Chapter 46: The Cycle of Technology

"Dear passengers, welcome to take the suspended train F:43. This train is a special direct train to the Jiuquan Space Transfer Center. The whole journey is 2,860 kilometers long and is expected to arrive in 3 hours. Passengers who have boarded the train, please take your seats immediately. If you need assistance, please call the train staff in a timely manner."

Walking in front of his seat, Song Han scratched his head as he looked at the complicated seat in front of him.

"What is this? A bed? A chair? A sleeper?"

"Uncle, haven't you been on a long trip for a long time?"

Hearing this, Song Han nodded. There was nothing to be embarrassed about:

"I haven't taken a train for a long time."

"Train? Now we call it a flying car!"

A fellow from Binhai who was selected at the same time as Song Han explained:

"This is an anti-g load embedded seat. It's in the seat expansion mode now. After you lie down and enter your ID, it will close according to your body shape."

"Is taking a train this advanced now?"

"It has a speed of over 1,000 kilometers per hour. This is no joke."

With the help of his companion, Song Han squeezed himself into this somewhat ostentatious seat. With a slight vibration from the gas expansion, the inner lining air cushion tightly wrapped him up.

Song Han subconsciously twisted his body. Instead of feeling uncomfortable, he felt an unusual sense of security under such a wrapping.

But how can I get up to eat instant noodles like this?

However, thinking about the specially arranged extra meal and toilet time before boarding the train, it seems that there is no need to have a bite of instant noodles in three hours.

As an arc-shaped screen in front of him slowly lit up, three options appeared on the screen.

Leisure mode, sightseeing mode, and sleep mode.

Song Han tried each one. In the leisure mode, there were quite a few 3D movies to watch, but without exception, they all required additional payment.

It gave him a sense of déjà vu of the Internet TV 30 years ago. They just keep asking for money!

Song Han spat in disgust. He opened the sightseeing mode and found that it was the 3D real scene of the station, and the content on the screen would also change the perspective as his gaze shifted.

It was as if he was wandering around the airport as if he were there in person.

The sleep mode was always gray.

"Ding dong. Dear passengers, the train is about to depart. Please take your seats in a timely manner to prevent accidents."

With the sound of the broadcast, the train body shook slightly, and the picture in the sightseeing mode also changed to the picture of the train moving forward. And somehow, the sleep mode also lit up.

Song Han clicked on it out of curiosity. As a soothing piece of music played, the picture in front of him also turned into warm-colored changing color blocks.

I don't know if it was an illusion, but it seemed that the air pressure of the seat wasn't that strong anymore.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, an inexplicable sense of oppression hit him, and it became stronger and stronger as time went by.

Under the combined effect of the alternating light and darkness in front of his eyes and the soothing music, Song Han lost consciousness in a short while. He didn't know if he fainted or fell asleep.

...

"Does the section chief really want to sign him? Isn't he too old?"

"The job fit is 85%. The person has good physical fitness, rich experience, and has been engaged in community sports guidance activities. There are no problems in the background check. Except for being a bit older, there seem to be no issues. "

"But what about in ten years? The gravity on Mars is much smaller than that on Earth. After working there for ten years, he may not be able to return to Earth by then."

"I've talked to him about all these things. Isn't this the reason why we're recruiting sports workers among the early pioneer teams?

Looking at his appearance, he intends to die on Mars. Just bring back his ashes by then."

"By the way, among these more than ten thousand people in this batch, how many do you think will be willing to come back in the end?"

"Who knows! That's Mars! If I didn't have a family to take care of, I'd also like to go and have a look."

"Just wait! There will be a chance!"

...

It was a towering giant tower. Looking up from the ground, it seemed to extend infinitely into the sky.

An ordinary human being seemed as small as a speck of dust in front of it, making it hard to believe that this huge and magnificent building was the masterpiece of human beings as small as dust.

The densely packed crowd lined up and walked towards the elevator row by row. They needed to take the elevator to the transfer hall 4,000 meters above the ground and then transfer to the space elevator.

"Uncle, what are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at what kind of driving method this elevator uses."

"Stop looking. Isn't there an introduction beside it?

