Finally finished with the blueprint, he sat back in his chair and reviewed his work. It was only theoretical of course, but if it was accomplished, Daniel would be able to unlock a source of energy readily available but inaccessible since before the invasion. His illustration measured about 12 inches across and 4 inches high. In truth it was only a hundredth, a thousandth of the scale he imagined it to be. Angling each of hundreds of reflective surface just so, he would be able to concentrate light to a focal point, thus allowing a solar panel in that focal point to produce electricity. 

	He checked and rechecked the positions of each mirror, the angle each had to be held at down to the thousandth of a degree at various locations on the curvature of the earth and the time of day. He wasn’t completely sure of the accuracy of his calculations, but he was confident that the logic behind the design was sound. When he was a child, he had been working out in the open for an entire day, and though it was always cloudy, his skin became painful and reddened. One of the older men, a teacher, explained to him that although he couldn’t see it, the sun was past those clouds and was always sending its energy to them. In this case, it was obvious that his skin absorbed a little too much of that energy.

	Smiling wistfully, he closed his eyes, remembering those more innocent days. His mind brought him back to the past, when he was free to tinker and learn as he pleased, only being forced to do something when they were in fear of being discovered or attacked. His thoughts drifted to Cara. Her smile. Her eyes. Her last words. He opened his eyes again, the moment of reminiscence gone. His right hand came up to his left arm, finding the precious piece of cloth and running the pad of his finger along it. Sighing, he remembered what she asked of him with her dying breath. The memory haunted him. 

Ten months. He had spent the last ten months in this place. He had tried to keep to himself as much as he could, but one particularly persistent coworker had picked his way through his shields. Cristi had through no small effort managed to get Daniel to open up a little, and bit by bit got him to share much of his life story. Daniel hadn’t stayed very clueless about Cristi’s life, either. Often, when they spent time together working with the mechanics and construction teams, Cristi would talk about what was on his mind, and Daniel was more than willing to listen. 

Cristi’s most recent problem presented itself in what was reported by his roommate as a faulty design. Poring over it again, he couldn’t understand what went wrong. All the calculations were correct, every power level carefully levelled. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he gave up finding something wrong with the schematic. It was because of this he had doubted the accuracy of his own work, and went to triple check his solar generator schematic. Satisfied that nothing was wrong with it, he rolled both up and packed his most important blueprints along with Cristi’s in a cylindrical container, easily passing for a thermos. He proceeded to collect some cans of food he had stowed away around his part of the room and put them in a bag along with the “thermos”.

He planned to find Cristi tonight. Knowing him, he was at The Social, drinking away his stresses. That was fine with him, too, because there was someone he needed to meet there. There were certain rumors spreading about a group leaving the community. He had to see if it was true. Donning a hooded jacket and shouldering his bag, he set out toward The Social.

Upon arrival, he pushed back his hood and scanned the room. He found Cristi finishing a conversation with the bartender and walked over. As he approached the bar, he waved a greeting to the bartender, who returned the wave with a pleasant smile. Turning to Cristi, he smiled and lightly punched his arm.

“So I’ve been running over the numbers, and it just doesn’t make sense. What happened should not have been possible unless someone tampered with the safety mechanisms and applied almost triple the power it was meant to have…”

He paused, tracing Cristi’s line of sight to the beautiful woman sitting at a table. 

“Ah.”, He said knowingly. “I suppose you haven’t exactly made up then?”

Not waiting for a reply, he reached into his bag, taking out the blueprint from the thermos, making sure nobody could see what he was doing. He jotted down a few quick notes that highlighted the safety restraints and power levels.

“Take this and show it to her. It should show her that your original design simply would not allow for that extent of damage to Kuyper’s hand. Maybe that would calm her down a little, seeing that you never meant for him to get hurt… Well, at least not to the extent he was.”