“Come on, man. You can’t hate your brother like this forever. Maybe he’s really sorry?”
“Sorry? Elien sorry? That son of a bitch is only sorry when he’s been a sorry son of a bitch and never more!”
Tobin was about to move the vehicle away as he had other things to contend with than an idiot brother who only knew how to ruin relationships when the sounds of the bay (buzzing, talking, echoing clatters and the whine of engines) became just the unearthly whine of engines. He looked up and froze. Flying through one of the private docking ports was one of the strangest sights he’d ever witnessed.
“Is that… a waterjet flying into our bay?” Erso asked dumbfounded. He walked a few steps from the cart and raised a hand to his eyes to block out the sunlight streaming through the outer shields casting a reddish glow across the vessel floating slowly through.
“Don’t be absurd,” Tobin said driving to a stop beside him. “These damn kids and their infernal party machines…”
A man in the backseat of the vessel gave a forced smile to the dockworkers that said, ‘Hey, what’re you gonna do?’ Tobin grumbled as he watched the dockhands guide the vessel across the docks to bay thirteen across the way. He couldn’t remember who had previously leased that one, he was fairly certain it was currently unclaimed, but he knew that only the wealthy stored private vessels of odd and unusual makes on this level. Tobin then saw Advocate Wyclift racing towards thirteen, a broad smile on his inscrutably young face (the man was nearly fifty for Spirits’ sake!) Great. A very special case, apparently, if it involves Commander Forever-Young over there. Young Chuhukon pilot… Hmmm. Bet it’s one of the consulars’ brats. He sighed and looked to Erso.
“Just one more pain in my ass! Go tell Elien to take a long walk. I’ve got too much to deal with right now!”
“Fine. Fine. You crotchety old—” But Tobin didn’t hear the rest as he sped away towards the rampways down past the civilian passenger ports.
SETTLING ONTO THE charging cradle in the circular alcove of bay thirteen, the plasmic shielding around the waverider diminished to near nothing until the landing struts were supporting all the weight of the craft. Aidele stared at the readouts and was pleased to note that the charging station did indeed function on the vehicle as well. Having lost the charging station to the waverider in the labs had worried her initially. Now, that worry was gone and she was satisfied to have one last concern to contend with.
“Finally!” Aidele held her hands out wide indicating the interface flowing before her. “Something’s going our way!”
“Well, that’s something anyway,” Durante muttered sliding off the back of the vehicle looking at their bags. “Think it’ll be safe to just leave them here for now?”
Aidele slid off and stretched. “I mean, what would be the point in taking the bags with us?” she asked stepping beside him. The low whine of the engine dissipated and the red lighting that had trimmed the waverider’s hull dimmed to nothing. “The only agenda we have right now is speaking to the Council. Beyond that, I haven’t even a clue as to where we’ll even be sleeping tonight.”
Durante frowned and a guttural ‘hmm’ left his throat. He heard footsteps approaching and turned to see a young man who had to be in his twenties approaching, a smile broad across his face.
“Maybe this guy will be able to help us,” he said and tilted his head toward the newcomer.
Aidele looked and quirked a brow. “You suggestin’ he offer us inn advice and whatnot?”
“Sure. Why not. City has to be rife with hotels, right? Maybe something near the government facilities?”
“Maybe…”
The man arrived. He was brightly energetic and clearly happy to see them. Durante found him a little too cheery, though. His blonde hair, spiked on top and nearly non-existent along the nape of the neck, didn’t so much as twitch as he bobbed along.
“Welcome to the Paayo district docking port of Aquila Mons! We’re pleased to have your patronage! My name’s Kurton Wyclift, and I’ll be your bay advocate. I’m happy you chose Stanton Industries for your services!”
“Yeah, well, the signs all pointed to the private docks, so we just sort of ended up here,” Aidele grumbled. “So, what do we do here? Does it get locked up? Sit out in the open? Payment up front?”
“Every bay here is equipped with security shielding and biometric readers. Were you wishing to set up an account now?”
