Frank liked it but hewondered what the others might think.
“This looks betterthan the flat imperial design,” Sushil told her.
“Well, this is optionone,” Gabriella said. “I also tried to incorporate some elementsfrom famous fortifications in India.” She changed a setting and thewalls changed.
The towers along thewall grew larger, losing their square profiles in favor of circularstructures. They narrowed slightly toward the top where domes cappedthem off.
Now the buzz was muchlouder and Sushil didn’t need to call a vote to know how they felt.“This is even better. It feels like home but with a new twist.”He looked at Frank. “How does this look to a westerner? It’s notreally ‘back home’ for you, is it?”
Frank shrugged.“None of these designs look like anything you’d find inCalifornia. Standinghere, in orbit around Ragnarok, clear across the Galactic arm...”He waved at the holographic town. “This starts looking a lot morelike home.”
“Interesting how thedifferences between us seem to shrink,” Sushil said, “as we getfarther from home.”
“And as we meetpeople like Father Sulak,” Frank added.
The oracle acknowledgedthis comment by waving his snack in an airy circle.
“So this design,then,” Sushil told Gabriella.
“Do you want aregular grid?” she asked. “The imperial template defaults to thatbut the crewman who helped me seemed to think that ‘wild’ humanslike us might prefer something a little more organic.”
She changed asetting and the straight patternwas replaced with two gently curving main roads that cut the towninto four quarters. Streets wound out from each to create a moreinteresting network.
“This gives youmore of a sense of ‘journey’,” Gabriella explained. “Yourdestination is always more exciting when it’s around the next curveor corner. We all crave alittle mystery in our lives, I think.”
“I dolike that better,” one ofthe councilors said.
Frank didn’t know hisname yet but he agreed with him and so did all the others. Even hisbrother weighed in at this point.
“This is moredefensible,” John said. “Older cities, like Barcelona’s oldquarter, have streets like this that break up an attack’s momentumand get enemies lost in back alleys where citizens are dropping rocksor boiling water on their heads.”
“You think it likelythat we’ll end up throwing rocks at some invading alien force?”Sushil asked, bringing the low buzz of conversation to a halt in thegroup.
“Certainly not,”Mal assured them to their evident relief. “You have the latest inweapons and armor at your disposal.”
The relief abatedsomewhat.
“We can’t letourselves forget the risks,” Gleb reminded them. “I met with eachof you before you committed to this venture and you knew exactly whatyou were signing up for. We’ll have ships in orbit but it takes alot of ships to fully encircle a planet.
“I can think of onlya handful of times in the history of the empire where a planet wassuccessfully blockaded. If there are raiders out here, or curiousaliens, they might be able to slip past our ships and approach on thesurface.”
“That’s why youhave us,” Mal added, “and why you have your own equipment.Remember to wear your suits when you go out to your fields. If analien isn’t hiding in the bush, waiting to snipe at you, one ofthese…” He waved a hand to open a new interface. A large creatureappeared. It had six limbs, the front two tipped with long claws. Thebody was covered with what looked like a cross between feathers andfur.
“One of these,” hereiterated, “might be wondering if you’re tasty.”
“What the hells isthat?” Frank blurted, not even noticing he was using an imperialvariant of the universal exclamation.
“It’s one ofthese,” Mal said dryly, gesturing at the image. “There’s nosentient inhabitants on this world… yet, so there’s nobody togive it a name.”
“But this is a wildanimal, then?” Frank persisted. “It’s not something that flewto Ragnarok from some other planet and knows how to use a weapon?”
Mal tilted his headslightly. “Councillor, does this look like it could build aspaceship to you?”
“Hey, we’re new atthis flying around the galaxy thing,” he glanced at Sushil. “Howthe hells do we know what looks like a sentient species?”
Mal noddedacknowledgment of that point and opened a table beside the beast. “Itappears to live on its own, unless it has cubs, which it rarely hasmore than two of. They sleep, mostly, in trees during the daytime andhunt animals at night.
“Average sizefor adults, from the data we’ve collected so far…” Hepressed a command and the image lowered until its feet touched thedecking and grew until its head was just below Frank’s shoulder.
“It’s unlikely,”Mal added, deadpan, “that you’d see one of these pointing a gunat you.”
“Not that it needsone,” Sushil said quietly. He crouched to get a closer look at thefront claws, which were half the length of his forearm.
“We’ll shoot anythat we see while patrolling,” Mal told them, “but you can’tcount on that, so wear your armor and carry weapons when you’reoutside the walls.”
“As I understand it,”Sushil said, standing up, “the council sets policy on Ragnarok,yes?”
“That’s right,”Gleb confirmed. “In all civil matters.”
“Then we mightnot want to start outby killing every creature that frightens us,” he replied, lookingat Gleb. “They have a right to exist on their own world.”
Helooked at the other councilors. Most were nodding in agreement. Mostbut not all.
“Do they have theright to turn you into their lunch?” Mal asked.
“The divine exists inall beings,” the chairman replied, “but if one of these decidesit wants me to exist in its belly, I would be inclined to shoot it. Iwon’t seek it out, though.”
“That’s areasonable approach, Mal,” Gleb said before the soldier couldrespond. “If these beasts suddenly show up as an organized groupwith assault vehicles, you can declare it a military matter and blastthem to your heart’s content.”
That won a chuckle ortwo and diffused the budding tension.
“Let’s choose asite,” Kawle said, effectively closing the matter of wild beastsfor the moment.
He pulled the planetback down and applied an overlay he’d developed on the trip out. Ithad the requirement profiles for all the crops they’d be growing.
The planet’s surfacechanged color in a gradient ranging from dark green to light brown.The
