days before they reached Darksteam.
Gibson propped his feet up on a chair. “How much do you know about Neopan?”
Chapter 4
Reho slept little as they crossed the Atlantic. His long conversations with Gibson, although mostly one-way, provided a detailed history lesson of what was common knowledge in Neopan. Most of what Gibson knew, Reho had never heard before.
Reho looked out onto the endless ocean. He activated the mapping system on his AIM. Thousands of miles of ocean surrounded him, the device mapping its topography and recording stats from the atmosphere. As it mapped, it also gave a precise readout of their speed. They had maintained an average of twenty-six knots.
The wind cut through Reho’s clothes and hair as he sat on the boat’s bow. The goggles he’d found in a cabinet in the navigation room protected only his eyes from the salty ocean spray. After an hour, his goose bump-covered skin had gone numb in the bitter ocean wind. Despite the discomfort, Reho felt as though he could stay here forever, lost on its infinite surface.
Maybe this is where he’d been meant to spend his days, lost out here on the ocean and not in the Blastlands. Out here he was unattainable and far way from anyone he would need to hurt—or love. The ocean energized him; its salt rushed through him as he breathed in the briny air.
What Gibson had explained to Reho days ago still occupied his thoughts as he sat, waiting for them to arrive at the port town of Darksteam. He’d avoided the barracks below, the cramped room with its rotted mattress was worse than most places he’d slept out in the Blastlands.
Gibson had described his home community of Neopan. But it was more than a community. He had explained that Neopan was built during the decade after the alien invasion. Humans who had survived the war with the Hegemon had been shown plans for a utopia on Earth and received direction from the Hegemon in building the city. What had once been Tokyo became Neopan—the first and only alien city for humans.
And in a different part of the world, on the southern cape of New Afrika, Omega had been built by the Hegemon without humans and remained that way. Its interior was a mystery, and few had seen its exterior except through satellite pictures. The Hegemon dwelled there. It was assumed that the inside consisted of an environment like their home world. It was in our atmosphere that they had to wear the suits to survive.
Gibson had continued with the history of Neopan. While building Neopan, humans from all over the world had worked together and under the direction of the Hegemon. The advanced machinery and materials that had been used to build the city were unloaded from the alien spaceships. Nothing in its infrastructure had come from the earth. A decade later, Neopan was the free home to humans, with an unspoken agreement to cease all conflicts with the Hegemon. The aliens then retreated to Omega and hadn’t entered Neopan since.
Reho listened in awe as Gibson continued. In Neopan, their history recorded how the surviving humans were willing to build what they believed to be Earth’s first utopia. But the Hegemon hadn’t trusted them to rule themselves. Neopan was governed by Log, an artificial intelligence program that acted as a body of government, controlling all city services as it ceaselessly surveyed the city for anything that deviated from its laws. When crimes were committed, Log would search available surveillance and make rulings based solely on the evidence found.
Log had given the people of Neopan something they had lost after a year of war with the Hegemon: peace and a future. And Arcade.
Gibson had a difficult time describing Arcade to Reho.
“You just have to experience it!” he repeatedly said.
After an hour, Reho had constructed a version of Arcade that seemed too strange to be true. Despite his inability to reference it with anything he had ever experienced in Usona, he took away three main concepts of
Gibson propped his feet up on a chair. “How much do you know about Neopan?”
Chapter 4
Reho slept little as they crossed the Atlantic. His long conversations with Gibson, although mostly one-way, provided a detailed history lesson of what was common knowledge in Neopan. Most of what Gibson knew, Reho had never heard before.
Reho looked out onto the endless ocean. He activated the mapping system on his AIM. Thousands of miles of ocean surrounded him, the device mapping its topography and recording stats from the atmosphere. As it mapped, it also gave a precise readout of their speed. They had maintained an average of twenty-six knots.
The wind cut through Reho’s clothes and hair as he sat on the boat’s bow. The goggles he’d found in a cabinet in the navigation room protected only his eyes from the salty ocean spray. After an hour, his goose bump-covered skin had gone numb in the bitter ocean wind. Despite the discomfort, Reho felt as though he could stay here forever, lost on its infinite surface.
Maybe this is where he’d been meant to spend his days, lost out here on the ocean and not in the Blastlands. Out here he was unattainable and far way from anyone he would need to hurt—or love. The ocean energized him; its salt rushed through him as he breathed in the briny air.
What Gibson had explained to Reho days ago still occupied his thoughts as he sat, waiting for them to arrive at the port town of Darksteam. He’d avoided the barracks below, the cramped room with its rotted mattress was worse than most places he’d slept out in the Blastlands.
Gibson had described his home community of Neopan. But it was more than a community. He had explained that Neopan was built during the decade after the alien invasion. Humans who had survived the war with the Hegemon had been shown plans for a utopia on Earth and received direction from the Hegemon in building the city. What had once been Tokyo became Neopan—the first and only alien city for humans.
And in a different part of the world, on the southern cape of New Afrika, Omega had been built by the Hegemon without humans and remained that way. Its interior was a mystery, and few had seen its exterior except through satellite pictures. The Hegemon dwelled there. It was assumed that the inside consisted of an environment like their home world. It was in our atmosphere that they had to wear the suits to survive.
Gibson had continued with the history of Neopan. While building Neopan, humans from all over the world had worked together and under the direction of the Hegemon. The advanced machinery and materials that had been used to build the city were unloaded from the alien spaceships. Nothing in its infrastructure had come from the earth. A decade later, Neopan was the free home to humans, with an unspoken agreement to cease all conflicts with the Hegemon. The aliens then retreated to Omega and hadn’t entered Neopan since.
Reho listened in awe as Gibson continued. In Neopan, their history recorded how the surviving humans were willing to build what they believed to be Earth’s first utopia. But the Hegemon hadn’t trusted them to rule themselves. Neopan was governed by Log, an artificial intelligence program that acted as a body of government, controlling all city services as it ceaselessly surveyed the city for anything that deviated from its laws. When crimes were committed, Log would search available surveillance and make rulings based solely on the evidence found.
Log had given the people of Neopan something they had lost after a year of war with the Hegemon: peace and a future. And Arcade.
Gibson had a difficult time describing Arcade to Reho.
“You just have to experience it!” he repeatedly said.
After an hour, Reho had constructed a version of Arcade that seemed too strange to be true. Despite his inability to reference it with anything he had ever experienced in Usona, he took away three main concepts of
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