minutes later, dark bars casting an acute silhouette before the star’s orangey glare. Behind the sun, the narrow inner edges of the rings faintly reflected the star’s brilliance.
“There are three rings, you say?” Wolff watched the sun through the photomitigators impregnating the Shamrock ’s vitreous alloy.
“Three concentric rings, each within a few leagues of the other. The innermost is for purposes of photovoltaic power generation. The outermost circumfercirc is a superconducting rail, used to guide large ion-driven ships around the habitable ring.”
Jed felt the forward thrust offline then the braking thrust gradually coming on. The Shamrock passed the thin spoke of the outer ring, a vessel riding along it beneath their course, like a swollen maggot on a silver stem. The enormous machine was built around the ring, threaded onto the wire-rail. A soft blue plasma glowed behind its bulk, and tiny motes of light chased after it like hunting damselflies—runnerships with normal thrust propulsion, each twelve times the length of the Shamrock , accelerating to ferry cargo and passengers onto and off of the tram on its non-stop voyage around and around the sun. All below the massive vessel and its track, and ahead of the dwarfed Shamrock , lay the immense girth of the central ring, an ineffable dark tract that swallowed up first the sun then the whole sky.
Wolff did not speak. He stood still beside Jed and gazed at the panorama, the rasping of breath through his nostrils obnoxiously loud in the silence.
Tiny pinpoints of light showed up on the black stratum, their numbers multiplying and forming strange artificial constellations as they approached. It was some time before the full extent of the dark cityscape and its monolithic structures became apparent. Each spire protruded several miles out into the void, and tesselated polyhedrons of light broke up their dark surfaces. Thin, glittering strands of hypertensile alloy worked a fine mesh over the conurbation, like a dew-laden spider’s web.
Jed had to admit this view was an impressive one, if not as a spectacle of nature then as a testimony to man’s skill at manipulating it. Beside her, Wolff exhaled. Jed felt the easing braking thrust cut out. The Shamrock drifted, unchecked by its propulsion. It could be that Taggart’s program was complete.
“What now?” the man asked.
The Shamrock was already picking up an identification request from the circumfercirc. Jed opened the channel and spoke aloud to the bridge transmitter. “This is the star Archer vessel Shamrock of hortica entering at vector stated. I request permission to dock.”
It took a moment for the request to be processed and the affirmation to return.
“You intend to dock?” Wolff asked.
“If I am to disconnect this interference device, it is better done docked and secure than with the ship drifting in open space.”
“Don’t they grant you docking permit grounded on their assumption that you intend to trade?”
“My motives are none of their concern. If they turn me away they lose commerce in the future, so I think it is best for everyone involved if they oblige me and mind their own business.” With a tentative command, Jed fired the auxiliary thrusters. They worked, as well as they ever had. The Shamrock slid forward without question, and Jed aligned it with the docking terminus, and eased the ship forward into the reach of one of its dendrites. A venting of carbon dioxide ballast thrust, and the airlock flanges connected.
“This, I believe,” said Jed, “is where you get off.”
“Now wait a moment.” Wolff stood.
Jed fixed him with a cold, uncompromising gaze. Wolff seemed to choose his words carefully. “I want to find out what’s going on, and why Taggart wanted to come to this circumfercirc in the first place.”
“What you do without this ship is not my concern. Go and do as you wish.”
“I rather hoped you would wait.”
“And why should I do
“There are three rings, you say?” Wolff watched the sun through the photomitigators impregnating the Shamrock ’s vitreous alloy.
“Three concentric rings, each within a few leagues of the other. The innermost is for purposes of photovoltaic power generation. The outermost circumfercirc is a superconducting rail, used to guide large ion-driven ships around the habitable ring.”
Jed felt the forward thrust offline then the braking thrust gradually coming on. The Shamrock passed the thin spoke of the outer ring, a vessel riding along it beneath their course, like a swollen maggot on a silver stem. The enormous machine was built around the ring, threaded onto the wire-rail. A soft blue plasma glowed behind its bulk, and tiny motes of light chased after it like hunting damselflies—runnerships with normal thrust propulsion, each twelve times the length of the Shamrock , accelerating to ferry cargo and passengers onto and off of the tram on its non-stop voyage around and around the sun. All below the massive vessel and its track, and ahead of the dwarfed Shamrock , lay the immense girth of the central ring, an ineffable dark tract that swallowed up first the sun then the whole sky.
Wolff did not speak. He stood still beside Jed and gazed at the panorama, the rasping of breath through his nostrils obnoxiously loud in the silence.
Tiny pinpoints of light showed up on the black stratum, their numbers multiplying and forming strange artificial constellations as they approached. It was some time before the full extent of the dark cityscape and its monolithic structures became apparent. Each spire protruded several miles out into the void, and tesselated polyhedrons of light broke up their dark surfaces. Thin, glittering strands of hypertensile alloy worked a fine mesh over the conurbation, like a dew-laden spider’s web.
Jed had to admit this view was an impressive one, if not as a spectacle of nature then as a testimony to man’s skill at manipulating it. Beside her, Wolff exhaled. Jed felt the easing braking thrust cut out. The Shamrock drifted, unchecked by its propulsion. It could be that Taggart’s program was complete.
“What now?” the man asked.
The Shamrock was already picking up an identification request from the circumfercirc. Jed opened the channel and spoke aloud to the bridge transmitter. “This is the star Archer vessel Shamrock of hortica entering at vector stated. I request permission to dock.”
It took a moment for the request to be processed and the affirmation to return.
“You intend to dock?” Wolff asked.
“If I am to disconnect this interference device, it is better done docked and secure than with the ship drifting in open space.”
“Don’t they grant you docking permit grounded on their assumption that you intend to trade?”
“My motives are none of their concern. If they turn me away they lose commerce in the future, so I think it is best for everyone involved if they oblige me and mind their own business.” With a tentative command, Jed fired the auxiliary thrusters. They worked, as well as they ever had. The Shamrock slid forward without question, and Jed aligned it with the docking terminus, and eased the ship forward into the reach of one of its dendrites. A venting of carbon dioxide ballast thrust, and the airlock flanges connected.
“This, I believe,” said Jed, “is where you get off.”
“Now wait a moment.” Wolff stood.
Jed fixed him with a cold, uncompromising gaze. Wolff seemed to choose his words carefully. “I want to find out what’s going on, and why Taggart wanted to come to this circumfercirc in the first place.”
“What you do without this ship is not my concern. Go and do as you wish.”
“I rather hoped you would wait.”
“And why should I do
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