Yahuei Chen opened her eyes at exactly 07:00, the exact same time as every other morning. She felt rested even though she knew her dreams had not quite been normal these past few weeks. She pulled up a tablet to log her most recent one, the purpose and clarity present just seconds ago already trickling away from the forefront of her mind.

It appeared there was still one colony ship in orbit and, at least in the United Americas, there was still one launch base it seemed. This didn’t matter much to her in the grand scheme of things but it was interesting to know. Evidently there was also a colony in Antarctica as well, which may prove to be important in the future. The Atlantic Ocean colonies were most probably doomed in Yahuei’s opinion. There was no way the nanomachines would not be able to spread across water– seeing as how they preferred living material and the ocean was literally the cradle of all life on this world.

As she logged the most recent dream in her personal file, she pondered about the Little Dreamer– as she had taken to calling the girl who’s dreams she visited each night. Everything she saw was through the girl. There was, as of yet, no direct contact between Yahuei herself and any of the other gifted. The Little Dreamer was clearly powerful and showed quite a bit of potential– which was a shame because the world was ending. Yahuei sincerely hoped the little one could get on the colony ship; she would likely prove to be a great asset to humanity in the future.

Yahuei sat up in her bunk bed and looked around her room. It was simple and very gray, but luxurious considering the circumstances. Her position granted her a personal room with a personal bathroom where most other officers had shared accommodations.

Today was a her “day off”. Technically she didn’t have day offs. No one did. But today she was inspecting the upper public levels which were mostly in someone else’s jurisdiction. She was just tagging along as a sort of… supervisor to the supervisor if you will. As she got ready for the day, she pulled on less conspicuous clothing. Going into civilian territory was a little like going undercover, you didn’t want to stand out too much or you wouldn’t be able to get the info you needed.

Just then, her transponder rang, then automatically picked up. She sighed, there was only one person who was able to MAKE people pick up the phone.

“Hey Hey! Who’s my favorite Inspector?” came a young man’s voice. The voice was pretty standard except for a barely noticeable deep reverberation that could be emphasized significantly, if needed, to command respect.

And he definitely used it. A man of his position needed to exude authority. Despite his seemingly playful nature, he was a man that fit his role well. For this was the one and only Great Leader: President Yi Cai.

His first name “Yi” was literally the word for “one” as in “number one”. Which was, in Yahuei’s honest opinion, quite fitting for him. Though she would never admit it out loud to him, she thought he was the only person capable of the current task at hand. Personality-wise he was quite amicable which was an excellent trait for a politician to have. Of course there were times where he was required to not be so amicable and –surprisingly–he excelled there as well. He could reign in unruly government officials and “nobles” who thought they could take advantage of him in an almost ruthless manner.

He first rose to power after the opportune death of his predecessor President Liang. The official records listed “natural causes” as the cause of death, but seeing as how in the age of nanotechnology “natural causes” had a cure, one might deduce some other force was at play. Either way, he now currently held the most powerful position in the nation.

The current government in the New World was a very crude one. But it did the job reasonably well and seemed fair on the surface. There were a total of seven council members or “nobles”. There were three Electors which were elected by popular vote of the people, three Lords elected by the upper class and finally the President who determined his own successor. However, the President’s vote on any matter counted for three whereas the other council members only had one vote each. In order to overturn the President, one would need four council members to vote against him. To make matters more lopsided, if any noble sided with the President, they now needed five out of the six to overturn him.

“President Cai," Yahuei responded, “What an… unexpected surprise.” In actuality, the only thing that was surprising was that he had bothered to wake up this early.

“I’ve got some goood news!” the man responded in a sing-songy voice.

“Oh?”

“I’ve scheduled a meeting with a few others to discuss," President Cai said, trying to bait her with the withheld knowledge.

She didn’t fall for it. “Well, I’ve got a busy schedule today. As usual. You can send me an update later.”

“Isn’t today just public affairs?” the man replied, “I’m sure you can find the time, we’re doing a lunch at around 13:00.”

“Is it really necessary that I attend this?” She sighed. She already knew where this was going.

“You know I always love seeing your deadpan face, especially with those smoking hot glasses of yours.”

