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Chapter One It had to be the dust. The way, no matter what time of day or night, it was in the air. The way it clung to everything, covering all with a snow like characteristic. It was no wonder he couldn’t breathe half of the time. It was no wonder that most had taken to a life inside the complex rather than outside of it. The filtration system was partly his design. Made to not only separate this wind blown matter from the air, but also to pull the harmful fumes from inside the complex out here. Here, what was left of it at least. What used to be a thriving civilization spanning from all corners of the earth, now existed in these desert bubbles. Once the rain had given life to this soil, but after in what seemed like an overnight event, it had taken away almost all life. Scientists had warned that pollution levels were rising too fast for the atmosphere to be able to keep up. But like most scientists warning, this was considered to be the view of a few paranoid doctors and scientists. These things they warned of would never happen in our lifetime nor would they happen to our children’s children. We had been wrong. The rain had so much acid in it that it ‘burned’ our farmland, poisoned our seas, and driven human kind to what stood before him. A desert bubble. Fortunately his children were too young to remember the chaos or the sad vision of a world crumbling. More people died than made it to these structures, he was sure of that. He had lost friends and other family members amongst the flood to safety. Some he was sure probably made it to other bubbles, others he was convinced did not. But the loss of life hadn’t ended there. These bubbles were built in such haste that they hadn’t truly been able to support the mass of people they were designed for. The water supply had run out within months with no clean rainfall. And the aqua engineers couldn’t process the dirty water fast enough. Then had come the problem of food production. People were accustomed to eating food that had tasted great, looked great, and was diverse. But now they lived off of a mixture that contained enough protein and nutrients to keep them alive. It didn’t taste very much actually, almost like water with the texture of oatmeal. But it was something they could produce in such high quantities using the nutrients from the scorched earth as well as that from the human population. That was an idea he had never felt well about. There were very few who actually knew what was involved in making the food mixture. Unfortunately he was one of them. If the people knew that their own waste and the remains of their deceased were used to provide them with nutrition, there would be a mass uprising. People tended to be more worried with moral issues than that of surviving. That was why it would not be revealed to the general population. As he placed the aluminum cover back on the main filtration inlet, he noticed a large dust cloud on the horizon. It never failed that once he would get the air system back up and running, that the earth would do it’s best to shut it down again. But he had learned that the refrigeration system was what seemed to be over heating. He would shut it off until the storm passed and see if the rest of the circulation system would continue to operate. It was almost nightfall and the hot desert temperatures would give way to subfreezing temperatures. But he had decided that wiping frost off the electric components was by far easier than dismantling half of the system to sweep out the never ending supply of dirt. With his duties done for the day he made his way back towards the airlock that served as the main entrance to the bubble. When the outer door sealed he started the tasks of removing the heavy coveralls he wore as well as the respiration mask. His ears popped with the normal change in air pressure before being sprayed with a cloud of disinfectant. There were those who believed that with the change in the earth’s climate that certain viruses would thrive as a result. So the decontamination had become an everyday part of leaving and re-entering the bubble. Once the main doors opened he was greeted with a site that he remembered amazed him the first time he saw it. In front of him was basically a city inside of a city. The bubble itself was actually made up of several buildings, each with certain departments or areas in each. This main building was that used for housing as well as commerce. As he walked down the narrow corridors he passed apartment complexes that housed thousands. Each looked very much like the others. In fact it was deemed necessary to have all housing identical in appearance and size, this mainly to keep certain classes of citizens from gaining a higher state of living than the rest. But no matter what steps were taken to stop this from happening, you could see it everywhere. All citizens were required to work some where in the bubble, all earning pretty much the same wage except for the elite doctors, engineers, and other scientific staff. Even with a static wage, methods had evolved for making that money into something far larger. As he rounded the next corner he saw this in action, lines of people waiting to get inside the newly constructed casino. He had heard of people turning their wage into ten times what it is was, but had also heard of them losing everything. It was for these poor citizens that he had contributed his skills to building the cryostore, which he was now passing. The citizens that could not afford state housing were allowed overnight stay in the cryostore. At first this sounded like an excuse to gamble your wage, for even if you lost you still had some place to live. But soon the stories of the cryostore reflected what it really was. It’s sole purpose was to freeze the workers overnight and thaw them the next for work. There were no beds, no luxuries. It opened every evening just before curfew and closed after the beginning of the workday. In essence it was one of the cheapest buildings in the complex to run. As he made his way into the engineering housing complex, he passed many colleges each asking about the status of the air system. He reassured each of them that all was back to operating status. The first thing he noticed upon opening his door was that his message system was flashing. Probably another problem somewhere else. When he opened the first message to read this is what it contained: Dear Doctor, We are most pleased with your new design for the air filtration system. It seems to be providing more air than is currently used which is wonderful! However this is not the reason for this message. As you know we applied for a position in the Hope Corporation some time ago. We are pleased to announce that we have been accepted and have clearance to proceed in building our droid. Please read over the following chassis plans and let us know which you recommend in building. We are naming you the project head for the droid project. Your former job will be assigned to a capable individual. So it had happened finally. His bubble had been approved in a corporation and given clearance to build a droid. He had heard of the droid arena fights some years before. It seemed that a certain few had built the first droids and were fighting them and sponsoring bets. After much debate the Senate had deemed the contests a ‘welcome distraction from day to day life’. They immediately set ground rules for all competitions as well as those governing the corporations. It was a sign that this bubble had made it to the next level. The people would be overjoyed to have a bubble sponsored droid in the arenas, as sure as some were sure to take up residence in the cryostore as a result. He spent the next couple of hours reviewing the plans for the different chassis. Looking for weakness as well as strengths. It would be his decision to make ultimately, his project to run and maintain. Every win would be dedicated to him, every loss blamed on him. He had one of the brightest research teams that had made incredible progress on making some theoretical ideas into reality. But with no droid their ideas could not be tested, until now. He placed several messages to friends and colleges of his, informing them of their new assignment. An assignment that could make their colony great or could ultimately mark the end. It was in his hands now. He had work to do. Written by Colossus (we hope he decides to continue his story)