I love living in the sky.
Sure, there are those that chose to stake out more interesting views in former national parks and snow capped mountain peaks, but that seemed too conventional for me. It’s a heady time, full of dwindling sovereign states begging for citizens to tax and crazy volters staking out an acre or so and lifting it up to the clouds.
Cloudsteading was my racket, as much room as you wanted and if you were sick of the climate, a short hop away on the lower laminar flows of the jetstream got you where you needed to go – though you couldn’t do a full ocean-hop in one sitting if you wanted all of your grass and crops to survive at those altitudes and temperatures.
I knew I had to do it when I saw the first demonstration of “Sky Stakes”. Long inverted tesla coils that you pounded into the ground, levitating the surrounded clump of earth up a few feet using superconductors and lots of amperes.
After covering the lower surface with something to keep the moisture in, and a bit of supplemental support webbing, you were good to go. Tuning the large magnetic field to resonate with the earth’s own, you could whisk yourself along lines of force to another destination with ease.
Some went all out for the romantic version, clusters of rocky islands full of tall redwoods, strung up with riggings and sails. SkySailing was a big draw for the nautical types, since you didn’t have to worry about drowning or suffering through horrible weather at sea level anymore. Thunderhead off the bow? Just turn to port and skirt around it!
Me, I like growing things and took a square acre into the air. Got a small creek that I keep up by flying into the lower portions of thunderstorms. Just enough to top up the pond that feeds it, of course. I’m not a hydro-hogger like some of those southwestern bandits. Of course, like any tool, some people use it for bad deeds.
There were the rock bombers of the northeast, taking up huge cliff faces and plunging them down on buildings and such. People didn’t stand for that kind of stuff though, enough guys with zipsuits that could rally up the troops and take over a bombers platform if need be.
Those things were few and far between anyway. Once the electrons flowed, there was no real reason to keep armies around anymore. Thing is, governments were now more local and huge communities were created in different altitudes. Hardly anyone bothers living like a land-lubber anymore. Some of the older folk do, but I guess if I was in advanced years I might want to settle down somewhere.
Well, that’s it from me. I’ve been holding my patch steady at sea-level too long, I can tell the goats are getting nervous seeing the clouds above them. They’re just not used to it. I’ve got to go, I hope to see you up in the clouds if you decide to make it.
Freedom is the sweetest air I’ve ever tasted.