![\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2009\/TECH\/space\/11\/05\/space.elevator\/index.html\"](\"http:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/t1larg.space_.elevator.courtesy.jpg\")
Zhoq threw the switch which closed with a bang. The last of the couplings hummed to life and magnetically locked into place. \u201cAll right,\u201d he said, shielding his eyes, \u201clet \u2018em know we\u2019re good, Beanie.\u201d<\/p>\nZhoq threw the switch which closed with a bang. The last of the couplings hummed to life and magnetically locked into place. \u201cAll right,\u201d he said, shielding his eyes, \u201clet \u2018em know we\u2019re good, Beanie.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mooring cable connected to the coupling extended as far as he could see and was as big around as him. Zhoq stepped just beyond the safe distance ring and turned. \u201cBeanie? You hear me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRoger, Zhoq.\u201d The voice in his ear was amiable. \u201cThey\u2019re advised.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shook his head. Beanie was likable, a character by any definition, but he damned well better be doing his job. \u201cGood. Let me know when they\u2019re close.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The cable tensed and soon enough the enormous transport orbiting above would send its car down, laden with orders from InStelEx customers. It was cheaper to drop the cargo down an old-fashioned space elevator cable than pay the fuel costs of suborbital barges. Nadje Station was the only island on the equator that made this efficient. Zhoq didn\u2019t give a damn about the customers, or the cargo. All he was responsible for was assurance that the cargo containers were unloaded and ready for transport around the globe. The \u2018bots and that damned AI could take care of that.<\/span><\/p>\n He trotted down the gantry stairs and across the tarmac. The Station covered most of the island and Zhoq hopped on his flyboard. When he reached home (bemoaning InStelEx\u2019s cheapness at not buying him any real transportation) he found his mother poring over papers on the kitchen table. He took a deep breath and went in.<\/p>\n \u201cGot a load coming, Ma,\u201d he said and opened the cooler. He popped the top of a bottle, leaned back against the counter. \u201cWhat\u2019cha doing?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s six months left on this contract,\u201d she said. Like him, she wore the company-issued jumpsuit but her hair was wild, sticking out here and there. She looked crazy. \u201cAnd then what\u2019ve we got? Nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMa,\u201d Zhoq said. \u201cBeanie never promised a retirement package. Just a job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe bamboozled you,\u201d she said and gathered the papers up. \u201cThis company is damned cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n Zhoq guzzled his drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. \u201cWell, we\u2019ve got a load coming down.\u201d He tipped his bottle again.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what are you going to do about it? How are you going to take care of us when this contract ends?\u201d His mother turned on him. \u201cWhat are you going do?\u201d<\/p>\n Her glare cut through him, threatening to cauterize the wounds her words always left behind.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said and set his bottle on the counter. \u201cI\u2019m going back to wait for the load. I\u2019ll call you when it lands.\u201d He looked at his feet as he walked past her, keeping the table between them. He felt her staring him down with every step.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n The robot loaders would be busy for a couple of hours moving containers out of the car and he\u2019d be days ensuring that they weighed the same as they did when they were shipped. As he watched the process he revisited his failures one by one: no degree, no real job skills, no sense of creativity, a lack of courage, being friends with Beanie.<\/p>\n Beanie who bought the last of Zhoq\u2019s product for a song and then talked them into coming out to Cassus to work for InStelEx. Beanie who\u2019d brought them to a dead end with no payoff. Beanie whose voice buzzed in his ear.<\/p>\n \u201cClient calling,\u201d Beanie said. \u201cWants to talk to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Zhoq felt his stomach drop. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d Panic tore into the back of his head.