STAR OF EPIPHANY

by OMAR FINK

  The teenagers all nodded.

  Marco continued, “Well, you must be familiar with Mount Kilimanjaro, right?”

  They all nodded again.

  Marco asked, “Does anybody know how tall Mount Kilimanjaro is?”

  Nobody moved or spoke.

  Marco answered himself, “It’s just under five thousand meters tall from the base of the mountain to the top.” He waited for that to sink in, then he pointed at the wall monitor where the habitat ring was displayed, “That wheel is five thousand meters across.”

  All three teenagers gasped, and turned to look at the wall monitor, then back at Marco.

  Marco chuckled, “So if we stood the ring habitat up on edge next to the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, it would be the same height. It would reach the top of the mountain.”

  One of the teenagers blew some air out between lips and another said, “That’s huge. I could not tell it was so big from the picture.”

  Marco added, “It is big and it looks like it’s turning so slowly because it’s so big, and we’re still far away from it. But in fact, on the outer edge, that turning is enough to make it feel like normal gravity. As you move up from one level to another, the amount of gravity becomes slightly less. That’s the same thing that’s happened to us here in this climber cabin as we have moved upward into space. The gravity has slowly become less and less.” Marco surveyed his little audience.

  A teenager asked, “You said there are more than one level?”

  Marco explained, “On this wheel, there are three hundred and twenty floors. At some points, several floors may be merged together to create tall open feeling spaces. There may be some storage space used at higher floors, but for full time human occupancy, the limit is the floors where there is at least one third normal gravity. Here in the climber, we went past that point about halfway through our first day.”

  One of the teenagers frowned, “We won’t be able to go outside and play will we?”

  Marco nodded in agreement, “That’s pretty much right. You can leave the wheel in either another habi-craft or even in a space suit, but most people won’t be doing that often. There won’t be much need or even much desire to leave. The inside of the wheel will be large and spacious. You will have living quarters, and there will be hallways and streets and boulevards with shops on them. If you’ve ever been inside a big hotel with an atrium or a large indoor shopping mall, you know what this feels like. Even though technically you’ll still be inside the habitat ring, it will feel like you’re outside because you have so much freedom to move around and explore. As for play, anything you did outside your house, you can do inside the ring. You can go down the street and meet some friends. You can eat at a restaurant or cafe. You can go shopping. You can run errands. You can go to a park, and run around in an area designed for play. You can do your shopping or errands while you sit in a cafe or park because everything is connected online. You can engage in any form of athletics or sports that you wish, in either physical form or virtual.”

  The teens seemed a little stunned but finally one asked, “Where will our food come from?”

  Marco replied, “Good question. It will be grown in algae tanks for the most part. The algae can supply most of our nutritional needs, and the rest can be added synthetically. Some cities may decide to also grow fish or some other specialty plants, but we’re still experimenting with those things. And we’re starting to get pretty good at being able to make algae taste like just about any kind of food you’re used to.”

  Marco swept his eyes across his audience, then changed the subject, “Hey, how do you like this new under-skin we’re all wearing? It’s state-of-the-art technology, and can help keep you alive in an emergency, and will stop you from stinking if you haven’t had a shower.” He grinned, and the kids grinned back at him.

  Eventually, another teen asked, “Are you going to the same place as us? Will we see you there?”

  Marco smiled, “No, not at first. I have to spend some time on the little crew ring where the construction workers live for a while. But then I’ll be moving over to the big ring where you are, and we might see each other there.”

  The teens seemed to relax a bit and turned to watch the scene of the ring turning slowly on the wall monitor.

  Eventually, they turned back toward Marco, and he tapped his earpiece and said, “Let me show you how the universal translator works, so you can talk to anybody you like.” He smiled.

  +4 years, 5 months, HABITAT-8, NEAR-MARS-ORBIT

  Lincoln Naidu had been letting his hair grow out, and it was turning into a dark, curly, bush. He scowled at his mom, “It’s just not fair.”

  Delize Naidu smiled back at her son, “Fair has nothing to do with this move. Did you ask if it would be fair when we left Johannesburg and moved to Singapore? Did you ask if it would be fair when we left Singapore and went up the elevator to HAB-4? Did you ask if it would be fair when we moved from HAB-4 to HAB-8? So, now we’re moving from HAB-8 to HAB-22 and then HAB-22 is headed out into the asteroid belt. I made all these decisions to move and you kids got dragged along with me because it’s the best thing for all of us.”

  Lincoln said, “I know Mom. I know you did all this for our good. I know you’ve been thinking about our future. But it just doesn’t seem fair that every time we start to get settled in, we have to pick up and move to a new place again.”

  Delize said, “When we went up the elevator, we had to leave everything behind and completely start over, even with new clothes when we got settled. At least this time, we’re just moving down the spindle to a new ring. You’ll still be in touch with your friends for a while.”

