Somewhere around the world

Tried to write something.

I can tell there’s a problem with the rail about a full minute before the on-board PA pipes up announcing unexpected delays. It’s become such a fixture of my morning commute that my body has learned to notice the subtle shift in acceleration and the magnets’ whine. Lectured by the hard knocks of one too many rapid speed changes, but I’m confident enough to ignore the safety warnings on my display.
Overconfident. Braced myself for a shift down, couldn’t have predicted a slip all the way down to sub-sonic. Display shows recommended steps to handle G-sickness. I can taste the smugness from it. “Undo ‘Ignore rail alarms’ action” I concede as I start to pump blood again to the right places. The couple tasteful icons on display are replaced by arrows pointing me to all the helpful slots and bits around the seat. Pull for O2 boost. Wave hand over here for meds. Projected ETA change of (please be a glitch) 3 hours.
5 minutes later when it silently changes to 5 hours I realize that it’s no glitch. The groans from people around the cabin serves to confirm it. Worksites have already been notified of this and it should be okay to present the corporate form letter as an excuse letter. Sorry Timmy couldn’t make it to school today, rails had the flu. Not good enough for me, and certainly not for the project head. I can already see their face, no outward anger, just smiles and understanding nods. I hate them so much.
Or I could try to hook into the Frequency from here. Moving target at decent, but constant, speed. If it works it should be good data to present as an apology. Wonder why the experimental bay nerds haven’t tried this yet, seeing how they’re almost permanently hooked now, hyperreactive eyes darting around, suddenly too good to make chit-chat with the other divisions.
I set wearables to start recording biodata while I dig out the boxy device that has the characteristic coarse look of non-sanded printed plastic. It connects to Display showing a single new program. “Latest nightly” is a bit ambivalent, but I can check the changelog after I’m hooked in. I select it and ready for the last step of the process. Handshake takes longer than expected, but crossed fingers do the trick in the end. I ready the totally inconspicuous nasal spray bottle and wait for the prompt. “Apply spray now” flashes. I have a second of hesitation. There’s so much that could go wrong I’m a moving target oh god why didn’t I read the changelog before oh dear god I only have like a 3 second window anyway and the attempt is already logged somewhere ah who cares anyway. I push a couple times and snort.
Nothing happens. [minor freak out over Frequency hook suddenly kicking in, flooding them with information. Connects to other coworkers on freq at the moment, excited about experiment. Talk of big step forward and changing things forever. I don’t know, ran out of steam, but it was a nice stretch]