The Tower of Mount Everest
Chapter 9

Ironically, the building of the bare-bones summit housing facility at 28,950 feet, just 85 feet below the summit would be considerably more challenging than the construction of the elaborate cities before it. It would look more like a space station than a city; hence, it would eventually be dubbed “Space Station Everest.” Hewing out tunnels in rock and lining them with alloy composite was slow and tedious work to be sure, but the results were reasonably predictable. However, the summit area was composed of layers and layers of snow and ice packed down over thousands and thousands of years onto the rock base. Added to this were hidden crevices packed with ice and snow. Fortunately, the satellite photographs were detailed enough to differentiate between the rock, snow and ice. Small temporary structures could be built right into the ice, but extensive remodeling of the ice sheets was out of the question. It would become destabilized, crack and fall off the side of the mountain, taking everything with it. The snow and ice had to be carefully removed in order to establish secure moorings for all of the permanent buildings, and especially for the tower that would soon follow after the completion of the hub. The workmen might as well have been in outer space in terms of working conditions and maneuverability, plus they had the additional handicap of dealing with gravity while constrained in their bulky, heavy, pressurized space suits. Removing the ice was one thing. But the blinding snow, temperature, and wind were the real killers. After all, they were on top of Mount Everest and on the summit, the jet stream has been known to reach wind speeds of over 186 mph with temperatures as low as -100 degrees Farenheight!

“By the time we get done here boss, Mount Everest ain’t gonna be 29,000 feet no more!” says Jose as he watches the workmen on TV monitors in a small building buried over 20 feet in ice and snow.

“Hey Adam!” yells Lattimer into his microphone.

“Yes, Dr. Lattimer?” a faint crackling voice says into his headset. Lattimer has his feet propped up on the countertop in front of him. Above him is an array of closed circuit TV cameras, monitoring every aspect of the construction of Space Station Everest. Lattimer puts his feet down as he begins to speak again. He turns around to engage in a dual conversation with the man on the other end of the mike and Jose who is standing right behind him. He nods silently at Jose to indicate he wants to say something momentarily, then, continues speaking to the workman.

“Adam, can you hear me all right?”

The faint voice returns, “I can hear you just fine, Dr. Lattimer, can you hear me all right?”

“Just barely,” says Lattimer. “Speak a little louder and a little slower, ok? We’re getting some kind of interference up here.”

“Yes sir,” the voice returns.

Lattimer pulls the mike away from his mouth and turns his attention to Jose.

“Jose, we need to focus our attention on removing as much snow and ice as possible from sector C before that snow storm moves in and dumps more stuff on top of us.”

“Yes sir, boss,” says Jose. “Too bad the alloy composite can’t cure in the snow and ice up here the way it did at the base of the tram tower.”

“Yeah, too bad,” says Lattimer. “I didn’t figure on needing alloy composite to keep the snow off of us while we’re working up here. I just can’t seem to get enough heat out there to get the daw gone stuff to cure! I could kick myself for not going ahead and building a tram up here! I didn’t figure on needing pieces of alloy composite bigger than the elevator could handle!”

“Oh well, boss, hindsight’s always twenty-twenty, isn’t it?” Jose quips.

Lattimer gives Jose an irritated look. “You’re a lot of help, you know that!”

Jose lifts his arms halfway, palms out and shrugs, “Hey boss, I just call em like I see em, you know?”

Lattimer can’t help but smile at Jose’s unbridled honesty. He nods his approval. “Yeah, I know you do, Jose!”

The small voice returns over the mike, “Dr. Lattimer, are you still there?”

Lattimer shoos Jose away with his hand and turns around to face the monitors as he begins speaking to the workman again.

“Yeah, I’m still here Adam. Just having a little side conversation with Jose.”

“Dr. Lattimer, the storm’s moving in a lot faster than we thought. I think we should probably cap off the work we’ve done and wait until things blow over, out.”

“Do what you think is best, Adam,” Lattimer responds. “We sure don’t want to get anybody killed up here.”

“Will do, Dr. Lattimer.”

“See you at dinner, Adam,” Lattimer says as he removes his headset. He turns, lowers his head and looks grimly at the edge of the floor next to the wall, hands in his lap. “I never figured on all of this,” he says, shaking his head. Then he begins to chuckle to himself. “Oh well, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it, wouldn’t they?”

