Midway Station
As its name suggests, Midway Station sits in geostationary orbit at roughly the halfway point between Earth and the Challenger Planetoid. It splits the Beanstalk’s tether between the Root and the Castle high above. Midway itself is a large space station. Traffic arrives at and departs from it continually, bound for Earth or the Challenger Planetoid in beanpods, or transferring to shuttles serving other detached stations in geosynchronous orbit. There is virtually no downtime aboard the station. It must operate at close to full capacity at all hours to maintain the Beanstalk’s relentless schedule and attempt to keep the permanent backlog from getting even worse.
By necessity, Midway is the oldest element of the Beanstalk. Before assuming its role as the world’s most important ransfer station, it was the point from which the construction of the space elevator emanated. The buckyweave ribbons that would be knit together to make the tether snaked upward and planetward from manufacturing facilities at each end of the station. The tether is about forty meters thick at Midway, the widest cross section along its length. Within Midway, the residences, entertainment complexes, and medical facilities once filled with thousands of Weyland staff and construction workers now serve Space Elevator Authority (SEA) crew or NBN staff, or were converted into private or public facilities.
Many beanpod passengers never stray beyond the center of Midway, its Transfer Concourse, which stretches between the ends of the Earth-bound and Challenger-bound mag-lev lines. The beanpods cannot traverse the gap. All passengers must disembark and pass through the cylindrical Transfer Concourse to continue their journey, and cargo must be transferred as well. The end of the station facing Earth is known as Midway Station Down, while the end facing the Challenger Planetoid is called Midway Station Up.
The station houses permanent residents as well as tens of thousands of tourists and other travelers. Unsurprisingly, a significant portion of Midway staff are bioroids and clones, but the number of travelers staying on the station for an extended period of time is greater than one would expect. The Beanstalk’s ever-present backlog makes unscheduled travel difficult and expensive, as beanpods are rarely sent up-Stalk half empty, and every travel cancellation is immediately filled from a lengthy standby list. Thus, travelers who miss their departure window find themselves stuck on Midway while waiting for a free seat. In addition, while the SEA keeps seats open for Midway staff to return to Earth on occasion, the majority find it easier—and desirable—to remain on station.
Beyond travel and tourism facilities, nearly half of Midway Station is dedicated to a major NBN branch office. Most of the office consists of technical staff maintaining endless arrays of broadcast equipment. However, some famous NBN on- and behind-the-scenes staff are aboard to carry out broadcasts throughout the solar system.
Finally, many well-known megacorporations maintain offices on Midway. Despite the travel congestion, the station still provides one of the best meeting places for the powerful and wealthy. For corporations with offices on Luna or elsewhere in the solar system, a meeting at Midway saves the time and expense of an entire trip Earth-side. This also holds true for anyone living in one of the many other stations in Earth orbit. Likewise, a jaunt up and down the Beanstalk is far more practical for their Earth-side colleagues than a ferry ride to Luna.
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