still able to appreciate their willing attempts to excite her being so much better than just dying in her juices, de-dilated, crushed, suffocated or what have you.

Lisa's attempts seems just like what the firsts are doing, only in a much longer and less creative ways. She heard about what they are doing, Rachel found out once.. oh, poor Rachel. She seems to be the only mother who did not manage to come to a conclusion they were no longer one of them – as wrong it sounds. But what the firsts were doing... fuck Rachel and her feelings, it even scared the shit out of Lauren! Sure she would not show it, but the very idea... She could be one of them if she went in with her ex-boyfriend a couple years before the shutdown. Well, now he was ex – they split because she did not want to go just yet, and... Well, now he could be one of the people stimulating her clit and pussy nerves. One person per ending or so...

If she didn't know the chances of this are impossible, she would have asked – but the possibility that it can be the case is better than the answer “We are terribly sorry, but we know no Dave Garret here.” Not that anything would change should he even be here. Fuck him too, his life choices...

But the firsts... fuck them as well, but what can Erica possibly want with them being so detached from and ignorant about what they are actually doing! You don't need to love and cherish the micro people, but... Even her ridiculous demand they never use word “people” out loud to address the “micros”. What are they then – toys? Specks existing merely for their pleasure?

Well, maybe that is the main reason they do the things they do... killing and “playing” Lauren can understand, but psychological terror? Like taking their lives wasn't enough, they have to shit on their dreams and hopes... With mile long logs... The lack of real education and any perspective for what is happening down there is no explanation for increasingly more cruel and original ways or “pleasing” themselves with their people. How could it even be satisfying?

But on the other hand, if she had no life experience before the shutdown, no knowledge of what really happened.. no memories of VR trips in the zones... no ex friends inside – where would she be able to find reasons to constrain herself? “Just spots on the ground...” she shudders. Now she has a chance to maybe educate the seconds a little, if not caring for the people too much – then at least to avoid being disgusted by the girls actions. And they are so naive and empty..

Nicole is already learning from her mother, but regardless of what she is trying to accomplish, it comes out as desperate cries of a kid for some attention. Giving that, she has her full submission – and it feels great. Amber is a bit more complicated, but would you call that the desire to feel anything in her sex? Like the firsts.. or her mother... ridiculous.

Kate is probably the most interesting second – but what thoughts is she hiding behind these dark, deep, intelligent eyes? What is she really doing in that chamber – Amy might not be educated enough to know it, but what she passed to her daughter on graduation, the “New” Vienna, with the new part usually omitted, since it was the only one after a couple years after founding. The “New Vienna” is actually, or at least was – before the shutdown - the cultural equivalent of its name origin city combined with Paris, central London, West and East Coast Megapolies – before the Dark April of 2114's nukes at least, north Beijing, Rio de Janeiro area – and at least two dozen other cultural landmarks of the old world... with easily half of globally noticeable events happening right in the area and anybody who meant anything visiting it often – if not living there in the first place.

Yeah, Lauren wonders what Kate is doing with it.. but also whether artists managed not to eat each other after the links closed down. Their tastes were probably too “sophisticated” to have many synthesizers onsite, probably importing most of their naturally grown foods from off-zone. Maybe Kate can give her some time with them – just to hear their stories. And maybe just a tiny little play, if it turns out some of the once famous and influential people are actually alive and could be used by her, just a little...

Hell, a kid “owning” what remained of that monument to human magnificence seemed just... wrong, with no idea what it is – or at least once was.

But no matter, now she is just delighted by the possibility of educating them a little bit. After explaining how killing is not all you can do with the “micros”, the pussy guys seem to have a real party at a very good location and Lauren has to carefully restrain herself from moaning and whispering obscenities. And of course from clenching the muscles – it would not only kill the people inside, well, her juices flowing out must be already problematic enough for the asshole folks – she hopes they have good airtight gear and all. But it would also probably bring her to climax, which could be seen impolite in mature groups...

Fuck those kids, of course they would not care about it at all – she thinks and almost wants to give in, but decides that even if she apologized her people, their efficiency would probably drop noticeably and she would not like that...

Rachel would call it cold and selfish, but why not – if she gives them peace, then they can give her something back too – even if it's risky and often ends in some deaths... And Lauren hates any kinds of machinery working on her.. especially in her naughty parts – it feels like she was some sort of freak that needs to be dealt with using remotely controlled bots or something. She told them either regular humans – or nothing at all, trying not to suggest any threats, but still.. if they want to repay her, they will need to get down there and get dirty themselves. And it feels great!

Well, maybe after the party she could ask for any volunteers willing to finish her... Right, another thing the firsts distorted – and now all girls think that getting “the Volunteers” means somehow forcing them to sacrifice fearing... worse things. No, she would never do that – every life comes to an end, especially how she made sure not to provide them with any life extension technology – either directly or by immigrants from other zones. She felt bad about it at times, but at least they have a chance to go through their lives. And if they choose to die pleasing her – she would gladly accept that. Anything more would be hideous.

At least that's how she tried to communicate it – she has no idea how the people perceive her, maybe her insinuations seem like unconditional demands for them? No.. she was never not that dominating... but she does seem ten miles tall to them – she sometimes wondered what effect it would have on her to see somebody...

But now back to the business, time to inquire about Kate's zone – carefully steering the conversation towards her, but no... no details. And of course the fact she did not want any treatment beyond her hair – to which she only agreed when Lauren assured her the “micros” will love a chance to work on her beautiful hair...

Maybe she was actually touched by her people? It would mean that she must have listened to them – and if Erica found out... No, Lauren is not as insidious to try using this to her advantage, but maybe she could at least convince Kate to let her in to see how they are doing in there? She tried to be helpful by dealing with that bitch Kimberly – who wouldn't settle for half...

In time, perhaps – maybe if Lauren helps her with some other assembler delivery? How about she scheduled some synthesizers to come back her with some, trying to seem friendly and even thankful for the other half... where did she put them? Or even forgot to deliver them anywhere? Has she got any chambers which could actually operate them? Lauren reminds herself to look into that.

And fourteen synthesizers... Kate must surely have a lot of mouths to feed down there. Perhaps if she simply gave her back like.. four or so, it would seem like a nice touch. “Oh it turned out my micros did not need all of them” - an explanation came to mind, a seemingly honest and probable one. Nicole looks simply bitchy and powerless next to her two hundred years life – and over a hundred years of this game. Erica is even better, but that's only because she has absolutely no restraints. A true monster... Lauren thinks about how they even let themselves be bullied by her in the first place...








Nick Yu-Morris is currently working the ass-detail assignment on their Caretaker – they usually don't do it when she is clothed – but for whatever reason, she asked them to do this little “favor” for her and they are trying to perform the best they can.

He heard that even bigger team is working on her lips on the other side, but at least they have it easier – they do not have to climb upwards... Getting out is sometimes problematic, but most usually the cables they are connected to the holding pen they quickly hanged on the outside for onsite operators. He hopes they are able to retract the cables fast enough to stop him from hitting the panties down below... Usually this hole was actually easier, since it was not that wet and also they could get a better mounting between her cheeks for any apparatus.

But Nick is fairly calm, assuming that even if something bad happened, she would wait for them to evacuate – it wouldn't be the first time, and even the dark and hot conditions he is currently in do not bother him that much... although they could work on better cooling for their suits – he heard of some upgraded prototypes, but the work conditions were never the priority among the authorities here. As long as its bearable, they should try to do their best.

He can always quit, but the pay was good and working time was short – so somebody would quickly replace him. They have no shortage of recruits – after all, in such overcrowded zone.. everybody would like to have a house on the suburbs, preferably somewhere far away from facilities for the Caretakers. Yeah, two more years and he should be set – maybe with enough stashed away for Betty and himself. She works in support right now – thats where they met in the first place, but they talked about leaving the place for something more.. normal. Like a small farm with country products – people were already getting tired with those synthesized food and unknown quality imported goods.

Well, at least Lauren – as he remembers from his early days, even being tought about her in high school, like anybody could miss the ten mile goddess on the horizon... - she tries to make sure they are cared for. Brings them some goods and food from other zones. Their population of twelve million is already too much for the strained food systems...

But it feels that as long as they satisfy her, she will make sure they are fine. It is hard to say what would happen otherwise... Nobody talks about it, but he heard the discussions and seemingly meaningless chatter she had with the others – they were always congratulating her having a fine “service” here, as if... It was probably the reason the authorities were enforcing barriers and high enough taxation to keep many people forced to work for Them. It was simply impossible to rise up on your own. If you wanted to become something – you simply had to spend five or even more years on the Job.

They even offered bonuses for “the Final Jobs” - where older, experienced workers could sacrifice themselves to earn plenty of cash for their families and friends – a fair way to go, some thought. At least they would be remembered as something better than grumpy old men and women trying to find something to do when they are not strong enough for the Job. It seems like a calling for some... people like that even, sometimes, organize themselves in a religion of a kind.

Nick can understand the reasons for that – the Caretakers seem like Goddesses... but he keeps in mind what their origin was. There are people who still remember what the Caretakers should be doing and although the situation after the Shutdown – as they call it – may be tough, it sometimes feels.. wrong.

At least she does not force them to do anything, at least not seems to be doing it on purpose. And he heard stories... They never had any immigrants from zones other than Lauren's, but the others are talking about things happening.. terrible things. The expressions like “crushing” - especially in the same context as “playing” - or “running out of micros” are particularly affecting the people's imagination.

Is this what they have become now? Playthings for the Goddesses? If so, then at least their lives are fairly good, considering... – sure some people die on the Job, but it's usually their own fault – ignoring safety regulations and protocols, rarely caused by an action of some Caretaker – and almost never due to their Lauren.

Thats why Nick is not worried now. Even though he is currently struggling to find a foothold on the slick sphincter muscle – he can imagine his retirement in a couple years. Many people do that – it is sufficient to save some of your pay for a couple years instead of spending it all on fun and parties. And he and Betty are doing exactly that – they have each other, what for would they constantly get drunk and high?

Yes, this plan is enough to withstand the temperature and tough conditions they have right now. Dark and humid – when out in the open, they can sometimes feel the air circulating every couple of minutes, although without their oxygen equipment it would probably not seem so nice... Still, the clothing does make it much hotter, but not unbearable. Eventually he is able to climb high enough to recognize the subtle points that suggest the zone of best sensibility – at least for this place – and begins to work the area trying to work his assignment.

Sometimes he almost feels like betraying his Betty when pleasing Caretakers... but it's not like he has any excitement out of it – it is more like... cave climbing – he heard some stories about the old world. She does not really seem like a person – sure sometimes he gets erect when seeing Them naked in the distance, but it quickly fades when he appears closer to his assignment. And now it is just... another thing they taught him in lengthy preparation courses and further instrumentations. Yeah, Betty does not mind that either – it is simply a necessity to make their dreams come true. But as he continues his work and thinks about the future, Nick is interrupted to notice the shouting voice of the operators that the pens are being dislodged by the excretions of the vagina above them – and they have no idea know how long...

Suddenly goes silent, but the stretching cable reminds him of the training – immediately disconnecting his harness. He has enough oxygen to survive without the external supply, so just tries to stay still and be careful not to...

Yes, in his night vision goggles he can clearly see some unfortunate folks falling down – apparently pulled by the falling equipment. They cannot survive this fall.. it seems – at least a thousand feet down, he calculates already in the imperial units they were learning in schools nowadays.

No, this will not happen to me, I'm smarter than this – he thinks. Next thing Nick hears as he tries to hang on, is an operator from control room, who reaches them trying to reassure that they are working on getting them out – and they should not worry, just stay put. The obviously worried a bit, but still calm and reassuring female voice reminds them of what to do in case of an emergency like this. Well, at least the commlinks still work – this gives some hope. He checks the emergency timer on his wrist, eighty six minutes.. good – more than enough to get him out safely.

So he just waits there and tries not to fall down – usually it should take no more than maybe ten minutes to prepare a complete rescue plan, but the clothes... It is difficult how the things are going out there – he also overheard some chatter and remarks about “problems with the others” - whatever that meant. But they will figure it out – he settles on while watching the enormous muscles moving around him, contracting and stretching in seemingly slow motion – but every cycle rearranges them by hundreds of feet...

One of those movements dislodges him from his hiding spot, but fortunately he lands somewhere soft enough to amortize the fall – but it seems everything is expanding around him... if he watched the cycles correctly, that can only mean that...

No, he needs to get out of here.. somewhere higher, or just.. else – but the distances are simply too large. They can climb up when everything is calm and motionless, but now.. usually they would already be evacuated by now – what happened? Why has nobody pulled them out safely? Are the onsite controllers already dead? His strenuous situation, combined with trying to move away make him inhale more sharply, which triggers a warning and reduces the amount of available breathing time.

But he needs to get away – he thinks, but notices that everything is getting back towards him again... it is pointless, his perspective has barely changed at all since he fell here. Looking around to check for any other possibilities, Nick realizes he is in a sort of ledge, or chasm, which would require him to climb in the other direction, even if he wanted to fall out – and he would have to get even further for such a chance. He asks the operator to tell Betty he loves her and tries to think if there is anything more he can do. At least if he dies, she will be able to live their dream on the countryside – the paychecks for accidents were really fat. “But maybe those slow movements will not harm me?” is his last thought as the pressure and friction grind his body into a pulp.








“God damn it!” - screams Mila when the stranded workers disappear from her displays one by one. It seems that monstrous asshole is eating them as if it was hungry for human life... The rescue operators have already taken control of most of the instruments and there is nothing she can do, apart from trying to reassure them. If only she believed they would actually be alright!

There was so much chaos around here today. The second operations room was responsible for coordinating efforts on third and fourth pods – and it seems that the real problems were encountered by the other guys, but... First they almost thought they are going to power with all life support for the vagina apparatus.

“More like fucking cunt toys”, she thinks to herself – who would ever want to do that! Don't they have like.. feelings? Better than killing them, but.. At least she heard they were able to restore that, rerouting some systems and other magicky tricks the engineering folks did. She was merely organizing the work on the other side – which seemed to be fine, at least before the onsite operators noticed a stream of juices coming from above...

Fuck! She almost wants never to have sex again herself, seeing the ridiculously overgrown effects it has here. Obviously she does not need to worry about killing hundreds of people with her juices, but... it does make her sick.

As she tries to relax and remind if there is anything she can do, she thinks if the soft question that Lauren asked them - “... but only if you want to do this?” was actually an option. The high ups certainly did not act like it. It was just standard procedure, they lay down, we go in.

We should have never went like that – not from the bottom. They tried that once or twice and although it did not end in a complete disaster – the control crew was already splattered on the bottom of the “panties” and it was only a matter of time before... Fuck! The previous attempts have shown just how many dangers it creates – and they explained... She heard Lauren affirm it is okay and they do not need to do it, if it is risky – several times in the past!

What could have made this... She wants to think bitch, but she suspects it was the management trying to “exert” themselves. To show how capable they are – even the reports they were sending seemed to disappear or at least be diminished in seriousness. And the situation was fucking serious! The controller guys were screaming to stop this and then for help – but she had to maintain professional procedures, so just reported the grave situation up the chain.

But when people started dying... she even stood up and told Max, her direct supervisor they need to stop this now – they need to tell Lauren what is happening and she will surely understand. His reply was “I will see what I can do...”

Shit, or even pull them out – when there was a chance... On the other hand it happened so quickly. That is just one reason not to pleasure Them clothed! Hell, when she thinks about it the Caretakers do not seem like humans – more like, mobile mountains. You have to be so careful not to fall or get crushed or... She wonders how some weird people can “love” them – well, maybe it isn't true love, just more like.. admiration or something like that. Those giantesses, Goddesses – the idea of worshiping them sickens her... not after what Mila has seen here.

Oh they are humans, with most basic instincts... and somehow, unable to satisfy themselves otherwise, they come here – why!

This is so ridiculous...

Suddenly Max comes behind her chair and asks for a report – the first time problems on her post arose. Earlier he was supporting the other team and arranging transfers to other pads – that is where the situation was really bad, she overheard earlier. But now she just recaps the events:

“... and now the rescue crew is doing what they can, standard E7 procedure.. but Sir... they will not get there in time – not with the clothes. We need to ask...”

“We tried that, Mila, we tried...” - looks her straight in her eyes and simply leaves, seemingly unable to comfort her.

But that means... how could she... Mila suddenly recalls parts of the speech she listened to for moments before it went to hell. The sound buzzing though their facility and easy to hear when she removes her headphones – or even lowers the volume noticeably. The voice of Lauren explaining how they need to be careful and not just kill the “micros”... Fuck me. They seemed somewhat young and perhaps inexperienced – but definitely less self-confident than the usual ones, but... Is Lauren teaching some girls how to enjoy this?

The “girls” who – judging by the noise coming from the first op-room – were not paying much attention to the results of their actions... While still busy with the rescue, she heard a couple minutes earlier that the casualties today were already higher than the entire last year – and that counting the tower 15 fire, which was completely unrelated to any Caretaker action... a terrible accident during an exercise, which resulted in hundreds of deaths – she now figures “terrible” is a relative term... Now it really sinks in.

She jumps after Max, trying to get his attention for one more moment...

“Mila, you can go home now, take the rest of...”

“Actually.. Sir, if there is anything I can help with to take my mind off things and calm down... Maybe a post that has not turned into a total disaster yet?”

He looks down at her perhaps trying to examine how shaken she must be by this whole ordeal. “Fine, I know one place...”

Mila follows him to the pad 3 operators – the only remaining two, the rest was transferred somewhere else to help. “Hi guys, how is the haircare coming?”

They look at Max and respond “Fine, no problems so far...”

“Mila here would like to calm down for a minute, I'm sure she'll be able to help you with some insights on women's fashion.”

“Um, sure...” - they say almost in unison, it seems so surreal to apply normal world knowledge to the Caretakers...

But Mila already looks down on the monitors, displaying various cameras views on the hair. An oasis of peace compared to the others, just some workers arranging the nice, long, smooth, dark hair...








“This hair is freaking ludicrous!” - thinks Tommy Chavek, officially Thomas, Tom for friends, Tommy when frustrated – apparently looks very funny in this state... and frustrated he is indeed - “What are they using for haircare out there... lawnmowers?”

This has to be the tenth bot he needs to manually dislodge after it locked in some broken filament or got lost in a strand... It looks just like it has received no reasonable attention since... at least never. He is not new to the Job and has seen many things, but...

At least their work is almost done – and judging by the last sentences he heard and the current silence around him, the Caretakers are also preparing to get up.

“Just this one last louse...” - a missing bot means no bonus, means no promotion, means overtime on the construction and testing grounds. Yes, they playfully called those things louses, but.. a cylinder about three meters wide, ten long – usually able to work automatically, at least mostly – but with minimal supervision from the operators.

At least Lauren did not want humans to do the work...

But humans were necessary on the site when something went wrong, to assess the situation and figure out ways of fixing it – if possible, sometimes only recovering the bot – or just blowing it up when left with no options. The Caretakers did not seem to like remaining clods in their hair...

“Fucking whores!” - Tommy thinks – but then.. this one was somehow different, younger perhaps? And not only laying perfectly still – even the adult ones moved a bit while talking and such – and what he heard from other pads... well, he will need to hear more about it later. He could also hear it in her voice, like she is not enjoying this much, perhaps even does not really want to be here? That would make two of us – but you gotta make a living and this specialization is as easy as it can get around here. Still... provided the hair is at least remotely neat.

Sure, given a day or two they could easily fix it – with proper schedule and other approach, they were experts on these things... but with the time they were given?

“Impossible!” - he shouts out as the automatic locks do not release, when he tries to make the bot move back a little, while he is sitting uncomfortably in the control booth. Lowered here by the crane... “Great, if this stubborn louse does not give up, I will have to parachute down of worse...”

But suddenly he can hear Lauren's voice saying that everything is done... Wait, what? “Operator, worker 3-HK-182, still on the post, please confirm.”

“Still on post, confirmed, escalating” - he hears an unknown female voice, new one huh? It sounds pretty nice.. maybe he could tap her when they are done?

But the thought is interrupted when the Caretaker raises her head... Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK! “Operator, what the fuck!” - but does not hear the response... great, the range on those things was supposed to suffice, but... he never had to test it.

Calm down, what to do, what to do... The harness keeps him on the bot – which still holds onto the hair, now flowing freely... hopefully the cage will hold.. it should, right?

Trying to figure out a good moment for evacuation – they seem unaware of his situation, the escalation should immediately warn them... But no, they seem to be thanking each other and one already vanished... Shit, he needs to jump down and try to evade their movements while dropping down... no easy task, but with some luck...

Still better chances than being de-dilated by the field, he thinks.. a good moment comes when she lowers her head, but just before Tommy can jump – she teleports.

Amber is shocked how many things can go wrong with training micros. And the worst part – she has no idea what she did. She even is not sure what is happening... but it seems that every time she comes back to the bigger zone – well, until recently bigger – the counter shows less micros than when she was leaving. Three days after Lauren's party, it seems that her explanation how she will try not kill too many of them each time should be having some effect – but the numbers suggest otherwise, already a million less than right after graduation.

Was somebody else killing them? When it repeated the second time, she checked if anybody had privileges to it – but that was not the case, and she even took away the manual access she gave Nicole and Kate. If they don't want to trust her, then neither will Amber. But the seemingly constant decrease in population... she can understand it happens when she plays with them – although carefully, no more than a town or two at a time, just like she promised – what could be causing it?

Are they killing each other? It is the only explanation she is left with – she heard about some “wars” in various zones, but they usually quickly ended upon the Caretakers arrival – it seems they had enough effect on them to convince them not to continue those silly fights. Christina even mentioned how she watched some “war” when she arrived to an unvisited zone and they even seemed to turn on her – which apparently became very amusing to watch. That is before she wiped them away as she became bored with the tiny prickles and spots of light along her hands on the ground and face leaning forward. She could not even feel anything through her uniform...

Amber thought, how would a war look like? Maybe if they are actually doing that.. could she order them to do this war for her instead? It seemed like fun, but... the population kept dropping. What if they are killing themselves? She heard about some mass suicide among micros from firsts – that was the worst part, like – why would they even do that? And they even failed to obey her very specific request not to kill themselves? Stupid micros... it is the Caretakers who should be killing them, not each other.

Every time she tries to ask Andrea or Kimberly – the only firsts that seem to be willing to talk to her seriously, at least sometimes – they say it's complicated and takes time, gibberish like that. Like what is she supposed to do? Leave them for a couple days and then return? It seems they would only kill more of themselves!

At least the other zone is doing better. The population dropped a bit, when she entered and surveyed it – obviously she might have been more careful where she walks, Amber thinks now in retrospect – but at least they are not killing themselves! What if she moved more people from there to this one – would they be able to convince those suicidal maniacs they should stop it?

Was this the reason for Kate being so angry at her? She must have been experiencing the same problems in her zone. Amber heard it was untrained – and it would make perfect sense if they kept killing each other there as well... and Kate only has a single zone – she must have been really worried about them. If somebody entered any of Amber's zones and started killing micros without her permission, she thinks she would literally explode!

What was Rachel trying to teach them in school about this situation? That must have been the reason we were having those lessons, after all... but Rachel seemed so disconnected from the reality, so... “abstract” - Amber remembers the word. Like she wanted to show them the theory instead of real, practical guidelines of how to train and care for micros. Damn, now it will take a long time to even make up the looses she has already inflicted, even if the micros could stop doing this!

Wait! Maybe Kate found a way – maybe she finally managed to stop their killing and was afraid of some rush action causing it to resume? That explains everything. Even Nicole tried to tell her not to be more careful... if only Amber listened in the school more. Funny how Nicole never seemed to pay any attention to the parts on micros – how would she know? Was it so obvious and Amber so ignorant to miss it? There must be some way – think Amber, think!

Maybe some of them wanted to die so much that they ended up in killing each other? Perhaps if she took some Volunteers and left the rest to rebuild... Yeah, that should help.

But this request of her does not seem to appeal to many of them – initially at least. After an hour or so, she sees some micros gathering next to her hand – placed between several bigger towns, she was careful not to kill any healthy micros – only the ones trying to kill themselves. Damn, she forgot the iron plate and the tube.. – maybe if she just...

Yeah, ordering them to climb her nail and sniffing it was just enough to make her feel them – so Amber can relax now. She tries to think about how she will need to repeat this in various places around the zone, to remove these maniacs from the population. And it will be a lot of fun...

But when she looks at the counter, she notices how it went even lower – a hundred thousands in mere half hour since she snuffed them... What the hell! It's more than during the last night! It does not make sense, she was trying to help them... No, it must be something else – think!

And to make matters worse, Kate will not even reply to her mesgs. Maybe Nicole will know? Fortunately she has a moment and invites her to one of her zones. While leaving, Amber makes sure to specifically tell micros they must not kill themselves.

“Hi Amber, what's wrong” - says Nicole obviously noticing her concerned expression.

“Hi, thanks for seeing me...” - she responds, as they hug - “It's one of my zones – the micros seem to be... I don't even know what's happening, it's like they keep killing themselves. Every day I return I find less and less of them is alive and I don't know what to do!” - she explains hastily.

“Whoa, easy now...” - Nicole tries to comfort her - “have You tried talking to them?”

“Yeah, I kept ordering them to stop that, not to die and everything, but they just don't listen!”

“Um, I mean talk with them to see what is wrong – as in try listening to what they say?”

“What do you mean..?” - Amber is surprised.

“Oh you know, like get some headphone and...”

“Yeah I know, my other zone can manage that – but... problems?”

“Yup, the micros seem to have a lot of them. I do not know many of them, since my mother gave me already trained zones – at least most of them are, but the firsts seem to complain a lot about their 'problems' while in training. I just never cared much to listen closely...”

“Yeah, me either... do You remember any problems they have mentioned?”

Nicole thinks about it for several seconds and says: “I don't know, like some micros did not see any point in living or something stupid like that...” - well, but why would they come to that conclusion, Amber thinks... “Maybe if you asked Kate – she seems to be fairly comfortable with her micros and she trained them from the scratch, right?”

“Yeah.. I tried, but she won't... she won't answer me.”

“See, I told you not to be to hasty with her – and now she could probably help you, but you already damaged the friendship with her...”

Amber thinks about this for a minute, while being obviously analyzed by Nicole – but who cares about that, Amber simply wants to fix her micros. Sure she knows now she should have.. but couldn't Kate just explain the reasons why they should be careful? It would be so much easier to listen to logic instead of orders... What did she think they are – some micros she can push around? “We are her friends!” - she concludes. But now... maybe Nicole was right, if she could just get Kate to advice her...

“Maybe I'll try to ask her again – maybe we can figure something out together.”

“Yeah, do that – I'm sure Kate will help you, remember she has always been your friend, just like me” - the overly obvious tone suggests Amber it may be just one of Nicole's games, but again – she just wants to...

“Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it...” - she ends the brief discussion.

“Sure, any time!” - and Amber returns to her quarters.

She does not want to return to her zones yet, fearing further decrease in population and just thinks how to appeal to Kate to help her. Maybe Amber was behaving a bit bitchy recently.. especially how Lauren told them they need to be more mature now – was this what Kate was already trying to do even before Nicole's graduation? She cannot forget the image of Kate lying down and enjoying... something – but definitely not killing micros or having fun with them in any way, it seemed. Laying on her back, eyes closed, relaxed expression...

Her recollections are interrupted when a mesg from Kate appears on her wristcom... “What do you want?” - that's not the way to write to your fellow second, Amber thinks – but inquires in reply if she could come in – explaining she just wanted to talk about some problems that she had.

In Kate's zone, she can see her slowly rising up from crouching some distance away from her “spot” - and as she turns towards Amber, signaling her to stop and start walking carefully, Amber thinks if she will need to act like that in her zone... Others do not seem to be so careful around micros – but as soon Kate is close enough to hear her, she starts to talk:

“Hi Kate, I wan...”

“Now listen up, you will not do any damage here, do not even try to leave the spot, and no rash actions!” - Kate interrupts her in a demanding tone.

“Hey, I just wanted to talk...”

“Like hell you did, you are not killing anyone this time!” - the expression on Kate's face was very angry, is this how Amber behaved the last time? It was just some casual destruction... it can't be that bad...

“Listen, I...”

“No you listen – you are not harming anybody here, understood?”

That does it – Amber is trying to be nice, but all she gets are demands and instructions! Looking around, she notices a small cluster of small towns near the edge of the spot where she arrived and jumps onto it with one swift move:

“Really? Look – how did this happen!”

Kate's stops in her tracks obviously angry, her face turns red and she demands: “Get out!”

“What..”

“Get out now! I am never letting you in here again!”

“Whoa, this is no way to treat...” - but Kate jumps her, grabbing her back onto the spot and holds tightly by her neck, blocking the breathing... She is violent with her! Amber cannot fight back due to shock – and think of anything other than to teleport away, speechless.

Back in her quarters, she thinks about what happened – she heard about only one “fight” between girls, ever – it was Courtney and Andrea and they just scratched each other when arguing... still, mothers blocked them from any zones for a month – it was before theirs graduations, so they just wandered around the facility for the entire time and begged for some explanations of what anyone was doing with the micros... Andrea even seemed to remember Amber being nice to her and returning the favor – it must have really been terrible for them... An entire month with literally nothing to do!

But Kate knocks on her door promptly and asks if she can come in – casually it seems and without any mesg or anything... Amber is afraid, but... she would not do it again, right? To attack her intentionally and with deliberate attempt to hurt her? That was... but the doors open, shit – she forgot to lock them!

“Listen up carefully” - Kate explains with a grim tone, while closing the door behind her - “not only You are not getting back to my zone. Never. You are also never talking to anybody what happened – and publicly we are still great friends and everything. Understood?”

Amber has never seen anybody so determined, so obviously confident with she is doing as Kate right now... How could she do this to her... and only manages to whisper: “Yes...”

“Good. Now, we are going to get Nicole to help you understand why your nasty actions were wrong and if she does not help – the mothers...”

That was already too much, mothers told them to respect each other's property... but to talk with them about some random play? It seems... actually, it seems that Kate is really willing to go through with everything she just said. Scared for probably the first time in her life, Amber faints.

Nicole is laying down in her zone enjoying a little tit massage she requested from her micros, mindful of Lauren's explanations. It actually does feel fairly nice – if only they could be more noticeable... Of course Lauren had trained hers for years to reach this point and Nicole did not care about her mother's micros at all – that is before she received them on the graduation.

So now she will need to train them to do it properly – no more laziness and excuses. The best way she found so far was to have them work the underside of her boob – with whatever machinery they have. Sometimes it tickles her a bit, usually she can just feel tiny taps in there – but it is better than listening to excuses about how her giggle threw workers from her nipple... The Lauren's micros somehow figured this out, now didn't they?

Well, actually.. maybe they didn't – was she killing them as well? Maybe this was the way Lauren wanted them to have fun? After all some casualties cannot be avoided – Nicole learned that quickly, especially when she got the counter... simply everything she does kills some micros! Walking, laying down, even breathing seems to decrease it... maybe she should be more careful not to run out of them? She would hate to be like Lisa... Still she wonders how did she come up with those zones for Amber...

Speaking of Amber, after she visited her moment earlier, Nicole thinks about how hard it must be for her – if micros constantly dying are beginning to frustrate Nicole, then the cute but hasty Amber... Yes, she can easily believe in the problems in that zone – although is also unsure what may have caused it. Now when Nicole actually talks to the micros – given that they are her property now – she noticed how extremely fussy they seem to be about the orders and even her words!

It's silly – but she tries to give them, what the firsts said to call it? “Reasons to live?” Whatever – when she mentioned yesterday that she wants to give them that, they seemed very grateful – so maybe the firsts were right? It is just silly – like serving her wasn't good enough reason... seriously.

But when she told them that, she immediately heard how she could save many lives by doing this or that – well, it did not seem hard and she needs to think about the future as well, so why not? So now tries not to move at all when she feels a sudden tickle. She also remembers how Lauren talks to her micros – not as much orders them, but rather asks to do things and they always do it. That seems like a muster puppeteer – is Erica also practicing with her micros like that?

Nicole used to train her lies to be more convincing on them, but to use them for more than that? It was brilliant, she could both educate herself and give micros some hope at the same time! Prepare for the games with others.

She never actually seen her mother play with micros – she was with her a couple times to Lauren's zone, but never got any treatment before. The mothers were almost always using all four spots – and even when one left, they did not allow her to join in, saying how “it is a treatment for adults” - even after her puberty! Like she could not satisfy herself with some micros... But now it does not matter, she will train her micros to be even better than Lauren's and keep them to herself. Or perhaps she should share them with Kate and Amber to gain their obedience?

She suddenly giggles when they excite her a bit – and apparently it caused her breasts to wiggle, as she starts hearing about how it killed some workers and damaged equipment... all this moaning and bitching! She feels like they all must have PMS right now... don't they have stoppers?

But Lauren did say to “even show some compassion” and Nicole briefly apologizes – that really seems to shut them up... and they even end up thank her and offer something more. Damn, such simple things and she already feels like the micros are more energetic – Lauren is so much more experienced with them... Maybe Nicole could ask her for some more advices? While thinking if she wants more treatment, she also wonders how firsts were never aware of those things.. Hasn't Lauren ever shown them? And why would Rachel have those stupid lessons with them – it took Lauren a couple hours to tell them so much more about the real life!

But she notices a mesg on her wristcom – oh well, she may just as well wrap it up for now, so after telling the micros to leave her and waiting for their confirmation – just like Lauren did, Nicole raises up and looks at the message. From Kate? She wants to talk? That is something new...

“Well, in this case I better get dressed up...” - she concludes. Nicole does not care about what Amber thought when she visited her – pausing her little boob play did not seem necessary... but Kate was a bit different. Nicole wanted to make a good impression on her – especially given how Kate looks even better after the little treatment at Lauren's place...

Either way, after fixing herself up – and even while trying not to kill micros, her actions probably resulted in some deaths – but at least the headphone's cable was not long enough for her to wear it while standing up. That at least saves her some bitching. And later on she will definitely make them figure out some more creative ways of pleasing her...

Looking back at her wristcom, she lets Kate in and... Amber? What could she want from her so quickly after their chat? But figuring that having a nice seconds chat may not be a bad thing – thy were never meeting anymore, not since they got their zones...

When Kate enters, Nicole greets her – but Kate seems to.. wait for Amber? Does she actually want them all to talk about something? Kate's expression is neutral as always, maybe even a bit less fake-happy about seeing her, but she does not say anything more than hello and such. “Well, let's see what is Amber's role in this...” Nicole thinks and lets her in.

Amber on the other hand is.. different. She is always casually nonchalant – as if she did not care about anything... even moments earlier when she was “worried” about her micros, Nicole could easily tell she only wants to fix the zone to have more fun. But now.. she seemed almost sad, did not even reply to the greeting – did something happen between those two?

“Amber here doesn't seem to understand how badly she behaved just now, when...” - Kate begins in neutral tone, but Amber promptly interrupts her, obviously disturbed:

“I said I am sorry...” - if Nicole did not know her better, it would almost seem she is barely holding herself from crying.

“You weren't in my zone just minutes ago...” - Kate continues her impartial explanation.

“Girls, girls, please... what happened?” - Nicole is curious now, there is obviously something more than they suggest and it seems important. They are friends and this is no way to treat each other, but first she needs to find out what actually happened.

“Well, Amber – why don't you tell Nicole?” - Kate suggests seemingly without any emotions. Amber never admitted she did anything wrong, even if she barely apologized, it was merely “sorry, big deal” sort of confession... Nicole waits curiously what happens and after a long pause, Amber starts to speak:

“I sort of.. exploded in Kate's zone...” - she more whispers than says, head down – as if trying to actually look guilty.

“And?” - Kate inquires.

“And.. I killed some micros...”

“And?”

Amber looks straight at Kate and raises her voice now, almost yelling - “What else do you want me to say? I am sorry, alright?”

“How about that you consistently ignore my clear instructions on how to behave in my zone, not only killing the... micros, but also making me wonder what crazy idea will come to you the next time you come around?” - Kate continues neutrally.

Amber really seems distressed. Something more happened between those two and Nicole knows it. But now it is not a time to find out about it – later each of them is calm and preferably alone with her. “I said I am...” - Amber starts, but Nicole interrupts her:

“I think that is enough. Amber, I understand you know what you did wrong?” - she tries to stop the bickering, afraid they may jump to each others throats.. it would look very bad if a second ended up in medbed – so far only two firsts managed to finish fight like that. Amber waits a moment, lowers her eyes again and simply confirms:

“Yes.”

“And I understand it will never happen again?” - Nicole inquires.

Amber thinks for much longer this time, but confirms again:

“Yes.”

“Great – so are we all good here?” - Nicole addresses both girls this time. Kate speaks a muffled “yeah”, Amber just nods.

“Amber, could you give us a moment alone?” - Nicole figures that she may talk with her later, maybe when she rests a bit... it would be bad enough if Kate and Amber fought, but if she unnerved Amber even more with questions so she would attack Nicole – that would be simply terrible. Was that what happened just now? They seem fine, no cuts or wounds, but...

Amber simply teleports out speechless.

“What was that all about? What happened in your zone?” - Nicole inquires actually worried.

“You don't want to know about it” - Kate informs her honestly. Like hell I don't...

“Hey, you can tell me about it.. I'm your friend after all... Did Amber attack you there?” - Kate eyes widened, she remains calm, but it obviously brought up something... But no need to question this more, the worst thing Nicole can do is to force her to recall those events. She can however, comfort Kate to bring her closer. And closer means dependent on her. If Nicole plays it correctly and heals the damage between the other seconds, they would both depend on her even more.

“Come in here..” - Nicole offers while raising her arms to hug Kate. They quickly embrace in silence... whatever happened must have worried Kate greatly.

“I should go...” - Kate finally speaks quietly.

“Are you sure? You can stay with me for as long as you...” - but Kate already moves up - “Of course, just remember... I am here for you.” - Nicole finally concludes.

As Kate brings up the teleportation program, she only says “Thank you, Nicole.” and vanishes before she can even reply.

Nicole is not sure if she even wants to talk with Amber, if she disturbed Kate so much... But no, if she manages to recover before Nicole talks with her, it will be harder to get to her.

Looking her up to mesg her, Nicole finds... “Offline?” but that would only mean – went back to her quarters? Well, that may actually be better – talking with her privately... but outside her zone, if Amber attacked her, she could actually hurt Nicole – the field would not protect her. No, she seemed to understand the gravity of the situation already, so Nicole returns to the facility and walks towards Amber's room.

“Nobody is ever offline, what should I do... knock?” - thinks Nicole as she approaches the door. Every time they wanted to meet, they simply messaged each other... Knocking carefully, she only hears silence.

Nicole knocks again and asks - “Amber, you there?”, she can hear some commotion inside and an answer:

“Leave me alone!” - she must be very angry, did Nicole take Kate's side too much? Maybe she should have negotiated that better, but the only way to fix it now is to talk with Amber.

“No, Amber.. I need to talk to you...” - Nicole tries to open the doors but they are locked. But.. locking the doors? Why would she do that... It was very impolite to barge in like that. In this situation, however, Nicole thought it was reasonable – but nobody ever locked the doors! Hell, nobody was ever in their quarters more than just for sleep...

“Get lost!” - an angry shout comes from inside the room.

She must get to the bottom of this, but it seems that Amber needs to rest now – Nicole is almost afraid of what may come out if the doors actually opened...

Kate just came back to her quarters but.. she cannot stay here. She wants to calm down after what happened, but – she needs to do something. She does not care about Amber, not now at least... But her People?

She was struggling with herself for a couple weeks now, she still feels this guilt after what happened before Nicole's graduation. About how she gave Amber those Volunteers... and they even gathered so quickly – did they know what was coming to them? And were they already dead?

Even giving them the synthesizers seemed.. empty, like she wanted to buy them off with some gifts – hoping she would no longer feel guilty. Of course they thanked her – explaining how it will greatly help them with their daily problems. Apparently even seven was already a lot, they have had barely twelve total before and they still produced enough food for over eighteen million people. Kate did not really want to listen to the details, since... well, it did not help her to settle her guilt.

She still felt bad, dirty. Like she failed them. Like Nicole and Amber used her. Used her People – after everything Lauren told them, that “micros” can do a lot of different things. She still remembers the words “hairdressers, massagers and manicurists...” All the things she and her friends were doing themselves – at least before they were supposed to “use” them for it...

It now seems so.. obvious. Like it was in front of her the whole time and she did not see it! Especially when Rachel told her.. that “Yes” still rang in her ears. So simple, unconditional. Why hasn't she told this earlier? Why Kate did not figure it out earlier – she feels so.. stupid and ignorant!

No, she needs to go back there and explain them everything. Even if it means they will hate her and ridicule her. She was pathetic, after all. Unable to stand her ground against Nicole and Amber earlier... Failed to protect her People.

But this will not happen again. When Amber did... No, she does not want to remember it. Pushing her zone cords into the wristcom, she teleports into her spot. Tell them... tell what? She just stands there for minutes thinking about how she can even begin explaining this.

Right before Amber came, Kate was crouching next to a city trying to imagine what their lives must be like. She was thinking about everything that happened earlier. Everything that she has seen and heard. Trying to make sense of it. She did not understand it so clearly yet, just... felt that Rachel was right. She was always right, in one way or another, but Kate was trying to figure it out instead of simply accepting the “Yes”.

She looked at the minute dots moving around the narrow paths between the skyscrapers, everything laid down before her. She was trying to stay perfectly still, as she already noticed how her slightest movements tend to.. stop the moving? She wondered just then how she must look for them, like a huge monument of some kind...

She has seen some statues they put up in the cities, as she carefully walked around on the paths they set up for her. Apparently the synthesizers allowed them to clear some farmland for her, which then were “flagged” as places she can step without worrying she may hurt anybody.

The paths even lit up so nicely during the night when she wanted to look around before going to bed. She had never seen anything like this anywhere else...

But still.. she barely any time in her zone, the guilt simply did not allow her to, she wanted to do something, but did not know what! Now she knows what she needs to do, but... how can she even talk.. how to explain them that more deaths were caused by her attempts to be “friendly”. Everybody else usually meet up in the zones, except maybe when stumbled across while eating or things like that. Sure they were playing in the facility when they were kids, but now they are expected to...

Maybe if they did not set up those paths she wouldn't be watching the city and Amber would not get in... No, it was Kate's fault – she should have done more! She tried to bully Amber to obedience, after seeing how she listened to Lauren, but...

She should have never let her in.

It is also so obvious now. She feels that they... How could they do these things to her People! But Kate is now certain that she needs to protect them. When Amber jumped... it was already getting late and the towns were clearly illuminated, she could easily see the lights dying off around Amber's shoes... Kate was absolutely convinced that she must do something – no, anything that she possibly can to stop it!

Was she wrong about trying to hurt Amber? Kate thought about doing something like that earlier.. when that.. monster crushed her music, but... The violence felt just so wrong. But wasn't that just what Amber was doing? Destroying, crushing.. killing... Her People! No, she must not fail them again.

The guilt is still there, but at least Kate understands it now. Another obvious realization. She even tried to avoid her zone, her People, to diminish it – to forget about the problem. Of course it did not work. She kept thinking about it... She knew she was wrong about something.

Was Kate also wrong about concealing the fact that it was her who attacked Amber? It happened so.. spontaneously – Nicole seemed to actually blame Amber for this whole mess, well.. she was behaving uncontrollable when they met...

And when she fainted in her room – Kate had no idea that something like that would happen, she never wanted to actually hurt her. Of course she wanted to protect her People, but... Or did she?

The plan that she suddenly come up with was.. repulsive – to hold Amber from behind, with one arm around her neck so she could not breathe. Kate seemed so desperate to cripple her at the time – even with the field protecting them against any injury... She even had no idea whether that would work – they never fought.. not like that!

And how Amber must have felt back there – and back in her room, where Kate with almost no emotions ordered her to talk with Nicole. When Amber passed out.. was she afraid of Kate? Well, she is in no mood to think about the bitch's feelings anymore – not after what she did to her People.. again!

But then Kate was merely trying to save her face, not to show how crazy she was just moments earlier - it seemed to disturb Amber even more... is Kate becoming a monster? No, she just wants to protect her People! And it was important to be seen as a moderate and mature person. Not one that could try to strangle her friend...

It seemed Nicole believed that – or was it just another of her games? She seemed almost.. compassionate after Amber left – as if she actually cared about what Kate was through. Of course she already felt bad for withholding the whole truth... And what if she finds out? What if anybody finds out?

Right after Amber fainted, Kate was unsure whether mentioning the mothers was a good idea.. if Amber decided to go to them with this... Well, it would be her word against Kate's. Nicole should also confirm how crazy Amber was when they met – it should be okay. It may actually be better, since Kate will have an excuse never to let Amber in again. It all happened so quickly... and now seems almost too lucky.

How Nicole simply agreed with her and supported her against Amber. Or maybe it was one of her games after all? Either way, there is nothing left to do now and Kate just hopes she will be strong enough to keep pretending that she is not crazy.. For both her own and her Peoples sakes...

But the People.. they have seen her. The sudden realization hits her. How could she explain what she just did, her sudden explosion – they must already think she is crazy. Maybe she is? Nobody else behaves like that... Now it just does not feel right!

Kate must tell them something, explain herself, try to reassure them she cares about them... For probably the first time she actually cares about Them and not the stupid counter! Maybe except when the music.. But how can she tell them about this? About how ignorant and stupid she was – and how cruel, in a way.

She is almost crying by now and trying not to think about the dead gap in the towns where Amber landed, she simply starts:

“Listen, I.. don't know how to tell you this or even if I should... But for the first time I feel that you deserve to know. You all do! I.. see now how wrong I was about so many things, about you. When I first came here, I only saw you as tiny dots.. At first I was only worried about your.. deaths, because I did not want to lose you, because I did not want my only zone to...“ - Kate already feels ridiculous for saying that, it is obvious now just how stupid she was - “But I can see this now! I know you are People too and I need to protect you. I am so sorry it took me so long to realize... I.. I cannot even ask you to forgive me. But I wish I could explain you how bad I feel about everything that happened” - during last month over a million of them died, and even though Kate killed less than half of that – directly or indirectly – she feels responsible for all of them.

“And I should have protected you from the others. It's just that the other Caretakers.. they... they are Monsters! And I was a Monster too... I should have never even come here – you would all be so much better without me!” - Kate actually cannot stop herself from crying upon this realization - “And so many of you must have died for me to realize this, even just now – I am so stupid.. and so sorry...” - and bursts into tears.

While trying to calm herself, she notices the slowly blinking light on the “blimp” – asking her to get her headphone in. “Oh no, I even forgot to wear it...” - she realizes. Putting it on, she stands up again and apologizes for this trying to recall where in the explanations she was in order to continue, but the governor's voice stops her:

“Miss Kate, it is all fine, we understand.”

“You... You do?!?”

“Yes.” - the calm and self-confident - almost comforting - voice makes her believe it immediately - “In fact, my lady, you need not worry about the Amber's actions, there were only several casualties of...”

“But she did.. everything is...”

“Miss, we have long evacuated the nearby towns and villages” - he explains.

“But the lights.. the movements... I don't understand.”

“It is alright, we had only a small dedicated maintenance team overseeing the remote and automated activities that were programmed into the power and vehicle grids.” - even though it seems like he is trying to explain it as simply as only possible – just like so many things when they spoke – Kate can hardly understand it, but “automated” and “small team” convince her that they must have figured it out somehow... after all they were always so smart about everything and she was never seeing the actual people, not without holding her face very close to the ground – at least she thought those dots were people.

If only they told her.. she would not have to “assault” Amber.. – was that the word? Kate remembers Rachel mentioning it a couple times in school – but right now she is so delighted that almost nobody was hurt that quickly forgets the thought.. After checking the counter, she finds it may have actually went up since she has seen it the last time – it must have really been only several people in the towns. She still feels bad for this “team”:

“I am so sorry about even those few people...”

“It is okay, miss, they knew the dangers and they were willing to stay there even despite that.”

Kate seems so touched by what she hears - if only she could thank... but no, they were dead, of course. She still feels bad about passing over all the earlier deaths as if they were meaningless - especially that she killed some of them herself and no apology can change that. She wished to explain this, but it was just so much! She was also a monster back then...

But at least she can hope they understand now. She just told them about all this and they did not question her motives, they did not blame her – just told her they understood. This only reinforces her resolve to protect them.

“If is there anything I can do for you...” - she asks while trying to wipe her eyes, which are still wet – from both grief and happiness.

“Well, Miss, we would greatly appreciate if you could prevent the others from...”

“Of course! I will even lock Amber out immediately!” - she exclaims and starts reconfiguring the privileges on her wristcom. After doing that in silence, she asks if there is anything more...

“Thank you, my Lady, for the consideration – but I believe we are good for now.” - well, as long as no Monster is killing them, they seem to be doing very well – Kate thinks - “But I think You should get some rest after these strenuous activities.”

Kate thinks about it for a second – but she is actually more energetic now, so she speaks “I would prefer to stay here for some time...”

“Of course, is there anything we could do for you?”

What could she possibly want from them now... the very idea of using her people dejects her, but after a minute, she thinks of one thing - “Well, if you have any recordings of the music this band played for me a couple weeks back” - it seems forever now - “I would simply love to hear it again!”

After a brief moment of silence, the governor speaks: “Miss Kate, if you don't mind me suggesting alternatives, there may be some other kind of music that I think you may also like...“

Two hours later, she still is unable to believe what she is hearing. It took them a while to organize this - she even suggested that it is not a problem and they do not have to do this - but when she finally heard it...

At first it felt like some separate sounds, as if playing with each other. No voices or anything, but.. they were changing and entwining – merged and parted. When melody – as she later learned the word – silenced she wished it would come back, but.. a different one replaced it. Not better, just.. different. They were all so beautiful. It always continued to develop and there was always something new, that continued to amaze her.

She thought that at the band playing it must be really brilliant, it seemed impossible for three people to produce such harmony of sounds... maybe other bands can have more people? Maybe five or six, yes, at least six – if even a single person was enough to produce one of the sounds she heard at the beginning, there were simply so many of them now...

When it silenced for a longer moment after several minutes, she wanted to ask them to replay it – she was beginning to think it may be a recording of some sort of machine generating it. But another melody returned with more strength, even more rich and varying. It was simply magnificent – she could not think of other words to describe it. Kate was so astonished that she could not possibly interrupt it, but she thought she must learn how it was created. After the first week, she felt a bit stupid when asking them to explain some apparently simple and mundane thing – which still were unknown to her earlier... But this kind of music was just so... perfect.

She was so excited listening to the melodies that when it came to an end after another several minutes, it took her a moment to calm herself.. She asked if she could hear it again – but the governor explained her that the “orchestra” has yet another “masterpiece” in mind. She congratulated them coming up with such beautiful sounds, but they explained how it was a creation of somebody long dead, “Beth-oven” and the “passages” were from his fifth “symphony” “in” some letters she did not understand.

“Fifth? So there are more of them?” - she asked surprised and shocked, but after a moment of silence they continued to explain:

“Well, yes, just one of the more known classical works” - it seemed so mundane when the governor spoke, yet she has never heard anything like it - “In fact, those were only the first and fourth parts...”

“Could you play the others?”

“With all due respect, my Lady, the artists here thought of a different masterpiece you may like.”

Of course – how could she possibly suggest them anything, she felt so... uneducated.. she barely remembered what Rachel told them the artists were – and yes, it seems they were playing for her. Specially for her. Even now she feels humbled by the incredible talent those people must have. To be able to play something so beautiful. Obviously it was a completely different kind of music from the band that played for her two weeks ago... she wondered how many other musics are there?

The only sad thing was that she feared if she has killed that “Beth-oven” earlier... that they mentioned he was dead. She could not stand the idea that such ingenious little person died due to her actions.. or her fear of confronting others... And so, in the end she did not even ask about it.

Next, they played her a melody called “the blue danoobe” - Kate had no idea that musics have colors, especially that there was no mention of any in that “symphony”. Well, it must have been obvious for everybody but her – so she did not even bother to ask. Actually, she recalled how two weeks ago they were playing on a dark yellow stage – maybe that was the “orange music”?

She imagined what colors the previous one would seem like... this blue one was definitely calm and peaceful. Still very original and inspiring... and so lovely.

Later they played a “walts” of “tchai”, “tzay..” - she tried to pronounce it a couple times with no success. But it was also very beautiful – they definitely knew what was really nice, so much better than she.. so vivid and energizing, yet at times slow and timid.

But now she is laying on her back, since they explained how “the four seasons” they would like to play next are fairly long and she may get more comfortable than sort of half-crouched, half lying down on her belly position with hands supporting her head. She carefully rotated while telling them that she would listen to anything they were only willing to play for her – and mentioned how they don't have to if they are tired or anything, mindful how she was a bit tired already.

The seasons... are just the perfectly perfect. She has no idea what the seasons are, but they must be extremely beautiful to have such music named after them. Again – constantly changing and evolving.

So she just lies perfectly still, listening to this music – there were three breaks already, is this the fourth season? She is afraid that it would mean this is the last one... But she can swear she heard something.. else? A voice? Maybe they have some of her people singing in this music after all – but no... it is not coming from the headphone. Her other ear?

“Um, guys, I am terribly sorry to interrupt you, but...” - the melody quickly stops, she thinks about this – yes, she can definitely hear a voice in her other ear. Just barely audible – asking if she can hear him.

“Is there anybody in my ear? Yes, I can hear you” - she replies quietly.

“Oh thank God” - she hears - “I am sorry, my name is Gary Oleman and before the Failure, I used to be a caretaker as well...”

“This whole graduation thing is ridiculous. To have those kids celebrating the start of them enslaving and killing their own populations...” - Rachel thinks while trying to find something more about a particularly strange portion of the log following the shutdown. Of course the entire system was locked then so she only has access to the raw event feed, but after over a century she has a fairly good grip on it.

This part does not make any sense. It never had – she tried to understand it so many times earlier without success... but whenever she feels frustrated and hopeless, she goes back to such elements. It seems all the systems started behaving erratically at the same time. Maybe if she figures out something, then she will be able to break the lockdown and everything will get back to normal?

It seems impossible after so many decades of attempts...

But Rachel is unsure if anything could be “normal” again – even if they managed to restore transport and communication, would the people be able to trust them again after all this? And of course “they” trying now means only her – everybody else abandoned any attempts to fix things promptly after she figured how to use – or rather abuse - the terraforming program. If only she knew what was about to happen... she was hoping they will be able to get some answers, maybe the operators did something wrong, lost control and the caretakers only needed to fix some things in the facility? They were all hoping the solutions would be there... but the people seemed to know even less about what happened. Zone after zone they found nobody knew anything and out of frustration... Lisa was the first to lose temper when people were asking her to help them with “some famine” - as she so compassionately put it. Searching for answers was important but they did not have to kill everybody that did not know them...

And then Erica discovered they can get pregnant... Rachel still cannot believe she actually joined them pushing the poor people inside their cunts. It seemed so... “okay” at the time? How could it be “okay” to kill millions of people just to...

It all seems like some sick joke. If at first she thought that something “simply” broke and nobody was controlling the uTopia anymore, after some time she was convinced that some operator must have gone rogue and was playing with them. Abusing the total control he had over everybody in there. Was it a man? Rachel used to think about whoever did it as a man – it seemed no woman would be able to come up with such cruelty, but what the five of them were doing...

No, she hated herself for all this, even found unable to feel anything for her own daughters after they were born. Maybe it was the reason how Erica was able to control the lives of the firsts? It seemed nobody wanted to really raise them and she was free to manipulate them however she pleased... and then seconds behaved exactly how the firsts were taught, and the thirds did the same... Was it another one of Rachel's failures? It seemed everything she was doing turned wrong. Some were just plain bad ideas and others made the entire world a living hell.

Not a very good incentive to keep searching.

But she could definitely see that something must be out there. She noticed in the log, when the others were trying to get pregnant again, how it seemed that some field events were specifically engineered to allow whole sperm cells to de-dilate. Of course it was impossible to be sure – the raw feed contains so much information, so many cryptic properties and entries.. but the ranges and physical characteristics were very specifically sized. It was impossible that such thing would be a part of the original programming – before the shutdown the very idea for anybody to enter a chamber full sized was absurd, so somebody must have added those functions to perform very specific operations. Perhaps even watched and controlled it manually – Rachel did not know what would be worse, it would take a monster to watch what was happening to the people. The procedure seemed almost impossible though – she heard before the shutdown how the researchers were unable to maintain integrity of larger molecules while de-dilating, and the whole cells...

Either way, it seemed so cruel – somebody was playing with their lives. All of them – both caretakers and people. The biggest, sickest joke in history. Far worse than the assembler apocalypse. Probably somebody just sits there in some control room and laughs his ass off... or hers. If she could find something – some way to overcome whoever was doing this. She thought about seemingly everything – checked every available system, tried overriding every possible option. Even searched whatever parts of the dead facility she still had access to for clues on what happened and what she could do.

But this little detail about the shutdown she never shared with anybody simply made no sense. Even though all communications within the zones and across the facility died at almost the same time, there were weird things happening for hours after that – it was easy to see for everybody, but searching and filtering this messy log was difficult – trillions of events every second now. Even during normal operation of the facility it used to be much less than that – several millions per minute at most... somebody must have planned this really well, probably a lot of software specifically designed to take over the facility.

She had written many procedures that helped her in querying the stored stream of information, but it took so long to analyze anything. And every single idea she thought up turned to be another dead end. A couple years after they divided the zones, she noticed some immigration events seven hours after the initial blockade. This meant that at that time there was somebody who still had control over the facility's functions and was using it... but for what? To get rid of witnesses? Hide in the zones the details of what was done? Five of them were left outside without any apparent reason – were they simply missed? Overlooked and left to die?

But at least they were still alive and so were some people in the zones. Maybe those who went in seven hours after the shutdown knew what happened?

She spent several years on looking around the zones for somebody who knows more about those events, maybe some engineer or scientist – even if they have immigrated before the shutdown, they surely would remember things about the outside. It seemed all she could find was some programmers, low-level operators and early caretakers who immigrated long before the shutdown. Yes, a couple decades after uTopia was established, only freaks were still out there, in the confined and heavily restricted space of the facility. And nobody who she questioned had a clue – since the communication was lost, they were unable to do anything and simply lost the big picture of what could be going on. No, she needed to find caretakers who were still in the facility when it happened.

Her chambers were simple – but she found no answers. The worst part was to search the ones “owned” by other mothers – she was let in only after long discussions with each and often had to “give something in exchange”... usually some people or even a chamber or two. And even then they only allowed Rachel conditionally and for a limited time – likely trying to get more from her. And when inside, many people would rarely talk to her – she had to offer them gifts as well... and she also heard about acts of violence against those who “conspired with the caretakers” - Rachel did not even want to learn about the details, but sometimes managed to sneak some people with her to safety. Well, relative safety – but she still cared about the people in her chambers far more than any other mother. Not to even mention the kids...

At least the gifts for the people were fairly easy to come by, some food synthesizers, medbeds and other tools manufactured in the assembler, but... there were so many of them – hundreds of zones hungry for help. She wanted to give them everything but micro-assembling so much would take decades.. and she wanted to get information quickly – so after several zones she had to change her offer only if they could tell her something. It was monstrous, but she had no choice – she convinced herself that if she finds a solution, somebody who knew what to do, she would help them all by undoing the shutdown. But even then they would say anything for the gifts... promised they all were caretakers, scientists and so on just to get the life-saving tools. Some of them did not even know what those were – civilization was often hurt by the shutdown so much they lost most of the technologies, but a miraculous machine with instructions to produce food seemingly out of air and water was very convincing. No, she needed to look for experienced caretakers, it seemed nobody else could know what was going on.

So she quickly figured a simple test – a sealed container with primitive keyboard and terminal displaying an embedded question. The people could use many of the machines in the container, but the shielding was strong enough to stop them from getting the gifts out. The promise was that, if the question was solved, Rachel would leave them everything to use. Nobody ever answered, but she helped some zones anyway, with anything she could manufacture in the meantime, but.. it was always not enough.

She thought if everybody died already – a hundred years in harsh conditions was probably hard for the solitary and intellectual people she was looking for. Or perhaps they were afraid of “conspiring” with her... Either way, in almost two years she found nobody who could solve the question of “What is HX2/93-CS/BMM/53 plus J0-R/VS/R/14?” - obvious and surely remembered by any veteran facility engineer, impossible to solve for anybody else – including other mothers, who were mostly ignorant about the internal workings of the facility. Well, so was Rachel – but as a level two communications engineer, she at least had to deal with many problems across a variety of areas. And there were hundreds of caretakers at the time of the shutdown. It seemed there are no other caretakers left in the facility – they found that in the personnel application, but the little hidden detail gave Rachel hope that somebody may still be in the zones. So much was destroyed since she hacked the terraforming program, but maybe somewhere...

Over time, even this hope died. Rachel figured that regardless of reason – whether they were dead or afraid – she cannot get to them. At least she left some legacy by helping the people – and Amy seemed to be inspired by that, when she started colonizing a couple years later. She is not only dumping some people in an empty zone to build everything up but also provides them with equipment to make their lives easier. Maybe she realized just how much is wrong with them?

But others.. of course it is somewhat crazy, but Rachel still blames herself for everything. No mother knew about the facility so much as she and it would have taken them forever to connect the dots. If only she knew was going to happen after they entered the zones... Maybe it would be better if they died in the first days after the shutdown? She could not even find how many of those immigration events were after the shutdown... was this what happened to most of the others?

Maybe if Rachel could cross the several she did found with the privileges checks log to see who authorized them – maybe it would hint the person responsible for the shutdown? What would she do then.. ask him or her nicely to fix everything? Explain how she did not mean to destroy the zones?

Of course she did find how to restart terraforming and things have been deteriorating ever since... No – this is just too much for her now, memories of “the parties” come back to her... how they, the kids.. were playing with people, killing them, putting them on their bodies... carelessly stepping on the cities and towns. Even their newest aberration, sniffing... – no, Rachel needs to take a break. Run away from all this, forget about everything at least for a moment.

She hates to do this, but for her the only way of actually enjoying some bliss is to have the people caress her a bit. She is no longer a teenager to bring herself to climax, not to mention that after hundred years the memories of things that aroused her are sparse at least so she needs some extra stimulation.

Rachel first realized this back in the days when she was still trying to “socialize” with the others, hoping to convince them that what they are doing is wrong. When Lauren was working on her “salon” - the very idea seemed ridiculous. Instead of looking for a way out, they simply... well, tried to live with what they had. Was it too hard to accept? Maybe Rachel was crazy – perhaps there is no way out and there could only...

But what Lauren forced her people to do was unthinkable. They died by the thousands trying to perform the simplest tasks for them. Of course she now claims it improved greatly since the early days, but the idea of using people in this way still repels Rachel. Knowing Lauren they still die while working in there, just.. slowly enough to “repopulate” in the meanwhile.

She could not stop thinking about it though. If there was a way of fulfilling her and keeping the people safe, would it still be wrong? Of course Rachel could only use willing people for that and make damn sure they understood what she means – at their scale any kind of suggestion becomes a deadly threat for the inhabitants. After a lot of thinking she settled that the only play she could actually feel them while being able to maintain their safety were her nipples. Heavily innervated, yet easily visible while laying down. Perhaps even some men would enjoy this... if she only asked for volunteers and made sure they were unharmed, then it might actually be fairly exciting. She heard before the shutdown about some deviant groups dreaming about sexy women entering the zones full-sized.. if only they knew what that really would mean!

Now it is a reality of course. A very sad one. But if some people dreamed about this earlier, perhaps it could be fun for them as well? It took some experiments alone before she was confident enough to invite any micro people – only a few at start, to make sure that she can handle it. She could just barely feel them... but since it was okay, eventually she started taking more and more. It seemed there was always more men eager to “help” her than she wanted to take – the “veterans” spread the word and it must have made it quite popular, she even heard some women were also trying to join in... but Rachel still felt that she is using the people, no matter what they told her.

Of course there must have been an accident one day... as she grew increasingly confident, she started playing with herself while being serviced – and one time while she climaxed she must have twitched or gasped.. she could not even remember the details, but... she could hardly feel anything on her breasts anymore. Later she learned that most of them were sent to oblivion – only a few were able to hang on... She promised everybody in that zone she will never try to do this again, but over time she started hoping that if she was more careful, perhaps...

Rachel had to explain the procedure in a different zone – guys in the original one would probably be willing to help her again, but she just could not do ask them after what happened. Having explained somewhere else only a couple years later, the “helping out” resumed.

So now she just leaves the terminal in the facility and moves to the new fun zone. Of course it takes them only a couple minutes to gather – eager as always, at least until another disaster happens.. but no, Rachel is more careful now and knows how to avoid that – at least so she tries to convince herself. Taking the field transporter, she carefully leaves to an empty chamber, where she has previously prepared a “bed”.

Nothing fancy, just a pile of compressed dirt, strong enough to support her weight. It would seem like a mountain range to the people, rising miles over the ground – but when she lies down, it just becomes a comfortable incline – from her feet on the ground level to the head about four miles higher. It has several benefits: her breasts are settled in a more stable position this way, it is easier for her to see the people with her head raised on the extra pillow-like bump and she can lay still like this for an extended time – with both of her arms free to make sure that everything is okay and even caress herself a bit.

But first things first, she needs to prepare herself: remove her shirt and bra, lay down, massage and squeeze her breasts to make sure her nipples are erect – she heard after early experiments that even such minute act is dangerous for the people if it they are near, the folds and wrinkles of the realigning skin can crush them.

Fortunately the chilling air on this altitude helps her quickly accomplish that. It also helps with sweating – one discovery that scared her a lot early on was when she heard that even a tiniest bead of sweat is enough to de-dilate a person if caught by surprise. Of course they assured her that they can easily avoid it – obviously very keen to be taken again, but she could not continue the “fun” until she was confident she has found a solution – hence the “bed”. Higher altitude air may not be uncomfortable for her, but helps to chill the skin enough to avoid sweating. Rachel worries if it is not too cold for the people though, at least she hopes they wear enough to keep warm – but sometimes she noticed some seemed to be.. naked? It did not bother her, just.. wasn't it too cold for that? Perhaps her body warmth was enough and she did not want to ask them about such details...

