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asher553[lucky line panic]
I was lucky that I got there early. Everything that morning seemed peaceful and orderly - too peaceful and orderly, now, looking back, as if memory had imbued the complacent atmosphere with foreboding. It was all so harmonious, with the crowds thronging on the plaza as if performing an intricate dance on the geometric patterns of the ancient stone floor, while the robotic choir in the balcony sang the same soothing tunes they had been singing for years. The melody washed over us like wine.
So I was near the front of the line for the transport when it happened, holding a gift I'd just bought for my grandmother - one of those hand-carved eggs that they make in the villages outside the main city. It felt round and comforting in my hand, and I guess I must have started gripping it tighter even before I became consciously aware of the commotion. One of the passengers - I guess it was an older lady, maybe about my grandmother's age - was asking the guard some questions, or maybe asking for help, and he snubbed her and told her to move along. And that's when she started arguing with him, and nobody was taking any notice, and nothing would have come of it, except that the lady said to the guard, "Well, you do know what's coming tomorrow, don't you? You do know that the Moon Prince Regent has abdicated, and the whole Colony is to revert back to the Emperor's direct control tomorrow?"
That was when the panic started. ...
I was lucky that I got there early. Everything that morning seemed peaceful and orderly - too peaceful and orderly, now, looking back, as if memory had imbued the complacent atmosphere with foreboding. It was all so harmonious, with the crowds thronging on the plaza as if performing an intricate dance on the geometric patterns of the ancient stone floor, while the robotic choir in the balcony sang the same soothing tunes they had been singing for years. The melody washed over us like wine.
So I was near the front of the line for the transport when it happened, holding a gift I'd just bought for my grandmother - one of those hand-carved eggs that they make in the villages outside the main city. It felt round and comforting in my hand, and I guess I must have started gripping it tighter even before I became consciously aware of the commotion. One of the passengers - I guess it was an older lady, maybe about my grandmother's age - was asking the guard some questions, or maybe asking for help, and he snubbed her and told her to move along. And that's when she started arguing with him, and nobody was taking any notice, and nothing would have come of it, except that the lady said to the guard, "Well, you do know what's coming tomorrow, don't you? You do know that the Moon Prince Regent has abdicated, and the whole Colony is to revert back to the Emperor's direct control tomorrow?"
That was when the panic started. ...
