02. The Shadow Dancers by Jack L. Chalker
Authors: Jack L. Chalker
time virtually halts mutation, freezing in place those which our bodies must have to help in digestion, for example. There also hasn't been a war here in thousands of years now, nor any kind of unpredicted natural disaster, nor famine nor in fact even real crime as you think of it, except for crimes of passion."
We saw. A whole world of peace and plenty with none of the dirty shit. If you just grew up here, and lived here your whole life, how would you ever be able to understand them other worlds, let alone make decisions that might cost lives? If you ain't never felt no pain or sufferin' or misery firsthand, if your idea of bein' hungry is that you're stuck in a city after all the restaurants are closed, if you never had nobody look at you funny 'cause your skin was black or you talked funny, then how you gonna understand the problems and see the big picture. Not that these folks would care in the end if they killed a bunch if it was for somethin' they wanted, but at least they had to look into the faces of some of the folks they'd be doin' in.
They'd been at this a long, long time.
We got to the surface and saw that the whole place had been cleared for us. We walked across a kinda lobby area that looked like some luxury airport waiting lounge, out a side door, and right into a funny-lookin' big car with no wheels that just kinda floated there at the door. A side of it was dropped down so there was steps leadin' up and in. The whole thing looked like some roast beef plate with a half a cigar on top. There was windows all the way along, although it'd looked solid from the outside. We could see out, but nobody could see in.
Inside it was kinda like a millionaire's camper van. Nice furlike carpets even on the walls, real plush recliner chairs around a table that looked like polished marble, and compartments all over the place. I expected the thing to wobble when we got on, but it was steady as a rock. I couldn't figure what was holdin' it all up.
There wasn't no driver, neither; not even a driver's seat. This fellow Aldrath-we found out quick that they said their first names last and last names first, like the Orientals do-he just went up front, took some kind of card out of a little pocket in his toga, and stuck it in a slot. The door closed, and off we went, no seatbelts or nothin'. You had to look outside to see that we was even movin'-and was we movin'! Up, up, and away real fast.
I could see the place below us clearly now, just a little round dome of a building in the middle of a bunch of trees in the middle of a bunch of low mountains kinda like the Poconos, but with no roads, no power lines, no nothin'.
It was a sunny day with just them cotton candy clouds, but we stayed just below them, so you had a right good view of the country below for miles and miles. Here and there you could see round towers and groups of domes and cubes and other funny shapes, but none of the places were real big and there was no roads at all.
Aldrath punched something in one of them compartments and brought out some drinks. I kinda figured they was somethin' like that. He saw that Sam and me were mostly lookin' out and down at the country, which didn't look the least bit familiar but really didn't look all that strange, neither. Sorta like central Pennsylvania or upstateNew York, only before all them folks stuck all them roads and wires through it. 'Course, if your cars and buses and trucks all fly like this thing we was in, you don't need all that.
"If you are looking for major cities, we have them," Aldrath said, "but not in this area. Our cities are mostly in the subtropical and tropical climates. When you can control or eliminate all the pests and divert big storms and manipulate the rainfall, those places are like gardens. This is mostly an area of wilderness and balance, with a few towns for special purposes or simply because people like to live here, and a number of broad estates mingled with forests and game reserves."
"Id've
We saw. A whole world of peace and plenty with none of the dirty shit. If you just grew up here, and lived here your whole life, how would you ever be able to understand them other worlds, let alone make decisions that might cost lives? If you ain't never felt no pain or sufferin' or misery firsthand, if your idea of bein' hungry is that you're stuck in a city after all the restaurants are closed, if you never had nobody look at you funny 'cause your skin was black or you talked funny, then how you gonna understand the problems and see the big picture. Not that these folks would care in the end if they killed a bunch if it was for somethin' they wanted, but at least they had to look into the faces of some of the folks they'd be doin' in.
They'd been at this a long, long time.
We got to the surface and saw that the whole place had been cleared for us. We walked across a kinda lobby area that looked like some luxury airport waiting lounge, out a side door, and right into a funny-lookin' big car with no wheels that just kinda floated there at the door. A side of it was dropped down so there was steps leadin' up and in. The whole thing looked like some roast beef plate with a half a cigar on top. There was windows all the way along, although it'd looked solid from the outside. We could see out, but nobody could see in.
Inside it was kinda like a millionaire's camper van. Nice furlike carpets even on the walls, real plush recliner chairs around a table that looked like polished marble, and compartments all over the place. I expected the thing to wobble when we got on, but it was steady as a rock. I couldn't figure what was holdin' it all up.
There wasn't no driver, neither; not even a driver's seat. This fellow Aldrath-we found out quick that they said their first names last and last names first, like the Orientals do-he just went up front, took some kind of card out of a little pocket in his toga, and stuck it in a slot. The door closed, and off we went, no seatbelts or nothin'. You had to look outside to see that we was even movin'-and was we movin'! Up, up, and away real fast.
I could see the place below us clearly now, just a little round dome of a building in the middle of a bunch of trees in the middle of a bunch of low mountains kinda like the Poconos, but with no roads, no power lines, no nothin'.
It was a sunny day with just them cotton candy clouds, but we stayed just below them, so you had a right good view of the country below for miles and miles. Here and there you could see round towers and groups of domes and cubes and other funny shapes, but none of the places were real big and there was no roads at all.
Aldrath punched something in one of them compartments and brought out some drinks. I kinda figured they was somethin' like that. He saw that Sam and me were mostly lookin' out and down at the country, which didn't look the least bit familiar but really didn't look all that strange, neither. Sorta like central Pennsylvania or upstateNew York, only before all them folks stuck all them roads and wires through it. 'Course, if your cars and buses and trucks all fly like this thing we was in, you don't need all that.
"If you are looking for major cities, we have them," Aldrath said, "but not in this area. Our cities are mostly in the subtropical and tropical climates. When you can control or eliminate all the pests and divert big storms and manipulate the rainfall, those places are like gardens. This is mostly an area of wilderness and balance, with a few towns for special purposes or simply because people like to live here, and a number of broad estates mingled with forests and game reserves."
"Id've