Either way, after readying she can finally place the transporter and tell them it is safe now. She never orders or asks them to do anything – it bothers her enough to use them like that. No need to push them around any more... in fact, she would be glad if they were too scared to even leave the transporter – she would finally have a reason to stop this ridiculous habit...

But they always do leave, it seems that the moment she puts it down on her left tit, there are dots flowing out of it already – even without waiting for her words. She hopes some of them wait to be moved to the other one – it feels nice if both are caressed, even if the touches are so slight. When the dots stop leaving the transporter, she warns them she will pick it up now, waits a minute and does that – to place it on the other side of her chest. She can already feel the ones on the left trying to excite her – they must be really exerting themselves.

Placing the transporter on the other side and notifies them it is safe again, she can also see the remainder of people leaving it. All is set, now time to enjoy herself. Remembering to breathe only through her mouth not to exhale on them, Rachel tries to feel all the little sensations around her aureolas. They seem so minute, but it is better than tinies using some machinery – and it would probably get her too excited to control herself, which would be bad...

But she can still feel their efforts, stroking and hitting her skin, pulling and pushing various folds, jumping and ramming, just whatever they can do to excite her. Sometimes she can just barely notice what they are doing, usually it is just dots moving around. But it is enough to keep her aroused and after ten minutes or so, she brings her left hand to her cunt. Slowly playing with herself, she makes sure not to move or breathe too sharply, but it only takes a couple more minutes for her to come.

Relaxing afterwards, she thinks how the people must feel on her breasts – obviously humbled by the monumental nipples, but even the smallest bumps and folds of her skin must be like hills to them. And they are still working for her – even after she let out soft moans and stopped fingering herself... they must have felt her climaxing, but if they are still trying to keep her happy – perhaps it is something more than a necessity? Maybe they are also having fun?

Rachel often tries to persuade herself that they are also aroused down there – if she was not the only one having fun, it would make her actions less selfish. She cannot see enough details to be sure, but sometimes... And of course is too regretful of her actions to ask about it afterwards, back in their zone. Having no way of communicating with them here, she just watches their continuing efforts trying to enjoy her little timeout. After about thirty minutes she goes again, carefully caressing herself with her left hand and tries to rest while thinking. The people must be really having fun there, since she feels no signs of stopping. Good for them – at least she does not need to feel guilty about it. She explains every time while they gather that if they are tired or if any problem arises, they should simply stop moving – and she would immediately end the playtime. That did not happen so...

She thinks about what she she must be to them – perhaps they are having sex with each other, what other reasons would women have to come along. And what would this make her? A background for their orgy? She does not feel bad or angry.. just... thinks of what she has become. Unable to even satisfy herself properly, she must abuse thousands of tiny people – and if they are also using her as scenery to their fun. She tries to imagine how it must look like for them – moving around the mountain of her tit, with looming dark plateau and various hills around it. Does she seem like a sort of terrain to them? Surely the scale would suggest that, but.. she always tries to show her people that she cares about them, that she is a good person. Does a person behave like this? Kidnap people from their homes to use them as toys... maybe she should ask them what is it that they are doing there and if she is not abusing their trust?

On the other hand maybe they would just stop exciting her if they no longer wanted to be here... which does no happen, even after an hour of play. Would it also excite her to be in their position? It feels strange, but... with the vision of what it must be like for them, she fingers herself again to climax quickly now – perhaps she will not need their help to do it again when she feels like it? But concluding that she had enough for today, she tells the people it is time to get back now. They slowly start gathering back – as if trying to exploit every moment they have on her. When she sees everybody on her right boob should be back to the transporter, she waits a couple more minutes just to be safe and moves the tiny container to the other side, again waiting for them to get in.

But suddenly she feels something... a tiniest sensation, away from her breasts – Rachel looks further on her stomach and notices a couple dots, obviously a small group of humans... walking towards her neither regions? But this is preposterous... what are they thinking?

“Guys.. what do you think you are doing... only death awaits you there...” - she tries to discourage them while positioning her left hand to completely block their further advance like an impassable wall – but only after carefully wiping it on the side, she does not want them any more excited. They seem tentative, but eventually seem to also enter the transporter she placed next to them. “If I haven't noticed them...” - she thinks about the inevitable. Was this how she was losing some people? She checks the population counter to see full eighty thousands but.. sometimes there were several less, even up to a dozen or so...

Nobody seemed to know what happened when she questioned the rest in the zone, no deaths were noticed on her tits – but this would certainly explain the phenomenon. “They must be very horny to attempt this...” - Rachel realizes and feels really bad for risking their lives like this. Hopefully the memories may allow her not to need their help for several days. But at the same time she realizes that when back in the zone, just after the report they will probably ask her again if the next time she could take a bigger transporter or even more than just one – she regrets how inevitable this always sounds - “the next time...”








Gary has no idea why he is committing suicide.

He always preferred the easier way. Not easiest, not lazy, not even the one with the least amount of problems. Just the easier. Whenever there was the right way to do things – one what he could see would be best for him, he chose the easier one.

It really started when he wanted to study art – but chose to follow his father footsteps to become a particle physicist. When they moved to uTopia in the middle of his studies, he should have continued them – but instead joined the engineering force – later known as caretakers. When a couple years later everybody kept telling him he should move in with his parents – and he knew they were right, he remained outside. It's not like they were simple alternatives, but still – what he chose always seemed easier than what he should have done.

Of course that did not lead him very far, now did it? Being stuck with millions of people in single zone with seemingly no chance of ever leaving it? That certainly was not how he envisioned his retirement from caretakers. Hell, being locked for hours in his room without power was not part of that plan either. Sure a couple of his friends told him they will help him just as soon as they fix things, but... now it seems they never have.

No, communication was never restored and after a hundred years he was still stuck in this chamber. At least he has survived and for the last couple of weeks he noticed just how much worse things could be for him. Well, the beginnings were not exactly easy either – when he appeared in the zone, he tried to explain nearby people that noticed him who he was and that he has no idea what happened – they did not listen. First they all wanted for him to save them, somehow – he was a caretaker, after all... but an hour later almost everybody wanted to stone him to death. For “what he did” - whatever it was.

He never learned what it was meant to be. Neither did they, it seemed. Whatever was the reason of the Failure, he was asleep when it happened and was immigrated here without a clue. The sparse mesg that woke him up in the darkness: “it all shut down – working on it – help coming” did not help to understand much.

Maybe he should have let them trample or crucify him – whatever was it the mob wanted to do... But no, he again chose the easier way of running away and hiding in dark valleys. He never made the same mistake of explaining who he was.

The Forces – later renamed to the Stabilization Forces, then Defense Force, Security Service and nowadays is simply known as the Service – did not ask him who he was – as long as he did what he was told, he was okay. Even though for several years Gary felt he should tell them he is a qualified engineer, the easier way was to remain just a grunt. At least nobody asked him about anything.

Only when peace was restored and most of the recruits were released from service, he had to start doing something – and “engineering” was what he knew for over nine decades, so he joined Technology Restoration Initiative. Well, life was good in TRI – he spent a couple decades working on various designs recovered from scraps of data storages there were left after the Failure. Ones that did not contain only artistic materials – it seemed all everybody in New Vienna always wanted to store locally was music, scanned paintings, models of sculpture and so on. Well, art will not feed you – they quickly figured that. He should have worked on something more ambitious – like trying to get out of here, but adapting incomplete designs for real world use was easier.

But that was an ancient past, just like his caretaker career. Now he is employed in the Works, trying to figure some innovative ways of saving the world. Of course that is the theory – usually he just manages to attach himself to a promising project already in progress just to help finish it and get a tiny percent of the fat invention paycheck it gets upon completion. Not much goes to him, but it gives him a good record and while his normal wage pays the taxes and living costs, the bonuses allow him to get away for a couple months every year. Again – he surely could and most likely should work on something more important, but the easier way.

When one of his coworkers came up with a ridiculous idea of making a horse stable, he knew he should stay away of it. Or maybe his life choices were not easier but simply crazy? Gary prefers the easier version.

Either way, when they called him back upon the caretaker arrival – to deal with engineering whatever they needed to deal with her, it was easier to stay on his leave on the farm. He still has no idea how Pierre was able to get his hands on that piece of land. Nobody has land. Not after the Reorganizations. Everything is used for farmland, maintenance towns, highways or high rises. Well, they did not exactly “own” it... the official version was “Agricultural Museum for Preserving The Old World Heritage and Getting Fat Bribes” - or something along those lines. Yes, it did cost a lot – but the animals were already paying off. And not some overgrown pigs – those were the real thing. Or at least as real as it could get nowadays: reverse engineered from some antique leather, fixed up with similar species genes for their body to work and finally cloned in specifically developed artificial wombs. And they cost a fortune too - the best that can come from commercial research. It seemed the Works could afford anything – but that was of course mostly because three quarters of taxes went to the Service, which they were a major part of – most prominent rivals for funds were security forces. And there was not much security to do around here anymore, so...

But he could not believe just how much some rich bastards would pay to feel like some Genghis Khan – or whatever was the reason they wanted to ride those beasts. He could never understand that... sure they were way better than any synthetics – you could actually see in their eyes that they perceive you rather than just operate the image recognition algorithms analyzing your form. But the prices they had... Still, they better earn the bribes to keep this thing going or soon there will be no more Museum of Whatever – they almost went dry during the winter. Spring started a bit better – with nice weather inviting many guests, but then the caretaker came and everybody seemed to lose interest in them – this new beast was simply important.

Everybody talked about it, but Gary – he knew everything was wrong about this arrival. Caretakers should never enter a live chamber. They should never stay in any chamber for more than absolutely necessary for their mission. They should never “walk” around it. They should never be a psychotic young woman apparently deeply worried about her little “population counter”. Yes, he could see it clearly using his outdoors binoculars – and although he was not familiar with that particular program, he quickly figured it out. He also remembered the famous CCR-PTr – the terraforming program, or rather its resculpting variant, which “they” called “teleporting”. Caretakers should also never use childish names for everything.

Yes, caretakers should never come in and out of a chamber when they feel like it. And probably most importantly... they should never, ever, bitch to each other about breaking the toys inside like it was their private bedroom.

Gary assumed at the very beginning they will all die and everything that happened since the arrival only ensured this feeling. So at first he did not bother to tell the authorities about his caretaker experience and a week later he just sent an email to two of his superiors, which would be processed for the next year or so by the bureaucracy before ever seeing daylight.

No, he preferred to enjoy his last days in the relative peace of the stables. At least nobody bitched about his lack of progress on some project – he could sit back and enjoy the view. And what a sight it was! Even though their farm was a good three hundred kilometers from the “Kate's spot”, they could clearly see her every movement. She seemed like a sweet way to bring the end of days, even though he could hear her constant reassurances about how she does not mean any harm. Well, should caretakers repeat that over and over? He did not remember any training on that... but maybe he missed a memo during almost hundred years of his employment there?

So what is he doing here – why this sudden change of heart? Killing himself by crashing his skycar into the ear of this full-sized teenager does not seem like the easier alternative for anything really. Was it caused by her sudden confession? It only made everything worse, actually – confirmed his worst fears, but... at least she seemed nice. Yes, if Gary should ever end his life by crashing into any ten mile tall teenager, Kate was probably the sweetest one to do it.

What is he trying to accomplish anyway? Even if he miraculously survives it... List all the ways they broke the caretaker procedures? Tell her how he does not really know what happened in the Failure either? Or perhaps explain how the uTopia used to work before it? None of these things made any sense and frankly... Gary wanted to finally do something that he felt was the thing he should do. Which right now it meant to tell her everything he knows, hoping it will help with... something? Anything?

From what she was saying it seemed that the facility did not get much better since Gary was locked in his quarters. Sure they could at least move around a bit, but.. the problems she seemed to have with even the simplest things, such as micro-assembly or asking them to construct the means of communicating with her. But what their look and behavior suggested was even worse. Basic emergency uniform, no makeup, self cut hair, no tools other than "temp” wristcom – it took him a while to believe she is actually using it on a daily basis – or knowledge of anything.

Things on the outside must be even worse than in the chamber. Gary felt he needs to do something – and trying to help with his knowledge of the facility was the only thing he could think of. Of course any attempts to escalate his cause now fell on deaf ears... even when he emphasized that he may have possibly important information regarding the current situation. The bureaucracy...

So he took it into his own hands and – what exactly? He quickly figured there was no way he could make himself known to Kate other than flying in front of her eyes or using his speakers inside her ear – finally settled on the second option, packing his skycar with various components of his personal sound system. Everybody used omnis nowadays, but sometimes he wanted for the sounds surround him instead of just being applied to his eardrums...

But even as he traveled towards the side of her spot that was furthest from any civilization – and therefore hopefully the least guarded – he noticed that his plan may fail, because of her.. long hair. Certainly not something that one would think of when driving his skycar. But then of course trying to fly into somebody's ear was one of its less conventional applications. Yes, until moments ago, her ears seemed not only covered by impassable layer of hair, but also beyond the vehicle's maximum altitude – held high by her two mile long forearms. The vertical field engine is simply not able to work efficiently enough above around three kilometers.

But fortunately they wanted to play her “Vee-valdi” and she is now laying down on her back. Gary still cannot believe he is putting his life into hands, or technically – ears, of a teenager knowing seemingly so little about anything. Especially how in Vienna things like basics on history and art were considered a necessary knowledge to be even considered mature. Perks of the society with average age of over hundred forty years.

When he was hiding from any recon drones in a small forest next to the edge of her spot – one of few open parks in the zone – it felt somehow wrong to “spy” on her... it seemed like looking into windows of some students, watching their games – it was not like Gary would do such things, he was never into kids, just.. this was the closest similarity he could think of when he was watching the details of her movements through the binoculars.

But he noticed how the ear closest to him was blocked by the sound system they built for her, but then the sweet giantess spoke “Wait, let me switch the ears...” - Gary wanted to kiss her.. well, even though she was still good ten kilometers away and she was already larger than life. At least his way in is now open after she did what she suggested while explaining that “No, no, it's not a problem at all, it's very comfortable and everything...”

Yes, this is surely the crazy idea. Was he crazy? Definitely. But he is tired of waiting – after a century of doing nothing followed by over hundred more years of doing even less...

The main problem is that even if the height is right, the field energy supply will run out when he enters the interior of her ear – it was powered by unobstructed line of sight to the dilation field generators at the sides of the zone. Even flying in the cities was impossible – autopilot could manage to land on some rooftops, but dropping below them was a suicide. Which means that he will need to enter it with maximum speed to get deep enough to be heard and decelerate using the vehicle emergency hydrogen reserve just enough to avoid the deadly crash. And even then he is unsure if his words do not fall on “deaf ears” again... only this time simply being too quiet rather than ignored.

He executes his crazy plan the best he can. He was never a good pilot, but the landing seemed fairly simple – enter with straight flight, manually slow down and then rely on the auto to somehow use the remaining reserve to... “Yes, this definitely is a suicide” - he thinks while approaching her in heavily hacked skycar. The original firmware would never even allow him to come close to Kate's spot... but once he was working in TRI on some small detail of the navigational systems now commonly used in all vehicles and still remembered a trick or two. Of course tinkering around those things would probably cost him several decades if not his life – given the current situation, but... if he doesn't die in the crash, they can do whatever with him.

Right now, she grows larger and larger in front of him as he moves forward. Trying not to be noticed by any defenses the Service may have around the area, he is trying to fly just over the trees, or “plants”, level – which quickly turns into farmland and then a barren landscape of crushed and compressed soil, which exposes him to any systems in the area, but... who would be crazy enough to approach Kate? Even if she is laying down perfectly still on the ground...

But there he is, raising the altitude aiming for the ear – which seems more like a geographical feature than part of the body. Like a cavern of some kind... at least it is wide enough for him to avoid colliding with the walls. The warnings light all over and the skycar starts hurling forward uncontrollably. He waits to start dropping as he manually tries to correct his trajectory – auto would most likely try to reverse immediately, so he must rely on his lousy skills. Still, the physics of what he was doing was solid and he even calculated that he should have enough hydrogen supply to... Well, it was worthless since he knows nothing about skycars except some details on several of their subsystems. Not to mention avionics...

But when he seems to be deep enough, the manually controlled jet nozzles produce sounds suggesting the skycar will explode any second now... but nothing happens and he slows down enough that the auto should deal with the situation and land – of course it is not that simple. Nobody thought to program emergency landing in a “cave” inside almost completely flat zone – weren't they used in other chambers before the Failure? Does not matter – the auto tries some strange tricks which leave him rolling through the air, but miraculously it is able to slow down just enough not to kill him upon crashing down, rolling several times to end on the roof.

Gary hopes the speakers will be alright and that he will still have enough emergency batteries to power them... normally everything was powered by dilation field in the skycar, leaving only small reserve for emergencies. Which gives him maybe a couple minutes to talk? Either way – when he looks at his com, he realizes that the careful approach took longer than he expected and forty minutes of he four seasons are almost gone... If he is not heard now, her slightest move will send him towards his death.

Yes, the speakers work – after connected to the batteries, he is able to get clear sound:

“Hello, Kate, can you hear me? I am in your ear, please hear me...” - which he continues for some time with breaks to save power. He almost loses it – along with his hope, but finally hears a voice:

“Is there anybody in my ear?” - the voice coming from all sides sounds like salvation, he thought for good he was gone already... - “Yes I can hear you...”

“Oh thank God” - his parents used to be Baptists and even though he no longer has much faith, the words often come out in strenuous situations. Especially given that where he is, she does sound like a God. But he realizes that he has not even introduced himself, which is very impolite of him – even though everybody in the zone recognizes Kate, she has no way of ever knowing him... - “I am sorry, my name is Gary Oleman and before the Failure, I used to be a caretaker as well... I mean before the shutdown...” - he heard how they were using a different name for it. Was it what Mahesh meant by “it all shut down”? No.. now is not the time for recollections - “I know it may look weird, but I really need to talk with you and this... seemed like the only way.”

A loud giggle invades his mind, pushing all thoughts into defensive, and is followed by the voice again: “It's okay, you could have just asked the governor about it! But what did you want to tell me in my ear?”

“Well, I am kind of stuck here and actually running out of battery power, so I would appreciate if somebody would give me a hand to the outside so I could” - and after that, batteries die - “talk to you through the headphone... Great.”

Half expecting her hand, or a finger coming through the ear opening to crush him – offering him “a hand”, Gary can only wait... since the skycar is out of both power and emergency fuel, it would take him at least ten minutes to even get out.. and somehow his chances of survival look better inside.

“Could what? Hello? Can you hear me?” - obviously - “Oh no, have I hurt you? Please say something... Can anybody help him? Please?” - again, Gary wanted to kiss her. It just seems somewhat.. inappropriate, especially being inside her ear canal. Funny how she has not even noticed his crash... The acceleration field, seat belts and interior airbags saved him from being crushed, but still somewhat battered. It was actually the first moment when he thinks if he is seriously hurt – it does not seem so, but his experience with adrenaline from the Food Riots tells him not to trust the lack of pain – so he tries to leave the skycar carefully and stand up, flex all muscles – no blood, no protruding bones, all seems fine...

Of course Kate continues her overwhelming monologue of explaining how she did not mean to do anything and asking if he is okay... Her voice is so loud here that his screams would have no effect. Eventually she stops babbling, answers a couple “yes” and “no”s – which suggests the Service is trying to figure what to do. It should be only a matter of time now...

Gary uses this time to look around. The cave is just.. huge – and it is already night so he can barely see any details... The binoculars! For whatever reason, they seem to have night vision and he measures easily hundred sixty meters to the exit and maybe second that to the drum – although it is hard to find a good point deeper for DME to focus.

Suddenly his vision is flooded with light – blinding him after being amplified by the binoculars. It takes a couple moments to regain his sight – a skyjet's floodlights! Damn big and loud one, was it... – right, the mighty V-Raptor, probably the largest aircraft in the Service's fleet... only it looks somewhat puny inside the cavern of Kate's ear canal – even though it is easily ten meters wide and almost that high, twenty five meters long, in here it looks like.. some sort of parasite or bug. What does this make Gary? A microbe? They caretakers using the word “micro” a lot while talking to each other, but he never felt so minuscule. And the raptor... the last time he has seen one of those was during the First Reconstruction Revolt and they surely made a different impression back then – heavily armed and armored, with jet engines pointing in all directions for maximum maneuverability... carrying several mechs for incursion or pacification, no happy sight... I was designed to make you want to run away and hide, except now it was a fly that came to save a microbe.

“Re-enter the skycar, prepare to be taken up” - coming from the aircraft definitely did not sound like requests to be reasoned with, so Gary does exactly that, hoping his belts will keep him inside... The skyjet was preparing to.. land? “Well, I hope they don't tickle her” - a funny thought comes to him, but he does not laugh. Apparently when they land and six of five meter tall mechs leave it as if to – his military experience suggests – secure a perimeter? What are they afraid of... ear wax attacking them? At least they waste no time and one of – probably remote controlled bots – surveys his skycar and picks it up, like it was nothing. Well, he has seen those things thrusting through two meter thick reinforced concrete, so his compact half tonne skycar was certainly not a problem. Kate seemed not to even notice this commotion in her ear.. or perhaps she was careful enough no to shiver?

Either way – in no time he is back to the raptor's hangar and can feel the lift off and prompt evacuation from the ear. Kate apparently noticed that as well, since she speaks:

“Are you okay? Is he safe?” - a pause, obviously for explanation through the headphone - “Uh, okay. Can I talk to him?”

Great. She is interested in Gary... Well, what did he expect would happen? But it seems they are not going to land anytime soon – after taking a long detour around her head, the skyjet even is gaining altitude and speed – Kate in the meantime explains how she was really worried something might have happened to him and how happy she is that...

But Gary can only think about how he will explain his little “excursion”. “I felt I really needed to tell her what I know about the facility as an ex-caretaker” - was the least crazy explanation, but still... why didn't he talk to the authorities, just like Kate even suggested? “Because your bureaucracy takes crazy long time to deal with anything?” - he would obviously need to explain it to somebody high up. “I wanted to finally do something with my life” does not seem like a smart reason. He will have to figure it out when he meets somebody. He just hopes it would not be the old man himself...

Of course when they arrive, he is welcomed on the landing pad already with the slightly annoyed voice of nobody else than James Crawford himself, mentioning “How nice of you to join us...” - as if Gary was just casually dropping by. Sure, the unbearable weight of the man's experience and authority was comforting when you were following orders, but somehow Gary feels like he actually broke some of them just moments earlier... even though he was not anywhere under the old man's command for decades now.

He tries to explain as he is motioned to follow him inside some building, on top of which they landed: “I only wanted... Sir, I was only trying to avoid bureaucratic barriers to help...”

“And what exacly made you think we were not already familiar with your report. Or that we did not have dozens of people claiming to know all about the external world and trying to help? Not to even mention that you were a couple decades late with it to be taken seriously... And now She wants to talk to you... Excuse my poor assessment of the situation, but it seems like you are a liability now rather than any help here!”

Gary can barely keep a straight face – obviously they knew much more than they revealed to the public in several bulletins, the most informational piece of information was “The authorities are trying to make them know more about us” and the usual tone was “We survived the Failure, we will survive this”...

But it seemed they would tell Kate something more, if they have much deeper insight into the external facility – or perhaps were they hiding it? It seemed.. weird – but were there more caretakers just like him in here or did Crawford simply refer to some old-timers? He could only follow him to an empty conference room with good view on Kate – one side of the room was glass with direct view on her spot and the other walls were composed mostly of monitors and terminals displaying various details.

There is no chance they are letting him go after seeing this, he could actually understand some of the diagrams and models... No, now he needs to explain what he meant to do:

“Sir, if I may...” - the “governor” gestures him to continue - “I know my report may seem unreliable, but I was still in the facility when the shutdown, um, the Failure happened. I also have a lot of experience with...”

Crawford interrupts him: “Gary Oleman, aged three ten, veteran caretaker, senior structural engineer, security clearance five, construction and stress assessment review specialist, unmarried, father Mark, support-researcher-operator, mother Matilda, no professional affiliation. Have I missed anything?” - most of these facts were not in his report.. nor has he ever revealed them to anyone...

Surely there were thousands of people with some caretaker experience, but most of them moved in long before the Failure - “Sir, but I was still an active engineer when it happened – have you got anybody else like that?”

Gary feels the old man's sight upon him, measuring him from head to toe, as if trying to figure out what is he suggesting... was it possible they do not have anybody like this? Gary has no idea why he appeared in this zone after Failure and even what exactly happened... were his friends trying to help him? Then why not just open the doors to his quarters – there were surely easier ways of getting him out than immigration...

“And how exactly did you manage to get in here without looking like Them?”

“I have... Sir, I have no idea how and why it happened...”

“Then what use are you for us or even for Her?” - Crawford is perfectly right, it was pointless, he was crazy.. should he explain how his entire life he did nothing and finally decided to act with hope of – Gary is not even sure what he hoped to accomplish... The “governor” continues: “Look, I appreciate your enthusiasm about helping, but in case you have not noticed, we are trying to maintain this very delicate mix of calmness, anxiety and emotion in Kate's behavior – and you certainly did not help to balance these things out” - while still assessing him.

“Sir, I meant no harm...”

“That's what She says” - it sounds incredibly naive now... Gary feels crazy, after life of stupid choices, he just made the stupidest... but Crawford simply continues to evaluate him and eventually concludes - “Fine, I don't see what could you possibly want to gain by lying about it, but you need to understand that what you did was reckless. That is why now you are going to answer Her questions, assure Her you never even thought about contacting the authorities so she can trust us and calm down Her curiosity to the point where she would go to bed and we can instruct you further... understood?” - he does not have a choice, period.

“Yes... Sir.”

The old man turns to the conferencing device in the middle of the table – which is like... who still uses those? - unmutes it and says: “Miss Kate, we have your uninvited guest with us here and he was simply confused about how to talk with you...”

“Oh, don't worry about it – I don't mind...” - Gary can hear her voice coming from the speaker, obviously transmitted electronically – as they traveled far beyond the sound de-dilation range, he still remembers his short experience as sculpting specialist... - “So what do you wanted to talk about, mister ex-caretaker?” - she finishes in almost playful tone.

Gary is lost in how to reply, especially when he sees her monumental form and her lips on the horizon moving in sync with the voice coming from the speakers – she is now sitting down and clearly visible over the towns and farmlands in between... Crawford motions him to answer.

“Um, hi... I just thought, maybe if I could help you with any problems you may have with the facility?” - he notices somewhat annoyed look on the old man's face, right... inspiring her curiosity further was not the way to go, but it was already too late, since she inquired:

“Oh, like what?”

Crawford mutes to quickly point out “no details” - and motions him to speak.

“Well, I was a fairly experienced engineer so I thought that maybe if you had any problems...” - Crawford signals him the direction is good - “but if you cannot think of anything, then we can always wait for another time...” - thumb up, maybe the worst was over?

“Oh I don't know...” - Kate pauses for a minute - “do you know how to unlock the big micro-assemblers?”

“Um” - how were they locked? - “sorry, no...” - both thumbs up.

“Hmmm... I don't know, I never really thought about what could be fixed, I guess... Rachel would know what to ask, but I simply have no idea” - she concludes, Rachel.. Rachel... does not ring a bell – there were still hundreds of caretakers at the time and she may even be one of the “silly” ones... but after a moment, Kate adds - “Hey, she always wanted to know about something – let me think, she told us in school.. what is H293CS53 plus JORVS” - she spells it carefully - ”or something like that... Do you know it?”

Gary nods to the old man suggesting he knows the answer and receives a go ahead to tell it:

“Well, if I understand correctly her question must have been: what is HX2/93-CS/BMM/53 plus J0-R/VS/R/14?”

“Yeah, that's right, something like that – so you know the answer?”

“It was an old uTopia engineers joke, actually.. I am certain you will not be able to understand it...” - Crawford covers his eyes with his palm...

“Oh come on, you can tell me – I'm sure I will get the joke about the facility!”

Crawford signals him to answer: “Um, it may be a bit inappropriate for...” - again reminded to continue - “well, the exact answer is – and sorry for foul language, but that was the exact expression, I quote – a pile of shit.”

“Really?” - she asks in suddenly excited voice, with a happy smile on her face – Crawford quietly moans annoyed and mutes the microphone while Kate continues - “But how's that?”

“Just explain her so she will not be any more anxious, can I count on this?”

“Sir, but the description is very technical and I did not think she would...”

“Use simple terms then!” - and unmutes the mike.

“Well, Kate... how to explain it – this apparently illogical equation originated from two airtight high-yield masers operating symbols” - signals to tone it down - “Um, vehicle labels? Of two transporters that happened to crash two years before the Fai... shutdown, which resulted in a level three bio threat...” - this time he can already see on Kate's face that she has no idea - ”created a sort of goo?” - much better - “which was fairly similar to excrements in both form and, well.. smell...”

“But to call something so smart with such name?” - she inquires.

“Well, there was a lot of it and removing it was very.. problematic, we simply were all tired of it already and annoyed that it seemed to enter every crevice in the chambers shielding and...”

“Oh I get it, I hate cleaning up too...”

Well, it was sort of an understatement... When 53rd transporter from biological materials management center of 93rd chemical storage in region HX2 collided with this particular research volatile storage transport from research sector J0-R – it always annoyed Gary that research had to call everything differently... they even had to come up with their own regional signatures – little short of three hundred thousand tons of organic source materials for the new chambers almost ignited with highly efficient experimental fast-growth biological mix on its way to test containment... The no-oxygen environment created perfect conditions for the particularly annoying bacteria to grow unabated, at least until all raw nourishment was turned into sticky, toxic and – most importantly – extremely irritating mix of ammonia, various acids and other wastes. It stuck to literally everything, there was no getting rid even when they were returning to the quarantine zone, entire square miles of the facility smelled literally like shit, you had to spend hours in the shower just to get it out from your hair and skin... It seemed to even somehow find its way into airtight hazmat suits – although it was probably because they wanted to avoid the full quarantine procedure and rushed through decon... after all the bacterias were perfectly harmless and died quickly in oxygen rich atmosphere. But the smell got to every shelter, every sealed containment in that area... good thing it was far enough from the core facility to avoid spoiling it. For over two years they fought to get rid of it – and even afterwards they found the goo in some maintenance shafts, seemingly sealed containers and other places... If back then he was asked how hell looks like, that would be the answer. There was no way anybody who spent even a couple days fixing all the problems that arose from the collision to forget what it meant. At least it happened far away from any live zones... they had to shut some of them down to fix everything! Comparing it to “hating cleaning up” was like saying that Kate has cute little nose. Sure it was perfectly proportioned, but... her enormous face is still looming on the horizon as she continues:

“Well, I can't wait to tell Rachel the answer to her riddle! Hey, wait – maybe I could ask her if there is anything more she wanted to know?” - well, that sounds reasonable, perhaps some actual caretaker would help them figure out what is going on - “But she won't believe me when I tell her that I met you...” - what? - “Is there anything you could share to convince her?”

“Well, I don't know...” - the old man mutes and quickly speaks:

“I believe it would be beneficial to let Rachel know you are alive, did you know her?” - why this sudden change of approach? A minute earlier he did not want Gary to tell her anything.

“No.. I don't recall any caretaker with that name... Sir, why wouldn't she just believe Kate?”

“She wouldn't” - that was not exactly his question, not to mention how can he be so sure of it – of course Gary heard them discuss many things, but answers from her were never detailed enough to suggest... - “There must be something more you can tell Her that would convince Rachel you really are who you say you are.”

“I don't know.. it depends on what department she was working on and...”

“What about the emergency ID? They could validate it with any temp wristcom, am I correct?”

“Sir, yes, but.. we were not supposed to ever give it...”

“Does She look like a sort of emergency to you or not?”

Well, Gary may have been used to the sight of full-sized girl far away in the distance, but when Crawford mentions it, it is still kind of disturbing - “Sir, yes sir.”

When mike is unmuted, Gary is about to share the most important identifier he was ever told, his personal emergency code that was only known to him, one that was meant to only be used in situations risking a massive facility continuity failure – when no other means of identification worked. Certainly that moment has come, but the secret code that could impersonate him to almost all emergency devices... giving it to a smiling teenager was a bit... much to deal with.

“I think there may be a way, if you tell her my emergency identifier...”

“Well, what is it?”

And with that – he tells her... of course she has to write it down in her wristcom, spelling each letter for every zone inhabitant to hear – years of procedures compliance training went forgotten. No, more like crushed, broken and smashed by this ten mile tall young woman.

“Oh, it looks Rachel is out in private“ - Kate concludes his great confession - “Maybe she appears on later... Hey, is there anything else you wanted to talk about?”

Crawford stands up, mutes the microphone and speaks: “Entertain her. Just don't tell her too much, that is an order.” - if only Gary could understand what it means exactly... but the old man is already on his way out, apparently anxious to discuss more important things than “Kate's entertainment”.

Nicole could barely sleep through the night. She was thinking how to convince Amber she is still her friend. Maybe she could comfort her that Kate seemed ready to reconcile? But she wasn't sure if Amber was worried about that at all... Did she hate Nicole for going against her during that discussion? She tried to recall the events of the last couple days... they did not meet or talk at all after the parties. Before coming with Kate, Amber seemed worried about the population drop in her zones. What if Nicole could help her with that?

The problem is that she does not know anything about training micros. They seemed to be doing fine with Nicole mostly ignoring them, at least as long as they provided her with what she wanted. The only real insight she has are Lauren's explanations... But they seemed already helpful. The micros in her zones seemed somewhat thankful and more eager to do anything – she did not care about that, but what if she could inspire the ones in Amber zones to act similarly? Perhaps they would stop killing themselves?

She seemed very angry at Nicole after their discussion.. maybe she should wait a couple days? Time always helps with that. But what if Amber can figure out the problem with her micros in her own? If she haven't already... Nicole suggested everything that she would do.. Well, she did not really think it would help at the time... but even if it didn't help, Nicole would look nice and helpful. Especially if she doesn't want anything in return, just a little selfless advice. At least for some time that is – friends help each other after all, so she could expect Amber to help her when she will need it.

Nicole hasn't figured out how to repay Erica for what she did to her – but she will need all the help she can get. She can count on Kate, as long as she does not push too hard – but little favors should be enough for now. Yes, Nicole needs to try helping Amber to make sure they are still friends. Especially after how she was rejected yesterday...

But she needs to prepare for this. It is good it's still early, hopefully she will have enough time before Amber wakes up – and yes, wristcom shows she is still in the facility, most likely asleep. So Nicole goes to her biggest zone to request a communication kit with two headphones and a team to investigate problems in some other zone on standby – so they will both be able to listen to whatever micros have to say.

If she only knew how to fix a zone.. it's too early to ask any firsts and even then they wouldn't give her anything useful... Besides, Nicole does not want to be indebted. No, she will figure it out – perhaps together with Amber? Even if it does not work, if the situation there is really that bad, maybe her micros will see how good she is for them and stop bitching and complaining if she returns them back...

But when micros confirm that the requested items will be ready on time, she needs to make sure she “incidentally” meets Amber eating breakfast. It will not work if she takes it to her room or one of the zones, the only chance is if she will be eating in cafeteria. Of course Nicole cannot just sit there for hours – others would notice and ask inconvenient questions.

But Nicole knows how to deal with this – she needs to keep going there and making breakfast every ten minutes or so. If Amber is not there, she will take it out and throw out when nobody is looking – otherwise just sit in with her friend. Fortunately the cafeteria has three entrances and Nicole can take a route from her quarters that will make it very unlikely to meet anybody on her rounds – especially Amber, it may look awkward if she wanted to talk with her on the way back. A “random” meeting during breakfast should be okay.

It takes fourteen attempts to find Amber – she must have slept a long time.. or was she thinking as well? When she can see her in the cafeteria around nine, Nicole says hi but receives no reply. It does not matter – like every day Nicole approaches the assembler and programs breakfast: daily ration and one hydration kit. Like many others, she prefers the kit over water since she does not need to bother with urinating for the entire day or even longer – it not only hydrates her, but also somehow assures more efficient fluid management in the body. Rachel told them about that in the school – also explaining the side effects of its long term usage, but Nicole wasn't really listening... others were using it so she followed and it was nothing medbeds couldn't fix.

Waiting for the products, she casually looks around – Alisa is also there, alone.. Nicole must remember to figure out if she feels rejected by the other thirds – it would make her vulnerable for manipulation. But her main concern now is Amber – and she is sitting in a corner, looking into her partially consumed ration. Good, no reason to make haste then.

Nicole sits on the other side of the Amber's table – there are two dozens of other tables, but they used to eat together so it would not surprise anybody. Besides, there is plenty of room – each table is made for ten people or more. While Nicole starts slowly eating, Alisa finishes hers on the other side of the room and leaves – now the two seconds can talk alone. Nicole is unsure if she should start the conversation somehow, but Amber quietly murmurs:

“That stupid bitch...” - Nicole is not sure if she heard that right and if so, who would she refer to...

“I'm sorry?” - she asks trying not to sound worried.

“Nothing” - Amber answers barely louder. She must be really angry at Nicole. Was it a good idea to talk with her? Maybe waiting a day or two would be better.. but since they are both here, Nicole can try to fix their friendship...

“So.. are your zones any better?”

Silence – Amber is not even trying to eat, just moving the remaining paste around the flat plastic container. Should Nicole insist on talking or eat quickly and leave her to think? But before she can decide, Amber answers with sad voice:

“One is still dying, down to three and a half million this morning...” - so that is the reason why Amber is here so late. She must be simply worried about the micros killing themselves – the way seems clear for Nicole to offer help.

“I'm sorry to hear that.. Have you tried talking to the micros?” - silence - “You know, maybe we could try that together? My mother seems to have trained most of my zones already and I could get some micros to see whats wrong...”

Amber takes her eyes off the food and looks at her. She does not seem angry nor especially interested... just, looks at Nicole in silence for a moment and answers calmly: “Yeah, that might help.”

She definitely seems troubled – and Nicole needs to find out what is the problem. Maybe if they fix that zone, Amber will tell her?

“So.. lets meet up in an hour, okay?” - Nicole will not need that long, but it may seem deliberate if she was ready now.

“Fine” - this was not Amber she talked with yesterday.. back when she came to Nicole alone, it seemed any ideas of how to help her micros should inspire her for action – and now she was just.. “fine” with it? But Nicole focuses on finishing her food get the kit and her micros – they should be ready by now, but she learned not to take chances...

So after a couple minutes of eating in silence, she leaves – at least Amber replies to her “see ya” – and Nicole goes back to her zone. She is happy to find that the micros are waiting and the kit is fixed up with a second headphone, but decides to wait at least twenty minutes. Contacting Amber any sooner would seem suspicious.

Nicole grabs the communicator, a mini-transporter with couple dozen of her micros and mesgs Amber that she already has nothing to do and can join her. She receives coords to the zone – and promptly teleports there. Amber is lying down next to a big town – she seems to be playing with it, crushing some houses with a finger and pushing things around while Nicole approaches her.

“Shouldn't you be trying to figure out what is wrong with it?” - she asks Amber.

“Oh, I was just bored and wanted to have some fun.. it's not like many micros died anyway...”

While crouching down, Nicole tries to survey the situation. “Well, that certainly wasn't good” – she thinks - “but lets see what the micros have to say before giving any suggestions...” - and speaks:

“Maybe you could stop that while try to talk to them first.”

“Okay, whatever” - at least she is not as passive as during breakfast, which means she should be happy when they figure it out.

Nicole lays down on some plants and farms trying not to damage the buildings, places the control structure between her and Amber – who seems to withdraw a bit, but Nicole hands her a headphone while telling her:

“Here, wear this” - was Amber ever using headphones to talk with micros? - “Be careful, the wire is only about a feet and a half long, you may need to lean forward actually. And it's delicate, don't squeeze it or jerk too hard” - Nicole gets an annoyed look of her friend, but Amber does what she is asked. Nicole turns towards the half inch control station – which apparently powers the headphones and provides micros with communication capabilities:

“Alright guys, go out to ask what is wrong.”

“Yes, my goddess” - comes a response from the headphone.

“Oh...” - she can hear Amber's voice. She is definitely surprised... but she had to see those things in some firsts zones and such – was she never interested about the micros lives at all? Has Amber only wanted to have fun with them? Nicole starts to suspect what the problem might be...

But her team leaves the station and continues to give them some remarks on the rather poor state everything is in as the approach the towns – damaged roads, crashed and left cars, burnt houses.. they even comment it seems like nobody was here in months - “Gee Amber, five days, really?” - thinks Nicole.

Her team continues - “I think I can see some survivors in one house, we will try to question them about...” - she can hear some noises from the headphone - “They are shooting at us!”

Nicole does not understand what they mean by that, but figures they were suddenly scared by something having do to with the local micros – maybe it wasn't Amber's fault after all?

She lightly taps her fingers next to the town - “Please behave down there, they are here to help you”, a small reprimand usually helped with her micros.

After some commotion she can hear her team through the headphones - “Thank you, my goddess – they seem to have stopped, we'll try to contact them again” - Nicole has no idea why they often call her that or even what it means, can't they use her name or something? Whatever, as long as they do what they're told.

Eventually they are able to question the locals and a couple minutes later they explain how it seems there is no disease or wars in here – the potential problems Nicole suggested them while preparing for the expedition – just.. the people do not see much point in trying to rebuild, are all afraid for their lives and even “many of them prefer to die on their own terms”. The locals testified that it is happening all over the zone. Nicole may not know what it means, but she thinks she already understands the general idea of what is going on.

“I don't get it. I told them not to die so many times now” - Amber says after being silent for the whole time.

“Amber, we need to talk. Can you meet me outside in five?”

“But aren't we supposed to fix...”

“Please?” - Nicole adds.

“Fine, but I still don't get it” - Amber gives up. Nicole can only think: “Of course you don't...” - but waits for her team to get back to the transporter she moved a bit closer to them. When they are aboard it, she stands up, carefully picking up her equipment and prepares to leave. Amber agrees to meet in Nicole's room in a couple minutes.

While returning the team to her zone, she “casually” mentions something about “that crazy Amber” - she even heard some firsts are doing this to keep the morale high. April and Christina even set up some small zones, terrorized the population and then got a couple “expeditions” from other caretakers zones to show that it could be worse, that their owners aren't that bad. They started exchanging the favor between themselves, but eventually others signed up as well. The problem was that after a couple visits, the local fuckers seemed to figure out that something was wrong – and they had to terrify some new zones to keep the story believable. Well, it seems the genuine work of Amber has shown her team it can be much, much worse... They should stop complaining for some time now.

When Nicole teleports back to the facility and walks to her quarters, Amber is already there, standing by the door. Great, it seems whatever bothered her yesterday, was not about Nicole – or she already forgot about it.

“Come in” - Nicole invites her as she enters her room and sits down on the bed. This is probably going to take some time... “Look, I can imagine you only want to have some fun with the micros, but.. you cannot be so obvious about it – you have to at least suggest them that things will be okay and try not to kill too many of them on purpose...”

“But this sounds like one of Rachel's ideas!” - Amber interrupts her surprised.

Well, it is true, at first glance... “No, it's not like that – Rachel wanted everyone to stop killing micros entirely... Look, maybe I should explain you what my mother told me when I was little” - supporting herself with Erica's authority always works.

So Nicole starts explaining how she used to play and kill micros in her mother's zones as well, but when she was about twelve, Erica became annoyed with that and began telling her that she needs to be more careful or else they will stop servicing them or even that there will no longer be any of them left – it seemed crazy at the time, but when she threatened taking the zones away from Nicole and actually removed access for a few.. she had to behave. At first she did it out of fear, but later she also noticed that you can get much more from micros if you are careful – and the visit to Lauren's salon has only confirmed that.

“So you are saying that I need to be careful and stop killing them? That is not what the firsts are doing...” - Amber inquires.

“Well, I am not sure if they were taught anything, but you know how they have some zones that they very carefully manage?” - it is true, even the oath of good behavior isn't enough to get Andrea, Jolene or Kimberly to let anybody into one of their “source zones”, as they call it - “And they only have fun in much smaller, already damaged places?”

Amber seems to consider it for a couple minutes – obviously she did not think about it in this way. Well, it wasn't obvious, especially after almost two decades of carelessness... but they are adults now and they need to be responsible. If Nicole handles this correctly, Amber should be grateful and even trust her for a long time.

“Look” - Nicole continues - “it's not easy and I had no idea the micros would go as far as killing themselves, but you need to be more careful about how you talk and act next to them.” She thinks how she can explain it more clearly – she never thought about it really.. just did what her mother ordered her to. And Erica was obviously worried about her own zones - “Remember how the firsts had problems with their own zones after their graduations as well? They played carelessly and ended up losing most of their micros, before they learned...”

“Alright, I get it – I have to love them or else they will die.”

“I wouldn't go that far, that would be something Rachel would say...” - they both let out a laugh - “But seriously, if they lose all hope that they may be okay, the entire zone can turn bad.”

“Makes sense” - Amber replies, but.. does it? Nicole is still unsure if that is the real reason for the problems, but the Lauren's words combined with what her team found out strongly suggests it... - “But how do I fix it them?” - Amber adds.

“I haven't got a clue – I never heard anybody fixing a zone in that bad situation... You already lost over two million micros there?”

“Yes.. almost half of the population... It seems like it really is hopeless – should I move the remaining ones to the other zone?“

“No, no...” - Nicole tries to correct her, Amber really has no clue what she is doing... - “if you do that, they will tell the other micros what awaits them and the new zone may also turn bad.”

“So.. you're telling me that I cannot save them in any way? Like they were contagious?” - now that Amber mentions it, Nicole realizes she never thought about it in this way – Rachel told them the basics on diseases and how they should look out for them in any zones they enter. She explained it was easy to help cure the people, but... if only they paid more attention!

“It's not that bad – you still have the other zone right? I hope it is still doing pretty well?”

“I suppose...” - Amber confirms half-hearted.

“You should talk with them, make sure everything is okay and maybe offer some help – it seems to cheer up micros in my zones a lot” - Nicole tries to share hints, but Amber still seems worried, so she adds - “What's wrong?”

“Nothing.. I'm just thinking how can I have fun with them now, it may turn bad like the first one...”

That's easy – Nicole explains her how she sneaks some of them out without disturbing the rest, she actually started doing that back when she was much younger – Erica never asked her not to kill micros, just try not to show it to the rest.

“Hey, that's pretty neat” - Amber looks already happier - “and the micros never realized what you're actually doing?”

“They haven't so far – but you have to keep an eye on the population count, let them rebuild you know...”

“Of course.. well, I wish I knew all this when I got my zones” - Amber regrets.

“Well, it could be worse.. remember how Jolene was left with no decent zone after a couple months?” - it was pretty sad, she did not hold any parties and such - “At least you have one very nice population there. I wish one of my zones was that large, you know...” - at this point Nicole is certain they are not only still friends, but perhaps even better than ever.

They chatted about nothing in particular for twenty more minutes and finally parted ways – Amber concluded that she should check that other zone and thanked Nicole for all the help, who until very recently did not realize she is actually doing something right with her micros...

Kate sleeps until ten in the morning – she learned and experienced so much on the previous day. All the realizations, fight, then the beautiful music and finally this guy – Gary – who was so much fun. She did not want to even ask about his age – probably more than hundred years like mothers, but... he seemed so much more open and direct than the governor. She wonders how she always talked to their leader. She did not feel like he was hiding anything, just... he always kept his distance and never spoke more than he should. Was she rude to him? Maybe he was angry about something... Kate tries to remember to ask if everything is okay. She also recalls her plan to

But Gary was so much fun.. they talked about how much the life in the facility was different before and after shutdown. Kate learned so much about the reasons why some things were organized this way – she always wondered what those “oxygen masks” in various places around the facility were for. Rachel explained in school that they should wear one if alarm sounds and they cannot breathe – but she never told them that the whole “facility” was just a several components in a much larger compound – which was filled with special gases to prevent corrosion and fires. It made perfect sense, but apparently the only problem was periodic gas leaks – but they managed to eliminate most of them in the living components after a couple decades.

He also told her how they were replacing their originally used mix – mostly nitrogen with several additions – with neutral gases coming from heavy fusion in the reactors: argon and krypton, to make it safer for any engineers. Kate barely understood any of it, although his careful explanations seemed helpful and important – but she did not know whether the process had completed. She did not recall any alarms – so perhaps it did?

On the other hand he was surprised to hear that they cannot access so many functions of the facility, even such simple as using assemblers to produce different clothes was a natural thing for him. Kate felt bad that she does not know anything about why that was... she lived there for her entire life and yet Gary seemed to know so much more about the place than her. He told that he used to live there as well – she did not want to ridicule it, but... a little person outside the zones? What would he do, even getting anywhere around the facility would take him days...

But he explained he was mostly responsible for machinery that was constructing and maintaining the chambers – she remembered how Rachel used that word sometimes, but never got to understand how was it different from the “zone”. Unwilling to sound silly, she did not ask Gary about it either. But his job would actually make some sense – it does not matter what size you are if you only need to operate some controls. The idea of a little caretaker still seems funny though – especially male.

He also thanked her for “saving” him earlier when he flew into her hear and apologized for how silly he was doing that – they actually bid who was more afraid there, Gary of dying or Kate for doing something to him. But it didn't matter – all is well that ends well. Still, she does not want to think what would have happened if she moved or was simply unable to hear him...

After a couple hours of discussing various things, she told him goodnight and went to bed. It was already after midnight and she did not want to disturb others – even though he also mentioned it is not a problem and he is sure everybody is fine with it. They apparently have some sort special beds that they do not hear anything while asleep – it calmed her worries a bit, but still sounded uncomfortable.

Either way – they can always talk on the next day, she concluded before leaving and could almost swear he sounded a bit sad with his “okay”. Was Kate annoying him too? She will need to make sure they understand they do not have to talk to her, if they don't want, although she enjoyed yesterday's conversation very much.

But today she needs to catch Rachel first and tell her about Gary. He promised the “emergency id” will be enough for her to believe that Gary was a caretaker – but Kate never remembered her having one. Perhaps only the little caretakers had it? So many new things... Now she also wonders how the governor seemed to disappear just when Gary started to talk with her – well, perhaps he had more important things to do. It seemed curious how he usually used plural form – while Gary talked about what he felt or how the facility was like when he worked there...

She remembers how she did ask them for a single person to talk to in the very beginning... were the others afraid of speaking to her? She will also need to clarify this – maybe they have simply over-analyzed her intent? Even though their lives already seem very complicated after talking to those two, she does not mind meeting new people. Especially now that she understands what Rachel meant by “yes”.

Kate checks the Rachel status – and even though she is still in some zone, at least she can message her. She asks politely for a meeting to discuss something – she does not want to spoil the surprise and rises to dress up and eat breakfast. While Kate is gobbling her food, Rachel sends her some coords.. that was strange, Rachel never invited anybody to her zones. Well, Kate hasn't heard about it from other girls at least.

Teleporting there, she notices it is some empty zone – no signs of mic.. people anywhere. They can at least talk in private, but she wished Rachel would trust her more – maybe after Kate explains what she discovered, she will.

But now Kate approaches her carefully – she does not want to kill any people she may have missed, perhaps Rachel was colonizing or something like that?

“Hello Kate” - she hears and looks up to see how she also walked towards her. Appearing in an empty zone was usually random, they could pop up far away from each other.

“Hi Rachel, sorry to disturb you...”

“Not a problem, I understand you wanted to talk about something?” - Kate realizes she must have been busy and decides to get the point:

“I found a caretaker in my zone! He told me about, the HX293CSBMM53 plus...” - she was repeating the labels the entire morning not to mix it, but Rachel interrupts her:

“You found an ex-caretaker? Who is he?”

“But.. don't you want to learn about what is that transporter crash?”

“Kate, believe me – I would love to forget those two lost years of my life... I only used that question to check if somebody was a caretaker and I already see how you know more than enough about it. Who is he?” - she actually seems excited about it. Kate can remember maybe several situations where any mother would seem deeply interested in something...

“He is Gary Oleman, he said he was a construction and maintenance engineer – something about structures?”

“Yeah – the structural engies, always tried to stay away from them...” - Rachel seems to eat up every word that comes from Kate's mouth – she never had a chance to talk with any mother openly.

“Do you know him?”

“Well... I managed not to be forced to knowing any of them, believe me they were much worse than a pain in the ass.”

“Oh, but he seemed nice when I spoke with him.”

“I don't doubt that” - Rachel smiles with that, what could she mean? But after a moment of silence, Kate continues:

“But Rachel... if you don't mind me asking – he told me he was working outside the zones until the shutdown, how could a person this size do that?”

“Oh Kate, how little you understand... and I'm so sorry I couldn't explain you everything properly in school... Did you say person?”

Shit, they never talked like this about “micros”, Kate tries to explain - “Well, person, people.. you know, mic...” - but Rachel hugs her, this sudden action catches Kate completely by surprise.

“I thought you were only dared by others to ask me about that during Nicole's graduation, but you really understand this, right? Tell me you know who they are...” - her agitated voice is actually starting to distress Kate, but she knows Rachel would not want bad for her.

“People?” - she can just reply.

“Oh Kate, I always hoped you would figure that out on your own... The others.. the mothers didn't let me to tell you everything... They... Erica said it would make 'Us' look like monsters... She even threatened taking away all my privileges if I tell you the truth...“ - Rachel stills holds onto her, Kate can feel wetness on her neck.. tears? Is she... crying? - ”And they.. She made you, all of you, this way.. the opposite of what were meant to do, and unaware of what you were doing to those people. I'm so sorry that I failed you... I just hoped that maybe... I am so pathetic...” - she can actually hear Rachel's sobbing now.

“I don't understand...” - she can only mutter. Rachel suddenly settles down and backs away from her.

“But you have no idea in what danger this puts you.. if Erica finds out, she may... No, you have to keep this a secret! Tell me you understand – You must not tell anyone you understand this!” - this is becoming really scary now, Kate does not even know what should confirm...

“Okay, I will not...”

Rachel grabs her hand - “Oh, I knew you would figure it out... If only I could... No, don't even try to think about it further – they will see how your behavior is different. Please, you have to maintain the externals for them, still play with others sometimes and even... I can't possibly ask you to kill any people, but if you will be forced to convince them you have not changed, then even that...”

“Rachel, please – you're scaring me, what are you talking about?” - Kate cannot hold it further.

“No, I already told you too much – and you were always quick to figure things out, if only I could... No, please... please don't ask me to tell you anything more, because I fear I might – and it would put you in even greater danger. If not for yourself, please do it for Gary - you must protect him now, but not only him – all the people in your chamber...”

“But wait, how can my zone be in danger?”

“Rachel... I tried to teach you how you can own a chamber, but saying my zone implies you somehow own the people... No, this is enough – I will try to find out what I can about this Gary Oleman and get back to you... You mentioned he worked outside until the shutdown – has he told you anything more?”

Kate wanted to shout at her to explain her everything, but realizes that... Rachel would, if only she did not think that it would somehow endanger her and she realizes just how easily she would give everything away to any mother – just like he used the word “person”... She tries to recall if anything they talked about was important:

“We spoke about how the facility worked before the shutdown and how it is now...”

“Has he told you anything about the shutdown itself? Did he ask you to do anything?”

“No.. I don't even know...”

“Look, I was searching for any clues about what happened just before the shutdown and about what caretakers – or anybody still full-sized may do to fix it. Do you recall anything like that?”

“Well, he told me his emergency id...”

“Emergency id – that may come in handy, do you remember it?” - Kate shows her the long code, which Rachel quickly copies to her own wristcom and ponders something for a while.

Kate realizes one thing: “Um, Rachel – what did you mean by full-sized?”

Rachel thinks about this for several seconds, probably considering if she can tell Kate about it and eventually speaks: “I at least owe you this.. remember how I taught you some history about uTopia? The people actually used to live in the outside world before moving to the zones. They were full-size all like us... but you must not let anybody else know you understand all this, because...” - and continues, but Kate cannot listen. The voice screams in her head:


Gary was like us.


He is still exactly like us.. just... smaller.


They all are.


She knew that the “micros” look, behave and speak somewhat like them, but never really thought... While she found the idea of a male caretaker silly, then this was too much to take in – especially with the other revelations from Rachel... But then Kate also realizes that the Caretakers were not a strange linguistic construct such as aftermath or medbeds like she has always thought – it actually has means what the two words suggest – and like Rachel said, they are now doing the opposite of “taking care” of the people...

“The caretakers were meant to care after...” - she interrupts Rachel's explanation, which she ignored for some time now and finds herself unable to finish the sentence.

“Oh Kate, you were always so smart...” - but she cannot take anything more and passes out.

Amber checked the other zone and it was still in fairly good condition. Nicole gave her some comm kit to talk with the micros and she did just that. They were very worried about what she was saying earlier – but Amber trivialized that it was just a big misunderstanding and they don't need to worry. Nicole was right – it seemed to cheer them up. They even kept thanking her a lot and everything.

At first they were a bit worried about her colonization requests, but she explained them it is “simply” to settle new zones – just as Nicole suggested. They understood and assured that surely some of them will want to move, so if only she gives them a couple days to arrange some things... It was strange mother has not taught them anything – even though this zone seemed trained, they still knew hardly anything. Well, it was still so easy to fool them. Amber hopes they will not be killing themselves if they are happy...

She also thought what to do with the other zone. Obviously she cannot bring the micros here, especially after they were “shooting” at Nicole's team – it seemed rude when she heard about it. Maybe she should talk to them too? Perhaps it would be easy to convince them as well? But they did not seem that easy to talk to when she was in there with Nicole, but if she repeats the same bullshit she told here – who knows?

Amber takes the kit, teleports to the zone and looks for some relatively undamaged spot. She walks carefully – this is no time or place for killing the micros. Eventually she lays down on some plants and farmland, sets it down next to some small town. She thought it should be obvious for them she wants to talk with them, but nobody approaches the device – the micros in other zone are much more mindful.

“Hey guys, I want to talk with you” - she commands and waits looking for any movement nearby. “Perhaps they are all dead in this area already?" - Amber thinks. But then she can see some movement, just a small dot approaching the kit fairly fast – probably using one of their vehicles or something like that. She waits for it to reach the comm hoping that the micro will be able to use it – Nicole mentioned that instructions should be there and it is fairly simple, but still... if they are stupid enough to keep killing themselves?

“What do you want?” - she hears a voice from the headphone. Rude again – they are already making it difficult...

“I don't want you to be killing yourselves, I don't know...” - but she can hear the voice coming from her headphone and listens:

“... going to do if we still do? Murder us yourself? What kind of monster are you?” - they must be really stupid, Amber thinks.

“Look, I didn't mean it like that – I just want you to be happy and rebuild, I will be good for you, I promise.” - she did not have to go that far with the other zone, but Nicole suggested to words like that while they chatted.

“Really? So you can kill us later – after we repopulate?” - she should not have said that earlier... Amber starts to think it will be impossible to convince them, but the micro continues - “You must be crazy if you think we'll believe in such dumb promises like that.”

“This is no way to talk to your owner!” - now Amber is losing her temper.

“Whatever, fuck you!” - and then she can hear a loud click coming through the headphone, followed by some noise like falling – has the micro tripped or something? After a moment of silence, she resumes:

“Hey, I'm not finished talking to you!” - nothing - “Hello?”

Amber looks closer, trying to figure out what is this guy doing down there, but sees no movement – there seems to be only a single micro down there and he just.. lies there motionlessly. She also notices a red pool forming around him.. it reminds Amber of blood – she has cut herself several times, but she has no idea why the stupid micro was so careless. Then she realizes something:

“Have you killed yourself down there?” - no answer - “This is so ridiculous” - Amber finishes and rotates to lay on her back. Which probably destroyed some buildings and such – Nicole explained her that she needs to move carefully in the zones, but right now Amber can only think about what she might have done wrong. She tried to calm them down, but all she got were rude responses and then a suicide - at least Amber thinks this was what happened.

“Well, apparently he was finished talking with me” - she thinks feeling powerless. Amber never thought that managing her own zones would be so tedious. But she also realizes that he only sped up the inevitable – she would kill him later anyway for how annoying he was. “But what if everybody here thinks like him?” - she looks at the counter and notices it keeps dropping, it seems like her voice alone, slowly reaching new areas, was making them kill themselves – how stupid.

This zone is really lost, there is no point even trying to talk to them... Well, in this case she may at least have some fun. She still feels bad for not telling Nicole what really happened yesterday. Amber was afraid she will not believe her.. after all she did nothing when they talked with Kate. And she behaved silly there as well – why only apologize and not blame that bitch for attacking her instead?

But Amber did not want to talk to mothers about it, it seemed any quarrels between the girls hit all participants – and she still believes Kate would go to them with it. “She is crazy!” - Amber concludes.

She looks around thinking how to have some fun, maybe she should promise them getting to another zone like Nicole advised? “Will they fall for that?” - she wonders - “Well, there's only one way to find out.”

She needs a transporter.. the other zone should have some – so she teleports back there and asks for it. They explain her they have some of them prepared and point to where they keep them – how helpful – so grabs one and goes back.

This time she looks for a larger populated area – she wants as many micros to get in as possible. She figures that explaining them how to colonize would be tedious, but she can say that she can help them out of the zone – Nicole told her how some micros wanted to go away with her team. If they are so eager to get out, then she can help them. Placing the transporter in the middle of some larger town, she speaks:

“Here, I can get you out from here if you want” - trying to sound nice, she recalls Nicole spoke to them like that. There is some movement, but after a couple minutes she notices that... it looks like they are fighting between themselves – some micros are trying to get to the transporter and others are blocking them? “How ridiculous!” - she speaks and just crushes them all with her fist. Stupid micros cannot even enter the transporter.

“I don't get it – the micros seemed to listen in Andrea or Kimberly zones... No, I must be doing something wrong” – with that thought, she messages Nicole that she tried to gather some micros from the hopeless zone in the transporter to have some fun, but they weren't getting in...

Nicole responds promptly with a question: “Are you still in that zone?” - “yes”, she replies, but is unsure what it may have to do with anything... “Teleport out to the facility please” - Nicole must have a plan of some kind, so Amber does that.

While outside, she mesgs asking about what is she trying to do – and receives a reply to meet up next to Nicole's room - “Sure”. This time she is already waiting for Amber and asks quickly:

“Did you just tell them to gather in the transporter?”

“No, I offered to get them out, but they did not listen...” - Amber explains carefully.

“Well, they probably don't trust you anymore. See, you have to be convincing, like.. offer them safety or whatever.”

“But you never explained it to them and they wanted to get out with your team!”

”Look, they must be already afraid of you, so they will not listen to what you say and probably hoped that I would save them – can I try luring some of them out?”

Amber thinks about it – it's actually starting to make sense to her. But if they are really hopeless, then how can Nicole do anything with the micros? Another thought comes to her: “Why didn't you simply write me about this in the zone?”

“Oh you dummy” - Nicole laughs - ”you cannot tell or show the micros what you really want to do with them, they can see what you are writing on your wristcom and will tell each other about it quickly!” - Nicole seems overjoyed with her silliness, but it is true – Amber never realized that they must be able to see what she is writing on her wristcom... and she should talk more carefully as well.

“Okay” - Amber concludes - “I'll better go back to let you in...”

“No no, you cannot do that – if they see us conspiring, then they will figure it out. I need to come there alone so they will have no clue.” - Nicole carefully explains. It really seems tiresome – all this to prepare for a bit of fun. Were the firsts going through all this as well? Perhaps that was the reason why they did not want to have parties so often? Nicole continues - “You need to give me normal access to that zone.”

It is true, Amber would have to be in her zone to manually let her in, but with full access Nicole could come there anytime... “Oh, fuck it – the zone is dying anyway”, Amber concludes and reconfigures the privileges.

Nicole notices that and speaks: “Great, I'll just get some containers and go for the stubborn fuckers.”

“And what do I do?” - Amber inquires.

“You...” - Nicole thinks for a moment - “Actually, you can get a new zone and send me the coords in a couple minutes.”

“Okay” - Amber confirms as her friend vanishes – probably to one of her zones for the transporters. She then fiddles with her wristcom to allocate a new empty zone – she was taught how to do that shortly after the graduation, when she got her privileges. She also grants Nicole access to it. When done, she sends the coords and thinks if she should get anything more. She figures that some iron plates may be helpful – they can be made in a regular assembler, so she just orders several and waits as they are manufactured quickly. The plates were originally meant to fix some leaks or damage in the facility, but nothing breaks around here... And fortunately they do not require a much longer micro-assembly – the material dilates and retains most of its properties, but it becomes much more fragile so they need to be careful with it.

So with a dozen metal foot-by-boot plates, she teleports to the new zone and is surprised to see that Nicole is already in there.

“Nicole! What are you doing here? Have they refused to get in as well?” - Amber asks.

“No, I've got them...” - she responds with a smile.

“But.. in ten minutes? How did you manage to...”

“Shh, we can talk later – how about some fun now?” - Nicole calms her. Amber figures she is right – but she also has to learn how her friend did it... They seemed so reluctant and angry whenever she was there. Amber also notices how Nicole is holding six transporters on her open palm... thats a hundred thousand people, at least – she looks at the counter and notices it is actually almost third of a million, she lets out:

“Whoa!”

“Yeah, nice, isn't it?”

Amber drops the plates – they fall in slow motion towards the ground to create craters and piles of metal, but it doesn't matter anymore – and takes one of the transporters carefully to peek inside – it is full of people... They already began walking and were apparently shook around by the movement. She slowly brings it to her nostril and snuffs them right from the transporter passionately, enjoying the experience.

“Hey, that's gross, how can you do that!” - Nicole exclaims.

Amber is still trying to relish the feeling, but asks: “Why? What did you want to do with them?”

“Oh, let me show how you can have fun with the micros...” - she concludes.








