Jake and Ming climbed the ladder to the transport bay of the space station at the hub around which the station rotated. Jake was disconcerted and sickened by the lack of gravity but Ming had made him practice the trip several times and he’d gotten at least somewhat used to it. It was a large room facing away from Replin. Currently it faced Tau Ceti F and clouds were visible in its atmosphere. Jake wondered if there were oceans or land below that thick blanket. Inside the transport bay were two large vehicles. They looked a bit like the vacikarces he was familiar with but they were larger, about the size of a bus. Accompanying Jake and Ming were a dozen robotic Attendants who were already loaded into the transport vehicle. They were humanoid and familiar to Jake since he had experience with them from earth. Jake and Ming were both wearing headbands which they could use to provide orders to the robots. The robots were armed with microwave pistols which would no doubt be able to incinerate any trigger happy Replini security guards that happened to greet them. Jake was comforted knowing that the robots had far better reflexes than any organic being could ever hope for. Research indicated that the Replini didn’t have very sophisticated robots.
In the weightlessness of the transport bay, they used conveniently located handholds to guide them as they floated over to the vehicle and into its door. Once they were aboard and strapped in their seats, the airtight vehicle door closed behind them. The transport bay doors ahead opened and the gust of air escaping into the vacuum of space pushed the vehicle forward out of the bay and towards the bluish gas giant, Tau Ceti F.
Some kind of propulsion mechanism in the vehicle took over and Jake was pushed around in his seat as they turned around and headed for Replin, technically Tau Ceti F’s moon. The trip took hours but it was a unique experience. Finally the vehicle began to descend into the atmosphere and Jake got a decent view out the forward windows. Below was the dark-blue gray ocean and ahead was a vast futuristic looking metropolis. The wide streets were covered in cars. It could have been 23rd century earth but the lack of flying vehicles and the color of the vegetation were immediately obvious as was the fact that the city probably had a larger population than the whole of 23rd century earth.
During the trip, it occurred to Jake to ask Ming whether he should be concerned about viruses or bacteria on the planet. Ming explained that since the Replini have a very different method of encoding their DNA, viruses were not an issue. He also explained that the bacteria and parasites would find human chemistry quite inhospitable and that whatever survived would certainly be killed by their immune systems.
Amidst the tall buildings of the capital, was a large open semi-natural looking area, it reminded Jake of Central Park in New York City but larger. In the center of the natural area was a large cluster of buildings and in front of them was a spacious empty square devoid of Replini. As they got close to the buildings, it became clearer that most of them were at least a hundred stories tall, and unlike on earth, the concrete jungle went on for many miles at the same high density, before tapering off. It had not occurred to Jake to inquire about the total population of Replin but given the fact that it appeared to have much more land area than earth and that land area appeared cultivated, there must have been many tens of billions of Replini.
