“Follow me,” said Dylan quietly.
Frowning yet again, I did as requested and followed him down an elongated gray brick path bordered by fake pine trees standing tall as sentinels. At the long end of the path appeared to be something, but I couldn’t tell exactly what it was. As we drew nearer, the shape of a world globe materialized.
The ambiance of the place made me feel like dry autumn leaves should be blowing through, but of course, they weren’t. “What is this place?”
“It’s a memorial,” said Dylan, his voice suddenly deeper. “It’s to all the humans that died because of The Great Plague.”
Bending down, I read the plaque beneath the round globe that had to be at least ten feet in diameter. On it were names of countries, cultures, and languages. Each was listed in such tiny writing that, even with my perfect vision, I had to squint to see it.
“Come around this way,” instructed Dylan, winding his way around the globe.
The opposite side held yet another list. Ironically, this one was even smaller than the other one. They listed words with no meaning to me.
Dylan must have noticed my puzzled face because he clarified, “It’s a list of every animal genus recorded by the year 2130 when the city was founded.” Dylan crouched down so that he was on the same level as me. “This whole memorial is dedicated to every living thing that died because of the plague or man’s destruction.”
Returning to the side with the listed cultures and languages, I couldn’t help but feel moisture rising up in my eyes. “How can everyone here think we’re all dead?”
This time, Dylan kneeled and placed a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t know, Allie, but this is something everyone believes, not just me. We’re taught in school of The Great Plague. We’re reminded that humanity is not invincible and we have a greater impact on our environment than any other species that’s ever lived before. I guess in a way, it’s a cautionary tale.”
“Why did you want to show me this first?” I stood up and paid attention to the detail covering every inch of the monument.
“Because I think it’ll help you understand how my city works. Even though I’m not certain of it, I think we’re still very different from your world.”
“Well, we won’t know if we simply stand here gazing at a statue.” I smiled, blinking away the last remaining moisture in my eyes. “Where to next?”
A hop on a train and a few minutes later, we were walking around downtown. This was clearly the epicenter of the radically tall buildings I’d seen from the ocean when arriving to Oceania. It was difficult to tell, but most of the structures appeared to barely fit below the pinnacle of the dome. Instead of the typical rows of buildings in downtown cities on land, this one appeared to be laid out in concentric circles. In order to drop off the passengers in the center, the train wound through tight corners to get to the stop where Dylan and I now stood.
“Welcome to the Central District, Allie.” Dylan spread his arms out wide in a dramatic gesture.
“Isn’t this your downtown?”
Dylan started sauntering around the small, circular courtyard with artificial plants scattered around the area. “We call ours Central because everything we need is here.”
Stepping closer to the center, I glanced down when I heard the sound of gravel, but realized I’d been mistaken. I bent down to pick one up and found the floor was comprised of white smooth, oblong-shaped pebbles made of a material I didn’t quite recognize.
Dropping the pebble, I looked towards where Dylan stood in the exact center of the city in front of a long tube disappearing into the ground. He leaned against the railing of it and I joined him. “What is this?”
“This is how we obtain the sunlight needed to grow our crops we use for food down in the second sublevel—the greenhouse floor,” explained Dylan.
I leaned forward over the rail as far as I could, trying to get a better view of the tube. Most of the light in the courtyard was generated from the sun simulation on the domed ceiling and not from these tubes. Catching the light just beyond the glare, I saw what resembled big solar panel sheets, but they were all wrong. “How?”
“Can you see the sheets?” Dylan wondered, and when I nodded, he continued. “Those are called SPLRS, which stands for Solar Panel Light Reflecting Sheets. They serve two functions for our city. The primary function is to direct the beams of the sun’s rays through a successive series of reflecting sheets all the way down to the greenhouse. Part of the light is also directed to the botanical gardens towards the edge of Central. The sheets were designed to eliminate any loss of sunshine by beaming the rays down from within the tube at nearly one hundred percent. They also tilt to follow the sun as it moves throughout the day.”
“So this tube goes all the way to the surface of the ocean?”
“Yes, it’s roughly 10,500 feet from the top of the city dome to the surface. The secondary function is purely for emergency purposes. The actual SPLRS can be reversed and use photovoltaics to convert the sunlight into direct current electricity. Part of that energy is then converted into alternating current electricity, which is then used to charge a gigantic battery used for emergency situations, which will give us enough power to run the essential functions of the city in the event of a main power systems failure.”
I leaned back from the railing, my mind blown. “They really teach you all of this in
