'What am I doing here?'
Carter was listening to Esmond whine while about the number of people and traffic as he arrived at Times Square.
"Stop complaining and tell me what the city is like?"
Carter was more curious about what Times Square looked like and how the atmosphere in the area felt, as the vision from Esmonds eyes just wasn't enough anymore after so many years of being confined to Esmonds mind.
With his body and the freedom, the space offered him, Carter was more than satisfied up until he felt the space to be void of life and moving parts, besides of drones that helped create the true beauty of cities…
What it needed was people and lots of it to fill the city he'd made and the second one that was being built.
He hadn't started on any work for the second city beside the palace and Summoning Square, because Carter wanted to see how the people lived and worked in the cities Esmond visited.
So far, Carter found the third world countries he'd visited to be horrendously managed and built, while the first world or western worlds were constantly failing because of materials degrading, poorly designed infrastructure, and lack of training among qualified people who might leave the job partially finished.
.
'It's… fine…'
"I will slap the crap out of you-"
'OK!
The city… feels… claustrophobic, like the buildings are constantly expanding upwards to create a cage of steel and glass…'
"…
Have I ever said how much of a bundle of joy you are sometimes prick...!"
'Hey! You asked me to describe what it's like, so I did!
That's how I feel…'
"Tell me what normal people might feel you asshole!
I can confine to this space, so you better be a worthy tool for me to experience the outside world."
'You can be a real bitch at times…
Right… so I can see people moving around, both happy and sad, laughing and crying.
A bit of everything…
Some are racing to their meetings or wherever they might need to be, but of course they are late.
Others are taking their sweet time, taking in the smells of the city and the joys of coffee carts and street food.'
"Ahhh… what else?" Carter felt ecstatic and overjoyed hearing Esmonds descriptive explanation of his surroundings and senses being affected by the city.
'… I think I just saw some guy piss his pants down an alley…'
"…"
Carter chose to leave Esmond to his own adventures and went off to work on his second city instead, annoyed he was dealing with a child at times when it came to Esmonds moods.
.
Watching the drones move over large amounts of materials to the location of the second city, Carter started walking over to the Summoning Square which was made from marble stone carved into thick plates that were laid down to create a large white rectangle roughly the size of a soccer pitch.
Before the Summoning Square stood the incredibly large and expansive royal palace that looked reminiscent of the Bojnice Castle from Slovakia, Château de Chenonceau from France, and the Matsumoto Castle from Japan.
What Carter had done was merge the collective uniqueness and characteristics from the three castles to create the palace.
From the three-story tier design of the daimyos castle from Japan, large circular towers, tall arches and expansive halls from Slovakia, and the river feature from France helped create a palace that was a cultural mashup.
Large gardens and vineyards filled the expansive land all around the back of the palace and around the sides of the Summoning Square.
Like the first city, Carter created a similar central park inspired piece of land that was bordered partially to be filled by the palace and its grounds while the rest was open to the public to explore and travel through.
.
'I swear if we don't get people coming in here to see my beautiful work, I'll make sure to complain to… mom…'
Carter still found it hard to pronounce any word related to 'mother' when Ruby had asked him call 'mom' like Esmond, so he'd been trying to lately, desperate not to come across her wrath, but it was still difficult to say, even if he needed to utilise it for his own plans.
.
*Ding*
[Requirements fulfilled for Summoning Square to be established…]
[Summoning Square has already been completed!]
.
*Ding*
[Summoning Square]
[Level – 0]
[Experience: 0/1000 tons of Ogryx]
[Dimensions – 130 metres by 90 metres]
[Genetic Codes Available:
- Zadris]
[Summoning Capability: 100]
[Host is ready to use Summoning Square as they please!]
…
..
.
'Seems like the drones finished the last touches of the palace.'
Carter opened the gates to enter the palace grounds and walked in the direction of the Blacked walled palace, adorned with gold trim around the building and scarlet red drapes across the palace structure.
Midnight purple and the other colours decided on by Carter and Esmond were arranged systematically throughout the grounds.
Even the art replicated by the drones was unlike any forgery he'd come across that it was close enough if not better than the original works that filled the walls of the great halls of the palace.
Mona Lisa, The Birth of Venus, Raft of Medusa, and plenty of other great works filled the great halls which might have seemed a little tacky if not for the artistic pieces from other lifetimes Carter had programmed the drones to recreate.
.
Satisfied with the great halls, the massive rooms with several large, attached rooms for wardrobe and personal bathroom.
Other things like Esmonds and his parents own offices that attached to their own libraries, filled with books of their preference's, and the likes were added which as well he'd heard Ruby and Daniel thought about adding to the cabin.
Now it was time to start his second city and from what he'd seen in New York, there were many problems that needed sorting, mainly the drain and sewage system that was quite behind in times and needed to be fixed.
Carter sent the drones out to begin digging up the soil to add the sewage and pipelines for gas and electricity which was powered and managed partly by the Dismantling and Recycling Factory of the space with provided power.
