TWEEEEET—!
Standing in the center of the fifty-mile Moon Roundabout, twenty-foot-tall Crag-Devourer blew his silver traffic whistle with all the pride of a general commanding an army, waving his two six-foot red neon batons toward the northern exit ramp.
“Express Train Number One—carrying Mayor Pei and the construction crew to Worlds 27, 28, 29, and 30—clear for departure on Lane One!” Crag-Devourer boomed, saluting neatly with his right baton as Pei Xuan’s golden flagship locomotive glided smoothly around the traffic circle. “Uncle Guo! Don’t forget to put two extra spoons of spicy chili oil on my dinner cow tonight! I crushed forty stray meteors into Grade-A road gravel this afternoon!”
“It’s already marinating in the oven, Big Crag!” Old Guo leaned out the window of the kitchen car, waving his iron soup ladle and laughing. “Keep those lanes moving and I’ll throw in a pot of pickled garlic!”
CHOO-CHOOOOOO!
With a cheerful blast of its brass steam whistle, Pei Xuan’s lead Spirit-Furnace Star-Train—followed by five hundred passenger, supply, and engineering trains—shot off Exit Ramp #1 and zoomed down Ye Guhan’s freshly paved four-lane wormhole highway into the northern sector!
Just twenty-four hours ago, Worlds 27, 28, 29, and 30 had been dark, starving wastelands stripped bare by Crag-Devourer’s war tax.
