Rhiadh
27-09-2004, 09:51
Base Camp grew as the weather turned cooler and drier. Ground Commander Akisenov became Zatech Governor Akisenov, with authority over all the Novy Rhiadh, the former C'tan territories.
The great track-laying machines came down from the Kinva and rolled (for they were too heavy to utilise maglift systems) down the coast and West along the equator to Geosynchronous Mountain, crushing flat the land as they passed and excreting a long, shining line of maglev rail.
The maglev trains themselves came next, linking Geosynchronous Mountain to Base Camp, and a small but growing community of workers rode the line West.
There they blasted away ridges, carved chambers, set concrete to make warehouses and barracks and terminals. The maglev line now stretched up the mountain to the new town of Geosynchronocity.
And at the top of the mountain - right on the equator, directly below the asteroid shield of the Kinva - they built a Socket, of ferrocarbon buckysteel and nara; the strongest materials known to the Tianis Aggregate. Strength was required for such an enterprise.
Meanwhile, 35,787 kilometers above them on the Kinva, nanobots were fabricated and set to work, stitching nanotubes from the carbon of the asteroid shield, and stitching nanotube to nanotube to make cable. 35,787 kilometers of it; it took some time, and the nanobots did not tire or pause. The microwave emitters beamed power at them, and they worked.
One chilly winter's morning, a little robotic guide descended, pulling with it a thin cable, and docked neatly with the Socket. The cable was spooled in, disappearing into the gut of the Socket, and finally it thickened to it's full diameter, kilometer upon kilometer of supertensile carbon nanotubes stretching from Earth to space.
Over the rest of the day, a further three cables descended, locking into a triangular array around the central cable. As well as quadrupling the amount the elevator could bring down, these acted as safety; should a micrometeorite impact damage one cable, the others would be there to take the slack.
The link to the ground was complete. Now, instead of relying upon spaceplanes - so hungry for fuel and crew - personell and equipment could be sent down the elevator, braking against the Earth's magnetic field on the way down and climbing it on the way up. The real colonisation could now begin.
OOC: I figure there are probably going to be people now jumping up and down and going "OMG NOES OMG NOES TEH RHIADH BUILT A SPACEDYELEVATOR IN ONE POST TEH WANK OH MY INFERIOR ENDOWMENT!!!111!one". I care for this about as much as I cared to write up every long, drawn-out development post one by one, which is not at all. It's painful to write, likely painful to read, and I wouldn't have any fun. Thus I sped things up to get it over with; now it's done, I return it to it's normal speed. If you don't like this, you don't have to read it, and you certainly don't have to reply to it.
The great track-laying machines came down from the Kinva and rolled (for they were too heavy to utilise maglift systems) down the coast and West along the equator to Geosynchronous Mountain, crushing flat the land as they passed and excreting a long, shining line of maglev rail.
The maglev trains themselves came next, linking Geosynchronous Mountain to Base Camp, and a small but growing community of workers rode the line West.
There they blasted away ridges, carved chambers, set concrete to make warehouses and barracks and terminals. The maglev line now stretched up the mountain to the new town of Geosynchronocity.
And at the top of the mountain - right on the equator, directly below the asteroid shield of the Kinva - they built a Socket, of ferrocarbon buckysteel and nara; the strongest materials known to the Tianis Aggregate. Strength was required for such an enterprise.
Meanwhile, 35,787 kilometers above them on the Kinva, nanobots were fabricated and set to work, stitching nanotubes from the carbon of the asteroid shield, and stitching nanotube to nanotube to make cable. 35,787 kilometers of it; it took some time, and the nanobots did not tire or pause. The microwave emitters beamed power at them, and they worked.
One chilly winter's morning, a little robotic guide descended, pulling with it a thin cable, and docked neatly with the Socket. The cable was spooled in, disappearing into the gut of the Socket, and finally it thickened to it's full diameter, kilometer upon kilometer of supertensile carbon nanotubes stretching from Earth to space.
Over the rest of the day, a further three cables descended, locking into a triangular array around the central cable. As well as quadrupling the amount the elevator could bring down, these acted as safety; should a micrometeorite impact damage one cable, the others would be there to take the slack.
The link to the ground was complete. Now, instead of relying upon spaceplanes - so hungry for fuel and crew - personell and equipment could be sent down the elevator, braking against the Earth's magnetic field on the way down and climbing it on the way up. The real colonisation could now begin.
OOC: I figure there are probably going to be people now jumping up and down and going "OMG NOES OMG NOES TEH RHIADH BUILT A SPACEDYELEVATOR IN ONE POST TEH WANK OH MY INFERIOR ENDOWMENT!!!111!one". I care for this about as much as I cared to write up every long, drawn-out development post one by one, which is not at all. It's painful to write, likely painful to read, and I wouldn't have any fun. Thus I sped things up to get it over with; now it's done, I return it to it's normal speed. If you don't like this, you don't have to read it, and you certainly don't have to reply to it.