Chapter 25
"Whoa..." Thomas said. The terminal they were in was immense: no matter what direction he looked, there were gates as far as the eye could see. He followed the group over to a map that looked like it belonged in a mall instead. "You are here!" Proclaimed a dot in the middle of a huge maze of colored-coded sections.
"So we need to get to the Terminal E baggage claim," Darin said as he traced his finger along the map, trying to locate it. "Ah! There it is! We'll just take the PODs, there's a section of them about twenty gates down."
"They have their own POD system?!" Doug asked, amazed.
"Hey, it's a huge hoverport, it's practically impossible to walk it. They have a contest every year to see if anyone can walk around the entire thing. The last guy crazy enough to try ended up getting lost for two days and finally made it back to the starting point a week and a half later. Come on!" Like snails out for a morning jog, they made their way through the masses of people and towards the PODs. Finally they arrived at a row on their right and crossed the stream of people to get to them.
"Terminal E Baggage Claim," Thomas said as he stepped inside.
BAMF!
Thomas stepped outside the POD and awaited the arrival of the rest of the group. It didn't take long before they appeared and joined him. They walked over to the machine that was spitting out and circulating luggage. The technology for luggage return had changed little over the past two-hundred years, although the bags were now added to the conveyor belt by a POD-like system. Thomas noted that this technology was nearly as prevalent as the hover technology. Every time he turned around he saw it again. They stood around and waited, grabbing their bags as they passed by. It was a thoroughly mundane experience.
"OK, well, now that that's over, you guys ready to get a bite to eat?" Darin asked.
"Yes!" Vera shouted, "I'm starving."
"I told you to eat breakfast..." Lyla muttered.
"Don't you think we should at least check into a hotel first? I don't want to carry my bags into some restaurant," Thomas said.
"Oh, yeah, good point," Darin said.
"Let's stay somewhere nice," Vera said dreamily, "with a big pool, and a sauna, and a spa!"
"Sounds expensive," Thomas said.
"Well it's not like we can't afford it," Darin said, "the account has quite a bit of money in it. We're not going to exhaust it anytime soon."
"Oh. Right..." Thomas said, still unsure. His upbringing had taught him to never spend excessive amounts of money where there was a cheaper alternative available. Then again, that policy had come back to bite him the time he stayed at the "Interstate Budget Inn" during a road trip he and his friends took the summer before his senior year. He shuddered at the memories.
"So we'll just take the PODS to the Hovertaxi Plaza, and we'll go from there." A few minutes later, and they were standing on a platform teeming with people searching for a ride. Taxis in all shapes and sizes continuously landed and took off. There were limo taxis, four door taxis, minivan style taxis, even convertible taxis. The group made their way down the crosswalk till they found a row of the minivan style taxis that were big enough for the five of them and their luggage. They opened the rear hatch and loaded in their luggage before piling in.
"Hey, where's the driver?" Thomas asked.
"Hello," a computerized voice said, "thank you for choosing Taxico to fill your transportation needs! Where can I take you today?"
"Can you recommend a good hotel?" Darin asked.
"I certainly can," the voice responded, "but I'll need a bit more information first. Do you have a spending limit?"
"N--" Darin began, but was interrupted by a frantic Thomas.
"There's no driver?!" Thomas hissed.
"Be quiet!" Darin snapped.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," the voice said. "Try to speak up, or if you prefer, you can just use the touchscreen in the dashboard. Do you have a spending limit?"
"No."
"Excellent, that leaves us with many fantastic options. Do you have any required amenities?"
"There's no person in this car behind the wheel!" Thomas blurted out. "Wait! There's not even a wheel!"
"Will you just relax? All hovercars are completely automated now!"
"I'm sorry, I don't understand. Please use the touchscreen to select the options you need."
"Great," Darin muttered and began poking at the screen. Thomas decided it would be best to just remain quiet and demand an explanation once they were en route so he didn't screw anything else up. "So we want a pool, sauna, spa, anything else?"
"Breakfast!" Vera said, her mind still on food.