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing as far as I can tell,\u201d Beanie said. \u201cYou should take the call.\u201d There was mischief in his voice.<\/p>\n \u201cOkay,\u201d Zhoq said with a sigh. He went to the nearest desk and opened the call. \u201cThis is Zhoq, Nadje Station, InStelEx. How can I help you?\u201d<\/p>\n Static crackled. \u201cZhoq? It\u2019s Aime Thruln. Do you remember me?\u201d<\/p>\n There was no visual (InStelEx never paid for the tech) to go with the lilting voice, but he recognized it. \u201cAime? Uh\u2026 Hi.\u201d<\/p>\n She laughed. \u201cI had heard you were out here. Look, it seems there\u2019s a container still up here. Can we work out another drop? I know it\u2019s unorthodox.\u201d<\/p>\n Stunned, Zhoq looked around, glad now she couldn\u2019t see him. How could he work this? The expenditures would have to be justified and one container wouldn\u2019t be enough to balance out. He decided. Damn the torpedoes.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll come up with the return car.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like that very much,\u201d Aime said.<\/p>\n Something in her voice led him to believe that was what she\u2019d wanted all along. Though maybe it wasn\u2019t what he thought. Maybe he hoped too much. Now to see if InStelEx had a reasonable facsimile of an environment suit around somewhere.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n She fed him, bathed him and took him to bed. He willingly participated as he had when they were in college. Her friends accused her of slumming and they weren\u2019t shy about saying so in front of him. Zhoq had never had sense enough to be embarrassed then but he was more aware now. Wrapped in her sheets and intoxicated by the smell and taste of her, he wondered for moment what she really wanted.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was nice,\u201d she said and kissed his cheek. \u201cI\u2019m so glad I took the chance and called down.\u201d<\/p>\n He shifted toward her. \u201cI\u2019m kind of surprised,\u201d he said. \u201cDidn\u2019t you get married?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMm,\u201d Aime said. \u201cHe\u2019s out on a hoot somewhere. Took the shuttle and left me to do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n An alarm went off. \u201cContact,\u201d a voice said. \u201cShip\u2019s shuttle Maurice approaching.\u201d<\/p>\n Aime rolled off him and got out of bed. \u201cThank you,\u201d she said and the alarm stopped. When she turned to him, Zhoq thought she was the most beautiful thing he\u2019d ever seen. Her smile was bright and welcoming. \u201cGet dressed. Oscar will be here soon.\u201d<\/p>\n He whipped the cover off and shrugged.<\/p>\n She looked at him, a wicked gleam in her eyes. \u201cAll right,\u201d Aime said. \u201cBut you have to be quick.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n Zhoq oversaw the loading of the errant container. That should have been done before he ever got on the car to come up to the ship, but his ex-girlfriend had always left him to do the things she should have done. She dumped him when she found someone else who did things better.<\/p>\n Aime readied herself to see her husband, who was some kind of regional supervisor for InStellEx. She had done well for herself but he was bugged by what she really wanted.<\/p>\n A crate split open and spilled some of its packing material. He bent down and picked at the errant stuff . \u201cHuh,\u201d he said and pulled at it. The package came forward. \u201cWell, it looks like someone\u2019s going to be able to file a claim.\u201d Protocol indicated that a damaged package needed to be inspected. When Zhoq stood with it, the bottom of the crate fell out.<\/p>\n \u201cHoly \u2014\u201c Zhoq squatted down. In the packing debris lay a cylinder that glowed with an unnatural orange light. He reached down and felt \u00a0dizzy but picked it up anyway. Inside the cylinder, something moved and his stomach lurched with it. \u201cWhat are you?\u201d He felt outside himself for a moment and then something clicked. He could cobble the crate back together and stow it in the container behind some other packages. If it was valuable\u2026<\/p>\n No label on the crate so there was no record on the manifest. Aime was using him. But for what? Maybe he had let his imagination run wild. Still. Still.<\/p>\n He reassembled the crate as quick as he could and hid it in the container inside another crate. If it was worth something to Aime, he might be able to parlay that into a future of some kind. His mother might get off his back.