Space Elevator

Space Elevator

Gary was amazed.
He had never expected to win when he had entered the contest. It was cool to think about, wining a trip on a space elevator, but he had never thought the he would actually win.
And here he was, in Alaska, at the foot of the ComTek Space Elevator. And his mother was having second thoughts.
“Oh Gary, it just seems so dangerous.” His mother had volunteered to be the one to accompany him, but as the time neared she had grown more and more nervous.
“Mom,” said Gary impatiently, “there’s more chance of you getting hit by a car then dying in space. There hasn’t been a space-related accident since 2010. There’s nothing to worry about.” He had memorized hundreds of such facts in his quest to know everything there was to know about space elevators and space travel.
“It just looks so small.” From the reception area they could clearly see the space elevator’s cable through the transparent ceiling.
“Mom, it’s okay.” said Gary, rolling his eyes when she wasn’t watching. He had known this would happen. If only the people would appear and take them onboard before she would have a chance to change her mind.
He looked around the reception area again. A big screen telecomp on one wall allowed two Japanese men to explore various facts and figures about the elevator. Another screen showed a real-time view of the earth, arrows appearing and pointing out various cities and physical features, as well as the launch site in Alaska. Above the reception desk and the entrance to the facility hung a huge red digital clock, counting down until the launch time.
Now it read 0:31:12. When were they going to be let on?
While his mother attempted to get into a magazine, a rarity with the dominance of tablet computers, Gary surveyed the other prospective astronauts. There were several suited Japanese men, quite a few other Americans of various ages and colors, all who were, by necessity, upper class. No children though.
But that made sense, because the contest had promised that the winner would be the first “Child Tourist In Space!”. Not the first child per say, since ComTek had taken two up the elevator to test the effects of anti-gravity on children, but being 3rd was good enough. He was the envy of every kid in school; he smiled, musing about how many faces would be green when he made his report to the school from orbit.
Besides just being a child, he was a passenger on the inaugural trip of the elevator, the first time tourists had been allowed up. It was quite an honor.
Then the huge metal doors past the reception desk slid open, and several men and women in ComTek jumpsuits walked out. The foremost, a young blond man clapped his hands and said. “Well ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to go.”
Immediately Gary, giddy with excitement, walked as fast as he could up to the line, where the man made a great show of checking each person’s ticket. In reality, no one could not have made it this far without ComTek’s permission, since security around the elevator was tighter than at the White House. All the same, the man took each passenger’s ticket, checked it, stamped it, shook their hands and said “Welcome to the Space Elevator.”
He recognized Gary immediately. “Ah, Gary, great to have you with us.” said the man pleasantly as he presented him with his stamped ticket. Gary cradled the ticket in his hands like it was made of gold.
It was a relief to see his mother make it through. She was the last one in line. She gave one last fleeting glance back as the doors began to close and the blond haired man stepped to the head of the group. “Hello everyone, I’m Clark Stevens, and I’ll be your guide on the ComTek Orbital Platform Space Elevator today. Please step this way.” He led them first to what looked like a small theater, enough red seats to support thirty people and a large telecomp in the front of the room. “Have a seat, ladies and gentlemen, and we’ll present a short briefing. I’ll try to make it quick, I know you’re all anxious to go. There are translators in the armrests for those of you who do not speak English fluently.” he said to the Japanese men.
Clark talked quickly, just explaining the Space Elevator’s so-far short history and information about the ride itself. It was all things Gary already knew, he spent the time looking at his PDA’s clock. His mother spent the whole time fidgeting.
After far too long, in Gary’s opinion, Clark clapped again. “Okay,” he said, his smile real and not pasted on, “Let’s get suited up.” Gary wondered if riding a space elevator would ever get old. He didn’t think so, but the technology was new enough that it would be a while before anyone had a chance to.
“The elevator itself it extremely safe. However, there is a very slight chance that an accident may happen. If it does, we have to be prepared for a loss of life support systems.”
