Day 28 of 30

NanoWriMo2005
J E D Cline
Title: “The Ark of 1984’s Future”

Day 28 of 30

The millimeter diameter carousel was not able to servoposition laterally, and although it did not need that capacity on the Moon where there was no windstorms to cope with, there were leftover oscillations from the original emplacement dynamics, that could not be deliberately dampened. Otherwise, the structure stayed in place, supporting the weight of the stator part of the structure, anchored to the lunar surface, by the outward centrifugal force of the micro sliding armature segments going twice orbital velocity within the tubing. The forces on the anchor terminal were carefully measured for the first time; and the next version was soon on the drawing board computer systems at GEOSpaceDock1, then the first components of the next scaled up carousel, to be a complete functioning small capacity escalator from lunar surface to GEO; it’s resultant data would be used to design and build the full capacity version, lifting discrete loads far greater than even that of the Earth surface to GEO could lift, since it had to lift prefab aluminum rib sections built on the lunar surface up to L2. Later, it would only need to lift the subsections for assembly at L2 when a manufacturing complex was built at L2, but there were too many variables yet unmeasured to plan that now.

By the time the interim scaled up version of the lunar carousel escalator was up and running, sufficient aluminum extraction from lunar ore was being done so as to fabricate some parts for the first L2 SpaceDock, so that it how they built that, also as a toroid rotating to provide artificial gravity, only the 1/6 gee of the lunar surface, however. It also was covered with two meters of raw mass, non rotating within a shaping shell container, to provide shielding from radiation, just as the larger versions now already being prototyped in GEO from Earth surface materials.



So far, the ability of the Holovision to provide a 4 dimensional detailed analog of the complex interrelated systems to the human mind, had been working wonders for integrating the various engineering areas, so that things were working the first time, amazingly. Data had to be gathered by interim models, so as to make the Holovision model more comprehensive, but once reality was measured, and the applicability of each bit of reality ascertained toward the new task, the Holovision provided the holistic big picture full of the details if one wanted to focus on them.

But the human element was far more complex than the Holovision could model sufficiently accurately for all occasions. It did integrate the tri-brain model of a person well, the basis for the 3Musketeers practiced philosophy. But it had not dealt with the kinds of ways so prevalent in the Tanfl practiced way, which might be called “drunk with power” in general. There had been an old saying, that power corrupts, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely. And Tanfl had been in absolute power for a very long time. Is there more to the story than the ancient “muscleman smashed brainy boy into pieces, grabs both girls, fathered all the children, and so the next generation was just musclemen”? Tanfl Political Corporation’s secret enforcement arm, the Leroy Brown Society, surely typified that ancient mammalian inhuman herdbeast mind detour; but it was not all of Tanfl. It did provide the drama to stimulate excitement, the kind of drama that was not of mankind working together to create new works to help all, such as the carousel escalator and solar power satellites were. The urge to show who was better than who, kept interrupting the flow of human civilization as the warriors battled it out, getting the attention that had actually been needed for survival of parts of humanity. The warriors did not care about that, of course. Who beat whom to be the winner and take all the women to make the next generation, was all that counted in that simple but effective way of being. Lots easier than doing the building itself.

And so Rationallo’s replacement “patrol” spacecraft got finished at GEOSpaceDock1. This time, it was not going to botch the job of eradicating Idealiana as a potential witness about the Leroy Brown Society’s deadly mischief doings, that kept most people in line through simple quiet terror. And this time Rationallo himself was going to be part of the crew, to make sure it went smoothly, and get the job done. They couldn’t have a second “accidental” loss of a rocket grenade that hits the lunar StationBase, where he knew Idealiana was hiding out.

The new Tanfl patrol spacecraft tooled around the various facilities in GEO, past the hotels being built, past the Total Recycling plant, past the group of Satellite Solar Power Plants being built; on a test run, getting familiar with the feel of the spacecraft, and assuring any onlookers that all was well with the use of the patrol craft.

Rationallo did not like cooling his heels in GEO very long, away from his duties at Earth surface Tanfl corporate headquarters. So the next test flight was made to the new facilities being built at lunar L2. They actually did not have any jurisdiction at L2 since the facilities there had been built entirely out of the profits 3Musketeers was reaping from sale of electric power from their power satellites in GEO; but they came anyway, partly to seek firsthand data about what was really going on there; Tanfl had to have intimate knowledge of everything that transpired anywhere, to be able to control it all effectively, whether it had the right (or wisdom) to control it all or not.