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n Zhoq stood in the loading bay next to the door into the elevator car. His cheap environment suit lay inside the elevator car. Aime smiled at him. The lone container was strapped in and the loader bots rolled out onto the deck.<\/p>\n \u201cThanks for making the extra trip,\u201d she said with a wink.<\/p>\n \u201cLook me up next time you\u2019re out this way.\u201d He thought about leaning in to kiss her, but Oscar was somewhere around. Best to leave it.<\/p>\n \u201cI might just do that.\u201d<\/p>\n He lingered a moment then started to turn but he couldn\u2019t take his eyes off her. He wanted to believe she wasn\u2019t setting him up but the voice in his head told him he was ahead of her by knowing it now. At last he stepped into the elevator car. It was big enough to hold a dozen containers so his footsteps echoed inside. Zhoq nodded at Aime and began the closing sequence.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGo,\u201d Aime said. \u201cI\u2019ve got the drop codes in. Get the doors closed.\u201d<\/p>\n He hadn\u2019t seen Oscar but he didn\u2019t want to with that kind of booming voice. He imagined the man to be big and muscular, bearded probably, and with a short temper. Zhoq hurried through the sequence and the doors were almost closed when he saw Oscar stalking across the deck toward him. \u201cWhere\u2019s the t-field generator?\u201d There was little relief in Zhoq that he was right about Oscar: he was taller by six inches at least and wider by a foot. Maybe a foot and a half. The doors shut and sealed.<\/p>\n Four screens popped up on the only monitor in the elevator car and Zhoq saw the dock doors open, felt the car moved by robotic arms and then attach to the superstrong tether that would take him down.<\/p>\n \u201cGo,\u201d Aime said on the intercom. \u201cSend the car back right away. He can\u2019t get down until the shuttle\u2019s refueled and refitted. Talk to you later.\u201d<\/p>\n The elevator car slid down its cable and Zhoq slipped on his environment suit. Just in case.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n The loader bots down at Nadje Station moved in a lumbering, clanking kind of ballet that made Zhoq more than simply nervous. The sooner he loosed the couplings the sooner Aime, Oscar and their ship would be gone. They\u2019d have to accelerate out of orbit as soon as possible to minimize their fuel expense. Surely they wouldn\u2019t sacrifice their next drop.<\/p>\n \u201cGot a message for you,\u201d Beanie said. \u201cSays \u2018Where is it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you respond?\u201d Zhoq looked in the elevator car to see if the loader bots were out.<\/p>\n \u201cNot yet,\u201d Beanie said.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t, then. I\u2019m locking up the car and sending it back.\u201d He keyed the program and stood back, looked up.<\/p>\n Beanie didn\u2019t reply and Zhoq heard the motors above the car whine into a labored kind of life. They gripped the four coupling cables and pulled upward. The car swung back and forth within the safe ring.<\/p>\n \u201cStop the car, Zhoq.\u201d Beanie was terse.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a passenger pod coming down,\u201d Beanie said. \u201cOne person aboard.\u201d<\/p>\n Aime or Oscar? The elevator car was already fifty feet in the air. Zhoq had the glowing cylinder secreted away. If he let the car go up safety programs would kick in and push the pod back to the ship. But if he overrode the safeties and sped the car up\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t do that, Beanie.\u201d He typed madly at the podium near the stairs, opening the interlocks on the car\u2019s software with ease and set the speed as high as it would go. Then he went to the nearest of the four couplings and kicked the safety switches open.<\/p>\n The elevator car was five hundred feet up. The mooring cables combined into one and it picked up speed. Zhoq ran to the next coupling and kicked those switches open. The giant disc quivered with the strain and he ran around the safe distance ring to the third coupling.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve gotta shut this down, Zhoq.\u201d Beanie wasn\u2019t happy. Zhoq supposed he wouldn\u2019t be happy with some jerk pulling a stunt like this, either. What did he have to lose? In six months he\u2019d be off this rock and in possession of something valuable. Whatever a t-field generator was. \u201cI\u2019m overriding your override.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood luck with that,\u201d Zhoq said running to the last coupling.