Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume18 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 10===

Louisiana Honeysuckle heard a quiet electronic beeping.

That girl in short-sleeved gym clothes and a lab coat was riding a bicycle. Really, she had only used the station’s cargo sorting system to bring a container loaded with a training bike to the center of the elevator. With a 20km diameter, she could never live there comfortably without a system that allowed her to transport entire rooms.

This was the elevator terminal at the center of the safe and comfortable donut-shaped station. The terminal alone was larger than a domed stadium, but it may have been more like a switchyard since it included the cargo management and the elevator car maintenance and cleaning.

They did not have to worry about weight since the station had no gravity, so unlike a switchyard, the materials and pathways were stacked vertically as well.

(Today’s quota is 30km. They say every part of the human body has its purpose, but when you look at the cellular level, it’s packed full of unnecessary functionality. Just like a computer sold for cheap at an electronics store.)

She whispered to herself while pedaling the bike and sending small beads of sweat out into the zero-g air.

“Shouldn’t be long now,” said the genius girl who had conquered space before anyone else.

The Legitimacy Kingdom intruders might think the Capitalist Corporations had used the space elevator as camouflage for constructing a space Object, but it was actually the opposite. She had been unable to receive funding to simply build the elevator, so she had needed to rework the plan into a military context.

That was where her much older brother Sladder Honeysuckle had failed.

He had dedicated his life to the mass driver system and, once that had been rejected, he had chosen to leave the Capitalist Corporations as a whole. There was nothing wrong with carrying your own ideals about space, but let them control you and you could never make them a reality. Louisiana had possessed the flexibility to allow her ideals to be clouded by compromise.

As the name suggested, the Federation of Elevator Industries was dedicated to the construction and use of the space elevator. As long as she never lost sight of that, she could stay true to her ideals.

She was indebted to the Turkana District. So much so that she had known it had to be the location of the elevator she had bet her entire life on. Yes, that choice may have caused some suffering for the local people, but she would repay them in time. All the necessary calculations were already complete in her head.

She had intended to empty her mind while pedaling the bike, but the simple task had instead turned her focus inwards.

A former schoolmate of hers had lamented the lack of medicine.

His name was Braskine Mintfrappe.

Why were Africa and Europe so different? What made the deserts of Africa so different from the deserts of North America? The two of them had given much thought to those environmental and geographical issues. His straightforward sincerity had drawn her to him.

But that would soon end.

She would correct the world’s problems. She would make it all equal. To those in need, it would come as a blessing. To those blessed with plenty, it would come as a crisis. How would this day be recorded in history? She continued down this path because she believed most would rejoice.

Then again…

(They must have already noticed. Since there’s still no sign of Object reinforcements sent in from the Capitalist Corporations home country, the higher ups must not have found as much strategic value – and thus attraction – as they had hoped.)

“Hello.”

“Sigh. Oh, it’s you, Silk S.”

The small LCD screen in the middle of the steering wheel changed to display someone’s face.

This was one of her contacts in 7th Core, the seven companies who funded the Federation.

She stopped pedaling but remained on the bike as she pulled up the chest of her gym shirt to wipe off her face.

“Don’t you have that incompetent president to look after?” she said.

“The baby just had his milk and went to sleep. I mean, we’re talking about the emperor who still hasn’t noticed his lack of clothes – not that his company has been issuing tons of bogus stock and not that his company has been ‘hollowed out’ by selling off all of his buildings and factories behind his back. The ‘deals’ he thinks he’s making are no more real than a board game.”

“You’re a scary woman.”

Louisana’s tone remained light and she did not seem to care that pulling up on the shirt brought her shapely navel into view.

But light as her tone was, she did mean it.

This meant that one of the most famous companies in the world had no products or assets left. It simply continued scattering bogus stock to gather money from the world’s investors while selling the corporate group’s countless facilities and personnel to other companies to illicitly absorb double the profit. That was this secretary’s true job.

And yet the brand name kept its world-famous reputation.

It overpowered countless other companies with nothing but lies.

Louisiana caught her breath, squeezed the handlebars tight, and began pedaling with her slender legs.

“The Wendigo Vehicle Group has a market cap of 6 trillion dollars. The company is large enough to influence the value of the dollar, yet its actual total assets amount to a shocking 0 cents? If those furious investors saw your HQ now, they’d probably fall on their asses in shock. I mean, every floor except for the president’s office is nothing but empty offices with nothing but landline phones inside.”

“If they discovered it, they would abandon the emperor in his new clothes and escape while they still could, but it looks like they won’t even have that opportunity.”