“So, how is the king of the mountain doing up there, anyway?” Snyder asks sarcastically over the phone.

“I’m afraid he’s in a bit of a bind Sam,” says Treinwood.

“Oh really?” Snyder says with raised eyebrows.

“It appears Dr. Lattimer may have erred when he failed to make the third tram.” Snyder’s eyes grow wide as he begins to bark into the phone.

“I knew it! I knew it all along! That egomaniac is gonna ruin this project and take us down with him!”

“Now calm down, Sam, don’t get yourself worked up into another heart attack, ok? Lattimer will figure it out. He always does.”

Snyder snorts in disgust. “Yeah, that’s just what I’m afraid of, then he can lord it over us even more than he already does.”

“Don’t worry about Lattimer,” Treinwood says in a sinister tone. “Like it says in the bible. His time is short.”

“Not short enough for me!” says Snyder. “I want his hide nailed to the wall for what he did to me!”

“Sam, Sam, calm down,” Treinwood says soothingly. “All things in due course.” Snyder’s mood changes and he begins to grin like a fox ready to pounce on a chicken. “You mean… like Jim Johnson?” he says.

Treinwood, appalled at the comparison, says nothing.

“Yeah,” Synder chuckles to himself, just like Jim Johnson.”

Lattimer had a real dilemma on his hands. The tubular sections required to complete the summit housing facility had to be built at Snyderville because there was no way to cure them in the incredibly low temperatures and vicious weather found on the summit. These tubular sections ranged from 30 to 50 feet in diameter, far too large to fit into the elevator shaft at Upper New Everest. To further complicate matters, the tram tunnel from Lower to Upper New Everest was now sealed off completely. Lattimer waited for better weather and then resorted to “brute force.” The pieces were first hauled up using the open-tram that traverses the Rongbuk glacier. This was accomplished by attaching platforms with wheels to each piece so they could be rolled along the ground and over the glacier with the majority of the weight being supported by the tram tower cables. They were then detached and connected to a makeshift third tram cable, which was used to roll the pieces 10,000 feet up the North face on their way to the summit.

By means of sheer will and perseverance, Lattimer finally oversees the completion of the summit housing facility, but it has been costly in terms of time and human lives. It is quite Spartan and cramped compared to the cities lying beneath it. It is composed of “tubicles” in cavities hacked into the ice and rock about 85 feet below the summit. A tubicle is simply a 30 to 50-foot diameter, 10-foot high section of pipe, identical to that used to construct the larger elevator shaft. They are sealed on both ends and used as cubicles, hence the term tubicle. Six identical 40-foot diameter tubicles surround a central 50-foot diameter tubicle. The 30-foot diameter utility shaft passes from the summit through the 50-foot tubicle down to Everest Heights all the way down to Upper New Everest. Each 40-foot tubicle is spaced around the 50-foot tubicle as space allows. They are connected to it by an eight-foot diameter section of pipe that is five feet in length. A small catwalk within the pipe provides a modest walking space. Each connection between the central tubicle and its satellite tubicles are gated with an airlock door, which can be used to seal off any tubicle that develops an air leak.

Each 40 -foot tubicle surrounds an inner 30-foot diameter tubicle, leaving a 360-degree common walkway five feet in width between the larger and smaller tubicles. The 30-foot tubicles are divided into ten drywall sectors sharing a common 10-foot diameter hub, like spokes on a wagon wheel. Each of the sectors has its own sliding door that opens into the common walkway. Hence, it is possible for personnel to come and go from any sector of any tubicle to any other sector as well as into the central tubicle. Each 30-foot tubicle is a dormitory for up to 16 people. Eight of the sectors within each tubicle are for individual housing, two people per sector. One of the remaining sectors is used as a common eating facility and the other one is used for recreational purposes, including exercise equipment. The sectors continue into the hub of the tubicle, dividing it into five-foot long rooms, each containing a skimpy shower stall, a small toilet, and a tiny sink. Lattimer and Jose have their own private sectors, of course. No one begrudges Lattimer his own private space. However, the same cannot be said for Jose’s preferential treatment. The entire 140-foot diameter complex would have indeed lived up to its nickname “Space Station Everest” had it not been completely buried by rock, ice and snow to protect it from the high winds known to occur at that altitude.

