this," directed Nick. "It appears to be a single-lane highway." He knelt down, "The composition is strange. It looks and feels as if it's made of a plastic/rubber base. No petroleum or concrete. I've never seen anything like it." The road seemed to stretch forever to their left - they had no reference of true geometric direction and when they looked in the opposite direction... they thought they saw a dot on the horizon and it was moving toward them!
The two men watched intently the approaching spot. Nick said, "Let's back up into the tree line behind us and hunker down. I don't want to be caught in the open and attacked by a strain of intelligent, yet flesh-eating bugs or whatever type of bizarre animal which could be operating that vehicle. We may be able to check them out as they pass or it may be something simple as an empty, automated transport." They retreated into concealment and observed.
The vehicle came into view. Its design was that of a bus, ran quiet as if it were powered by electricity and travelled at approximately thirty m.p.h. The vehicle slowed as it neared their position. "Uh-oh," mumbled Glenn. "Do they know we are here?"
"Don't know," answered Nick. "Let's sit tight a little bit longer." He eyed the green portal, "If anything looks suspicious turn and run back through the gateway." Glenn nodded vigorously, "Damn straight."
The bus stopped on line of the portal with the two friends positioned directly in between. Six beings exited the bus, the driver did not. They appeared to be human and all wore black jump suits, matching helmets, terrain boots and wrap-around tinted goggles. They looked identical to a SWAT team. Three carried a device which resembled a weird looking Taser rifle. Nick then noticed a small radar dish mounted atop the bus pointing in their direction. Actually, it was aimed beyond and behind at the green gateway and now the 'men' had spread out in a line and were advancing toward them.
"Oops," uttered Glenn. "I think it's time to introduced ourselves before we end up on the receiving end of those funny looking devices which I'd bet are some kind of weapon."
They stood up and waved to the advancing troops. "Hello, we're visitors. Can you understand us?" while showing open hands.
The men halted and conferred with each other in an unfamiliar language. Then one called back, "Yes, we understand. Did you come through the portal?"
"Yes," answered Nick and soon all were standing face to face.
"We've never been here before," explained Nick.
"And we've never encountered people from your side who have come through before our scout team's arrival," added the troop leader. " I am Jakop seven. Welcome to our world. This is a most fortuitous event for both of us."
"Then you've met people from our side before?" asked Glenn.
"Yes, we have experienced this many times and as a result have learned your language. It is required in order to be a member of this team."
"Amazing," commented Nick. "I can't recall any mentions or records of these encounters. I don't understand why not... unless our military were involved. They hide everything from the common people."
"We are not familiar with the politics of your world but have found your prior visitors were filled with awe and questions... and we will gladly answer all. First, we will show you where and how we live. Don't worry about the portal, it will not close for three days. We have tracked and dealt with this phenomenon many times."
"Have these crossovers been going on for a while?" asked Glenn.
"Yes, many years," answered the commentator.
Nick shook his head in wonder. "You can rest assured, this will no longer be a secret when we return."
"Fine and if you wish, we can give you the grand tour and have you speak to some of our most prominent councilmen. Now, if you chose to continue then please board our transport."
Glenn noted they all had NA#21 embroidered just below their left shoulder. The speaker saw him and said, this identifies we are of NA#21, our home city."
The two friends looked at each other in agreement, even Glenn was excited at this opportunity. Nick said, " Please and thank you" as the pair boarded the bus and sat up front in the first available passenger seats. Two of the six black-clad men climbed on broad and sat behind them, the others remained behind and waved as they left.
"Wow," gushed Nick. Who woulda, coulda thought of this? This is beyond fantastic!"
As the group travelled on the plastic/rubberized highway, three separate large, half-bubbles came into view. They appeared to be situated five miles apart from each other and formed a geographic triangle. "Those two cities to the right and left are NA#22 and 23 in our tri-pod complex," explained the driver." As you can see, we are interconnected and each is responsible for various contributions which are shared by all. Two of our many duties are Redevelopment and Labor management. I'm sorry to get ahead of myself; the City Admin Council will fill you in on all the important details. Please enjoy the ride my most welcome visitors," and they certainly did.
