Just as Lauren had predicted, the train was already waiting at the platform. It was the first time I’d seen a hyper train from up close but from what I could see it didn’t look very different from a normal maglev train. It just looked longer and was slightly bigger.

“Are you wondering how it works?” Lauren chuckled. She must’ve seen me staring.

“A little bit, yes. How is this different from a maglev?” I just straight up asked.

“In essence the way it goes forward is the same.” She explained. “The difference being that they put more power through it and that the tunnel it goes through is pulled vacuum in front of the train so it has way less resistance.”

“Ah…” I looked further down the track and now that she said so, the doors in the distance did kind of look like airlocks. “And that’s the only difference?”

“Well… From my layman’s perspective, yes. We might find some employee around here if we search for them. They might be able to explain better.”

I looked up and behind me and still saw some busybodies stare at us. “No, I’m fine. I’ll look it up later if I want to know.”

“Alright.” Lauren smiled and nodded in the direction of the front of the train. “The first class wagons are that way.”

I nodded back and followed her as she started walking off. It at least gave me the opportunity to look at the livery of the train a bit more. This one was covered with snowflakes, the wagons themselves gradually going from black to white and then black again. Presumably portraying the long polar nights.

“Luna, look at that one over there.” Lauren pulled my attention, as I looked back to her she was pointing at the train that was two platforms over.

That train was painted in a mostly blue livery with rolling orange dunes. It was more colourful than ours but I think I still preferred the one we were going to ride. “Is that one going to Egypt?”

“No, that one is headed towards the Southern half of Africa I think… Namibia if I recall correctly.”

“Uh… my knowledge of that geographical area isn’t the greatest.”

“Gee, and here I thought that my girlfriend knew everything.” She chuckled. “Well, no worries. This train should pass through it so you will be able to see those deserts by yourself… if there’s not an ongoing sandstorm.”

“Wait… if we are going that way… why does that train also go that way?”

“Before we reach that station it’ll divert us away in a side tunnel so we don’t have to stop. These train are pretty much direct. There are options to take hyper trains that stop at multiple stations, but those are a lot slower and less frequent.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

Lauren stopped a bit further at one of the doors that promptly opened for her as she presented her holostick. “This should be it.” We were at the second car starting from the front. “And that over there.” She pointed towards the first. “That should be the first class restaurant car if we want to go and grab some food.”

“Ooooh.” I was actually quite looking forward to how it looked from the inside, as from what I could see through the door opening, it looked very fancy.

We stepped in and took the first door to the right which entered into a very spacey traincar. For the seat configuration you had two luxury seats looking at one another with a rather large table in between, this was mirrored on the other side of the isle. There was plenty of space in between these sets of chairs too so you could put them completely flat and still have room to spare. And from what I could see, every set of seats could lower a barrier from the ceiling to have your own private compartment.

As for the colour of the interior, they had chosen a light blue which worked pretty calming on the eyes.

“Wow.” My amazement couldn’t be contained. Luckily I wasn’t bothering anyone with it as we were pretty much the only people in the entire train car, apart from a couple that sat on the complete opposite end.

“Definitely.” Lauren laughingly agreed with my exclamation. “This is the reason why I like riding these trains so much.”

“And there’s not going to be any more people than this?” I followed Lauren as she walked towards our seats. It looked like the computer system had spaced out our seats plenty far away from the other couple.

“No, probably not.” Lauren shook her head. “This is pretty standard for the Antarctic train. at least for first class.”

“That can’t be profitable at all, right?”

“These trains were not made for profit.” Lauren replied. “Although for normal civies and business execs these first class seats do cost a heck of a lot of money.”

“Go us?”

“Pretty much.” Lauren nodded. “That said, the second class is really affordable though and it still has plenty of luxury. I just wanted to have a little more privacy.”

“I understand…” With all the people eyeing her… definitely a lot easier for her to get some rest in a place like this.

Lauren took her bag from her shoulder and put it in the luggage department above. After which she turned around and looked at me. “Come, give your suitcase to me.”

I rolled it in front of me and sat it down at her feet. She then quickly lifted it above herself and put it in the luggage department too. For me that would definitely have been a harder lift to achieve.

“I can’t believe that there’s not an easier way for that.”

“Oh, there is.” Lauren rubbed her hands with a smile. “A small lift can come out so you can just roll it in but that takes a lot longer and I wanted to show my muscles off to my girlfriend, you know how that goes, right?” She gave me a sly wink.

It definitely worked its magic by making me blush. “Hmmm.”

Lauren chuckled and looked behind me at the clock on the digital display. “The train should depart soon-ish.” She closed the luggage compartment and locked it by holding her holostick against it. “Would you like to sit down for a bit, or would you like to go explore the restaurant car already.”

“I think I’m fine with sitting down for a while.” I smiled.

Lauren nodded with a smile and sat down in her chair. Stretching her back and her neck a little while doing so.

I tried to not stare at her too much and did the same. The moment I sat down I could feel these seats were of the highest quality imaginable. It was as if the seat immediately changed to fit my form. Very very comfy. “Oh my Goddess, I think I’m going to fall asleep in these.”

“Hmm, I know the feeling.” She chuckled as she tapped on her holostick a bit more. An opaque white screen started to lower around our compartment, it looked as if it was a barrier of opaque ice, but that was probably done so to fit in the train’s aesthetic. Lauren did leave the big window next to us open so we could see outside. “The people outside can’t see us anyway.” She tapped the window with her index finger. “And if you want to go to bed you can turn the lights down in this compartment too and blind the window completely.”

“I’m starting to get really envious of this train.” I giggled.

“Hey, our ship isn’t that much worse off.”

“I suppose not.” I shrugged. “But these seats would definitely be a plus.”

“We could always manufacture a couple and put them in the cabin.” Lauren replied as she put her holostick down. “They wouldn’t fit the lounge’s aesthetic though.”

“And what if we want to have a napping corner?”

“Eh.” This time Lauren shrugged after which we both started laughing.

“How about we stop talking about work for a while though? Not even things that are ship-related.”

“Hmm, I could agree with that, yes.” Lauren nodded and put her beret down on the table. “Actually a pretty darn good plan now that I think about it.”

“It is, isn’t it.” I tried to get the seat I was in to lean a bit more backwards, somehow I succeeded in doing that. “I have found one design flaw in this train though?”

“And what’s that?” Lauren laughed.

“You can’t push these seats against one another so we can lay down together.”

“Well, there’s a way to fix that.” Lauren got up from her seat. I looked at her with suspicion.

“What are you about to do? Don’t break the train okay? I don’t think your pass also covers those expenses.”

“Nothing like that.” She offered her hand which I accepted. The moment I did I got pulled out of my chair, got turned around and ploffed down back on it, but this time Lauren was in between me and the seat. She hugged me tight around my waist. “Plenty enough room for the two of us.”

I had started blushing quite heavily the moment I felt her pressed against me. Doing that in such a public space… even though it’s so private that noone would even notice.

“You are comfortable, right?” She talked softly into my ear.

“I- I guess I am, yes…” Somehow it felt even more comfortable like this than by just sitting into the seat by itself…. Apart from the fact that my heart is racing this fast of course.