The battle between light and dark, white and black, good and bad, has waged on throughout the eternity of time. The unrest-ness of evil and chaos has always permutated throughout the galaxy. Though, there is only one pure "evil," which can bring death to the universe.
Astronomers' theoretical model of the birth and death of the universe is correct. However, the assumed natural death of the universe is not. Unlike humans, the universe lives without a period to which it will die. It is pure "evil" which brings its death. A new universe is only born when an existing universe dies. It is the "fifth element" which gives it life.
There exist two dimensions. Every five thousand years, a door opens between the dimensions. In one dimension lie the universe and its entire multitude of varied life forms. In another exists an element made not of earth, air, fire, or water, but of anti-energy, anti-life. This thing, this darkness, waits patiently at the threshold of the universe for an opportunity to extinguish all life and all light. Every five thousand years, the universe needs a hero, and in New York City of the 23rd Century, a good hero is hard to find.
The Federated Territory consists of Earth and its solar system. The territory is confined within distinct "border" in space. The Federated Territory is the governing body of all external colonies.
The deepened haze and smog that clung to the ground level of the city mercifully obscured the generation of litter and debris -- the urban middle that covered the streets to a depth of between twenty and forty feet.
No one lived down on the streets. No one except drop-outs. Figures, almost human, clothed in rags and skins, climbing up and around, sliding over and between the enormous piles of rotting garbage.
The garbage trucks are gone. The city discovered tat it was cheaper to let the trash build up than haul itto the landfill. The city soared upward faster than the trash, it created no problem for those living in the upper levels. The trash was handy as a dwelling and scavenging place for the drop-outs -- literally those who couldn't afford to soar upward with the city.