The jumpsuited ComTek workers assisted them in finding a right sized jumpsuit and putting it on. Gary was one of the first to get his on. It covered his whole body, and was quite thick. He began sweating almost immediately; now even more anxious to be on. A young ComTek handed him a helmet and showed him how to fit it on and twist it into place. The helmet was big and ungainly, but he knew it would make the difference between life and death if something went wrong. But of course he didn’t mention anything of the sort to his mother, who was having a hard time fitting into her suit.
When everyone was ready, Clark stepped ahead and let them out onto the launch area. “If everyone will please step this way, we’ll get this elevator on the cable, so to speak.”
The enclosed catwalk stretched across a deep chasm, the lower areas of the launch site. Someone had drawn a crude sign next to the doorway to the elevator: “Now Leaving Planet Earth. Please Come Again Soon.”
With a deep breath Gary crossed the threshold into the elevator, brimming with anticipation.
The jumpsuited workers climbed down a ladder, while Clark directed the passengers to several rows of seat. “Please but your helmets on now. We also have pills if you expect to be sick; let me tell you, it is not fun to throw up in your helmet.” Gary looked up and saw the whole ceiling was clear, he could watch as they went up. It was good that they were strapped down, he was nearly jumping with excitement. His mother looked as if she might need some stomach pills.
“I’m activating the helmet comms,” came Clark’s voice to his ears. “So if you have any questions during the flight, for me or the crew, feel free to ask.” Gary and his mother sat down as Clark assisted them in snapping shut the harnesses that held them. They were thick and black, rather those on roller coasters. This might not be as thrilling as a roller coaster, but it was a whole lot more interesting.
Once everyone was strapped in, Clark settled himself inside and said “We’re already to go.”
“Roger that,” said the captain from below them. Slowly the seats reclined backwards, for a full view of the ride up. They could see the cord stretching up into the sky before them.
“Excuse me, Clark,” said one of the passengers. “How strong is the cable exactly?”
“Good question. I forget the exact number, but it was somewhere close to...”
“Twenty times stronger than titanium.” supplied Gary.
Orson laughed. “Correct. That’s a very smart boy you’ve got there, Mrs. Phillips.”
“Thank you,” she said in a strained voice.
Gary wanted to say “It’ll be okay, Mom,” but he didn’t want to embarrass her over the 2-way comm.
“Prepare for launch,” came the captain’s voice as a set of red numbers appeared on the glass- 0:00:27. His mother shook visibly, and Gary reached out and put his hand on hers, as well as he could, being strapped down. A rumbling sound began below.
Gary watched the numbers count down, ever so slowly. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, but could not keep them that way. He was glued to the numbers. As they went down, the elevator began to shake.
0:00:6. “Here we go,” said Clark softly. The elevator began to shake, a deep rumbling coming from below them.
“Five, four, three, two, one, we have liftoff.” The shaking got worse and the rumbling became a roar and then they were moving, Gary pushed back into his seat. It was like taking a plane flight, except the forces multiplied. A few people took sharp breaths, one whimpered, probably his mother. Gary was almost laughing. It was awesome.
“We’ll fly on our own power for about fifteen minute,” came Clark’s voice over the comm, barely audible over the din. “After than we and the station will work together to pull us the rest of the way up.”
The roar continued for what seemed like forever, as they rocketed up, past the clouds, up until blue began to fade to black, until the stars were easily visible. Then the rockets cut out, and the roar died down, replaced by a drilling, cranking sound.
“Now we’re pulling ourselves up on the cable itself,” explained Clark. Gary ignored him, gazing in wonder at the stars. He had rarely had a chance to glimpse them, with the smog in the skies, and now they shined clearer than he had ever seen.
The passengers were mostly silent, for wonder or for not wanting anyone else in on their conversation.
The orbital station appeared after awhile, the elevator pulled slowly towards it. Clark began explaining something about how the elevator and the station would dock, but Gary ignored it, choosing instead to look at the stars. He searched for constellations, oblivious to his mother’s discomfort.