The pressurized, heated central tubicle has a 10 -foot wide, 360-degree pathway around the utility elevator shaft. There are four equidistant eight foot diameter doors extending five feet out from the wall of the elevator shaft that are used to allow workers to enter and leave the elevator shaft via the central tubicle. Each door enters into a short airlock to allow the workers to decompress so they may enter the unpressurized shaft or re-compress to enter the central tubicle. Once inside the shaft, the men can take the elevator car (dubbed the can) straight up to the top, which is covered by a 30 -foot diameter white, alloy composite plate with a giant question mark painted on it. A hinged manhole cover, centered in the middle of the plate, allows the men to walk out onto the summit, or at least what remains of it.

All in all, it is a very cleverly designed complex. Steel conduits on the side of the elevator shaft contain power and communication cables that feed directly into the complex from Upper New Everest. A small trough in the edge of the elevator car provides clearance for the conduit and other pipes. This trough is covered with a 10-foot high shield to prevent men from making contact with the edge of the shaft during transport.

As with all the cities below it, waste gases from breathing and cooking are bubbled through liquid lye to remove carbon dioxide and then pass through activated charcoal filters so the air can be recycled, minimizing the need for constantly replenishing pressurized fresh air, thus reducing maintenance costs considerably. Water can be obtained by melting virgin mountain snow or from a small water tank that provides gravity flow and is kept filled by pumping water from Everest Heights through a water pipe within an air-heated pipe that travels vertically along the wall of the central shaft alongside the conduit down to Everest Heights. The water tank at Everest Heights maintains its pressure by pulling water from this same water pipe which continues down the shaft and into the water tank at Upper New Everest. Another non-heated water pipe travels from the water tank at Upper New Everest through the tram tunnel down to Lower New Everest which maintains a water tank and city reservoir within the mountain using recycled water supplemented as needed by melted glacial snow and ice.

Sewage from Space Station Everest, that “gentle” reminder of our humble origins, is combined with that from Everest Heights as it drains by a pipe situated within a heated air pipe all the way down the central shaft to Upper New Everest. From there, it joins the waste from Upper New Everest and is piped through the tram tunnel to join the waste expended from Lower New Everest. From here, it is too environmentally hazardous and costly to pipe it over a glacier into Snyderville, so a sewage treatment plant, cut out right into the very bowels of Mount Everest handles all of the human waste spilling down from it. The cities within Mount Everest need to be as self -sufficient as possible, so after the waste water is treated, it is recycled. As unappealing as that sounds, it is a far better system than has been used in the past on the mountain. Climbers frequently get sick drinking water obtained from melting snow and ice. Feces left from past climbers cannot decompose on the mountain and remains there frozen, waiting for some hapless victim to boil the contaminated water, which at these altitudes cannot get hot enough to kill off the microorganisms.

It is one o’clock in the morning and Lattimer is at it again, pulling an all-nighter, a pencil between his teeth. He scatters the notes and blueprints covering his desk to find his keyboard so he can continue typing.

“Señor Lattimer!” Jose gasps, walking in while rubbing his eyes. “You must go to bed! You can’t continue doing this! You remember what happened the last time?!” Lattimer continues typing furiously.

“Yeah, I remember, Jose,” he mumbles. He reaches for some papers, then, starts looking around the room. “Jose,” Lattimer takes the pencil out of his mouth. “See if you can find the latest report on Sector C, will you?”

Jose shakes his head and begins rummaging through a file drawer. .

“Here it is, Señor.” He stops short of handing it to Lattimer. “But you really need to get some rest, Dr. Lattimer. You’re just human, like the rest of us, you know.”

Lattimer snatches the report out of Jose’s hand and goes back to typing. “Yeah, I know, I know,” he sighs. “Unfortunately, in my position I can’t afford the luxury of simply being human.” Good night, Jose.”

Jose looks at him with concern. “Good night, my friend.” He turns to leave.

Lattimer glances up briefly at him as he leaves, then, returns to typing.

