Landing

Angel stood on the balcony and gazed over the encampment in the distance from her corner hotel suite. It didn’t look like much from here, but it was the most important historical site on the planet, and the cost of the suites overlooking it reflected that. Point of fact, Landing City had been built in such a fashion, that no city structure could cast its shadow upon it, and at night, the lighting was minimized so that the camp lighting could stand on their own.
Hands rested upon her shoulders, and a face nuzzled her ear, “The Land of Firsts…” Emily whispered reverently. Then she lowered her hands and gave her a comforting hug, “The place where it all began.”
Angel turned her head slightly and grinned, “One could argue it began well before then.”
“Maybe, but Xanadu wasn’t even imagined. That is where Xanadu began. You wanna go?”
She looked up at the taller girl, who gazed out with eyes of longing, “Isn’t it you that wants to go?”
Emily didn’t even look back, but jabbed a nod, “Hm, I wanna go.” Then she looked back at her with her angular eyes practically sparkling, “Do you wanna go?”
She reached a hand up to her sister’s cheek and pulled her in for a kiss, “Ok, let’s go.”
Soon after, the bus arrived and they crossed the handmade wood bridge, and entered the encampment. There were a few paid historical re-enactors who kept the place from disrepair, but aside from the tourists, most of the people here paid to relearn what life was like before the power grid went up.
There were so many tents, no… they were too big to be simple tents, and the military used these… pavilions! They were everywhere. Even the first wooden homes were pretty basic, and from somewhere they could hear the unmistakable sounds of copulation. The sisters grinned at each other as they moved on.
There were many dogs following people around. Angel easily recognized them as classic war dog breeds; the Spartans were quite fond of them. A few large cats wandered about too, most looked a little worse for wear, but that had a lot to do with the wyrms in the ground; tunneling predators that would ambush critters the size of puppies or cats, and these cats were bred specifically to combat them with the dogs.
The hospital tent had several mannequins. A human skeleton, a skeleton with innards, followed by one with musculature. Then an early colonist, fresh off the ship, pale, thin and sickly with no hair at all; followed by a healthier man with a few months basic training and fuzz; and lastly a beefy tanned man with several years of seasoning. Many of the sisters took turns feeling up the different men and twittering.
They stopped by the canteen and had some cold and absolutely dreadful food. They smiled bravely as the continued to choke it down, in solidarity with the colonists.
They found a pub which served original drinks. Anywhere else these brands cost a fortune, even Landing City. They each got embossed flasks and Angel had hers filled with David Mason, an orange flavored whiskey, the smiling man on the bottle said, “It’s all good.”
They reached the official square and admired the totem pole. It wasn’t the original, but there were pictures showing that it was an exact handmade replica. The bottom had fishing, and then farming, followed by logging, mining, military, etc; at the top were three men, an electrician and an iron worker made up wings, and above them stood an astronaut pointing to the sky.

Type

Hamlet