They could hear the electric motors of the pod whining and felt the weight of the acceleration pushing them into their chairs. The pod was fighting gravity and taking them right along with no issue. As their pod gained speed, the walls of the launch building seemed to flee downward, as if retreating from the pod’s relentless ascent. Then suddenly the reverberation disappeared and immense brightness flooded in.
“Whoa!” Hanbin exclaimed, trying his best to lean out of his harness closer to the window as his eyes darted in every direction possible. “We’re already above the entire port!” The awe in his voice matched the wide-eyed wonder as he scanned the structure below.
They could see helicopters and autonomous drones landing and taking off from hundreds of pads. From this vantage point, they looked like bees collecting pollen from a dense bush covered in flash flowers of lights.
The extra weight they were feeling was consistent. The pod trembled with growing intensity, a symphony of vibrations that resonated through the very seats they occupied. Outside, the air transformed into a roaring torrent, its howl amplifying as they ascended, a constant reminder of their rapid departure from the Earth’s embrace.
Hanbin messaged via his coglink to the group, “How long will the acceleration last?”
Dr. Park responded, “Two minutes. Then we can unbuckle and enjoy the view for about half an hour.”
The commotion of the wind was still increasing.
One student yelled, “I can see Indonesia!”
“That’s Sumatra!” Hanbin yelled back.
“Same thing, genius!” the twelve year old retorted.
“I’m just being more specific, geez!”
Hanbin retorted, his voice tinged with mock indignation. He attempted to turn his head towards his classmate, aiming to stick out his tongue, but the unexpected heaviness of his own body under the pod’s acceleration made his head swim, leaving him slightly dizzy and off-balance.
Dr. Park messaged, “The acceleration will stop in about 30 seconds. When you hear the announcement, you may unbuckle and come to the railing to take in the view. Then we will go over some facts about the elevator.”
“Yay!” yelled all the middle schoolers. They waited patiently clutching their shoulder harnesses.
The horizon was starting to feel lower in their view.
“This is kinda scary being this high,” Mari said.
Dr. Park reassured, “We are fine, but you can stay seated if you like.”
An announcement began over the pod’s speaker, “Acceleration will be complete in 10 seconds. You may walk around the pod when the seat belt sign has turned off.”
Cheers echoed all around. Dr. Park smiled, excited to share this experience with the young scientifically minded children.
An electronic tone chimed, and the seat belt light went dark. Hanbin immediately unbuckled his belt as if he had practiced this moment his whole life. He darted immediately to the railing. Another kid a couple seats to his right did the same.
“First!” Hanbin declared.
“Hey!” Dr. Park admonished. “Definitely no running around in here!” pointing at the two boys. I’ll make both of you be the only ones seated for the next half-hour if you don’t stay calm.”
Both boys, looking up at Dr. Park, sank their heads down in shame. “Sorry.”
Dr. Park walked to the middle of the window, flanked by the rest of the group on both sides. Every student was braced tight against the railing trying to lean over towards the window as much as possible. The view was spectacular. They were above the cloud line but, the clear weather allowed them to see clear to the ground. They could see the Kampar River delta and the many islands between Singapore and Indonesia. Dr. Park could tell that the students were interfaced with each other via their coglinks and discussing locations they could see. He was pleased they were taking advantage of the experience to learn.
Dr. Park noticed the wind noise was getting more muted so he wanted to get their attention, “Once again Olympiad winners. Let’s discuss some facts about the elevator.” He looked in both directions to see if he had their attention. “Hey, everyone pay attention,” he said in a stern but patient voice.
The chatter in the pod diminished.
“Okay. We talked before that there are 5 stations on the lift. What is the purpose of each station? Raise your hand to answer.” Dr. Park requested.
A tall girl raised her hand. Dr. Park pointed to her.
“The first station gets us to space.” the girl answered.
“Good,” Dr. Park nodded. “Next one.”
A chubby kid raised his hand, “The next one is for Mars.”
Dr. Park chuckled, “What does that mean?” he gestured back at the boy.
“When people come back from Mars, they stay at this station,” he added.
“Right,” Dr. Park acknowledged. “If people are on Mars too long, their hearts get weak and their muscles atrophy. They have difficulty pumping blood throughout their body or supporting their own body weight with the stronger Earth gravity. The Mars Transition Station, as it’s called, allows people to be at a gravity exactly in between Earth and Mars to help them rehabilitate so they can go down to the surface again. How high up is this station?”
