The image of the mountain was now filled the display. Ensign Yagisawa glanced downward through the window ,but he averted his eyes hastily. Their shuttle was already below 10,000 meters, and descending rapidly to put them below the rim of Mt.Olympus' caldera, whose diameter was more than 500 kilometers. Although he knew better, the great mass of the ground flying backward furiously past the window and approaching them steadily, made Yagisawa feel as if he was on the verge of crashing.
So when Yagisawa looked up and saw the display, he was nearly seized with a panic. Though he glanced away from the display for only an instant, Mt. Olympus had turned into a rock wall. Only the surface of the mountain was visible on the display. But he could not grasp the shape. He could see only lines that radiated from the center of the display to the edge.
"We'll crash....", He thought, watching the display vacantly. He looked at Chief Zanak with a sideways glance. He was watching console as if nothing was wrong.
"Have you input a "GO" sign?"
He asked, as calmly as possible. Zanak answered without turning his head.
"Yes, I did it before the initial speed reduction. We are now on the approaching course. The only thing we have to do is take the plunge."
"No, no...I asked if you had decided whether we would make a touchdown or fly by."
Yagisawa said trying not to betray his feeling of anxiety . Zanak answered flatly.
"That's are not necessary. The fuel tank is empty. So we have no choice other than to make a touchdown."
Yagisawa hesitated before speaking ,but he finally asked,
"What we could do if we miss the touchdown? Can we try again?"
"No."
Zanak answered quite calmly.
"By the time we circled Mars, Mt. Olympus will have moved east. Before that, we'll be brought down by atmospheric friction. We could never afford to replace the fuel unused. OOPS!"
Zanak glanced up the display at a glance and said,
"Excuse me. The display is still in telescopic mode. Anyway we can't watch any longer. Here we go."
The display showed the wide-angled image for a moment, but it soon switched over to another display. Yagisawa had no time to think of what it indicated. He braced himself for the acceleration. Suddenly the window darkened. They had broken into the approach line on a mountainside.
He felt no changes for the first few seconds. He realized that the screen displayed a cross section of Olympia railroad. The data on the display altered and some changed colors as he watched.
Initially, there were small intermittent lateral accelerations. Then a "HOLD" notice appeared on the corner of the display. Soon their bodies were thrust into their seats. Of course he had expected this, but the severity of the deceleration was beyond his expectation. The display immediately showed an acceleration of 7 G, which slowly increased to 8G's.
He felt his field of vision narrow. Yagisawa realized under 8 G he couldn't even move one finger. Though he had experienced such high forces in exercises before then, he felt that this was greater than shown.
The readout on the display showed the shuttle rapidly slowing. It showed that they had already gone through the tunnel formed by the caldera and were rushing toward the ground. But Yagisawa couldn't check this because of the restriction to his visual field.
He stared at another point on the display. He was finding it difficult to look elsewhere. He noticed that their ground speed was slowly and steadily decreasing, from 3 kilometers per second to 2, and then from 2 kilometers per second to 1. Yagisawa stared at the figures blankly. He couldn't understand what it meant. He was uncertain whether their shuttle was accelerating or decelerating. He felt as if he was falling through the ground.
Suddenly he felt light. He heard someone talking to him. It took him several seconds to realize that it was Zanak. The shuttle used the Olympia railroad from one end to the other, a total length of about 125 kilometers including the approach line, to complete deceleration in less than one minute. It crossed the caldera and ran slowly entered the tunnel in a mountain on the opposite side.
"What did you say?"
At last he could turn his head and look at Zanak. He said gladly.
"Welcome to Mars! And we thank you for your taking Olympia railroad, the fastest line in the solar system. The maximum speed is 13,000 kilometers per hour...it is less than that of Syrian railroad. But only this railroad has acceleration that momentarily reaches 8.3G. It can be called the most accelerative manned railroad."
Yagisawa looked vacantly out of the window. The rail, which transformed all the kinetic energy of the shuttle into electric energy at a surprisingly high efficiency, extended far away into the dark.