Individual rails could be retracted to allow some cars to remain fixed to the climber, allowing them to pass through the station entirely, or be unloaded at a more traditional dock in the central hub, where a lack of simulated gravity eased unloading of supplies.Guests could exit their climber car with the dignity of walking on two feet, while workers and supplies could be brought to the center levels for easy distribution.The apparatus had one drawback: complexity. A room full of equipment and twenty-four-hour monitoring by an actual person.Neil stood behind the climber operator, a middle-aged woman with shoulder-length black hair and a strong Venezuelan accent.They both stared at a schematic displayed on the large monitor on the room’s longest wall. All traffic on the Elevator could be tracked from here, but Neil’s focus was on a single climber that barreled toward the station from Gateway.The climber’s manifest and layout were listed as “unavailable.” He’d never seen that before, not that it surprised him.
