Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 23

As a citizen, Mark could've just pressed the LIFT icon on his wrist device, but those were for private lifts and he wanted to try the public transit lifts. They were the same lifts, they just acted differently in the different roles. The public lifts were free and functioned more like busses, so anyone going to that destination could get on making better use of the lifts, especially when exiting large events and team sports. Public transit stops were located near major intersections, important places like schools and city halls. There was always more stops in the local region, but once you selected a region that wasn't local you only got to pick the towns or cities in that region, you could then transfer lifts and take a local one. That way each city would end up having its own local transit system and then the lifts would hopefully be better utilized for capacity for trips to other cities or regions.

He walked out toward the public transit stop near Cleito's Temple. They were a lot like a bus stop, they were covered and had benches and there was a poster sized touch screen terminal at each end of the stop where you could select your destination. Once a destination was chosen, the display that ran under the edge of the roof displayed the next arriving shuttle and it made an audible announcement as the shuttle was landing.

Within a few seconds there was an announcement saying, 'Port of Atlantis now arriving' as a lift descended down in front of him. Mark got in and after a few seconds, the lift started to rise and move toward the port.

They had originally thought about making the airport a simple open air type terminal similar to Kona, Hawaii, but instead opted for more of a true terminal, because Mark was expecting it was going to get busy. After all, Atlantis had been a thing of legend and speculation for thousands of years, now that it was real and unlike any other place on Earth, they had no doubts it would be a popular tourist destination.

A little less than half an hour, Mark was approaching the port. The floating terminal island was large and sat deep in the water, engineered so that there wasn't any wave motion. The terminal island itself was perfectly flat, with the exception of the massive terminal on the west side, and the surface was primarily covered in green artificial turf, with black taxiways and runway and there was even palm trees scattered about.

The triple port terminal was a convex hexagon design (aka Mercedes star) with each span of the star being 500 metres in length. Two spans bordered the sea and would function as the seaport on the West side, the other span pointed East towards Africa, separating the airport on the South side, from the spaceport on the North side, giving every port two spans, or one kilometre, of terminal access.

The terminal had the white colonnade, similar to the other ancient looking Atlantean buildings, but otherwise looked very modernized and sleek with the outer walls that looked like tinted glass. The central point of the star had the primary communications array for the island, which was larger than what Mark had seen before, supported by three sweeping supports coming down on top of a large circular blue building that actually hung over the intersections of each span of the star. That building was the control tower itself, offering a 360 degree view of the entire port, with the communications array on top of it.

The airport itself only had a single 5 kilometre runway, so pretty much any size airplane could land on it, the runway ran on an angle from the Northeast to the Southwest of the terminal island, so if there was any issues, nothing was going to get hit. The airport portion of the terminal could handle many planes simultaneously, but the passenger boarding bridge actually angled toward the ground rather than being somewhat level with the fuselage of the plane like most terminals.

The flow of the airport terminal was backwards from most Earth-based terminals, in that all boarding and deplaning happened on the bottom level, baggage claim, check-in and security was on the second level and the transit zone was on the top, where a red roof supported by a colonnade provided shade and shelter for people arriving and departing and also protected the numerous lift terminals distributed along each span.

The seaport side was currently just a dock, so ships could just pull up alongside the terminal, but if it got busy enough there was definitely enough room to add slips for the ships. There was also a lot of vacant, unused space on the terminal island so they could build warehouses, hotels, or whatever they needed to, plus the island could increase in size almost on demand!

In the substructure, beneath the surface of the terminal island had active security barracks and a detention centre.

With antigravity cyclics, much of the baggage train loading, unloading and sorting wasn't needed. Baggage would be unloaded into a hover cart underneath a plane, then the cart would hover up to an unload port just under the overhanging roof and it was simply a straight slide down to the baggage conveyor. Checked bags were pretty much just the opposite, they would be placed on a slide that would go down to a waiting hover cart that would move out and load the plane when it was time. Literally everything was in a straight line, so less chance of things getting lost!

