11-24-2016, 04:42 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-24-2016, 07:39 PM by Kelly MacAryn.
Edit Reason: sentence de-butchering/ spelling corrections
)
Kelly didn't linger for long on Tier One. He didn't like it.
True, he couldn't deny that it was beautiful, nothing less than a work of architectural genius. Everywhere the traveler looked, stretching away to the far horizon, massive, gently sloping metal, glass and plastic towers shone, challenging the sky - and gave the impression they were winning, albeit graciously. Highways and skyways arched between them, and sleek, efficient vehicles flew in tightly controlled, uncluttered traffic patterns. At ground level, greenery was in abundant supply, whether in pots along the walkways and sidewalks, hanging from balconies or in one of the parks he kept walking past. There were museums, entertainment venues, hotels, and some quite appealing-looking restaurants.
To his discerning eye, even the layout was impressive. The color pallet of the place was too uniformly warm and placid not to be deliberate, and no matter what direction he looked, in spite of the all-conquering presence of the towers he couldn't find an angle where he couldn't see something miles in the distance, and didn't have a clear view of the sky. An entire legion of civic-planning savants probably went mad and wept themselves into early graves after construction started on Tier One, knowing they'd never do work this fine again.
No, the problem was with the people. They were plentiful, though remarkably uncrowded, which spoke to the place's sheer size. They seemed happy enough, but they were unusually quiet for a city this large. Nobody was yelling at anyone else. Nobody was making a scene. Nobody was littering, or loitering for long in one place. While these seemed like good things when taken individually, and to a less observant person would have seemed pleasant, to Kelly it added up to a constant, very low-level sense that everyone was walking on eggshells, probably without even entirely realizing it.
It wasn't a great mystery why. There were armed soldiers everywhere. Storm-troopers walked regular patrols in groups of two or three. They stood guard at the entrances to public buildings, directed street-level traffic and loitered near the parks, talking in hushed tones. It took the traveler a little longer to notice the drones making regular passes overhead, and the tiny camera-bulbs mounted under balconies and awnings, and at every public dataverse terminal.
This was even worse than his reading had led him to believe - not simply totalitarianism, but a very highly sophisticated and insidious police-state. Unable to stomach the feeling - correct, he knew - that he was being watched, he took a high-speed elevator to Tier 2 as quickly as possible.
The second level of Coruscant was almost as beautiful, keeping with Tier One's overall aesthetic, though the sheer sense of scale seemed muted somehow. As he stepped out of the elevator onto a skywalk about halfway up Tier-Two, Kelly exhaled, and then wondered how long he'd been holding his breath. He could see immediately that the military presence here was lighter, and it only took him walking a block to notice that the drone-surveillance was much less frequent. There were still the cameras, though, peering unobtrusively out of the shadows.
Kelly stopped for a moment to look up his location on his wristcom, calling a single holographic dataverse-window and using the address of a nearby commercial bank, nestled into the side of one of massive-towers, as a reference. He searched up a mapping application, and figured out quickly that if he wanted to get to PepsiCo in any decent amount of time, he was going to need a ride.
The traveler frowned. He could summon a vehicle, but that would still leave the responsibility of navigation on him, and he didn't know the city yet. Better to delegate. He looked up a reputable-looking service, taking a moment to find one that advertised flexible payment options for tourists, and called a taxi.
It didn't take long for Kelly's ride to arrive. It was sleek and silent and bright yellow, with a hologram on top that read in cheerful bubble-lettering "Tier Two Transport Skycab Synthetic Services." It descended on some kind of antigravity turbothrusters. As he climbed into the back, Kelly tried not to be reminded of a flying electric shaver.
There was no driver. The entire interior was one big, plush passenger compartment.
"Hello?" he said.
"Hi!" said the Taxi, its deep male voice full of bubbly enthusiasm. "I am Johan! Today, I am your Taxi!" Every time it spoke, a small LED next to the dome light flickered on and off.
Robot Taxis? That makes sense, I suppose. More room in the passenger compartment makes for a more comfortable ride, makes for more repeat business.
"Hello Johan," said Kelly, "My name is Alan. Do you know where PepsiCo Headquarters is?"
"Yes indeed!" said the taxi. "Please, be comfortable! Direct your eyes to the right, for an excellent view of our lovely city!"
The door slid closed behind him, and the enthusiastic taxi rose into the sky, weaving between the towers as it merged into an established sky-lane. Kelly gave only polite attention to the view, turning his focus instead towards summoning, and then changing into, a single-breasted pin-stripe suit. He was interested to notice it took him marginally longer to create the suit than it had the telescope he'd summoned in the Nexus, though nowhere near as long as his Wristcom.
"Johan," he asked, re-tying his ponytail and checking the fit on his jacket, "what methods of payment do you accept?"
"An excellent question! Imperial currency, whether through digital transfer or in the form of cash, is always accepted! We also have a wide range of payment plans for the out-of-towner! However, as you are a Prime who is new to our lovely city, please enjoy this ride for free, complements of T3S3!"
Kelly froze, paranoid suspicion his first instinctual reaction to the taxi's unexpected knowledge, but he calmed quickly. He'd been watched literally since he got here. There were dozens of perfectly reasonable explanations and several legitimate reasons for a taxi company to keep records of new arrivals on their patch. No, this wasn't suspicious - just tremendously unsettling.
"Thank you," said the traveler, sounding every inch the grateful passenger. "I appreciate the courtesy."
