<USS Meridian> Kyoto, 2024 - A Day At The Park
- From: Frankie Wilkinson <ltfwilkinson@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: ussmeridian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2003 09:52:35 -0800 (PST)
Kyoto, 2024 ? A Day At The Park
By Frankie Wilkinson
The year was 2024 as Frankie punched it into the holodeck control, the place
New Kyoto Amusement Park, Japan. Opening Day.
He had recalled the date when working on a filament test near the third warp
core. But he wanted to see for himself what happened.
When he entered the holodeck, he was met with a hoard of people heading into
the park, the ribbon cutting had already taken place, and most of them were
heading to the various rides, but vast majorities of people were heading to the
Kyoto Dragon, a 528 foot tall behemoth. Next to it stood an equally tall,
Observation Tower, this was Frankie?s destination.
The ride was not unique for the time, when various roller coasters were
breaking records year after year for height and speed. This particular ride
used boosters to take the riders to the top, instead of chains and pulleys.
But also that there were two ways to ride it. Hanging underneath the track
with your feet out, or on top of the track.
As Frankie neared the Observation Tower, he heard the first screams from the
ride as riders went over the top hill and straight down into the chasm that
created by an earthquake many years before, and then come barreling out to some
various hills and loops.
He stepped out onto the interior observation platform, and moved quietly to the
windows. There were not too many people inside with him, some reporters and
the designer and a couple of park officials. Of course to make the event all
the more noticeable in the news.
They all had their backs to the windows talking about some interesting aspect
of the Kyoto Dragon, when it happened. Frankie saw the ride car get to the top
of the hill, but not quite make the apex and start to go back down the lift.
He knew the designers would have thought to incorporate something in case it
happened. He saw it when a secondary booster lifted them to top. It just
didn?t give them quite enough to get to the drop off point for the down hill.
?Something?s wrong?, Frankie said, and everyone turned towards the window to
see the ride vehicle sitting at the highest point on the ride.
That?s when the next problem occurred. While the group watched in horror, four
of the apparatus, that were holding the riders in on the lower portion of the
ride car, came unhooked somehow and you could see the riders become visibly
shocked and afraid.
One of the riders didn?t like it very much that he was now loose five hundred
twenty-eight feet in the air, and was very jittery. That?s when he slid, and
he caught himself by his hand to the vehicle. He was now dangling below the
vehicle by one hand.
The park president was on the phone with rescue officials to try to get someone
to the ride to save the people. The reporters all had their cameras focused on
the events and were televising them live around the world.
The designer was the quiet one to the side. Frankie walked over to her, ?Ms
Hock, is it??
?Yes, Angie Hock, and I?m not giving any interviews.?
?I?m not an interviewer, just an engineer, what could have caused this??
She looked at him, trying to fully determine his intentions, ?They didn?t want
to incorporate all my safety designs in to the ride when they built it. They
thought it would clutter up the ride.?
?I see.?
They turned towards the window when it happened, and being up five hundred plus
feet, seemed to amplify it. Something that hadn?t occurred in Japan for
fifteen years, an earthquake.
Most of the rides would just sway as they normally would, but the guy holding
onto the now broken down Kyoto Dragon, lost his grip and fell to what would be
a messy death.
But the earthquake still seemed to be going strong as the swaying of the town
was getting more extreme.
One of the reporters said it was a 9.0 as he listened to the report from his
earpiece. For some reason all the people in the observation tower knew they
weren?t getting out. Frankie looked at the riders, waiting for the rescuers
when the ride swayed so far over that it cracked and splintered sending the
riders out into the sea.
The lower part of the hill whipped up and cut the tower in half sending the
observation platform straight down.
Frankie rode the platform down, until it was about to hit. ?Computer End
Program.?
The Kyoto 2024 earthquake killed two million and caused so much damage that
they couldn?t put a figure on it.
He stood in the holodeck with the yellow grid walls, he knew that they found
that the ride, Kyoto Dragon, had shifted the tectonic plates when it went down
into the chasm, once a few of the vehicles had went through, it was enough to
cause the quake.
Why hadn?t the designer put more urgency into the safety, why hadn?t the
engineers put more into the safety of everyone else? Why?
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