Inspector Chen didn’t actually need glasses since getting nanomachine treatment. She looked at herself in the mirror. Dark hair and dark eyes without a trace of emotion. She was wearing a rankless uniform today so as to not stand out. Normally in full ranked uniform attire, the addition of glasses gave her an extra air of authority. She guessed they didn’t look too bad either.

She removed the glasses. Today was more of a casual day, no need for anything unnecessary.

“Don’t you have other, prettier concubines to fool around with?” Yahuei fixed her hair into a tight bun. “If you don’t tell me the purpose of the meeting, I really don’t see why I need to join.”

“But those women are different… there’s just something about you… There's a feeling of power.” As he said that word, she involuntarily shivered then caught herself. She had always had an inkling the way the Leader talked wasn’t entirely ordinary. Even with his enthusiasm and bright mind, there needed to be something else for one to succeed in a political climate such as the one in 2200’s China.

He continued, “But anyways seeing as how you still don’t seem to know, I’ll tell you: Lee Chen is dead.”

Inspector Yahuei Chen’s face broke from the usual blank slate into something resembling surprise. The Enforcement Chief was dead? And she didn’t even have anything to do with it?

“Who killed him?” she asked, straight to the point. “How did he die?”

“I thought you killed him at first, but this conversation has convinced me otherwise," the President sounded thoughtful. “He died of poison. But it’s being ruled a suicide for now.”

“13:00?” Yahuei asked briskly. “The meeting?”

“Yup, I’ll send the location to your transponder," Yi Cai said in a more serious tone now.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I’ll be there, don’t worry," She hung up abruptly. At first it seemed perhaps like this was good news. But there were variables, who killed the Enforcement Chief and why? There definitely were plenty of people that didn’t like him, but few with the power to kill him. The man was paranoid and he was good at it too. Perhaps it really was suicide?

She checked her needle launcher, it was neatly hidden up her left sleeve. A small sling pack over her shoulder with proof of rank hidden inside and a knife hidden down a compartment in her trousers were the only other things she needed. It was time to find some answers.

***

Inspector Chen stepped out of the elevator into the enormous open shared living quarters that housed the upper 40 or so floors. This area was known as the Main Hub. People filed about taking the various elevators assigned to go to their respective work areas. As opposed to the all access elevator she used before, lower class workers were limited to specific elevators that led straight to their assignments. There were hallways to the generators where she had gone a couple days ago as well as the storerooms. Other passageways lead to research study stations, computer centers, and engineering bays for the development of better technologies. There were schools, food distribution and eating centers, as well as meeting places where announcements could be made.

The structures were positioned in a way that formed a cylinder with a large empty space down the center where one could look up and see all the floors above. It honestly was a good idea, despite the space “wasted” it made the place seem drastically less claustrophobic. A large hologram with timed lights at the very top gave the illusion of day and night reducing stress as well as the chance of delirium.

She stepped into a large crowd, heading toward a set of escalators that would take her to an upper level. Her casual uniform blended in with all the other worker class attire. She definitely did not want to stand out too much. “Accidents” happened often. Those who were not fond of the current President would find it very convenient if she were to find herself in one. Despite the stifling amount of monitoring devices strewn throughout the upper levels, there will always be blind spots, one could never be sure what truly happened. And though it would be risky to openly defy the Great Leader, with plausible deniability one could definitely leverage a high-profile death to further one's own agendas.

She kept her needle launcher ready. Bullets had largely been phased out by this time period, at least for law enforcement. Sedative needles were much more suited for the task. They were quieter and could be used to capture rather than kill suspects. Rather than a criminal with a wound that could still shoot back, there was now an unconscious person ready to be processed by the legal system. Of course, shoot enough needles into a person and they could still overdose and die, but the same could be said for bullets.

The time was 08:00 when the Inspector stepped into a small cafe on the 38th floor. This far down, things were still very well maintained, but as you got more and more toward the surface things became more run down, which was a curious thing. Things were inverted here, the upper class lived at the bottom and the lower class lived at the top. The numbers were reversed too, with floor 52 being at the bottom and 1 being at the very top.

The Cat Paw Cafe was a tidy quaint little shop with soft orange interior coloring. There were only three small faux-wooden tables each with two rather comfy chairs with hand embroidered cat paw-print designs on their cushions. The counter wrapped around in an L shape taking up the rest of the small shop. There were three stools in a neat line at the counter each with the same cat paw-print pattern.

