470 The Three Body Problem

After Aron faded away, billions of people rushed to the Akashic Record to read about the space elevator for themselves. The emperor was, after all, the most famous, not to mention powerful, celebrity on Earth. And as they read, more and more discussions sprang up on Pangea that ran the entire gamut of opinions. Some bashed the empire for attempting something so dangerous that it risks wiping out humanity with Ceres like Chixculub wiped out the dinosaurs, while others countered with the idea that he had obviously practiced it thousands of times in the so-called universal simulation. He must be positive that it would work, since he is also on Earth and wouldnt escape if the shit hit the fan... or the meteor hit the planet, as the case may be.

Still, both sides agreed that it was a risky plan; the only thing they disagreed on was whether or not the risks had been taken into account and mitigated.

Astronomers, physicists, and engineers, on the other hand, were among the many excited, but also depressed people. They were excited because, after all, the information that had been made public in the Akashic Record was likely true, so they were thrilled that they would see, and perhaps even use, a space elevator in their lifetimes. But they were also depressed, because the things they discovered let them know just how many centuries they were behind the empires achievements. Millions of them flocked from the Akashic Record to the imperial scholastica to read the university curriculums in their current fields immediately made the decision to apply to go back to university for refresher courses because they couldn't handle the disparity. They were respected experts in their field, and the idea that they were so far behind an upstart like the empire disturbed them on a very deep level.

None of them were quiet about it, either. Their collective reentry into the ivory tower of academia prompted hundreds of millions, if not billions, more people from every profession to join them. Everyone who was in their profession for the love of it made the decision to go back to school, especially after finding out that they could learn how the empires current technology was made, from the code behind the simulation to the engineering and manufacturing of GAIA products. Nothing was hidden, and even knowing that what they would learn would be at least a generation behind the empires current achievements didnt dissuade them. They were sure they could use the knowledge to innovate and develop programs and products that were, if not exactly on par with GAIA Techs products, at least competitive with them, given time.

And time was something they now had in abundance, since there were now 48 hours in every day. Some of the most overconfident or greedy among them even laughed themselves awake while they were sleeping because they dreamed of counting giant piles of Earth New Dollars until their tongues went dry and fingers cramped into uselessness.

A day later.

Billions of people were glued to their screens, AR displays, floating in virtual space around what would be Ceres Stations new home, or even crowded around the site of the new space elevatoran as-of-yet unnamed island in the Eden-Esparian Archipelagohoping to watch the final approach and deceleration of the dwarf planet that would soon be orbiting Earth.

Regardless of where they were watching from, the approach was animated and highlighted, with prediction lines drawn from the asteroid labeled with speed indicators. They could watch it in real time, as well as follow the prediction line, should they so choose. There was even a safety line, where Ceres would be accelerated into a slingshot maneuver around the Earth, taking it back into the depths of the solar system in case any accidents happened during the deceleration and parking process.

Under the eyes of billions of people, Ceres soon passed the line of no return and smoothly entered Earths orbit. It went around once, twice, and a third time, still decelerating, until it finally drifted to a "halt relative to a position directly above Eden, where it remained in a geosynchronous orbit around the equator, the perfect position for a space elevator. Everyone watching cheered at the sight, but the loudest cheers came from space enthusiasts, who all shared a single thought: We can visit space in our lifetime!

The Edenians and Esparians among the audience quickly put down their phones, closed their laptops, stood up from their couches, or logged out of the simulation and ran outdoors, hoping to catch a glimpse of Earths second moon. And there it was, brightly shining in the sky and appearing even larger than the moon due to its closeness to the surface.

Earth had become a planet with two celestial satellites.

Still, people werent endlessly excited about it. Instead, they still harbored a few doubts deep down.

@Tempest: [They did it! Those madmen brought an entire MOON to us! Thank you, Your Majesty, for fulfilling the wishes of billions of people around the world that wanted to go to space]

@ScorpianRed: [@Tempest u should hold off on hope cuz we might get hit by hurricanes and title waves bro]

@Tempest: [@ScorpianRed Oh ye of little faith. If the scientists can make kilometer-long ships hover and move without propulsion, making a moon hover without weather is just an issue of scale. They did it once, they can do it again!]

@ratnu: [@ScorpianRed @Tempest 90% of solving a problem is knowing that it can be solved. The other 10% is just engineering. Ill reserve judgment, if theres no effect on tides or weather Ill livestream myself eating shit upside down!]

@Tempest: [@ratnu I screenshotted that lol. Ill remind you in a week and be sure to tune in to watch your livestream.]

@ScorpianRed: [@ratnu lololololololol me 2]

Discussions like that were all over Pangea, while the experts refrained from commenting, not wanting to be disproven either way should they support one side or the other. They would soon know if what they had read in the Akashic Record was true or not. If it wasnt, devastating and sudden changes in tides and weather patterns would begin showing up in a week or so, and they would cause irreversible damages another week after that.

After the first few hours passed without issue, the enthusiasts were soon shifted firmly into the believer camp with very few doubters. Some of the more technologically savvy enthusiasts had even set up recording equipment to record and track the "new moon and linked it with the automated weather reporting from the imperial oceanic and weather agency (IOWA) to track any changes. But as time went on, more and more people would abandon those recording and tracking setups, rendering them projects much like wildlife tracking and recording with motion-activated webcams were a few years ago. At that time, a trend had swept the globe that had people worried about wildlife conservation efforts, but just like every other trend, it soon passed, leaving millions of webcams scattered about the wilderness areas in more developed nations, like America, Canada, and some countries in Europe.

Regardless, now the only question that remainedat least in the eyes of the space enthusiastswas just how they would build such a long cable in such a short period of time. Experts had a theory, given the organic compounds that made up a lot of Ceres mass, but even though theyd been told about the process it was still difficult to wrap their heads around. Things that seemed borderline magical, like artificial gravity and tractor beams, were ironically easy for experts to understand; those could be chalked up to a vast difference in technological levels. But things that were already within humanitys grasp were incredibly difficult to accept for them. Carbon nanotubes could already be produced in small amounts in laboratories, so they rationally knew it could be done, but there was some mental block preventing them from believing that it had already been done. Perhaps it was ego, perhaps it was something else, but the fact remained that experts found it difficult to believe that hundreds of kilometers of reinforced, woven carbon nanotubes could be laid out that fast, let alone produced in one strand of such an incredible length.

As the worlds eyes were glued to high geosynchronous orbit, someone, somewhere, opened their eyes.