The rest of the trip was brief, and passed in silence save for the muted rush of the wind outside of Johan's synthetic-fiber hull.
True, he couldn't deny that it was beautiful, nothing less than a work of architectural genius. Everywhere the traveler looked, stretching away to the far horizon, massive, gently sloping metal, glass and plastic towers shone, challenging the sky - and gave the impression they were winning, albeit graciously. Highways and skyways arched between them, and sleek, efficient vehicles flew in tightly controlled, uncluttered traffic patterns. At ground level, greenery was in abundant supply, whether in pots along the walkways and sidewalks, hanging from balconies or in one of the parks he kept walking past. There were museums, entertainment venues, hotels, and some quite appealing-looking restaurants.
To his discerning eye, even the layout was impressive. The color pallet of the place was too uniformly warm and placid not to be deliberate, and no matter what direction he looked, in spite of the all-conquering presence of the towers he couldn't find an angle where he couldn't see something miles in the distance, and didn't have a clear view of the sky. An entire legion of civic-planning savants probably went mad and wept themselves into early graves after construction started on Tier One, knowing they'd never do work this fine again.
No, the problem was with the people. They were plentiful, though remarkably uncrowded, which spoke to the place's sheer size. They seemed happy enough, but they were unusually quiet for a city this large. Nobody was yelling at anyone else. Nobody was making a scene. Nobody was littering, or loitering for long in one place. While these seemed like good things when taken individually, and to a less observant person would have seemed pleasant, to Kelly it added up to a constant, very low-level sense that everyone was walking on eggshells, probably without even entirely realizing it.
It wasn't a great mystery why. There were armed soldiers everywhere. Storm-troopers walked regular patrols in groups of two or three. They stood guard at the entrances to public buildings, directed street-level traffic and loitered near the parks, talking in hushed tones. It took the traveler a little longer to notice the drones making regular passes overhead, and the tiny camera-bulbs mounted under balconies and awnings, and at every public dataverse terminal.
This was even worse than his reading had led him to believe - not simply totalitarianism, but a very highly sophisticated and insidious police-state. Unable to stomach the feeling - correct, he knew - that he was being watched, he took a high-speed elevator to Tier 2 as quickly as possible.
The second level of Coruscant was almost as beautiful, keeping with Tier One's overall aesthetic, though the sheer sense of scale seemed muted somehow. As he stepped out of the elevator onto a skywalk about halfway up Tier-Two, Kelly exhaled, and then wondered how long he'd been holding his breath. He could see immediately that the military presence here was lighter, and it only took him walking a block to notice that the drone-surveillance was much less frequent. There were still the cameras, though, peering unobtrusively out of the shadows.
Kelly stopped for a moment to look up his location on his wristcom, calling a single holographic dataverse-window and using the address of a nearby commercial bank, nestled into the side of one of massive-towers, as a reference. He searched up a mapping application, and figured out quickly that if he wanted to get to PepsiCo in any decent amount of time, he was going to need a ride.
The traveler frowned. He could summon a vehicle, but that would still leave the responsibility of navigation on him, and he didn't know the city yet. Better to delegate. He looked up a reputable-looking service, taking a moment to find one that advertised flexible payment options for tourists, and called a taxi.
It didn't take long for Kelly's ride to arrive. It was sleek and silent and bright yellow, with a hologram on top that read in cheerful bubble-lettering "Tier Two Transport Skycab Synthetic Services." It descended on some kind of antigravity turbothrusters. As he climbed into the back, Kelly tried not to be reminded of a flying electric shaver.
There was no driver. The entire interior was one big, plush passenger compartment.
"Hello?" he said.
"Hi!" said the Taxi, its deep male voice full of bubbly enthusiasm. "I am Johan! Today, I am your Taxi!" Every time it spoke, a small LED next to the dome light flickered on and off.
Robot Taxis? That makes sense, I suppose. More room in the passenger compartment makes for a more comfortable ride, makes for more repeat business.
"Hello Johan," said Kelly, "My name is Alan. Do you know where PepsiCo Headquarters is?"
"Yes indeed!" said the taxi. "Please, be comfortable! Direct your eyes to the right, for an excellent view of our lovely city!"
The door slid closed behind him, and the enthusiastic taxi rose into the sky, weaving between the towers as it merged into an established sky-lane. Kelly gave only polite attention to the view, turning his focus instead towards summoning, and then changing into, a single-breasted pin-stripe suit. He was interested to notice it took him marginally longer to create the suit than it had the telescope he'd summoned in the Nexus, though nowhere near as long as his Wristcom.
"Johan," he asked, re-tying his ponytail and checking the fit on his jacket, "what methods of payment do you accept?"
"An excellent question! Imperial currency, whether through digital transfer or in the form of cash, is always accepted! We also have a wide range of payment plans for the out-of-towner! However, as you are a Prime who is new to our lovely city, please enjoy this ride for free, complements of T3S3!"
Kelly froze, paranoid suspicion his first instinctual reaction to the taxi's unexpected knowledge, but he calmed quickly. He'd been watched literally since he got here. There were dozens of perfectly reasonable explanations and several legitimate reasons for a taxi company to keep records of new arrivals on their patch. No, this wasn't suspicious - just tremendously unsettling.
"Thank you," said the traveler, sounding every inch the grateful passenger. "I appreciate the courtesy."
The rest of the trip was brief, and passed in silence save for the muted rush of the wind outside of Johan's synthetic-fiber hull.
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