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Travel to Venus in a Week

From an e-World ad circulated among the Coalition’s elite subscriber travel networks:

Do you have an excess of processing power? Have your posthuman slaves been generating more than you can spend? Have you never been to Venus? Then travel in luxury on the Lark of Magnetotail, experience the exotic locales in the sulfuric acid clouds, feel the thrill of danger mingling with the Homo Venusienne in their native element, and go on a one of a kind visit to the restricted access zone on the surface to observe dismantling of an underground fortress from the Wizard War II era.

Please be advised that the Lark’s departure from the Rio Grande Interplanetary Spaceport has been delayed to July 4, 2976 C.E. so that it could carry the new Chief Inspector of the Disarmament Commission to replace his disgraced colleague after the debacle that occurred on June 17, during the New Vear festivities on Venus. Although the ship has missed the inferior conjunction, the distance to Venus still remains within 50 million kilometers and the magnetotail of Venus remains directed toward Earth. Built from the latest superconducting metamaterials, the powerful magnetic sails of the Lark are sufficiently light while packing enough juice to sustain the continuous acceleration equal to lunar gravity for most of the voyage, tapping into the free power coursing through the electron- and negative-ion-carrying filaments in the magnetotail. About 5/6 into the voyage, the ship will catch an oppositely directed positive-ion-carrying filament to decelerate continuously at close to Earth’s gravity, eventually gliding into an orbit around Venus.

Thanks to the continuous acceleration and deceleration, the entire journey from Earth to Venus will take only about a week, during which you will stay onboard the ship in luxury, experiencing the lunar and then the Earth’s level of gravity, while being surrounded by the lush greenery of an authentic Amish biosphere, painstakingly raised by the Amish people in the Coalition’s client states for fifteen years before it was mature enough to be installed on a spacefaring ship. With the choice between a tropical rainforest, a prairie, a desert, and a coral atoll in any of the nanocarbon-walled transparent bubbles, basking in gravity obtained without having to inflict the headache of spinning upon you—what could be a more comfortable way to travel? Even the walls of the utility corridors are covered in tropical lianas. And if you happen to be interested in microgravity… why, just opt out of the automatic permeable restraints on your luxurious suite during the turnover transition between acceleration and deceleration phases.

The way back will take two weeks, due to the increasing distance between the planets and the misalignment of the magnetotail. For the same reasons, the stay on Venus will necessarily be limited to one week. But what a week is it going to be!

Lastly, please allow us to dispel the unfounded rumors of spies—and worse—making it onboard the ship. Rest assured that the spaceport security is taking all the necessary measures against that happening. Although some fringe political groups on Venus have vowed to assassinate the new Chief Inspector (who, as is well known, was the last commander of the Venus Expeditionary Force during the Wizard War II and is therefore responsible for the anti-matter strike on Beta Regio), the League Venusienne has promised the Coalition that the rogue elements will be dealt with.

Bon voyage!

Published inFuture History