I was staring at the sign in a state of slightly disbelieving amusement when the train voice said, “Please be seated. Doors will close in 11 seconds. Acceleration we last 336 seconds. After that point, passages may move around the train.”
I took the nearest seat and settled back. It was comfortable, and included accommodation for the Quinlan tail. There were some controls on the armrest, and speakers in the headrest. Quinlans travel in style! But in principle, a passenger might have to travel up to a half-billion miles in Heaven's River. How would that work?
“Excuse me, train voice?”
“May I be of assistance?”
“How long to Helep’s Ending?”
“3814 miles.”
“No.” Okay, granted, I'd phrase that wrong. “How much time will this trip to Helep’s Ending take?”
“Approximately 6244 seconds, including acceleration and deceleration.”
About 2200 miles per hour. At that speed, it would take a lifetime to travel around the topopolis.
“What is the longest trip one could take, in terms of distance?”
“The edge of the observable universe is approximately 45.7 billion lightyears away.”
Sigh.
“What is the longest trip one could take on the Heaven's River train system, in terms of distance.”
“A trip to Grendel, which is opposite this point on Heaven's River, would be approximately 499,720,000 miles.”
“How long would that trip take on this train?”
“You would not take that trip on this train.”
Grr.
“How would I take that trip?”
“You would take an express train equipped with staterooms and sleeping berths.”
“And how long with the trip take?”
“Approximately 12 days.”
“The express trains travel faster?”
“Express trains travel on the high-speed trunks and achieve a maximum velocity of 527 miles per second.”
Interestingly precise speed. I did a quick calculation and realized that such a speed would result in one standard Quinlan g of pseudo-gravity as the train traveled around the topopolis. Except the train would also be cork screwing counter to the rotation of the habitat, which explained the helical track that Professor Gilligan had described. Anyway, at the moment I was on a local run, which would operate at much lower speeds. Well, I had a couple of hours with nothing to do.
“Which direction is Helep’s Ending?”
“It is in front of us.”
I bit back an expletive.
“Which direction is Helep’s Ending relative to Garrick's spine?”
“It is sunward.”
I had to think about that for a moment and check the translation specs. Sunward meant the direction that the artificial sun moved. So… west. According to our conventions.
“Can you tell me about the area around Helep’s Ending?”
“Specifics are not available. There is an information kiosk at the station that can provide local details.”
Uh-huh. Except it was probably closed until further notice. Sadly, the train voice probably only had information directly related to trains and train schedules, and asking all kinds of weird questions might get me flagged.
“Can you inform me when we're close to arrival?”
“I was sent a wake-up call for 224 seconds before deceleration. Is that acceptable?”
“Uh, yes, thank you.”
Meanwhile, I would put the Manny on standby and have a ‘nap’ which would allow me to get some work done.
“They really had this stuff all worked out, didn’t they?” Will said. “Stephen pointed out the helical layout of the express tubes. He even suggested why they exist. The helical track exactly cancels out the rotation of the megastructure as the train travels through it, and the speed of the train around the long radius is calibrated to replace the lost artificial gravity of the shell rotation. Nice.”
I grinned at Will's reaction. That response was one I'd normally expect more from Bill, but as always, Bob is Bob.
“Yep. So, I’ll be at Helep’s Ending soon, and I’ll head for the nearest mountains. If the segments are reasonably standardized, and there's no reason to think otherwise, the entrance shouldn't be too hard to find.”
“The question though, is whether Natasha's passcard will work four thousand miles away.”
“And whether I dare try it and risk alarms going off.”
We were interrupted by the train voice playing into my VR through the Manny link.
“We are approaching your destination.”
Will levered himself out of the beanbag chair. “I guess that’s your curtain call.” He waved and popped out.
I entered the Manny and blinked my eyes, feigning waking up. “Thank you. Is there anyone else on the train?”
“Not at this time.”
“What does the train do if there are no passengers requiring transport?”
“The train will remain at the lost stop until called.”
Interesting. So, unless someone in Helep’s Ending needs a train, I might have a getaway vehicle waiting for me.
My ruminations were interrupted as my seat began to rotate in place. I glanced around to see that all the seats were doing the same. It answered a question that had been in the back of my mind about how deceleration would be handled. I wondered what acceleration and deceleration would be like in one of the express trains. Probably a lot longer. It seemed likely that they had acceleration couches separate from the births and staterooms.
The train came to a stop, and the doors swooshed open. The train voice said “May you travel with Mother's blessing.”
I didn't know what the proper response was, so I just said “Thank you.”
This station was identical to the last one, so leaving was almost like playing the video in reverse. Except, as expected, the art was different. And naturally, my mind went there. A billion miles of topopolis is 100 million transit stations – no, scratch that, 400 million if they followed each of the four rivers. Either the Quinlans produced a lot of art, or there would be duplications. I wondered for a moment if there was an art mill somewhere, with Quinlans churning out statues and paintings.
I headed for the same side door, which only required pushing on the latch bar from this side, and just like that, I was out. In the weather. Specifically, it was raining. Not a lashing raging storm - we hadn't seen any of that kind of
