The resplendent sight of the zeppelin docked to the local airport stood out from commercial VTOLs flying to and from the town of Lambdanville. While the commercial airliners were more common and faster, they were also more expensive. The initial production cost of a supersonic jet was lower than the cost of a vacuum balloon airship but the risk and overall maintenance costs were far greater in the long run. The airship didn't expend fuel and could carry many more passengers than a traditional airliner cabin. While the airliner could usually hold about five hundred to a thousand passengers depending on the model of aircraft, the vacuum airships that floated across Martian skies could hold as many as five thousand passengers with suite accommodations. This was ideal for planet-wide tourism but also ideal for ferrying large numbers of people at exceptionally low prices between cities across the world.
Apart from acting as a cheap ferry, vacuum airships also acted as an economical option for the transportation of bulk amounts of cargo across the Martian globe and into space. Some airships would go up into the Martian thermosphere above the artificial stratosphere with fleets of cargo ships to release their payload to fire rockets into Low Martian Orbit (LMO). The initial launches of certain large military frigates constructed on the ground have even been done through vacuum balloon technology, providing a solution to launching large space infrastructure to orbit without the need for in-orbit construction. That last application of vacuum balloon technology had proved rather uneconomical in the modern days of asteroid mining, however. It was much more convenient to just continue the traditional methods of orbital construction for larger interplanetary military vessels and trade ships in the modern days of booming asteroid mining industries and Asteroid Belt colonization. The experiments that were done were more proof of concept vanity projects than anything else. Still, vacuum balloon airships were very useful for a wide array of applications in the Martian atmosphere due to the terraformed atmosphere of the once red planet.
Melbourne Acliate said his goodbyes to his father and mother and walked into the airport. The building was shaped like a horseshoe or a U, the airfields and regular airliner docking corridors being set up at the base of the U. People would enter into either end of the U where restaurants and gift shops were located. Upon proceeding to the bend of the U, a traveler would find themselves in booking where a long line of desks serving various airliner companies would be set along the outer wall. Behind each booking desk was a door with a security guard set up to check the credentials of anyone attempting to pass. The airship itself was docked in the center of the U held between the two shopping centers and docked to the back of the mouth of the horseshoe shape of the building. Within the booking corridor at the minima of the inner wall curve was a solitary desk set across from all the others with a similar security setup to each airline company's, though the decorations were far more ornate. This desk served the airship passengers boarding and off-boarding.
Melbourne was shocked to find the place crowded. He'd been to the airport before to greet his father and various cousins back from vacations or trips but he had never actually left the area around Lambdanville himself. It was a small town and the airport was normally pretty light in traffic as not many people came to this city. However, today was different because of the airship docking. These commercial airships usually had a large volume of passengers coming from many different cities and towns across Mars to visit major cities and the airships were slow, taking several days to traverse the globe. As a result, many people wanted to get out and stretch their legs or take advantage of the various gift shops and restaurants offered at the airport that weren't available in the shops onboard. These days were usually the most lucrative for business for everyone with a shop opened at the airport, so everything was open in anticipation of the opportunity and the crowds were packed despite the quaintness of the location.
"Ticket please." said the security guard to Melbourne who had just been woken from his stupor as the line finally yielded to his turn.
"Oh, yeah, here you go." murmured Melbourne in a barely audible form as he pressed a button on his smartwatch to display the holographic ticket his parents had transferred to him.
"Thank you, you may proceed." said the guard, smiling pleasantly at the young teenager. "You arrived just in time. The ship is about to depart and you are the last in line."
Melbourne walked through into a nearly empty circular waiting room as another guard ushered him and the rest of his crowd through another door onto the boarding ramp. He walked out into the sunlight up a flight of metal stairs. The sight of the zeppelin above was overwhelming as it floated above the ground below where various robotic apparatuses worked to make sure the docking and re-launching procedures went smoothly. Massive propellers were attached to either side of the massive cabin that was yet dwarfed by the hull of the thin metallic balloon frame above. Thin tethers could be seen extending from the cabin to various anchor points to keep the mammoth ship docked. Melbourne knew these to be made of carbon nanotubes.
