The shuttle glided into the hangar at the base of the city just as smoothly as it left Terminus, only alerting the occupants that it had landed when the interior lights changed colour to light green, indicating that it was safe to disembark.
"Well, that was even more pleasant than expected, and we all learned more about each other. Tell me, Commander, how far is it from here to the worksite where the Hunters are digging up the ancient relics?" The Valkia asked.
"We will transfer to a ground-based transport here, and it will be about fifteen minutes for us to make the thirty kilometres to the site. Of course, we can also take time to enjoy the sights, or if you are capable of making it on your own, you are free to. The air here should be completely free of contaminants and other unwanted elements, so a bit of exercise wouldn't be out of place." Max offered.
The Giant shook his head, not in the mood to go for a run, but the Valkia looked intrigued by the offer, despite the distance.
The Dryad just shook her head. "We are not fast-moving creatures. I will just hang my head out the window instead."
Max could sense that she wasn't actually claustrophobic, but she would happily tell others she was if it meant that she could stick her head out the window to enjoy the breeze.
"Could you make it in that time?" The Valkia envoy asked as Max, and the others began to climb into the hover limo that had been prepared for them.
"Not quite. I would take about twice that time. Sixty kilometres an hour is roughly my top sustained speed." Max informed him.
"So you can attain a higher speed than that?" The younger assistant to the Valkia asked in awe.
"Yes, for a shorter burst, roughly twice that."
The young Valkia looked curious, then tapped his chin while he thought. "Are your people perhaps evolved from Persistence Hunters then?"
"That's the theory, though, as our actual homeworld is lost to history, and none of the planets that claim to be the real human homeworld actually have evolutionary evidence on them, we can't prove it." Max agreed.
"How do you lose track of your homeworld?" The young Valkia asked.
"If we knew that, we wouldn't have forgotten where it was, would we?"
That made the Envoys laugh a bit harder than they expected to, and everyone but the Valkia took their seats.
"We can sustain nearly a hundred kilometres an hour flying in an atmosphere and gravity like this, so we will stretch our wings. We have all been aboard a ship too long, and even short flights between floors aren't enough to really exercise." The Envoy decided.
"Understandable. Do try to keep in sight so we know if you need a break. Even on a ship as large as yours, it is never really made for high-speed flight. There is always another facility that needs the space." Max agreed, waving to them as the Dryad hung half her body out the sunroof and spread her arms to take in the sun.
Any human who saw them would think they were a bunch of weirdos, but the Envoys were happy, and that was the part that truly mattered as they began to make their way out of the city's docking spire and over the wild grasses between the spires and overhead walkways where a million vacationers were soon to be settled in for their stay.
The Valkia dipped and raced around, playing tag in the air for a while while the limo glided above the untouched wilderness.
"I am glad you decided to go with flying transports. The grass here smells wonderful. It would be a shame to build a conventional city." The Dryad sighed, then squeaked in shock and looked above her head with wide-open eyes.
The holograms from the crystal spires were in full action again as the midday sun hit them, and the glowing images of small flying creatures had joined the Valkia in their game of tag, swirling through the air.
The joy of not only the Dryad and the Valkia but of a huge number of locals watching the scene play out as they travelled past the city seemed to change the whole feeling of the place, and more images were appearing every second, all over the city, not just around the tower they were nearest to.
The Illithid might have a point about these towers being psychoactive. The images did seem to change as soon as everyone noticed the Valkia playing. It was incredible, unspeakably beautiful, and a bit creepy to think that the residents of the city were subconsciously creating this image by unwilling cooperation.
They did slow the transport so that the Valkia could keep up and not have to simply fly by all of the incredible sights as well. They were gathering lots of important data for them. Things like the maneuverability of the images, how fast they could change form and the fact that they weren't solid, but they were apparently warm to the touch like they were a condensed light reflection, the same as you would get through a magnifying glass, but appearing in great detail and in mid-air.
It was all noted in Max's logs so that he could inform the Illithid, who was waiting on his friends before he took time off to come down here and see it with them.
They ended up taking half an hour to get to the site, and the Valkia was exhausted from playing in the sky, but it was one hundred percent worth it for the sights that they got to see and the show that they got to put on for the local residents and the newly arrived vacationers.
"So, what is there to see of this dig so far? I believe that they just started it today, correct?" The Giant Envoy asked.
"That is correct. They started digging today, looking for traces of ancient civilization since there were other historical relics recovered from this world, but we couldn't match them to any known species, much one that belonged in this area at the time." Max explained, leaving out the bits about what they had removed in advance and what the Hunters thought it might mean.
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