Cain's shuttle broke through low ceiling cloud and the Western Region terminal was spread out nearer than he thought. There was the river and high rise waterfront development on either bank, yellow-green flatland, and the port itself with a facility vehicle dwarfing the flight control block as it crawled out to a launch pad.
There was nothing to do to keep his mind on load. The console had broken out into a rash of green lights as the auto-pilot locked on to a docking beam to bring him in.
He fished in a pocket of his bush jacket and brought out a stubby briar pipe, filled it with pleasurable care and had wreathed his head in aromatic blue smoke when the shuttle planed to a meticulous landfall fifty metres from the reception concourse.
The scanner glowed with a head and shoulders picture of a brunette in a silly hat and a set smile. A cosy voice said, "Welcome to Picton City Space Port. Please place your identity folder in the viewer."
Except for the pipe, she had a reasonable match with the face looking at her over the unfolded oblong. Medium brown hair, short, well-trimmed beard, zig-zag scar on the left temple, creases round the eyes which were pale blue and unblinking.
Proving that she could read as well as the next girl, she picked up his name from the manifest and used it. "Mr Cain. Science Correspondent with Southern Actualities."
"That's right."
"What will be the length of your visit?"
"Why? What do you have in mind?"
The smile lost a little of its warmth. She had gotten another joker in the lottery and it was tough at the end of a long stint. "You know the regulation. If it is to be more than a week we are required to inform Public Safety."
"Ah. You disappoint me. Longer than a week. I shall be enrolling at Picton Polytech. Public Safety will pick up the reference from there."
"Very well. You have permission to leave your car."
"Thank you very much."
"You are welcome."
A trolley with an android operator was coming across the apron to take care of his gear. He shoved back the hatch and climbed out.
Cooler here. A small damp breeze bringing a smell of the sea. The last of the April sun dropping behind the city skyline.
It was all new. But so many places had been new. In a month it would be all one. Familiar and unfamiliar; so many rooms so many streets, so many casual contacts.
The android detached itself from its trolley, stubbed a lever on the skin of the car and the panel of the freight bay slid aside. Grabs hooked on to a small cabin trunk and swung it out.
Cain walked beside it, up a ramp into reception across the busy floor and out again through a checkpoint to the dispersal bay.
A blue and yellow auto car peeled off the stick above and dropped towards him.
It was all routine. He could have been coming in to any major city in the Atlantic Federation.
But there was a difference and the nudge of a sixth sense brought it up loud and clear as the car swept a metre over the landing strip and was practically vertical overhead.
An adrenalin boost got him off to a spring start and he dived in a compact forward roll which brought him up against one of the support columns of the porch.
The car dropped eight metres in free fall and its undercarriage crumpled on the parquet. The next car in line left the rank, rose into the Metropolitan throughway and shot off towards the city. An alarm siren started a frenetic bleep.
)
