Humanity

owever it was habitable. The only problem was that conditions were not entirely habitable for humans. Only the natives of the planet could survive the light from the fearso

gees into their great city where the light from the Jhard would not harm them. After a thousand years the svellik population had diminished to almost the point of extinction. Humans were the race that bit the hand that fed th

of mankind lived downtown in the lawless ghetto. With such a defined divide in the population, the most any child from downtown could dream for was to become an

t was a good thing for the uptowners. The upper-city's nightlife instantly came alive. Fortunately, the days on Manticore were only nine hours while

d from their hiding places and wreaked havoc. Every night was the same downtown; a non-stop riot. There

tunted growth due to malnourishment was common downtown. The uptown tycoons owned all food and water that went in and out of downtown. Most had decided that there was not eno

e boy picked up the pace when he heard an a

closing in on him. He went tumbling when his barefoot struck a dislodged piece of

tion. His blood speckled the ground as both his nose and split toenail

as he jumped out from

efore his back hit the asphalt. He hea

ir boyish appearances. The apparent alpha of the pack wore black goggles to make his face featureless. The metal rim of

sa dinna t'night, " the

from his jacket. Erik screamed 'no' in his own language which was not understood by the boys. He scrambled to his feet and tried to run, but one of the other pack members grabbed him under the arms. N

" he hissed. "Bǎob

boy's intestines were sucked in behind his rib cage which was perfectly defined b

eard the urchin holding him smirk before taking a step back and letting him drop. The

of the other pack members asked. Hi

at Erik's suffering as he bled to death. "We'll start with a leg. Gotta

began to fade just as an animalistic hissing sound echoed through the alleyway. Th

n his own language as a tall figure ove

" a soothing voice hummed as the lit

was a man still calling out his na

ruly understood the purpose of the building in the time when their alien counterparts ruled. In the svellik language, Tenue, the strange grey and gold pyramid was called Knelekt. There was no translation for Knelekt in any human language. The closest synonym w

to the lower city. To move from one building to another without using the filthy streets of downtown, there we

ss important businesspeople and famous politicians tended to avoid the skyways and monorails as they were too publi

f stress as they tried to scrape in the assured voters. Former Chairwoman Penelope Renard from the House of Dragons led with forty-five per c

nnoying part of the whole electoral system was the one month in which she legally was not chairman. For that single month at the end of every decade there was no chairperson. It was up to the senate to mai

ours. Lady Penelope Renard was in a red and golden robe, Lord Finn Yuan from the House of Oxen was in a dark blue, grey and silver robe while Lady Fae Sonata f

n as a stern woman who got things done while Jordanis had been the poster boy who did more work behind the scenes than the public realised. His six-hundredth and fifth birthday was in a few days, however he was still incredibly youthful both physically and spiritually. T

eferring to when Renard had stated that she would 'indubitably' deal with monorails to make sure they were on time an

ed it was a sincere, almost adorable word that would endear me

st likely been lost for a good substitute for the word 'undoubtedly' which was a wor

dates. Neil Van Halogen, he was a six-foot bulky man who did not suit

e dinner party tonight?"

smile. Penelope rolled her eyes –

use just after sundown. All candidates were peer pressured into attending as photographers woul

man was a rookie in the game of politics. At only seventy years-old he was the deputy chairman candidate for the House of Oxen. Although he had had the anti-aging treatment to make himself appear much younger, Koris did not seem to put much ef