Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera)

by P. S. Power

  She stiffened a bit, her white robe looking glaring under the ship's light. Then she saw Karen and scurried away, not letting her say anything. That didn't go over well, but Sara giggled.

  "Tiera's giving them one last chance. I guess the idea is that anyone too stupid to show up for work right now really can just be taken back and... Um, lost in transit?"

  Smythe looked disgusted but didn't say anything, even as Saxon formed a tiny air lock around herself and left through the otherwise solid looking wall. It was clever, but she'd had time to learn how to do it.

  Everyone had shown up, along with their gear, but Kolb and Doris moved to the front, and called Tiera's family and the Lairdgren group over. Gently of course. Then she looked at Sheri and Maris and didn't have to suggest they come too.

  "Everyone, we have news. This is the group staying. The rest of you will be leaving as soon as the ship is unloaded. I suggest you take a moment as you unload to walk on the surface of the Moon. It's part of the adventure."

  There was a bit of a groan, but Tiera moved in next to them, since she was the one that had gotten the report.

  "The High Servants don't have things ready yet. We will shortly, and you'll all be allowed back soon. We'd keep more of you, but we don't have long term permission to do so for most of you. My parents are here, so they can stay to help us build for a while, but-"

  The oldest woman in the meditation group stepped forward, gracefully, her hands folded in front of herself.

  "I will aid in this, as I may, if supplies allow?"

  Tiera bowed.

  "Thank you! Yes, it isn't a problem that way, but anyone that stays will have to be an adult, or at least a free agent. The Lairdgren Group are part of an organization and don't get to refuse, but the rest of you have that right. Even the adults."

  Several more people moved forward then, and several more got on communications devices. It meant that almost half of the people were going to be staying there, it turned out. Several of them simply called home and told their parents that they were staying and that it was a matter of honor. Surprisingly, that worked.

  Kolb smiled, at everyone.

  "Those of you leaving, you'll be under the Captain's command on the way back. Impress him. Everyone else, we need to move from here to the surface. Miss Debri will supply us with amulets for underground structures. Tiera, you have air, once that's up? That needs to be the first order of things."

  She didn't answer, just getting what they'd need around first and holding a copy of each up for all to see.

  Then, shields on, they left, walking to the wall and stepping out into the loose dusty soil of the lunar surface. It was a lovely silver, and the Earth was there above them, looking about twice the size of the Moon from there. It was incredible, and she realized that she'd stopped walking for a bit. She slipped the cord of her speaking device around her neck carefully. Everyone else had already figured that one out, or had them on.

  Taman walked over to Sara and pointed about a quarter mile away, where the other ship was set up. There were some buildings near there too, and fifteen white blobs coming out of the ship toward them, flying. They did the same then, carrying all their gear. Everything they had, with them. Not that it mattered. In days they could have a hundred times more if they wanted. It was so easy that she decided not to want things anymore. Just what was needed to survive. Then, that had been what she'd done for months, so it wasn't a massive change, was it?

  Sara waved at everyone, and moved closer to one of the buildings, which had a long tube going to it. When they went in there were some magical lights, but she got the idea, it wasn't just an air lock, but a lot of them. It was apparent they weren't going to work either, all being made of the same milky stone. She waved them all out and set up her fast craft, made it large and air tight, then created an airlock on that. Then, shields still on, she made a hole in the bottom, so that Sara could work in direct contact with the soil.

  The device actually hovered in place, over the hole that formed, with stairs moving down. Slowly, the girl walked downward, a hand light tied to her left forearm. It was golden, like the Sun. It made her blonde hair shine a bit, as she moved walking at about one foot every ten seconds, making a giant tube of glass form around them. She kept going, and after ten minutes pulled a second device and pointed at the wall on either side.

  Sheri got the idea first and moved into place, her hand touching the wall, making it reshape into a slightly round, but open, door. Then, a room came into being. It had high ceilings, like the tube did, and was made with steps going down, so that it could be formed to be as large as possible. Tiera did the other side, figuring that what the other girl was doing was the restaurant, since food would be one of the first things they needed. That, and water. So she did that part, and formed a space for the working machines near the airlock, so that they could mine rock from other places and bring it in to work with, since the Tor device wasn't leaving a lot where they were.

  Everyone got the idea, and every few hundred feet large spaces were built. Some basic, but others were nicely complex, like entire houses. On the neat side, it turned out that doors of stone could be made, with no more than a thought. The hinges were well balanced and they all fit perfectly, so didn't make a lot of noise when they moved at all.

  There was no trouble really, though the High Servants couldn't hear what anyone was saying, not having the right magics to work with. There weren't that many of them however and they did try, which was a good sign. On the bad side, out of the nearly one hundred on the planet, only seventeen had come at all. Even after being warned.

  They didn't have another ship to use as an airlock, but when Sara suggested they make more than one set of housing and businesses. Guide suggested they use the larger magical houses for that. They could be made air tight too after all.

  "I have twenty of them. I didn't know if we'd need them or not, but we may as well use them. Do we have enough air units for that?"