"An exercise room of some sort would be nice," Doug said.
"As long as the rooms are clean..." Thomas said quietly. Darin nodded and punched a few more buttons. Finally a result came up.
"Based on your selections, I recommend the Blackfayre Inn, a hotel designed for the distinguished traveler located in one of the most desirable locations in the city. Elegance, comfort, and beauty, the Blackfayre Inn. Is this acceptable?"
"Yes," Darin said.
"Great! The total cost for the trip will be $63.20."
"Accept."
"Wonderful! We're on our way, please buckle up!" Thomas quickly obeyed. The taxi began to rapidly rise above the plaza, then paused once it reached the desired altitude. It then turned to face the correct heading. Thomas grabbed onto the handle on the back of the seat in front of him and held on tight. The taxi shot off in the direction of the destination.
"Sit back and relax," the voice said, "our trip will take about seven minutes. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!"
"We're using an autopilot system?" Doug asked.
"Well yeah, all hovercars are completely automated. You either tell it where to go or manually punch in the destination and it picks the fastest, most direct route."
"How do you know we're not going to collide with some other car?!" Thomas yelped as the taxi suddenly dropped in altitude.
"All the vehicles are in constant communication with each other. They know where every car within several miles is located and adjust speed and altitude accordingly." As if to demonstrate this fact, the taxi sped up and rose in altitude. "The only time there's ever a crash is if the car fails completely, but that hardly ever happens. Even if it does, the most recent safety measures ensure you're not going to crash and burn like in times past."
"Oh that's very reassuring! The blind leading the blind at it's finest!" Thomas shouted as he held on for dear life.
"Well it's certainly an improvement over how things used to be," Darin said. "When hovercars first came out, no one knew how to fly, but the government hailed the technology as a great advancement. Legislators said that to over regulate it would kill it in its infancy, so they placed virtually no restrictions on it. There were so many accidents that the government quickly backpedaled and made piloting them without a pilot's license illegal. This, of course, would have killed the technology altogether, but lobbyists were able to get the government to add a clause later that allowed for auto-piloted vehicles to be owned by the public at large. Things were still shaky with the early models, but the technology has made great strides in safety and accuracy of navigation."
"Well I'm reassured! All of the future technology is so great and safe, but oh, by the way, there's a possibility that you're going to die in some horrible fiery crash when your autopilot collides with another vehicle or by having the digital representation of your body deleted when a hard drive somewhere crashes! Yes, very reassured!" Thomas ranted and raved.
"OK, don't you think that's just a little bit of an exaggeration?" Darin shouted back.
"Hey! Guys! Chill!" Lyla, the voice of reason said. "It's strange. You're not used to it. We get it, but we've been using the same technology ourselves for years, and we're still alive, so just relax a little. We only mention the chance of an accident because there is one and you should be aware. I'm sure you knew when you use
d to fly in your time there was always a chance of the plane crashing, but did you stop flying? No. So there's a chance this taxi could crash, but we're not going to walk just because of that. OK?"
"Sorry, you're right... It's just so weird," Thomas said.
"I'm sure we'd think your time was weird if we could go back ourselves," Lyla said.
"Probably so," Thomas said and reflected on this. He stared out the window as the taxi zoomed along. Many other cars were visible flying around above and below them, and several times one whisked by on nearly the same plane and altitude as they were flying on. It was, admittedly, a fairly smooth ride for all the dipping and dodging the vehicle was making, and the view from above was much nicer than the view from the ground.
"Hey, here we are," Doug said, looking out the window on the other side of the van at the building they were approaching. The building had the pretentious sounding name plastered along the top of it in pretentious looking letters. This was unusual, as Thomas was not even aware that letters could look pretentious. But, if anyone knew how to do pretentious things, it was the British. It was a very tall building for a hotel, but it certainly wasn't the tallest building in the city itself. Several other skyscrapers towered over it. Still, it was impressive nonetheless.
"Looks posh," Lyla said. The taxi made its descent to the street below, passing several windows looking into rooms as they went.
