Read Online Family Law 2: The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet by Mackey Chandler - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Mackey Chandler
Tags: Science-Fiction
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of long valleys cutting into the mountains,
The gap in the mountains was already so large it had a fan of vegetation on the lee side where the rainfall was greater due to the air channeling through the notch. At times the winds must be impressive through the gap. The entire west side of the range was covered in dams, as the art work they'd studied had suggested was important to them. They appeared to be for water conservation and agriculture, there were no power distribution lines associated with them.
Apparently opening a level road was more important to the natives than the climate change cutting a full break in the range would create. If they hadn't known what it would do when they started digging they had to know by now, because the fan of greenery on the east side of the gap now was obvious even from orbit. The road continued on past the mountains, straight to the far sea and a port, but without the build-up of civilization along it, and secondary roads radiating off north and south that the west side of the continental road had.
The bigger continent had a similar road, but it was easy to see it didn't have any barriers to compare to the small continent. Nevertheless it cut straight through any hill or valley. They were cut or filled in with a stubborn single mindedness. The surface was still brick, no large slabs or seamless surfaces.
Both large cities showed lights at night, but nothing on the scale an Earth city would. There were electronic emissions that indicated they used electric motors. The sole city on the equatorial island showed some lights at night too, but less than the two grand cities. The rural areas were near as dark at night as wilderness. If the natives ventured forth at night it was without the help of traffic signals or street lighting. Though they did spot a very few vehicles at night using electric headlamps.
There didn't appear to be any satellites emitting navigational signals, but there were radio beacons in the few active harbors and the two big cities had airfields that appeared to light up for a specific aircraft coming in, not all night. They counted the airfields and large aircraft parked at them and concluded there were only about two hundred airplanes on the world. If any were for passenger use and not freight they didn't have the custom of windows. None appeared to be transonic. They used very efficient scimitar curved propellers allowing them to push the Mach number.
There were a few dozen very small aircraft that might carry six or eight passengers. All apparently of the exact same design. Most of them were parked near the two big cities and they only saw two at distant fields. One however was in a very rural area, without even farmed fields, beside a large building they suspected was a palace. There were about three dozen such elaborate buildings, most again near the cities.
The aliens must have launch facilities, but they saw nothing indicating any real permanent infrastructure dedicated to regular launches. They looked hard, especially around the areas having aircraft facilities, but nothing resembling the sort of empty launch pads or gantries the expected was visible. The tech level of the satellites looked like about what Humans had not long after the First Atomic War, but they showed the survey people historic photos of launch sites from that era and nothing seemed to match. Maybe they assembled them and took them down after each use? If there weren't any obvious satellite lifters to be seen at least there weren't any possible interceptor sites to worry about either.
A primary function of the large cities seemed to be to facilitate the shipment and storage of grain. They were serviced by roads, they apparently never invented the railroad. The few Human farmers assured them the row on row of cylindrical buildings could be nothing other than grain silos. There were regional storage facilities too, but nothing like the two big cities.
The city on the main continent was
The gap in the mountains was already so large it had a fan of vegetation on the lee side where the rainfall was greater due to the air channeling through the notch. At times the winds must be impressive through the gap. The entire west side of the range was covered in dams, as the art work they'd studied had suggested was important to them. They appeared to be for water conservation and agriculture, there were no power distribution lines associated with them.
Apparently opening a level road was more important to the natives than the climate change cutting a full break in the range would create. If they hadn't known what it would do when they started digging they had to know by now, because the fan of greenery on the east side of the gap now was obvious even from orbit. The road continued on past the mountains, straight to the far sea and a port, but without the build-up of civilization along it, and secondary roads radiating off north and south that the west side of the continental road had.
The bigger continent had a similar road, but it was easy to see it didn't have any barriers to compare to the small continent. Nevertheless it cut straight through any hill or valley. They were cut or filled in with a stubborn single mindedness. The surface was still brick, no large slabs or seamless surfaces.
Both large cities showed lights at night, but nothing on the scale an Earth city would. There were electronic emissions that indicated they used electric motors. The sole city on the equatorial island showed some lights at night too, but less than the two grand cities. The rural areas were near as dark at night as wilderness. If the natives ventured forth at night it was without the help of traffic signals or street lighting. Though they did spot a very few vehicles at night using electric headlamps.
There didn't appear to be any satellites emitting navigational signals, but there were radio beacons in the few active harbors and the two big cities had airfields that appeared to light up for a specific aircraft coming in, not all night. They counted the airfields and large aircraft parked at them and concluded there were only about two hundred airplanes on the world. If any were for passenger use and not freight they didn't have the custom of windows. None appeared to be transonic. They used very efficient scimitar curved propellers allowing them to push the Mach number.
There were a few dozen very small aircraft that might carry six or eight passengers. All apparently of the exact same design. Most of them were parked near the two big cities and they only saw two at distant fields. One however was in a very rural area, without even farmed fields, beside a large building they suspected was a palace. There were about three dozen such elaborate buildings, most again near the cities.
The aliens must have launch facilities, but they saw nothing indicating any real permanent infrastructure dedicated to regular launches. They looked hard, especially around the areas having aircraft facilities, but nothing resembling the sort of empty launch pads or gantries the expected was visible. The tech level of the satellites looked like about what Humans had not long after the First Atomic War, but they showed the survey people historic photos of launch sites from that era and nothing seemed to match. Maybe they assembled them and took them down after each use? If there weren't any obvious satellite lifters to be seen at least there weren't any possible interceptor sites to worry about either.
A primary function of the large cities seemed to be to facilitate the shipment and storage of grain. They were serviced by roads, they apparently never invented the railroad. The few Human farmers assured them the row on row of cylindrical buildings could be nothing other than grain silos. There were regional storage facilities too, but nothing like the two big cities.
The city on the main continent was
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