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"A little," Hunt said.
"You'll see plenty of 'em today," Lebansky promised.
Jevlen had been developed as the home world of the Jevlenese within the
Thurien civilization, and as such its layout reflected a human worldview
rather than anything predominantly alien. Although Ganymean influence was
inevitable, the geometry and architecture conformed to more familiar notions
of style and consistency -- which came as a relief to those who, after seeing
the Vishnu, had prepared themselves for worse.
The metropolis was higher than anything that contemporary Earth had to offer,
rising in the center to a monolithic fusion of towers, ramps, terraces, and
bridges that dwarfed anything from home in scale and breathtaking concept;
but the avenues passing amid the flyovers and disappearing into the central
zone at various levels remained avenues, the levels remained levels, "up"
meant the same thing everywhere, and surface and line in all directions
extrapolated with reassuring predictability.
At any rate, those were the qualities inherent in the city's fixed, unchanging
aspect: the imprint of its origin, stamped in the same way that the underlying
rock strata impart fundamental character and form to a landscape.
But the promise that had been written into the soaring lines and broad vistas
was just an empty voice echoing from long ago. The vision of those who had
conceived the city had not been fulfilled.
Everywhere had the same look of weariness and shabbiness, the signs of neglect
and disrepair that Hunt and Gina had seen from PAC the day previously.
One area they passed had flooded, leaving the shells of several derelict
buildings protruding above the water like islands in a swamp. In another,
children swarmed in and over lines of immobilized, partly dismantled vehicles
that looked as if they had not moved for years. After the crisp, new look of
everything inside the Vishnu, the sights were depressing. The Jevlenese in the
rear of the minibus seemed indifferent when Hunt tried questioning him, with
the Americans acting as not-very-efficient interpreters. He seemed unaware of
how things could be otherwise.
The people hung around in listless crowds, wandered aimlessly in the
boulevards and squares, or sat on the grass in the open spaces beneath the
pale chartreuse sky. Since the shutdown of the major part of JEVEX, many of
them had moved out of the city's central zone and taken up a shantytown
existence in the outer sectors. They could be seen sitting in doorways,
bartering in noisy street markets that had sprung up off the major
throughways, and cooking under makeshift awnings beneath lines of washing
strung across passageways and alleys. All of them inert, leaderless, waiting
for somebody to point a direction.
"The trouble that a few agitators could stir up out there doesn't bear
thinking about," Sandy said in a sober voice as she stared out at the passing
scene. "No wonder Garuth's having problems."
"Is this policy of his going to work?" Duncan asked. He sounded very dubious.
"Can it work?"
"Aw, they have to find out what the real world's all about," Koberg answered.
"It's just that with some it takes longer than with others. The ones you're
looking at now are the slow learners. There's others doing okay. The system
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has to sort itself out."
"It's gonna take time," Lebansky said. "You've gotta stick with it. That
Garuth has got nerve. I'll give the guy that."
"Right," Koberg agreed.
The roadway became one of a multilevel system curving in toward the looming
bulk of the city's central massif. The view that had appeared on the screen in
the cabin of the surface lander as it descended had been misleading, Hunt saw
as they approached the metropolis proper. Ahead, between the structures
flanking both sides, he could see parts of what was revealed to be a false
roof with an artificial inner sky over that section of the city. In some
places the cliffs of buildings rose to support it, dividing the space beneath
into enclosed basins of varied cityscapes interconnected in the upper parts by
vast corridors carrying streams of airborne traffic and transport tubes; in
other parts, the blocks of architecture came together to form upthrusts of
streets and precincts open to the natural sky, or elsewhere soaring towers
projecting through the canopies. The combined result of all of them formed
what had seemed from above to be the actual skyline of the city undisguised.
Farther on, they passed growing numbers of people wearing purple, gathered in
crowds and walking in processions with banners showing a purple spiral on a
black background. "Is this what you were talking about?" Sandy asked the
Americans.
"Right, that's today's big event," Koberg replied. "Their great guru is in
town. There's a new sports complex being opened today -- you can see it now,
on the right there -- and they're having a big -- " The bus slowed suddenly.
"Say, what's this? What's going on there, Pete?"
Ahead, the traffic was coming to a confused halt and tailing back, with [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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