Tower of Light
The Tower of Light is the center of human civilization in the twenty-second century. It is a megastructure that spirals some 12,000 feet from the equatorial Pacific. It further descends just over 8,100 feet to the ocean floor. The Tower of Light has 1,080 floors, and over a hundred sublevels below the surface of the ocean. At sea level, the tower is approximately 2,000 feet across, and tapers concavely to a point at its top. It is divided into five sections: the spire, the upper, the computer core, the main, and the sublevels. The tower was designed by Jessica Tran.
Characteristics
The Tower of Light is composed almost entirely of a nano-diamondoid composite fashioned around aluminum framing with hyperdense reinforcements. It is designed to withstand natural forces as well as nuclear blasts, and its hardness is enough to withstand all but the heaviest and most advanced lasers and piercing weapons. The entire tower is shielded from radiation with an equivalent protection factor of 10,000. The Tower of Light can also project an prolate spheroidal barrier screen that envelops it from top to bottom (UT 191, heavy barrier screen).
Flooring in the Tower of Light consists of a layer of accreted sea minerals, which is less tiring on human feet than the ultra-hard nano-diamondoid material used for the walls and ceilings. The coloration and opacity of the walls and ceilings can be manipulated by users. A person could turn a wall into a screen or a window, have it adjust its color and opacity on a schedule, give it a pattern, have it reflect as a mirror, and so on. Interior walls can furthermore be made amorphous, so spaces can be reshaped as needed: windows, doorways, transoms, shelving, and the like can all be added or removed. The ability of the composite to phase-change from a stiff solid to a shapable solid responds automatically to seismic activity and powerful blasts, adding to the Tower of Light's resilience to earthquakes and other forceful events.
The Tower of Light is powered by a series of fusion reactors located in the deepest sublevels. These reactors extract hydrogen from seawater and use it as fuel. The hydrogen extraction process is powered by an OTEC system. In addition to fusion energy, the entire surface of the Tower of Light uses solar paint technology integrated into the nano-diamondoid material to absorb and store solar energy with over 98% efficiency. The OTEC and solar energy systems can power the entire life support system of the Tower of Light, and serve as backup power in the event of fusion reactor failure. To date, there have been no failures of the fusion reactors.
In addition to the formidable Tower of Light armor and shielding, it has a fully integrated weapons system. It has an array of 12 Rainbow Laser Cannons (UT 117), 24 Blaster Cannons (UT 123), and 48 Gauss Miniguns (UT 143). The spire is thought to have additional undisclosed armaments. The sublevels have defenses that include rocket-torpedos with hyperdense or shape-charged warheads.
A defense net system inside the Tower of Light makes it impossible to use any weaponry that requires a power cell or an explosion to activate. This rules out most conventional and beam weapons, and any explosive warheads. Weapons that use combustion or simple mechanical power work. Most of the Tower of Light security soldiers use tangler pistols (UT 140) and knives, and are trained in the use of martial arts and shields. The defense net system is controlled by the Queen of Light.
The Infinite Echo megacomputer system is fully integrated into the Tower of Light. Anyone inside can interact with it through thought alone. Any surface can serve as a screen and holograms can be projected anywhere inside. It can further enhance the interface with optional sound and smell (targeted or untargeted) anywhere on the Tower of Light. Anyone with an internal computer and a wired or wireless neural interface device does not even need a visual or audial interface to interact with the computer, and can maintain a consistent link with Infinite Echo. Multiple users with cybernetic interfaces could share a virtual interface that does not exist in physical reality. Thus, several users could meet in a virtual room or all look at and manipulate a shared virtual screen, all while sitting comfortably in their own apartments. Significant amounts of human interaction occur in this virtual space.
Sections
The Spire
The spire comprises the highest 80 levels of the Tower of Light and is the domicile of the Queen of Light. The Queen's receiving chamber (also known as the throne room) lies at the base of the spire; what lies anove is undisclosed and undocumented. Access to the spire is controlled by the Queen and is generally restricted to very few other than herself. Both Trandroids are based in the spire. Also unique to the spire is the Tower of Light's only exterior observation deck, located on the 1,071st level.
The Upper
The Upper consists of the 901st through 1,000th levels of the tower, and is home to approximately 1,500 residents. These people are the elite of humankind, and include top scientists, psis, Lewis Sphere pilots, clergy in the Chuch of Light, and high ranking security officials. Only residents and approved persons may access The Upper.
Much of The Upper is devoted to the Shiva Space Technology division, which oversees the construction and maintenance of the Lewis Spheres. The Lewis Sphere launch platforms extend out from the 901st floor, one in each of the cardinal directions. The Queen of Light personally oversees the Shiva Space Technology division.
The Computer Core
Levels 601 through 900 house the Infinite Echo computer core. The core itself is suspended in the middle of what is essentially a 300' open-air shaft. Seawater is pumped through branching pipes that run throughout the core to regulate its heat. Decks and computer labs are housed around the core and on levels built along the perimeter of the open-air space, complete with an array of bridges and stairs for access. The entire space is kept at 60.3 degrees Fahrenheit. Access to the core is granted to all persons with Upper Level access, as well as approved maintenance personnel.
The Main
The Main comprises the first 600 levels of the Tower of Light. The vast majority of the people at the Tower of Light reside in The Main. Its lowest levels have cityscape design, complete with avenues for vehicle traffic, sidewalks, footbridges, parks, museums, atriums, restaurants, streams, ponds, waterfalls, storefronts, warehouses, hiking trails, and, public spaces. The Plaza of Light lies at the heart of The Main, at its center a 30' statue of the Queen of Light, surrounded by a crystalline pond with sculpted fountains. Cherry blossoms and flowering peach trees fill the plaza with fragrance and color. Most of the cityscape section of the Tower of Light is devoted to entertainment, commerce, and public use. There are some residences here, but most people live in the floors above.
Since the tower is curved concavely inward to an almost exponential degree as it rises, The Main becomes significantly narrower quickly. The next several hundred levels are devoted to mixed-use, serving as the residential center for most people at the Tower of Light. It also houses numerous education, industrial, and vocational facilities, as well as internal Tower of Light maintenance facilities. Thousands of people are employed to keep the tower up and running, clean and free from contamination by radiation or other threats.
The Sublevels
The Sublevels comprise myriad storage facilities where scavenged materials from around earth are stored and processed. Numerous oceanographic and aquatic laboratories are also interspersed around the sublevels. The deepest sublevels house the reactors that power the Tower of Light, and are restricted to approved personnel. Some people live in the sublevels, all of whom are bio-adapted to live in sub-aquatic conditions with no ill effects. Several submarine docks are located throughout the sublevels.
Below sea level, the Tower of Light splits into three smaller "legs" that each spiral and branch further as they descend to the sea floor. At its base, the Tower of Light occupies over a three square miles of space along the seafloor, rooted by 19,683 fingers of nano-diamondoid material along aluminum rods that are driven into the ocean bedrock, which themselves branch into 59,049 roots deep beneath the seafloor.
A popular tourist destination lies in one of the upper sublevels, a huge transparent bubble that descends into the shallow waters of the tropical pacific beneath the first branching of the tower. People can observe marine life amidst coral formations seeded on a network of interwoven outcroppings from the three legs. All sea life local to the tower has been engineered to be radiation tolerant. The extent of damage to the native sea life by the radiation and subsequent nuclear winter brought on by the Egg throughout the world is still unknown.