Durante felt a sudden panic. How were they supposed to pay for all of this? He wasn’t sure if his Union Credit account could be accessed from here or not. But before he could voice his concerns, Aidele spoke.
“Sure. Why not. How do we do that?”
Kurton held up a tablet and input a few commands. “We’ll simply get your handprint for identification, get you on file, and assign bay thirteen to your storage needs. Right here, if you please.”
She raised her right hand and placed her palm onto the surface of the tablet. A green light traced around the edges of her hand then the whole surface glowed green. When it was done, he took the tablet back and scrolled through the data streaming across its thin holoprojection. Which looked like a thin plate of light just above the surface of the otherwise black pad.
“Ah, yes. Aidele Wilson,” he looked at her with compassionate green eyes. “I am so sorry for your loss, Ms. Wilson.”
“Huhn?” came Aidele’s response. “Whatchou talkin’ ‘bout?”
“Why, your father, ma’am. It says he passed away a few months ago. You have my deepest condolences.”
“Well, that’s a might polite thing ta say. Thank you kindly. All of that is in the system?” Aidele cocked her head seeming slightly taken aback.
“Oh yes! Your whole genetic ancestry is here. It would seem your father had an account with us paid for through the Sciences Ministry.”
“That’s handy,” she snorted.
“Indeed, it is. It would seem you’re also the beneficiary of his holding in Aquila Mons.” Kurton nodded.
“What does that mean?” She raised a brow, a look of confusion on her face. The man seemed slightly at a loss of words but forged ahead regardless.
“As… an agent of Stanton Industries, I’m authorized to transfer possession of the account holdings to you. In the account, there are…” he examined the readouts, “One-hundred-thirty-thousand credits, a residence in the downtown Halcyon District, a venture-holdings in Diamond Labs Network, an Argo Lift personal shuttle, stored over in the Fiat Conclaves, it would seem. How exciting! Oh, don’t look that way!” he waved a hand daintily towards her. “You’ll still have access to it even if it isn’t through our systems. There also seems to be a permanent booth in the Chuhukon Consul Praetorium. Very schnazzy. Wish I could afford something like that! Are you wishing to claim these holdings, Ms. Wilson?”
She stood there stunned for a long moment as Kurton politely awaited her answer. Her mouth hung open and then she spurt out, “Does a billiric gnaw on yer cullets?”
Kurton pulled a face that screamed ‘What the fuck?’ but only shook his head. “I don’t know what that means, ma’am.”
“Yes. It means yes. I want the assets transferred to my care.”
“Very good.” He pulled up something on the tablet and held it towards her. “I’ll just require your authorization of the transfer here.” She pressed her hand to the surface again for a repeat of the previous process. “Excellent! Your vehicle will be safe in bay thirteen. Anytime you wish to take it out, just use your handprint to unlock the port. Whenever you wish to return to the bay, simply sync your authorized transmission unit to our systems.”
“Uhm, okay,” Aidele nodded not really looking at his face, but staring straight through him. “I… I appreciate all your help.”
“My pleasure, Ms. Wilson. That’s why I’m here!” He beamed a smile and lightly reached his hand towards her arm. “Now, is there anything else you’ll be requiring?”
“Yes,” Durante said then, licking his lips. Kurton turned t
owards him and clasped his arms around his tablet. “Uhm, does the Council meet in the Chuhukon Consul Praetorium? That sounds like a government building, yes?”
“Oh, yes! Absolutely! I believe they’re currently in session but if you’re looking to reach the Praetorium, there’s a zipcoach terminal just outside the ports.”
“Awesome. Now, what hotels are near—”
Aidele grabbed his arm gently and stared up at him. “My father just gave me a place downtown, remember?”
“Huhn? Oh! That was mentioned, wasn’t it? Okay. Then, do we need anything else?”
“I think that does it,” Aidele said and looked at Kurton. “Thank you very much. We’ll be taking our leave now.”