  Tiera thought and shook her head, working well away from everyone else, but well within speaking distance.

  "Not really. We can make the air, but I don't know how dense the purifiers have to be set up. I'd rather have too many in a small space and have to make more. Call it... four set-ups like this? Of course, this one keeps growing... This is a nice house though."

  She giggled a bit, since it was a big empty space with no air or water and she needed good sanitary facilities too. It was big and had ten rooms though, so she couldn't complain that way. They'd need heat too, she realized. That one she could handle though, even if the ground wasn't very warm.

  There was, she realized, always going to be more they had to do, for a long time. That was good, but she'd want to sleep that night. Tiera was just lazy that way. The thought got her to smile a little, which everyone saw, but no one understood, she was willing to hazard.

  "Guide, would you and Sara set up a house for all of us to use? I'll get water and air for it. I need to work on some things..."

  Then she just did that for a while, letting others handle things. After all, they were there for that, right? Well, to work and survive.

  It made for a very long day, and her eyes wanted to close, and her stomach growled at her by the time she was able to get the air made. It would take a while, since the place had been created huge. Fantastically so, but it was too big to work with so far, nearly. She ended up going back to the new house Guide put up for them, which was instantly dubbed "The First House", and started collecting rocks into several large floating boxes. She had help, from the High Servants with them, since they had earth moving devices. It saved a lot of time, so she set them to working on that, filling one large box after another until the Lairdgren group ran out of them.

  Then they set up in the rather nice front room, and she used three full boxes to make enough air to fill the place. They actually had to let some out, since there was a bit too much air pressure, once she took her field off to test it. The house warmed itself, but it was
still cool inside. It was enough to start with, since they could just dress warmly for a while if they had to. The thing there was that the core of the Moon, it turned out, wasn't as warm as the Earth was, or the Sunlight didn't stick as much. One or the other.

  Everyone with them tapped their shields, looking nervous about it, as if the things wouldn't go back up instantly if there was no air?

  "Air purifiers next. Let's see..."

  Tiera expected to see a brilliant green light or physical object, but all that happened was that the air in a thin sheet of space warped a bit, like light on the desert during the day. It was very subtle too, and, she realized instantly, you could still breathe when you walked through it, so they could be set up anywhere. She did four of them, and hoped it was enough.

  It wasn't like they had any way to test the things, was it? She could feel the field with her mind, but all that told her was that old air was being changed into good air, in much the same fashion that her food unit had done it. Tearing matter apart and rebuilding it instantly.

  For a few seconds everyone just stood around, but Tiera waved them into action. That seemed to be her job now. Waving at people. She'd have to make a study of it, to make certain she was doing it right. Later though.

  "Maris, would you and Sheri start some food going? Kolb, could you set up a team of people to make water? We'll want a holding tank. High Servants... Why don't you good ones stay here with us? As soon as the cases empty of rock and sand, we need to get more. Constantly. That will probably be an actual job for a while. Who wants it?" She nearly raised her own hand, but she was going to be gone soon.

  Both Terry and Alphonse did, along with one of the High Servants, who was a skinny boy that looked familiar now that she actually bothered to look. She'd almost flirted with him once, she thought. He'd been really shy, at the time. But now, here he was, hand up in the air and not even courting death like most of his fellows. Clearly he was one of the good ones, then.

  "All right, Erid, Alphonse and Terry have this shift. Eight hours. Sorry about the short sleep guys. On the good hand you get to make up our airlock rules. Everyone needs a shield on right now, all the time. Just like on the ship. No going out alone yet either. So, sanitation, who's in charge of that? I haven't a clue what to do there, other than the fact that we'll all die without it. This house has some, if we provide water, but the new colony structures need that, while we can still change things around easily, if it's required for it. Anyone?"

  She looked around, expecting that no one would raise a hand at all for that task, being icky, but her father did, and, almost amusingly, so did Farlo Ross.

  It made sense, after a fashion. Farlo was both a builder and probably wanted to sleep with her da. Tiera nearly growled at the idea, but managed not to let it show on her face.

  "Collect whatever kind of team you need. Anyone can be called into duty at any time. It's a Moon rule. Number one, in fact. Everyone has to be ready to help out with every task if asked. What else do we need? Heat? I have that one. I need to do a build for it, but it won't take long. Light?" She looked around, to see Sheri raise her hand a little.

  "I can make copies, if I can get a template?"

  Guide coughed, "wimp." The word wasn't covered at all, and he winked. "No, you don't get a template for simple lights. Anyone can make light. You practiced enough to do it without now. We'll need a lot though. Taman, can you head that up with Sheri? We'll need batches of a hundred in a few weeks. From both of you. Possibly from the rest of us too. Well, you saw how big things got down there today."

  The tiny girl let her head come up, and moved a step away from her mother.

  "We can do it. Sheri, will you help me make some tiles for it?"

  The other girl smiled, still getting ready to help with food.

  "After we all eat. Why tiles though? I was thinking we could put them in decorative gems, about the size of a pie plate?"