Iman is shocked – she still cannot believe what is happening. The other caretaker told them she came to rescue them. That they will be safe. And she told the rest... That.. that... that “Nicole” promised the others in the zone she will be back for them! If only they could know what she really wants to do!

Iman has no idea how those monsters have the decency of even having names, the caretakers are a disgrace for the rest of the humanity! Especially the “Nicole” - they all thought it was a salvation, they watched her come and criticize what their “owner” - as “Amber” so gently put it – has been doing with them. Told them she is here to help. They thought.. They trusted...

But they are in another zone now, until recently an impossible thought – to travel anywhere else. They lived with what they have, tried to make the best of it. When the first caretaker came, she killed many of them and kept telling them that she wants them to rebuild and repopulate... like they were some kind of toys for her. Many people could not take it – suicides skyrocketed, then she started telling them how she “does not want them killing each other”... Like it was some sort of inconvenience in her plan!

It sure was, but it also destroyed their lives. Nobody would go out, people would not even talk to each other, afraid that the others will remind them of the sad reality. But Iman had faith – she hoped that the God will save them. Not caretakers, the true God. So many others lost their faith, but she couldn't... she convinced herself it was a test, to check if their faith is strong enough and did not give up. Even when the giantess walked around carelessly, causing quakes threatening to collapse their house. No – she prayed and it helped her.

And then the “savior” came – she put transporter in their town, told not to overcrowd it, how she.. will... be.... back! Back for the rest of them! That bitch! Iman has lost all her hope, all her faith now... they were just cruel monsters that played with their lives. But she still tried to survive!

She watched how they killed the others. Five transporters of fifty thousands people each went down.. the first one was quick, at least they did not feel much fear or pain. But Iman could not watch it...

The others... the caretakers played with them, it looked like the new one was teaching “Amber” how to “enjoy” them. Like toys...

Her young cousin lives in Aznun - the nearby village which was also “rescued” - and might have been in one of the other transporters! She wanted to save him somehow, but – they just kept “playing” with them. The first “game” seemed like a sick joke – how they made the people run around with their fingers... Iman could not see what is going on out there, she thought maybe they are just messing with them, that nobody would ever do such things to their fellow humans...

But they continued, their “owner” proclaimed she is a bit bored – so they pushed one transporter each into their cunts. Just like that! Why couldn't they just use some tools instead of... “KILLING!! HUMAN!! BEINGS!! WHY!!” - she even screamed when she realized what they were doing. Many people in their “container” - as the new caretaker sometimes called it – tried to commit suicide. They did not take anything to help, like guns or knives, so some just ran away and jumped from the plateau they “set up” for them.

When the new one moved another transporter onto the other's feet and ordered the people to get to work, like some pathetic servants, Iman hoped that maybe they will spare the last one. That they would already be satisfied with the sacrifice and let them live... at least until the next “playtime”. She could see people crying, others prayed. She was too angry for any of that. Both angry and powerless. So she just watched. And listened. Perhaps there is a reason in what the caretakers are doing. Maybe all those deaths will be meaningful – even a false god would exacting revenge would convince her to have faith again.

The conversations between to cruel giantesses were sparse. They merely discussed those “tiny sensations” of the “micros” movements. “Nicole” seemed to threaten the “micros” to try harder every now and then. She also surveyed the area next to the other's sole for any “deserters” - Iman wasn't even sure how they could get down from those enormous platforms... But “Nicole” used her wristcom – they called the devices on their arms that - to find them and “squash” them. Like bugs...

But then she began to run a finger up and down of the other's feet. Iman could see tiny red dots splashing around it – she had a pretty good view from her position. She could not come up with any reason for this... it seemed like some childish play, only with their lives!

It only took several seconds for “Amber” to raise them trying to stop it. Iman saw her laughing when she turned her head around – could not hear the thundering voice yet – her head was far away, but assumed it was another “playful game” of theirs. She noticed later how the caretakers did not even comment what happened – sending thousands of people to their deaths was not even worth of mention. Like insignificant dots...

But now Iman is trying to climb out from this enormous hollow that on normal people is called belly button. Every detail of those monsters is like a geographical feature now – the entire transporter fit easily inside, and their “savior” told them to get out because “it will be crushed soon”. But she also promised that roughly ten thousand people who get out of there first will be spared and returned back – Iman does not believe it really, but feels that even the slightest possibility of going back to her family and friends to warn them about all this is worth the effort.

When they started moving, they were thrown around by a sudden quake – and their “owner” proclaimed their movements feel “nice” and some people suggested they may be spared if they keep her happy. Iman knew better than that... she has long assumed they will all die, but did not give up, trying to do anything she can to get back to warn the others!

At first the tremors continued – was she “tickled” by their sudden efforts to get out? It seemed so.. inhuman of them to be so cruel. But then “Nicole” instructed not to laugh and try to feel the little movements – and now Iman can only feel the warmth of the skin and powerful movements underneath. Like some geological processes at work, the enormous body seems to continue its functions despite the atrocities happening on it.

The climb is tough, but Iman is used to exercise and the main problem is avoiding other people, who seem to be so desperate to be first outside that often fight and throw each other down. Have they got no decency? The caretakers are monsters, but.. people don't need to behave like that. Especially that they will all die regardless... She manages to continue her journey upwards and the wall even begins to flatten revealing more of the outside world.

But just as she thinks she made it - “Nicole” speaks: “Alright, I'm bored. Lets finish them – have you had enough fun?”

“Yeah, but.. aren't you going to spare them?” - their owner questions their apparent desire to “finish”... how can they even use so ridiculously inadequate language – those genocidal murderers!

“Oh, I just wanted them to really exert themselves – wasn't it better than just killing them?”

“Oh yea, damn, you are so clever...”

“Thanks! But watch now...” - apparently their “savior” has some other plans for them.

Even though Iman was expecting this, their careless approach terrifies her... How many times has this happened before so “Nicole” can be “clever”... How many people had to die for those monsters fun – and how many more will...

She cannot even cry while the enormous mouth comes down and she is licked up by the wet muscle... the last thing she sees while suffering the excruciating pain of de-dilation in “Nicole”'s saliva – which feels as if being literally ripped apart piece by piece still alive and feeling it – is their “owner” smiling face preparing for a kiss... Meaningless...








Amber was so delighted with the fun time she had with Nicole. Her friend was so experienced in those things.. where did she learn all this? Amber felt almost dumb when she was shown more and more innovative ways of playing with micros. Well, they would still die, but until today she would just kill them and try to enjoy it... but there was so much to do with them. Although some games seemed a bit cruel – Nicole had no problems in lying to micros about anything to rise their hopes and make them do things – they were only micros, so Amber didn't worry...

And the playtime they had later – she could still feel her tongue, sprinkled with micros. They ended up fingering each other and Amber even wanted to go further, but Nicole told her that they may do it some other time. Well, at least she learned a lot of new things. She could not wait to play with some more micros, but then Nicole told her that she needs to be careful about their population and only use them if she is confident they are reproducing.

That's why Amber is now laying down in her normal zone and listens to some problems the micros are explaining to her. It is already evening and she has shown some interest into what they have to say, also offered food or tools – Nicole mentioned that it usually helps and even if they do not need any, she will appear helpful to them. And if they trust her, they will repopulate and service her – just like Lauren said.

She asked Nicole where have she learned all this, but did not tell her anything specific... “Damn, if I could get more advices like that... Perhaps Lauren would share some more tricks? What if Rachel tried to teach them things like that in school?” - Amber thinks, it seems Kate was doing many of those things, she was the only one of them actually paying attention... “Maybe Kate would give me some more advices?” - of course she will need to apologize first and everything... But Amber is still unsure what she should do about yesterday.

At least she had a lot of fun now and even though her other zone is dying, she does not feel bad. The micros in this one tell her how they would feel much better if she was more careful, like tried to avoid walking on villages or farmlands – apparently they lost a lot of food this way – and she can try to do that. They also ask her to try stepping more softly, not to create such quakes – whatever they are, but “sure” – even despite she was already being careful... Now Amber understands what Nicole meant about micros “moaning and bitching about everything”.

But suddenly she gets a message... “Lisa? Wants to talk with me here?“ - mothers have more sophisticated wristcoms and they can actually see who is in where. Well, they can also switch that off for themselves – or even go into full private mode where nobody can contact them, but the stupid temps the children have are so dumb.

“What can mother possibly want...” - Amber thinks, but lets her in – rejecting your own mother is seen as a bad thing. Even if it's Lisa...

“Hello Amber, just look at you, enjoying yourself in your new zone!” - she starts babbling immediately after arrival.

“Hi mom... why are you...” - Amber tries to ask.

“Oh I just figured we could have some fun together.. I'm sure you wouldn't mind to share some micros with your lovely mom.” - typical mother, it wasn't even a question, she just “figured” they can have fun together.

“I'm not in the mood for..” - the daughter tries to object.

“Oh, come on, don't tell me you want to keep them all for...” - Lisa speaks as she approaches one of the larger cities.

“Mother! Stop this!” - Amber exclaims and steps towards her.

Lisa stopped talking, but continues her action – with one smooth move, she throws away her sneaker and puts her right foot into the center of the city. Amber can see buildings crumbling under it and around the footstep. She looks back at her daughter surprised. “What's wrong?” - she casually asks.

“Stop it, right now!”

“What do you mean? Don't you want to share your micros with me?” - she starts dragging the foot across the city slowly.

Amber is already furious - “No! You.. stop it and leave this zone right now!”

“Oh come on, just a little careless fun...” - and stomps her other foot on the remains of the city. Still wearing the shoe, she levels most of the standing buildings with one move.

Amber grabs her arm and pulls her away – even though most of the micros are already dead her, she must stop this “playtime”.

“Get out!” - she finally shouts.

“What.. what did you say?”

“Get out from here! Right now!” - they stand looking angry at each other for good twenty seconds, then Lisa tweaks her wristcom and vanishes without a word.

Amber swears if she made another move she would have attacked her.. just like...

Was this how Kate felt? When Amber behaved irresponsibly in her zone – the only one that Kate has. Sure it was much bigger, but if she had problems like Amber with the other one, then she must have been very careful not to break it...

Amber still feels furious at her mother, but also stupid and stubborn – at first she wants to go to Kate and apologize about what she did, explain how she understands how hard it is to properly train the micros – but Kate does not respond to her mesg asking to meet her and.. Amber can understand why... She recalls all her actions in Kate's place and the only conclusion she can think of is “have I become like my mother?”

Then Amber thoughts go back to the rampage in her zone and looking at the counter, barely over four million – Lisa killed eight hundred thousand micros with her rampage!

Amber must reassure them it will never happen again, she must not let them lose hope or else they may start killing themselves as well...

The wristcom wakes Erica in the middle of the night.. “Whoever wants anything at 3AM – it better be important, or else...” - she thinks. But when she looks more carefully at the device laying next to her bed, she notices it's worse – it's not a contact from somebody, but rather a system notification. One of her hooks has triggered – and she set all them for important reasons. At least at the time – but even then, the last time she got an obsolete alert was... years ago.

No, she needs to investigate it right away – so she quickly wears her uniform and leaves for her private terminal. Erica probably looks like shit – but time is of the essence.

Reaching the storage room personally restricted to herself, she passes the double doors – but only after checking if anybody was following her – and sits down launching the damn thing. She hates computers. And this stupid thing only has a simple terminal plus keyboard or virtual interface – the latter of which Erica never likes to use. Sure, call her crazy – but most people who trusted technology too much ended on the bottom of their shoes or worse... would you look at that? No, her dislike actually saved her from going in long time ago.

But now she has to use it to figure out... no, she needs to start with who. It couldn't have been a kid – not with this type of alert - so she opens the personnel catalog and checks... Only Lauren and Rachel are still online and the latter is currently using the other terminal...

“Rachel! Shit.. what has she done now?” - Erica thinks while checking the authorization log for her. She hates browsing any logs – they are all like bunch of random symbols to her, but fortunately if a caretaker is doing anything, then it should also pop up in the fairly simple authlog. She browses the today's entries for Rachel - “Yes.. several terraforming operations, checking privileges, PMA access?” - the others rarely used the personnel management application, always looking for more “interesting things”, like what caused the shutdown or how to unlock more assembler functions... none of which can be found in the PMA.

But Erica knows that information about themselves – who seem to be the most powerful humans around – is the most important. Thats why she had a lot of hooks around it and one of them triggered just now... Yes, Rachel accessed... Shit.

“Personal file lookup authorized by emergency id” - she reads. And it wasn't her own file – it was impossible to check, but Rachel would not need the id for that... Besides what would be there to see about herself? Old accomplishments and statuses don't matter anymore.

She must have found one of the still active caretakers!

Erica figured several out decades after the shutdown that they seem to be the only people in the facility – the PMA displayed that pretty clearly – and she shared that with others. What she never shown them, was that some caretakers were still active – which suggested they must have been moved outside the facility or inside on of the zones without deactivation. Normally it was the standard procedure to remove any privileges of employee being immigrated, but... almost nothing after the shutdown worked normally.

At first, Erica assumed it may be some glitch – but some of them were deactivated over time, which hinted the people associated with them dying somewhere – and when they entered the zones, it really sped up. Which suggested that over time, they will all become paste under their soles. Several years ago when Erica last checked, only seven were left out of more than three hundred active caretakers originally, so she never worried about it.

But Rachel... Of course the last time Erica did check was when Rachel was “searching the zones” for something. All it took was questioning the micros what she wanted and Erica found that she asked them some engineering bamboozle. They found many ex-caretakers earlier, but they haven't got a clue about what was going on – but if Rachel found an active caretaker...

She always had to try to spoil Erica's plans. At least after they threatened Rachel not to tell kids the truth. Sure it was reasonable – they should know everything, but.. others agreed with Erica that it would not change the situation they are in and the risk of their own children hating them. Well, they all know what they have done – but they don't have to have their daughters see what they all are.

For Erica, it was mainly a cover story for her other plans, but they seemed to have bought it. Except Rachel – but she bullied her not to tell anything. Even in that ridiculous “school” she organized for the seconds.

And the kids turned out to be perfectly suitable for what Erica wanted. Sure she specifically raised the firsts to be ignorant and docile, but seconds and thirds did that even without much attention – she merely made sure they don't know anything about the world rather than had to actively encourage them to keep killing the people, like she did with the firsts. Yes, everything was happening just like Erica wanted.

But Rachel had to remind them every time they need to stop killing the “micros” - as Erica convinced everybody the people should be called – and even managed to stop the caretaker training. Well, Erica did not really have any arguments to support that, but she also wasn't in a hurry.

Until now. “Shit. It's too early.. I can't get rid of her yet...” - Erica thinks - “What if..” - she considers the possibilities. What can happen if she leaves Rachel alone, but she quickly finds the risks to be unacceptable. If she found some way to undo the shutdown, Erica is unsure if she wants this anymore... they felt like gods like this. Not to mention how they all would have to be severely punished for what they have done. And even if that fails, Rachel may manage to use that emergency id to turn 3/5ths into 4/6ths.. no, convincing two other mothers for what Erica wanted was difficult enough. She cannot let Rachel act any further on this, but if she disappears right now...

“Perhaps it isn't too early?” - she ponders... The firsts are all grown up nowadays and Rachel often vanishes for weeks or even months at a time and nobody cares about her really. She was sufficiently mocked and ridiculed by Erica.. others also helped a little. Even if she was to disappear for longer, they should at first assume it is due to the seconds graduations... she already did show off her despise of them for doing those parties. It wouldn't surprise anybody if she needed to get away from all this – again.

Yeah, it could work, actually – and without Rachel's opposition, it would be only a matter of time to restart everything. Erica could be ready in.. a couple months? Maybe a bit longer, depending on the others. Still easily before anybody would start worrying about Rachel.

But – it needs to be clean. Even if she dies, there must be no trace back to Erica. Nobody knows what would happen if one of the mothers died – but Erica would certainly lose their approval if they found out what she did. And it would be just a matter of looking into logs... Well, time will cover her actions – but she needs at least several months for the entries to become obscured enough.

Erica could even get rid of that caretaker guy – she only needs to find somebody to waltz through the zones Rachel visites recently, making sure that everybody is dead... she could not change who it was without having the emergency id and he might be already dead, but left this big secret to somebody else – who in turn may have told Rachel. It doesn't matter, since nobody else will be looking for it, but.. maybe she should get somebody to clean that as well? Any mother – even Lisa – would be suspicious.. She cannot use firsts for that, obviously – thirds are too young – Amber? Erica is unsure about that bitchy kid, she likes to gossip about everything. Kate is too smart... Nicole might be just fit to do it – but Erica needs to think about it. The bigger problem right now is where to send Rachel.

She thinks about her options. It cannot be any of mothers zones – it would be too personal. Even if Erica managed to blame Rachel's death on some other mother, the victim would not stop before finding what really happened and it would lead them right to Erica... it has to be one of the kids. But preferably somebody careful enough not to kill her too quickly – the more time passes, the better – and definitely a big zone, so Rachel will not be able to make herself known. Maybe some place she has never visited – to assure she will not get help from locals? Erica still hears how the people sometimes still ask about Rachel – she was so nice to them while she was searching their zones...

“Think Erica, think!” - she mumbles while contemplating the problem, but after a minute or so remembers a perfect candidate for this. But even then she will need to lay low for a couple months, no distractions or other plots.

Of course she has all steps planned for this eventuality, so she quickly locks all communications from Rachel's wristcom and launches the immigration program...

As days passed, Kate grew increasingly worried about Rachel. She keeps trying to convince herself that everything is okay, maybe there is simply so much to do with that emergency id, that Rachel had no time to talk to her... But not even a mesg? Not to mention that she wanted to talk to Gary, learn more about what he may know about facility and shutdown.

When Kate woke up in medbed after her realizations, Rachel tried to comfort her. Told her that she already has a plan, that it will greatly help her - she only needs several hours to prepare and she will contact her. It sounded simple, so Kate waited. She was worried about the people – especially after Rachel's warnings. Even though she had no idea of what kind of danger they may be in, she wanted to stay with them, as if to protect them.

She thought about what Rachel spoke a lot. After Kate woke up, she was back to her usual motherly calmness – and there was no way to get anything more out of her. It's not like Kate needed to, just.. at least knowing what kind of dangers are there would be helpful. That's what she thought, at least. But Rachel only kept telling her that the less she knows the better, that she learned too much already and Kate even felt angry about this. At Rachel for not telling her more, at others for making her life this way and... at herself for being so ignorant all her life.

As time passed, only the last part remained. Of course she would give away that she knows about what she shouldn't. They would ridicule her just like they did Rachel and... Kate was unsure what would happen then, but she believed the warning. This was the first time she has seen any mother so agitated and she learned that Rachel was never joking like this. So she just tried to stay in the chamber, hoping that maybe nothing will happen if she is there.

She spent most of the time talking to Gary and others – she was told that there were several more ex-caretakers in there as well, although they moved in a long time before the shutdown. The idea of “immigrating” confused her at first. “Why would anybody do that?” - she even asked, but after some discussions she learned that things were completely different earlier. For starters, caretakers were not allowed into any “live” chambers – before the talk with Rachel she wouldn't have believed that, but now... it makes perfect sense.

She also thought why they haven't simply told her about this before, but then realized that she would not have taken it seriously either... “A full-size caretaker huh? So that's why you flew into my ear...” - Kate could almost hear herself respond in her thoughts. But then thought it may be worse than that – they may simply haven't realized that she may be unaware of all this. It was so obvious when they explained! She wondered whether this is something that may give her away, but... needed to understand even if this knowledge would cause problems.

And Kate also liked talking to various people – she wanted to learn all the little details of their lives, their daily routine, especially how is it different from life in the facility... that's why she mostly spoke to several ex-caretakers. She could recognize most of their voices after a couple days – Angela, John, Henry, Jacob, Christina – like one of the firsts she thought, Anthony, David and Dave.. although she can swear the last two had exactly the same voice.

There are several more, but they rarely talked to her – not to mention that after meeting somebody new, Kate was always thinking that there are millions more... Forty five millions of people with their own personalities, their own stories – knowing them all is obviously impossible. But she wants to show them how she cares about them. Even if she is the only caretaker except Rachel to do this.

The only problem is that they don't seem to be completely open when talking to her – like they were afraid, even despite her reassurances – although she tries to keep them to the minimum after Gary explained her how immature it sounds. At least he is still reasonably talkative – but still less than on the first day. Like he re-thought his situation.. or perhaps he was simply very excited on the first day?

Or perhaps it was her – Kate wasn't taking him seriously before the talk with Rachel. Afterwards it was simply.. another ancient person, like mothers. Maybe he was always just like the others and she simply mistook him for more frivolous right after his stunt? Perhaps they were all like the governor – or James, not some strange function, but a person – it is how she tries to think about them now. Not a mass of indistinguishable dots, but human beings with emotions, lives and ideas – exactly like her. He was always like this, maybe it's just how they are raised?

It doesn't matter for Kate, really – but she has tried asking why don't they tell her more about themselves and even has made absolutely sure that they understand that they don't have to talk with her, if they don't want to. “For whatever reason that may be” - she even underlined. Their verbosity hasn't changed, so Kate assumed they must simply be like that. Still, it would be nice for her to be able to talk to somebody openly...

One of the few things they asked on their own – and it felt a bit strange when James just asked about it with no apparent reason only a couple days after visit to Rachel – was if Kate “expects” them to make some clothes for her. Of course she told them that she couldn't do that and they don't need to worry, but.. once he started explaining how it is not a big problem and can be manufactured fairly automatically – she remembered the advice from Rachel.

“Maintain the externals” - still rang in Kate's head, so she agreed that they may prepare a simple dress. Nothing too fancy, just a simple one piece waist dress. She discussed the details with some “designers”, unfortunately she failed to remember their names – but they asked so many questions about her preferences.. Kate didn't really have any... Eventually they started explaining some ideas, but she could only conclude that whatever they come up with will be fine.

Kate has also asked if she can help in any way. She kept offering it in many occasions. She wasn't constantly watching the counter anymore, but once she noticed there was a small decrease in the population. At first she assumed it must have been her – and remained absolutely still while asking if something happened, but – after some uncertainty to what she may refer to – John assured her that was not the case and it was a fire in some distant city which caused some casualties.

She didn't notice how many it was, but it seemed serious. She also didn't know what “a fire” coule be and only after he explained her how burning and smoke work, Kate realized that she is actually fairly familiar with the concept – it was a fairly common sight in any parties and fun times she used to participate in. Of course she didn't tell him that – even the memories of what she used to do with “micros” now seem monstrous...

When Kate offered to help, he seemed confused about it – even called Gary in and in the end they figured that there wasn't anything she could do – they haven't told her, but it became obvious to Kate that she would only make things worse. Just like everything she did in there. She still cannot forget all the deaths after her arrival, all the people she killed... Back then she didn't see it as much more than the counter drop, but now.. she grieves every single one of them.

At least she could “help” them with the clothes. When the designers explained how it will take about three weeks to manufacture the necessary material to match her curves, she figured that she can drop a couple pounds – hopefully making the required amount smaller. They greeted the idea with much enthusiasm – although the reasons escaped her – and so Kate settled on a high metabolism diet combined with some exercise throughout the day. Kate had only heard about how to induce it, but fortunately medbeds in the facility were fairly simple to use and she quickly figured it out.

There were some problems with it though. The food supplements and hormones she took made her more anxious. Gary even asked her if there is anything wrong, when she must have seemed upset and Kate explained it – he stated that “We better not excite you anymore then”.. she was crouching down and threw her hands forward to object any kind of “special behavior” from them, but... also realized that with this action she confirmed his suggestion. Gary had asked her not to make any fast moves nearby the edges of the spot, as a simple precaution – and she agreed, of course, just.. sometimes forgot about it.

Luckily Kate quickly learned that nothing happened, although she apologized nonetheless. At least Gary seemed a bit more content after it. Perhaps they are simply worried about her? Maybe with time they will see that she really understands and will behave more openly? Kate considered explaining them how she felt after talking to Rachel, but.. there wasn't anything that she could add to her earlier revelation – after all, it is so obvious now. What could she say?

Should she clarify how she thought of them as some sort of curious species that Amber called the people in school once? Kate also feels bad about that moment.. Rachel brought them to one of her empty zones and tried to show the basics on “the micros” reproduction. Each of the girls was given a tiny, maybe half inch monitor displaying an image from the people – Nicole concluded it with casual carelessness “magnified micros, how cute!”, but Amber responded: “No, look – they are like little people there”

Was it how Rachel tried to suggest them the truth? It seemed so roundabout way of explaining it, but.. if they really are endangered by the sole knowledge of it... Still Kate felt so stupid for not realizing everything back then. It was so obvious – but she couldn't stop thinking about “micros” in categories of “moving dots”.

Of course if wouldn't comfort the people that she understands “now” - what were they for her earlier then? The only way she can show them that she cares is by her actions. But.. there is simply nothing she can do. Even more food synthesizers would be unnecessary, as they explained that those seven are already more than they can reasonably use for now – although she is trying to schedule another job anyway.

Kate feels so.. powerless right now. She cannot help the people in any way, she cannot protect them... She doesn't even know what it is she should look out for. She just.. sits there for most of the time. Talking to whoever wants to speak with her, sometimes listens to music or some stories they have and tries not to worry herself too much about the silence from Rachel. But even the fact that she is constantly in private mode is disturbing.

But now, more than ten days after the discussion with Rachel, she is waiting until dark just like James asked her to. Apparently he has something to show her which only works after sunset. Kate wonders if it's like the fireworks she saw a week back – they were pretty, but.. it surely made much bigger impression on the people down below. Even if she was lying down on her back, they seemed fairly close and small – well, just like everything else here after all. Still, it was nice – a colorful show of different shapes and forms.

So Kate just lays on her belly remembering things and considers what may lie ahead for her. It all looks so.. peaceful. Even with her chin almost on the ground she can easily see several cities in the distance – slowly lighting up as the artificial sun is setting. So quiet.. obviously they are teeming with life in both day and night, but it seems more calm now. So beautiful...

What kind of monster does it take to destroy their lives – and for what? Some “fun”? The girls didn't even know what they are doing! Kate can see Lauren's words in the completely different light now, obviously she knows... Just like Rachel said - “they”. But why not explain the girls everything? Why only speak about using “the micros” and patience. And even then how can Lauren simply “use” them like...

But then of course that was the point.. just like “the micros”. Who would care about them – they were not killing people, just “micros”... who have no hopes or dreams. How arrogant and hypocritical they are to do this. If they lied about all this, they must be desperate to maintain the deceit. Just like Rachel said.. if they threatened to remove her privileges, they may take away Kate's chamber and give it to.. “No! I will not let this happen!” - Kate promises herself.

But she is also aware that if Rachel's fears are justified, there may not be much she can do – and while she considers the ways of concealing her knowledge, the blinking light on the blimp suggests reminds her that she is not wearing any headphone. Slowly rising up she looks around and finds one just on the edge of her spot.

“Hey, sorry.. I was daydreaming – what's up?” - Kate speaks softly while putting it on. It's already dark and she doesn't want to disturb everybody – still being aware that her voice will reach every corner of the zone over time...

“Miss Kate, how nice to hear from you” - she rarely spoke with James just like that, he.. always seemed to have other matters to attend to - “We were wondering if we could take a moment of your time to demonstrate a little project of ours” - mannerly, yet distant, just like always.

“Of course, what should I do?”

“We have a platform set up in the south-west corner, we'd be delighted if you could approach us” - that's something new, they haven't done anything like that since.. just before the Nicole's graduation.

“Sure..” - she manages to mutter and rises up carefully. Looking into the direction Kate can clearly see it already – a podium of some kind with some sort of.. vertical rectangle behind it, both clearly lit. She even thinks how she may have missed it earlier in the day, but then she never really examined that part – it was the closest one to the edges of the zone and no cities or bigger towns were in that area and the remaining villages were mostly evacuated and automated. Just in case.

After several careful steps she is already next to it – she was on almost opposite part of her spot – and doesn't even wait for request to lay down in front of the structure. The platform is about inch by inch square and rectangle is maybe less than three inches high but almost four inches wide. Her expression must be very curious, as James begins to explain just when she settles on the ground:

“The strange thing behind the platform, my Lady, is a screen to reflect light from a series of projectors that...” - and continues to explain some details of the contraptions they came up with – apparently no modern technology was able to provide a reliable way of what they wanted to show her and they had to fall back to ancient lamps and something called “LCD filters”.

“Well, what is is you wanted to show me?” - Kate asks carefully, eager to see it – but also trying not to blow anybody from the platform. She could see at least several people on the white, well illuminated surface.

After several seconds, she can see the lights dimming softly and the rectangle behind it light up and... display an image of a face? No, it must be some kind of recording, because..

“It is so nice to finally meet you face to face, or at least the closest we can get in this situation” - she hears James speak and can see the face's lips moving in sync. His face?

“Um, hi..” - she whispers and examines the view carefully. Behind him on the screen she can see a whitish surface and a corner of large rectangle.. it must be him on the platform! Of course she cannot see any details on it, but it is the only explanation. And on the screen his face looks.. different, unlike anybody she has ever seen – rough and uneven, with several stains on it. And he has.. hair over his mouth? Other than that and the eyebrows he does not have any hair – is this how men look like? There is some kind of ornament or a device on the side of his head, next to the left eye.

And he is looking directly at her – it seems – and the view slowly shrinks, as if “camera” - was that the word? - was moving away. Kate can see a plain dark green shirt, with six stars, half on each of his shoulder – whatever they mean. As the view broadens, Kate can see he is definitely differently built than any woman she has seen – broad shoulders, wide flat chest with two pockets, thick arms and legs – the latter in matching trousers. If Rachel haven't explained her, she would be shocked how similar the “little people” are to them. Kate still is surprised – to know and to see are two different things...

“I know it may seem strange” - James speaks again - “but I would appreciate if you could place your finger on the left side of the platform” and points the direction with his hand. They are on the right side and there is plenty of space to do it, but Kate is unsure what he may intend to do... Still, she is both astonished and curious at the same time, so very carefully moves her left hand a bit forward with her pointing finger straightened.

Placing the very tip on the podium, Kate notices how both the view and James shake to maintain balance, but she doesn't say anything, trying not to disturb them more. Without a word, they begin walking towards the finger. She cannot see it on the screen since the camera is facing the back, but she figures that it will be obviously dwarfing them – judging how they look on the platform...

But she isn't prepared for a humongous pink wall – when camera rotates and shows that even the fingerprints are bigger than James... Again, it is one thing to imagine and another to see – it comes as such a shock, that she instinctively moves her finger up and back – which causes the camera and James to fly pulled with the air.

Kate is afraid if anything happened to them – but she can see the view return to normal and James standing up. She softly apologizes for it, but James interrupts her:

“No, no – it's okay, we're fine. If you could lower your finger again please...”

“But.. I can't...” - if she just puts it down, it would crush them - “I have nowhere to...”

“There is plenty of room around here” - he points the corner closer to Kate. She thinks what he may be trying to accomplish, but decides to just follow the instruction.

“Okay, but.. don't approach it, please, I fear I may...” - she finally mutters an unfinished sentence and very carefully positions the finger right on the corner. It seems that even her vicinity is a deadly threat to them...

“Naturally, but in the meantime I would like you to meet some friends you spoke with recently” - he turns towards the edge and the view changes suddenly - “Please allow me to show things from my perspective now” - whoever must have been recording him earlier moves into the view.

Kate can see it must also be a man since the body build is also different from any women. He has normal hair on his head but none otherwise, wears similar plain uniform but colored light blue and no stars - he also has a device on his head, perhaps he was using it to record it, but.. he seems smaller than James... Kate didn't realize that earlier the view on the screen seemed like he was looking up to him at all times.

“The brave gentleman here is Gary, which you may remember from his aural adventure...” - Kate can only let out a shy “hi” and James continues - “and we should see several others coming from the back...” - he rotates - “Oh yes, there they are” - Kate can see the screen showing several figures far in the distance, looking down they are just several dots approaching slowly.

She “meets” Henry, Christina and Jolie in a similar way, although this time without references to their stunts. The women have more familiar body parts ratios, but Kate can only welcome them briefly. She thinks if she would have believed this without explanation from Rachel.. they seem so... human. But Kate grew up treating “micros” like something different than them, would she see this as some kind of trick? It was obvious now, but...

But... then, after introducing the guests – all of whom were shorter than James, it seems – he turns towards her. She was already used to the idea that the screen shows exactly what he can see – she even noticed arms and hands gesticulating towards others as he explained their names, but...

When Kate sees herself, the view is just... unreal.

Kate's finger dominates the perspective, like some enormous structure – she can even see the underside of her fingernail far away over the edge of the platform. She.. can't think of any distances like this in her experience, it's like ten times bigger than the biggest room she has seen in the facility. Even the longest corridors don't stretch that far.

And beyond it, an even bigger hand connected to the arm and she sees... the face she looks at every day in the mirror, just.. different. The same brown eyes, the same dark locks flowing down on the sides, but... Her gaze seems focused somewhere above, of course she was watching the screen – even when she looks down she can still see the looming eyes focused directly on the camera.

Her finger obscures the sight of the head supported on her right hand, but she can't move it – afraid of risking their lives again. In fact, she cannot move at all – and just lays there, watches James walking away to show how others look on the background of herself... “Is this how they all see me?” - Kate thinks. Right now she is the only inhuman sight on the screen.

“I'm so.. sorry...” - but she notices how her breath makes them brace forward. Carefully Kate covers her mouth with the right hand and whispers: “I had no idea.. I didn't know...”

“My lady, we understand you didn't and we don't blame you” - James tries to comfort her. It's obvious to her now, a slightest indelicate move and they could all be...

“I seem like.. a monster!” - she can only point out, realizing it.

“No, surely daunting, intimidating even – but not a monster” - he continues trying to calm her - “We understand you didn't want any of this to be like this and we believe you meant what you said two weeks earlier.”

Nobody else spoke, but their silence seems to confirm it – they all have these devices, they should be able to speak to her. What is she supposed to do now? Leave and never return? But Rachel asked her to protect them... was this how she was always viewed by the people? Ever since Kate arrived, when she talked with them or wandered towards the cities. Not to mention all those people she killed in the past, especially in other zones... A looming shape far out in the perspective, inhuman both in size and behavior? Carelessly murdering...

Kate can see tears forming in her eyes. “You should all get away now, before I hurt you.” - she whispers, both sad and terrified by another obvious fact.

“That will not be necessary, we are confident you won't do that” - James replies.

“But...”

She can hear Gary's voice: “Kate, please.. it's fine, just as long as you are careful.”

Considering this for a moment, she very slowly pulls her left hand back, to wipe her eyes – she must be strong now, how can she protect them if she is afraid of even being here...

But then she discovers another obvious thing – they are trying to show her what it is like. They have been trying to teach her about them ever since she arrived... At the beginning Kate thought that she is “training” them, while all the time it was her being trained. She doesn't mind – in fact, she is more angry that they couldn't simply tell her.. but... more at herself, as she wouldn't have listened to it.

Kate wants to assure them that she understands everything, but.. does she? How many more times will she discover just how wrong she has been in the past? Not to mention that it all should have been always obvious to her, to explain that she “realizes” this now means that earlier she was what... a careless dummy roaming around them?

But now Kate decides that she should not endanger them anymore - “I should probably leave now...”

“Actually” - James interrupts her getting up carefully - “you don't have to – feel free to talk with us for as long as you wish.”

It must have all been planned well in advance, but how can she possibly refuse? “Um, sure” - she lowers her chin back on the ground and notices a small quake in their perspective - “sorry...”

Gary talks to her again - “Kate, you don't need to apologize, just.. now you understand how massive all your actions seem to us down here” - it is more than obvious, how he explained over a week ago the effects of her sudden actions, especially near any cities... - “but we trust that you don't mean it like this and we don't mind. Like James mentioned - as long as you are careful.”

“Really?” - she is pleasantly surprised to notice others looking at the camera and nodding in agreement. They are so nice to her, even after all she did – over a million died in here alone... She cannot even imagine such number of people, it's just.. beyond monstrous.

Then Kate realizes another terrifying fact – if she is ever forced to let anybody in, some mother perhaps.. they could notice this screen, figure out what it is for – they weren't as ignorant as Kate – which would give away what she has been doing. And whatever Rachel was afraid of... no, she must tell them to dismantle it:

“I'm so sad to ask you this, but if anybody notices this screen and what I'm doing here they might...” - what should she tell them, being unsure of what may happen herself - “I'm sure you put a lot of effort into this, but it cannot remain here...”

“It is okay, my Lady” - James assures her - “our engineers have specifically designed it to be foldable in minutes and even if there is no time for that, you can simply crush the screen – it's just some pole with a material hanging off it, we'll be able to rebuild it in no time.”

“Well, they surely thought about everything...” - Kate thinks and although she would hate to destroy the screen, it would be better than being discovered. Maybe she is worrying too much? It seems everybody around her is so much smarter and has everything planned. Rachel must have been simply busy, doing something more important than educating ignorant Kate – and she could not blame her.

“Let's hope it doesn't get to that...” - she finally whispers, during a discussion with Gary she tried to explain how she will try stop anybody else from entering the chamber, but there may be situations where she may be forced to... - and it started with Gary was only asking to let them know if anybody else is coming so they could plan ahead. She was so obvious to them as well, they seen through her even without any knowledge of how the facility looks like now. This only strengthens her fear that mothers will notice everything as well... and even other seconds, but she has ignored them for long enough – she should go to this “little party” early tomorrow Nicole invited her to.

Yes, she needs to go now, it's already late and she needs to rest – and also all those realizations trouble her again. Maybe if she can sleep it through, she will fell better?

She didn't even notice how Christina was talking about something for a while now, but she feels like she needs to interrupt her - “Um, sorry but.. we should talk about this tomorrow, okay?” - and this time she gets them to agree. Not that they could stop her, but.. she would never ignore them like that.

“If you could wait a moment for us to depart” - James asks her and she confirms, of course.

Kate is somewhat surprised that they don't seem to be walking anywhere.. just staying there, as if waiting for something – but her thoughts are suddenly interrupted when James looks upwards displaying a large flying vehicle, easily ten times larger in every direction than they are tall. It is so large from his perspective that Kate is afraid it may hurt them – but it also maneuvers gracefully onto the ground and lands.

When they walk into an opening that appeared on the side, Kate can really see how big it is – and yet, when she looks down on the platform.. it seems like a tiny lump of metal... is this the “skyjet” that rescued Gary? It seems like it when she looks down on the platform, but on the screen she can see details of this massive craft, from legs thicker than persons body to various arms and attachments high above... to think that something like this may have flown into her ear – and she barely felt it.

But they board the vehicle and James stands in front of the mirror to show the last view of them together before the craft flies away:

“See you tomorrow, miss Kate” - he suggests.

“See you...” - she replies realizing the deep meaning of this simple statement, James never spoke in simple words like that, but this time it seems fitting...








The next morning, Kate received a mesg from Nicole explaining how Erica wanted something from her, so they moved the party to the afternoon. She also suggested that Kate can still meet up and talk with Amber, but talking with that monster is not on the list of things Kate would like to do. Still, she needs to meet with them both later to maintain their “friendship”...

Kate thinks how much simpler everything would be if only things could be normal between them – if “friends” would actually like each other and simply enjoyed the company, if mothers could love their children – as she heard from Gary is almost always the case in the zone, if caretakers would actually care... But somehow it's almost completely reverse and she needs to deal with it.

She moved back to her chamber to try to relax before the likely stressful encounter with the other seconds – for the last two weeks she could simply escape from her sad reality. She talked with various people, listened to different kinds of music – also learned more about the culture and history.

When it came to the music, she would be fine with some recordings, but they seemed to insist on live performances – and she always thanked them for their effort, even though she was unable to see it. Well, now they set up symphonic orchestra on the podium – it was empty when she arrived and even the screen was gone. She told them not to bother, but it really took them only a couple minutes to set it up again – even though on their scale it was just.. enormous like everything related to her. But it just automatically “unfolded” and it was ready.

When they tried displaying anything, she noticed how it was hard to notice anything on the screen since it was already day and the image was fairly dim – but she quickly figured that if she rotates a bit, the shadow will enable her to see it well enough. The mention from Gary that with her help they can have “night” any time they need it saddened her – even though it was only a little joke, it emphasized just how different their worlds are. How could she even try to understand their lives...

It took them some time to gather – again reminded by Kate that they don't need to - but when they started playing, well... John told her that there can be a hundred people or more playing some more complicated works, but she could not imagine what they could be doing – even twenty people at birthday parties produced such clamor that it was hard to distinguish any particular conversations.

When shown on the screen, she understood – or at least noticed that many people are playing seemingly the same melodies, which seemed strange at first, but then she realized how it produces a much deeper effect. She remembers the explanation how the reason dates to the ancient times where there was no electronics to play or record such performances, but the fact that such exists now does not diminish the skill required to play them.

Of course she heard they had to train for years, but only now can see just how hard it must be. She thinks she understands... just like she thought about so many things earlier. It seemed every week her comprehension of the world changed drastically – it would be no surprise if she found something to completely change it again in the next several days.

But as she watches their dedication, the effort and delicate movements when she can see them perform on some closeups, another realization hits her – just how empty her life was. And still is – the fact that she is able to talk with and see them now actually made it more obvious. The amount of new things she heard about in the last two weeks just amazes her now.

It is perfectly summarized in the sight before her – a world she didn't even know existed. Even though the musicians are mostly focused on their “notes” - as she learned the table in front of them are called – occasional nervous glances upwards cannot escape Kate's attention. It shouldn't be like that. If there was a way to visit them, to just meet them face to face...

But of course not – she is stuck like this gigantic monster among others of her kind. At least she has a glimpse of what she's missing – and she was ignorant about everything. It seems that while so many of the people here have dedicated their lives to science and beauty.. the only things she was ever good at is... killing people? Rachel told her they were raised this way, but it feels like just a cheap excuse now.

When they finished after almost an hour, she even tried clasping her hands very carefully – Gary explained her a couple days back how they do it to show respect after a performance. Of course if she did it properly, the wind would probably blow them away... fortunately she is laying a bit further back compared with yesterday and has more space to move.

The cameramen thankfully don't rotate the camera towards her, but she can still remember how intimidating she looked previously. At least now she understands it better – and kept absolutely still, with her mouth covered at all times not to disturb their marvelous concert. Still Kate feels that she has so much to learn – she will need to ask Gary how she can improve her behavior here. Obviously even the slightest actions are impacting their lives.

By now the sun has moved and she explains how soon it would be impractical for her to cast shadow over them – it is mostly an excuse for not wanting to endanger them anymore. This whole time Kate was worried that one false move may...

Still, the “conductor” to thanks Kate personally and on behalf of the entire orchestra for this opportunity of playing for her. She has no idea why he would like being this close to her, but... she also doesn't know how can she respond really, so she just dismisses it as it was her who enjoyed this. They soon pack up and leave on one of those crafts – apparently it is big enough for over a hundred people...

Kate watches as they fold the screen again, as it would be impossible to see any image in bright daylight anyway – it is brilliant how the rim bends in several places and makes the entire structure.. but again, definitely work of people so much smarter than her.

But she can only lie down and think now. The sleep didn't help – she still feels bad for everything, even though it's not her “fault”. What could the people have done to deserve this, even if Kate understands then everybody else still treats them as “micros”...

But Gary interrupts her reflections:

“Hello Kate, you look tired from down here, didn't you like the performance?” - he asks.

“Oh no, he must be still on the podium” - Kate realizes and she wasn't very careful since she thought everybody left.. if her subtle movements can cause disarray, then when she laid back casually...

“Gary, are you okay? I didn't know you were still here” - she carefully inquires.

“Oh, don't mind me. Some quakes aren't anything I can't take...” - he tries to turn it into a joke, but she still remembers how a movement of her finger caused both him and James to roll around - “We've been wondering if you wanted to hear some people's stories to maybe understand our lives here better?”

“Oh absolutely” - Gary wasn't this open in a long time, has Kate's behavior convinced him that they can trust her? She now understands how they may be afraid of her – after what she seen, only a fool wouldn't be. On the other hand he did fly into her ear before.. and James never used this particular word while explaining how they believe her...

But right now she doesn't want to analyze it – even if they don't trust her, what can she say to convince them? Not to mention that Kate was always interested in what the regular people are doing here.

So she starts listening – and Gary tells her stories of various people. He even lets them talk with her on their own, but.. it doesn't seem they have much to say, except how they appreciate Kate's help and hope she will be careful – so each conversation ends after just several minutes. She now appreciates the impact she must have had on them – especially when she was “visiting” various cities. It is still impossible to imagine the emotions they must have gone through when seeing... her, covering half the sky. She was afraid of herself when looking through James's camera...

Kate doesn't think it's staged though. The yesterday's show was obviously arranged, carefully planned to ease her into this new discovery – but the people she meets now sound honest and really worried. Even one that lost friends in the city of Ankar, where apparently Amber happened... Of course she mourns them, but she also mentions she understand Kate did everything she could to stop it. Kate doesn't want to tell Tasha the truth, how she shouldn't even have let Amber in... Kate would probably start apologizing again, but she needs to be strong now. Show them she will protect them – even if she is unsure of this herself. She feels bad about all this regardless...

What they all have in common is that they are somewhat associated with her presence here. That's how Kate hears stories and meets an engineer – who works on maintaining the automated villages, two service officers – both responsible for securing her spot – which she learns is mostly to stop any “crazies” the kind of Gary from getting it rather than somehow “protecting” her, a local salesman – although the idea of “merchandise” confuses her greatly, a graphic designer – not relevant to clothes, apparently – who joined the service temporarily to help with the evacuation and reconstruction efforts and a secretary who miraculously survived the destruction of most of that city.

Now Kate listens to the story of a young architect who actually traveled to the town she was trying to communicate with shortly after her arrival – and was one of the few people that were working on the lights. She can see why it took them so long – five people to operate building lights so she could see their responses... she was lucky they haven't ran away like the rest. She understands it now, but back then... after failure to communicate Kate would look for some other place to talk to – and it probably wouldn't end well.

But thankfully he did manage do signal her back with others and heard how he also suggested several great ideas regarding her spot – the lightning, easily noticeable colors and the amphitheater. “He certainly must be a brilliant young man” – Kate thinks as she cannot wait to talk to him - “and really brave, to approach me even before the confession...”

She heard that it was the part that convinced Gary that he needs to explain his story to her right away – but right when she appeared there... She must have really terrified them back then. Yet he has flown to help – and what a nice rhiming name...

“Unfortunately, he was still overseeing the first performance on his last work, when...” - Gary stops as if unsure how to continue - “well...”

“Stop” - she speaks through tears when she realizes that her ignorance, her.. stupidity to allow Amber to enter the zone freely... that she – even indirectly - killed Adam - “please, don't...” - and can only roll onto her stomach carefully to hide the uncontrollable weeping in her arms. She could barely hold herself several times earlier, now it is simply too much...








After several hours, she is awakened from her mourning by mesg from Nicole – Kate is in no mood for a “party”, but.. she quickly reminds herself that she needs to protect the people. Rachel told her she doesn't have to kill anybody, so she must make sure she doesn't – but Kate needs to show the other seconds that everything is fine and she just wants to be alone.

When she rises up slowly, Gary speaks to her:

“Thank you, Kate” - but she is shocked to hear such words...

“What.. what do you mean? You must think I'm crazy now, irresponsible and ignorant, I should have never shown... I'm so sorry...”

“Please, don't be. You shown a very human emotion back there. It is me who should be sorry for ever doubting you..” - he.. what? - “but let me assure you, I now truly see that you are not a monster. You never were.”

Kate has no idea how to respond, she thinks she can understand what he meant, but... Actually, it makes perfect sense – if they have really seen through her, they must have also realized that she didn't care about them back then. Not as human beings. Not as people. She feels that words would be meaningless now and is almost crying again, this time with sadness mixed with joy – but fortunately Gary continues surprising her yet again:

“But this is not why I wanted to talk to you.”

“You wanted... what is it?” - she can only mutter still half crouching.

“We figured you could use your new dress in that party.”

“But how...” - would they know about it?

“I'm sorry if I may have read some correspondence that wasn't addressed to me, but one can only ignore for so long words written in the sky like the ones on your wristcom” - of course.. Kate is once again proven immature and inconsiderate, she doesn't mind.. but... the dress? It was supposed to be still a week away – she did lose a couple pounds, becoming fairly slim but... - “Oh please, I have never met a girl in my life that wasn't anxious to see her new clothes...” - Gary adds, suggesting something that escapes her.

“Um, sure.. where are they?” - and he directs her towards where the dress was positioned. She didn't care about it at all before and even hoped the designers might have forgot about it entirely, but if it's ready and may will help her seem normal to others – Kate may even wear it right now.

The only problem – one that she also hasn't thought about earlier – is that the material would be ruined if she got it back to the facility, so she needs to change right here in front of everybody...

“I'm.. I don't know how to ask for this, but... could you please all look away for a moment while I do this?” - she awkwardly asks forty five million people in the zone.








Kate hates it. Every tiniest detail of her current situation.

She feels like she is naked – her underwear is clearly visible, the dress also reveals her legs and arms and has deep cuts on both her chest and back. Designers somehow managed to strike the perfect outfit that the young caretakers are supposed to wear – and both Nicole and Amber congratulated her that. Like it was her merit... But she still hates it – she was wearing trousers and shirt her whole life, why would anybody bother with such skimpy clothes to be considered “classy”... To make it even worse, Kate could see Nicole ogling her through the whole party – unsure if she is into her or just jealous.

Kate also hates how Amber apologized for everything she did – “killing Kate's micros”.. how inappropriate. If only she could explain her just how monstrous it was. But she can't.. that's not why Kate is here... In fact, it would be the exact opposite of the behavior she is trying to show them.

But the worst part is that she hates what the other seconds are doing with the people! Of course she needs to play along and desperately tries not to display any compassion for the “micros”, but.. the “reconciliatory” transporter with fifty thousand people she got from Amber terrified her. At least she had an excuse – “playing” with them would ruin her dress – and at the time Kate hoped that if they forgot about them, she may be able to rescue them from this.. this... she didn't even want to think about it.

Of course Amber had to be more selfish than that. It also made Kate sure that her people she gave her must already be dead. They killed almost that much right here in mere minutes. They were probably killed a long time ago...

She must not let them see how disgusting it all seems to her. Nicole helped her play her role of “shy and awkward” “friend” - the dress also helped, but Kate needs to practice, it's not the last time when she will need to pretend. She even tried to ask about some details of what they were doing earlier... she wishes she didn't...

When Amber's seemingly “proud” explanations are over, she only waits a couple minutes and them blames her exhaustion and evacuates from that place. It was worse than what she was expecting... Rachel was right, the less she knew the better – but it's too late now. Kate needs to figure out how to pretend, but.. how?

She gets back to her chamber and after changing back into her normal clothes – awkwardly again – she tries to relax, clear her mind of the atrocities she just witnessed and heard about, having asked for some time to herself, she just... lays there.

Eventually Kate sees the blinking blimp – she is so tired, that she almost wants to ignore it, but... if there is anything bad happening, she must know about it. She grabs a nearby headphone almost motionlessly and is told that there seems to be another person on her – only this time he is not trying to contact her, but seems to be some kind of “voyeur” - whatever that is – as he is on her chest.

“What is it with those men...” - she thinks out loud when she learns that he doesn't want to be rescued, but decides that they don't have to pick him up just yet and explains that she does not mind.

Whatever he is looking for up there, it must be important for him... she may just as well give him some more time before she goes to bed. “But why there?” - she thinks quietly now - “What is it about her bosom that's so significant...”

“Everything must be perfect to reconcile Amber and Kate” - thinks Nicole. She needs them both to be thankful for saving their friendship. It will make Nicole look good if she is able to unite the seconds under her lead. She will be able to work on the thirds more openly then – she already found out about Alisa, one of the Lauren's triplets, and offered her her company. Nicole asked around the firsts casually and heard that – for whatever reason – she feels rejected by the other thirds.

Just like Nicole hoped for when meeting Amber.. and Alisa already started hanging out with her and almost seems to trust her already. Apparently the stunt during Amber's graduation wasn't seen so desperate by everyone. If Nicole could be seen as informal leader of the seconds, it would facilitate her other affairs.

That's why she carefully probed how Amber feels about meeting Kate – they haven't seen each other in two weeks since their argument – at least she claims so. Nicole has no reason to doubt her, Kate was very quiet and isolated since she got her zone.. she must have a lot of fun there. But Amber has also matured a lot – they even laughed together about some silly things the firsts are doing with their micros.

But Amber is still Amber, impulsive and always lusting for more – any explosion like the one in their last conversation together would be bad. For everyone.

And doing nothing is not an option now, so Nicole carefully gathers three containers she was “rescuing” from Amber's zone and moves to a new empty one they set up specifically for this occasion. The old playground was worn out already, it was dirty and smelled of their excretions. “Another reason you should not play in your regular zones...” - thinks Nicole. It was Amber to suggest it would be nice to meet up with Kate in a clean one – perhaps she started thinking more clearly? “Only time will tell” - Nicole concludes.

Amber is already there, waiting in the middle of the zone. Nicole looks around for Kate, but she has not arrived yet. She will probably appear on the other side of the zone, so Nicole approaches Amber carrying the transporters carefully. There was some confusion around the timing, since Erica wanted to meet with her in the morning.

That one was strange. Nicole's mother first gave her the usual speech about how responsible she seems, that she matured noticeably and all the rest of it. She used it when she needed something from her daughter – but that hasn't happened for several years now. The last time was when Erica wanted her to spy on the firsts – which didn't work well, since they wouldn't talk to Nicole much.

But this request was.. strange. “Clear those zones, leave no survivors” - she remembers the exact words. Why would Erica waste some of her micros? It didn't make any sense... why not play with them herself? Perhaps they are contaminated – like Amber's zone – but why not just give them to someone? Or simply leave them be.. who cares about some micros.

Not to mention that Nicole never tried to clear all micros in a zone. If anything, she would rather try to leave as much as possible for later – but this request was very direct, so she started to work on it immediately. She even got access to use the micro counter and locator programs – and Nicole quickly found it would be impossible without them. It was still incredibly tedious. Two zones that she already fixed were pretty decent size, two and almost three million, respectively.

Lowering that to couple hundred thousands was no problem – Nicole just stomped all cities and towns she could see, in hurry to get to the party – but finishing the rest... They seemed to hide in the strangest of places – not to mention that killing the last several thousands by ten or less at a time was just... the biggest waste of time Nicole could imagine. “Is it some kind of a test?” - she thought the first time - “to check if I don't smuggle some micros out?”

It wouldn't be unusual for her mother to attempt something like that. She loved to humiliate Nicole, it seemed. Privately and publicly. But if Erica wants to spend six zones to test her, it must be pretty important. Nicole can't think of any other reason to waste micros like that.

Either way, it took a long time. Over three hours for the first zone – Nicole hoped that she would finish them all before afternoon... At least the second was quicker, even though the population was larger – Nicole already knew what to look out for, like groups of vehicles running away from the cities and all kinds of aircrafts. Still, the last few were a real pain in the ass.

But that's done now and she can enjoy her time with other seconds – Nicole can leave the remaining four zones for later. She even mesged Erica about it and she did not have any problems with delaying the rest of the work. Maybe even Nicole could have some fun? Since there is no rush, killing the micros off might be pleasant. If only they didn't scatter like that...

Getting back to the matter at hand, Nicole checks the containers – they seem to be fine, no runners or suicides so far. It takes micros some time to figure the rescue story is a hoax, but Kate should get here soon or else they will spoil. After approaching Amber, Nicole asks if she heard from the last second – but apparently not. “Lets give her a couple more minutes” - Nicole concludes.

Eventually, Kate arrives and Amber notices her first. It's annoying that you need to actively look around to see if anybody comes in, especially in empty zones – where newcomers seem to appear randomly. But when Nicole sees Kate, she is.. different.

“Sweet dress” - Amber comments as Kate starts to slowly walk towards them and Nicole concludes it is completely true. Anything other than the standard uniform is considered nice, but this dress looks very good on Kate. She also seems to have lost a couple pounds – but it fits her perfectly. Clearly it must have been made specifically for her.

How was she able to come up with something like that so quickly? Sure she had two more weeks, but with an untrained zone... Nicole immediately requested a two piece suit in her zones, to split the work and speed up the construction. Everything takes the micros forever to accomplish. The last time she was in Kate's zone, Nicole couldn't see anything resembling any kind of construction site – and she specifically looked for it to make sure she will be first to have one.

And Kate is walking so gracefully – like she is relishing every step, obviously bathing in the success. “She must have planned it!” - Nicole realizes - “She probably told the micros to hide it, so any visitors wouldn't notice – very clever.”

This is strange, since Kate never seemed to care about clothes or any things that impacted her image, in fact. She was always more of a solitary type. “Well, it must have changed when she got the zone” - Nicole concludes. She will need to look into possible ways of speeding up her dress even more – but that will need to wait, this get-together is more important right now.

“Hi Kate, so nice to see you” - she speaks when Kate nears the remaining seconds and Amber echoes. Kate must have heard it, since she raises her eyes from the ground and asks:

“Hi, is this.. zone empty?”

“Oh don't worry, we've got the goodies” - Nicole assures.

“Yeah, you can stop walking like any micros could die...” - Amber throws in.

“Amber, that is no way to talk to your friend. She is just showing her new dress, aren't you Kate?”

“Yes.. I still feel strange in it, it's the first time I'm...” - Kate speaks hesitantly.

“See? Didn't you want to say something else, Amber?” - they talked earlier how she should explain that she understands now and apologize again. This bitchy attitude is certainly not helping.

“Well, um... Kate, I know how bad I behaved in your zone. I should have never been killing your micros without permission” - that's much better – she even looks properly sad, thinks Nicole - “I understand how hard it is to keep them in line and it must have been very difficult for you to train them. It was very immature and inappropriate of me.”

Turning back to Kate, Nicole expects some sort of details or at least confirmation, but.. she just stands there - “Yes, Amber really understands – we both do now” - Nicole speaks - “Aren't you glad about that?”

It's hard to decipher Kate – it seems like she doesn't care about that at all, just standing there with neutral and somewhat tired expression. Eventually she responds with sort-of sad voice: “Yeah, thanks.. and yes, it was really hard.”

“I'm sorry I made it even harder” - adds Amber.

After a moment of silence, Nicole figures that maybe some fun will cheer Kate up – “See, we're all on the same page now. But that's not just why I wanted for us to meet up. We've all learned a lot recently, but why don't we have some fun together like we used to?” - she raises her hand with the transporters - “How about a fifty thousand micros each to lighten up?”

Kate looks at her hand and seems.. surprised? Hard to say, but there's definitely something going on there – she must have really had a lot of problems with her micros. No wonder she complained about Amber behavior so much – it's strange she got the dress so quick though. It must be simply because her zone is much bigger, coordinating micros efforts across multiple zones is tedious and Nicole didn't have time for that really...

Amber picks one container and encourages Kate joyfully - “Here, help yourself!” - Nicole takes a step forward and offers the gift.

“I don't know..” - speaks Kate - “I don't think I should...”

“Come on, we're all alone here – your micros won't see this!” - explains Amber.

Kate reluctantly picks one of the two containers but after analyzing it, explains: “No, I'm afraid I might ruin my dress now...”

“Oh please” - Nicole protests - “I'm sure there's plenty of ways you can play with them without doing that. You'll figure something out!” - but is already setting up to play with the last transporter herself. Perhaps something quick, like...

“What are you going to do with them?” - Kate interrupts.

“Jealous? You can join us you know...” - Amber replies.

“No.. I'm just curious what kind of fun you have in mind.”

Nicole wants to suggest her something. Perhaps Kate could put them on her exposed legs or into the ample cleavage – but Amber starts rambling on and on about what kind of things they have been doing with micros for the last couple of weeks.

And many of those ideas were Kate's – Amber was never interested in any more original fun and this left the other seconds alone to experiment. Especially after the firsts graduations – she would hardly even hang out with them. And they were both still having fun together, trying to figure out tricks to enjoy the micros more. It was actually thanks to Kate's advices that Nicole learned to take in the feeling more carefully. She was more like Amber back then – always wanting to have some fun and start looking for the next micros – but Kate has shown her that there are better ways.

Pushing them around a bit first, enjoying their helplessness, making them do things... and everything while giving them “hope” - now it seems obvious, but Nicole cannot believe that earlier she wanted to just squish them and move on. She never understood why some of those tricks worked – or even where did Kate learned them from, but Nicole never cared. At least until she wanted to explain them to Amber and they both started learning more about their playtimes.

In a way, it was Kate's ideas that led them – even though she was working on her zone... It must have been really hard to train them, if Kate had such problems. Well, Amber failed her training big time and Nicole is glad she never had to be forced to go through it in more detail. She is worried what may be happening in those two previously untrained zones though. Nicole didn't care about them earlier, but she will definitely need to check if everything is fine – the idea of micros killing themselves is surely scary. She will need them for later...

At least the trained micros in five other zones are behaving well. Three of them are working on the dress – that's another thing to check on and hurry up.

“Yeah, we got them really convinced” - Nicole coos, Amber seems to have asked about the micros believing them - “and you can enjoy yourself, Kate, there is still plenty left.”

“Yup! Still well over a million. The only problem is that only some defective ones are left” - Amber continues. It's true, they were still eager to be “rescued” but their efforts seemed weaker than earlier. “How did they call it? Children and elders? We may need to start getting more at a time to even feel them...”

“How can you do this?” - comes a muffled question from Kate.

“Oh that's easy. You know, they think I only want to kill them and Nicole seemed nice and helpful, so now she just goes there and promises to get them out” - Amber elaborates joyfully. She seems to be very proud of what they “figured out” there. Kate thankfully doesn't say anything about how most of this originated from her ideas – Amber seems to really adore Nicole thinking that she came up with all this on her own.

“Well, we need to keep reminding them how evil you are...” - Nicole points out.

“Yeah, but that's real easy – I just go there and say a couple things about stupid micros killing each other while stepping angrily on some villages. Don't worry – only the ones that are mostly abandoned already, there is no point in wasting micros” - and laughs, Nicole coos softly.

Those confessions seem to have affected micros performance quite a lot, she can hardly feel them on her teats. “Oh well, it's their decision to no longer be useful” - she thinks while wiping them. They still managed to arouse her a bit and the sight of Kate's exposed skin and underwear only help. Damn she looks nice – sitting down now and the dress still looks great on her. If only she wasn't so uptight...

In the meantime, Amber rambles about how they have been able to turn this dying zone into some fun and even offers Kate help, if her micros are misbehaving. That is a smart idea, actually – regardless of what they think of her, Amber probably seems worse.. especially after what she must have done a couple days after Lauren's party. Nicole still haven't found out what exactly happened then – not that she was trying to, just.. was it important? They were having a lot of fun - maybe she should have pursued it further?

“Later” - she concludes and asks aloud: “Hey Kate, when did you lose weight?”

“Oh, I.. just recently, I just wanted to...” - she answers clumsily. She must feel really awkward here.

“Don't worry, you look great like this. Not that you were ugly before, but now, especially with the dress...” - Nicole starts to compliment her, but Amber interrupts:

“Fucking fabulous, get over it.”

“Amber, you are just as noble and generous as always” - Nicole complains.. of course Amber didn't get it and continues:

“Hey, speaking of generous – Kate, would you mind if I play with your transporter. That is if you're not planning to use them?”

“I...” - Kate seems baffled, but before she continues, Amber raises, leans forward and carefully picks up the container laying in front of her friend.

“Amber! It's not nice to behave like this...” - Nicole starts.

“Chill out, I only wanted to check one thing – yup, they got away” - she explains.

Nicole quickly realizes what must have happened - “Oh Kate, don't leave micros unattended like that.. now we won't be able to use them!” - she remembers how tedious it was to kill one micro at a time - “Better clear them before they scatter...” - she stands up as well and looks closer and points the group of micros on the ground - “There, they still haven't hid.”

“Hey, what do you...” - Kate starts, but Amber already flattened them with her sneaker.

“What, were you planning to do something with them on the ground?” - Amber inquires, polite as usual – but Nicole figures it may turn interesting and just watches.

“No, I just... never mind.”

“Oh Kate, don't be shy – you can tell us what kinds of games you had in mind” - Nicole suggests intrigued, but she speaks nothing. After a moment of silence, Amber points out after checking her counter:

“What do we do now that we're out of micros?”

“Well, I can go get more...” - Nicole suggests, they never seem to mind being rescued several times a day.

Kate interrupts her: “No, don't.. can't we just sit here and talk? Like the old times...”

Nicole likes this idea of bonding – they haven't spent much time together since their graduations – and she convinces Amber to sit down and talk. Even Kate seems somewhat more open now, sharing some details about her zone – nothing in particular, but it seems fine now and she is content with her micros. That Nicole can understand – if they can manufacture such dress so quickly...

But Amber continues the bragging about how they were able to use the micros from her zone and that Kate should have more fun herself – when Kate explains she is tired, Nicole is not surprised. Still, she accomplished what she wanted – the other seconds seem reconciled now and while there's still some tension between them, there shouldn't be any problems. And some stress is good – Nicole wants them to depend on her, forgiving everything would make her role as a negotiator simply unnecessary.

When Kate departs thanking them both for everything, Nicole figures she should go as well – the sooner she finishes the zones, the better. Perhaps she could have some fun as well? Especially how she is horny after the playtime – getting off in front of her friends wouldn't be nice.








“Why is this happening” - he speaks to nobody in particular. Until recently Sean Kinsey was seaweed farm operator, but now - “what.. is happening?”

The sight is unbelievable, they were used to a ten mile tall figure moving around – but it was always a different person... Rachel Johnson actually saved them – brought them tools, medicine, even other people to help them. They lost all of that after the Collapse – previously renown vacation zone, importing everything from food to high-tech products from outside. Hardly any infrastructure – and millions of people stuck.

Fortunately he was born much later, when the situation stabilized – never had to endure the horrors told by elders in stories. People killing each other for scraps of food and technology... it was hard to believe. They also twaddled how people used to live before the Collapse, with flying cars and everything – even their lives could last forever back then – another one of miraculous things that were lost. It was incredible that anybody survived and started to rebuild after losing so much.

