The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side

To achieve sustainability in an ever growing population we must not put others to blame for the harm being caused to our planet.

When we look at the Earth from space all we see is a pale blue dot surrounded by nothing, except an endless dark stretch of space, void of life, breathless, dead.

And on that little blue dot speckled with green is our home. Our families, our loved ones, friends and all we care about. What we do today is putting all of this into jeopardy.

What we do today will affect our future. What we do tomorrow depends upon today.

To change our world we need ideas. Some ideas are simple. Growing a plant, turning off a light bulb, keeping the windows closed when the AC is on. All of these are important tiny steps, but we must not be scared to be a little more ambitious. We should strive to be both ambitious and simple.

Most of all, however, we must be positive!

The ideas we need must stem from the problems we face. How are we to assign priorities to these problems? We must look beyond boundaries, beyond borders and political noise. Climate change, ozone layer depletion and similar phenomena affect us all equally. How conscious are you of your fragility on that pale blue dot?

We must also look beyond time. Think about your daughters and your grandsons. Will they merit a world worse than the one you inherited?

The only green we know is Earth. We know not of any other planet that harbours life. And even though Earth is plentiful and has provided for us for millennia, it is not infinite. Resources are running out.

The cost of metals such as copper keep rising and to keep to demand extending mining operations threaten to destroy our ecosystems.

Reducing our impact is ensuring our survival. We must keep the balance intact.

On a positive note, the 2000's (as they may be called) are a great time to live in!

There are great minds at work to solve the problems of an ever growing population.

Here I present the four ideas that I believe will shape this century, lest they save us and drive us into a Greener Tomorrow:

1 - Cities in the skies
2 - Automated electric vehicles
3 - Space elevators
4 - Asteroid mining

I will be going into more detail in each one of these on separate blog posts to show how they might hopefully be our lifeline for the future.

The Poison Wall

Many years ago before the Sundering and even before the Black Mist took over the Delta there was a farmer, cunning and pre-emptive who lived in a little hut at the base of the Mountains, and his name was John.

John was a master botanist. He classified plants and identified them on the spot just by looking at them for a couple of seconds. His knowledge was passed on to him by his family. John's father, Professor Albert Pompidou of Gillis was a lecturer at the Great Mountain Halls. His mother, Ophelia Lepsi was an adventurer. She had travelled the far-beyond, into the jungles, and came back with samples for her husband to name.

John had characteristics of both his parents. He was adventurous and intellectual. The farms that he built on his own at the foot of the Mountains where the Blue River disappeared provided sustenance to his family; his wife Elizabeth Pompidou and the three children she nurtured.

No man in the Delta had foreseen the coming of the Black Mist except one. John had long preached about it's coming. He felt it in his soil, saw it in his plants, tasted it in the waters. He feared of what might come of the far beyond if the mist had to overcome the mountains. And he also feared of what might come across to the Delta from the jungles beyond, when no man was left to defend against the threat. He did not wish to see his home ravaged by beasts, neither did he want Skaipei and it's denizens to suffer from this assault if it would come to one.

So John devised the most cunning plan ever to come to his mind. He was to build a wall of poisonous plants, thick and long covering the base of the mountains. A wall that no man and no beast would be able to cross, for it would be the plants he loved that protected the Delta. 

He set out to build this wall ten years before the coming of the Black Mist. Those years the skies were still clear and the sun shone bright on the soil. The air, however, already felt thick and heavy. The wind that incessantly blew from the sea to the East reached the mountains where it broke and left it's cargo. And so it was when John sown his first seeds that the winds from the East brought the first black drops of moisture over the Delta.

From his gardens John selected a variety of plants most toxic to all kinds of beasts. He chose the most deadly of all, and picked varied species to leave no dent in the shield which he was to grow. To protect the soil, he sown Rapa filiformis a bulb plant with threadlike leaves. The bulb seeps out toxic chemicals that inhibit burrowers from advancing, while the tendrils above had sticky barbs that readily attached to beasts passing through. These then seeped the same poison onto their victims. 

Other kinds included plants of the family Corocoros. A blue form of shrub that had large nail-like protrusions from it's branches. A scratch on these needles poisoned the victim with a chemical that prevented clotting. Other plants unleashed a mixture of toxic gases all over the wall.

To grow his poison wall, John first sown his seeds all across the Mountain base and constructed irrigation pipe along his transect. Over ten years, the wall was watered through these pipes, for not even John was invulnerable to his own creation and would not be able to go close to them.

So eventually the wall grew, sixty kilometres long, five kilometres wide. It's height varied at areas, but was on average at least five metres high, yet thick and impenetrable. The plume of toxic gas that was emitted from the wall reached a further kilometre all around it.

This was a great achievement for John. He felt proud and of duty to his people though the same cannot be said otherwise. For the citizens of Skaipei outcasted John from their city. He was labelled a traitor, a heretic. No one believed of the dangers beyond the mountains, even less of the coming Black Mist. 

Only when the dark tide swept over the Delta like a mattress being pulled over a  naked baby did the people of Skaipei think back to what a crazy man had once told them ten years ago.

"I shall erect a wall of poison below the Mountains, for when the darkness comes, let there be a barrier between our lands and the jungles beyond. Let there be a sliver of hope for us in the dark, that the beasts from beyond may not make of us what cats make of mice of the fields."

The Forgotten Inn

"My name is John Pompidou. I am an outcast." He said this without flinching. 

John Pompidou looked like an old man. His hair was shoulder height,turning grey and was sprouting from under a cowboy hat, brown and made of leather. His chin was covered by a dark brown beard, not very long, but dense and  which continued up his lips to join a bulky mustache. 

He sat on a chair, his right foot crossed over his left, his hands draping down backwards. He didn't look at Virelda or Kripp, but kept chewing on a piece of straw. 

"I have seen you looking around the Grand Cave. As if lost. Are you lost?" He now lifted his eyes from the ground and looked intensely towards Virelda. 

"Sir, I...I am not lost. My friend here, is showing me around." Virelda looked at Kripp concerned. Kripp grinned slightly and moved towards Pompidou. 

Kripp whispered. "She's a highborne. A daughter of the skies!".

John Pompidou jolted slightly backwards on his chair and almost toppled over. 

"Interesting." He said. 

His chocolate brown eyes, although the same colour of his skin and everything else he wore really, were bright and intent. He examined Virelda closely. His eyes moved up and down three or four times before he said a word.

"You look pale, child."

"I am pale." Said Virelda. "We have travelled for two days now, and I haven't ate much."

"I see, but your skin. It is not tainted."

Virelda looked at her skin and then back at him. John's skin was the colour of his leather hat. Brown and rugged like that of Kripp's. She now looked back at her skin and was amazed at how delicate it looked, fragile even.

"What do you mean by tainted?", she asked.