“Let’s not forget that he’s the man who rose to being one of the most powerful people in the Capitalist Corporations by gathering nonexistent mining rights, wills, and land deeds and then gathering money from the world’s investors with fictional deals made with bogus stock and presentations for nonexistent new projects. He started with a paper company that didn’t do anything and continued buying up rival companies until he had reached a position in 7th Core. And you’re the woman who pampered him to the point he lost it all without even noticing.”

“He makes for a decent shield.”

“See, this is why you’re a scary woman.”

The two women shared a bewitching laugh.

Even if this conversation were being recorded and reached that president, he would immediately conclude it was an insulting forgery. That was how thoroughly he had been “educated”.

That skilled secretary was known as the Silk Spider.

No one knew her real name. Not Louisiana, and not anyone in the major company where she worked as a strategic secretary. The company server listed her as a Serenade Blackrose, but that was a common fake name. She was shrouded in mystery, but no one dared risk the consequences of carelessly trying to discover more about her. If you wanted to avoid being forever known on the seedier side of the internet for your role in a video that shocked the world, the wise choice was to let those mysteries remain mysteries.

Eventually…

“Not long now,” said Silk S.

“No,” agreed Louisiana while continuing to pedal and sending jewels of sweat out into the zero-g around her. “And all because you turned a blind eye to what I was doing.”

“Doing accounting day in and day out is so boring, so every once in a while, I like to cheer myself up with an unprofitable fireworks show.”

“I’m glad you gave me that honor.”

7th Core was made up of seven companies.

This one had been hijacked by a faceless villainess, but the other six had their own plans. They were all likely involved in some equally complicated situation that had no connection to what their business ostensibly was.

They would normally be terribly particular about the accounting, yet they had still provided the vast sum needed for constructing the elevator. That suggested the executives did have their concerns about the world. Hopefully, that would be enough to solve the problem. But even if the elevator failed to live up to expectations, it could still be reused for military purposes and pay back far more money through lucrative wars.

In a way, it was very simple.

Her brother had been the kind of eccentric genius who refused to compromise on his principles, so this had been more than he could bear. Louisiana, on the other hand, simply saw it as something she could easily control.

That may have been why the siblings never worked together on a single project.

“I have high hopes for you,” said Silk S.

“Hopes for what? For me to save the world?”

“For you to prove that the machinations of a single individual can defeat all the boring numbers.”

Louisiana smiled while sipping a sports drink from a bottle through a straw.

And she spoke the forbidden words.

“Haven’t you already proven that? You have earned the title of International Eater by taking over an international company all on your own, after all.”

“Hee hee. Not all successful people enjoy the loneliness at the top. I would love to have some company as I look down on the world from such heights. I am praying that company can be you. Bye.”

That was the end of it.

Silk S had not discussed business in any way. It seemed like a meaningless transmission that only brought risk. That secretary used a real war to satisfy her personal enjoyment and set the world in motion for her own entertainment while making sure her name would never go down in history.

So Louisiana had no real reason for her suspicions here.

She stopped pedaling and thought to herself in the bike seat.

(She made it sound like their CEO is going to break soon. Damn you, Silk S. Are you stirring up trouble to find your next target? But what greater mark is there than 7th Core?)

She shook her head.

She shook away those worthless thoughts.

If she was going to let her mind wander, she could guide it in a more meaningful direction.

(Sladder, you failed.)

She bluntly assessed her own brother.

That other genius had only ever focused on himself, so he had failed to become an Eater. He had failed to escape being one of those who was chewed up and spit out by society.

But scientists could still see beauty in a snow crystal or extremely simple equations. And they could also detest efficiency and consumption at times.

(That is why I will be the one who conquers space. Even you should be able to accept your failure if I am the one to defeat you.)

She sighed and looked to the heart of the space elevator. A few carbon nanotube wires were lined up in parallel like a 100 thousand kilometer string instrument.

She would take victory for herself and this toy was necessary for that.

(I need to settle this while they’re busy playing with the Second Generation Elinabell. I acquired my elevator by compromising my ideals and allowing some flies in the ointment. …To do that, I had to deceive the people trying to preserve their simple way of life in the Turkana District and take their land from them. They’ve been forced to endure so much hardship up to this point, so it’s time someone finally rewarded them in some way.)

“Now, then.”

She began pedaling hard and pushed her body so the simple action and faint exhaustion would direct her thoughts inwards.

She thought back to her memories of the Turkana District and of her old friend.

She would repay them. By correcting the world’s mistake.

All alone in the enormous core of the elevator, she smiled with the look of a mischievous child in her eyes and spoke as a different type of genius from her brother.

“Time for the world’s largest concert.”