Cloister

Passenger Liner

Travel, the Collective maintains, is an interruption of context, and interruptions deserve to be observed properly. Aboard the Cloister each passenger receives a pod, a silence, and a soft chime marking the moments the ship considers significant. Conversation is permitted in the gallery, where the viewports face whatever the Collective believes is worth contemplating that day. Passengers describe arriving rested the way one wakes from deep anesthesia: aware that time has passed, unclear on its contents, oddly at peace. The Collective insists that nothing happens aboard a Cloister. The shield array suggests the Collective considers nothing worth protecting thoroughly.