Five
Six weeks later – Africa – the Kilimanjaro Skyhook
Mike found himself in a huge, glass walled building at the foot of Kenya’s Mount Kilimanjaro, waiting in a line for the tube to the summit. Throngs of people milled about; lines formed here and there to no noticeable end. The huge structure echoed with random snatches of conversation, barked orders, and wailing children. Mike longed for the quiet, cool mountains.
The African midday sunshine beat in through the glass, combined with the milling bodies to turn the giant building into an oven. Mike pulled a red bandanna from his pocket, tipping up his big gray Stetson to wipe sweat from his forehead. A little girl clutching the hand of an elderly matron grinned at him, taking in his Western outfit and big hat. He returned the smile.
The semi-ballistic trip had been an ordeal. The crowded magnetic shuttle from Denver to New York had been bad enough, and negotiating the congested streets of New York worse still. Mike had only found breathing room once, when out of curiosity he’d climbed the fire stairs to the top of the Freedom Center. The tower was still an impressive sight, even if it had been long since eclipsed as Earth’s tallest structures. Mike read a plaque on the rooftop observation tower which described how the current tower, sixteen stories taller than the originals, had been rebuilt after the first pair had been destroyed by terrorists way back in 2001, an act that had eventually led up to the Third World War.
But the semi-ballistic trip was the worst of all. Strapped into an acceleration seat, Mike had fidgeted uncomfortably until the ships boosters fired. After that he was too preoccupied trying to breathe against the six-gee drag.
At the top of the climb, Mike’s weight suddenly went from six times normal to nothing as the blast stopped and the ship went into free-fall. Mike wasn’t the only passenger reaching for the plastic ‘barf bags’ as the ship nosed over to dive for Nairobi. The whole ordeal was finally ended by a jarring impact with the six-mile, concrete runway in Nairobi, following which the passengers were discharged into the blasting hot sunshine of Kenya.
At least all that was behind him now. He stole a glance at this travel tickets and agenda; the ship was supposedly the OWME Colonization Ship Mayflower, an appropriate name to be sure. The boarding papers gave a description of the ship:
OWME operates four Colonization Ships. Our newest, the C.S. Mayflower, is our most modern as well as the largest. With a crew of 225, the Mayflower can carry 10,000 colonists, their personal effects, and supplies to set up a colony self-sufficient for one year.
All four OWME Colonization Ships are using the state-of-the art Gellar Star Drive, which utilizes interstellar matter to power a mass converter. The Gellar Drive is capable of propelling even the largest ships at many times the speed of light. OWME has utilized this new technology to place colonists on no fewer than ten new worlds.
Passengers on the Mayflower will find ample accommodations, many entertainment opportunities, and complete educational preparation for their embarkation on their new home.
OWME welcomes you to the exciting new era of colonization!
On the glass wall, high above the milling throngs, a large sign beckoned, “Mayflower;” Mike joined the queue forming under the sign.
The cabin had been sold to a wealthy lawyer from Salt Lake City who wanted a vacation getaway. The proceeds, rather more than Mike expected, had gone towards his passage and purchase of the recommended pioneering supplies. He even had a small stake left over.
The cavernous tube station was surprisingly crowded. As Mike wondered if all these people were bound for the Mayflower and Forest; he failed to notice he had arrived at the counter. A barked question, “You there, in the big hat! You for the Mayflower or the New Bedford?”
“Mayflower,” Mike replied, intimidated.
The gnome like figure in the green OWME shirt pointed. “Up the escalator on the left, turn right, ten people to a capsule. Wait your turn, you’ve got two days to board before the ship leaves. Your baggage checked?” Mike nodded. “Good; you got any pharms, weapons, live plants or animals?”
“Uh, no. I mean, yes. I’ve got my rifle and revolver, but they’re in my checked baggage. None of the other stuff.”
“Good. That’s fine. Here’s your boarding pass; get going.”
Another strange experience. Clutching his one allowable carry-on bag, Mike rode the escalator to the next level, and joined another line under a red neon sign reading, “Mayflower.” This line moved swiftly. In a matter of moments, he was being strapped in a clear plastic capsule for the ride to the summit. A middle-aged woman sat across from him, a Bible clutched in her hands. She smiled at Mike’s pale face. “First time in a capsule?” she guessed. Mike nodded. “You’ll be fine,” she assured him. Mike politely tuned her out as she began to prattle on about “Jesus this, Jesus that.” The religious were something of a disappearing breed on Earth these days; it had been a while since Mike had run into one.
