Flung out between the stars...

Have you ever been up on Mt.Wilson at night, and seen the lights of Los Angeles spreading out in endless profusion, as far as the eye can see?  As our galleon approached the Wandering City, I was reminded of that view.  It looked like someone had taken the whole greater L.A. area, ripped it off of California, and flung it out between the stars.  As we got closer, we had to jib and dodge through the flotsam in the wake of the drifting metropolis....old cargo containers, fifty gallon steel drums crushed like beer cans, bald tires, railroad ties....and many things I couldn't begin to put a name to.  Finally we reached the clear shipping channel, and a rocket tug came to nudge us towards the docks.  The city pulsated and thrummed before us, tall spires and skyscrapers lit with dazzling displays of light....searchlights wheeling through space, like for some gala blockbuster movie premiere, neon signs advertising bizarre products, the flashing strobes of smallcraft flitting about high and low....giant robot dockworkers beeped and honked as they loaded and unloaded the wealth of a hundred star empires.....freight trains crawled, silver cars whisked along monorails, hot rods rumbled in the streets....We reached the dock and tied up, and the captain told us to take a week shore leave.  So I went with some of the others and hit a few bars, and we went into one of the towers and had a fine meal, and then we went and hit more bars.....and.....well, I woke up in the 103rd Ward drunk tank, not even knowing what day it was.  After some hours, a robocop came along and called my name.  I followed him back out to the booking area, and they gave me back my belt, boots, wallet, and flip-phone.  "A lady has gone your bail" they told me. "Have a nice day."  "Yessir." I replied....