Project SALLI

Chapter Two - First Light

A new day starts with a beautiful sunrise, peaking between the tall buildings. Dew drifts in from the mountains in the distance, catching the sunlight like a soft floating web, the air glowing soft peach. There are no clouds in the sky, no aeroplanes to spoil the air, no cars polluting the atmosphere. After two hundred years the earth is healed of man's recklessness, the air clean and pure, the sky bright and blue, and the seas no longer filled with oils and floating filth.

The ruins of the cities still stand, blighting the landscape. Earth may be able to heal her air and seas, but concrete and steel is harder to recycle. So the structures mostly still stand, protecting the remnants of human society of years ago from whatever the earth can throw at them. Bunkers still exist, locking away treasures of the past.

This is T'kyra's playground. At least that is how she thought of it. In reality, it is a placed filled with danger. Collapsing buildings, faulty or broken equipment, and forgotten relics can prove fatal. In order to protect those who went to look for items of use, military teams were setup when the clan first formed. These teams are usually in groups of five team members, consisting of two soldiers, a medic, and a duo of researchers. If this isn't enough, the teams double up to form a group. With four teams, a large area can be scouted out quickly or one or two areas thoroughly.

Alternatively, there are a few who can operate alone. They have to have extraordinary agility, strength, resilience and stamina, and intuition. They are trained to a high standard in ancient computer engineering, ancient robotic design, and industrial design. However, to get to use those skills is a challenge all in itself due to the state of the city. Wrecked vehicles, crumbling buildings, and overgrown land can be difficult to get past. To do this job you have to be as much an athlete as an academic. And that is when things go according to plan.

Over the past five years, the clan have lost several members to the city. Live electrical systems, the arteries of the computer age, litter the underground like the roots of a colossal tree, spreading throughout the city. As the flora and fauna returned, the cables became exposed, allowing unwary victims to lose their lives.

This is one of the reasons Palliko has forced TK to team up with Oso. As the heiress of the tribe, she is uniquely suited to caring for the future of her people, knowing the full history that is kept hidden from the rest of the clan members. Secret locations of ancient human sites, weapon caches hidden in the city, and a few gadgets that grant access to locked areas. If this knowledge is lost before Palliko has chance to pass it on, it would be difficult for clan Tanika to carry on as the strongest tribe on the northern mass. Oso's mission therefore is to protect the future if the tribe. To protect T'kyra at all costs.

Not that T'kyra saw it that way. As she is getting ready for today's mission, she gets more tense as she thinks about her father's decision. The burden of dragging some else along, the restriction on her freedom, and to have to do that with her annoying cousin!

First she finds suitable clothing - tough leather shorts, knitted wool top, wood and leather boots, and a leather utility belt. Not the most fashionable outfit, or that comfortable. Designed by the science team, movement is less restrictive, and the body is protected. Next TK picks up the Tanika necklace. Passed down from generation to generation, it sits perfectly on her neck like it was designed just for her. Woven silver looped in a double helix, a glowing stone, and then another double helix. It is a relic from another time. How it works has been lost, however it's purpose is known, though classified. Only the clan council knows that it contains an active power source, which somehow allows locked access doors to swing open, giving way to those with the authority to enter the city subsystem.

This is going to be a drag. TK exits the exploration tent to find Oso stood, patiently waiting for his new partner. How odd. I bet he makes some smarmy comment.