The year 2046. July 9.

  Third cycle.

  "Bao? What are you doing?"

  "What does it look like?" The Chinese sat at an old desk and drew.

  "No idea?" Elrik looked over his friend's shoulder. In the underground room, it smelled of moisture and old air. "Is that... A house? With feet? Like in old fairy tales?"

  "Not quite."

  "It could also be an ugly fish", Elrik thought. "An ugly deep-sea fish with legs and funny feet. Come here, little fish, little fish!" Laughing, he scurried through Bao's hair.

  Bao Wang sighed, took the drawing in his hands, and turned to the other man. A light bulb flickered above them and illuminated the otherwise rather eerie little basement room. It was only a small chamber, but Bao had set up a second office here. Away from the hustle and bustle of the underground, sporadically set up boratories. "That, my dear friend!" He pointed to his simple drawing. "This is Burgstadt! Castle Town."

  "The fish is called Burgstadt?" Elrik grinned.

  "No."

  "Oh." Elrik took the sheet of paper and looked at the drawing more closely. Bao was a good researcher, an excellent doctor, but not a good architect or artist. The drawing, which actually resembled a mixture of fish and a house with legs, could also have been made by a primary school child. "A city? Why does it have legs?"

  Bao raised his eyebrows. "So that it can move?"

  "Hm... For what?... Wait!" Elrik put the sheet of paper on the table and grabbed the pencil. Then he began to make annotations and corrections to the child's drawing. "Bao! You're brilliant!"

  "I know. Why are you scribbling around in my picture? Elrik? Why... Steam engines? Elrik... This is just a dream. A simple idea... If we could get to the surface, I'd like to live in a city like this, but... It will never come to that!" He coughed a little. Blood ran down the left corner of his mouth. Bao wiped away the blood. Before Elrik could see it.

  "Dream? No. It's brilliant!" growled Elrik, lost in his own thoughts. "A moving city. That's great. Like this, we could return to the surface... I'm making it a reality, my friend. You will live in your castle town! We will live there! A city that can adapt to the terrain and the dangers. You're a genius!"

  But Bao Wang only sighed. "I'm going to die before you even start building any city. My days are numbered." He coughed again. This time the blood was absent.

  "Don't say something like that," Elrik grumbled. "You will see this city. I promise you. I... I already have a solution for this. Don't worry."

  "Elrik... Is this about cloning again? This is a pipe dream, no matter what this machine cims. It is not real. Let me live my life in peace. Let me dream. That's all I want."

  "I know, my friend. I know..." But Elrik did not stop working on his friend's drawing.