The cruise ships and space transports didn't really have those issues as the passengers took care of their own luggage.

It felt surreal, being utterly alone in the massive, fully functional port terminal, so Mark went up to the control tower, which was quite an interesting looking place, in and of itself. There was three main desk sections, each facing one of the ports. The desk facing the seaport, had a display showing every boat and submarine in the oceans around the world, the desk facing the airport, had a display showing every airborne plane around the entire planet and the desk facing the spaceport was the emergency hub for anything that required security, medical or fire & rescue services.

The primary feature of the control tower, was a big round table in the centre of the room that showed Atlantis and a thousand kilometres around it, with a blue dotted line showing where the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone was, and a green dotted line at 125 nautical miles and a red line at 50 nautical miles.

As Mark was sitting up in the control tower looking over everything, he received a message from the American that messaged them earlier, he said they wanted to come out this afternoon and to please call him at the number he provided.

Mark had Cricket call the number and Mark asked to speak with Admiral Caldwell. When the phone was transferred, the Admiral asked if it would be OK to come out today?

Mark replied that they were welcome to drop in. All they needed was their passports to get through security and the plane's identification, he then informed them that since a lot of services weren't operational yet, so they would be escorted in by security once they reached Atlantis airspace.

The Admiral told Mark the plane's identification and said they would be there within a couple of hours and then disconnected the call.

With visitors inbound, Mark called Commander Northrop of the Cleito and asked him if the extra fighters and pilots were interested in coming down? The Commander assured him that they were eager to get down there, as were many of his people.

Mark told him that everyone was welcome to come down and look around, just land the shuttles on the terminal roof and they could grab a lift to get to the city or anywhere on the island.

In less than 20 minutes, Mark saw the fighters incoming on the control tower display and a minute after that there was 25 fighters flying by the port at high speed. Then they looped around the island and then landed on the terminal roof beside the control tower, so Mark went outside to greet the pilots.

The leader introduced himself as Major Thom and shook hands with Mark, who then greeted everyone else, "Welcome to Atlantis! I hear you are all interested in relocating here? Is that correct?"

There was a unanimous, "Yes Sir!" from everyone in attendance.

Mark smiled and went into an impromptu speech...

"I'm glad to hear that! I'm going to be honest with you... I don't know what to expect from some of the more powerful nations, with an unknown nation like us just popping up in the middle of the ocean. I suspect they may try to threaten us or possibly even attack us, because they may feel threatened by our capabilities.

My goal is to be defensive and try to disarm situations with zero loss of life. I'm not sure if you have heard, but should you get engaged by an aggressor, I want you to talk to them and maybe even toy with them, but DO NOT shoot at them. I have not seen anything on this planet yet that can penetrate our shields, so I'm hoping they'll realize the futility of their technology and cooler heads will prevail.

Now since you are all looking to relocate here, we have a detention centre and active security barracks setup in the substructure beneath the terminal. The entrance is via the hover elevator under the control tower, that elevator is for personnel use only. The entrance for your fighters is at the end of the East point, so you can fly your fighters right down there. I think there's even some emergency shuttles down there. I'm not sure as I didn't actually go down to take a look.

There is a lift system that can take you to Acropolis or anywhere on the island. You are welcome to stay in the barracks here, or in the temporary housing in Acropolis, while you explore the island and figure out where you want to build your permanent residence.

For right now, I need one of you to stay here with me to escort a plane with some foreign officials that's flying in for a visit. They should be here in an hour and a half or so."

Major Thom volunteered himself and then instructed his squad, "Set your clocks people! We are living on Atlantis time now and it's currently 14:45! I need one volunteer to take the first shift with me, then Thompson and Nguyen, you are second shift. I will post a duty schedule before first shift ends at 20:00.

Stay here in the barracks rather than in the capital. Once you've claimed your barrack, you are free to go explore the island. Cadet Smith, you just got volunteered for first shift! You are dismissed."

