3G: the Glowing Green Goo

Heroes. Idols. Paragons. The undisputed, undisputable social, intellectual and physical peak of the Shelter.

Children wanted to become like them when they grew up. Books were written about their lives. Shows for every age category used their likeness. Movies were made of their adventures. Songs were composed in their glory. Card games were made in their image. Admired by Residents and dotters alike.

Explorers were the only beings mutated enough to survive the Outside without a mountain of specialised equipment. To leave the Shelter. To explore. To actually accomplish the Shelter's main directive. To expand the habitable area.

Every other function in the Shelter served to support theirs, no matter how indirectly.

The path to become one was simple, yet unattainable for most: one had to be sufficiently mutated, in spread and advancement. The Outside was a death sentence for anyone else.

There probably were other conditions and procedures, but it was all children were told in the dot, and Zax hadn't looked more into it later in life. In hindsight, the depictions were definitely romanticised if not totally made up. Marketing. He hadn't thought about it in years, but now was the time.

"What do you mean 'we're leaving the Shelter'?"

"How is that even possible?"

"Every opening is sealed or watched."

How SG had landed in the dot's park was unknown.

"Even you aren't mutated enough to endure the Outside."

"Why are we bringing the whole lab with us?"

The travel preparation took a while, and it merely added to the dotter's confusion. It let Zax gather his thoughts, but it was a mixed blessing. He now had ordered questions, but no answer was coming.

"You'll see."

"It'll make sense later."

"We just do."

Only deflections or silence.

Hip didn't hide his joy at his charge's squirming. The purestrain couldn't even participate in the preparation effort; he didn't know where or how they were going. He could just watch to make sure they didn't damage "his" equipment when loading it for transport.

With no other way to keep his mind busy, he kept going back to the worst implication of this development.

The Black Market have relations with Explorers?

The Black Market can leave the Shelter when they want?

The Shelter is not truly isolated from Outside?!

"Haha, no, don't worry, we're as isolated from the Outside as the Shelter," First confirmation we're not really inside. "and the protections also make getting in or out time-consuming and a thorn in the hooves."

When everything was ready and they were on their way, in a massive windowless vehicle, sturdier than any before and definitely too large for only them, Pimp finally addressed his concerns. Fortunately, they were severely misplaced.

Is that… Good? Reassuring?

"But we do have relations with Explorers and ways to reach them."

Not severely enough.

"…How?"

"Eh, that's history. Literally." He and Hip chuckled. "The short of it is that Exploration is a cut-throat world where law and order are optional, and not all Explorers work well together. It's not that rare when there's a fallout, and one or more of them cut ties, for a reason or another."

"Exploring on their own? Guess they can make smaller groups." Zax figured.

"Sometimes." Pimp nodded awkwardly.

"Or they were simply banished and forbidden from coming back. Or left for dead in a dangerous place. Or barely survived sabotage and betrayal and knew whoever was responsible was ready to finish the job if they came back." Hip complemented bitterly.

"Whoever can live Outside would have to be highly mutated, but they'd still need to eat. They can get hurt, or just get plain lonely."

"Meaning they still need access to the Shelter's resources." Zax concluded.

"And thus, the Black Market was created." Pimp nodded. "Resources from outside and manpower from a top-level mutant, not controlled by the Families or even actively hostile to them, at a lower price than anywhere, in exchange for resources and know-how. It grew from there, with more and more Explorers starting their own squads, who grew in actual factions, who eventually found each other and banded together. Sometime in all that, rogue agents from inside arrived, with the same issues with authorities but not mutated enough for the Outside."

"Grateful for the opportunity to stick it to the man."

"Or just get away."

"And the rest is history, until things ended as they are now." Hip concluded.

"Not an end."

"And how are they now?" Zax ignored Pimp's comment.

It explains a lot, but it can't have been painless.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Around half the Exploration progress is done or directly supported by the Black Market." Pimp casually dropped a bombshell. "The actual proportion is unknown, but it shouldn't be far off. Not every faction participates or even cares about it, though. Most are too self-centred or too weak."

"Wait… Is the Black Market also the Third Circle?!" Zax exclaimed.

The other passengers laughed in reaction.

"There's no Circle after the First, and there'll never be." They explained once calmed down. "What you call the Second Circle is just the Main Families' headquarters and the areas under their Explorers' control. It does hug the Shelter but they don't even close the ring."

"It must be, like, double the dot's area, at best."

"The rest is patches where something important was made or found. Most of those belong to the Black Market."

"Doesn't mean they made it, but they're currently under a faction's control."

"Not necessarily allied either."

"Politics." Their faces twisted in disgust at the mention.

"Guess there's no way to make nanites out there." Zax understood why they packed the whole lab, but it still didn't feel efficient. "I could've made a remote control to manufacture them, and we'd have them delivered."

"No. We can't let other's now where you're going."

"Our relation with the customer is to stay as secret as possible."

"One large expedition can be explained away or hidden. Many small ones, not so much."

"Politics?" Zax guessed.

"Point is, it's a different world, and those people don't think normally. Making a dedicated area and a complete lab, with a tight schedule, at their charge, for a single short meeting, is nothing to them."

"They have the resources to pull it off, and it's not even a show of power."

"I couldn't have done my part without their material support, and it was the easy part. I don't know anyone in the Black Market who owns a vehicle with such carrying capacity, speed and staying power."

