by Colin Owen
"Hi Hops, I want you to be in charge of the domestic details for the trip. We'll need food, water, and clothing. Oh, and something to sleep in."
"Okay daddy," she beamed, "I'll get right on it." She trotted off humming tunelessly as only Hope could, but Steve knew she'd do a good job. He found Clare, she was busy preparing files and materials ready to record her findings.
"It's been such a long time since I was in the field I'm having trouble remembering what I'll need." She said.
"Well, we won't have to worry about food, clothes or sleeping bags," Steve assured her, "I've just put Hope in charge of all things domestic, so that's one aspect of this trip taken care of. Also, the transport is sorted, we'll have a nice new four-by-four that runs on solar power, so we can go as far as we like, so long as it's sunny! Try doing that on Earth!"
He stopped short.
"Funny how Earth has come up several times recently."
"Yes, I was thinking that too," Clare replied. "I'm going to have a quick word with John Hammond Sweetie, catch you later."
Steve found John at home. "Can I come in?" he called from the doorway.
"Sure thing Steve," John replied, "what can I do for you?"
Steve ran his idea past John to see what he thought of it.
"Hmm, I'll certainly give it some thought Steve, but It's something we must approach with extreme caution."
"Let me know when we get back from the trip, Ok?"
"Sure. By the way, when are you leaving?"
"As soon after the wedding as we can," Steve answered. "While I'm here John, would you conduct the wedding for us? Clare and I would be honoured if you would."
"Take the service you mean? I'd be delighted to, sure I'll do it."
❧
The day of the wedding came, and Jimmy was more than a little jittery. "Don't worry Jims, it will soon be over, and we can begin the rest of our lives together."
Shelley had always been the calm one, Jimmy was a lot of fun, and fast thinking, but it was Shelley who took control. Calm, level headed and very much like her mother in both looks and temperament. Jimmy knew he had found the right girl, even though she was his junior by more than ten years. She was just perfect for him, and complimented his zest for life with her tempered decision making. This was certainly a match made in heaven.
"Don't fuss Hun," Clare insisted as she tried to tie Steve's tie.
"You're choking me," he gasped.
"No, I'm not," she answered, "but I will if you don't keep still."
Steve did his best to keep still just in case she carried out the threat, Clare could be a little spirited when she wanted to be. The tie done up to her satisfaction, she stood back to look him over.
"You'll do," she said, with a glint in her eye. Actually, he looked great, but she didn't want him to get cocky.
"And me?" she quizzed.
"You'll do," he answered, knowing as usual just what he could get away with.
Shelley arrived at that moment, looking radiant.
"Are you two ready?" She asked.
"Most definitely," Steve answered her, stopping short as he turned to catch sight of his beautiful daughter.
"My, my, treasure, but you look wonderful, Jimmy is a very lucky man." Shelley blushed at her dad's admiration.
"Come on," Clare broke in, "it's time for the Foresters to put their best foot forward."
With that, they stepped out of the house and into the central meeting place where Jimmy was already waiting.
Every member of the Eden community was present. There was no excuse good enough to miss this event, and nobody had wanted to. Shelley walked slowly down the central isle with Steve latched to her arm. Clare, the very proud mom, walked behind. John Hammond had dressed specifically for the occasion, Lisa had made him a 'dog collar'. He looked every bit the part.
"Dearly beloved," he began, "we are gathered here together in the sight of Almighty God, to witness the wedding of Jimmy Peebles and Shelley Forester. If anyone knows of any reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace."
There was absolute silence. John turned to Jimmy and said, "Ok Jimmy, make your promise."
Jimmy turned to face his bride, swallowed hard, and began.
"Shelley, you have won my heart, my mind and my spirit. I am captivated by you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. My promise is, that you shall never have reason to doubt, or fear me. I will, to the very best of my ability, love you, support you, take care of you, and protect you. I will never forsake you for another, or for any other reason under God's heaven. I will stay by your side through any and every circumstance we may encounter, and in God's name, nothing shall tear us apart."
He stopped, his hands were shaking quite noticeably, but his voice remained strong and resolute, everyone had heard every word he had said. Now in the silence, Shelley could see the tracks of his tears. Her grip tightened as she held his hands in hers.
"And to you, my husband, my promise is: I shall always love you, but more than this, I shall always honour and respect you. Your decisions shall be my decisions, your friends my friends, your enemies my enemies. Where you lead I will follow. I will never belittle you, nor berate you. I receive you as my husband and the head of our household. In sickness and in health, in good times and bad, I will never forsake you for another, or any other circumstance under God's heaven, and in God's name, nothing will tear us apart."
She stopped and the silence was tangible.
For several moments no one spoke, and then John said "By the power invested in me, I pronounce you to be husband and wife. May God bless you and keep you...Erm, you may kiss the bride."
They kissed and the place erupted. The party began right there and then, music started, and dancing broke out. Several ladies had prepared food, but they were too busy dancing to care. The celebrations went on well into the evening and it was a long time before Jimmy and Shelley Peebles could make their exit.
