The Samson set down on a landing platform that billed by the hour. It was only twelve levels down from the sun baked upper section. The closest place they could find to Frost's refuge.
“Last time we were here I wasn't allowed off ship. This should be interesting,” Stephanie said as they walked away from the Samson. The rest of the crew, lead by Ashley and Finn, were beginning their inspection of the outer hull. They had orders to not leave the platform.
There was no decontamination chamber, security checkpoint or duty post. Just a beat up port listing panel for declaring any goods for trade, announcements and browsing the bulletin boards. Any other programming or information cost extra.
Captain Valance didn't bother using the panel, he brought up a map of the area on his command control unit. “Last time we came here I brought four heavily armed boarding crew.”
Steph looked down at the rifle in her hands and shook her head. “Just me this time?”
“I don't plan on staying long enough to find trouble.”
“I'm surprised we're allowed to carry this kind of weaponry around.”
“It's part of their population control program.”
“You're kidding.”
Jake nodded, smiling a little. “I guess a few million visitors a day are just too hard to regulate. Things sort themselves out here.”
“Didn't you get shot last time?”
“I had it coming. I was lucky it was just a graze. A regeneration patch healed it up in just a few minutes.”
“Any chance we'll run into the shooter?”
“I doubt it. I tossed him over a railing.”
Stephanie peeked over the edge of the walkway and shuddered. There were walkways, building tops and gaps between with dark depths she couldn't begin to guess at. They turned the corner and saw one of the major thoroughfares for the first time. It was over twenty meters wide, half dedicated to high speed traffic with tunnels for people to walk under that area and get to the walkway proper. Small two to eight person transport cars were limited to travelling along guide rails to reduce open air traffic. The cost of a rail pass was based on how many kilometres one travelled, and there were few straight paths anywhere.
Jake pulled a safety cord out from the waist of his vacsuit and offered it to Stephanie. Normally the device was reserved for space, so two people could stay tethered to a ship or other large body using one line, but she could see how it was necessary here.
The milling crowd ahead was shoulder to shoulder in most places. It was a milling biped sea and she didn't want to get separated. Hooking the line onto her vacsuit gave her an idea, and she attached one of her own slender tether lines to the stock of her short assault rifle. “This is insane.” She commented as they walked down into the tunnel.
The sound of the traffic above was deafening. An unending stream of various vehicles moving at two hundred kilometres or more for minutes at a time then slowing down to a crawl for seconds before picking up again echoed in the dark passage. Stephanie had to use her proximity radio to communicate with Jake. “Are we still in the port section of the city?”
“We are, I'll bet we couldn't find a resident here if we tried for days.”
There was refuse strewn in the corners, a black and brown dust of some kind everywhere and it contaminated the air from above, stirring it all around their feet and blowing the smell into their faces. It wasn't even twenty meters long, but in that space it was joined by eight other tunnels from below. When they neared the end she could see the massive moving crowd and Captain Valance offered his arm. It was a gesture she had only seen in period films, and she chuckled but took it anyway. Even though they were tied together she still didn't want anyone to get between them and catch in their line.
Without waiting they joined the crush of bodies. They made their way with the stream of people for what her arm unit said was just over half an hour but it felt like an awful lot longer. Rounding a corner they found the Regent Galactic building, standing tall and white it was more grand than anything in the area. It had its own docking platforms, hundreds of them, and massive defensive cannons on swivel mounts. Just from the shimmer around it she could tell there was a protective shield in place as well. The only access point she could glimpse on foot was a covered bridge with thick security doors. She tried to follow the street that lead into that side of the building with her eyes through the net of crossing streets above and shook her head at the sight of a line extending as far as she could see leading to those big security doors.
“I hate this place,” Jake said over the proximity radio.
“You're not the only one pal,” Came the response of one nearby traveller.
“I only come here because fruit gets a high trade value,” added another.
“My daughter's going to school here, biggest mistake I've ever made letting her but you know kids, they just won't shut up until you give 'em what they want,” griped yet another.
Stephanie patted his arm and nodded. That was the problem with proximity radio. It was made to broadcast to anyone within a certain range as though you were speaking to them verbally in a normal atmospheric setting. Normally people who didn't know you kept their comments to themselves, but here the crowd provided an amount of anonymity and people were actually bored enough to listen in on anyone nearby, not just people on their crew roster like Jake and Stephanie. Changing the default frequency was also an option, but most people outside of the military didn't bother.
They began making their way towards the center of the pedestrian walkways in that district, where they would be able to take a ramp up or a tunnel down when the time came. Before long they were inside one of the wider passages and the traffic continued to be just as congested, only it was darker, and it was easy to feel buried, closed in. How fights didn't break out she had no idea. People were constantly bumping into her, she even had some people grab at her thigh pocket more than once, gingerly testing it to see if it would open for them. Thankfully they were sealed so only she or a few other people on the crew could get inside, and she was once again thankful for the Captain providing her with a high quality vacsuit. The form fitting style invited a couple of anonymous gropes, however, and she found herself wondering how long it would take their new materializer to make a long coat like Jake's. Maybe hers could be a deep purple or dark blue, she found herself thinking.
After taking several more tunnels under the direction of the Captain's arm command unit, they came out into a widening causeway that lead to a massive circular courtyard. The builders had kept the space above clear of pedestrian and vehicle transit ways but the Regent Galactic building cast a shadow over the whole area. There was a tall, heavily built gate in front of them and they joined a crowd of thousands who were waiting for it to open. Through transparesteel windows they could see guards looking over the multitudes and control stations of some kind that were just out of sight. “The market is at maximum capacity, please be patient and we will let you in as soon as possible,” boomed a recorded voice.
The wall was white at the top, pockmarked by small weapon's fire here and there, but it was at head level where things got interesting. As they let groups inside they got closer and it looked like the gate hadn't been cleaned for decades or more. The passage of millions was marked there. High above was another courtyard. There were dozens of personal transports docked to the bottom, and she wondered what it cost to own a vehicle as she watched one of them attach itself and get locked in with heavy clamps.
It was finally their turn to enter and they were allowed into a chamber within the walls with about three hundred people. Panels separated and pushed people out or kept them in so the doorway wouldn't crush anyone when it closed. Judging from the faded bloodstains on the inside of the barrier she guessed it didn't always work. “Please standby while we gather the fee of four hundred credits for entry. When you see the request for payment, enter a positive answer within ten seconds or you will be forcibly removed.”