A micro novel on future mobility, robotics, and diversity. Featuring real technology and true role models.
Author: Alice N. York. Editor: Niall Sellar
She froze “Oh my god”, she cried and in front of her Mariana spun around in surprise. Reshma turned on her heel and raced back. She had five minutes before the Pod took off. Not for all the coffee in Brazil did she want to miss this maiden trip.
She racked her brain and replayed the last hours. It must still be at the café. She had flown in from Gurgaon, Delhi, where she had met with Rahul. He was the technology head of a company that built a network of 500 startup centers in India with 5 hubs already established across the country. His team had nothing less in mind than to build a global system of startup hubs to drive entrepreneurship and innovation.
Thus, Rahul was representing their team that set up European headquarters, one of them in the UK. He was also looking to partner with existing accelerators and incubators. Of course, Reshma’s investment firm was a potential ally and some of her startups were ready to expand into India and APAC. She had flown over to test the waters with Rahul. The trip, as any trip to India, had triggered a firework of beloved childhood memories. Her parents had traded the old British colony for the American way of life when she was on the verge of becoming a teenager.
Then, after landing in Munich, on the way to the Hyperloop station she’d bumped into an old friend she hadn’t seen in what seemed like ages. Andy had had an hour to kill before his next flight so they sat down in this little café and savored a large latte along with their memories. It was still early and she hadn’t gotten much sleep on her red eye flight so her body was in desperate need of caffeine. Andy had thought she looked as young as ever. He worked for a robotics company now and was head over heels for their latest model. She thought he still looked the same in his usual jeans and sweater except for a bit more gray hair around the temples.
“We are so close to the revolution,” he said. “There will be nothing a robot won’t be able to do what you and I can do now. Under the law they will need to be considered human.” How he said it gave her the creeps. It was just a fleeting moment in which she wondered if Andy had changed and given up on his heart for humans. Since high school he’d been a dear friend and that was more than three decades ago. But she had blamed it on the lack of sleep. He was just excited about the possibilities.
Out of breath she reached the café. Her laptop was still there hidden under a heap of crumpled newspapers that Andy had thrown onto the table. Reshma grabbed it and dashed back. Her mind raced. How could she have forgotten it? Well, after all she was only human. The information on her computer was worth a fortune and had been encrypted using the latest security standards. Still. Could somebody have tempered with it? She needed her team to check this asap. At the Hyperloop station, she jumped through the open door of the tube and rushed into the Pod. She dropped into one of the six seats, exhausted and wide awake at the same time.
“Running high on caffeine?” Mariana joked. “Buckle up now! We’re ready to launch.”
Reshma shot a quick message to her forensic team. To ensure that all their communication received the highest level of privacy they had started to use the encryption service of a Swiss startup. These guys had created a zero- knowledge network architecture that used customer data only to set up the communication. It never saved it.
This way data could not be compromised by hackers. They used an AES cypher with 256 bit keys and the ZRTP protocol. To the delight of their developers it was so secure that even the NSA had called it catastrophic. Most of Reshma’s business communication was crucial to her own and their client’s success. Sometimes she felt like being a covert ops member.
The door of the Pod closed with a thumping sound. Then they saw the tube door snap shut outside. A humming accompanied the air evacuation in the tube while an overhead instrument panel at the front of the Pod counted down the seconds. Everybody held their breath. The launch was smoother than she had expected.
She enjoyed the acceleration. Mariana had a big grin on her face as well. There was no wobbling from the wheels and the transition to supersonic speed came without any surprise. Three of their co-passengers clapped their hands although there was no pilot to applaud to.
The Pod hovered autonomously in near vacuum at a speed faster than voices traveled and followed its inevitable course within the tube. It would make the journey of more than 2,000 kilometers in less than two hours. Solar cells outside on top of the tube provided the energy. There was no scheduled stop in-between Munich and Lisbon. So, the Pod had a few amenities on board including water and air tanks, a tiny bathroom, fire extinguisher and a first aid kit.
In case of emergency the Pod would be brought to a stop at one of the maintenance entrances along the route. Communication with Pod Control was ensured via satellite connection that also offered a certain bandwidth for passengers to check their emails. That’s how her team would establish a remote connection to scrutinize the contents of her laptop.
Once the security strap-in sign had been turned off and it was safe to move, Reshma and Mariana swiveled their chairs into a facing position and unfolded the table between them to get to work. Their company’s vision was to build a Hyperloop network across Europe after the successful inauguration of the Munich-Lisbon section.
The reasons why this had been first were simple. Munich was ideally located as a central hub within Europe offering both a solid scene of large corporations and innovative young companies. Lisbon had started to develop into Europe’s humming startup hub, and inspiring antipole to California. This was influenced by the confident Portuguese government’s decision to support private investments with a 200 million euro public fund.
Ties with Brexit beaten London had intensified after the prime minister of Portugal had publicly invited startups with a “You are always welcome here”. More and more founders took him up on it. Many from London relocated their business to the Atlantic coast and turned their former English headquarters into minor subsidiaries- just to keep a foot in the door in case things turned around again.
Once the Lisbon Hyperloop route was progressing Mariana had looked at the connection between Hong Kong and Taipei which was one of the world’s most used travel routes hauling more than five million Chinese shoppers to Taiwan and back. But bridging the ocean was a challenge. Mariana had planted the seeds for their Hyperloop business during her student days in Munich. She had jumped to the occasion influenced by the mobility situation of her Brazilian birthplace Sao Paulo. Now she wanted to widen their focus to include transport of cargo.
Her ultimate goal was to build a track connecting Munich through Moscow with Jingjinji. The latter being China’s latest gig to combine the former areas of Bejing (Jing), Tianjin (Jin) and Hebei (Ji) into a 130 million inhabitant strong super smart city, not counting stray dogs.
Logistics would play a vital role on the route with sustainable transport a key factor for fighting climate change. Reshma had put out her feelers to possible financial partners a few weeks earlier. The data on her laptop contained ballpark numbers that some investors were willing to throw in to get their slice of the pie. If all decided to come on board it would be a home run.
Reshma had not heard back from her forensic team which made her uneasy. She wanted to be sure that no ransomware had been installed before she fired up her laptop. Only the paranoid survive. Her phone rang once. A message. Not via the secure line.
“Do you know what your boy is up to?”, it said. She frowned. What was that?
Who is behind the message and what do they want?
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