Kepa wasn’t sure what time it was when he woke up. If there was a way to access the time in his room, he couldn’t find it. And, while he suspected the pod next to his cot was meant to help him with his… bodily functions… he couldn’t figure it out either.

He approached his door, the sphere in his hand, and it silently opened. The big circular room had about the same number of people as before – maybe ten to fifteen – but they were scattered in different parts of the room at different tables. He scanned the room and saw Latxe sitting at one of the tables with a couple of other people, a man and a woman.

He approached the table. Before he got there, Latxe looked up. “Kepa!” she greeted him enthusiastically. “How did you sleep?”

“Good,” admitted Kepa. “Um…” he began and paused. “Could I talk to you for a minute?” He looked at the other two at the table. “In private?”

Latxe shrugged and stood up. She and Kepa walked a few steps away. “Zer gertatzen da?” she asked. “What’s up?”

Kepa looked sheepishly at his feet. “I… I can’t figure out how to use the toilet,” he mumbled.

Latxe smiled, explained to him how the pod worked, and let Kepa find his way back to his room. A few moments later he returned, completely groomed and refreshed. He sat at the table.

“That was amazing!” he said. 

“What?” asked the other woman. She was blond, with her hair cut short and various patterns that didn’t mean anything to Kepa cut into the stubble. 

“The toilet!” exclaimed Kepa.

The woman looked at Latxe. “What’s he on about?” 

“He’s never seen one of our pods before,” she said. 

“Seriously?” asked the man, who was probably shorter than Kepa but much more muscular. He had longer dark hair that fell past his shoulders. “Where did you come from where you didn’t have a pod?”

“The countryside…” began Kepa before Latxe interrupted him.

“He’s been away for many years, in what used to be the United States, living off the land and all.”

The man nodded as if he understood. “That’s cool!” he said. “I’ve always thought about trying that.”

Kepa looked around the room. “What happened to the door we came in?” he asked, noticing there was just a blank wall.

“It’s gone,” said Latxe matter of factly. “Like it never existed.”

“How?” stammered Kepa.

“Nanobots,” said Latxe. “They are everywhere, they build everything and destroy everything. They clean up our waste. They tend our gardens. They do everything.” She held up a small tablet about the size of her palm. “With this, we can control a small cluster of them, within a few meters. We can get them to do what we want, like create a door out of nothing.”

“And make it disappear,” added the other woman.

“Wow!” said Kepa, just staring at the blank wall. “This time is so amazing!”

Latxe, the woman, and the man exchanged questioning glances. 

“This time?” asked Latxe.

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Kepa walked through the door. The inside of the large room was nondescript. It was a large circle, with a row of doors that ran its circumference. Inside the circle were various tables and chairs.It reminded Kepa of a cafeteria as much as anything. Everything was white: the walls, the tables, the chairs, even the doors. A few people were scattered, sitting in twos and threes, at some of the tables, but for the most part, the large room was empty. Kepa didn’t see any computer screens or any of the technology that defined the cavernous operations center they had just escaped.

“This is the baserri?” he asked Latxe as she led him across the room to a desk that sat directly opposite to where they had entered.

“Bai,” she responded. “We call it the baserri because of its simplicity. It doesn’t have any of the fancy equipment, to minimize our chances of detection. It’s a waystation, if you will, a place for us to regroup after events like earlier.”

“You mean, that happens often, when they find you?”

Latxe shrugged. “I wouldn’t say often, but certainly more often than we would like. Fortunately, they haven’t found this place.”

“Yet.” A large black man sat behind the desk. The left side of his face was heavily scarred and Kepa noticed that his left arm seemed different somehow. The coloring wasn’t quite the same as his right arm. He wore a simple white shirt and what looked to Kepa like blue jeans. “But they will,” continued the man, “someday.”

“It’s good to see you too, Jorge!” Latxe went around the desk and gave the man a hug. “It’s been a while, but I see you are still your same grumpy self.”

“Someone has to be,” said Jorge roughly, though a hint of a smile peaked through as he spoke. “You fools are too reckless out there.”

Latxe shrugged. “We aren’t going to change things hiding all the time.”

Jorge grunted. “Just wish I could be out there with you all, I guess.”

“You know we need you here.”

“Yeah, yeah…” began Jorge before cutting himself off. He looked over at Kepa. “And who is this? I don’t recognize you.”

“This is Kepa,” said Latxe. “Olatz recruited him and his friend, Maite. Maite was captured in the raid.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Jorge, genuine concern in his voice.

“Mari… I mean Olatz said we’ll get her back,” said Kepa.

“I’m sure we’ll try,” said Jorge in a way that left Kepa unsettled. But before he could question what Jorge meant, Jorge had pulled two spheres out of the desk. “Rooms 103 and 156 are available,” he said as he tossed a sphere to each of them. “Olatz isn’t here yet, but she always likes to take the long way. She should be here soon.”

“Mil esker, Jorge,” said Latxe as she led Kepa back into the common area. “It’s been a long day,” she said. “Go get some rest. When Olatz gets here, we’ll figure out what to do next.”

