Elevators Through Time - Book 1

Part 36: Curiousities

Part 36: Curiosities

Year: 2038

Time: 5:50pm

Location: SpaceLift Arrival and Departed area, Stratostation, Upper Atmosphere, Earth-Space

Level: Level 1

We headed to the information booths first because Kate wanted to find more about everything here. We looked through some free magazines and played with a scale model of the whole Earth-to-Stratostation connection. I didn't notice it at first, but I saw the same model somewhere in the Skylift Base Station near Kathy's desk. It was under repair because some baby had broken it.

"So this is what it would look like from far away? Wow!" Kate marvelled as he flexed the scale functioning model that had an actual miniature model Skylift climbing up the shaft. Kate flexed the shaft and pressed the button to make it go up or down and the lift would follow the contour of the shaft it was grabbing onto.

"Quite an amazing feat of engineering," I replied, "It does work to take one step back and see how good we can be if we don't fight with each other and work on something worthwhile."

Kate and I enjoyed finding some more information about the station and in particular one thing that I wouldn't expect in a 'space' station.

"Who would bring a horse up here in space?" Kate wondered out loud staring at a large dirt enclosure with jumps and a genuine ranch-style trough-and-fence setup. There was even a saddle hanging on the fence.

It was the strangest thing I had ever seen, despite knowing what it was and what a horse ranch is for.

Who would reserve such a space for the life of an animal and also provide the resources to maintain a single horse. It did look like it served a function, having a saddle and some reigns. Who and why?

"Who indeed," came a burly voice from behind us.

A rather portly man, with a sailor's beard and hat and pipe, sauntered over to us, in a sailor's swagger and introduced himself as Bill O'Grady, but that seemed to be a joke. He added, "If yer ever stu'k in a bog, I'm yer man to get ye' outta that right mess there."

I stifled a laugh at the irony of the initials of his name and his helpfulness.

"Hello, do you know anything about this enclosure?" I timidly asked.

"Well I should, since I own her and the plot, not to mention have invested a great deal in this station. Terry Johannes. Pleasure." He said as we shook hands. I introduced myself and Kate to him and he kissed the back of her hand. Finally, a gentleman.

"So Terry, why, if you forgive me for asking, do you keep a horse up here? Isn't it inefficient to maintain livestock here?" I asked, gesturing to the horse that was now staring right at Kate.

Kate reached a hand out and the horse approached her and pressed it's muzzle into her hand. That was amazing by itself.

Terry smiled as he watched Kate touch the horse's nose and face, "She seems to like Kate, that's a good sign."

He then turned to me and explained, "The horse is for the kids to pat as well as for me to see signs of danger and I also ride her around the station from time to time, Alex."

"I hope she is potty trained."

"Oh, don't worry about that. She has special enzymes in her stomach to take care of waste matter. Without them she would be dropping all over the place but thanks to them she can trot about the station and no one would get a whiff. They may smell a horse but not the messy country smell. Sherry here is part cybernetic. She had an accident many years ago and I took care of her and fixed up her broken insides until she could walk and eat again. I've owned her for years now and she had fared much better than earth-bound horses."