A clang and a shudder followed by a loud thump signaled their meeting and fusing with the orbital station. Slowly the seats moved back to vertical alignments. “I suggest you hold on until you get your bearings.” said Clark, unlocking the seats, and for the first time Gary realized he was weightless. He pushed the restraints away and felt himself hovering over his seat.
Laughing like he was a little kid again he pushed himself up, towards the ceiling. His mother gave a cry and Clark said “Whoa there. Don’t get too far out, or else it’ll be hard to get anywhere.” He twisted his body over to look down, where the rest of the passengers were content to hang on to handles on the floor. They looked rather odd, their bodies floating up and out.
Clark slipped his foot though a rung and reached out to Gary. “Come down for now; you can float all you want inside the station.” Gary grasped his arm and climbed down it.
The crew floated up, one after another, and, holding tight to rungs, lined the doorway to the station. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ComTek Space Elevator Orbital Station.” said Clark as the doors slid open.
Another group of ComTek workers were on the other side to greet them, grabbing arms and legs to help them though. Gary pushed his way in of his own volition, eager to explore the station. It wasn’t until he clunked his head against a rung that he remembered to take his helmet off. He pushed it though space to one of the workers who caught it and tossed it back inside the elevator.
While Clark showed off the view of earth from space, Gary hand-walked his way over to the telecomp, where he would give his speech to his school. Though he was eager to explore, school came first, as always. His mother sat to one side of the telecomp, out of range of it’s camera, squirming uncomfortably as she slid an arm through a rung. Gary put his feet through two rungs and gave one of the workers a thumbs-up. He was given an earpiece and microphone, and then the transmission began.
In a few seconds a real-time video image of his school’s auditorium came into focus. “Hello everybody,” said Gary, testing out the microphone.
“Hello!” came the voices of the Louis Armstrong Junior High.
“How is it up there?” asked his English teacher, who was visible on the side of the screen.
“It’s great! It’s a bit chilly, but great.” He embellished this with a quick, perfectly executed flip that came to him on the spur of the moment. The crowd ooh-ed and ah-ed, even though he fumbled a bit getting his feet back in the rungs.
“So how was your trip, Gary?” asked the Vice-Principal.
Gary went into great detail about the approach to the facility, the facility itself, the launch, and the trip up. “Now watch this!” He reached into his backpack and grabbed a package of marbles bought especially for the occasion. He gathered a bunch into his hand, and with great ceremony, proceeded to release them in a small cloud in front of him. More ooh’s and ah’s came this time. Heartened by this, Gary took out a water bottle, held it upside down, and twisted off the top. The water poured slowly, drifting out. These brought more ooh’s and ah’s as well as gasps and cheers.
“Now Gary,” said his science teacher. “It’s time for the questions.”
Gary sighed, scooping up the water with his bottle. His science teacher envied him more than anyone else.
“Now do you feel weird at all? Anything different due to the micro-“ and the image cut-off. Along with the lights. The station shook. There was silence.
A gasp and yelp later the lights flashed back on. The picture, however, did not return.
“What was that?” asked someone. Gary’s mother had turned pale.
Orson was just as confused as they. “I’ll go ask the crew, if you’ll wait a moment.” he pushed off hard with his legs and shot up expertly, grabbing onto a ladder and pulling himself up, followed by most of the workers. The visitors all looked around nervously.
Gary leaned over to reassure his mother. “It’s okay, Mom. Things like this probably happen all the time.”
“Then how come they all looked so worried?” asked his mother.
That he couldn’t answer. But it couldn’t possibly be anything serious. Being in space was safer than going underwater, it was a statistical fact.
They waited, and waited, and waited. The passengers were too nervous to float, instead they locked onto their rungs, as if holding on for their lives. They began to whisper back and forth, first in quiet tones but slowly growing louder. “What’s going on-what’s happening-they told us nothing like this would happen-they said it was safe...”
After far too long, Clark slowly slid down the ladder. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, clearing his throat, “We have experienced slight...technical difficulties.”
“What kind of technical difficulties?” demanded one man.
“We’re not sure of what nature yet. We need someone to go and assess the damage, which we are doing right now. In the meantime, please try and remain calm. All life support systems appear to be functioning properly, so far we’ve just lost communications.”