“Good night to you as well, my friend,”

“Jose! Jose!” Lattimer says rousting him from a deep, fitful sleep.

“Wha is it! Who?” Jose begins coming out of his sleep. He looks around and fixes his eyes on Lattimer. “Señor Lattimer, what time is it?!”

“I don’t know! says Lattimer. “It was five o’clock last time I checked!”

“You been up this whole time?” asks Jose.

“Jose, LISTEN to me for a moment,” Lattimer says in an excited voice. “I’ve got the ANSWER!” Jose looks at him, puzzled, still half asleep.

“What answer, Señor?”

“The answer to our problems!” Lattimer says.

“Couldn’t you give me the answer tomorrow, boss? After all, like Scarlett says, it is another day, if you know what I mean.”

Lattimer grabs Jose by the shirt collar and shakes him until he is wide-awake.

“Listen to me, Jose!”

“Ok, boss, ok, I’m listening, don’t get so excited, ok?” Jose sits up on the edge of the bed, scratching his head, still puzzled by all the commotion.

Lattimer is wild-eyed, pacing back and forth across the floor.

“I KNEW the answer had to be in the elevator,” he says. “Remember how I said the pieces we needed were too big for the shaft?”

“Yes,” says Jose, still puzzled.

“And we couldn’t fabricate them outside because of the cold!”

Jose raises his arms halfway, palms upward. He looks at Lattimer blankly, his mouth open, his eyes following this engineering genius as he paces back and forth across the room.

“Well, here’s what we’re gonna do about it, Jose, my friend!” “Look at this!” He slaps a piece of paper with the back of his hand as he sticks it under Jose’s nose. Jose looks at him, then, takes the paper from him slowly and begins to study it as Lattimer, bent over with his hands on his knees, looks over Jose’s shoulder. Jose scratches his head with his free hand, a look of puzzlement and wonder on his face. He turns to look at Lattimer in amazement. Lattimer nods his head, a huge grin on his face.

“You see what I’m talking about?” he chuckles.

Jose, mouth agape in silent amazement, turns back around to gaze at the plans again.

“Holy Moley, boss! You’ve done it again!”

Lattimer starts shaking his body back and forth in excitement, giggling.

Jose smiles, “Oh, you’re gonna show em now, boss! They thought they had you by the ying yang, but you’re gonna show em whose the man, once and for all!” Jose jumps up off the bed and the two men begin dancing around the room together, doing high fives at regular intervals.

“Hey shut up in there!” a voice says through the wall. “We’re trying to get some sleep in here!”

Jose and Lattimer stop to catch their breath, and begin snickering quietly. Jose can barely contain himself. “Oh, we’re gonna show em tomorrow boss!” he squeals quietly, clenching his fists.

People at the complex know Lattimer and Jose affectionately as the “deadly duo” because of their bizarre “slave-driving, take-no-prisoners” approach to getting things done. Every morning at eight o’clock (after breakfast and a cup of coffee or two) there is always a staff meeting at Space Station Everest. The virtual conference room is in the central tubicle, also known as Tubicle One. Lattimer and Jose conduct the conference via a web cam through an intranet connected to each of the computers in the private quarters as well as to common computers located in the eating and recreational sectors. Each person signs onto the intranet, and their image with their name, location, and code number under it appears via web cam on the giant computer screen in Tubicle One. In this way, up to 96 individuals are able to be recognized, accounted for, and ready to interact with Lattimer and Jose. The cramped conditions of the complex make such a system absolutely necessary for effective mass communication to be possible.

At 7:55 A.M., Jose walks into Tubicle One and finds most of the faces of the 96 people already up on the screen.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he says cheerily. “It’s time for our morning meeting!” Scanning the empty slots on the screen Jose clicks on the code numbers, which sound buzzers in the private quarters of the errant people who have not yet signed in. “You have five minutes to sign in, folks,” booms the voice over the intercom system. “After that, it’s ten dollars a minute, and we know who you are and where you live!” he says in a teasing voice. The empty slots on the screen soon fill up with the remaining faces of the team, albeit not nearly as happy as Jose. “Come on, folks cheer up! It’s gonna be a beautiful day out there! I hear it’s only minus 20 degrees today and almost no wind. Hey, it might even be a good day to work on your tans!”

