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===Needle Disaster=== | ===Needle Disaster=== | ||
| − | * '''The Space Needle''' ''(1976-1991)'' <br> The Space Tether is the brainchild of Randal Cross, of Cross World Technologies. Cross creates a high-tech consortium that plans, funds, and builds the revolutionary [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator elevator] that literally connects the earth with space. Much of the old Seattle Center is | + | * '''The Space Needle''' ''(1976-1991)'' <br> The Space Tether is the brainchild of Randal Cross, of Cross World Technologies. Cross creates a high-tech consortium that plans, funds, and builds the revolutionary [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator elevator] that literally connects the earth with space. Much of the old Seattle Center is destroyed to clear the way for the Anchor Complex. The tether at the top of the re-fit [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_needle Space Needle] is connected to a captured asteroid. Although mostly used for freight, passengers can ride in an elevator, called a climber, to orbit where they can experience micro-g, rent laboratory space, transfer to a docked spacecraft, or just do some sightseeing. Thousands of tons of cargo also make the trip more safely, less expensively, and with less pollution than with traditional launch-based technologies. During construction the Tether brings in enormous amounts of investment and creates whole new industries in and around the Puget Sound area. (The facilities built for the fabrication of the ultra-thin Tether make Seattle the world center of carbon nanotube technology.) Once completed, Seattle becomes the only place on earth capable transporting goods from the land, sea, and air, into space. Earth orbit sees it's first building boom. With goods so much easier to move up the gravity well companies began to construct speculative communities in space. |
* '''The Fall''' ''(1991)'' <br> And then it all, quite literally, falls apart. In the winter of 2006 the end comes with little warning. Deep within the earth rock shifts against rock, a low-frequency wave sets up inside the tether at just the wrong frequency, and the impossibly strong filament [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator#Vibrational_harmonics snaps] like an old shoe lace. The upper reaches of the carbon strand burn up in the atmosphere, but closer to the ground, angular momentum rips the Tether to the east with devastating results. Acting as a super-strong monofilament, the Tether whips through buildings, the busy I-5 corridor, and a few unfortunate and unsuspecting people. But the real damage, as it almost always is, is economic... | * '''The Fall''' ''(1991)'' <br> And then it all, quite literally, falls apart. In the winter of 2006 the end comes with little warning. Deep within the earth rock shifts against rock, a low-frequency wave sets up inside the tether at just the wrong frequency, and the impossibly strong filament [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator#Vibrational_harmonics snaps] like an old shoe lace. The upper reaches of the carbon strand burn up in the atmosphere, but closer to the ground, angular momentum rips the Tether to the east with devastating results. Acting as a super-strong monofilament, the Tether whips through buildings, the busy I-5 corridor, and a few unfortunate and unsuspecting people. But the real damage, as it almost always is, is economic... | ||
* '''Aftermath''' (1991-2012)<br> With no way to move goods and people into orbit, the building speculators (most of them Seattle-based) go bankrupt. Steep rebuilding costs, lawsuits, and the loss of the area's biggest economic engine force Seattle into a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_depression recession] with depression-like unemployment. Major companies leave town, dock work migrates south to an increasingly vibrant Tacoma, and for the first time in history City Hall is forced to deal with smaller coffers, defaulted bonds, and a shrinking population. Those that are left flock to Rust City to carve out a place for themselves in the one place that's free to all who come. | * '''Aftermath''' (1991-2012)<br> With no way to move goods and people into orbit, the building speculators (most of them Seattle-based) go bankrupt. Steep rebuilding costs, lawsuits, and the loss of the area's biggest economic engine force Seattle into a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_depression recession] with depression-like unemployment. Major companies leave town, dock work migrates south to an increasingly vibrant Tacoma, and for the first time in history City Hall is forced to deal with smaller coffers, defaulted bonds, and a shrinking population. Those that are left flock to Rust City to carve out a place for themselves in the one place that's free to all who come. | ||