The capsule ride wasn’t bad at all. The pod accelerated smoothly, rising in its clear plastic tube. Mike was treated to the spectacular scenery of Kenya stretching out below. Maybe Africa wouldn’t have been such a bad idea, he mused. The capsule reached the summit in about an hour, moving into another crowded, glass-walled building, this one round, perched on the very peak of Africa’s most famous mountain. Mike was now treated to the sight of an impossible thing; a five-hundred-meter-wide hexagonal column, rising from the center of the round building, disappearing, inconceivably, into the sky. At each of the six sides, a track climbed this incredible beanstalk. As Mike watched, a shiny silver bus shot out of the building, racing upwards on the track for the unseen space docks above.
This was the Kilimanjaro Skyhook, a mighty carbon-fiber tower that sprang from the mountaintop all the way to well past the atmosphere. The space dock at the top was actually in geosynchronous orbit, tethered by the tower to the mountain below. A sister skyhook sprang from a mountain in the Andes and another in the Himalayas. Earth’s three Skyhooks were the only means, now, of leaving the planet.
It turned out that the building inside was hexagonal as well. Each capsule tube delivered travelers to the section where the bus to their ship waited. Mike joined a growing throng in the waiting room.
He used the time to examine the people around him, assuming correctly that many of these would be fellow colonists bound for Forest. Mostly young people, mostly single, but with a smattering of young couples. A surprising number of young children in tow as well; Mike wondered about the wisdom of bringing young children to a new and possibly hostile world.
A chime sounded, and an electronic voice intoned, “Skyhook Bus Two for CS Mayflower, bound for Forest, Caliban and Corinthia, boarding now. Please make your way to a boarding port.” Mike joined the obedient throng.
The ride to the low-orbit dock took two hours, during which Mike dozed, ignoring the movies playing on a screen at the front (upper) wall of the passenger compartment. At the top, Mike was handed another surprise; the passengers left the Skyhook bus, only to be herded onto a small orbital shuttle, a gray, vaguely bug-like contraption with CS Mayflower Boarding Shuttle Four printed on the side. An attendant noticed Mike’s puzzled expression.
“You didn’t think a ship the size of the Mayflower could come right down to the Skyhook’s boarding platform, did you cowboy?” she chuckled. “This is low Earth orbit, fella. Only small transports and shuttles down here. You’ll get on Mayflower in about another, oh, six hours.”
Four hours into this penultimate journey, Mike finally saw the ship on which he would spend the next ten months, bound for Forest.
A vast, pale-gray cylinder stretched out, almost three kilometers long by a kilometer wide. An outer portion rotated, slowly, clockwise around a stationary inner cylinder; this would provide a sense of gravity for passengers on the trip. At the front of the ship, a titanic scoop stood ready to gather grit, rocks, dust, stray matter, interstellar gases, all grist for the ship’s interstellar mill. At the rear, an equally huge maw glowed a faint orange. The Mayflower’s massive, powerful Gellar Star Drive was already warmed up for departure.
Three hours later, Mike was shown to the quarters he would share for the next ten months with three other single men. Four bunks lined one wall, a small bathroom to one side, four lockers, a small refrigeration unit. Two desks and chairs, a couch, and a view screen for video completed the bachelor’s quarters. The whole steel-gray room was only about ten meters by six.
Fortunately, Mike’s roommates were congenial people. Albert and Jim Morrison were farmers, heading to Forest to homestead a truck farm. Jeffery Adams was bound for a computer-networking job on Caliban, and would be alone in the cabin for the second leg of the trip. Once Mike discovered it was possible to roam freely in the vast greenhouse areas mid-way down each section of the giant, rotating cylinder, time passed fairly quickly. Classes began the next day; flora and fauna of Forest, the layout and amenities of the one large town, Settlement, and the three smaller villages already established. Mike paid close attention to the classes on the local wildlife, edible plants, climate, and economic value of the various species; this, now, would be his livelihood. Mike would quite literally be hunting to survive. Any cash he’d need would come from game he could provide the colony for provisioning.
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
thanks for the story
Surely there will be a cute lady he can spend the long trip with.
I’m assuming he’s going to end up with the teenager whose parents were worried about finding a man in the last chapter (chapter before?). Don’t wish romantic entanglements on the poor chap!
Her too. Gotta get the population up!
STEFANIE SMITH?
Such a cool story Animal. I love stories about space exploration. I know I won’t see it in my lifetime, but I think my daughters will start to see the seeds for our ability to explore space and beyond.
ELON SMITH SOWING SEEDS OF HUMANITY NOW… NOT WAITING FOR MARS!
Agreed, I love this sort of thing. Very ‘Tunnel In The Sky’.
Thanks, Animal!
https://nypost.com/2025/03/29/tech/ford-files-patent-to-bring-old-school-stick-shifts-to-electric-vehicles-but-gen-z-drivers-dont-know-how-to-use-them/
Ford files patent to bring old-school stick shifts to electric vehicles — but Gen Z drivers don’t know how to use them
A patent application from the automaker published this month details a gear shift for electric cars that mimics the appearance of a traditional stick shift — but without any gears to actualy switch between.
