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I would love to see an exploration of the way this transportation company operates as a business


I mean, think about Gus, the deck chief officer. It appears that he is a kind of curmudgeonly veteran of this route, having risen to this level by learning the ropes as a younger guy and becoming a grizzled old hand. But he only works, what, about three weeks at the end of each "cruise"? Let's say he then gets a couple weeks' R&R on Homestead II, before doing the return trip (which I assume is mostly empty, as people are presumably not going back to Earth in anywhere near the same numbers, or it would be hard to grow the colony).

So he must have been doing this job for...thousands of years? (Assuming he has done at least nine round trips.) What is that like for the company that runs this cruise line? Some of their employees (you can also include the pilot and other crew) were born thousands of years earlier than the people working back at HQ. Imagine being in charge of payroll! "Oh, right: you started this shift before my grandparents were born, here's your time card." Obviously the development of technology and societal organization would have to slow WAY down, or the whole enterprise is untenable.

And think of how patient the company's shareholders would have to be! Its definitely a very capitalist enterprise, as we can see by the way Jim's ticket gives him different privileges than Aurora's does (it's unclear BTW why he is able to get a nicer cabin even before she wakes up). But with each leg of the trip taking longer than a person's lifetime, the time horizon of profitability would seem to be slower than Wall Street generally has patience for.

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