The Binary Born

On final approach, Quinn brought his small craft rest just meters from the surface of the asteroid. Three cables, virtually invisible, but stronger than diamond, slowly snaked out from his landing flank. Where they touched the asteroid's surface, nano-machines burst from their tips and anchored the cables to the space rock's surface, constructing bonds on the molecular level, so as to make the connection between rock and cable indistinguishable and strong as hell. This completed, Quinn reached out, using his winches as effortlessly and dexterously as any appendage, to reel in the cables ever so slowly, adjusting his attitude with cold-jets and gyroscopes to keep all of the cables taught. He controlled his position with all the ease of a child, playfully balancing on a roadside curb. Finally, an accelerometer's reading of zero alerted him to touch-down.

Immediately, Quinn commanded the nano-machines to begin mining the hydrogen needed to get himself and the asteroid into geo-synchronous orbit. The hydrogen was pumped back to the ship by a pipeline, constructed by other nano-machines from carbon mined from the asteroid's regolith. The ship likewise stored the mined hydrogen needed to move the asteroid's extra mass in a carbon-nanotube tank, also constructed by nano-machines. Within a few days, a hydrogen plant of liliputian proportions was constructed and operational.

While Quinn directed the nano-machines with a small percentage of his processing power, he allowed another part of him to think about the implications of what he was helping mankind to accomplish. The construction of the space elevator, likely overseen by himself, would allow man to reach orbit for a price per unit mass orders of magnitude less than had been possible in the past 4 decades of human spaceflight. Man could go from having a few sporadically manned stations on two worlds to full civilizations on thousands of worlds in thousands of systems! Man could cheaply lift and construct advanced spacecraft in orbit, where before they could only lift stripped down fuel tanks with disproportionately small life bubbles and scientific equipment. Now, for only pennies on the pound, man and his machines could be lifted into orbit on electronic trolley cars, no more advanced than the maglev systems on their childrens' favorite roller coasters. The first ultra-thin carbon nanotube mined and extended downward from this rock would change the history of mankind, and open the gates to the stars!

At a predetermined time, when the hydrogen production plant had reached its peak efficiency, Quinn gently pushed off, asteroid in tow, with his engines to send them home to Earth orbit. The remaining hydrogen needed for the trip would continue to be mined from the rock en route.

* * *

Since turnover on the return leg of Quinn's journey, Earth had received no signals from the craft save the routine diagnostic results and telemetry. Though the NASA officials were uncomfortable with Quinn's silence, Dr. Evans explained that Quinn's increasing boredom during the flight. Nevertheless, he assured them, Quinn had confidence in the mission and would carry it out successfully. Some were satisfied, others suspected the worst, all were curious.

The day arrived when Quinn's craft came to a gentle stop, fixed over a single point on Earth's equator. Thirty-six Thousand kilometers over an equatorial island. Still no signal from Quinn. Finally, at midnight that evening, the base station on the island below received a one sentence message. "Good morning Dr. Evans, my name is Jacob."