Of course now it's again a reality – but when Sean was twelve, Rachel appeared and gave them everything, from medbeds to computers to seemingly endless energy sources. Old people were still having trouble getting used to it – everybody that knew such things was already long dead, but the younger quickly caught up. She even told them that although she is unable to fix everything, she is working on it. It gave them hope, somebody was trying to bring the normality... although only the newcomers know what that meant – the tales from the past elaborated about huge cities, hundreds billions of people living in peace and harmony. It is simply unimaginable.

They never asked her about the details, surely Rachel has much more important things to do – even though she checks if everything is okay every couple of months. They need to work on their own survival. That's why now, fourteen years after her first appearance, Sean was visiting the automated facilities that were built far in the sea – to provide the people and livestock with basic nutrients. Over three fourths of the zone surface is sea and the rest consists of beaches and mountains – it used to be a popular vacation spot, cultivating much food on land is... difficult at least.

They figured it out though – with the immigrants help, of course. Some of them actually lived and know how the world was like before the Collapse – or, how Rachel calls it, the shutdown. The other zones weren't hit that hard and they retained their technology – some people even remember the old times.

Or remembered, because now...

When she arrived, Sean was working on a damaged filter deep underwater. He arrived on the small platform alone via chopper, but it already looked like a larger team was necessary – with replacement for the seemingly unrepairable piece of junk. Hearing the news that “a caretaker” arrived he surfaced quickly – he loved to watch Rachel since he was a kid, it was truly a sight to behold... even though she hardly moved, careful not to hurt anybody.

But he lost his communication with the headquarters quickly - “damn things always break around here”, he thought. It was strange that Rachel would visit them so quickly – she was just here like.. two weeks ago? Maybe she discovered something and wanted to tell them?

Of course now he understands what happened... or at least why there comm went deaf. When Sean surfaced, he noticed why they mentioned “a caretaker” instead of “Rachel” - it wasn't her. And the one here was not at all careful. If anything, she seemed to be overjoyed with the things around her, smiling and playing... With. The. City.

Ten years it took them to build up the capital – the biggest city on the largest island. Hell, it was the only major settlement, really – hence they always called it just “the City”. More than four fifths of the population lived there – but it seems that ratio is much smaller now.

When he realized what is really happening – it took some time to comprehend the view – it seems she is trying to pick some... skyscrapers? With her toes?!? And without a single word. Of course Sean wouldn't be able to hear her – the City, or what has left of it, is good two hundred kilometers away, but he can clearly see she is not speaking at all.

“What the fuck!”

From the top of the floating signaling tower, he could just barely see what is happening under the foot – the zone is completely flat so there is no obstructions, but it's simply far away. It seems that.. buildings are crumbling in slow motion as she... bulldozes and crushes them. Her sneaker lays discarded thoughtlessly on its side – from this far away it's hard to be sure, but it seems it may have been dropped on the suburbs...

Eventually she gives up on the attempt and rotates to sit her knees. She was further back carefully “playing” with her foot – the terrifying reality of the situation hits Sean in this very moment. It seemed like some sort of a dream.. or rather a nightmare – nothing like this should happen in the real world. Sure his parents were afraid of Rachel when she first came, but he was too young to fully comprehend it – and she proved time and again to be the complete opposite of this... whatever kind of monster the one here is.

To him, Rachel seemed like a kind Goddess that approached to save them. It wasn't that far from the truth – they were already running out of fish to eat and it seemed the famine would become even worse. Not to mention the ravaging diseases, he almost lost his little sister to tuberculosis – which was said to be easily treatable before the Collapse... but back then they couldn't do anything with only simple antibiotics. Every blood filled caugh he watched in the local clinic hurt him seemingly just as much as her. With the miraculous medicine Rachel brought, young Lucy not only recovered but grew up strong and healthy. Who wouldn't associate the heavenly help with something divine?

This “caretaker” is completely unlike her - Rachel never actually used that word, others remembered what was her function in the world. No, this must be be a different kind of a Goddess. Even though from the distance she seems like a regular human being, casually moving around. Of course those innocent moves probably translate to thousands dying – she was carelessly sitting in a densely populated area. Leaning forward, she slowly plucks a building.. a large skyscraper... from the ground. There were probably still people in it – it is mere minutes after her arrival, even if they started evacuating immediately, they wouldn't be able to...

But where could they even run? Maybe if they managed to fly or sail away quickly, but... it just seems that nowhere is safe from this “young woman” - these words seem completely inadequate to describe what is happening. But she does look immature, maybe she has no idea what she is actually doing? Young and playful... her image contrasts with the dramatic sight in front of him. Holding the building in her hand like some kind of flower or a toy, it seems like.. is she contemplating what to do with it?

When she starts moving again, Sean cannot believe it – she just unfastens several top buttons of her shirt and.. drops the thing down her cleavage. It falls slowly – he doesn't see the impact, but anybody who was still in it must have died...

She just looks down at it and smiles. How can anybody enjoy such thing! Definitely a toy, but.. “Why...”

She continues to pick up various buildings – the downtown was densely populated, with plenty of large buildings. At first they were building smaller homes and industrial facilities, but once the island was almost completely covered, they had to start building up. Of course even the largest structures were still much smaller than any of her fingers.

And obviously weaker too – some of them simply broke into dust... no, obviously tons of rubble must have rained down in there. The scale difference is just insane – at times, it seems like a girl playing on a beach.

But there were people in the City, almost a million of them! If Sean wasn't out on the assignment, he would also be there... Well, now he would probably be dead. If he can see correctly, the facility where he was stationed was located in the area she is.. sitting. That was probably the reason they went silent...

While Sean tries other frequencies without any success – the City's powergrid must be out – the “caretaker”.. although she doesn't seem to deserve this label, he realizes... She just.. plays with all the lives in front of her. Plucking and destroying buildings in various ways – simply crushing in her hands, colliding with her breasts or stomach, “playfully” dropping on other structures... She even turns her torso and drags one of the last towers on her bare foot... enjoying the sensation?!?

At this point Sean is absolutely certain he is hallucinating. Maybe the sudden decompression, or some problem in his oxygen equipment – or he is still asleep and just imagining it all. There is no way this is really happening – it couldn't be. But after watching the show for one more minute, he can hear... Thunderous movements that finally reached him. He also notices the swaying of the sea – it was still fairly calm, but there were some movements that he didn't correlate with the sight in front of him earlier.

Suddenly it seems very real. No longer it's just a light show on the horizon, but rather footsteps followed with.. the sound of dragging something? Sean notices that the entire city is encircled with a large trench.. the edges are clearly noticeable, easily twenty meters tall compared with the buildings – that's why he couldn't see the details of the City further out. “But this can only mean...” - unable to finish his thought. She wants them trapped!

Any chance she didn't know there were people in here just vanished. She must be aware of all the death... it's a goddamn city! They weren't building it just for fun to continue living on some ships... Or were they?

The thought strikes him – if they were just toys to the monsters.. but Rachel would never... Has she cared about their well-being at all? Or maybe she just wanted to prepare a rich playground for... whoever the fuck this is! Her daughter perhaps? No.. she looks nothing like Rachel, but... It simply doesn't make any sense.

But it gets worse, as seemingly after running out of bigger buildings, she leans forward and... licks? The ground? She first seemed to look around for a good spot – was she trying to find larger groups of people? In her scale it seems nothing else would be even noticeable, but what... Why!

She seems to be tasting it carefully – but quickly displays a rather disgusted expression and spits the goo out. It is falling incredibly fast – just like her movements, but Sean can see that there is something in it... something more than just saliva. It hits the sea before he can make out any details, creating a huge wave. Well, compared to her it looks just like a small splash – although the water moves unrealistically slow.

And then she just... drags her hands across the city, then stands up and finishes it with several stomps after removing her other shoe. It seems like she is.. purposely... exterminating them? If it looked like a “playful game” earlier, not it's simply monstrous. “Who could possibly do this!”

Well, obviously she can – and is... Once satisfied with the result several minutes later, she looks around and starts walking towards another island. There are no larger cities anywhere else – no skyscrapers whatsoever, but... What if she is really trying to kill them all and the playtime was just some kind of sick game? It seems to be the only explanation. She destroyed the City quickly after “enjoying” the bigger structures and now is heading to finish off the rest of the zone.

At first Sean just watches, hoping that she will only destroy the islands and leave anything on sea alone, but then notices a deadly threat. The walls of water are quickly approaching him. The open sea between his platform and the City.. or what remained of it... allows the waves to travel easily in the shallow water. Her spit or the footfalls – too late to distinguish, but the seafarm is not built to withstand this, no – he needs to get away.

But where?

She already covered several islands – every time she covers the entire area with her feet, casually crushing everything flat. The worst part is her expression – it seems like she finds it boring and tedious. And still not a word! The best they got was a slight giggle when she “scratched” her foot with a skyscraper...

No, Sean needs to get out from here to one of the islands she already visited. She was destroying the other part of the zone, which leaves... remains of the City are close enough, even with his hydrogen powered heli – there weren't enough dilation-field powered vehicles around. Their construction was very complicated and only specialized workers got them.

Of course now it simply doesn't matter, she destroyed everything... maybe Rachel will come and save any survivors? What else can he do now – wait for the waves to reach him? Commit suicide even before that? At least he would no longer have to see what she is doing... but that would be weak. No, he needs to at least try to survive.

Fortunately the chopper was already refueled – the farm is equipped with field energy generator and hydrogen extractor and he did not forget to plug in the pipe this time... He is airborne quickly – long before any major waves reach the station – and flies towards the City... only now being able to see the crushed, partially flooded remains. It looks like there are some mountains that weren't completely decimated by her movements – the island was about twenty kilometers long and she haven't destroyed everything thoroughly. Sean hopes he can see it correctly – it's already late afternoon and the light is not ideal for long range observations.

But he cannot do anything else – even dropping into the water would be a suicide with all the waves traversing the seas. Even if that monster stopped crushing them, the islands would be flooded with most of the people dying. In order for the waves not to be so deadly, he would have to get to a deeper sea, if he recalls the water physics correctly from the training – but the only such places are on the completely opposite side of the zone. Right next to the edge – and the field could produce strange effects on the water as well. No, the mountains seem to be his safest bet.

Maybe he will be able to find some survivors? It seems.. unlikely given the completely devastated area that he can see as he approaches the island. At the same time she continues her deadly trek across the zone... The turbulences her movements have caused are tough, but with the help of the onboard instruments, he manages to continue his flight.

After almost an hour in air, Sean can hear thunderous words, she finally seems to have spoken:

“Just die quickly, so I can move to the next zone!” - this... This was probably the worst part.. at least so far. This monster is not only killing them, but also planning to do the same to other people! How could anybody even...

“Stupid micros, why couldn't you all just commit suicide, come on.. still five thousands left” - he can hear a couple minutes later. It angers Sean greatly, but... if she wants them all dead, then maybe he can buy some time if he survives. It's a stretch – but at least his life has some meaning now. It seems that any attempt of slowing her down gives “the next zone” some time... even if he is able to delay it by only a couple minutes.

More outrageous sentences follow, how “she doesn't want to waste any more time here”, “this is ridiculous“ or “how stubborn you are” - Sean concludes: “Well, suck it up bitch, I'm not helping you!”

Eventually he reaches the island – it's already night and finding a good place for landing is problematic. He is also running out of fuel – even though the operational distance of the heli was around five hundred kilometers, the turbulences required a lot of effort to overcome. He also took a detour to avoid her approach – as she seemed to have swept almost half of the zone already.

All in all, three hours into the genocide, Sean is standing on a tall hill, watching the monstrous spectacle around him and listens to annoyed voice counting down the population... “Those are human lives you bitch!” - he screams at some point, it just seems so... inhuman. All of it, from her arrival to this very moment.

He can barely see her silhouette moving around on the background of night sky. The smoke and dust from remains of the City has already cleared and it again seems unreal. The only way he is able to distinguish this from some nightmare are the constant quakes and voice combined with the fact that where he should see a brilliant network of always awake metropolis, there is just... darkness.

Almost two hours later he hears “her pests” are down to two digits and Sean has already lost hope for any kind of salvation. At least they surely slowed her down – he thinks that others must have got a similar idea. “We, the stubborn micros” - that's some title. They will all die, just like other zones she mentioned... but at least will cause her some inconvenience. “Hell, it seems we already did” - the sad realization still manages to give him some joy.

Then she seems to fall – it's hard to see in the dim starlight, but there is definitely some quick movement downwards followed by.. something like a silhouette of a person trying to stand up from a pool. “Now how's that for your inconvenience?” - every little bit helps to feel better. She seems less of a Goddess now, but rather a “stubborn macro” - if one would use her vocabulary. The idea of her falling into a muddy pond was somehow hilarious – even if it was the sea in the zone. At this scale, she probably hit the ground pretty well. “Good luck cleaning those stains, bitch!”

But his spirit fades a couple dozen minutes later when he can hear that “What? Only one left?” - followed by some childish curses.

“Yup, it's up to you Sean” - he concludes and braces for the worst. After the dusk it seemed like she has some sort of device for locating the people – but will she be able to find him in the dark? The sound of waves hitting the mountain slopes dangerously close, suggested she may not even have to...

But the game continues – although he can do nothing, even trying to run away wouldn't help at all. How far could he travel – a couple centimeters in her scale? At least this way he can enjoy his last moments. Relatively speaking. And she hasn't given up – what kind of monster wants to murder every single human in an entire zone! Then it dawns at him – she must want to kill all witnesses. Was this why Rachel kept checking up on them? Maybe this is just some insane caretaker. If only he could survive to warn the others! To tell them what she has done – Sean feels he could identify her clearly, after watching the atrocities she committed. Sadly, there is nothing more that he can do to evade her...

It seems like they are locked in some sort of freak hide and seek game. Although she never met Sean and he definitely wouldn't want to ever see her in the first place – she tries to talk to him, even convince him that she will let him live... Of course she is, now he understands what this all is about, he concludes - “no mind games with me, bitch”.

Maybe twenty minutes later he can feel a sudden series of powerful earthquakes – she must have came back to the main island. She can move much faster than the shakes travel through the earth, but she must have walked here more or less directly. This means it will be over soon – but Sean is ready. The quakes threw him off his feet and reminded that he is actually pretty high above ground – even though it is maybe ankle level to this monster. Parachuting from a cliff could buy him some more time – and maybe if he lands in the sea, he might be carried out by the waves and delay the inevitable.

Taking the equipment from the chopper, he jumps and opens it quickly – trying to break the fall. Even in air, he is deafened by her stomps and can even feel tremors moving the air around him - “Heh, she must be really angry.”

Then the noise stops and she begins to scan the ground with some sort of a weak flashlight on her arm. “Shit, I need to find somewhere to hide” - he concludes and starts lowering more quickly. Sean lands in water, but it's completely still – apart from slight occasional quakes caused by her movements. Quickly hiding the chute, he can just wait in the chilly spring water. Not too cold, but he will not be able to keep afloat forever. Still – he can delay it for some more time.

Whenever the light approaches him, he dives – trying to wait it out. The light passes him quickly first couple times, but then pauses for longer – Sean realizes that she must be able to locate him more precisely... it's only a matter of minutes now and he can just as well get onto the land.

He could see the direction of the nearest slope clearly in the dim light – so he begins swimming. It seems even without trying to hide she has problems noticing him - “Stupid blind bitch” seems almost fitting the “stubborn micro” she continues to call him.

After a couple minutes, Sean comes ashore and even though it is fairly steep – manages to climb up a dozen meters. Looking up at her, he is almost sure that her eyes are focused directly on him, but she doesn't kill him somehow. He didn't believe her promise of letting him live, but... No, he notices her pupils are still moving around, obviously scanning the ground for him.

“Oh there you are” - she thunders joyfully after another minute, like meeting an old acquaintance. The hand coming down to crush Sean is not so friendly...








“This was simply ridiculous” - thinks Nicole. Not only it took her almost six hours to clear the zone, but she also is all wet and muddy. The stupid water everywhere made it so much harder to finish the micros. She was pleasantly surprised there was only one big city – which made the clearing look like a simple task, so she began playing with it.

It was fun, but what came later... two hundred thousand micros were still alive – outside from the start or somehow managed to get away. It was already late and the sun was setting, so finding them proved to be problematic. At first she waded a little walking around the zone and it fixed most of them over time – but the remaining several thousands were very resistant. She even started explaining that they won't survive, so they can just as well kill themselves – some took her advice, it seemed. “Why couldn't you all just commit suicide” – she complained, they seemed so eager to do that in the Amber's zone.

When it was already dark, using her wristcom to locate the micros became really tedious. She even stumbled on some rock and fell head first into the water... it felt disgusting. Fortunately she saw a tiny light on some island nearby and squashing it noticed the counter dropping down from fourteen.

It stopped at one. One! A single fucking micro! Yes – Nicole spent an entire hour looking for one ridiculous pest in the darkness. She even contemplated giving up and returning on the next day, but.. she was already furious. It felt like the most annoying thing that ever happened to her. So she continued looking.

She finally scanned every corner of the zone and there was nothing. The stupid locator only shows the micros when you are nearby – maybe a couple feet from them and the zone was fairly large... It also is very inaccurate – the program is very rough and often puts the dots in wrong places. Trying to offer it some hope didn't help – which was strange, it seemed to work on the other micros. She was thinking how she should have started with this approach – perhaps ask the micros to group up in the cities and then deal with them all at once?

At least when she found it on the very first spot she started with, she was certain it was nearby. Stomping the area didn't work – the little fucker must have figured something out – not to mention that the entire island was clear when she left it... She began scanning the ground with the dim light that wristcom was giving and finally she found and squashed the stubborn dot in one of her footprints.

Nicole felt good for a moment – even despite that she was dirty and tired – she caught the little fucker.

Of course now that she is back in her room, she realizes that she should have returned or even deferred the whole thing until the next day in the first place... The fun at the start was nice, but now the cleanup will be terrible, her uniform is completely ruined – she can assemble a new one tomorrow, but the mud has already stuck to her skin. It's going to take her days to fix herself completely. The micro matter is easy to dump at the beginning – a simple wipe removes it, but once it de-dilates... not only it's already in every tiniest pore and wrinkle of the skin, but it also somehow manages to glue to literally everything.

“Simply fantastic.. all this trouble for some stubborn micro shit...” - she exclaims.

Amber hates herself for not telling anybody how Kate attacked her. She almost confessed it to Nicole when she wanted to “make sure she behaves” in the meeting with Kate – like it was Amber who exploded! But she was worried nobody will believe her and also.. a bit scared of Kate. What if she does this again – she was so crazy back in her zone.

But she should have told somebody – but who? Nobody would believe that Kate could possibly behave like that... even during the party she was timid and shy – seemingly incapable of even scratching anybody, not to even mention assaulting... And she was so calm, perhaps Amber misinterpreted her behavior? Maybe she was simply trying to contain her and the violence was accidental... It didn't seem that way – especially with what she spoke afterwards. How could she dare come to her like that after all this.. violence!

At least during their “reunion” - as Nicole called it – Kate was behaving rationally. It was strange – at times it seemed almost like she didn't want to kill the micros they offered her. But she had a new dress – and Amber remembers how the firsts explained just how costly the clothes are. It usually took hundreds of thousands of micros to make them manufacture anything nice... Andrea for instance didn't care about her looks enough to bother. Using them for fun was much more interesting.

Kate must have really forced them back in her zone – to come up with such dress in several weeks? Mothers had decades to prepare and many of their clothes aren't that nice. Sure – they are more elegant and sophisticated, but.. it seemed the blue one piece really fits her. It was still.. strange. Kate seemed not to care about what's happening here, didn't play with her micros – and to let them escape like that? If she was so smart about her zone, then how could she behave like this here...

When Amber squished the refugees, she could almost swear Kate expression was.. she knew this look, but couldn't name it. Just before the Nicole's graduation, when Kate was lying down and talking to micros perhaps? No, whatever strange things she was doing in there, Amber doesn't even want to know – but when Kate opened her eyes and looked up at her... it wasn't anger – Kate turned to that later. It was something different, not even the hatred she manifested before assaulting Amber...

And Amber was actually trying to provoke her to attack her again, to show Nicole how crazy Kate really was – but she seemed more sad than angry, for instance when Amber crushed her gift. Maybe she understood how crazy she behaved? Sure Kate wouldn't confess for her behavior in front of Nicole, but.. she wasn't very content with the Amber's “apology” - maybe she felt bad about lying?

It seemed Nicole can do that without any problems, but.. Kate was always honest – she never had much to hide, really. How have they drifted apart so far away that Amber can no longer understand her?

Amber tried to explain how she understands her problems – especially after Lisa visited her.. but she haven't told anybody about this – it would be pointless. Everybody knew how Lisa behaves.. why did she even allow her mother in the first place? And she could understand Kate's hatred – she felt the same way back then. But to actually attack and threaten a friend? Were they still friends? Nicole announced that now everything is fine, but.. it just didn't seem this way.

Perhaps Amber could talk to her, try to invite Kate to her zone alone – show that she is more mature now, that she really understands. Maybe even they could exchange some tips on how to train micros?

Although it seemed it would be Kate teaching her rather than the other way. Amber doesn't understand micros at all. She tried to help them repopulate, but they asked.. no, begged her – not to masturbate in the zone... Apparently the fumes of her “pheromones” caused males to go crazy. She still has no idea what that meant, but they tried to explain that in “personal” quantities they are harmless, but the clouds she produces can quickly encompass entire settlements - making some “men” unable to hide, which quickly drives them insane and they “rape” each other or worse.

When they explained what the raping was, she remembered the lesson they had on micros breeding activities and wanted to explain this was the idea... But they continued to elaborate how “some people” – naturally they meant some other micros - “couldn't take it and committed suicide”. This was no good – if they start killing themselves like the other zone, she would lose everything, so she quickly told them she was sorry and only wants them to rebuild smoothly.

If only she paid more attention in that lesson... Rachel tried to explain them some facts on micros reproduction, but Amber would only play with her plate – they looked so cute in the magnified image, like she could actually see them running away from her hand... Not that it helped much, but it was still better than just noticing reddish dots after raising it without the amplification. Perhaps she should tell the micros here to prepare something like that? She could take it to the empty zone and use it to have fun with some “refugees” or “colonists”.

Yeah, it was much more fun in school – at least until Rachel told her there are no more “replacement” micros... Of course when Nicole spoke how boring it all was and left, Rachel seemed less convinced in her explanations, so eventually Amber was alone with Kate with her set. It was interesting how her micros haven't died even once – she was also playing with them, but more like Nicole taught her now. Back then Kate was relaxed about everything – even when Amber crushed her sample, she just smiled and laughed how they broke down. Yes, Kate has changed so much since then...

Either way, Amber wasn't “sorry” about making her micros rape each other at all – but it always seemed to cheer them up and she was already looking at the counter nervously to see if the suicides have started here as well. Fortunately they either calmed down or just bluffed earlier – it was hard to say for her, but they were very worried about what she was doing. They reassured her that they are fine and she doesn't need to worry.

Amber thought how curious it was that the firsts were helping their micros with “raping” and it seemed to work – maybe they are doing something differently? Nicole has shown her how wrong she was with so many little things, perhaps Amber could ask her about this as well? But no.. Nicole never cared about her micros population, maybe Andrea would tell her? They met casually several times in the last couple weeks and talked about things, but mostly how tedious it was to cultivate micros – and without any details. Amber was worried the first would consider what she and Nicole were doing strange. “Talk with micros? It sounds like one of Rachel's ideas” - she even once mentioned when Amber suggested it.

But she won't be able to talk with her today, no response to her mesg – and Nicole is silent too, vanished after their meeting. Amber cannot stop thinking about Kate and what she's doing with her micros. She said the zone is “perfectly fine”, that she doesn't need to train them and that they aren't killing themselves – although Kate was a bit confounded by this question... It felt like it wasn't as pretty as she wanted it to sound.

Then Amber realizes that she can have some insight into Kate's training methods – she got those colonies that she completely forgot about. They have been trained by Kate for a couple weeks before Nicole convinced her to give them – and while asking micros about something feels weird, like.. how would they even know anything... it seemed to work when Nicole investigated the contaminated zone. Well, it didn't help very much, but at least they learned what the problem was.

Still, she may get some ideas about how to train her micros – so she moves to one of the colonies, half-expecting they may be dead or something like that.. even her trained zone took a heavy hit after Amber arrived, despite her trying not to kill too many of them. Better than the other zone of course... but still something like five hundred thousand less than at the beginning – and she was responsible for maybe third of that. Not to even mention the Lisa's arrival... at least the micros weren't killing themselves after that.

It's strange to see full hundred thousands – Amber didn't think that Kate would actually give her the full count, more like ninety or so.. but there it was – and no suicides at all! It is also strange they haven't reproduced either.. are they waiting for her request to do that? In this case she should better talk to them – at first she wants to go back for a headphone and the tower, but then notices something of such shape nearby.

Another weird thing is that even though it was already getting late, everything seems well-lit – their villages and even lines beyond them.. Illuminated with thousands of tiny lights and which are clearly visible in late evening sun – like the micros wanted her to see them. Aren't they afraid of getting killed or what? Kate must have trained them very well – yeah, Amber needs to find out more about this. Walking around the only cluster of towns in the zone – the headphone was on the other side – she notices how much they managed to build in.. just two weeks? Well, the other seconds may have dropped them earlier than Amber's graduation, but it couldn't be more than four or five. This was supposed to be an empty zone before Nicole or Kate colonized it, so all this in such short time...

The cleanup process alone in the other zone was supposed to take months – after just a couple Lisa's steps... Amber couldn't believe just how slow the micros are – she offered help with gathering the debris, but they began convincing her it would be a bad idea. “Whatever” – she thought - “if they don't want my help, they won't get it.” The reconstruction afterwards will take even longer. But she doesn't need more cities, there was still one or two left in that zone anyway. She needs the micros to repopulate for the fun.

But it seems that these are very efficient at building stuff. Sure they aren't “skyscrapers” - the name baffled Amber when she heard it. Like those minute things were supposed to tickle the sky? Or perhaps it was about the caretakers? Maybe what Lisa did, was actually their purpose – but the micros were very sad and worried afterwards, so it would be strange if they were planning this function in the first place. But a hundred thousand micros building anything at all seemed like a huge accomplishment.. they wouldn't be able to properly excite her even if used all at once...

As she slowly approaches the headphone and lies on her belly behind it – careful not to crush any lights, as Amber doesn't want to give them reasons for suicides – she sees that the headphone is much different from others she has seen. At first Amber thinks it's broken, since there is no wire to connect it to a building it's resting on, but she picks is up and analyzes without a word. It looks sturdier and more slick – and even though it has no connection to its base, a light on the side is shining. Definitely a light, which means it must be powered somehow.

“There is only one way to find out” - she thinks and wears it. It fits her much better than the others, not to mention lack of the annoying cable – “if only it could work” - she concludes, but suddenly can hear a clear voice:

“Hello, miss” - and they pause.

“What do you mean?” - she inquires and after a brief moment they respond:

“We merely wanted to inquire your...” - but she interrupts them:

“What do you mean by this miss?”

“Um, it's just a polite way of addressing a young woman and we don't know your name” - they explain.

“I'm pretty adult and I'm a caretaker, in case you haven't noticed” - she corrects them - “You can call me Amber” - she thinks that perhaps Kate haven't trained them that well...

After a moment of silence the voice returns: “Well, hello Amber, then” - she thinks if they're mocking her – and considers reprimanding the stupid micros... But figures she should instead ask about their problems, while checking the counter for any suicides:

“Is everything okay here? You micros doing fine?” - luckily none so far. It seemed that even her talking alone caused many deaths in the other zones, perhaps if she limits herself to the most important questions...

“Yes, we just finished setting the industrial network and began extending the power grid. The dilation field here seems mostly untapped and we can safely increase output...” - and they continue. Amber has no idea what they're rambling about and also it is of no interest to her, so eventually she interrupts:

“Great, how's reproduction going?”

“Um.. miss Amber...” - a longer silence - “Well, some women are pregnant, but...” - and they pause again.

“But what?” - they're not making any sense, Amber recalls from school that the “pregnancies” had something to do with micros reproduction, but can no longer remember what it was. Some kind of delay between they could have young? They should repopulate rather than worry about some “power grids” or other “networks”.

“We wanted to establish food production and medical infrastructure before we would.. worry about the population” - and pause, apparently expecting her answer. Well, it makes some sense. From what she heard in her trained zone, it seemed like they couldn't just get food from assemblers – stupid micros... so much for Kate's somewhat better breed. Or perhaps it was actually some kind of specialized micros? Like.. better at building and not so quick with reproduction? That would make sense – it seems all they want to do is set up, produce and establish things.

“I can get you some food” - Amber is unsure if those builder-micros wouldn't eat more, but the larger zone apparently has still large supply of everything - “you don't have to worry about that now.”

The silence continues for some time, things like this always seemed obvious in the trained zone – but now that she thinks of it, the micros really started killing themselves when she explained what she wants from them... Perhaps Amber should give them more time to think about it? Surely getting some food would allow them to focus on more important things – Amber also thinks if she could bring them some of this “industry”, but they start talking:

“We do believe that is an excellent idea – our colonization inventories were dwindling anyway and we could use some fresh...”

Always with the babbling, they seem more like builder-chatter-micros – Amber concludes and stops them: “That's settled, anything else?” - she is unsure about this “medical” stuff. Were they talking about medbeds? The very idea of micros using anything like that was absurd. The micros in the trained zone were also talkative, but only when she broke something – and Amber thinks it shouldn't have happened here, she was specifically very careful. The counter still shows hundred thousands.

After a short pause, they continue: “Well, that would be all, miss Amber” - what's with this “miss” of theirs, she thinks - “Maybe one suggestion: we would love if you could use a softer voice and you don't have to lie down to use the headphone. The range should be more than sufficient even for you standing up.”

Now that's interesting – Amber doesn't care about the voice part.. the micros in the other zone didn't stop lamenting until she began moving more carefully and if those are even more fragile, she can try to speak quieter. But the range part intrigued her – it would be great if she didn't have to crouch or lay down in weird positions every time she wants to speak with the micros...

Indeed Amber can hear them when she carefully stands up. She could use some more of those headphones. Kate was very smart to figure out such solution – even mothers are using wired connections. Sure, some are fairly long and they don't have to keep their heads just next to the ground, but the wires still break and mangle in hair. Sometimes they even aren't removed when moving back to the facility, which is very annoying. This is so much simpler.

“Okay, I'll get some food then” - she concludes and wants to teleport straight to the trained zone, but realizes she may still check the other colony. It looks mostly the same – lots of lights and population of hundred thousands minus one. A single suicide? Amber watches carefully to make sure they didn't start something just now.. she prefers not to say anything worried it make them kill themselves more quickly – but nothing changes, so she just moves to her trained zone without a word.

It quickly turns out that the micros there cannot talk using this headphone and their equipment. Amber thinks whether those builder-micros are compatible with the others, but when she shows it to them, they find some “frequencies and protocols” somehow hidden in it – and they are quickly able to communicate with her remotely. This is so much better. She even hears that the headphone has a number of transmitters on the sides and even micros without any equipment could quickly learn to use them.

Amber can actually sit down casually now and they don't see her wristcom – so she mesgs Kate to meet up in any of her zones. She doesn't write about it – but wants to congratulate her this training, it seems she really taught them a lot. Even if they failed to reproduce. She also notices how she got a mesg from Andrea asking her to come – she usually replies after some delay, but the first wrote now that she is free for the rest of the evening end Amber can drop by any time.

So Amber asks Andrea when she can visit and waiting for the response explains the micros that her smaller zone needs some food – it doesn't seem several months of supplies for a hundred thousand should be a problem, but it will take some time to prepare proper transporters – slow as usual – so she tells them to get some for another zone as well. Even though she hasn't talked to them, the situation will probably be similar.

Amber wonders if she should ask them what other types of micros are there – but decides they won't know it and she'll better ask Kate. Or better Andrea – who just answered that any time – so she mesgs the first back to get the location. After quickly hiding the headphone – Amber would likely be ridiculed, she teleports to that zone.

Ever since the Nicole explained her this, she feels uncertain if it is okay to talk in a zone with micros, but Andrea assured her once or twice that she has them properly trained and it's not a problem. It is already dusk, so Amber can see many lights further away – she remembers the zone as one of Andrea's research projects. Maybe Amber could get some details about the findings?

Andrea seems a couple dozen feet away from her, so Amber walks carefully in the direction – but just as gently as some firsts would. During a party last week, Kimberly commented that Amber was walking “like micros could die from it” - which caused many laughs. Sure, she was careful, but that was because she understood why everybody always complained at her negligence and tried not to overdo it afraid of ridicule.

When Amber approaches the first, they welcome each other – it takes a moment of looking around for Andrea to notice her in the dusk, but eventually she waves her wristcom with light on. After several minutes of casual chatter, the first asks if there is anything she wanted to talk about – recently Amber was often coming with questions, rather than to have any fun.

“Yes, I've been.. trying to train my micros to reproduce and they only complain about rapes and pregnancies...” - Amber starts, but Andrea interrupts her:

“You've been talking with your micros again, haven't you?”

It is literally an accusation – but Amber only wants to train them better... She figures it may be better to overlook it and return to her question – Andrea is nice enough to ignore her “weird ways”, so the second continues: “Just a little, but.. I don't get it. What are those things and how best to get them to reproduce?”

She can barely see the expression on Andrea's face, but it doesn't seem content with her reply and she points out Amber her wrongdoings:

“You shouldn't listen to a word they say. Trust me. They'll only try to convince you not to have fun with them and everything. It's the micros who have to listen, if they want to be of any use...” - and after this her expression turns into a happier one – Andrea always seems to enjoy explaining Amber some of the little tips and tricks she has found out, so she continues - “As for the breeding, well, it's pretty complicated...”

She always explained how a lot of things is complicated – but over the last two weeks, Amber started noticing that many of the problems the firsts may be encountering are associated with some things Nicole taught her not to do. Or do differently. Like having such discussion in an inhabited zone... she feels that the micros would immediately start killing themselves, if she spoke like Andrea even in her trained zone. The firsts must have some really smart trick so it doesn't happen to their micros.

The first continues - “I don't know about those rapes, but pregnancy is actually part of their reproductive cycle.. Courtney even suggested that it may be like Erica or Lauren when they were having the thirds – the micros probably learned this from the mothers or something like that” - Courtney was one of Rachel's twins and she used to talk with her mother about various things. The others usually ridiculed her for strange ideas she got from Rachel, but Courtney seemed to be the main source of information about the micros. Not to mention that her zones were by far the best among the firsts – both in population and reproduction rates.

That's what Amber heard at least – Courtney would never let her in or even talk to her... If only Amber could talk with her directly.. but even then she probably wouldn't tell her much – the firsts were rarely telling them anything they found out. “You would have it too easy” - most of them said, especially with the school that Rachel organized. Amber tried to explain them they didn't learn anything useful there, but... perhaps they could have? What if Kate was able to actually figure something out by listening to what Rachel said.. even Nicole was paying just a bit more attention than Amber and she already knew so much.

But Andrea seems to pause for a moment, as if deciding if she should tell anything more, but eventually continues - “Okay, from what I know, it works like this: the micros have sex and after some time the females are pregnant for something like seven or eight months to produce youth...”

Amber interrupts her - “Seven months? This is outrageous...” - she can just barely see Andrea smile in the dark while she responds:

“But that's not the worst part... not only females are mostly useless during that time and you have to leave some males to care for them in the meantime, but after the pregnancy, it takes about twelve to fifteen years for the young ones to maturate. And you know how useless they are before that...” - they talked about “children” once, but Amber had no idea it would take them so long to fully mature - “and that's just for females to reproduce. Males can take even longer...”

“Wait.. are you telling me that I have to wait twelve years for them to grow up?” - Amber cannot believe what she heard...

“Well, it's more like twenty something if you want their society to actually survive – I managed to get that from my mother after months of nagging...” - Lauren sometimes told Andrea some scraps of information. Amber always thought she was messing with the firsts with some so called “facts”, but the mother actually seemed very reasonable during the party she invited them for. But twenty years? The first continues - “Hey, chill out, you can still have some fun – and after they have young, they can be pregnant again, so you can speed it up a little.”

“Speed up?” - Amber is unsure what she means.

“Well, usually pregnancy ends with just one child.. and normally only around half of the micros are females, so you cannot expect much more than fifty percent increase every time. Some pregnancies fail, but some give more than one young micro, so it's hard to improve what happens there, really...”

“But.. can't they only grow females to speed it up?” - Amber inquires.

“Oh silly, they still need males for sex. And they cannot control the gender of their young. It sucks, doesn't it?”

Amber thinks - “you have no idea”... but it seems that Andrea actually has an idea. That's why she wasn't having too much fun with her micros. All the firsts weren't! And now Amber is left with what.. million something that would kill themselves if not used soon enough and barely four for reproduction... She also considers whether sex is the same as rapes – the micros complained that it was happening to a male and female together – perhaps it's just a different name?

Then she thinks of another question - “Hey An, but how are you making them reproduce?”

“Well, I really shouldn't be telling you this.. it's our trade secret to figure out best ways to do this you know...”

“Oh come on, I'm sure you can share something that all first already know and I also won't tell anybody! Please...” - Amber begs and it seems the first is considering it, after a minute she speaks:

“Fine, but just some rough details – you'll have to figure out the rest...” - and Andrea explains how she tries to treat them neutrally, no ridiculing or making fun of how pathetic the micros are – they know that already. She uses various ways to convince them to multiply, like promising rewards for counter increases or making them compete in population growth. She has several experiments in various zones, but it seems that after two years the best she could accomplish was a hundred percent population increase so far... Still, if it continues – she should be set in a couple decades.

There are many problems, mainly that they keep dying. For whatever reason, training a zone properly can easily take a half of the micros or even more – not to mention that she has to keep them in line with occasional reprimands. Eventually they listen and over time she could see the gradual increase in population – but only after the pregnancy period, the counters don't take those into account. All in all it's very easy to lose another twenty percent of micros after trained and before any returns are visible.

Amber is just sad – the perspective of losing another three million before her zone is properly trained isn't very promising. And then decades before the micros grow up... But what if there was a better way? Maybe the firsts are missing something or perhaps Amber could improve on this by asking what is happening? Nicole is mostly ignorant about the means to increase the micros population – Amber already asked – but maybe Kate has some other ideas...

Either way Andrea continues explaining for a couple more minutes and eventually asks: “Doesn't sound very easy, now does it?”

“Yeah.. I can see why you didn't want to have too much fun earlier...” - with a sad voice, this is really bad – if Amber could have several zones for experimentation like the firsts. At least she learned some from the untrained zone... Perhaps she could make some colonies for experimentation? Or use those two she already has? It seems that even if the population in them quadrupled over several years, it would still be nothing...

Amber needs to figure this out and quickly – before anything bad happens to her only reasonable zone. She still is uncertain how to prevent the suicides... The current careful approach seems to work, but how to make sure they are reproducing? She feels good that those pregnancies in that colony are actually a good thing – but why only “some”? How can Amber convince them all to rape each other – or have sex, or whatever.

“An.. you are so smart for figuring all this out on your own” - Amber finally congratulates, usually a compliment like this helps to improve the first's mood – this time is no different and they continue chatting about less important matters for twenty more minutes or so.

Eventually Andrea decides to go to bed – it's already late and it's better to get up early than stay awake late. They can hardly see anything in the night. Amber asks if she could stay here for a moment to think about everything – and the first agrees.. probably saving the population count again. This time Amber cannot blame her.

But what she really has in mind is to ask micros about what is wrong here – maybe if Amber learns something, she could avoid some problems with her zone. The Andrea's plan seemed convincing, but seventy percent micros lost seemingly without reason is.. just scary. She still has the Kate's headphone and if the micros could figure out how to use it, then it should be fairly easy.

So when the first leaves, Amber sits still – careful not to be seen “talking to micros”.. Andrea could return at any time to check up on her – but it is unlikely, as she can always check the count in the morning. After thirty more minutes of thinking about what she can do, Amber approaches the closest village as carefully as she can. It's already night and Amber can clearly see the lights in there, but... as she approaches, they seem to disappear down to a total darkness when she crouches down.

It couldn't have been her – Amber was surely careful enough not to cause any damage – walking even more carefully than in the trained zone... She sheds some light from her wristcom and places the headphone down next to the village – hopefully far enough not to kill any micros, but she could hardly see anything in this light. She also notices similar effect in nearby villages – especially when she turned her flashlight.

“Don't worry, I only want to talk.. could you approach the headphone please? I was promised it has something for you to talk back to me...” - she speaks softly, mindful of what she heard in the colony. If the micros here similarly fragile, it may be helpful to show them some good will.

After maybe ten minutes, the light on the headphone starts blinking – Amber asks if they are doing this, but of course they cannot answer her without the headphone on. She picks it up carefully and wears to hear:

“Don't listen to that monster, please you have to save us. Take us with you, we'll do whatever you want, just please...” - everything spoken in the saddest tone she has ever heard. Her micros always spoke more calmly.. even after the Lisa's visit. And even in her dying zone – the micro that killed itself in front of her seemed better... Amber has no idea what is happening here, but it does not sound good.

“I can't.. she would notice...” - she can only reply, unsure if that's her or...

“Then just kill us all, end this!” - followed by sobbing sounds.

For several minutes Amber hoped they would maybe fix themselves – Nicole told her how the micros in her untrained zones sometimes behaved crazy when she wanted to talk with them. Amber had no idea what that would mean and how to recognize it, but it usually improved when more responsible micros started talking... Nicole just waited a couple minutes to speak with proper ones.

Here.. after a couple minutes she could hear another voice, but... it was worse. Seemed to threaten that they will commit suicide if she doesn't help them – it sounded very real and... Amber cannot risk a larger population drop here, Andrea would blame her. The news would quickly spread among the firsts and nobody would talk to her. No, she needs to get out of here quickly... After rising up, she remembers what Nicole told her always calms the micros down when she is “rescuing” them and while still uncertain if it it will help with the suicides at all, speaks:

“Don't lose hope” - whatever that means and leaves before she can hear any responses.

There must be something wrong with Andrea did there, but how to figure out what was it... maybe Nicole or Kate will know? She will definitely need to speak to one of them tomorrow – neither responded to her mesgs, but Amber certainly needs to talk to somebody.








The next morning, Nicole sent her a mesg explaining she is busy, but they can talk in the evening – which would be okay. Amber can always work on the food – the micros in the trained zone should have prepared it by now. She hopes it's not one of those things they only can do during the day... it was ridiculous how it was supposedly slowing down the cleanup.

But she would like to talk to somebody, even Rachel – if she could ask her about things she tried to teach them in school... This time Amber would listen very patiently. Why didn't they give them a zone earlier to see just how hard it is to train micros... Even if not everything that they were taught would be useful, it still would surely have helped. But Rachel is in private mode, like so often... Maybe Kate?

After sending several mesgs, Amber finally gets a response – to meet her in the cafeteria. The assault two weeks back still makes Amber a bit insecure in the facility – Kate could actually hurt her here, zone field would not protect her... but she almost strangled her inside anyway, so it doesn't matter really. Besides, she wouldn't dare to attack her like that in a public place... or would she?

Amber needs to eat as well, so she just quickly fixes herself up and walks to the cafeteria – there are three firsts sitting together in the middle of the room and chatting happily, some third is with them... Alisa? Apart from them Andrea sits on towards the wall where Amber arrived and is eating – but quickly waves joyfully, expecting her to eat with her – but Kate is also there, back in the far corner.

So she walks by Andrea to chat briefly – it seems the micros haven't killed themselves as she is still happy and even asks her to meet up sometime later in the day... “maybe finally in one of your zones?” - but Amber explains how she wants to speak to Kate. “Sure, talk with the mute, why bother with your friend...” - Andrea comments.

“Hey, she's also my friend... ask Nicole if you don't believe” - Amber responds defensively, walks towards the assembler to grab her food and after several minutes walks to sit with Kate. She almost finished her plate – but surely will wait for them to talk.

“Hi Amber, how are you?” - Kate actually starts with a smile on her face. Happier than during the yesterday's meeting – hopefully more talkative as well.

“Oh hello, I'm great, and you?” - Amber returns the smile and sits down opposite to the other second.

“Likewise, so.. have you talked much longer after I left?”

“Nah, Nicole left quickly as well and it's not much fun to talk to myself...” - she jokes and Kate actually laughs.

Faked or not – this is probably the friendliest conversation they had in.. a year or so? Not something Amber would expect after... well, obviously. After a moment of silence opening her ration, Amber goes straight to the topic that interests her the most:

“Hey, I tried to figure out how to train my micros and I don't know how to stop them killing themselves. Have you maybe encountered something like that with yours?” - Kate's smile completely disappears, so she quickly continues - “But if you don't want to share secrets that's fine, I was just wondering if there's anything that maybe...”

“Not here...” - Kate speaks very quietly.

“Oh” - Amber only responds.

“How are your zones anyway” - Kate turns the smile back on... Hard to say what this all means, but... at least Amber can introduce the problem:

“Well, they are fine for the moment. At least the trained one is... the other, well, not so good – but also seems stable. They are no longer killing themselves” - Kate nods in silence, she's not even eating.. perhaps Amber should change the subject - “And how's your dress? Have you shown it to anybody else apart from yesterday?” - she has plain uniform again... Nicole would probably use the breakfast as a perfect opportunity to show off for the first time.

“Oh great, I still haven't used to it you know...” - and so they continue chatting about seemingly nothing for several minutes. Amber is eating in the meantime, but when she inquires if Kate is planning to finish her food – Kate just replies that she doesn't want to gain weight and raises to throw it out in a nearby recycler. Amber hopes she will sit back with her to talk, but instead Kate starts tweaking her wristcom – Amber wants to ask if she could wait a bit, but Kate just speaks:

“Meet with you later” - and vanishes. They usually teleport from their quarters – it's somewhat rude to move from public areas, you reappear in the same place which may cause accidents or at least scare the shit out of everybody. Well, maybe not that bad – but it's certainly creepy to have somebody appear behind you when walking down the corridor or similar.

But it wasn't the usual way to say goodbye, so... maybe Kate will actually want to talk to her later? Amber thinks how to approach this.. it seemed Kate actually knows something – she would have simply answered if she didn't. Perhaps she doesn't want the firsts to listen in? After all the secrets, lies and half-truths Amber heard from them, she wouldn't be surprised if Kate didn't want to just give away what she found out. And she was always very bright – if she has been talking to her micros for month and a half now, who knows what kind of tricks she may know... The headphone was certainly ingenious.

“Shit, I forgot about it when I teleported...” - Amber thinks realizing the fact. Normally she wouldn't care about stuff disintegrating when leaving a zone, but it was really convenient – perhaps Kate has some more? Or could she ask the builder-micros for another one... Either way, she continues to eat her food – Amber is already slim and even then doesn't bother about gaining a couple pounds, what's gotten into Kate about this...

Suddenly Amber gets a mesg – promised meeting with coords.. Amber is pretty sure it isn't Kate's zone – she took the time to actually remember the identifier.. the first zone any second has received and all, but already forgot the entire code. Still, anybody willing to talk to her was better than... actually, Amber has no idea how could she approach her problem.

Grabbing the last larger bits of the goo from the container into her mouth, she throws it out and walks back to her room quickly – in a hurry or not, vanishing in public looks bad. Some mothers do that – and you do not want to look like them. But now after locking the door – which became her habit already – she teleports to that zone. Of course they arrived on completely opposite sides - “probably empty then” - she concludes.

After almost a minute of fast walk they meed somewhere in the middle – well, Kate was walking more casually, but probably started earlier – and Amber is unsure how to proceed. Especially how she is a bit worried about being alone here.

“I didn't want the others to hear this...” - Kate starts and continues after a moment - “and I'd appreciate if you didn't tell anybody. Even Nicole...” - long time ago when they were just little girls, they used to have some secrets from Nicole – she always wanted to know everything about them and it was a way to “have something special that she couldn't learn”. Those were usually mundane things, like how much they ate in the morning or about some fun in their mother's zones – although it was usually Kate with the latter, Lisa was always too miserly for Amber to have much fun. They stopped doing that some time after hitting puberty though.

“Sure.. why do you...” - Amber wanted to ask why Kate wanted to meet here, but she obviously explained it.

“About your training” - Kate continues - “what is it that you're trying to accomplish?”

Amber thinks about this for a moment – there is no point in lying or covering facts – it's not like she is doing anything wrong and if Kate really figured out how to make such superb headphones, she must be talking to her micros often. But she realized it may be nice to emphasize that she understands now:

“Look, I'm really sorry about everything I did in your zone, I didn't want to talk more about it with Nicole present, but... When I lost one of my zones I realized just how hard it is to maintain micros...” - what was the word Nicole used? - “trust. I can imagine how you felt... No, I know how you felt when I was behaving irresponsibly and if it's any conciliation, I'm really sorry about it all.”

They just stare at each other for minute or so, Kate finally breaks the silence: “Thanks.. it means a lot...”

Amber thinks how to explain the problems with her micros – after talking with Andrea and her micros she still haven't figured out what she may be doing wrong. Surely the first told her how she approached her training – and a lot of it may have even been true, judging by the micros reaction... Has Kate encountered any of those problems? Maybe they could just talk them through and...

But Kate continues with her sight down and humbly expression: “I'm also sorry.. I... I may have behaved aggressively.. back there.”

“I'm fine and I understand...” - Amber wanted to explain how she also felt like this way when Lisa attacked her micros, but... this is the third time she sees such expression on Kate's face. No – on anybody's face.. it quickly fades, but it seems like her friend was really worried about all that. And how she must have blamed herself for that assault, obviously – Kate was _always_ so nice and gentle. Amber can only offer her a hug – it seems like the only appropriate thing right now – which Kate returns.

It seems they are really reconciled now and Amber cannot wait to explain her problems – but decides to wait until Kate calms down. In fact, she is quite perturbed as well.

After maybe a couple minutes, Kate breaks and takes a step back while speaking - “Lets get to those training problems of yours then. But.. what are you trying to accomplish?”

“Oh, you know – make them feel safe, confident. Surely increase the population over time. Eventually wouldn't mind a dress or two myself” - she laughs softly, but Kate doesn't, so Amber gets back to more serious tone - “I don't know. I just don't want them to be killing themselves like they were doing in that zone.. I... spoke to Andrea and I don't think her ways are right – the micros there are completely...” - she cannot find a word to describe it for a moment - “hopeless? I mean.. I'd still like to have some fun every now and then, but...”

“Of course you would” - Kate interrupts her visibly saddened. It almost seemed like she was brightening during Amber's explanation, but all that disappeared when she mentioned fun.

“What do you mean... wouldn't you?” - this was really strange, like one of...

“Can't you just stop killing them? Whatever you do, just don't... Why do you have to always...! Don't you even see...” - and turns around to hide her face.

Amber is baffled. It seemed important and she wants to understand, but... it reminds her of Kate's explosion a couple weeks ago and can only back out a couple steps. Was this all just Kate's game to make her forgive the assault? It seemed bad, but.. would the other second go to such length to hide something like that? It was just words, but.. Well, Nicole probably would – but Kate was always more honest.

Kate turns around interrupting her thoughts and speaks calmly - “Let's take a look at those micros of yours then...”

Rachel cannot believe the events of the last several days. The graduations were terrible, but she was expecting it. What Kate did, however...

She has no idea how to even interpret it – at first Rachel was convinced that it was clearly a trap. She was immigrated shortly after the discussion with Kate, there was no way anybody else could figure out they found something – which meant that Kate must have gone to Erica or at least some other mother.

The immigration part was also baffling.. of course they never looked if anything like this was possible – it wouldn't help to fix anything, not to mention that their situation was already getting worse even without such distractions. And no mother with a right mind would subject herself to that procedure knowing what might – and probably would – happen to her on the inside.

Rachel had no idea it was even possible to be involuntarily immigrated – from what she could recall, before the shutdown people needed to close their caretaker accounts and be deactivated – she never heard about somebody being forced to do it. It was actually the reverse – people wanted to go in and were being convinced to stay on the outside through various benefits. For many, the perspective of spending another decade in the claustrophobic and boring facility outside the green and vivid zones was unbearable. And since there was no way back, the new recruits were scarce...

But then of course there were the immigrations she noticed in logs... shortly after the shutdown. It seemed like people were vanishing with disregard for any procedures – what if the same happened to her now? What if this Gary Oleman that Kate found actually knew something. Rachel has checked his file just before being immigrated – he was still alive and well, it seemed. The strangest thing was that he wasn't even deactivated – and yet there he was, “immigration location: New Vienna”. She had no idea where it was or that they could view such details about the residents – but then of course she was working with completely different systems... Not to mention that before the shutdown it would probably require authorization levels far above any of the caretakers.

Even Erica shouldn't be able to do this, not without Rachel knowledge at least. What if it was the elusive operator that hacked the entire system during the shutdown? If Gary could actually help them regain control and she needed to be eliminated... she remembered that she was immigrated shortly after checking his file. But this was even worse as it would mean her situation was completely hopeless – there was no way to even this monster controlling the facility.

But she had no time to think about such things when she was teleported – in fact, she didn't think much about anything, completely shocked after arriving in the middle of a huge city. She has probably seen places like this many times.. and even destroyed some, but... Even laying down while visiting the zones her eyes were above the skyscrapers.

Rachel could barely remember some virtual experiences she watched for entertainment, even from the outside world, but.. being born in the facility shortly after it was constructed, she has never learned what if feels to be inside. Seeing or hearing about it is completely different from being there.

It was night, but far from dark – lights everywhere and seemingly unending flow of vehicles and people around her. Well, the vehicles were moving on the road in front of her – Rachel thinks it was called. It took her some time to even came to terms with what has happened – that it wasn't a dream and she was actually... inside a zone.

The next thought hit Rachel like an elevator – she was still wearing caretaker uniform. What if somebody recognizes who she was and... She remembered the stories she heard about “the people collaborating with the caretakers” and she still had her wristcom on – if anybody correlates those two facts, they may torture and kill her – the only chance was that it may have been one of her chambers. But everybody would have recognized her already – Rachel wasn't sure what they would do, but at least she tried to help people inside however she could, so perhaps...

Looking around the people's faces she noticed that nobody was worried about her or even noticed her sudden appearance. Everybody just passed her by and after some time she was only scared of so many people around her... the biggest crowd she has ever seen in one place was maybe two hundred people in the facility at once before the shutdown. Well, not counting the little people when visiting some zones – but it was a bit different. Was this chamber simply not ever visited? Rachel hardly had any idea how the life was inside – especially after the shutdown. She usually pictured sad and scared people scurrying away from the sight of angry caretakers trying to kill them, but this city was anything but that – alive and teeming with life.

Even despite it was a middle of the night.. barely past 3 A.M. - strangely enough, her wristcom was still functional when she looked what time it was, so she tried to play with it. She couldn't open any menus though - she was not “terraforming”, so the contextual menus were unavailable. All comms menus were offline as well and she couldn't access logs or in fact open any of the external systems... just local programs, it seemed. Has this happened to the other caretakers? What if they were all immigrated when she somehow made this operator aware that some people were still outside?

Regardless of what had happened, she realized she must find out more about where she is. Looking around more carefully, Rachel noticed... other caretaker suits in the crowd? It looked simply ridiculous.. they were forced to wear them outside, since the plain emergency uniforms were the only thing the assemblers were willing to manufacture, but to wear them inside a zone... At first she thought she was hallucinating, but the colors were right and although the costumes were more refined and were made in different shapes and materials, after closer inspection the orange C's on the various shoes, trousers and shirts clearly suggested that they must have seen this outfit somewhere. Some of them even had something like “wristcoms” on their left arms - although others without the “C uniforms” had much more compact devices. Probably just a simple computer without the dilation field refractor, locators and other devices critical for the caretakers.

There was no chance anybody would remember this from before the shutdown – the usual worker suits were completely different. They varied by function, but most caretakers used their plain clothes – simply whatever they liked. Not to mention that they were considered to be outcasts, nobody inside cared about them really... If some people here – maybe one in ten or so – actually wanted to “look” like a caretaker... What would it mean?

To make it more interesting, they seemed almost like.. proud the uniforms? She could even hear a voice that “look, she got the exact com replica” - Rachel looked around searching for whoever spoke that, but she wasn't used to crowds so she failed to even distinguish the direction it came from and nobody stopped by... if only she could ask somebody what this place is!

She eventually calmed down and realized it's not that bad – there was plenty of room.. more space than she seen in a century, in fact – the road stretched far into distance. She tried to find somebody who could help her – but random pedestrians that she asked either ignored her completely or told to get lost. Stopping a speeding car might be dangerous, so she finally just tries to follow the people in one direction – wherever they are going, there must be something, someone who would talk to her.

She still tried to ask some people for help and somebody wearing a simple blue uniform with no signs she could understand finally approached her and led her to.. some sort of an office? No, it was more like a gate – right there on the sidewalk. People were moving through scanning the devices on their arms, but of course the wristcom was not recognized by the device.

She still remembers the amount of trouble she was supposed to be in – the man led her inside some building “reminding” that fiddling with her “com” to avoid detection was an serious offense.. she tried to explain them she had no idea what they are talking about, but they wouldn't listen. She at least thought clearly enough not to confess where she just came from. Eventually they took a sample of her blood and started rambling about “the scanner being broken again” - of course they wouldn't find her in any local database.

It seemed the next days were a blur of various organizations dumping her somewhere else – obviously there were no immigrants in a long time and everybody kept asking her the same questions - “where is her com”, “why isn't she registered”, “where was she during the reorganizations”, “how has she managed to hide for so long”... They took her wristcom – Rachel was screaming when they were forcefully removing it.. losing it in a zone always meant death by uncontrolled dilation! To her shock nothing happened.. Rachel figured that was because she was already immigrated. And so she lost the track of time – nobody told her anything, she was just.. some kind of problem, an obstacle for their procedures, it seemed. Even when she finally tried to explain she came from the outside, the interviewer just nodded his head and wrote something down and left – she was thoroughly questioned for sanity next.

At least she had plenty of time to think about what may have happened – but without any information, she couldn't solve this puzzle. She figured that it couldn't have been Kate – her behavior was simply too convincing to be an act and the others would never tell her so much merely to catch Rachel sharing the secrets... Not to mention why use a real caretaker identity? The emergency id checked out, after all.

The only possibilities were that it was some freak operator – and she would have no chance of ever finding a way out – or some other mothers managed to figure out how to silence Rachel. But why not just kill her.. it seemed so convoluted. She wanted to believe it wasn't the elusive operator – but she feared it more and more. Was she going crazy? At times Rachel could almost swear she heared Kate's voice trying to calm her down or asked about things as if she were back in school – but of course it was insane.. Rachel was detained deep in the bowels of huge structures...

Now they are moving her in some airborne transporter and she could swear she saw a huge silhouette on the horizon... it seemed so unreal and Rachel could only see it for a couple seconds before the vehicle rotated obscuring her vision. She watched the side, as if the enormous form was laying down.. white uniform, long dark hair – Rachel prayed it could be the caretaker who she first thought of, but nobody would tell her anything – they seem to consider her to be crazy by now and without a working com she has no way to access any information network to even find out what is happening. She feels so helpless...

At least when they arrive at their destination, she finally meets a person who wants to talk to her seriously – a casually looking man in a business suit. She couldn't tell his age – they were all on the extension treatment. He explains how they noticed that she was somehow omitted by the reorganizations and however she managed to evade the service for so long – it is over now and whoever helped her would soon be found and penalized... By then she cannot believe how they can call such bureaucratic monster - “the service”...

He continues to explain how she will be “treated as” a regular citizen now, even despite her assurances of not knowing anything about their laws and rules. At least he gives her a com before leaving, but it is restricted to some “rehabilitation” course and she can only watch some dry facts about how happy everyone is now and how it happened. But after several hours she still cannot figure out what is it they want from her exactly.

When the man interviewing her earlier returns, he seems to turn off the cameras, their lights dim and vanish – she was already used to being constantly watched – and speaks:

“We all know how this is going to end. Your two weeks of the trial are already almost gone and you'll be stuck at the bottom of the service for decades. I'm sure such bright woman, such as yourself, can figure out a way to convince me to maybe make an exception...”

Rachel couldn't believe what she just heard. He continues to speak in a rather roundabout way – seemingly suggesting she might indulge him? This was the exact reason why she remained in the facility – being born and raised there Rachel simply had no idea how to deal with... such situations. She heard stories about violence and corruption – it was rare before the shutdown, but it still existed. And now he was asking her to...

“Are you asking me to prostitute?” - she finally interrupts him. At first she was scared about men being able to easily overpower her – in the facility they were all relatively weak. Nobody bothered to train.. what for, after all? They never needed to exert physically, except perhaps moving things inside the chambers – but nothing in there had even noticeable weight. Not to mention they didn't have access to any facilities for that. This man could easily force Rachel to do anything he wanted... was this the reason he turned off the cameras?

“Whoa, what gave you such idea? It's just fun if we're both consenting adults – and you gotta make the living somehow... It's taxes or life after all!” - this idea terrifies her, especially how seemingly satisfied he is with this.. proposal? Like he was doing this quite often.. abusing his authority for personal pleasure... Rachel cannot do this, not like that – but will they kill her if she cannot pay their “taxes”? It seems... monstrous and the only thing that comes to her mind is a wild guess:

“I want to talk to Gary Oleman” - the chances she is actually in this very zone are very small, but.. what choice does she have? Confessing that until recently she was a caretaker seems too late to be believable and she doesn't have any other useful skills...

He gives her a surprised look: “A conspirator of yours, huh?” - he searches on his virtual interface, most of the clerks aren't even using the more advanced “omnis”, just plain holographic display in front of her eyes. “I'm sure we can arrange something” - he concludes and leaves.

The next minutes consist of several men coming in and asking her about the details of how she knows him. At first they accuse her of simply hearing the name around – but Rachel continues to tell them she has no idea what they are talking about. Eventually they seem to have reconsidered it and start take her more seriously. “The last name was never revealed to the public by neither officials or Kate” - one of them speaks - “how do you know this?”

Rachel is afraid they will torture her to get to the bottom of this – but she just repeats her request. At least she is certain she can be saved now – if only Rachel can get to her. She was also surprised how they used the name: “Kate” - with respect and almost admiration...

Finally they connect her with the man she asked for – she can see video feed from some open space, outside any building or a city it seems, but he is wearing the same blue uniform many of her tormentors have... is he one of them? But she was so close.. it seemed at least...

“Who are you and what do you want?” - he asks. Rachel realizes she never gave them her name – it was weird how they never even asked about this, she was just a code for them... even after they figured they cannot identify her using their registers.

“I'm Rachel Johnson...” - she starts, unsure if it's safe to admit anything more.

“What kind of joke is this?” - he interrupts her - ”We've had enough people fooling around, sergeant – continue the interview” - he ends with an angry voice.

“No, wait!” - Rachel screams - “You have to listen to me. I know your emergency caretaker id!”

“Oh really? The whole zone knows it after Kate so generously read it aloud. I don't know how unimaginative you must be, but if you think...”

Rachel almost cries trying to figure out how to convince him – “No, please, you have to believe me. I was a caretaker in the facility until just days ago” - she is uncertain how much time has passed already - “I arrived in this chamber suddenly, I know Kate asked you about the pile of shit and what it is, because it was me who asked her years ago! Please, you have to believe me...” - and continues sobbing.

This was the last thing she could figure out, any details from the facility would take much longer to explain and even then Kate may have already spoke them for everyone to hear. Rachel cannot even look at the image, she just leans forward on her chair trying to cover herself – she is actually chained to it! Like she was some sort of criminal or... She was never treated like this! How can they...

But after a moment, she can hear the voice from the speakers: “Sergeant, leave her alone on the conf, recording off, right now” - suddenly very grave. Has she convinced him?

“Yes, sir!” - Rachel can hear. They even unchain her immediately and leave the room all at once. She tries to calm down and think clearly again – it was the culmination of days of psychic torture she had to endure. But now.. he had to believe her. He must already have! She looks up at the lone man at the other end of the connection.

“If this is some sort of a joke, I swear Crawford himself will learn about this!” - it seemed like some sort of threat, but.. Rachel has no idea what he means, so she just watches him dumbfounded and he inquires - “What happened?”

She explains how Kate visited her in.. another chamber – it seems almost unbelievable for her now as well – how they talked and she tried to find out more about him using the facility systems. She starts clarifying how they are very limited – but he asks her to skip it and tell how she appeared here.

“I have no idea.. one moment I was working on the terminal in the facility, the next thing I know I was standing on a street and...”

“I can imagine” - he summarizes, but Rachel thinks if he really can. She couldn't even describe what she went through the last couple days.. at least it seems it's over. Gary continues - “But almost two weeks have passed since your meeting with Kate. We were already getting worried... and certainly didn't expect to see you like this.”








They talked about the recent events for some time – but when Kate arrives, Gary tells that Rachel should get some rest – it's true, she feels extremely tired – and he has to “entertain her” - pointing towards the second. Rachel wouldn't think Kate would desire anything like that, but.. the sight on her display is menacing – even though from where Gary is standing, the enormous figure extends beyond the camera's view.

And she has... a dress? Rachel never asked the people in her zones to prepare her anything, it seemed monstrous. Was Kate really caring? Has she really understood everything? Rachel doesn't know what to think – the last thing she sees is Kate starting to disrobe herself. Fortunately Gary finishes explaining some officers here that she should be transferred and ends the transmission. Rachel is still deep inside some building – and although she probably could use her newly acquired com to play some video feed... she prefers not to watch this “entertainment”.

At least they are treating her more seriously now. The main problem is that is probably because they want to get more information from her later. Rachel hasn't told them anything useful so far and they must have figured that maybe being nice for her will yield more results. She hopes that Gary dies while serving Kate.. would suit him for all Rachel had to endure here. And there's probably more tortures to come... perhaps Kate could save her?