“Just communications!?” said a second man. “Just communications?”
Clark sighed. “You are in no immediate danger. Please try and remain calm.”
“Calm. Calm. Ha!” said the second man.
Gary looked to his mother. “It’ll be okay.” he reassured her.
His mother was not reassured.
After another eternity, Clark was called back up into the control room. When he floated back down, his expression was grave.
“There seems to be a malfunction in the power source.” he said. “We’ve assessed the damage and it appears that during docking, some screws were knocked loose. The structural supports were weakened and some fell into the generator. Our power is slowly winding down.”
There were gasps; someone shrieked. Gary’s mother looked as if she might be sick.
“And we can’t communicate with anyone?” asked one woman.
“Our station periodically radios us, just in case of emergencies like this. If we don’t respond, they’ll know something’s wrong. However, their next contact is not for another twenty minutes.”
“Why don’t we just go back down?”
“We don’t want to risk something happening to the station or the elevator when we un-dock.”
“Will power last until they get help to us?”
Clark shrugged. “We don’t know.”
“What about auxiliary power sources?”
“They seem to be damaged as well.”
There were moans and sighs. “Well, what can we do about it??”
“We have our engineers working on a solution. Please remain calm.”
There was more waiting. Gary took his mother’s hand and they waited together. He was strangely clam; he trusted the engineers to fix the problem. His mother, however, was a nervous wreck. She was near to pulling her hair out.
Then an engineer floated down next to Clark, looking equally as grave. “The supports that hit the generator also blocked the way inside. Since we can’t get inside, we can’t assess the damage and reroute the power. If we reroute too much, then we could risk electrocuting the whole ship. However, someone smaller could fit inside.”
All eyes turned to Gary.
“Mrs. Phillip, Gary, if you would.” he pointed up the ladder.
Silently, Gary turned to his mother. Her face was more pale now than it had been. He took her hand and led her, rung by rung to below the ladder. He pushed up and joined the engineer in the control room.
The crew watched him come up, their expressions grim. When his mother was inside, the engineer led the way to the door, followed by Gary, his mother, and the captain.
The engineer came to rest next to a circular door. He pointed through a glass window, which peered through. A few feet of circular corridor farther in a large rectangular room opened up, full of telecomps and walls filled with dials, screens, and gauges. A deep, low humming could be heard from inside. A fallen support, however, cut the entrance from the corridor in half.
“We need someone who can fit between the wall and the support. None of our crew is small enough.” said the engineer. “We’d try to move it but since it pierced the generator there’s a current going through it.”
Gary’s mother looked from the engineer, to her son, to the captain, then back to her son. Gary looked to her. “What will I need to do?”
“Just get inside and assess the damage for us. We’ll guide you step by step, it’s a very easy process. The only dangerous part is getting past the support.” said the captain. “Once we know what’s wrong exactly, we can reroute the power.”
His mother sighed and nodded.
Gary looked to the captain. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
The engineer held out a comm headset. “Just put this on and we’ll we able to talk without yelling.” Gary placed it on his head, slipping the earpiece in it’s place.
“Hello?” he asked into it.
“Hello there,” said the engineer into his own microphone. “Are you getting me?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. I’ll be waiting right here; I’ll guide you through it. Okay?”
Gary nodded, nervous. “Okay.”
“It’s actually very easy. Like the captain said, it’s just a matter of getting past the support. This will make it a bit easier to get through.” The engineer handed him a pair of thick rubber gloves. “But make sure not to touch the support with any other part of your body. The current is so great it could- it could hurt you very badly.” he said lamely, casting a glance at Gary’s mother.
Gary slipped the gloves on and nodded, cracking his knuckles nervously. “Okay.”
The engineer grabbed the door handle, twisted, and slid the circular door into the wall.
Gary gave one last look to his mother. “It’ll be okay.” Whatever it was, it couldn’t be too tough if they could let a kid do it. He reached out and took the first rung, slowly dragging himself down the corridor.