Entering the airship was almost as amazing as witnessing its splendor from the outside. The entrance space was a large common room reminiscent of a hotel lobby with a receptionist at a desk directly in front of the entrance.
"Hello, may I see your credentials please?" asked the lady to a customer ahead in line.
The holographic display was shown.
"Your room number is 223. Thank you for you patronage."
The line continued with similar transactions until it was Melbourne's turn. The room numbers weren't exactly in numerical order but rather based upon availability and room quality paid for.
"Ah, my last customer of the day." said the receptionist, smiling warmly. "The awed look on your face says you've never been on an airship before. Am I right?"
Melbourne nodded as he showed his ticket once more.
"Room 725. You're on the top level. That is further away from the shops but closer to the top deck. You can go topside and watch the world from the skies while breathing fresh Martian air if you like. That is free. You can also access the gym freely which is located not far from topside as well."
Melbourne frowned as flashes in his eye indicated the Aclito was processing the receptionist's words. He inwardly realized, of course, that the system was recalculating his daily routine on the basis of this information. Gym availability meant no excuses and the Aclito would hold him to his training. That, fortunately, could wait till tomorrow. His muscles were still aching from the earlier workout.
"Attention, airship 43 is now leaving Lambdanville. Next stop, Rolokdan."
Faint sirens could be heard outside as mild inertia indicated that the airship was floating upwards and away from port as Melbourne walked down the corridors to the elevator, pressing "7" for the seventh floor.
After checking his room and throwing down his backpack and laptop briefcase, he rushed out to to the deck. He was not disappointed.
A number of passengers were also present to watch the fading sight of the airport below. Melbourne's mouth gaped open at the sight of the gleaming glass blue U-shaped building fading in the pink rays of sunlight below. The town of Lambdanville faded within ten minutes after this, giving way to the great coastline of the Isidis Sea bordering vast coniferous hills and rolling plains. Farmland could be seen to the north and wilderness to the south. Somewhere in that southern region could be seen several VTOL aircraft and choppers circling a very specific region of the forests where a certain ancient artifact had crash-landed last night and a certain anonymous young teenage boy had escaped with a certain highly illegal cybernetic implant that could potentially make him the biggest threat to the current interplanetary order that Sol has ever seen.
Within thirty minutes of lift-off, the only thing that could be seen under the aircraft was the hazy sparkling pinkish-blue sea, under an upper sea of lazily floating cumulus clouds. Sol was now setting on the horizon, the cause of the pinkish reflection below. The stars were just beginning to appear in the evening sky above and the Orion constellation could now be identified not far from the brilliant glow of Phobos.
Melbourne leaned against the railing of the airship in deep philosophical contemplation after the events of last night. He looked at his aching arm muscles and imagined himself with bulging, slender muscles and the build of a stealthy assassin. He then imagined himself as a soldier, stronger than a normal civilian and overpowering those who had bullied him for years. He then thought of his skills enhanced by the cybernetics within his system and him having the ability to become some great hero.
His delusion of grandeur was interrupted by a cold realization. It was not a realization about himself. For all he knew, he was fully capable of achieving great levels of strength. It was about the society in which he was born. The same military he had imagined becoming a hero in a moment ago was the same military he had evaded a night ago. He would likely not get into the military without a physical evaluation that would expose his enhancements, then he would be executed. The military would be off-limits, at least until he could be sure that he could hide his modifications. The Artilect Protocol was the most fanatically upheld law in all of the civilized sectors of Sol and his very existence from this point on would be a violation of that law.
As Melbourne laid on his back, floating upon a vacuum, he sincerely questioned within himself the rationality of this law he had never really questioned before in his life. Now that he had time to really think about his situation, he first contemplated the unfairness of it all. Such great potential in one simple upgrade, but it was considered a crime worse than murder by the government who ruled him. Why? Why should someone face legal consequences for the mere act of receiving a procedure that would modify their own abilities to a state that would make them physically and mentally superior to their natural selves? Why shouldn't mankind seek to break free of the mortal coil, the ultimate tyranny imposed by their natural biology that would kill all in due time regardless of whether they were a sinner or saint?