Digital Venous (23 page)

The Elevator

SHANE HAD BEEN watching the treatment of the mass killing in the underworld on Napean news. There was no mention of killing or any depiction of death. There was footage of empty underground streets and language such as “necessary precautions” being used. Napeans hadn’t a clue as to what was going on.

Meanwhile, to be safe, Charles had been at Crafers Gate watch-house for his meeting—he was never sure how much the Service picked up through ETP. The remainder of his crew were still cleaning up. He had instructed them to remain vigilant—subs were survivors.

When Shane heard someone at Charles’ front door he took cover in the adjacent bathroom. Charles walked in, alone. “Shane?” he yelled.

Shane appeared behind him. “How did it go?” he asked.

“Very well. They want reconciliation,” said Charles.

“Good. Tell them I want back in. But I need to meet them, in person, up there.”

“They’ll never let you. No one’s ever met them. They don’t let people up there!”   “But no one’s ever done what I’ve done. I know all their secrets, yet I can control what

happens down here too.”

“But they can turn you off, turn any of us off, can’t they?” asked Charles. “They can turn off renewal, stop the hunger cycle…”

“That’s going to hurt,” said Charles

“But that would take time… and they haven’t done that. I’m still here.”

“Yeah, I noticed—and you’re sounding pretty full of yourself, too.”

Shane reclined on Charles’ pin chair. His body weight was distributed evenly across twenty-five pins and they began to move—ever so slightly. It was bliss for an old Napean body.

“Okay. What do I say?” asked Charles.

“I don’t know. Make something up.”

They waited a few days before acting—to give the impression that Shane had been difficult to find, difficult to convince. It gave him time to contact Ryan, to check he was safe and to stay in touch with Alia. He passed on a message that the Service might reinstate him. He could help them from the inside. She warned Shane to be careful.

“Y’know,” said Shane, “that girl impresses me more and more.”

“How are you finding dealing with Ryan’s mum?” asked Charles, as usual managing to completely misread social cues.

“I’m not talking about Ryan’s mum. I’m talking about Alia. I think she’s great.”

“And Madi?”

“Now that’s a different story…” Why?” asked Charles.

“She’s clearly a psychopath—I don’t know how someone like Ryan could have been impregnated, conceived to her… by her… however it works…” said Shane.

“You don’t like her, then?”  “It’s not that I don’t like her…”

“Shame,” interrupted Charles. “You could have paired up and created a baby brother for Ryan—a little napeoid or a …”

“There’s nothing stopping you. I think you’d be good with her. You could ask all the irrelevant questions and she would quite happily answer them all. A perfect match.”

“She’s certainly a unique woman,” remarked Charles thoughtfully.

“Yeah, well, forget it; she’d poison you or slit your throat—she’s tough as nails. She beat me to a pulp, just quietly.”

“Really?”

“Well… from behind. And I was handcuffed. She’s certainly got a ruthless streak.”

“Yeah,” said Charles dreamily. “Yeah, I like that…”

A few days later, Charles contacted the Service, telling them that Shane had been found hiding out, alone in the forest precinct and that, after a good deal of convincing, he had agreed to a meeting, in person. The Service thanked Charles and instructed him to stay with Shane and await further instruction.

That night, just like old times, Magellan used the network to find Shane. As the attempt at contact flickered in Shane’s eye he said to Charles: “So much for the middle man. You’ve been axed!” He put his fingertips up to his eye. “It’s Magellan!”

The Service had accepted his requests. The weather was fine—if he was prepared to use the elevator.

Shane and Charles made their way to the Service Research Facility. Security was extremely tight. While it seemed that the Service wanted Shane’s help, they were also being very cautious of him. Four guards accompanied them down the central laneway of the research precinct to a security checkpoint. Here, the lane was blocked off by a huge metallic-looking gate with a smaller door in the middle of it, similar to the ones used around the perimeter of the city. The doorway opened and two guards waiting on the other side of the gate were looking them up and down as they stepped through.

“Okay. Captain Wing, I believe, and Captain Crompton, I’m Captain Welsh. This is deputy Yang. Guns, knives, knuckledusters… please.”

Shane and Charles looked at each other briefly then started shedding weapons. Two guns each.

“Thank you… and thank you,” said Welsh as two other guards took away the guns to an adjoining room.

“And Captain?” said Welsh to Shane.  “That’s all I’ve got,” said Shane, hands raised.

“Yang…” said Welsh, nodding his head once, indicating that his colleague needed to examine Shane more thoroughly. Yang bent down and started frisking.

“That’s my leg,” said Shane. “Metal thigh bone. It got mashed about… oh, twenty-odd years ago.”

Welsh’s head quivered slightly back and forth, as his eyes moved up and down scanning

Shane’s body. He stopped, looked over at Yang, and waggled his forefinger up and down, again at Shane.

Yang moved his hands over Shane’s neck, shoulders, and arm, and then shook his head. “Oh…” said Shane with a chuckle. “That’s my shoulder socket. It’s amenium—the latest thing.”

“You are human, right?” asked Welsh. The smile was typically Napean—over-accentuated. “Just checking—we get all sorts coming through here, that’s all.”

The northern tip of the Napean city perched on red cliffs and the sea stretched away to the west. The exit point to the elevator was through a tunnel from inside the city itself.

They walked through to a small building along the northern wall, a large, stone stairwell took them down into an expansive basement.

After a few seconds, their eyes adjusted to the dimly lit interior of the bunker. On the far side of the room, directly in front of them, was a metallic door with a small double glass window. There were a number of controls at the left of the door and further to the left of that, two guards sat in a control room. Surrounding them were double doors on three sides, leading out of the area.

They were still flanked by the four guards. “It’s okay, guys; we’re guards too,” said Shane.