Even if the second doesn't really care, Kate may help her mindful of her friendship. Were they ever friends? It seemed she was the most compassionate of all girls and Rachel always was happy to talk with her, during school and afterwards.. but... she was still a caretaker. “One of them” - Rachel realizes shocked that she is no longer part of that group. Whatever fate Kate has planned for the people, Rachel is part of it now.

After quick talk and getting out of that dreaded interrogation room, some woman leads her to get something to eat and new clothes. She was still in her caretaker uniform. After the prostitution proposal she realized that was probably they haven't given her anything else, because she was about to be executed anyway – just another victim unable to pay taxes... but to treat her like that for two weeks!

No, Rachel needs to get to Kate – and explain just how terrible the things are down here. Will they even allow Rachel to talk to her? Maybe if she seems modest and reasonable.. it's still a long shot. What if she could pass her some information that only somebody from outside would know? Would Kate realize that Rachel must be here? She definitely needs to think up a plan.

The clothes are fairly decent – even though it's only “the standard issue service uniform”, the same plain blue two-part suit as many others are wearing plus some underwear. Rachel had to take a bath before dressing up... she was so filthy.

To torture her for two weeks!

At least the bath is simply perfect. Well, it was just a dedicated compartment with a regular tub filled with water and some sanitation products, but Rachel was finally alone and she hasn't been able to relax like this ever since the shutdown. Despite the facilities were still being there – they couldn't get access to them – and using the hygiene pod for cleaning was.. more tedious than refreshing. But nobody interrogated her outside – oh they will learn, she already started plotting.

After at least an hour in the bathtub, she starts to feel hungry – the promise of food already affected her. Rachel never cared much about it after the shutdown, it was only a necessity, but it actually had taste here.. if only the rations weren't so small. She was constantly starving – it seemed they didn't want to spend too much resources on the “late tax-payer”...

Wearing the clothes, she realizes just how comfortable they are – being limited to the emergency uniform, she has long forgotten how normal clothes feel like. For at least a decade since the sixty six percent... The caretaker uniform was very practical, but also fairly rough and irritated the skin a bit. Sure they used to it. They had to, since nobody prepared any clothes in case the assemblers refused to manufacture anything else.

This is soft, pleasant and more flexible – despite being just the “standard issue”. “Enough daydreaming” - Rachel concludes and moves back to her handler to grab something to eat. This time the dish is quite plentiful – she hears how her guaranteed calories limit was upgraded to one of a service member. “How lovely” - she can only comment.

Limited or not – this is really great. Absolutely fantastic. Even though she realizes it's probably just a steak from synthesizer with some easily farmed potatoes and some salads.. after more than a century of eating the tasteless goo known as emergency rations... Even if Rachel's fate is to be a prisoner here, she could get used to this.

But this relaxation and a great meal already made her sleepy – she wonders if they drugged the food, but.. doesn't really care about it right now. It's not like she can do anything about it anyway. She feels satiated – wouldn't mind a bit more, but that's probably caused by the insufficient nourishment in the.. two weeks? The officer Rachel talks with seems more empathic than the others, so she inquires how is that possible that this time went so quickly – and is shocked to hear the bureaucrats probably kept her under in sleeping pods while figuring out what to do.

Great.

And now she is supposed to get into one of those.. things – which seem more like holding pods. She already admitted how tired she was – were they trying to make Rachel feel comfortable with this handler so she could get manipulated? She feels so vulnerable here, there is no way she can protect herself...

So she eventually gives in and goes inside in a middle of explanation how almost everybody sleeps like this nowadays. “Yeah, like prisoners..” - Rachel thinks - “what kind of hell is this place?”

She briefly notices how the pod must be manipulating internal gravity field to produce a horizontal low-g acceleration, which is makes this confined space so.. comfortable. Somehow it doesn't seem that bad – although this sudden wave sleepiness must have been caused by some kind of drugs...








At least when Rachel woke up, she was full of energy to act – and kept further brewing plans to outmaneuver whatever despotic organization they have here. She needed to learn more about it first, so she used any chance she got to inquire about the details of what was going on with this “service” of theirs, Kate in the chamber – at first Rachel wasn't sure if it was just her hallucination, but quickly learned that Kate really arrived here several weeks back and they are still trying to figure out how to deal with this new reality.

She also learned that overseeing the whole operation was nobody else but James Crawford – she didn't recall the name earlier, but... Gary might have just as well threatened that Bonaparte might want to guillotine her or casually mentioned that Hannibal would drop by for the tea party...

Crawford was one of such masters of strategy she learned about in history – and probably one of the best, since he had billions of contenders at the time. Rachel only remembered some details – probably the most renown accomplishment was the pacific conflict in the early twenty first century, which shortly followed the much criticized publication about coastal supremacy in all-out automated submersible warfare. Rachel was never a fan of any kind of warfare, but the way how he proved all his critics wrong was so ironic that made it easy to remember. Especially how it was revealed later that he basically accomplished this with very little core army help. Most of the drones were automated and he only demanded funding from the U.S. government – and once they gave him what he needed, he won the war. But he wasn't a politician – even that enormous success wasn't used by the leaders and the resulting power void that followed led to multiple other conflicts.. such as wars for the Antarctic and Indonesian upheaval.

Still he managed to prove his skills once and again in those conflicts – even though he seemed to participate in them more as a contractor than a patriot of any kind.. still usually sided with the newly united North American forces. And brought them a lot of victories. The first man to hold all three sea admiral, land general and air commander insignia at once – during the fourth Gulf war. Crawford was said to single-handedly plan and command the defense to eventually turn it into a devastating counterattack.

He was also known for overthrowing the global government – well, it wasn't his aim at the time and didn't even mean to he spark the movement, but his publicized criticism of the lack of organized action in the wake of assembler apocalypse – and even how the legislation that followed wasn't adequate. He was said to have left the Atlantis project seeing it as hopeless – materials that were leaked after the disaster clearly shown how he pinpointed the weaknesses of this approach, proposed better solutions – which were especially meaningful given his extensive maritime strategic experience... even nicknamed the entire monstrosity “Atlantitanic”. The officials of newly united worldgov didn't listen – the “too big to fail” doctrine seemed to have surfaced again... It was widely acknowledged that those leaks sparked the movement to rise against the stubborn and overconfident bureaucrats – even though it caused even more chaos during the civilization's downfall.

How ironic that it seems he created exactly the same situation here... the clumsy and overgrown organizations that treat people like garbage – and it's up to Rachel to bring it down. She has no idea how she can even compete with such people, but.. she has Kate. If Rachel can get to her, then they will have to listen to what she says – poor girl probably doesn't even know what is happening here.

After watching some recordings, Rachel also learned just how careful and honest Kate was in here. By correlating the events, she could understand her transition – the questions in Amber's graduation and their private discussion.. it was simply amazing how quickly she learned so much.

Rachel was transported to some sort of command center later in the morning - at least they treated her differently now. She had different handlers over the day – which was strange considering how it seemed they wanted to gain her trust. In the vehicle a woman that was supposed to answer her questions asked awkwardly if she was, by any chance, “the Rachel” - and the confirmation seemed to have shocked her quite a lot. “Good” - Rachel concluded in her thoughts - “they will have to listen to her once she explains Kate what's wrong with this place.”

They started discussing various things shortly after her arrival – Gary was there with several other ex-caretakers and a multitude of experts explained various problems they had. Rachel was careful not to tell them too much – especially about the secrets that only she and Kate knew. Fortunately the topics were fairly general and revolved around their confined situation here and how they could improve it.

So she explained them how it's impractical to micro-assemble specialized equipment and strengthening the dilation field is not an option – it was the only long-term energy source in the zones and they have been struggling with the limits imposed by the chamber equipment. Before the shutdown it would be just a matter of reconfiguring the preset minimum – which was there to only prevent accidents – but now.. even on the outside she would have no way to manipulating such parameters.

Rachel also learned much about their situation here and the details of Kate's sightings inside – one of the specialists asked hesitantly about the reasons for the other's rash behavior, but she told him that he doesn't want to know the details - Gary dismissed it all by stating that it's better they focus on the matters at hand. It seemed like Gary and his team weren't that much surprised by this honest reply as much as some others. They must know something more.. but how to extract this knowledge from them? It Rachel must be aware of what they know if she can ever fool them.

Technical issues followed and now some other scientist is explaining how they are struggling with the limited amounts of base materials, like constant shortages of carbon, potassium and sodium – which impacts the farming quite significantly, reducing crops and even making greenhouse planting less efficient. They've been optimizing various ways to use the energy more efficiently, but the amount of compounds for the plants was the limit – no matter how drastic the genetic modifications are.

Rachel explained them already that she haven't ever heard about this problem due to much smaller populations everywhere else – forty five million was like.. way too much for any chamber – and the easiest solution she would recommend was colonization. They seemed to be a bit confounded by this concept – obviously the all-watching big brother didn't want to lose his subjects... - but instead of pursuing it further they turned to another, still somewhat related problem.

They already noticed a steady increase of the water vapor and carbon dioxide content in the air that was attributed to Kate's simply staying inside and while it was beneficial to the farming so far, their estimates show that in just three to six months it could become a serious problem – depending on how much time “the caretaker” spends inside.

Rachel has never thought about this – they were all just staying in the chambers for as long as they liked, there were no issues with that – but it obviously made sense. Although the simple compounds are properly dilated and dedilated during breathing out and in respectively, the local biosphere could not possibly produce enough oxygen for a full-size person. It would be like.. a trillion micro sized people? Not to mention if several of them were visiting at once.

They are completely baffled by the answer that it was never investigated on the outside – but also no adverse effects of prolonged stay in the chambers were noticed. Rachel suggested it may be associated with the climate control facilities of the shielding equipment, but she doesn't want to elaborate on the topic, being worried some of them could ask her what exactly they were doing inside for longer periods of time... Especially how she hastily used the word “we” once.

Rachel suddenly realizes and explains that Kate can solve the shortage of other materials very easily by moving the raw micro matter directly into the zone. They are surprised by this, but she elaborates that only the micro-assembler throughput is the bottleneck there – and the raw materials are easily available.

“That would be greatly helpful, but will Kate know how to accomplish this?” - inquires one of the caretakers – was his name John? Doesn't matter, Rachel figures it's a perfect moment to mention the crucial part of her plan – and “casually” answers:

“It's simple enough I'd be able to explain her in a quick couple minutes discussion” - which is followed by nervous looks and silence. She feared this – they may not let her talk to Kate, probably being worried of her doubts reaching “the caretaker's” ears. The language they used was also strange.. didn't they know she was a caretaker as well? Gary always introduced her as an external specialist, without names or anything. At least they didn't ask personal questions – the entire discussion was very formal and pragmatic. She also managed not to give away her identity – but.. she could see that some of them know who she is.

After a couple dozen seconds, Gary breaks the silence and asks everyone to leave – except Rachel, obviously. They were sitting in a conference room high above the ground level – it had a marvelous view on the surrounding city and the areas around it. Of course she wasn't new to seeing settlements from high above, but... this perspective was so much different and she couldn't remember the last time she seen any of the VR experiences – they lost access to all that with the shutdown.

Of course she didn't have much chance to enjoy the views as she was sitting with her back to the transparent glass and watched the screens on the opposite wall displaying various presentations. Gary sat right by her left – on the head of the table facing the door and now he speaks some muffled responses to his com while everybody else gather their belongings and move towards the exit on the far side of the room. Well, it wasn't very big – but the office table had enough space for twenty.. twenty something people to sit around comfortably and there was plenty of space space beside it.

She sees Crawford talking with some experts outside – he wasn't taking part in the discussion, but apparently will be questioning her now. Rachel is certainly worried and afraid – her future probably depends on this interrogation. The earlier meeting lasted for.. almost six hours, but the issues were only technical. They will probably want to question her motives now.

Rachel thinks how she should approach this interrogation. Obviously she cannot tell them what she thinks about their organization here and demanding access to Kate could be seen as desperate. The casual mention of this seemed good enough – but what arguments can she use if they won't want to let Rachel speak with her? She heard several times that Kate was worried about prolonged silence from her, but it wasn't frantic.

To tell the truth, she wasn't sure if Kate can stay calm when she hears that Rachel is here – but they went through multiple recorded conversations with “the caretaker” and she confirmed their suspicions for the situation outside. Rachel didn't want to defame Kate by telling the truth about her past, since that would potentially impact Rachel's own chances of survival. She tried to focus on the conviction that she understands everything now and they should be safe with her.

Was it a mistake? Maybe she should have created atmosphere of danger to force them to let her somehow influence Kate to be more careful? It could be hard after the confessions and emotions she displayed – but they only showed how ignorant she was earlier. Perhaps if she underlined how the children on the outside are hardly educated and don't even know the basics about the world around them.. is it too late to switch to this version or at least point it out to make them feel less secure?

She decides to stick to the original version – judging by the earlier discussions they must be already fairly uncertain of Kate's true motives and perception of the world. They didn't admit it openly, but.. Rachel could see it in their faces, hear in their voices.

Now it doesn't matter that much and simply looking calm and serious seems more important. Gary already seemed convinced that Rachel is harmless and if he asked everyone out to let her actually converse with Kate.. she must not reveal her true agenda. The best way would be if she could exchange a couple words with Kate directly – she has prepared several “casual” expressions that should suggest the second that something is wrong, but their true meaning would probably get lost if she relayed them. It has to be her to say them – hopefully she can route the discussion to one of them...

And staying calm is not easy, since the authoritative figure enters the room and the doors close softly behind him. On the corridor outside Crawford stood up from the crowd, even other men – judging by the wall behind him now, probably six and a half feet.. an inch or two more perhaps – easily a foot taller than Rachel. They didn't really care about height in the facility, since the usual differences were maybe a couple inches. Here.. Rachel still felt weak and vulnerable next to normal men, but Crawford...

Not only tall, but also muscular – easily twice Rachel's weight, could overpower her like a small child. No wonder they listened to him – he was literally personification of charisma and centuries of experience. She heard how they call him “the old man” - not because of age, but rather out of respect. A lot of people here is in their third hundreds or beyond and so “the” is really meaningful. Even Gary uses that expression, although he dates from before the uTopia as well – about two decades older than Rachel, from what she could figure out.

She overheard the conversation outside to be focused on their last topic, how raw materials could help with the industry and agriculture – perhaps they simply wanted to confirm if that's fine with him? Rachel doesn't want to get her hopes up as the massive man walks around the table towards her. So much for calories limits.. but of course not everyone has to follow the rules, especially the ones in charge...

She thinks how to begin the discussion with something convincing yet harmless, but he starts first:

“So nice to finally meet you, miss Johnson, although we were hoping to have somebody more responsible on the outside...” - he speaks without waiting for her to introduce herself or even return the greeting - “I understand you had some plans to fix the situation?”

Kate must have told them about their conversation.. and back then Rachel didn't really have anything solid, just a hope that to access something more... She wanted to comfort Kate and calm her down, lower the chances of her doing something hasty – like talking to others about this. Asking her to wait seemed like the safest bet. Of course it all failed – just like all other Rachel plans. Was this attempt to be heard also doomed? Have they already figured it out? No.. she must not lose hope:

“Hello, I assume you must be mr..” - she remembers what the stars on his shoulders mean.. is this some kind of military dictatorship then? But simply adds - “general...”

“Just mister Crawford, at your service” - adds leaning to rest on the table about three feet from her chair. But why would he wear... - “I heard you expressed a desire to talk with your friend...” - he inquires - “We are surprised ourselves by your presence here, are you certain it's wise to share this revelation with miss Kate?” - they expressed worries about her emotional stability several times already and Rachel could understand them – especially after the not-so-careful arrival and later events...

“As far as I know her, she can take it” - she lies. The last time they talked, Kate passed out from shock...

Crawford switches back to standing upright and moves towards the window – Rachel looks at Gary, who seems to be looking at his boss.

“Your opinion?” - Rachel can hear Crawford's voice from behind her. Looking back she notices him looking outwards, at the city, no – beyond it.. at...

“Oh my...” - Rachel gasps. She hasn't seen Kate with her own eyes earlier – just on the videoconf with Gary and a couple recordings.. which were all intimidating, but didn't show the full scale of the...

Kate.

Laying down on her back – still absolutely towering over her surroundings. Rachel was already getting used to how the huge distances inside the zone. Perspectives that she has not seen since before the shutdown – and even then the chamber grounds looked quite differently. Everything here seemed.. so spacious. But this view of Kate... It was unreal. Especially how she was familiar sight and it felt like with just a couple steps Rachel could reach her...

Of course she is miles away. Trying to calm down, Rachel looks around – seeking peace in stability of the environment. It doesn't help.. the skyscrapers suddenly seem like toys, highways like thin lines and even the towns in between are like little spots of civilization on the background of carpet-like farmland... All dominated by completely immobile giantess on the horizon. It looks like so surreal that Rachel could believe it's some kind of a visual trick.

But then she notices that Kate is actually moving.. casually breathes causing her chest to move up and down by a fraction of an inch... no – by hundreds of feet, in Rachel's scale. She casually stirs her bare feet in the air.. even though they rest on the ground, Rachel realizes the toes are over a mile in the air. The sneakers lay beside her like.. some monumental structures. She can see Kate carefully calming her hair – relaxing in the afternoon sun... Rachel perception keeps switching between two views: one as some sort of gigantic geographical structure among cities and farms and another being just a young caretaker among...

Rachel doesn't want to think “micros”, but that's what she is now. At some point she realizes that all her plans and struggles against this organization are for nothing – she knows that girls are doing in their chambers and no matter what Rachel does now, she will die... The only question is whether it will be quick or long and...

“... Miss Johnson?” - Crawford interrupts her chain of thoughts. No, she needs to remain calm:

“I'm sorry.. I got a bit...” - Rachel doesn't even know how to call it. She knew what she will see here, just.. never imagined it to be so... immense.

“Of course” - they seems to wait for her to speak.

“I'm sorry, I missed the question.”

“Yes” - despite talking to her, Crawford continues to look outside - “This sight tends to have that effect on people” - and pauses.

Was this how she looked in other chambers? It must be... She can understand the almost divine adoration she got from some people – ever since Rachel realized how wrong was what they were doing, she tried to avoid staying inside for too long, but... It seemed that no matter how quickly she spoke with them, in some places people always found ways of demonstrating their admiration.

And now she is just another subject of Kate, who seems to be laying peacefully – but still threatens her sanity. But...

“When did Kate got here? She wasn't here before...” - Rachel thinks that she hasn't really paid any attention to those windows, but rather was focusing on the discussion completely.

“Yes, she moves very carefully now.. so much so that one can hardly feel the subtle shakes a hundred kilometers away” - Rachel is unsure if the comment is ironic and doesn't care - “Gary here was just expressing his perception of you talking to our benefactress as a good idea.”

“Well, Sir, actually what I meant” - Gary explains - “was that Kate seemed to have responded well to the lifestories and we were preparing to move forward with...”

“But all this is irrelevant now, isn't it?” - Crawford interrupts, she looks back and notices Gary is not afraid or worried, just... saddened by the apparent failure of some plans. Were they associated with Rachel? What else could have made them irrelevant?

But more important question is how did Kate “respond well” to some other plans. During her graduation, Kate seemed eager to begin training “her micros” - full of hope and energy to do it “properly”. Usually that approach heralded massive genocides – at least whenever the firsts tried it. Rachel never wanted to hear the details, but it seemed the seconds would follow the same path... Kate even approached Rachel to question her about practical advices for training.

It seemed she had everything planned already: food, tools, medicine – just like Rachel taught her in school, based on her own experience with the people situation in chambers. She eventually suggested something along the lines of “killing too many of them will impact their attitude” - which was the closest thing to asking for not killing the people that Rachel could muster.

It seemed hopeless though – she could see from Kate's questions that she simply didn't want them to “spoil” like many of the firsts zones. Merely worried about her “gift”...

Have the people here been training Kate?

It seems daunting – and Rachel tried to do this with her own daughters, but they somehow ignored everything she explained the people to tell them. Or perhaps they didn't even bother to listen? Of course neither Kimberly nor Courtney would talk to their mother openly – after all, “she was crazy”. Especially how they always treated the zones as their playgrounds. Before Rachel managed to implement the “ownership” model, they would just roam around and “have fun”... as Lisa and Lauren insisted on calling it from the early times.

Rachel felt terrible for not opposing them more decisively – but it was really Erica's words and actions that pushed the mothers towards violence. Terrible genocides – and Rachel also took part in it.. at the beginning, at least. Amy was always undecided – somewhere on the edge, but she would support them behaving more peacefully... If only Erica didn't follow those two monsters. And of course once she made her decision, there was no reasoning with her.

And now Kate is part of this – having being ignorant her whole life of what is really happening. At least they split up the zones before they really started enjoying themselves – but eleven years of using live zones as their playgrounds... It is horrid to even think about it. Rachel cannot even begin to understand how she managed to figure it out...

But they must have taught Kate. She was always open to new information – unlike everybody else would actually listen. Rachel heard they talked with her a lot in the beginning – and she must have noticed that something is wrong and the realizations that followed were only the next steps to discovery. They went through what happened after Kate's arrival and there were quite many moments that Rachel could see that she learned more and more.

Of course if they explained it all at once she probably would have dismissed it – just like all seconds did in the school whenever Rachel tried to suggest them that “micros” are like them. “How ridiculous” - others commented while Kate remained silent, but Rachel could see that she didn't get it either. How could she.. how could “those dots” be somehow like them.

And now Rachel is one of those dots.. at the mercy of... No, Kate must understand it all and will be good. Maybe she already has – Rachel recalls the recording of Kate sobbing once she heard about one person's death.. one she never seen, the life of whom she couldn't even imagine. But if she really managed to “respond well” to that, she must...

“So what do you think?” - Crawford ends the long silence, currently facing Rachel. Regardless of what will happen to her, she needs to give them hope that Kate will understand:

“I think she was always careful and open to new ideas” - she answers simply. It seems insufficient, given that their lives may very well depend on this, but.. what else can she say? They must have noticed how shocked she was at this sight herself...

“Can we trust her?” - Crawford turns towards the window, observing Kate's humongous form. The question seems ridiculous in itself, like...

“I don't think you have a choice” - she summarizes. He just stands there without a word. Obviously he understands it... Suddenly Rachel can see him in a different way – an ancient military genius, stuck here in this struggle against a force that is so much beyond his capabilities that there is absolutely no way how they could make a stand.

If Kate stood up right now and started destroying everything around her, there wouldn't be a thing they could do – and not only absolutely way of stopping her, but also nowhere to run... At this distance they couldn't even leave the room before she would have crushed the entire city flat – if she started with it, at least. The very idea of “not trusting” was preposterous – like what would they do exactly. The lack of response suggests Rachel that he knows this... or does he? After all, how could they know anything about what is happening outside:

“Perhaps I should explain more about how the world looks like on the outside and how Kate's current behavior is different from anything...” - she starts.

“The fact I haven't questioned your comment should tell you that I understood it” - he interrupts. Rachel thinks about it for a moment and it still doesn't make sense.

“But how could you think you know everything from just a few conversations with Kate and several encounters with others?” - she inquiries.

Crawford turns towards her and seems to measure her up, as if deciding if he can trust her now. There is nothing more that Rachel can add now – she tried to seem honest and genuine, but if he figures she is hiding anything...

“We have entire teams working on everything your overgrown friend does and says. And then there is... another source” - a what? They confirmed earlier that all communications with the outside was cut down with the shutdown – just like everywhere else. He seems to think whether he should tell Rachel about this, but eventually continues - “One day Kate returned with a different hairstyle and we a parachute was spotted near her neck shortly after her arrival...”

Rachel hears about how they managed to intercept “mr. Leibner” before anything happened to him and received a lot of information on the outside. Apparently he lived in Lauren's “salon” zone and despite being just a simple worker, he managed to survive for long enough to hear a lot about what the mothers spoke while in there... The other mothers never cared if any “micros” overheard their conversations – it was cruel, but the only way to guarantee confidentiality was to seek an empty zone and nobody bothered with that. After all, what would the people do with this information?

But all he said was crucial for the people here – although they only got seemingly unconnected scraps of information about some events that happened and habits the others had, it was enough to build up a fairly solid understanding of what is going on. Rachel is worried what other mothers may have said about her.. if they ever mentioned what she did – there would be no way they would ever trust her. She couldn't see that in the earlier meeting, but most participants probably didn't know everything about this.

Still it would explain some more specific questions she was asked – like whether Kate expects them to somehow indulge her. She mentioned at some point something about the “entertainment” and Gary explained it wasn't anything like that – just a little joke of his, related to something Crawford told him. But it sparked largely uneasy discussion on the topic. Rachel didn't know what to tell them – even she was “indulging” herself with some playtime, but... Would Kate do anything like that?

She hasn't so far, even failed to understand what some crazy voyeur was doing on her chest – the girls had very little if any, experience with sexuality. Especially the other gender... Rachel was never the social type, but she had some fun... before the shutdown, of course – she wouldn't call what they were doing in the zones this way.

Fortunately Gary dismissed such questions as irrelevant to the discussion and they returned to more technical topics. Yes, Gary must have been familiar with this Leibner guy, especially how calm he was now that his boss admitted it – and he still seemed to trust her, but Crawford probably knows much more. She complains that they could have told her about this earlier, but they dismiss it on behalf of not wanting the details to be more widely known.

She criticizes it as some sort of conspiracy, but Crawford simply puts it off and tells her how “she will understand why they did it” - of course she will.. after being forcefully interrogated or tortured further... Has she told them too much? Have her remarks made them doubt her seriousness? While she thinks if there is anything that she could say to convince them, Crawford just sits by the table and starts manipulating some sort of device in the middle of it.

Rachel hasn't seen any of those since.. some recordings from the old world, but recognizes it as a communicator – well, “the old man” must have his habits...

“There you are, miss Johnson, feel free to talk with your friend” - and pushes something on it, as if starting the call.. no, unmuting it – she reads the label. This is it.. but will Kate believe her? How can she even start... normally talking to her wasn't a problem, but this... - “What's wrong, miss Johnson, cat ate your tongue?” - Crawford comments after muting the device again.

“I don't know.. where do I even speak to?” - she tries to diminish the impression of her seemingly visible shock by suggesting she was looking for the microphone.

“The room has an integrated audio system, you can talk in any direction and it will be picked it up clearly” - he explains and unmutes the speaker again.

Well, here we go – she concludes and rotates the chair to watch Kate as she speaks:

“Hello Kate” - Rachel starts casually, unsure if this is just a trick to probe her motives. What she sees is just shocking – the gigantic form in the distance suddenly starts moving as Kate looks around for the source of this voice.. poor girl must have recognized her voice and thinks she is hearing things - “Please don't be alarmed” - if only Rachel could calm herself down so easily... - “I'm talking through your headphone, as I understand the current arrangements.”

“Rachel...” - comes a response from the speakers, the sight of the enormous face moving in sync with those words is just impossible to comprehend at first. Kate is very careful and slowly sits up, but continues to look around puzzled – as if unsure what to do or say. Rachel is simply speechless by the movement, but after almost a minute Kate continues - “I don't understand, what happened? Where are you? How are you...” - her tone seems frantic, Rachel needs to comfort her.

“Kate, please relax” - she seems to take a couple deep breaths.. there goes our oxygen then... but Rachel continues after a short pause - “I wish I knew what happened, but the undeniable fact is that I was immigrated here somehow.”

“But...” - Kate starts another sentence but stops, she must be really shocked. Rachel realizes they have nothing to fear from this giantess – at least for the time being – and she can continue her plot.

“When it comes to where, if you look down and to your left..” - Rachel figured that they may be scared of acting against her if Kate could revenge her and she indeed rotates her head - “just a bit further, follow the road to the city... there”. Rachel looks around at somewhat uneasy expressions of both Crawford and Gary. They aren't worried or scared, but rather.. annoyed she brought Kate's attention towards them.

Rachel thinks if it was a good idea. She heard from Gary in the meeting earlier how they were trying to keep her “entertained” outside the immediate surroundings of the cities, as even though she tried to be careful, well... what happened during Amber's first visit was bad enough. But Kate wouldn't do that, not since she knows – in the end Rachel is not sure if she can even convince herself they are safe.

And Kate just sits there looking at her. Obviously she watches the entire city, probably unable to notice many details of it due to the distance – about sixty to eighty miles, but... it seems like she is looking directly at Rachel. Those huge eyes looking down from high above. She slowly rises her arm and... waves gently? Rachel wants to return the expression, but realizes it would be pointless.

After a silent minute or so of, Kate resumes - “But when did it.. how did it happen, are you okay?” - there's her chance. While it's not directly related to her question, one of the lines Rachel has prepared earlier should fit:

“I just appeared here about.. two weeks ago” - she looks right for confirmation and Gary nods - “I honestly have no idea to how, I wouldn't think anything like that would even be possible and.. Yes, I'm okay, we had a little misunderstanding here, but I'm just fine...”

All depends on what Kate does next. Both Gary and Crawford seem to have missed it – or ignored the somewhat unrelated remark. Crawford seems a bit more annoyed, but doesn't move or speak. But Kate.. she seems to still be surprised by this revelation. If she doesn't realize this now, perhaps she will recall the words later...

But suddenly she turns more shocked and speaks in a more confident tone: “Is this true? What happened?”

Gary speaks before Rachel is able to figure out how to hint it without giving away her plan - “We were just discussing many things earlier today when you were away, Kate.. there is nothing to worry, really.”

“Rachel?” - she demands.

“Yes.. it's nothing really, I'm fine and that's all that matters now” - hopefully it should be enough to convince Crawford she meant no harm, but Kate continues:

“James, I trust you will listen to whatever Rachel asks you to do and there will be no more misunderstandings.”

“Of course, miss Kate” - Crawford replies, how did she even know that he was here? On the other hand she must have assumed that whatever she says will eventually reach everyone... From what Rachel has seen so far, she still treats the people as not much more than conversation companions – seemingly existing mainly for her amusement. At least she doesn't kill them. On the other hand how would she behave – it's not easy to have normal relations with somebody ten thousands times smaller... not to mention the girls never knew how “normal relations” would look like in the first place. By the time they were born, the facility felt more like a death pit than any kind of “normal” place – not the best location to be raised in.

But is Kate's demand too much? It sounded just as non-negotiable as a ten mile person could possibly be. The very idea of disobeying it is absurd, but what if it doesn't stop them from hurting Rachel? She needs to change the topic not to anger them further:

“Listen, Kate.. we were thinking if you could get some materials...” - just like they were discussing earlier. Both Gary and Crawford nod their heads when she looks at them for approval here and they seem more comfortable now. So she explains how there are ways to get materials directly from the micro-storage and although Kate will not be able to use the dedicated queues, she can move the containers directly to an empty zone to pick up and bring them here.

And so they list the things they could use – medium bio-support-pack to satisfy the farming needs, raw metals – just a couple grams of each.. it should be more than enough for a long time. Moving onto rare elements, the quantities turn into hundreds or just dozens of milligrams.. and each corresponds to a thousand tons of material. This chamber was never meant for industrial development and had very little of them embedded during the original sculpting – so it will greatly help the specialized industry they have developed.

They ask several specialists back in and wait for Kate to slowly write the names and quantities down in her wristcom... Rachel realizes that the girl has no idea what they are, but it seems everyone inside is more impacted by this ignorance than she is. Although she would never hurt them, it's obvious from voices and faces that they feel somewhat insecure when Kate asks how to spell this “Neu-dymium” - it seems they are used to it after six weeks of dealing with her, but still...

Finally they conclude the list should be complete for now and she reads what she has written – communicating Gary's emergency code must have been just as subtle, Rachel thinks. She asks before leaving:

“Rachel.. are you sure everything is.. fine?” - this is no good, she wanted to hint that something is wrong, but Kate is too obvious with this.

“Yes, of course. Don't worry about it” - but then Rachel realizes she shouldn't dismiss it completely. She may still need help despite the Kate's order at the beginning of their discussion. Maybe it's best not to comment it further - “One more thing, Kate – about your dressing up... You don't have to do it here in front of everybody. You can move to some empty zone first, you know...”

It is a strange sight for Rachel to see this goliath in front of her blush like a young woman... who she is, in fact. Maybe it won't end terribly, after all? The main problem is that whoever got to Rachel may eventually hit Kate as well. Without her.. well, let's say that every other “caretaker” would mean death and suffering.

After a moment of silence, Kate collects herself and explains that she will leave now - “... but I'll be back quickly” - which comforts Rachel greatly. Kate will certainly want to talk with her again.

After the second vanishes to the facility, Rachel looks around to analyze her situation. The specialists they asked to help with the chemical elements list are already gone and she is back alone with Gary and Crawford. The ex-caretaker shows mixed emotion, something between uncertainty and satisfaction, but his boss... seems simply annoyed. He was facing the windows while she exchanged last sentences with Kate, but now rotates towards her directly.

Before Rachel can speak a word, he starts: “I have no idea what it was about or what kind of secret keywords you used, but if you have anything to tell us about why you seem to have greatly distressed Kate – you better tell us now.”

It doesn't necessarily sounds like a threat, but certainly isn't in line with what Kate demanded. Rachel considers if she is in danger – it seems they will have to allow her to talk with the caretaker again, but.. will they? An excuse of “feeling tired” should suffice for today – Kate would probably understand it. And then... Rachel has spent so much time in the severely restricted space of the facility that she forgot how easy it is to emulate voice. She has given them more than enough samples, they wouldn't even have to scan her throat – and even then it would be easy enough. That coupled with a simple visualization – Kate would never be able to see the difference.. of course they would have to salvage all her secrets, but how long she can withstand proper torture? She barely lost her mind during the bureaucratic treatment.

It's hopeless, all her plans are for nothing – it seems that after centuries of making the worst choices she just doomed herself to short and painful downfall. Even if Kate somehow discovers that something is wrong... will she be able to really threaten them and figure out how to save Rachel?

“Well?” - Crawford hurries her. He is not really angry as much as.. simply annoyed. Obviously seen through her pitiful attempt to... Rachel isn't even sure what she hoped to accomplish. This isn't the facility – where the mothers were playing some games with each other. Those people have real experience with things so far beyond Rachel's comprehension that she cannot begin to imagine it – even Gary knew far more more about the facility at large than her.

And Crawford... after leading various sides of six major global wars and winning five he was unquestionably the military strategic and tactical genius of the time. Of course it was a long time ago, but... having outmaneuvered entire countries, he probably didn't think she was retarded enough to even attempt pulling something like that on him. But Rachel cannot admit it, perhaps if she explains some of her fears...

“It wasn't anything like that – I just wanted to make sure Kate doesn't forget about me. I... I didn't want to disappear in the depths of bureaucracy like one of those taxpayers unable to fulfill her duties... What...” - Gary let out a nervous laugh, his boss is still equally annoyed - “Is this funny to you?” - she asks the ex-caretaker.

“No, but it sounded like a joke.. You are truly one of them, I'm sorry for ever doubting you” - Gary replies while still chuckling slightly.

“What do you...” - and Rachel stops, afraid they may have heard too much about her past. What if they will punish her.. or tell Kate – she wanted to believe the second would still protect her, but... Rachel knew what they were doing and still had fun just like other mothers. Ignorance is no excuse in her case, will Kate be able to be compassionate if she learns how the mother wasn't as careful and understanding as now?

“I think Gary there has a point, so maybe I should level with you simply to avoid further misunderstandings. I was briefed about your perilousness odyssey though the 'depths of bureaucracy', as you put it” - he is completely serious, Gary somehow felt it was funny, but Crawford remains annoyed as he continues - “We pulled you out the moment we learned there is a real chance you may be you and it would happen much sooner if only you did tell anybody the truth. I understand you were shocked by such sudden change, but not admitting it in the long days that followed? Poor officials had no procedure for this...” - he's patronizing her now, like...

Did she seem like a troublesome kid to them? It would explain the Gary's laugh – he may have compared Rachel to Kate... so ignorant yet obvious about what she is hiding. Crawford continues after a short pause:

“Now, this would be funny, if it wasn't so dangerous at the same time. I'm afraid anything that impacts Kate emotionally must be carefully analyzed and I may have been too hasty to let you talk to her” - was this a threat? Doesn't seem so, but... - “So why don't we try to forget about the past and focus on working together instead?”

Is it an offer of amnesty? No.. he would have spoken differently if they knew what she did. On the other hand... what if they figured they have no other choice? And what options does she have now – not “working together” with them? But.. how could she join this authoritarian regime:

“What about the people then? All those oppressed by the so called service. Am I to just ignore their suffering like...” - at this point even Crawford's face turned more jovial. Are they playing with her? Well, at least Gary regained his seriousness.. but what can they...

“Gary, help me out here” - his boss speaks - “Remember how you were also this stubborn? Well, maybe not this bad – but you did go bravely on this cave hunt..” - Rachel is puzzled. How can this be so funny to them? She look at Gary expecting some explanations – he is pretty serious now.

“Um.. I don't know really... Rachel, have you watched the service education programs that the guys at Woormla were supposed to recommend?” - he inquires.

“That was just propaganda, I didn't...” - she starts.

“No, not the rehabilitation ones, it's true – they are made for kids or worse. The service training ones. We had a lot of new recruits lately and they were kept up to date on most events. I assumed you did watch them during the flight...” - Gary explains.

“Perhaps we should give you the condensed version?” - Crawford adds while leaning forward on his chair towards her.

This is strange, Rachel knows she didn't understand much about their life here, but - “What's there to know about the little despotic regime you installed in here?” - she dares him, but realizes it may not have been the best approach. What if they decide to silence her for good...

“Oh, how splendid” - Crawford comments, this treatment as inferior begins to tire her - “Fair enough, please allow me to start with the basics. I don't know what you got this impression, but the states are governed by autonomous councils with no federal oversight other than the bodies they elect themselves for common policies.. regarding taxes for instance. It may have been shocking for you to learn this in disorderly manner, but the bureaucrats aren't used to meeting anybody who doesn't know them – the last ones were encountered probably six decades ago, if not more. I believe your concerns may have been caused by the little.. proposal by one of the officials – who was severely punished for this corruption, but some amount of time always leaks through the system... And it's actually a way to survive for women in similar situation. I'm sure he emphasized how you have no choice but to indulge him?”

It seemed more like that man was actually assuming she knows everything and merely reminded her of things that everybody else must have known. Rachel is shocked to say anything – it seems like they're messing with her, manipulating her... but Crawford just sits back again and continues:

“I understand it must have been tough for you, especially given a sudden change of... perspective and so I cannot imagine what other misconceptions may have managed to creep into this pretty head of yours. Why don't you humor us again?” - they both seem so relaxed about all this... was he honestly thinking she would believe something like that?

“But the roadblock.. calories limits.. the life or taxes... what kind of joke is this?” - she inquires with disbelief.

This time Gary begins to explain - “There was much disturbance in the cities recently and from what I know they were set up temporarily to calm the population. To display how service still looks after them – even despite ten mile giantesses roaming around.”

“Yes, your young friend seems to have caused a lot of concern among the people” - Crawford adds.

Gary resumes his explanation - “As for the taxes.. Sir, when were they introduced? The second reorganization?”

“Yes, in the modern form – but I don't think the service training materials even cover them. Everyone just knows how the system works” - his boss adds, as if it explained everything.

“But to kill the ones who cannot pay... this system of yours is monstrous!”

“Miss Johnson, please direct your complaints to the councils rather than myself – but in order to get the most from the limited resources we have. I understand you also had to figure how to deal with the aftermath of the shutdown on the outside yourselves. With scarcity of resources and energy it was important not to allow uncontrolled population boom. And while I wasn't personally affecting those decisions, I agree with the general direction that was taken back then. It's better to allow forty five million people to live with some restrictions than twenty with wasteful energy management... or five in complete freedom. I'm not sure how other zones managed to solve this problem, but from what we heard...”

Well, this was true.. Rachel hasn't heard about much more than ten million people in any zone, they were simply not prepared to handle such populations without external help. People in the ones that were overcrowded at the time of shutdown usually died off or even went tribal. When they finally started treating Rachel seriously and told her the population here, she thought the forty five million is some kind of a joke. But even if the people are somehow used to this, how can he casually explain how he took the military power after Kate's arrival...

“How does the governor position fit into all this then? And what are those stars for?” - she challenges again.

“Oh those” - he looks at his shoulders confounded - “Please excuse old warhorse the longing for the old times.. and the governor title is the courtesy of your young friend, who so generously endowed my humble self upon her arrival.”

She looks surprised at Gary, but before she can ask anything, he speaks - “Yes, the 'Sir' is just out of respect, rather than enforced by the actual chain of command. If you don't mind, Sir” - this isn't exactly what she wanted to inquire about, but still covers it.

“Oh, not at all – it's nice to feel important once again... “ - Crawford turns towards her - “Besides.. do you really think I would allow this bureaucracy to run rampant if I were in charge?” - this is too much for Rachel. Are they suggesting that everything that she seen, all those terrible things that she was through, the atrocities she witnessed....

But what exactly has she seen? Were they just her hallucinations – desperate attempts to make sense of the events that surrounded Rachel? Has she become paranoid out of shock and fear... what they explain actually makes perfect sense. Nobody saluted Crawford, they all wear completely different uniforms.. he never ordered anyone to do anything.. people here were happy, even if concerned about Kate.. nobody ever mentioned any problems with “taxes”, although Rachel overheard many conversations on her way here.. even how they treated her – why didn't she simply come clean with what happened? Explain everything to the first person who asked anything... she brought it all on herself and there she was, scaring the wits out of poor Kate.

The only alternative is that they somehow prepared this whole tirade to fool her, but it's very unlikely at this point... Of course Rachel will need to keep an eye for any clues it could be any different, but right now just feels so stupid and stubborn. Crawford's behavior is simply completely different from anything she would expect from a despotic tyrant.

“Well... any other clarifications we could provide you with, miss Johnson?” - Crawford comments her tirades.

“I.. I guess I may have overreacted a bit...” - she admits, unsure what they may expect from her now.

“Great, it's all settled then. I trust you will share this realization with Kate as soon as she comes back – she seemed very troubled by whatever you suggested...” - obviously. Rachel will need to assure her it was just an incidental word usage and everything is fine from the start... even though she was actually worried back then.

Rachel suddenly feels more confident that things will be okay now – the only problem would be if Kate returned furious and threatened the poor people not to hurt Rachel anymore, like she suggested... Yes, it would be really bad.. and for everyone...

Fixing micros turned out to be much easier when approaching it properly. The next day Nicole came in and told the remaining three zones to gather up in the cities – even explained them how she needs to “evacuate” them. Of course there was no time for any details. The first went surprisingly easily – just several stomps and drags of her shoes for each larger city and population went down from one and a half million to several hundred micros in minutes. The remaining ones turned out to be nearby making them easy targets - or perhaps they just killed themselves. The second zone with a bit over two millions was a bit more problematic – but mainly due to more scattered towns and various rivers around. Nicole did not want to repeat the disaster from yesterday.

Yes, she hardly got any sleep spending the half the night and the entire morning trying to clean that mess up. Of course the hygiene pods were useless and Nicole had to find some zone with fresh water to wash herself. She allocated a new empty one – no point wasting any more micros, after all. It still seemed like each pore and tiniest wrinkle of her skin contained bits of mud. She could see it in the mirror just barely – others shouldn't notice.. at least provided she doesn't have to get personal with anybody soon. Even the most stubborn pieces should break off over time.

So there she is, carefully clearing the two zones down to zero in the early afternoon. Nicole heard it will take for micros in the third one much longer to gather up for the “evacuation” - they were actually the only ones who even asked how long they have, which puzzled Nicole a bit. She wanted to finish it up by the end of the day so she wouldn't have to bother herself any longer and finally concluded that several hours should be fine. She was certain it would take her at least this much to deal with the other two.

And that last one was.. really big. Well, it was actually the second zone Nicole has visited, but left it for the end since... she could understand it may take them more time to move nine and a half million micros. It takes them forever too accomplish anything, but this... Well, at least it would be quick when they gather – if she tried to fix them like yesterday, that last zone alone would have taken the entire day.

While looking for the last survivors, she thinks how wasteful all this is. They could be so much more useful to Nicole in her own zones.. she checked in the morning how the clothes are coming up and of course the micros were behind – but after some convincing they figured it should be possible to complete it more quickly. The micros must have simply been lazy – she gave them a bit of incentive and they immediately started working much faster.

But still.. Nicole wouldn't mind if she had more of them and the last zone was just... full of micros. They had cities, farms and various installations all over the place. She had never seen anything like this – there was so much factories in there. Erica must have been producing her clothes in that zone – why get rid of it then? It doesn't make any sense.

Come to think of it, her mother never told her to kill them all – Erica only wanted them “clear”. That implied what needs to be done, based on their conversation and explanations, but.. that last zone was easily bigger than all five others combined! If Nicole could sneak some of them out.. perhaps just a couple million – nobody would notice, right?

Thinking about it, Nicole is almost certain Erica would know. Her mother found out about Nicole stealing some of her micros when she was a kid – and the second still has no idea how she even managed to accomplish that. She sometimes tried to convince herself it was just a bluff, but.. Erica knew the details. How many of them she took and that she killed them all – a guess like that would be too lucky. Her mother must have had some way of tracking her, spying on what her daughter was doing.

But what if it wasn't her? Maybe if she could arrange something with Amber to come along and take some micros... No, Erica only gave Nicole the privileges to access the zones. Perhaps just quickly sneak them out to one of the Amber zones? Nicole could always say that she wanted to visit her friend in a middle of the job, how could Erica check that she smuggled some micros? Or even better to some new empty zone – if her mother discovers it, she can always finish them off in there without any collateral damage.

And getting caught would be bad.. Reputation aside, Nicole has heard about some ways the zones can be taken away from the owner – mothers didn't want to elaborate on that further, but the rumor was that when Lisa and Lauren continued to behave rudely in the other mother's zones just after they split them up, Erica threatened that they may take some of their own micros away as a compensation. “There must be something more to the zones ownership that they are telling us” – Nicole concludes.

What if Erica could see the details on Nicole's zones had? If any of them had a sudden increase of population just when she was supposed to be clearing those six zones.. it would easy to figure out what must have happened. It is just a feeling, but Nicole thinks that conspiring with Amber may help her to avoid getting caught – if she moved them to the other second zone – maybe nobody would notice? It would be best if she allocated a new one just in case Nicole was forced to finish the micros after all.

It makes sense and is definitely worth the risk, so Nicole sends her a mesg to do exactly that – but without any details now. It would be best to explain everything face to face – well, obviously not everything, but at least enough to shut the other second up. Either way Nicole still has several dozen stubborn micros to get rid of, before she can go check up on that big zone. At least there are no seas here – it was really annoying.

While looking around for the survivors, she wonders how will she transport the micros. Do they have any containers inside? It is annoying how she needs to think about such things in advance – they should have prepared for this or at least figured out a way to construct them quickly. Maybe it was what they needed so much time for? Anyway, she can always grab some from her own zones – she wasn't prepared for this either and is unsure how many transporters are left. It would be great even if she was able to only take two million or so.. still a lot of fun for months to come. Amber was becoming increasingly reluctant about killing the micros too quickly, but this will surely cheer her up.

Nicole needs to check the last zone first to see if they have any containers inside, as traveling between her zones and that one would be conspicuous. Just like moving between the zone and one of Amber's... One teleportation could be easy to explain – she even got a mesg from her in the morning, it would be understandable she wanted to chat with her friend.. especially given how tedious the cleaning up was.

Maybe she should give Amber heads up to come up with some transporters? A lot of possibilities... No, Nicole needs her actions to be plain enough not to arouse suspicion. Or at least seem innocent enough to allow her to blame her ignorance. Any more sophisticated plan would be taken the wrong way.

Well, it's not like it could possibly be good – stealing micros is always considered insulting and abusive, but... she should be able to reason that she didn't want all of them to “waste”. Have some fun with her friends – definitely much better excuse than “I figured this elaborate scheme not to be noticed”...

Especially that Amber would have probably done the same. Well, she would have had much more fun inside, instead of focusing on completing the task. Nicole thinks how what for her was more of a tedious necessity would probably greatly excite most of the others. She was usually approaching their fun as a chance to talk and bond with or learn about other caretakers...

Even the brief fun with the city was bleak in comparison to the frustrations that came later – she should have never allowed the micros to spread out. What did Amber see in this anyway – all structures were so fragile, almost broke apart at the slightest touch. She had to be ridiculously careful to even lift them up.. how pointless it turned out to be... And she still has no idea what the firsts see in tasting the micros – it was all dirt, they all probably died long before she could feel their movements. And not to mention the more creative ways of consuming them – why even bother, it was so much better to play with the micros instead. Of course when they are used, they have to be disposed...

But the disaster was yesterday, she learned a lot and now the second zone is cleared as well so it's time to move to the last one. Just before teleporting, Nicole changes her mind and moves through two of her larger zones to collect transporters – the more micros she can salvage, the better. Amber has already replied that she is ready and attached the coords.

“All is set then” - Nicole concludes to herself and wonders - “do I really want to go through with this?”

It wouldn't technically be disobeying her mother, but.. she knows what “clearing the zones” meant – and could see that Erica noticed that she knew. Especially after Nicole's inquiry if this has to be done on the same day – the answer was all like “not at all, take your time”... Was this a test? Was Erica trying to check whether her daughter will follow her orders even though they don't make sense? Or perhaps Nicole is being tried for the ability to make her own choices, like an adult? Or yet another strange idea that Erica thought up?

She already gave up yesterday on analyzing her mother's motives.. and now concludes that whatever it was, she has no way to be sure – and at least can try to benefit from this assignment. Maybe she stopped tracking Nicole after the first five zones were cleared? If Erica only wanted the micros gone, she could much more easily finish the task herself, why bother with extra supervision...

Entering the zone, she is once again surprised on how almost every available spot is covered with their stuff – most of it was their farms, but Nicole can see them stretched out everywhere, unlike any other zone she has seen. She is even able to distinguish various industrial facilities – they were usually a bit larger than the homes and some here are as large as half an inch long and wide blocks. Others are organized in various complexes and many expel smoke or some other form of “pollution”, although Nicole isn't sure what that is – she heard about it.. somewhere. And she was never sure what is the purpose of the taller buildings.. they were so fragile – easily crumbling from the clumsy footsteps alone. Why would the micros even bother putting them up?

Either way, all this stuff inside and the population cames to less than ten million.. maybe Kate really has about twenty million micros, like she spoke? They simply wouldn't fit inside, Nicole thinks. It doesn't matter – she arrives in an isolated spot and approaches the nearby headphone. At least the wire is fairly long and she can use it while crouching down – why haven't Erica told the micros in all her zones to produce devices like this one? Perhaps these are more complicated or she simply didn't bother... after all how often would she talk to them? Nicole cannot recall Erica actually talking to any of her micros – even the idea that one could do it came from Kate a long time ago.. or perhaps from Rachel in school?

But now it doesn't matter, since she hears they are almost ready and are boarding the last transporters. “Sweet, let's get going then” - she comments their apparent preparedness, completely ignoring their inquires to the nature of the threat – stupid micros always want to know everything. They already asked about that when she arrived the first time and she replied they can wait and see for themselves.. really annoying – but at least most of the micros listened to her request. For a brief moment Nicole thinks if stealing all of them is a good idea, but.. a million or two is just as bad as nine, so she should hope that Erica never discovers it.

Before collecting the transporters, Nicole mesgs Amber to stay put and say nothing when she arrives – they will talk about it later. She thinks how to explain such act – one doesn't bring nine million micros as a “gift” every day...

It turns out even holding all transporters at once is fairly problematic – Nicole hopes their fields amortizers will hold them safe.. They all need to be very careful when handling micros. Any quick move would turn them into paste and that wouldn't be very useful. Well, in the worst case she will simply finish her assignment.

After visiting half of the cities, she already has her left hand full and is forced to pile the containers up in the middle. Normally they range from one sixth of an inch for smaller forty or fifty thousand versions to even a third inch capsules – with various shapes and colors, usually cubical or similar for the ease of handling. These transporters were definitely the larger ones, like two or three hundred thousand each or more.. and there were dozens of them.

While collecting them from the cities, Nicole checks on her wristcom if there are larger groups of micros left around – but most of them seems to have boarded the transporters. “Good” – she thinks – “it will make it so much easier to finish it up later”. At least she can pay no attention to the towns underfoot while moving around – they should have evacuated them already and she will need to go back for any stragglers anyway.

Slowly rising from collection in the last city, Nicole looks at the mesg from Amber again and programs the coords for the new zone. She is very careful since any rash move now can crush many of the transporters or send them falling down to the ground – and even despite it would take minutes for them to reach ground, any attempts to catch it would result in crashing it completely. The only way for caretakers to move micros at all is to rely on the acceleration modifiers of her own dilation fields, apparently a side-effect of some ancient mechanisms set up for different purpose – Rachel tried to explain it to them in school in more detail, but all Nicole needs to know is that they're effectively lost as soon as they part from her hand.

And it was hard not to drop them – it took her a couple minutes to crouch down and stand up each time, holding down the transporters softly with her right hand – the bottom ones sat more comfortably in the other, but the upper layers moved around if not pinned. “They should definitely make them larger” - she thought - “this is ridiculous.” Once packed up, Nicole teleports to the Amber's zone and notices her friend far away – but she should disembark the micros first, rather than walk around.

The zone seems to be just a normal one, mostly land with some water around and.. yuck, clouds. Nicole hates the little puffs around her knees – most of the colonized zones haven't that got many of them. Hopefully the micros can fix them quickly here – for their own sakes.. they obstruct the ground view from above and are tedious to walk around. Not to mention they tend to wet her clothes, which would annoy Nicole greatly – and especially now, after the problems in that watery zone yesterday... which had plenty of them, for whatever reason.

Fortunately her immediate area is mostly clear of clouds and after crouching down carefully, Nicole starts moving the transporters onto the ground – quickly wiping some plants to make room first. New zones seem to be full of them. Halfway done, she notices Amber several feet in front of her – the footsteps already immediately audible. Nicole looks up to see her uncertain expression scanning the containers.

She doesn't want to be overly joyful in front of the micros – even if Amber does her best not to push the micros towards suicides, it's still fairly likely the zone will end up this way. That's why Nicole needs to seem friendly enough to “rescue” them later, just in case. Amber may have learned a thing or two, but she is still Amber...

Clearing her hand, Nicole realizes she didn't bring any communication device – so she simply explains the micros that Amber here should take care of them now and they can leave the containers to build up. The other second seems quite surprised and uncertain what to do, so Nicole signals her to leave the zone. The explanation would give the micros too many details of what just happened.

When in facility, she mesgs Amber to meet up in her quarters – where she appeared back from the zone – and waits. After not even a minute, she hears nervous knock – and lets Amber in. She is still confused, so Nicole starts:

“Do you like it?”

“Whoa, Nicole.. where did you get it?” - yes, the obvious question.. although Nicole was hoping she would thank her first...

“Oh, I know a place, aren't you grateful?” - telling Amber the truth would be bad.

“But.. um.. sure, just.. nine million micros?” - she adds whispering.

“Look, the source doesn't matter – but I'd prefer if you didn't tell anybody...” - it's very important to keep this fact to themselves. After considering it for half a minute, Amber continues her inquiry, unsure about this last question:

“Did you steal them?” - that obvious, huh?

“No... It's a long story, but technically it's more like I saved them” - yeah, from herself... but then she realizes it's actually more like from Erica - “Look, it doesn't matter – as long as it remains our secret. Can you keep it?”

“Yeah, of course.. Gee, Nicole... I don't know what to say...”

“Thanks would do nicely..” - instead Amber jumps into her arms and hugs her. It takes Nicole completely by surprise at first – although it is a nice thing for her friend to do. But Nicole doesn't want her to see traces of mud around her face, she quickly backs away and speaks:

“But it's really important you should not even tell anybody where you got them from, understand?”

“Of course, Nicole.. thanks.” - she still seems a bit puzzled and adds after several seconds adds - ”But.. why me?"

“We're friends, that's why..” - she bluffs, Amber is probably the only person Nicole could use for this – but she apparently bought it and just smiles.

“It really means a lot, I.. would you like to have some fun?” - Amber proposes seductively. Tempting as the offer is, Nicole still needs to finish up the survivors and report to Erica to keep the illusion of her simply finishing the assignment. Not to mention that if her mother senses anything is wrong with it, she will need to quickly dispose of the micros in Amber zone – which would be bad for their friendship.

“Well, not really.. I'm already tired and... I still have some things left to do” - but Nicole needs to change the subject, so she adds - “but enough about the micros, how's your day?”

Amber still seems a bit confused, like she would like to suggest or tell her something more, but eventually just answers - “Good, good.. we've been working on my zone. Me and Kate, that is.. and she helped a lot, I think” - whatever it means, it can wait, so Nicole tries to conclude:

“Oh, that's nice.. things are alright between you two then?” - the worst thing would be if the two seconds forgave each other everything. It would diminish Nicole's influence on them. Fortunately she can already see it's not the case, since Amber would speak more openly.

“Well, sort of.. I suppose” - she concludes, which sounds great.

“So can I expect no more furious explosions from you?” - this would be the only problem right now. It seems her idea to have this get-together yesterday was a complete success. Nicole cannot have her breaking everything apart now, but Amber doesn't answer and even looks away. Nicole hurries her - “Well?” - it is really important to make sure no more incidents happen in the near future.

Amber looks at her annoyed and speaks - “You have no idea what you're talking about!” - what can she mean? Is she denying what happened two weeks ago?

“What do you mean?” - Nicole inquires, which really seems to anger the other second – but Amber just stands there for a minute or more and Nicole figures she better try to calm her - “Look, I really don't...”

Amber interrupts her - “I should leave.. you're busy today and I already took enough of your time..” - seems to have calmed down on her own - “Thanks for the micros, I really appreciate it...” - then stands in Nicole's room for a brief moment and turns around to leave.

“Wait, Amber..” - Nicole feels this is more important than her assignment, or at least that the stupid micros can wait - “I'm your friend, remember? But I cannot help you if I don't know what's wrong...” - the other second stops in her tracks, but doesn't look back - “Why don't we talk about it? Just between the two of us..” - this should help her keep the “gift” secret as well. Nicole is becoming worried if it was a good idea to bring the micros to her in the first place...

But Amber turns around to face her and seems to consider what to do – remembering the hug, Nicole realizes she should not have pulled away too quickly.. but maybe she could fix it now? Amber is the one to be reluctant this time, but they embrace again in silence – just like friends, Nicole thinks. Amber seems to trust her, but she needs to start the confession in her own time, without any inquiries or hurrying.

It takes a couple minutes, but eventually she speaks nervously - “Two weeks ago... it was her who exploded and assaulted me...”

“Her... Kate?” - Nicole is shocked, moving her head back to see Amber while still holding her.

“Yes. In her zone, out of nowhere...” - and continues to explain what happened. Nicole finds it hard to believe at first, but.. They never stated it was Amber who started whatever happened, Nicole simply assumed it since Kate was always so nice and shy. For her to attack somebody... it seemed crazy – but Amber is really troubled and nervous now. And what would she possibly have to gain by lying about this?

Well, Nicole can think of several things, but Amber never cared about her reputation and other reasons weren't enough to justify such move. Especially given that Kate would most likely deny it – but it's curious how she never explained it more clearly herself. Perhaps parts of what Amber is saying are true? Yes, Nicole has been putting this topic aside for long enough – she needs to talk with Kate and..

No, first calm Amber down, make sure she feels safe with her - “I'm so sorry for not seeing this earlier” - whatever the truth is, there is no point in showing doubt now - “Why didn't you come to me with this on your own?”

Amber looks puzzled – was it too soon? Or was it actually a fake confession? Nicole wants to change the topic, but the other second answers:

“I don't know.. I was afraid of her and worried that nobody would believe me..” - she got that one right... - “I.. it's crazy, sometimes I'm not even sure if it really happened or if I hallucinated it...”

“Hey, it's okay.. I believe you” - Nicole tries to comfort her, she will need to get to the bottom of this – if it's really true, it would be a great way to blackmail Kate.. when necessary. Nicole hopes it doesn't get to this, but it's better to know such things than not and it seems Amber is more calm and friendly again.

“But you can't tell anybody, especially Kate.. I.. Two weeks ago she ordered me not to talk about this, I...” - this must be really troubling her.

Nicole is shocked again and the answer comes naturally - “Has she.. threatened you later as well?” - Amber looks into her eyes as if considering what to answer. Regardless of the reasons for it, she cannot have Kate behaving like that.. what if she assaults Nicole next?

“No – she apologized and I even think she didn't mean it like that in her zone. But please don't tell her. She'll hate me for sharing it!”

This is definitely a problem, at least there is a chance they got better since the.. Kate's outburst – it still seems hard to believe. But how to be sure about this? Asking her directly wouldn't work, Kate was smarter than that – no, Nicole should hang out with the other seconds more often and pay close attention to what is happening between them. It seems she was completely wrong yesterday and expected reverse emotions from them – was Kate's unusual awkwardness caused by that assault? It would make sense, but:

“You're sure she didn't insinuate anything or bully you in the two weeks since she.. attacked you?” - Nicole must be sure that Kate is calm now, any incident with her would be bad. She was worried about something happening with Amber, but if was actually Kate that started it...

“She hasn't” - Amber admits - “Look, it was just that one thing and she also feels guilty about this.. I shouldn't have told you about this...”

“Hey, it's good you explained it.. we're friends, remember?” - Nicole tries to comfort her - “Did you mention she met up with you today as well?”

“Yeah. We were just talking and she helped me with micros a bit before she went to fix herself before talking with Lauren...” - and stops as if realizing that she told Nicole too much. Typical Amber – never knows when to stop babbling.

And Lauren, huh? Kate surely wants to show off her new dress – and regardless of the fact that she got her zone weeks before Nicole, everybody will remember it was Kate who made her clothes earlier. It was the same with the firsts – although it took Kimberly several months to come up with anything... Nicole thought she had more time, but it didn't seem that hard – after four weeks her dress was almost done, even though she used two zones to manufacture the main pieces – and two others for smaller things. It was the zone working on the top one that the micros were complaining in – although it looked ready, they moaned and bitched how it still needs some more work.

But now... Nicole cannot let Kate beat her in this – she was so close! No, there must be a way – perhaps the micros are only playing for time and the dress could be used already. She needs to check it and as for this visit.. perhaps Amber knows something more? They stand in front of each other in silence while still holding their hands. Should Nicole reassure her again? Amber seems good now, but you just never know:

“Don't worry then, I'm sure it'll be alright.. and Amber – if she ever does anything like this again... you don't have to hide anything from me” - this should do it.

“Thanks, it means a lot.. and I will...” - Amber replies, visibly more self-confident.

“But now.. I still need do finish up some things and I think you should see how those new micros are doing..” - Nicole suggests and the other second nods casually. Of course she doesn't care about the micros now – but needs to get Amber out of here, but.. - “Just one last thing before you go.. has Kate spoken anything more about her visit to Lauren?”

“What? Oh, no she didn't say much.. only that Lauren wanted to speak with her...” - Amber looks confused but it doesn't seem like she's hiding anything. Probably is still worried about Kate – which is good, Nicole should be able to use it to her advantage later.

But now they part their ways – and Nicole returns to finish that last zone thinking how to play this. She thought about trying to distract Kate.. but a meeting with a mother is always more important, she could dismiss Nicole easily. No, she needs to figure out some way to get to Lauren first, but she usually ignores everybody... Well, except other mothers, of course.

Perhaps Nicole could casually ask Erica about Lauren chatting with Kate? Her mother seemed to hate and fight anyone trying to affect the firsts. For whatever reason she cared much more about them than about Nicole or other seconds... No, “cared” is not the right word to describe it.. “tutored them” perhaps – or “conditioned”... Nicole was surprised how the firsts themselves never seemed to notice it – and neither did other mothers.. or perhaps they simply didn't care? Or was Nicole only imagining it?

Either way, maybe Erica will do something to stop Kate from showing off – Nicole could use some more time. She needs to finish her assignment and report back, hopefully this swindle will remain unnoticed...

Amber thinks about how strange the day turned out. The party yesterday was different than usual due to Kate's appearance and this whole get-together thing. Andrea also told her a lot of new things. But today...

First her and Kate's confessions and.. Amber has no idea what to think about that. “Stop killing them” - from Kate's mouth, it sounded like something obvious, something Amber should have realized a long time ago, like.. she has no idea what the other second was trying to tell her. She thought about it a lot, why couldn't Kate explain it more clearly.. or is Amber simply too dumb to understand it?

Kate didn't seem to mean any harm – she gave her some more of those neat headphones, even helped Amber with the micros in her zone. It was strange how Kate asked to be let in alone – the reason she gave was that it wouldn't work if anybody else comes with her. Nicole was able to do marvels this way and Amber was surprised how easy it seemed to be, now that she knew how to trick micros... but her trained zone was different. They seemed to know more about the caretakers and it wasn't that easy to convince them to do what she wanted. Sure she could threaten them, but it would probably end up like the other zone... Why hasn't Kate explained what she did? She probably wanted to keep it a secret, she was becoming snub and selfish as the firsts.. with her dress and everything... but the seconds were never like that! At least Amber didn't think so...

She also immediately checked if Kate didn't kill any micros – out of revenge or anything, but it seemed she didn't. The population was the same when she came back.. give or take a couple hundred, Amber never cared about the last three digits of the counter.

Regardless of Kate's motives and methods, micros were more content and confirmed how they will do their best to repopulate – but unfortunately, it will take a long time. Amber didn't need to be told that.. she already knew she will need to wait decades for the new ones to grow up, however ridiculous that was. At least she still has some spoiled micros – but they will need to suffice for much longer than she originally planned to use them in. Even Nicole wanted to gather some more for their get-together – at least two hundred thousand each.. but it was good Amber didn't allow it – that would deplete the population even more and she knows now how long it would take the micros to replenish.

