Aardvarks to Planet X Read online

trucks that drop off the sterilized and sealed containers, then pick up the newly filled ones. "Except we don't have a high delivery bill, as our trucks get charged here on site, or for longer trips fill up at one of my fuel stations on the company account."

  He gave me a card, "here's your I.D." It had my name, photo and a chip embedded in it. "You can run up your food bill on it, but don't worry. The whole operation runs so cheaply that even the local all you can eat can't compete." The stock levels were calculated for maximum efficiency, and any kitchen waste got traded to a local farmer. Next he directed me to a computer screen. "Touch screen menu, anything you can't find on the usual bill of fare just order here. Only thing is our picker team hygienically transfers it to a reusable package, and then they recycle the original. That's why there are so few litter bins needed here."

  We ordered breakfast and sat in an empty booth. "I'm glad of the company, but being head honcho don't you need to be moving people about?" I enquired. Tucking into a waffle he informed me he had people to do the every day stuff, he was more like a bee flying from flower to flower, collecting the pollen to fulfill his plans. "I wouldn't describe you as a humble worker bee" I laughed at his analogy. "You haven't seen me in a stunt plane", came the jovial answer. "And those little wonders of engineering could sure show me a thing or two about flying." With that we proceeded to plow through the rest of the meal. Placing our finished trays of empties in a receptacle, he motioned to the I.D. card he had given me. "Now don't lose that or you'll not get into our next port of call." Then he led me out of the canteen and over to one of the largest buildings on the site.

  On the way I looked out on the vast expanse of arid desert. "You sure picked a nice spot for this picnic." Laughing at my quip he informed me, "I rent it off the military, ex test land", and at an enquiring look from me Conrich continued. "Oh don't worry, no munitions have ever been fired round here, and I had my own team search every inch with Geiger counters, not one peg was hammered home until it got a clean bill of health. Got a good deal, a thousand year lease in return for concession on satellite launches, strictly communications. I don't want anything dangerous in my lift, plus they threw in security to boot. The perimeter is still under military guard. You didn't see it last night because I'd vouched for you a few miles ahead. But any would be saboteur, beware."

  We had come to a sliding door next to which read a sign, "If you picked it up drop it here". There was a bin underneath. The sign continued, "bugs travel in all forms." At my enquiring look, Conrich informed me that human nature, made it so tempting for someone who finds a memory stick or disc lying around, to try it on the works computer. "Someone once knocked out a nuclear plant with that trick, so don't be tempted." He held his I.D. card up to the plate by the door. It allowed him through but closed for me. I repeated the action and was soon in between the outer door and another inside, this opened once the one behind me was sealed, and we both stood before a desk.

  On the other side of the desk stood an impressive looking security guard. "Good morning James" my host greeted him. "Good morning James “the guard replied with a rye grin. Then he proceeded round the desk to pat Conrich down followed by me. "If you had a bag he would have to search it, but most of your work will probably stay in here. Just any notes you make in the wee hours of the night, due to inspiration. And any phone you have won't work in here due to the shielding. We have an intercom system for internal calls, and anything patched in from the outside is monitored.For content and any digital signal possibly attached. Same with the internet, security is tight as the stakes are so high." He thanked the other James and we proceeded in.

  Next Conrich led me into an office set up with a display board that depicted the tower. "Now Henry we can get down to business. You are the most vital link in my chain and here's why." He proceeded to explain his great project. The lift consisted of a geostationary satellite from which hung a tube. "It's made of links for flexibility and tapered on the outside, thick at the top for the pressure difference." The bottom was linked to the earth at the site we were now constructing; the whole structure will have a series of grooves twisting all the way up, like a barbers pole. "Frank Lloyd put us on to that one."

  "The actual principle we're using is from way back, when trains were being invented. Some guy had the bright idea of pushing the trains along pipes where the rails were, using compressed air." He paused, "back in those days materials weren't up to the job, and too much air got out to be of use. But what we're doing is putting the train, or lift inside the tube and raising it by pumping air in underneath. It's all safe from just dropping, because if it goes too fast brakes push out into the wall, and bring the car to a halt."

