Horace Avenue

"Stand by"

Olivia had decided that for the beginning of this next video she would start around the apartments of the main runway starting from hers that was on the left of the greenhouse, the block near the edge of the hanging platform, from there she would pedal around the hotel little more than one kilometer, she had been preparing for it, or rather, doing all her trips by herself with the help of an e-bike, which helped her a lot but even then, it took her two months to circle the hanging platform, the main avenue, and back.

The only difference this time was that she would be recording with her drone flying in front of her, following pins on both sides of Olivia's hoodie, but directing its movements with her pointer glove one of common use all over the world, to play or interact with new devices, such as smart glasses, old school vizors adapted as smart glasses, VR games, Open World Interactive Games, or in this case to keep Olivia in the frame, and BAZ5 as its secondary priority, opening or closing the frame to fit its playful demeanor according to the scripted program, and as well, to not make a voice command while she spoke with her few followers.

That was only part of the gear she always had in her backpack when traveling around any town or lands, a comfortable set of sports pants, a baggy hoodie over a simple top and a veil, which had been the cause of her problems in the middle east for not wearing the appropriate one or a different kind when she only used it avoid the sunlight; of course she also wore sunscreen, but even if it was water proof and of fifty spf, she had to constantly check for any redness or an itch to reapply, so that was also in her backpack, alongside her medication on one side of the inner divider; extra batteries for Ich1, her drone, and for her phone and laptop; then her snacks, wires, and a bottle of water on the outside, with sunglasses, and headphones hanging on the single strap of her old camera backpack, on either side of the bag and her phone on the handlebar of the ebike.

"Sports gear, backup batteries, water, meds… Oh hello there, hope you had a good weekend, this is Liv.n.let.liV here with another update of my series of videos at the tower, the vase, the nest, the birdcage, the needle, and tee, and so on and so forth… huh? Oh yeah sure, a springboard, you must be a swimmer, or a diver or just close to water, I didn't think of that…"

"Those are easy names to help us understand how this was possible; with architecture, sculpture, or painting it has always been like, we challenge the world in front of us; painting in 2D shapes, but here, we defy our 3D perception, here we have a construction of over three tons, displaying an even lower pressure on the ground above than the whole weight of the building, in this case is the foundation that makes it possible, but also the runway and the nest are being balanced by the constructions at the far end, right where the schools are"

"Okay, I'm ready to go, I decided we should start with the avenue, leaving the nest for last… no, the sphere is important, but the look of it from the underground is better, and I wanted you to see the apartment buildings first, starting with mine… we will talk while I'm pedaling; Ich1 is ready to follow along, and here we go… yes, I think I will be able to pedal that far… no, no cars up here, the runway is only for bikes, or wheelchairs, and walkers; small and simpler vehicles that go under forty kilometers… let me show you"

"… as you can see there, we have bikes with different designs, we have chariots, tandems od as to five seats and more, some of the ridiculous ones for commune or meetings; those kinda freak me out, have you heard of a rat king? Do not search for an image, just trust me, imagine rats circling around like that, and you will have PG-12 version of what I'm talking about… huh? Ha, yeah, look at me saying 'we'… okay, there are also caterpillar bikes, and a self-driven taxi service…"

"No, I'm not using a sound block, nor an add block, this is it, there are no billboards here, nor neon lights, in here there is no need to invade your visual space, after all, you are already able to display any add or notification directly to your phone, or every time you pass the camera around a QR code when you take a picture or are playing or when you are recording a video, the greater camera you got, the easier it will be for it to pick it up…"

"Honestly here is a lot more quieter in every way, not just the avenue, but the entire tower, you can only hear a gentle hum of a machine or two… and as for the countries phone, those are already set to work, unlike those back home where you need to deal with the updates and configurations of the device and then you need to deal with the adds before installing your addblock, so be aware of the ghosts of the adds… buut here on the other hand we get propaganda…"

"HaHaHaHa, got you, ain't it? You thought I had already drank from the cult juice and got all reprogrammed or made into a generated influencer, not even here the video generators are good enough to filter out this face on the screen for a live feed during a bike ride… yes of course many can be filtered, but then the feed would twitch around once I reach the museum… the filters are still too obvious when there is a lot of movement… what's the difference?"