  It was wasteful really, but what she described did sound pretty. She was good at things like that though. Decorating and stuff. It was the kind of thing she was taking in school even. That was going to be important here, Tiera thought. Maybe even a job. Decorating everything, and keeping it pretty. On Earth you could just walk outside and look at the clouds, or a tree, or grass. Here the landscape was made up of similar colored sand, all over the place.

  She was about to mention that when there was a commotion at the door and air suddenly started to force out in a great gust that pulled at them all. Tiera put her shield up and ran at the airlock, skipping along in huge bounds, to see three white robed morons trying to walk in against the wind.

  Tiera glared, then slapped another wall around them, so they wouldn't lose all the air. The two men and the woman standing there looked surprised at least, and then a little scared. That probably had to do with the fact that she was holding them at weapons point. Looking down she realized it was a good one too, being one of her little pen wands. Here it would be fatal if she took their shields down. It was tempting, but she saw that Alphonse, Terry and Erid were coming back, five large cases following them.

  Terry looked at the scene and then worked out what had to have happened.

  "They... just opened the door? Both of them? At one time?"

  "Yup." She drew the word out, trying not to be too angry with them. They didn't lose all the air after all. Just enough to be annoying. "They should have known better, since they know what an airlock is."

  Her brother made a face and looked at the two with him. Erid let his nostrils flare, but didn't comment. It still told her a lot.

  These were some of the annoying people then. Probably not the worst though. Stupid or something, instead of bad? He didn't glare, or say that Tiera should kill them, or anything. He just looked like he'd expect these three to come out hours late, and then cause problems.

  Very carefully they went back inside, and Terry pointed at one of the interlopers and then the outer door. Several times. Finally the man gave a hapless look and closed the door. The boy nodded and looked relieved. Then he pointed to the next door, since they had three right now, not just two.

  The same man started to move, but Alphonse gestured at the woman in the group, sharply, his face set in a darker glare than Tiera had ever seen it before. She got it faster at least. When the door shut, leaving them and the boxes in the new emergency alcove that Tiera had made, she caused a door to appear, which filled with air all at once as soon as it was opened. Everyone else was standing around, waiting for the new visitors to come in.

  Or really, waiting to beat them, if she had the body language right. Tiera, the mean little bitchy girl, or big girl now, as it turned out, smiled and spread her hands. That got everyone to relax, oddly enough.

  "Air dump! Let's recharge the air and then take these three out to get more sand to replace what they lost. Rule number two? If you make a problem, you have to be the one to fix it? Agreed?"

  That got a chorus of yes, mixed with a few ruder sounds from everyone, and a laugh from Karen, who moved in, ready to do some damage.

  Chapter eleven

  "Please tell me that you were sleeping, and have come ready to take the night shift?" Karen looked like her old self, so they got who she was, her disguise amulet working just fine in the light of the house. Without waiting for a response, she held up her hand and looked at Saxon Breen. "This is your night shift, right?"

  Karen moved behind the people, who were looking concerned, but not talking back and waved to Saxon, nodding in an exaggerated fashion.

  "Um, yes, High Commander? I'm certain they were just coming to report for duty." She didn't sound it at all, but one of the men cleared his throat, which was worrying really. There had been rumors about these people after all. Hopefully he wasn't about to die horribly in their First House. That would be a poor omen. Plus, they didn't really have a lot of wash water ready to go yet. Or buckets. Or mops.

  "Yes. Well, we didn't know it was the night shift, but we heard that there were people here, and
that we were supposed to come and help. The rest aren't coming out. I think they're waiting for more specific orders? I don't know. We weren't left with anyone in charge, so we tend to vote on things or just go our own way. We here were all asleep though. Is that wrong? It's hard to keep to a single schedule here." He bowed, going low enough that no one hit him, which was good. Even if his shield would have stopped that from happening.

  Tiera knew she should have kept her mouth shut, but Karen was being a bit too sensitive about things, and seemed upset about the air loss they'd just had, even though there weren't any rules about that yet. Was that a stupid mistake? Yes. Should they have known better, living like they did? Sure.

  Should they be beaten for the transgression? Well, naturally. Otherwise stupid people probably wouldn't learn fast enough to survive. Not by their commander though. Tenet maybe? That seemed about right, but she didn't mention it. It was funny, not real.

  She opened her mouth though anyway, which was stupid of her, but no one yelled at her, so it kind of worked.

  "It works for now. The three men you came in with are in charge of airlock procedures, so they'll be teaching us all what to do that way. For now, be very good about making sure no air gets lost. Because, as you just heard, it's a rule. The first one is that you have to help out if anyone asks you to. Not just you, personally, anyone on the Moon. At need, every citizen here is required to help any other, if their own tasks allow it at all. We need to keep these things down in number though, since having too many laws or rules just makes problems."

  Karen moved toward the door, and waved for the three that had come to leave with her, but they needed some boxes, which meant recharging the air first, to make space. It was only part of one container, but they still had to go out and top off the case. It was a rule. She needed a pen and some paper, so they could write these things down.