In Boomtown, a society where Law has been sanctified,
a printer’s apprentice risks indictments of treason and blasphemy to print a pamphlet he hopes will inspire a hero to unite the people.
Extras
Talking Ternion
Drawing Ternion
TREATMENT
“This is us… Lights scattered in the darkness burning among the dust and debris. As close to civilization as we can get before dawn.” These are the opening thoughts from Ricky, a teenager living in an annexed area outside the concentric walls of Boomtown, the planet’s only city. The sun rises on Boomtown where it sits at the base of a mountain range spanning as far as the eye can see, and Ricky walks from his shantytown of dust and timber through the increasingly sturdy-looking slum. He witnesses a local vendor’s harassment by a couple of comparatively well-dressed men who threaten to allow an Outsider named Abarth to settle a matter about a late payment to the local slumlord Marcus.
Ricky shows his work pass to a gate Keeper at the city’s outer wall and heads through the gate into Lowtown, the colloquial name for the outer Localities of the city proper. As he walks further into the city, Ricky rehearses the points and spirit of an illegal anti-government pamphlet he intends to print. His mental notes include a brief recent history of Boomtown - there was a time before citizens were divided into classes and before the wall shut out those beyond a certain distance from the Black Pyramid which towers over the city. Those outside the wall were left to slowly starve and fall victim to Outsider attacks. Today, just as then, “slummers” from the annex are mistreated by the Institution and looked down upon by the public. He asserts that this continues into the present due to corruption and propaganda campaigns going back at least two generations. Ricky longs for a time when mythic heroes like the outlaw Six-Gun Cyanide and groups like the Children of the Revolution fought for the dispossessed.
Ricky arrives at Holman’s Press, a printing office where he apprentices under Holman, an Institutional employee who publishes government literature. Holman is leaving to participate in the debate surrounding a humanitarian petition which could expand human rights in the city. Ricky notices Holman making notes in a small appointment book. He asks Holman whether the debate will be attended by Narissa, the voice of the previous generation and leader of the defunct Children of the Revolution. Holman deflects and leaves to catch his train. Though he admires Holman’s moral standing, Ricky believes change is needed more quickly than the Law’s bureaucracy will allow. He prints his pamphlet, hoping its distribution may coax from hiding a hero to galvanize the people and incite a revolution.