There had been a
nuclear war, and the
civilization of earth had decaded into tribal system, with survived people living in the ruined cities. They had learned to live by hunting and farming, but they were dependant of
water, which they got only from merchants. I was one of them, a man with an
airship, earning my living by transporting
water from the shrunken seas to the poor creatures down on the
surface. My ship was smaller than medium, with two large red gas-filled wings, and a small cabin under them. It had a small bunk bed, cooking equipment from pre-war time, and an opening for the steering
seat. The
seat was somewhat like a dentists chair, bolted outside the front of the ship with maxium
visibility to every direction, and it had levers and pedals with metal wires going to different parts of the ship. Under the ship there were hooks for
cargo, and a large water balloon-like
container was stuffed inside the cabin at the moment. Above the red wings there were six small engines with chains going up to the rotors those looked like floating circle
sawblades.
At the moment, I didnt have any shipments to make, so I decided to head for nearest merchant town. Merchants practically lived in their airships, and they hardly never stepped on ground, so even their cities were vast floating complexes. I started the engines, and after a few tries I had gotten all of them running. The sawblades pulled the ship forward with their chains, and soon I could see the floating city above the clouds. It had a roof made from ermonous flat balloons, and below them opened a gold-colored complex structure, looking almost like an ornamental temple. I docked my airship next to few others and stepped in from a door on the side of the docking corridor pointing out from one side of the city. I felt good to stretch my legs by walking for a while, and got into a room where local security put drunken merchants to sleep their heads clear. I went there just to sleep in a comfortable bed. When I woke up, a security guard greeted me since there werent too many merchants to remember, and gave me my gloves. I dont remember why, but it was sort of a law that in cities, everyone had to wear gloves, so I put mine on and went to the central marketplace. It was a round area with a fountain in the center of it, lots of shops around it, and a few benches to sit on. I sat on one of them, and an old merchant in leather jacket came to talk to me, but I woke up..