FSE

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The shperical craft slowly rotated as it moved through space towards the large, gleaming sphere that was circled with ships of all sizes and shapes. Occasionally a ship would move to protrusions, lower towards them, connect, and give a flash. After a few minutes connected to these docking ports they would move back out to orbit and wait for their owner to return. This was the mega city known originally as New China, but now known as Humanoid Habitation Platform 39.

--Quentin--

"Alright kiddies, time to go get your checkups!" I say half sarcastically, I mean they are adults but they are nearly 87 years younger than me.

"You guys are full grown, right?" I ask, the doctors here don't freeze ageing until the person is completely mature and I really don't want to come back here in a few years.

"I think so." Vincent replies.

"Pretty sure." Elizabeth adds on her own behalf.

"Great. I love solid answers like that." I respond sarcastically.

"Well what do you really mean by full grown?" Elizabeth asks me.

"If you have stopped gaining height then you're done."

"Then yes for me." Elizabeth says.

"Again, I think so, new body and stuff." Vincent said with a bit of a jokingly overdramatic tone.

"I have a feeling you're done, with the change and all." I say matter of factly.

"I guess that makes sense" Vincent replies with a satisfied tone.

"Alright, well it's our turn next for the elevator." I say as I take notice that the last group has gone already.

The elevator returns and opens with a hiss of slightly pressurized air from the climate control. We step into the bleak, harshly lighted metal box and the doors close behind us with another slight hiss from re-pressurization of the elevator.

"Why does it make that noise? The ones back at my father's castle didn't make that noise." Vincent asks with something that could only be described as a child's curiosity.

"A bit of fresh air is pumped in before we start going down, it's pretty much just for trips that go through the center of the city. They have to do that because the center is where they dump all of the waste and it would be toxic to us." I explain in terms I hope both of the being from a younger civilization will understand.

"S-so you mean we're completely sealed in this box?" Vincent asks with audible fear in his voice. I noticed that he had been fidgeting a bit in the tight confines of the elevator, he might be claustrophobic.

And then Vincent began to breathe quite heavily.

"Vincent its ok, we're safe in here, it'll be over before you know it." So he was a bit claustrophobic. I don't really know how to console people very well so I thought that holding him might be something that would help so I hugged him to my chest and noticed him relax a bit when I did.

"Are you going to be alright Vincent?" I ask.

"Y-y-yeah, can you just stay like this while we go down?" he asks a bit shakily.

"Of course I can, don't worry about it." I say, honestly enjoying holding him so close to me.

"Thank you." He says, audibly relieved.

--Vincent--

The elevator soon descended into this city, the deeper it went the darker and hazier it got. Soon we got down to what the screen above the door said was 'Central' and we were plunged into complete darkness.

"Where are we?" I ask, it seemed like we had gone underground.

"We're at the dump, look closer at the water around us and tell me what you guys see." Quentin says with a bit of anticipation shown on his face. Elizabeth and I looked out into the murky, swirling waters and all of a sudden a large tube of what looked like pulsating flesh appeared out of the darkness.

"Eww, what is that!" I say with distain.

"That is one of the creatures they created to clean up this place." Quentin said with a big smile at our disgust.

"How could they create a creature?" Elizabeth asks curiously.

"It's not hard really, I can show you guys once we get back on the ship." Quentin said, visibly excited. He must really like this stuff.

The elevator moved quickly back into the light and buildings and people were visible once more, but we were standing the wrong way up.

"AHH. WHATS GOING ON!?" I scream as my sense of gravity was thrown way off.

"Don't worry about it guys, it'll get fixed soon." Quentin said with a cool, collected voice. Even through the tight hug I was giving him at this point. As soon as he said that the elevator began to spin and soon we were standing upright again. The elevator stopped at what it called 'Central 1' and strange cloth cups with loops on the sides came down from the ceiling.

"Put these on, they will help you breathe." Quentin says, slipping one over the end of his muzzle so I did the same, Elizabeth's mask was different from ours and was more flat for her different face shape. Once we have the masks on the doors to the elevator open and we head through into a completely new world. The buildings stretched into the unseen top of the room and humans and things that definitely weren't humans crowded the street. There creatures were different from the ones who were just coming in from their crafts, these had metal canisters on their face and when they would breathe in and out it would make a hissing noise.

"What are those things on their faces?" Elizabeth asked, beating me to the question.

"Since these people live down here nearly permanently they need better equipment to help them breathe; those metal things filter the air they breathe like these masks, but they are much better at it than these masks." Quentin said, making sure to explain himself fully to us this time.

"Why can't we see the ceilings?" I add in once Quentin was done talking.

"The same reason we have to wear these masks, visitors don't usually go past the first three levels of this place so they don't have to make the rest look pretty, they just have to make it functional. And since they don't have to make it beautiful they let polluting gasses collect here until the bi-yearly venting." Quentin says with a slight saddened undertone.

"Anyways, let's get to the doctor's office and get you guys checked out." Quentin said beginning to move towards one of the massive buildings.

--2 hours later--Quentin--

"Let's see; we've gotten your injections, your enhancements, your neural translators, your repairs, your cell phones, and your identifications. I think that's it." I say, closing my holographic display of a checklist.

"Are we going back to your ship now Quentin?" Vincent asks me.

"Yeah, and you know, I'm glad we splurged on the neural translators because it was getting kind of weird to have to explain things all the time." I said back to him truthfully.

"What exactly do those things do again?" Elizabeth asked, immediately freezing up as a robotic voice answered her question inside of her head with, 'Your personal neural translator automatically answers any questions you may have about.. technology..in your day to day travels.'

"... Never mind" she says, still not used to it.