"Well one is for profit and the other is to deliver a message… here are also reminders delivered by your Intelligent Assistant, so do try to configurate your IA or you will get the daily reminders, 'use less water, it is a resource not a commodity' or 'the weather will be sunny today thanks to our team' or 'diversify, earn more garners' but the most annoying I get nearly every hour is my medical notifications, 'reduce your sun exposure,' 'wear sunscreen,' 'your medicine cabinet needs restocking,' each and all with locations, where to get it, who to visit, like an updated version of the yellow pages, in this case it shows me the people willing to lend some aid…"

"…doesn't sounds so bad? Yeah I guess it is normal for you, but I do use lots of medicine; the more help or search you do on your phone, the more options you get on it, seasonal food options, shopping list, cleaning around, we or rather I have not enough money to get me a cleaningbot, or a maidbot, only them can have a clean phone… here I can ask for one, but I need to stipulate reasons, I might be able to mention my health condition and all the work I have to do, but, most of the time, families and researchers get the most help…"

"… oh, you don't know the yellow pages, I think that there is a site and an app, still standing against the big eater with googly eyes around us… but before that, it was a book, an encyclopedia… perhaps you don't know those either, well imagine a book as big as your lap top, but three of them in thickness, filled with… yeah yellow pages, one of the few who recycled to make them; containing information of every family phone around the city, including restaurants, shops and businesses…"

"The similarities here lie on the listing of the app, people willing to help others, teachers, medics, chemists, mechanics, engineers, and it works even as a social media, you toss a question into the main wall and any expert will help you with your problem, if there is any or if you only want to share a message… but mine got sidetracked, where was I BAZ5?"

"Oh yeah visual pollution, well let's just say than on open land we are free to actually see around… wait, have we discovered the reason for it? To be able to look at the country's creation, perhaps it is, but when you point your camera phone while using the country's app, then you see the listings…"

"A pharmacy on the other, studios for yoga, restaurants; usually the ones above are offices, for lawyers, or therapists, book clubs… those emojis indicate what kind of business are located underground… this again? Really? It is not fake food if it keeps you going and helping you go… and they can also do your regular meals, for instance, those restaurants in grey, are closed this season, because, what you call real food is not yet ready for consumption"

"The country avoids the over production for the sake of the soil… well the sake of the country to be correct; some people say that, 'there is really not much need to overdo it,' and part of the work they do here at the tower involves that, the quantification, and control of resources, by knowing everything… and I do mean grabbing an abacus and count the number of people, find out their needs, offer options for living, working, and growth…"

"But that is part of another video, don't rush me, all you need to know now is that all the food I have tried is good, and not once have I had the need to keep track of my wallet; maybe I should make a food or culinary section, for some reason you are getting too excited to mention that; for now, we are finally reaching the roundabout, as you can see, Armand and Castillo opted for a western Europe's aesthetics, Haussmann mixed with some of the farther western of the Lower East side for accessibility, repairs and looks; both mixed in blocks, let's stop here for a moment…"

"but then, we see the flower; the hotel ready to bloom; this time the use of Armand's window panels take the shape of sepals and petals protecting it; the hotel, per se, has an oval shape; but the sepals, serve the same purpose as those around the vase, protection, solar farms and railways for the elevators; same thing as it happens on a blooming flower, the green parts covering the petals, while those became part of the hotel as suits…"

"You see… no, I cannot move Ich1 that far up; BAZ5 give me the upper look, there, the diamond at the top grabbed by the sepals has the VIP rooms; for exactly that, important people invited to join a team, or researchers, or worlds leaders, maybe one or two rich people, Armand says they don't pay to stay there; they eat like us, must abide by the country rules like us, make formal requests about anything they need during their travels, as any of the people living here would. The purpose of those rooms, is purely to show off."

