A Visitor to the Future - 76 - Reverse Skydiving
There were plenty of other sights to be seen at the festival and we soon got back to mingling with the crowds. A nearby skyscraper appeared to have been designed specifically for the purpose of this event. Instead of solid floors between each layer, you could look upward through the center of the building at three transparent columns which served as indoor skydiving areas. A giant fan at the bottom blew with just enough force to slowly lift the people inside up the center of the building - either alone, or in a small group. Other fans spaced equally up the length of the construction seemed to assist in bearing the load. A few drones hovered up and down through the air inside, preventing anyone from getting too close to the edges.
Antonia looked at the construction, then back to me and then at the tunnel again, a cheesy smile on her lips. The unspoken intent made me laugh, and we walked into the line to wait for our turn.
"I think this is the first actual queue that I've stood in since I woke up," I said. The Consortium generally seemed to have enough services around that waiting wasn't an issue.
"It does you good to wait sometimes!" replied Antonia, "Not everything comes instantly!"
"The Consortium doesn't believe in post-scarcity in terms of entertainment resources?" I asked.
Antonia cocked her head, "We could get the Consortium to build more, but there wouldn't be much point! The festival is the busiest that Paris gets, so the rest of the year they wouldn't see much use! Besides being in a busy crowd has a novelty to it - look at how excited everyone is!"
I looked at the people around us - a few couples had already joined behind us, some of them holding hands. In front of us was what looked to be a family of five wearing matching long, green robes fit for the event. The two parents were talking with two older children of perhaps fourteen or fifteen. Barely reaching their knees was a younger child who was completely enraptured by the ride up ahead, skipping up and down excitedly.
"They're almost as excited as I am!" said Antonia, "It's been a long time since I've done this."
"But weren't we just in space a few months ago? No-gravity is a lot like flying, right?"
Antonia just shook her head, "You'll see!" she said.
Soon, our turn came. There were two CIs who were managing the ride, one a fairly typical humanoid design with a completely featureless carbon-fibre head, and another whose joints and configuration made them somewhat raptor-like - the legs large and bent, giving the impression of great power.
"Ear protectors, goggles," said the featureless one in Human, handing a pair to us both, "Lie flat on your stomach - don't lean forward, it's easy! Enjoy!" In the meantime, the raptor-like CI adjusted my scarf, placing a set of securing magnets on it to ensure it wouldn't come loose.
We put on the headphones (which dampened the turbine sounds significantly) and they led us into a small opaque adjoining chamber in which two large mechanical arms were waiting. The door closed behind us. I turned to Antonia and was about to say "Well, what now?" when in a heartbeat, one of the arms grabbed me around the waist, the wall slid down to allow access to the turbine, and I was deposited face-down into the airflow.
Panic set in momentarily, as I could see the large turbine beneath the grill below. But true to what I'd see earlier, the air caught me and I began to rise upwards, adopting the skydiving pose that I'd seen so often in films and TV. I began to drift slightly to one side, but I didn't quite know how to correct myself. Antonia's hand rushed into my eyeline and grabbed my wrist.
"There you are!" she said, voice coming in crystal-clear through the headphones, "Good posture! Just level out a bit, you're leaning."
With Antonia's support I managed to correct myself and we remained in the middle of the chamber.
You would think that having experienced zero-gravity on the Promise of Sol, the experience would not be as intense. But in fact the opposite was true. I could feel the competition between the gusts of air and the drag of gravity. I could feel the rushing wind and hear the dulled noise of fans in motion. This didn't feel like floating - it was like flying. Truly being one with the wind and the elemental forces of nature.
"This is great!" I instinctually shouted.
"No need to shout!" said Antonia, "The headphones amplify things for you. Look!"
Through the transparent walls, I could see the line of people waiting for their turn begin to shrink as we gained height. We rose on the column of air, which was only interrupted occasionally by additional buffets of wind from further fans.
Up, up, we rose, past the first floor, which opened up into a large seating area with a small café. Some people waved at us from where we were sat, and we waved back. The next floor seemed to be some sort of aquarium area - an odd sight to see, both in the middle floor of a skyscraper, and when you were floating through the air. Antonia pointed out a school of fish in the distance.
I looked over at her, blue hair streaming in the wind, ribbons flapping madly. She let go of my wrist and did a quick forward roll - a manoeuvre I felt I could never copy even with a lifetime of practice. Her long lilac dress billowed around her legs, which were insulated by white leggings.
I had just enough time to admire the lofty towers of Paris standing tall below the cloudy skies through the windows of the skyscraper - my angle and perspective from here made everything seem so big. When viewing from the comfort of a drone-craft, everything felt distant and small. From here, it was the opposite - I was but a soap bubble on the wind in comparison.
And just like that, we reached the top of the building, and it was over. Another pair of arms grabbed us and deposited us in a receiving chamber. We made our way out quickly into a small lobby, and I took a second to catch my breath.
"Good, right?" said Antonia, smoothing her dress and trying to bring some sense of order to her hair.
"That was incredible!" I said, reaching up towards my scarf. The securing magnets that the CI had placed on it had kept it neatly in place. "Beats the elevator, every time!"
"Want to go again?" Antonia asked, to which I enthusiastically nodded. "Great! Good news - getting back down is also the fun part."
Antonia pointed to the nearby wall, where there was an elevator entrance, a doorway to a set of stairs, and finally... a round hole in the wall.
"Building slide!" explained Antonia, dashing towards it. I quickly followed.
It seemed that when they were in the mood, the people of the Consortium really didn't do anything the boring way.