Harpo’s Sandbuilding Worldbox.

[Dave]

So, it isn't all run by Corporations? The Food Corporation, The Energy Corporations and The Shipbuilding Corporation being the "big" three.

There has to be a prophesy regarding "Readers" too: That one day a Reader would be born who was more powerful and skilful than all the rest. He would be born into poverty, in a small hut, in a small village, on a hillside, in the southern hemisphere of a unimportant planet, to quite ordinary parents.

The Megacity Map creation will hit a snag due to the nature of the planet's overlapping gravetic hyperspace field, which means that the junctions and directions of every street are in a constant flux, and will never stay in the same position for very long. The Chief Scientist has calculated that they change position or direction, on average, once every 3.51 days.

 

[Harpo]

There has to be a prophesy regarding "Readers" too: That one day a Reader would be born who was more powerful and skilful than all the rest. He would be born into poverty, in a small hut, in a small village, on a hillside, in the southern hemisphere of a unimportant planet, to quite ordinary parents.

Yalook Obslug? (See post #9)

 

[Dave]

Yalook Obslug? (See post #9)

That's Uncanny! But beware of false prophecies!

Also, The Great and All Powerful Chief Scientist (to give him his full title) says that a city map creation is still possible, but due to the constant change it must be interactive, and he insists on what he calls having "eyes on the ground." Several groups of rival mapmakers therefore have set themselves up; one group, called The Brights, use rabbits to find holes in the spacetime continuum before they have formed; another group, called The Dry, insist on total abstinence; while very little is known about another group, called The Privates; however, most people tend to prefer to use a bigger group, called The Googlies.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

Meanwhile, far from the megacity, the alien Skolps have settled on the freezing moons of a gas giant planet. Occasionally a Skolp will come to town wearing a heavily insulated cryo-suit. The suits have smiley faces painted on them, in an effort to distract humans from the Skolps' slicing jaws and dozens of disturbing insect-like limbs. It doesn't work.