Dr. Jihoon Park gathered the children together as they exited their bus. “Twelve…thirteen…fourteen. Okay, get in your pairs and hold hands,” he finished.
Dr. Park was the escort for his nephew, Hanbin’s, middle school class. They had won their Science Olympiad competition and the first prize was a free trip to Singapore to ride the Singaporean Celestial Lift. A Celestial Lift is an elevator from the Earth’s surface into space. The structure is the primary means for humanity to bring cargo and personnel to orbit. From the highest stations, space ships can transport their cargo to Mars, the Moon, and the asteroid belt. This technology made the dangerous and expensive process of launching rockets from the ground practically obsolete. Hanbin’s class had an extra motivation to win the competition since they knew that his uncle was one of the engineers that helped design the lift. This means they get a bonus tour to a higher station.
Dr. Park also hoped he would have a positive impact on his nephew Hanbin to go into engineering.
One of the kids was the first in the group to see the port after exiting the bus, “Whoa! It’s huge!!” His eyes widened and he stretched out his arms, trying to frame the entire structure with his hands.
Dr. Park took a deep satisfying breath, “That is the correct response,” he said with a smile, slowly nodding. “Space lift ports are megalithic structures. They are some of the largest structures humanity has ever built. If you include the cable, all five stations and the counter weight at the end, they are definitely the largest thing we have built by far.”
“How big is this building?” One of the students asked.
Dr. Park put his knuckles to his mouth, “Yeah, well, that is a difficult answer to give and also be helpful. As you can see the structure is much wider than it is tall. Who here has been to Haeundae Beach in Busan?”
Five hands went up.
“Okay, those buildings are eighty five stories tall and the tallest one is 101 stories. This structure is taller than each of these three buildings. About the same as a 112 story building.”
“But, it’s so wide!” another student said, shaking his head.
“Yeah, the best comparison I’ve heard is it’s the same size as downtown Los Angeles, but as one big building. I don’t think any of you have been to LA though have you.” There were a bunch of random heads shaking no.
“Yeah, this is tough to comprehend. I’ll make it worse. It also might be difficult for you to realize how far we actually are from the real heart of this structure. The bus dropped us off three kilometers from the main entrance.
“What? Are we walking there?” The same student said with an exhausted slouch.
“Yes, of course!” He laughed. “It’s only an hour walk.”
All the kids groaned in unison.
“I’m kidding.” Dr. Park waved his hands back and forth in front of himself. He then pointed over to a small building. “That is the train that will take us all the way through to the passenger docking station.”
Half of the kids gave him an angry look. Hanbin laughed hard, knowing how his uncle usually is and enjoying seeing his classmates get teased.
“Let’s get the next train. They come every five minutes.”
The group walked in an organized march through the turnstile of the train station and waited for the train’s arrival. One student, Mari, was still hypnotized by the view of the port and noticed the clouds cleared just above the structure to reveal the lower portion of the elevator cable. The cable was this impossibly thin line amongst the blue backdrop. She only noticed it because she knew where to look from pictures. She was still unsure if she was seeing the correct thing so she brought up her coglink’s in-vision interface to superimpose a picture of the port next to the one she was now looking at in person. It was still difficult to see from this distance.
Mari bumped Hanbin arm, “Is that the cable for the elevator?”
“Where?” Hanbin asked, putting his head closer to hers to try and line up the same angle she was looking. “Naw, I can’t see it. I’ll try to ask CIVIC to help find it.”
CIVIC, the civilian Artificial General Intelligence system or AGI, stands for Civilian Intelligence Verification and Information Collaborator. All citizens with a coglink can access the AGI through the internet directly to their coglink. CIVIC could help people look up information, explain the environment around them, and help brainstorm ideas. CIVIC also had access to people’s visual and auditory brain centers via the coglink. The AGI could display images or play sounds directly to a person’s brain as if they were seeing and hearing them externally. Hanbin set up a connection. “CIVIC, highlight the Singapore Lift cable in front of me so I can see where it is.”
“Certainly,” responded CIVIC in a dull but human-like tone.
In Hanbin’s point of view, a yellow line glowed almost straight up from the center of the lift port. He took a second and saw the faint gray thread of the cable just inside the glow.Text displayed alongside to the yellow highlight of the cable:
Celestial Lift Cable: Consists of six structural ribbons.
Material: Carbon-12 Nanotubes.
Length: Approximately 36,000 km.
Cross-sectional Area: 0.28 meters squared.
Purpose: Lift support for elevator pods, electricity and information transmission.
“Ah, yes I think you are seeing it. CIVIC put a highlight where I think you were pointing. Want me to share my view with you?”
“Sure,” Mari said.