"By the Mist is what I mean." John now spoke in a solemn voice. It was as if something boiled in his heart and he moved a hand to hold it. "The Mist has ruined us all. Cast us away from the light. In this dirty hole. We are pitiful. Outcasts."

"We are NOT outcasts!", snapped Kripp. "We live here by choice. It is you who feel like an outsider. It is you who does not feel like you belong."

"Very so," said John, "I am not a child of this land. I am not a Mole."

Virelda looked at John with empathy. She felt like an outcast as well. Her departure from Skyscapes was not a planned excursion. For all she knew, she might not even be able to return to the City in the Skies. Her heart ached, as John's did a few moments before. She put her hand to her chest.

"I escaped the City in the Skies", said she, "after the High Mayor sent an Elite Force to arrest me." She was honest, clear in her words. She hadn't talked to anyone else till now, except Kripp, and a tear rolled down her eyes.

"I am not sure of what happened to my father. I am not even sure of what might happen to me." She was now shedding tears as she made an effort to continue. "This is not my home. I want to go back home and live in the sky."

"Virelda." Kripp held up an arm around her shoulder. "Home is far away, it is. But this is my home. And soon it will be your home too. The Nest is as good as the City in the Skies believe me. I will show you around and we will meet many people. You will have new family here. New friends. This will be your new home."

Virelda masked away her tears as she looked at the boy beside her. He was not very smart, she thought, but he had something far better than that in him. He had empathy. His words soothed her fears and she hugged him dearly.

John Pompidou was still looking at the two from the far side of the Inn with interest.

"So, you two have reconciled? May I continue?". Virelda and Kripp were slightly embarrassed as they turned back to John to see what he had to say. "As it be, the Forgotten Inn is not a great place to talk in. We shall now move out and meet again in twenty minutes in the Grand Cave, East of the Pool."

He stood up from his chair as he threw the straw from his mouth on the table. "I am to show you the Lungs of the Nest. If, of course, you desire to do so." He looked at Virelda waiting for an answer.

"What are the Lungs of the Nest?", she said. In truth, she did not even know what the Nest itself was. But from what she could understand, it was the name given to these caves and tunnels buried underground. It was the city of the Moles.

"The Lungs of the Nest are the tribal homes. Nine tribes live in the Nest. All swore to protect the Queen. And you, if you wish to become part of the Moles, must meet the leader of each and every tribe. Only then shall you consider the Nest home."

"Very well." Said Virelda. As she did, John Pompidou quickly hurried out of the Forgotten Inn and disappeared.

"He said we have to meet him in twenty minutes." Kripp said, "It is better to hurry up."

"Thank you Kripp", she said. Kripp looked at Virelda and then turned to the door.
"You're welcome", he answered ever so faintly as he hurriedly made way for the door. 

God and Beauty

Yesterday I had the chance to be part of a Christian Mass. One of those ritualised masses that I haven't attended for four years now. I was there because I was with people who adhere to the beliefs of Christianity. People that I love and respect and wish for them to be free in thought, and to live their life fulfilled however that may come about.

During this mass I listened and tried to understand why myself, a few years back, was such a Christian devotee. Then the priest  advocated the life of St. Augustine and he said that this man, in his life, referred to his God as Beautiful. At that moment I felt close to St. Augustine. For when I look outside at the trees and the rocks, when I am by the sea and hear the waves dancing on the sand and look up at the glittering stars, what I see is Beauty.

You see, you do not have to have Religion to see Beauty. To feel the Beauty around us. You might believe in God or you might not, but what we all must come to realize is the beauty of life. I think that Religion was the result of this realization. That men and women of old saw Beauty in their lives and the wonders around them and they had to assign a name to this Beauty. They created God to give meaning to the seemingly perfect and magnificent happenings of nature.

However with time, the pure idea of love and understanding of nature and the closeness of man to nature and its beauty got corrupted. Greed and selfishness shaped religion. Religion became the tool to control the emotions of man. It became the weapon of cunning individuals for their benefits, to use against people pure in heart. Those people who were spiritual and saw Beauty in the world were the most susceptible to manipulation.

Yet today, we might be moving away from that manipulation once again. We are becoming closer to the root of our Religion. We are becoming more Spiritual and less Ritual. For the important part to argue about is not the existence of God but the Beauty of life. All humans, believers or not can see this Beauty. They can feel the power of a storm and the sweet caress of a breeze. They can hear the power of thunder and give praise to the light of the sun that warms us on a chill Winter day.

This is what we need to learn. To dream of life. For there is no greater pleasure in life than to appreciate life. Forget about God for a moment and look around you. There is YOU and there is the world right now. Would you rather love life and live it peacefully or would you rather love the idea of God and live life to please him, when in your mind the same reason for God to create life in the first place was for you to live it?

So worry not about God and what came before or what comes next. There is no need for ritual. No need for prayer. For life itself is a prayer. Drinking dew off a flower in bloom or laying down in a field in the heat of the sun is a prayer to life. It is your recognition of this Beauty that matters.

A Hundred Billion Years Across The Universe

Across the vastness of this simple Universe a spaceship tumbles in the fabric of the matrix on its way to Alpha-B112.

"Commander, our trajectory has shifted 2' West in the last ten minutes. Shall I proceed with recovery procedure?"

The commander, a stout man ripe in age looked back at his pilot. He evoked a stern look, "Let our ship veer off its path", he said, "for it seems as if the path we have chosen was only our intended destination, but not the journey which our ship desires to pursue." 

The pilot was confused for a second. He looked back at the commander then back at the flickering buttons on his control-console. Hesitantly he moved back from the console and looked back at the commander.

"Sir, at this rate our trajectory will shift over half a million kilometres from Alpha-B112 on estimated arrival time." His perturbations bubbled up his throat as he made an effort not to look worried while speaking to his superior. "Are you certain of your decision sir?"

"I have seen many great deeds unfold before my eyes Haley", said the commander. "And I have looked deep and thought hard about all this. About the Universe we live in." The commander moved closer to the pilot and looked deep into this eyes. 

"Haley, have you ever noticed strange happenings? Have you ever been vigilant enough and witnessed atypical events transpiring in the darkness that envelopes our spaceship?". The commander now looked outside the circular window on the other side of the commanding room, behind the control-console. 

Haley followed the gaze of the commander and then moved slowly to the window. Peering outside he could see a black curtain dotted with white covering all the corners of the Universe he now looked at. To the East, Alpha-B112 appeared brighter than the neighbouring stars, but was still very far away. 

A lightning cracked to West in the darkness. Haley jerked back and the commander held him firm from his shoulder.

"Have you finally seen it?", said the commander.

"What was that William?", said the pilot, forgetting his manners towards his superior.

Commander William grinned delightfully towards Haley. "It is a glitch my friend. See, our trajectory is deviating from the assigned path and the Universe is not happy about our decision to not correct the mistake."

"But why would the Universe be unhappy about such a thing sir?", said the pilot worried.

