"It's like black glass, the way it shimmers in the sunlight, both reflecting and absorbing the light. The air around it looks like a mirage, small pebbles and dust swirl around it suspended in the air by an unseen force. The raw power felt from just standing a few feet away is something that can only really be described as a religious experience, something so extraordinary flows through the skin and into the mind. It is power, the dark impossible power that drives the universe forward." - Sanctum Anima

Darkness outside of the city, in the city, a bright never ending day and on the outskirts a twilight of city life and the blackness that falls just outside of the perimeter. The familiar music of the city echoes through the clean ordered streets. The lights from the towering light spires of Aurelian news blanket exposed surfaces with blue and purple. The unblocked wind from the outside of the city buffets the brutalist apartment building, howling against the armored windows. The shadow of a large man marches along a catwalk towards a line of blue doors. He stops at one and the exterior door light flicks on, illuminating his heavy but muscular physique. Thud, thud, thud He kicks his boot against the door.

"Ciruna!" The man shouts into the door, reflecting the noise into the endless night behind him. "We're going to miss the train if you don't hurry up!"

Inside the blue door there is a small apartment, a kitchen with a fold out wall table and two chairs. A rehydrator, quick oven and a refrigerator line the short wall and a small couch in a nook off to the left. Between the nook and the front door is a room with door leading to the bedroom/bathroom combo. Everything is neat and tidy and a woman lays in bed face down in the pillows. The woman rolls over covering her head with her pillow.

"Sleeping" She groans, not loud enough for the man to hear exactly what was said but loud enough to hear her voice.

"The spaceport train leaves in twelve minutes! We don't have time for whatever you're doing right now" the man yells into the door in a menacing but concerned tone.

Delirious, she thinks to herself "Why is he talking about a train... it's not a workday today... spaceport? We only use the spaceport for..." The woman's eyes spring open and she pauses to gather herself for a moment. She excitedly but calmly gets out of bed, pressing a button on the side of the bed as she leaves. As she hurries towards a small locker adjacent to the door, her bed makes its self. Pulling off her night shirt and quickly throwing on her day clothes and stepping into her shoes. She inserts a small device in her mouth before buttoning her blouse and tying her shoes. Thud Thud Thud the door sounds like it is going to rattle off of its mount this time. 

"Get your ass out here woman! We can't miss this train!" He shouts into the door as his booming voice bellows against the imposing structure. 

Another door down the catwalk opens and a couple in identical work attire exit, hearing his tone of voice they shoot an agitated glance towards the man. 

"Should we get the authorities?" the couple says, almost in unison.

The large man turns to look at them and smiles, "Nope", he lets out a brief chuckle, "Everything's all good here, thanks though."

The couple smiles and walks off in the opposite direction towards a lift to take them down to the transport level of the building. 

He turns his head back towards the door and rests his forehead on it "You need to hurry up, people are looking at me now and asking questions" the man says through gritted teeth pressing his face against the door as to make the sound of his voice as inaudible to those around him as possible.

"I will be right there" the woman replies in a loving but annoyed tone, loud enough for him to hear, but muffled due to the mouth sanitizing device.

She then hits a key pad and the door to her room slides open, as she steps out of the door she removes the device from her mouth and slings it towards the kitchen, it smacks the opposite wall with a thwack and lands on the counter. She turns towards the front door as she fashions her hair into a quick ponytail, bending down to pick up two travel bags upon straightening she kicks the exit button to the right of the door. *Swoosh* the door slides open rapidly. The man who was previously leaning against the door stumbles into the apartment catching himself on the door frame and with his right leg outstretched. 

"Waiting on you now Shadrick" as she squeezes by and steps past him onto the catwalk. She thinks to herself "Close front door" and a beeping noise can be heard from the door. 

"Front door closing" A robotic voice exclaims.

The man pushes back and leaves the doorway, just as he does, the door closes. He straightens up and hurriedly walks catching up to Ciruna. 

"Your door could have crushed me you know." Shad remarks to her.

"I didn't tell it to override the safety, you had all the time in the world to leave before it shut" She says confidently. Although it does bother her that her boon thinks she would let him get hurt. "Lets just get to the train" She says to him as she quickens her pace. 

The two briskly walk to the lift and hit the button for the transportation level. The small tube lift arrives with a hiss. The curved door opens and a holographic number counts down from seven on the wall. Both Ciruna and Shad enter the lift and the countdown continues. 

