Somewhere on the Dark Side of the Moon

"So, when we come back to life, what's it going to feel like?"
Maria sighed. A squad of almost 30 soldiers were sitting cross-legged around him like a class of kindergartners. They had no uniform aside from the tattered state of their clothes. The fire illuminated their hungry expressions through the perpetual evening of the Dark Side. The stars were out, and beautiful. Under their blanket, groups of tents representing The War-God's mercenary army swayed in the bitter wind. Many of these men hadn't known normal life for over four years, living off tribute from the small farms nearby.

Officer Vega was having a difficult time. When the revolutionaries had stormed her family estate she had been traveling through North Africa as a student. Her attempts to find any trace of them had been a frustrating waste of the years. The end of the Tsar's reign had taken from her a life as a member of court. All she had now was her trade. The hulking thrall that loomed behind her was proof of that. And today, she had been attached to a squadron of the Baron's finest infantrymen. Or so he had said. They didn't look like soldiers worth bringing back from the grave to keep up the fight.

"You won't feel anything." She said. This did not seem to calm anyone down.

A round-faced boy with a mouth like a perfect O pointed at the Revenant who was presently staring at the sky. "We're gonna look like that?

She sighed again. "No, you will not look like Boris. In life, Boris was a Bear."

There was a general murmur of understanding at this. The silence that followed was absolute. Boris turned to the flames with glassy, unblinking eyes. The Baron had told her these men would be proud to be so valued, but she doubted he would care about their concern. Soon, they would be laying siege to the walled city of Daedalus. Their first attack had been a shambles, even though the shamans had declared the date auspicious. They had burned the whole supply of wood, making 3 campfires for every soldier. They must look terrifying in the dark.

Castle Mechta Barracks, 2060

The bulbous heads of lunar children poked over the walls surrounding the training fields for the Royal Guard of the Crown. This clear breach of security was overlooked as a matter of tradition. When the harvest was done for the day in the surrounding eternal summer young boys deeply comitted to the prospect of causing as much trouble as possible want to make sure they are playing soldier correctly.

In their eyes the men who marched and performed combat exercizes were not real. The halls of the Castle Mechta were lined with myths wrapped in royal dress. Many of the boys who watched were already a full head taller than these guardsmen, but they seemed to occupy so much space. They had all heard tale of criminals in far off places who were unable even to pierce the skin of these monsterous men.

Combat drills were their favorite. Unarmed or armed with clubs they struck each other hard enough to careen across the field. They swung weighted sticks that no mere man could lift, and bounded yards at a time to fall upon their prey. Surely, the weakest among them could break the strongest man from the moon in half without so much as a thought.

Kojo Pierce, translucent shield in hand, was batting away his sparring partner. He was told that one of his fellow guardsmen was as strong as six to ten enraged lunar rioters. Not that he would have to worry about that at the castle. Life was good, if dull, and he had to go out of his way to keep his mind alive during the long hours of standing at attention in front of the gates.

Oddly, he'd been promoted after proving an able marksman on the Wall, protecting the vast network of steam engine trains which rode in and out from under the castle crater. It was gruelling under the constant sun, but he'd learned quick to lead a target and shoot to wound. As a reward for his quality work, he'd been promoted to stand still for long hours and never have to touch a rifle again.

The club wrapped in fome struck him in the chest, knocking him back about 5 meters as he struggled to right himself and catch his breath. he landed inelegantly, was unable to stop the backward momentum, and skipped like a rock on a still pond before planting his shield and feet into the dirt. That had been happening a lot, lately. Losing sight of his surroundings.

Kujo looked up at the young terrors watching them on the distant wall, and envied them their inisght.

Somewhere near Crater Pasteur, 2060

The crooked wings of the owl circling the smoldering ruin of the eternal night's campfire campfire maintained the hush over a small bandit camp. Arthur took off his glasses and peered disapprovingly at the engine before him, grotesquely splayed on the warm tundra. He seemed distinctly out of place, standing straight and proper with a panama hat on his sandy, sunbleached hair. Surrounded by mongrel men in leathers and chains and armed with hand-me-down arms and armor he scrutinized every detail of the craftsmanship at hand.