"You see, chance had it, our journey was altered by a random event. Tell me Pilot Haley, have you been the one to veer the ship off course?" 

"Sir, I would never."

"Exactly!", snapped Commander William. "It is an act of God! A stroke of luck my friend. Have you ever asked why we always travel to already specified star systems?" The commander now stared blankly towards the middle of the ship's room. 

"Think very carefully Pilot Haley. We always follow trajectories. We have never failed to arrive where we have always intended to go. Yet, we never know why or how our paths have been chosen. We never ask, either. Now, you see, this is a freak event in the nature of our existence. Chance shaped our paths and we veered from our destiny. We are moving away from what had been chosen for us, and the Universe is not happy. I have noticed this before already."

"But sir, what was that lightning really?", asked Haley.

"It was a glitch. An error in the Universe due to our negligence to appeal to correction. It seems as if we are not supposed to keep to mistakes created by chance. We should always fix problems that occur randomly. But today we have not. Do you know what the difference is today Mr. Haley?"

Pilot Haley looked puzzled. "What sir?"

"Today it was me who took the decision."

Outside the ship, lightning started to crack across the black fabric of space. Pilot Haley rushed to the control-console and mashed three buttons in rapid succession. A whoof noise echoed through the room. The lightning spread across the window. 

"Pilot Haley!". The commander's voice was dampened by the echoing noise. "Today we shall touch the hand of God!"

As the pilot kept pressing buttons on his console, the lightning outside the window multiplied and grew in size. The stars once seen dotting the landscape now shuddered and fidgeted here and there across the Universe. A white plane suddenly appeared through the darkness, and through it Pilot Haley and Commander William could see a field of green grass and a blue sky.

"What in the world is that which I see?", asked Haley baffled. William looked deeper into the plane that now was expanding in front of them.

"That my friend, is another Universe. The door has opened for us to leave this matrix Mr. Haley."

"What about our mission?", asked the pilot in turn.

"Where one mission fails, another shall begin." Commander William pressed two buttons on the control-console and the ship took a jolt and accelerated forwards.

"There is no one reality that exist but many", said William, "The Universe we live in is a simulation. A conjecture of the Universe in which we are about to ascend."

And with those last words the spaceship in which they sailed dissipated into a white plane across a black curtain littered with lightning.

Across the vastness of this simple Universe a spaceship tumbles in the fabric of the matrix on its way to Alpha-B112.

"Commander, our trajectory's shift in direction has been accounted for and corrected.", said the Pilot.

Zombies

I saw in a dream the day the virus spread. It took over humanity so rapidly, and zombified most humans. Not the typical movie of a walking dead, but much the same and as scary. The virus infests a person's brain, confuses it and makes it want to socialise and come in contact with people. It transmits to other people through sneezing, kissing, open wounds and other bodily fluids.

An infected person has no control over his conscious decisions and is most of the times confused. An infected person seeks other people and feels lonely all the time. This way, the virus ensures that it can spread through the population. Loved ones are most susceptible, because they are more prone to come to each other and they usually cannot resist the urge to touch their beloved, even if they are infected. It was hard to see my loved ones get infected by the virus. How they all seemed lost in their thoughts, walking blindly around trying to find affection from others. It was even more painful to leave my wife when I realized she had become confused. 

All it took were three days for the virus to spread so rapidly. The virus itself is not lethal, for it does not impede normal bodily functions or destroys cells. However, it removes our conscious identity. An infected person is like a newborn trying to understand the world in which he has arrived. That person can still do normal tasks though. Infected people will still go to work, drive a car and cook. They usually do not even realize they have become infected. For when they lose their self-awareness they act like highly intelligent animals without a superior motif in life.

FutureLabs could not do much to fight the epidemic. They had made the virus themselves, but unintentionally. And the speed by which it spread and its subtlety (for no one really realized until day two what was really happening around the world) was unaccounted for. No cure was available. Those of us who managed to live the third day sought each other and tried to avoid the infected. But the infected craved for us. They drove to us and phoned us, cried for us to be with them, for them not to be lonely. And we had to try and explain to them, as in explaining to a newborn in a confused sleep-like state, the situation. Our efforts to make them realize their state was of course futile. We escaped, and we came here, to the house upon the hill in the woods. 

There are 30 of us here and we are ready to fight the infected. Whether we will have the courage to do whatever it takes to keep them away is our biggest struggle. How can we prevent them from approaching us when they do not consciously have control over their decisions? When they do not understand what it means to "stay back"?

Yet, here they come. From the window of the attic I could see around fifty cars driving towards the hill. They are coming for us. Their loneliness has overtook them, and now they seek conscious company. 

They drive into the open field in front of the house and out of their cars they come. They look around confused, as they normally do. They look at each other and at the sky and then at the house. They moan and say mumbled words between them. Then they walk towards the house crying for us. 

"Why do you leave us?", they cry, "Why are you hiding from your families? Are we not also humans?"

Some of us in the house shed tears. Those people outside were once like us, normal. Some of us even recognized their family members. And then, amongst them, I could see her. I could see my wife wondering about the cars outside looking at the sky, confused. I felt like a knife stab me in the heart. 

More of them came. There were now over a hundred zombified people walking around outside the house. 

We could not let them come close. A single breath from one of them would immediately infect us. One hug, one kiss, one tear from these zombies is all it took to come in contact with us, and destroy our consciousness. Human identity would be lost forever.

They knocked on the door. We looked at each other. One of us came out with a knife from the kitchen. We would have to defend ourselves. We had to kill these humans to survive. I went to the pantry and got a long pike the previous owners used for their garden. The door knocked again, and the zombies were now shouting at us for not letting them in. 

Suddenly, the door burst open. One of them had kicked it in. For a moment, the 30 of us looked at the door, and in the doorway a dozen men and women looked at us back with blank stares. I could see no soul lurking within them.

One of them took a step forward and said "Don't run from us please, all we want is to be with you". That is all he said before I saw a knife protruding out of his forehead. One of us had threw a knife at him, and hit him straight where he aimed. The remaining zombies looked at the dead body and showed no emotion whatsoever. 

They looked back at us and one of them said "Why did you have to kill him? Please let us in, we are lonely. All we want is to love you. All we want is to be with you."

They all started moving in. Our group hesitated. Then we all realized this was our last chance to live. To survive the infection and live to be humans. I charged a man and piked him on my stick. Blood gushed from his neck and he screeched with pain. Tears shed down my face. These were all human beings after all, even if they had lost their identities. 

We fought them off. There were hundreds of them now, coming in few by few in the house. I tried to look for her but I couldn't find her. I couldn't find my wife. Then she appeared in the doorway. I could see her beautiful brown hair tied in a ponytail and her eyes. They were once beautiful and she always smiled. But she was now sullen and appeared lost. 

I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to kill her. And I wanted to be the one to end her life and not someone else. I moved two steps forward.

