You are listening to a Clarks World magazine podcast with your host and narrator Kate Baker.

Greetings to Clarksville Citizens. I hope this podcast finds you very well.

It's our third podcast for the month of June and aside from a strong

reminder to vote for your Hugo picks this year there's really not much news to

report so we'll just jump right into the story titled Free Fall

by Graham Templeton.

Graham is a youngish journalist from Vancouver Canada who got into writing

after five years of studying

biochemistry. His fiction has been published in nearly two places. Graham is

currently traveling the world with all his possessions strapped to his back. He makes his way writing,

non-fiction about amazing future tech and sci-fi about everyday mundaneities.

So, sit back, relax, and without further ado.

Let me tell you a story.

Our elevator has stalled some 30 kilometers above the surface of the earth, and my first

thought is not heroic.

I need to start fasting, lean up these haunches in preparation for the donner decision trees that most likely lie ahead.

There's food for a month below the floorboards, but 30 kilometers?

Looking at my three fellow passengers, hot shot scientists all, it is distressingly easy to

imagine our many society devolving into tribalism. It's obvious that in this group I am most definitely

the picky. They seem calm however which calms me for now at least. Things are stable.

Our elevator pod is just a hollow disk, 20 meters across and four tall, one of six identical

space pallets stacked unceremoniously on either side of the climber. We four have been slotted in at the bottom as is our right as live cargo.

...