GeneStorm: City in the Sky (32 page)

Several animals were grazing by the trees – hammer-headed things with long, sinuous bodies. The creatures walked slowly away, swishing long stiff, bony tails tipped with glowing bio lights. Kitterpokkie took a photograph, carefully storing the photographic plates inside her saddle bags.

This was what Snapper had always dreamed of. To come to places utterly alien, yet perfect in their own weird beauty. To cross horizons and find something new. She rode forward, tired and completely happy. Instincts kept her scanning the shadows and brush, watching for signs of danger. But the spring-fed pond seemed clear and quiet. A few flying frogs leapt from tree to tree, soaring on astonishing orange and green wings, but other than that, all seemed perfectly at peace.

They made camp by the beautiful springs, under the shade of dark green trees. Snapper found a wild macaroni bush, and there was fresh greenery and dandelion leaves for Pendleton and the beetles.

The big kernels from giant dandelion seeds proved to be magnificent eating, and when roasted had a flavour rather like nuts and butter. Onan and the budgerigar ate their fill, falling peacefully asleep beside the stream.

With sunset coming at last, Kitterpokkie and Snapper walked together away from the campfire. Beau was playing his banjolele, with Throckmorton sitting happily beside him watching the frogs. Kenda tended to his equipment.

Kitt and Snapper walked side by side, off and away through the moss, heading towards the sandstone outcrop a hundred metres away. The tendrils of the local plant animals all glowed pink, green or blue in the falling light. Out across the moss the herd of hammerheads was still moving about, the bio lights on their tails sweeping in spectacular arcs as they walked. Flying frogs were croaking, and all seemed well with the world.

“We got here.” Snapper looked to Kitterpokkie. “Thank you. Thank you for the suits. Thank you for the inspiration.”

“You are most welcome.” The mantis gazed about herself, utterly at peace. “Look at what we’ve found!”

They climbed the rock outcrop together – up, up to the peak, where a few weird spiky trees grew and a family of bug-mice cavorted in the deepening shade. The two friends stood at the crest and looked to the north, standing there caressed by the cool evening breeze.

The land fell away into a vast, broad valley that stretched on to the horizon. There were steep valley slopes covered with dense forests of flowers, and mesas standing like islands in the haze…

And there, just a few kilometres away, stood a gigantic city.

The city had outskirts utterly overgrown with trees – a gold-green jungle pierced here and there with building tops. Vast towers reached up from the valley floor, reaching to impossible heights above the ground. The towers all rose up out of a great, broad lake that glittered in the sunset. There were massive floating leaves all through the lake – gigantic lily plants with great blooms closed up for the night.

Waterfalls hissed down from the gorges, feeding the great, wide lake. The light of sunset shimmered in the mist, filling it with streaks of rose and gold.

The two friends stood and stared in awe. Finally Kitterpokkie reached over and quietly kissed Snapper upon one cheek.

“Thank you.”

They sat together and watched as sunset turned into a beautiful turquoise night, and were utterly content.

Chapter 13

As dawn touched the dandelions with soft grey light, the group readied themselves for a day of exploration. The lead suits – reassembled into new leather covers – were cached beneath the trees. Onan, Pendleton and the other beasts were groomed, saddled and fed. Throckmorton made a quiet patrol, ensuring all was well while the others rapidly wolfed down breakfast and buckled on their equipment.

Snapper was keen to be off and away. For the first time, she laid hands upon Kenda’s camp gear, wanting to help him pack and saddle up. The man scowled and immediately came over to take his pack out of her grasp.

“I’ve got it.”

The shark blinked, surprised at how swiftly the man had moved to reclaim his possessions. He was already buckling his bedroll into place behind his beetle-horse’s saddle. Snapper scowled – and then sniffed as a brief tingle lingered on her snout.

“You have something electrical in there?”

“Old batteries. Trade goods.” The man pulled everything tight. “I can handle my gear myself.”

Snapper watched the man for a moment, then swung back to check the camp. The fire was out, the ashes wetted thoroughly down and the pack animals were ready. Kenda was definitely prickling Snapper’s nerves. She fumed for a moment, then swung up into Onan’s saddle. Nothing was going to spoil this perfect day.

They rode out, picking up Throckmorton and heading off towards the north. A herd of the big, hammer-headed herbivores were drinking at the far side of the pond. Snapper kept a careful watch for predators, but nothing could be seen. They rode to the brink of the great valley, and gazed down upon the ancient city just beyond.

In the daylight, the city could be seen in all its ancient, brooding majesty.

The valley was filled with ruins: buildings, roads and fallen walls all overgrown with mighty trees. Plants and vines, titanic weeds and tangles of plant-animals had turned the city outskirts into a jungle. Creatures that looked like flying flowers drifted quietly through the leaves.