Clutching a spanner as if to rend it in half, The mechanic Henricks just wished the feared Warboss Arthur Pendrake would start yelling and be done with this infernal waiting. That was the worst thing about riding with Pendrake. When things were good the plains were yours. Even the mad ones, darksiders who ran whooping and blind across the plains, ran off in fear of Pendrake's Knights and their rumbling trucks and bikes.

Arthur returned his glasses, which wrapped around his face and illuminated the darkness in shades of green. From this view, all of his boys had glowing eyes, staring at him like cats in the night, waiting for his decision. He had ordered a Flagship built and a Flagship he now had, the underappreciated genius Hendricks must have sewn and sundered four looted royal caravans. What stood before him was a fortress on wheels - spotlights in all directions and rifleholes scattered throughout the lower and upper decks. The massive engine block countered by the gattlin' gun 'round back. He counted eight tires. He couldn't count the spikes.

What an awful machine. He cleared his throat.

"Henricks, what do you call her?"

Cherrie, was the meek reply, to the warming laughter of the boys circled around their ever loving boss and his pet grease monkey. The tension had broken. No one was going to be shot.

"Cherrie. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl." He slid his hands along an ugly spike laced with rust, "I'd love to see her in makeup. What do you boys say we ride into town and pick up a lick of red paint?"

There was a roar of cheers and engines as bands of boys leapt into trucks and hollared for blood. It was always a good time when they went over into the light side.

2060, Castle Mectha, Copernicus City

The firm clip of the marchioness' heels echoed up the duststone walls of the spiral staircase. Even through the myriad stained glass windows the shock of autumnal leaves from the royal forest reminded her that there were matters to attend to at home. She had been saddled with the responsibility for her people beyond the sea of tranquility, and her life as courtesan would have to come to a close.

Her husband had died, and the Archduke of Luna had inited her to the Royal Aviary.

The wisp of a boy who had brought the message as she had sent the last of her husbands things to be shipped and unpacked before her arrival had offered no explanation before turning neatly and marching away. She had allowed herself only a sip of red wine for courage lest she keep his excellency waiting. Her face untouched by makeup and dressed for travel rather than an audience, she did not hover before the glass double doors. As soon as they had clicked shut she exited the cage and into the wirecrossed dome at the height of Castle Mectha.

The Archduke stood, book in hand, staring at the upper crescent of Earth. The molten landscape, indistinguishable from its leaden seas, lit up with constellations of tiny white flashes. She had learned long ago not to comment on the beauty of such distant explosions of light and smoke in front of the earthborne. The men grow quiet and distant, and women cry for no reason. The Archduke Turned.

Like all men from Earth he was short, barely over a meter and a half tall. Earth was a savage place, she had learned from a young age, where even the size of the planet itself drags you down. From such an upbringing, it is not surprising that one grow up short, inelegant and impossibly strong.

"Nino," the informality struck her, "Your husband was a good friend to the Crown." The depth of his voice gave weight to his suddenly personal tone. "And I'm sorry he spent we spent our lives as enemies."

At this, even the birds ceased to sing.

"His lands, now yours, are far beyond the Sea of Tranquility. Far from Mectha and its comforts. Plagued by bandits. I have no business there and even if I did, my guard would deny you my presense. It is a hiding place for rebels and saboteurs, like all places. Unlike all places, it is known as such."

As the duke ceased to speak, Marchioness Nino Tamar of the Crater Taruntius swallowed her rage. Baseless accusations which had plagued her late husband until his death. He, a petty noble, held dominion over the lands which ran through her family, in her blood and through her veins. From the shores of the Seas of Tranquility and Fertility to the south and the Sea of Crisis to the north, traders from the dark side came to her ports and hid in her firmicus mountains. It was her navies, not the crowns, which kept pirates at bay. Her soldiers that kept what little peace that could be had. And their reward for this service? The chance to beg for funds and men enough to continue the labor.

