Chapter 936 - The Historic First Train (1/2)

“Every time I look up at this space elevator, it’s difficult for me to restrain my impulse to worship it. Only a miracle can describe this magnificent project. May God bless human beings and may they not lose their course in the sea of ​​stars, Amen.”

Standing at the foot of the space elevator, looking up, the old man with a beard in a priest’s suit reached out and touched the outer shell of the space elevator. He painted a cross with his old fingers, and recited an unknown prayer.

Today marked the first time that the space elevator passenger rail was open to public. Among the seventy people that would arrive at the terminal station, other than thirty trained astronauts, were twenty representatives from Xin as well as twenty invited foreign guests.

The selection of these twenty people was handed over to the United Nations. In addition to the numbers already discussed with Hua, the UA, Russia, the UK and other countries, the other seats were voted on by the special committee set up by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

The bearded white “Santa Claus” was the former Pope José Rachel, from the Vatican, and was the oldest passenger on the first journey. In order to take care of this elder nearly a hundred years old, Celestial Trade specifically adjusted the acceleration of the space elevator during the acceleration and deceleration phases. It would make the acceleration time slightly longer, but it didn’t have much impact on the entire 36,000-kilometer journey.

The man stopped fixating himself on the elder, took a small wooden box from his pocket and slowly pressed the box in front of his chest. His skin color was very pale, his brown short hair was slightly curled, and there was nostalgia in his pupils.

“In 1895, the Russian scientist Tsiolkovsky was inspired by the structure and shape of the Eiffel Tower to imagine a ‘sky castle’ that revolved around the earth.” Looking up at the space elevator, the man muttered, “Fascinating greatness, the charm of civilization is exactly this. We can always obtain inspiration from our own culture, to imagine unrealistic dreams, and finally turn the dreams into reality.”

“You are?” The black man standing next to him looked at him with surprise.

“A writer,” with a pause, Rudolf Clark looked at the wooden box in his hand with a hint of reminiscence, “Like my grandfather.”

In 1978, his grandfather Arthur Clark took inspiration from Pearson’s description of the American Space Mechanics Research Laboratory and wrote “The Fountain of Heaven”, which depicted the blueprint of the space elevator and influenced many science fiction literatures.

The “carbon nanomaterials” and “ocean-equatorial space station” described in the text predicted the future in a certain sense. The main material used by Celestial Trade to build space elevators was “graphene”, and the end of the space elevator was the space station named “Celestial City”.

“You seem to be surprised?” Rudolf looked at the man.

“Indeed,” the man nodded. “I have seen at least two writers.”

As he said this, he turned his eyes to the side of the space elevator.

There, there was an Asian old man who didn’t seem to mingle well with the group.

“There is a line of words written in Chinese.” Haruki Murakami reached out and slowly moved his fingers across the square of the space elevator. He said to himself, “Who left this?”

“I know that we can solve the next problem, because we have solved all the problems that have existed before… If it is translated into English, it probably means this.” Standing next to the old man, Liu Haotian replied in English. “As for who left it, who else?”

A nostalgic smile appeared on his face.

When he was in Shangjing and Wanghai, he did spend some time with Jiang Chen. But now that his position changed, partly because the Liu family did not want him to waste more years in the previous position. This time, the reason why he could represent the state in this special ceremony was due to the energy and influence of the Liu family.

However, he was somewhat regretful that he didn’t see Jiang Chen on this trip.

Just as they held the first train ceremony here, Jiang Chen accompanied the Xin President to Canberra to attend the UN Outer Space Summit.

“I am Murakami Haruki,” He was surprised at Liu Haotian’s remark. The 60-year-old man extended his hand to him, “I am very glad to meet you.”