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(indefinite hiatus)

I'm reading the novel as I translate it, but I'm now at close to half and personally, I don't find it very interesting.  Therefore I'm going to stop, unless a few people are actually interested in it and would like to read it to the end, in which case I might resume.  If you are, leave a comment in this post saying so. Don't request it on a whim though, consider we're talking about dozens of hours of work.

Chapter 5

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  El-Dorado in the clouds Part II - Everyone can hear the song of  death We paid the sheriff Aisha's bail money and got her out of prison. We also agreed to hire her as extra support (though deducing the bail amount from her wages!), and by that time, the city's artificial illumination had been switched off and it was night. On populated planets like our current base of operations Heyfong IV , or our place of origin  Sentinel III , their specific rotation and revolution dictate a day duration and year calendar. Since it would be quite troublesome not to use those, but also considering the fact that there's a need for common ground when dealing with other planets and star systems, all planets actually use two calendars, their own for local affairs, and an 'interstellar calendar' used by all of mankind, based on the one from Old Earth . However, in an artificial city like El-Dorado  there is no natural day or seasons, so it follows the interstellar calendar only and a...

Chapter 4

  El-Dorado in the clouds The gang approaching from behind started to shot at us like crazy. There's no way they could aim properly on such a dumpy dirt road, but they don't seem to care about that, just shooting incessantly. And me in all this with that heavy load on my back... I stand out! It's hard to move! From the outside, it must look like one of those really old comical pursuit scenes. This is so embarrassing. Still, I guess it's better than dying with a grave face. But no matter how bad their aiming is, they're by car and we're by foot. As long as they're chasing us, we stand little chance. With that in mind, we're rounding street corner after street corner, alley corner after alley corner.  "Big-bro, where are we even running to?" "You'll know when we get there." Jim looked pretty exhausted. I'm rounding one last alley corner and end up back on an avenue. Straight ahead, I can see a very unattractive bungalow made of ...

Chapter 3

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  El-Dorado in the clouds The space elevator that links Rio Grande  to El-Dorado is attached to that famous long cable, that  pierces through the bedrock that forms the roof of the city. The elevator entrance lies at the center of the city and from there, streets leave in all directions like a spider web, giving shape to the city. Of course, the elevator shaft rising up to the bedrock is visible from everywhere.  I arrived at the entrance full of sweat from carrying Billy on my back, who I now throw down on the ground to take a break. El-Dorado is a small city, it would take no more than 40 minutes to walk from one end to another. Even though the bar is located (or should I say was  located) on the outskirts, it's therefore still a relatively short walk to the center. But in this pounding heat, and carrying someone on my back, even this short distance is quite a pain.  "Thank you for the hard work." Melfina said, while holding the sun umbrella over my head....

Chapter 2

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El-Dorado in the clouds El-Dorado. That's the name of that run-down mining city we ended at while chasing after Billy. I'm saying city, but it's really only a few kilometers in diameter, carved out of the surround rock. Not much more than an insignificant cavern. All that surrounding rock is in fact a rocky mass floating within the gas super-giant Auram IV , in the upper layers of the heavy atmosphere. That gives to El-Dorado quite a different feel than the typical asteroid settlement.  Our ship, the Outlaw Star , however, isn't parked here in El-Dorado but on the planet's first satellite, Rio Grande . Since El-Dorado is located within the dense, high-pressure atmosphere of a gas planet, a spaceship attempting to reach it would end up torn appart and blown away by the fierce winds. Therefore there is no spaceport in El-Dorado, and access to the city is only possible via a ridiculously long space elevator  operated from  Rio Grande  via a  tether (a hanging cable...