Her husband had been a lot of things - soft in the head first and foremost. Her soldiers were caked in grime and vulgar. Her traders were dishonest and farms and businesses corrupt. Crown Taxmen were chased away by ugly mobs, and caravans were beset by bandits. Her estates were hardly fit to recieve the Earl of Lawrence or DaVinchi - even the Baron of Watts had complained.

But they were not traitors, and to hear the accusation coming not from the whispers bored courtiers trying to stir up trouble but from His Excellency Archduke Regolith Peter Constantine Zond broke her heart and blinded her with rage. She concealed both with a glance to a fat and happy raven perched on the spindly branches above.

"Until we are sure about the circumstances of the late Marquis' death, I must assume the worst. Protocol demands I extend a member of my Royal Guard to ensure your safety. He will arrive within the week."

"Good day, Marchioness"

And with that, he turned back toward the crescent Earth.

The Astrological Society of Khalidi

Naguib stood with his hands together behind his back, looking out of the window in the Astrological Society tower. The sky was just beginning to purple with twilight, and the parapets and minarets of the city below him swept for miles below ending, brutishly, at the city walls. The rivers carried on into the distant snowpeaked mountains and, far beyond, the tenuous borders of Empire fluctuated under the pressures of barbarian Hordes.

The stairs outside his door creaked again - someone had been standing outside for almost fifteen minutes. He turned to the bronze astrolabe which dominated the room adjusted a small axis at its base to reflect the order of the stars as had been predicted countless generations ago according to the flawless calculations of sages generations ago.

Flawless, until last night. The great North Star had been almost a full millimeter away from its predicted location. The Society was in an Uproar, much to the amusement of the population at large. And, why shouldn't they be amused? How could they understand the unfathomable distance a millimeter makes, or the significance of the change? Indeed, no one understood the significance, himself least of all. As Vizir to the Emperor and Chair of the Imperial Astrological Society, the thing he understood best was how little they understood about the nature of the stars above, and their influence upon the face of the planet.

He had spent all day talking to the dangerous priests of Erathis, discussing at length whether the empire affected the stars or the stars would have an effect on the Empire. He did not know, and was implied for treason before the meeting was through. The librarians of Ioun sent a meek dwarven understudy to ask how to update their records, and how this changed the established prophesy. He did not know, and sent the youngster to the ire of his superiors. The dark-eyed undertakers of the Raven Queen had been loitering outside the tower all day, disappointed in the lack of loose-lipped society members going to and fro.

It had been a very, very long day and he looked forward to recording the trends and prophesy for the evening and embracing the sweet death of sleep. However, it seemed impolite to do so before the student or newshound or assassin outside his door had an audience. And so he waited, with his back to the door, as the last rays of the sun fell behind the mountaintops.

There was a knock.

"Come in." Naguib automatically grabbed a book from the bookshelves which dominated the walls throughout his office and home. The young man, slim enough and with the pinched expression of elven heritage, stepped through looking sick with nervousness, and hovered near the door in case he needed to flee. The lad was very young, and had probably only been just initiated into the order to continue his study. Clearly, he was aware of how far above his station he was hovering.

"I am sorry, Vizir, to disturb you so late. You see, the thing is, about last night."

Naguib thought he was much better about hiding his frustration than he actually was, and attempted to rub his eyes to mask his annoyance. The initiate looked as if he had been struck across the face with one of the rafters above them, and stumbled in his words. He took a deep breath, and tried again.

"Last night, the stars were... singing to me."

Old Man in the Bar

"Oh Gods, not this story again" Johnny One-Eye muttered as he pushed the grime around the inside of a cheap tin mug before filling it with Ale and passing it to one of the wide-eyed travellers passing through town. Young enough to have forgotten life in the Empire, born a generation too late to know what life was like when you could walk a road unarmed. Back when everyone knew how to read, could go to university, when you could afford to have a few poets or philosophers around.

Those wild halcyon days of the Holy Human Empire, when the dwarves worked hard in the mining camps and the elves were crammed into row-planted forests to keep them in line, and everyone paid taxes. One-Eye spit into the mug to clean off a spot before laying it out to dry.

