New York City Harbor Tour

New York City Harbor Tour

Getting up the ladders to the top deck in a full Earth gravity was a struggle, but the view was memorable enough to be worth a few aches.

It was an hour past dawn on a windless autumn day. I guess I had expected the legendary New York City to be vibrant, like Lowell or the Planum cities back home. But instead of a busy harbor and sky scene, we looked out over the Hoboken and Manhattan arcologies, glaring at each other across the river, locked in a decades-long cold war. Decrepit HeDe fusion plants spewed steam into the air. Rusted debris lined the shore. The radiation counters blipped in warning, and that was the only sound I remembered except the gentle lapping of waves against the hull.

Now Earth might still be home to the bulk of humanity, and New York's strongholds, new towns and shanties might still house millions of people, but I finally understood what the skipper meant when he said that the future of the race was out among the planets and stars, not here in our soiled nest.

-Ensign LeBelle Shurga, Martian Imperial Navy
31 October 2516, Coronation Goodwill Tour