August 21st 2123 I remember taking Lorel under one day, further than she'd ever been before, deeper down, hotter, darker. She was scared at first, it was when it any resemblance to topside vanished, it wasn't clean, or cool or pleasent, it was dirty, humid and cramped. She was growing fast, god knows she's growing, but she was still the little girl she always was, to me at least. But she was also a Grafter like me, she had been ever since her mother died, years spent with me underground, when I'm deep under, she's wandering aroud with the others, learning the lingo, the trade. Strange sight seeing a twelve year old girl dive into through a vent shaft to fix a coolant leek better than some of other Grafters who have been on the job for twenty-five years. I'm sure in topside they'd say that I was a bad father, letting her mix down here with us lot, running around, running the edge everyday, but without us they'd be nothing, no air, no light, no heat, no running water, hell, they wouldn't even be here except for us, and I wanted her with me, where she belonged. It was meant to be a simple maintenance check, but the exhaust conduits had failed on one of the city's secondary power regulators, we had to shut it down or we'd have lost power to twelve zones, plus the odds were it would've gone critical and taken out a whole chunk of Under. That probably meant major chaos in topside and about two thousand Grafters being toast Under. You see, we're a family down here, we live for each other as well as for the job. There was wreckage everywhere, no way could any of us get through, but Lorel, she was small, nimble, she scrambled through faster than I'd ever seen her move, she knew there wasn't much time, she didn't even stop for an oxyomask, I was so proud of her when the reacotor cooled off. I didn't see what happened affer that, the theory, based on what we found, is that the secondary pressure valve had been fractured during the first explosion and when the exhaust conduits started to flow again, the valve came loose. I don't think I have ever told anybody how proud I was, how she had saved so many people, both topside and under, nobody knew she had died, there wasn't a news report about it or anything, it was just another day Under, another Grafter to be replaced during the next Union meeting. Some people think the city runs itself, well it doesn't, we're down here, everyday, and I'll be here until the day I die. --- Exceprt from Life Under The City - An Retrospective of Neo London --- Big trouble getting CyberFixers to conform to PT, so while it's not perfect, it does the job. Enjoyed doing this one. Poserstyle CyberFixers, Pixelfader's Pipe prop, Misty Blossom pack for PT, Mike with ZetaStudio's Leo. Hair by Ukon and Daz. Story by me.