Bridge To The Moon: Facilities On The Train

(In which Great-great-great-great-great-great-granddad recounts what passengers could do - in case they got bored - while on a train travelling through space between two celestial bodies.)

Great-great-great-great-great-great-granddad: There were stairs and elevators to go between the different levels on the train - although going between the different levels wasn’t actually going up or down while the train was heading straight up, away from the Earth. Forward was up, and backward was down - “up” or “down” between the different “levels” was really just going sideways, because we were now ascending vertically from the Earth towards the Moon. So if you used one of those elevators while the train was going straight up, the elevator actually took you sideways. You could, if you preferred, walk along what had previously been a wall instead of using one of those elevators, because what had been a wall, was effectively a floor during the train’s vertical ascent. They also had elevators to go along the length of the train, which were more useful at this time, because they now took you up or down, whereas, before the train started heading straight up, they would have taken you sideways.

There were lots of different facilities on the train. As well as a few cafes and restaurants, there were bars, a theatre, a gymnasium, games rooms, an interfaith chapel / meditation room, observation cars, a few small shops, a hairdressers, a dentist, and a medical clinic. (There might have been other things, but that’s all I remember.)

I went to the theatre a couple of times during the journey. Of course you could enjoy pretty much whatever entertainment you liked in your cabin, including what was on in the theatre, but it’s a better environment in the theatre, and you have the company of all the other people in the theatre. I found that being in the darkness of space - at least it was always dark when you looked outside - made me want to have the company of others a bit more than usual. Maybe part of that was also because I was going to an extraterrestrial body, which, while very exciting, was also a bit unsettling.

Great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter: What was your cabin on the train like, Great-great-great-great-great-great-granddad?

Great-great-great-great-great-great-granddad: Oh, it was rather small as I recall, but big enough - it wasn’t like I was going to be in it for days on end. It was just a place where you could put your luggage, or some of your things - if you had your luggage in one of the luggage cars - and relax and watch the view, or sleep, or eat, or do whatever you wanted to do. It also had a very nice bathroom, which was almost as big as the rest of the cabin, as I recall.

There was a window to look out of, with a blind, although there wasn’t much of a need to close the blind, as there’s no one to see you in space. Although, now I think about it, there were some instances when photos or videos appeared of people on the train, taken from outside, looking through a window. They’d been taken from satellites or passing spacecraft.

Author’s Note: This is part of the original science fiction story Bridge To The Moon, an account told by an elderly gent to his young descendant, of his trip across that engineering marvel of the 23rd century, which physically connected planet Earth to the moon; and his experiences on the moon as he went on a tour of that nearby celestial sphere.

Next time:

Chapter Four The Bridge Itself

(or read the whole story here: https://vocal.media/fiction/bridge-to-the-moon)