But with coal already available in the space and nuclear energy an option soon with Esmond making his way to Grand Central Station to access a postal locker with the uranium and other materials in small quantities which were enough for the Spatial Ark Land to recognise.
The plans of the second city were to layout different districts and regions that specifically targeted a specific industry, like one would primarily focus on entertainment, while another would on finance and business and so on.
While he thought about making it grand, filled with tall buildings that towered over the gardens and open lands, Carter went with a simpler and less congested layout that allowed the space to breath and not feel like one was choking.
Deciding on an open and green city design plan, Carter started instructing the drones and getting them to move quick, carrying tons of materials like it was nothing, but weightless.
.
"Is this all?"
Esmond had opened the small lockers that littered parts of Grand Central Station, which really distracted the visitor to such a lovely place it them being highly out of place with its tone dead steel colour.
Regardless of those lockers, his eyes focused on the ceiling and the stars that were the constellations designed in the mural.
"Carter, tell me you can see the artwork on the ceiling?"
'I can… to be honest, it looks like the artists represented their version of heaven looking down on the commuters…
Ohh… that's right… yes that is it.
I've got the materials from the lockers…'
Esmond had sent over the ores, seeds, and various other materials into the space with just a wave of his hand, having to only think about the Spatial Ark Land and his consciousness would send over the materials in a jiffy.
Now that Carter had uranium, indium, and some chromium as well as some other materials, he got to work making upgrades to the jet engines for the fighter jets, aircrafts and ships that were being built.
But it left him without one crucial thing, people to test out his finished products, beside running diagnostics checks.
The Zadrisian couldn't be summoned without Esmonds presence in the space, so he had to wait till he returned to his hotel, before asking Esmond to come to the Spatial Ark Land.
.
In the meantime, Esmond walked around the Grand Central Station to take in the sights and architectural beauty that was the large, monumental structure.
While he walked around, closely looking over the art on display as well as what was built into the massive structure over the course of its history, someone was watching Esmond's movements from a distance, holding a newspaper like he was reading it as a means of disguise.
"He's not doing much… maybe looking at the artwork like a drugged-up college kid…"
The agent closely watching Esmonds movement sent through his thoughts, not knowing why their bosses had made this kid a person of interest.
.
'How drugged up does he look Malcom? Is it enough for us to bring him in and question a little?'
"God no… plus if we go by anything on the report, I doubt the department will walk away without incurring a lawsuit.
For now… just let me follow the kid."
'Very well, Agent Malcom… I'll leave it in your hands.'
Malcom kept an eye on Esmond, readying himself to keep a little distance as to not spook his target, but he found it a little weird that the kid didn't wonder about like the typical tourist coming to New York for their first time.
He'd followed Esmond from his Hilton hotel onto a boat trip around the harbour to see the Statue of Liberty, but straight after that, Esmond went to the New York Public Library for quite some time and then over to Grand Central Station where he received some items from the lockers.
The first thought that went through Malcoms mind was maybe Esmond was scounting locations to bomb or attack once they were informed of the items in the lockers Esmond opened.
But the items didn't have any correlation to create a bomb and they'd done a check up of Esmonds rooms just to check for any parts that he might already have that would indicate to them he was planning an attack.
However, they found nothing, and Malcom couldn't see the packages on Esmonds body, nor did he see him remove anything from the lockers, so it was hard to know what to do, especially with the stack of agents ready to pounce.
.
Sadly, they had no way to shield themselves against Esmonds natural body energy which could be sent out as a radar.
He'd known early on that there were agents surveilling his every move from the rooms on either side of his own, down to them following him from the moment he exited the hotel.
Esmond had nothing to hide so in his eyes, if they arrested him, he would make it a field day suing the government for their foolish actions and thoughts.
That's why he'd also sent the items from the lockers directly over without a second thought to see if they were in fact the packages Carter ordered, leaving the task to him to check their contents in the space.
But now, he was fed up with them following him, mostly the guy in a dark suit with the newspaper in his hands.
The African American gentleman had come and gone when he followed Esmond, but he'd bothered to stay the longest out of the rest, much to Esmonds pleasure.
'Poor bugger had to follow me for several hours in those clothes…'
Esmond wore looser and comfortable clothes from the space made by the drones that were made with alloys to help strengthen and aerate his body to the climate.
Ignoring the ploy that strung along the agents of some American agency, Esmond moved in Malcoms direction, uncaring of what might happen if he spooked the agents surveilling him from all directions.
.
"May I take this seat?"
With a broad smile, Esmond asked Malcom if the seat in front was free, stunning the agents watching all around and Malcom himself, how their target picked up on their actions or if it was a weird coincidence.
"O-of course… *cough* please take a seat Mr…?"
"Manston… Esmond Manston, and yourself?"
"Malcom Fletcher…"
They two smiled as they shook each other's hand, however they were eyeing each other to see who was interrogating who and which one would be the unlucky duckling to be questioned…