"So, we're ambling up toward the old capital" the old, drunken pile of rags was just getting started, "And we're just close enough to see the parapets above the walls when all of the sudden" He slammed his mug on the table for dramatic affect. "A column of fire shoots up from the imperial palace all purple and blue and screaming like a banshee."

He drank until a small voice from the back begged to know what happened and then rubbed his mouth with the back of his wrist.

"Well, I says to Vinnie and Tom, I says to hell with this, we're taking the caravan back to the inn and waiting until this blows over, and they say this kind of thing happens all the time in the big city. Hah!"

"So I come back the next day" At this point in the theatrics he leans back, staring at the sagging rafters. "And the capitol city is empty. The buildings are still there, but there wasn't nobody! Not even a blade of grass! Miles of empty city! Imagine that. The greatest city in the world, gone! I didn't know what to do. I slept in some missing blokes house, and by the time I woke up, my damn mule was gone too! And the laughter, I could always hear someone laughing a few feet away but whenever i'd turn there was nobody there."

"But the strangest part is, by the time I had walked back to the town..." And he threw back his hood and opened his milky white eyes.

All three of them.

He couldn't see the reaction of the small band, he guessed they were 4 or 5 among them, but he heard the gasp, and that was enough to lower his hood back over his features.

"Hark my words, lads, and stay far from the old capital city. There's nothing there but death and empty streets. 'tis the Devil's city now."

And he turned back to his mug, satisfied in his day's work.

Until the small voice in the back, with the mark of Ioun on his forehead, piped up once again. "Sounds more like the Summer Queen's work, if you ask me."

The entire bar seemed to focus on the bookish eladrin, who seemed to shrink under the attention like a wilting flower.

"The what queen?"

"I - I was joking of course. The Summer Queen rules over the Feywild. Sometimes travelers will see dancing purple flames and disembodied laughter before being stolen away into the Feywild. But," he laughed "Even she couldn't steal a city."

Dissatisfied with this answer, the crowd returned to their drinks. And the young librarian, returning to sit with his four friends, felt the empty stare of the three-eyed drunk long after he had gone to bed and fitful rest.

The Trap

"Just so that we're perfectly clear," The Economist said to his bodyguard as he reviewed his notes, "This is clearly a trap."

Their cart ambled along slowly, drawn by the glowing eyes of a partially built horse its head bobbing eerily on a skeletal stalk of a ramshackle neck. The Bodyguard held the reigns easily in his hands, hawkishly peering down the light forest road. Maryland is Bandit Country, and the autumnal bursts of red and gold did little to mask the menace in each step.

"Only a few more miles" The Bodyguard lied. He had no idea. They would follow the tube until they found the break. They could sleep at the settlements in Baltimore if they had to. He hoped they wouldn't have to.

"What the fuck are we going to do if the break is past Philly? We don't have citizenship." He crossed his eyes and spoke in a high pitch "Oh hallo Kublah Kahn, Wurr jes' hear to fix tha Tube!"

He looked up from the tattered text in repsonce to the calculated silence. "Well!? We can't even go around. Those Luddites so much as see a bead that shines the wrong way they'll do God knows what."

"We'll go around."

The Economist Snorted, but didn't voice his concern regarding the surrounding patrols. Hunger's headache had made him cross, and forget the fact that they had a shipment of repair materials due for Newark anyways. He always got nervous when they lost sight of Silver Spring anyhow.

They had been sent to fix The Tube, which lolled a few dozen feet to the right. It was the supply chain between Washington and the front lines in Brooklyn. They had been promised Citizenship without Military Service if they were successful. That meant they could be granted access to Philly or even Anacostia. Someday their kids could go to school and be a bureaucrat and set foot on The Hill. The only safe place in the world, The Hill. For all his complaining, The Economist knew it was worth the risk.

The Bodyguard, on the other hand, had dreams of the fortune that could be found in the Staten Island Colonies. He had a strong swingin' arm, and that made him a valuable comodity just behind the front lines. There was a lot of money to be made in the slow, steady conquest of New York, and a lot of trade caravans settin' out from there. He liked The Economist because he knew what the hell he was doing, but someday he wanted to have his own little security company, make a little money without his neck on the line.

