For the public, the days crawled. For the selected staff, they crawled slower still. But for the governments of the nations hosting designated airports, the same calendar moved at an entirely different pace. It was fast and getting faster.
The coordination notice had been clear about the volunteer operation date. The staff departure required no guesswork, which was five days after application deadline, per the recruitment announcement. The math was straightforward. The shuttle was coming, and it was coming soon.
What the coordination notice hadn't specified was how many shuttles Nova Technologies intended to send.
The technical specifications had described a vehicle with a standard seating capacity of twenty and a trial operation passenger load of eight. Thirty-six staff across the world and potentially twenty-four airports.