The overgrown ruins formed a wide green band about a lake – one that had swallowed the bottoms of a dozen mighty towers that soared into the sky. The towers were vast constructions – some with windows still intact. They soared fifty, sixty – perhaps a hundred floors above the surface of the lake below.

The lake had flooded much of the old city: to the north, occasional buildings jutted up out of the water. Piles of rubble made strange islands, all overgrown with massive flowers and weeds. The surface of the lake was covered here and there by titanic lily pads, the flowers now opening to flash their brilliant colours in the sun.

Life. The place was absolutely filled with life. Brilliant and ascendant – the new world leaping forward from the bones of the old. Snapper sat upon her riding cockatoo, her tail gently swaying behind her. She gazed upon the city, and felt wonderfully glad.

The green world went on and on. Beyond the city, the remnants of an ancient highway led away from the lake. Overgrown with weeds – lost here and there beneath the soil – the road seemed to lead off into the misty distance, towards tall mountains covered in forests, and hills brilliant with countless plants and flowers. There would be ruins, wild spaces – vistas and mysteries. Snapper looked at it all and felt infinitely glad.

Kitterpokkie was also gazing north – up into the empty air beyond the city. She started, then rose up in her stirrups.

“Oh I say! I thought they were buildings!”

Three huge animals were standing in the lake; massive creatures, part koi carp and part tortoise, with elephantine legs and long, curving necks. The creatures moved very slowly, browsing on plants that grew along the shore, or munching vast mouthfuls of water weed. It was only when Snapper saw one of the creatures pass the bottom of a skyscraper that she understood the sheer scale of the creatures. Their shells were easily wider than the Dancing Dugite pub.

“Wow!”

Kitterpokkie leaned on the horn of her saddle and carefully scanned the dense riot of overgrown chaos below.

“Now then! We are looking for chemical compounds.” She tapped her lower mandibles with one finger. “We need to find an industrial zone, or a hub for ground transportation – somewhere that useful chemicals might be stored.” Kitterpokkie tried to see if any areas had larger buildings, but the trees were far too thick. “Perhaps we should ride the periphery, and see what can be seen?”

“The trees seem to be rather riotous.” Beau fluffed his feather cowl in thought. “We might not be able to see past the edge.”

Kenda pointed off, away from the central towers. “Send the plant. It can make an overflight.”

Snapper held up one hand, vetoing the entire notion. “We’ll keep together. I don’t want anyone wandering off. There’s a whole ecology down there. Throcky might get into trouble.”

The shark returned to musing over the great, solid shapes of the towers.

“Right. We need a better viewpoint.” Snapper pointed to the towers in the lake. “We should be able to reach one of the towers and scale it – they look pretty intact. Then we could look down and see if there are rail yards, or old storage tanks. Even overgrown, they’ll still stand out.” She thought she could see the fragments of an old road down at the tangled edges of the ruins. Several tall old streetlight pylons still jutted bare and gleaming above the trees. “Okay, that’s our way in. From this promontory I make the bearing… twenty five degrees off north…” She sighted through a homemade ring compass, then jotted the figures down in her notebook. “Alright. I’ll take point. Beau – you take the rear. Eyes open, and keep a round up the spout.” Snapper jogged her heels and Onan moved onwards. “Here we go.”

Down they rode, descending the escarpment. They rode beside a little splashing stream – past walking fish that emerged to watch them curiously as they passed. Giant dandelions gave way to a flat, sprawling grass. Tall clumps of hefty bushes grew here and there, studded with green, unripe fruit that might have been mutated tomatoes.

The first ruins appeared: fallen walls and old, gutted buildings filled with a hundred and fifty years of overgrowth. The old black surface of a road showed through mats of grass. Snapper moved carefully forward, pushing through a line of tomato trees, and came out onto an ancient, crumbled street.

Old buildings lined a broad, weed-grown road. Tall metal street lights jutted high into the sky. Trees rose at every side, the tops joining to make a great, green canopy overhead. Light streamed here and there down through gaps in the magnificent green ceiling – shafts of gold that glittered as tiny insects danced in quiet joy.

Some of the trees were immense – great tall things, with trunks that jutted up out of old ruined walls. There were creatures high up in the trees – flashing fox-possums that peered down from the branches, and great soft, fluttering flowers. The adventurers rode on down the ancient road as though piercing a great cool green cavern. The outside world was left behind.

The footfalls of the riding beasts were muffled by fallen leaves. There were ancient cars and trucks here and there along the streets. Some chips lay here and there – the bones of their old owners had long ago mouldered away. Snapper looked carefully about herself, then led the party onwards, north towards the lake.

They rode for half an hour, winding quietly on through the great, green cathedral of trees. Deeper in beyond the rim, the buildings were more and more intact. Double story buildings – some even three or four stories high seemed in remarkable condition. Many had intact windows made from tough ancient polymers – dust caked, but still whole. Kitterpokkie rode closer to the windows of some buildings as she passed, peering in to see grotesque manikins standing in artful poses. The figures were dressed in brilliant swathes of cloth. Kitterpokkie leaned in closer – and suddenly the entire façade of the building lit up into a wild cascade of light.

