Triplicity

Prologue

My name is Isaac. If you're reading this, it's probably already too late. Humankind will have torn itself apart, inevitably. I'm glad I won't see it happen.

I live on planet E-2106. Humans moved there several hundred years ago when Earth became too dangerous to hold life. I've seen some old pictures from around the time we decided to leave.

They say the grass there used to be green.

The majority of our population is divided among three cities, arranged in a large triangle. My best friend, Valerie Chan, rules the largest. It was named Apex after its position in the Triangle.

Valerie tells me that order does not come without cruelty. A small percentage of our people disagree. These rebels—several thousand of them—have left the Triangle to start their own lives, with their own freedoms. Sometimes I wish I could join them, but I know where my loyalties lie.

I've read the stories about the beginnings of the Triangle. Shortly after Apex was founded, a dispute broke out between its citizens and those of Jarkia and Theld, the other two cities. Push turned to shove, and nearly a third of all humans were massacred in what became known as The Great Slaughter. Eventually, an unsteady peace treaty was signed. My and Valerie's ancestors' signatures are on that document, them being high government officials.

The citizens of the Triangle know all of this. We in the government know little more. For now, most of us remain loyal, trapped in the cage that is the Triangle. If you were an everyday citizen, you'd look out at the invisible bars that keep you away from the outside world.

You'd wonder if those bars could be broken.