Steve and Clare slept in late the following morning, not something they did often, but they were becoming more laid back as the years were passing, and age was beginning to play a greater role in their lives too.
"That's two down and one to go," Clare said, whilst dressing.
"You know Sweetie, I'm so glad that there will be a Peebles family in Eden, it just seems right!"
She looked at him, he had surprised her yet again. "I do love you Hun," she said. He just smiled back, but all the love in creation was in that smile.
Shortly after breakfast, Bill arrived with the modified four-by-four.
"It looks great Bill," Steve said enthusiastically.
"I really love the flat roof," Clare added, "shame we can't put stuff up there, it would increase our payload quite considerably."
"Sorry Clare," Bill replied, "but that's the power plant, cover it up and you're going nowhere. We had 40 mph out of her on the way over from MBA Steve, not bad for a solar powered jeep."
"That's great Bill," Clare butted in, "now we can get nowhere a lot faster!"
Steve and Bill just smiled.
"Told you she was spirited Bill," Steve said, looking lovingly into her eyes. Clare blushed a little at the attention, but not for long.
"Wanna take her for a spin?" Bill said, grinning.
"Yeah, why not, come on Sweetie, let's go for a drive."
Clare wrenched the keys from Bill's hand. "This is my trip remember, I'll do the driving."
"Bet she gets more than 40 bill," Steve said, as Clare was pulling him through the door.
They jumped in and Clare drove off. They headed for the lake. "Now we'll be able to see all the way around it Hun." She said.
Steve just nodded and hung on.
The lake turned out to be much bigger than they expected. Up to this point, no one had been all the way around it before, and it took quite some time. The trip excited Clare, as she could already see a little of the diversity of plant growth.
"There are so many new species Hun, i
t's amazing. If this is typical of the rest of the Moon we may be gone for quite some time."
"Suits me," Steve replied, "I need some quality time with my family."
Clare stopped the jeep saying, "You drive Hun, I can't look and drive at the same time."
Steve took over, and for once, Clare really appreciated his slower driving.
It was much later, when they had rounded the lake and were on their way back, that they saw Jake and Zeek in the distance, deep in conversation. They headed for them and pulled up close by. It was Jake who spoke first.
"Hi you guys, I like the new toy!" Then, turning to Steve he said, "We've been talking about your idea Steve, and we're going to volunteer."
"Are you sure guys, it's a big decision?"
"Yeah, our minds are made up, Betty and Martha are coming too."
Martha and Betty were two of the original MBA staff, as were Jake and Zeek. These four had taken least to life on the Moon, and it hadn't surprised Steve that they should be the ones to volunteer.
"See you back at base," Steve said, as he drove off.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on Mr. Forester, or shall I be forced to use torture?"
"Sorry Sweetie," Steve said, "I didn't mean for you to be kept in the dark, but I didn't want to distract you from your field trip plans. The truth is, I've had this idea about Earth, about going back there."
"Ah," she said, remembering the recent references to Earth.
Steve went on, "It kept cropping up in conversation, and somehow the idea grew from that. Each time I tried to ignore it, it popped up again."
"So we're going back to Earth then," she said.
"No, not all of us Sweetie, just the volunteers."
"But, why volunteers Hun?" She asked.
"Because it's a one way trip, they won't be coming back again."
Clare seemed satisfied with this and went silent. The rest of the trip back to the settlement passed without incident or much conversation.
On arriving back, they dropped the jeep off at Bill's.
"She runs like a dream Bill," Steve told him, "didn't need to use the batteries once!"
"Good, glad to hear it," Bill answered, "I'll have the water tanks fitted and she's all yours."
Steve and Clare left Bill to fiddle with the new toy and walked home. They bumped into John Hammond on the way.
"I guess you've heard about the volunteers," he said.
Steve nodded that he had.
"Now we just have the technical obstacles to overcome."
"It's just a matter of time John," Steve said, "there's enough brain power on this moon to solve almost anything."
They parted company smiling.
"I'm glad you didn't volunteer for this mission," Clare said, as they walked.
"What? And leave you behind...Never."
"I would have come with you," she answered straight-away, "but my home is here now, I don't want to go back."
"Me neither," Steve agreed, "I am home."
Chapter Twelve
Chapter 3.
The Green Yonder
Steve and Clare had hoped to get away as soon as the wedding was over, but it hadn't worked out that way. There was trouble with the portable water locator; weight being the actual problem.
"You'll need muscles coming out of you ears to carry this thing," Bill said, as he passed it over to Steve to feel the weight.
Steve almost dropped it, "Isn't there any way to make it lighter?" he asked.
"It's the shielding that's the problem, we can't make a decent shield that doesn't weigh a ton."
Just then, Jimmy came running in. He was panting and it took several moments for him to catch his breath.
"I've just had an accident," he gasped, "but you're going to love it! Steve, you don't know about this, but we've discovered a new ore, it's pretty scarce, but I've had a couple of lumps to experiment with. Once smelted it becomes a soft metal, a little like zinc. This makes it great for moulding, in fact, it's the easiest material I've ever worked with, you can make it into anything. The problem is of course that it's not very strong, well, that's what we originally thought."
