London Wild (78 page)

‘Yes,’ she commented when he stopped. ‘I know what time dilation is; I just didn’t think he put it clearly that that was what he meant.’

‘Are you aware,’ George
asked, obviously trying to fill a lull, ‘that light speed has never actually been achieved?’

‘Sorry
?’ Kitty looked at him, surprised, and so did February.

‘Yes,’ he continued, ‘take this shuttle for example. Its so
-called light speed engines will probably only transport us at a rate of about a third of the speed of light.  Making the engines faster costs exponentially more money, and as yet there hasn’t really been a call to fit a passenger shuttle with a faster engine. If the engines could actually reach light speed, then I very much doubt that we could afford the tickets. I expect military shuttles have a higher LS rating.’

‘You learn something new every day,’ February commented. She fastened her seat belt because a little light came on suggesting that she should do so.

‘So what about Goldberg and the other ships?’ Kitty questioned.

‘That was a special situation that involved the agreement of many countries
, all of whom helped to spread the bill, and even then the engines weren’t fully light speed. At around ninety percent, the price actually more than doubles for every extra percent or so, and at ninety-six to ninety-seven percent I believe it even quadruples. The engines on those craft were tuned to ninety-seven percent of light speed.’

‘So we’ve been lied to for all these years,’ February put in
. She sat back into the seat, her arms on the armrest vying with George for a moment for the one between them. Eventually she let him have it. ‘Why does that not surprise me?’

‘Well,’ George started to reply, ‘not so much lied to as…’

Then the voice of the captain over the intercom interrupted, ‘Please make sure your safety belts are secure; we will be leaving the second we have clearance. Thank you.’

Soon the shuttle was in the air. Everything seemed peaceful
; there were robot-serving trolleys scuttling up and down the aisles serving drinks. Occasionally a human steward or stewardess could be seen answering more personal requests, and George sat there explaining some of the finer points of space travel to Kitty. ‘Did you realize that what we now accomplish in three to four hours our ancestors would take more than six months to achieve?’

One of the serving trolleys stopped beside February. It was the same sort of deal that all spacelines offered
: you could get alcohol from the server, but it would require extra funds, whereas if all you wanted was a soft drink of some description, that was effectively included in the price of the ticket. February requested some lemonade and watched as the slow deliberate metallic arm went through its machinations. First it took a transparent plastic glass from where it stored them and filled it with as much ice as it could possibly hold. Then it poured in the lemonade, making the ice crack as the warmer liquid hit it. The arm then extended, offering the drink that was more ice than lemonade to its awaiting client, February.

The
serving trolley then asked George if he would like something to drink. Unfortunately George seemed to be in mid-froth, explaining something to Kitty, and in the end February had to nudge him with her elbow to get his attention. Not that February cared too much if George got a drink, but Kitty might be thirsty, and February did care about her.

‘Oh, thank you,’ George said to her as he turned to find out what she wanted and saw the trolley. Then to the serving trolley he said, ‘
Just something light, please, a cola.’

For a moment it seemed as if the robot hadn’t heard the order,
but then it began to go through the same process as it had with February’s lemonade. The robotic arm then seemed to extend a couple of extra feet as the drink was passed directly to George, so carefully that not even a drop of condensation fell on February as it reached across her.

‘You know,’ said George
, taking the drink, ‘there are some airlines and spacelines that have little drink machines at each seat. I think you have to travel first class for that service, though.’

‘First class?’ February commented dryly
. ‘Can you imagine paying for a first class ticket, just for something like that?’

‘Some people do. At least the alcohol is also free in first class,’ George replied defensively.

‘Maybe,’ February commented, ‘if you happen to like alcohol.’

Soon after
, Kitty had also been handed a drink and the robot trolley had moved on to serve those in the seats in front of them. February watched as it served, her interest caused more from a lack of anything else to look at. The gray-haired man who sat on the outer seat of the aisle ordered a gin and lemon, Stanley in the middle ordered a cola like his brother, and Maureen, sitting by the window, turned down the offer of refreshment. ‘Maybe next time,’ she commented.

The little trolley moved on again
, and February turned her head away. She couldn’t spend the whole trip watching the serving trolley go up and down the aisles. She turned to see how George and Kitty were getting on with the trip. Kitty sat peering out of the window again, watching as the earth diminished slowly in the distance below them. George, on the other hand, had taken an interest in the controls for the holoviewa. Perhaps it was some movie that he had a real desire to see, but a moment later he was engulfed in light emanating from the projector.

It was weird watching a holomovie from the side. Sometimes what
February could see was just a mess of color, and yet other times the mish-mash made some sort of sense. These were spaceline holoviewas; they wouldn’t have the same interactive feelings that even the most modern of in-home systems had these days. The watcher would still have the sensation of being there, because that was how the movie would have been made, but none of the senses would be engaged, no feel of wind, no smell of flowers, and no taste or flavor. Though the sound was aimed directly at the viewer, February could occasionally hear a confused babble coming from George’s direction.

Time seemed to be passing very slowly for February, but then the
captain’s voice could be heard over the intercom again: ‘Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is just to let you know that we are now ninety-seven minutes into our flight and are about to engage the LS engines. Please be advised that it is better to experience light speed with the window shutters closed. Thank you!’

