Earth

I had come this far. There was no one left to negotiate with, the battle for Earth was inevitable. But I had to see it first, to see where it all started.

So I docked at a station and took a transport down.

I went to a holy city. It was like a dreamscape.

The temples in the sky were closed to me, The streets were impermeable and writhing.

I boarded a train. It slowly worked its way through the traffic. Androids and robots walked on their missions. Beggars sat at the feet of buildings too tall to gauge, and nestled between the modern buildings were ancient gilded domes and legendary courtyards.

The train entered a tunnel and there was nothing to look at but the other passengers on the train. The first few I paid attention to had visible signs of inbreeding, so I stopped paying attention to anything.

We came to a station inside the tunnel and I realized this was the old subway. I had nowhere to go so I didn't move. The train left the station and windows returned to the darkness of the tunnells.

More stations went by, and more darkness. I should have cared but I did not.

At last the train stopped at a station and did not resume. The full crowd filtered out the doors into the platform. I followed. We turned a corner and came to a moving stairway set into a large circular tube cut into the rock.

I staircase carried me up slowly. I was behind a woman, a boy, and an educational android made to resemble the boy. The android was naked and sexless. His skin was drawn on and gouged in various places, and from the content and style of the drawings I guessed that whoever drew them was emotionally disturbed.

At the top of the passage to the left was a transparent wall. Just outside was a road where passengers were arriving or embarking on other ground transports. The room itself was still half underground. Another staircase led up further. An artistic scatterwork of red and blue glowing tubes hung from the ceiling. I've never seen lights like them.

A madman was screaming and bashing is arms into the concrete. Blood ran down the wall.

Looking back, I couldn't remember the last decent human being I had met going in towards Earth.

So I left it forever.