Inside the glass gate, a man in a guard's uniform gave them each a pair
of dark glasses. "Put them on now, boys. And don't look directly at the
ship when it lands."
Tommy hooked the earpieces of the dark glasses over his ears, and sighed
with relief. Bart frowned, but finally put them on. Bart's mother had
been a Mentorian--from the planet Mentor, of the star Deneb, a hundred
times brighter than the sun. Bart had her eyes. But Mentorians weren't
popular on Earth, and Bart had learned to be quiet about his mother.
Through the dark lenses, the glare was only a pale gleam. Far out in the
very center of the spaceport, a high, clear-glass skyscraper rose,
catching the sunlight in a million colors. Around the building, small
copters and robotcabs veered, discharging passengers; and the moving
sidewalks were crowded with people coming and going. Here and there in
the crowd, standing out because of their height and the silvery metallic
cloaks they wore, were the strange tall figures of the Lhari.
"Well, how about going down?" Tommy glanced impatiently at his
timepiece. "Less than half an hour before the starship touches down."
"All right. We can get a sidewalk over here." Reluctantly, Bart tore his
eyes from the fascinating spectacle, and followed Tommy, stepping onto
one of the sidewalks. It bore them down a long, sloping ramp toward the
floor of the spaceport, then sped toward the glass skyscraper; came to
rest at the wide pointed doors, depositing them in the midst of the
crowd. The jagged lightning flash was there over the doors of the
building, and the words: HERE, BY THE GRACE OF THE LHARI, IS THE DOORWAY TO ALL THE STARS.
Bart remembered, as if it were yesterday, how he and his father had
first passed through this doorway. And his father, looking up, had said
under his breath "Not for always, Son. Someday men will have a doorway
to the stars, and the Lhari won't be standing in the door."
Inside the building, it was searingly bright. The high open rotunda was
filled with immense mirrors, and glass ramps running up and down, moving
staircases, confusing signs and flashing lights on tall oddly shaped
pillars. The place was crowded with men from all over the planet, but
the dark glasses they all wore gave them a strange sort of family
resemblance.
Tommy said, "I'd better check my reservations."
Bart nodded. "Meet you on the upper level later," he said, and got on a
moving staircase that soared slowly upward, past level after level,
toward the information desk located on the topmost mezzanine.