golden ribbon in the sky. A glowing sign indicated the pedestrian
walkway. Above that, shining teardrop autos whirred by, leaving faint
trails of exhaust. Alan followed the arrows and soon found himself on
the bridge, heading for the city.

He glanced back a last time. There was no sign of Kevin. The Starmen's
Enclave seemed utterly quiet, almost dead.

Then he turned and kept his gaze forward. The Earther city was waiting
for him.

_Chapter Five_

He reached the end of the walkway and paused, a little stunned, staring
at the incredible immensity of the city spread out before him.

"It's a big place," he said. "I've never been in a city this big."

"You were born here," Rat reminded him.

Alan laughed. "But I only stayed here a week or two at most. And that
was three hundred years ago. The city's probably twice as big now as it
was then. It----"

"Hey, you! Move on!" a harsh voice from behind snapped suddenly.

"What's that?"

Alan whirled and saw a tall, bored-looking man in a silver-gray uniform
with gleaming luminescent bands across the sleeves, standing on a raised
platform above the road.

"You can't just stand here and block the walkway," the tall man said.
His words were heavily accented, thickly guttural; Alan had a little
trouble understanding them. The ship's language never changed; that of
Earth kept constantly evolving. "Get back in the Enclave where you
belong, or get moving, but don't stand here or I'll punch your ticket
for you."

Alan took a couple of steps forward. "Just hold on a minute. Who----"

"He's a policeman, Alan," Rat said softly. "Don't make trouble. Do as he
says."

Throttling his sudden anger, Alan nodded curtly at the officer and
stepped off the walkway. He was an outsider here, and knew he couldn't
expect the sort of warm fellowship that existed aboard the ship.

This was a city. A crowded, uncomfortable Earther city. These were the
people who were left behind, who never saw the stars in naked glory.
They weren't going to be particularly polite.

Alan found himself at an intersection, and wondered where he was to
begin. He had some vague idea of finding Steve in this city as easily as
he might aboard ship--just check the A Deck roster, then the B Deck, and
so on until he found him. But cities weren't quite that neatly
organized, Alan realized.

A long broad street ran parallel to the river. It didn't seem very
promising: lined with office buildings and ware