Hanbin removed the information CIVIC had put in his image to clean up the view.
Mari put her hand on Hanbin’s shoulder. “Can I support myself on you?”
“Sure…I don’t mind.” Hanbin said nervously. His face turned a bit red. He quickly sent his view to her so she wouldn’t see him blushing.
As soon as she received his visual feed, she stumbled onto him a bit. “Sorry, I always get disoriented when viewing someone else’s vision. If you move even a little bit I lose balance.”
Hanbin tried to help her stand while not looking away from the port.
“Okay, yes, that’s where I thought it was. Thank you.” she said in a sweeter tone than before.
He wanted to look at her but he knew she was still connected his vision.
“Hey!” Dr. Park barked. “You two stop cuddling over there! Hanbin, keep your hands to yourself!”
Hanbin disconnected his feed to Mari and looked at his uncle with shock in his eyes but pursed his lips to stealthily scold him. His classmates laughed hysterically. “I wasn’t touchi…ugh!! She needed…man!!” Hanbin turned away, face glowing like molten lead. Mari chuckled with her hand over her mouth.
The train began to pull up just in time to distract everyone from the scene and order was quickly restored to the group. The train hummed quietly as it came to a graceful stop. The doors made a sudden thump and opened in front of the group also with a near equally deep hum. These trains were more rugged than the ones they were used to in Korea.
The interior was very sterile. No decorations or ads like a city rail. A couple students had a look of intimidation on their faces at the very serious ambiance the design gave off. There were plenty of seats to choose from. Both walls of the car were lined with seats facing inward and two rows of seats ran down the center of the car from the front entrance of the car to the back. There was only one entrance on either side of the car and you could not pass between the cars from inside. The seats were a metal frame with gray, weaved fabric stretched around for support. Most students couldn’t help run their fingers along the cold, solid nature of the metal seat frames. There was just enough room to walk single file between the wall seats and the center seats. There were no handles along the ceiling to hold. This was obviously not set up for people to stand around inside during transit.
Hanbin whispered to one of his classmates, “This feels like a train in a sci-fi movie.”
“This train is scary. Feels dystopian to me,” the student said, pursing his lips and looking around cautiously.
The students naturally spread out, some sitting in the wall mounted seats and some in the middle rows.
“Everyone grab a seat quickly--and try the center seats” He gestured along the center of the train. “You don’t want your back facing the windows. There will be plenty to look at on the way to our gate.” Dr. Park was excited to see their first impression of the massive facility from the inside.
The doors began to close slowly and the deep hum from before made the doors seem as though they weighed a ton. After the doors gently came into contact with each other, they suddenly pushed outward with another thump. Every student jumped in their seat. There were a few nervous laughs. The train began to hum with an even deeper tone than when the doors shut. The train began to slowly accelerate. It felt like the train was trying to push through molasses, the acceleration was so subtle. The students could feel the immense effort the electric engines were putting into making this vehicle leave the station.
One of the students sent a group message to everyone’s coglink. “This train didn’t seem to struggle this much when it arrived. What’s the deal?”
Stolen story; please report.
Dr. Park saw the message appear in his vision, “While we were boarding, some extra cargo pods were attached far behind us. We have much more mass now and we will drop those pods off in the cargo bay as we pass through on the way to the terminal.”
“This train has a fat butt now! ()()” Another group message read. Laughing emojis and gifs flooded Dr. Park’s visual feed. He had to clear his message stream and leave this chat to not be overwhelmed. “Don’t get distracted.” He blurted out vocally. “We’re entering the facility in a few seconds.”
The hum of the train was slowly increasing in pitch. Only two seconds after he spoke, the train left the outside. There was an instant of darkness and the sound of the wind passing outside the train was echoed back at them. A line of white lights on the wall of the tunnel that was almost hugging their train passed the windows in quick succession. Then they reached the inside. It was only the beginning. The first layer of the onion that was the Celestial Lift station. It was an ironic scene.
“The place is just filled with elevators.” Mari said with a hand on her head.
She was right. Cargo was being moved everywhere. Up on lifts. Across on conveyor belts. Inside of trucks and carried by autonomous robots. It was a confusing ant farm of activity.
“This space is huge!” Hanbin celebrated. “I can’t even see where it ends.”
“It sort of doesn’t,” Dr. Park answered. “The station is a loop and you can see through this side for a couple kilometers.”
Only the most keen observer would notice that the train hum was decreasing in pitch. The train was slowing slightly but the students were too distracted to notice. There was a sudden jolt throwing the students back into their seats. Not violently, but enough to startle them.
Dr. Park said, “Those cargo pods we were talking about just disconnected. They will be staying here to be processed. We will continue to the people part of the station further in.”
