Nexus City
File A1-BNM6
The City. It’s hard to describe to anyone that hasn’t seen it, its scope, vistas, and secrets so beyond what most people can envision.
Imagine what is must have been like for Shackleton and the other members of the Nimrod Expedition when they first looked down upon it, from the great craggy ice cliffs a mile above? A perfect circle a hundred miles across nestled within the mighty and ancient walls of the Antarctic Ice.
Oh, the diaries and reports are full of flowery prose and description, but nothing in words can truly convey the marvels that must have gripped their very souls as they beheld what must have seemed to be a metropolis forged by God himself.
The British moved in first, eager to uncover the secrets of this divine metropolis. The City was unfathomable, even to the scientists, the magicians and the inspired that the Empire could bring to bear.
The records of that time are full of magic, the magic of discovery, the magic of excitement and the magic of human endeavour. Wondrous times indeed, I miss them.
It was one of those inspired that activated the Nexus. A Mystery Man from the turn of the century, he possessed gifts, powers, beyond the scope of mortals. How meagre those powers seem now?
The Nexus awoke. A blast of unworldly energy bathed most of Antarctica in a split second and the Nexus Gate opened.
I still laugh at the memory of that moment when, soon after, the first of the Residents came through. There were around three hundred of them; scaly, short, scurrying creatures, with all the colours of the rainbow glinting from their hides.
It is a credit to the discipline of the Sergeant-at-Arms that the soldiers present did not immediately shoot them all. For what seemed an eternity, human and alien looked upon one another and then the most wondrous thing happened. One of the creatures, which we later discovered was the Chirpers (as we came to call them) equivalent of an accountant, stepped forward and spoke, in perfect English, ‘Um, can you tell us where we are?’
What is the phrase? ‘It all snowballed from there’, apt for the Antarctic I guess.
With the arrival of the first Residents, the City finally began reveal its secrets. The Chirpers could not, in fact, speak perfect English, the City had technology we now know as a universal translator. The first Dome appeared almost immediately, a perfect biosphere resembling the modern habitat of the Chirper peoples. How marvellous.
The British wisely decided that this was too much for one nation, and approached a whole host of other countries. Within a year the assemblage of scientific, military, and esoteric luminaries represented almost the entirety of the human race and there were four more domes housing further Residents of the wondrous City.
And so, over 100 years later, Nexus City is one of the greatest secrets in the world, monitored and controlled by an arm of [NAME TO BE NABBED ONCE SOMEONE COMES UP WITH AN INTERNATIONAL AGENCY LIKE A UN VERSION OF SHIELD]. There are two hundred and sixty four domes now and the populated parts of the City are a riot of the strange and wonderful, a concave of alien beings that only the minds of the truly visionary or insane could have imagined.
Nexus City, my home for a hundred years, so much to say about so little that we actually know. In my heart, I feel I am close to its true purpose, the part of my soul that was touched by the Nexus sends me dreams and forebodings. Something comes; I hope we will be prepared.