The zombies suddenly turned, and walked away from the house. My wife immediately took a step outside and I lost her from my sight. All the zombies went back into their cars, and one by one they drove off away from the house on the hill. 

What had happened?

A few days now passed, and there were new reports being aired on the television. Something had killed the virus. Some said that the virus was not adapted to living in humans and so it died off naturally. The most saddening fact, however, was that the infected had remained confused. They were human husks, empty from inside, no emotions, no purpose in life. The government collected all of the zombies into "camps" for rehabilitation. There was said to be psychiatric help given at the camps, but what really happened in them was not very clear. I do not know where my wife is. I do not know if she still lives, but I will find her. I've heard rumours that some conscious people that I know had seen her drive off to the south. 

I'm driving there now, to one of the largest psychiatric camps in this country. I will find my wife, and do whatever it takes to be with her. I do not truly believe whoever she was is lost. I do not believe she has no soul. I still have hope. I still believe in her. This is my purpose now, to find her.

Not just to find her unconscious walking body, but to find her and all we shared together, our memories and our life again. That person I once loved still lurks on this world, and I'll do whatever it takes to go to it and reclaim it back. After all, what makes us humans? Isn't it to hope and love, and to give to those who have lost all they've got part of what we still have? 

How Is Science Our Legacy and Written Knowledge Our Purpose?

I would like you to think about your life and your purpose in it. What are you aiming to achieve here, living for a split second on the cosmic time scale? How will your life affect the lives of others and the planet on which you live? Are you even looking for a purpose?

We are born knowing nothing of this world. Over our first years we take in information about our surroundings and build our senses. In our youth we build our emotions and connections with others of our species. And over the first 20 years we learn about technology and history and how to communicate this, as our forefathers did with us, to the next generations.

Then, you start work. There are three kinds of work you can do in life. Firstly, you can be a slave to others. This is the kind of job where you follow a monotonous routine given to you by your employers. Your day consists of a ritualized regime serving the needs of your company. This is the least fulfilling of jobs.

Secondly, there is service. This work consists of taking your own decisions in providing a service to others. This can include work as an entrepreneur or a business man or a doctor diagnosing people. In a service job, your brain is used in solving problems that are immediate and at hand. This can be a fulfilling job if what you aim for is the satisfaction of the present.

Lastly, there is the work of written legacy. This is the most fulfilling of jobs and has the most impact on society. A job that deals with written legacy includes any work in which you come up with new and innovative ideas that may be passed down the generations to alter the lives of other people. This is usually done by passing on what you discover in written form. Our ancestors first began their written legacy by inventing language. Some time after this, mathematics was invented, which was later used to understand and write about physics. Chemistry was also a new form of written legacy describing the material world.

Every job that entails the discovery of something new that may affect society can be considered as legacy. A person that leaves part of his life's work in the collective legacy can feel as if he had purpose in life.

Science is an example of a work entailing written legacy. Science is a treasure trove of knowledge in which discoveries are written down and shared with society. This, however, does not make science the only meaningful field of work. Any type of work, from slave work to service, to low profile written legacy, can be promoted to a more fulfilling job.

A doctor providing service can come up with innovative ways to treat patients and leave a legacy behind. A person working in a factory may come up with an idea for a new product. What we leave behind when we die will be the product of our work's legacy. A slave's life may have little impact on our planet. To dream in leaving behind a legacy may give your purpose to live.

This, of course, does not mean that a slave worker may not have purpose. His purpose may be to serve as a slave in order to sustain his family. A person that is writing down a legacy, on the other hand, may not have a purpose still. However, it is far more likely for a person to find purpose in life if he realizes that what he does in a large part of this life is going to affect society.

For when a person dies, what he leaves behind are memories of his life that will slowly fade with the passing of time. But when a person leaves behind a legacy, his memory may be forgotten, but his legacy will ripple through the ages in our society for countless years to come.

Remember Then Forget

Never in your life let yourself be controlled by photos of the past.
Never let the memories of the past be the means with which you judge the present.
Or let yourself make decisions based upon decisions you've taken in the past.

For that which is memory should only stay in memories.
And you shall only remember of the past as memories.
Let memories be the means to remember what you shall forget.

Then start anew from that which comes to you in memories.
And you shall never suffer pain of loss or regret because of the past.
For every moment from then on shall be the only decisions that count.

Decisions based on truth that lie in the present.
In the breath on your tongue and the sweat on your chin.
For every moment now is like a flower in bloom painted in red.

Beware of the past I say and forget it.
And begin once more from the beginning.
Only then shall you see the value of making memories
And only then shall you live and know the present.

How Light Carries On Endlessly Even After Death

"With shortness of breath, I'll explain the infinite.

How rare and beautiful it truly is that we exist."

Life is short. You do not realize it as much as you do as in the last days you are given. Then comes the day when all the days you have had become a treasure. You look back because the future is no more. Your days ahead are fleeting and the days behind creep in. Memories surge in your mind like the waves on that summer day when you talked to the person you loved and told them how much you truly loved them. Life seemed endless that day. And you ended up having children and children of those children. How did it come to this? 

The universe was made as if to be seen by my eyes. Yet it was only by your choice. How could I ever be grateful enough for that fleeting chance in your life? When you met your love and the choice you took in loving him? That moment you said yes to him echoed through time. That moment you loved each other.

 Life is so beautiful, for life gives upon life. Your love was like a seed and you bore fruit that grew into other trees. But now it's hard to look in your eyes and see the pain. I can see that you do not look ahead. Fear is in you. I tried to write it down, but I could never find a pen. Your story is yours to take with you. And I can only look here with shortness of breath.

 I'm struck by the beauty of life and how rare and beautiful it is that we exist. How light carries on endlessly even after death. 

The Nomads

This is our story. It is not a happy story but it is filled with hope. For mountains are climbed not with successes but with struggles.

We are a nomadic people. Two thousand years ago planet Earth was at the brink of annihilation. The cause; human beings. Our race polluted the lands and killed the Earth on which we lived. Blindly we trenched through our denial until the Earth could take no more. Be careful. Do not assume that we were ignorant. We were far from ignorant, we were smart and cunning, and we held enough knowledge to overcome any obstacle we wished to overcome, but we failed. Pride was our downfall. 

We denied our mistakes and the faults in our deeds were masked by a pride held towards our intelligence. We thought that we were infallible, that our technology was all we required. We did not see further than the ridge over our noses. The machinery we built made us comfortable and unnecessarily lazy. Then came long life and the children of our children lived to a ripe age that only a tree might live to. Yet, when those same men grew to a thousand years or two of that, there were not trees to call brothers in death. For the trees had gone, and the skies had darkened. We had polluted the Earth with chemicals and killed all the trees for land. Our eyes forgot what the colour green might look like.