The ride changed its personality. The train’s deep hum turned into a higher pitched whine. Everyone felt themselves sink into their seat backs as the train gained a much more deliberate feeling of acceleration. Now they were really starting to move. The scene was starting to pass faster than they could take in the details.
“Goodbye fat butt!” A student yelled. The others rolled in laughter.
Next they started passing through a forest of support beams. They saw the occasional bipedal robot and cargo truck. Everything in this facility was a larger size of what they were used to. The robots were as tall as a two-story house. They looked like they had had bodies with no head and the arms were low on their torso.
Mari finally looked up a picture of the robots on her coglink. She saw that the “body” was actually the cargo they were hauling. The arms were attached at what you might call the robot’s hip and the containers are put on the legs that walked around the facility to their ultimate destinations.
“Even though we seem to be going fast, this seems to be taking a while.” Hanbin commented.
“We’re entering the passenger terminal very soon.” Dr. Park reassured.
The trains hum lowered. The students could feel the pull of the deceleration.
“Yay!” Mari exclaimed, putting her hands in the air. Others mimicked her dance.
The train intensified the braking and they could see a platform to a terminal starting to come along side them.
“When we get to the station, deboard in your pairs and don’t go far from the train.” Dr. Park commanded. “I need to find our pod on the station schedule before we go wandering around aimlessly. You can get separated easily in here.”
Mari was seating behind Hanbin. She tapped the student sitting next to him and motioned to Hanbin and then pointed to herself. The kid, unbeknownst to Hanbin, acknowledged the request with a smile.
The train came to its final stop. The door jolted inward slightly, and the deep hum of the doors opening began. The students stood up and the first pair of students just in front of Hanbin left together. Hanbin hesitated to wait for his counterpart in his row to start exiting but he was shoved by Mari and ushered out without him.
“I’m supposed to be…”
Mari put her chin on his shoulder and said right into his ear, “The pairs don’t have to be on the same row”
“Okay.” He said nervously looking at the others.
The rest of the group including Dr. Park exited the train. The train doors closed, latched, and the train immediately started going back in the direction they just traveled from.
Dr. Park browsed the directory screen for the pod they were scheduled to ride. They were very early for their ride. He knew the secrets to the station and he requested a pod that was leaving much sooner. He got approval from the system.
“Okay crew, we leave in six minutes and the gate to our pod is just up those stairs.”
The group cheered in excitement.
“Follow me to gate number five. The pod should be ready for us to board so you can just enter behind me.”
At the top of the stairs was the view they had been waiting for. The center of the immense structure was open to the outside. It felt like standing inside the eye of a massive metal hurricane. The cables for the lift pods stretched up through the clouds.
One student pointed out to the group, “Check it out, there’s a pod coming down right now!”
The pod was traveling down three of the six cables. Hanbin brought a pair of digital binoculars, put it to his eyes, and got a zoomed in look at the pod. It was obviously traveling very fast cause he could see streams of air trailing behind as it hurtled towards the port.
The other students were jealous, “share your vision. I wanna see!”
“Sure!” Hanbin said and he interfaced his coglink to invite others to superimpose what he saw through the binoculars over their vision. Mari took a seat on the ground, then accepted the invite. Now Hanbin was the only student actually looking up while all the other students marveled at the spectacle.
“It doesn’t look like it is going to stop,” Hanbin said.
Dr. Park responded, “Trust me, it is slowing down. The passengers are experiencing twice their body weight right now. Everyone is buckled into seats to help handle the stress. We will experience this too, but don’t worry, it’s not dangerous.”
“I’m certain I am going to get sick,” Mari said, nodding her head.
“I’m hoping you will be fine during the trip. It’s the time at the Mars Transition Station I think you may feel weird.”
“Oooh are we gonna float around like astronauts?” one student blurted out. He had his arms straight out at shoulder height leaning side-to-side like a tree swaying in a strong wind, “I’ve always dreamt of doing that!”
“No,” Dr. Park responded. “In fact, pop quiz Science Olympiad winners! Quick! How many Celestial Lifts are there?”
“Three!” most of the students answered in unison.
“Now, how many stations are on this elevator?” he asked next, pointing up at the cables.
Mari was the first to answer, “Five!”
“Good,” Dr. Park acknowledged, pointing at Mari. “Last one. How high above the Earth’s surface is the last station up the cables?”
Hanbin raised his hand, “About 35,000 kilometers?” he said reluctantly.
