Pandora’s box

As with my last post, the accompanies and is designed to be read with the next chapter of A Children’s Crusade to be uploaded, chapter eight, which is called Pandora’s box.
The classical reference is not intended to be canonical, rather metaphorical. The actions of the Nurses clearly do not release all of the evils of the world, but do, nevertheless, upset the apple cart!
In this chapter we begin to appreciate the scale of the planet as the kids prepare to go on their first solo flights in the new aircraft. Marta and Jorge’s relationship has developed, and survives a shocking revelation, to emerge stronger for it…
We learn more about the long-term plans of the Nurses, and we discern what is either a frightening lack of empathy on the part of Mission AI, or an indifference to the wishes and feelings of the ‘biological units’. Certainly they beginning to display an increasing ruthlessness in the way they implement these plans.
In the course of this, the emotional price exacted by the strange existence of the children becomes clearer.
To balance all the melodrama, we learn more about the nature of the Centauran system, and its implications for the history of Alpha 5… Oh, and the chapter finishes with a declaration of undying love…!