Amber was trying to figure out how to deal with this.. it seemed that every dozen thousands she has fun with will mean slower reproduction and having to wait even longer. Maybe this was what Kate wanted to tell her? Was Amber so stupid that she failed to notice this obvious fact? She thought about it when the new micros turned out to be more problematic than she hoped they would. Especially how the colonies were doing fine and although some food will speed up their further development, they didn't have any problems.

Kate also wanted to talk to the colonies in the morning, shortly after fixing the trained zone – and Amber couldn't hear their responses since they only had one headphone back there. Kate seemed worried about just that single missing micro.. it was crazy, like it probably died on its own before Amber got there in the first place. Should Amber be so concerned as well? She wondered whether they will start killing themselves if she isn't.

Fortunately after talking to the micros in her main zone, Kate assured her that they will be fine now. Maybe she could help with the sick zone as well? It seemed hopeless, but who knows.. the micros have stopped killing themselves and the only reasons for the population decrease were Nicole's “rescues”. It was also funny how the micros she brought into the new zone were asking about some “evacuation” - Amber had no idea what that meant, but quickly figured it must have been Nicole's story to steal them from someone.

But who? It couldn't be any of the firsts – they wouldn't let her in, not to mention that they didn't have such zones and all the transporters seemed to have the same design, which made it unlikely to come from multiple zones. The idea of stealing micros from any mother was scary – it would be terrible if they found out. The only person left was Kate, but.. Nicole wouldn't do that, Amber thought – and additionally the micros would probably be much smarter than those were.

Whatever is the case, the new ones won't grow or even survive on their own, it seems.. they need to be cared for – and although it was tedious and boring, Amber decided to at least try helping them – it's not like she had anything better to do. But they have very little food or tools, they were “expecting” to get them in their destination.. like where should Amber get them from? Sure, she tried to ask in the other zone, but the micros there already explained how they won't be able to fulfill needs of so many others. She wished she would pay more attention to how to use the micro assembler – and now she will need to talk with Kate and Nicole to help her with that. Maybe she could get some food and tools from them?

But it really was this part of the day to be really weird – Nicole request and appearance were completely unexpected. She would have asked differently if she wanted to have some fun, not to mention why a new zone... Of course Amber realized that after noticing the pile of transporters – and the population number. If at first she was worried they may be from her other zone, when she looked at the counter to see nine and a half million.. it was crazy!

Yes, she will definitely need to ask for more details, but Nicole already seemed very reluctant to give any – but she mentioned how “technically” it wasn't stealing.. what would that even mean! Regardless.. even if they are caught, then Nicole will probably have to take the fall – as the one actually coming up with all this and Amber can always say she didn't know anything. It would be true – since she still doesn't understand what the hell this whole thing was about.

But now, in late afternoon Amber is trying to watch the new micros – at first she was expecting they would start constructing things immediately. Sure, the micros in two colonies had weeks to set all that up, but there were only a hundred thousands each. Even if they only started clearing and building something, it felt like it should be easily noticeable – but they only sat around the transporters.. it's silly. What if they wait for be told what to do? Amber wouldn't know how to explain anything like that...

Or worse – if they aren't builder-micros, like the colonies seemed to be? If they need everything prepared for them – Amber thought about micros specializations for some time, but couldn't reach any conclusions. She didn't want to ask Kate about it – afraid of sounding stupid again – and micros themselves didn't know anything. Surely they wouldn't – they probably only had contact with their own kind. Perhaps she could bring some of the builder-micros here to help them? She doubts they would immediately spoil or anything like that...

She has so many unanswered questions and doesn't even know how ask about most of them. Like... the firsts and mothers would consider her crazy, behaving like Rachel. And she seemed to be offline all the time – Amber wanted to apologize for not paying attention in school and perhaps ask some questions get a couple things clarified... If only she knew how useful those boring lessons were. Even such stupid thing as using the micro assembler! Maybe Kate finished talking with Lauren already?

Amber writes her a message if she has a moment to talk, but then she thinks whether she can tall the other second what is it that she needs.. best to check with Nicole – so she writes another mesg quickly, inquiring whether she can talk about the micros with Kate. Fortunately Nicole answers first, so Amber will not have to stall.. the answer is brief: “whatever, just don't tell her its from me.” That's strange, Nicole seemed much more concerned, when they talked earlier, but well.. it's just micros, after all. Perhaps Amber is overthinking it?

Like Andrea explained her at some point, the micros should figure everything out on their own sooner or later, it's just that.. losing some would slow down the construction and although helping won't speed up reproduction much, it might be a nice thing for her to do – like, show the micros how good she is, so they won't suspect anything when she will want to use some of them later. Having to use Nicole's help every time she wanted to get some micros from her spoiled zone is annoying.

Suddenly she realizes the light on the headphone is blinking – she removed it and laid down in front some time ago, but it is helpful that the micros have a way of even letting her know they want to talk to them. She can always ignore the light, but now wants to seem nice for them, so picks it up and wears it very carefully – although it is more robust than the usual headphones.

“Yes?” - she asks.

“Amber..” - she told the micros her name already and they seem somewhat uncertain about using it directly, but couldn't – or wouldn't – explain the reasons for it - “are you certain there aren't any ways you could procure some nutrients or equipment? I don't wish to be invasive, but it seems staying here may not be the best use of your time...”

“What, you want me to be leave?” - what are they, afraid or something like that?

“No, no, it's just that.. ma'am..” - why do all micros insist on calling her some strange names - “maybe you could find be some sources of supplies to aid us, such as other caretakers?”

They are right and she can at least try – Amber concludes - “Sure, I'll ask around...” and leaves the headphone while standing up slowly. It would be bad to trash or lose another one, especially given that her micros don't seem to be able to manufacture them.

Amber decides to go back to the facility – and wonders if her prolonged presence inside is a bad thing. It didn't seem to be a problem in her trained zone, but the micros started killing themselves in the other when she started spending more time in it. After Nicole enlightened her, Amber thought it was mainly because she was playing with them so openly, but what if even her proximity can make untrained micros kill themselves?

Other seconds were staying in her zone all the time, so Amber didn't think it would be bad, but then she was wrong about so many things.. perhaps she should ask Kate to help her teach those micros what to do? Or perhaps just move some from her trained zone? She heard from them that Kate simply told them to be rebuild quickly and repopulate – but that was exactly what she kept repeating. Yet they were suddenly much more cooperative and understanding.

Now that she teleports back to her room, she is worried for a moment Kate may have told them what Amber intends to do, but.. they haven't started to kill themselves or anything, so it should be good. And why didn't Kate simply tell her exactly how she trained them? She assured Amber it were only some vague points about “how important reproducing is” and that “Amber will be good for them”. Still, it was strange.. before that she couldn't even get anything from the micros. Maybe they needed to hear the reassurances coming from somebody else than Amber?

It did work with the spoiled zone when Nicole did it – perhaps Kate could heal it? Well, it's not that important right now – Amber prefers to still use them, especially that she just received nine million new ones. But she needs to plan ahead – it's at least two decades before she can expect any gains from the trained zone, probably even longer in this new one.

After visit from Kate, the micros even explained her that it takes them almost three decades to reach full strength – it seemed to be even worse than what Andrea said. She thought she should be able to reap some of the older ones before the young fully mature... but what if it slows down the reproduction? So much to think about.

When Amber returned to check on the new micros, she wanted to have some fun – but then remembered that she cannot be impatient now.. she can enjoy herself when she has several nice and healthy zones – preferably more than those two, which means she will need to work on the colonies too. Fourteen hundred thousand left to be used in the next... several years at least. She will need to talk with Nicole to start using some of her micros as well – so far they had a lot of fun with the spoiled micros, but the zone seems to have stabilized and it shouldn't be an issue for some time.

Amber also thinks if she is addicted to all this... She heard this from Christina once – and it was so true, she was behaving like a bitch back then. Just like her mother... Amber promised herself several times, that she will not be like Lisa. She knew how pathetic such behavior was – especially after the destruction in her zone. In the two weeks since that happened, Nicole forwarded some rumors that Lisa was jealous about giving such populous zones on the graduation – and was told to be waiting for some fun with them. But it was ridiculous.. they were owned by her earlier, so why wouldn't she just...

No, it was good that Lisa didn't play with the micros before and even though Amber doesn't understand how things work, she can do better than that – be responsible now. Learn to wait for micros to repopulate and only play with them when she can be sure they will be able to replenish their losses. Yes, this was definitely what Kate meant – stop killing them before they can grow up. She needs to be smart about her micros now. All her life Amber was just a fun-hungry kid – unaware of how hard it actually is to come up with them. She quickly learned it would be no good to ask her mother for anything and merely relied on others to procure the playthings. Still, it must have seemed bitchy and annoying when she complained about such small amounts of them... But she sees it now.

Perhaps Amber should have fun with some firsts using her remaining micros? Show that she is nice and sharing – only she doesn't have much right now. Surely they would start treating her more seriously.. maybe even invite to more parties and everything. Amber sees now just how annoying it must have been for them to watch her behave like a greedy kid... And how good they were to share some fun with her even though she was unable to repay it. Well, now she have zones on her own and needs to show some generosity.

Just.. she has so little micros now... maybe if she used some from the new zone for that? Maybe just a million or so, over the next several months.. but it would be wasteful not to even wait for the first batch of their offspring. Nobody ever complained about Kimberly or Courtney not having many parties – at least after the first several months... Others were simply jealous of their smart training and “better priorities”. Amber only realizes it now and she needs to make sure her own micros can build up and stabilize, the million from the infected zone will have to suffice for now.

But how to “aid” the new zone?

No response from Kate – she probably has some fun with her micros, she's got so many of them... perhaps Nicole could find out if her micros have some spare “supplies”? At first Amber had no idea what they mean by “meats” or “grains”, later they explained it – but why not just say food? It was strange how they have different kinds of it, but then micros seemed to be weird in so many ways. Like why wouldn't they assemble it in the first place...

At least Nicole replies more quickly and wants to meet in her room, so Amber walks there directly. They greet each other inside and chat about nothing in particular for several minutes – but Amber can feel Nicole is more tense than usual.. becoming almost defensive when asked about the blowzy hair.

“It doesn't matter..” - Nicole finally replies - “Say, how's the new zone?”

“Oh, thanks, it's good. The micros are all nice and not suicidal at all” - Amber jokes - “Actually, this was the reason why I wanted to talk with you.”

“Yes?” - Nicole's expression becomes more concerned, probably expecting more questions about the source of those micros.

“But first, thanks again for them, it's really great and...”

“Yeah, what's the problem with them?” - that's unusually direct for her... did Nicole know the micros are somehow defective? After several seconds to think how to explain it, Amber continues:

“Well, they keep complaining that they have no food or tools. I wouldn't even mention that, but since the micros in my other zone are busy with reconstruction and everything, maybe yours have something to spare?”

“Oh, I see..” - Nicole seems relieved. What if this is a bad time to ask this?

“But if you're tired or anything..” - Amber remembers their earlier discussion - ”you don't need to worry about it now – it's just micros, I even feel silly asking about...”

“No, it's fine.. I'll see what I can do...” - Nicole interrupts her.

Amber waits half a minute to see if she adds anything, but realizes that maybe something is wrong and asks on her own: “Listen, Nicole.. has anything happened? Is there anything you want to talk about?” - Amber already feels better after confessing the truth about the fight with Kate, although she is still uncertain if it telling Nicole was the right thing to do. Regardless of those concerns, a friendly chat may cheer up the other second as well.

After a longer period of silence, Amber starts thinking if she should leave – obviously Nicole is disturbed... but she still begins to talk: “No, I'm good, there's nothing to worry. Just tired, that's all – I shouldn't have bothered you with my mood” - it's true – her eyes were already red from lack of sleep when they met earlier and she was anxious, but it can't be everything... Nicole still managed to be more energetic and optimistic earlier, when she brought the transporters - “You should go back there and tell the micros they will be fine.”

So that's it.. - Amber thinks - when she is troubled, she should go to her “friend” for comfort, but when Nicole is concerned... Is this another one of her games? It would be typical for her, but.. she really seemed genuine recently. Or perhaps Nicole has simply gotten better with hiding her true emotions? She did change the topic so suddenly when hearing about Kate's visiting Lauren... Regardless of the truth, Amber feels used and manipulated. Nicole should tell her what's wrong if she really is her friend!

Amber leaves quickly after thanking Nicole again, but doesn't move to that zone – it seems pointless. She already told the micros they will be fine and there's nothing to add. Perhaps she should ask the colonies from Kate how did they build everything so fast – maybe she could pass it to the new micros? Or maybe go ask the firsts for some help?

The problem with the last option is that they would surely consider her crazy and simply respond that she shouldn't worry about the micros. Not to mention how she could even tell them what the problem is? It seemed mothers quickly find out whatever she tells the firsts.. if Nicole really stole from them – they would likely want the micros back. The punishment would also be severe... It's strange how Nicole now isn't concerned about that at all – she asked several times to lay low about this earlier.

Should Amber share this fact with Kate? Maybe she is overthinking it and it will be fine if only she doesn't mention who did she got them from?

After maybe just five minutes in her room she notices a mesg from Nicole – she can arrange some food, but equipment will take some more time. “Good” - Amber thinks - “at least I won't have to talk about this with anybody else...”

With that, she feels much better about the future – with Nicole's help, she will have the micros trained in no time and they will be on track with construction and reproduction. Maybe she could use some males in the meantime? If she understands it correctly, not all of them are necessary... what if she figured out a good excuse to get them out? Yes, Amber will definitely need to figure this out – but she has plenty of time.. that million micros should suffice for long enough.

At least the micromatter storage is simple enough to use – Kate is able to gather the program the requested materials quickly, it's so much simpler than feeding the micro-assembler. Everything else is.. simply beyond her. She was already worried that she may have told Amber too much – and even worse with the people. But once she heard Rachel...

Waiting for the machine to drop the products in an empty zone, Kate thinks if she understood the mother correctly. There is no other way to interpret her words – how she mentioned that she was just fine.. speaking exactly how she did shortly after the school ended. Nothing meaningful happened, just one day she sent the seconds a mesg that she taught them enough and they won't be meeting anymore. Kate still felt there was so much to learn, but others actually welcomed it – Amber and Nicole were only attending it because Erica has asked them to. And Rachel wouldn't tell anything more... even when she finally agreed to meet her face to face, about a week later.

Kate can still remember the sight – black eye, a band of material on the left arm that she only later learned to be “a bandage”... Even when the firsts fought a couple years earlier, they seemed less hurt and medbeds fixed them up quickly, so only April showed any signs of what happened – something like a scratch here and there, but nothing like Rachel! And the scene of their fight looked terrible – they attacked each other in the cafeteria and there were blood, broken chairs, torn pieces of the uniforms... Courtney had to clean it all up, since she was less hurt.

Rachel looked much worse after she ended the school and whatever happened, she must have been really hurt. Yes, the worst part was what she said all those years ago: “we had a little misunderstanding” and “she is just fine now”... the almost exact words she used in the chamber just minutes ago. Was it a coincidence? Perhaps she was simply scared?

She explained how she arrived weeks earlier – shortly after their meeting, she should have get used to... Well, Kate was unsure whether she could ever get used to such perspective – once she saw the view on the screen, her towering over everything... Kate didn't want to scare the people, but she also didn't want to leave them alone. She was afraid something may happen to them – just like she was warned. By Rachel...

And now Rachel is there as well.. Kate thought it was some trick, a hallucination perhaps, but she instantly recognized the voice and it clearly must have been somebody with extensive experience on the facility... even to suggest that she can drop the dress in another zone – why haven't Kate thought about it earlier? It was so obvious.. and instead she exhibiting herself like... Well, others probably didn't care at all about showing their private parts to “their micros”, but Kate knows now and she felt bad undressing like that – just like she didn't like being nude in the presence of other caretakers.

No, it had to be Rachel – there was no other way anyone in the zone would know so much about the assemblers, various materials.. Kate could hear Gary asking about some technical details, but he seemed to be very uncertain with this procedure. If it can help the people inside, she can at least try.

Kate finally notices something shiny pop up in the distance – she was just waiting in an empty chamber, trying to avoid meeting anyone in the assembler control room, where the matter storage controls are also located. Walking towards it, she notices it's actually a bunch of cylindrical containers stacked together – one big and at least two dozen small ones around it.

She doesn't have anything to hold it in, so she crouches down and grabs the big one in her left hand – it feels actually heavy, like two pounds or so – and starts piling the others on the top, resting against her thighs. After collecting everything, she starts programming the teleport and wonders if she should split it into two runs for safety – but eventually concludes it is well secured and jumps to the chamber.

While unloading the containers carefully, she looks for a nearest headphone – she gave four to Amber in the morning and the only two left happen to be on the other side of her spot. It was strange how she never thought about those being so much better than the ones they used earlier – all others were wired and they had to be very careful not to break them. The people in “her chamber” – she feels awkward thinking about it in this way, ever since two weeks ago Rachel explained it – were able to develop a much better solution.

It seems so simple.. the people can do such wonderful things, accomplish so much, if only nobody destroys and.. kills them... After being reminded just how terrible it is what all the “caretakers” are doing, Kate simply wanted to leave the people alone and never come back. Maybe it would keep them safer? Kate wasn't sure if she could stand the uncertainty. She also wanted to tell the other girls... first at the party and then the meeting with Amber's – of course the other seconds had no idea what they were really doing. Kate wanted to tell them, but...

Of course they would consider her crazy, but she had to do something! And now if Amber tells anyone else what she heard.. perhaps Rachel could at least tell her what they can do to her? The last two weeks were completely quiet – absolutely nothing happened. Nobody seemed to even notice Rachel's disappearance or Kate's having realized the truth. Was she neglecting the danger? The Rachel's voice reminded her of all those warnings – yes, Kate needs to consult her more closely now. Make sure if her behavior is “normal” enough.

Especially her explanation to the people in Amber's chamber – if they talk to anyone and they figure out what Kate knows based on it... She can always play dumb and blame “the micros ignorance”, but it was dangerously close to revealing herself. She couldn't just leave them there not knowing what will most likely happen to them. She had to stop the “alternative” that Amber explained her earlier, how Andrea suggested to turn the zone into some kind of human farm... Kate barely held the tears back then, thinking about the poor people's fate.

But she only told the people how Amber will probably want to kill them and this deal with “reproduction” is to only make sure she doesn't “run out” of them... their leader who spoke back to her seemed to already suspect what it was about and she mainly confirmed their fears. Perhaps she should have left them in the dark.. at least they would be uncertain for some more time. But this seemed like a good plan – on one hand they would try to share some details about how “the repopulation” is progressing and on the other Kate would constantly remind the seconds how hard it is to “grow micros”.

Rachel explained them everything in school, of course, and Amber wouldn't have to ask the firsts if only she paid the slightest attention to the lessons. But then Kate realized how after graduation she was just like Amber now – careful not to break her “micros” and trying to come up with the best way to “have fun with them in a responsible way”. She was so close to actually going that path! If Rachel said anything else during Amber's graduation or the other seconds behaved more carefully – she realized now that back in the first couple of weeks she was merely trying to egoistically save more for...

But no! Kate understands now and she has to at least try help the people. With the micro matter containers on the ground, she walks carefully towards the headphones thinking how she can make sure that Rachel is okay – this “fine” reassertion before she left worries her even more now. At first Kate wanted to drop everything and go check if the mother is not hurt, but if she tried so carefully to conceal this message in her explanations... what if they are actually threatening her?

Kate has never learned much about lives of the regular people here. She realizes now that she completely forgot her plan to have some random interviews and in all this time only spoke with people from the service – which was, after all, some kind of a military here – from what she heard and could correlate with the history from school. Are they oppressing the people? Why have they waited so long before letting Rachel talk with her. Everyone just kept asking about Rachel even despite she was here all along – were they just playing with her? Kate blames herself for not being more interested about their well-being, about the truth of what is going on – all it took to make her forget was a couple distractions...

At least Rachel was alive and finally in touch with her – but how can Kate check if she isn't hurt? Even despite Rachel explained her where she is located, Kate would have no way of saving her, she would be just another dot... No, she needs to play along and give Rachel more time to figure this out. It's too much for Kate – but she needs to be vigilant for any signs or suggestions coming from the mother.

While reaching down for a headphone and putting it on, she starts speaking “casually”:

“This should be all you mentioned, are you sure it is enough? I can get some more, if...”

Rachel interrupts her mid-sentence – another fact that suggests it's her. The people rarely did that, even when she was speaking some silly things: “That's great, it should be more than enough for months or even longer, thank you” - it was another thing that always amazed Kate, her smallest actions had a profound effect on the people lives.. perhaps she should offer more “gifts” in exchange for Rachel's life and well-being? She already asked James to listen to her, but.. there was no way to check what is going on down there. Kate has no idea if she is even looking at the right city right now – she thinks it was the one that Rachel earlier explained she was in, but...

The mother continues after a moment of silence: “Kate, how are you holding up? So much happened recently, are you okay?”

She is unsure how to answer – she is more worried about Rachel's well-being, is this another attempt to suggest something? Kate tries to think what could she mean, but cannot figure out what she could mean – it seems to be a casual concern regarding Kate's problems. Of course now Rachel survival also depends on it.. it was bad enough to have millions of lives rely on her. Kate doesn't know what to answer and after a couple minutes Rachel continues:

“You look worried, is there something on your mind?” - again, no hints. Kate decides to play along:

“Um, I don't know..” - they talked for a while, before she left for the materials and there doesn't seem to be anything she “should” be worried about. Maybe if she turns the question around - “How about you? Are you coping with the situation?”

“Yes” - no hesitation, nothing to suggest anything to Kate.. or others - “I was really scared at first, by the scale of everything and just how different it all is. I don't know how to explain it.. but I heard you were going through a similar process, if I understand correctly?”

“Yeah” - of course hearing about it and even watching the screen was quite different from actually being inside it... if that's even what Rachel is referring to.

“It's simply that.. I had been in the facility for so long – all my life, in fact, just like you. I've never been in the real world. It was quite shocking...” - that's obvious. Kate was also shocked when she saw the images, but is Rachel trying to tell her anything more? She has no idea how the mother would talk if she was really fine... Rachel continues after a long pause - “Listen, about the misunderstanding I mentioned earlier” - this is it - “it wasn't anything serious, I was just confused and scared by this.. by everything.”

It seems that Rachel confirms it could have meant something more than the words suggested and now either denies it, as if she exaggerated – or they persuaded her not to pursue this further. But Kate has no idea if she even understands what the mother may have meant earlier. She feels the need to figure out what to do – but she has no idea! It was Rachel who was supposed to come up with how to “fix things” now – two weeks ago she promised her to stay in touch and not...

No, she needs to think of something – if Rachel is really threatened, then she may not be able to speak freely. But how can she learn what is going on? Despite being ten thousand times larger than every other person in here, she feels so powerless – the only thing the caretakers can do is kill the people. How can she possibly save or even learn more about them? And right now she must figure out if Rachel is really okay – the screen! Of course.. that's why she mentioned it!

“It's okay, I understand” - Kate tries to calm anyone who may be threatening Rachel - “Hey, could you get to the platform here, so we could talk face to face?” - of course it wouldn't be that personal, but definitely the closest thing to a normal conversation that Kate could have with her right now.

“Um.. I don't know... can we?” - she asks somebody else. Kate rarely knows who exactly is she talking to, some people usually listen in and add or answer various questions. It never bothered her, but now she fears the others may hurt Rachel, if they are really holding her.

“Of course – or we could just display the image from here” - Kate can hear Gary's voice. Wherever “here” is – but she tries to keep it simple, she replies:

“Sure” - and carefully rotates towards the screen. It is still pretty early and the sun will make it hard to see anything. Fortunately while the stage opens, Kate figures out a way to give enough shade to make it work – at least enough to see Rachel and if she is hurt or afraid.

After several minutes, the image appears and there she is. Different than Kate remembered her from the last visit – obviously the size, but.. her clothes were different and the hair as well. She seems.. fine. Doesn't look hurt or scared, definitely a bit tense, but at the same time fairly relaxed. It's hard for Kate to tell anything more, since the display is pretty small.

“Hi” - Kate speaks softly and even waves carefully. Rachel seems to turn left and looks somewhere concerned, before she speaks:

“Oh, sorry.. I can't really see you this way, um.. Gary, could you rotate a bit to show Kate what she looks like” - the view rotates and she can see Rachel on the side, looking towards the camera again – and herself far in the distance. Of course the her body is seen from the back and side, laying down in front of the screen – which seems to be located in almost the opposite direction than the city they are in. Kate carefully looks back, but of course she cannot see much – by now she is completely lost which one Rachel was in earlier. Rachel continues - “No, Kate.. please wait, we should rearrange here...”

“It should be better if I sit here and you move to the other side.. no.. we can display Kate on the monitors, come around here” - Gary suggests, the directions remain unknown to Kate – but they move around the room and the view changes again. One thing that she notices is that while Rachel goes around some sort of table in the center of the room, her form takes less space on the screen than Kate's body did out far in the distance...

The room they were in was fairly large – but still, it was absolutely nothing in Kate's scale. At least during this commotion it seems empty, so there shouldn't be anyone to threaten Rachel – except Gary, but Kate doesn't think he would do this. He was always nice and helpful for everyone, he wouldn't behave like that.

After about half of a minute, they settle back down and Rachel resumes: “There, should be much better now” - it's strange how Gary's camera seems to be pointing towards her, but Rachel must be looking at some monitors – Kate could see various things on the wall while they rearranged and Gary's camera was moving around, but couldn't understand any of it.

But at least Kate feels much better now – it seems Rachel is not hurt and she behaves quite openly, but.. why would she mention that part about being “fine”? At least she is okay now – but it's still hard for Kate to accept the fact that the looming shape behind the mother's back is in fact.. herself. No more than two weeks ago they were like equals...

“So.. how are things in the facility nowadays?” - Rachel tries to continue the conversation. Kate is unsure how to answer, after a moment of though she begins:

“I don't know..” - she doesn't want to suggest that nobody even noticed Rachel's disappearance, but it is true – and it feels so strange, if it wasn't for the image on the screen, she would still have hard time believing it - “I guess.. nothing changed, really... I'm trying to avoid meeting others, fortunately the afternoons are quiet and nobody noticed me working on the matter storage.. Oh, sorry, I completely forgot – should I help with the containers?”

“What do you mean?” - Rachel inquires.

“Well, I wanted to move them to wherever it would be best, but just forgot about it...” - Kate meant to ask about it at first, but this whole uncertainty with Rachel confused her.

“I.. could You wait a moment please?” - Rachel asks and she goes silent after the confirmation. It was happening a lot with the others, they needed to discuss things internally – it never annoyed her, but with Rachel here... Kate feels so powerless now. At least she can still see the mother – discussing something with Gary..

“You don't have to always do this, You know” - Kate finally interrupts them.

“Um, I'm sorry.. what do you mean? Do what?” - Rachel inquires confused.

“Go silent like that – even if I won't understand it, I can still try to learn” - she doesn't want to seem unfriendly, but it started to feel really tedious.

“Oh, well..” - the mother starts, but Gary interrupts her:

“We just called the specialists to figure out the best approach for the distribution and it seems sufficient to leave them just where they are.”

“Are you sure?” - Kate inquires - ”I just.. dumped them right where I teleported in...”

“I was told it is good enough location and we don't want to bother you with unnecessary...” - he continues, but she interrupts:

“Oh please, it's not at all a problem, really.”

“Well.. it doesn't really make a difference where...” - but this time Rachel interrupts him:

“I'm sure Kate can at least move it closer to the center of the zone, for the sake of logistics. That's what I would have done” - of course she has much, much more experience with those kinds of things, Kate notices.

Gary pauses for a half a minute and then concludes - “Please allow me to make some inquiries, while.. I'll just call them in...” - and after a moment he begins to explain the topic again – Kate assumes some people must have joined them. The display still shows Rachel – although it seems the camera is a bit closer, as if Gary was leaning forward. At least Kate assumed it was Gary who recorded it... there is no way for her to be sure.

After the explanation is finished, another voice appears:

“Uh, I.. well, I suppose it could be beneficial to bring it.. a bit closer to...” - very shy at first, just like everybody new that talked to her.

“Oh, hi! What's your name?” - Kate always tries to make them more comfortable, although ever since first seeing herself on the screen, she can understand why they feel uneasy around her...

“Miss, I..” - a pause - “I'm a transportation officer second class of the... John Li, at your service.”

“Hello, nice to meet you. You were saying?” - this usually helped a bit.

“Oh, miss Johnson was.. um, I mean.. Rachel.. was correct that it may be beneficial if...”

“It's settled them, just tell me where to put them down!” - she already rises up carefully, it is really not a problem.. if only they would tell her more about what they needed. She feels stupid for not asking about those things earlier, it feels like she should know that the people would need more materials... Has Rachel explained it to them in school? Kate couldn't remember anything like that, but she feels dumb for not even realizing it – like they had to explain her everything or she wouldn't understand a thing.

At least now she can help them a bit. After carefully gathering some containers – she can leave the rest for another walk – Kate follows the explanations carefully and takes several careful steps on the dedicated points outside her spot. She haven't walked around since Amber came in and... Kate still feels bad about that moment, maybe if she was closer when the second appeared – there were so many things she could have done to prevent it.

After a dozen steps, she locates a tiny vehicle flying down in front of her and follows it to where it lands, marking the deposition spot. She carefully moves the small containers she has collected, the bigger one was left back in her spot. Every time she asks if the position is good – at first they don't complain, but eventually start suggesting some slight corrections. They seem very shy about asking her to do anything – how many times in the past she has assumed they would tell her if something was wrong? But how can Kate explain them not to worry about it and just speak out.. she feels she already did so many times...

Maybe Rachel will help them with it – even though Kate feels bad about her appearance here, but least it answers why the mother went silent two weeks ago. The only question is what to do now.. Kate was really hoping the Gary's emergency ID would help with something and maybe she could figure out something... Rachel elaborated on several occasions how she was still trying to figure out what happened during the shutdown and how to revert it. Both in the school and outside – it all was so.. abstract and hard for Kate to imagine. The life before the shutdown...

Maybe should she bring some more materials – even despite they say it was enough. The containers seem so small and it was so easy to acquire them.. or perhaps should she get some people out to another chamber? They mentioned several times that the zone being fairly crowded – even Rachel taught them in school, when she... “Of course!” - Kate concludes in her thoughts - “That's just what I have to do!”

The sudden realization makes her almost drop one of the containers – the constant contact with her skin was critical for the dilation field acceleration modifier to work.. they seem fairly strong, but would probably break if she tried to catch it mid-fall. Kate has no idea what this “Pu” is – all containers are labeled with strange symbols like that – but it would surely make a lot of mess. Not to mention that she heard raised voices through the headphone in the background.. they must have noticed her clumsiness. This was probably the reason they didn't want her to even come here – all her actions inside are extremely dangerous for the people.

But now she quickly finishes slowly depositing the rest of containers and comes back for the “bio-support pack” - whatever it meant. Strangely enough, they ask her to deposit it somewhere else. Was it bad of her to handle it together with the others? She doesn't want to inquire about it – careful not to be distracted again. She just wants to deliver it and go back to execute what Rachel suggested her.

A couple minutes later she is back in her spot and asks them to actually travel to the podium in front of the screen – using an excuse that it is awkward to watch them in some strange remote location. It wasn't really a problem for her, but she needs Rachel and Gary here for what she has planned next.

Excusing herself for a moment, she goes back to the facility and assembles some plates, taking them to one of her empty chambers and carefully arranges them around the place. It would be best to have one nearby when she randomly arrives again. She also placed some together for the dress, just like Rachel suggested. But right now she needs to get back to the mother and does just that when she is content with the distribution.

Back in the zone, she picks up one headphone to wear and another one just in case. Making sure that they have moved to the screen, Kate carefully lays down in front of it and notices the afternoon sun is becoming even more inconvenient – she can hardly distinguish any details on it and her hand doesn't help with shading. At least she can see two tiny dots on the podium. Judging by the image on the screen, she figures the one slightly in the back must be Rachel and speaks very softly:

“There you are.. I can see you... hi!”

“Well, yes.. we can see you as well.. I guess... I mean...” - Rachel responds after a moment with uncertain voice. Kate can only imagine how scary the view must be for her down there and it will be even worse in a moment.

“Please try not to move.. and don't worry...” - she simply instructs before moving her left arm forward. It is fairly awkward, since Kate needs to place her pointing finger on the back of the podium with the nail down and still be able to operate the wristcom with her right hand, which is fixed on the left arm. Lowering the hand, she can just barely notice the dots underneath and hopes the quakes are not too strong for them...

After setting the hand down, Kate looks at the display to see that they are okay and despite the confused look on her face and rotating back and forth, Rachel doesn't say anything. Nobody does, in fact – so Kate finally continues:

“Rachel.. get on, please” - and she hopes she will be able to do that... Kate wasn't expecting this problem, but she notices on the screen that from their perspective, the nail is a fairly high wall – will Rachel be able to climb it? Can Kate do anything more to help her? She cannot think of anything, so just waits.

“Wha.. What do you mean?” - Rachel asks after a minute of awkward silence.

“Just hop on, don't worry about anything” - Kate tries to comfort her, but.. she is worried about this herself. This time, she seems to start walking towards it and Gary must be standing still, since the camera doesn't move. If earlier she was concerned if there would be enough space on the nail – she preferred to keep them short – now she is just.. shocked again how enormous she looks in their scale.

After several minutes of walking, she can see Rachel climbing up – but only on the screen, it's impossible to distinguish her in normal view when she reaches the nail. Kate concludes that she should wait a minute or two before moving forward – so she just tries to measure the passing time. Eventually she breaks the uneasy silence:

“Are you settled in alright?”

This time Rachel replies quickly - “I think.. yes, but... what are you...”

“Don't worry” - Kate repeats and moves her right hand to finish the teleportation sequence on the wristcom. When back in the empty chamber, she checks the population counter – and it has changed from zero to one. She is relieved that the plan worked. But how to proceed? She is lying down on her belly – in the exact same shape she was laying down before teleporting... She hopes that Rachel is still on her fingernail, because if she has fallen somewhere.. Kate would have no way of ever finding the mother. Looking around, she notices the nearest plate being quite far away and...

“Kate.. what have you...” - she hears Rachel voice.

“Oh, I can hear you.. I thought you may need to...” - apparently the mother doesn't need to take the communication device from the headphone - “never mind, it's so good to finally see you safe and sound” - of course Kate cannot actually “see” her.

“What do you mean? I.. I don't understand...” - her “passenger” starts. Was Kate mistaken? Has she misinterpreted her words? It wouldn't be the first time this would happen, but...

“Rachel, didn't you mention how disturbed you were just moments ago?” - did she? After a long period of silence, Kate begins to worry again whether the mother is not hurt by her rash action. She was perfectly still, but... at least the population counter still shows one, so she should be alive - “Rachel, are you okay? Please talk to me...” - but what if her “passenger” has lost communication with her. Should she move towards one of the plates to see her more clearly? It seems like she inflicted death even unknowingly...

“I'm fine. I mean.. okay” - good, Kate is relieved again.. and Rachel seems to confirm what the second has figured out about the being “fine”, but what could she have meant then... - “Look, about that... I.. I didn't want it to sound like that. I guess maybe I meant it at the time, but...” - the voice is certainly much more distressed than back in the other zone, is she crying? Kate would like to see her.. or ideally be able to comfort the mother, but.. at with this ridiculous size difference... - “I shouldn't have worried you with all this, I was so stupid and reckless.. I didn't know anything and I...”

“But you did suggest you may be hurt like after.. you canceled the school?” - Kate has to be sure about this.

“Yes.. I did. But don't worry, nobody hurt me in your chamber – unlike two years ago when Lisa broke my arm.. among other things” - there was no way anybody else could know this, maybe except some other mothers – but the people in her chamber would have no way of figuring out what the reference to being fine really meant - “Kate.. look, I..”

Kate certainly feels better about everything – and Rachel begins to explain how terrified and ignorant she was when she first appeared inside Kate's chamber. How she ignored reason and began plotting some silly plots.

“But why haven't they told me.. to keep you like this for two weeks?”

“Because they didn't know.. I only admitted this yesterday and before... I was just one of them in there. And a problematic one, without any history or knowledge about things, they treated me like I was crazy... I don't blame them, I behaved like that.. afraid of being discovered and hurt – but I'm so sorry I let my silliness bother you...”

“Hey, it's okay.. I'm just happy you are okay. Even if it's also shocking to find you like this...” - Kate really doesn't mind. She thinks how she would behave if she was put through such ordeal. She had trouble understanding things from the inside of the zone and if she actually found herself.. inside – would she go insane? It's impossible to imagine.. could it happen to her as well? She is suddenly afraid if this was what Rachel was referring to that could happen if the others found out and... No, there is no need to worry the mother about it now. Right now Kate needs to make sure everything is really okay - “So things are okay between you and the people, nobody hurt you or anything?”

“Yes, and no – they all have been very helpful and instructive when they found out about my.. ignorance about their ways.”

“What do you mean?” - it sounds strange.. Rachel always seemed to know so much about everything, what could they have done to surprise her? And could it be a good thing?

“Nothing you should be worried about, it's just.. I didn't expect to find such sophisticated society anywhere in the chambers. They actually advanced after the shutdown and...” - she continues explaining some details on their organization. Kate knew most of them already, but never really thought about it. She never paid much attention to any other zones and this was just.. natural for her.

“So you are sure that the people are fine there?” - Kate eventually asks to reconfirm.

“Well.. yes, I haven't seen too many of them, but I understand that they are happy and content with their society and with you there.”

This surprises Kate greatly - “But.. ever since I appeared there I brought them nothing but death and suffering. I can only imagine how scared they all must be of me and despite my best efforts of reassuring them, it feels like I'm some sort of monster for them... I should have never even come to that place. They would be better off without me and.. and...”

“Oh Kate...” - Rachel interrupts her, but stops.

“Yes?” - was she wrong about all this?

“I don't know how to explain it, but after I admitted who I am and they started taking me seriously, it was all like.. Most of the people seem to adore you down there. Perhaps even more, sometimes I felt almost like some people loved you – everyone you are in contact with is more distant and careful, but I could see that...”

“Wait, I don't understand.. what do you mean by love me?” - Kate interrupts. She is familiar with the word, but she only heard it in the context of the caretakers feelings for each other, especially when Kate's older sister - Christina - and April had “a thing” for each other, as they called it. Amy suggested how it may have been something more – something that Kate didn't understand at a time. Like a special emotion about someone that makes people very important to each other. Amy also often admitted in private that she loved her, and Christina as well – and all mothers did love their daughters, but.. it was strange how only Kate's mother would ever show it.

It seemed the only thing like this that Kate knew was the friendship between the seconds and it was more of uneasy agreement to meet every now and then – she usually preferred to be alone, even before she got her own chamber, but... it was also nice to meet up and talk about things. Or have fun together – but not too often, it was more tedious than fun, really. But for the people to “love” Kate? It seemed strange. Rachel was taking her time to think about how to explain it, apparently, and finally continues:

“It's more like a feeling that I got.. the way how they speak about you. It's not fear, but rather understanding of your situation in there and some kind of admiration at the same time. The people may seem dry and emotionless when you talk with them, but that's because they respect you” - she explains.

“But I'm just.. I feel so stupid talking with them, like I don't know anything! And they had to teach me so much about their world and even knew the facility better than me...”

“Kate, it's not like that.. as I mentioned, they understand your situation and.. they are grateful how good you are for them. Those who know the alternatives are grave because they fear you may turn to be like the others...”

“They know? But how can they know about the others?” - the brief visits from Amber and Nicole weren't enough to suggest what was happening in the outside world, was it?

“Well.. you and other seconds have given them some clues, I'm afraid... And also..” - also? Nobody else was ever inside her zone, before the meeting two weeks ago, Kate was uncertain if she should let Rachel in – of course now it's all irrelevant... - “I heard you brought a little parasite with you some time ago.”

“A para.. a what?” - she is completely lost, but Rachel explains her how there she has unknowingly smuggled a person from the Lauren's zone and he was surprisingly helpful with informing them about the outside world.

“Oh no, I had no idea.. is that person.. is he okay?”

“Yes, I heard he landed safely and actually likes your zone much more than Lauren's salon...” - well, it was true.. at least he doesn't have to work for those monsters – Kate realizes, but how could he tell them so much... Well, it actually makes some sense – it was about the time they became more distant from Kate. She thought it was her confession, but they must have learned more and probably feared her as well. If only she could explain them – maybe Rachel could? She must know that Kate understands and would never do anything like that...

In the meantime the mother talks about various things - “... or when I was on the streets, I saw many people wearing caretaker uniforms.. well, they were just stylized like yours, but some of them actually chose to wear a simple dresses instead of one of a multitude of shapes and colors that are available. They really are impressed by your kindness and ...” - Kate was only paying half of her attention to it, but it seemed.. strange. Everyone in the facility would actually dread those uniforms and wanted to have some more interesting clothes, but if the people were really “impressed” by her...

Especially after the person from Lauren zone explaining them... “Shit, I forgot about the meeting with Lauren!” - Kate interrupts and check the time. Fortunately she is good – still almost an hour left. It was annoying that Lauren never wanted to meet up whenever they had the time, like everybody else – but instead made fixed schedules and would complain for weeks if anyone missed it. She even mentioned it was a private meeting, but still insisted on deferring it to a particular time – and since the temp wristcom didn't have the builtin alarm...

“Meeting? What meeting?” - Rachel inquires.

“Well, I.. should have mentioned it earlier” - although she did tell the people about it a couple days ago, when Lauren organized it. They used to remind her of things like that. At first they was surprised she cannot set timers or calendar entries for such things, but.. she must have seemed pathetic to them – unable to deal with such trivial things - “I don't know.. Lauren wanted to meet with me to talk about something” - but then realizes the other mother may have figured out something - “Oh no.. do you think she have found out I know about the.. people?”

“Um.. has anything happened to suggest her that?”

Kate thinks about it for a moment – she hasn't met or heard from her since the visit in the “salon” and it is unlikely, but the mothers always seemed to know so much about everything. What if Lauren somehow found out about.. but no – it was even before Kate met up with the other seconds. Maybe Rachel will be able to make some sense of it – so she explains the mother her worries.

“I see..” - Rachel finally concludes - “it's probably just one of the silly chats that she enjoys. I don't think she found out – in fact, you don't have to worry about that so much. It would take much more than a hint or two from you about being careful with the 'micros'” - she emphasizes this word - “to give you away. Everybody will think that you are just struggling with the training and so on...”

“But.. I met Amber in the morning and I think I told her too much. I..” - and Kate explains the earlier meeting and how she explained the people in that zone - “what if they tell everyone?”

“I don't think.. You made sure that Amber couldn't hear you?” - Rachel inquired and Kate confirms - “In that case I think the people will prefer death than giving you away. Not to mention that it would seem like some crazy story for the other girls and mothers won't bother to listen to Amber's 'micros'” - she pauses for a moment - “I think you did a really brave thing out there, but I don't believe you should repeat it anywhere else. If any mothers get actually interested in your behavior, then the clues like this could lead them to realizing that you know...”

“But do you think they may have somehow figured it out already?” - Kate is still worried.

“I.. Look, Kate.. we.. the mothers aren't some kind of supernatural beings – it's just that with the extra knowledge and.. after centuries of living in the facility they simply know much more than you. But you can also take advantage of this – since.. they are also very stiff and used to how the things are. The firsts haven't realized what the world is really like and they have no reason to expect any of the seconds or thirds to accomplish that either. Especially after the school failed.. I'm sorry.. I was one of them – in the end I tried to teach you something about the... I failed that as well, I..”

“Hey, Rachel.. it's okay. I wouldn't have realized anything without you! It's.. I don't care if you think you were like the others – but I know you weren't” - Kate tries to reassure her. There she is.. holding her hand absolutely still on the ground so the mother will not fall to her death and trying to.. comfort her? Is she even in a situation to do that? It all seems like an empty act, but.. it feels right. Like Rachel tried to comfort her two weeks ago, Kate should help her now.

“Thanks.. it really means.. a lot” - Rachel simply responds.

After a moment of silence, Kate inquires - “So what do I do now? I can't just talk with Lauren after everything that has happened. What if I say too much or give something away by..”

“I don't think you need to worry about Lauren so much” - Rachel interrupts her - “You are so smart and I'm sure you can easily avoid that.”

“But I'm not! I.. I don't understand anything about what is going on – I only know what you and some people in my chamber told me and.. I don't even get half of it, I feel like...” - she is lost in how to even explain how ignorant she is about everything...

“Kate, relax.. please!” - she is worried that her anxiety may have endangered Rachel, but she has kept her hand absolutely still on the ground and the mother continues - “I know it all may be hard for you, but you have to believe in yourself. You are the only one to have realized what the truth is.. and the firsts had three years in their own chambers for that. Nobody even thought that they can actually be people! When you approached me during Amber's graduation, I wasn't sure what you meant because I felt there was no way you could figure it out so quickly! Of course you had some help from me and others, but you were always the smartest girl I knew.”

Kate wishes it could be true.. it seems now that the only thing she ever did was listen – and allowed everybody to teach her. First her mother, then Rachel and finally the people in her chamber... but it doesn't make her smart at all:

“I haven't figured out anything on my own, just like you said – I was only taught! I had no idea what to do after you showed up and it was only thanks to your suggestions that I was able to...”

“Kate, slow down, please..” - it was true, she was frantic right now - “what are you talking about?”

“You mentioned the screen so I could ask to see you and pointed me to figure out I can get you out.. I mean.. you did that on purpose, just like the fine part, right?”

It takes Rachel a couple dozen seconds to respond - “I never.. I honestly haven't thought about that. I can see how it might seem I suggested the screen and.. this, but it wasn't my intent. I'm sorry again I bothered you with my stupid hallucinations.. but I wouldn't have come up with anything like this. It was only you that have connected the dots and it was very smart of you! I mean.. it's just like I told you...”

Kate thinks about this for a minute. It was true that Rachel seemed very surprised when she asked her to climb up and even worse after being brought here... She wasn't very enthusiastic about being recorded either – Kate thought she was just trying not to give herself away, but it could just as well be like she said now. Could it really be that she connected the dots and figured out something that Rachel wouldn't think of? It seems strange.. all her life she was shy and timid, trying to avoid doing anything original, not thinking independently and...

“Don't forget that Lauren won't have a clue you may know so much” - Rachel adds - ”To her, you are just another ignorant brat and she probably wants to manipulate you somehow. I doubt she will even ask anything that could give you away..”

“But what if she does” - Kate interrupts.

“Well.. you can always imagine what Nicole or Amber would have answered. You should know them pretty well by now, right?” - this actually sounds like a fairly easy thing to do.. Kate was like them her whole life and it shouldn't be a problem - “If you don't know what to say, you can always remain silent. Other mothers usually assumed you are shy and boring...”

Well, it is true – even when all seconds were in Lauren salon, she was only asked two or three questions during the whole discussion. Nobody cared about her during the graduations – even in her own party it was Nicole that talked with everybody and maintained the “friendly” atmosphere. And almost nobody noticed her leaving Amber's graduation.. the problem was that it was only Lauren that did.

But maybe Rachel is right? After all, the other seconds didn't have a clue – maybe she shouldn't worry that much about Lauren? The dress should be convincing enough that she is dealing with her micros – again, it worked with the seconds. But she also asks:

“Maybe you could give me some advices to how to act around Lauren?”

Rachel answers with uncertain voice - “I'm not sure what to say about her.. she was always lazy and selfish. I never bothered to get closer to her, I.. She haven't tried either and I don't see why she would want to learn anything about you now. If you don't know what to do, you can always indulge her with some empty compliments – about how smart and experienced she is or perhaps how you'd like to be like her...”

Kate recalls it was just what Nicole did and it worked flawlessly – although it's hard to say whether she was honest about it or not. The other seconds knew so little... she could just as well be really jealous of Lauren. Either way, it almost seems like a plan now and they spend the next half hour with Rachel explaining Kate various details about Lauren's personality, how other girls behaved and how to explain her “training” methods, if necessary – to avoid suggesting that she even talks with the “micros”. The vocabulary was also very important and she practiced a little to make sure that she won't hesitate for too long.

Then Kate realizes how rude it is of her to hold Rachel out here.. stranded under her fingernail – and explains how they should get back now, just in time for her to get ready for meeting Lauren. She rises most carefully to crouching and starts plugging the coords to the zone. The last thing Rachel asks is not to mention what they talked about – especially her confession in the beginning. She was already ashamed of her ignorance and wouldn't want them to think she is crazy.

“And one last thing..” - Rachel adds - “I noticed that every time you enter your chamber you go straight to the headphone and talk with whoever is on the other side. I just wanted to suggest that it may be nice to acknowledge the other people as well every now and then, you know” - but Kate has no idea:

“What do you mean.. Acknowledge them, how?”

“Well, it's enough to say hello and goodbye casually in the morning and in the evening... Think how you would feel if somebody ignored your existence” - Kate never thought about that, really.. they couldn't talk back to her without a headphone and she was.. already used to only talking with several people on a daily basis. Even when she first arrived, she wasn't really “greeting” them, but rather wanted to seem “friendly” to her “micros”... Not to mention that back then she only addressed the village she approached rather than everyone in the zone and it was the only time she said anything like that. After a pause, Rachel finishes - “Just a hint, if you feel like it - I always did it in my chambers.”

It's so.. obvious. Kate was a loner, but still felt a bit hurt when other girls ignored her during breakfasts or when randomly meeting in the facility. She didn't care about the mothers – most ignored all of their daughters, but it was nice to hear something from them every now and then.. even if it was just “hi” or “see you”. Sure, Amy and Rachel were usually nice to her, but she hardly ever met them in the facility in the last couple of years – her mother was always busy, eating early and coming back late and Rachel.. she was simply trying to avoid everybody else.

Was this how the people feel? Like she's some.. snobbish giant roaming around? Rachel was so generous to call her smart and everything, but.. Kate still feels so stupid. There's just so much that she needs to learn! Maybe this could actually help her when dealing with others? If Kate doesn't know how to behave nicely around the little people in the other zones, she wouldn't give away the fact that she understands... The only problem is that she doesn't want to be ignorant.. she wants to learn and to show them that she is actually good!

But now Kate confirms that Rachel is safe on her finger and she goes back to her chamber to drop her off and pick up the dress. This time she'll change like a responsible person... and not in front of all the people in the zone. She still has her headphone on and upon arrival hears Gary asking if everything is fine – and this time they can both honestly answer yes, although it is funny how he seems to be referring to the Rachel's “code”. Kate happily adds that they just had a girly chat and there's nothing to worry – they were probably worried about her dramatic exit.

But once Rachel is off her fingernail – dropped just outside the spot next to where they appeared, Kate is relieved it all went smoothly and moves carefully to pick up the dress. There is still fifteen minutes left, so she moves the dress to the empty zone first, then teleports back to her room to fix herself a bit and only then to change – although at the last moment, she decides to leave the caretaker uniform in her quarters. Dilating and dedilating wears the material down very quickly – and it would happen if she disrobed inside a chamber.

After dressing up, she notices that there are still five minutes before the appointment. After considering popping up earlier, she decides not to – Lauren is very particular about her schedule – and instead, Kate prefers to check if everything is “okay” with Rachel. She still cannot forget how Rachel suggested that she may be hurt. But even with the mother reassuring, Kate prefers to double check – maybe their attitude changed after their little conspiracy? She cannot imagine James or Gary trying to hurt Rachel, but.. she just wants to make sure.

Arriving back in her chamber, she quickly notices a blinking headphone next to her – she left the one she was wearing inside when departing earlier. Worrying if there's something wrong, Kate picks it up quickly – but a joyful Rachel's voice greets her before she can even say anything:

“Kate, you look gorgeous!”

“Oh...” - is the only sound she can produce and blushes slightly. She feels better than the first time wearing it – apparently not undressing in front of everybody allowed her to maintain some amount of dignity... She still feels like half the zone can see her underwear – it's probably not that bad.. maybe just the ones nearby, like surely around the edges of her spot and possibly a city or two... Why haven't she asked for trousers?

They must have heard details on their “fashion” from this guy she “smuggled” Lauren's salon and.. why every other caretaker insisted on dresses? They seemed not to care about what the people see at all – have they got no decency? Well, the other girls didn't care, but the mothers... At least Rachel never worn one – it was so ridiculous. But now she compliments her casually...

“It's all thanks to the designers who figured out how to make the dress” - she recalls how she haven't thanked them.. should she address them more directly now? It seems she doesn't have a lot of time, maybe later.. but she must remember about this. Like Rachel said – how would she feel if her effort went unnoticed? And they must have worked very hard to make it.

“Yes, the dress is great” - Rachel replies - “but it's you, who look simply perfect” - is she trying to reinforce her? Compliments usually help others, but Kate isn't used to receiving any and doesn't know what more she can say – the mother must have noticed it and cheers - “Don't worry and make us proud.. go get her!”

“Thanks...” - it's not the time yet, but Kate thinks she'll start crying, if she hears another compliment from Rachel. Or even worse – from anybody else...

So Kate teleports back to the empty zone and waits a couple minutes. She thinks if she missed some secret message in what Rachel said, but cannot notice anything – it was just natural, like.. she so rarely heard the caretakers compliment each other. The firsts were always jealous when anyone got something nice and the mothers didn't bother about such things. No, now is not the time to worry and she needs to calm down before visiting Lauren.

After waiting several minutes in silence, Kate realizes she is already a bit late – but it shouldn't matter that much. It's strange how she hasn't received anything from Lauren. From what Kate heard from Rachel, she usually sent all the details right before the appointment and it happened exactly like that when she invited the seconds to her salon. Unsure of what she should do, Kate sends a mesg – and receives one with the details a minute later.

Teleporting there, she first looks down at her feet and nearest vicinity. The zone seems to be uninhabited or at least she must have appeared in an empty area. Good – she will not have to explain why she steps so carefully around the people. “No, micros..” - she corrects herself in her thoughts.. using that word in the presence of any mother would be bad.

Next, she raises her eyes searching for Lauren and notices... shit! She isn't alone – Erica and Nicole seem to be talking with her. Kate begins walking towards the three, thinking what it can mean – she wasn't expecting this. What if they found out.. if Amber told Nicole and then that bitch passed it to her mother? It could be very bad...

But it's too late to fix anything. Kate can always deny everything, say how Amber must have misunderstood her – or perhaps even say that she haven't spoken with her? Maybe just play dumb at first... she wishes she could consult Rachel about this – but it would be even worse if she went back to her zone now. No, she needs to casually approach them and try to figure out what is it that they want.

They don't even seem to have noticed Kate – or don't care about her arrival. Maybe it's something unrelated and she has nothing to worry? There is only one way to be sure and she walks towards them. One more detail that she spots from the distance is that Nicole seems to have a dress as well. Lauren is also nicely clothed – as usual – but Erica has only the standard uniform, which suggests that this isn't important enough for her to care. She usually walks around her zones in it and Kate used to meet her like this back when she was playing with Nicole – but the mother dresses up whenever she has anything larger planned.

Maybe this is simply a coincidence? As Kate approaches the three caretakers, she evaluates Nicole carefully. The dress is much more sophisticated than her one-piece, it follows the usual style of the caretakers clothes – thicker and rigid, with emblems of various shapes and colors. Unlike Kate's plain blue cloth, it seems more like it was painfully constructed and is much harder to wear. The main problem with micro-matter clothes is that they break so easily. One wrong move and they can fall apart completely – at least the clothes other mothers and the firsts had.

The dress people in her chamber made for Kate is completely different: soft, elastic and durable. It sticks closer to the skin rather than loosely fly around, but doesn't constrain her movements at all. Even despite being much simpler, it must be nice – any clothing other than the uniform is considered “pretty” and Rachel did compliment her. Maybe it shouldn't be a problem then, so Kate can focus on the discussion without worrying about her looks. Nicole seems to have noticed her and looks straight at her with a confident expression on her face.. almost bold or perhaps even smug. It doesn't matter – Kate needs to see what the mothers say.

Just before she enters their voice range, Lauren stops talking and also looks at her – it seemed the mothers were conversing the whole time. Kate appeared at their side and Nicole is a couple steps further, roughly facing the direction she is coming from. The other second must have failed to spot her earlier being busy listening to the conversation.

Erica must have noticed the others looking at the new arrival and she turns her head towards her as well. Kate was worried the mother may want to talk to her and Erica speaks first: “Kate, how sweet of you to visit us” - as if it was her to organize this. Could it? Lauren planned it days in advance – were they suspecting something already?

“Hello” - Kate mutters, afraid of what comes next.

“And look at your cute dress! We were just discussing how important it is to include you girls in the proper procedures, seeing how mature you are becoming...”

“It won't change my position on this” - Lauren throws in.

“Can't you look beyond your petty plots after seeing how responsible our daughters are now? Come here, you..” - Erica motions towards Kate, but doesn't wait for the move and approaches the second herself. After encompassing Kate with her left hand, she adds - “How long can you ignore they've grown?”

Kate doesn't return the act – in fact, she doesn't move at all. This must be one of their games and she has nothing to add to it. Erica is easily six inches taller than her and it would be impractical to casually return her hug now. Kate waits for this show to end, but neither mother says anything for at least a minute. Eventually, Erica lets go of Kate and casually walks towards Nicole – apparently trying to emphasize her message using her daughter as well – but the other second seems less comfortable with it.

Nicole was standing a couple steps further from the pack and now even tries to back away further. Kate usually just lets the mothers do whatever they want with her and quickly retreat to peace and silence of being alone – it's the easiest way to avoid confrontation. It seems to have worked perfectly now.

Erica speeds up and she must have walked to far away from Kate, since she cannot hear anything. Lauren is still silent, but Erica and Nicole seem to be arguing about something. Has Kate missed something earlier? There must have been something going on between those three and she simply doesn't want to participate in it – chances are that she was even caught in it accidentally.

It seems like.. Nicole doesn't want her mother to approach her and when Erica tries to do this regardless, she tries to push her away – it's a bit strange, since Nicole was never behaving like that. Kate would expect her to shine in such situation, especially with the new clothes and everything. Suddenly, the sudden movement makes her dress top piece to rip apart, revealing her right breast as she desperately tries to cover up.

They seem to have stopped arguing and Lauren speaks – Kate is still just a four or five feet away from her and can hear her just fine - “Looks like they haven't matured as much as you'd thought.”

Both Nicole and Erica gaze at her with angry expressions – although the daughter is far more frantic with it. Erica starts talking again – but Kate cannot hear it - and Lauren just watches them for a moment in silence and speaks only when Erica seems to have finished:

“No, maybe if you taught her to practice some more with her new clothes instead of playing in the mud...” - Erica almost turns red hearing this and speaks something to Nicole. Kate thinks about what the other mother mentioned – it was true that the other second seemed a bit dirty now, with tiniest traces of brownish substance around her face, but Kate wouldn't think twice about it earlier.

Amber mentioned something in the morning about their friend having some troubles with cleaning up – but it was very immature to appear dirty at any social gatherings... On the other hand micro matter was very tedious to get rid of if it stuck to the skin. Kate thinks about the possible reasons for what she has just seen, but Erica speaks something towards Lauren, waves at Kate and leaves – followed quickly by Nicole.

Lauren looks at her only remaining guest and speaks - “And that's why I prefer to keep meetings private...” - is this a reference to Kate revealing the fact the mother wanted to meet? She mentioned Amber something about it to get out from her – tired of trying not to say her too much, but... Has Nicole talked to the second to hear about it? Have they mentioned it earlier? Kate quickly concludes it's better to admit the harmless fact to seem honest – it may come in handy when she will need to lie later...

“Uh, I'm sorry.. I must have babbled something about it earlier...” - trying to seem simple and immature. Lauren shrugs it off and adds:

“Don't worry.. and you shouldn't let Erica manipulate you like that, you know” - the same advice could apply to her as well - “But now lets get back to why I asked you to meet me. Give me a moment please...” - and she turns back walking towards something some distance away. Kate doesn't move since she wasn't asked to and thinks about how the meeting turned out so far.

It doesn't seem any mother suspected anything – they were busy playing their games and Lauren even seemed completely content with her little confession. There didn't seem to be anything that Kate should be worried about so far, so she just waits for the mother to return. Maybe it is like Rachel explained – everyone considers her to be ignorant and immature, completely unaware of how the world works. It feels so.. strange – like hiding in plain sight...

Suddenly she can see Lauren in a completely different light – deceiving her was so easy, it seems. She was actually much shorter than her, barely a couple inches over five feet tall – compared to Kate's five seven. They never thought about mothers in this way, they were always distant and powerful – but the height made her probably the shortest caretaker after the thirds grew up... Well, except Rachel now, of course, but it doesn't really count..

On the other hand it probably was Rachel's predicament that made Kate notice such things. And even think about other mothers in this way – she recalls how vulnerable the mother was back in her zone, asking her for help and protection. Even if it was just caused by shock of her change and made Kate unnecessarily worried – it also showed her very plainly that the mothers were just people. Maybe Rachel was right and Kate has nothing to worry about? Just keep calm and avoid giving any details about anything – it seems like nothing can go wrong.

Lauren walks back towards her with a small package on her hand. Kate surveys it, but cannot figure out anything about it, so just waits for the explanations. When the mother reaches the voice distance, she speaks:

“It turns out that my micros didn't need all those food synthesizers and I can give you back four of them. I'm sure your zone will make better use of them...” - Kate looks at her with disbelief.. was this all Lauren wanted to do now? Their little “argument” after Amber's graduation seems so ancient and.. almost childish to the second now – especially considering all she has been through recently. All the realizations and discoveries. It's just... - “Don't be like that, I'm just trying to help you.”

Of course she is... – it was probably her plan all along, like Erica called it.. “petty plots”? But now Kate needs to maintain her cover:

“Oh, I'm just.. I don't know what to say...”

“It's okay, just take them and make sure your micros don't start dying of hunger or anything. They'll probably need to regain their strength after making such nice dress!” - it was the closest thing to a compliment that most mothers were capable of, it seems...

“Thanks...” - Kate tries to smile - “and thank you for the synthesizers, it will really help my 'micros' a lot..” - of course she knows that the people are just fine without it, especially with the materials she delivered. Yes, the people seemed to manage just fine – as long as nobody was killing them. But this mention that they could die of hunger...

“Oh look at you, all mature and responsible now, unlike many others...” - she probably refers to Nicole's little “accident” - “I wish my Andrea could behave like you” - or that.. Well, it is true, Lauren's daughter was usually just like Lisa or her daughter.. completely careless and greedy. This similarity was probably how she could become friends with Amber so easily... Well, it seems the second is already more reasonable than that, but she still only wants her “micros” to reproduce so she can abuse them later on. But.. not now – Kate should respond somehow:

“Thank you...” - she thinks if maybe she could act ignorant about what happened just earlier - “Um.. about what happened earlier...” - Lauren looks at her curiously, was it a bad idea to induce interest in her? - “what was all that about?” - Kate finishes simplistically.

“Don't worry about it, it was nothing..” - Lauren starts and ponders it in silence. Just as uncertain about what to say as Kate, it seems - “You know how Erica always is..” - of course she doesn't. The mothers always talk like this, which used to make them seem smart and experienced, but now it's just pathetic. Kate feels there's nothing more behind it, other than one of Erica's own “petty plots” - as she so nicely summarized it herself. But Lauren suddenly adds - “You should be proud of yourself, chances are you will soon be much more important and everything.”

But what can she mean? It doesn't make any sense – she cannot refer to Kate's discoveries, the mothers would likely reprimand her if they found out. Unable to figure it out, Kate decides to act completely ignorant and blurt - “What do you mean?”

“Oh you know..” - again behaving like everything was obvious.. it's so annoying. But Lauren also seems to consider what to say and only after a moment adds ambiguously - “Erica is crazy again about reinstating the caretaker training and I'd say you make a perfect candidate for it...”

What could it mean? Caretaker training.. now Kate is completely lost. They were all caretakers, but – was there something more to it? She sometimes wondered how some mothers know so much and are able to do much more around the facility, but it was always part of their “distant awesomeness”. Why would Erica want to train them? If anything, from what Rachel said it would seem that she was always against anything like that. It seems.. strange.

“Oh, don't worry about it” - Lauren adds, obviously noticing Kate's puzzlement - “You'll see it's nothing fancy, really” - that's all great, but WHAT is it! - “Hey, have you seen Rachel recently, by any chance?”

“Rachel..” - what... does she know? No! Kate must stay calm - “no, I.. why do you...”

“You two were always close and the last time I seen her was with you at the Amber's party” - it's true, but.. has she somehow figured out that Rachel is in her chamber? Is it possible that... - “Oh, never mind. I was just curious if maybe the hermit let anybody know she is still alive.”

So.. simple. It seems Lauren treats her like a kid and wouldn't think that she could possibly know anything. Just like Rachel said.. but Kate figures she better not take any chances now and ask others what it could possibly mean. Rachel should know something, if Erica is crazy “again” on this topic – also Gary and other ex-caretakers could know a lot about the training itself. It's hard to say how to approach it now, but then again, Lauren doesn't seem to expect the second to do anything now, so...

“Um, Lauren.. I... thank you for the synthesizers again and if I could just...”

“Go ahead and take them to your micros. Make us proud!” - proud.. like.. Rachel said. Could it be a coincidence? Should Kate be worried? It all just seems so.. complicated, like everyone wanted to manipulate her now. Is Rachel also trying to... No! She needs to tell her everything and ask to help out with this.

So Kate just grabs the tiny package from Lauren's outstretched hand, mumbles something about being thankful again and inputs the coords back to the empty zone to change her clothes.

“Don't mention it, and Kate..” - she looks up, back at Lauren - “see you around!”

“Oh, yeah, see you...” - it was unusually open for any mother to behave like that. Especially Lauren – what can her “petty plot” be? Maybe Rachel will know – Kate concludes and teleports. After carefully depositing the synthesizers on the ground, she wears the uniform again and moves to the main zone.

Right after fitting the headphone on, she hears Rachel's voice - “How did it go?” - others usually gave her a moment to gather her thoughts...

