A Tower in Space-Time (The Stasis Stories #5) (#5 in The Stasis Stories)

This hard Sci-Fi novel is the fifth book in the “Stasis Stories,” a series of optimistic tales of technological innovation in the near future. They follow Kaem Seba, a young man with extraordinary math talents. With his friends, he’s developed a device that allows time to be stopped within limited volumes of space-time. Those volumes of space—because time is stopped within them and nothing moves—can be used as impossibly strong structures.
In this 5th story, Kaem’s newfound physical fitness is letting him perform at an astonishing level in physical endeavors such as soccer and the martial arts.
The company he, Arya Vaii, and Gunnar Schmidt founded to commercially develop his time-stopping discovery is making money hand over fist. Currently, their profits come from their use of the phenomenal physical properties of a time-stopped segment of space-time to build rockets.
But now they’re building a space tower. Taking off at a thirty-degree angle from eastern Virginia, it’s 200 kilometers long and a hundred kilometers high. By placing the interior of their spacecraft—and its passengers—in stasis they can accelerate launches at fifteen gravities, reaching orbital speeds before the craft leaves the rail. This lets them put payloads in orbit a thousand times more cheaply than it can be done with a rocket!
The world is turning to Kaem to further humanity’s exploitation of orbital space. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous people would also like to get a piece of the pie.