Life on other planets -- Fiction; Medical fiction; Physicians -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space medicine -- Fiction
The needle on the dial showing power-drain moved slowly back and forth.
It was a rhythmic movement, going from maximum to minimum power-use,
and then back again. Approximately six million kilowatts was being
taken out of the broadcast every two seconds for half of one second.
Then the drain cut off for a second and a half, and went on again for
half a second.
Frowning, Calhoun raised his eyes to a very fine color photograph on
the wall above the power dials. It was a picture of the human-occupied
part of Maya, taken four thousand miles out in space. It had been
enlarged to four feet by six, and Maya City could be seen as an
irregular group of squares and triangles measuring a little more than
half an inch by three-quarters. The detail was perfect. It was possible
to see perfectly straight, infinitely thin lines moving out from the
city. They were multiple-lane highways, mathematically straight from
one city to another, and then mathematically straight--though at a new
angle--until the next. Calhoun stared thoughtfully at them.
"The people left the city in a hurry," he told Murgatroyd, "and there
was little confusion, if any. So they knew in advance that they might
have to go. They were ready for it. If they took anything, they had it
ready packed in their cars. But they hadn't been sure they'd have to go
because they were going about their businesses as usual. All the shops
were open and people were eating in restaurants, and so on."
Murgatroyd said, "_Chee!_" as if in full agreement.
"Now," demanded Calhoun, "where did they go? The question's really
where could they go! There were about eight hundred thousand people in
this city. There'd be cars for everyone, of course, and two hundred
thousand cars would take everybody. But that's a lot of ground-cars!
Put 'em two hundred feet apart on a highway, and that's twenty-six
cars to the mile on each lane. Run them at a hundred miles an hour on
a twelve-lane road--using all lanes one way--and that's twenty-six
hundred cars per lane per hour, and that's thirty-one thousand ... two
highways make sixty-two ... three highways.... With two highways they
could empty the city in under three hours, and with three highways
close to two. Since there's no sign of panic, that's what they must
have done. Must have worked it out in advance, too. Maybe they'd done
it before it happened ... whatever it was that happened."
* * * * *
He searched the photograph which was so much more detailed than a map.
There were mountains to the north of Maya City, but only one highway
led north. There were more mountains to the west. One highway went into
them, but not through. To the south there was sea, which curved around
some three hundred miles from Maya City and put the human colony on
Maya on a peninsula.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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