One World Tower

Dov and his father walked away from the control station to where the polished silver capsule was docked nearby. The Luminary ascender was decorated inside and out as a royal transport capsule. It was the size of a walk-in closet, with room for five people plus the operator in his partial enclosure. The round glass windows, of this otherwise rectangular box, were trimmed with polished gold; black and red velvet fabric—the colors of New Babel— decorated the walls. Four golden oil lamps illuminated the interior.

Dov stepped over the sand bags on the floor that simulated a full passenger load, looked over the familiar controls that he had used many times before in shorter test ascents and waved to his father and sister. He closed the protective door looking as confident as he could. As the might of the ascender’s powerful vapor engine roared in the distance, Dov engaged the clutch of the speed control lever and the capsule lifted him on its journey to the top of the highest man-made structure in the world.

He leaned back against the support railing in the tight operator’s enclosure and watched through a small opening in front of him for level indicators painted on the inside wall of the tube. A lamp above his head lit the numbers passing in quick succession before his eyes. His capsule sped upward at a rate of more than one level every two seconds. The vapor engine noise disappeared after the 10th level, and vibration was minimal. When he neared the 51st level he tensed for the transition out of the dark, partially enclosed tube and into the open air of parts of the unfinished Guild and Ministerial levels that were sandwiched between the nearly-finished lower Commoner and upper Luminary regions. He would not have a level indicator display in this part of the structure, but he could judge his altitude by looking outside as the levels raced by. His ears popped when he left the contained pressure of the tube.

Dov eased the clutch pressure to slow his ascent, and he felt for gusts of wind. Within seconds, he heard a deep, oscillating hum. He saw workers on the girders look at him as he rushed upward. The capsule swayed sharply to one side, and Dov heard the alloy strand hit the tower’s structure and then jerk taut. The smooth upward motion changed to one that alternately slowed and accelerated as the capsule departed and reentered levels that were exposed. Dov continued to slow his speed with the clutch. Suddenly, he came to a violent stop. No sooner had he taken a breath, than he was momentarily lifted off the floor in near-weightlessness. Dov clung to his controls as he felt the ascender capsule drop in a free-fall.

When the capsule slammed to a halt after a one hundred-foot drop, Dov put his weight on the foot brake to keep from dropping further and set its locking latch. Praying that the latch would hold, he climbed onto the operator’s divider bar, opened a hatch in the ceiling, and inspected the alloy cable above him as far up as he could see. It was still straining under the ascender’s weight, so the problem was with the vapor engine below and probably with the take-up reel for the cable in the basement. That didn’t make it any less dangerous, but it gave him a better sense that it wasn’t a broken cable that caused the momentary drop. A cable break would have sent him to certain death.

He pondered what his next move would be if he had to evacuate the capsule. At least he was in the tower’s partially open area and not inside the constrained ascender tube, where escape would be impossible. He waited for the engines below to resume lifting him. He grew more nervous as the minutes passed. He could climb out of the capsule and descend the girders to a freight ascender portal, as the metal and stone workers did, but that was his last resort. Only slightly more feasible was to lower the capsule manually with the floor leveler wheel but that would take all day. Ten more long minutes passed before he heard the cable strain against the foot brake. He slowly released the brake and engaged the clutch, and his ascent resumed. Whatever had happened had been corrected, and either his father or his sister had re-engaged the power to the cable.

When he left the open air and entered the enclosed shaft again at the 102nd level, the relative silence was a welcome relief from the bumping and humming noise caused by the wind buffeting his craft. He slowed the ascent to a crawl and watched the level indicator on the tube wall gradually approach the 120th level. He stopped short of the final mark and used the leveling wheel to bring the capsule even with the floor of the tower exit area. After securing the foot brake with its latch, he opened the door, walked through the roof lobby, and stepped out onto the windswept rooftop promenade. His knees were unsteady but he wouldn’t admit it to anyone.

The bright sunlight and brisk wind were expected, but the view of the cities of Old and New Babel below him were surprisingly spectacular. Across the Euphrates River in Old Babel, the most prominent building on the skyline was the Ziggurat of Marduk. That old stone structure, and all the apartment and office buildings around it, were diminutive compared to the dominating height of the One World Tower, encircled by other modern buildings of New Babel and wide streets that radiated out from the tower at its center. The iconic structure was encircled by a wide plaza large enough to contain the quarter-million population of the two cities. Apart from a few hundred families who defied King Nimrod’s edict against leaving the cities without his permission, this was the concentrated epicenter of earth’s civilization. The One World Tower symbolized mankind’s supremacy on the earth and his reach for the heavens!

Nearby construction workers stared at Dov in his strange uniform with a mixture of envy and resentment. His historic first ascent had been completed in ten minutes, not counting the delay. When all the modifications were made to the capsule mechanisms and enclosures, trips from the crowded streets of New Babel to the tower’s luxury suites would take less than five minutes. Pride in this engineering marvel prevented Dov from noticing the undercurrent of resentment in the faces of workers against the privileged few who enjoyed the benefits of their positions at the expense of others.

After admiring the view, Dov navigated the capsule down at a measured pace, for he knew that the descent phase of his journey in the capsule could be more dangerous than the ascent. He tried to use the foot brake as sparingly as possible to prevent overheating. Passage through the open air sections of the tower was uneventful, and when he came to a stop in the machinery sub-basement docking area he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Congratulations!” Pele greeted him with a warm embrace and smile of relief.

“It took longer than I thought, but I have a good idea of what to expect now,” Dov said as he removed his helmet. “What happened with that stop?” Dov asked his father. “I assume there was a problem with the vapor engine.”

Yanis answered her brother before Pele could say a word. “It was the winding drum that slipped and unwound before I could engage the emergency brake. I tell you, my heart nearly stopped when I heard that drum spin in reverse before I could slam it to a stop.”

“So I must thank your fast thinking for saving my life?”

“Of course you must,” she demanded playfully.

“Then thank you, Sis,” he replied with a gallant bow.

“And I expect you to return the favor at the first opportunity,” she added.