He was also quite sure that it grew as it moved, until it filled nearly the entire quadrangle.He was also quite sure that it grew as it moved, until it filled nearly the entire quadrangle. Chairs began to appear, both within and without the circle, as did placements. Shardik smiled. "That is such a fascinating effect." "How... how is it done?" David asked. "Teleportation, mostly. Some robotics in the table, and some illusionware to make you think you're seeing something that's not there. David nodded. "I thought teleportation was a power-intensive activity." Shardik pointed up. "You see that thing up there?" "The sun?" David asked, squinting his small black eyes. "Yeah, that thing. It provides more power than we could ever use. The shadow squares are covered on their sunsides with klystron tubes. You should see them. They're constantly converting the sun's power into microwaves which then get masered to receiving stations on the walls. The accuracy required is pretty intense, but we've never had a problem. An alternative method was to build the reflecters beyond the ring, and have the maser beams shot into receivers along the underside of the ring. That become untenable when we realized we were going to need the underside for environmental maintenance and the like. |