  Lincoln groaned, “You had to point that out. When HAB-1 left, I lost half of my friends and when HAB-8 leaves, I’ll lose another half of my current friends. You know they don’t like a lot of foot traffic down the spindle, and once they head off in another direction, the comm delay between us will grow. It’s a pain to have to wait to talk.”

  Delize explained, “Actually, you won’t lose half of your friends. Most of them will be going along with us in HAB-22. We probably won’t be picking up any new population for several years, because we’ll be out on the edge of civilization. The habs that turn back toward Earth need to be nearly empty so they can take on as many people as possible.”

  Zoey came from the direction of the wet room, rubbing her eyes, “When do the moving bots get here?”

  Delize responded, “In about two hours. You’ll each have one assigned to you for your personal stuff, and we can order more if we need them. The furniture is all modular and morph-able, so we don’t need to move it. We’ll have new furniture in the new place. Anything you can replace by making a new one, either leave it here or discard it. That includes your clothes, Zoey.”

  Zoey groaned, “Aw Mom. I don’t have that many clothes. Why do we have to do this?”

  Delize replied, “Once again. Now that HAB-22 is finished, the two rings will detach and head off in different directions. This hab will be going back toward Earth to pick up new people, and HAB-22 will be going out into the asteroid belt. We are moving over into the HAB-22 ring because my job is taking me out into the belt.”

  Zoey glanced sideways at her mom, “What happens when my job takes me in a different direction from your job?”

  Delize said, “Well, that will happen some day, and we’ll decide how to deal with it when it does. When you kids are ready to take care of yourself, you should be making your own decisions. You’ve already been doing some of that for several years, Zoe. You picked your education pathway, and the apprenticeship you’re working on now. It’s been a blessing that we’ve been able to stay together so far, but I never expected that to continue forever. In the meantime, I’m trying to help prepare you for the day when you go out on your own.” She shrugged.

  +4 years, 6 months, CREW RING 15

  Kaz nudged the thruster control to push his pod even closer to the giant wall of rock in front of him. The display showe
d his range shrinking, and when it reached three meters, he reversed the control to stop his motion. The Comm/Comp/Nav (CCN) system said, “Range three point one meters.”

  Kaz said, “Auto on. Hold current position.”

  CCN responded, “Holding current position.”

  Kaz said, “Begin recording, full AV record, include all telemetrics.”

  CCN responded, “Full AV recording begin.”

  Kaz said, “This is Kaz, operating Pod number one nine eight, out of Crew Ring fifteen. The ring is stationed near the middle of the asteroid belt, and my current position is just beyond that as recorded. I am making this record to document our attempts to refine automated prospecting processes. We are prospecting asteroid ‘1517 Beograd’ in the Paduan family. It is about thirty-five kilometers in diameter and has been classified as ‘P-type’ by its albedo, which means it’s fairly dark with a reddish hue. This suggests it will contain carbon, organic silicates, anhydrous silicates, and possibly some water, frozen of course.”

  Kaz continued, “Our scout pods have already done several remote passes and collected a few samples. This record is intended to either confirm their results or document the need for improvement in their prospecting software. If our manually collected prospecting evaluation produces the same results as the robotic scouts, then we are ready to rely entirely upon them for information. If, on the other hand, we produce more valuable information, then we need to tweak the software on the robots to improve their ability to collect information.”

  Kaz said, “Extend grapples.”

  The pod spread out eight arms that each extended to a distance of twenty meters.

  Kaz said, “Drag grapples to find holding positions.”

  The pod began retracting the eight arms, dragging them across the surface of the rock until each one encountered enough resistance to qualify as a holding position. When each grapple had stopped moving, the CCN announced, “Holding positions achieved.”

  Kaz said, “Test holding strength.”

  The pod slowly began increasing inward force on all eight arms until one broke free, then backed off on the others and said, “Arm two hold failed, resetting arm two.” Arm two was extended out to maximum position and began dragging in toward the center again but this time on a slightly different angle, seeking a better hold. Eventually a good hold was found and the CCN said, “All grapples holding at minimum required force threshold. Do you wish to test the next level?”

  Kaz replied, “No, maintain holding positions. Extend laser drill and test drill site.”

  An arm extended from the pod, and began positioning a laser drill against the surface of the rock. Several flickers of light betrayed the testing routine, then the CCN said, “Drill is positioned and ready. Lowering gas containment hood. Do you want to activate the drill?”

  Kaz replied, “Begin inert gas flush. Activate drill. Give me progress reports.”

  The monitor inside the gas hood showed the sequence of alternating flashes of laser light and burst of gas to clear debris, and a gauge showed the drilling depth.

