Terra. I could never truly feel at home amidst the new towering metroscrapers. Some stretched over two miles into the stratosphere casting colossal shadows on the surface below. I was given privileged treatment and it was rumored that due to services rendered in conjunction with the mercenaries, a promotion was on my horizon. I got a plushy suite on the two hundredth floor which overlooked New Kong. When Hong Kong had been obliterated by a tsunami just four centuries ago, the Chinese in their ingenious way had fashioned a city resting on its ruins. A common tourist attraction was the underwater excavation of those trying to pry valuable goods from the ruins of the once great metropolis. I was offered every luxury I could think of, from money, to food, to clothing, to pleasurable company. I partook of all these save the later, instead asking for a holoscript of a symphony of Wagner and a violin. No doubt it was a curious request, but the Hengsha servants were only too happy to oblige me what I’m sure was one of their most normal requests to date. I had both the items within an hour, and so taking my complimentary bottle of strong Danish vodka, I sat on a beat up leather chair staring out at the sunset over New Kong. It was a beautiful sight, even if the metroscrapers tended to block the better parts of the view. I began to play the violin as I once had in New Avalon as it all came flooding back to me.

“Allegro Killian, allegro”, Mr. Castor’s voice echoed in my mind.

“We cannot make beauty without order can we Killian? Now do it again at two times speed.”

The way my teacher had always pursed his lips and shook his head in silent despair had always been disappointing. What made it worse was not that I was bad, but that I was the best. He had no other pupils like me.

The bitterness of the vodka was different but not unpleasant and it wasn’t long before I’d had a couple glasses of it. Sleep however did not come easily even if my drink had done so. I tossed and turned that night, the notes of Wagner sounding in my head. I awoke late the next morning to the sound of a dull bell noise as one of the Hengsha’s came in with my breakfast. There was some sort of protein at least and something that resembled toast. The Hengsha district was not renowned for its quality of living but a man could disappear if he so desired. The roughhewn canyons of tenement buildings interspersed within a cluster of shops and factories was a maze quite unnavigable. New London had been quite cramped but New Kong easily put it to shame. I was glad that this was the place they had chosen for my R & R time. New Kong’s provisional government had been one of the strongest supporters of the Navy, unlike New Avalon, we were welcome here. I was able to cop a couple of free meals out of a few dingy noodle places because of my rank. Nowhere else in the world had I seen so many augs. Hell they weren’t even the military kind. A girl who could have been no more than ten came bounding past me on metal legs, offering dumplings and rolls to tourists and passersby. An old man with a long grey beard was silently weaving on a broken table, his metal hands clicking gently with a discordant rhythm. And a thousand others, some that dare not be mentioned as I passed through the narrow winding streets. Very few had ocular augmentations, that was higher tier and generally much more costly. Of course the Hengsha triads had long since controlled the market for them, and they usually just kept the best for themselves. As much as their society tried to blend in, they stood out well above the rest of the New Kong dwellers. Dressed in leathers and usually packing heat, their enforcers were a surly and obvious lot. The soldiers opted for the practical augs, the metabolic and gene enhancement enzymes were common. The bosses opted for the cosmetics. Eyes that could colors in quite literally the blink of an eye, perfect legs, flawless teeth; it was a surgeons paradise. I bought another flask of vodka and took the elevator up to my suite.