Nexra – The Final Approach

With the completion of the final leg of the 8,500 mile trail to Nexra, Airam and Ahlu joined one of the smaller wagon trains heading for the capital of empire. They had joined a train where they knew almost none of the members so that they would have the privacy required to discuss and work through the Cavern Dweller Extrication Project. After all, most of the data and other information having to do with the project was restricted to just a few humex leaders because of its perceived sensitivity. About half way through this last segment of the journey to Nexra, they had completed as much of the extrication project as they were able – for the time being. They then settled into the social aspects of trail life. There were two camp respites left on the trail – the first, Green Sea Camp on the shores of one of the smaller lakes on the trail, which was fed by a river that was nearly overflowing its banks with its rapids propelled by unseen mountain snow-melt far to the north. It was this river that produced Airam’s best friend for the rest of her life. The woman had fallen into the river and Ahlu, risking his life, had saved her life in a harrowing rescue.  Their families also became life-long friends.

The second camp respite was named Interlaaken Camp located on the western shores of the Eastern Sea, the last body of water encountered before the Great Sea on which Nexra was being built. Interlaaken would eventually become a permanent outpost for two reasons – more copper was discovered along its shores and it became the center of Nexra’s agricultural breadbasket.

Immediately, as the wagon trains left Interlaaken, the trail stretched out to the west, rising up through the gently elevating mountain valley. They followed a river much of the way to the summit of the trail. From there, the river disappeared underground attached invisibly to the Great Sea. As they reached the summit, three days later, they could see the vast blueness that was the Great Sea which cradled Nexra in its waters. The wagon train moved along the southern rim of the plateau overlooking the shore of the Great Sea and in ten days the island of Nexra came into view. All eyes stayed on Nexra for the rest of the journey. The bourgeoning metropolis could be seen at night from a considerable distance because of the fires of lamps lighting the roads and existing enclaves of the growing city. Finally, in the summer of the eighty-second year since the first descent, Airam and Ahlu had come home to Nexra.