A New Candidate

Tiff was full of smiles when Sy exchanged Comms with her. The young pioneer explored the Starport for a few minutes, visiting some establishments which the blonde had recommended. He had become more appreciative with this little city on an unknown planet. The people were friendly and industrious - not totally depending on machines to do everything for them.

After buying some stuffs and paying for the deliveries, Sy hopped onto the hover bike and returned to the outer rim. In Niel's garage, he started replacing the damaged energy cells of the hover bike with new ones.

'Whoo! Travel across the city is way faster with a ride than hailing a cab. I should explore the city more next time.' Sy wiped the moisture on his forehead, sweating as the city had become hotter after the storm. He checked the hover bike one more time, revving the engines.

Satisfied with the result, he secured the damaged energy cells into a package - ready for recycling.

He climbed up to the second floor and found that Laira Runerie was not around, and wondered what she wanted from him today.

The goods he ordered came after half an hour. Sy instructed the delivery crew where to place his new stuffs. Hover bearers went up and down and under his supervision, until his empty room finally matured.

Sy signed the confirmation tab, and the delivery boys bid him goodbye. He entered his apartment, before sitting with a proud expression on a hover chair casting his gaze to the cooking platform with a ten-year energy cell. His expenditure from his virtual workshop to the cooking utilities and furnitures had reached 50,000 U-Credits and his face suddenly soured.

At first, he thought he was not poor anymore and could afford more things. But when he thought about his debt in the galactic bank - amounting to 5,324,110 TF-Credits and rising, he despaired. He will need more than 532,411,000 U-Credits to pay it in order to get his license back.

Searching for a distraction, Sy remembered Kerby and Hanz' groups. They were dubious about many things and he decided to compose a book featuring the history of a planet lost from the void charts.

After an hour, a single knock on the door grabbed his attention. He stood up expecting Laira Runerie, but in contrast of a teenager, a mature woman was outside.

It was Emma Losac.

Instead of a motherly dress, she was wearing a formal attire. A glint of sadness could be seen in her eyes as she smiled and spoked in a cheerful voice, "Niel said you're in charge now. Just came to say 'hi' to my new landlord."

Sy chuckled and motioned inside, "You're back! Come in."

Since he could afford to accommodate people in his apartment now, he was more than willing to let someone inside.

Just as she sat down on the sofa, Sy asked in curiosity, "Where's Lily and Chris?"

Emma's expression went sullen. She answered with a weak smile, "Their grandparents took them. The real ones."

"Oh!" Sy noticed that there was more to it and did not want to pry any further. With the gloomy atmosphere, he tried to cheer the yellow hair.

"I was writing a book. Maybe you're interested.." Sy suggested seeing that Emma was a very intelligent woman. Her wits could be noticed whenever she spoke or when she's making an expression on her face.

The yellow hair raised both brows pouting her thin lips in a teasing manner as Sy handed over a projector. The man could only chuckle at her action.

Emma activated the projector and a holographic image appeared, showing a continental planet she had never seen before. She was instantly entranced and couldn't help but praise in a small voice, "She's beautiful!"

"More beautiful than any other planet." Sy added. Their eyes met for a brief before she started reading the description.

[Terra - mother planet to all humans.]

"This is our ancestral planet?" Emma exclaimed, her eyes widened in greater admiration.

"The all giving planet. No need for vaccinations to adapt on an alien atmosphere. No terraforming. She gives it all. We can just live normally in her care." Sy explained.

Emma let out a short chuckle as she delved into its rich history.

While she read, Sy went to his luggages and took out the iron he borrowed from her during the storm. He started modifying it to fulfill his promise - first by returning its safety measures.

After a few minutes, the young pioneer took the device and presented it with a hesitant voice, "Your iron.. I made some modifications. You don't need to manually trigger its lasers as they would activate on their own according to the moisture of the fabric.."

Emma looked up and saw the iron. Her eyes widening by the second as good memories flashed in her mind. She abruptly stood up - her eyes watery. With a quick stroke, she pulled the man into a hug.

This was the first time Sy felt the embrace of another person as a sense of warmth comforted him. He was always alone back then. Never knew the console of people who cared about him.