A ghostly, flickering image ten metres high shimmered on the wall of the building. It showed a human woman in a clinging costume that glittered and shone. The woman turned and posed – the absolute picture of elegance. The flickering image showed her touching a piece of jewellery at her temple, and the dress changed colour. Swirling little creatures shot out to dance about her – some of the ghostly images seeming to leap out and circle through the street. The entire group of adventurers stared, amazed, watching as the images played the cycle all over again.

The stiff figures behind the shop windows suddenly swirled and moved. Snapper instantly whipped her carbine up to open fire.

“Shit!”

Beau’s two pistols were out, but Kitterpokkie spread out her arms, riding forward, yelling out for calm

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” She waved the weapons down. “We’re okay!”

The manikins inside the store had all shifted position. Once, they might have been somehow programmed to move elegantly and smoothly – but time and corrosion had taken their toll. They jerked into place, making a new tableaux. Kitterpokkie slid from her saddle and eagerly moved forward. She pushed at a transparent door, which stubbornly gave way. Snapper gave a curse and rode up behind her.

“Kitt!”

“There’s still a power source? Do you see? There’s still power!” The mantis moved forward. “A moment – this might be important. A chance to interact with their technology!”

Kitt’s science genes were already firing on overdrive. She plunged through the door. Snapper swore, leapt from Onan’s back, and saw Kenda already dismounted with rifle in hand.

“Kenda – you’re with me! Beau – Throcky! Get the animals in cover. Keep watch!” She shoved the door open wider. “Kitt!”

Beau galloped past on Pendleton, gathering up the animals. Snapper plunged into the ancient building, coughing at the stale scent of the air.

The place was remarkably clean. Paint on the walls had bubbled here and there from damp seeping through the walls, and yet had never peeled. The manikins were articulated, stylised, weird representations of human beings. Each one was fixed upon a hefty disc-shaped base. Light strips set into the ceiling had flickered into life the moment Kitterpokkie entered, and the mantis stood marvelling at the technology.

The manikins suddenly shifted position – all of them at once. They made a creaking, cracking sound as they moved. From somewhere in ceiling, a ghostly, broken hint of music drifted in the air. Snapper moved to find a rack of brightly coloured scarves all laid out upon a rack: the cloth had survived a century and a half without disintegrating. She shook them free of dust, then rolled them up and stuffed them into her near-empty ammunition pouch.

Some sort of mechanisms and benches lined the far end of the store. Kitterpokkie was delighted. She ran to investigate a counter, a series of bins and some sort of strange booth. She peered at a series of machines upon the counter. Bug-mice had made a nest inside one, but the other machine seemed intact. There was a clear panel set into the counter top. Kitt blew away the dust pressed at it with her hand, feeling it giving off the slightest tremor.

“Some of the machinery has survived. Now that is interesting indeed!”

Kenda leaned over to look beside the counter. He placed his hand upon the clear panel, which suddenly rippled with light. It lasted only an instant. The man pulled his green hand away, apparently unconcerned. Kitt looked in amazement from the panel to Kenda, then turned as more lights flickered on behind her.

Suddenly the booth at the side of the counter took on a low hum. A small ghostly figure of a woman appeared beside the counter, the image jittering up and down and crackling. Kitterpokkie inspected it in delight, walking around to admire it from all sides.

“Projected from above and below. Holograms.” She wagged a finger at the image. “This may once have even be fully interactive…”

Snapper winced and looked about herself, lifting up her jaw.

“Electro-magnetics! Something’s broadcasting.”

“Possibly part of the old wireless information network. The building might be providing a signal. Data download – or material designed to feed into personal augmented reality units.” She wandered backwards into the tall booth. “Fascinating!”

“Kitt – we should go.”

“A moment, a moment! Are you not enchanted? Think! We have a useable power source here. There are opportunities to interface…”

“Kitt! Be careful!”

A light suddenly flashed inside the booth. Blue lights played swiftly up and down Kitterpokkie, swirling around and around her. She stood, poised – all four arms out and a look of blank astonishment on her face.

“Oh dear.”

“Still! Stay still!”

Kitterpokkie froze – then looked carefully right and left.

“Nothing seems to have happened.”

Snapper felt a huge wash of relief. “Thank the God-fish! Just – keep away from stuff! We don’t know what any of this equipment does!”

Kenda shook his head, and peered out through a window into the street outside. Kitt ignored the man and bustled back towards the counter.

“I believe that this is a demonstration area, or perhaps a store of some kind. Surely a safe environment in the past – no reason for it to be dangerous now. But it is an excellent indicator of the level of surviving technology that we might encounter… Oh!”