“Looks like he was right then.”
“I can take you directly to your apartment if you wish to rest.”
“I’d prefer to take a walk if possible,” answered the young man.
“Alright, what would you like to see first?..” At that moment the UCD on Lora’s temple buzzed softly, lighting a green colour which was indicating an incoming call. “Will you excuse me, I’ll have to take it,” she explained to the man. “Yes, Jean.”
After a short conversation she returned to the previous discussion with the guest from Earth.
“I was going to show you some of the local attractions…”
“What’s that?”
“This?” the girl touched the mini contraption with her palm. “It’s a universal communication device, UCD for short.”
“Is it a walkie-talkie?”
Lora frowned trying to remember the meaning of this word and finally answered.
“It connects people, but that’s only one of its functions.”
“Why didn’t I hear the voice of the other speaker?”
“A UCD transforms sound into an electrical pulse and transmits it onto the auditory nerve.”
“What else can this device do?”
“It provides a connection to the central computer, thanks to which any information that I may need reaches the brain through the visual nerve and visualizes as if in front of my very eyes. Again, only I can see those images.”
Without realizing it, they arrived at the teleport cabin.
“Good morning!” Initiated by the arrival of two passengers inside the spacious matte glass cabin, the local teleport system interrupted Lora’s explanations. “State your destination, please.”
“The North City Park,” decisively said Lora.
The doors closed, opening a second later.
“Welcome to the central square of the North Park!” reported the programme.
The young people went outside and Derek looked around. They were in the middle of a brightly lit hall with a colonnade, while to the right and left of them other tele-cabin doors were opening and closing. Coming out of the cabins, people were joining a moderately moving crowd following the direction indicated by the neon lines on the floor.
“We are now on the fifth level of the North Park teleport complex,” explained Lora. “The building looks like a pyramid based on a square with a side of one hundred and fifty meters long and with nine hundred cabins on its twenty levels. There’s a viewpoint at the top, on the twenty-first level, boasting an amazing view of the park. The main staircase runs along the eastern side, we’ll use it to go down to the park.”
“The North Park, the eastern side,” said the young man thoughtfully, proceeding alongside Lora. “If this is a city in space, then where do the sides of the world come from?”
“A good question,” Lora smiled. “The city territory is divided into four parts: Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Titanium. On the one hand, these are just names that have nothing to do with the real sides of the world; but on the other hand, they are the internal guidelines – simply indispensable.”
The two of them slowly joined the bright lively flow of people ascending the staircase, and they soon found themselves on a large square, with a tall white pyramid of the teleport itself towering over it. Further down stretched a real park. Short trees and bushes framed the winding paths and straight alleys, while braided stems of blooming ivy were climbing up the park pavilions. Here and there the neatly-cut lawns were decorated with rock gardens featuring blooming flowers and gurgling clear streams. Derek looked up to face the clear sky, lit by the rays of the rising sun.
