The two would barely get to finish the song before the warning light that announced the reactivation of the vehicle’s manual steering systems came on, signalling that they were just a few more minutes from their destination.

As the steering handle popped back out, Rueben grasped it firmly and regained control of the vehicle as the autopilot completed their exit from the hyper-rail and onto the dusty roads of Frigaheim’s small town. Compared to the capital in Geraheim, Neo Brighton, Frigaheim’s town was diminutive. Osteele, stretched for no more than a kilometre in length and was not very wide, consisting of a single main street with a few branching alleys.

In just minutes the two were pulling into the high-rise car-park in the middle of Osteele, a street populated by vendors markets, restaurants and tourist attractions. But despite its small size, the area was already highly populated it seemed. The two had to go up more than four storeys to find an empty parking space where they could deposit the Detrel before they could make their way back down towards the exit.

“What are so many people doing in Osteele on a Sunday afternoon?” Roun puzzled as the two made their way out of the central lobby of the large stone building, where he laid his eyes on a sea of people occupying the streets. “There’s got be like ten thousand people here.”

“Yeah, I know.” Rueben chuckled. “It’s some local festival. They have it every year before the public holiday.” He explained as he turned to look at Roun. “You’re sure you live here, right?”

“Apparently not…” Roun shook his head; slightly embarrassed that something this big could have escaped his attention for well over a decade. “Though – in my defence – I live like three hundred kilometres inland and nothing ever goes on in Gerahiem on Fate’s Day weekend.”

“Clearly you should drive down to Frigaheim on days like this then.” Rueben smirked, watching as Roun zipped up his jacket and dawned his sunglass-like visor to change his appearance.

“So it would seem…”

As he did so however, Roun noticed an interesting function of these so-called zeta scanners. His field of view was now overlaid with an augmented reality system, allowing the visor to scan and process environmental information before feeding the results to him in real time. Roun took note as basic information like the ambient temperature and humidity were immediately displayed along with other weather data in the top-right corner of his vision; while the device began more intensive calculations to provide him with stats on more interesting things.

"These scanners are estimating something closer to six thousand people being here and they’re even picking up a couple channelers in the area." He smirked at the utility of the gadget, which was slowly growing on him. "Well, at least ones that are powered up – it's getting nothing off either of us."

"Yeah, sensing powered down channelers is pretty much impossible.” Rueben shrugged. “Any note-worthy energy signatures?" Rueben inquired, curious as to whether it was possible that they had been followed.

"Not really." Roun shook his head. "They're all either capped, super weak or both ‘cause everything I’m seeing is lower than braver-tier."

"Good." Rueben nodded. "That means we should be able to enjoy ourselves, but keep an eye out for suspicious characters just in case."

"Yeah." Roun nodded in agreement before heading out into the crowd.

As they moved through the sea of people, it quickly became apparent the sheer amount of fanfare generated by the small local festival. Street performers danced and strummed away on conductors amiss the attendees, displaying their skills on yet another product in a long line of zeta powered musical instruments that had cropped up in the last century.

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These particularly instruments were designed to imitate the mastery of zeta commanded by channelers, allowing ordinary people – so-called ‘recreants’ by their braver brothers – to manipulate ambient environmental energy through physical motion. As such, these cleverly named conductors took the shape of gloves worn on boths hands of the musician and with each particular gesture they coded the environmental zeta to create a unique oscillation of particles inside the target medium – in this case, air. As a result, any motion of the hand generated some form of sound, leaving the musician with the more complicated task of weaving these sounds into something that was pleasing to listen to. To achieve this, the instrument allowed sounds to be modulated dynamically and intuitively by skilled players. While finger movements created subtle changes in pitch and tone, movement of the whole hand produced more noticeable variation and broad swipes of the arms allowed the artistes to transition switftly between even more distinct notes. The result was a dance unique to every conceivable combination of sounds. It was an impressive sight. But what made these particular performers even more mesmerising was that their particular conductors seemed modified to offer a visual spectacle that mirrored their music and dance. As they performed, streams of zeta manifested captivating luminous streaks in the air. Even in broad daylight, the sight was unquestionably beautiful, and these musicians were not even the main attraction.

The street performers merely acted as heralds for bands of costumed revellers that would play masse in the streets on this day, in the continuation of a tradition that dated back centuries. So while the reason for such celebrations had evolved over time, the actual event was deeply ingrained in the residents of Frigaheim. Just as in days of old, each costume was linked to the theme of the festival, in this case the commemoration of the globally celebrated holiday known as Fate’s Day. Not a religious holiday nor one of mere national significance, this single holiday celebrated the one event that changed the lives of individuals all over Terra.

“Man, who’d have thought that the activation of the Zeta Machine would warrant this much hype almost a hundred years later…” Roun smirked to himself, causing Rueben to shake his head.

“Says one of the most direct beneficiaries of the event.” Rueben retorted, drawing attention to Roun’s ability to channel the very energy produced by the mysterious machine to this very day.

“Hey, I’m not saying it’s not awesome.” Roun quickly corrected him. “I’m just saying that after a hundred years you’d figure that people would stop dressing up like slutty-scientists and dancing about it, you know?”

“No, I don’t know.” Rueben chuckled. “Global zeta saturation – almost single-handedly – put an end to a millennium of cataclysm wracked cities and heralded the doubling of the global population in less than a hundred years.” Roun rolled his eyes at the well-known history lesson. “For the first time in history the human population is on its way to reaching one billion people… a billion-freaking-people Roun!”

“OK, I get it.” Roun shook his head with amusement. “It’s still a big deal.” He finally conceded.

“Thank you.” Rueben nodded. “And even if it wasn’t, a man should never decry any reason for women to get half-naked and dance in the streets.” He added, much to Roun’s amusement.

“And once again, you make a good point sir.” Roun chuckled lightly as the crowd parted and made way for the costumed bands that followed.

Like those around them, the two Itamis backed away from the streets and watched it become flooded with the glitzy display of young women clad in beaded bikinis and sequined lab-coats, while their male counterparts dawned flashy shorts, googles and rubber gloves. Rueben shook his head at the costumes, which he could only assume represented the scientists and engineers involved in the creation of the machine.

“These guys do know that Dsayta Theymeign was a dude right?” He inquired, drawing reference to the scientists to whom the creation of the machine was largely attributed.

“Yeah, I’m sure the costumes are meant to be historically accurate.” Roun nodded sarcastically. “Dsayta no doubt preferred to work in bikinis for enhanced comfort while dealing with energies that could vaporise you at any minute.”

His response drew chuckles from them both before Roun’s attention turned once again to the heads-up display provided by his zeta scanners.

Having been distracted by the spectacle of the Fate’s Day weekend festival, he’d failed to keep track of the two zeta signatures that the device had been tracking since his arrival. This was a disturbing realisation at the moment because one of those signatures had since moved to within very close proximity of him and Rueben and his zeta scanners were doing their best to alert him to this fact.

Roun’s eyes quickly widened at the realisation but unfortunately, being trapped in a crowd of literally thousands made identifying a single channeler extremely difficult for it. Instead, the now flashing alert icon projected over his vision merely resulted in him looking around frantically before he felt a body impact his own.