J Samuel Diehl

The dome was the first thing built. Its surface was polished and perfect, as only these builders could manage. While the next phase begun, the overseers placed the final device above the dome, in the thirteen perfect circles built for the device. The builders focused next on the outlining areas, gathering the raw materials into organized sections throughout the inner grid. As metal, plastics, wood, raw carbon, and stone travelled the field, structures started to rise.

The structures looked first like soft fluffy things while the raw materials were pulled together, but by the time phase three had begun; little townships could be seen through the edges of the dome. The remaining materials travelled along newly constructed highways, through pipes created below ground, and pulled into a mass under the final device as it hung a mile above.

This building raised from the center mass, climbing higher towards the ceiling of the building field. It filled out and smaller but similar structures formed around it. Soon a spiraling metropolis rested in the center of the field, surrounded by outlining suburban residential and light commercial blocks. These sections soon gave way to what remained of the surface’s wilderness, and private expensive homesteads and support facilities for agriculture and light industry.

The phases checked out complete and every building was in its correct location. The overseers were pleased, and gave the go ahead order for the final device. It hummed, but its effect was invisible to the naked eye. Despite its subtlety it still killed billions. The tiny builders that had created this new colony space were dissolved in electromagnetic pulses. For the safety of the colonists no nanite with such building power could be allowed to survive here.

In the last moments of the device’s actions, the overseers lifted it away. As it tore free, the dome dissolved much as its creators had. It seemed to shatter at first only to fall to the surface not as glass, but as sand. Within weeks, first wave colonists would come into the city and install the final features to the structures, the wiring, painting, and personal touches that would give the true permanent colonist the peace of mind to live here, to think of this place as home.

This new world was a product after all, and it would not pay to not live up to the standard.

The dome was the first thing built. Its surface was polished and perfect, as only these builders could manage. While the next phase begun, the overseers placed the final device above the dome, in the thirteen perfect circles built for the device. The builders focused next on the outlining areas, gathering the raw materials into organized sections throughout the inner grid. As metal, plastics, wood, raw carbon, and stone travelled the field, structures started to rise.

The structures looked first like soft fluffy things while the raw materials were pulled together, but by the time phase three had begun; little townships could be seen through the edges of the dome. The remaining materials travelled along newly constructed highways, through pipes created below ground, and pulled into a mass under the final device as it hung a mile above.

This building raised from the center mass, climbing higher towards the ceiling of the building field. It filled out and smaller but similar structures formed around it. Soon a spiraling metropolis rested in the center of the field, surrounded by outlining suburban residential and light commercial blocks. These sections soon gave way to what remained of the surface’s wilderness, and private expensive homesteads and support facilities for agriculture and light industry.

The phases checked out complete and every building was in its correct location. The overseers were pleased, and gave the go ahead order for the final device. It hummed, but its effect was invisible to the naked eye. Despite its subtlety it still killed billions. The tiny builders that had created this new colony space were dissolved in electromagnetic pulses. For the safety of the colonists no nanite with such building power could be allowed to survive here.

In the last moments of the device’s actions, the overseers lifted it away. As it tore free, the dome dissolved much as its creators had. It seemed to shatter at first only to fall to the surface not as glass, but as sand. Within weeks, first wave colonists would come into the city and install the final features to the structures, the wiring, painting, and personal touches that would give the true permanent colonist the peace of mind to live here, to think of this place as home.

This new world was a product after all, and it would not pay to not live up to the standard.

Corporate World by Justin Diehl is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.