Free Killashandra by Anne McCaffrey Page A

security measures restricting citizens of their planets.
    As her vehicle glided forward, the first of the shuttle passengers began to emerge. On cue, fat accommodation buses filed out of the parking area to the flagstone curb. Craning her neck slightly, Killashandra took due note of the fact that the security system did not respond to the foreigners’ exits.
    Already the vehicle was climbing out of the valley which contained the shuttle port and the clutter of maintenance buildings. The place looked bleakly ordered and preternaturally neat in comparison to what Killashandra recalled of Fuerte’s busy space port. Perhaps when the tourist season started … Even the clumps of trees and bushes which softened the harder lines of the buildings had a regulated look. Killashandra wondered how often the plantings had to be replaced. Shuttle emanations had a disastrous effect on most vegetation.
    “Are you comfortable, Guildmember?” Mirbethan asked from her seat behind Killashandra.
    “Of necessity the shuttle port was placed close to the City,” Pirinio took up the conversation, “but isscreened by these hills which also absorb much of the noise and bustle.”
    Noise and bustle, his tone of voice told Killashandra, were the unpleasant concomitants of space travel. “How wise of you,” Killashandra replied.
    “Optherian’s founding fathers planned for every contingency,” Thyrol said smugly. “No effort has been spared to conserve our planet’s natural beauty.”
    The vehicle had reached the top of the gap and Killashandra had an unimpeded view of the broader valley below them, in which nestled the felicitous arrangement of pastel colored buildings, domes, and round towers that comprised Optheria’s capital settlement, known as the City. From that height, the impressive view drew a surprised exclamation from Killashandra.
    “It is breathtaking!” Thyrol chose to interpret her response his way.
    Beautiful was a fair adjective, Killashandra thought, but breathtaking, no! Even at that distance something was too prim and proper about the City for her taste.
    “None of the indigenous trees and bushes were removed, you see,” Thyrol explained, gesturing with his whole hand rather than a single finger, “when the City was constructed, so that the natural, unspoiled landscape could be retained.”
    “And the river and that lake? Are they natural features?”
    “But of course. Nature is not distorted on Optheria.”
    “Which is as it should be,” Polabod added. “The entire valley is as it was when Man first landed on Optheria.”
    “The City Architect planned all the buildings and dwellings in the unoccupied spaces,” Mirbethan said proudly.
    “How exceedingly clever!” Killashandra was wearing the contact lenses recommended for Optheria’s sunlightand wondered if the planet would be improved, viewed via augmented Ballybran vision. Just then it was very, very,
blah
! Killashandra had to delve a long way for an adequate expression which, tactfully, she did not voice. Would Borella have restrained herself? Would she have noticed? Ah, well, Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder! For Optheria’s sake, she was glad that someone loved it.
    While it might have been laudable of the Founding Fathers to wish to preserve the entire valley as it was when Man first landed, it must have given the architects and construction crews a helluva lot of trouble. Buildings wrapped around copses of trees, straddled brooks, incorporated boulders and ledges. Probably the floors on upper levels were even but it must have been bumpy going at ground level. Fortunately the airfoils of her vehicle were up to the uneven surface in the suburbs but the ride became rather bouncy as they proceeded deeper into the City.
    Pausing at the intersection of a huge open square—open except for the many thorn bushes and scrawny trees—Killashandra could not fail to notice that the ground floor of one corner building made uneven arches over