“Preconceived notions about who I should marry. Crazy ideas about how Lee needed you more than I do. Stupid beliefs about how work romances always fail. I… I just don’t know. Pushing you away has made my heart ache, but, nonetheless, I thought it was the right thing to do. I thought I’d get over you, but you just kept being… you. Being Kaem, the brilliant, kind, thoughtful person…” she grinned, “Who can, despite all that, really kick ass in a fight.”
Kaem gave her a sly grin, “So, you finally gonna kiss me then?”
She drew him close and kissed him hard…
The End
Hope you liked the book!
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Author’s Afterword
This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I’ve always been partial to science fiction that poses a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically plausible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Essentially you ask, “what if” something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world?
I think the rest of the science in a science fiction story should be as real as possible.
Therefore, in this story, the central question continues to be what if someone invented a way to stop time in a certain volume of space-time, thus creating something that’s—in the tropes of science fiction—often called stasis.
Stasis is not a new idea in science fiction. Niven’s “slavers” used it to escape from bad situations into the future. In Vernor Vinge’s The Peace War, people who threatened the authoritarian government were “bobbled” in stasis fields to get them out of the way. In both of these SF universes, the stasis fields are indestructible but—to the best of my recollection—they are only used to protect oneself from destruction (Niven) or to punish offenders by sending them forward in time (Vinge) and are always spherical. Sometimes stories by other authors offhandedly use stasis for the preservation of food or people, but they usually ignore the presumed mechanical properties. Those stories seldom delve into other changes that would derive from an ability to stop time within a space.
This book mostly explores the possibilities of using the phenomenal mechanical properties of Stade to build a tower that reaches up to the “edge of space”—said to be 62 miles or 100 kilometers above sea level. One thing about such a tower that might not be obvious is the great advantage of slanting it. The typical space elevator story in science fiction envisions a tension loaded cable, anchored to the earth on one end and tethered to a massive counterweight out beyond the geostationary altitude of 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers). The centrifugal force of the swinging counterweight keeps the cable taut and we could then ascend the cable much more economically than launching ourselves into space upon inefficient rockets.
One problem to consider is that a vertical cable would pose an obstruction for satellites. Since most satellites orbit the earth many times a day, given enough time some of them would hit such a vertical cable. Satellites would either need to maneuver around the cable or the cable would need to be moved when they were approaching (a very difficult thing to do).
Another issue is that a geostationary length cable, should it break at certain altitudes, could wrap itself all the way around the world, posing a danger to every country near the equator (assuming the cable rose from the equator).
Also, though you might think that you could launch orbital satellites from the side of the cable at an altitude of, say, 420 kilometers (that of the ISS), once you launched such a satellite, you would still need to accelerate it to a speed of 7.66 kilometers per second, a considerable undertaking requiring a lot of rocket fuel. This need for orbital speed is why, almost immediately after liftoff, rockets begin to slant toward the horizontal, they must gain that massive horizontal velocity in order to establish an orbit.
Therefore, if you had something as strong as Stade, you would want to slant your tower so that you accelerated your craft toward the orbital velocity it needs at the same time that you were lifting it toward space. Preferably to the east, since, at the equator, the Earth rotates at about 1,000 miles per hour (almost half a kps, so enough to make a difference).
Also, the world would want such technology for a million reasons. Some wouldn’t want to wait, or to pay, to get it legally.
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Gail Gilman, Nora Dahners, Jerry Aguirre, Clay Boyd, Paul Carroll, Hamilton Elliott, and Abiola Streete; each of whom significantly improved this story.
Other Books and Series
by Laurence E Dahners
Series
The Ell Donsaii series
The Vaz series
The Bonesetter series
The Blindspot series
The Proton Field series
The Hyllis family series
Single books (not in series)
The Transmuter’s Daughter
Six Bits
Shy Kids Can Make Friends Too
For the most up to date information go to:
Laurence E Dahners website
Or the Amazon Author page
A Tower in Space-Time (The Stasis Stories #5) Page 24