So we had to flee. Our blindness caused too much harm to the land. Our denial kept us from realizing it. The Black Mist took over the world like the night takes over the day. We built one hundred ships, all grand and beautiful, for what else could we build to show off the strength and prowess of our intellect? The ships were ovulate shaped and housed two thousand man and three thousand females. In their core lay dormitories and factories. On the outskirts lay water farms in which food was grown. The solar sails which were deployed once in orbit dwarfed even the size of the same ships to which they were attached. 

And so one hundred self-reliant vessels, each like a planet from which they fled, left for uncharted territories. The people on the ships were hand picked by the ten most powerful countries. Each ship had people of mixed races to preserve genetic diversity, but each was ruled by a dominant sovereignty. And each ship was to sail towards a star far away from our own. These stars had what was thought to be rocky planets like our own. But we were not sure. No one really knew if the planets which orbited these far flung stars had hospitable soil upon which to land. 

Yet, we left. For the children of our children's children might one day dream to live on solid ground we hoped. We left like nomads to a new land. And for thousands of years we lived on egg-like ships in the darkness of space dragged by solar winds on the sails of our vessels. We would never see each other again. Harder still was to know that we would never see our Home, or so we thought. 

For my ship arrived at CS1B six generations ago and there they found no land soft enough for walking. The scorched planets ran fast close around the star, and the giants slowly circled on the edges of their sun lit orbits. And this was a blow to the hearts of my fathers. My people cried for years in agony of their futile voyage. Then came the day when the Greater Being amongst us said a word, and we left CS1B and sailed back. We sailed back Home. For where else would we go?

This is the story of my fathers and the story of my people. We are nomads. And we have come back to reclaim our homeland.


Signed,
The Greater Being 

Virelda and the Greater Being

"What are you but like a plague upon this land? You are leeches to this world. Vermin that feeds upon the Earth without giving back to it all which it deserves", he frowned and looked deeply in her eyes.

"I pity the day we decided to return to this planet. I thought, but mostly hoped, that five hundred years would change the pitiful  human race. That in five hundred years you would realize where you stumbled and that you would rise from the dirt in which you lay. But I was wrong". He stopped and turned his face slowly away from Virelda. His shoulders dropped downwards as if all the hope that supported him had now vanished.

"The Black Mist is a mistake of my forefathers and not my own", said Virelda. She struggled to think what to say in return and her emotions took over.

"Why are you so despiteful of our people?", she yelled, "We do not deserve names and insult from you!" Virelda stopped and cleared a tear rolling down her cheek. 

"Aren't you the ones to have abandoned this land when all seemed lost?", she continued while crying, "aren't you the same people that almost destroyed our lands? What gives you the right to say that we are pitiful, when all I see in your eyes is that same pity?". 

The greater being now turned back to her. He moved closer to Virelda and pulled up his hand to put on her shoulder. Virelda was not looking towards him, but from the edges of her eyes she could see him. She thought he had repented, and that the arm he moved was to comfort her crying. But the greater being did not pat her on the shoulder. He lifted his arm to her neck and pulled tight around her throat as if to choke her.

Virelda gasped for air. The greater being lifted her up from the ground from her neck. The ease with which he did this resounded through Virelda's oxygen deprived brain. If these beings held such strength, there is not much hope for the safety of my people, she thought. 

The greater being grunted some words over his shoulder to the lesser ones and then turned to Virelda. The lesser ones walked away with a fast pace. 

"It is to be said that the only ones that shall live are those that can survive the harsh truth of life and this Universe. It is only the strong that live and endure. And the weak shall perish amongst the worms of the Earth". 

Virelda was now desperately twitching her body from side to side trying to grasp for air. 

What a fool I am. To hope that these men from the skies would listen. Reckless. That is what Kripp used to tell me, Virelda thought as she struggled.

Kripp. The name echoed through Virelda like the bellowing sound of the ships that came from the heavens.

Kripp would never give up so easily. Then she remembered. From her pocket she slid out the silver charm he had given her back at the Forgotten Inn. 'Sharp like the wind', he had told her, 'and sharp like your tongue'.

She punctured the silver knife through the great being's arm without hesitation. Blue blood came gushing out. He screamed with pain and dropped Virelda to the floor. The lesser beings heard his calls and Virelda could see them rushing towards her from two fields of dirt away.

"Wake up, hurry!", someone whispered in her ear. Virelda felt a clutch of fingers drag her up from her feet. And then they were gone. Like the wind, as far away and as fast as her feet could take her. Far from the greater being that now swore in unheard tones to his lessers.

All Pinocchios Can Turn To Flesh

Why should we feel scared to talk about religion, when religion is not scared to talk about itself? I do not honestly think that we are scared. Rather, we are indifferent towards people who are religious. Because there is a difference between a man who was born without religion and the man who has lost it. And I dare to also say that the word 'lost' does not fit in this sentence.

For a man does not lose his religion, but willingly neglects it or pushes it away from him. Some neglect religion due to their lack of passion for life. A passion for being active in society or the passion to think about the world and wonder about what there is or might not be in the universe. But others neglect religion for they have come full circle and realized its insignificance.

These people become indifferent towards religious people and their fear mongering because they had previously been part of it, and have now been liberated from its shackles. They are not afraid of speaking out against religion but still do not do so because they know that it is futile to release a tiger that has been caged for its life expecting it to go back into the wild and reclaim its lost splendour. What we can do is to help those who are puppets to religion to realize what they are; toys controlled with strings. Eventually, all Pinocchios can turn to flesh.

To all religious people I ask, what is it in your sacrifice that has value for yourself or the soul that you tirelessly work to save from damnation? Is not eating chocolate preventing you from going to hell? What about the cigarette you smoke every day that is slowly killing your lungs? What about the words you have said that shuddered someone the other day to the point to make them cry?

Do not sacrifice material objects, your body or your time for show or recognition. You do not need to prove to your god that you are worthy by going to church every Sunday. No perfect god would request such a travesty, for you to donate for more buildings to be built in his name. No perfect god would ever ask material things. A true god would ask you to love and live and nothing else. Anything else which is beyond living a happy life is a travesty. A lie created by the religious to control you.

And if you come to the point that you ask whether god actually exists or not, do not succumb to fear or to doubt of yourself. Whether a god exists or not, what is important is for you to be good to yourself and others. Praying for a person will not heal him. Talking to that person and visiting him on his death bed will do much more than prayers.

Miracles do not happen because life itself is a miracle. A very small chance has befallen us. Such small is this chance, that you may call it a miracle. Anything that is tragic in life is incomprehensibly small in value compared to the small chance of being alive, so do not pretend to have a miracle happen when you are grieving for a beloved one. Do not ask your god for a miracle for anything you would wish, for why should you be asking anything more than you already have? Isn't the possibility that has befallen you to live, for 80 years or 20 years or two weeks, enough to attest to this beautiful miracle of nature?

