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"As a matter of fact I don't think it means anything. I have no idea why it's
called Alvin." He bent over his instruments. "We won't land at the central
port. Too much traffic anyway, and there are plenty of smaller ports scattered
throughout the city where we'll be less conspicu-ous setting down."
They came to a halt, hovering several thousand feet up in a parking pattern.
While Rail waited for clearance, Kerwin and his companions were able to
observe an aston-ishing variety of vessels and aircraft zipping back and forth
in front of the port. Off in the distance, towers of metal and plastic and
more exotic construction materials rose toward the sky. Despite their already
rarified height, sev-eral appeared to still be under construction.
Rail spoke into his pickup and they began to descend. Slowly, this time.
Metallic canyons rose around them, shutting out the sun. Kerwin had been down
the Grand Canyon once. This experience was similar, the walls grad-ually
closing in around you until even the upper canyon vanished.
Except that these walls were artificial. A few minutes later they touched
down. Kerwin gratefully freed himself from the restraining field.
"Feels good to be back on the ground."
"But this isn't the ground. Merely the landing field for this particular port.
The actual ground lies far below us. Nedsplen's an old world, quite built up.
Much as new cities were constructed on the foundations of older habitations on
your own world, except that here the lowest levels are still in use."
He didn't have time to ponder the significance of this because Rail was
leading them outside, where the profu-sion of alien sights and smells was
overwhelming. Kerwin had always considered himself someone of broad
imagina-tion. But it was one thing to deal with a couple of aliens like Rail
and Izmir, quite another to emerge into a mon-strous hangar of unfamiliar
design where members of doz-ens of different races were congregating. It was a
measure of how far they'd come that whenever he noticed the neatly manicured
green skull of another Prufillian, he ex-perienced a shock of recognition.
There were no humans to be seen.
Everything else imaginable, though, and much that wasn't. The smallest of the
port's busy inhabitants stood barely eighteen inches high, while the largest
topped out at over eight feet. These giants had skin like parchment that
sloughed off at regular intervals. When the skin struck the pavement it
dissolved like crystalized honey.
There were mammalians and reptilians, insectoids and water-breathers compelled
to move about clad in suits full of liquid. They jostled with methane
breathers, everyone walking, gliding, sliming, slithering, scuttling or
flip-flopping on their way to obviously important destinations.
"Too much, man." Seeth looked like he was in seventh heaven. "Hey, check that
out."
He pointed toward a creature resembling a two-foot-tall rabbit, complete to
oversized pink eyes and long incisors that overhung the lower jaw. The long
ears pointed for-ward instead of straight up. Each was hung with a dozen
jangling earrings.
Seeth walked straight toward it. "Hey, Jack, where'd you get the jewelry?
That's neat stuff."
The leporine alien spat harsh bunny noises at the hu-man, then glanced past
him and jabbered at Rail, who replied in something other than English.
It appeared to satisfy the leporine, who hurried on by.
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Rail turned to Seeth. "He said that you were an imperti-nent hairless biped
speaking an uncivilized tongue, and that if I couldn't keep my pets under
control they should be leashed."
Seeth's eyes narrowed. "Did he now? Maybe he'd like a few more holes in those
ears." His switchblade appeared magically in his right hand.
"Are you crazy?" Kerwin grabbed his wrist. "We're already in the middle of one
interstellar war. We're not here two minutes and you want to start another
one."
Seeth continued to glower, but allowed himself to be led away. Meanwhile,
Rail's eyes checked every recess and corner as they proceeded toward the
downshoot.
They saw several Oomemians, but none spared a glance for Rail and his
companions. Civilians busy with their own activities. If they were official
observers they were exceed-ingly subtle. But, as Rail reminded them, not every
mem-ber of the Oomemian race was attached to police or military authorities.
The downshoot was a transparent elevator. There was no cab, no container of
any kind. Just an open cylindrical space twenty feet in diameter, containing a
responsive repulsion field. Kerwin halted at the edge, staring dizzily down a
hole several hundred stories in height.
Rail demonstrated by stepping out into nothingness. Seeth smiled and executed
a swan dive. Miranda simply stepped out as though she used the shoot every
day.
"C'mon, man," Seeth taunted him. "You ain't afraid, are you?"
Kenvin swallowed again, then took a deep breath and leaned forward.
A soft, invisible hand caught him and they began to descend together, Rail
somehow controlling their speed. Izmir ignored the field as he transformed
himself into a flat, almost two-dimensional form that was too thin to show
more than his blue eye. He fluttered freely around them like a lost,
highly-colored page from Audubon's elephant folio. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]