Abridged Shmone Esrei

The Mishna on daf 28b says that if you're going through a dangerous place you can say a tefila ketzara. The gemara on daf 29b quotes different opinions of the text of this tefilla. Then suddenly it changes gears and starts talking about tefilas haderech for a few lines. Then on daf 30a it suddenly switches back to the tefila ketzara. It's confusing at a couple points but it's clear that the gemara really discusses four distinct things - 1. regular shmone esrei 2. havinenu (an abridged shomone esrei with only 7 brachos) 3. tefila ketzara (a super abridged shmone esrei) and 4. tefilas haderech (nothing to do with shomone esrei probably just thrown in to this gemara because we're talking about tefilos on a trip. Tefilas Haderech is something that we're all familiar with and is said anytime you go on a trip.

It's the tefila ketzara though that has me puzzled. The gemara says that you can say it if you're in a dangerous place and you haven't yet davened but the time has come so you need to daven. However, it doesn't really accomplish anything as you will still need to daven when you get home. The Shulchan Aruch says not only that but if you got home too late so you didn't have time to daven again then you should daven two shmone esreis next time. So basically, this tefila ketzara accomplished nothing. If that's true then what's the point? It doesn't seem like you're saying it for protection in this dangerous place because that's really the point of tefilas haderech and also that's not the language of the bracha.