Jose’s jovial remarks get a lot of people laughing. Since each one of them can see a much smaller version of the others on their own computers, the visual images feed on themselves, causing even more hilarity.

“Dr. Lattimer has a surprise for you today!” He says.

One of the members punches a button on his keyboard that highlights his image on everyone’s screen, indicating he wants to ask a question. Soon after, several more images are highlighted.

“Yes, Tom, what can I do you for today?” Jose says to the first highlighted image.

“What the hell was all that racket you and Dr. Lattimer were making last night?” A number of the other highlighted images nod in agreement then unhighlight themselves.

“Well, Tom,” Jose says smiling. “That’s gonna be the main topic of discussion this morning... just as soon as Dr. Lattimer gets his butt out of bed and gets in here.”

The faces on the screen begin to laugh again, first at Jose, then, at the way each of them look laughing on the screen. The people continue to banter back and forth with Jose and each other for about 10 minutes before Lattimer finally arrives on the scene. He scratches his head and yawns, holding a cup of coffee in the other hand.

“Morning every body!” He says casually.

“Good morning, Dr. Lattimer!” a chorus of 96 people says at once, imitating school kids. Lattimer, still half asleep, just grins and shakes his head. He sits down and talks quietly with Jose.

“Have you told them anything yet, Jose?”

“Nothing, boss, nada! They’re all yours!”

Lattimer looks directly at the screen. “Ok, folks, listen up, because I have got some really great news for you today!”

Tom highlights his image.

“Yes, Tom?” Lattimer says.

“I sure hope this is worth all the damn racket you guys made last night!” The faces on the computer began laughing again, including Lattimer and Jose.

“Oh it is Tom, it is,” Lattimer takes his computer mouse and clicks on a screen folder which opens to reveal a single graphic file with yesterday’s date. “Can you see this ok on your screens?” He asks. The people squint and shake their heads, no.

“Ok, go ahead and expand the image to fill the whole screen.”

As the people begin to do this, Lattimer notices how they began to scrutinize the image, then, as understanding sinks in, excitement begins to show on their faces, and most of the names highlight on his screen.

Lattimer holds his hand up like a traffic cop. “I assume most of you have the same exact question, so bear with me while I explain this to you in detail. As you are painfully aware, the inability to cure alloy composite economically at this temperature and altitude has created very serious logistics problems for us. For a while there, I thought the only way to solve this problem would be to build a permanent tram up here. Of course, doing that now would bankrupt us! So, I have been in a dilemma for about two weeks now trying to sort all this out; and of course the investors were all over me about it as well, but as you can plainly see, the solution is right here in front of your eyes!”

The diagrams viewed by the captive audience illustrate how the larger subunits would themselves be made of smaller, transportable subsections. These subsections would be prefabricated at Upper New Everest and carried up by the central utility shaft. They would have to be welded together at a temperature of no less than 32 degrees Farenheight. At 32 degrees, the alloy composite would generate enough heat during curing to complete the process.

Lattimer would build four special, temperature-controlled curing tubicles. The smallest one would be located just above the utility shaft at the summit and would temporarily serve as the summit cap. It would be slightly larger in diameter than the utility shaft and 50 feet high, its base resting on top of Tubicle One. Its top would be flush with what remains of the summit and the cap and exterior would be painted white and carefully sculpted with ice and snow to camouflage it from prying eyes as much as possible. Still, there was only so much one could do at 29,000 feet.

The other three tubicles would be located at an altitude about halfway between the construction hub and Everest Heights, buried beneath one of the three main ridges connecting to the summit, one tubicle per ridge. The caps on the shafts containing these tubicles would be temporarily covered with loose rock or snow for concealment. These tubicles would be massive in size, over 100 feet in diameter and 50 feet tall! They would be used to construct the support legs for the largest tower ever created by the hand of man! Twenty-four foot curved tube subsections would be transported from the central utility shaft to the three lower curing tubicles by means of 30-foot diameter side tunnels using self-propelled flat cars moving on electrified rails. Each car would travel down its respective tunnel until it reached a horizontal distance, 250 feet away from the summit, where each massive curing tubicle was to be built. Each curing tubicle site would be outfitted with a small heated, pressurized side tubicle, 10 feet high and 15 feet in diameter where the crew could take meal breaks, wash up, and use the bathroom. The vertical height above each of the tubicles varied with the ridge topology, but it was well over the 50 feet required to fully embed the tubicles.

