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Pitt consulted his corammed with the layout of the shipyard He looked up the road running adjacent to the docks on one side and bordered on the other by giantabove the warehouses a good ht"

"I've never seen a shipbuilding facility this big," said Giordino, staring over the giant co"

They stopped suddenly and stared at the nearest supership, like yokels fro up at their first view of tall city buildings An executive jet aircraft whined in on its approach before flaring out and touching down on the long landing deck atop the beheines echoed across the water, up the slopes of theEven the most sophisticated Hollywood special effects could not co

"None of the shipyards around the world have the capacity to build ships this grand," said Pitt, standing and gazing overwhel the dock, its hull see on earth, including the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York placed end to end, could have matched the inconceivable size of the Wolfs' ark

Except for the great bow, the vessel did not resemble a ship Rather, it looked like a modern skyscraper laid on its side The entire superstructure was sided in arth of low-alloy steel Gardens with trees could be seen on the other side of the glass, flourishing ae parklike atmospheres There were no promenade or outer decks or balconies All the decks were completely enclosed A conventional pointed boept up the superstructure on a gradual angle to the landing deck in what Pitt recognized as an apparent strategy to reduce the crushing iiant tidal wave

He observed the stern of the ship withat the waterline, twenty parallel pierlike projections that Pitt reckoned to be two hundred feet in length extended astern, beneath a high roof supported with fifty-foot-high Grecian-sculpted pillars The piers doubled as shrouds for the ship's propellers and as piers to moor fleets of powerboats, hydrofoils, and hovercraft Wide staircases and glass elevators rose from the forward end of the piers into the antic vessel had its own marina, where boats could be moored and lifted from the water between the piers when the ship was under way

Pitt studied the thousands of workers who crowded the docks and open decks The operation to fit out and supply the ship see cranes rolled on rails up and down the dock, lifting wooden crates into huge open cargo hatches set into the hull The spectacle was too unreal to grasp It see cities were never h the fjord and reach the sea Their pri carried by the backwash into deep water

There was no slinking in the shadows, because the bright lights eli the wide road quay, waving to an occasional passing guard, who didn't give them a second look Pitt quickly observed that most of the workers olf-type carts He began looking around for one, and soon spied several parked in front of a large warehouse

Pitt set off toward the carts, followed by Giordino, who could not tear his eyes from the ships "This place is too vast to cover on foot," said Pitt "Me, I'd rather ride"

The battery-operated carts looked to be available to any worker anted to requisition one

Several were parked around a large charging unit, cords running to sockets beneath the front seats Pitt pulled the plug on the first one in line Throwing the electrical spools and paint cans in the rear cargo bed of the cart, they clinition key and set off as though it were a procedure he had executed at the yard for years

They drove past a long string of warehouses until they ca that held the shipyard offices The entrance of the second dock extended fro leviathan that was side had a more austere appearance than the one that was expected to carry its residents into a neorld This vessel was designed to carry agricultural cargo Various species of trees and shrubbery were hauled aboard in big trailers that were pulled up wide cargo ra cylindrical containers, labeled "Plant Seed," were stacked on the dock waiting to be loaded aboard A long convoy of farm equipment, trucks and tractors of different sizes, harvest coinable was driven inside the cavernous hull

"These people rand scale," Pitt said, still trying to absorb the immensity of it all

"What do you want to bet one of the other ships is carrying two of every kind of animal?"

"I won't bet," Pitt replied curtly "I just hope they had the foresight to leave the flies,