Mark then realized that what they really needed was an information booth, "We'll have to get some of the administrators to operate out of here tomorrow."

Cricket said, "Do you want me to make information kiosks that can be manned by holograms?"

"Sure! It'll help for the immediate purpose, but we're going to have lots of people on the island, let's not automate all the jobs."

Mark, Major Thom and Cadet Smith toured the terminal and ended up in the control tower watching the central display. They saw several white planes that seemed to be avoiding their airspace, but there was a green plane flying in from the West with a red plane beside it, headed directly toward Atlantis. They were still quite a distance from Atlantis airspace yet, just on the edge of the outer table range.

Mark asked aloud to no one in particular, expecting Cricket to answer, "I think I know, but what do all the different colours mean?"

Cricket then popped into existence and explained, "Blue is Federation, green is scheduled unarmed, white is unscheduled unarmed, orange is scheduled armed and red is unscheduled armed. Communications will be made at the blue line with all aircraft, anything unscheduled will be warned and locked on as soon as they hit the green line and then shot at if they get to the red line. That goes for ocean going vessels as well as aircraft."

The aircraft were now nearing the EEZ perimeter, so Major Thom decided they should get in the air, so he and the Cadet left for their fighters. As soon as they were airborne there were two small blue planes on the display.

Mark watched with anticipation, as the visitors approached the dotted line indicating Atlantis airspace. Once they crossed the blue line, Mark could hear Cricket contact the green plane and tell them that their escort would be there momentarily. Then she contacted the red plane, 'Unidentified aircraft, this is Atlantean airspace, please identify yourself and your intentions or proceed outside our airspace, failure to do so will initiate security defences.'

'This is Captain Litta of the US Air Force, I am escorting Admiral Caldwell and his staff in a Gulfstream G650S to Atlantis.'

'Very well, proceed! Security will be with you momentarily to escort you in.'

Suddenly the red plane turned orange and seconds later the blue planes moved in around the two aircraft.

Mark could listen to the radio chatter as Major Thom introduced himself and then instructed the visitors to follow him to the Port of Atlantis, while Cadet Smith took up a flanking position behind the orange plane.

Suddenly another blue plane came on the display from out of nowhere directly toward the port moving fast and seconds later there was a shuttle landing on the roof.

When Mark saw Sarah and Taryn exited the shuttle, he walked outside to meet them, gave both girls a kiss and welcomed them to Atlantis.

Sarah said she was going into the city to meet some friends to go exploring and called for a lift at a nearby lift terminal.

Taryn said, "I was informed that you were going to be getting the first non-citizen visitors... so I am here to run the security booth for you."

Mark smiled as he hadn't thought about that and thanked her for showing up. They talked for a bit until the jets started to approach the runway, then Taryn left to go get the system online and ready.

A few minutes later the Gulfstream G650S and an F-18 had landed on the runway and taxied to park in front of the terminal. Major Thom and Cadet Smith stayed in the air until the visitors were deplaning, then, as the Americans exited the jets, they flew in fast, but silently, as they landed nearby.

Mark walked out, "Welcome to Atlantis! My apologies for the escort, but it's been a hectic day and we don't have personnel in place at many of the facilities yet. Please come inside and we'll get you checked in and we will take you on a tour."

Admiral Caldwell introduced himself and then asked, "Why did you threaten my escort?"

Mark said, "You only told me the identification of your airplane, so we were expecting you, not an unscheduled plane with weapons! As I said in the invites, we need to know the identification of any planes."

The Admiral didn't look too impressed at being nicely told he was an idiot.

As Captain Litta exited his plane, a glowing red bubble surrounded him and Mark said it was because he had a weapon. You can continue to carry it, just don't draw it and point it at anyone. Suddenly the bubble disappeared.

Mark then contacted Major Thom and Cadet Smith and told them to come on in.

Major Tom and Cadet Smith both came in fast and executed an unbelievable swift and smooth landing just off to the side, all without making a sound.