His body drifted upward but he pushed it down, lest it drift towards the support in front of him. Rung by rung he pulled himself closer, judging the distance between the edge of the opening and the support as he went. He would be able to fit through, just barely.
Then he was at the edge. He figured the best way would be to go in upside down and pull the rest of his body out once his torso was through. He grabbed another rung on the side, flipping his body over.
Tentatively he reached out toward the support. His mother held her breath.
He latched on with both hands. Safe.
Sighing relief, he slowly pulled himself through like he was sliding under a car. His head was through, then his neck. He breathed heavily, straining to keep his body as far away as possible from the support. He slowly pulled his torso up around the support, sitting in zero-g. Slowly, ever so slowly, he pulled his legs out, one after the other. Then they were free, drifting down.
He mother began to breathe again. The captain whistled. “Good job.”
Gary still held on to the support, and looked to the far wall. It wasn’t too far. He drew himself as close as he dared to the support, than pushed off.
He over-powered his push, however, hitting the far wall a bit too hard.
Clang. The room shook. His mother gave a little cry. Gary held his breath, and for a moment the only sound in his ears was that of his heart beating.
After a moment nothing else happened, so Gary slipped his feet into a pair of rungs. “Okay, what do I do?”
“Alright, let me think...yeah, there should be a console around there that’s big and yellow and should be labeled ‘Power Controls’ in black.”
“I see it,” said Gary, removing his feet in the rungs and placing them in others, slowly making his way to the console. “I’m there.”
“Alright. You should see a screen there. Press where it says ‘Power Flow’.”
Gary tapped the screen, harder than he should have for nervousness. “‘Kay.”
“Look for ‘Auxiliary Output’. What percent is it at?”
“Ten.”
“Okay, that’s good. Now check the main source’s output.”
“Eighty.”
“Alright. Now, what you’ll have to do is turn down the main source’s output by ten percent, and raise the auxiliary by ten. Can you do that?”
“Yeah.”
“Main source first.”
It was a simple matter of pressing the down arrow ten times. The lights flickered. Then another ten times brought the auxiliary output up to twenty.
“Done?”asked the engineer.
“Yeah.”
“Great, now keeping going, in increments of ten.”
Ten times on the down button, ten times on the up button. Once the lights went out, another time the heaters switched off, but the lights flickered back on and the heaters warmed back up once the auxiliary power had been increased. It was as easy as pie.
“Okay, they’re reversed.” said Gary. “Should I shut the main source off completely?”
“Yeah, and bring auxiliary up to one-hundred percent.”
Gary turned down the main source the rest of the way. The humming in the background ceased. The room shook. Gary jammed the auxiliary output up to 100%.
The humming began again, but this time with a clunk-clunk-clunk in the background. “Is that all?” asked Gary, breathing hard.
“Now all you need to do is shut off the main power source completely. There should be a big red button-”
“I see it,” said Gary, eager to escape. It was unmistakable; he pushed it.
Clang. The room shook, harder than it had before. Gary was knocked against the console- hard. The lights flashed- on off on off. There was a crash- the supports, falling, smashing.
Something was falling towards him, a support, fast, exposed for only seconds in the flickering lights.
The impact shook him but did not touch him. He pulled his arms from around his face and opened his eyes, he saw all the supports from the far wall had fallen across to his side, making the way back to the door a virtual obstacle course.
“Uh-oh.” said Gary.
“Uh-oh.” said the engineer.
“Are you hurt?” asked the captain.
“No, I’m okay.”
“Good. Can you get back to us?”
Gary unhooked his feet and floated up. The way into the entrance was clear. He could see his mother, the engineer, and the captain peering in. “Yeah.”
Drifting up the wall, he put his feet against it and grabbed a rung. Positioning himself and remembering not to push too hard, he launched onto a fallen support. His hands hit first, cushioning the impact. He drew himself around the support and launched to the next one.
There were six supports in between him and the entryway. He moved slowly, one by one, but as he got closer slowly sped up, eager to be out. He smashed hard into the fourth one. His shoulder hit first, then his arm, and finally his wrist, compacted into the steel by the rest of his body. Gasping with pain through his gritting teeth he floated away from the support.