“Very good!” Dr. Park replied, “and that is the only station we would float around because it is both far away and moving around the Earth at just the right speed that it’s the same as orbiting. That’s what allows space ships from other parts of the solar system to easily dock at that station to transfer cargo and refuel. Enough of that for now. Let’s board our pod.” Dr. Park pointed to a sign just a bit down the platform. “We’re pod 5-B. Follow me.”
The students walked in their pairs again looking around wide eyed. The inner wall of the structure wrapped around in a full circle. The walls here were only about half as high as the outer walls they saw when they arrived. Atop the rim of the inner wall lined antennae and control towers. Aerial vehicles were flying around just above the port and would disappear beyond the rim out of view. Presumably landing. Down inside the cavity at the level the students were walking, they could see tracks that the pods used to transfer from the loading gate to the center hub that the cable of the lift feeds down to. These tracks would look like bicycle spokes from the air.
The group reached their pod and the doors were already wide open welcoming them to their next ride of the day. A sign with a red “5-B” was posted about the door. Facing them were rows of seats on two levels. There was a set of four steps between the seats to the left and right and the seats were positioned in a semi-circle. This pod was certainly designed to give passengers a spectacular view as you ride up to the first station. Every front row seat was positioned facing the curve window lining the wall they were passing through to enter the pod.
One student ran ahead of the others, “I get that seat!”
“This is the one I want” “Dibs” “No fair!” All students were jockeying for what they thought was prime real estate for viewing.
“Trust me. Every seat is the best seat. Plus, we only have to be strapped in for the acceleration and the slow down.” Dr. Park stood just inside the door and grabbed a handrail by the large panoramic window, “You’ll be allowed to stand close to the window behind this rail for most of the trip up.”
“Awesome!” a student yelled. Slapping his friend’s shoulder with the back of his hand and smiling.
The chatter amongst the students increased.
“Hold on! Pay attention just a little longer!” Dr. Park yelled. Waving his hands. “Strap into your belts. I will come around to check that everyone has them secured properly.”
Each student reached behind them to grab the two shoulder straps that were also connected to a respective lap belt. They had to feed each arm through and click a buckle together that crossed their waists. They then pulled down on the extra strap near their shoulders to tighten the harness.
Dr. Park walked to each student to check the belts and do a final count to be extra sure everyone was here, “eleven…twelve…Mari…and Hanbin.” Dr. Park winked and rubbed the top of his nephew’s head. The students around him made a teasing laugh.
An automated female voice with a British accent sounded in the pod, “Pod Five B will be leaving in 30 seconds. All passengers please be seated and strap into your safety harnesses. The pod will not depart until everyone is properly secured.
“That’s you Dr. Uncle Jihoon!” Hanbin teased in retaliation.
Dr. Park smirked and raised an eyebrow at Hanbin. He then sat down in one of the available seats near the middle of the row.
“Okay. We’ll be tossed around a bit as the pod is brought over to the cable. The real fun starts once we start going up. When we begin, you will feel about twenty percent heavier as we accelerate upward. Twenty three percent to be more precise. We will accelerate for two minutes until we reach one thousand kilometers an hour.”
“That’s so fast!” one student said.
“Yes, and it will be bumpy and loud until we get to thinner atmosphere. The total ride will be thirty one minutes. A timer will be displayed above the door showing how long we can stay standing before the slowing down portion at the end. Slowing down only takes one minute and you’ll feel half as heavy during that part.”
“How much will I weigh at the station since we won’t be floating?” Mari asked.
“Well, about eighty five percent what you weigh on Earth,” Dr. Park answered. “Multiply your weight times that.”
“Doors are now closing,” announced the automated computer lady. A series of high pitched beeps sounded while the doors began shutting and kept beeping until the doors finished.
The students were waiting in anticipation. All eagerly staring at the wide window wrapped around their view. Currently, all they could see was the walkway they had entered from, but that suddenly started moving away as they felt the movement of the pod down the track. They could hear the large motor outside bringing their pod further into the center of the massive structure and the track they were traveling down came into view right outside the window. The light of the sun broke past the rim of the inner wall of the port. Every student squinted and turned away slightly, groaning. It was an intimidating sight to be carried across the open center like a little cocoon full of kids carried by a strong ant. They really felt small now. It didn’t take long for them to enter the building where the pods get connected to the cables. It was difficult to predict when, but most of the students expected a sudden jolt when they would reach the cables. A couple kids kept pointing their finger out in front of them and lowering their hand to tap their leg, competing to be the one who guessed the moment. Slam! No one got it right. They all laughed. There were a few more clunks and motor hums. Then, practical silence. Just the hum of the ventilation system.
The students were silent as well, not moving, gripping their harnesses, unsure what to expect.
The British robot lady announced, “Standby to launch”
A pause.
“Three…two…one…launch.”
The pod began its ascent.