Kepa nodded absently as he looked at his sphere. 156. He found the door to his room, about halfway around the circle from the desk to the now-missing door they had come through. As he approached his room, the door automatically opened and he stepped inside. The door silently closed behind him. It wasn’t a big room, but it was clean, almost sterile. There was a cot and a strange pod next to it, large enough for him to step inside. He ignored the pod and collapsed on the small cot. Within moments, he was fast asleep.

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The baserri was not at all what Kepa expected. He had thought it was likely a rural outpost, surrounded by trees, just like the baserri he shared with his ama back in his own time. This baserri, however, was about as far from that as one could imagine.

Latxe had led Kepa through the tunnels until they reached a ladder that led through a small hole in the ceiling. Latxe pushed a stone in the wall and a small compartment opened up. Inside were several bundled packages. Latxe rummaged through them, muttering to herself. “Female, large. Male, small. Male, medium.” She grabbed that one and tossed it to Kepa. “Female, small.” She took that one for herself. 

“Go ahead and get changed,” she said as she started pulling off her robe. “These robes will be too conspicuous up there.”

Kepa blushed as he started pulling off his robe. He turned as he saw a flash of Latxe’s naked skin, blushing as he revealed his own body, naked except his underwear. For whatever reason, he felt more awkward than he did when he wore that transparent bodysuit. He quickly tore open the package she had given him and put on the clothes without really looking at them. When he was done, he turned.

Latxe was already dressed and looking at him curiously. “Not quite your style, I don’t think, but it will do,” she said with a smirk. Kepa looked down at himself. He was wearing red rubber pants that almost squeaked when he moved. His shirt was white, but with billowy arms that ended in large square cuffs. The hem of his shirt was also square shaped.

Latxe, on the other hand, looked stunning. She had on a white bodysuit that hugged her body tightly. Ribbons of color wrapped around her at various angles and slightly hovering over her body. One arm was covered in shades of blue, the other in shades of red. They merged as they met her body, blending into purples that encircled her torso before splitting again into reds and blues, this time on opposite legs. 

Latxe winked at him before she shoved their robes into the cubby and closed it and then started climbing the ladder. On the other side, hands waited to pull him up and out. Two other figures, both women, grabbed his hands and pulled him into the sunlight. 

They all stood at a blank wall at the base of one of the city’s many skyscrapers. As they stood there, a few random people walked by, not paying them any attention. They were dressed in some of the strangest outfits yet and Kepa wondered if anyone would really notice them wearing their robes. 

The two women kept glancing up and down the walkway. After a few moments, there was a lull in the pedestrians. “Orain,” said one of the women. Kepa watched as the other woman, tall and dressed in all black except her eyes, which were stark white, pulled out some kind of handheld tablet device and started tapping at the screen. A moment later, Kepa watched in astonishment as a door materialized out of nowhere in the wall.

Latxe ushered Kepa in as the two other women hung back. “Welcome to the baserri,” she said.

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Maite stood at the edge of the patio and looked over the city. She watched as, in real time, a new building, a tall sky-scrapper, appeared in the distance. First its core structure grew literally out of the ground. Then the walls. It was another one of these organic structures, with numerous pods growing out of the sides covered in trees.

“How?” she asked in awe as she turned back to De Lancre.

“Nanotech,” he said with a shrug. “I admit, I understand none of it. It is so far removed from what we had in my time. But, my understanding is that there are literally billions of little robots that swarm together to build these things. Like an army of ants, but doing our bidding.”

“Who’s bidding, exactly?”

De Lancre shrugged again as he took another sip of his coffee. “Not mine, if that’s what you are asking. If I could control them, then I would have routed Marina a long time ago.”

“Then who?”

“There is some central computer that guides them. It does simulations of what is needed most to adapt the city to the needs of the people. It anticipates growth, changes in the economy, those kinds of things. And it builds new structures or takes down old ones based on those simulations.”

Maite shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. “It’s so amazing.”

“I thought you might find it interesting. At the ground level, it is hard to appreciate how the city is almost a living organism, and I mean that literally. But, from up here, you can watch it change, watch it grow and almost breathe.”

Maite sighed and turned back toward the table. She sat down, grabbed her coffee cup but just stared at its surface. She looked up at the man across from her, who she realized had been watching her intently. She had to admit that he was an attractive, even handsome man. And he certainly had his charms.

She quickly took a sip of coffee to hide the blush that rushed to her cheeks.

Once she had regained her composure, she put her cup down. “So, what now?”

“That’s up to you,” said De Lancre with a smile that made Maite’s blood go cold. “I’d like you to stay, to get to know you better, and to show you this world I’ve helped make. However, unfortunately, I can’t let you leave. You are simply too dangerous to be out there, plotting against me. So, you’ll stay regardless. It just depends on if it will be as my guest or my prisoner.”

A cold shiver ran down Maite’s spine, but she did her best to hide it from De Lancre. 

“I…” she began. “I would like to get to know you better too.” 

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