Civilization explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Colonization and Identity

  The Terrans explore a world that feels untouched and new, yet they find remnants of an earlier civilization, raising questions about their own role as colonizers.

• Technology vs. Nature

  The straight highways and uniform domes contrast with the wild prairie and mountain barriers, and the alien flyer's silent threat highlights the tension between engineered order and natural chaos.

• Alien Encounter and Otherness

  The Terrans' first direct encounter with an alien craft on the rooftop creates a sense of unease and uncertainty about the intentions of the city's inhabitants.

Characters to notice

• Raf Kurbi

  Pilot of the flitter; feels the freedom of youth but remains disciplined; uneasy about the desolate landscape and the alien flyer.

• Captain Hobart

  Leads the expedition; orders the flitter to continue to the city despite Lablet's desire to explore a farm; presses the button of the automatic recorder.

• Lablet

  Xenobiologist; identifies the fields as reverted to grassland; wants to land and explore a dome; fatalist and averse to combat.

• Soriki

  Com-tech; wears a headset to maintain communication with the ship; impatient and anxious about the alien flyer.

Key passages

• “Raf surveyed the wide sweep of prairie where dawn gave a gray tinge to soften the distance and mark the rounded billows of the ever-rippling grass.”

  Raf looked out over the vast prairie as dawn's gray light softened the horizon and highlighted the rolling waves of grass.

  Opening scene establishing the landscape and Raf's perspective.

• “Almost he could believe that the records Hobart had showed him were false, that this world had never known intelligent life herding together in cities.”

  Raf almost thought the records Hobart showed him were wrong, as if this world had never had intelligent beings living in cities.

  Raf's internal conflict between the records and his perception of the world.

• “Now he was moved by a desire to disobey orders⁠—to take the flitter up by himself and head off into the blue of the brightening sky for more than just a test flight, not to explore Hobart’s city but to cruise over the vast sea of grass and find out its wonders for himself.”

  He felt a strong urge to disobey orders and fly off alone to explore the prairie for his own curiosity, not just for the mission.

  Raf's youthful desire for freedom and adventure.

• “The weird desolation of the landscape began to work its spell on the men in the flitter. There was something unnatural about the country, and with every mile the flyer clocked off, Raf longed to be heading in the opposite direction.”

  The strange emptiness of the land affected the crew, and Raf increasingly wanted to turn back.

  Growing unease among the Terrans as they fly over abandoned farmland.

• “To Raf the straight highways suggested something else. Master engineering, certainly. But a ruthlessness too, as if the builders, who refused to accept any modifications of their original plans from nature, might be as arrogant and self-assured in other ways.”

  Raf saw the straight roads as evidence not only of great engineering but also of a ruthless attitude that ignored nature's contours.

  Raf's critical view of the alien civilization's values.