Synthetic Dream Machine There, A Red Door
ALERT!
THE RED DOOR OPENS!
PREPARE YOURSELF DENIZENS!
IT IS THE YEAR OF THE EXILIATE ONCE MORE!
OUR PRAYERS WITH OUR OBSERVER TO THE WASTELAND OF ONCE-HEAVEN!
ALERT!
It opens once a decade that we may see if Heaven has returned.
Mudri dons the traditional ragged robes of the wastelands. His pack, crude and heavy, lacks the fine old technology that they, the Maintainers, keep alive in their hollow town. His translucent skin is painted with the melanin dyes that will protect him from the fierce astral furnaces that burn the surface of Once-Heaven.
His family, his genetic offspring, come to wish him well. If he is successful, he will return with first-hand knowledge of the state of Once-Heaven. If he is fortunate, the purification will go well and he may return to the Red Door, spending his life in a hermetic field-suit, surrounded by children and grandchildren.
