Episode 5

Zeo Genesis Travelogues

Greetings, star-nomads! You can call me Trev. (You can also call me Trevallion Franklin-Ridgeway III, but I’d rather you didn’t.) I’ve left behind my shallow executive existence to explore the Hundred Suns, to re-connect with insignificant voiders just like you. These are my travels. You’re welcome.

“Thanks to my rescuers I am aboard the forest-carrying eco-ship Soundless Sprinter. Thanks to my former jailers, however, I am without money, sustenance or even clean undies. Consulting the ship masters, I have learned once they deliver their biomes to Saienten I can depart there, or stay on and return to central Astrapelago. I told them that now I have shed the shackles of corporate governance I am like the Fordellian tree-shark: I must keep moving forward or die.

“My zeo piloting saviour, Ms. Nakamoto, having declined my offer of konkwasp mead at an onboard tavern, says she’ll be departing at Saienten’s capital, Tatchidaun. Apparently a growling monster of a metropolis, thriving on free will and anarcho-capitalism.

I believe a person, no matter their background, circumstances or inheritance, can make their fortune in any town; they need only spirit. Capital city? Capital idea!

“Soundless Sprinter lived up to her name. We silently made slip towards Pinnacle heliosphere, but with such acceleration I finally realised what gom pilots mean by having a bad case of the slips...

Disembarking, I was hungry. But not for food. Well, yes, for food, but also, discovery! Tatchidaun is startling, compact with monolithic, dark, buildings, vertically and horizontally held aloft by each other and grav stanchions, like gigantic, broad, three-dimensional cross-hatching. That’s to say nothing of them slowly sliding between one another! Rails one hundred and fifty metres across guide buildings through districts in bewildering choreography.

“I was drawn to one nearby. Goshugi Investments never stops moving just slowly enough for passengers and goods to easily enter and leave. The reason, a securi-D told me, after assessing I was no troublemaker despite my lack of evidenced credit rating, is efficiency. It’s just one of myriad ways the corpo-gov has immeasurably improved citizen-employees’ lives. By workplaces shifting through precincts, work comes to the workers. The timed rotations mean employees are forever mindful of their permitted ‘unproductives’ with loved ones and that the satisfaction of ‘achievement hours’ is always coming closer.

After a scan, the departing drone was mindful to warn me that without money I couldn’t afford even life-saving medical care and I should acquire some immediately. Money, however, was already on my mind.

Catching a glimpse of an unusually gaudy tower, I followed my nose and the building. Should I be right, I could partake in both a skill and joy to quickly remedy my situation: gambling! Naturally, I was correct and was rewarded with the entrance to Seymour’s Caseyno. I just needed a pittance to get the ball rolling