The Entourage · Chapter I — The Children of a Reborn World

Arkadia, the ocean city, beneath a twilight sky

Cosmos-Z · Volume 1

The Entourage

Chapter One

The Children of a Reborn World

Arkadia, Earth · Terrestrial Year 2128

4 minute read · Chapter 1 of 6

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The Entourage · Chapter I — The Children of a Reborn World

The Entourage · Volume 1

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The Hidden Archipelago In 2128, there was a city on Earth that no visitor could place upon a map. Its name was Arkadia.
GPS could not lead you there. No public route ended at its harbours, and no commercial flight announced its name. Those authorised to enter travelled through arrangements controlled by Supra. They arrived without knowing the route they had taken, unable to retrace the journey or identify the city's exact position. Somewhere in a remote part of Earth's oceans, the archipelago kept its secret.
Arkadia was a city spread across islands. Water lay between its districts, beneath its bridges and around the foundations of its towers. From the windows of a passing transport, one island would slip behind another: residential terraces, research complexes, gardens suspended above narrow channels, then a stretch of open sea before the next cluster of lights. I never get tired of this view.
White and silver buildings rose above the water. Transparent walkways linked laboratories to indoor forests. Quiet vehicles crossed elevated corridors while service drones carried supplies between islands. Beneath the surface, tunnels connected districts that seemed separate from above. At night, the archipelago became a constellation upon the ocean.
ARKADIA THE HIDDEN ARCHIPELAGO Type: Artificial archipelago Location: Earth · Milky Way · Zion Terrestrial year: 2128 Systems: Solar power · Tidal energy · Autonomous transit Access: Secret routes · No public GPS location
Supra had withdrawn here to build a protected centre of science, research and power, far from the instability of the continents. Scientists worked beside engineers, physicians and educators, with resources that most of the world could scarcely imagine. Every island depends on the others.
For the people who lived there, its wonders were ordinary. Children grew up crossing the sea on their way to school. Families ate beneath gardens supported high above the water. A delayed island connection could spoil a morning as easily as traffic once had. Yet every crossing, every illuminated tower and every hidden entrance depended upon systems that had to keep working. Beyond the archipelago, much of Earth was still learning how to keep the lights on.
The World After the Final War Eighty-three years earlier, in 2045, the Third World War had shattered the civilisation that began it. The survivors called it the Definitive World War: the final world war. The name expressed a promise made after the destruction, when there was scarcely anything left to win. Keep these dry. We will need them.
Cities had fallen. Energy networks, communications and water systems had collapsed. Knowledge survived in fragments, preserved by people who often lacked the means to use it. For millions, rebuilding began with shelter, clean water and enough food to see another season. The peace that followed prohibited another conflict of planetary devastation. It could not repair the world by decree.
Generations cleared ruins, restored infrastructure and built new cities. Artificial intelligence helped coordinate resources. Robotics made dangerous reconstruction possible. Medicine, engineering and communications advanced again. By 2128, humanity had recovered remarkable capabilities. Its newest cities contained technologies that earlier generations would have considered extraordinary. But progress demanded energy, and demand kept rising. The hospital needs power first.
Hospitals needed stable supplies. Water systems, transport networks, factories and research centres depended upon them. In some regions, a failure in one system could bring several others down. Wealth bought reliability; poorer communities lived with interruptions that could turn an ordinary day into an emergency. The world had survived its greatest war without resolving the inequalities that had helped make it possible.
DEFINITIVE WORLD WAR THE WORLD BEFORE RECONSTRUCTION Terrestrial year: 2045 Scope: Earth · Global conflict Warfare: Autonomous weapons · Attacks on energy networks Aftermath: International peace treaty · Eight decades of rebuilding Legacy in 2128: A rebuilt world facing energy inequality.
Supra had grown powerful through reconstruction, strategic infrastructure and scientific development. Entire communities depended upon decisions made within its institutions. To its supporters, that influence offered a way forward. To its critics, it placed too much of humanity's future in too few hands. Arkadia was its most ambitious undertaking. Hidden behind the secrecy that protected it, the archipelago could pursue discoveries beyond the reach of struggling cities. The question was what it would eventually do with them. What we build here must last.

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