“I don’t know where it came from!” The Sky Hook base station operator, named Bill, exclaimed. “I’m not really sure what it is.”
“Whatever it is has struck the carbon nanotube.” I replied.
In the 30 years that the Space Hook space elevator has been in operation, this is the firs ttime something had actually struck the thin nanotube cable running from Babylon to a 22,000 mile orbit. When the thing struck the cable, the collision caused the cable to twang like a plucked guitar string. In one hour, all the people left at the base station would be dead.
I swept my eyes over the engineers in the modest control room, “Talk to me, I need options. I want someone on the horn to the platform to warn them. Robert, that’s you.” A slender mouse haired man spun in his seat to reach for the communications panel. “I need ideas on how to stop this wave.”
Sam was the first to speak, “Only one thing can stop a wave, an inverse wave to cancel each other out.”
“Right, Sam. Take whoever you need and make that happen.”
Robert spun back around to face the group. “The platform just had the wave pass them, they are jostled but no serious damage.”
“Thank God.”Bill said quietly.
“Get back on there and tell the spacestation to release their end of the cable immediately, Emergency Plan Alpha One.”
“Yes sir.”
“We’ve got it, sir!” It was Sam returning from his planning session. “If we strike the cable ten miles skyward, it should produce the inverse wave that we need.”
“Ten miles high in less than hour….” I mused. A plane would take too long. A drone would be too slow. That left one option. “Ready a missile.”
“WHAT?” The group cried at once.
“I’m not going to blow it up, take the warhead off.”
Sam interjected, “Even then, sir, it would take a miracle to hit something five feet across ten miles away. “
“Good thing I believe in miracles.”
The missile launched in thirty minutes, rising high above trailing a tail of fire and smoke. The people in the base station control room watched silently through the large window that faced the launchpad. When it disappeared into the clouds, the tail tracing a wide arc as it swung out to make a solid hit, everyone gathered around Bill, the best pilot in the group. He sat with beads of sweat rising on his brow, but his eyes were intense. The group breathed as one, counting down the seconds to impact.
The tiny blip on the screen disappeared. It hit.
A cheer ran through the room like a wildfire. Men hooped and hollered as they savored salvation. Some traded high fives with each other. Some just sat in a chair, releasing the breath that they did not remember holding.
“It’s not over yet.” I announced solemnly. “We have to wait and see if it works.”
We waited in perfect silence for five minutes before we felt the first vibrations. The windows began to rattle. The walls began to shake. “Brace everyone! Here it comes!” The room shook back and forth. It was like being inside a dog’s playtoy. Ceiling tiles fell, striking some people. Bill was shook out of his chair and collapsed to the floor. Blackness came as the power lines were cut. It was only a few minutes long but it was as bad as any earthquake I had seen.
But thanks to a miracle, we all survived.