Branca

Chapter 6

Leaving Ana'atar behind they carry their duffel bags in the midst of a crowd. Le'el accompanies not just the Portuguese ambassador and his team but also the others ambassadorial teams. When they arrive outside they notice that they are inside a glass pyramid as tall as the eye can see. Outside of the pyramidal glass roof they can see a violent sandstorm raging. The hangar is similar to any other hangar that they have seen before. They follow Le'el inside into the terminal where he stops next to a group of six young men in white uniforms that promptly bow down to him.

"Prince Le'el, we welcome your return with great happiness. The king wants to see you at once." Says the oldest of the group.

"Did any of the others return?" asks Le'el with authority.

"Only two did, sire. Blai'ji from the Duvu kingdom and Fecuru from the Yana'or kingdom."

"Alright, before I go and see the king, who will stay with this ambassadorial team." Here he points to the Portuguese team. "I want them well taken care of and I want them to have the finest rooms available."

"I will remain with the team that you favour, sire, if that's what you desire." Says a young man with a weak jaw.

"Good, now take me to see the king."

Before he goes however, he looks to his friends.

"I have to go and speak to the king about my mission. This servant will take you to the palace where you shall remain for as long as the king desires. Now I have to go. We will meet later perhaps. Goodbye." He turns and leaves with the leader of the group, leaving behind his cyborg.

The weak jawed man, without missing a beat, promptly introduces himself to the Portuguese team. The translator cyborg immediately translates everything said by the youngster.

"My name is Zu'olu, I'll be your butler. Please come this way, I need to take you to your residence."

They left the hangar and were led to the transportation vehicles that are parked right at the main entrance of the hangar. The luxury of the cars pleased Roberto immensely, he could not hide his smile.

"Are these electrical?" asks André.

"Yes. We can't have combustion vehicles here in Jupiter, our air is fabricated by machines, with the combustion the air would become poison and unfit to breathe." Says Zu'olu from the front seat.

They drive through the city of Duvu, noticing the multiple parks. Greenery is everywhere in this city: on the rooftops, on the verandas and separating the streets ways. There really isn't a place that you looked where there wasn't some sort of greenery. Clearly the air quality is high priority in this city. Branca sees people in the parks, the people were not all human. She can't say for sure if this planet is a human planet and the variety of species surprised her. She also notices that there are several pyramids not just one and once they reached a higher place she could see that for each glass pyramid, there is a square town geometrically perfect to the pyramid's base.

The trip from the hangar to the palace took about an hour. Surprisingly, the palace wasn't part of the city. Carved from a red mountain only the façade could be seen. The glass pyramid penetrated the mountain around the façade.

"We have arrived." Said Zu'olu.

They step out of the vehicle and climb the stairs to the entrance of the palace. The entire façade is carved thick stone. Inside the mountain, a cold wind nearly takes Branca's beret off her head and she takes it off for fear of having to chase it.

"The wind is part of machines that feed air to the city. Also, the mountain works like a barrier to the strong winds outside the pyramids."

The grand entrance is carved red stone with intrinsic patterns all around the walls creating fantastic illustrations. On some walls she could see carved depictions of kings or animals painted in vivid colours. Zu'olu takes them deeper into the mountain, deeper into the palace passing through long hallways with walls covered in spectacular carpets depicting battles between spaceships and spacecrafts that zoom around the mother ship. Suddenly, without ever expecting it, they leave the hallway and end up in a massive cave where there's a garden complete with trees and a lake. The light is artificial but is strong enough to warm Branca's body.