The Atomic Pan Pipe Symphony Rides Again

F/i - Helioscopium (1997)

Tiny dancing robots swarmed the streets of the planet's largest metropol, shiny spinning wheels and flagellating limbs keening through the languid morning air, startling cats and dogs, little birds, commuters. Children were delighted. Schoolkids went wayward, following the winsome mechanicals, down the boulevards, through the parks, across bridges over rivers they children had never seen. Down to the spaceport they all ran, a blur of flesh and metal and chromed plastic, across the tarmac, up the ramps, inside the massive globular ship. Finally, one last limping child and one last pokey robot clambered up the ramp and the giant circular door swirled shut. Nuclear steam poured from the ship's corroded vents and it slowly ascended into the dark blue sky.