There are many fallacies associated with religion that you can only comprehend when you are released from its shackles. There are also very few people who exit these shackles with the help of other people, because most of the people who neglect the religion with which they were born, do it on their own.

And they do not fear religion, nor do they have to. They only look with indifference as the puppets march in costume in front of statues built from the money, sweat and time sacrificed to their god.

Fishing for Salmon

I remember fishing for salmon in the frigid valleys of the Howling Fjord. The blistering cold battered the dragon which I rode, soaring high up into the sky, scoping for schools of fish. The coniferous trees and northern lights kept me company, but what really captivated my imagination was a melody that emanated in the background.

I might have not fished icy waters in skin and bone, but I have done so in an open world game. I did so, sometimes for hours on end, because it was the way I had devised to gain in game currency. And although there was a multitude of other means to gain my virtual living, I found myself coming back to this imaginary place to fish for salmon. over and over again.

Almost five years have passed since I set foot in that wondrous realm and most of what I had done there has no real value to what I am doing now. Yet, I reminisce of the Fjord and other places. I do not remember specific details of events or in game goals which I achieved. Rather, I remember the friends I made and most importantly, the experience of living in a fantasy world. I had the chance to be a child again, and the music which surrounded this world made it even more special.

What I remember are not the exact reasons for which I fished for salmon, but the feeling of wonder I got while doing so. The eagles and trees, and the rivers of Grizzly Hills are reborn in my mind as I am taken back by the flute of the music masterpiece that I heard everyday I ventured into that area of that virtual world. It is rather like seeing a familiar face long forgotten, or to smell the scent of flowers that once grew in your garden.

We usually strive to experience and remember too much of the world, even of our own, that we forget about the sea of smells, sounds and feelings that drench our minds. Sometimes we try to describe these experiences but fail to realise that we are only searching for one facet of that memory.

Experiences; be it new places we visit or people we meet, events we are part of or a chance encounter with something extraordinary must be, in the true sense of the word, experienced by all our senses. It is much more pleasing to recall the emotions I felt in the Howling Fjord than to look back at a picture of that place.

So next time you go to a concert or are talking to a friend, stop trying to take pictures or looking at your devices. Look at the eyes of your friend and hear the beautiful tones that dance in front you. Start watching a movie expecting nothing and having read nothing about it and it will become a part of you.

To live in awe does not come easily. Mastering the art of truly becoming part of your experiences and actually living the moment is an ongoing struggle.

A struggle which is worth pursuing.

The Days I Have In Which I'm Dying

I have realized an inescapable truth today.

That I am dying, slowly but surely.

And every minute I waste of my life my body decays.

I just realized that everyone is dying.

And unless we are real to each other

We will keep dying and never live.

So while I die I want to be real with myself.

I will tell those that I love that I love them.

And those that I despise that I despise them.

I will cry when saddened and jump with joy,

When rejoicing, I will smile and I will frown.

For I see the days ahead of me vanishing slowly

But I also see the days that vanished behind me.

And in them are days when I am dead already.

When the flame is thin and suffocated.

I see that there were days of mere-existence.

When I slept and sat and waited.

But those shall not be the days remaining.

For what are we without passion for life?

Sing a song and play a tune for me.

And dance in beauty of the days that are unfolding.

Information

Life, the universe and everything in it is information. Information is the smallest product of everything there is. It can describe physical matter and actions, events and ideas.

Imagine a leaf. One can look at this leaf and describe it briefly to a friend. The leaf is green, it has veins, and it is succulent. These three pieces of information can be used by most of us to create a rough picture of the leaf in our brains. Then we look further. We can see how the colour of the leaf is different on the underside. This can be broken down into two pieces of information: the backside of the leaf has a different colour and the backside of the leaf is a darker green. 

We can then explain the shape and how the veins are spread. Looking with a microscope, we can describe the cells within it, and in turn how these are shaped and distributed. Going further in our quest to know more information, we can look at the leaf's history and learn to which tree it belongs. We can try and learn how old it is, from its rate of decay, and who or what made it fall off the tree. 

Every piece of information we obtain about this one little leaf is not equivalent to the information we can obtain for a similar leaf from the same tree. Now imagine that the tree has thousands of leaves and that there are thousands of trees in this patch of land. Our tiny human brains could never manage to obtain all of the information stored within a single leaf, far less within a whole garden. 

Yet, the information is there, stored in every material object and in every action or happening. For the universe, the past and present are indifferent for they are part of this information. For us it may seem that to know how that single leaf fell from the tree is rather impossible. And we might try to guess what would happen to the leaf with time, but it is beyond our capabilities to keep track of what happens to all the leaves in the garden. For the universe, what happened or what will happen to the leaf are only part of the matrix of information encoded within its space-time continuum. 

It could be possible, therefore, that if we manage to find what links the past and the future with the present, we could obtain information from either that which has already happened or from what shall still come.

It is fairly easy to understand how one can learn of the past. We cannot observe it directly, but we can obtain information from it through other means. We can observe the change in this information. See how the leaf decays and calculate backwards the time it took for it to do so. This of course, will always be an assumption, for how can we know that a decayed leaf we picked up has decayed with time similarly to all the other leaves? For all we know, a leaf might have fallen from a tree and instantly decayed without us ever observing it. 

To obtain information from the future is another thing all together. To know what can happen in the future, one needs to know all possible outcomes of all possible choices that happen. We need to break down every event that occurs into two choices, either a or b.

When we pick up the leaf, we can either put it back on the floor, or take it home with us. When we pick up the leaf, we can either break it in half or keep it intact. These four scenarios are all equivalent possible future timelines for one event; picking up the leaf. Yet all of them exist at the same time in the present and any one of them can unfold into reality as we manifest our choice. 

We can therefore say that the future already exists, and all the possible choices we can ever make are already laid down before us. The future, much like the past, is therefore information within the universe.

As human beings, we have been given the chance to obtain and assimilate an unimaginably small proportion of all the information stored in the universe. It is of course unnecessary to know all information within the universe, and that is why we dedicate our lives to learning about the largest questions that concern us; how can we survive? how do things grow or work the way they do? 

We do not waste much time in understanding the intricate patterns in nature that are fundamentally engraved within the fabric of the universe. This detaches us from the reality of life; that we, and everything around us are simply a matrix of information.

This is My Will

This is my will.

If tomorrow you wake up and I am not with you, do not cry for me.

My death is not a loss and you will gain nothing from crying. Rather, think of all the good memories I have left behind. Think of all the struggles I surmounted, of all the tears I have shed. Think of all the smiles and laughter and of all the people I came to know. Their is nothing to gain from crying a lost soul. I find that rather selfish, for what are you crying for, except for your own loss of not having the benefit of living with that person any more? I hope I was not a burden in your life, but if I was then my apologies. If I made you happy, then there is no sense in crying to the lack of that happiness that I will not be able to provide. For if I die, I will not suffer but I don't want you to suffer still. To you, who shall cry, I do not owe you anything to cry for.

