Every major colony world has at least one orbital elevator of some kind. They were all but required to support major imports and exports before Contact. Rocket launches were expensive, and standard colonization packages have come equipped with starter elevator kits since the 2150s. While not as capable as permanent orbital elevators, these single-tether elevators are generally everything a young colony needs. And many smaller colonies have never upgraded to a larger system at all.
I say the universe is better because of humanity. We’ve created art with no more reason than because it is pretty. We’ve sculpted entire worlds to be able to better support life as we know it. We’ve recreated extinct animals on hundreds of worlds. We’ve uplifted uncountable numbers of animals to human-level intelligence. There have been bad times. Times of war and destruction and slavery and all of that. But those always end and humanity blossoms like flowers after a long drought. We can make and do amazing things. And we make the universe a better place to be.
Twilight’s season four closing music began to play as the ragtag evacuation fleet set sail from Okinawa. Twilight and Dixie stood next to Empress Aiko as they watched the last battle, and then the scene panned forward with a quick advancing of days and nights to show them looking over the rebuilt Los Angeles skyline as they entered the harbor. Dixie welcomed the Empress to her new home and the credits began to roll. And then the series showed how the new Empress would forever change the roll of the Japanese Imperial Family. The footage of her walking through the streets of Los Angeles and actually conversing with the people under the credits was all real news footage recorded the day the Empress arrived.
The first orbital elevators were built as a single tether from Earth to orbit. You could send packages up or down, but not both at the same time. One had to be careful with the schedules. The obvious first upgrade was to add a second tether, one for lifting and one for dropping. The Panama City Elevator was the first purpose built dual-tether elevator. Yes, they actually considered two tethers to be sufficient back then. The modern Panama Station and her tethers would amaze them.
Some people say that humans are the most evil things in the universe. Their evidence is all the wars and destruction we commit on each other. All the species of animals we’ve destroyed. The way we’ve torn planets apart for the resources they hold. I can see their point. We’ve made a lot of mistakes. And sometimes they weren’t mistakes. Some people really are evil. But most people just want to live and be happy. That’s what everything that lives wants if you get down to it. And there ain’t nothing wrong with that. In fact that I think that’s what’s right in the universe.
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