Coolest thing since sliced bread.
Squints at the
heatbrain death of the universe.If it doesn’t roll back at hills or stall in the middle of traffic it’s no fun.
(Fondly remembers first time I came to a steep hill on my motorcycle and stalled the bike several times. Finally came to the epiphany to drag the rear brake so I could release the front brake and feather the throttle. It was so amusing at the time however.)
This is the same company that puts fake engine noise into the cockpit, right?
Nitpick: low Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit are rather different. Low Earth is about 2000 miles up, geosynchronous is about 22,000 miles up.
But the story is still highly interesting.
Gerald Bulls Low Earth Orbit cannon comes to mind.
The shuttle from Earth goes to LEO, which is where one end of the Space Elevator is. The bulk of the mass/shuttle to the interstellar ship is in geosynchronous.
No, it said the top was geo, then switched to low earth. Low earth can’t be stationary/linked to ground.
a gear shift for electric cars that mimics the appearance of a traditional stick shift — but without any gears to actualy switch between.
A better idea.
Its about time….
Yes, please give me 5-6 power delivery/rpm maps that intentionally rob me of power to simulate the curve of a IC engine so that I must manually select the best map for the current drive speed. For driver engagement. We have the manual or automatic transmission for a reason, because the power curve of the IC engine is not linear. We do not have that problem with the electric motor, you need one map, and one control . The accelerator.
If we want more engagement, find a new thing to do that enhances the electric driving experience. Just add points and leaderboards to the eco settings.
This would be like putting in horse controls in early cars, since driving a car doesn’t have the engagement of riding a horse.
Didnt some horse buggies have wheels with eccentric centers to simulate riding horseback?
See tiller designs on early cars.
https://historygarage.com/cars-didnt-steering-wheels-happened-next/
Insanity
Trump directed federal agencies to review, rescind or modify regulations deemed unconstitutional, burdensome or contrary to the national interest, and required them to eliminate 10 existing rules for every new regulation. The regulations that should be on the chopping block, Trump indicated, “impose significant costs upon private parties that are not outweighed by public benefits.”
Truly the End of Days is upon us.
What a fascist dictator.
impose significant costs upon private parties that are not outweighed by public benefits
Unpossible – all regulations by definition have public benefits exceeding private costs! Surely no bureaucrat would impose a regulation that did not benefit the public (and why should anyone care about the cost).
Green tech is competitive, especially if you ban competition.
O/T – just finished drafting some meeting minutes and started running it through Word’s “Editor.” It flagged the word “peer,” which appears frequently, as we compare our financial metrics to similar CUs. Editor said, “A word may be missing here. Consider ‘the perverted.'” 😳
You don’t keep minutes in that type of meeting.
It’s a Key Bank party.
You’re on fire today, Teds’
Now, I know the House of Lords isn’t the most distinguished body of legislators… in the room, but that’s uncalled for in a bank document.
If sales of their original publication sagged, I imagine a new reference book, “Burke’s Perverted,” would fly off the shelves.
Gender Traitor:
They would likely have to develop new binding methods for a tome of such length.
Estimates of the windfall of all state and federal government subsidies to fossil fuel companies vary widely, but they almost certainly amount to hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Even more important, the cost-benefit calculations that Trump mandated this month do not include the economic impact of this form of energy on climate change, extreme weather events, pollution, health care or environmental degradation, which the International Monetary Fund estimates at $7 trillion worldwide, 35 percent of it in the U.S.
How could we doubt those numbers? They come from a completely reputable model.
The government is subsidizing farting!
Aren’t most “subsidies” to fossil fuel companies in the form of reduced rates for lower income residents for things like heating their homes in the winter?
Allowing oil companies to exist is a subsidy.
I think they are counting the depletion tax deduction(?), which is made available to all resource extraction operations. Not taking is giving, and all that.
We have the manual or automatic transmission for a reason, because the power curve of the IC engine is not linear.
And yet, as manufacturers have broadened and flattened their torque curves, we have gone from two speed automatic transmissions (Powerglide) to 10 gear ratios and more. Manuals are six or more.
Marginal fleet efficiency gains on laboratory testing cycles.
Real world gains approaching zero…
The 7 speed auto in my Titan seems to work pretty good.
And I love the 6 speed manual in my Z.
When riding my motorcycle I effectively use two gears.. #1 to accelerate from a stop… #5 on the highway. Well I do use the others, but mostly to optimize any required acceleration and power control via throttle.
The 8 speeds in my current automatic is for that theoretical efficiency, and to keep the noise level very low. When you are over 4000rpm the supercharger and engine note is noticeable.
From the dedthred:
“The No Fun League wants to ban the tush push.”
Good. I hate that play. It was illegal, as generally played now, until a few years ago, under the rule that the other offensive players can’t push the ball carrier downfield.
