[Telemachus: Drabble] "On the Way Home" [G]
Title: On the Way Home
Prompt: writerverse challenge #27 ‘the world around you’
Word Count: 424
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: original (Telemachus, sci-fi set in 23rd century)
Summary: Commodore Franklin heads home for the night.
Note(s): Franklin is actually the direct commanding officer to Winslow and her crew, but that’s not important here.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_bookclub
On the Way Home
Commodore Joseph Franklin rubbed his eyes, then glanced at the chronometer on the desk beside his computer terminal. Twenty-one-hundred hours already? Certainly well past time to head home, even for hard-working Space Fleet officers.
Franklin powered down his computer, and pulled on his uniform jacket. It was early spring on America’s east coast, warm enough not to need a coat, but still cool enough that he’d appreciate his long sleeves. He rode the elevator down to the lobby, then headed out onto the Space Fleet Command grounds.
It was such a nice night that he decided to walk to the Public Transport station- and the exercise wouldn’t hurt him, either. From the sidewalk, he could see the familiar skyline of Philadelphia, lit up and gleaming in the dark.
A hover car zoomed by, followed by a wheeled freight truck, and Franklin thought about how much the city had changed in the last few hundred years. Even in his own lifetime, vehicles that used wheels directly against the road’s surface were becoming rarer, steadily replaced with anti-gravity ones. The outline of the buildings had remained more or less constant, but they’d been improved over the years. Even now, Franklin could see the scaffolding around two skyscrapers where their external scanners were being repaired or upgraded.
He arrived at the train station and glanced at the arrival/departure board. Right on time! A train pulled up just as he got to the platform, the noise being produced as it displaced air rather than the clack of wheels on a track. Franklin had gone through a train phase as a kid, so he knew that these models ran on the same small and efficient reactors as the shuttle pods on Space Fleet vessels.
He found a seat in a middle compartment, near a woman in a business suit and a mother with two teenaged children. A conductor came around with an electronic clipboard, and Franklin pressed his palm to the screen, keying in his identification to purchase his ticket. Three stations later, he got off again and left the station for his apartment.
A rumble of thunder made him look up, where he saw dark clouds overhead. He put his hand on the biometric panel, heard the accepting beep and pushed open the door just as rain began speckling the sidewalk. He repeated the action at his apartment door and stepped inside, already working on the buttons of his jacket.
“Computer,” he said, “any messages?”
“Negative,” replied the feminine voice.
“Excellent,” said Franklin, and headed off to bed.
THE END
Current Mood:
cold
Prompt: writerverse challenge #27 ‘the world around you’
Word Count: 424
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: original (Telemachus, sci-fi set in 23rd century)
Summary: Commodore Franklin heads home for the night.
Note(s): Franklin is actually the direct commanding officer to Winslow and her crew, but that’s not important here.
Note(s): originally posted to the writerverse wv_bookclub
On the Way Home
Commodore Joseph Franklin rubbed his eyes, then glanced at the chronometer on the desk beside his computer terminal. Twenty-one-hundred hours already? Certainly well past time to head home, even for hard-working Space Fleet officers.
Franklin powered down his computer, and pulled on his uniform jacket. It was early spring on America’s east coast, warm enough not to need a coat, but still cool enough that he’d appreciate his long sleeves. He rode the elevator down to the lobby, then headed out onto the Space Fleet Command grounds.
It was such a nice night that he decided to walk to the Public Transport station- and the exercise wouldn’t hurt him, either. From the sidewalk, he could see the familiar skyline of Philadelphia, lit up and gleaming in the dark.
A hover car zoomed by, followed by a wheeled freight truck, and Franklin thought about how much the city had changed in the last few hundred years. Even in his own lifetime, vehicles that used wheels directly against the road’s surface were becoming rarer, steadily replaced with anti-gravity ones. The outline of the buildings had remained more or less constant, but they’d been improved over the years. Even now, Franklin could see the scaffolding around two skyscrapers where their external scanners were being repaired or upgraded.
He arrived at the train station and glanced at the arrival/departure board. Right on time! A train pulled up just as he got to the platform, the noise being produced as it displaced air rather than the clack of wheels on a track. Franklin had gone through a train phase as a kid, so he knew that these models ran on the same small and efficient reactors as the shuttle pods on Space Fleet vessels.
He found a seat in a middle compartment, near a woman in a business suit and a mother with two teenaged children. A conductor came around with an electronic clipboard, and Franklin pressed his palm to the screen, keying in his identification to purchase his ticket. Three stations later, he got off again and left the station for his apartment.
A rumble of thunder made him look up, where he saw dark clouds overhead. He put his hand on the biometric panel, heard the accepting beep and pushed open the door just as rain began speckling the sidewalk. He repeated the action at his apartment door and stepped inside, already working on the buttons of his jacket.
“Computer,” he said, “any messages?”
“Negative,” replied the feminine voice.
“Excellent,” said Franklin, and headed off to bed.
THE END
Current Mood:
cold