In A Starship's Wake

Chapter 16: Settling In

 "I didn't notice when we were flying in how interconnected all the domes and towers are." Allison was looking through the clear sides of a shaft that ran between two of the Carvers' domes. Several other such connections were visible in the distance.

"Yeah, each structure is usually linked to all the ones nearby to make it convenient to move people and cargo between them. I know there are a few exceptions, but I don't spend enough time here to know which ones. It's a big station."

"Very big. I'm glad they're here, I was worried about what I was going to have to buy to get from my apartment to my job."

Joseph laughed. "Hopefully you won't need to buy anything. You certainly won't need to travel five miles down to the central shaft and five miles back up every day. You might want to buy something like this little wagon eventually though."

They had borrowed a small, open-topped vehicle from the Carvers to speed their travel around the station. They were short, usually built for two to four passengers and small amounts of cargo; a week's groceries, for example. They had a similar vehicle aboard Garden Variety Animal for getting around on stations, but Tyrone's destination was the opposite direction.

"Couldn't I get something more like that truck you and Tyrone have? That would be a little more familiar."

"Well, there are larger versions of this that look more like a pickup. You could get something like that, but I wouldn't recommend a planetary vehicle. There are a lot of differences between planetary vehicles and station vehicles."

"Size was the first one I noticed."

"It's difficult to miss." Joseph nodded as they passed into the second dome. "It's really an effect of all the others." He gestured at the traffic corridors. "Every cubic inch of usable space on a space station has to be constructed. Couradeen isn't stingy with that by any means, but everything is tighter than it would be on a planet, so it's helpful for vehicles to be smaller."

"True. I really wouldn't want to try to maneuver any of my parents' farm trucks in here." She gave the little vehicle a curious examination. "It seems like there's a lot of stuff missing too. Is that taken out to make it smaller or is it smaller because it was taken out? It seems like some of the stuff you'd usually expect in a car isn't necessary here."

"It's a little of both, but you're right. A lot of the systems that station vehicles lack only exist at all to meet challenges that don't exist on stations. For example, there's no reason to have a complex shock absorption system when you're always driving on decking that's extremely flat and doesn't get potholes. Or climate control in a vehicle when the station is already climate controlled."

"Or bother with a roof when there's no weather to keep out?" she asked with a grin.

"Exactly. I'm actually of two minds about that one. These things can go pretty fast and enclosing the cabin would cut down on wind noise when you get them up to speed."

"Would you want to be driving them that fast anyway?" Allison's voice was reproachful, and he glanced over to catch a disapproving frown. "Like you said the corridors are narrow, and people walk through them too."

"I wouldn't in these corridors, but there are larger ones that are restricted to vehicle-only traffic. The Carvers don't have any that large between their properties, there isn't enough traffic volume. But the central shaft is where the major transportation artery is, and that's restricted to vehicles. So are most of the attachments between it and the domes. On those we could go that fast."

"That makes more sense. Have you ever used it?"

"Not often, but I've been down there a few times. If you want to see some truly impressive gravity manipulation, you should go at least once. The attachments to the domes and such come in from every angle, and they all have to join the same roadway. It's interesting to watch a big cargo vehicle do a barrel roll beside you before merging into your lane. And when you do it yourself, it feels like nothing happened."