Infinite Helix

Arturian Noble the second, adopted son of the late and Great Arturian Noble, was taking a walk on the upper level very late at night. He was walking in his usual composed, gentlemanly, prince like dimeanor with his hands behind his back.

His father was the majority owner of Celestial Mining and Logistics, and his father was a high profile figure in Natovis and abroad. Despite these things, Arturian II was actually more well known for something else.

This may be a bit of a digression from the plot, but may be worth explaining anyway. Arturian had a bit of a weakness, or what many would consider a weakness. He was a huge Speculationist.

Readers may be confused or unfamiliar with this term, but may have a better understanding of it if explained this way: Speculationism is most closely related to what some readers may call a "conspiracy theorist". 

After his long walks at night he did not just merely go to bed. He would stay up and tune in to late night broadcasting. He regularly calls in to late night broadcasts, the most famous being the Allington Shamway show, giving his thoughts on all of the latest speculations.

There were many popular theories at the time, here are a few: The Automaton Dwelling theory, the theory that past a certain point in the lower levels, there were entire vast cities governed by robots and had only robots as citizens.

In the past Giant countryside theory was discussed in length, the idea that giants occupied the countryside outside of Notavis and would kidnap citizens, sacrifice the men, and take the women as wives.

Discussions relating to theories like this can really go into detail. Some of the audience would call into the show would discuss their first hand encounters with whatever the topic of interest was. Some would come onto the show and they would show "photo proof" of their claims, or would show recorded "audio".

There were three types of listeners. People who would listen to these programs. There were those who would listen because they truly believed these things, there were those who would tune in for entertainment, and some would listen because of a combination of the two.

The most provocative of all of these speculations, but also the one that drew the largest audience as of late, was the authoritarian snatching theory. The theory outright blamed the government for being responsible for these mysterious disappearances taking place in Notavis. The theory mostly accused the authorities of snatching up its citizens when no one was looking, and sell them to one of the rouge states somewhere across the world for a high price. This would also be a way for the authorities to have one less mouth to feed.

Most of the time the listeners to shows like these were a little say.... alternative to put things nicely. When a well known figure like Arturian Noble the Second is calling in to a program, it would give the ideas a huge appearance of credibility.

So that is the digression of describing Arturians love for speculationism, now to continue with the narrative.