We are made like this. We are made to die. Be it tomorrow or today, or in fifty years, our end is inevitable. However, it is the journey we take to the end that defines us. I find it rather beautiful to not believe in heaven or hell, because that makes our only life more precious. We have to live in this reality; a miracle of nature - the chance we have been given to live is beyond any other thought of an afterlife. We are very lucky indeed, to even exist in the first place, so whatever actions we take, must be in respect to this slight possibility which has befallen us.

My will contains no material belongings. For what are they but like the dust my bones shall turn into? Everything in this world belongs to us, yet it doesn't. Death comes quick and sudden only for those who fear it. For those that welcome it, death is just another path. It is a reminder of our lives. You shall only fear death if you regret the route in the life you have taken. Only if you spent your life thinking there is another chance to be redeemed in the after life, or serving the needs of your church, shackled by the ideas that imprison you for the promise of freedom after death. Do not succumb to these fallacies. Live your life free and unbound. Kiss the sunlit stone on which your life threads and the people with whom you share it.

To live life you must be true to yourself and others. Your successes and failures are irrelevant when based on lies. Truth can be the only path to freedom, honesty the only measure with which you scale your friendships and your life. Then you must also be kind. This is the hardest to do, for it is in our nature to fight. We are constantly faced by struggles that test our discipline in maintaining an integrity of kindness. If you can be kind and humble in what you do and give to others, the world is yours. Not because it owes you, but because you have planted it with seeds of a tree that will bear fruit ripe for eating. You may not see the blossom on the tree, or even the budding of the seed before you die, but know this; that with your death it is not only one tree that will grow but an orchard, that will flourish on your grave.

With the passing of time, the grave in which my body lies will rot away and so will the memory of myself in you. But is it so wrong to be forgotten? Is it so wrong to carry on with your lives knowing that a person you knew has faded away? It is never wrong to be forgotten, because what is life if you live in ponder and anguish of the dead? What I have given you in life shall remain not in your memories but in your actions. To be true, to be kind. To love each other and this world, for it is the only thing we have and the only place that sustains life and this beautiful essence of nature; to live and then die, so that others may live yet again.

This is my will to you; much more a testament of my life than a testament to my death.
I do not want anything for I have no need for want any more.
But if you want and need anything from me, let it be life that you want and not the dust of this world.

What is Love and Happiness? - Part 2: Happiness

We are born knowing nothing of this world. Babies cradled by their mothers, but fathered by their societies. As we grow up we are battered by this society, shaped and moulded into a doctrine of sorts, an ideal human being.

Although, we are far from ideal. What we are raised to give to society is a necessity for survival imposed by the same society. We are educated, in many ways; enforced to learn, so that we might serve society, and be independent when we grow up. But what is really fundamental for our existence? What is important in society for it to flourish?

What a human being really wants as it grows up depends on what it was taught to desire. Society is an emergent property of a population containing different ideologies and moral values. However, its aim is to have control over the population and maintain peace within it. Without order, there would be no society or stable population. Thus, the only stable population that has managed to exist for so long, is in fact the society that we see today. It might change with time, such as creatures change with time, so does society evolve to adapt to different needs.

Human nature has always been societal. This is seen in social behaviour of primates, where they live in hierarchies. We thus tend to live in such social structures because we have evolved to do so. Without social groups, early primates would have never evolved and became human beings. It is in groups that language, religion, politics, music, agriculture and so much other fundamental aspects of human life developed.

Today, we are born in a society that imposes us to learn the accumulated knowledge of two thousand years of human history. Even though the bare minimum for existence is food, water and shelter, our needs have escalated drastically to accommodate the needs of our society. We as humans work for the society such that it can provide us with our individual needs; food, water, shelter, entertainment.

But what real values do the needs of the society have? If we place a hypothetical human in a cottage far flung into the wilderness and give him all the knowledge necessary to survive indefinitely on his own, would he live his entire life around the cottage; hunting, gathering and maintaining his household? Or will he venture to seek the societal life? Naturally, humans tend to want to live in groups, so he would probably venture from his home and become nomadic. The nomadic life has been what made humans so successful. For it enabled us to conquer the four corners of the Earth. But travelling is not just to seek other human contact, but also because of the need to avoid it.

When the social group becomes vastly large, and resources are limited, the group will split. In our modern times, societies are over-exceedingly large but resources are not limited, in a sense. The limiting resource of today would be work, for with work we can provide ourselves with the resources necessary for life; food, water and shelter. So why do we still feel like wanting to split from our social group?

This all boils down to what makes human beings happy. Happiness is an emotion expressed by not just human beings. Advanced, quasi-concious or concious animals demonstrate happiness in many forms. Chimpanzees will laugh when playing and smile like humans. Dolphins and whales will sing and swim around each other and jump out of the water. Dogs will waggle their tails and bark when presented with food or when they see their owners.

But what really is happiness? We might define it as our 'needs catered for'. We are happy when we have food to eat every day. We are happy when we have a home to go to. We are happy when we have a mate to sleep and live with. These are all natural needs closely entwined within our evolutionary history.

So is the modern human being happy within his society? To answer this question, we cannot take one human being as an example. There are different cases and castes within our society. But if we take a hypothetical human that has a work that is enough for him to live independently and be self-sufficient, that is, he can cater for food, water and shelter, then would this human be happy?

Presumably, the human would tend to want to find a mate and live with him/her. This is a natural instinct, and accepted. To live as two, requires both partners to either be self-sufficient, or one of them can provide for the other.  Then again, if this criteria is met, will they be happy?

The couple would have grown up to want technology, things to amuse itself with. It would want material objects to fulfil its lust for wanting more. But why would this be so? Naturally, animals would spend most of their time hunting for food. In humans, food, water and shelter have become so easily obtainable, that a lot of our waking hours are empty. What this means is that we have a lot of free time to do whatever we want.

In the past, the human beings with access to freely available food, water and shelter, made available through agriculture, used their time to develop our society. They had time to invent mathematics, this was used for so many things. They had time to invent philosophy, religion and politics. With these, the satiated humans could control their ever growing population and maintain a group fit enough for survival.

With time the knowledge base of humans increased because they had the time to study their surrounding, this became known as science. Humans invented ways to entertain and spend their free time. They created games, social events, music. Communication was important, and even though it was developed early on in music, this grew over the years. Instead of communication, music and writing - such as in books and stories - became a way to entertain their group and feel connected with one another.

Nowadays, these complex emergent properties of the social group and the consequence of the abundance of resources necessary for physical growth, created a complex society in which many aspects, seen from an outside perspective, make no sense in the survival of the group and individuals themselves.

