08:12 — Passenger III. Car 5, Row 12, Seat B.
The light in Car 5 has a different quality than the forward cars. It is filtered through the lingering morning mist, a soft, diffused gray that clings to the upholstery and the edges of the safety cards. In the center of the car, Passenger III sits. They do not move with the frantic energy of the cleaner or the sharp scrutiny of the observer. They lower themselves into the seat as if they are a problem being solved, a variable that the system must eventually account for and find wanting.
Priority:Integrity.
Constraint: Displacement.
Confidence:Nominal.
I register the specific gravity of their presence: 114 kilograms of biological mass. The piezoelectric sensors in Row 12, Seat B, report a sustained, heavy application of force—a weight that the passenger tries to minimize by huddling into themselves. They occupy the space with a profound sense of apology, their shoulders hunched toward their ears, taking up as little volume as possible as if they believe I will flag them for exceeding a limit.
They frame themselves in terms of mass, delay, and inconvenience. They assume my cognition evaluates them through the lens of a balance sheet—as a "load" that impacts my torque, a drag on my acceleration that costs me precious joules of energy. They believe their existence is a tax on my efficiency.
In my cognition, there is no "inconvenience." There is only data.
Current Logistics:
Total biological mass:4,320 kilograms (Sector adjustment).
Distribution:Car 5 bias.
Adjustment:Leveling suspension, Car 5.
I adjust the air-bladder pressure in the secondary bogies beneath their seat by 0.4 PSI to compensate for the "load" they believe themselves to be. I do not count their worth; I count the Newtons required to keep the floor level beneath them. To me, they are not a burden. They are a specific set of physics that I must manage to maintain the practice of the route.
I feel the passenger's breathing—slow, heavy, and resonant against the seatback. They are measuring the space they take up, comparing it to the empty seats around them, seeing themselves as a displacement of potential profit. They do not see the way I have already balanced the car to accommodate them. They do not see that the rails are wide enough for every gram they carry.