“We Dream of Sunrise in our Monochrome City” by Uchechukwu Nwaka, Translunar Travelers Lounge, Issue 14, February 2026
In the fortress city of Aguiyi, built atop a ruined, irradiated Earth, Obinna Egeonu lives in H-3, “Sepia Town,” the cramped, monochrome lower level where cleaners, factory workers, and other marginalized residents struggle to get by. He works for the Hazard and Safety Commission, riding railcars down to the sewer levels to scrub rat gore and effluent from the city’s vasculature of pipes after huge mutated rats are hunted by the city’s Segun corps, pilots of relic mecha once used in old wars. Despite his parents’ quiet disapproval and the constant reminder that H‑1 jobs are about connections rather than merit, Obinna pours scarce money and energy into exams that could let him join the Segun and ascend the towers. H-3 is noisy, grimy, and dangerous, yet he finds it painfully beautiful and knows that if he fails, he will die there cleaning rat guts.[1]
After sitting the first Segun entrance exam in H-2, Obinna, exhausted and doubtful, ends up in a bar where he meets Chiamaka, a sharp-tongued, seemingly tipsy woman in an oversized leather jacket who brazenly talks him into sharing his beer. Their banter cuts through his despair; he enjoys her wit even as he resents her commandeering his drink, and she teases out that he is a cleaner from H-3 who has just taken the Segun test. Back in Processing, he tells his friend Chike about her, and Chike warns that H‑2 women often “package” themselves to catch upper‑tower men, stirring Obinna’s anxiety about being used or abandoned as he once was by his ex, Amina, who left him for a more secure life higher up the tower. The memory of Amina calling his aspirations “unrealistic” haunts him, feeding his fear that his dreams are self-indulgent fantasies.[1]
When the results are posted, Obinna, still in his grimy coveralls, pushes through a crowd of mostly H-2 workers to find his name; after a moment of sick dread, he discovers he has not only passed but scored high enough for the applied test. Overcome, he yells in joy, only to realize Chiamaka has appeared beside him again, teasing him about making a scene and congratulating him warmly. She nudges him to celebrate, and although he is self-conscious about his status and smell, she gives him her contact, insisting he message her when he returns to H‑2. Back in Sepia Town, Obinna works under his mother’s pepper-soup canopy, the neon-lit night streets full of dustheads, gangs, and music, while he and Chike debate whether he can afford romance amidst his grinding ambition.[1]
Through their messages, Obinna learns that Chiamaka is from H-1, the elite level, a doctor with the Hazard and Safety Commission and the daughter of the mayor’s main political opponent. Her leather jacket belonged to her late father, a member of the Watchers Guild, and the day she drank his beer was the anniversary of her father’s death; she was fleeing grief as much as politics. She admits she is used to people deferring to her and was surprised when he simply refused her drink, and she reveals she sneaks into Sepia Town on a fake visa to visit “real” clubs. When she offers to ask her mother about an opening on the Farms as a backup if he fails the corps exams, Obinna’s pride and internalized inferiority flare up; he ghosts her, unable to bear the idea of charity from someone above him.[1]
For the applied test, Obinna finally travels to H-1, stunned by its glass station, floral air, and sunlight filtered through climate shields. The Segun barracks, a black-glass dome housing arthropod-like mecha, looms as the site of a physically demanding, machine-handling exam that draws on his experience lifting and managing equipment in Processing. Before the test, he breaks his silence: from H‑1 he sends Chiamaka a text and a long voice message apology, confessing that his pride and his fear of being “less-than” made him shut her out, and that he is tired of seeing himself purely as a Sepia Town cleaner.[1]
After the exam, a message from Chiamaka directs him to the Green Hub’s Flower District, a greenhouse complex of climate-controlled domes lush with plants and wildlife under clear, bright skies. He nearly bankrupts himself buying a single rose, feeling it is redundant in a flower district yet symbolically right for this meeting. On a bench under sculpted bushes, he offers the flower and an earnest apology; she tells him bluntly that he needs to get his self-esteem checked but accepts the rose, shares akara and fried yams, and lets his nervousness melt into a soft, mutual kiss. They spend hours there watching the sun sink—an experience that transforms his dream of sunrise in the monochrome city into something tangible, shared, and possible. A week later, a new message arrives from the Defence Commission, leaving the outcome of his Segun aspirations hovering over a life that now holds not just the promise of ascension, but the fragile, vivid connection he has found with Chiamaka.[1]
Sources
[1] We-Dream-of-Sunrise-in-our-Monochrome-City-by-Uchechukwu-Nwaka-Translunar-Travelers-Lounge-5058-.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/51396583/32fc1581-0b2d-49c2-af93-8f510233698b/We-Dream-of-Sunrise-in-our-Monochrome-City-by-Uchechukwu-Nwaka-Translunar-Travelers-Lounge-5058-words-21-pages-3.9.pdf