The Kite Wars

Cities are blocked from the Sun below massive tethered solar panels

Jupiter darted between tall lampposts, looking up to check nobody was on a sky bridge close enough to spot her. The lower level sky bridges were almost always deserted, and anybody who might be there would probably be too focused on their own illegal activities to ever notice her. She had changed into her furs and mittens six stories up - it was much colder down here on the ground. Most of the heating elements below twelve stories were in disrepair, as were the lights, so it was darker too.

She was forty stories below her small comfortable flat which had a lovely view of the thirty-eighth story garden quad. Being so near the quad meant her flat was brighter and warmer than the other modest flats which shared her floor - her flat enjoyed the benefit of the extra light and heat provided for the garden. Flats facing the garden quad were even able to grow plants on their balconies, a luxury which was usually only enjoyed by those living on story fifty-five and above. The garden quad had been Jupiter's favourite spot since she was a little girl - until she had discovered the hole in The Fence.

Jupiter paused to change clothes behind a huge tether-pylon. She still had about two kilometers to The Fence, and already she was getting warmer. The pylon she was leaning against was reinforced concrete - five meters in diameter - even so, she could feel the vibrations running through it as, one hundred stories up, it gripped thigh-thick wires which helped keep one of the citiy's Solar Kite in place. This Kite had sixteen tether-pylons. The tethers were used to adjust the angle of the 20km by 20km Solar Kite so that it was always catching optimal sun, and so that it didn't crash into one of the other seven of the city's Solar Kites, nor into the Solar Kites of the neighbouring cities. The Kites floated in the troposphere, fitting together like pieces of a jig-saw puzzle. They provided the clean energy which ran everything: lights, heat, homes, transportation, manufacturing, and defense. There was almost no land left which wasn't blocked from the Sun; cold and dark below a Solar Kite. The only places left which were "Sol Zones" still basking in the sun, not shaded by Solar Kites, were huge areas which were protected and defended. Sol Zones were used for farming: crop farms, and oxygen farms. Oxygen farms were forests, curated to grow the trees, ferns and mosses only which released the most oxygen. The closest oxygen farm was about one hundred and ninety kilometers away.

Jupiter was headed to The Fence of a fifty thousand acre crop farm. Jupiter removed her furs and mittens, stuffing them back into her pack - which held a small gardening and tool kit, a book, a water bottle - and put on a dark green nylon cat suit, which included a face cover. She had had to travel down to the fifteenth story just to find someone who even knew where she could get this illicit item. She had been directed to the eleventh story, and had narrowly escaped several dangerous encounters before convincing an arms dealer that she wasn't an undercover Enforcer. It didn't take much to convince him though - if she had been an enforcer, she would have had no need for deception. Enforcers came in squads, with warrants from the hundred-and-twentieth story court, and they asked once only - responding to any disagreement with deadly force.

Jupiter continued on, leaving the city buildings behind her and ran through the seldom-patrolled buffer zone. She reached The Fence, scrambling through the small hole, being careful not to snag her catsuit. She sprinted towards the crops and the sun. Jupiter burst into the light, squinted her eyes, and breathed deep, deep breaths. She slowed so that she could make her way through the rows of corn without disturbing them, eventually stopping in a spot where there was a slightly larger gap between the plants. She lay down. Jupiter was sweating through her suit. She wished she could take it off, but she wore it as just-in-case camouflage, and, more importantly, because any hint of a tan would bring the Enforcers to her door like a shot. UV-bed use was rationed and, unless you lived over a garden quad, bowed legs was very common in people at her story level and below. She nuzzled her head into the dirt focusing on wonderful smell, and thinking about the new technique she had read about in her horticulture book. Luckily she had brought the book, because she couldn't remember the forth step.

The air smelled different today. There was a smell that Jupiter had smelled only once or twice before and was trying to place. The recollection hit her. Rain! She grabbed her pack and ran back towards The Fence as fast as she could. She was still three hundred meters from the edge of the Solar Kite when water poured down.

Back at the tether-pylon, Jupiter, once again in her furs, was inspecting her cat-suit carefully in the dim light. It was damp and the legs were muddy, but luckily the suit was undamaged. She was sitting on the cool ground, waiting impatiently for her hair to dry.
Just as she was about to head towards an un-paned ground floor window, there was movement on the sky bridge not far above her. It was a first story bridge. She thanked god the lampposts here were broken so she was hidden in deep shadow.
Anyone meeting on the first story would certainly kill a witness. She heard three voices. She recognised one of them. It was the arms dealer with whom she had given her favourite and most detailed country Atlas in exchange for the cat-suit.

"They're coming regardless." said a voice Jupiter didn't recognise. "If we're not with them, they'll Pirate anyway." It was a woman's voice. The woman sounded middle-aged, and had an educated trill. Jupiter wondered what a hundredth story accent was doing on first story.

The arms dealer sounded angry, "Better the devil we know. I already have the bombs! If we waste time and man-power helping the Pirates, we might not be able to complete our own mission.".

Jupiter stopped trying to peer round the pylon. She sat very still and breathed very quietly. This conversation was worse than she could have imagined. She had not heard of Kite Pirates anywhere in the country before, let alone this city. They were violent rogues who destroyed city Solar Kites and usurped the airspace for their own Kites. The cities were usually left in cold darkness, the occupants dying in their homes, or becoming refugees. Sometimes, the Pirates gave a little energy to the city, only enough to sustain the groups which had helped them take over the airspace and disable the Enforcers.

A different man spoke, "Who's to say they'll keep their promises. We might be in a no better position than the rest of the city even if we do assist the Pirates. But we need to decide now and give our people orders today.". This man had the gruff twang of a Farmer. Farmers were upper society - you weren't allowed to be one of the few to go into the Sun without having serious connections.

"Even if the Pirates are true, are we giving up on being Kiteless?" Retorted the arms dealer, raising his voice. I worked hard to hold in a gasp. This was a meeting between high ranking members of the terrorist group Which called themselves the FSS - Free Sky Society. He continued after a few moments having regained his composure, "Half the bombs are already planted under the tether-pylons. Five of the Solar-Kites can be eradicated with the click of a button. That'll be more than one hundred kilometers of open sky. Sirius. Neptune. We are too close to accomplishing our goal, to wager with the empty promises of Pirates."

The woman, Neptune was the one to sound angry now. "Removing the city's Solar-Kites is exactly what the Pirates want us to do! We'll have wasted our bombs and will have none left to destroy the Pirates' Kites!"

"She's right, Cumulus. Better we use their own weapons and assist them. The people in the city will have to suffer the Pirates regardless, better we have the bombs to use next summer to remove the Pirate Kites."

The FSS discussed the orders they'd give their groups to aid the Pirates, and after an hour of heated debate and strategising Cumulus, Neptune and Sirius went their separate ways. Jupiter was shivering, despite her furs. She headed back towards the hole in The Fence. She recalled from her Atlas that, after passing through the farm, there was only one city and another crop farm between her and the thirty million acre oxygen farm. She would make her way there and that's where she'd live: away from the darkness, away from the cold, and away from the death which was about to consume the cities.


Genre: Solar Punk Dystopia
Words: 1510