The Kompsí Pod: Time Travel for the Handicapped

The Kompsí pod “jumps” in space and forward in time. Unlike the other time traveling pods in my science fiction series Shadows of Time, this pod comes with accessories that allow the handicapped to pilot it.

But wait, pods are from the 26th century. Advances in medicine by that time should eliminate physical disabilities, right. Yes, except for the handicap in book two of the series. I’m not going to say who is handicapped or how—that would spoil the plot. Instead, let’s say he or she suffers a disability no one has seen before.

The Kompsí Pod Description

Since no one had this disability, an engineer had to requisition the Kompsí pod from the Museum of Histories because it used manual controls instead of direct mental interfacing. The Kompsí Industries created this prototype shortly after forward time travel was discovered. They never thought it would leave the lab, let alone last this long … over 40 centuries.

Like all pods, the Kompsí pod comes equipped with an autopilot Artificial Intelligence (AI). But because few AI units were available at time of construction, the P-18 Artificial Intelligence used is an old-school history professor, who does not tolerate mistakes.

In the words of the main character of the story, “I sat in a pod as different from Angelo’s as the Toledo church was different from La Grande’s sword-smithy. This older pod was like the smithy: dominated by metal instead of softer materials; beefy, solid controls that took actual muscle to move instead of an image display controlled by thought and hand motion; and real edges at the corners instead of gentle curves. Second Engineer Master Steward Samajha was right. I loved it already, even though half the controls looked like they were afterthoughts, jammed into spaces without regard for flow.”

Trivia: Kompsí (κομψή) is Greek for “sleek.”

Pod Dimensions

The height, width, and weight of the Kompsí pod is comparable to a Ford F-250 dually.

Weight: 6,062 lbs. (2,750 kg)

	inches	feet	meters
Height:	82	6.83	2.08
Width:	106	8.83	2.69
Length:	109	9.08	2.77

#scifi #timetravel #timetraveler #timemachine #space #sciencefiction

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