"Stand Clear" a robotic voice announces as the countdown hits two, then one and the door quickly slides shut. 

The lift plumets the two down towards the ground stopping abruptly at the pre-determined transportation level. The door opens and the two disembark and hurry towards the train platforms. The usually packed room is nearly empty as the last train is about to leave the station towards the center of the city. The two start into a dead sprint at the same time and make it to one of the train sections, climbing on before it begins to move. As the train moves towards the exit, a rounded transparent wall lowers over the side of the train protecting the passengers from the outside elements and locking them safely inside. The train quickly picks up speed as it leaves the station and races outside towards the bright city center. 

Ciruna and Shad both grab hold of a dangling handle to keep themselves upright. The car's adherence drone descends from the roof of the car and floats down the center hallway. Each individual plugs into the floating silver sphere in turn, only for a moment and then unplug themselves after the device beeps and briefly lights up blue. As it approaches Shad and Ciruna they both remove a small tethered device from their left wrist and unwind it as they pull it out. Plugging themselves into the device, the device reads their ID's, confirming they are meant to be on the train, it then flashes through some important news and downloads into their ancillary memory bank. 

"So are we going to talk about what just happened?" Shad says to Ciruna, leaning towards her but looking out of the train window. "You usually get me up, is something wrong?" he continues.

"Honestly... I don't know. I was having this strange dream that I couldn't escape and then I heard your voice. I could have sworn it was only around midnight, I haven't been drawn into a dream like that since I was a kid" Ciruna explains with a slight tremble in her voice. 

"Care to elaborate?" Shad asks in a comforting quiet tone.

Ciruna bows her head, closing her eyes and begins, "I don't remember much, but I heard screaming, like someone was in a lot of pain and I was engulfed in darkness. I just remember being filled with fear and when I heard your voice the dream abruptly changed from total darkness to something much more enjoyable and I was no longer scared" she looks up at Shadrick, "Honestly I wish I could remember more but that's it, the longer I'm awake the harder it is to recall"

The train car rocks back and forth, the sound of it cutting through the air can be heard throughout the car. The lights from the city outside flash through the dimly lit cabin and the safety straps hanging from the ceiling sway and forth with the jolting of the train as it navigates turns. A faint voice can be heard from one of the visual displays advertising some new biomechanical upgrade. A soft murmuring can be heard from the other passengers sharing the car. 

Shadrick looks intently at Ciruna, clearly concerned and in deep thought. His eyebrows are furled and his masculine jaw appears to tighten as his face contorts to speak again, "Is this the first time you've had a dream like that?" he asks, worried her answer will be no.

"Yeah, the first one, and hopefully the last. I'm honestly dreading falling asleep again." she says with a more even tone. Seeing the concern on Shad's face, she adds "I am sure it was a one time thing though", giving Shad a reassuring smirk from one side of her mouth, however her eyes betray the smile and Shad knows she is smiling to keep allay his worries. 

The train rocks more violently as it turns into the station and the sound of the grav-lev system lowering power whines throughout the train as the train comes to a rest at the station. The large glass doors slide up the side of the train, opening for the passengers to disembark as a voice announces to them information about the station and safety measures at the spaceport. As Ciruna and Shad disembark the train they walk out into a narrow hall leading to a large atrium.

As they step into this atrium the shear scale of it comes into focus. Towering pillars line the center of the room as they hold up the immense glass dome. The walls are a beautiful polished black stone with a gold colored inlay, the green black swirls in the polished marble floor glimmer in the light from the ribbon lamps on the pillars. A large ornate fountain with statues depicting a man's service to a group of people sits in the center and exotic plants run the length of the atrium.

Many thousands of people are now in front of the two as they begin walking towards the far side of the complex. Although the construction of the room and the number of people walking around would suggest an incredibly loud scene, this one is eerily quiet. Not silent but uncomfortably quiet like a library, especially compared to the City that feeds the spaceport. Armed guards can be seen posted all around the room and patrolling. While these guards are not common to be seen in other parts of the city they are not an unfamiliar sight. However there are unfamiliar hooded figures standing at intervals near the boarding spire gates. 

As they join the sea of people walking towards the boarding spires Ciruna looks at Shad, "Do you remember which gate we need to be at?" 

Shad looks beyond the people to the gates squinting, "Yeah of course, just... follow me" he lies to Ciruna with confidence.

