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This isn’t a dome. It might be, in fact, the only thing that you can do on
this rock that isn’t. It’s basically this big wide train that goes around and
around the circumference at a certain latitude. They told me exactly how far
from the North Pole and equator we were, but I can’t remember. The point is
that the time never changes when you’re on the terminator track. It might be
sunrise, sunset, magic hour, or twilight, and as long as you stay put, it will
remain as such until the solar system collapses, or the track goes out of
commission....whichever comes first. I’ve only seen sunrise and sunset, but I
heard that magic hour isn’t that great since the atmosphere is so thin. I
think they’re planning on adding more trains in between these, so it can
always be night, or always be day. I’m not sure why you would want that
exactly, but to each their own, right? This is a cool concept that they’ve
tried on a few other planets. Varkas Reflex has something very similar, but
the train is of a very different layout, and I think the capacity is a lot
smaller, because it’s an older design, and the megastructural engineering
capabilities weren’t quite there yet. Or the size of the one here on
Castlebourne is the result of natural advancement. They made it bigger very
deliberately because they wanted it to be bigger. If the Varkas one had been
built to this scale, this one would be even bigger. Anyway, you get the
gist. You sit on the train, and watch the sunrise. And watch it. And watch it.
The show never ends. Again, it’s a cool concept, but if you stare at it long
enough—even though you’re going, like, a thousand kilometers per hour—it
starts to look like a painting. Well, I can go look at a painting of a sunset
whenever I want. Do you have any idea how many paintings there are of sunsets?
I couldn’t tell you, but look it up, and then multiply it by several times,
because some people will paint a sunset, and then not show it to anyone else,
so whatever’s in the records is probably an underestimation. As you can see,
I’m a bit of a tangentist. There’s just not much I can say about Terminator
Track. I don’t think it’s any better than just setting your smartwindow to
show a hologram of a sunset at will. Actually, it’s worse, because again,
Castlebourne has such a thin, dusty atmosphere, so just remember that before
you board. When you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense, even if they
thickened the atmosphere, and created some of that Rayleigh scattering. Part
of the beauty of a sunrise or sunset is watching it change from one state to
the other. Yeah, they’re pretty colors, but seeing them appear and disappear
is part of what made humans like them in the first place. This is just
static...like a painting. That’s the way I see it anyway. I’m not gonna tell
you not to come here. I’ve not gotten into any specifics, but they have a
restaurant, and several lounges. You can watch the domes fly by too if you go
to the side viewports, so that’s another thing. I see this spot as a one-time
destination, not something you frequent, except maybe if you’re on a romantic
date, or something. Or, like I said, you could just tell your nearest
smartwindow to show whatever you want. In fact, I bet the trains have cameras,
which you can tap into, allowing you to watch it remotely anyway.