I like creech’s idea on getting rid of the stupid “freezing the kicker” timeouts.
I saw that they added another gesture to the list of prohibited violent gestures.
I want the miming of throwing a flag to be an automatic 15 yard penalty more.
OK, if offensive players can’t push a ball carrier down field, then defensive players can’t push other defensive players to hold a ball carrier in place.
Imaginary numbers
It’s not clear how Navarro calculated this $700 billion annual figure, since the details of these tariffs have yet to be fully disclosed. It’s also not clear, and perhaps unlikely, that Americans will continue to buy as many imported goods if prices are hiked due to the cost of the tariffs.
To reach Navarro’s estimate, it would take a 25% tariff on virtually all $3.3 trillion in goods imported by US businesses and consumers in 2024. And that’s not going to happen.
CNN suddenly develops an interest in checking the math underlying political rhetoric.
Will wonders never cease?
It is much quicker to just dismiss Navarro as the crackpot he is. Keeping this guy around is Trump at his worst.
I love linux patch day.
To work properly in its intended role, my linux box needs a static IP. This is configured so that eth0 has that ip.
Every so often a network patch decides that the network interface isn’t eth0 but some other random-looking name. Then it goes, “oh, I can’t take that IP, it’s reserved for eth0. DHCP, give me an address.” pihole, just having started up goes “here’s the first address in my range”. The first address in the DHCP range is pretty much always already in use by my desktop.
I think I’ve updated the configuration so that it will stop doing that until I have another hardware change and the interface MAC address changes. Problem is, modern distros are getting too fancy with their handling of crap and it’s becoming as bad as windows.
I only have issues with mobile devices that default to random MAC. I have to update them to static MAC on my network so DHCP will assign the proper IP address.
It’s why I have my router assign a static IP based on MAC address using dynamic DHCP.
It’s just easier than screwing around with every box on the network.
The Raspberry Pis and the windows box is fine.
So much this. Manually configuring IPs on individual boxes, when you have a DHCP server available, is just making your life more difficult.
I’ve been surprised how good the Pi is. Although I have had to resort to the command line once for a major update problem.
When I used to run a generic Linux box it was a monthly occurrence. It’s why I gave up on it despite hating Windows 11.
I only use static assignments on the hosts for core network devices. DHCP, DNS,
Aren’t most “subsidies” to fossil fuel companies in the form of reduced rates for lower income residents for things like heating their homes in the winter?
The article referred specifically to the depletion allowance as a subsidy. I’m no expert, but I thought the depletion allowance was something on the order of a calculated inventory cost.
It’s a tax treatment. So it has an accounting value, but in itself it is a government handout.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_depletion_allowance
Quibble: Mt Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania and almost who climbs it starts from that side.
***
Mount Kilimanjaro (/ˌkɪlɪmənˈdʒɑːroʊ/) is a dormant volcano in the United Republic of Tanzania, 5,895 meters (19,341 ft) above sea level.
***
I guess since this is sci-fi, there could have been a border adjustment that put it in Kenya.
The school I taught at in Tanzania had a great view of the mountain which I climbed with my best math students a few months before leaving. Scroll down through this set to see the pics. I’m proud that I reached the peak though I forgot to sign the logbook.
Did you find the expedition that tried to build a bridge between the two peaks?
There are in fact two peaks. The big one is called Kibo (or Uhuru) and the other is Mawenzi.
I love that mountaineer skit.
oops, forgot the link
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2025/01/supercut-my-most-memorable-moments.html
Also that tree in the AM links got hit by a stolen Cessna in 1994.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/12/stolen-plane-crashes-into-white-house-south-lawn-sept-12-1994-813433
***
Shortly before 2 a.m. on this day in 1994, a red and white, two-seat, propeller-driven Cessna 150 flew low over 17th Street in the heart of the nation’s capital, banked leftward in a U-turn near the Washington Monument, and headed toward the presidential bedroom in the White House.
***
tl;dr = pilot was a drunk, disgruntled, unemployed Army veteran about my age
The Honda CRZ says hello.
https://youtu.be/8i0pVP9f7kA
There’s one in our parking lot right now!
That’s a functioning manual transmission. The power plant has dual power sources.
The Honda CRZ says hello.
I’d take one with a K20. Manual, of course.
I want an Insight with a K20 and the fattest tires it will take.
The laughs would be awesome.
Oh yeah, on the subject of Africa, I feel compelled to say that Tarzan would have died of malaria long before any jungle adventures. Damn mosquitos got me over there something fierce.
I’m halfway done with Tarzan of the Apes. Amusing, but not realistic by any stretch, though the writing style reminds me of Mojo and UCS somewhat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiUaytdXuWM
I kinda looked like Alan Parish when I got back from there. How I loved and love that movie. Saw it in theaters when it came out.