The Tube hummed for a few moments, then stopped. In the distance the imposing walls of Baltimore sat squat and glowing with light electric. The Economist did a lot of business in Baltimore - He had a reputation. He could get into some citizen only spots without too much hassle. The price of doing business while the president promised an imperial march to Boston. Take the North Atlantic. Drive out the bandit. Citizenship for All who would Take Up Arms. Citizenship for All in Victory.

The Economist didn't get it. He didn't believe in the magic of the eastern seaboard. The God-President was so sure that each of the old cities was important to the prosperity of their people but he didn't see how Boston was any Different than Raleigh. The Old Country was dead. It had shrunk in big ol' bites down to 1600 penn. ave, and burst out from there in bloody burning conquest.

At the end of the day, the nation lived on through pure bloody-mindedness. And it was bloody-mindedness that left the wake of barbarian secessionist luddite bodies in the burning wake of the citizen-soldiers who made their bloody-minded march north to Boston and whatever barbarian king resided there now. If there even is a boston anymore. All they had was the honor of scouts on that point.

Calope

Calope was a bastard born in the arms of a courtier and thrust into the bittersweet world of city high society. His half-elven blood and mysterious lineage more than made up for his lack of standing with the almost paralytically bored capital city youth. Free of responsibility and armed with a perfectly limited understanding of the value of money, they flirted with artists and intelligensia and prepared to inherit and squander their parents fortunes in farmland and connections with the imperial upper crust. After his mother's passing, Calope squandered his modest inheretance within a year, and then floated along on his wit and charm as a scholar perfectly happy to lie if he needed to fill in the gaps. It was not long before he could no longer bear the musty interior of an ill-used personal library or the monotony of tutoring and enscribing, and he set out on the modestly exciting life of a trader of rare books and antiquities.

His first caravan was interrupted in the dead of night by a procession of wood nymphs hollaring his name. He was cheerfully informed that his father had died in lavish comfort among the faerie courts, and upon his death each of his sons would be given to a faery queen. He had the incredible fortune of being chosen by the lavish and beautiful Queen of Summer to be made a Knight in her Summer Court. He was now her agent in the material world, and he was now tasked with defending her realm. He must be like the sun, making the world bright and beautiful and - most importantly - finding and defeating the winter queen's scion who would undoubtably be searching for him. He would be wise to stop consorting with filthy traders and merchants and begin working to defend beauty and light no matter what the cost. Before he could protest, he was touched, and collapsed.

He woke, his entire fortune gone except for the clothes on his back, with the threat of an immaterial queen over his head lest he fail to find and defeat his own brother.

Thraex

Thraex leaned against the ancient stone, the sound of banging drums leaking through from the amphitheater. He heard the crowd erupt with screams and could tell without looking that a gaggle of murderers had been loosed. Half starved and armed with sharp sticks they were sizing each other up, testing the bonds of the half-witted arrangements they had invariably made in prison to cover each others backs.

"Jonas, don't pick at your tattoo, it'll come off."

Jonas was a big man, bald, and fairly thick. He was about to say that the bright red paint across his chest was itching him, and thought better of it. The remaining three lads leaned against their shields, looking rather more tense than a professional gladiator should.

"Just follow my lead, boys. Remember, we're professionals. Don't worry about the fighting, just give 'em a good show. Wounds will heal, but people will remember a good show for years."

This balmy morning, Thraex was playing the part of the Platinum Dragon, bringing order to the world. He was leading a celestial army to the demon-infested continents of the earth to drive them back, allowing all the creatures to thrive in safety. He had to admit that they looked the part.

Of course, the murderers out there hadn't gotten a copy of the program. They were likely half-killed by now, and by the time they even got on the scene they would be a bloody mess. But as an artist, you learned to work with what you had. Split 'em apart, intimidate them into a quiverring mass, knock 'em down, let the crowd have their say, and from there it was purely a matter of making as big a mess as possible.

