Stellamont

Staying with the theme of Nerthus, let us skip ahead to The Peregrine. The two short stories showed rural Nerthus, a farm and a wood. The novel shows urban Nerthus, Stellamont. So did Virgin Planet but only the Coordination Service building. 

From Sol to Carsten's Star III (Nerthus) on the Sagittarian frontier of the Stellar Union is a two month voyage in the fastest hyperdrive ship. So much for human beings having explored all around the Galaxy even before Nerthus was settled just over a hundred years earlier. What is consistent with the earlier stories is the statement that the settlers have scattered across the planet but communicate easily with telescreens and gravity fliers. The frontier has revived cities but only one per planet or planetary system. Such cities, like Stellamont on Nerthus, comprise:

spaceport

warehouses

depots

services

repair shops

shops

robot factories

places of entertainment

admin

The Nomad Thorkild Sean leaves the spaceport and the busy wide avenues near it, walks through the old section, including the native quarter, and drinks in the Comet Bar. It is also possible to travel outside the city in an automatic public aircar.