There was a cool wind which seethed between derelict buildings. It prepped a small woman with a sweeping chill that creeped all across her skin, and she instinctively took her own shoulders and shook her body profusely. “Fuck,” she exhaled the word, and quickly ducked into a nearby store front.
The store had been seared by a profuse fire years ago, and still held a reminiscent hue of char around the edges of the entrance. The rest had been swallowed by nature, returning to its original state as best it could.
The woman’s thick boots clacked around remnants of broken glass, scattered and rotting wood, and the occasional corpse of a small mammal or two. This was Iunnet (yuh-net), who was a person of the Scholar Program. Indeed, these Scholars are distinguished members of the Yetinaph societies, and would explore what they referred to as the Overworld -- the world above their subterranean cities.
Iunnet had been released topside for nearly three months now, having experienced many of the hardships of the Overworld. The Selahtkian region of the world was certainly not submissive, and meager in rich data which to send to her home city of Myrddin.
Here and now, Iunnet sits in the back office of a long gone business. Each cabinet in the room was swung wide open, and she simply took her refuge on a nearby office chair, perhaps the most comfortable accommodation she’s had for a week. In a loud exhale, she leaned her head back and instinctively shook some more from the cold. The sun was nearly down at this hour, and Iunnet had not figured a means of shelter besides this particular setting. The wind was cutting and invasive, and even in this robust structure it still managed to find its way through the narrow corridors and broken windows.
Iunnet took this idle time to jot things down in her journal:
Today was the first day I saw one of them: a Mediator. I had known they existed since my arrival on the Overworld, but hadn’t believed it enough to expect to see one. They are, as what has been truly suggested, perhaps one of the most unique pieces of technology I have ever laid witness to.
My interaction with this Mediator was short but sweet. I had never seen any all-kind act with such direct kindness, yet I was experiencing it from within a machine. It was robust, however, and when I approached it, it pointed weapons at me. Unsure of what to do, I simply stayed still and put my hands up, from which the Mediator quickly approached me. Expecting to be kidnapped or killed, it instead revealed a compartment within its torso with a sealed and packaged meal, and muttered these words to me in surreal, anthropomorphic tone:
“Enjoy life, and show kindness unto others.”
At the time, I had not thought much of it out of pure adrenaline in the face of uncertainty. I took the meal and ran, and it did not follow. Now late in the day, I take part in this meal, and think about the initiatives of those androids -- and their creators, the Humans.
Iunnet’s interaction with this Mediator laid the foundation for the identity of the extraterrestrials known as the Third Humanity; for, they produced immaculate designs of unmatched technology, and showed reverence to those who called Ciphrus home.
Iunnet finished her thought on paper, and then her meal, and eventually her sleep. In the next morning, she packed up her ratchet camp and continued to the east -- towards a settlement called the A.R.D.