Hanbin raised his hand, “1282 kilometers,“ he said with a proud grin on his face.
“That was too specific! You looked that up!” Mari accused.
Hanbin looked at her with a sarcastically shocked look, “How dare you suggest I would do that!”
Dr. Park interjected, “Yeah, let’s see how well we can remember facts today. Don’t make me monitor your coglink usage.” He looked around at everyone with one eyebrow raised. “Remember, I have chaperone access today.”
Hanbin nodded. Mari nodded at him.
“Okay, let’s wrap this one up. What are the rest of the stations for?” He asked, looking around.
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5 hands went up and Dr. Park pointed to the kids next to him.
“The third station is the Mars gravity station and the one after that is the moon gravity station.” he said in a shy voice.
“Precisely,” Dr. Park said. “Those are the stations that are at an altitude above Earth to conduct experiments and verify equipment will operate properly on the Moon and Mars before being shipped there. Then they are sent to the final station. The Mars Sim Station is about 3900 kilometers up, and the Moon Sim Station is about 8900 kilometers up.”
“Look, the sky is starting to turn black!” Hanbin said abruptly. “We’re entering space!”
“Yup,” Dr. Park confirmed. “And we’ll be passing the Karman line soon and you’ll all officially be astronauts,” he said, gesturing his hand across the group. Did you notice the wind noise has pretty much disappeared?” Dr. Park asked.
The students looked around trying to listen. All they could hear now was the hum of the pod’s motor.
Dr. Park stood proudly, feeling it was an honor to give these kids such a memorable experience of the planet and space so early in life.
“How fast are we going right now?” one student asked.
“About one thousand kilometers an hour,” Dr. Park answered.
“Whoa!” “Wow!” different kids
“It doesn’t feel like we’re going fast at all,” one student added.
“That because we are not accelerating anymore and we are far--”
In an instant, the pod was engulfed in chaos. A piercing, unseen force seemed to strike simultaneously, etching lines of acute discomfort across every face. Students clutched at their heads, their expressions twisted in confusion and pain, as if an invisible assailant had invaded their minds. Almost every student went down to their knees or draped themselves over the railing holding their ears. Dr. Park managed to keep his balance and braced himself with one hand on the railing. His face was contorted as if someone was blasting a siren right in front of his face. But, there was no noise in the pod. Not except the yelling and grunting from all the students. For them though, a sound was being blasted directly into each of their brains via the coglink.
Dr. Park realized what was happening and checked his audio channels. He found the culprit channel and muted it, experiencing instant relief. He looked around at the scene of middle schooler all confused and distressed.
“Mute your coglink!” Dr. Park yelled, frantically gesturing to his own ear to demonstrate. The urgency in his voice was mirrored by his swift movements. “Just cut off your hearing!”
A couple students got the hint and managed to cut off the signal but now they were deaf. It blocked their brain’s ability to process sound all together. Most of the students still hadn’t collected themselves enough to follow through.
Dr. Park sent a message to their visual feed, “Mute your coglink. The sound is not real.”
Dr. Park grabbed one student's head to have the student look directly at him. Dr. Park pointed to his ear and then made a chopping motion with his hand. The kids nodded and Dr. Park could see him relax right away.
Dr. Park then look around for Hanbin. It was not completely obvious where he was because Hanbin was laying on the floor practically in the fetal position. Mari was crouched down next to him. She had already figured out how to mute the channel with the noise.
“Mari!” Dr. Park crouched next to Mari right over Hanbin. “Is he okay?” Dr. Park asked.
“I think he hit his arm on the railing when the noise started,” Mari said.
Hanbin was cradling his right arm and it seemed he was dealing with the pain of his elbow and the sound simultaneously. Dr. Park grabbed Hanbin’s left arm, rolled Hanbin over his right shoulder and placed Hanbin’s wrist on the back of Hanbin’s head. This turned off Hanbin’s coglink completely using a safety switch implanted in his arm.
Hanbin’s eyes opened wide and his hyperventilation slowed immediately. “Thank you Uncle Jihoon,” Hanbin said red in the face and still grunting a bit from the pain in his arm.
