cityship n.

Leaning forward swiftly to the control panel Hondra tuned in the assembly hall of the nearest cityship. It was in an uproar. The image of the home planet remained on its screen. Most of the people raised their arms toward it and wept, while others streamed up and over the seats in exultant frenzy.

A city-ship from Lyrae 129 enters Magwareet’s section of space apparently out of control.

The elevator had carried Holland, Pizer and Vincent below the level of the cross-ship air-car corridor that had brought them to the command tower. Now they were in the depths of the vast city-ship, traveling on foot down a much narrower passageway.

On board that great city-ship his grandparents, parents, and two brothers, along with thousands of others, were going about their everyday lives in a world that had traveled twenty centuries since leaving Browne’s planet.

A view screen threaded to the outside cameras dominated the longest wall. This morning, it showed the Ur, one of the two city-ships already in-system and awaiting the evacuation of the first of a billion Dedelphi. Each city-ship was two pairs of glittering domes set on opposite sides of a silver plate. The engineering and command centers were encased in two smaller domes, one over each nozzle cluster. Against the vacuum, it looked as if a city had been built on a black lake and now sat on its own reflection. The projection had zoomed in just far enough that they could see the gleaming buildings and green trees on both sides.

My first commission was with the Wasp of Kolkata. It was quasi-autonomous, a cityship, immersing under the flag of itself, subcontracted by Dagostin for this run.