'You'll find it in Port Rush if you have the GC or Carthan credit, never know what form it'll come in though. I've never seen your type of armour before. Are you some kind of soldier?'
'Independents.'
'Ah, hope there are a lot of you, otherwise you’re going to want to get in with a crowd. No one lives long here without someone behind them, helps if it’s someone everyone knows. Be careful.'
'Thank you. Do you know where I should enquire about food?'
' Port Rush Authority used to facilitate trade, but the Carthan Government didn't bother rebuilding the office after it was bombed, so everything comes through Mackey Exchange now.”
“What about docking fees and landing assignments?”
“Well, navnet still directs, but if you want some space on the ground you'll have to trade for it like everything else. New Government doesn't have the people to regulate Port Rush operations on the ground, so you'll have to be ready to trade high for every meter.”
“How does that not lead to chaos?” Asked Laura.
“It's a different kind of order. Instead of one Port Master, there are several competing ones. Everyone who works in Port Rush has gotten used to it. You'll see once you read the Mackey Exchange. They're the only thing that helps people like you make sense of the place. There are data sheets posted everywhere.'
'Posted?' Ayan probed further.
'You'll know them when you see them.'
'If you don't mind me asking, what brings you to Port Rush?'
'I'm a kind of…' Emshi thought a moment then smiled. '…social worker.'
'Ayan, look,' Laura said quietly as she looked over her shoulder.
She turned in her seat as they cleared the top of a mountain and saw Port Rush stretch out ahead. It was a teeming metropolis huddled against the concave curve of a tall mountain range. Several of the buildings themselves were built like slanted fins fanning out from the tallest mountain, their sloped edges were broad enough for the jungle to grow as high, long parks, with darkened reflective transparesteel windows beneath. Several other buildings closer to the sandy shore were shaped like waves with gently sloped roofs that were just as well forested. Other buildings, most of which were slanted in the same directions, weren’t as well designed, but many had transplanted jungle atop. Whole blocks of older buildings seemed to be coated with brown and green, giving some of the older parts of the city the look of being assailed by moss or thick, intrusive vines.
Beyond the city stretched a long beach and beyond that were several tall, sloped wheel like structures that glittered in the sunlight. “Ocean greenhouses, they’re huge,” Jenny breathed. “And they have a solar wind farm behind, there’s got to be enough power there for the whole city and then some.” Further out in the water they could barely make out the shapes of thousands of black windmills. Ayan had seen pictures of them in the Academy. Used all over the galaxy on terraformed worlds, they gathered energy from the heat of the sun, from its rays with solar sheeting, and from the wind, which must have been high.
Along the beach there were a few standout structures, one of which drew Ayan’s attention the instant it came into sight. It was a thick, structure that ran along the beach for kilometres and stood twenty-eight stories tall. The hangar spaces it provided were stacked like rectangular boxes, leaving enough room for the small to mid sized ships to navigate through while providing a resort front facing the beach. The structure was backed by a thick jungle that went on along the beach for as far as the eye could see, interrupted by buildings with surprisingly seldom frequency. “Oh, that’s got to be the most expensive place to park here.”
Victor smiled at her and nodded towards something over her shoulder; “I think I’m looking at the cheapest.”
Ayan and Laura turned around and were stunned. Thousands of ships had landed on a patch of scorched earth that was occasionally interrupted by multi-stage landing platforms and hangars that stood several stories high. Tall red marker posts and squat, open sided buildings interrupted the sea of vessels like buoys and islands. Medium ships roughly the size of the Samson to small sized vessels of all kinds made their way across the sky, landing, taking off, or just passing through. They were mixed in with an uncountable number of people movers, smaller atmospheric vessels, some of which followed dark makeshift roads until they reached a blockage or undesired turn until they took to the sky. There were also dozens of small four and six man ships that were painted chequered bright green and orange. They mixed in with the rest of the traffic effortlessly, and were the only really familiar thing in the sky. “Lots of taxis,” she said to herself. It was surrounded by jungle on two sides, creating an alley of growth between it and the shore. The side furthest from the shore, to the east, was still jungle, but it was piled high with refuse. Portions of it burned, sending plumes of thick, black smoke upwards.
Along the south edge of the massive landing field was a tall, thick bioplast and metal wall, thick enough for some kind of jungle park that was more brown than green. The vents in the side facing the landing area slowly drew in wispy fumes from the ships and rough buildings below. There were towns made of those ramshackle buildings, and the tracks that ran maglev trains around the city proper passed through high openings in the wall to extend out through the nearest quarter of the makeshift landing area. One of the tracks had been bent so badly that it was off its high concrete pillar. “I wonder how long this city has been here?”
“Long enough so no one is sure how old it is. Don’t get lost down there. Someone like me might have to find what’s left of you,” Emshi warned with a thin smile.
Ayan watched a group of three mismatched medium sized ships draw near and fall in line behind their craft. She straightened in her seat in an effort to get a better look and was satisfied as the shuttle turned and started descending towards the outer edge of the well kept portion of the city.
The shuttle swooped down suddenly and entered the terminal, slowing quickly, docking in short order. The lights in the cabin flashed as the doors opened.
'Good luck,' whispered Emshi as she stepped out onto the platform. Before Ayan could reply the woman disappeared into the crowd.
No one realized that there were several shuttles seconds behind them while they were in flight, but when they stepped onto the gray concrete and metal platform they were confronted with a bustling mob. Everyone was hurrying to get to a shuttle, the tram or a transit pod. There were thousands of people, dozens of shuttle platforms and it was the same on every level above and below them. The ceiling was open like a long gash in the top of the building, providing just enough room for the shuttles to arrive and depart. A rush of air announced the impending arrival of a high speed tram across the platform to their right.
'Please ensure that all your extremities are behind the yellow line until the doors open. If you are not a Sub- Tram passenger, please proceed to your destination, thank you,' crackled a recording in Ayan's proximity radio. From the looks of her team, they had heard it as well.
'This way, we have to get to an info station,' said Victor.
Ayan followed his lead, trying not to bump into anyone on her way. She quickly discovered that no one else had such scruples. If she was in someone's path, they simply pressed past her or bumped her out of the way.
The smell was overpowering. Urine mixed with sweat, grease, ozone and garbage assaulted Ayan's olfactory, and there was no relieving it, as though the whole place had bathed in it. Laura glanced at her wide eyed and tilted her head over her shoulder.
Ayan looked up and caught sight of a larger, twenty meter long transport above offloading a long rush of goats. The people guiding them down the ramp and into a narrow hallway with the help of prearranged metal barriers didn't look anything like spacers. Their manner of dress made them look like they were farmers from an old period film.
Victor looked behind and followed what Ayan and Laura were staring at. “That's something you don't see every day.”
“I've never seen one in person,” Laura replied.
“You'll see a lot more if I'm right,” said Jenny. “Livestock owners are probably making more than ever, I'd guess. It’s cheaper to grow food and keep livestock on an old terraformed planet like this than it is to run materializers who eat up power than can be used for industry. The smell takes some getting used to though.”
Ayan looked at the symbol in the bottom left corner of her hood that manually activated the face plate of her vacsuit, sealing her in. In seconds the suit cleaned the air and the fragrances were gone, but she could still smell them to a lesser degree, as though they had nested in her nose and wouldn't let go.
There was no commonality to the way the other travellers were dressed. Some were in vacsuits that came in every colour and shape, while most wore clothing of every cut imaginable. Many of the people not dressed for space