  Kaz spoke to the recorder, “Positioning the grapples by dragging them and testing their holding ability still seems primitive and awkward, but we don’t yet have a better way of doing it. Once we’ve drilled several holes in different positions, we can implant some anchors and attach a net. The net allows the deployment of a variety of other tools as well as offering some containment for larger fragments. The inert gas flush sweeps out debris that we collect and analyze. The whole area of how to attach our equipment to a rock, and apply pressure for drilling and other purposes remains a problem. For smaller objects the easiest way is to use cables and nets that encircle the object. For a rock of this size, running a cable around it is not practical. So we attach grapples and drill anchor points and so on. All of the attachment and operation techniques vary quite a bit according to the type of surface we’re dealing with. In this case, I’m drilling into a solid rock face. But many of the rocks out here are also covered with dust and loose dirt that we call regolith. And some rocks are composites of regolith and rock and metal and frozen volatile gases. Each case requires variations and combinations of handling strategies. Some of our researchers are working on glue-like foams that can be injected to create grapple holds when they solidify. The foams are cured using chemical reactions and exposure to a variety of energy sources. Right now, the majority of our equipment is general purpose, but we are constantly developing specialized fittings and tools that can be swapped out on the same robotic chassis. Our goal of course is to completely automate all the processes from prospecting to extraction to a mining factory that does smelting and refining, and eventually manufacturing.”

  Kaz checked the depth gauge, then added, “At some point, we’ll need to create a registry database that can track prospecting results, and process mining claims. This needs to be turned into an action item. Tracking results will become more important as we continue to automate the prospecting process. Miners may be interested in sharing prospecting data as they become more specialized in their mining techniques and goals. I’d guess folks will still want some in-person presence somewhere in staking a claim, but we should continue to try to automate everything we can.”

  Kaz paused for a second, then said, “It seems like automation in general is headed toward a trend of ever decreasing sizes of devices. This will eventually result in swarms of micro bots that can get jobs done in many small bites. We need to assume this will also apply to prospecting and mining tasks and devices. Instead of using one large laser drill that needs ballistic anchoring, the same result might be achieved using a swarm of small mobile laser drills that can anchor themselves to whatever rough surface or protuberance is available. Just a thought.”

  Kaz added, “One side note; these new second generation under-skins are great. Most of the improvements are in functions that were in the previous version, but the new integrated electronics are a game changer. I can now see all my sensor data from the skin, and control all my environmental factors. This is terrific!”

  +4 years, 6 months, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

  Bill Decker looked around the AGT conference room table. Sitting at the table with him were Sam Hoffman, Billy Street, and the hacker called “Muffled Edge” or ME. Bill was wearing his favorite white pullover sweater but made it look like a uniform, partly because of his posture and always intense expression. He addressed the group, “Thank you for being here today. I thought it was important to conduct this update in person instead of using conference calling. Zorba will not be here, but I’ll update him on anything important after we are finished.”

  Bill paused while he surveyed the group again briefly, then continued, “For the last year, we have been developing a counter-insurgency plan to deter or defeat the group known as ‘The Resistance’. While this plan has made a lot of progress, we still are not getting to the inside leaders of the group. We are not short of resources, and Zorba has provided ample funding for our efforts. As a matter of fact, I’d say everybody has made significant contributions. Billy is still bringing in good information. Sam has constructed a media campaign that seems to be working at dampening their propaganda. ME’s team of cyber warriors continues to slowly and quietly penetrate their computer network. Any questions?”

  There were several seconds of silence, then ‘ME’ said, “Yes, I’ve been hearing rumors about a powerful AI computer that you guys have developed. Can we use that?”

  +4 years, 7 months, HABITAT-22, NEAR-MARS-ORBIT

  Nabith Mehra was listening intently to Delize Naidu. She said, “Let me frame the problem. I know you already know the facts, but bear with me for a moment. Over five million people per month are going up the existing elevators, and ten new ones are being built every month. This habitat ring is number twenty-two and by the end of the year we’ll be at thirty-four rings total. As each ring is finished, it gets pushed out toward Mars, stopping along the way to grab nearby rocks to mine for construction resources. Each ring
is constantly replicating itself by building another ring alongside. When the new ring is finished, it is usually pushed into an orbit that takes it back toward Earth to pick up new people. The rings that continue to move outward, find another rock to mine and continue to replicate themselves. Empty rings keep turning back to get more people. This creates the stepping stone pathway that allows us to move people outward constantly and keep building and expanding constantly.” She paused for a moment.

  Nabith was nodding.

  Delize smiled at him and continued, “That’s the background. Now, the problem is that we need to optimize how we plan the orbital trajectories of the habitat rings to keep building them, keep moving them outward, but at the same time, keep returning some of them to pick up new people and move them outward through the stepping stone pathway.” She checked Nabith.

  Nabith was smiling and attentive.

  Delize said, “It gets even more complex. If there was only one single ring habitat, the orbital trajectory that makes the most sense, takes it out to Mars, or beyond, over a two-year period, then it spends two years making the return trip, then repeats the cycle. But a four-year round trip is not fast enough for our ten-year total time frame, specially considering we’re already more than four years in, and have just over five years left to go. We need the stepping stones to cycle more rapidly in and out to keep carrying the people away from Earth.” She stopped speaking and waiting for a response.