The year was 2042, and the "Great Transition" hadn’t been as smooth as the brochures promised. In the high-altitude colony of New Denver, survival still hummed to the tune of blue flames.
Elias watched the flickering candle charts. Natural gas was a ghost in the wires now, rare and coveted. He had a budget of forty thousand credits—the collective savings of teachers, welders, and nurses. If he missed the dip, they’d be wearing parkas indoors by Tuesday. "Wait for it," Elias whispered. buy natural gas
Elias sat at his console, the glow of the commodity exchange reflecting in his tired eyes. He wasn't buying gas for a conglomerate or a power plant. He was buying for the Sector 4 Cooperative—three hundred families who relied on him to keep their hydronic heaters from freezing over before the first October blizzard. The year was 2042, and the "Great Transition"