As both pilots exclaimed, "Amazing!" at the same time, as they shook hands and introduced themselves to the Major and Cadet.

Mark waved them inside, "Gentlemen, do you have any luggage?"

The admiral and his assistant were pulling small rolling suitcases, while the two pilots just shook their heads No.

"Shall we get you all checked in so you can begin your tour?"

Mark then led them into the terminal and up the escalator, then over to a security booth, where Major Thom and Cadet Smith were both surprised to see someone manning the security booth.

Taryn did a very abbreviated check-in, by merely typing the name on the passport into the system and saying, "Welcome to Atlantis!"

Once everyone was all checked in, everyone stared as the fox exited the booth and gave Mark a kiss as Mark wrapped his arm around her.

The Major excused himself and the Cadet, as the group went up to the roof to grab a lift. There was six of them, so they could all fit into one lift easily.

As they walked out onto the roof transit zone, Mark selected Acropolis and then was prompted for numerous locations in the city, so he chose the East Gate, figuring he could give them the same tour that he gave everyone else this morning.

Within a couple of seconds, there was an announcement of 'Acropolis East Gate now arriving' as a lift descended in front of them with 'Acropolis East Gate' on the sign. The transit terminals at the port were slightly different from the ones in the cities, as they could go to transit stops anywhere in any city. There wasn't any local service for them.

Mark waved everyone inside and he climbed in last, sitting beside Taryn. As soon as the door closed, the lift started to rise as it turned and accelerated toward the city to the northeast.

Since they had about a half hour ride, Mark asked, "What would you like to see? I just assumed the city since there really isn't anything else on the island, except the port."

The Admiral said, "The city is fine. How many people are currently on the island?"

Mark shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not exactly sure, shuttles have been going back and forth to the orbiters all day. I would guess there's a few hundred people here right now."

"How fast do you expect the population to grow?"

"Fast! I'm not sure what's coming from the other planets, but I know there's over a million on Atlanterra alone coming here. The transports should start arriving in 2 or 3 days."

The Admiral almost choked, "A MILLION IN LESS THAN A WEEK! Can you guys build and scale up fast enough to support that many people?"

Mark didn't feel the need to tell the Admiral they weren't all coming at once, so he just smiled, "Easy! We'll have communities and businesses started all over the island by mid-week."

Jared, the Admiral's overweight assistant then said, to no one in particular, "This is a unique transit system, it's so fast, smooth and quiet."

"It's unique to Earth, but this is a pretty standard transit system on most planets, we've just slowed it down to be a bit more leisurely and allow for more sight seeing, yet still fast enough to get you where you need to go without spending hours in a lift."

"Leisurely? We must be going 300 miles an hour!"

"500 kilometres per hour actually. The lifts travel in two speeds, 500 kilometres per hour is normal, then they slow down to 50 kilometres per hour in local mode. On some larger planets, the normal lift speed is 1,000 kilometres per hour.

May I ask how long you are planning to stay?"

The Admiral asked, "Would it be a problem for us to spend a night or two?"

"Not at all, there's lots of rooms at the palace. I didn't actually check out all the rooms, but I'm sure they'll be comfortable enough."

Everyone was enjoying the scenery, as the lift took them back the way Mark originally came. Soon it slowed, descended and stopped just off to the side of Mark's statue at the East Gate and everyone got out.

Mark took a quick look and saw that there were more than a dozen shuttles parked there now, quite a few more than what he saw earlier. He guessed that maybe they hadn't gotten the information about using the port.

The Americans were looking at the large statue, which was about the same height as the Statue of Liberty.

"Copying the United States are you?" Lieutenant Harris, the pilot of the Gulfstream, asked.

"Not really! 3,000 years ago, the Atlanteans had built protection statues around the perimeter of the island. We simply changed them to look like the past kings, I'm the 21^st King of the Federation, this statue is mine, but there are 20 other statues of the past kings all the way back to Atlas, the first king of Atlantis, distributed around the perimeter of Atlantis."