"Now from above, the hotel looks in a way as a lantern's logo from that comic, it has the circle in the middle, the oil tank, the top and the ring protecting it all, in this case, the top and the tank are suites, not as big, nor as impressive as the ones at the diamond, but exclusive, to show any new scientist how they treat their people here, while they prepare them some more permanent accommodations, here at the tower or in other zones of the country"

"On the circle area between the top and the tank there are more rooms, simple ones, I stayed in one of those while I was being cleared to live here, Gil, my boss, would have had a room in one of the suites, from the petals area, those between the sepals; he has made a name around the pirate world… yes he made me call his work that way, his main study focus is pirates and vessels, but his critics of the era tend to be liked and heard among experts and people in general, so, of course he would have got a bigger room here."

"Huh? yes of course, the hotel handles more with the winds, the sepals and the petals sort it out, the sepals take most of the hit, and down there at the arches, it has a swaying mechanism that directs vibrations, redistributing it to a forklike machine that absorbs it and turns it into energy, the petals on the other hand have to do a bit more, by making a second protection wall that redirects the wind into the sepals, or makes air pipes to do the same…"

"…On that note, Castillo and some wind engineers are working on a new kind of solar panels for this structures, I think I mention it on my first video… they want to make the panels move individually, by hooking them from the middle to the railings, this way, making the sepals move gently with the wind, it is not a new concept, it is just taking a bigger approach by turning them also into a wind farm, while protecting the inner structure… now let's talk about what's under the arches"

– Pause the video Luk4… continue with the reading… – Armand had set the notification in his phone to alert him when people talked or showed the tower in all its glory, Luk4 made sure to display it for him, no matter where he was or what he was doing, like right now, once Olivia started a live in her channel as Armand was leaving his house for a visit to some of the other project being made at other locations around the country, then he got the notification and watched the start of the live-feed; he had the tower on his left while the self-driving car parted away from his self-sustained farm he had since before the tower and he stills liven on even once the greenhouse was finished.

Armand wasn't emotionless about it like some of his fellow superstructure owners were when it came to what they could do with all their money, and how exclusive and fancy it was; neither it was that he didn't felt pride at what his people did with all his capital, influence and will to make it a reality; what he wanted was to begin again and be able to move a country away from a path made by others; daring it and himself to devote his adult life to think of the possibilities to reach the future he had been promised when she was young but that had been denied at every corner by the narrowed minded people, that Armand had known since birth at a rich and private town that once was the heart of the shipping commerce of its country in the west, and that later became so exclusive that everybody's believes needed to be aligned, a believe rooted for over two hundred years which revolted around your place in a ladder.

That was one of the first things Armand had to change, to forget about the ladder and think of it as an elevator for others, because he learnt he needed help; starting with money he had plenty of that but what he lacked was a way to be everywhere; for that he needed people he trusted in, or at least people confident enough in the work they were doing; in the country his efforts were no longer blocked on other countries nor by people as it was the case before.

But now, the tower wasn't his, his involvement on most of the creations made in his company were mainly monetary the way he presented his monoxide filters to the world most company took them since they were needed, those who refused became the villains, and Armand made it look that way once he mentioned the uses his filters could have, which could be adapted into cars and aircrafts as carbon monoxide, ammonia and methane collectors which he later used and got back to the same people who gave them the pollutants, that was when his value increased.

But then his help became presential at best; he has only required to give the facts he understood them better than anybody, he had studied each and all of his experts, investigations and results, with numbers; the written material presented no problem for him, nor for Luk4 who since then was his Intelligent Assistant or at that time his answering machine to every new mail, update and event, to help Armand navigate the constant changes of the work that was made at Kuo'SAR, in that way both became smarter at the same time until they reached this point where Armand was the gatekeeper and guide for everything done in the country and for every researcher, leader or idealist like him, the one able to find the best place for them to grow.

"…understood; the drilling on the new geo-thermal system has concluded, no gas pocket has been found, subsequently the layout for the power distribution for the districts can commence, while the gyro team gets ready to continue with the next part of the drilling to reach the ten kilometers mark; subsequently the residual soil is being transported for processing and treatment…"

– There are no issues there, move on to the next one…

"… Golden level notification, the use of KUo'SAR tech has been denied in three countries; the block only includes, the operating system, Intelligent Assistants and satellite communication, it is asked to remove any sign of connection with the company and country's servers and satellite, and to install one of the following OS…"

– … Yes, I know which; send the next request to the vase, block any updates from all of the company's devices excluding those used by our workers there; ask legal to create a new article under terms and conditions that include this new blockage, as per why the devices might not work as usual, and why the assistant might be hallucinating, stop the sell of every tech in those countries, and refuse the change of any of the intellectual property of the company.