They keep pushing through the crowd until arriving at a gate labeled 'Gate 17 Off world Excursions' and below it 'Aurelian citizens only'. In front of them is a kiosk, a woman greets them. She explains that they need to plug in and approve a scan before they can be sent through security and into the boarding spire. Ciruna and Shad nod, an adherence drone descends from a sort of light post and they both plug in. The sphere illuminates blue for each of them. They unplug and the sphere returns onto the post. They are directed to place their bags on a table, then the lady at the kiosk waves them on.

Shad looks at Ciruna catching her eye, she returns the gaze and he smirks pointing his arm outward and bowing while gesturing with the other. She takes the cue and begins forward, giving a chuckle while gesturing with her head. They return their attention forward and begin heading through security, a gaunt hooded figure with a sullen face paces back and forth behind the armed guards at the checkpoint. Never looking at those passing by. Armed guards watch handheld screens as they passively scan all of the passengers for contraband.

As they approach the exit of the security checkpoint Ciruna begins to feel drained, like she had just sprinted a mile. Her posture and demeanor change to suite her new state of feeling. The hooded man stops pacing and snaps his gaze over to the crowd passing through the checkpoint. After a few moments her condition passes and she feels normal again and they move through the doorway into the boarding spire. The hooded man scans the crowd for a moment more, stopping abruptly and whispering something to one of the armed guards. 

Upon entering the spire they see a pillar in the center of the circular room. Looking up they can see that this pillar is attached at various points to the exterior structure of the spire with curved bridges. The pillar its self is circled by doors at its base leading to turbo lift shafts to carry passengers to the appropriate level. A group of pedestals are placed mirroring the doors but at a distance from the pillar.

"Do you think it matters which pedestal we use?" Shadrick asks

"How should I know? I haven't been on vacation before either" Ciruna quips back at him. 

"Did we miss the training for this? Or are we just bad at being Aurelian citizens" Shad says as he pulls Ciruna towards him backing off from the pedestal. "Lets just see what others do, hopefully they know"

As he says this a group of people push past them and place their hands on the pedestal. After a brief moment various colored lights shine below their hands with corresponding colors over the lift doors. The group step away from the pedestal and split up to the lift doors with their matching color. As they approach the lift doors open and a timer can be seen at the back of the lift 37... 36.. the doors shut. 

Shad begins to walk towards the pedestal "That seems simple enough" he says as he places his hand on the pedestal. 

Ciruna follows his lead and places her hand on the opposite side to him. The lights under their hands light up orange and the same orange illuminates above a lift door. As they approach the door to enter a group of armed guards march past them and enter another turbo lift adjacent to theirs. They quickly enter their turbo lift and the timer can be seen at the back and above the door on the inside 7... 6... as it counts down the door shuts and when it reaches 0 the lift shoots up like a rocket, they arrive at their boarding bridge in just a few seconds and the doors open once more. 

They step out of the lift and onto the bridge which is filled with people waiting for their shuttle to take them to the hospitality level of the ship. As Ciruna and Shad exit the lift they see a group of guards entering the crowd and heading towards the shuttle boarding station.

"They look like they are in a hurry" Shad remarks quietly.

"Maybe they missed their last shuttle?" Ciruna adds.

Shad gives Ciruna a puzzled look, "You really think a squad of Aurelian guardsmen were late and missed their shuttle?" he scoffs at the idea, he knows all too well being tardy or missing something is not the Aurelian way.

"Yeah, I guess" Ciruna remarks, as she tries to think of what could compel them to be moving so quickly.

They arrive at the back of the crowd, as they do the shuttle comes in and quick docks with the station, the port side round doors unwind open and before the crowd has a chance to shuffle in, the guards enter the shuttle hurriedly. The masses shuffle in and find seats at the opposite end of the cabin filling in the seats as they arrive. In no time Ciruna and Shad climb aboard and find a few seats near the door.

"Hey hey, look at this Runa. We got prime seating, as they say, the last shall be first" Shad chuckles. 

She looks at him and smiles, "I am just glad to be on our way. " 

They both take their seats and a voice comes over the intercom, "Please prepare for departure in 90 seconds". A seat harness automatically descends, restraining all passengers in their seats. A loud rumble can be felt as much as heard as the shuttles engines increase in power. The passengers are slammed hard into their seats as the shuttle lifts off and achieves escape velocity. The voice over the intercom speaks again "We will be arriving at the cruise ship Titanicus in 24 minutes, passengers will disembark from the starboard side"

Ciruna lets out a laugh, smiling as she looks at Shad "Such prime seating" nudging him with her elbow.