“Very well. If you should ever need my services again, there’s a call booth at the docking bay gateway. Again, my name is Kurton Wyclift, and I wish you two a great day!”
“You too,” Aidele and Durante both said as the man turned to walk towards a pair of dockworkers looking the waverider over.
“Better not steal our bags…” Durante mumbled looking at the two.
“It’ll be fine. Come on. Let’s get to the Praetorium.” She walked past him and towards a moving walkway, like a conveyor belt, and hopped up onto it. “We’ll come back for them later. Not in the mood to carry ‘em everywhere, though. If’n ya don’ mind.”
Durante followed her onto the conveyor and they moved from the inner bays towards the front of the whole building of terminals. The docks were all massive, they noted. It was hard to imagine multiple levels of sky-high ceiling.
Soon enough, they arrived in a wide passenger pavilion, stepped off the conveyor, and headed for the massive tunnel like exits leading out into the streets. Aidele said nothing as they traversed the three-hundred-foot long tunnel, its height at least fifteen-feet and looking like it was forged of some sort of titanium with smooth unwindowed features. The shape of it rectangular with the edges sharply cut at diagonals. Light from overhead fixtures, and from sunlight on the streets beyond, cast everything as a bright bluish white.
Then they were outside and Aidele stopped. The streets were not like on Earth where they were designed for wheeled vehicles and often tarred. Here, it was an alien world. There were raised sections of sidewalks, and various places with stairs where people could walk down a short flight to the pavilion below. The pavilion was flat and interspersed with wide sections of lawn. It was like being on a university campus, he marveled. Only the campus was the whole city. Everywhere he looked he saw long stretching medians of plants and bushes, grasses on the lawns, and of course skinny trees at sporadic intervals. The most impressive part about it all, though, were the looming buildings separating these large areas of pavilion. Giant, hundred-story or more cannisters with bullet tipped tops. Windows lined them but were flush into the shining surfaces as if it were all one continuous structure.
From afar, the buildings all looked tightly packed together. But from the ground looking up, it was like being in a glittering forest bouncing natural light from the plasma shields above in every direction. The aura was of a deep blue. Unlike the shielding in the Wastelands, here the plasma network was a cerulean and that cerulean in the light cast the whole city under a deluge of bluish white light.
“Durante, I feel like I’ve lived a sheltered life…”
He looked down to her and saw she was staring intently all around. “I’m sure anyone from here would be just as astounded by the Wastelands.”
“Do you think so?”
“Yeah. I know I was. It’s just like being in a desert on Earth. Course, the Deltas would be like the forest or backwoods or something, I’d imagine. I only got a view of the Sutures myself. Still, lots of beautiful scenery you don’t get in the city.”
“I reckon so.” Aidele turned to look around again. This time she was searching for the zipcoach terminal. “That might be it over there.”
She pointed to a large three-story building with a domed roof where flying zipcoaches were exiting portholes in the dome.
“You’re probably right.”
They crossed over the football field sized pavilion and entered the building across from the docks. Walking up a large stairway, Aidele looked back over her shoulder. Durante saw she was looking back at the docks. The whole complex took up half-a-miles’ worth of stone wall that made up the very edge of the city. The buildings there were either built around and into the stone of the hollowed-out volcano, or were built in such a way as to obscure the inner volcanic wall from view. With both ways, it was like a wall of steel going on for as far as the eye could see in either direction.
Turning away from the view, they hurried inside where they found an incredibly busy interior. It reminded Durante of some of the subways in Philadelphia. Only here, all the subway platforms were stacked three stories high with escalators accessing each floor where they’d find a large circular room with flying zipcoaches looking like pills that had been halfway squashed from top to bottom. It took nearly twenty minutes to find an empty one and when they entered the blue vehicle, they found themselves side by side on a wide seat much like a stagecoach couch that was facing another couch looking the opposite direction. There were no forward or backward facing windows, but the side windows gave a decent view of the chaos around them. The single door that had slid up into the roof came shutting down and almost immediately the holographic form of a Chuhukon woman from the waist up came into existence in the center of the coach interior. She was wearing some sort of dark robes and had long flowing hair. She smiled brightly and glittered in a tinge of sky blue.
