A Fire in Their Eyes #164

The result was that Los Angeles was the first city with a space port, the first interstellar city the city council preferred to say. They captured all of the élan of Roswell tourism and moved it down town. The space elevator itself had a sprawling base station in the museum district, right beside the La Brea tar pits. Some had wanted to put the station nearer to the docks for logistical reasons, but the magnitude of the expected tourism drew the station into a more metropolitan area of the city.

"Have you ever been up?" Rebecca asked in a low tone, eyes locked onto the glittering tower into the sky.

Crow shook his head. "No. Always wanted to, but never got an excuse good enough for someone else to pay."

"Green Eyes went up you know." Rebecca said, wistful. "The angel singing in heaven, or some such nonsense. He said it was beautiful, the earth was like the biggest jewel in the universe hanging underneath the station where he stayed."

"The sight of it probably makes you realize how narrow-minded we get down here on the ground, huh?" Crow asked. Rebecca shrugged.

Karros had a detachment of marines meet them with a hummer on the tarmac at El Toro, and drive them through the first stirrings of rush hour. The fresh-faced private at the wheel struggled with every shift of gears, drawing glares of ire from his sergeant in the passenger seat.

"First time driving a manual?" Crow asked to lighten the constricting military mood of the vehicle.

The private automatically looked to his sergeant who gave him permission to answer with a small motion of his head. "First time driving a car, sir." The private answered in a voice that verged on pubescent cracking. "I never got my license in high school and learned how to drive on a tank in the Sahara." He grinned. "Those drive a bit different."

Crow settled back in his sheet, suddenly feeling that the armed escort could not protect them from the most eminent safety problems confronting them. "I'll bet." He muttered.

A broad-based skyscraper tapered to a point almost half a kilometer above their heads, contorted like a piece of putty twisted around too many times. The cable of the space elevator stretched from the tip of the building up into the atmosphere. Crow noticed Rebecca breathing raggedly next to him.