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Dear Corinthia,
It’s funny that you bring up transportation between safe zones, because
that’s what we used to do before we came to this floating dome for permanent
residency. For security reasons, pilots really preferred not to leave their
secure cockpits, so they would hire other people to actually leave the
aircraft, and help travelers load and unload. That’s what my dad would do
for work, but it was more than that. I don’t remember how he got into it,
because I was doing something on my own at the time, but I ended up working
on the transport crafts too. I was a sort of flight attendant, but more for
safety, and less for customer service. These people were fleeing very
dangerous situations, so they didn’t need to be coddled and doted on, they
just needed to know how to use their seatbelts, and where the emergency
hazmat suits were. Anyway, for dad, it wasn’t as easy as climbing down the
steps, and ushering people inside. We primarily dealt with families, the
individual members of which often disagreed about leaving their homes, or
where they should go. You have to remember, these were the early days of the
poisoning of the atmosphere. It didn’t just all happen at once. A lot of
safe zones were still open areas, rather than airtight domes. And a lot of
the not-so-safe zones were still technically habitable, leading many to
believe that the air would one day be cleaned up. They were wrong, but not
crazy for holding out hope. No one knew how bad things would get. Few
could have known. The ones that did were either very intelligent and
observant, but few and far between, or responsible for destroying the
environment themselves, and deliberately withholding pertinent information.
Either way, the general population wasn’t hearing it. The bulk of dad’s job
was convincing people that where they were living was no longer healthy
enough for them, and they had to move somewhere else. The answer to where
kept changing, and the number and size of the safezones kept shrinking, but
we kept working. Because of his naturally diplomatic personality, and
because he continued to develop his skills in this area, he was ultimately
selected for the position he has now in this dome. It was still a very
nascent development back then, having only recently achieved its vacuum
seal, and they were in need of population growth. By then, transportation
was big business. It had become easier to persuade people to move, so the
qualifications for the job were now less rigorous. So others could do it who
couldn’t before, and there were so many more aircraft that could be used for
this. In the past, jets just had doors that led right to the fuselage. Now
we need both an airlock, and a decontamination chamber. Older craft were
retrofitted with these additions, but newer ones have been designed with
these necessities. I’m getting a little off-topic, but yes, transportation
is no joke. And to answer your question, I can indeed see the coast of
Australia from our cabin, but only from my dad’s room. Mine’s on the other
side. Now, if we were traveling clockwise...
Also in a vacuum,
Condor