George didn’t stir
. There couldn’t have been much of the holomovie left, but it was still going strong. Kitty seemed to be trying to look through the center of the mass of color and then over the professor’s head, trying to attract February’s attention.

‘Why do we have to close the shutters?’ she asked
. She seemed a little disappointed at the notion.

‘You don’t have to,’ February said back, trying to look around the professor in much the same way
. ‘That was just a request.’

‘Well, why?’ Kitty asked.

‘I don’t know,’ February explained, shrugging her shoulders. ‘I’m sure they have some reason.’

Stanley stuck his head over the back of his chair and smiled at Kitty
. It was clear he had overheard the question, because he said, ‘Generally speaking, nothing bad will happen to you if you look out the window when we go to light speed. As we enter light speed, the earth will vanish suddenly and will possibly be replaced by Mars, depending upon our approach vectors. If it’s on the other side of the shuttle all you’ll see are stars. To most people this is nothing worse than looking at two pictures, one after the other. However, some people don’t seem to be able to cope with the sudden change. It makes them physically sick. Personally, I think it’s more to do with light speed itself than just seeing things appear to vanish or appear. They want you to close the shutter so that if you are one of those people, they won’t have to clean up the mess after you.’

‘Well,’ Kitty replied, pull
ing the shutter closed, though she seemed a little bit disappointed over it, ‘I wouldn’t want to be ill.’

Nothing seemed to happen; there was no shift in sensation, no feeling of speed or even of having moved at all. The only way they knew they had even entered light speed was the
captain’s voice a few seconds later coming through on the intercom once more. ‘We are now beginning our descent to the colony on Mars. It is safe to reopen shutters if you wish to do so. We should be landing in about seventy minutes’ time, thank you!’

‘Only seventy minutes,’ February heard Stanley telling his wife, ‘that’s a lot quicker than I expected.’

Seventy-four minutes later the shuttle touched the surface of the planet Mars in the British section spaceport. It then made its way to its appointed arrival gate. 

‘Please stay seated,’ the Captain’s voice announced over the intercom. ‘The atmosphere on the planet’s surface is unbreathable. Please wait until the airtight tube bridge is in position with the airlocks and it has been properly tested before you attempt to disembark. Thank you!’

When February was finally making her way along the aisles back to the door through which she had first entered the shuttle, she couldn’t help but notice that both the business class and first class sections were now empty. The passengers in these sections had obviously been allowed to leave first. She also felt a little concerned crossing the bridge to the colony itself
. The thing seemed very flimsy to her, and she wasn’t sure it could take the weight of so many trying to cross it at the same time.

The passport check appeared to be little more than a formality. The man at the desk just glanced at each passport quickly and then waved the passengers through. This part of Mars was still considered part of Britain
, and it was only those with non-British passports who spent any real time being scrutinized.

The spaceport on Mars was very similar to the one they had left on Earth. A large selection of shops surrounded a lounge area for the use of those waiting to leave for Earth. And for the first
-time visitor to Mars, there were display cases showing models of the colony and other marvels of the new world.

One thing that caught February’s eye was one of the display cases, a hexagonal glass
-covered plinth on which sat a scale model of the colony surrounded by a representation of what the surface of Mars in the immediate vicinity looked like. The whole thing was bordered by a selection of trays, one for each side of the hexagon, which held small hematite spheres. Not one of them was bigger than a marble. There were small notices on two of the trays on opposite sides from each other explaining that these spheres had been considered proof by some that Mars had at one time had water upon it, or at the very least some sort of liquid.

The colony itself looked pretty much like a large pie with certain slices slightly longer than others. It was built in tiers
, with each storey having a smaller radius than the one below it. At the very center of the colony it was eight tiers high, and where the other tiers appeared haphazard, depending on the needs of those in that section, the eighth tier formed a perfect circle around the top.

February knew a little of the colony’s setup
. There had been sixteen countries involved in establishing the colony, and unlike the moon, where the whole colony was just a series of pieces added on to the original superstructure as they were needed, the Martian colony had been laid out and planned in detail before anyone even started its construction. Each of the sixteen countries had their own little slice of the pie, the sizes differing depending on how much the country had invested in the project. America and China had the two largest slices, while Britain had an equal sixth. Each nation had its own spaceport, its own shops, usually placed near the outside edge of the colony where they were easy to restock, although in the British section the entire second floor was one giant mall. Some of the nations had even included sports grounds in the design of their slice. Each section also kept its own time, dependent on what the time was on Earth. Hence the American section, located next door to the English section, kept to a clock that was usually five hours behind.

Another thing each section had and took great pride in was its own security force. Primarily it was the job of this security force to keep law and order and to look after the citizens of its section. But there was one job that all sections took a hand in jointly. In the very center of the colony, taking up every tier from the ground to the eighth and occupying every one of the sixteen sections, was the water reclamation plant. This was considered the most vulnerable and most guarded part of the entire colony because water was so important to the running of the entire place. The one plant fed every section of the colony
, and so it was in the interest of everyone to keep it running.

February remembered learning about the water riots before she had even been allowed out on her first hunt. They had happened before she had been born. People had protested not only at the cost of transporting all the water to Mars in the first place, but also the potential damage the removal of so much water might do to the Earth. It wasn’t so much the demands that Mars was making for water, but the fear that if the Earth also had to supply all future colonies with water
, then where would that leave the Earth?