This time was slightly different, though. A strange figure in a cloak had given him a bag of gold this morning. Now Thraex was a modestly well known figure among the local gladiatorial fighting circuit. In a year he'd probably be at the capitol. Gifts were not unheard of, but this was the day of an execution. And not just any execution.

Someone connected was in the fray today.

Thraex knew how this worked. There would be a signal. He would hit with the blunt side of his sword and tossed aside. The body gets carried to the pits, and the dead rise up and walk with a nasty headache but alive. He'd seen it done. He'd never done it before.

That was the problem. Most of the people in this job were fighters. But Thraex? Thraex was an actor. And for the earth to be cleansed, every demon must die.

The gates clanked open, and Thraex held his arms sideways to prevent his holy carriage from running into the melee in progress. There was a roll of drums, and the blaring of trumpets. Without shielding his eyes from the brilliant sun, they marched in perfect form. They followed his lead. And they stood, watching the criminal scum of the city fight and kill each other for a full minute before they noticed the presence of armed and armored professionals. Finally, they turned, and Thraex pointed his scimitar and blew a jet of flame into the air. His men charged forward. The crowd went wild.

The environment was perfect. The fight previous had been a bloody mess, packing the sand beneath their feet. They had loosed this divine retribution early enough, so it was 5 to 15. It would be suitably impressive in victory. And a few of the remaining had clearly recieved some kind of weapons training - or at least were big enough to compensate by sheer bloody-mindedness. The hot sun had taken its toll on the unprotected scum, who had been shaved and stripped of all but a cloth and gave them a shambling, malnourished appearance.

Out of the corner of his eye, a scoundrel was attempting to flank him unnoticed. A glint of metal shone in his left hand just before he pounded the earth in a charge of desperation. Thraex pretended to be observing the battle at a distance like a good general, while the crowd whooped and yelled. Suddenly he turned, staring straight into the eyes of his assailant, and bared his fangs as if to glass the sand beneath them both.

In truth, his throat ached from the burst of smokey flame from a moment ago, and he'd likely have torn something had he tried to do it again. But the young man with a guilty verdict to go with his conscience didn't know that. His step faltered, and he dropped his blade. Slipping as he turned to run, he fell in the offal and found himself unable to get up with the armored boot which had found its way on his back. He raised his arms to the crowd. How they hollared for that red, red blood. Demanding he stop wasting his time with such a tasteless morsel when he could be going for such a meal. Kill him. Kill him faster.

But somewhere in that crowd, there was a widow or a rape victim. And as he lifted the young man by his hair and dragged his lucky dagger from his windpipe down to his belly and tossed him aside.

2030, Sea of Tranquility, East Lunar Special, 2030

The East Lunar Special forded the Sea of Tranquility, the tracks mere feet above the lapping gray waters. In the horizon, a small stretch of land just south of the Sea of Crisis sat fat and green. Nearby, a freighter loaded down with crates of corn, beans, tobacco, all the yield of the land chugged back toward the city in a vain attempt to feed its people while sending enough down the space elevator to keep the electricity coming. And, as Edward stared out the window with droopy eyes at the impending destination, he realized that none of that electricity would make its way across this sea. The only nuclear facility on the planet was at the south pole, and piped north to industrial Tycho Crater.

The spark. That precious spark. Nothing happened on ol' Luna without the spark. Aside from Tycho and Ivansburg, almost every acre of the Moon was arable land. And under that arable land was caverns of hydroponics. Vats and vats of muscle by the pound. Food enough for billions, land enough for, maybe, a million or two.

The excess went down the space elevator. Tons of the stuff, daily. And around the space elevator grew Castle Ivansburg, a massive facility to handle the incoming produce. And around Castle Ivansburg grew Ivansburg City, to house the corporate staff working 24 hours a day 7 days a week. And, when precious little plutonium made it up it was shipped by underground armed caravan to Tycho, where the spark could spread to the few factories nearby and back to the public houses of Ivansburg.

And so the cycle went. But not for the town of Crisis Bay. And not for Edward.