“We know,” said one of them.

“Relax. You’re going to be seeing a whole lot more of us,” said Shane, trying to make friends.

“Really?” said the same guard.

Shane moved forward and looked up through the window into the cylindrical shaft; light from the room disappeared into the emptiness. A small yellow sign with red lettering lit up, reading, “DESCENT.”  A guard came out of the control room to the left and introduced himself to Shane and Charles as Smith, shaking both their hands.

“Who is coming down?” asked Shane.

“Oh, no one. The carriage lives up there, that’s all—on its way down now. It is just a precaution.”

“You use it much?”

“No, not really. The Lunatex pipeline has had more use than the elevator—it’s delivered tons and tons of that stuff down here, but all moon ore delivery was suspended about six months ago.”

“Why?” asked Shane.

“They’re stockpiling it on the ships—been building ships too,” said Smith. “Gee, you know a lot,” said Charles, sounding somewhat naïve.

“I see all sorts of things from here.”

Through the window Shane could see the circular carriage of the space elevator. “This is crazy,” said Shane excitedly. “How come I’ve never been on this before?”

Shane was amazed at what had been created. All the rumors, the half-truth, the talk was coming into sharp focus.

“Wouldn’t catch me on it,” said Smith. “Don’t like heights?” asked Shane.

“It’s not that so much as… have you seen how much it moves around?”

“Seen it? No one even knows where it is!” Shane exclaimed. “I mean, I’ve been head of security in Belair for years and I thought this thing was out in the desert somewhere.”

“It can be moving up to twenty meters in strong wind…”

“Great…” said Shane, quite brightly—and he meant it. The feeling was all too familiar. Napeans had spent a lifetime saying yes to virtual danger and consequently had no sense of fear. Plunging into extreme, if synthetic, experiences was part of the culture. The elevator guard continued: “It won’t break and you won’t know you’re moving. Cold, too; gets minus a hundred when you’re about eighty K’s up there.”

“What? There’s no heating in this thing?” asked Charles at the top of his voice.

The guard laughed a slow chuckle. “Yes, there is. Sorry.” It was a typical Napean joke where one laughed at the other’s total lack of perception.

“Seriously, the only thing that has ever caused delay are the elves and the sprites.”

“Elves?” said Shane.

“High altitude lightning phenomena—generally accompanying a storm down here, though. So if it’s clear here, you should be clear up there.”

The elevator was a tube, five meters in diameter. Its power derived from the space vacuum high above, very much like the siphoning of liquid. Made from high tensile, hollow carbon nanotube filaments, it had the ability to sway and bend while being anchored in space. Its photonic covering made it practically invisible; its color fluctuated to mirror the surrounding light quality. Sometimes one could see what looked like two strands of fishing line extending out of sight—the edges of the elevator. Its bottom section looked like it was simply part of the skyscraper that was the Service research and storage facility. As it stretched on upwards it was effectively invisible due to the chameleon-like qualities of its walls.

There were two separate carriages—one on top of the other. One carriage had the capacity to lift about forty people. They could travel in tandem or separately depending on demand. Steps lead up to a small platform connected to the upper carriage.

The top of the elevator was anchored two thousand kilometers from the Earth’s surface in space to a long counterweight and this anchor point was further attached to a system of tether lines. Connected to this network but much closer was a docking station and an array of other spacecraft, including Lunatex’s ore distributor, six shuttles, and the ships of the first fleet.

“Okay,” said Smith. “There it is. Sounds quiet, but that’s because it’s behind two vacuum-sealed doors—wait ‘til you’re in there!”

The guard entered a code on the wall panel to open the outer door to the upper carriage. With some effort he lifted a lever, sealing the elevator pipeline from above. He then unscrewed a wheel. The outer door opened revealing the carriage within and another handle, inset, which opened the inward swinging hatch.

The guard extended his arm towards the elevator. “That’s it. Up you go. Enjoy, gentlemen.”

Shane and Charles climbed the steps and entered. The four stony faced guards followed. The first thing they noticed was the thick, black, rubbery insulation both underfoot and around the walls. While this covering was soft the blackness of the interior produced an oppressive claustrophobic feeling which overpowered the spaciousness. It was dimly lit with a single light from above on one side. There were no windows or chairs.

When the door was shut, the outer hatch seal was pressurized with a metallic crack. Instinctively Shane moved over and stood with his back to the wall, placing both palms

flat against it. Charles did something similar, and then they both realized that no one particular place was better to stand. It was a perfectly round space—like being sealed inside a tin can. The guards, too, stood around the outer wall of the carriage, saying nothing. Shane couldn’t contain his excitement.

“You guys been on here before?” One of the guards nodded. “What about the rest of you?” They nodded too.

“Okay,” said Shane. “You all seem a little apprehensive. Should I be worried?”

One of them shook his head. Shane looked at Charles and shook his head, mimicking the guard.

A tremendous wind sucking noise was heard as all air was lost from the colossal cylinder high above.

This was followed by some heavy vibrations, creaking, and rumbling, which all then suddenly stopped. At this point the elevator carriage began to lift, silently and quickly towards space. It was a strange sensation. Both of them widened their stance to take the weight increase. It took thirty-five minutes for the ride to come to a sudden but soft landing. Whereupon they realized that they had no weight at all. Their exclamations of surprise and awe as they struggled to maintain control were cut short by sounds similar to those at departure but in reverse. They felt the carriage being moved sideways into some kind of dock, and then they regained their weight, dropping to the floor.

The door opened onto a chamber that looked to be part of the elevator itself. This then opened onto an external docking tunnel that was part of a space station shuttle. The two Napeans were welcomed by several guards, who accompanied them into a tunnel-like walkway. And there through a window came their first glimpse of the Earth.