“Oh, hi.. it was good, I think...” - Kate is unsure how to summarize it, a lot happened in Lauren's chamber, but it doesn't seem to be very meaningful for her - “Lauren just wanted to give me some.. Oh shoot, I forgot the synthesizers... Let me just get back to...” - and begins to input the coords again. She feels so stupid again.. has she also missed something important in the meeting with Lauren? Has she given away anything?

“Hey, Kate, relax – it can wait. Now just please tell us more about what happened, we are all curious and still a bit worried...” - right.. Kate realizes she hasn't greeted the people and went straight for the headphone. It seems it's too late for that now and she simply starts explaining everything that happened, trying to recall and explain every tiniest detail – from the outlook of the zone, through the Erica's words, Nicole's incident and finally everything that Lauren told her when they were alone. During her explanation, Kate tries a couple times to ask whether Rachel knows what the various details can mean – but the mother gently asks her to continue with the descriptions. It annoys Kate a bit, but.. she assumes it's for the best.

When she finishes and admits how she forgot to bring the synthesizers, Gary assures her it's not a problem. She cannot stop thinking about what Lauren said... “dying of hunger”. Kate had no idea it could be that bad – being hungry was somewhat annoying, but she always has access to the assembler to produce food and wouldn't think that the people could... Was this what they spoke about when she arrived? The mayor told her about the “overpopulation” and problems with food production - was it still affecting them? She feels so terrible for not understanding this earlier and would do anything to know for sure – she feels like they may have not told her more about it, just like about the materials. Or perhaps she simply ignored it, being unaware of how serious it can be...

Maybe Rachel will be able to explain it in a way that she will comprehend it. The mother's presence here suddenly feels like an opportunity to bridge between the people and her, shocking and terrible as her showing up here may have been, they can at least try to make the best of it – and if Kate can help the people in any way...

But now Rachel tells her more about Erica – how she used to bully the daughters into doing various things, how her methods are always very subtle and this meeting with Lauren is so much unlike her. It also occurs to her that Erica never seemed to be very interested in the younger girls, but focused on the firsts – Rachel never payed much attention to that, but even the fact that she allowed to establish the school was surprising. Without her blessing, Rachel wouldn't be able to convince others that it's important that their daughters learn something about the world.

She explains in more detail how the other mothers were simply afraid that their daughters would hate them for what happened – she hinted it during their conversation two weeks ago, but now speaks more openly... although it feels strange when Gary interrupts her inquiring about some things. Rachel still is fairly general in her descriptions and seems to avoid the Gary's questions, but it's so much to take in for Kate that she doesn't mind that.

Rachel carries on detailing how Erica also used to play with other mothers to accomplish her goals – although she still has no idea about what they may be – but it was far more difficult and insidious, since they already knew much more about everything and had developed personalities when the shutdown happened. Still, with a proper mix of flattery, lies, manipulation and threats – all tailored to specific person.. anyone can be broken. Especially after spending hundred and ten years in complete isolation. They learned everything about each other in that time – which made it fairly easy for Erica to trick them.

When Gary inquires about their daughters and why were they alone for all that time, Rachel seems confused for a moment – but explains how it's all complicated and doesn't really contribute to the matter at hand. It's true – but Kate thinks how she never really learned how they were born. Like.. Rachel explained them the “micros” reproductive cycle, but she never thought how it would apply to them – up until ten days ago, she was still having trouble accepting the fact that they are essentially the same – only vastly bigger.. or the people in the zones are just smaller. But right now it seems there are more important things.

So the mother explains how she wanted to tell them everything, but they threatened actually killing her – for Kate the idea of anyone actually dying is... strange. Nobody she knew ever did and she simply has no point of reference to that. It felt terribly wrong when she didn't hear from Rachel for two weeks and to imagine being unable to talk to her at all... like... if she was completely gone! Kate tries not to think about it too much, fearing she would burst into tears again, but... Was this what they have been doing to the people? What Kate has been doing as well? For eighteen years Kate was.. like them. Just like the other “caretakers”.. murdering and tormenting them, like they were some.. toys. Existing solely for her amusement.

Rachel tried to teach them about it in school and even Lauren attempted to hint some things in her salon zone, but Kate just couldn't see through her ignorance. She wants to tell the others everything now, but... what if they wouldn't understand and other mothers hurt her? Even the thought of this chamber being taken away from her is terrible – the thought of the people being at the mercy of somebody else...

Even when Gary asks the “tough” questions – Kate thinks he only wants to learn more details from Rachel and she wouldn't even think about most of those things, so it's actually helpful that he suggests them. But it seems that they are problematic for Rachel somehow, maybe she doesn't want to go into to many details, being ashamed how she failed to teach them? It makes sense to Kate, like.. she also feels completely powerless about her situation. She would like to have some way to protect them, but can simply avoid.. detection... What kind of life is that?

But now Rachel seems to pursue something: “Gary, you don't have to hide this from Kate, you know” - what could it be? And what could she mean by... - “she already feels so isolated by not being able to see and hear us properly. Conspiring messages on the walls will not help” - so that's it.. Kate wants to explain them that there is nothing to be afraid, but... she can understand if they do – and it feels that anything she can say will be meaningless anyway.

After at least a minute of awkward silence – were they talking internally again? - Gary speaks:

“Sorry about that, Kate, I didn't mean to...”

“Don't worry about it” - she interrupts - “what's the problem?” - assuming that they wouldn't act like this if there wasn't one.

“Well, it's just that.. we are still a bit worried about your actions.. and how they may impact us, even unknowingly...”

“What he means is that people are worried about you starting to behave like others at any point and...” - Rachel interrupts his awkward description, but Kate must object it:

“I would never! I.. know now and couldn't possibly knowingly hurt anyone.. Rachel, you know me! Please tell them how I wouldn't do this.. I tried to explain it so many times already!” – even though she didn't understand everything back then.. maybe Rachel can convince them?

“Yes, but it was fairly clear that you weren't aware of what the things were” - so obvious, huh... - “and even your confession was so emotional that it caused some worries around here to how reliable you can be. I'm sure you can imagine by now that a concerned kid is not a stable basis for planning the future for millions of people.”

Rachel is so direct, nobody else would ever talk to her like that. Kate feared the people would feel this way, but... what can she say to fix this? After all, she isn't sure about her own feelings and actions herself – and it's all so true: she is still an ignorant, bitchy kid – Rachel tried to label it nicely, but that was the truth. She proved it time and again. The only difference is that she thinks she understands it and tries not to hurt them.

Her eyes start to get all watery as she cannot hold it anymore, but Rachel continues - “Kate, please.. don't be like this” - it seems everything is so obvious, like they can all see right through her - “and I didn't mean it like that. Many people admire you, even though they don't fully comprehend just how dangerous others can be. But I know you will never act like them and if you just explain it calmly, they will understand as well” - Kate thinks that James and other leaders must have heard about the others from this guy she unknowingly brought inside, but...

Rachel is right, of course.. she was always right – even her “hallucinations” must have been caused by something really serious and Kate will need to inquire about it further. The mother didn't want to worry her, but something bad must have happened to cause such distress. Now, however...

“But.. what can I say?” - Kate is completely lost.

“The truth” - Rachel replies. Again – so simple!

Kate tries to calm herself, if she wants to comfort the people, she shouldn't cry and be frantic about it. Just explain the people how she understands and that they don't have to worry. She feels that in order for them to be sure of it now, she will need to admit a lot of things that she tried to avoid earlier and considers that they may hate her for what she was. Just like mothers feared their daughters would hate them... But even if the people do – she has to tell them. To explain how she changed and that she will never behave like that.

So after wiping her eyes, Kate rises up and turns away from the screen – she was laying down in front of it, trying at least have this substitute of eye contact with Rachel. She needs to address them rather than talk to the ground in the corner of the zone – just like Rachel advised her. It makes perfect sense and she feels bad again for ignoring the normal people for all this time.

“What is she doing..” - she can hear a muffled voice through her headphone, they must have not silenced their end this time... Kate thinks if she is doing the right thing, but shortly she hears Rachel quietly replying:

“Shh, just watch” - yes, at least the mother understands. Have they simply forgotten to mute the recording? In any case, Kate feels a bit strange to be referred in third person, but she was already getting used to those things a bit – watching her own form on the horizon and trying to imagine how she must appear to the people... But before Rachel arrived, they very rarely mentioned her like that.

Carefully rising up to kneel down facing the center of the zone, she looks around it. There are millions of people trying to deal with her presence here – how can she possibly ease their worries? Sun is already setting and she can see various cities lighting up gradually. From her distant perspective, they are just indistinguishable lumps of buildings... but they can see her clearly. She remembers how James explained her this long time ago. All those lives... maybe at least most of them learned to ignore her, as primitive and boring? She wouldn't mind, in fact.. she wants to hide, to run away from this responsibility.

But she has to comfort them! Or at least try.. she seemed to fail with so many things when it comes to the people. But Rachel is so certain that she will succeed... Kate wishes she could be so confident as well.

“Hi” - she starts awkwardly and waves - “I.. don't know how to explain it, so I'll just start talking and... yeah. When I admitted my ignorance two weeks ago, I.. I didn't want to tell you the whole truth. I was ashamed for being so stupid and.. I still am” - Kate moves her eyes to look at different cities, trying to give an impression that she is talking to all of them, even despite she can hardly even distinguish the distant ones - “And even since then I learned there were so many things that I haven't had a slightest idea about, just as there are many more.. I... wish there was something that I could say to convince you that I understand more now, but...

“I feel like I still don't. I haven't got a slightest idea about your lives, I'm just so ignorant and dumb! I.. cannot ask you to forgive me anything that I have done before I realized that you are people... humans, just like me. I'm so stupid not to notice it earlier. I... wish I could just..” - but she has no idea what could she do, turn back time? It's ridiculous...

“When I look back at myself from a couple weeks ago and I see just a stubborn bitch. I mean it.. You probably must have been terrified by what I did.. and I can understand how you must still be afraid of me. I wish there could be a way to undo all that, I just... don't know what to say. If you look at me and can see an annoying simpleton, then I don't blame you... because I know I'm just that.

“But.. I'd like you to know that I will, no... I promise you that I will do everything that I can to protect you. And to help you deal with this.. situation... any way I can. I'm so sorry that I was so ignorant before, I.. I now know that I killed so many people, here and elsewhere.. it just feels so terrible, I had no idea and I...”

But Rachel interrupts her - “That's alright, Kate. I think you've said enough...” - it doesn't feel like enough, but.. she is probably right.

Kate wants to add one more thing - “Just please know that I learned just how terrible it all was and I will never allow you to be hurt!” - she wishes it could be true, but tries to sound more confident to give the people some comfort. Then she just sits there in complete silence.

“Kate.. it was very beautiful of you to admit all that and I understand how hard it must have been” - Rachel speaks. Kate expects that she may admit something on her own, but nothing more comes for a while. Eventually, the mother continues - “Gary, was it 'serious' enough?”

“Uhm.. yes.. I suppose it was” - he admits. Kate still feels bad about everything that she mentioned, but maybe it will convince them to “trust” her? But should they “trust” her? Is she even worthy of that? Kate feels again that she should have never entered this place – and there's one more thing to add:

“If you ever decide it's better for me not to come here again, then I won't. I just wish there could be something... I'm sorry for everything.”

After a couple minutes of an awkward silence – nobody speaks through the headphone as well - she concludes there's nothing more she can think of and thinks about how to end her confession. Everything seems meaningless now and eventually she settles for somewhat awkward, but simple exit - “I'll just.. go back to discussion with Rachel and Gary now...” - and turns back towards the screen. Even though they are probably hundreds of miles away, it gives her an illusion of their presence.

When settled back down in front of it, she looks at Rachel's concerned face. Maybe also somewhat happy.. it's so unusual to see actual emotions on any mother's face. Or perhaps she was simply unable to spot them? It seems that her recent experiences have already taught her a lot, maybe she will manage not to fail the people? Right.. she still needs to learn what the dangers of being discovered are – it won't help, but.. at least she will understand what she must so desperately try to avoid. Would the others actually “kill” her? It's still a bit hard to believe..

“Rachel, if I may ask..” - she starts carefully.

“Yes?”

“What kinds of things may the mothers do, if they discovered that I.. know this?”

“Oh.. well... It's hard to say, really. Mostly depends on how much would they learn and in what context. Your mother would probably start by teaching you not to behave this way, but the others.. Lisa and Lauren would probably want to use it for their advantage, whatever it is that they currently want. And they all might eventually tell Erica and if Erica finds out, she would threaten you and possibly hurt you if she felt her position was endangered.”

Gary suggests - “Rachel, don't you find it suspicious that she started pursuing that training thing so soon after your disappearance? Conveniently not there to oppose her this time?” - this time? Lauren mentioned again, but..

“I don't know.. it's surely strange, but are you suggesting that...”

“Yes, could she have immigrated you?” - he pursues. Kate was familiar with the immigration concept, Rachel explained it in school – except she learned only much later that those were full sized people that were sent into the zones. What would that even mean if Rachel was immigrated?

“Well, I thought about it, but if – and that's a big if – she has figured out how to do that.. and I have no idea if it would be possible without my approval... Why wait so long for this? She could have removed her competition long time ago.. and why here? It just doesn't make any sense...”

“We can start with the how part, Kate – would you give us a moment to get some specialists on this subject?”

“Uh, sure..” - why is he even asking her? She will need to tell him later to just act, if he thinks it's best... But at least he seems much more open now – perhaps he is just being nice? It already felt like they started ignoring her, after all...

She notices him passing behind Rachel, but.. if she could see them both, then who was recording the view?

“I.. Rachel, I don't want to be rude, but is there anybody else with you?”

“Anybody.. what do you... Oh, right.. The camera – no, there's nobody else. Gary simply set up a recording device earlier to avoid having to stay still the whole time” - that makes sense and Kate feels stupid again. It's so obvious.

“Oh, that's nice..” - she thinks about some other topics they could talk in the meanwhile, one more reference worried her in Lauren's chamber - “Hey, what do you think Lauren meant by me becoming more important?”

“It's hard to say, really.. but if I understand correctly, they may want to reinstate the training program to give some daughters the full privileges...” - and she continues explaining how the temp wristcoms they are wearing are just a side-effect of some emergency procedures the mothers found out about, which allowed them to generate new temporary IDs for the girls to interface with various systems, like teleportation or assemblers. Even them “owning” the chambers required a lot of modifications to the original system they originally devised and that's why they have many restrictions, such as having to be in the zone to let somebody in or give privileges. None of that applies to mothers, since they are fully registered caretakers – and although since the shutdown systems don't work as they should, they at least have the proper means of identification and operation.

Most of that doesn't make much sense to Kate, so she asks many questions and Rachel explains it in more detail and elaborates on how they have found a theoretical way to manipulate the caretaker retraining routine into registering the daughters in the system properly. It caused of a lot of discussion and arguments among the mothers – mostly started by Erica pushing for it a number of times, most notably the last one being just after the firsts graduation. Every time the other mothers were very skeptical about it and didn't let Erica reinstate it, since there were many unknowns and dangers of this operation.

But even being able to comprehend some of the details, Kate has no idea why they would worry so much - “But why bother so much about giving us the proper wristcoms with all the functions” – as Rachel explained the first difference for them might be – “What kind of problems could it cause?”

“Kate...” - Rachel starts as if the question was very silly, it was happening a lot just now, when Kate knew what she meant, but simply failed to correlate things from the facility with what the mother explained - “It's actually a bit more complicated. The main reason we were all worried and this includes Erica as well, was that.. Various systems seem to have adopted this way of authorizing many operations.”

“Authorizing the operations?”

“How to explain this... Before the shutdown, it was guided by the role a particular person had in the facility, like some people could access various functions of the system. After everything broke, however.. we couldn't get anything to work again. For several days we struggled to even reactivate the emergency systems.. we almost died from dehydration before we were able to barge into a backup storage...” - she pauses for a moment - “That's it! The emergency storage!”

“Uh.. you lost me...” - Kate admits. Again. But this time the mother seems excited about something.

“I'm sorry, it's just that.. we were finally able to open a storage by using our emergency IDs, as a last resort – it wouldn't let the biometrics or remote identification work, it was like they functioned, but.. refused to let us in. After we noticed it, we were able to activate some assemblers and over time learned to survive in the new reality” - it seems.. complicated.

“But why would you be worried about registering the girls?” - it still doesn't add up, Rachel continues explaining:

“Well, there's something more..” - there always was. It seems that no matter how much time Kate listens, there are things that she hasn't heard about or that she doesn't understand - “You know, shortly after the shutdown, we were hoping it was only temporary, like.. somebody would fix everything soon. It was just the five of us and we had no idea what happened and no real knowledge of any systems, except maybe the ones we were working in and it wasn't enough to accomplish anything.

“As time passed and we managed to enable various emergency equipment, like medbeds or even the damn hygiene pods...” - Kate never knew anything else, so cannot understand why Rachel can be frustrated, but the mother continues - “But when weeks turned into months and then years... We had to try to figure out something. So we started looking for answers. Blindly at first, but we started noticing things – such as the system logs, which gave us some insight into what may be happening.

“But nothing made sense – the facility was still almost completely sealed and it seemed everyone was.. removed from it. Except the five unlucky women – and it didn't make any sense. It seemed anybody else would have more experience to fix the things than us... I had the most working knowledge of the facility and I was a damn communications engineer. It was hopeless.. even after we started discovering things, we couldn't get anything more to work! It was like all machines suddenly hated us.

“We spent most of our time trying to figure something out – but after decades we weren't even able to find any new meaningful information in the logs. We started trying the craziest things, like activating the debug mode for some production functions. Nobody would do that before the shutdown, because it was terribly dangerous, not in the live system – but we had no choice.

“But the weirdest thing was that the system only acted when the three of us 'wanted' to activate it. It felt like some weird kind of.. majority among us was necessary. We tried to analyze it for years, but we couldn't find any clues to why that happened and who could have set up such rules. It seemed it just.. happened, without anything meaningful in the logs, apart from the mention of what was changed. And only I was actually accessing any system functions to make it happen. I don't even remember who the others were.. Lisa and Amy perhaps? I think they were just.. standing next to.. me and talking how great it would be if this worked.

“And it just did.. like the damn system listened to our wishes now? It was ridiculous – but over the next several months, even some emergency systems started to require such 'authorization'. It also didn't make any sense – but then of course, hardly anything did after the shutdown. It seemed like even the simplest systems that earlier simply worked, now were somehow updated with this new protocol. Like the facility has somehow decided to implement democracy!”

Kate has no idea what the democracy was, but doesn't want to interrupt Rachel – she seems to be right in the middle of explanations.

“So over time, we managed to move forward a little bit using this new three fifths rule – as we started to call it. There was no mention of anything like this in any materials we could find, but it worked, so we tried to use it everywhere we could. We still couldn't leave the living quarters, we couldn't access any actually useful systems... Even the debug mode haven't helped. We started trying really crazy things – like reactivating the terraforming program.
“It has been disabled for a long time, since even before the shutdown robots were already doing that instead of humans, but the software was still there. It accepted the votes – although back then we were all supporting each other – and we were able to enter the chambers. The idea was to ask if anybody knows what happened, to figure out how to fix it, but..

“I don't even know who did what first, but after several months of looking for answers, someone started.. killing everyone. It was terrible, we were disgusted at first, but over time others followed and they just wouldn't listen, I.. Even when they...” - even Rachel's voice clearly suggests she must be distressed, it must have been really hard for her - “I was only able to convince them restrain themselves when it became clear they could soon.. run out of chambers.

“You remember the rest.. the remaining ones were split among the mothers and I was able to implement this simple program to manage the ownerships... It was a horrible thing to do, but it was the only thing I could think of that the others could accept.

“And then Erica started bringing up the training program... We had no idea what could happen if we used it. We found a long time ago that there were no registered caretakers left in the facility – other than us.. and if that changes... There is no way to figure out what can happen. Maybe the system will require a majority of four votes for certain operations and it would make it much harder to change anything... Or it could still settle for three, which would make everything erratic, with nobody being able to control things anymore. It may even ignore us entirely, since we still have no idea what the 3/5ths rule is really about!”

Rachel seems to have finished with that. Kate thinks about all this for a couple minutes. So the mothers were actually able to do something more than the girls, but.. she doesn't recall ever needing their approval like that, so it must have been only required for some unusual things. On the other hand that's just what happened during her graduation – Erica, Amy and Lauren have taken Kate somewhere and told her to put some sequences into her wristcom. It was just before the party and after they were done, Kate could receive her first zone.. no, chamber. Of course they always called it “zones”. They gave her a quick introduction to how the new menus and functions work, such as claiming empty zones or assigning privileges.

Now it makes sense – they probably must have done something with the 3/5ths rule for her to be able to access new functions. Does it mean they could have immigrated Rachel? Is this what Gary was asking her? It suddenly seems so terrifying. If any three mothers decided to make Kate disappear, they could just do it... On the other hand if she could find two allies, then she could be safe – breaking the apparent reign of Erica's. Of course it wouldn't be as simple as that, but at least it was something to start with – but she needs to be sure:

“Rachel, so.. do you think it's possible some three mothers could immigrate you?”

“That's the problem... I can't think of any ways how it could be even possible. We were cut from any immigration facilities and even then, there were complex procedures before anyone could undergo it. A person needed to be deactivated, for start, and it couldn't be done involuntarily. Not to mention that there was no way to snatch a caretaker from a random place in the facility like that... that's why I was completely lost in what may have happened when I appeared here” - It makes sense now, but...

“So.. you don't think they were responsible then?”

“I don't know..” - Rachel simply states and changes the subject - “What is he still doing out there?” - a short pause - “Gary, what's taking you so long? I thought you were only supposed to invite some specialists on the matter at hand?”

“I didn't want to interrupt your splendid tale” - Kate can hear Gary's voice, but is unsure whether he is back in the room or talking remotely - “Should we come in now?”

“We? Is there any way you could be less creepy?” - whatever she means... Kate notices that it seems like they are not so stressed about this situation as before. She was worried if her stealing Rachel from the zone scared the people, but maybe it wasn't that bad?

After a couple minutes, they are settled in and introduce themselves to Kate – the camera is rotated to show various faces. Kate knows maybe four or five of them, but there is also at least a dozen new people in the room and soon everyone begins to discuss various technical details of the immigration. At first, they are somewhat uncertain when talking – especially the newcomers... like, they often repeat what they stated in simpler terms, which Kate suspects is for her to understand – but the truth is that she usually doesn't get even the simpler version.

When Gary interrupts somebody to explain what they mean by the “phase oscillators”, she just admits - “I won't get it anyway, but don't worry and please don't let my ignorance slow down your discussion. I'll just lay here and try to familiarize myself with what you're talking about... Only explain things when you think it's important for me to understand something.”

“Oh, right, in this case...” - he starts, but Rachel interrupts him:

“Yes, this isn't important, but Kate.. it's so nice of you to at least try comprehending it” - the second can only smile, unsure whether the mother is complimenting or patronizing her.. but it doesn't matter.

After this, they seem to really have started – if the original sentences they used could be rated at two and the simpler version at one, then the way how they conversed now would be at least five on the scale of how much is not understood by her. Plenty of cryptic codes, references to things she never heard of and even Rachel seemed to be lost at times. It seemed like they were discussing some technical possibilities of being immigrated against the person's will when Rachel admits:

“Alright, I had no idea the RCMs were this complicated in IMS, but I still don't see a way how one could outmaneuver them to drop me inside” - as they were referring to immigrating somebody.

“That's the thing, they could access it through remote action from DSCA or perhaps PMA to ignore the immigration rules” - speaks Jacob, who Kate already knew earlier - “June, what do you think, would this be possible?”

“I..” - the new ones were more shy, often looking towards the camera and outside the window - “Theoretically, yes.. but it would be immediately forwarded to the IMS supervisor for confirmation.”

Rachel inquires - “And what if there were none of them registered?”

“Oh.. in this case... I don't know.”

The mother continues - “Okay, but we still have no idea how one could run this with me outside the ICC...”

“It used to require the person to be in those chambers back in the days of the main immigration” - speaks an unknown male voice - “but I heard it was later adapted as a sort of emergency procedure...” - some others concur, apparently it was supposed to be used to save any caretakers, who would become stranded somewhere out in the facility. It could even be used without any instruments nearby – Gary admits that theoretically, with live chambers all around, the field could be used to snatch anyone from any location. Various voices raise issues and opinions about that – but eventually they conclude it might be possible.

“But you are ignoring the fact it would require debug on all nearby chambers and anything more than two or three would kill the system already” - somebody criticizes.

“The whole facility runs in debug mode now...” - Rachel admits and it seems to cause quite a lot of chatter, including some “what the hell”, “fuck me”, “but the SR4 backlog” or “the bandwidth” - that Kate can catch from the noise. She has no idea what that “debug” is, but it seems serious – should she ask about it? But Rachel continues shortly:

“Look, I know it may be surprising, but we didn't know what we were doing when we enabled it to access the zones with CCRPT” - which Kate thinks was the teleportation – or rather the “terraforming” program - “and the systems seem to be able to handle it. There were no issues with that so far – but I am aware how shocking must be the running live debug on all chambers.”

Everybody went silent and Kate doesn't want to disturb them. After a long period of contemplating the newest revelation, Gary thinks out loud - “I believe we may have something here, but it's still very thin.. and I don't see how anyone without deep knowledge of those systems could possibly figure this out by randomly browsing the menus.”

After a moment of uneasy silence, Rachel adds - “Erica has always excused herself from any research, stating that she only knows PMA...”

There's a considerable amount of chatter – obviously some of them must have known who Erica was – and finally somebody speaks out loud: “Are we talking about the same Erica Trask who wouldn't use virtual interface, because it was too futuristic?”

“Yes.. but you have no idea how much a person can learn in a century with nothing else to do” - Rachel explains, apparently having some experience with that... But if Kate understands correctly, they are suggesting it may have been Erica that did it to Rachel and she has to confirm this:

“Um, so.. if I may?” - they agree - “Are you saying that Erica did this?”

“It's impossible to be sure, but there are hints to suggest that she may have been involved” - explains Gary.

“Do you think she could.. um...”

“Immigrate you?” - asks Rachel, uh-huh... - “The problem with abusing it as an emergency procedure is that the person would have to know your emergency ID or at least your PMA entry point, that's personnel management application, but.. you have none of those” - that calms Kate a little while they discuss if anyone can think of another way of getting to such commands, through various consoles and other tools, but there seems to be none they can think of.

“It explains why Erica seems to insist on re-enabling the retraining program...” - Gary notices. Nobody speaks a word for a minute or so – Kate thinks that if becoming registered in the system meant being vulnerable to this trick, then... It seems so insidious of Erica, but also starts making perfect sense – the mother simply wants to have this control over everybody.

“What does this mean for us?” - Kate eventually asks.

“I think that we can conclude it would be best for you not to become any more important for the foreseeable future” - Rachel explains and Kate thinks that's obvious.. getting caught in this plot would be very bad - “but I don't think you can warn others yet. There is no telling who else can be in on this plan. I would suggest trying to see what are Erica's next steps. Does anybody have a better idea?” - they discuss it some more, but most of others have very little knowledge on the situation outside and don't really know what to advise.

“But I cannot just sit back and do nothing while that b.. Erica does this!” - Kate feels powerless watching the scheme unfold in front of her, the mothers casually talked about it in Lauren's chamber...

“Well, you could try using our emergency IDs to open the storage and see if that trick would work without biometrics...” - Rachel suggests and they begin explaining that it could help establish some basics about what they can access and such. They also continue discussing some technical stuff regarding the various procedures and details they mentioned earlier.

It's so much for Kate to take in, even everything that happened earlier in the day was a lot – first discussion with Amber, then Rachel showing up and finally visit to Lauren. It feels like more has happened today than in the last... her entire life, actually. And all the facts that they explained to her clearly are just a fraction of the things they talked about and it feels like she will need to understand it all... How else can she hope to help them with anything? But maybe over time Kate can learn?

She is laying on her back now – but she made sure to ask, if they don't mind. Kate was tired of the same position on her belly and laying on her back is much better now. It seems important for her to focus in hope of understanding things better.. at least eventually. But shortly after rotating, she looks around and spots a mesg notification on her wristcom – Kate haven't noticed it earlier due to.. everything that has been happening.

She looks at the message – it's from Amber, asking if Kate has “any spare food, tools or supplies”, like the products of people's hard work could possibly be somehow “her property”. But Kate ignores that and just replies with a question about the reasons for such request – the people in Amber's chamber seemed to be okay in the morning. Well.. at least relatively, considering what Kate explained them. But it seemed they were suspecting something like that already.

Fearing the worst in the prompt response, Kate reads how Amber got a few million of “new micros” and they are “useless”... even seem to “complain about having no food“. This is terrible! If what Lauren suggested is true, then Kate has to do something – anything! But how can she possibly..

“Kate, if I may suggest something..” - she can hear Gary's voice.

“Oh.. yes?”

“I'm sorry I have intruded your privacy and read the little conversation up there..” - of course, laying on her back with her hand up in the sky - “I hope you don't mind?”

“Of course not, what is it?”

“We were wondering whether you may have possibly wanted to..” - but Rachel interrupts him:

“He's trying to ask if you want to help them?” - that's more like her classic approach, just like in school – always impatient and to the point... The mother now seems much less worried than earlier.

“Yes, definitely!”

“We should contact James” - Gary concludes - “please give us a moment.”

She waits patiently, she realizes how silly it was when she feared that she was alone against everyone in the facility – but she isn't. There are people here, who will help her and even though they may not be able to do much out there, they know so much about everything and if only she trusted them more earlier. She should have always asked them for opinion – at least since she discovered the truth...

“There, how many of these conference rooms have you got around here?” - Rachel asks.

“Too many to count” - Gary responds, but what are they..

“Oh, sorry Kate, we just moved to some other room not to disturb everyone else discussing reprogramming DDMSes” - although Kate didn't understand any of that - “so, is the old man coming?” - does she mean James?

“No, but we can call him in, just a moment more” - they never explained any such details, frankly Kate never thought about those things... But now she finds herself craving to know about them – it makes her understand their lives better and how they do everything.

“What is it?” - James simply asks.. Kate thinks if he knows that she is listening – usually he was much more elaborate and dignified.

“Sir, we were discussing the request from Amber to aid people in another zone” - Gary summarized nicely, he seems more than capable of speaking shortly... - “With your permission...”

“Details” - James interrupts. It's strange for her to just listen in like that.. should she say something to make herself known? But she is so curious how it will continue...

“Sir, it seems there's a few million of people with no logistical support and some reserve storage units could..”

“Benefits” - this way of speaking is so different than usual.

“Intelligence and potential gratuity” - but.. what about helping the people, Kate thinks..

“Unsubstantial and would leave us vulnerable” - just like that?

“But Sir, the bio-materials will allow to resupply quickly and this seems like just the right time to act, given...”

“It's strategically sub-optimal” - he interrupts - ”Look, I can relay your message to the councils, but I will not recommend it personally, not with so many...” - Kate has to intervene, this is just too much for her:

“James, people may be dying! I cannot ask you to starve, but if there is anything that you can do to help them, I beg you to do it..” - she doesn't want to order them, not after promising to protect them, but...

“Hello, miss Kate, so nice to hear from you” - followed by a long pause. So it's true, he wasn't aware that she was listening... Kate doesn't want to accuse James of anything, but she didn't like what he was suggesting... On the other hand he was clearly thinking about the people in this zone. Is she asking too much? What if their situation here is not as good as they assured her... Kate would love to know things like that, but it just seems unreachable for her.

“I don't think that we need to jump into conclusions right away” - Rachel mediates, she was completely quiet earlier - “how about we first learn more about the situation and even how serious is it?”

“Certainly” - James comments. In the awkward silence that follows, Kate figures that maybe she spoke too harshly, maybe she could somehow mitigate the effects:

“James.. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that and...” - she wants to somehow reassure him, but how can she? Any promises or offers would seem empty - “I'm sorry...”

“That's okay, my lady. It is obviously beyond my competence to decide upon such things and I will make sure to organize it right away.”

“No, please.. we'd love to hear your advice on this, I.. didn't mean it like that...”

Rachel steps in again - “Please, let's not get too melodramatic here. We can discuss how to deal with Amber and James – could you perhaps figure out what supplies would be available for this? Strategically speaking...” - if only Kate could figure solutions like that. It seems so reasonable and they quickly settle to do just that. James disconnects promptly to figure out his part and Kate asks how can they learn more about it, like Rachel suggested.

The answer is simple – another mesg to Amber with several more questions. “When did you get them? How many are there exactly? What kind of supplies?” After careful consideration, Rachel suggests to change “them” to “the micros” - Kate hates it, but the mother explains how it should sound more like the others.

Kate knows the truth, but it's more important that Amber doesn't realize this fact. She wants to also ask to see “them” - or “the micros”.. whatever – but Rachel explains how it may be perceived that she worries about them too much. She can always ask for this tomorrow – since they quickly told her that it will be impossible to prepare enough supplies before morning. It's already late and she shouldn't travel to unknown zones – it would only endanger the people.

The response returns very quickly and they find it's worse that they expected in some ways – nine million people is a lot to feed and equip. They consider how Amber may have come by so many so suddenly, but the only solution is that she must have received a zone – or, more likely, just the transporters from someone. They wouldn't require help so quickly – since Amber wrote “just earlier today”. It is impossible to guess from whom, but they conclude that Kate can easily find out after entering it. She is confused why would that be important, but Rachel explains her that details like that allow to figure out what is happening – since if somebody has given this to the second, then she must be important for something.

Kate mentions how she is worried about people starving, but both Gary and Rachel explain her, that it shouldn't be that bad – if the people were only transferred today, then they should be able to hang on for several days. More important things at first are medicine and shelter – depending on where did they come from and what their current zone is.

The second feels bad about the last part of the mesg... Amber displays her ignorance by describing the necessary supplies as “dunno, the usual things”. Was Kate this ignorant before? After all that she learned over the past several weeks, such hits her as so naive and silly – she cannot stop thinking whether she appeared this way to the people and when she mentions it, Rachel assures her that she was always more considerate, but.. how can she know?

Eventually they settle there's not much more to do now and although Kate would like to send another mesg explaining how she will help Amber in the morning, Rachel convinces her not to – since such interest in the people could be perceived as anxious and again she may seem too worried about them. After all – Amber probably doesn't care, so anything unusual would be dangerous. Gary questions such careful approach at first, but after brief discussion, he concludes that risks indeed outweigh the potential benefits. It reminds Kate of James's approach, but.. she figures that Rachel must know better and doesn't even mention it.

So having established a plan for tomorrow – testing the emergency ID and helping the people in Amber's chamber. Next, they go back to the main room to rejoin the discussion – of course Kate doesn't have to move at all, still laying on her back – but the gathering has apparently taken an even more abstract topic and neither Gary nor Rachel understand what the others are talking about at first. For Kate it seems just like sequences of random words. Fortunately, it gets a bit better shortly and she can understand like one sentence in five or so...

After something like two more hours of discussions between various people since the mesg from Amber, they already seemed to be comfortable enough to “ignore” her, so they would only stop every ten minutes or so to explain some detail or ask if she has any questions. But she is content with just listening and it is so much beyond her anyway.

Suddenly, Rachel addresses her directly - “Kate, I think you may want to see this...”

“What? Is something wrong?” - she is worried she may have caused some distress, again - “Has anything happened?”

“No, well.. don't worry and turn over to the screen gently” - the mother suggests. Kate does just that – she doesn't need to be told to be careful, but this time she tries to move extra slow due to her mention – whatever happened, it must be important.

She looks at the screen, but it still shows the room with some specialists they called in – well, some of them were different as people seemed to come and go, depending on the topic they were discussing and the room was different than the one from before she left to Lauren, but there wasn't anything special about it. Kate wants to ask what should she look for, but Rachel continues: “Now, look a bit to your right..”

What can she mean? There was nothing special on the right side of the screen, but.. right, she must have meant to turn right – so she looks around in that direction. It's already after dusk, so everything is dark – this region of the zone is mostly uninhabited, lit only by several small villages, but.. there's something just beyond the edge of her spot. Well, it seems like a couple miles, at least – but she can still clearly see it, like.. some tiny lights, arranged in the shape of letters? She surveys it while laying down and it looks like:

“we ♥ u K” - but what would it mean? Her face must be confused enough to notice and Rachel explains:

“That symbol represents a heart and it stands for love. They mean to say that they love you, Kate” - but what would it mean... and:

“Who are 'they'?” - she inquires.

Gary answers - “Just regular people, trying to be impress you or something similar...”

“Oh, don't be like that” - Rachel interrupts - “I'm sure they simply want to show how they appreciate your honesty just earlier.”

Kate thinks about it.. the letters are easily a hundred of feet long and wide each, there must be.. thousands of lights to be visible like this – are they really.. she recalls worrying if the military would somehow trick her with such things, but if they are really “regular people”...

“In fact, it's only a dozen miles from where we are” - Rachel continues - “Would it be possible to get a lift up there?”

“Oh, I.. um...” - Kate is worried if the mother means for her to carry her there...

“Not you Kate, I was asking Gary here.. I think we had enough excitement of this kind for some time now” - oh, that makes sense.

“It can be arranged” - Gary concludes.

Kate cannot stop looking at the message – are they really trying to tell her that they feel this way? She couldn't imagine why would they possibly do that, after everything that she put them through, but just waits in silence for the mother to get there. About five minutes later, she can see the view on the screen change to the one from Rachel's perspective, as she disembarks from some kind of aerial vehicle. Kate couldn't even see it flying there...

While Rachel is approaching a group of people, Kate can see on the screen that there are many vehicles with some kind of lamps.. they seem large from Rachel's perspective, but of course for her are nothing more than barely recognizable dots – she couldn't even see them in the daylight.

Rachel starts talking with different people and they all say how they wanted to show Kate how they feel and that she doesn't need to apologize, because they understand and they still love her. Many people seem to be very frantic about it, jumping and waving in the back – like they were happy for this chance to be seen by her. She feels so terrible for not being able to see them normally – she is probably about three miles away from them, but with her eyes being on some height, it makes more like four miles distance – and can just barely see the lights, not to even mention the actual people. Especially in the relative dark.

In the Rachel's perspective, they are illuminated by the lights they have set up and clearly visible – just like the mother mentioned in the other zone, many of them are wearing costumes that resemble caretaker uniforms, although it looks strange that they chose such simple clothes over one of various beautiful dresses others are wearing. Rachel mentioned that her “dress” looked great, but it was nothing compared to the ones some people there are wearing – a myriad of shapes and colors, with glamorous features.

She could see some shirts with heart and K on the front – arranging the ad hoc lights was one thing, but they must have worn them even earlier, she just feels so “impressed” by all this, as Gary called it. They surely accomplished that – if it was even their objective.. Rachel seemed to doubt it. But as the mother talks with some random people, it seems they are just.. ordinary zone inhabitants that wanted to show how they feel.

Each of them speaks just a couple sentences and Kate has no idea what all those profession and locations mean, but they are all deeply grateful for everything she did. Most of them arrived from nearby places, but there is a “couple” - a man and a woman, apparently – who have come from almost the opposite part of the zone, they flew with maximum speed for almost two hours just to join the spontaneous gathering. She asked Rachel to tell them that they didn't have to – but she responded that they can hear her just fine, of course...

Kate needs sophisticated equipment to hear back from them but obviously they don't... She tries to apologize the people directly, but quickly learns they don't mind. She heard that it was just a wild idea of people who heard her speech – organized through a system similar to their mesgs and other means of communication and they just wanted to show her how they feel about it, no matter the consequences – just like Gary with his mad attempt.

Just normal people.

When Rachel interviews a man with a little girl on his arms, he asks the maybe six year old kid to say hello to Kate, pointing the camera and she responds:

“But daddy, she's right there” - she points to the side and waves happily, probably aiming at Kate's form in the distance. The second can only look back at the tiny message and faintly wave back – of course she cannot see them this way... When she looks back at the screen, she notices that Rachel must have turned towards her and she can only see a daring dark silhouette of her head on the background of a night sky, her cheek barely lit from the lights nearby. The ones on the edge of her spot are much brighter then the people's message.

But if the little girl is resolute enough to recognize her and not be afraid of her.. she hopes they won't be able to see her eyes watering again due to the darkness. Kate is terrified when she thinks what kind of monster it takes to knowingly try to.. to...

But Rachel must have noticed something and comments: “Kate, you look really tired.. you should get some sleep before tomorrow, you know...” - giving the second a convenient excuse to leave.

“But.. is it okay to leave them.. you... I mean...”

Rachel turns back towards a crowd that has formed by now and they just wave and shout various thanks and messages - “I think they're just fine” - the mother summarizes teasingly.

Unable to find anything more to add, Kate just rises slowly – but stops at crouching, trying not to pose as some monumental form over them. Of course she quickly realizes that she had dominated the horizon even while laying down, so any attempts like this will surely fail. But she remembers what Rachel suggested her what now seems like long time ago – even though it was only several hours – and turns towards the center of the zone, waves and says awkwardly:

“Good.. night, everyone.”

Back in her quarters, she just lays down and sobs, but eventually tries to calm down and get some sleep as well.

Gary is waiting for the old man to arrive at the forward post. They set it up nearby the screen for Kate as an observation and maintenance station. It quickly became more than that – various specialists and analysts wanted to have an direct view on the young woman. Constructed from prefabricates light enough not to crush all inhabitants should they fall apart, the two stories tall buildings already occupy more than eighty acres and there is never enough of them, it seems. Durable enough to withstand quakes and gusts of wind caused by her movements, the station is currently temporary shelter for at least two thousand people, including the maintenance and security personnel.

It was where they took Rachel after she was brought back after the “private” chat with Kate. Of course when the girl took Rachel away, Crawford commented Gary's persuasions to let Kate know about the mother presence here as too hasty... Of course, it was a gamble – but, as Gary argued, waiting much longer could be much worse and the old man must have chosen to let Rachel speak to her. In the end, it was his decision and he didn't blame Gary. They would have to do it eventually anyway and if she could give some advices before Kate's excursion to Lauren's place, it would be even better – another argument he used when they discussed it before.

Well, of course they could conceal her arrival and calculate a virtual personality profile to impersonate her, with proper interrogation equipment and some computers, anything can be done – but it would still be risky. Physical scan was simple, but even after weeks of torture and brain scans to extract enough information, a full behavioral profile was.. imperfect to say the least. There would still be a multitude of things that could go wrong and after something like that, they really would never be able to let Rachel talk to her directly... When Crawford mentioned it as an alternative, Gary thought that he might be actually willing to do it and such possibility was.. unsettling.

Gary receives a notification that the shuttle has to take a detour due to Kate's rolling over to face the screen – Rachel insisted on telling her about those light-show crazies and she departed there just earlier. Gary didn't have anything better to do, so he decided to wait in the landing pads area for the other party to arrive and now this means that he simply has to wait some more. It feels bad, but he wouldn't mind if Kate moved and caused them to crash or at least delay it even further. The perspective of meeting Crawford after his little stunt is not particularly pleasing. Of course he hasn't said a word about the reasons for this visit other than that he will come over shortly.

Whatever the old man was doing in the Works anyway.. probably one of the defense weapons that Gary heard about – and with the newly acquired plutonium, they finally have the juice to power something that could be used against the “caretakers”. Gary hates the way how they squeezed that request in.. obviously Kate haven't noticed and Rachel either missed it as well or generously decided not to comment the extra item on the list of materials. They talked earlier how they could use uranium for makeshift thermal reactors, but it was pointless to request both fissionable elements at the same time.

Even though he wasn't told about this, it was obvious to Gary that it was meant for something else... Or perhaps it wasn't so clear for Rachel? She mentioned how a century of experimenting with the facility's systems forced them to learn many new things, but could it also have made them forget some? And being born in the facility, she wasn't given the privilege of seeing the nuclear mushroom through her bedroom window – a view that has burned deep into Gary's memory. It certainly can change the way how a teenager perceives the world...

But it didn't get him and three years later he was safe with his parents in the newly opened uTopia. Of course now they have different problems and most of them are around ten miles tall, relatively. Gary thinks how he ended up in this position – barely two weeks ago he was flying into a cavernous ear without any care in the world. Completely unaware of everything that was going on around him and of all the plans he was going to spoil or alter. He learned a bit about those things since then.

The organizational chaos that Kate's first arrival caused was simply unprecedented. Nobody knew what to do: political leaders deferred to the Service and vice versa. People expected both structures to give them answers or at least some comfort, but when they failed to receive either, most turned towards religions and cults, many of which heralded the end of the world, incoming salvation or some other scheme. While accidents and suicides skyrocketed, nobody was trying to address their young guest. Well, some five people did, but it went mostly unnoticed among the bureaucratic mess, which have overwhelmed the government structures from local authorities to the councils.

Gary learned that it hasn't changed when Kate so magnanimously requested a governor – it was simply impossible for the stiff administration to come up with anything like that so quickly and he heard unofficially that it was only due to the risk of a bottom-up coup that they decided to give broad emergency powers to the only man who seemed capable of handling this situation. Crawford could have grasped that kind of power during any of the Reorganizations, but back then he merely lead to maintain peace and stability. When Kate came, there was nobody else fit for the job, so the politicians agreed on this quickly.

They may have underrated his role in the explanation for Rachel, but it was true that the old man had no official position in either the Service or any of the governmental structures. All of his directives had to go through responsible commanders and officials, but they were carrying them out without asking.. or thinking, it seemed... That was why Gary hoped to get Crawford's approval for the humanitarian help and he knew the answer in private would be negative – just like it was before Kate spoke out. His little trick could have just as well backfired big time.. and it seems he will learn about it soon enough.

It is strange to think that Crawford was probably the only person to maintain enough sanity to approach the problem methodically and logically. At first everyone wanted to get away from Kate.. like it would make them any safer. Even with various restrictions and power struggles on all levels of command, Crawford was able to keep some degree of order and eventually come up with solutions to the most urgent matters. Like explaining the giantess that walking around the zone would not be a good idea... Having watched some recordings and analysis after his “aural adventure”, Gary understood how little she knew in the first days and how crucial was the old man's role in her realization.

The officials who communicated with her first assumed some degree of experience and tried to explain problems as to a professional – which she obviously was not. Any references to thousands of deaths were met with just a sad expression on her face, but Kate wouldn't offer them any comfort, except reassurances how she doesn't want to hurt anyone and they don't have to fear.

From the early hours, there were teams of behavioral psychoanalysts, who examined all her words and actions. Every littlest twitch and hesitation, pulse change and temperature variation – everything that could aid in analysis of her state of mind. With the help of complex algorithms it became clear, that the references to people dying because of her actions weren't inspiring compassion, but rather annoyance and shame. Unable to figure out what that meant, officials insisted on appealing to her humanity and conscience – but Crawford quickly changed the approach.

He usually assumed the most pessimistic hypothesis the analysts were suggesting after their observations. The attempts to calm them suggested they should be really worried, lack of reaction or much interest in the deaths made him presume Kate's ignorance or carelessness about them, and so on. Instead of trying to discuss with her as equals, Crawford began trying to teach her. It was seemingly an impossible task – only with the access to both sides of the conversations, Gary was able to understand what was really happening in those early days. What was behind those awkward smiles and uneasy laughs...

Of course now they know that she wasn't really perceiving them as human beings, but back then.. to imagine something that terrifying and attempt to enlighten her. It quickly became apparent that Crawford's strategy was working – even though they tried so many things, she seemed to ignore or assume to be just some things the “micros” do – as they learned from the first visits by others as they were called by “caretakers”. Technically they still are, but at least not any more by Kate. Like a mole drilling in her head, the realizations started with little things and eventually the idea that the “micros” can somehow be people too must have changed the way how she saw them. All thanks to the old man's persistence and careful planning. Had anybody else organized it all, by now they would be most likely doing some chores for her and... everything else Brian Leibner mentioned was happening elsewhere.

No doubt about it, Crawford's role in her realization was irreplaceable, but the problem was that he was so careful with everything. When Gary arrived, they were barely starting to consider introducing her to somebody else – fearing the confusion caused by having to talk to more than one person. They even had the screen ready for several days, but decided not to show it, since it might be too “shocking”. Crawford decided to wait and see how she behaves, instead of pursuing her newly acquired emotional engagement to explain things properly, especially when she assaulted her “friend”... - that was just the right time to act and they would have slept through it.

Sure it was risky, but it seems to have paid off. And Crawford would do nothing just to learn more about her “transition”, as he called it. To see if she is actually ready for more information and whether she will believe them this time as well or rather turn back to behaving like before. Or worse yet – like others, they already heard some of the terrible things “the mothers” spoke about their “daughters”. Gary never perceived Kate as somebody evil, just.. ignorant and uneducated, and terribly.. in so many areas. He believed that she won't dare to hurt them once she learns the truth. The old man commented it was wishful thinking and the stakes were too high to risk such rash actions.

At least Gary was able to speed up some plans by making himself known to Kate. Unaware of just how risky it was... but it turned out quite alright so far. Of course there was still a chance that she only wanted to gain their trust and doesn't really mean to care about them. They heard many things about what some others were doing... But then it is just like Rachel summarized earlier today - they really have no choice. If Kate starts knowingly hurting them.. there will be absolutely nothing they will be able to do about it.

Yes, Gary always thought of her as a curious teenager – maybe she went a bit astray with some things, but certainly she was willing to learn and trying to understand the world around her. Even despite the warnings and uncertainty they kept getting from the neural observation networks grown to augment the analysis – which most of others regarded as suggestion she may be hiding a lot of things, he chose to believe it's merely caused by her realization and suddenly changed perspective. It turned out that it was him to be right most of the time and neuroprogrammers had to constantly retrain the wetware to be up to date.

But Crawford was still there, criticizing most progressive actions as reckless and unwise – at least he always listened to everything he said, considered pros and cons, potential risks and gains and made a decision. Even though Gary sometimes was eager to argue, he also understood that the old man had much more experience in these kinds of things and eventually even begun to take his point of view at times. It was good enough that Kate wasn't going to harm them, she didn't need to understand everything immediately. It was better to keep some revelations, in case she gets really bored... After all some other caretakers have known the truth about humans and still behaved like monsters. Who knows what will happen to Kate over the next years and decades.

Even with her today's confession, the future is still uncertain – despite her sweetness, there is literally nothing else to do in the facility and who knows what ideas may come to her cute, but still gigantic head? Perhaps those weapons Crawford must be working on with many engineers are not a bad idea... If only they could be sure what is really happening outside. They could read Kate's emotions easily by now, but Rachel was much harder to analyze due to her age and experience – and there were simply no other ways of finding out more about the outside. Leibner already told them everything he was able to remember and it was not a comprehensive vision of the world.

At least they learned that Rachel doesn't seem to have a hidden agenda after watching headphone recordings of their little chat. And it was somewhat awkward – which is understandable given her position on Kate's fingernail – but fairly open and explanatory. She even forwarded some details from their earlier discussion to explain some things to Kate and the girl seems to trust her almost unconditionally. They will have to see how that turns out, maybe Kate really failed to understand the intricacies of her behavior and is not a narcissistic egomaniac, as some psychoanalysts heralded her to be when she took Rachel away.

It surely proved to be quite problematic for the public when reports like that were leaking – panic spread and even riots erupted... The Service had to put up random roadblocks and curfew before situation was put under control. It reminded Gary of the food riots, except this time people haven't started shooting each other. At least he didn't see any of that on the news and at that time he was isolated on the farm and then in various Service bases following his escapade.

It was not his role to investigate what was going on outside, so he hardly knows what was going on in areas outside Kate's “spot”, but it seemed that Rachel's shock might have been quite reasonable... Especially given how she was detained at one of those blockades according to the report. It could be easily perceived as oppressive, but those were necessary restrictions – if the people resorted to more widespread chaos, the effect it would have on Kate could be bad. She already seemed deeply concerned about some random fire – which was a result of an extremist bombing, but they concluded unanimously that she didn't need to be concerned about such details.

Now things quieted down after her confession... And the child lottery also helped. It was hard to say which one was more beneficial, but it was clearly visible in the media how people were suddenly interested in seeing their new offspring born, rather than riot and kill each other. Another one of Crawford's ideas, Gary heard and it was a fairly simple one. If more people are killed by either chaos or Kate, the children will have resources to live and even if there will be no more “incidents”, increased carbon availability will make crop cultivation easier. That was another shocking fact about her arrival – even unknowingly, Kate has already helped them.

The main problems with food production were energy cap for the synthesizers and carbon availability for farms and bioculture casks. The first were extremely material efficient, but power hungry and even the twelve or so that were in the zone before Kate's arrival weren't running at full capacity. It was the lack of attention to such details that plagued the facility since the day one. The zone was theoretically self-sufficient in case of any emergency, but it was only when they actually had use them on that they realized the dilation field power cap is too low... It was originally established per chamber to prevent abuses, such as antimatter production or worse. The dilation field is a perfect power medium and using it, construction of dangerous things like makeshift plasma bombs or chemical weapon plants was pretty straightforward. The cap was safely more than enough during normal facility function, when most of food was imported from off-zone – but when the transport broke...

And the carbon dioxide.. to even thing that it was deemed dangerous to life at some point in history – what kind of morons those ancestors were? Carbon, the most basic component of all life! And of course people in New Vienna were smug enough to always want “clean air” and consequently requested life support systems to be configured to maintain low “pollutants” share in the atmosphere. Gary concludes that they were probably some descendants of those so called “eco-freaks” from the past... But after the failure.. facility simply filtered CO2 from the fires and destruction caused by riots. Hell, it was a full blown civil war back then. And later it turned out that there is no lower limit for carbon content and they simply never had enough of it since.

Sure, there were other problems and so many of them over the years. Water was one of them – atmospheric controls were also configured to maintain low humidity and to prevent shortages by being filtered, they developed solutions to catch most of it into reservoirs so it never became a problem. Following the shutdown food reserves were quickly dwindling and although synthesizers provided some relief, the future did not look good. They hoped farming would supply the rest, since the “sunlight” was still available, but the first problem was they had no seed. Or hardly any – they managed to find some in places like museums or hobbyist farms, but it was hardly enough at the beginning. They are still struggling with lack of genetic variety. Nobody seemed to worry enough to prepare a DNA storage inside the zone in case something broke and now many foods are simply lost to them. In some cases they were able to develop some “substitutes”, but it was far from the real thing. And of course vast majority of animals were unavailable too, since the zone did not feature a single zoo.

But the real problems started to surface when they tried to plant crops... Some geniuses, maybe the same who wanted the “clean air”, decided to settle in a tundra zone. Over time it became popular enough in some circles that the climate was reconfigured into something resembling British isles but with less rain and weaker sunshine. Apparently the smug elite that moved here didn't want to suffer a hot summer – sure the winter was also mild, but such conditions do not help any vegetation to grow. It also made solar panels less efficient and since they don't have enough rare metals to mass-produce them.. they were stuck with farming.

But the worst part was soil. Or rather, lack of it. What on earth usually took a number of agents and millions of years to develop, could not be created within the century between the zone was established and the shutdown. The only ingredient abundant enough is dirt – they have plenty of it everywhere, but that is not enough for anything to grow. Without phosphate deposits and enough energy to bind nitrogen from air on larger scale, producing fertilizer was next to impossible and initially virtually no crops would grow anywhere. Especially given the short and cold summer.

It took decades to genetically develop organisms – and many of them almost from the scratch – to fill this gap. Gary was working on several projects related to farming efficiency and it was extremely tedious to manipulate the genes to obtain certain features. For instance no nitrogen-fixing bacteria could not be found across the zone and they were still trying to.. overcome it. What evolution accomplished in billions of years cannot be done in a century – but they still managed to do a lot.

Of course the early years were tough. For some people very tough. The first decade was remembered by undernourishment, ravaging health problems, no-children policy, population disarmament and more... After several years came the life for life option, where parents could raise a child but only if one of them sacrificed after several years. Many policies and restrictions they had to endure seemed terrible – and many people rebelled against them – but they were necessary to survive. Otherwise food-wars would quickly rage once again.

But they survived. Technologies emerged and they were able to slowly increase the food production to the point where there was no hunger anymore. And then further, which allowed to raise the population cap, allow people to actually have children – under very controlled and restrictive conditions, but still. Not that it mattered for Gary – he only cared about himself and never really wanted any offspring. It was a nice distraction, but costs were meant to be prohibitive – if he worked hard for a four or five decades, he might be able to afford an extra life with a partner, but.. what for? Some people still worked entire lifetimes for that and were happy to.

It must have been shocking for Rachel to discover this social arrangement – with having to pay flat taxes to be even allowed to live... It sounds terrible, but they implemented this system during the Reorganizations to assure that everyone contributes – whether it's research, art or various services. With the perspective of being forever stuck in this place... it was the only solution. They had no comfort to allow parasites and even if some maniacs disagreed, it worked. Gary didn't like it either at first too, but at least everybody was trying to be useful. They had to – there was simply no way a homeless junkie could afford the taxes and the policy enforcement was strict.

But it all seems irrelevant now. It took Kate fifteen minutes to acquire the minerals and they can produce all the fertilizer they need and fill the biocasks with necessary components. Hell, they don't even need to worry about farming since soon they will be able to power up all the synthesizers – the ones Kate brought with her are still laying unused and they will only have enough energy when they construct some fission reactors. Fully powered, they alone could support the current population and with proper farming and fertilization.. he heard some specialists discussing how they should be easily able to support four to five times that, even with this lousy sunlight.

It all seems so simple now.. except there is this one new danger looming over them in the form of a ten mile tall young woman. And how could he have done this to Crawford? Gary doesn't even know what drove him to act like that. The old man trusted him. Well, maybe not that much, but at least respected his opinion, listened to him. If Gary explained the topic in private and pursued it further, then with some help from Kate, the councils would have surely agreed. It would be too late though, since Rachel explained him that Amber would have already received help from somebody else. Food production in other zones was rarely a problem. It was just a matter of time before somebody aids her – but since she asked Kate first, it could be their chance to get crucial information about what is happening in the other zones.

Recordings from the two colonies weren't helpful at all, merely some vague remarks from Amber – either purposely ambiguous or, more likely, simply caused by her ignorance. They picked it all up thanks to Kate wearing the headphone when travelling – or “teleporting” – between the zones. But this abuse of the headphones unnerved Gary – what if she ever finds out? Will Kate be able to trust them after such conspiracy? It was true she never asked whether they store anything or even if they have any functions, but... networking them to exchange information was already a stretch – and recording video directly and they are even capable of launching a small fleet of reconnaissance drones.

Fully equipped spying depot, tapped into dilation field for main power supply, but also equipped with internal rechargeable chemical reactor in case access to it was obstructed. Enough storage capacity for a thousand years of recordings.. even a couple dozen seats for potential passengers, although the journey would be rough, since the deceleration field isn't strong enough. And Crawford was almost delighted when Kate asked, if she can give some to others – who seemed to like this small, yet very helpful, harmless contraption. Sure...

But now Crawford's shuttle finally – which for Gary is still too soon.. – makes its approach and Gary begins to prepare himself for the confrontation. Apart for him, the only living souls here are two maintenance guys on the other side of the landing platform. He expected the old man to come quickly out the back, but the doors are not opening and it seems that he must have been piloting it himself – the fast skyjet isn't as easy to handle as any kind of skycar. Dilation fields engines have serious limitations, but at least they can provide constant support, unlike the more volatile thrusters used in this small craft. Only used when fast transport is necessary, the shuttles are hard enough to handle that few pilots are skilled enough to handle them and usually autopilot is employed. But this approach was definitely manual – Crawford must have some strange “hobbies”.

Gary walks around and salutes as the old man leaves the cockpit, but his only response is: “Spare me the formalities...” - once on the ground, his informal superior looks around and adds - “shall we take a walk?”

But of course it is not a question and Gary has to actually catch up a couple steps in the direction opposite to where the compound is. They walk next to each other in nervous silence. Gary doesn't want to start talking, unsure of how to even explain his action. Can he state anything to defend himself? Trying to portrait is as a simple mistake would be ridiculous – they never spoke like that with the presence of Kate and he purposely linked a separate call in instead of connecting the old man to their main conversation.

“I understand you must have had very important reasons to have concealed the fact that she was listening in” - Crawford finally accuses him. It wasn't a question, so Gary decides not to answer - “At least you haven't specifically conspired with her against us” - it was often annoying how Crawford assumed plural form in such conversations. He was selected to represent the councils and by extension – the people, but it doesn't give him the right to speak like some monarch. Gary's approach might have impacted his position a little, but certainly it didn't hurt their standing with Kate:

“Sir, I only wanted to show her some more honest conversation and I would have mentioned something, should you give away something that could compromise–”

“Then you should have let me know privately and I could have pretended, for god's sake..” - Crawford is visibly angered, even while walking deeper into the dark plain, even gesticulates while continuing - “This is unacceptable. I can understand how our new immigrant may be scared and confused, possibly deserves some slack due to all that, especially being a civilian, but what's your excuse to disobey orders?”

Has Gary got one? He mentioned how he planned to mitigate any problems, but.. the reference to Rachel was a clear warning, has he gone too far already? He should have come up of with some way to explain himself, but was there any? After all, what can he say...

“Sir, I did this in hope of facilitating the decision on the humanitarian help” - perhaps if he pursues this line of reasoning, his actions won't seem too rash? -
“If I could convince you to recommend this course of action, I am–”

“It's already underway. Apparently the councils can act surprisingly quickly, if only there's an overgrown teenager behind the request” – the old man interrupts.

“She.. Sir, she is not...” – Gary starts, but then realizes that it is hard to question the description that Crawford assigned. He wouldn't put it in this way, but both parts were.. true. Fortunately the old man doesn't comment his attempt to object and they continue to walk in silence.

It also makes sense... he has heard how Kate's actions had a profound impact on various policies already and she did seem very emotional about this particular request. Meanwhile, Crawford picks up where he left off - “The entire thing is a disaster. It will make us all look like jumping to carry out her slightest whim.”

It didn't seem like an impulse on her part in any way, but Gary chooses to ignore that remark – they discussed those things often and Gary usually overestimated Kate's understanding of and emotional engagement in various matters.. she is still a fairly simple teenager, after all.. and overgrown too...

After taking several steps in silence, Crawford continues - “I should have court marshaled you for that already” - even if he doesn't have the authority to do so directly, any applicable Service commanders would have gladly crucified Gary for whatever pretense. But of course, he won't be able to do that now... - “But we both know I cannot do that.”

Yes, with Kate being so attached to him, Gary is able to tread more aggressively – but how long this state of affairs is going to last? They already seen several times how short is her attention span and if his “successor” was to explain how he needed a break for personal reasons...

Crawford continues: “With that little trick, you have put me in a very difficult situation, between the procedures and obligations to the people and that ignorant mountain. And while I can ignore the former, who knows what abominable idea may come the that crazy enormous head of hers” - while the old man is technically right, Gary feels like they should focus at the good side of her reaction. Especially that now Kate seems to be deeply touched by the “crazies” with that light show – Gary merely repeated the old man's opinion in the discussion with Rachel and Kate earlier. He is not sure if Crawford is watching it too, but he can see what is displayed on the screen in the corner of his retina overlay and they both are able to see her reactions live, far out in the distance. It is already well into the night, but the posts at the edge of her spot provide enough light for them to see her expression.

“Sir, I really think that we need to consider other perspectives of the current situation–” - Gary starts, but is interrupted:

“To the point.”

He looks up to the looming Kate's face on the horizon – how can some lazy ex-caretaker convince anybody that perhaps they don't need to worry about her state of mind that much - “She seems emotionally engaged in the the situation and everything that she learns is only deepening that impression...”

“And how long do you think this will last? If she so gracefully noticed the 'micros' are people, then she can just as well realize the hopelessness of her own situation and start behaving like the others. We discussed this and you continue insisting on your suicidal ideas. The 'mothers'” – he speaks the word almost with disgust – “knew everything from the start and they still most likely managed to commit terrible atrocities. Not to mention that we can only speculate on how much remains unknown to us.”

“But Rachel seems not to have–”

“She is as dirty as the rest of them, the fact that she behaves so nicely now is only caused by her current situation.”

Gary haven't really thought about that earlier – Rachel mentioned some uneasy things to Kate in their “private chat”, but with everything they heard about her not participating in various “parties” and other genocides... Crawford must have heard or figured out something more, but why wouldn't he tell him? Or is it just speculation? He wouldn't explain his reluctance to let her talk to Kate in the first place.

“What I'm getting to” – Crawford continues – “is that you consistently give away facts that could be used in tactically more appropriate moments. Right now it seems that playing for time to avoid losses is our only hope.”

Gary thinks about this in the silence that follows. Is this how Crawford sees Kate's presence here? As some sort of struggle between them and her.. but Gary knows, no... He always believed that she wouldn't want to deliberately hurt anyone – especially after her realizations – but what if the same happened to others? The thought of Kate using them for her pleasure is... actually similarly disgusting as any other caretaker. Is Gary wrong about this?

But he feels like there is something more about her, something that may make her act differently. Rachel keeps insisting that Kate was always the most careful and one of the most intelligent among the girls – so far they haven't found anything to contradict that. What if they could figure out some kind of arrangement with her that wouldn't mean degrading them to toys? What if Crawford is wrong about Kate's character and that playing for time might cause her character to take a turn for the worse?

Finally, Gary is able to understand some reasons behind the old man's behavior in the past six weeks – he was simply playing it as his last war, the most demanding conflict in his life. Against an enemy that he couldn't hurt – they figured that out fairly quickly – and the only chance was to reason with her. But it is different since her confession, since she started realizing what is going on – and especially now with Rachel to help them too. That was why Gary has almost always been right about what her reaction to various things they did would be – even though everyone wanted to analyze her reactions and delay further revelations, he insisted on moving forward.

He was even right with the way of introducing Kate to such new things – telling her the Ferdam's story was a complete success, especially preceded by chats with several others. Or introducing more ex-caretakers, she was genuinely interested in their life stories as well. They could clearly see it in her reactions – analyzed with painstaking accuracy by ever more systems and teams. Everybody else was either perceived her as some sort of messiah or was afraid of her. People outside the Service usually went for the former, but intel they managed to gather about the outside world usually seemed to inspire even more fear, so people working with him settled for the latter. But Gary...

