Planet Pluto, in her ashen melancholy, lay dead
ahead. Sprawled across the frozen methane plain
a couple of points to starboard Coldfield's lights
shimmered through its frost-crusted, barely
translucent dome. Stretching away from the
twenty-kilometer-wide city, the mottled terrain
spread in all directions, slashed by ravines and
man-made, soil-fused excavations, roads and
bridges. Mooring towers, launch and landing pads
spotted the barren landscape across which
crawled processions of utility tugs.
Near-space cargo and passenger shuttles and
taxis landed at and departed from pads adjacent
pressurized air docks into the city. Deep-space
transports and utilities rode high, immobilized
by fore-and-aft mag-beams at the pinnacles of
two-hundred-meter mooring towers.
The Raven drifted closer. Brad noted the hard
orange glow of energy packs encapsulated in
vehicles moving about on the dome and surrounding
land surfaces. Adjusted magnification defined the
vehicles as personnel carriers, flatbed trailers,
dome fissure-fusers, and methane frost scrapers.
Coldfield was a busy place.
Charon drifted into view from over the horizon as
the Raven nosed forward. Only Lamplight's dome
and high-intensity flashers that pinpointed its
landing pads, gateways and walkways broke the
moonlet's solid gray-green landscape. Further out,
the logistics depot slid slowly across the sky like
a glowing green-and-orange sausage.
Zolan keyed a signal to Pluto Traffic Control
as the Raven crossed the line into the planet's
jurisdiction. He added the ship's name and call
sign. Several minutes passed without response.
Zolan leaned back from the console and winked at
Brad. News of their presence had preceded them
and the locals were likely wondering why had the
ship appeared in their skies.
The receiver squawked, "Raven. Stand by for escort."
A yellow-and-green-striped space tug drifted
alongside and flashed its 'Follow Me' signal. Brad
nodded at Zolan who acknowledged the tug's
instruction. Adari trimmed the Raven's controls
and clamped a mag beam on the tug. She and the
tug driver exchanged salutations and prattled
navigational details as the escort moved off with
the Raven following like an elephant leashed to a
flea. Adari logged their destination: Slot 09 along
Coldfield marker 13K.
Their passage was slow. Despite the heavy traffic
of tugs, taxis, and other small craft the lanes
were orderly and the flow steady. Traffic thinned
as the ship drifted across surface-parked lots for
small vessels and disappeared entirely as the Raven
closed on its mooring towers.
The escort rattled off the coordinates and the
Raven fixed her position. Adari released the
mag-beam. The tug slipped around to starboard
and mag-nosed the clumsy vessel into its slot. A
command from the tug and mooring beams glowed
at the fore-and-aft towers to immobilize the Raven.
Adari and the tug driver exchanged rough civilities
and the escort was up and away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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