The salt of the Pacific still clung to Jack Parker's skin as he stood in the customs terminal of Harmonfield Skyport. The glass walls shimmered with the reflections of a thousand flashing cameras, and outside, a crowd surged like a living tide.Sarah adjusted her sunglasses. "We weren’t gone that long."Emily gave her a look. "Jack literally turned underwater cities into a worldwide movement. They probably expected you to come back with gills."Jack didn’t respond. His eyes lingered on the skyline of Harmonfield—different now, somehow smaller after months among deep-sea ecosystems and ancient island cultures. But home all the same.As they stepped into the sunlight, cheers erupted. A sea of biologists, marine engineers, environmentalists, students, and media personnel stretched beyond the street barricades. Some held banners: Welcome Home, Abyss Builders, Dragon Breathes Beneath the Sea, Mālama Honua—Care for Our Earth.Jack raised a hand in acknowledgment. The cheers doubled.Emily n

Rain danced off the glass-paneled terrace of Dragon Home as the first of the Sky Harbors shimmered out of the storm and into the light."We're live in four counties," Emily said, brushing damp hair from her face. Her tablet displayed rotating holograms—Harmonfield, Richmond, Reidsville, and Carlisle. All glowing.Jack stood at the edge, the wind tugging at his coat. Below them, Solstice One glided over Harmonfield's skyline, its domes humming with clean energy. Greenhouses bloomed along curved terraces. Residential pods extended from the main hull like petals.Sarah approached from the glass corridor behind. "Reports from Richmond say their unit attracted nearly five thousand visitors in the first two hours. A few hundred applied for permanent residency."Jack exhaled slowly. "The Hanging Dragon Cities...""It’s what the people are calling them now," Emily said. "Even CNN ran with the name."Outside, lights traced the shape of a dragon across the outer framework of the biosphere—its w

Jack traced the scar slowly, his fingertip barely grazing Sarah’s skin as she lay with her head on his chest, breathing softly. The silence between them felt earned, not empty. Rain tapped gently against the tall windows, like a quiet applause from the world outside."Then let's build it," Sarah whispered again. "Peace. After we win."Jack nodded against her hair. "But not the kind they sell on television. I want real peace. One we make with our own hands."She pulled back slightly to look at him. "So what does that look like for you?"He didn’t answer right away. His eyes wandered to the ceiling, as if he could see it up there—a future."A world where no one begs for medicine. Where a mother doesn't trade food for antibiotics. Where kids don’t die because someone chose profits over lives."Sarah studied him. "That sounds like a revolution.""It is," Jack replied. "And it's already begun."Within two months, Dragon BioLife was operational. Housed in a sleek, mirror-paneled tower acros

The chants still echoed below as Jack stepped down from the students’ shoulders, smiling modestly, hands raised to quiet the thunder of voices. The hologram lanterns above painted the air with trails of light, each flicker a testament to a vision once only imagined.From the balcony, Sarah watched him with a tenderness that never dulled. Beside her, Emily exhaled slowly, as though letting go of a lifetime she no longer needed to carry.Two months later, Dragon University had done something no war, treaty, or economic sanction had ever managed: it united cultures. But Jack knew education alone wasn't enough. Minds needed more than knowledge—they needed understanding.So, he launched the Global Cultural Exchange Initiative."This isn’t about soft diplomacy," he said during the announcement, flanked by Emily and Sarah. "This is about soul recognition. People need to see each other. Hear each other. Taste each other's stories."Emily, now globally recognized as Dragon University’s Chancel

The confetti still clung to Jack’s coat as he stood with Sarah and Emily outside the Emily Wilson Institute for Ethical Technology in Carlisle. The crowds had begun to thin, but the echoes of celebration still rang in the air—children laughing, diplomats shaking hands, old rivals sharing embraces.Jack tilted his head toward the sky, where the light display had begun to fade. “For once, the world doesn’t feel on the brink.”Emily, her face glowing beneath the warm evening lights, looked toward the city skyline. “Let’s keep it that way.”Three weeks later, deep beneath Dragon Corp’s energy division in Richmond, Jack stood in front of a containment chamber that pulsed with silent, blinding potential. The room was sterile, silent, and humming with history.Sarah entered behind him, heels clicking across the polished floor. “They say this could light up the world for ten thousand years.”Jack didn’t smile. He just nodded. “DragonPower. Fusion energy without carbon, without waste... withou