User blog comment:Krayfish/Omniverse Nexus Site Specifics/@comment-3582436-20150408012654/@comment-3582436-20150413140553

Here is a description of a day in the life of a man living on Nova Alpha, and who is going on a business trip to the Good Hope Colony:

Silence greets the glowing orb at dawn. As the sun rises beyond the horizon and slowly climbs its way to its apex, Nova Alpha just as unhurriedly comes to life. As the sun rises and brightness increases, lights switch themselves off. Hovercars trickle into the skyways of the city while pedestrians below exit their homes for their morning jogs. It is a nice day, and the sky is almost spotless save a few fluffy, cotton candy-like clouds.

A man wakes up in his bed. His room is dark. Some brightening up might be in order.

"Computer: blinds off."

The impenetrable veil covering the window promptly disappears, filling the man's bedroom with light. He is due at the spaceport in a few hours for a business trip to the Good Hope Colony, so he quickly gets up from and makes his bed. He hurriedly rushes into the bathroom, shutting the door. After brushing his teeth and taking a refreshing sonic shower, the man goes into the kitchen, where he approaches his Molecular Reassembly Module.

"Bacon and eggs."

In seconds, the MRM lights up in a furious assortment of colours. Within the cavernous mouth of the unit a blinding blue light expands to consume the hole before disappearing. In its place is a perfect plate of bacon and eggs.

"Coffee, black, no sugar."

The Module lights up again and this time produces a steaming hot cup of coffee.

The man sits down at the table. Before sitting down, he quickly goes outside just in time to catch the paper boy. He is flying past on his hoverbike.

"Here you go, sir!" he calls. He produces a silver rod from his duffel bag and throws it to the man.

"Thank you!" the man replies. He returns inside and sits down in front of his warm breakfast. He presses a button on the rod and a holographic projection materialises. It's today's newspaper.

"CHIEF ADMIRAL ANNOUNCES UNITY-CLASS STARSHIP," announces the front headline. The Unity-class has been the subject of gossip for months among military circles. The newest in defence technology, to protect the Confederacy's borders from foreign attacks and the latest scanners and shuttle complement to explore the galaxy.

After finishing his breakfast, the man washes up before calling for a taxi. The taxi arrives just minutes later, and he climbs in with his luggage.

"Where to?" the cab asks him.

"South Shuttleport," he replies.

"Right away!" the taxi cries whimsically.

The hovercar rises into the air and joins the skyways, now a torrent of vehicles trying to get through the rush hour.

The taxi eventually sets down in front of South Shuttleport. After paying the bill, the man steps out of the cab. "Thanks!"

"No problem!" the car says. It remains in wait for its next customer.

The man steps into the shuttleport. It is an expansive complex, with people walking to and fro with floating luggage carts carrying everything from handbags to large parcels and containers. After swerving through the heavy traffic, he finally reaches the check-in counter. The attendant, after taking a look at the man's papers, slaps a holographic ID sticker onto the suitcase.

"Enjoy your flight!" she says.

The man eventually reaches the departure lounges. He is just in time to catch a shuttle flight to Mars Intercolonial Spaceport. His luggage has been transported to a separate shuttle to be organised in the spaceport. He takes his seat and clips his safety belt shut.

The automated shuttle leaves exactly as scheduled and heads down the taxiway. It approaches the launchpad. As it does, large arms swing forward, clamping onto the sides of the shuttle. They tilt the craft until its engines are facing towards the ground.

Blast-off. The engines abruptly come to life and lift the beast off the ground and into the air. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, until the shuttle achieves a speed far beyond the speed of sound. The man remains completely relaxed throughout the whole launch sequence. He doesn't feel a thing. The inertial dampeners make sure of that.

He catches sight of the spaceport as the shuttle bursts through the Martian ionosphere. It is a large and shiny object, getting bigger and bigger as the shuttle moves closer to it. Lights dot the hull of the spaceport.

In less than ten minutes the shuttle has cleared Mars' atmosphere and is docked to the near side of the spaceport. The doors open and the man leaves the shuttle.

