Chapter 6 #3
Its exterior appeared to run the entire circumference of the central peak, and its walls were made of regal white stone, into which hundreds of glass windows were carved.
They glinted in the sunlight. A dozen or so turrets stretched high around the castle, the tallest of which extended up from the very center of the peak, overlooking the entire island, and atop that was a glass-walled observatory—at least, that would have been a logical use for the round, bubble-like structure—the highest point of all.
There were other impressive structures built among the lower peaks, but none as breathtaking as that castle one.
And as we drew even closer, I realized what Anna had meant by “peripheries.” Scattered around the mountainous island were eight smaller islands, all of them flat by contrast. They were populated by lower, considerably less impressive buildings, and each islet appeared to be connected to the main island by long, narrow bridges.
There was less greenery on the smaller islands, though I couldn’t tell from up here if that was a natural occurrence or just because the construction was heavier on them.
“You should be able to see Founders’ Fortress about now,” Anna remarked.
“That castle at the very top of the mountain?” I asked.
“Ha, yes. Nice, isn’t it? It’s home to governors, and many of the most valuable members of our nation.”
I frowned at the term ‘valuable,’ finding it an odd descriptor for a person, but pushed it aside to focus on her former statement. “You said Founders,” I replied. “Who are your Founders? How did Fairwell come into being?”
“That’s a bit of a long story, which I don’t have time to tell in full, but suffice it to say that our Founders were a very clever bunch indeed,” she replied with a smirk. “That building was the first they constructed after they claimed the ocean, several centuries ago.”
“Claimed the ocean?” I asked, confused.
She shrugged. “Well, so to speak. They were the first in history to make a true home on the water. And even now, after centuries, nobody else has been able to lay a stake in it the way we have. So essentially, yes, we have claimed it.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t really follow. You’ve settled on a large archipelago, which looks fairly lush with natural resources, from what I can see.”
As I looked at her, her lips stretched into a grin. “Ah, but you see, it wasn’t an archipelago before our Founders arrived.”
“Huh?”
Her grin broadened, as though she enjoyed watching the confusion on my face. “There was only the main island,” she replied. “Those outer islands you see, they’re all manmade. Built on ingeniously stable platforms that adapt and flex with the ocean’s current.”
“Whoa.” I gawked closer at the outer islands, studying them in a whole new light. Now that I looked at them again, they did look oddly uniform. But how was such a thing even possible? “What if there was a really big wave? Or a hurricane? How on earth would they withstand it?” I asked.
“Good questions,” Anna replied, resting her hands over the back of an empty chair.
“That’s what that glass building is for, at the top of Founders’ Fortress.
We have developed expert means to avoid storms over the years, such that now we are able to detect them and drive them away before they reach our vicinity. ”
I stared at her. “Drive away storms? How… How on earth can you do that?”
She smiled like a cat who got the cream.
“Our engineers have developed means, as I said—special technology whose workings, to be honest, fly even over my head. What I can tell you is that it involves a fleet of large, manned aircraft called diffusers that are equipped with apparatus which—you guessed it—diffuse turbulent storm activity. It’s a constant job of monitoring and heavy on resources, so it’s not something we could easily scale for others.
At least, not yet. But, as you can imagine, that’s extremely important for us out here in the ocean.
We could all be in trouble if a major hurricane came along, especially those on the artificial islands. ”
“So, I guess you developed ‘diffusers’ before you built out those islands?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “We’ve been studying the weather for a long time. Ever since our Founders arrived, a very long time ago. We’ve had to.”
“How did you even build the islands?” I asked, looking back out at them, still feeling baffled by the sheer feat of technology. “Where did you get the materials, the knowhow?”
“Our Founders were prepared for the Last World War,” Anna replied.
“Much like I imagine yours must have been, to have built the kind of infrastructure that you had back there in the jungle. Our Founders were a large group of tech-savvy visionaries, with immense wealth and resources—the ‘millionaires’ and ‘billionaires’ of the old world—who banded together to establish Fairwell and equip it with everything it needed to not only survive but thrive in the future.”
I paused, trying to digest the information. “So, these artificial islands are centuries old?” They sure had lasted well if that were the case.
She shook her head. “No. The islands are fairly recent, as we didn’t have a need to build those out until recently.
Our native population—or “founders” is the general term that we use, for all who are blood descendants of the original Founders—have lived quite contentedly on the mainland for centuries.
It’s only in the last decade or so that our outreach activities have expanded, due primarily to the increase in awful weather.
Don’t get me wrong, nomads have played a role too, but when riled up, Mother Nature has her way of causing more chaos than any pesky group of humans ever could.
” She chuckled. “Anyhow, we found ourselves with the proposition of either finding a way to house people who, for one reason or another, could no longer survive where they had been living, or essentially leaving them to die.”
“So, you built these islands for them?” I asked, wondering why she’d made out yesterday that they hardly had any space here.
By the looks of it, they had plenty of space.
I found it hard to believe that all the buildings on these islands were filled to the brim.
Plus, it seemed they had the ability to build more.
“Yes,” she replied. “For those we save from the Old World, who wish to become settlers of our thriving nation.”
“I see,” I murmured, once again scrutinizing the smaller islands.
They looked pleasant enough from up here, with lines of uniform buildings and the occasional green spaces. They also definitely didn’t look filled to the brim, unless everybody was inside their homes at the same time. On at least one island, there was nobody at all on the streets.
“How many, uh, settlers are currently part of your population, then?” I asked.
“About eight thousand, currently,” she replied.
