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...