"Creepy." Zax stated, unreadable.

The trip continued with lighter topics and relative silence. Zax didn't know how long it took, but it lasted a while. At least a meal and a sleep. They were not particularly fast however; a lot of turns and more or less brief stops made it obvious. It was peaceful, in a way. Until it wasn't.

All it took was three rings of alarm, from somewhere above the roof of their cabin.

"What's-"

Before Zax could finish his question, Pimp and Hip sat up and threw him with them in the seats.

"Belt on. Now." The musclebound man ordered with unexpected curtness.

He followed his own command and attached himself with the safety harness built in the seat. They had been ignored so far. They were made of strange material, but the design was normal and intuitive to use. Zax wordlessly obeyed and bound Migo as best he could in the neighbouring harness.

First the sound changed. Zax couldn't put his finger on it, but something was different in the way the engine sounded. Not a different hum, the cabin's vibrations were unchanged, more like the echoes between it making sounds and the sound reaching them were different.

The reason for the added safety arrived soon after. They were accelerating. There were no more turns on their path.

How far are we going?

"Where are we going exactly?"

He had shouted without thinking, no expecting an answer. He didn't get any.

The acceleration kept increasing. They were pushed in their seats. Zax had it worse than the enhanced mutants, and Migo wasn't much better. Any movement required more and more effort. Breathing was getting difficult and he was getting dizzy. Zax worried when black spots danced in his vision, but his nanites were not blaring in alarm yet. Even thinking was an effort, but he pushed through and mentally launched a diagnostic. They were fine, and his body was not in danger yet. Close, but not quite. By that point, Hip was breathing heavily too, and only Pimp could lift his arms.

Then, finally, the vibrations of the cabin stopped, the spots faded and they took a deep breath. They were slowing down. At least, they were not accelerating anymore.

"What… the stars… was that?" Zax panted once he had caught enough breath. Even the dot's trains didn't reach such speed.

"This thing doesn't look like it, but it's high-level bio-technology." Pimp answered, patting a nauseous Hip to check for issues. "There's a lot of it where we're going. I don't know the specifics. Maybe a super-fuel. Maybe the engine is connected to a tree with high-mobility branches. Maybe we were on a slope."

Not a slope.

His inner gyroscope confirmed it; the fast section had seen some ups and downs, but noting that would explain their velocity.

More importantly; biotechnology? It explained the strange material of the harness. It made sense; the outer layers of the Shelter had basically no conventional technology. It was the logical extreme of the mushroom lightbulbs in the dot. Most equipment was replaced by products of mutations from various creatures. They were safe despite the staggering amount of active 3G constantly around.

Each patch must be radically different.

Since mutations were hard to replicate and non-hereditary. He pondered the implications of this revelation as the fumbled his harness. Since the danger had passed-

"NO!" Pimp burst out and slammed a massive arm across his torso. "Keep it. There'll be another signal when we can unbuckle."

"… Are we in danger?" Zax relaxed and Pimp removed his arm.

"It's just a precaution. If something happens and the vehicle has to brake or take a sharp turn, we'll want to be attached."

Wise.

Zax merely nodded. They were still moving at high speed, even if they couldn't feel it anymore. They might be slowing down too. It was softer than the acceleration, but they could occasionally feel it.

Eventually, a soft stop was felt and the long-awaited signal to unbuckle arrived. They had arrived. A few minutes later and they were brought two coffin-sized cases and a large pile of strange clothing. Inside each box was a smaller, similar pile.

"Environmental suits. Put it around your clothes." Pimp explained as he put the large one on. "They'll protect us from hostile conditions. They might not be enough for you two, so you also get the environmental box. I'll be fine with only the suit, if it's not too long."

"What kind of hostile conditions?" Zax couldn't help but ask. There were so many rumours, all more unhinged than the last.

"To each their own. For this patch, I think it's X-ray radiation, low oxygen, and occasional intense heatwave." Pimp lifted his eyes to browse his memory. "Doesn't matter. The customer's people are responsible for the suit logistics."

It took Zax some time to make sense of the many pieces of the overalls, but they were eventually all appropriately clothed. The helmet heavily restrained visibility, but the box didn't offer much more anyway. Zax still recorded how the old model of suit was designed; adjuster's habit.

They laid in the boxes, Migo sharing Zax's without suit for himself, and off they went. The diminished field of view soon became irrelevant, as the boxes were stacked and Zax's happened to be below Hip's. His one opening was covered. A surprisingly short and smooth trip later, they were released in a humongous warehouse. Out of the box, still in the suit.

Their ride was a massive piece of work, but it would appear nearly diminutive in this room. The pillars, walls, floor and ceiling appeared to be a single piece, but also wooden. Machines he couldn't identify were manned all around them. One seemed to be producing bottled water. Maybe a purification system to make it drinkable? Floral scents and industrial sounds filled the air, making for a jarring contrast.

Definitely biotechnology.

Every single people he could see was an advanced mutant. Not much variety however; mostly scales and athletic enhancements. Not enough to be Explorers however. Pimp would only appear below average in such company. Most had some form of environmental suit, even if not complete. Their mutations protected the rest, Zax figured.

Pimp didn't say a word as they were led past a door, to what appeared to be a fusion between an office and a natural pool. Working on an unclear map, sitting half-immerged in green water, was their reptilian customer. The target of their visit.

The most mutated being Zax had ever seen.

A true Explorer.