“So there are fifty-two thousand founders?”
“Roughly, yes. Founders all live on the main island, which is rather conveniently named: Founders’ Isle.” She rolled her eyes amusedly. “Then, we also have about seven hundred new guests, currently—the group we brought here just the other day… Zina’s group, right?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding my head and instantly brightening at the prospect of seeing my cousin again.
“And it’ll be about twelve hundred guests by the time we set you all down,” Anna added.
“Where are they staying—Zina’s group?” I asked anxiously, praying she would be among them. “Where’s your ‘outreach’ center?”
“You can’t see it from this angle. It’s right around the back of Founders’ Isle and the mountains are blocking our view. We’ll reach there soon enough, though, don’t you worry.” She chuckled again and then stepped back, resuming her seat in one of the chairs, while I remained peering out.
Eight thousand settlers, I mused as I continued to scan the area.
That was quite a lot of people to house, but I still couldn’t imagine that all of these islands were filled to capacity. Even leaving aside the eight smaller islands, the main island itself was huge. Of course, they would also need to have sufficient food and resources for all these people.
Whatever the case, if they were so technologically savvy, maybe they could help us find some way to return to the jungle.
If the gas cleared, and we could somehow salvage the trees, maybe Anna’s people could assist us in moving back—help fortify our commune against attacks in the future, equip us with better means to defend ourselves.
I wasn’t ready to start considering that we might be forced to settle here forever, on this foreign land.
It might be pleasant and well organized, but it wasn’t our home.
We would all feel out of place, like aliens here.
But most of all, I didn’t like the idea of living at the cost or mercy of others. It wasn’t in our DNA. We were scavengers, designed to live independent lives deep in the wild and have everything on our own terms.
Hadn’t that just been what I’d thanked our Founders for the day before yesterday, for giving us the gift of freedom?
“You too could become settlers here, you know, if you wanted,” Anna mused behind me, as if she’d somehow picked up on my train of thought.
I turned to look at her, lowering the binoculars to my side. “So, you do have space for more people?” Now that she’d broached the topic, I couldn’t help but bring up what appeared to be a discrepancy.
“For more settlers, yes, there is space. We just don’t have a lot of room for guests.”
I frowned, wondering what the practical difference was.
Noting my expression, she went on, “Obviously, we can’t just bring anyone and everyone into our fold.
We have a designated area for guests, with a set amount of resources allotted to it, because as I said, resources don’t just rain from the sky.
We are a philanthropic and generous people, but we also must make sure our activities are sustainable, and guests can only stay with us for a certain amount of time.
If you were to become a settler, on the other hand, it would be another matter, because you would become a contributing member of our society—adding value in exchange for what you took.
Everything is about sharing here; ensuring everyone gets a fair deal.
Everyone who lives here on a permanent basis must be a positive influence on Fairwell as a whole.
It’s how we’ve survived and thrived for so long. ”
“That’s fair enough,” I murmured. I mean, even back in our commune, everyone was expected to help in whatever way they could. Nobody ever liked a freeloader.
Anna smiled. “It is, isn’t it? All that said, not everybody is right for our society, just as our society is not right for everybody.
We have rules that everyone—founders included—must follow.
Naturally, not everyone likes rules imposed by others, especially those from small communities who are accustomed to almost complete autonomy.
With a society as large as ours, I’m sure you understand the need for regulation. ”
“What kind of rules do you have here?” I asked.
This was the first true civilization I’d come across in my life, outside of our jungle colonies, and I was genuinely curious as to how they organized everything on such a large scale.
They had not only their own citizens to look after, but also their various “outreach” endeavors to manage.
“Ohhh, nothing too unreasonable, I would say,” Anna replied, leaning back in her chair and stretching out her large feet in front of her. “Most are common sense: do no harm, do not steal, and so on. However, there are a few things that some deem a little… different.”
I frowned. “Different in what way?”
Before she could respond, one of the pilots looked up from his seat. “Um, Anna. We’ve got about ten minutes to go.”
“Ah.” Anna held up her right hand and looked down at the ring on her thumb.
She touched the flattish side, and it suddenly illuminated, numbers flashing up on the small screen that had appeared.
Before I could make them out properly, she sprang to her feet, an apologetic look plastered to her face.
“I’m sorry. I have some things I need to do before our arrival.
Please make your way back through the ship and get seated. We’ll be descending very soon.”
I lingered for a second longer, looking between her and the two men—who I now noticed also wore semi-circle rings (silver, rather than gold)—and then nodded, handing over the binoculars.
“Of course. Thanks for your time.” I cast one last glance out at the looming sprawl of islands and then headed for the exit.
“Don’t mention it,” Anna said, as I opened the door and stepped through. Gripping the handle on the other side, she winked, before pushing the door, closing it with a sharp click.
As I turned and began making my way through the ship, a sense of uneasiness crawled back over me.
The conversation with Anna had gone well, from what I could tell—she had been pleasant enough and answered my questions generously.
And yet, something was… bugging me. A dull poke, deep in my gut.
It was just hard to put a finger on what it was exactly, at that moment, when literally everything about our situation was all so new and unsettling.
Plus, my brain was still recovering from the trauma of yesterday.
I decided to shelve the feeling for now, as much as I possibly could, to try to unpack later. Bea was probably awake, wondering where I was, and we had to prepare for landing. I sped up to a jog, wanting to cover the rooms and aisles faster.
Whatever it was that was poking at me, I just hoped it wasn’t my intuition.
Because, as my grandmother used to say, that was rarely wrong.