Our hypothetical human from the beginning, would live a 'happy' life alone or with a mate in a cottage in the wilderness, but the majority of humans today are born in a system which does not allow the chance to do so. However, without such social system, the number of human beings would have never been this large, and the chances of mental development haltered by the lack of resources.

As such, our imprisonment in society is a direct consequence of our same freedom to learn and develop methods to sustain ourselves. At some point in the past, the intelligent humans outsourced themselves and cascaded into a developmental vortex of the individual and the social that would eventually result in our modern society. Our society would not exist, and neither would we, if it wasn't the way it was. It is a consequence of how our ancestors evolved to best survive their environment.

There are, however, ways and means to counter our apparent societal bind. Firstly, we must learn the limits within which we are born to live in. Only then can we surmount personal struggles, like the search for self-freedom and happiness. When we can clearly see our place in the society we are born in, we can find hidden tracks and secrets to fulfil ourselves.

Be it walking in a valley and looking at flowers or cuddling your pet dog, or reminiscing about the past with your grandfather or having fun with your friends, these are some of the social aspects which make us happy and which we tend to forget most about. It is our duty to fill the free time given to us in ways to enrich ourselves as human beings. To become altruistic and free. Freedom is the chance that has been given to us to live. Freedom is life itself. Our exponential population growth has given the chance for billions of other people to experience life.

Only by living will the baby that knows nothing about the world come into existence. It is only by living that the baby can learn about the flowers of the valley and their colours. Only by living will he be ever able to love and enjoy play.

Society is therefore not a curse, but a consequence of our freedom, and freedom, or life, is a consequence of society. It is in realising this fact that we can truly be happy with the lives we are living.

Virelda and Kripp

In the ruins of Skaipei Virelda could see, but mostly feel, the pain caused by her Mayor's tyranny. The trickles of light that penetrated the black cloud looming overheard were masked by the shadows of the towers sparsed here and there, rooted to the ground between the rubble of abandoned buildings. With each step she took on the rugged land, Virelda could see the soil weep. It leaked a green-tinted substance unlike any she had ever seen, tears of what once was a fertile land now turned to mud and noxious chemicals.

In the distance, a pack of hyenas chuckled and their laughs echoed in the blackened mist. Virelda stopped for a second but Kripp carried on and so she followed. She looked at her companion with wonder. His face was brown and rugged and he appeared as old as her father, even though he was only a boy. His skin was also brown but darker and it was tattooed in all sorts of symbols alien to her. Kripp noticed that she was looking at them.

"They were given to me", he said, "by tribes of the land. Good things I have done, good things they gave me."

Virelda veered her eyes towards his, "they look very strange to me. We are not allowed to have tattoos up in Skyscapes. The mayor says they are dirty and that the Highborne are pure of soul. Therefore we cannot dirty ourselves with such things as tattoos on our bodies."

Kripp tried to conceal his laughter and he turned away from Virelda but she immediately noticed.

"What's so funny about what I've said?", she snapped angrily.

"Nothing I think", replied Kripp still laughing. He now turned back to Virelda.
With effort he continued, "I think that is very stupid of your Mayor, to tell you to do what to do".

Virelda thought for a second then answered, "Well, our Mayor is kind and we obey and love him. Without him we would be living in the dirt like the Moles."

Kripp took a quick step backwards, obviously hurt by what Virelda had just said. He turned away from her and continued his walk to where he had promised to take Virelda.

Stunned by her own words, Virelda hurried behind him and followed.
They did not utter another word until they arrived at the tunnel.

Skyscapes

Virelda looked down from her balcony on the eighty second floor at the black cloud looming below her. Above her, the building scraped the skies for another hundred floors then extended outwards reaching to another tower a hundred metres or so to the side of it. All across the horizon, protruding out of the black cloud were towers, brilliant white or shimmering silver, growing towards the sun. Most of them were connected with bridges and almost all of them had a ceiling that extended outwards to their nearest tower. This was the city she was born and raised in. This was Skyscapes, the city in the skies. 

Two hundred years ago, man had reached a pivotal role in his technological and social development. Technology had permitted the building of even larger skyscrapers then ever before. Able to withstand natural disasters and their own weight, they now defied the clouds and the winds of the skies. An architect had also invented a way to connect skyscrapers with open spaces that seemingly hovered in thin air from one tower to another. The original design was used for a garden and extended a couple of metres. Nowadays, these so called skybridges were built to connect skyscrapers such that no citizen of Skyscapes had to go down to ground zero in order to cross into another tower. So was the beginning of the great rift between the people of Skyscapes and the derelict Moles. 

The Moles were poor mistreated people. Beaten yet resistant, they were slaves to the Skyscape highborne. Over the years, a black cloud had covered the city that was once known as Skaipei. This cloud, a product of pollution and egoism by the hands of the rich of Skaipei infested the lands and the city like a plague. The remaining fields that stretched for kilometres on the outskirts of the city were scorched and poisoned until people started to starve. Water was polluted and undrinkable. The High-mayor of Skaipei had ordered his elite cast to live on the topmost floors of the towers of the city. People were hired to dig underground for resources and to harvest fungi for food. Such was the time when the poorest of the city, the harvesters, became known as the Moles.

In Skaipei technology had permitted the construction of what are called Biotowers, large skyscrapers that are wholly dedicated to planting food. Plants are grown on each floor in inert media without the need for soil. They are grown in artificial light and fertilized with minerals harvested by the Moles. Water is gathered in great Mist-Net towers and channeled to the Biotwers. Over time, the elite of Skaipei became independent and did not require the Moles for their survival. The High-mayor had then ordered the lower floors of the towers to be shut and isolated from the top ones. The black cloud was the boundary which was chosen, and the Moles were forever left to forage in the rotting lands underneath the black cloud. At this time, Skyscape and Virelda were born. 

There was one problem associated with the prosperity of Skyscapes, however. The Highborne could still not build indefinitely upwards, and the spaces between different towers was quickly diminishing. They had to build new towers, and in so doing, they had to make contact with the Moles. Starving, the Moles were hired on cheap labour by the investors of Skyscapes and around two to three towers started showing up through the black cloud each year. 'The city that shines and dances in the wind', was the motto the High-mayor used as propaganda to attract loyalty in his investors and lower ranking supporters. 

The children of the elite were born never to see the land. They were truly the children of the skies. Virelda was one of them. Daughter of a Biotower farmer, she was not one of the highest ranking individuals in this society, yet she was lucky enough to be part of it. On her nineteenth birthday, her father had promised her to show her the mountain view from the topmost floor of the highest building in Skyskapes, the magnificent Cosmotron.

Cosmo, as it was called, was constructed by a family of Highborne known as the 'Space Dwellers'. This family invested and researched ways to prospect precious metals from space rocks, and was famous for building the space elevator between Earth and the Moon around fifty years earlier. Virelda knew, that to get her to Cosmo, her father had tp compromise quite a lot of his budget. Yet, she hoped he would keep his promise, and so he did.