"Would you like one to continue with the notifications?"

– Yes of course.

"…it was discovered some gas pockets during the construction in the underground methane…"

– Give me the specifics…"

"Methane in an amount of two thousand metric tons, a relatively smaller one of iron arsenic sulfide…"

– Has the team found any signs of water flow, ponds, or wells around?

"Unconfirmed, it has been found moist but no significant amount of water, the team expects to find an aquifer soon, but the main source hasn't been detected."

– Okay, the team already knows what to do in case they find water, just ask them to keep me informed if they need equipment to prevent any water contamination; I assume they mention it on the report that they will be working slow using drones and filters, from now on; so just make the request and give me the next notification.

"It will be done sir; golden level notification; cloning devices have been able to make decent copies of connected devices inside the tower to gain access through the first and second scanning process outside the gate, its main issue has been processing power, even inside the town, and while using the dirigible-comms, which would involve the use of a connection through one of the re-structured towns near the edge of the net confluence…"

– Is that confirmed?

"Confirmed, but their connection wasn't able to pass the third process of authentication in which is required their devices to provide their current location with a small live feed video, for it they tried linking their devices to the original owner of the device, but their connection went bad while trying to pull the image, and they didn't know the footage worked to see the surroundings, when the location didn't match the surroundings, their devices started to generate the error and their servers overloaded, by now they know this already and will prepare for the next attack accordingly, which might involve the use of a spy…"

– Has the team found out if the attempts came from the outside or from within the country?

"it remains unclear, the security team thinks it is obvious that the people at the edge is responsible for this and the previous attacks, plenty of the code, and access methods may confirm it, but without physical evidence it is still unknown; furthermore, the tech they used is not easy to build, nor to find, which would suggest the involvement of outsiders help…"

– About the device they tried to clone, did they run a background check of the owner? Has the team got a chance to look through the device?

"They have, the owner is a student of engineering that came here to get a firsthand look at the work after an invitation, she was helping with the restructuring of the towns, the team was not able to confirm how, when or if she willingly let her device to be cloned, but the team is going through her whereabouts around the towns, but she was there nearly a year…"

– Gather two teams, one should start from her last day and the other from her first day, and when I speak about the first day, I speak of the day she reached KUo'SAR; or the day we made first contact with her to invite her over; as for the last day, chose the day they tried to use her device to access the tower.

"It will be done sir… sir? Shall one ask for a spy treatment? Or this will be a search for any possible miss handling of technology, insufficient security, or inappropriate background check?"

– The last three would be the best option, but would alert to many people, more than it has already; but the spy treatment might be to invasive for a person who perhaps only made a mistake; just ask for the basic search, official documents, public posts, recording inside the country or outside offices, whereabouts, no tampering, invasion, nor going through any form of communication, ask legal to keep a closer look. Now give me the tower notifications, start with gold, and move your way down, are there any diamond or upper-level notifications?

"It will be done sir… diamond level notification, the wind catcher team has decided the best way to make and install the wind panels around the bird cage to serve as wind and kinetic farm, on top of the solar service it has provided over the years, its designed is being made also to redirect the airflow away from the vase, it will be needed to create a new pole in front of the railway, which means the deactivation of some of the railings up while the construction of the new bases is made…"

– The construction of the ones at the railway can be made last? Or do they need to be built first?

"It is still under debate, it is believed that the new bases for railing poles will be the more troublesome to make, but once the blueprint is ready it will only take two months more over the time the regular poles can be made to be installed; therefore, only the design of the panels has been achieved, here is the design."

– It looks simple enough… on the front, they have found a way to make a drill like spirals shapes in single shards, let's see the specifics… so it is a pinwheel, air hits it from the side, it flows all the way to the back, breaks the air flow while spinning… around the drill shape on the back and… it helps cooling down the pin from friction; simple enough; okay, play me the first tests, I'm concerned about rain and storm season… after the test runs put back the live feed of Olivia's trip around the tower.

"It will be done sir…"