The patrol spacecraft watched the coming and unloading of several freighters that rode the tiny escalator up to GEO from the Moon, and then watched as they returned empty down the other side of the carousel escalator, back to the Moon. It was all automated, and there were no windows to watch the patrol craft; no one in 3Musketeers had foreseen invaders from outer space. Or from anywhere, for that matter. Who would be so stupid so as to want to interfere with this desperately needed project?

Donning spacesuits, Rationallo and his two crewmen left the patrol craft and went to the holding area of the freighters waiting for a turn to begin their descent back to the Moon. They picked one that was several back in line, and a brief inspection found it to be a miniature version of the ones in use on Earth’s carousel elevator. A basic design quite documented by Tanfl by now, and so it was a simple matter to disconnect the electrodynamic braking power lines. Back in the patrol craft, they quickly returned to their dock at GEOSpaceDock1, and made themselves obviously present there. No one had known they had been to L2.” Bye bye Idealiana, nice knowing you” Rationallo muttered to himself, with a smile.

Idealiana was in a shirtsleeve environment interior lunar bulldozer, almost completed the road across hundreds of lunar miles to join the two StationBases, and in sight of stationBase2, when it happened.

When the sabotaged freighter captive spacecraft got its turn to descend the carousel, it did not have electrodynamic coupling to the armature segments, and soon had sped to overtake the freighter that was ahead of it, and impacted. That freighter was empty, and would have supported the weight of the other freighter, but the impact also caused the magnetic levitation track clearance to go to zero due to the transient load. The rapid heating from friction overloaded its synchronous sensors, and caused the freighter to speed up instead of slow down; the two freighters sped down to impact the next freighter, and a cascade failure happened. About halfway down to the lunar surface, the carousel snapped in two, and the armature segments began spilling out into space at above orbital velocity, suddenly in freefall motion. The stator with its loads of freighters no longer fully supported by the armature segments outward push, began to fall to the lunar surface, dragging the L2 station down with it.

A flash of movement caught Idealiana’s eye, engrossed in picking the best path to scoop a roadway lightly in front of her vehicle. The carousel zigzag crumpled, slamming into StationBase2; pieces of the station and of the escalator careened wildly, some pieces hit near her vehicle. She stopped the bulldozer, realizing that there now was no destination for this road anymore, at least for now. She turned the dozer around and hurried back down her new road, back to StationBase1, to get to her Holovision nook to find out what had happened. If she had been there, maybe this could have been prevented, she thought.

At GEO SpaceDock1, Rationallo watched as the word came in, that there had been an accident that had destroyed the lunar carousel escalator, and its crash had destroyed the StationBase with loss of all hands. “Bye, bye, Idealiana” he said to himself once again, and erased her from his mind. Then he strode into the 3 Musketeers main operations center, and proclaimed that the incompetence of the 3Musketeers was setting the schedule behind, and that to protect their portion of investment in the project, Tanfl was now taking control of the whole operation, so that such a thing would not happen again.

Back at lunar StationBase1, Idealiana exited the bulldozer’s docking port, and ran to her Holovision nook and activated it. Artesiana was in her Holovision nook, where she had been monitoring the lunar escalator’s routine operations. She related to Idealiana that somehow there were alarms triggered that one of the freighters in the L2 waiting section had suddenly suffered catastrophic failure of its dynamic braking system, while it was sitting motionless and de-powered except for basic monitor functions. Artesiana had merged with the vehicle, saw that the wires had been deliberately disconnected manually, where there had been no human presence at L2 to do that. And she had followed the cascade failure resulting, helpless to do anything about it. She also had learned that the new patrol ship was again out on an inspection mission, again with Rationallo himself on it. He was back at GEO by the time the failure happened, of course. It was not known where the patrol craft had gone, but it was gone when Artesiana found that human hands had deliberately sabotaged the freighter to cause the collapse of the elevator. “Keep radio silence from StationBase1” Artesiana advised Idealiana. Rationallo might not realize that there were two, not just one, lunar stationbases in existence. So Rationallo might once again have thought that Idealiana had been killed; let him think that for now, she advised.