  Conrich indicated his plan in depiction form. He pointed to the three lakes one of which, the middle one looked like a bit like a Gasometer but below a lake. I pointed this this out. "Yes with a normal one as the gas is pumped in, the top raises up and then the weight of the top presses down, to produce gas pressure for the home. With this the water on top produces the pressure. When the sluices from the top let the water into the middle. The pressure rises and so does the car. When the sluice gates from the middle to bottom lakes open, that lake drains dropping the pressure and the car descends."

  "The water is constantly being pumped from the bottom lake, to the top one by solar powered pumps. Add to that locking devices and valves, plus a whole bunch of air pumps to re-pressurize the air sack under the middle lake if there is a leak. But the car would be stopped if that happened and as I said before, catastrophic failure makes the car lock in place. Which it does at the top and bottom anyway." He paused to re-evaluate the diagram. "The top of the tube has a grate, so it's open to space but will stop the car if all else fails."

  Taking a sip of juice he pressed on. "Now forces, The Human or Aardvark" he smirked. "Can't stand much more than two gee's. That's twice the gravity exerted by just standing still on earth, without feeling discomfort. Of course people can put on special suits to resist it, but they're not very practical for Aardvarks, so we'll forget that plan. Seeing that it's about thirty six thousand kilometers to geostationary orbit. At two gee, not forgetting you need to start slowing down at the mid point. It takes about sixty minutes compared to eight and a half on a rocket. It's only forty minutes on the way down, due to the countering effect of negative gravity. If we load it with no passengers, speeds can be increased further.

  "But if you take the time a Shuttle would take to turn around for another flight. A month, to the ten minutes we'd take to disembark and reload passengers and cargo. The cargo being in a sealed box, which is pushed out on rollers by the next box being pushed in. Then there's the cost, a Shuttle is millions of dollars a flight. Ours is all run off sun light." At this point I couldn't help quipping. "So there is such a thing as a free launch." That tickled Conrich and after we'd both calmed down he continued.

  "Right construction, can't build the tower up. It would topple before it got half way, so the only way is down. A space station will be the top terminus, and also where we build from. But I’m getting ahead of my self, can't have a whole bunch of rings swinging like an elephants trunk. So first we drop a load of ropes in a circle and tether them to the base, but even that will cause two problems. First the weight would pull the station down. So we have to counter balance the effect by increasing it's orbit with rockets. Like playing out a rope on a bucket your swinging round your head. The second is where you come in, because we don't have any rope that can withstand the forces that will be exerted on it." I saw the problem, and immediately different combinations of materials sprung to mind, each sorrowfully inadequate, so I just nodded.

  "With that overcome, we then start producing the rings that are guided down the ropes for final tethering to the bottom terminus. Now if we used the same trick as we did with the ropes, we run in to problems. First we would need to extend the ropes more, which would take us way past the Moon. And secondly the extra strain on the ropes would be astronomical. So what we do is counter
balance the rings going down and getting more pull from the earth, with more mass on the space station. Remember it's beyond a stable orbit now, so if it's done right the increase strain on the rope should be minimal. The extra mass will be material being use to make the rings, which will be constantly delivered. There will also be material to expand the space station beyond it's basic structure. As long as the masses balance out it'll be O.K."

  "When the bottom ring is attached to terminus ground zero, it will be secured to bed rock and add to the strength of the ropes. The rings will be sealed together with a flexible membrane, and as it's open at the top there'll be a vacuum inside it above the car, so several tons of air is removed from the equation. The air underneath only has to cope with the weight of the cargo and the car itself."

  "So it comes to this, I need you to come up with something we can make in space, that will hold up to the stresses my engineers will be working out. Of course it will be a bit of a feed back process, depending on the weight of the material you can come up with. So think lite Henry and hopefully we'll get a