ontrol centers around the globe began transferring control to C the GREOC at ten minutes to midnight. It didn’t go as well as they’d hoped, but the problems were not related to the physical system. The two full-time engineers assigned to Manny’s crew had been backed up tonight by several digital, laser and electrical engineers, to assure the smoothest handoff possible. The rough patches had more to do with operators around the globe who were reluctant to turn over control to that part of the system for which they had been responsible. A few control centers kept skeleton crews on duty, in monitoring mode, as was permitted under the GREOC
agreement.
At three AM, Manny received a call from the transmission operator at Midcontinent Energy. Covering a multi-state area between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains, Midcon distributed energy from Heaven to its retail customers.
“Just giving you a heads-up, Manny,” the Midcon operator said. “We’ve got a bit of a problem developing. Looks like we’re losing an anode.”
“Whoa, that doesn’t happen very often,” Manny said.
“Yeah. Unfortunately, this one’s dedicated service for HISETS, and it’s a spot where we’re thin on voltage support.”
“Where?
“Central Ohio. Got a backup under construction, but they won’t complete it for two months yet. The thing is, if we lose the anode, 335
HISETS may have to shut down. At least the DC to Chicago portion.”
“Jeez, you’re joking, right?”
“Fraid not, Manny.”
“Know what’s wrong with the anode?”
“Yep. Output was dropping. When it hit 95%, I sent a tech out.
He says a piece of the bull gear broke off and is wedged in place.
The anode can’t track its PV array.”
“Um. That’s weird. How…?”
“Don’t know. Never happened before. Repairs may take a few days. They think they’ll have to get a crane in to lift the whole table clear of the cradle race.”
“What about a mobile anode?”
“We have the closest one rolling, but it’ll take over a day to arrive. Might do us some good tomorrow, but this morning, we’re on our own.”
The HI Speed Electric Transport System is another spin-off from the Sagan Teams. Known as the Silver Snake, HISETS is an enclosed, high-speed highway system, with seven lanes in each direction, accessible only by specially built, computer controlled electric vehicles. Planned to run from New York City to Washington DC, Chicago, and then L.A., HISETS is now open to Chicago.
Completion to L.A. was expected by 2025.
The SS is manufactured at point-of-use using an on-site, in-line factory. The factory moves as it issues the product, and the product stays put. A double-walled output chamber, in the shape of the SS, extends 90 feet on the output end of the factory, and houses cooling and ultraviolet curing processes. As the product—a mixture of highly cross-linked plastics and twenty percent mirglas—is formed, the mirglas is drawn to both inner and outer surfaces, fully-cured and ready to accept load. The product, rather than having a coating of mirglas, which could present problems of adhesion and separation, is a single material, non-mirglas at its core, and graduating to 95% mirglas at the inner and outer surfaces, retaining the strength 336
and clarity properties of mirglas.
At a thickness of one inch, the HISETS mirglas enclosure can span 500 feet unsupported. Increasing wall thickness to three inches allows unsupported spans of nearly 2000 feet.
It does, in fact, resemble a snake. Following existing interstate right of way in many places, and breaking new ground in others, the Snake lies solidly upon the land, its squished oval shape appearing to result from the compression weight of its great bulk. A closer look reveals a deliberate, uniform shape, dictated by the demands of the roadway within.
Streak vehicles licensed for HISETS are all controlled by the same master computer interfacing with onboard computers in each vehicle. They are subject to the same speed laws as other vehicles, when driven on conventional roads. Only when they enter the HISETS right-of-way will Streak computers receive the rotating security code that allows them to slip the bonds on the HISETS portion of its gearing range, increasing maximum speed to 300 mph.
“Christ,” Manny said to the Midcon operator. “You can’t feed more power in from the ends?”
“Exactly. Engineers claim at morning peak, about seven AM, the level of voltage sag could cause erratic speed control in some of those ECAR engines. The system would shut itself down before that happens. Then they’d have to deal with the stranded commuters.
They’re already posting people to make sure the entrances all close up and lock, if and when they make that decision.”
“Ok, what are your options?”
“Got a 230 line we can take back from outage, but it’ll take half a day. Got crews rolling on that now. All I got left is to run two peakers I have in the area. I plan to start ‘em about six AM, run ‘em till noon, or whenever we get that 230 back.”
“Will they even start? How long since you ran ‘em?”
“It’s been over five years. Haven’t even test-run ‘em. Residential housing’s got ‘em boxed in now. Last time we test-ran ‘em we damn near had a riot on our hands, so we gave up.”
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“I hear what you’re thinking. It’s Heaven’s fault,” Manny said.
“Well, ya can’t deny, the more dependable Heaven got, the less likely it became that we’d ever need to run these peakers again.
Land around ‘em just got more and more viable for building.”
“Well, only one gas-turbine wake-up in five years, it’s not the end of the world.”
“Good line. I can route the calls to your phones if you want?”
