Chapter 175 Relative End

When Harman and Silver Eagle entered the pod, it took only a moment to survey the interior. Four comfortable seats faced the front of the rectangular space where a door led into what was likely a control center fully automated and integrated with Luna's Traffic Computer. A second door was located in the rear wall, and revealed a space on the left for preparing small meals, and on the right a washroom. A voice in their implants suggested they take seats and strap in for the start of their journey, which was estimated to take six hours. Once they were set, a screen lit up giving them a real-time view of their trip, highlighting any settlements or natural features along their flight path. In the earliest days of Colonization, travel had been mostly by self-contained surface vehicles called `crawlers' until distance became a problem, then chemically fueled shuttles would `jump' from point to point. By the middle of the Twenty-Second Century better technology had replaced both modes with magnetically-powered `pods' that ran in tunnels to nearby settlements, or via launch rails for more distant sites. As computer precision advanced, the trajectories of rail-launches were now set by altering the angles of the rails themselves rather than on-board adjustments. Even so, rail pods carried emergency backups which could initiate landing at the nearest outpost, and included `skin-suits' which would allow surface travel by foot if necessary.