Of course, he was a man. Emma was ruthless going full on pressing herself against him. He could easily distinguish her beautiful form concealed beneath her suit. In his vision, he could see her attractive hair - her perfumed scent lingering in his nostrils.

Unsure of what to do like providing emotional support, he only managed to gently pat her back.

She giggled at his strange action and pulled back. Wiping her tears in a graceful manner, she took a good look at him. With a quick and teasing frown, she snatched the iron and turned, joking, "I still have my ambitions on Logria. Also, I copied your book from the data files. Might as well publish it myself."

'I only finished the 1st Volume.' Sy was about to say when Emma swung the door open. She glanced with narrowed eyes, and a flirtatious look on her face - she asked, "If I had kissed you, I would have taken your first, right?"

Sy contemplated for a moment and answered without shame, "Basically - yes."

Emma giggled. Sy was a strange man. He did not act like other men. She correctly guessed that he was a highly educated person since he knew of Terra. As she left, an anticipation grew inside her to have another conversation with him but on a different mood. At the moment, an urgent matter required her attention. Since her family had went ahead and backstabbed her and did not even exhibit any form of guilt when confronted - she wanted her own turf.

Sy was secretly watching her retreating figure. He had sensed that something was different about her when she mentioned that she had ambitions in this desert planet. With her adopted children taken away - probably in a forceful way, she might make her way back to politics. The time it took for him to realize that he was deeply contemplating the issue was over ten minutes.

Sighing, he shook the thought and was about to enter when the figure of a man made its way to his doorstep.

"Sy!" A man wearing a white safety helmet which projected a screen on his left eye, greeted with a grin on his face.

The young pioneer scrounged up his memory for a second and eventually recalled the person. This guy was one of the men who helped in building 'The Mole'. "David! What brought you here?"

The man chuckled, responding, "It's impressive that you still remembered me." He added, "I called Niel and he said you're in charge here until he return."

"Yeah. I get that a lot, nowadays."

After another chuckle, David went straight to his purpose of visit, "The central government is planning to build more underground facilities to act as new evacuation centers during a massive storm. The Fanick's mech facility would be connected to underground tunnels, and I need you to sign a few documents for admittance."

"Tunnels?" Sy scratched his chin, "I can't sign it yet. Workers will start upgrading the facility in a few days."

"We can always rework the plan after the mech facility was remodeled." David stepped closer, retrieving a projector in his pocket. "Here."

A holographic 3D mapping the entire city was displayed by the projector. Sy instantly frowned upon seeing it and pointed out, "These structures are located in key points where the city could develop and expand. This project will impede it's progress!"

David laughed nervously, explaining, "The Central Government sends out tasks that I, in turn, implement. It's the architects in Pyr that designed this."

"Give it!" Sy snatched the projector and went inside his apartment.

After some time, David grew impatient as he took a peek inside and his eyes widened after seeing Sy revising the design, his hands waving with speed.

"Done!" The younger man went outside and presented the new layout. "We can't let people who did not even took a single step in Logria half-assing their work!"

Upon activating the projector, David's eyes almost popped out from their sockets.

"This.." Mouth agape, he looked at Sy like he was a monster. Even though he could not understand most of the blueprint, he was still a decent Construction-tech Specialist, and knew that the new design portrayed a surface and underground city, and it will take an immense budget to finish it.

"You can just purchase the materials needed and the Central Government will liquidate it." Sy clamped his arms around the older man's shoulder.

"Haha.." David laughed weakly. He corrected, "That's not how it works!"

"Come on! You can even show the mayor to determine the course of development." Sy signed the virtual documents with a smile. He started laughing in a sinister way - his tongue wriggling like a snake - unnerving the older man.

"Ak-ak ak ak ak!" Sy entered his apartment.

David disabled the projector and made his way down. Only after he entered his hover car did he study the blueprint again. Sy did not only revised the underground design, he also made a new layout for the surface, even making a new protection field. The center of the underground was a huge reactor surrounded by a hollow space - meant to be future blocks for new facilities. Four smaller reactors were located on the outer rim of the underground, encouraging the city to expand outwards. The tunnel highways were a bit complicated for him to understand, and needed the assessment of other specialists.

'I need to show this to someone!' David thought. The mayor of the city was an incompetent fool. He thought of someone he had just met. Attaching the data file, he scrolled through his Comms.

[Emma Losac]