Dr. Park looked around to assess the situation. All the kids seemed to have relieved themselves of the intrusive noise and were chattering with each other in confusion. “Everyone take a seat and strap in. I’m going to see if I can figure out what just happened. Is anyone else hurt?”
Everyone shook their heads and the group slowly made their way to a seat. Dr. Park pulled up a status message in his coglink from the station they were traveling to. “System anomaly. All non-emergency operations pause and wait for further instruction.” So this happened up at the station as well. It was not isolated to their pod. That made him feel a bit better. They are probably not in immediate danger then.
“Okay, it looks like this noise didn’t just happen to us,” Dr. Park announced to the group. “The Supraorbital Station is in standby mode.” We will arrive in less than 10 minutes. When we do, stay seated until I find out how they want us to proceed.”
Every student acknowledged this in silence. The pod was practically silent again. The student just sat staring out the window at the blue curved horizon of the Earth against the black sky. A sun beam shone down through the window onto the floor being the only familiar feature of the image they were witnessing. They were so high up that they could barely perceive the pod still increasing in altitude.
An announcement sounded from the British voice announced again, “We will begin our approach to the Supraorbital Station in two minutes. Please be seated and secure your harnesses in preparation for deceleration. Of course everyone was already strapped in. The fun of the ride was overshadowed by the unpleasant experience of the noise. All the students still just sat staring out the window, meditating on what had happened.
Dr. Park was going over all the systems that could have caused a broadcast of that kind. The Celestial Lift had many communication systems, but none of them were equipped to broadcast on the channel they received the noise on. The noise itself was curious. He had heard something like that before but couldn’t put his finger on it. It wasn’t static. It had tones. All mixed up together. Vibrating tones, and it was pretty consistent. He’ll see what they know at the station when they arrive.
“Beginning deceleration,” the pod announced. Very quickly but gently, Everyone in the pod felt lighter.
“Ahh,” Hanbin cried out. His bruised elbow straightened from the lower gravity since he didn’t need to support it as much. It caused some discomfort.
Mari showed some discomfort on her face as well. They all weighed about half what they would on Earth and it was making her a bit sea sick.
There were groans from half the students. This would normally be a fun experience but the last fifteen minutes had killed the mood completely.
Out the window, the two other anchor tethers were getting closer and becoming visible. The station was close above them and their approach was almost complete. The deceleration was reducing and they were slowly getting their weight back. Suddenly a wall of metal washed across their view of the Earth. They had entered the station. Lights and support structure zipped downward but at decreasing speed. The pod slowed to a stealthy slither, and the final brake forcefully flicked them to a full stop. The student’s heads all bumped the back into their headrests as a mechanism outside the pod latched on and brought them forward through toward an airlock. The door of that airlock was visible through the window and had the same rectangular shape of the door to the pod. They docked with the airlock and all the mechanical noises outside the pod dissipated.
Dr. Park instructed, “Everyone stay seated while I find out the situation in the station.”
No one spoke.
The seatbelt light went black and the doors began to open. As soon a crack between a doors formed an announcement in the station could be heard blaring into the pod, “...to the descent gates for immediate return to the surface.” The announcement repeated, “An anomalous event has occurred. Cease all non-emergency activity. Station crew, report to your designated muster areas for accountability protocol. All non-essential personnel, please report to the descent gates for immediate return to the surface.”
All the students looked at each other wide eyed and confused.
Dr. Park’s head fell and he slumped in disappointment, “Okay everyone. Unbuckle and follow me. We have to go back down,” he said in a sullen voice. “It looks like we won’t be going to the Mars Transition Station after all.”
All the middle schoolers groaned and complained, “Ah, come on!” Hanbin yelled.
“Sorry guys,” Dr. Park continued. “Rules are rules. Station safety come first and we aren’t helpful to understand what happened. They are sending us back.”
Dr. Park was visibly upset. He tried to remain positive for the student’s sake. At least we got to see the station we were supposed to see. We’re only missing out on the bonus ride.”
It offered little comfort to the students who were still complaining.
Dr. Park noticed he still had the muted status in his view from the coglink. He was curious. He unmuted the channel. The noise was still there. Dr. Park hid his reaction to the unpleasant signal and muted again. “Where is this coming from,” he thought to himself. He did not like not knowing the answer.