The Gardener of Nahi

Chapter 35

Cassidian

Slouched within the comfortable black padded rear seat of the innertaxi, I stared out the windows at the dizzying Torsian world passing me by.  The pinpricks of light up ahead were being swallowed up in a sudden wall of darkness and I leaned forward curiously, realizing soon that we had arrived.  The void was the sea beyond, and the black monoliths against a dirty orange sky were the desalination towers lined up like dominos on the southern shore.  A fine mist which I presumed was water vapor hung around them and curled away in the wind.  We descended through this veil, causing beads of water to build up before falling away again in streaks, and once through I could then see midrise buildings nestled there as well.  There were bright lights pointed upwards and a vast crowd gathered outside one of the white lowly buildings.  Above them was a large screen which read, “Lies From Above:  Four Tales of Canopian Betrayal.”  

     “Approaching destination,” the ship’s voice said as we pulled aside into the stationary lane.

     “Is there a show about to begin?” I asked, peering out the window.  Between the artery’s edge and building’s façade the wide sidewalk was entirely full of people, idly chatting as if waiting for the doors to open.  They were well dressed too:  men in suits and ties and women in short gowns, many of them sporting bands around their thighs made of glowing lace.

     “The next show time for this performance is twenty-three hundred hours, which is thirty-two minutes from now.  However it seems from my query that tickets are no longer available.  I recommend that you contact the ticket office-”

     “Open the door,” I said.

     The gullwing door opened upwards and I slowly climbed out, looking past the crowd and up at the gray misty ceiling above, which is where many of the people were looking anyway.  I could see a desalination tower further way, its black building tiles disappearing into the water vapor about five stories up, but that is not what drew my attention.  What was more interesting was the fine latticework of black spokes rising up from the ground behind the building and into the very same mist - something that was almost impossible to see at first against the night sky, but once I saw them my head continued to tilt upwards as my eyes followed them, seeing where they could possibly end. 

It was scaffolding of some sort, yet on a mammoth scale.  The lattice seemed to start at the desalination tower to my left, curve behind the back of the white minimalist horizontal building in front of me, finally meeting back at a second desalination tower much further away to my right.

“Magnificent,” a slender man said, nearby, to no one in particular.  He twirled a walking cane, even though it appeared that he didn’t need one, and its round glass tip glowed a bright ruby red.

Ducking my head back into the innertaxi, I realized that it would not recognize my departure since I was a Delete.  “I’ve changed my mind,” I said softly.

“Yes, sir?”

“I wish to go to the northern coast,” I said.

“That is very far from here.  Let me calculate the funds required.”