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We neared one of the towers from where other shuttles like ours came and went, giving it the appearance of a beehive. A very busy beehive.
Only a small shock moved through the shuttle as we docked against one of the towers, and immediately the large doors through which we had entered the shuttle slid open.
Garth took my arm and led me toward the doors, without a glance back at the others, sure that they would follow.
Speechless I gaped at the interior we entered. Vertical, narrow, rectangular windows allowed the purplish glow of the sun in, dipping the alabaster-colored walls, floor, and ceiling in a light violet hue.
Aliens, mostly Pandraxians, moved decisively about, some on conveyor belts, some on what appeared to be hovering, stand-up electric scooters.
"Lord Protector Garth of Astrionis," a woman greeted us, bowing deeply to Garth.
"Lady Madeema, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" Garth inclined his head toward the tall Pandraxian woman. Surreptitiously I studied her. She was tall like Garth, reaching toward his chin and towering over me by a good head. She wore flowing white robes with inlaid golden seams, that made it hard to guess her physique, but if her bare, muscular arms were anything to judge by, I would have said she was probably very fit.
Her hair was long and shimmered in different hues of neon red, like Garth's, and like him her eyes were startling garnet red, not as electric as his, but captivating.
Her full lips were painted a bright pink, and amazed, I took in her flawless makeup that would have put any supermodel on Earth to shame. I wasn't sure why I hadn't considered the alien females using makeup like us humans, but I really hadn't given Pandraxian women any consideration so far.
"I'm sure you're already well aware of King Crough's presence on Pandrax." She waited for Garth's tight nod. "SoI thought it prudent to take you to his imperial highness as soon as possible and to fill you in on the way."
"Your thoughtfulness flatters me," Garth replied and I detected a hint of suspicion in his voice.
"I've always been fond of you, Lord Protector Garth. Don't make me regret this," she said in a pleasant-enough voice, but her lips tightened.
"May I introduce Silla Pelletier, of Earth?" Garth introduced me. "Silla, this is Lady Madeema, ostensibly a member of Emperor Daryus's imperial council, but in truth his Chief Intelligence Officer."
"Nice to meet you," I said, trying to keep my voice even and not to show how intimidating she was.
As her eyes unapologetically assessed me from head to, I noticed how cold they were. She must have found me lacking, because she disregarded me just as quickly as she had taken my measure before turning her attention back to Garth. "Truly you amaze and disappoint me, Lord Protector, all this fuss for this… paltry species?"
I noticed her eyes had wandered behind us and was sure she had just as quickly evaluated the group of humans behind us. I fisted my hands, but kept them at my side; this woman infuriated me like nobody ever had before.
Garth ignored her latest barb and waved his hand forward. "Shall we? Let's not make the emperor wait for us. I know how much he hates waiting."
"King Crough is already talking his ear off, demanding retribution for what you did, Lord Protector," Lady Madeema informed us.
We turned off the main, tube-like corridor and stopped in front of one of the windows. Seconds later, the window retracted into the ceiling, allowing us entrance into… I swallowed, a large, glass elevator, situated on the outside of the tower. At least I thought it was an elevator, even though it was shaped like a sphere with a leveled, also glass, floor.
It was large enough to allow all of us comfortably in before the door closed. Without so much as a small jolt the sphere moved upward, hugging the outside of the tower.
I kept a firm grip on Garth's arm and tuned his quiet conversation with the Pandraxian woman out, as I stared stunned at the sprawling city below us. I figured we were already at least a hundred stories high before we moved even higher upward.
To my right I watched the stories of the tower rush by, giving glimpses of similar tube-like corridors and to my left, at quite a distance, I made out another tower identicalto ours.
I held my breath as one of the vehicles Garth had called strato gliders zipped by us. It was the size of a large SUV and I wondered if they were the equivalent to cars. They were too fast and darkened though to make out the occupants inside.
For the first time I noticed that the four towers were connected on many levels, by intersecting glass tubes, through which aliens moved.
A quiet thud and a barely recognizable shift in my equilibrium told me we had arrived at our destination.
I looked up just in time, alarmed by a hissing sound, to watch our sphere's ceiling retreat before the floor underneath me lifted us up toward the ceiling.
I exchanged an astonished look with another woman in our group and heard Kevin cry, "Awesome," but my mind was being overstimulated and I had a hard time grasping all these technological marvels.
The lifting floor brought us level with a wide, open hall, rounded walls made me assume we had entered the dome I had spotted when we flew in.
Arching pillars in different geometric shapes stretched up to the flat ceiling above us and I realized the dome too, had to be made up of multiple levels.
Lady Madeema guided us onto a moving walkway, and I felt like a child visiting a large mall for the first time asI craned my neck left, right, and in circles to take all of this splendor in, while Garth and Lady Madeema talked in hushed voices.
