What If the Earth was the other way...?

Around Kliptora in forty days part 2

Nathalia Avra 

Day 6 through 10 : Mandrea

The wagon journey to Mandrea was silent. 

"Wagon" is the only thru and fro transport across continents. Every continent has a kinda "hollow-metro- looking-rail-track" that reach Edbranch. Edbranch acts as the central hub and if you want to travel to any other continent you need to go through Edbranch first.

The wagon is a compartment that can hold like twenty people at a time. It is spacious inside and it is lined with two benches parallel to each other, six feet apart. So people can stand and travel. 

But the number of people who travel are low, as inter-continental travel is kinda pricey. The wagon timings also play a role in deciding the number of people travelling. Right now, it was just me, Tony and Tina. 

Tina was taking a nap and Tony was reading something on his tablet. I just stared at them. They were sitting parallel to me and I didn't have my phone with me, so staring at them was the only option. Wagons traveled through a tunnel, so sightseeing was not an option. 

It took more than three hours to reach Mandrea from Edbranch. We started our journey at 0th hour(6PM) and so, when we reached Mandrea, it was the 3rd hour(8PM). Much like Greenwich being the centre of the zero latitude, Edbrach was at the centre. Keeping that as the reference point, Mandrea is the northernmost continent of Kliptora. 

I was really tired the first day. We reached the Mandrea port a.k.a Port M51. It looked exactly like Edbranch's port, but the style of the cabins differed. The tunnel ended in a quite aesthetically pleasing place.

On the right side, there was a beautiful forest, with trees of various kinds and shrubs and some monkeys on the tree tops. Can you still call them monkeys, Since they are on a different planet? Anyway, the left side was bustling with people, walking towards the counter and towards the wagon. 

The counter looked like a box with a Chinese traditional roof on top of it. The people in Mandrea looked like East Asians and since the continent was named Mandrea, I can almost say it is a continent that resembles Japan, Korea , Philippines and such countries together. 

Tony took me inside the counter. The panels, floors and walls were all made of wood. It looked so neat and airy. The guy at the counter bowed at me. I bowed at him. He said something in Mar and Tina replied with almost ease. 

After exchanging a few words, Tina led me and Tony towards a mobile and we reached a facility. The interior of the mobile was definitely just the same as an ordinary car but the gears were a bit different.

The facility looked like a square structure, like an apartment from a flat complex in a city on Earth, with those two pointy roofs. It looked beautiful. The whole thing was made out of wood. Each wall was carved with a unique piece of art. On one wall, there were pictures of children dancing round a small patch of rose bushes. On another it showed a dragon soaring above the skies. There were two rooms in the facility and a small living room. I found the washroom and also a kitchen. Tina had said that all the 'stay rooms' in Kliptora had the same amount of rooms. If you are single, you share with a roommate, if you are married, you share it with your partner and children. It was all single stories too. 

Edbranch had white, cemented cubicle apartments; Mandrea had wooden, slightly Chinese touched cubicle apartments. Tina asked us to take some rest as she left the stay room. She had to report to the soldier camp. I waved her goodbye and Tony nodded at her. 

"I will be in my room." He said and walked towards one of the rooms. 

I quickly freshened up and dropped on my bed. The bed here was made of bamboo stalks and hay. It was irritating but as I was really tired, I slept as soon as my head found the pillow.

Day seven came so fast. Tony had to drag me to the washroom! I was still groggy, when Tina brought us tea and dumpling looking things. Tony and Tina settled at the table, and started eating. I took the tea and tasted it. It had cinnamon in it. The golden black drink tasted so good that it woke me from my grogginess. I was not sure about the dumplings though. Chunk balls and all the food I had on Edbranch was somewhat harder to swallow. I took a cautious bite. The soft, sweet dough melted in my mouth. I savoured the sweet jaggery in and the hot dough crested a kind of magical touch to it. I closed my eyes, savouring the white delight and slowly swallowing them. 

When I opened my eyes, I saw both of them starting at me. It was the first time either one has seen me eating something without gagging and cringing. 

"Those are delicious!" I stated.

Tony hummed a yes and nodded. 

After finishing those delicious breakfast, we got out. The village was bustling with life. I saw some kids playing around a fountain, and people walking to and fro. It had grocery stores,  libraries, hospitals and schools all in one corner. The people lived in a housing complex of a small cubical place, on another corner. In the middle was a huge railroad. There was a wagon waiting.

This wagon was different. It had an open seat. It looked like the kind of carriage we find on the roller coasters. It looked wooden. But it was metal. People were boarding in and waiting.

"Let's get in." Tina beckons.

"Where are we going?" I ask hopping towards her. 

"To the factories. " Tony answers.

I get in one of the compartments. It was partially filled. There were three others than us. 

The bell on a pole rang. I looked at my watch and it was 8pm (2nd hour). The wagon zoomed forward. It was faster than sound. My internal organs did a cartwheel and I almost fell out, if Tony didn't catch me. The wagon stopped after like a blink of an eye. I got out and almost couldn't feel a thing. I gagged and vomited on the floor. Tony rushed towards me. He held my hands and squeezed it under my thumb and my ring finger. Suddenly I felt my sickness disappear. 

"Thanks." I smile.

Tina offers a napkin and I take it and wipe my mouth. Tina found a wiper and cleaned the mess I made. 

"What was that?" I ask, after I gulp water from my bottle. 

"It is a sound boomer. It travels at the speed of sound and it is the only means to get to the factories in time. Travelling on a mobile could literally take hours. The factories are constructed near the waters of the Chsan ocean. It is also at a safe distance from the residence area. When all the factories are together, they can literally use the waste they produce efficiently. Like one industry's waste is the product needed for another industry. It also has an air purifier system and water purifier system, so the products produced in Kliptora are really efficient and use sustainable development. It is also easier for export as submarines can export it around Kliptora. " Tina explains.

I was trying to recover from the vertigo I just experienced, that it took me some time to marvel at the beauty in front of me.

The building was two storied, and there were various sections and each section had a board. The building stood like the Great Wall of China; it expanded from the extreme right to the extreme left. The black cemented building was the only exception to the wooden "stay roomed" continent. 

It took us the whole day to explore the biggest manufacturing unit of all of Kliptora. From the small plastic containers to building mobiles and Poignoits, this chain of factories had it all. There was even five basement levels where the fifth level we're mining areas for ores. They would mine an area for like one year and then close that site for replenishing for twenty years. It has been effective and they have not faced any shortage in mining ores. The factories are mainly powered by tidal energy produced by the Chsan ocean. It is also powered by levi-tiles. The workers are given special suits, so they're safety is also made sure. 

Tony took me to the Poignant manufacturing unit and bought me one. It was practically a bracelet which can be used to communicate. On registering my name on it, one can call me by just asking the bracelet to ring my name. I should be in the same continent for it to work efficiently though. Mine glowed a green shade and it was just plane platinum coated. 

At around 7 am, (13th hour), we got back in that wagon thing (sound boomer… More like vomit inducer) and off we went to the residence area. 

The next three days, I spent time with the local people learning their culture, how the schools worked, browsing the library's collection of tablets and tasting those delicious dumplings. 

Day six through ten was fabulous and I can't want to know what other continents had in store for me.