“Gary! You okay?”
He gasped in reply, tears forming in his eyes. His shoulder hurt, his arm hurt, his wrist hurt, his hand hurt, now his head hurt. “Ow ow ow ow ow....”
“What’s wrong? What happened to him? Gary!” He heard his mother, panicked, both over the microphone and through the entryway.
“I hit my arm....”
“Alright, stay put, don’t move or else you might hurt it more.” said the captain. “We’ll see if we can move this support.”
Gary moaned. The pain was a deep throbbing, growing. There was a bump in skin where there shouldn’t be. They had to hurry.
“Gary? Gary are you okay?” said his mother into the microphone.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” he said, not very convincingly. Every time he tried to move to his arm it stabbed him with pain.
He could hear a commotion outside the entrance, men appearing through the entryway and testing the support. Gary watched them, his arm hanging limp at his side. They worked together, pushing each other, using each other as something to push against in zero-g. He waited for something, anything. A creak, a groan, any sound. It soon became obvious that the men weren’t going to budge the support an inch.
“We can’t get to you,” said the captain, breathing hard. “Can you get to us?”
“Yeah,” said Gary, though in the back of his mind he was no longer so sure. But he ignored that voice and reached out with his good arm to grasp the support he had smashed against. He pulled himself closer, careful not to move his arm even just a little bit.
He gripped the support, felt his way over and around it, positioned his feet, turned his body a bit to make sure he was on track. Faces waited expectantly in the entryway. His arm throbbed, but he put that away. He could make it back, he just had to be slow now.
He pushed, flew, and his hand reached out and grabbed the support before he could sail past.
A few of the men cheered, and it felt like a warm honey pumped into his veins. Just barely concealing the smile on his face, he ignored the pain and positioned himself for the last leap, the leap to the support across the entryway, arms extended underneath it, ready to lead him back though. This was the last one; he felt relief seeping into him. It was okay.
He got himself ready, and pushed. He flew now, his good arm outstretched, reaching.
It grasped another arm, and he was safe. “Gotcha!”
Then he was twisting, ready to slip through, ready to get out of that room.
He was halfway though when the wall popped.
The docking had shaken the structure of the station more than anyone had realized, and the supports falling away made the situation worse. The hole started as a thin section of the wall, only three inches thick, which with shaking and trauma became less than inch. Pressure ripped a whole the size of a pinhead in the wall.
There was a screaming, a rush of wind, and suddenly everything was loud, and the wind was whipping about him, and he kicked out with his legs and struck steel, and panicked, wrapped his legs around it. More hands came to him.
“Not his arm! Not his arm!” yelled someone over the din, but his shoulder and his upper arm were gripped tight just the same. Hands where around him, the captain now, held back himself by his own men, the wind rushing though his clean cut air and around his face. He reached out and slipped his arms under Gary’s and hooked them around his chest and pulled.
But he did not pull hard enough. The vacuum outside pulled harder then anything Gary had ever felt before, it’s otherworldly strength dark and cold. He held tighter with his legs, tears escaping from his eyes and being bourne away on the terrible wind, sucked out into emptiness.
“Let go! We can pull you in!” yelled the captain over the did. “We can pull you in!”
The wind grew in intensity, roaring around Gary’s ears even as he felt his breath being ripped from his mouth. Their arms were strong, their grips tight. They could pull him in. “We’ve got you!” roared the captain. “We’ve got you! Let go!”
Gary pressed his eyes closed and released his grip.
They had him.
“Pull!” roared the captain, and they did. He was through the door, and it was shut, and he was floating away, gasping for breath. And he was safe.
His mother reached out and grabbed him, and didn’t let go.

The doors opened to cool, safe, air, and they all rushed out. Gary’s mother stumbled across the catwalk, into the hall, and collapsed.
Two hours later, at the facility’s sickbay, she opened her eyes to see Gary sitting next to her bed. Her reached out and put his unhurt hand on hers. “See mom, there was never really anything to worry about.”