"Remind me to shut the blinds as soon as we get into our room." Vera muttered. The taxi finally reached the street and settled down into a low hover about six inches off the ground. The group exited the taxi and grabbed their bags out of the trunk. They entered through the revolving doors into a marble filled lobby with an enormous fireplace and some of the most comfortable looking chairs any of them had ever seen.
"Beautiful..." Vera exhaled.
"Expensive..." Thomas moaned.
"Neat." Doug said. They walked up to the front desk where a pointy nosed, beady eyed gentleman awaited them. He had a rigid, proper posture and seemed incapable of changing facial expressions.
"Welcome to the Blackfayre Inn, the local center of elegance, comfort, and beauty," the man recited, "How may I help you sir?"
"Yes, we'd like two suites please."
"Excellent sir, how long will sir be staying?"
"Well, actually, we're not sure. Can we say three days for now and add more days if the rooms are still available?"
"Let me check the system first sir, before I give sir an answer. I would not want to mislead sir." He poked away at the computer's touchscreen with incredible speed while still managing to keep his perfect posture. It was quite a feat. "Ah, excellent, it seems we have two suites located on the 68th floor that are not booked for the next week. If sir would like, I can arrange for sir to have both rooms for the full week, and should sir check out early, sir will not be penalized. Does this meet sir's approval?"
"Yes, that would be spectacular, thank you." The man pulled out the same device that was used at the ticketing counter of the Clinton Hoverport back home.
"Will sir be paying for both rooms?"
"Yes, that's fine."
"Very good sir." He aimed the device at Darin and pushed the button. The device beeped and the man put it away to resume his pecking at the computer screen. He then aimed it at everyone else in the group and scanned them as well. "Sir's arrangements are finalized..."
"Accept," Darin responded.
The man nodded cordially and rang a bell twice. Two bellhops appeared and scooped up the group's bags. "These two," the man said, elevating his nose a bit further, "will help gentlemen and ladies to their rooms." The group moved down the hallway, the bellhops leading the way. They reached a bay of elevators, which surprised Doug.
"No PODS?"
"They use them in some buildings, but most still use elevators--err, lifts," Darin quickly corrected after the sharp look from the bellhop, "in most buildings. It's much cheaper, and a lot of these buildings were constructed before PODS became so widely used."
"Ah, I see." The lift arrived and they entered.
"68th floor?" A computerized voice queried.
"Yes," answered one of the bellhops. The lift shot up quickly and reached the 68th floor in no time. The bellhop carrying Vera and Lyla's bags paused in front of a door and the latch clicked, granting them entrance.
"See you guys in a little bit!" Lyla yelled as she disappeared into the room. The bellhop now leading Darin, Doug and Thomas paused in front of the next door over and, once the latch clicked, led the way in. The three followed behind and watched as the bellhop deposited the bags on the couch in the front room. Their suite contained two separate bedrooms, each with king beds and large en suite bathrooms. The front room contained a small kitchenette complete with a bar and the aforementioned couch that was, presumably, a pullout.
"You're all set," the bellhop said to Darin. He coughed politely.
"Ah, yes, umm, make transaction send ten dollars." The bellhop's eyes widened.
"Accept," he said rashly. "A pittance," he said, glaring at Darin as he left the room.
"Good grief," Darin muttered once he was gone, "I have no idea what you should even tip a bellhop..."
"Eh, don't worry about it, he's British," Doug said. "When the British aren't off making something pretentious looking, they're off getting offended about something." The three guys walked out into the hallway and bumped into Vera and Lyla.
"You ready to go eat now? I'm starving!" Vera said.
"Sure, let's get outside and I'll call a cab." Darin said.
"Where to gang?" Asked the lift.
"Lobby," Lyla responded. The lift plummeted to the ground level and the doors slid open.
"Have a great night!" the lift shouted as they left.
"It was a lot more talkative than before..." Thomas pondered idly.
"Maybe it just didn't like the bellhops," Doug laughed, "no one else seems to." The group continued jesting and laughing as they made their way out to the street in front of the hotel, provoking many grunts of disapproval from the hotel's staff.