He produced a small piece of very shiny metal that was as hard as rock.
"I've tried every way I know to cut this stuff, and nothing even scratches it. It is so dense that x-rays bounce off. Chemicals, drills, heat, you name it, this stuff is bomb proof."
"Very interesting Jimmy, but what is it and how can we use it if we can't manipulate it?"
"It's the new ore!" Jimmy said excitedly. "I accidentally dropped a piece into some water and this came out. By the way, you don't want to be around when this stuff gets wet, it's wild."
"Let me get this straight," Steve said, "this new ore smelts into a soft metal that's easy to cut or shape, and after it's been dipped in water it becomes this stuff?"
"Got it in one," Jimmy replied.
"And it's indestructible?"
"So far." Jimmy affirmed.
Bill took the piece from Jimmy and tossed it a few times, "It's light too," he said, "and x-rays bounce off?"
"Yep," Jimmy grinned back.
"Steve, I think this is the answer to our weight problems. Give me a day to test it, and another to build the shielding I need, and you can go off on your trip."
Steve took Jimmy aside and asked him to test a theory. Jimmy agreed and set off to work on it promising to let Steve know when it was proved.
Bill was as good as his word, and appeared two days later with the new and very much lighter water detector. He handed it to Steve who could hardly believe the difference. He could easily hold it in one hand.
"What a difference Bill," he said, "and this is down to the new ore, Kerasite?"
"That and nothing else." Bill replied. "We'll be able to build things that were unthinkable before, and I'm going to take a look at the 'water' thing too. There must be quite some energy release involved there."
"Keep me posted as things develop Bill, I have a really good feeling about this."
"Will do," Bill replied, and left.
❧
Everything was ready, checked, and double-checked before being packed onto the Jeep. Hope had really done her homework, and both Steve and Clare were delighted with the results.
"There's enough food here to last for months," Clare said, "I'll bet we need the batteries now!"
Steve laughed, he had been thinking the very same thing. Nonetheless, it all fitted exactly as Hope had said it would, and having loaded it all on board, she jumped up into her seat and said, "Lets get this show on the road."
Steve looked at Clare and said, "Where in the Moon did she get that from?" She laughed and climbed aboard. Steve jumped into the passenger seat, waved to everybody, and they were off, the trip had begun.
The Edenites watched them fade from view and then went about their business. It would be strange in the settlement without Steve and Clare around, but there was always much to do, and now there was a new element to explore. Kerasite had arrived and had already made its mark.
❧
Clare watched in her rear-view mirror, as the settlement grew evermore distant. They had a compass, but no maps with them, and the compass was no real use without knowing which way was north. Did the Moon even have a magnetic structure? All this was for Steve to find out. It may have been Clare's field trip, but Steve had plenty to do too.
Hope sat quietly in the back, only turning round occasionally when she heard something move. There were plenty of rocks lying around, but the growth of the grass and other vegetation had consolidated the surface into what could only be described as meadow. Everywhere was green, at least, mainly green. Other colours could be seen in various places and Clare was heading straight towards one of them.
"No point in driving miles when we have all this on our front door step," she said, "we'll make our first camp here, this looks rather interesting."
She pulled the Jeep up and cranked on the hand brake. Everyone knew what to
do as if by instinct. Clare grabbed her note pad and files and headed off into the flowers, Hope jumped down and began to set up camp, and Steve tried to figure out where they were.
Evening came and Clare arrived back at the camp.
"That coffee smells good," she said, flopping down by the fire. "I'm beat, it's been such a long time since I did this."
The other two let her take a few sips and then Steve asked, "So how did it go, find anything interesting?"
Clare smiled, which spoke volumes. "Yes, I did," she eventually said, "almost everything you can see is a new species. By new, I mean, not found on Earth. I think we'll stay here a while, I need to catalogue the growth patterns and distribution.
"I have some rocks to look at," Steve said, "so that's fine by me."
They both looked at Hope, "I'm happy sunbathing," she blurted out, "but I can man the water detector if you like."
Having said this, she dished up the food she had prepared, and conversation gave way to the filling of empty stomachs.
They turned in early and Hope was asleep in seconds, but Steve lay looking up at the stars. Seeing them against a black sky reminded him of when they had first arrived on the Moon. The blackness of space was his most striking memory, then all those years in Lark had erased it, but tonight, it had resurfaced, it really was a beautiful sight.
Next morning, Clare was first up. She put the coffee on and gently woke Hope, who hadn't moved all night.
"Time to wake up treasure," she said, softly. Hope opened her eyes and was in domestic mode in seconds. Steve stirred and slowly came alive.
"Anyone noticed how quiet it is?" he asked. They hadn't, but it instantly became obvious that it was. No animal sounds could be heard at all.
"It would seem that the animals enjoy human company." Hope said, "They must all be living near the settlement."
"You'd have thought the birds would have gone farther afield," Clare said, "after all, there's no reason for them not to."
"Perhaps there aren't sufficient numbers yet," Steve said, and no more was said about it.
