Lightning Seeker

The Libertatem

Vale bolted through the door of her cookie-cutter house as soon as her mother, Kriss, turned her back. She couldn't take that look of disapproval today, not when history was being made just a few blocks away. She knew her mother would forbid her from going if she knew what Vale's plan was. But she had to do this before she lost her chance.

Turning the corner down the street, Vale ran by a small store and caught her blurred reflection as she dashed passed. Her messy black hair was pulled into a ponytail and her dark green eyes were bright with excitement. She sprinted across the busy street, ducking under hovercars that honked in protest and skidded to a stop on the sidewalk outside of an electronic store with a large neon sign posted in the display window.

Own Your Very Own Robot!

Perfect Companion, Maid, and Interpreter.

1,300 Petabytes. 325th Generation! Only 400 Painite's!

Vale openly laughed. Robots had been as common as household pets for years, and yet, somehow, they still found a way to upgrade them like any Apple product from back in the early twenty-first century. Now in the year, 2312 things were different. Technology touched everything. People ate food made by technology, were taught by technology and were transported by technology. Most human interaction wasn't even necessary, which caused every new conversation to come across as strange and full of anxiety.

There was hardly a job that a robot or computer couldn't do better, so the thought of any human having a job seemed silly. Instead, if people wanted to work, their only option was to be in the entertainment industry. Humans could write books, paint pictures, star in television shows, and create music. Entertainment was the only job that robots didn't run. Food and other items were dirt cheap, and money literally grew on trees in beautiful gems called painite's. Kriss had a tree full of them in their backyard.

I'm short on time. Pulling a small sphere out of her backpack, Vale threw it on the ground and watched it expand into a large hover disk. Stepping on it, she kicked the ground and was propelled forward at forty miles an hour.

Rounding the corner, she shot down a small alley, her eyes glued to a set of large letters in the distance. "Balboa Pier" was written onto a faded broken-down sign that looked out of place, too old for its surroundings. Vale had always wondered what that name meant. All anyone could tell her was that it was from before their time.

Balboa Pier was used as a cargo dock, with stacks of metal containers blocking the ocean's horizon across the open water. A swirl of fish and oil filled the air, growing stronger the closer Vale got to the dock. She spotted a large metal platform that held a crowd standing next to a massive ship.

Vale slowed the hover disk, jumped off, and shoved it into her bag as it retracted into a small circle. She ran up the dock towards the crowd, her eyes focused to the large ship ahead, struck by how breathtaking it was.

She had never seen anything so magnificent in her entire life. The Libertatem was the first Lightning Seeker airship to be controlled solely by humans. It was styled to look similar to the sea-bound ships that sailed the seas before her, with one minor difference. Jets and air propellers adorned her exterior, ready to thrust her into the sky. The jets were designed to take in the carbon dioxide and pump out oxygen. The mainmast was over one hundred feet tall, and the length from the bow to the stern was seventy-five feet. The ship was made up of red oak, with a black cherry hue. It was menacing, terrifying, and beautiful.

The ship emanated a deep foreboding hum as Vale approached it. She couldn't decide if it was warning her to stay away or calling her to come closer. She soaked in the sight as she walked the length of the dock and pushed through the crowd of people that waited to watch the captain take the ship up.