The various Senshi stared at the site as the hover-bus they were on approached the Cape. Their attempt to sneak into the country had somehow been met by the Governor and a whole crowd of press and now it was a "planned diplomatic reception" to "show the Senshi and the world just what was going on in Australia."
Moon bent backwards more and more until she fell over. So did one of the cameramen, but in a testimony to skill he immediately refocussed and continued to pan up.
Mercury stared. "A 'Space Elevator'?!"
Kemp put away his cell phone. "Hmmm? Oh yes. It'll have a length of 24,000 kilometers when finished, not counting the levels under the ground. I'm afraid there's not that much to see right now, just a shaft some 6,000 kilometers long and one kilometer across. I'd take you to the end being constructed in space but I don't have any space suits handy yet. The engineers are still arguing about design features and styles." The Governor shrugged as if to say 'what can I do?'
"That's all?" Venus practically squeaked.
"Yes, all this is just a delivery system," pointed out the Governor. "Take some large object and chuck it into space. Kachoo originally wanted to just use an antigrav platform but I argued for big and flashy as having a better psychological impact."
All the rest of the Senshi were now craning their heads back to try and see the top.
"Over there is the spaceport, which I really had to fight for," said Governor Kemp, not mentioning that it took a whole two minutes of argument and a promise that he'd send someone round with a really nifty tempura recipe for the alien to try.
"A 'spaceport'?" Mercury asked, finally tearing her eyes away from the enormous white spire that seemed to dwarf the clouds that floated past it.
"Yes, yes. Can't have seedy spaceport dives and the like without a spaceport," said the Governor, proud of this particular contribution to his country's welfare. "We've asked Lucasfilm if they want to film on location next time, but so far we haven't gotten an answer back."
The governor shrugged again. "Oh well, it's their loss. We've been looking into giving the local entertainment industry a bit of a boost, anyhow. Several companies have already expressed interest in moving into the new 'Wallyhood' studios. So, no more of this 'letting forgeign companies use our exotic locations in order to keep local tallent from needing to go overseas to make a living' malacky." Besides, he added privately, keep the public entertained with bread and circuses and hopefully they'll complain a lot less about the disruptions.
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Uranus accussed."What? Enjoy being recruited by an alien being of nearly unimaginable power and resources to become the hated tyrant grinding his fellow citizens under his foot by betraying his species? I've heard the news reports." Kemp made a face. "Present company accepted, how often do these telenews folk ever bother to investigate the facts anyway? Oh, and over there we have one of the experimental farms. It's a form of wheat that can be grown year round and provides an additional twenty five percent nutrition. Naturally, the French hate it. If you look to the right now you'll see one of our new maglev trains coming into the station for the new Medical plex. We wanted to position it halfway between the Elevator and the Spaceport so access to it from both would be easy."
Mercury wondered if she could request a tour of 23rd Century medical facilities.
"Ah, here we are. Cape York. Nice place, don't you think?" The governor made an expansive gesture at everything around them.
The Senshi and newspeople didn't pay much attention as now they were fairly close to the tower.
The odd girl who had been silent at the wheel of the hoverbus for so long glanced up. "Correction of earlier statement. Construction of Cape York Space Elevator is currently at 6,879 kilometers. Internal elevator systems completed to the 3,000 kilometer level. Base of shaft is 1,103 meters diameter."
"Big," Moon summed up nicely.
"So, what would you like to see next?" asked the Governor. "There's:
(Posted Fri, 08 Aug 2003 12:54)
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