"Alexander Kazantsev. The Destruction of Faena (ГИБЕЛЬ ФАЭНЫ, англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

Ave thought that he was looking at a forest mound, which in his
homeland was built by little insects with many feet.
This impression of the maritime city of the Superiors was strengthened
even further when he and Kutsi Merc were on dry land. They were pushed and
jostled by crowds of hurrying Faetians. In addition to the steam-cars, there
were vehicles powered by obsolete internal combustion engines. Making an
appalling din and poisoning the air, this medley of heterogeneous vehicles
surged past the half-asphyxiated Ave or thundered overhead on the crazy
bridges between the massive artificial canyons of the buildings. Squeezed
into a corner of the tiny lift-cage by other Faetians, Ave and Kutsi were
taken up to the tiny room set aside for them in the expensive Palace of
Visitors.
While Kutsi Merc unpacked, Ave stood at the lancet window and looked
out on an alien world. He could not see any of the old-time romance for
which he had yearned since childhood. Everything here was an eyesore,
beginning with the uniform of the coarse Blood Guards and ending with the
awkward angles of the cramped little room.
"Don't torture your eyes with barbarian buildings," said Kutsi Merc.
"We'll be on the Great Shore tomorrow."
A roundhead servant of low stature appeared and asked whether the new
arrivals would prefer vegetable or animal food with blood for dinner, and
whether they wanted, like all travellers, to look round the densely
populated quarters of the city, and whether they had any other orders for
him.
Kutsi Merc considered it necessary to display the traditional
curiosity, so he and Ave did not allow themselves time for a rest, but
trailed off into the famous roundhead quarters.
Although he knew the slums of his native continent, Ave had never
imagined that Faetians could live in such filthy and overcrowded conditions.
It was only possible to breathe on a street when it became a suspension
bridge. But where the street was hemmed in by buildings and ran between them
like a tunnel, it became, as it were, part of the living quarters. Not shy
of passers-by, the Faetians kept their doors open, got on with their
household chores, sat at the table with children born before the roundheads
were banned from having children, ate their simple but acrid-smelling food
and went to bed. The Faetesses poked their heads out of the open doors and,
shouting loudly, conversed with the inhabitants on the second or third
stories up. Here and there, only just above the heads of the passers-by, the
inmates' washing had been hung out to dry; most of them did not know whether
they would have to sweat at work on the next day as well.
Ave very much wanted to hold his nose when, accompanied by Kutsi, he
fled from those evil-smelling quarters, famed for their openly exhibited
poverty. The Power of Justice had only existed for a hundred and three days
and it had not been able to help the residents...
"So what's the answer to this?" wondered Ave. "Is it really in the
monstrous law of a Dictator who has forbidden these families to have
children?"
Was it really to see all this that he had dreamed of coming here from
across the ocean ever since childhood?
But next day he saw the Great Shore and Mada.