"TransWarp Space Flight 8529 will be departing in twenty minutes," an announcement booms over the spaceport's loudspeaker. "Please proceed to Gate 29 in Terminal 3 immediately."

That's the man's flight! He picks up the pace and rushes to the customs section. He passes through the detector and nothing malicious is detected. He almost sprints to the gate."

"Hello!" the kindly gatekeeper smiles at the man. "Could I have a look at your ticket and ID card, please?"

The man fishes around in his pocket for the ticket and his ID card. He removes it and places the ticket and card in the gatekeeper's hand. She inspects the ticket, scans it and then tears a piece of it off. She also scans the ID card. Everything is in order. She hands the rest of the ticket back to the man.

"Enjoy your flight," she smiles. He smiles back before rushing into the docking bridge connecting the gate with the spaceliner.

"Welcome to TransWarp," a flight attendant grins. The man relaxes. He made it.

Several minutes later, the doors close and a soft hiss fills the cabin. It's pressurising. A good sign that everything is in order.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Welcome to TransWarp Flight 8529 from Mars Intercolonial to Good Hope," the captain cheerily welcomes the man and his fellow passengers onto the spaceliner. "We will be travelling only a few light years, so the trip won't take too long - only about seven-and-a-half hours."

All the while the spaceliner has rolled backwards onto a turntable, which rotates the behemoth to face the runway. The spaceliner begins moving forward, picking up speed by the second. The runway lights on the walls and floor of the runway quickly become a blur.

Flight 8529 shoots through the end of the runway, entering deep space. The man gazes out the window, staring at the endless stars. He looks back, and takes a glimpse at the planet Mars. Only but a century and a half ago the watercolour of green, blue, white and turquoise was only but a dead, red rock. Mars' transformation was the result of another marvel of human engineering: terraforming.

How far we've come, the man muses. How far we've come.

It isn't long before the familiar clanking sound originating deep within the ship's mechanical systems indicates to the man that he was about to be shot off into interstellar space at several times the speed of light. Again, he doesn't need to brace himself, because the inertial dampeners would mitigate the impact altogether. If not for them, everyone would be dead as soon as the ship rocketed off at a thousand-and-twenty-four times the speed of light.

The stars are swiftly replaced by many blue streams creating a column of light surrounding the spaceliner as it travels at warp speed. The flight attendants rise from their seats and begin moving around with their own MRMs, ready to serve customers with instant but delicious meals.

After the man finishes off his dinner and watches a film on his seat's holographic projection system, he drifts off to sleep. Only but what seems like a few moments later, he is roused by another announcement.

"Cabin crew, prepare for docking."

The man's seatbelt is glowing red, meaning that it should be fastened. He hastily does so. Slowly but surely, the ship slows down before grinding to a halt in front of the gate. Its landing gears are lowered.

The gate's blast-doors open and the ship is allowed inside. They promptly close behind the spacecraft. Due to the sudden appearance of artificial gravity, the ship drops and bounces onto the runway. The passengers feel a slight jolt, but neither they nor the ship are harmed.

The spaceliner rolls forward until stopping at the gate. Docking bridges extend.

"Cabin crew: disarm doors."

After waiting for traffic in the plane to subside, the man disembarks from the spaceliner and heads towards the luggage collection section. A short wait is followed by a customs check before he clears all elements required to exit the complex.

Unlike planetary spaceports, that of the Good Hope Colony does not have shuttles to connect them to the surface - they don't need to, because the surface is right next to the entrance. The man walks through the doors of the spaceport with his luggage and looks around. The famed Good Hope Colony stands before him, with countless skyscrapers stretching into the distance, protected by a high, clear dome showing the starry sky that is outer space. Also present is Alpha Centauri A, which the Space Habitat orbits.

Like on Mars and other surface-bound colonies, hovercars fill the "skies" of Good Hope. The beauty of the habitat still refuses to cease amazing the man. He walks towards his hotel, looking forward to a good 'night''s rest before tomorrow's work.

I know the tech sounds awfully Star Trek-like, but what do you think of it?