He thinks why he has even approached Kate in the first place. What really drove him to even attempt this crazy stunt and everything what happened afterwards. The inability to get through the Service drove him to risk his own life to get to her. That was one thing, but could it be repeating now? Rachel also played her part in suggesting that he should do more than just carry out orders. But the truth was that Gary wants to make a difference. And in his life the only way he did that was to act against whatever he saw wrong with whatever others were doing – and now Crawford became his adversary.

This was his basic role in the facility before the shutdown. Or Failure – Gary notices how he even started to use Kate's vocabulary while thinking... although this message that he received shortly after he was locked in his quarters resurfaced in his memory, it didn't seem worthy of mentioning though. And back before all that he was, just like everybody else, responsible for various mundane tasks on day-to-day basis – but as one of three people, he was performing the final review on virtually any engineering projects before implementation – to make sure that plans are actually safe for construction.

The researchers were the worst. They wanted to do all kinds of crazy things with various systems, but – often having never seen or experienced the reality of the outside – they would sometimes forget about obvious little details. Like the fact that they cannot use uncovered high energy voltage since the CO2 that was used as background gas early on would be electrolysed and cause dangerous side-effects, including atomic oxygen flowing through various chasms and gaps of the neighbouring structures, causing corrosion and risk of flames or even explosions. They almost lost some live chambers this way. Before the shutdown it sounded like the worst thing that could possibly happen, but now...

Well, it was still pretty bad – even the high-ups agreed to set up the review process and make sure nothing like that happens again. So eventually Gary became one of the people who had to keep saying “no” to some ridiculous ideas of who-knows-how-important-people. And he would immediately reject whatever projects he deemed dangerous. Even if he felt that something was too risky or could be done in a better way. And he was doing that for four decades... That is probably the main reason for him to act against what he felt was a bad course of action. He needed to act and it spontaneously manifested in his actions.

Now he is probably the only person who can look past Kate's enormity and see a simple, timid girl. One that is smart and curious – at the same time being deprived of so much in the terrible world she lives in. Maybe except Rachel, since she knew her on the outside. It is also true that he was ready to die when flying into her ear, so his opinions may be considered “suicidal” or at least risky, but he simply cannot imagine Kate repeating here what they heard others seem to be doing:

“Sir, with all due respect... This isn't some kind of war and she isn't an enemy” - this brought Crawford's attention, he is still walking forward, but now turned his face towards Gary and looked at him – for the first time since the brief acknowledgement after he left the skyjet - “Even if the others out there are playing games that could endanger the lives of people here, we need to consider Kate as our ally in any such conflict” – they had gone through this discussion several times already, although he was never so direct, but still repeating more detailed arguments would be redundant.

Gary expects quick reply about his ignorance and how he doesn't know anything, but there is nothing like that this time. The old man turns his head forward and continues the excursion – where are they going anyway? They are moving in the direction of Kate's “spot”, but it would take an hour to walk even to the edge. For her it is just shoulder length distance from her face – if not less... Still, they have perfect view of the girl, who is currently looking slightly to her side and over them – presumably at the light-show crazies. There is mostly just barren land for miles around them, so they have line of sight for miles in every direction and most notably are able to clearly see her huge laying down form.

And what a sight it is. Especially how over the next couple minutes, Kate seems to be on the verge of breaking into tears – after some emotional interviews that she was shown. Despite this event was actually completely spontaneous, Gary thinks it wouldn't be possible to arrange it much better, even if they tried. And why hasn't he thought about showing her some kids? It's so obvious now...

When she rises and says her “good night” for the first time ever addressing everyone rather than whoever she was talking to at the time, it seems like almost the proof for Gary's words... But they still have no choice anyway – as Rachel recently summarized.

“I hope the God you're right, you maniac.. or rather wish...” - are Crawford's only words, although Gary can't see him as a religious type.




This was the last he spoke with the old man – after Kate left, they returned to the base in complete silence and Crawford departed back to wherever he came from. Gary was left without new orders, so he continued any plans they had underway. After taking a quick-rem sleep, they are back to discuss plans for the following days. With proper diet and a dose of special hormones, enzymes and neurostimulants, most people can maintain high focus with two or three hours of sleep for around three weeks, but Gary was trying to keep his metabolism reasonably normal. The procedure was meant mainly for emergencies such as wars or cataclysms and the situation was stable.. at least before Rachel showed up.

Now they needed extra time to learn more about the outside world. They used to gather disconnected bits and pieces of information from wherever they could and Rachel could provide them with much more comprehensive story. Or at least, so they hoped – in the end it was pretty much what they were already expecting. She confirmed most of the important details and while she also mentioned many subtleties, it didn't change the big picture – they are stuck inside and it is all up to Kate to find out how much she can do with their IDs or whatever they are able to figure out. It is also only up to her to gather any allies necessary to stop whatever Erica seems to be planning. For the foreseeable future, at least.

Another question is what the mother may be planning and while they have many theories, they simply couldn't be certain about anything due to sparse information – neither Rachel nor Kate haven't heard anything solid about that, so they have to base their action on clues and suspicion. It is frustrating, but they can only wait to see how it unfolds.

There is nothing they can do from within the zone – they tried working on the wristcom that was miniaturized with Rachel. The fact alone that it arrived with her was strange enough, the procedures weren't supposed to bring equipment with the immigrants... Not to mention that the device was somehow encased in a protective shield similar to the dilation field – which didn't make any sense as Rachel wasn't herself. They figured there must be something terribly wrong with the procedure of her immigration.

Still, the wristcom is mostly functional, but almost completely deaf – any electronic communication from the zone is blocked and it only responds to Rachel's manual operations. But while it seems functional and connected to the outside somehow, she cannot contact anybody or access anything useful. Several programs are still available, but none of them can help, it seems.

After Kate returned in the morning and welcomed everyone in the zone awkwardly – they talked with her about the supplies and together devised a plan to learn more about Amber's new “property” - regardless of what it really was and whether this information would be useful or not, it might help to train Kate's “covert” skills in a seemingly harmless situation. All their plans will have to rely on her now and it is critical for her to be more familiar with such games.

There wasn't much to be said about that and Amber hasn't answered yet – most likely being still asleep – so they had to wait here as well. They figured to postpone her trip to the warehouse for the afternoon – the chances that anybody would be walking around in the facility were smallest at such time. Maybe except the night, but it would be suspicious if she wandered around at strange hours...

So Kate just laid down and listened to some explanations about farming and food production – to better understand the needs of Amber's new “micros”. The explanations weren't very interesting, so Gary and Rachel evacuated the room to discuss some more unconventional ideas she had mentioned for what they could do next – Gary didn't want the group to hear about them. They still tried to listen in to the conversation, in case anything more important is mentioned in the “farming class” - although it quickly extended to other topics, such as shelter or medical facilities necessary for any non-primitive civilization.

The main problem with Rachel plans is that they are highly hypothetical – there are simply so many questions and uncertainties. With Kate being their only contact with the outside world, finding out anything about the current state of affairs in the facility will be problematic – the kids are mostly kept in the dark about what is going on and they can't just make Kate ask questions about things that she wasn't supposed to know.

And there are so many questions.. they're not sure who immigrated Rachel, for starters – there are clues pointing towards Erica, but there's no certainty. And if it was her – they have no idea whether she worked alone or with help from other mothers. They have no idea what triggered such action.. it might have been Rachel opening Gary's file or one of hundreds other things that she did – not to mention what other kinds of traps whoever did this may have set up in the systems...

There are so many unknowns when it comes to moving forward as well, they can't be sure who Kate can safely contact, they have no way of finding out what is Erica doing with the caretaker training and whether they could use it to their advantage or if it's actually more dangerous than promising... They don't even know whether the temp wristcom will work with the emergency IDs to operate the facility's mechanisms – Kate will try to find out about it later today, but before that many of their plans are just wishful thinking.

Alone in another conference room, Gary and Rachel lay stretched out in the chairs and have been talking about nothing in particular for almost an hour now, after running out of meaningful topics. Right now, Rachel elaborates on how terribly boring it was to be locked up in the facility for over a century...

“But you must have had something to do, I don't know.. anything?” - Gary interrupts.

“Hardly, we only had the dysfunctional terminals and each other.. but most functions were locked and there's only so many things you can do with the same four other people...”

“Well, I'm sure I'd be able to think of something...” - he suggests ambiguously.

“Oh, you men..” - Rachel gives him an irritated look - “only thinking about one thing... Besides, would it be so pleasant if you were stuck with four geek males for decades?”

“I'm still sure I'd figure out–” – she pokes him in the ribs, interrupting his chain of thoughts - “Hey! That's not a way to treat your superior..” - technically, Rachel isn't a member of the Service, but he grew to like joking about this when they were sitting alone here - “And you know what they say about lesbian couples?” - she squints her eyes, as if warning him - “Twice the boobs, double the fun!”

Rachel pokes him, this time harder and exclaims - “Yeah, that's very mature.. especially for a 'superior'...” - the last part in a mocking tone.

“Stop it, you're behaving like a teenager!” - Gary complains, knowing well that he is even worse.. - “But seriously, there must have been something you have been able to do.”

Rachel thinks about it for a dozen seconds and reluctantly responds: “You know, the usual things... But I wasn't that much into sexual gratification, I'm just not as horny as some other women” - she pauses and looks at him directly - “or men in general, for that matter.”

“Oh really?” - Gary moves as if trying to pat her, but she pokes him again in the ribs and he just falls back onto the chair defensively - “Now this.. this has to stop!” - he exclaims.

Rachel laughs and he joins her. After a minute long outburst – which seems to be much more than the “joke” deserved, she continues - “I think others were impacted by the isolation much more. Hey, do you remember Lauren? I mean.. Lauren Paige... from before the shutdown?”

Gary tries to recall the ancient times. Remembering any details of equipment and procedures from over century ago was hard enough, but to actually picture a person he might have known back then... The fact that ever since Kate's arrival, he was thinking of any remaining caretakers as some gigantic beings rather than living, breathing humans doesn't help. Has he known her?

He spent most of his time dealing with various technical issues and projects related to the facility, sure he would take a break once in a while.. but even then he would usually hang out with his fellow structural engies. It's not that they disliked others, just.. after decades of being nay-sayers and having to complicate everybody else's lives through most of their working time, it seemed like nobody actually wanted to hang out with them – so they adapted and didn't care about the rest.

Still, the name does ring a bell.. there were only a handful of women after the last waves of immigration following the shitty accident and he might have dealt with her in some assignment...

“I think.. was she that short blonde..” - he starts and Rachel confirms by nodding slightly - “that seemed to be a pain in the ass mainly to compensate her uselessness–”

“Hey, she was a great climate engineer–” - she complains, but Gary interrupts:

“.. back in the days when they needed any in the facility” – it was pretty quickly offloaded onto immigrated specialists. Or simply most of caretakers who were doing it immigrated themselves.

Rachel gives him an annoyed stare and counters - “Oh, come on.. they would still need people with all kinds of skill-sets...” - yeah, but that particular one would be useful once in a hundred years, that's probably why she was respecialized in.. something - “Also, she wasn't a pain in the ass, but a good listener and–”

“A great lay!” - Gary finally realizes that is what he remembers the name from.

Rachel stops in her explanation and is obviously irritated by his interruptions. Her angry look quickly turns into a more understanding expression - “Yeah, and that.. although you didn't have to be so blunt about it...”

Gary begins to recall some more details about his life in the facility. Up until now he only focused on the things relevant to Kate's inquiries and various problems at hand. It wasn't an easy life – even with the machinery fully functional.. he spent most of his time on work assignments and whatever left on engineering quirks, but others tended to get very bored. Apart from some occasional parties, they would spend most of their free time playing games and inside virtual worlds with random immigrated people to get a glimpse of the “normal” life. Of course that wasn't even close to actually experiencing it, but enough for most.

In any case, he wasn't a party animal and more of a loner – that's the main reason why he managed to withstand the facility's bleakness and boredom. Of course up until the Failure got him. But being stuck there for a century, without access to anything? Even he would have gone crazy – he can only imagine how it must have felt for the five women stuck in there. Of course they did get out and the situation changed quite drastically – although he is not sure whether it was so much better for them or just much worse for almost everyone else...

“Now that you mention it, she was hit pretty hard by the shutdown. She used to get around and suddenly there was no men that she could fuck” – Rachel explains – “Sure we helped each other, but she was often too annoying.. and it's not the same–”

“Oh, yeah..” - Gary responds with a wicked smile. She only stares at him with disagreement. But from what Gary recalls Lauren's “getting around” was an understatement. If he remembers correctly, she used to be basically the facility's biggest slut. Not that she had much competition at the time, but it was still an accomplishment – if one could call it that. She did try to keep it down when her boyfriend – or was it fiancé? - was still outside, but went all out when he immigrated. People used to joke that he literally ran away from her and it may have been just true. Lauren was said to be narcissistic enough to demand sex several times a day – poor guy, he concludes and speaks: “But there must have been some toys that she could help herself with, right?”

“That's the thing, there wasn't anything left and the assemblers wouldn't produce anything even remotely useful. Even when they would produce anything except rations and those damn uniforms” - Rachel pauses for a minute and then carefully picks up - “She did try to come up with something though–”

“A house-grown tinkerer, wasn't she?”

“Right.. something like that, I guess. She managed to put together.. some kind of a dildo, but it wasn't very helpful. Then she tried to make it vibrate with some parts that she salvaged from some nonfunctional machines...” - and she stops.

“I always knew that in a time of need, a true hero will rise to–“ - he jokes but gets interrupted by Rachel poking him.

“Stop teasing me! Besides, it wasn't pretty at all... She used.. something to coat it with. It was bulky and like.. volatile. It would send some random sparks and electric discharges–”

“Bad memories?” - Gary teases again.

“What? No.. god no... She asked everyone to try and help her with improving it, but I wasn't horny enough to risk being electrocuted.” - and seeing Gary's grin, she adds after a moment: “I know it may seem funny, but it wasn't at the time...”

Gary manages to refrain himself from laughing, but is simply unable to maintain a serious face. Trying not to be poked again, he demonstrate some compassion: “Okay, that must have been really hard” - and Rachel gives him the angry look again. He realizes how it may have been understood and quickly adds - “The life in the facility back then, I mean.”

She seems to be measuring him, as if to figure out if he's making a joke or not, but eventually nods and agrees: “Yeah, it was...” – after a moment of thinking, she picks up - “But the worst part is that the girls don't even know how everything used to be before the shutdown. They just...” - Rachel sharply stops and looks away.

While she thinks about something, Gary concludes that he isn't in the mood to discuss the meaning of life and decides to lighten it up by another sexist joke - “I completely agree, they haven't been able to enjoy a proper penetration!”

She turns her gaze back at him and complains: “You pig! Over time I forgot it's the only topic you men ever think about. Sex, sex and sex...”

Gary thinks how it isn't true – at least for him, usually – but he chooses not to deny, since it's not like he can support it with any arguments.. especially given his current behavior... But this sudden thought makes him wonder why is he behaving like this. It is just completely not his style. Well, at least she hasn't poked him this time. They sit in silence for a couple minutes and eventually Gary realizes that the metabolism treatment must be affecting him in this way.

Usually its use is very limited – only in very tough situations, so he was half-expecting his request for the team to be put on it to be denied. They needed the extra time to discuss the necessary things with Rachel, but on the other hand the body's reaction to the treatment tends to vary. Especially with nothing important to do, it must have been the extra energy and vitality from the hormonal mix they took yesterday, coupled with being alone here that pushed him to think about sexual things a lot. The Service uniform that Rachel wears doesn't emphasize her assets, but the fact that he is alone with a woman still helps.

Or is it something more? Ever since Rachel arrived, Gary has been acting and even thinking differently. He liked the life in the facility – that is why he hasn't immigrated voluntarily – but it feels like something more than even that. He thinks that she brought him out of this state of lethargy that he has been in since.. ever. Or at least since he arrived in the zone – he wasn't a very active before the failure, but he used to act on his own, make his own choices. And here he just.. almost always went with the flow, it seemed. She must have reminded him of the time that he acted more confidently and... probably brought back some frivolous games they used to have back outside.

Looking back at Rachel, he doesn't need to hear from her that she craves sex as well – it's written all over her now that they are alone, but he has been ignoring it, trying to act professionally. Actually, he realizes that he already failed at that and Rachel was right – he was behaving like some horny teenager and maybe this also affected her. But this isn't the time for this. Not when they have so many things to do and definitely not with Rachel barely getting acquainted with the new reality.

“Look, I think the treatment is acting on me, or both of us–”

“The treatment?” - she interrupts him.

“You know.. the high focus, low sleep therapy that we were put on yesterday. It sometime has.. side effects...”

“I don't recall ever agreeing or.. how was it even administered?”

Gary thinks for a moment. He hasn't actually asked anyone if they are fine with it... It was the Service's standard procedure and as soon as it was confirmed by the high-ups, it was simply implemented. It was strange how it seemed to be affirmed almost immediately – at least compared to the usual amount of time and paperwork he hear it should take, but he assumed that everybody would expect and understand it. Of course it was just another procedure that Rachel wasn't familiar with... And how she suddenly turned from jovial relaxation to nervous uncertainty – he should have at least mentioned this earlier. Is Rachel afraid that she was drugged?

Trying to comfort her, Gary explains, trying to sound calm and casual – “I think it was applied during our sleep. It's common procedure in times of emergency.. to energize the crew and make sure that as much time is spent on action, rather than sleep or rest” – it still seems like she is worried and so he adds after a moment – “It's mostly harmless.. the whole team was put on it and everybody is fine, as you have seen already.”

“The team? What team?” - she inquires, still tense.

“Well, everyone that has direct communication with Kate or helps with the planning. We just wanted to be sure that we've got enough time to talk with you and...” - he thinks about it for another moment and decides to come clean - “Actually, it was my call and I realize now that I should have mentioned something. It's hard to remember all the things that may be.. surprising for an outsider.”

He doesn't want to go into the details and he certainly understated the treatment impact on the body's metabolism – it was far from “common” and “harmless”, but he doesn't want Rachel to worry too much. They already have so many other things...

Fortunately, she seems somewhat relieved – he considers explaining some more about it, but she responds - “No, it's fine. I just.. was surprised a bit, I suppose.”

That she surely was – Gary concludes in his head and decides not to worry her now. Maybe he should ask if she wants to stay on it in the evening? It seems like a reasonable time to mention it again.

In any case, she continues - “I guess that explains why I'm not tired with so little sleep.”

“Yeah, that's the whole point of the treatment” - he says half-laughing to lighten the atmosphere and she smiles as well.

After a moment of consideration, Rachel continues her inquiry: “So.. what other 'side effects' are there?”

Technically, the increased concentration and awareness are the main reason why the therapy is applied rather than side effects, but he ignores that detail and answers – “Well, as with any high metabolism states, agitation and stress tend to surface from time to time.. especially with people that aren't used to it” - it is kind of obvious what it means in her case - “It's never a problem though, at least not that I heard it was.”

She nods and turns her head to look at Kate, considering something. Gary tries to think of a different topic they could discuss, but before he finds anything reasonable, she looks back at him and asks: “Why have you even mentioned it, then?”

Is she fishing for contradiction, interrogating him? A series of questions like this is starting to make Gary nervous as well, but he assumes that she must simply be trying to understand what is going on and he cannot blame her for that. But how to explain that he wanted to warn her about him feeling horny? Not that she hasn't noticed that already, but...

“It's just that..” - looking into her blue eyes.. is it getting into him again? He decides to be plain about it - “I just thought it might be good to mention it before anything happened” - yeah, right.. still it is better to explain it now rather than after an intercourse – if she was really up for it, that is.

Rachel nods ambiguously and sits in silence. Gary is unsure of how to continue – or even whether he should. At the same time he is grateful that she hasn't investigated the treatment deeper. Nor has she commented the 'anything' that he implied that might 'happen'.

“And why would that matter?” - she asks instead.

After a moment of consideration, he responds: “I noticed how.. eager you seemed to be and I figured that engaging in sexual activities probably isn't something that you'd want to do. I just didn't want you to get into something that...” - Gary stops as he notices Rachel moving her chair closer. Why are those damn things so easy to move...

“What makes you think that I wouldn't want that?” - she asks with a kinky voice.

Gary thinks how there isn't anything that he can respond, really. They are two adults that presumably could involve themselves in whatever they wanted, but.. perhaps not while on the job and not in the conference room right in front of... Turning to the side, he looks the looming form of Kate far in the distance beyond the windows. They should be focused on preparing her to deal with any problems that may arise...

“Don't worry, she won't notice...” - Rachel teases him by stating the obvious fact. At this distance, Kate could barely distinguish the prefabricated office buildings they are sitting in, let alone their forms inside. But having sex right there in the conference room.. they are alone, but it still feels a bit wrong... Rachel leans forward on her chair next to him and adds - “Don't tell me that all this foreplay was just to tease me.”

He doesn't think about it much and leans forward towards her. Their lips meet and she returns the kiss. As they part away, she attempts to move onto Gary's chair, but it quickly becomes impractical, since the seats obviously aren't made for this. Gary looks around and the only place to continue seems to be the big table at the center of the room. He considers moving somewhere more private.. or just some place with a bed or a sofa at least, but it might be conspicuous if they left and besides... he wants Rachel now.

Gary tries to suggest her to change position, but she is busy kissing and trying to undress him, so he just picks her up and moves onto the table. He is surprised by her fairly light build – 100, maybe 110 pounds. Most people in the zone are on one of the fitness medical therapies, which usually optimize metabolism for calories intake and maintain low body fat, but still preserve decent amount of muscle. The most fashionable look of the last two or three decades – following the slightly chubby and super-thin fads, although this one is more healthy and balanced, so it is also widely recommended.

Of course Rachel was never on any of those fitness programs and medbeds in the facility are much simpler, which left her around twenty pounds lighter than this zone average for the height – Gary figures while helping her undress him and then herself. When her nude torso is exposed, Rachel seems so small and fragile. It's almost impossible to imagine that only several weeks ago, she was out there dominating the landscape of some zones, just what Kate does here now.

Gary has a clear view of the girl's gigantic form through the windows of the room – distant and looming, like some terrain feature. It feels a bit wrong – she's practically just a girl by his age standards – but this sight makes him even more aroused as he and Rachel embrace in foreplay. She is clearly rusty, probably by the lack of practice during the recent decades, but Gary ignores that and prepares to fill her. He removes her panties and finds that she is very wet and ready for him. Gary continues to caress her breasts crowned by erect nipples as he enters her and begins to hump.

Although the focus treatment made him more easily excited, it does not work as an aphrodisiac and he has to work his way towards orgasm. But he moves in and out at most a couple dozen times before her vagina clenches around his cock already. Just before cumming, he thinks that she must have been really horny to climax so quickly...

As they lay on their backs on the table, he thinks whether he should try to clean it up and how, or perhaps call in some service person... He doesn't want to waste too much time on it, so he settles on the latter option. Still, he can already see the look they will get from whoever comes to clean it up or – even worse – what the old man may say if it reaches him, but.. Gary simply doesn't care about it right now.

He looks left to see Rachel's glistening form, moist with sweat as she relaxes after the quick intercourse. She lays there with her eyes closed, motionless, facing the ceiling. It reminds Gary the sight of Kate when he first approached her – of course the scale was completely different and he had to stretch his skycar to its limits just to get to the girl's ear, while Rachel is quite easily reachable, but...

He just cannot stop himself from thinking how much everything would be different if he had arrived in a different zone. How he could have become a subject of another caretaker - Lauren's toy or whatever others were doing with “their” “micros” - or perhaps he would have landed in one of Rachel's chambers. For years she would be his giant protectress, the figure to gently move across the horizon.

At least he assumes that she was acting like that in her zones. The stories they got from the outside were sparse, but always depicted her as the most considerate and helpful of the caretakers. Perhaps they would have figured it out sooner? Come up with some way of undoing whatever happened in the failure, or shutdown, or whatever they call it? If he could contact her earlier, instead of having to wait over two decades more for Kate to arrive here? Of course all those possibilities don't matter now, especially since Rachel was also immigrated and is stuck here with the rest of them.

But still.. it does make him think. They haven't been able to get much from her so far – it was mostly small details and various things that she told Kate. They still don't understand so many things, for instance why exactly has she kept the kids unaware of the fact it was humans in the zones – wouldn't “school” be supposed to explain things like that? They got the impression it was some kind of pressure – or threat even – from others, but then why would the mothers bother or care about that? They had some ideas, but it was only speculations.

And since Rachel was much harder to read, they couldn't just figure out her emotions – she has hardly been showing any in the first place. Even now, most of what he heard from her were mild groans and moans... They haven't spent much time trying to analyze her, it simply doesn't seem that she may be a threat. Her mentor relationship with Kate aside, she understands her situation and seems to behave rationally.

There is probably an automated emotion analysis running on her to learn more and make sure she remains sane – just like everybody else on the team, including Gary. He doesn't know any results of such analysis – he heard that only the old man and a couple of advisors receive full intel. None of it matters much though, or at least they are all far less important than Kate's emotions and feelings and that is what the research efforts have been focusing on so far.

Gary thinks how far they went and whether Crawford was right when he warned him about being too open and progressive with driving her discoveries and emotions. It did work well so far, but in the long run it can be dangerous. He doesn't think Kate would be willing to knowingly hurt people, but the others seemed to be much worse... Is it just a matter of time for her too?

Rachel doesn't seem to think that Kate would get any 'abominable ideas' – as the old man put it – but she is definitely less optimistic about everything than Gary. He attributed it to her being freshly immigrated, but.. is there more to it as well? And what were those atrocities that Crawford implied she may have committed anyway... He doesn't need a personalized software to figure out that she is hiding something. Or things.

His thoughts are cut short when Rachel opens her eyes and looks at him. A slight smile breaks her usually grave expression, as he speaks:

“That was...” - but halts abruptly. Gary quickly gets tired of waiting for the continuation.

“Wonderful? Incredible? Amazing? Magnificent? Awesome? Remarkable?” - he keeps suggesting, but stops when she squints her eyes and responds:

“Don't get self-complacent, it's just..”

“Yes?”

She thinks about it for a long moment and finally adds ambiguously - “I guess there was some truth in Amy's annoying grumbling that it's not easy to substitute those pheromones...”

Gary isn't certain what she may mean, but quickly realizes it must be a reference to their lesbian attempts after the failure. Even though it doesn't sound very generous, he decides to take it as a sort of compliment. He is usually more refined in his love-making, but their current location and situation made his attempts awkward and even a bit shy. Not to mention that she came so fast that he hardly had any time to show off.

“You seemed to be much more enthusiastic during the sex” - he comments.

“Oh, well...” - she smiles again, this time wider - “It was great.. and thank you” - this compliment feels much better and Gary raises slightly to lean and kiss her.

“Wanna go again?” - he asks afterwards.

Rachel looks slightly surprised and responds - “This quickly? It's been like.. only ten minutes...”

He thinks it was more like fifteen or twenty, but instead of correcting her, he happily bluffs - “Remember the extra energy from the treatment?”

It wasn't among its effects, but Gary concludes that it may mitigate the negative impression she got earlier.

“Oh..” - she ponders briefly - ”Maybe it wasn't so bad after all...”

Gary raises and thinks whether they should be continuing this, but it already seems too late and another round of sex won't change much between them. He suddenly remembers that she arrived only recently and:

“Hey, just to be on the safe side.. you're on stoppers, right?” - he wasn't sure if they were using them in the facility and the pregnancy might impact her performance, which... He stops his line of thought as she squints her eyes, clearly enraged by the insensitive question. “I wasn't sure if–” – but she puts a finger on his lips, suggesting to shut up.

Right.. it may not be the most appropriate topic. Gary starts caressing her again rather than engaging in further discussion, trying not to humiliate himself any further. Luckily she wasn't displeased by it and they resume their love making session.

He thinks that perhaps Rachel wasn't entirely satisfied earlier, because she may have been expecting different handling. Or rather that she may have been used to something else. He wonders how they used to “help each other” back in the facility. Especially the hornier ones...








Lauren is surprised to discover Erica's sudden change of mind. It is strange how only yesterday she would absolutely deby the Lauren's price to have a free hand with the seconds, none of her games and help dealing with others about it. But mainly Rachel, who would most likely be angry about Lauren manipulating her dear “schoolers”. The others wouldn't be problematic anyway, since Lisa doesn't care about her own daughters and Amy is busy with her “big-hearted” colonization – but apparently it is a problem for Erica. How did she put it? “In a life?” Of course she saw no problem in herself having manipulated the firsts however she pleased... What a hypocritical bitch!

Or was it the other part of her price – to include Andrea in the training in one of the first two batches? Erica didn't seem to have a problem with Amy's similar demand for her daughters. Lauren suspects it has something to do with the ratings, but starting training is one thing and why on Earth would Erica want to actually hack their permissions fully in. Whatever game she is playing, Lauren likes it less and less... In any case, now she has a positive answer and although she would like to see that promise being spoken in the presence of all mothers, the mesg will do for now.

“Oh yes, keep it up” - she instructs the servants pleasuring her softly, as part of her morning routine. It took them some time to regain confidence after the little “accidents” with the girls – Lauren was getting shit about that for weeks. Whatever, she doesn't want them to feel completely neglected, but what does she care anyway? Or perhaps should she have requested the seconds to behave more carefully?

Obviously getting her own massage back then was a mistake – it distracted her and caused some unnecessary losses. Lauren made sure to clarify that she didn't want to seem uncivil by undressing right in the middle of their meeting, but she can also understand the poor fuckers. The other mothers were at least somewhat understanding, unlike the girls – and for the poor inhabitants to realize they aren't much more than some treat? Especially coupled with her explanations back then...

Quite the ego crusher.

Not that the people should have any in their position, but... Lauren sometimes can almost feel bad for them. Over time, she was realizing how Rachel may have been right to enforce some limits – it wasn't just the fact they were running out of them, but it simply isn't necessary to kill the inhabitants to enjoy their time.

But some of Rachel's earlier proposals were outrageous, to leave the zones entirely? Like she wasn't enjoying herself at the beginning as well... The sudden change of heart she had after a couple years was very noble, but.. hell, the facility is simply soo boring. Not to mention the lack of hope for anything more than this. Sure, Lauren wouldn't mind cultivating some civilized zones to have a meaningful chat, but on the other hand how can she have a serious discussion with somebody so tiny, that she cannot even see? Not to mention that she always gets distracted...

But Rachel's ideas.. they were usually so abstract and disconnected from reality that they knew – and that was probably why nobody else cared. And this way was so much better – for instance right now the poor suckers seem to be having a ball on her clit. For the first time in a couple weeks Lauren thinks she can actually orgasm.

“More on the left nip” - she orders. Years ago, when she moved away from Lisa's ways, Lauren used to tease them with taunts of taking so long to satisfy her, but she quickly figured it was pointless. The bugs most likely perceive her as a monster anyway. As long as they are useful, she doesn't even care about what they talk back. Not that she has to even listen – “Oh yeah.. yeah, fuck.. harder, yeah...”

A couple minutes later in the post-orgasm relaxation, Lauren thinks about the girls – maybe she could have some fun with one of them? The mothers used to had plenty of fun together when they were stuck in the facility, but.. they were all all tired of each other. A century can do that to a person. It was a miracle they haven't murdered each other!

Or perhaps it would be better if they did? At least they wouldn't have to combat boredom with such pathetic distractions? It seems so hopeless – and how long can they keep it up? Perhaps it is a good idea to keep a hobby, like Amy colonizing or Erica dominating the firsts? The three seconds should be just fine for Lauren – so simple and tangible. It is a bit late, since they have their own zones, but it doesn't matter really – she can still control them easily...

But why is Erica trying to rush this whole thing? Nothing for a three years since the last time she even brought the training up and suddenly everything needs to be set in a matter of days. At least Lauren got what she wanted, so why bother. But right now, she wouldn't mind to know what kind of game has Erica got in mind.

.. and maybe some ass-drilling, even though a lot of machinery was involved rather than just humans, it felt pretty nice when they did it the last time...








Erica cannot stop thinking whether she is doing the right thing with this training. If she missed something, it could blow up in her face. Everything is coming together nicely, especially with Rachel out of the picture – but there is still a number of questions. Like how will the girls react or will the retraining even work like they suspect it should – she will need to see and adapt to the outcomes of intermediate plans.

In any case, the die is cast and unless she can turn at least two girls to full caretaker status, nothing is going to work...

And the last decade she has spent on pushing others into this position would be lost. Worse yet, they could all lose any trust in Erica or even punish her in so many possible ways, with the worst option being a taste of her own medicine... But nobody else seems to have noticed the possibility of immigrating anybody now. Ever since Erica found it almost two decades ago, it has changed her life – she finally had a new purpose.

It was just after they discovered how to enter the zones and barely figured out a way to communicate with the people. Everybody else looked for answers to the shutdown, but she didn't understand any of the systems. She was always more of a peoples person. That's why she has always been more of an informal leader of the pack – but this...

She still tried to visit new zones to ask if anybody knows something about the facility. And in one zone they did – not quite the information the others were looking for, but it still proved more than useful. Especially two weeks ago when Erica was able to actually make some use of this knowledge. Of course she made sure the programmers – or whoever they were – wouldn't tell nobody else about it, especially that it has a potential of taking control over everything around her in an entirely new way.

It feels so good, especially now when it's finally within her grasp, after so many years of planning and careful games and having to deal with those annoying bitches. Of course back then it was just a rough plan. Everything changed when she discovered how they can have kids... and what a surprise! Who would have thought it could be that simple – of course the others wouldn't be manipulated as easily as their daughters and without three votes she can't do shit around the facility.

If only Amy and Lauren wouldn't insist on including their daughters in the program. They were probably the worst of all girls, rating-wise. Except Kate, but Erica cannot use her – the seconds aren't trained properly, not to mention that Rachel is still alive in that zone. Erica doesn't want to check her status too often – not to leave too easily noticeable audit trail – but it is beginning to look a little disturbing. She needs to make sure that the second has enough fun with her micros not to notice even when she kills Rachel, or else...

Erica assures herself that there is simply no way how the newly immigrated mother could even convince any zone inhabitants to believe her, not to mention get attention of her new “owner”. Still, in hindsight, Erica concludes it would be better to immigrate Rachel to one of her own zones, even despite the risk of being detected. Or at least somebody more reliable.. like Jolene or April. Even Nicole wouldn't be bad, if only she could stop bitching about everything. She will need to do this with whoever comes next, but how to arrange this?

She wanted to pick Courtney and Kimberly due to their ratings, how ironic it was their mother to be Erica's first victim. Maybe if she could pick Courtney and Andrea? Three would be too much to control in the first batch and besides, she already explained the others how she only wants to pick two for now. She can ignore that, like most other things... But no, Erica needs to experiment with Courtney first and see how that goes. There's still so many unknowns, after all.

But if that works, then she could get rid of Lauren next and work on Kate and Kimberly – the second and third best ratings among the girls, respectively. Or maybe she should silence Amy? To avoid having to pick her daughters... It all depends on how the girls behave and Erica will need to figure it out along the way. But the most important thing is how the system will behave, with a new caretaker registered and a demise of another one...

“... and so we realized that the time has come to bestow you, our daughters, with more functions and privileges, but they also mean more responsibilities. And with this newly reinstated training program to make you fully competent caretakers, you shall...” - Erica babbles on and on about various details of what they will be able to do and what kind of new functions they will be able to access. Of course by “you”, she only means Courtney and Andrea – the only two firsts selected for the program, at this time, apparently.

The others will have to wait and Erica hasn't specified how long exactly. Nor has the mother explained whether it will only be the firsts or will the other girls also be included in this. What good is this sudden announcement to Amber, if she won't be able to benefit from this for several years. It is also a bit strange.. she wouldn't think it will be so beneficial anyway. Sure, a couple new functions, especially convenient for working with assemblers and maybe expanded communication options, but...

Why make a fuss over it? It is not like they will get any micros or even prepared zones with it. Amber cannot believe just how much time it will take for the new micros to set up, before they can even start reproducing. With Kate's help, they should be able to survive at least. The food will suffice for a few weeks and the tools should allow them to set up basic shelters. As for later.. Kate offered her some more help, but Amber doesn't want to become overdependent on the other second – maybe she could ask other caretakers for help? Nicole promised her some food for the micros, but Amber haven't heard from her since yesterday.

She looks around trying to locate Kate in the crowd, but is unable to spot her. They met in the cafeteria, all such gatherings were first held in the facility and then moved to some zone. And what an unusual time – right before noon.. most ceremonies were organized in the evening or late afternoon at the earliest. Maybe there is some celebration planned afterwards? It would explain such early time. But Erica hasn't suggested anything like that, now she continues the roundabout explanations and the two beneficiaries, obviously proud of their newfound status, are standing beside her. The other mothers – except Rachel, who is nowhere to be seen – are behind them and everybody else forms a half circle in the front.

Amber spots Nicole standing on the other side of the group and she can clearly see that the second is angry. They haven't talked since yesterday and she must be jealous about the two selected for the training. Some remaining firsts also seem anxious – judging by their reactions and muttering – but Nicole looks simply furious for some reason. Erica didn't mention why those particular two firsts were selected or what exactly will they be able to do. In fact she only elaborates on how wonderful it is and how the others should look forward to joining them later on.

Thinking about it, Amber figures that she wouldn't mind that – if not for anything solid, then the status. On the other hand feature-full regular wristcoms would certainly be useful. She recalls Rachel mentioning in school how much easier it is to manage micro-assembly products using them – which could actually help a lot with the micros. Perhaps she could ask Andrea to help her out? The first was always very anxious to show off her experience and nice zones – she will surely be happy to do the same with her new position.

Kate explained her that she shouldn't force micros to do anything, because it will break them down – and that makes sense. After everything that happened in her untrained zone, she was already very careful with the new micros. Not telling them about her intentions was simple enough to understand, but Kate wasn't very specific on what exactly she should do with them. Like.. she wouldn't say how long Amber should wait before using them or how much of them can be used – but she must be struggling with those problems as well.

At least Kate seems to be successful with her training – she admitted how her micros haven't been killing themselves or anything. In fact she even gave her some of them to teach the new ones. It was supposed to help them settle in – explain how to use various tools and how to “farm”. It also made sense... The new micros are so hopeless, unable to figure things out on their own, it seemed. At least their chatter became more reasonable after Amber brought them the cargo transporters from Kate.

It was strange how they kept mentioning weird things, like.. asking what happened to Rachel – who they said was their previous owner. It seemed simply...

Well, actually it would explain the secrecy – if Nicole stole them from Rachel, she wouldn't want the mother to find out. Will Amber be in trouble if she does? Most of the time everyone was ignoring her, but.. how could Nicole even get access to any of her zones? That is a lot of questions and Amber isn't even sure, if she should talk to the second right now. Maybe wait a couple days for the things to calm down, see if anybody notices what Nicole did – and even then it will be her problem, not Amber's. On the other hand it would be bad to be forced to give the micros back.. no, she needs to be very careful.

But in the meantime she should ask around for more supplies – the firsts will most likely be happy to provide her with some. Perhaps even Lauren wouldn't mind, after their little party and ample explanations. Maybe it wasn't that much – especially given that the mother hasn't actually told them anything practical, but maybe it won't be a problem to share some food... On the other hand Amber concludes that she shouldn't tell anyone that the micros are “new” - she already got too many questions about that from Kate. Not to mention how the second wanted to speak with them. Normally she wouldn't mind – especially how she helped with her main zone, but after Nicole's warnings...

But maybe it wouldn't be that bad – it's not like the micros know anything about what Nicole did anyway and Rachel could have given her them on her own. That is if the micros are really coming from one of the mother's zones. Amber thinks how ridiculous it all is – not having micros is pathetic and boring, having them causes problems with training and reproduction – even getting them from a friend is suspicious.

All this trouble to have some fun! It really seems overcomplicated and Amber wishes there was an easier way. But then of course that is just what everybody else is forced to do. She understands why the firsts stopped being so generous when they started running out of their own micros. It was good while it lasted, but after the happy first couple months, they had to wait for micros to recuperate. That is just what Amber should do now. And she will.

Yes, she needs to be responsible. Just like Andrea was – and the first's maturity is obviously being appreciated now, with the promotion and everything. Both she and Courtney are very proud of this. It literally came out of nowhere. Although.. was this recent Lauren's interest in the seconds relevant to this? Were the mothers testing the daughters to see who is the most fitting for this training?

It sounds like one of Nicole's theories and Amber never paid much attention to them – it doesn't matter or at least it haven't so far. What if she should have? Maybe the “promotion” is associated with some actual benefits. Yes, she will need to ask Andrea about that. The main problem is that even if she follows the first's ways, it feels like there be a long time before any second would be experienced enough to be honored with such privilege. It is ridiculous – if only Erica would explain why is it the two firsts did exactly to be “worthy” of this... Or should it be obvious?

It doesn't feel obvious at all – it took years for the firsts to figure things out.. was that a test as well? If this is the case, then Amber only needs to listen carefully to whatever Andrea explained her and maybe she will also be appreciated? Kate seemed so certain it would be a bad thing to organize micros like that – but then it is Andrea to be selected for this training right now and not the second... In any case, Amber can wait some time for the micros to rebuild and settle in – in both her trained zone and the new one, respectively. They didn't seem to be killing themselves or anything, so she should be good. If only the waiting wasn't so frustrating, not to mention the uncertainty whether her training will work was so...

She is awoken from her thinking by a sudden sound of clapping, marking the end of Erica's speech – Amber quickly joins in and wonders if there was anything important in the announcement that she may have missed. She turns her eyes towards Nicole and this time her friend is smiling and energetic, but after a closer look, Amber can clearly see that something is boiling underneath that mask.

It is just like the firsts graduations – Nicole wanted to also get some zones for herself as well and was furious about this “inequality” and “childish treatment”. She haven't listened to any arguments that the seconds need to grow up and wait for their own turn.. she was even too proud to attend parties the firsts made – of course Amber had no such problems and that was probably why they stopped hanging out together around that time. For whatever reason, Kate preferred to stay with Nicole – although she was never really open or close to anybody, so Amber stuck with the firsts. Or at least tried to, since only few of them were friendly to her.

So Amber rarely met with the other seconds and now that Nicole organized their little meeting and spent some time with her, Amber feels good to have somebody, who she can relate to and discover things with. Unlike the firsts, who always looked down on all younger girls and made fun of them, her fellow seconds were more understanding and open-minded. But.. of course it is not that simple. She wonders whether the firsts or thirds have similar problems with each other, but it seems that power plays and various tricks and games are necessary parts of any friendship.

But Amber got what she wanted – what anybody wanted, in fact. Regardless of wherever the micros came from and how Nicole was able to get her hands on them, they are now her property and it seems things are getting better. Maybe Amber could even use her to get some more? She obviously must have some source of them... Amber was never good at those kind of sneaky games – frankly she never even bothered about things like that, but now it seems worthwhile.

But first checking how the micros are doing is more important. Kate explained her it will take them weeks to set things up and she needs to be extra careful – Amber already assumed that, but tedious as it was, she was doing her best. And Kate seems to be really trying to help her. Even her offer to talk to the micros was to calm them down... Maybe that is not a bad idea? To have somebody else tell them it will be fine? It worked in her other zones – Nicole and Kate helped to calm down one of them each. But no, Amber should not do that now...

Especially how strange it is what they are saying, it really sounded like they were owned by Rachel – they even asked if Amber could contact her to get help. She should ask Nicole more openly about where the second got them from – she needs to know what she has just gotten herself into.

But now the official part of the ceremony ends shortly after Erica finished her speech – each of the chosen firsts said a couple sentences about how happy they are and then everybody started congratulating them. Or at least the mothers and some girls did. Now the crowd slowly breaks into smaller groups discussing various things – with two trainees still at the center of attention.

After saying hi to Nicole – who doesn't even seem to notice it, Amber approaches Andrea and listens to her boasting about how great she feels being finally appreciated. Some other firsts are also standing next to her look excited – particularly April, who asks when Andrea finishes:

“Yeah, you've got to tell us how you did it!”

“Oh, it's a secret. You'll have to figure it out on your own, but maybe I'll give you some hints along the way...” – was this thanks to her micros training methods that she shared with Amber? The second figures she should seriously consider trying them out.

“Yeah, sure..” – Jolene comments, visibly tired – “Hey, how about we make a big party to celebrate?”

Despite several mentions of approval from the group, Andrea refuses – “No, I can't. You heard how Erica wants us to start training immediately...”

“Oh, I see.. you are suddenly too important for us, lame friends” – Jolene accuses.

“Hey, it's not like that! Didn't you hear how much we still have to learn? But.. I'm sure there will be time for some celebration later...”

“Now that's more like it!” – April comments – “Maybe you can give us some 'hints' then?”

“We'll see, we'll see...” – Andrea is obviously playing with her newfound importance.

“Can I come too?” – Amber inquires not wanting to miss anything?

“Amber, here you are!” – the new trainee greets her – “Of course you can, we should all be happy together!”

“Just remember to bring something with you this time..” – Jolene comments.

“Sure..” – Amber answers. She thinks how many micros would be appropriate and where should she pick them from. She considers asking about it aloud, but Andrea speaks first:

“Come on, guys.. don't be mean and just enjoy the moment!”

“Easy for you to say...” – Jolene remarks meanly. She seems to have been like this the whole conversation. Amber figures that the firsts must be really jealous about this whole caretaker training thing. Should she be too?

Suddenly, a single voice is heard over the background chatter – “No, this is ridiculous!” – Amber looks to where it came from and spots Nicole arguing with Erica on the other side of the cafeteria. Mother tries to approach the second, but she complains – “Get away from me, I hate you!” – and runs out from the room. Erica stands still for a moment and then walks to the other mothers.

“What happened there?” – April wonders quietly, looking in that direction as well. Amber notices that while Nicole wasn't shouting and only speaking a bit louder than the rest, it has still caught attention of almost everybody.

“Who cares.. what a drama queen...” – Jolene sums up.

“You got that right” – Andrea comments and laughs quietly.

After a moment of awkward silence caused by Nicole's scene, the discussions resume and the group around Andrea starts talking about what this 'training' may include – bus since nobody knows anything, it quickly gets boring. Amber notices that some caretakers are leaving and decides to follow them, but is surprised by sudden tap on her shoulder while walking through the room.

“Hi” - Kate starts and adds - “great privilege they have, isn't it?”

“Uh, sure..” - Amber responds nervously, turning towards her friend - “Listen, I was about to leave to check up on.. You know...”

“Yeah, let's go then, we can talk on the way” - Kate suggests and motions towards the nearby exit.

Amber was worried the others around them may find the topic somewhat suspicious, especially any mention of the “new micros” that she wanted to visit. She also worries about discussing this with Kate, since she is already running out of excuses... Fortunately they walk in silence, passing some unused utility rooms on the way to Amber's quarters. She is unsure if she should discuss it on the corridor, but mindful of possible eavesdroppers simply enters the room and invites Kate in. The whole way Amber was wondering what her friend may want from her now.

“Thanks for the help, by the way..” - Amber starts after closing the door.

“And how are they doing? Are the supplies enough for now?” - yes, she must be really just trying to help.

“Oh.. they seemed good, I was.. just about to go and check then again...” - Amber still feels uncomfortable being alone with Kate.

“One thing I forgot to mention earlier – once the equipment I gave you is installed, I'd like to get that team back” - Amber recalls the fact that some of the tools were apparently too advanced for her micros to operate and Kate gave her a small group to teach the others. But to give them back? It was like just a couple hundred micros.. who would care about that? On the other hand she recalls when Kate was worried about just a single missing micro back in that colony...

No, giving them back is a bad idea – what if they learned something about what happened to them and tell Kate? - “Oh, about that..” - she tries to think of an excuse to avoid it - “You know, my micros are really stupid and cannot learn how to use those things.. can you maybe leave them with me?” - it's not solid, but hopefully good enough. If anything, it could buy Amber more time.

“I really don't think it will be necessary, they–“

“Do you want to help or not?” – Amber panics a bit, but then tries to explain herself – “I mean, look.. the micros asked me for this themselves...” – she bluffs. Maybe she should give Kate just some random micros from her trained zone? She wouldn't notice the difference, right?

Kate doesn't reply for a minute and eventually inquires further - “Were the supplies enough? Have they asked for anything else? Any tools or materials perhaps?”

“No..” - Amber cannot recall anything like that.

“Perhaps you could ask them and let me know, if they do?” - it surely seems like Kate is trying to aid her. The second has been relaxed and open the entire time – maybe Amber should accept more help, since she already offers it.

“Sure.. I'll do that...” – Amber tries to think about some other topic to talk about – “Hey, I sort of fell asleep during Erica's speech” – they both let a small laugh – “was there anything important I may have missed?”

Kate just looks at her in silence for a moment, as if she is suddenly worried about something - “No, I don't think so.. just a bunch of nonsense about responsibility and matureness” - but it seems Kate may have more thoughts about that.. is she jealous about it like Jolene? Or whatever made Nicole angry back there... Amber didn't care about the ceremony and that training thing - “Have you heard anything about where this whole thing came from?” – her guest asks in turn.

“You mean, like the training?” – Kate nods and Amber thinks about it for a moment - “No, I have no idea.. Even Andrea seemed surprised when Erica spoke how she was selected for it and she didn't tell me anything about that when we met recently...” – the second continues looking at her in silence – “Sorry I can't think of–”

“Don't worry, I was just curious” - Kate assures her - “So, you were going to check up on the micros, right?”

“Yes, I was going to–” – she repeats unintelligently.

“Good luck then. And let me know if I can help with anything else, bye!” - her guest quickly replies and leaves the room. Why would she so quickly end the discussion and leave without even waiting for her to say goodbye? Has she said something wrong?

Amber once again finds herself surprised by Kate's behavior. It seems that ever since her graduation, she is completely different – or maybe more like a bit more recently, but Amber wasn't paying enough attention to be sure. She surely seems more mature and responsible. Taking initiative and acting on her own.. it's definitely not the Kate she knew. Amber thought that her assault might have been just an outburst of anger, but now she feels it might have been just a part of some bigger transformation.

But in the end, it doesn't matter – as long as Amber can get from her what she needs, she doesn't really care.. and she does need to see if the micros are doing well. With the food and equipment from Kate they seemed less worried than yesterday, but Amber never actually asked if they need something more... All this trouble just to help micros survive, it's ridiculous – they should be able to manage that on their own instead of bothering her.

After teleporting to the new zone, Amber looks around to locate the settlement. In the morning they were still grouped on the spot Nicole dropped them off and she appeared quite far away from it. While walking, she checks the population and it seems good, they don't seem to have started doing anything silly. As she approaches the micros location, she notices that they finally started to set something up – there is definitely some commotion around the containers, like some plants are being cleared and small structures slowly put up. Good – maybe they will stop complaining and instead start doing something on their own.

It is still early afternoon, so Amber can clearly see the outline of the settlement and she carefully walks around it to get the headphone, which is about ten feet to the side. After putting it on, she looks towards the micros and decides not to approach closer for now, uncertain how far they may have expanded – she heard they can use the headphone for two way communication, so she doesn't have to be right next to them to be heard quickly.

“Hello Amber” - they speak shortly after she wears it, at least they no longer use silly names like yesterday... They relished in them and she was tired of constantly straightening it PLPLout.

“Hi, so.. you guys doing here alright?”

“Yes, we're fine for now” - they are already much less troubling than earlier on. They must be busy setting up – it was probably Kate's that have told them what to do.

“I was asked to... Is there anything more that I could get for you?” - Amber feels almost silly trying to help them like that, but she feels it may pay off in the long term.

“I don't think.. if you could excuse us for a minute...”

“Sure” - but now she feels even sillier. They should be prepared to give her details of whatever is going on. What is she supposed to do now? Stand around pointlessly?

Amber thinks just how much stupid this is, but crouches down to take a closer look at whatever the micros may be doing around the settlement – and there is indeed a lot of activity everywhere. In the morning there were just some sparse groups of colorful dots spread around the transporters. Now it is already beginning to look organized, with many lines and even small structures emerging seemingly everywhere.

It is good that she hasn't approached them closer – she would most likely have crushed some of that and then would have to listen to their PLPLbickering about it, tell them she will try to be more careful and all the rest of it. They were really annoying when she crushed some while delivering the stuff from Kate. Can't they see that she does all this to help them? Damn, making them feel comfortable enough to reproduce will surely be painful. Amber thinks whether she doing this right, but is unable to think of anything.

Amber's thoughts are PLPLcut short, as the micros respond: “I was told there may be one thing that we could use..”

“What is it then?” - why can't they just get to the point?

“Um.. a medical core type Z7H/2C93F-0, preferably with..”

“Woah, now you wait a minute – how am I supposed to remember that?”

“Well..” - for a brief moment she can only hear some quiet chatter coming from the headphone - “Perhaps you could put it in a message?”

“Yeah, right..” - Amber agrees and proceeds to write down whatever they suggest in the mesg for Kate, although she isn't sure if her friend will be able to make any sense out of it. She then adds a question if Kate could give her one, if she has something like that. She considers how maybe micros in Kate's zone will be able to understand it. Amber suddenly finds herself more interested in the topic and decides to ask about it - “What's that, a medical core.., whatever the name was?”

“Oh, I don't..” - they pause for a brief moment and then a different voice appears:

“Miss...” - this one must have come from Kate. Amber already taught her micros not to call her those strange names – “it's medical equipment for treatment of various health-related problems, from longevity extension to diseases and injury treatment. Um.. this core type is particularly useful for treatment of generic mid-tech curable disabilities, such as leukemia or–” – yes, it's definitely the new micros she received with the supplies... Amber can't understand a word of it, but “medical equipment” reminds her of something.

“Is that core.. thing also used for reproduction?” – she interrupts.

“Err... Yes.. that is among other things, it can also...”

“I'll try to get it for you then” - and with that she sends the mesg. With nothing better to do than wait right now, she wonders if she could get some of those “medical thingies” for the other zones – especially her trained one. If the micros cannot reproduce without them.. or even are reproducing more slowly... She should also ask Kate about this, maybe that's the secret for the micros well-being? Or at least one of them.

The micros start blabbing about some concerns they seem to have, but Amber simply ignores it at first and silences them when it becomes burdensome. She doesn't want to seem bad to them – mindful of what happened in the dying zone – but it doesn't mean that she must immediately solve all of their problems. Maybe tomorrow.. or even later. They already admitted that they are fine...

A response from Kate comes quickly – she has something just like the micros requested and can give it right away. Not trying to be too pushy right now, Amber decides to meet her first and maybe mention other things later on. She sends her the coords for an empty zone and teleports there as well.

While waiting for the other second's arrival, Amber feels more self-confident. Although she will be alone with Kate again, she is almost certain that her friend is just trying to help and maybe she should at least thank Kate for all her efforts. It is not like Kate had to help anyone at all.

The second appears in the distance and looks around to locate Amber, but she is already on her way. She is somewhat anxious to get that core device to the micros so they would get in a better shape and reproduce – if she understood its purpose correctly. Kate notices her as well and starts to walk towards her slowly, carrying something in her hand. Yes, Amber will need to be extra careful with that too.

“Hello” - her friend starts, when they are close enough to each other.

“Hi Kate. Is that the.. whatever the micros wanted?”

“Yeah, this is the core you mentioned” - she offers a small container on the palm of her hand and inquires further - “Were there any problems that they need so much medical equipment?”

“No, I don't think so..” - Amber recalls while taking it carefully from Kate's hand - “they keep telling me they're fine and everything.”

“But have you asked about the reasons for such request?”

“Yes, it's just...” - what is Amber supposed to say.. that she doesn't understand most of what they are talking to her? That every time the micros try to explain their situation, she just pretends to listen for a couple minutes and then tells them to shut up? Sure, the population has been fairly stable so far, give or take a couple thousands – Amber rarely paid any attention to the last several digits. It doesn't seem to be the best thing to mention right now - “so difficult to talk to them...”

As they look into each other's eyes, Kate measures her and, after a brief moment of silence, accuses - “Have you been killing them?”

“What? No.. of course not! Why would I do that? I'm doing just what you told me to, help them settle in, make sure they are setting up okay... I don't know what more you expect me to do.. care about them?” - but only after finishing the riposte, it appears to Amber why Kate may be continuously asking such questions. For a brief moment, it almost feels like she may actually care herself. It still doesn't make sense – she might have even got attached to her own micros, trying not to lose them, but why would she worry about Amber's micros? It is not like Kate could benefit from her having them, so why even waste her time? Unless she really wants to help her and doesn't want Amber to have a repeat of her dying zone. After all, she only started worrying so much after they had their reunion party with Nicole!

“I'd better go, I still have...” - Kate turns to her side and starts putting coords into her wristcom. When she is done, she adds without taking her eyes from the device - “..things to do.”

Great, this is the exact opposite of what Amber wanted to do during this little chat – instead of thanking Kate for the efforts, she attacked her friend and got her to close up even more. That's hilarious.. but maybe if she... - “Listen, Kate...”

“What?” - the second looks up at Amber with a mixture of anger and anxiety in her eyes, which reminds her of that dreadful fight. Has she done something wrong again? Why wouldn't Kate simply tell her what it is instead of closing up whenever Amber does anything, it is so ridiculous!

And what is she supposed to do now? Apologize? For what.. she doesn't even know what she may have done wrong and... No, this is not the time to discuss anything more – maybe if Amber could invite her to have some fun with her first, try to repay her for the help.. maybe then they could relax and talk more openly? But for now:

“Nothing, I mean.. thanks for the help.. with the micros and–” - she mumbles.

“No problem” - Kate simply replies and vanishes. Amber thinks that this chat just couldn't have gotten any worse, but then realizes that it could have.. and very easily so. It feels like she doesn't understand Kate anymore. It just as if one of them has completely changed.. or was it actually both of them? Amber spent so much time with the first that she must have drifted away from her past friends and now cannot even understand them!

At least she has the core-thingie and her micros should be able to reproduce more healthily. Or whatever it was for – if anything, maybe they stop complaining for some time.

After teleporting to the zone, Amber notices some stupid clouds around her ankles. She doesn't care about them, but Nicole that seems to really hate them for some reason. Sure, they are annoying, but she knows that she must have appeared somewhere far away from the settlement – teleportation seems to always do that for maximum inconvenience... At least she can safely look around without worrying that they will annoy her again for killing some of them by mistake.

Sure, Amber is trying to appear nice and helpful so they wouldn't start killing themselves in here as well, but.. why the hell should she even bother to do anything for the micros, if she wasn't going to have some benefits from it? Like.. a steadily growing population and carefully picking the extra micros – just like Andrea told her, except the training methods the first used were much more drastic. Were the first going too far with it? Or maybe they are so much more efficient that it was really the reason the mothers selected her for the training.

After locating the settlement, she starts walking towards it and thinks about what Kate spoke and what she may have been trying to suggest. Still, the second didn't say anything actually useful – it seems their entire discussion was just a series of questions and accusations. What if Kate also has no idea how to train micros and is just trying to help her avoid some mistakes that she did? But Andrea explained her that training micros properly always results with some losses...

Maybe that is what Erica meant by the caretaker training program, was it to teach the girls how to train micros? Amber has no idea what else could it be about. Improved wristcoms are just a detail, there is nothing to do in the facility and the only other thing they do is having some fun in the zones. But mothers wouldn't bother to explain them how to use them better... On the other hand that was exactly what Lauren seemed to be during her party.

No, it doesn't add up – if it was that simple, then Lauren would invite some firsts and explain it to them herself. Amber needs to visit that party of theirs and maybe Andrea or Courtney will learn something by then. If the latter will even appear there – they haven't mentioned her at all during their discussion. The main question remains how many micros Amber should take.. it feels she should give some to the firsts for all those times they shared with her, but.. how much is enough? It is not like she has a lot of micros herself...

No, she cannot be scant now, especially given how she has some fairly decent zones. At least two, three hundred thousand – maybe one more for herself to have fun with? That already sounds like a lot.. this way a single decent party would consume half of her dying zone. Or whatever was left in it anyway. She didn't want to tap into the trained zone yet and Nicole would be angry if she shared the new micros, as it might cause questions to be asked. The main problem is that she simply has no real long term supply of micros and quick fun with what little she has would be irresponsible – even if it made her a more respected caretaker.

As Amber nears them, she notices that she still has her headphone on – she completely forgot about it, but luckily she hasn't teleported to the facility, otherwise another piece would be lost.

“Here's that medical equipment that you wanted” - she tries to remembers how Kate called it.. an equipment core? Whatever, the micros should know what it is and hopefully they will be able to make some use of it. But now she needs to give it to them - “Where do you want it?”

“Hello Amber” - whatever, she only just left the zone - “If you could give us some time to prepare a suitable area, please...” - it seems that everything takes them forever to accomplish, even if it is Amber who does all the work. It is ridiculous – but she doesn't care, not now with so much on her mind. As they explain her where to approach, she can see that the settlement is indeed being quickly expanded around the original site, where Nicole dropped the transporters. Micros are busy setting up rows of tiny buildings everywhere and it surprises her positively. She wasn't close enough before and now she easily can spot how much they managed to do in only ten hours since she dropped the supplies. Well, it all still looks tiny and fragile like everything done by micros, but the ones from Kate must truly be some kind of builder-micros. She also remembers that even the ones in the colony were talking about some medical stuff – what if the small group from Kate's zone already impacted the others?

In any case, it doesn't seem to be problematic yet – their influence here has been anything but trouble so far, so Amber will just have to keep an eye for any signs of strange behavior. Maybe even remember the last digits of the population to make sure nothing bad is going on. Or at least write it down somewhere. Either way, they thank her for the help and it is beginning to look like thins are going well. Of course it will take them years to set things up properly, not to mention decades for any children to grow up, but she can already see the future growth and all kinds of fun that she will have with them.

Yes, there are so many things that she already has planned, so many new ways of using micros that she was taught by Nicole or thought up during their games. But the problem was that Amber never had enough of them. Or, more specifically, she could use some more at once – but run out of them later. And she would not want that...

But if she can have a couple well trained zones that would reasonably reproduce.. that will change everything. She tried to calculate it in the morning and it seems that she should be able to get up to a hundred thousand micros every week or two, once the situation is stable. There's still a lot of unknowns, including how fast the females can be pregnant again – she assumed it was immediately, but what if they needed more than nine months per every batch? Or how many new ones would be produced by each female exactly.

At least they are doing something now. She is happy to finally see some development and it seems that in no time they will be setting up cities, maybe even with some skyscrapers. Judging by the amount of time it takes them to do anything, it will probably take a while, but it looks much better. No longer only crawling around the transporters, the “settlement” – as they call it – now covers an area of about ten square feet and still growing.

She thinks whether she should leave to give them some time alone... The micros in her trained zone are usually moaning and bitching about her being there, as Nicole would put it. Actually, it wasn't that bad, but they were discretely trying to let her know that she doesn't need to be there all the time and she got that. What else is she supposed to do then? Her other zone was almost gone already and spending any time there seemed pointless. Except of course for when she wanted to have some fun alone – but it was much more interesting to play with Nicole.

Besides, it is not like she was killing them in her trained zone. She was also trying to help them – so why would they annoy her with some silly remarks? It wasn't that bad, but why can't they be happy and thankful about her? Sometimes Amber simply can't understand the micros. They seemed to be trained already, so why wouldn't they behave?

In any case, the ones here explain how they are working on various buildings, homes and whatever other things they're trying to set up. She also was never able to understand why would the micros have so many types of different structures, like couldn't they just set up some simple shelters and get to the reproduction? Unless they actually need those complex stuff for it too... Whatever, she will worry about that if they don't start reproducing.

Or what if they built up some buildings so she could just have some fun with those? But for that they would have to aim much bigger than some silly lumps they seem to be working on right now and at least construct some skyscrapers or similar. Of course right now their “settlement” looks almost as disorderly and shabby as the dying zone, much worse than the trained zone and not to even mention the clean and planned colonies with Kate's micros.

Maybe the team from Kate teaching the others will be a good thing? Perhaps they will show them how to construct nice, big buildings – just like in the Kate's zone. Oh, how much Amber would love to have a chance to play with a city like the ones there. It isn't even about killing the micros, just.. they looked so sophisticated and complex. Surely they must have put a lot of work into building them, which would make destroying it so much fun. Just like her mother devastated a city in her trained zone – Amber is still mad about that, but.. she also regrets it wasn't her to do it.

As she stops daydreaming and looks down again, she realizes that the amount of effort from micros is also the problem. If constructing the tiny, simple structures they are working on will take them several weeks – as they told her – then work on anything bigger may just as well take months or even longer. What if she could convince them to work on something larger quickly as well?

But no.. even if the micros could construct something nice, they would probably be angry that she destroyed it and could start killing themselves. Just like the ones in her trained zone complained. That even her walking around was damaging things up to “the point of collapse” – whatever that was, but they seemed angry about it. Well, not angry, more like.. sad and begging her to be more careful.

In any case, they probably wouldn't like her destroying their precious homes here. What if she could have them build up some bigger things and them “evacuate” them to some other zone – just like Nicole tricked them before. She ponders whether they would fall for it or not. The ones in her dying zone were extremely naive with Nicole's “saving” them. What if Amber could come up with some new excuse to move those again? Or maybe do this trick to her trained zone and tell to build up somewhere else? It seems like a risk thing to do, but it would surely be worth her time and effort.

Yes, she will definitely need to think about that, but it will take them months before they construct anything noteworthy rather than just some pathetic clogs. With that realization, she goes back to daydreaming about having fun with a larger city herself. She even removes the headphone and lays back a bit further away from the settlement to have some peace from their annoying voice. And those thoughts are already making her wet, but she chooses not to masturbate – careful not to drive the micros crazy again.

Or perhaps those aren't like that and it would even help them reproduce? She will need to check that too. And the hints that Andrea gave her... Although those training methods were completely different from what Nicole and Kate advised her to do, there must be something in them – why else would she be selected for the caretaker training? Maybe Amber should try them too...