Once the curing tubicles in each ridge were constructed, it would take thirteen, curved 24-foot subsections to complete one massive tube section within each tubicle with a final diameter slightly less than that of the curing tubicle itself (99.36 feet). In contrast, only four subsections would be needed to complete a tube section within the curing tubicle at the summit. Workers would hoist the subassemblies into place within each curing tubicle using forklifts. The subsections would be lifted up one at a time and bolted together to hold them into place. Once the adjoined edges of the subsections were completely inside the tubicle, they would be robotically welded together by pouring liquid alloy composite into the air pocket separating the two edges. This process would be monitored by closed circuit TV. Once the subsections were completely welded into a giant ring, a remarkably clever process would begin. The curing tubicle would literally lift itself out the hole in the mountain by crawling over the giant tube it had just created! It would do this with the same motorized rack and pinion technology used in the elevators. The gear racks over which the pinion gears rolled would be prefabricated right into the outer wall of the newly formed tube. The new tube would serve as an “inside-out” elevator shaft, using the same open-can system as the utility shaft.

A second set of four gear racks would be prefabricated into each inner tube wall, equidistant from each other. They would be used to raise and lower open elevator cars “cans” located at each leg mooring and the summit. Workmen would put the next set of 13 subassemblies into each car at the base of each leg and they would be lifted up to the bottom of each curing tubicle. In the case of the summit tubicle, four subassemblies would go straight up the central shaft. Once the second tube subassemblies were in place, they would be welded together and to the tube immediately beneath them. The curing tubicles would disengage from the second set of tubes and elevate themselves another 50 feet into the air. This process could be repeated indefinitely, all the way into outer space!

“Any questions?” asks Lattimer after explaining the diagrams in detail. A number of the faces highlight up on the screen. He clicks on one, which causes the highlighted square border around the face to turn from red to green, indicating the person is free to speak. It is Dr. Cheryl Kramer, a 45-year-old civil engineer and financial consultant contracted out by the investors as a watchdog from a prestigious North American engineering firm.

“Dr. Lattimer, how can you be sure all of this will actually work? Has this ever been tested?”

Lattimer and Jose exchange glances. Jose pulls his head into his shoulders like a tortoise and begins slinking out of camera view.

Lattimer clears his throat, “In a manner of speaking, yes, it has.”

Dr. Kramer looks puzzled. She begins to speak again when Lattimer quickly recognizes another person. It is Greg Davis, a wildcatter oil construction worker from Texas.

“How much is all this gonna cost, doc?” he asks. A number of the faces on the screen begin nodding, indicating they had exactly the same question on their minds.

“We don’t have exact figures yet,” says Lattimer. “But I can guarantee you it will be a lot safer and cheaper than building a tram from scratch, and it certainly beats just giving up.” The faces on the screen seem transfixed by the comment and there is a moment of silence. “Hey,” says Lattimer. “If anybody else has any suggestions on how to get this done any cheaper or faster, I’m all ears.” The lack of response is deafening. “So, are there any more questions?” Lattimer asks. Again, no response. “Ok, then, let’s do it folks!” With that, Lattimer turns off the screen and turns to Jose.

“Man! That was close, boss!” Jose says wide-eyed.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, Jose, Lattimer says. “I’m afraid Kramer is going to be a handful.”

“That’s what they’re paying her for boss,” Jose says smiling.

“I know, Jose, I know,” Lattimer sighs, crouched over in his chair, hands clasped together, arms resting on his knees. He places his hands on his thighs and looks at Jose. “Listen, Jose, I think it’s probably a good idea if I go “AWOL” for a little while, if you know what I mean. Give myself time to gather my thoughts.”

“I think so too, boss,” Jose says. “Before Dr. Kramer has a chance to ask you any more questions.”

Lattimer grins. “Exactomundo, my man. You kno... ow where I’m coming from!”

“That I do, boss man!” Jose says, shaking his head smiling, that I do!”

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