Artist's impressions of a futuristic Alien City
Dome Cities | Hover-car Highways | City Complexes | The Astro-dome
(Excerpts from “My Space Odyssey in UFOs”)
Dome Cities
The sun was rising from behind the horizon line of the planet. But soon afterwards, another sun followed it up! I felt totally dumb-founded: for a minute I thought I'd gone crazy. During our rapid descent though, the twin suns' persistent rising higher and higher convinced me, that it was reality I saw. Then we hit the thick clouded atmosphere, and soon we were surrounded by darkness, as we plunged into the planet's night side. Only a strange looking red moon swam into sight, and kept us company on the way down. We went through cloud layers, and sometimes-there were vague indications of land masses and seas below. Then clusters of colored light points were gradually coming into view. A city! And we were heading for it! I was excited like a kid waiting for Santa Claus.
As we were getting closer to the city, I could make out more and more details. There were dozens of tightly, but very randomly spaced, gigantic 'glass' domes of varying shapes and sizes, fully packed with forests of towering spires and multi-level roadways. The domes were all interconnected with a maze of curving 'glass' tubes, carrying some kind of vehicular traffic. Myriads of multi-colored lights glittered from spire-forests, as if windows of skyscrapers. A most fabulously futuristic sight, also very dizzying!
But before I could take a closer look, or use the magnification device to study details, we sunk rapidly towards-an observatory looking concrete dome half ajar on top. Soon we went through its opening, and landed on the floor inside. Then, within a minute, the saucer opened its door and lowered the ramp. Definitely, we arrived...
Hover-car Highways
After that first dinner, Argus took me away from the gang for the evening. He asked me to put on the flight suit, along with the belt and helmet I had worn on the space journey. Then he took me via the elevator into a sub-basement garage. We seated ourselves in a transparent mini-car sized hovercraft that functioned almost noiselessly, and we left through some airlock. Argus' fingers ran over various buttons on the floor console's keyboard. I was pleased to see that they used some visible mechanism after all in these parts.
"I just punched our route into the city traffic computer through this autopilot, which will take care of all the driving. Very convenient." Argus remarked, as our hovercraft took off with us.
"Why use mechanical gadgets, why not ESP as in the saucers?"
"One computer or equivalent mind to one car? It would be quite a waste. This way, one central computer can run the whole city's traffic, Also, its simpler to delegate the routine of direction-giving to touch buttons, than doing it by psychic means."
"Then why not use similar touch button means in the saucers for communication and override?"
"That operation is far too complex for mere buttons. Besides, communication and override is possible by psychic means for the one who knows how."
Our hover-car skimmed away over the roadless fields towards the distant highway. As we eventually got up on that highway, I noticed there was no pavement, only ground lights for markers as if for a runway. Lots of vehicles were whizzing by at high speed in both directions, about fifty feet in the air above the ground. Nearing the city, the number of invisible lanes, overpasses, access ramps vastly increased. And all without any bodily existing highway. They sure had no construction or repair problems here!
Argus kept pointing out various sights. He said, many of the domes housed all kinds of research laboratories and plants. Other domes were for utilities, residences and recreation grounds. I sure could not have made much sense of all that jumble of structures and patterns of lights. At points I felt as if I were on a fast monorail ride above some Utopian World's Fair grounds.
City Complexes
Our hover car deposited us inside the largest dome, right in the city's core. At one of the several arrival ramps, we got out to walk. Our car took off by itself and disappeared into an underground tunnel. We were at the edge of a public square with fountains and giant abstract sculptures. Moving belt walkways were taking throngs of people in various directions, as soon as they left their various sized vehicles. The people were humanoid, but a fantastic variety, from closely human-looking to absolutely un-Earthly. They came in almost all colors of the rainbow, ranging in height from about four feet up to seven. I didn't think that my appearance would rate a second look from anybody.
This was the city's recreation complex, Argus told me. All buildings were futuristic in shape, graceful, glass-like structures. Pastel colored lighting gave an enchanted, dream-like quality to the city; the overall aesthetic balance was nicely pleasing. Getting about on moving walks and escalators for a while, I noticed that the general pattern was multi-level terraced concourses. It was all so terribly exciting!
Artist's impressions of future city complexes
Everything looked very clean and impressively new, even the plastic-like pavement and floors were sparklingly shiny. There were no conventional shops in evidence, yet many spots displayed piles of incomprehensible objects to be taken freely. I saw no billboards, but saw plenty of signs for locations and directions. These signs were coded by colors and geo-metric figures, many with symbols resembling hieroglyphs. According to Argus, the common language, here that was spoken by everyone was the intergalactic standard. Well, to me it sounded like soft singing without actual words. It was quite melodiously pleasing though.
