2.4 KiB
A train is coming. As Annie reaches the platform, she hears the sirens of the police cars coming closer. They are really close now. The first police car arrives at the station at the same time as the train arrives at the platform. Annie stands still as she panics. Where could she go?
"Annie!" Someone shouts her name. "Annie, come here, run!"
She looks up. The train turned out to be a single car. A single, very rusty car. Annie starts to move. Inside is a single person, the driver, running to the other end. He wears a CryoCorp jacket - no doubt, that has to be Jack. She runs towards the closest door. The humming of the motors getting energized begins to sound. Annie jumps inside as the railcar starts moving in the direction it came from. The doors close as it leaves the platform.
The train accelerates with a force stronger than anything she has ever felt before. Is it okay to refer to it as a train? I mean it’s just a single car. Does that still count? The motors scream, the wind rattles at the doors. While she makes her way to the front, Annie looks outside. The city flies by. The horn sounds as the train barrels though a station. The platform appears, is visible for just enough time to see the astonished faces of the onlookers, and disappears again.
She reaches the driver’s cabin.
"Hello Jack!"
"Hi"
"I have never seen one of these go this fast."
"Me neither."
Short pause.
Jack adds: "I mean there used to be trains that could go faster - a lot faster - but not these."
"You arrived just in time, we got really lucky."
Jack looks at the rails in front of the train with a slightly worried look on his face. After another short pause, he says "That remains to be seen. Cycling that airlock seems to have set off some sort of alarm. Like poking a stick into an anthill..."
"An anthill?"
"Oh, I forgot, you wouldn’t know... Ants are tiny little animals. They tend to pile up loose material from the ground into small hills as their nests. If you poke a stick into one, they scramble to defend it."
"Ah..."
Note to self: This dialog needs to be continued to tie the sections together
Jack decelerates the train. "Almost there", he says. They are driving towards the outer wall of the dome. The ‘B33FY-AF’ door on the inside of the airlock is wide open. Technicians and police are standing around in groups it trying to figure out why it had opened. The ramps leading up to the rails and the airlock are full of transporters and police cars .