Book 3: Chapter 56: City In The Clouds
Howard
December 2226
Odin
Eight mover plates slowly lowered Rivendell into the Odin cloudscape. Marcus had run through the entire list of Barsoom city names, and many of the other science-fiction ones. It felt slightly cheesy resorting to LOTR names, but what choice did I have?
The city, whatever name we eventually settled on, was several times bigger than Marcus’ aerial cities. When using buoyancy for lift, bigger was better. Rivendell boasted actual buildings, too. Not that we had a huge need for them, but we wanted to do this as a proof of concept, so Bridget suggested we pretend we were live people. We’d even built kitchens, sanitary facilities, and infrastructure.
Bridget stood to one side, watching the monitor, hands balled into fists, willing the city to behave.
And well she should. This was actually Rivendell mark 2. The first iteration lay somewhere far below in the murky depths, probably melted into slag by now. Forgot to carry the two again.
“At depth,” I said. “Guppy, release the plates. Slowly.”
Guppy nodded without comment. The plates disengaged, and after a small bobble, Rivendell settled into equilibrium.