The Great White Space by Basil Copper Read Free Book Online Page A

rather like doves, which inhabited its towers and courts, and which occasionally explored into the air so that the thousands of birds circling the city looked like a second sunset as the desert sun stained their plumage red. There were no less than ten thousand inhabitants of Zak and the people there still carried on a fairly sophisticated civilization; there were about a hundred land-owners and many of the people of the city went out daily to work on the farms which were extremely fertile, notwithstanding the savage sun, and richly irrigated by an elaborate water-works system controlled from the city.
     
    The Mir, in laboured conversations conducted through Scarsdale told us something of his people's customs and history and promised that he would supply a guide to help us on our difficult journey across the desert to Nylstrom. There were even, if Scarsdale's translations were to be believed, civil servants, shopkeepers and many other grades of citizen, administrators and law-makers, within the walls of Zak. We looked, admired, strolled about the old town but avoided too close contact with the people. One could not explain it but one felt it necessary, despite the charm of the town itself. Our innate distrust of the people of Zak was something that was never to leave us.
     
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    Naturally, as we were thrown into close contact with one another, I was beginning to learn more about my companions. Dr Van Damm and Scarsdale, now that they were in the field, were working more harmoniously together which proved to me that their acidulous exchanges in England were little more than a pose. I had, of course, had more opportunity to observe my colleagues during the few weeks we had been working together in England and had grown to like them all in their different ways.
     
    We had been together on board ship of course, but many other people were there as well; now, on the trip up to Zak we had each of us been alone, concentrating on steering and controlling the tractors, so that in the evenings, when we made camp, we were glad to re-establish contact once again. Now, in Zak, for the first time in our lives we were together and free of all but the most nominal duties for several days. Inevitably, we got to know a great deal more about each other in that brief space of time, than had been possible hitherto.
     
    I had a field day for photography and utilising my companions as pack-mules was about the city early and late, photographing and filming for the records; I also intended to produce a moving picture of our activities and though Scarsdale and Van Damm grumbled at having to go through simple motions over and over again, until I had secured the material I wanted, I think they were secretly pleased at this chronicle of what should turn out to be an important step in man's fumbling advances towards knowledge.
     
    Holden and Prescott tended to spend much of their time together; as they had once held scientific appointments with the same instrument manufacturing company, their friendship dated from many years earlier and was entirely understandable.
     
    Scarsdale and I were within a decade of the same age but he was the leader of the party and his scientific and more abstruse interests meant that he and Van Damm had far more in common, despite the great discrepancy in their ages. Thus it was that I found myself the odd man out; no-one, of course, emphasised this in any way and it did not matter at all. I preferred it, in fact, and it meant that I could go about my photographic errands without having to wait on the whims or preferences of others.
     
    I often spent my evenings on the windy edge of the plateau, which was one of the most interesting places in Zak; there, on a knife-edge of honey-coloured rock, I could look out across the desert, while on the other side, just below me in a fertile valley was the irrigation plant which fed the crops and the tall, curiously constructed windmills, with their irregular shaped vanes which