We sat down at several places just to watch the crowds going by on foot, on moving belts, on spirals, on elevating devices of great variety. There was so much to see, so many details to examine, so many things to puzzle out. I even puzzled it out all by myself how to use one of the public drink-dispensers, right under the watchful eyes of a strange looking and robust woman seated near. The drink tasted terribly funny, like some liquid caviar. Argus nearly broke his sides with laughter, as he said:
"The drink was actually to boost physical stamina for tiring visitors; the way you took it while facing that woman was tantamount to sexual invitation, according to our local custom."
It was a good thing Argus whisked me away in a hurry; otherwise I could have been raped or arrested - perhaps even both!
We got into a building complex that contained an inner group of giant domes. One such dome had nothing but hundreds of tent-sized crystal pyramids laid out in concentric circles. Argus said, this was for 'power' group - meditation. Within the same building complex, we passed a few open halls that looked inside like variety shows - but Argus informed me that they were actually 3-D-TV viewing centers, effecting a near perfect live theatre. Some other halls looked like sports arenas, yet others smelled like anti-rooms to Turkish baths and incense sniffing parlors. I refrained from experimenting again, though. Actually, I was quite satisfied just to look and see mostly. Even that was getting me down as I slowed from mental fatigue; I had been bombarded with incredible amounts of novel impressions.
Momentarily, I broke off from Argus, and I stepped through a fancy doorway that appeared to be a public washroom. It was another mistake: right away I was swept up bodily by a powerful current of vapors, that tasted like champagne. I found myself weightlessly free-floating, high up in the air of some zero-gravity ballroom, up with marvellous psychedelic effects and melodious sounds. By the time Argus managed to find me and drag me away to a real washroom. I was already pretty 'high'... like a drunken goldfish.
The Astro-dome
Then we carried on with some more sight-seeings. At last we came to the innermost and largest dome of the complex, which looked like some planetarium". We stopped by to watch: on every seat there was a helmet to be worn by the occupant. He then stared up at a confusing jumble of color light patterns displayed on a cupola's inner surface. When he finally got up to leave, a piece of flat plastic slid out of the armrest and the patron took it away with him. Argus explained that the procedure was somewhat similar to the viewing of one's own astrological position, and getting a recorded horoscope at the end. Except that this thing here was not merely astrological guessing. The color light patterns on the cupola were the display of many verifiable cosmic forces and factors. The helmet 'hooked' the person into a selected configuration that was relevant for him, 'helping' even to psychically interpreting it. This way the person could assess and re-check his position on his 'life probability path', suggesting short term favorable moves and decisions in personal undertakings. The flat plastic object was the recorded hard copy which could be replayed at leisure by palm-feeling the emanating vibrations from it. Apparently, this was a rather precise aid scientifically approved for personal development: a development, which was the aim of all people who came to visit this planet. This aid wouldn't work for me though, since my own 'life probability' pattern belonged to another dimension.
I was much impressed with everything. All people looked radiant with health, exuding a self-confidence resembling that of a successful VIP. Argus said that this was natural for self-realized people who operate on unusually high levels. He remarked that a small percentage of Earth's population, the 'cream of mankind', was close to this general state here. Yet these highly developed people came here to further improve themselves!
Argus explained with a smile that the motive wasn't exactly just zealous self-improvement. It was rather a case of getting to the most perfected state possible through heightened awareness. Their success was encouraged because their aptitudes added to society at large, and this planet's host facilities offered improvement in self awareness and self knowledge, raised sensitivity, discipline and self expression - on all levels of being. The whole process was enjoyable in itself, not to mention the overall profit for all concerned.
Sensing my incomplete comprehension, Argus elaborated further. This personal development was more like going away to a beautiful and exotic resort island for millionaires, where one can enhance his skills and enjoy absolutely everything. Well, I thought drily, I could take that kind of a 'learning process' myself as a years-long project!
On the other hand, Argus went on, the development could go along more ascetic or mystic lines, alternating with artistic or scientific activities. Whatever combination, whatever pattern the individual decided on. This is subject only to his own assessment, augmented by optional consul tings like the 'astro-dome' here, for instance...
Noticing my mentally saturated state with the tons-of novel impressions, Argus decided to call it a night for the sight-seeing part and the lectures. We went down to a ramp to collect our hover-car that came out mysteriously on its own, like a good dog, Then we took off for our reception compound, and the patio-party I was looking forward to.