Cities in Flight

“You are further warned that current Rulings in Council forbid any Okie city to approach Earth more closely than ten light years. Current Rulings also forbid gatherings of Okie cities in any numbers greater than four. However, we are empowered to tell you that this latter Ruling will be set aside for the duration of the investigation, provided that the approach limit is not crossed.”

“We’re crossing it,” the King said. “You’re going to take a good look at us. We’re not going to form another jungle out here—we didn’t come this far for nothing.”

“Under such circumstances,” the speaker at Earth Security continued, with the implacable indifference of the desperate bureaucrat operating by the book, “the law prescribes that participating cities be broken up. The full penalty will be applied in this case as in all cases.”

“No it won’t, either, any more than it is in ninety-four cases out of a hundred. We’re not a raiding force and we aren’t threatening Earth with anything but a couple of good loud beefs. We’re here because we couldn’t hope for a fair deal any other way. All we want is justice.”

“You’ve been warned.”

“So have you. You can’t attack us. You don’t dare to. We’re citizens, not crooks. We want justice done us, and we’re coming on in to see that it gets done.”

There was a sudden click as the City Fathers’ Dirac scanner picked up a new frequency. The new voice said: “Attention Police Command Thirty-two, Command HQ speaking for Vice Admiral MacMillan. Blue alert; blue alert. Acknowledge.”

Another click, this time to the frequency the King used to communicate with the jungle.

“Pull up, you guys,” the King said. “Hold formation, but figure to make camp fifteen degrees north of the ecliptic, in the orbit of Saturn but about ten degrees ahead of the planet. I’ll give you the exact coordinates later. If they won’t dicker with us there, we’ll move on to Mars and really throw a scare into them. But we’ll give them a fair chance.”

“How do you know they’ll give us a fair chance?” someone asked petulantly.

“Go back to the Acolytes if you can’t take it here. Damned if I care.”

Click.

“Hello Command HQ. Command Thirty-two acknowledging blue alert, for Commander Eisenstein. Command Thirty-two blue alert.”

Click.

“Hey, you guys at the base of the cone, pull up! You’re piling up on us.”

“Not in our tanks, Buda-Pesht.”

“Look again, dammit. I’m getting a heavy mass-gain here—”

Click.

“Attention Police Command Eighty-three, Command HQ speaking for Vice Admiral MacMillan. Blue alert, blue alert. Acknowledge. Attention Police Command Thirty-two, red alert, red alert. Acknowledge.”

“Eisenstein, Command Thirty-two, red alert acknowledged.”

Click.

“Calling Earth; Proserpine Two station calling Earth Security. We are picking up some of the cities. Instructions?”

(“Where the hell is Proserpine?” Amalfi asked the City Fathers.

(“PROSERPINE IS A GAS GIANT, ELEVEN THOUSAND MILES IN DIAMETER, OUTSIDE THE ORBIT OF PLUTO AT A DISTANCE OF—”

(“All right. Shut up”)

“Earth Security. Keep your nose clean, Prosperine Two. Command HQ is handling this situation. Take no action.”

Click.

“Hello Command HQ. Command Eighty-three acknowledging blue alert; for Lieutenant Commander Fiorelli. Command Eighty-three blue alert.”

Click.

“Buda-Pesht, they’re bracketing us!”

“I know it. Make camp like I said. They don’t dare lay a finger on us until we commit an actual aggression, and they know it. Don’t let a show of cops bluff you now.”

Click.

“Pluto station. We’re picking up the vanguard of the cities.”

“Sit tight, Pluto.”

“You won’t get them again until they’ve made camp—we’re in opposition with Proserpine, but Neptune and Uranus are out of the line of flight entirely—”

“Sit tight.”

Earth’s sun grew gradually in Amalfi’s view, growing only with the

velocity of the drone, which was the velocity of the jungle. Earth’s sun was still invisible from the city itself. In the helmet it was a yellow spark, without detectable disc, like a carbon arc through a lens-system set at infinity.

But it was, inarguably, the home sun. There was a curious thickness in Amalfi’s throat as he looked at it. At this moment, Hern VI was screeching across the center of the galaxy, that center where there was no condensation of stars, such as other galaxies possessed, visible from Earth because of the masking interstellar dust clouds; the hurtling planet had just left behind it a black nebula in which every sun was an apparition, and every escape from those a miracle. Ahead was the opposite limb of the Milky Way, filled with new wonder.

Amalfi could not understand why the tiny, undistinguished yellow spark floating in front of him in the helmet made his eyes sting and water so intolerably.