Looked at him. Despite the coloring and height differences, Wasim almost always reminded me of Chuckie—he was a brainy, nerdy kid who did his best to make his family proud of him and was also, some day, going to rule his country. He had flashes of cool and flashes of pure royalty, but mostly he was just a cute geek. I approved heartily of cute geeks.
However, because he was smart, knew he hadn’t called me Queen Katherine for no reason. “Mind telling me what that hint was for?”
He nodded. “We are about to greet a new race. We don’t know their political structure. Many are not impressed with presidents or other politicians, I have seen. But everyone seems impressed with kings and queens.”
“The kid has a point,” Siler said. He looked around. “Where’s Mister Gadhavi?”
“Right behind you, sir,” Gadhavi rumbled. “I was checking in with King Jeffrey.”
“Oh, you and Wasim had a chat about this already, didn’t you?”
Gadhavi went to my other side and grinned at me. “We did, yes. We understand this perhaps better than you and your husband do. You are, at your cores, egalitarian. Most you will meet are not.”
“Elected by the people versus ruling by bloodline,” Siler said. “There’s definitely a difference. However, we don’t know what the people on this moon think.”
“Do you think they call it a moon or a planet?” Lizzie asked. “I mean, it’s totes a moon, but they live on it, so do they think of it that way?”
“Landing in five minutes,” Mother intoned over the loudspeaker.
“Think we’re about to find out,” I said to Lizzie.
“We have been assured that crash positions will not be needed,” Mother went on. “However, I recommend crew and passengers strap in.”
“I don’t want to stop watching,” Jamie said fretfully.
“We don’t have to.” Wasim pointed up. “There are straps here.”
Indeed there were. Mossy transferred to Gadhavi’s shoulder while Drax explained to everyone how to use them. They were a lot like those on various forms of public transportation but with the Drax Extras so near and dear to our hearts. Each strap was attached to something that resembled a shoulder holster—crisscrossed in the back and around each shoulder. The setup kept you on your feet and steady, and it adjusted to all heights and sizes, so we were able to strap all the little kids in, even JR, though Christopher kept a tight hold of his son while Amy held on to Becky.
I followed suit and kept Charlie in my arms and Siler did the same with Jamie. All the other younger kids were being held by adults, so clearly none of us felt safe in trusting that “smooth landing” idea. Gadhavi didn’t offer to hold Mossy, but that was because he wasn’t an idiot. However, could tell that Gadhavi was ready to grab Mossy if need be.
So, prepped and ready, we all got to watch as the Distant Voyager achieved its first landing.
The mountain had already been reforming from a landing pad into something that was shaped more like our ship, so that the saucer would be as supported as the base, and, as we lowered, it raised to meet us. There was a small jolt, like we’d gone over a pothole, but that was it. As landings went, Cradus was number one with a bullet.
Once we were settled and stationary, though, is when the real excitement began.
The mountain or whatever it really was that we were on flowed, taking us and our landing pad with it and carrying us down its side. It was a fast but gentle ride, like being on a smooth roller coaster that didn’t have any big drops.
We avoided the golden river, what looked like a forest of silver trees, a lake of what looked like a sort of silvery-violet substance I couldn’t identify, and more, achieved by the mountain raising itself and us over these things, or by going around them and, in some cases, by the geography flattening until we were past, then reforming itself. We spotted things that looked like metal deer bounding around, and what appeared to be metal birds flew past us.
“I’ve never even imagined anything like this,” Siler said softly.
“I want to play with it,” Charlie said.
“We’ll see.” Hugged him. “We might not be able to.”
“We will,” he said confidently.
We were down the mountain but still flowing along, past rolling hills, more rivers—these possibly of copper—and what looked like rocky grasslands. We also passed some of the orange stuff.
“That looks wrong,” Lizzie said, as we went past a big patch. “It looks too . . . organic.”
“Organic for this world appears to be metal,” I reminded her.
“I get it, but that orange stuff looks off.”
“Can’t argue, since I agree with you. I assume we’ll find out what it is once we get wherever we’re going.”
Where we were going seemed to be a city. And it was both like and completely unlike any city I’d ever seen before.
What was similar was that there were a lot of buildings, streets, and pedestrians. Unlike the geography, the buildings seemed solid. They were rounded, almost like sets of Navaho hogans or Mongolian yurts in various sizes. And there were a lot of them scattered about, many together in large groups, some in smaller groups, a few separate. Couldn’t tell if this meant we were at a spaceport or if that’s what every building on this moon looked like.
What there wasn’t was variety. All the buildings were the same shape, some tiny, some huge, but there was no individuality. There were color differences, but they seemed random, as if that color of metal was what had been there when the building was built so that’s what it was made out of, not as if it was an aesthetic choice. In fact, the only aesthetic was conformity: every building had the same doorways—double doors with no doorknobs—no windows that I could spot, and rounded roofs.
We stopped next to the largest of the buildings, and the portion of the land that had transported us here connected us to it, both via the ground and the roof, but also by covering the doorway with what I thought was a tunnel, thereby creating an airlock. I hoped.
There were streets, but they weren’t stationary. They moved like our part of the mountain had, because that was apparently how the people of this world traveled.
And what people they were.
CHAPTER 58
“LOOK AT THE PRETTY robots, Mommy!” Jamie exclaimed, as a group of Cradus citizens rode the street nearest to where we’d stopped.
That they were robotic seemed likely. They all gleamed, just like their planet did. Could see exposed wiring in some, none in others. And now we had variety, because there were different kinds—larger, smaller, very humanoid, less humanoid, animal-ish. Basically, we’d found Star Wars’ Droid World.
There were males and females, too. At least, I assumed the robots with physical structures that included breasts and wider pelvises were female. Then again, I was prepared to find out that these were just design choices.
“Away team is being formed,” Mother said. “Kitty and Gustav, you are requested back at the command deck.”
Kissed the kids and handed Charlie to Lizzie. “I’ll be back soon. Behave yourselves and no sneaking after us or out onto the planet until we know it’s safe.”
Wasim nodded gravely. “I will explain the risks to the others.”