“Welcome to the Aquilan Transit Network. Please state your destination.”
“We need to talk to the Council,” Aidele leaned forward and waved a hand through the hologram.
“I’m sorry. The Council is not currently meeting with private citizens. Would you care to know the hours of public participation?”
“No. Just… take us to… what did that Kurton guy call it?”
“The Chuhukon Consul Praetorium.” Durante said.
The Chuhukon woman flashed white teeth and her hands clasped together pleasantly.
“The Chuhukon Consul Praetorium. Is that correct?”
Aidele growled. “Yes! Just go!”
“Destination is set. Please secure yourselves in the provided harnesses. Time of arrival is approximately fifteen minutes. Thank you.”
The woman vanished and the zipcoach lifted off and followed its track towards the opening exit in the dome. Then they were out and flying through the city. From here, they could see how much variety was put into the design of Aquila Mons. Tall, conical buildings, short and squat domed ones, great spoked half-wheels with massive windows like eyes on their sides, wide stadiums that were flat with roofs that could collapse inward, and so on and so forth. Absolute splendor spread out for over four-hundred-fifty square miles. Durante had heard tales of Aquila Mons’ beauty, but had been so obsessed with his studies he’d seen little of it. Hadn’t even paid attention when they’d taken the train out. Not even a look back. And now, he was seeing what he missed and why people spoke of it so.
I never knew. Silly me. He smiled and looked to Aidele. He could see she was still amazed herself but their task seemed to be weighing on her.
“You alright?”
“Yeah,” Aidele nodded and looked to him. “Just wish we had more time to take it all in.”
“Well, there’s always later.”
“You know very well that later, when it comes to us, is always filled with so much running and shooting. Lots of screaming too.”
She turned back to the window and he screwed up his face. “You’re always such a spirit lifter, you know that?”
Aidele pointed out the window. “You suppose that’s it?”
Durante leaned over and they looked down towards a wide-open section of the city. He’d wager a sure bet this was the Praetorium. It was a massive domed building with spires rising up around its perimeter. All of it was gold a
nd copper, the archways connecting spire to dome, decorated with statues and carvings. All depicting what Durante assumed to be Chuhukon mythical figures. Heroes of old ages. Gods and Goddesses even. The whole premises had to be at least fifteen stories tall base to the center of the dome and five times as wide as any sporting stadium he’d ever been to. A mound of opulence dedicated to the Chuhukon spirit. And surrounding it, great open fields of blue green grass with several fields that were located at the cardinal points playing host to a series of great trees in their middles like one would hoist a statue in memoriam of some fallen soldier. Walkways and pavilions divided it all from one another and ringed the Praetorium like circuits on a motherboard.
“If it’s not, somebody has ostentatious taste.”
“For real. Give me a ranch and horse to tame and I’d take that over this any day.”
“We didn’t come here to get an apartment. Looks like we’re angling down. Ready for this?”
“No. If things go wrong here, I doubt I can shoot my way out of it.”
“Not everything requires gunplay, you know?”
Aidele chuckled. “You say that now and with such confidence.”
The zipcoach swung around behind the Praetorium, giving them an excellent view of the whole complex, and landed at an open-air port by an area that looked to be called the ‘Constituent Commons’ according to a digital projection near the port. The Chuhukon hologram materialized again. Smile bright as ever.
“Now arriving at: The Chuhukon Consul Praetorium. Thank you for traveling with the Aquilan Transit Network. We look forward to serving your needs again in the future.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Aidele grumbled as the woman vanished and they exited the vehicle.
As they stepped away, another person entered the cab and, after a moment, it lifted back off. They turned and headed towards the massive building that rose up into the sky dominating the area in an awe-inspiring manner. No other buildings were close enough to overshadow it and the daylight spilling down felt hot on Durante’s skin.
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