Nightside CIty by Lawrence Watt-Evans Read Free Book Online

dull red. It was the
presence of a breathable atmosphere on a planet that was mostly
bare rock, still so young the ground almost glowed in spots. Put
that underground, or under a dome, and what’s to see? And on the
dayside there is no darkness; you can’t even see the stars, any of
them at all.
    As for the miners, they weren’t about to come
out into the daylight for anything. If they had to go to a domed or
buried city for their sprees, they’d build their own, safe on the
nightside.
    Now, cutting the entire crater loose and
hauling it back—that might work, but think of the cost! Not to
mention the legal complications, or that the whole city would
probably have to be evacuated while the job was done, or the
difficulties of figuring out where to put it, or that in cutting
under the crater you’d be awfully close to going right through the
crust and opening the largest damn volcano Epimetheus ever saw,
which might not be good for the planet’s long-term stability.
Epimetheus is delicate. The impact that made the city’s crater in
the first place didn’t punch through the crust into raw magma, but
the experts say it came close— very close.
    All the same, the scheme got some attention
now and then, but the conclusion was always the same.
    Nightside City wasn’t worth it. The cost
would be much higher than any possible profits.
    If the city wasn’t worth saving, it couldn’t
be worth much of an investment. Everything in Nightside City had to
be considered strictly short-term.
    So who was buying new cabs, bringing them in
from off-planet?
    And who was buying up the West End?
    Was there a connection? Or was I making
constellations out of random stars?
    “Hey, cab,” I asked, “you’re new around here,
aren’t you?”
    “Yes, mis’,” it answered. “I came into
service two hundred and seven hours ago.”
    “Who do you work for?”
    “I’m the property of Qiao’s Quick Transport,
mis’.”
    I knew them; they’d been around since before
I was born. Old lady Qiao must be getting pretty old, I thought.
She’d started out working for IRC, saved up her pay, and bought
herself an ancient cab that she rewired herself to handle
Epimethean conditions. By the time I first saw the lights in the
night sky she had half a dozen in the air, and last I heard her
fleet was about twenty, not counting messenger floaters and other
such aerial clutter.
    I decided a direct question couldn’t hurt; at
worst I’d get no answer, and at best I’d save myself a lot of
wondering. “Why’d Q.Q.T. want to put on new equipment?” I asked. “I
understand the local economy’s not too promising.”
    “Oh, no, mis’, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong,”
the cab said, very quick, very apologetic. “Things are booming here
in the City. Oh, we all know it won’t last, but right now the
tourist trade is very big, because people want to come and
visit Nightside City while they still can. The tourism office has
started a big campaign on Prometheus, urging people to see the City
before the dawn. I’m surprised you hadn’t heard that.”
    I was surprised, too. Nobody I’d talked to
had mentioned it, and I hadn’t given it any thought. I hadn’t
worked in Trap Over, hadn’t noticed the tourists, in weeks, and I
don’t suppose that anybody at Lui’s had either. Or maybe the
subject just never came up; after all, I was pretty sure Sebastian
would have noticed, since he was right there in the Trap, but he
never mentioned it when he called. He must have assumed I already
knew.
    I hadn’t known, though. I was so concerned
with what would happen to the permanent residents, like myself,
that I hadn’t considered what off-worlders would think. To me, that
red glow on the horizon is coming doom, something to escape from. I
saw my world dying slowly, and I didn’t want to watch.
    But that was because it was my world.
    For the bored and rich on Prometheus, or the
very bored and very rich out-system, that glow in the east just
added