Kala regarded her aunt. Cool. Collected. Other than the eyes darting everywhere.
She hadn’t really left the mainland, had she? Probably had spent half her life undocumented, all considered.
“Does it remind you of anything?” Kala and Mina really could be mistaken for sisters.
“Busses. Have you ever been on a bus? What am I saying, of course you have.” Mina leaned against the wall, “I wish it had a view.”
“You really don’t. That’s how people get sick,” Kala fished out her ID. not strictly necessary – but the memory of busses and trains of old made her want to hold somthing, “If you could even see past the other containers.” Kalpanika Khanakarii. The picture was a good one, she made sure of that. Might have gone a little more grey than white on the dye. Indus Autonomous Zone, I3-327-19. They had passed that level already. Her condominium had one window to the outside – and honestly, it was mostly taken up by the remaining top floors of Indus I. A pity.
“Passengers, we are about to transfer. Please return to or remain in your seats. Please buckle your restraints.” The message repeated in Mandarin Chinese.
“It’s usually English here, isn’t it?”
“With accents people can understand, even. Tourists, though.” A bell dinged. as the floor seemed to drop, “and – zero G.” Kala said to nobody in particular.
A few people – unaccompanied tourists – had to quickly snatch their bags from the air as the cabin flipped. Mina… was twitching a little bit.
“It doesn’t agree with you?”
“No. Ugh. no. But than again, I was never able to ride a bike either. Balance was wrong. Ugh.” The bell dinged again, fast, slowing down – The breaking effect started to assert itself.
“That was… I think it’s a little past halfway? The cabin flips all the way around, head to heel. Like long-burn rockets do.” Mina nodded, less to acknowledgewhat her niece said and more to acknowledge her stomach starting to settle.
“We can take a ‘local’ lift back, if you want to experiment later.”
“Please don’t ask me that right now.”
The final observation deck of Indus 3 was not it’s highest point. Contract worker living space and docking bays were above it… or below it, if you went by what passed for gravity here. Indeed, half the novelty was the magnet boots they had been issued
Mina scanned the stars, not fousing on what she hoped was temporary discomfort. Satellites, space stations, most of the functional ones were closer to Earth, the view unfettered from this angle – though one could watch passenger ships coming and going from the docks below your feet. Cargo above – earth-ways, in the distance – passenger boarding below.
There were shades everywhere – places to stand and not get blinded by the sun while trying to stare into the black. A few places where one could look directly up – along the length of the tower, to see the rim of Earth’s horizons pushing beyond it.
Mina twitched.
“Are you ok?”
“It’s just.” She stood there. Tried to center herself, “We’re being carried. I can feel it. We’re being carried.”
“That’s one way to put it, I suppose. Different than a space station, people say… But hey, you didn’t want me to ask you about this earlier, but-” Kala pulled out two tickets – blue on white depicting astronauts on the moon, “Before you say anything, It’s a condo association touristy thing. These aren’t worth a lakh or anything.”
“That number used to mean something.”
“They converted some low-G hangars to be a walk-on-the-moon experience. They even have old-timey spacesuits.”
“Old timey.”
“Well, older than me. Style-wise. I’m sure they’re safe. But they have an converted air-filled bay and a at-vacuum bay if you want to go authentic. Without, you know, spending most of a week going authentic.” she scanned the horizon for any sign of the moon, but not finding it, she just pointed towards her feet.
“Do you want me to try it, or are you looking for an excuse to try it,” Her aunt crossed her arms.
“…yes?”
Mina looked over the ticket. Some provisos and warnings. “Fine. Fine. I’m overdue for a brush with death anyways. We’re sharing a coin locker though.”
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