From sea level to 4,000 meters, it is driven by conventional power. The space elevator after the transfer is an electromagnetic track type. Look!"

Song Han looked in the direction he pointed. The huge buildings that couldn't be seen clearly from the ground in the distance were now so small.

"There is a fusion nuclear power plant over there, which is specially used to supply energy to this elevator. I heard that the second space elevator being built in Xihua doesn't need to transfer at all. It will take off directly from the ground at that time!

With a swish, it will be even more exciting than the maglev vacuum pipeline train without a load cabin!"

For some reason, these real scenes around him made Song Han feel a strong sense of falsehood and isolation.

Over the past few decades, his life has been very simple. It has been so simple that no matter how much the external technology has changed in the past thirty years, his life has not changed much.

If it weren't for his own impulse this time, it could be predicted that until his death, his way of life would not change much.

"Speed: 30,000 kilometers per hour. Estimated arrival time: 50 seconds."

In front of him was a continuous darkness, as if he was drowning in the boundless deep sea!

Breathing like on the verge of death! Great oppression!

It even gave people the illusion that the soul was being squeezed out of the body.

Song Han had never realized that 50 seconds could be so long.

Suddenly!

In an instant, all the pressure disappeared without a trace!

One second ago, he was still at the bottom of the boundless sea, wrapped and oppressed by the endless darkness!

The next second, he was immediately sent to the clouds, feeling relaxed and relieved!

This sudden sense of ease and liberation actually made people feel deeply obsessed with it.

Drifting out of the elevator driven by the electric handrail, Song Han looked back and suddenly had an urge to take the elevator again.

"It's so cool! If it weren't so expensive, I really want to take it once a month!"

Hearing the voice, Song Han turned his head and asked:

"How much does it cost to take the space elevator once?"

"30,000 yuan! It's really damn expensive!"

Song Han recalled the feeling just now and couldn't help but nod:

"It's worth it!"

In the lobby of the hotel, their group of a hundred people were arranged to sit fixed on the side wall. Looking up, they could still see the hotel reception and the many passengers floating back and forth in the whole hollow honeycomb-style hotel.

"Where is this?"

"This is the Tianhe Space Station!"

"Tianhe Space Station?"

For some reason, what came to mind was the narrow scene of the Tianhe Space Station during the live broadcast in 2022, as if it was composed of one gasoline barrel after another.

But here, with the spacious space and the people coming and going, although they couldn't see the outside, just judging from the space passed during the journey here and the scale of this hotel, it was much larger than the Tianhe Space Station in 2022.

"How big is the current Tianhe Space Station?"

"The total mass of the core is 14.63 million tons! As for how heavy the space dock, laboratory, space factory, hotel, etc. connected and mounted outside are in total, only God knows."

At this time, the team leader was holding something like a jet barrel and flew over with a series of slight air flow disturbance sounds.

"The check-in procedures have all been completed. Later, each of you take a traction robot and just follow them. There are prepared clothes in the room. We will rest here for three days. During this time, you can say goodbye to your families properly. After we set off, there won't be such an opportunity for face-to-face communication anymore."

Song Han asked:

"Can we stroll around the space station these few days?"

"Sure! Connect your mobile phones to the public network of the space station, and you can handle the tour and visit procedures."

He patted the jet barrel in his hand and said:

"You can rent a tour guide device to take you there at that time, but these won't be within the scope of reimbursement."

Tianhe Space Port.

Through the huge transparent port viewing room, Song Han saw a scene that he had never dreamed of.

Countless huge ships unfurled their light sails, lined up one by one, forming a rotating galaxy and sailing towards the unknown darkness, with thousands of sails competing.

In the port, ships that had retracted their light sails were moored in the port under the pull of the docking ships, with thousands of masts standing tall.

They were firmly fixed at the berths by metal arms. The orbital shuttle boats in the port shuttled back and forth between the ships, either disembarking passengers or towing goods.

Song Han had never dreamed that in the space port in 2050, he would see such a scene of thousands of sails competing and hundreds of boats vying for the lead.

At this moment, Song Han truly understood the words that Xiao Ai said:

"Technology is a cycle."