Chapter 1 - The Servant

Lips of ice
On my neck
Eyes of glass
At my chest

My lord rises like a spear,
Shall I love, or shall I fear?

It was an ordinary Friday afternoon, and Harmon couldn't tell whether the cold air from outside could have been any cooler than the depths of his own heart. As a result, he didn't even bother to close the window of his 33-floor Grand Tower, where he occupied the very top floor. His body didn't care for warmth, even though it was less than 5°C inside and outside.

His office room would have been pitch-dark without the small lightbulb on his desk. The lightbulb wasn't much; its light was pretty dim. Still, he knew electricity had to be rationed, so he didn't want to waste any of Nexus's resources by adding more consumers than necessary.

Harmon was the ruler of the Nexus. Taking advantage of that would feel like he would betray his ideals. He felt responsible for his personal energy consumption, knowing well that the growth and prosperity of Nexus were more important than his own comfort.

It has been long since Harmon descended from his 33-floor Grand Tower. He had everything he needed here and was more productive working from up there. Taking his binocular, Harmon stood by the window and, from up there, could see the lights of the Nexus and its buildings. Further away, he could see the lights of the numerous outposts established west of the city.

Beyond that, there was only darkness. And Harmon particularly hated the darkness more than anything else. Darkness was the enemy. Something you feared because you did now understand enough—something you had to face head-on and defeat with great mastery.

There was no other path.

From the metal panel just above his work desk, a few colored lights started flickering in a rhythmic tone. The speakers let out a few audio signals as well. It was an incoming transmission from one of his subordinates.

Instead of answering, he ignored that for now. Instead, he stuck his head out the window and contemplated as the sky, the land, and the air were all regrettably dark. It didn't make any difference whether it was noon or midnight. It was night all day long.

Their world knew only darkness.

The sun was a mere concept from fantasy books, not something he or anyone he knew had ever seen in their lifetimes. Although some history books claim that their planet used to have a sun a long time ago. Harmon believed that might have been true, but the legends could not be trusted without evidence.

"It must have been so nice when the sun shone brightly above the sky," thought Harmon with a sigh, looking at the black sky above him.

The sky wasn't entirely dark, as it was dimly reflecting some of Nexus's lights. Harmon's theory was that some permanent thick fog lay above them. Perhaps the sun never vanished; maybe it was only covered by this cloud. It was a sound theory, but Harmon was still skeptical. Perhaps it was merely wishful thinking. Maybe there was no sun in the first place.

He turned his attention to the sounds and flickering on the panel. The device was a rudimentary command board that he designed at some point so that his subordinates and robots could give him status reports and signals when they needed his real-time support.

"Hmmm, seems like a request for the spotlight," he thought. "I certainly haven't got these kinds of requests in a while. They also seem to have forgotten that they were allowed to submit this class of requests only between 2-3 pm. I should probably remind them about that. Judging by the coordinates I decipher in these signals, I'm requested to send a 100 meters-wide spotlight at this spot, north-north-west of Outpost #58."

He took his binoculars and returned to the window to scout the outpost. Wheelers were going back and forth between outposts, carrying resources. A narrow railroad was under construction, with some robots working hard to assemble the parts. A few other Wheelers machines were setting up a small supply depot for the tools and the mobile generators. All in all, everything seemed in order. He focused his attention on the source of light from the area. I was a big lamppost connected to a cable that led to a closer outpost. Eventually, all those cables headed to the major power plants in the city, from which they pulled out their energy.

All cables were standing directly on the surface of the land. It was not ideal, but they needed more resources or time to borrow them underground. Nevertheless, every cable went orderly along the railways, and proper cable protectors were mounted correctly so that no machine would trip on the wires and produce damage.

He turned his binoculars back to scout the area, looking for the squad leader. The Expansionist Team was assigned to build new outposts, extend the surface of the illuminated area and find new resources. The signals from his command panel must have come from the squad leader. So he scouted the area and eventually found a person standing at the edge of the illuminated area, carrying a heavy lantern in one hand and a few cables in the other one that stretched to the closest lamppost. A few meters away were a dozen Wheelers, each equipped with various tools, waiting for their following command.

Harmon noticed the uniform of the Expedition Team officer and the marks on its shoulders, indicating the rank of Lieutenant. The Lieutenant was dressed in a long jacket that fell to its knees. Its head was covered by a casual woolen cap, which seemed somewhat inappropriate to Harmon, given that the uniform came with a military hat that he expected his personnel to wear at all times. But Harmon accepted that others did share his cold immunity to the same degree. Therefore he decided not to classify this as insubordination and let this one slide.

As the Lieutenant rose its face towards the Grand Tower Building, Harmon saw the agitated gaze of a young woman, no, probably a girl in her late teens. Her left fingers were nervously fidgeting with the cables. At the same time, her right hand was shaky under the pressure of the heavy lantern she held.

Harmon sighed but didn't feel sorry about making her wait. He never regretted having double-checked everything before taking action.

"Measure twice, cut once," Harmon mumbled. "Ok, let's do it."

He stretched his hand towards his control panel and pressed a few buttons. He saw a few LEDs blinking on one of the Wheelers beside the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant understood the message. She removed one of her boots, placing her bare foot on the ground. She let go of all the cables except for one; her lantern went dark.

The next moment, her lantern went bright again, even brighter than before, even though no cable was connected to the lantern. Harmon knew the lantern had no batteries either. It was only due to the Lieutenant herself holding the lantern. It was the Lieutenant herself filling the lantern with energy.

"Electricity cannot travel without proper grounding," muttered Harmon, "and the common procedure is that both feet should stand directly on the ground for better electric conduction. I know it's cold outside, but she shouldn't bypass the procedure. Oh, well! I will write her a warning later on for this one. Also, for the missing uniform cap. And for calling me for non-urgent matters one hour before my schedule. Anyways, let's do it. Let's literally shine!"

He searched below his desk and pulled two cables, the polarised cable and the ground one. He held the polarised one in his left hand and put the end of the other, the ground wire, in his mouth. With his right hand, he pulled the switch on the panel.

He felt a warm, tingly sensation in his entire body as electricity flowed all over his organism. It was a pleasant sensation that he always particularly enjoyed for some reason. For a second, he almost forgot what he meant to do next. He had to admit that the electricity charge sent by the Lieutenant was much stronger than the energy generated by the power plants.

"That's not the time for fun!" he said, raising his right hand towards the indicated area north-north-west of Outpost #58.

From his palm, a massive beam of light shot in the distance, and the entire area next to the Lieutenant became illuminated as if it was plain daylight.