On the Lunar surface, an airlock in a guarded, armoured dome leads to a tunnel down to a farm cavern with walls too far away to be seen. Overseen peasants tend green food plants in long rows of tanks. Slaves feed cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry near a slaughterhouse.
A winding ramp leads up past:
doorless lower-class compartments;
factories for the manufacture of weapons, tools, clothes etc plus ore-smelting and refining;
(the air factory, controlled by the Chief Engineer, is further up in the Temple);
a park, with grass, trees and roses, frequented by noble-class warriors, administrators and Engineers;
a level of spacious upper-class apartments with slaves and guards but gentlefolk in litters;
the richly furnished prince's home which has a high, muralled wall, spear-wielding sentries, a footman and a window high up in a larger surface dome.
Quite a place.
In which other works does Anderson show this kind of barbarism in a vacuum?
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