2030, Copernicus City, Metro Center Station, The Moon

Edward sat on his navy blue duffel bag, posture unbecoming of a recently sworn officer of the peace and executor of corporate law. He was had reread the first paragraph in a thin booklet on procedure for the past half hour, waiting for the East Lunar Special.

When first on a crime scene, first establish a perimeter. Ensure that entering the crime scene has serious consequences first establish a perimeter. Establish a perimeter. Ensure that entering the crime scene first inform the suspect that he is to freeze. Do not fire upon a suspect unless he or she fails to comply has serious consequences. When suspect is imprisoned, make sure they have water and food enough for the night. Do not release the suspect if he or she is feeling ill. Do not fire upon the suspect.

He shut the book, his head ringing. He couldn't read. He was struck illiterate. Why on earth should this be, a clever lad such as he? The past week had been nothing but drills, elevating him from a kid with a gun on a wall to full blown watchman. What he had found out just an hour ago, however, was that he was the only game in town. Acres and acres of land, and one solitary guardhouse. He had been alone since, and was going to be alone for the foreseeable future. And the pit in his stomach hollowed and ground against itself.

It had been a trans formative experience, being yelled out by heavy set gentlemen convinced they could turn boys into men with seven day's time. He had run long distances, shot at paper cutouts of gentlemen on the run, and learned to sleep in a chair with a howling drunk in the tank. He was assured this was mostly what he'd be dealing with, out in the country. Drunks. Good honest folks working an honest day and heading out at 3 in the afternoon to drink half a bottle of potato juice and beat up some ethnic minorities. Or whatever.

And the thin blue line felt pretty damn thin right now. Watching the earth float fat and leaden on the night horizon in between the tall stone buildings of his native Coperniucs city. The parapets of the castle died away in the distance. He had hours to go as the plume of smoke knifed through the night and he took swigs from an unmarked bottle of whiskey when nobody was looking and just as things were starting to look better or at least a little more blurry the darkness closed in and he fell asleep mouth open.

2030, Metro Chief Warrents Office, Ivansburg City, The Moon

Metro Police Chief Warrens rubbed the bridge of his nose and let the pages of his report fall from his fingers. The setting sun crashed into the capitol city skyline and left an orange haze in its wake, dancing on particles of dust between the wooden shutters. The chief's office is deceptively warm, given its utility. The hardwood floor was accented by a burnt sienna rug, bleeding into the bright cherry and red leather furniture. Parapets of bookshelves exploding with hardbound files and old world books speak of a man with legal ambitions. But Warrens' attention is focused on the quivering young mass occupying the overstuffed chair across from him. Thirty minutes before his left his department, life had seen fit to present him with one last political puzzle.

Officer Roland, elsewhere, is a cacophony of tubes and gauze, floating on stretcher through the stone hallways of the Ivansburg City Hospital eyed wearily by sawbones and strapped to the table. Bound, gagged, and roughly handled the ghoul is carefully dropped in the incinerator. The trains return to their schedule, overloaded for the delay. The only knot left to tie is young Edward - overeducated, underemployed, deserving of reward. Time crawls toward the five o'clock hour, and Department Chief Harris shrugs, exasperated. He couldn't in good conscience let the boy who saved his best man's life walk away empty handed.

"How do you fancy a life in the country?"

("Beer 'n a Shot" Edward will request in two hours, parting with a few precious dollars, wrapping his mind around the prospect of life as a copper. Years of study to end up a blue meanie on the beat with pay to match in some random farming town on the other side of the sea of tranquility. Tobacco, of all things. He is a natural philosopher, for goodness sakes. But, well, down the hatch. Things are supposed to get worse before they get better. It's only a year. Go back to school on the back of bribes. Ain't no harm. Ain't none of his classmates doing better. Ain't nothing to keep him in this bullshit town. Down the hatch. Better go home and pack. He knows he is lucky, but the slope of his spine and shuffle in his step looks like a man on his way to the salt mines.

and, well, he is.)

Rate of Pay, benefits, risks, and location spill across the desk, and Edward signs his name, smiles, and says thank you and kicks his heels as he walks to the bar to smilingly drown the sorrows of the miles of difference between promise and reality.