Having seen enough grey and blue for one winter, Rodney felt like change of scenery today. He told his assistant to get him some place nice and warm.

The wired, invisible AI nodded audibly upon completing the request a second later, and sent a list of items to pack to his holo wristband – the usual suspects of what to wear, with the travel toiletries and miscellanea marked for automatic purchase. Rodney went to his bedroom and quickly ticked off most of the items as he packed them in his backpack, and issued another command for the AI to get him something fresh and classy, and also maybe something flashy. The computer was well aware of his brand and fashion preferences and, with plenty of room for improvisation, the matter had been sorted in another second. A driverless cab was at his door three minutes later, the flight and stay had been booked, and all items had been routed to his destination that he would reach in six hours. He slung his backpack into the car and jumped in with a skip. The upside-down city zoomed by on the reflection of the side window.

He loved the spacious and well lit halls of the airport, with the noise levels dimmed to a barely—but still—audible, energizing murmur of socialisation, and the faint and very pleasant fragrance of freshly made food in the air. For an agonizing moment, he could not decide between grabbing a freshly baked bagel with jalapeno cream cheese, or going for a warming bowl of tofu ramen, both looking wildly enticing. In the end he had the ramen – it was winter, after all, and while he ate it, he chatted with the others at the communal table and, afterwards, went straight to his plane, the AI giving directions through the wristband. Soon he was sitting in his seat, comfortably leaning back while waiting for the final passengers to board.

Rodney still remembered how it had been back in the day. Thankfully, the digitisation had freed airports of all unpleasantness. No more Checkpoint Charlie bullcrap with scanners and trays and pat-downs and showing your tickets, missing connections, looking for directions, worrying about delays, navigating the maze, and no more flight attendants, cramped cabins and airplane food. No more upgrading and downgrading. The transport was transport once more, with the machines behind the wheel of the sustainable, supersonic electric jets, operating at subatomic clockwork precision.

He finally asked his assistant where he was going and oohed on the reply. The AI politely wondered if he would like to learn basic Malay to which Rodney replied with a satisfied ‘hit me’.