Just before entering the dome, another bus sped pass them in the direction from whence they came.
As they entered the city the two men behind them provided new commentary. "The pod's structure is pseudo-plastic, a one, half circle starting at ground level and ending in a central peak which houses our communication and atmospheric tracking devices. As you can see, it's similar to an ancient wooden wagon-wheel spoke pattern but also has interwoven uniform, crisscrossed, latticed sections from top to bottom. This provides optimum strength and ease for making repairs due to atmospheric disturbances such as tornados, hurricanes, etcetera. The light- grey ultraviolet shading gives vision and epidermal protection to our ten thousand residents. Here, on ground level you'll also find the roads fan outward from the center hub which has our Government Administration buildings and Citizen's Help facilities. Next, extending further out are the essential industries and finally ending with the populace living quarters lining the perimeter."
Nick and Glenn were very impressed by their efficient design and cleanliness based on the public park-like facilities and transit network. They observed many commuters wearing various colored jump suits riding bi and tricycles who after reaching their destination parked their rides in underground garages which also removed clutter and preserved the aesthetic beauty of their pod. There were also many orange clad laborers of whom our escorts explained were the lowest level of civil maintenance, every society had such a work force.
We agreed stating, "At least they aren't serving time in jail or on a chain gang."
The driver explained, "We don't have jails or a penal system. Everyone works and is happy to contribute."
"Interesting. Is this a Utopia?" thought Nick. Then asked, "Even senior citizens?"
"As long as they are healthy and desire to continue working. When they choose to retire or develop an incapacitating medical ailment they move into our Senior Center and are well cared for," was our guide's answer.
Ten minutes later Nick and Glenn were being ushered into the Department of Evaluation located on the twenty-first floor of the fifty story Government Headquarters building, the tallest structure in the pod and a mere one hundred feet below the dome's epicenter.
"Greeting gentlemen, I am Director Tal five," as he offered them a seat. "I trust you were given some indoctrination during your journey?" Both visitors smiled and nodded, 'yes'. "Excellent. I'm sure you still have many questions which we will deal with shortly. But first, may we ask you for a little information? It may sound a bit odd but you now have a basic understanding of our society and we know nothing of yourself as individuals." The two men shrugged their shoulders in an 'of course' gesture.
"Thank you, sirs. I will now turn this procedure over to our Evaluator of the Day," a blue-clad man seated behind a desk in front of the visitors.
"Name, age and occupation please," as he pointed at Glenn.
"Glenn Grover, age thirty-four, assistant grocery manager."
"Fine, thank you," as the Evaluator checked a few items on one of his charts. "General health? Any communicable diseases at this time?" Glenn indicated,
'no'. "Good, we are finished for the moment," then turned to Nick and repeated the same questions.
"Nickolas Fleming... er, Nick, age thirty-six, Environmental Restoration Civil Engineer and no known diseases at this time. Everything's in good working order," he joked as he knocked on the desk top.
The Evaluator dropped his marker and gave a hard inquiring look at Director Tal who responded, "I see... an engineer... environmental restoration no less. Most interesting," as he returned his comrade's visual inquisition. His associate civil servant then rose from his desk, leaned over and whispered behind the Director's ear, "This is a gift from the gods," as he stared at his leader.
Tal made a decision, "I'm sorry, we need to ask you both a few more routine questions and then we'll give you the Grand Tour. But to complete this annoying required, bureaucratic process we need to speed this up a bit. Mister Grover would you please step through that adjoining door, we have another Evaluator waiting and in no time at all you both will be on your way to explore our fine city." Glenn exited, "Thank you so much, sir."
Now, we can complete this much quicker." Then the Evaluator commenced to ask numerous seemingly mundane questions for a full twenty minutes. Their equivalent of a phone rang and the Director answered. "Yes. What! But how?" He waited for the far end's reply, "I understand but can't believe