Chapter 3

After an hour on the bus Ethan and Lila arrived at Ethalia and got off.
Ethalia was a strange city. Before humans had come, it had been a lush tropical oasis surrounded by an inhospitable wasteland. It was also home to the Ohmlok, an amphibious but intelligent creature. It's body was covered in fine, soft fur that would change pattern depending on it's mood. They possessed suction tipped fingers and toes that helped them to navigate the slimy surface of their cave homes.
When humans had come tho Ethalia they had decided to found a city and, in a few decades through pollution and deforestation, had managed to all but destroy the beautiful forest that the city had been founded for.
Now the city of Ethalia was underground as, because of human ignorance, the surface was now constantly being scoured by sandstorms in the dry season and flooded during the wet season. The extreme weather had forced the people move their city underground. The only connection with the surface being small dome shaped buildings containing lifts.
They had hoped that the forest would regrow over time but, centuries later the surface remained as bleak as ever.

Half a kilometer underneath the surface there was an enormous cavern. It had been formed by nature and refined by man. Inside this cavern there were 3 balls of purple plasma which shed light on a city almost as big as the cavern providing light to the business district, the upper class residential area and 'the rest', the other part of the city.. The thing was that this city was entirely upside down, all of the buildings hung from the ceiling with huge pillars extending from the roof to the floor helping to hold the extra weight of the city, people walked upside down and nothing fell. To the inhabitants of Ethalia, this was completely normal.
To the designers and builders of the city, it was a masterpiece, a feat of human engineering and ingenuity. To visitors, it was a wonderful mystery. To the Ohmlok, it was a symbol of their continuing slavery.
When humans first discovered the Ohmlok, they were hunted and killed then, after study, they were used for labor, but the Ohmlok were an intelligent race and they quickly learned the humans language and began talking to them. Ohmlok then became slaves until the government declared them citizens about two centuries after their discovery.
Now Ohmlok were bottom level citizens under the Qobran Federations system of government. They  were still basically slaves as most jobs would not hire an Ohmlok, the only jobs they did get were ones they created themselves or government jobs. Many Ohmlok were also personal servants to rich, high level citizens, nobles, politicians, company heads, being a servant was only slightly better than a slave, you were treated better and were payed although most Ohmlok took this pay in the form of food and lodging at their masters residence, usually a mansion.

The Qobran system was strange and unfair to say the least. There were five levels or classes of citizenship. The lowest was for the indigenous people of a planet, next up was the scum of civilization, bums, beggars, thieves generally homeless people. The third class was  the poor but working and able to provide food and shelter for themselves and any dependents, class two was for well off people and the first class was for the rich and powerful. Class was identified by a number, tattooed on the cheek. All except 1st class citizens had this number.
The main problem with their system was that any citizen could order a lower class citizen to do their bidding for example a 2nd class citizen could order any citizen of the third, fourth or fifth class to do something for them. This could be any sort of thing that was non life threatening, from simply taking out the trash or making someone pick their nose (popular for young children) to murder although they servant was under no obligation to keep confidential anything that he or she did. This led to inequality and generally kept the lower classes where they were. The government wouldn't change as they were of the first class and they liked things the way they were. Anyway, only 1st and 2nd class citizens could vote.  There were however limits to the system, you cold only be called upon to do a task a limited amount of times, generally what number class you were, i.e. A class 4 could be called upon four times in a day. A record was kept on an armband worn by all except for 1st class citizens.
The final catch is, if you wanted to upgrade your class you would have to be investigated and found fit to be of the higher class. Then you would have to go through the pain of getting your tattoo removed and another one put on, you would lose your friends and have to make new ones of your new class etc.
It was a complicated system and was dependent on there being a lot more lower class citizens than upper and middle class citizens.
In contrast the Adonis Federation had a simple, democratic government in which everyone was equal and your quality of life depended on your job. The only downside was the mandatory military service for all civilians. This was because the war had been going for decades and was unlikely to stop any time soon. It has also boosted numbers in the armed forces as people liked what they were doing so joined for good.

Ethan and Lila made their way to one of the scattered dome-shaped buildings on the surface and went inside. There was a door marked 'grav-lift'.
A grav-lift uses the forces of gravity to push and pull people and accelerated them to tremendous speeds for a quick and relatively safe journey. They went inside and found themselves in a circular room with a semi-circular standing area on the door side of the room. In the center was a hole and on the wall in plain sight was a sign which read 'For best results please enter head-first.'
“So, which way are you going in?” asked Lilah, her mind already made up.
“The same way as any other lift, standing up. It has never failed me before even once in the whole universe,”replied Ethan stubbornly.
“Okay, see ya on the other side,” with that she dived into the lift head-first and was whisked away.
Ethan, now with some trepidation, walked in after her and he too was clutched by gravity and pulled down the hole.