like an ascent into heaven.
Two hours after launch the ribbon changed again, spreading out to a curved sheet twice the width of its standard sizestill only about two meters across, and gently curved.
Bisesa asked, Why the extra thickness?
Space debris, Alexei said. I mean, bits of old spacecraft. Lumps of frozen astronaut urine. That sort of stuff. Between five and seventeen hundred kilometers, were at the critical risk altitude for that. So we have a bit of extra width to cope with any impact.
And if we are hit by something
Anything so big it would slice the ribbon right through is tracked, and we just move the whole shebang out of the way using the crawler on the ground. Anything smaller will puncture the ribbon, but its smart enough to mend itself. The only problem is if were unlucky enough to be hit by something small coming sideways in, across the face of the ribbon.
Which is why the ribbon is curved, Bisesa guessed.
Yes. So it cant be cut through. Dont worry about it.
Myra, peering up, said, I think I see another spider. On the other side of the ribbon from us. I thinkoh, wow.
The second spider came screaming down out of the sky, passing just half a meter away. They all flinched. Bisesa had a brief reminder of their huge speed.
A builder, Alexei said, a bit too quickly for his studied calm to be convincing. Traveling down the ribbon, weaving an extra couple of centimeters onto the edge.
Bisesa asked, Whats the substance of the ribbon?
Fullerenes. Carbon nanotubes. Little cylinders of carbon atoms, spun into a thread. Immensely strong. The whole ribbon is under tension; the Earths spin is trying to fling the counterweight away, like a kid swinging a rock on a rope. No conventional substance would be strong enough. So the spiders go up and down, weaving on extra strips, and binding it all with adhesive tape.
Mechanical spiders, endlessly weaving a web in the sky.
They rose largely in silence, for the others wouldnt talk.
Come on. Were off the Earth. Now you can tell me whats going on. Why am I here, Myra?
The others hesitated. Then Myra said, Mum, its difficult. For one thing the whole world is listening in.
The hull is smart. Alexei spun a finger. All round surveillance.
Oh.
And for another, Myra said, you already know.
Alexei said, Believe me, well have plenty of time to talk, Bisesa. Even when we get to the drop-off, its only the start of the journey.
A journey to where? No, dont answer that.
Myra said, I think youll be surprised by the answer, Mum.
Bisesa would have welcomed the chance to talk to Myra, not about high-security issues and the fate of the solar system, but simply of each other. Myra had told her hardly anything of her life since Bisesa had gone into the tank. But, it seemed, that wasnt going to happen. Myra seemed oddly inhibited. And now the presence of Alexei sharing this little capsule with them inhibited her even further.
Bisesa started to feel tired, her face and hands cold, her stomach warmed by coffee, her mind dulled by the relentless climb. She pulled on the hat and gloves she found in her pockets. She piled up blankets from the suitcase onto the floor, pulled one over herself, and lay down. There was no sound, no sense of motion; she might have been stationary, suspended above the slowly receding Earth. She gazed up at the ribbon, seeing how far she could follow its line.
There was another transition when the ribbon reverted from gold to its customary silver. And later the width narrowed. More than seventeen hundred kilometers high, eight hours since leaving Earth, they were
higher than almost all mankinds satellites had ever flown. Bisesa was vaguely, peripherally aware of all this. Mostly she dozed.
She was woken with a jolt, a brief surge of acceleration that pressed her down into her blankets.
She sat up. Alexei and Myra sat on their fold-down seats. Myra was wide-eyed, but Alexei seemed composed. Alexeis softscreen on the wall flashed red.
They were thirteen hours into the journey, more than twenty-six hundred kilometers up. When Bisesa moved she felt as if she was going to float into the air. Gravity was down to about half sea level. Earth seemed trivial, a ball dangling at the end of a silver rope.
Other spiders flashed past them, overtaken by their own rapid climb.
We sped up, right? So whats wrong?
Were being pursued, Alexei said. We had to expect it. I mean, they know were in here.
Pursued?