<\/p>\n The first anchor gave way from its pad with a moan and a pop. It swung in the air in a deadly circle. Zhoq dodged it and kicked the last switch open.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat have you done, Zhoq?!\u201d Beanie, his friend who didn\u2019t have his best interests in mind at all, said. His raised voice was unusual. Beanie didn\u2019t like to be ruffled..<\/p>\n Zhoq imagined Beanie in the control center trying everything, not believing that he could have engineered this impending disaster.<\/p>\n Just because he didn\u2019t have a degree but that didn\u2019t mean Zhoq hadn\u2019t been paying attention all these years.<\/p>\n The other three couplings came loose and clanged together then separated and swung wildly, a giant flail that would smash him without mercy. Zhoq ran around the safe circle and got to the gantry stairs when he remembered his prize. He dove under the arc of one of the couplings though it was now too high to hit him. He grabbed the little bag that held the t-field generator from behind a pile of boxes..<\/p>\n He felt queasy as he picked it up and stumbled. His stomach lurched again, as it had on Aime\u2019s ship, and he looked up.<\/p>\n The elevator slammed into the pod and there was no explosion – there was nothing remotely fissile on either vehicle – but both broke apart spectacularly. Smoke shot out in streamers and the tether twisted with the violence of it. Zhoq watched it with horror as he realized that everything in that particular part of the sky was about to crash down on Nadje Station. Hard.<\/p>\n \u201cMom,\u201d Zhoq said. He began to hyperventilate.<\/p>\n He rolled off the gantry and down the stairs when two of the four couplings smashed into the far side of the platform. The metal stairs tore at him as he tumbled over, scraping his face and arms, tearing his InStelEx uniform. He came to a stop in a corner where the stairs turned. Catching his breath he pushed forward and stumbled, caught himself, then checked the t-field generator. Still intact.<\/p>\n The cable careered down, a limp noodle a mile high and weighing more tons than Zhoq could remember. Debris rained on him but most everything was dropping to the other side of the platform. Where his he and his mother lived.<\/p>\n Limping, he came around the base of the loading platform in time to see half of the elevator car smash into a block of buildings. He hung on a corner, watched as the other half crashed down. The dust choked him as it roiled past. The last big piece of debris to hit was most of the passenger pod. When it was done Zhoq shambled forward, covered in dust.<\/p>\n Everything was gone. His house, the buildings where containers were unloaded and sorted, the little swimming pool that he relaxed in sometimes. The only thing he had was the t-field generator. He held it with all the strength he had left.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n Zhoq stood amid the wreckage of his home, looking at the rubble surrounding the outstretched hand of his mother. Dust swirled in the light breeze. Beanie picked his way through the debris. \u201cDo you know what you\u2019ve done?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d Zhoq said without looking up.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n Zhoq cradled the cylinder. He didn\u2019t feel right. \u201cI\u2019m not sure. T-something or other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you get that up there?\u201d Beanie pointed to the sky. \u201cDid you steal that from him? You have no idea who Oscar Taqsipa is. Was. May still be.\u201d<\/p>\n Zhoq looked at Beanie. \u201cYeah I do know who Taqsipa was. May be. Whatever. I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n Beanie put a hand over his ear. \u201cThe ship is hailing.\u201d<\/p>\n Zhoq kicked at the debris and looked at Beanie, determined to think this through before he decided what to do next. When he looked up at the sky he finally asked the question.<\/p>\n \u201cSo who is it?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zhoq threw the switch which closed with a bang. The last of the couplings hummed to life and magnetically locked into place. \u201cAll right,\u201d he said, shielding his eyes, \u201clet \u2018em know we\u2019re good, Beanie.\u201d The mooring cable connected to the coupling extended as far as he could see and was as big around as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[376,422,1040],"class_list":["post-7443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","tag-fairy-tale","tag-flash-fiction","tag-space-elevator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}