Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [66]
But none of them displayed any sinister attributes as the jetcar glided past. Now they were over the city, and Falco still had full use of the controls.
“Man, look at the size of this place,” he declared. They slowed somewhat to maintain position in the stream of traffic, but even so, the vast buildings scrolled by at an incredible rate.
Most of the structures seemed to be unadorned, with white being the color not just of choice but of almost universal employment. A number of the buildings were boxy and cubic, but many others were narrow and tall, thrusting so far up in the air that they seemed to be a good 800 or 1,000 meters above the ground. In many places broad, flat roofs capped those spires, providing landing pads for VTOL aircraft. Some of those expanses stretched far and wide, like umbrellas over the lesser buildings. In most places only the narrowest of gaps yielded views downward. The structures were so close together that whatever ground there was between them was utterly lost in the shadows.
A few domes lent some curvature to the views. Several great citadels stood out from the common planes of the flat roofs. Breaking up the alabaster whiteness were a couple of spectacular structures that seemed to be made of crystal or glass. They reflected the sunlight in dazzling prisms of color, shifting in appearance as the aircraft moved past. One, a great pyramid structure that looked to be made of white marble, loomed like a mountain in the distance. It was easily two or three kilometers tall and dwarfed every other building in sight.
“That is the seat of government—and religion,” Char-Kane explained. “Every Eluoi world is ruled by a savant, and they each have a grand temple where his court is gathered.”
“Are they all male, the savants?” asked Jackson.
Char-Kane’s red eyes narrowed slightly, and she nodded. “The Eluoi are bound in many respects by some rather primitive constraints in their religion. It has caused them to relegate half of their population—the female half—to a subservient status.”
The officer filed that information away even as he continued to take in details of the alien landscape. There were a few glimpses of green and some canals or channels of dark-looking water. A couple of the parks were very large, on the order of ten or twenty klicks across, and frequently the greenery was broken by bright fountains or elaborate gardens of exotic, brightly colored blossoms. Aside from those parks, nearly every acre of the ground was covered, buried beneath the ubiquitous white cubes, domes, and spires.
The aircraft continued past the great pyramid, moving toward the far end of the huge city, still traveling at dazzling speed.
“What’s that thing?” Jackson pointed to another massive building that came into sight as they neared the far edge of the city. This was a spire climbing even higher into the sky than the grand temple. It was much narrower, and several tubes of dark metal bristled from the top and the upper surfaces of the walls. It seemed to be positioned just outside the city wall.
“That is their planetary defense battery. It is capable of destroying a ship even beyond the outer reaches of the planet’s atmosphere. It is the weapon I was so anxious to avoid when we rode the shuttle down to Batuun.”
The lieutenant nodded. He saw other facilities, buildings with tops as broad as an aircraft carrier, and noticed many of the military-style jetcars circling about. “Those would be the garrisons, I’m guessing.”
“Correct. The largest will no doubt have wings for a hundred or more aircraft. But there will be smaller outposts throughout the city. I suggest we choose one of those to land.”
“Good idea,” he said wryly. “Since you don’t think we’ll be able to call for help, I’m guessing we’ll have to make our own way off this place. For now, let’s find a place where we can fuel up and maybe get our bearings.”
Giving the grand temple a wide berth, they circled over the city, again moving toward the PDB. It extended more than a