The location was relatively out of the way from the bustle of the street which was why Inspector Chen had chosen this place to meet with her informant. They both looked like young women and this sort of place was a common hangout location during recreation periods, so they would blend naturally.

“Welcome Miss Chen!” said the cafe-keeper –a pleasant young man by the name of Lurong– from behind the counter as she stepped into the empty shop. He knew she was an Inspector and of her rank, but knew to keep it under-wraps. “Miss Li hasn’t arrived yet, would you like to order first or…?”

She considered the time. It was still early, but she still needed to meet with another informant as well as at least one of the two district Captains in charge of the upper levels. All before her lunch meeting with the Great Leader himself.

It was probably better to speed things up a bit.

“Alright then, a pot of tea, two cups.”

“The usual?” the man inquired.

“Why not?” she responded with a brief smile. Then, she sat down at the table located furthest inside, positioning herself to face the entrance.

Not soon after the tea had arrived, a young woman wearing a casual uniform entered the store. Her name was Yahuei Li, or Dr. Li. She was a researcher studying older variants of nanomachines near the first 5 floors– more or less a civilian, but Inspector Chen had recruited her at the time as an informant after helping get rid of an oppressive superior who had not liked the idea of a woman performing research.

“Hey there, Yahuei," the woman smiled in a teasing manner, her warm brown eyes glittered as she tucked her wavy dark hair behind an ear and sat down.

“Hello back, Yahuei," Inspector Chen responded with a smile. It was a bit they always did, but it never got old.

She poured the Doctor a cup from the teapot.

“Mmm," Dr. Li closed her eyes for a moment to savor the fragrance. “I’ve gotta say things are heating up quite a bit up top.”

“Oh?”

Dr. Li leaned in and whispered, “I know we’re supposed to keep it pretty secret, but we have been able to recreate a few doses of 2nd generation nanomachines.”

The 2nd generation nanomachines were considered the greatest success in human history before the TK-waves began being abused. The 3rd generation was high tech, sure but it required repeated doses and by that point the tech had become bloated and unwieldy. The 4th generation was... well it was dubbed the "final generation" soon after for a reason.

The problem was now with public opinion turned completely against nanomachines, any projects on them were kept completely secret so as to not cause a civilian uprising. Even many of the nobles were skittish around the matter.

Now up until this moment Inspector Chen had been sensing something… off about Dr. Li. Almost like she was trying to hide something. Perhaps it was years of experience or her gift –or even a combination of the two– but she had always been able to sense this sort of thing in people. Hostile intent, good-heartedness, or –as was most often the case– an attempt to cover up something.

With this revelation, a weight was lifted off her shoulders. This was very good news, at least as far as President Cai was concerned. Being able to cure the majority of illness and injuries was going to be a great boon. But still, this was highly classified. Dr. Li gave the shopkeeper a quick glance, but he was preoccupied with making an order that had been phoned in.

The Inspector gave the Doctor a quick glance, “Who knows about this so far?”

“Just the team… and you," She picked up her cup again, taking another sip. She seemed almost giddy with excitement.

“How are the others taking it? No doubts?”

“They’re holding together pretty well. There are a few that are worried about the publicity and it getting out, but we’re scientists," The Doctor shook her head, “We aren’t concerned about it turning into a threat like the 3rd generation.”

“Good."

Well that was one thing going well, and there wasn’t much for her to have to do either so she should be able to finish up here quickly and get moving to her next meeting. Inspector Chen relaxed and raised her own cup of tea, it was really quite tasty.

“I gotta use the restroom," Dr. Li stood up. “Caffeine’s a diuretic you know.” She walked past and headed down the short hallway to the bathroom behind Inspector Chen.

Suddenly, she felt it. Like a wave of anticipation crashing; a winding up before a long jump over a wide chasm.

Murderous intent.

Inspector Chen leaned to the left and raised her right arm, narrowly interrupting Dr. Li’s blade as it arced gracefully toward her neck. With a swift movement she stood up, grabbing the arm with her left hand and pushing her opponent forward with her right, she slammed her into the ground.

“Damn, you’re too good, Yahuei," Dr. Li coughed. “Sorry this had to happen.”

“What?” Inspector Chen could only sputter out in surprise. “Why?”

The Doctor slowly grew limp in her grasp. “I couldn’t let it happen.”

Then, she stopped breathing.

“What?”