“Um, I’ll pass. Thanks for the heads-up, though. Send me that anode number at the GREOC email, and I’ll have the feed ready to cut off as soon as I get your call.”
“Will do, Manny. Thanks.”
“Yeah. Good luck.”
Less than a minute after Manny finished speaking with the Midcon operator, his pinger sounded again.
“GREOC, Manny speaking.”
“Hi Manny, this is Gus, National Hurricane Center, in Miami.”
“This can’t be good,” Manny said.
“I have that effect on people. I haven’t even said why I’m calling yet! It’s giving me a complex.”
“Aw, you’re right, Gus,” Manny said. “I shouldn’t have assumed the worst like that. Let me start again. Hello, Gus, what can I do for you on this fine day?”
“Um, well, as it turns out, your first remark was accurate.”
“HA! I knew it.”
“Manny, we’ve got a tropical depression just forming up, east of the Bahamas, and we’d like to ask you to break it up a bit.”
“Ah, now, you know, you guys down there have complained in the past that breaking them up only strengthens them if they snap back together. We’ve been told to keep our mitts off your storms.”
“You’re right, Manny. But we left wiggle room if…”
Manny jumped in, “If the Hurricane Center determines a weather event to be of sufficient destructive or harmful magnitude and landfall is imminent and looming; or if a newly emerging event is forming in known lethal patterns; the Hurricane Center may ask Heaven operators to attempt an intervention.”
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“I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“I’m looking at radar. I don’t see any hurricanes, Gus.”
“Right again, Manny.”
“So, it’s really a little tropical depression has you worried?”
The Hurricane Center predictive software had become highly accurate in recent years. Over thirty years’ worth of historical weather criteria, collected from thousands of points in air, land and sea, in advance of major storms, had been converted to digital data points and uploaded to the Center’s computers.
“It’s uncanny. Even though this one is just beginning to form, our models, every single one, are already telling us it looks like Katrina, from back in oh 5.”
“Boy, I sure remember that one.”
“Me too. This one spawned in the same spot, and readings from the entire hemisphere are so close to oh 5 recordings, all the alarms are sounding. The size and track look like a repeat of Katrina.”
“Um, you’re looking to turn it north, I suppose, early?”
“Exactly. We hope you can turn it, or at least part of it, north, into the Atlantic.”
“Cooler waters,” Manny said, “storm should die out. If not, it should be smaller. If not, it’s in the Atlantic. You win, either way.”
“Bingo. Except I’d say we win. Averting another Katrina.”
“Point taken. We’re in luck, timing wise. Electrical loads are low this time of year, so we’ve got capacity available. We’ll be chasing it, what, two, maybe three days?”
“We should plan for three.”
“Ok, let’s get started. Send me the coordinates at the GREOC
email. We got a few canned programs to choose from, so we should be able to start lifting in an hour, maybe less. We’ll keep an eye out for anything we can do to tweak it, too.”
“Great Manny, thanks for the help.”
“No problem, Gus.”
Manny called Spencer. Manny would love to get involved, but this request came from the American sector. In addition, all the island nations east of Florida had contracted with U.S. based utilities 339
for electric and weather needs. It was Spencer’s gig. He explained the request to Spencer, discussed which program to use, then he could only sit back and watch while Spencer had all the fun.
At 5:20 AM Manny was just finishing typing up his notes when his relief arrived. Other than the call from the Hurricane Center, it had been an average night. In service of the GREOC worldwide, the twelve sectors and Manny had received twenty-seven calls, resulting in the dispatch of eleven communications technicians, with three still out; two laser techs, both returned to base; repositioning of three relay satellites; manual intervention in two weather events; and dispatch of three PV repair crawlers, two resolved, and one still in progress. After delivering a thorough briefing to his day-shift counterpart, Manny took the elevator to his car, hopped in and drove out of the garage. He stopped on Climates Drive and got out of his car. Recalling the habit he’d become accustomed to at Midwest Energy, he stood by the open door, leaned on the roof, and stared over the car.
The sun was just coming up on a beautiful, early summer day.
He looked to the north and admired the colored laser shaft descend-ing from Heaven to the nearest receiver anode, less than a mile away, on high ground. He’d gotten out of his car today because the day felt historic. He thought something might visibly have changed.
Of course, nothing had. Today was much like yesterday, even to him, and he knew most people wouldn’t even think about the GREOC project today. It had been an occasional news item for several years now, but Manny knew it would soon fall out of newswor-thiness as their accomplishments became routine, and as people came to view Heaven’s bounty as a birthright.
He thought again about his Arctic Night, over seven years ago, the strange book he had read, and the woman named Bell. He wondered if any part of the story Art had told him could be true; that all the wonders of Heaven had roots buried in that story. He’d never known Art to boast or exaggerate, and he was far too clear-eyed to be using hallucinogenic substances, but the story he’d told…
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