by TS Paul
“Of course I did.”
“Are they still alive? Or do I need to go in too?” Diane looked past Dorene toward the BMW area.
“They are fine. We need to get the kids packed, they’re headed to the moon to help break the base down.”
“Ooh, that should be fun! They will enjoy that.” Diane reversed course and followed her sister.
“They will need a week's worth of stuff, as well as skinsuits. I told them to include backups, or I was going back. I may have scared them just a bit.”
“Knowing you, you scared them a lot. I remember what happened at the last family reunion.”
Dorene smiled at the memory of that incident. “It wasn’t entirely my fault that time. That cop should have watched where he walked.”
Snorting Diane chuckled. “You had him so flustered he walked right off the edge of the pool! Admit it, you can be scary.”
“I have no idea what you are saying.” The two continued to bicker as they entered the main hall of the school.
The two administrators found Team Alpha upstairs in the simulation room.
“…go Ron. You’ve almost got her!” Tina stood behind the simulator, cheering on her friend.
“Hurry Yana! He is almost here.”
Gritting her teeth, Yana cursed in Russian. “Stop yelling at me, Maxim!” The Sim-Pod she was operating swerved to the left, then suddenly rolled to the right, directly into an Immelmann Turn maneuver.
“Whoa, that was cool!” Ron said as he looked all around for her Pod.
Yana, her Pod now above and behind Ron, came screaming down and scored on him.
“You have GOT to teach me that!” Ron yelled, as his cockpit went red and his controls froze.
“I will, Ron. I will. Wait until we pilot for real.” She got out of the Pod and walked over to pat the smaller boy on the back.
“Tina, how did you do against Nestor?” Yana asked.
“He smoked me as usual. Yana, he is getting really good.”
Yana’s eyes lit up, “Good. We will have our own squadron some day. Take the fight to the enemy.”
There was a light knock on the door which caused even the Wechselbalg kids to jump. They didn’t smell or hear the women come down the hall.
Diane and Dorene stepped in, “Sorry. This room is shielded and soundproofed as well as having special climate controls. Those Pod sims are state-of-the-art when it comes to TQB tech, and they have special needs. I have your new assignments. The gentlemen at BMW are taking the five of you down to the Moonbase. Expect to stay at least a week.” Dorene informed them.
“The Moon? I thought the base down there was already closed?” Tina looked at the twin Admins.
“Not yet. They want you to help them with that. You will be issued the new skinsuits along with all your survival gear. Marcus, William, and Boz… I mean Bobcat will go with you. For four hours each day, you will help them recycle and break things down. This is a golden chance to get your space legs and a feel for the new suits. Go pack. Take light outfits and the long underwear you were all issued.”
“Why long underwear?” Tina asked.
“It is what you’ll wear under your skinsuit. Your body needs the extra layer of protection. It’s not traditional underwear, it’s made of a special material. You were all issued it and told to leave it in the wrapper.” Diane waved them toward the doors. “Move it!” Once they were out of the room, she muttered, “Kids.”
Dorene chuckled at her sister.
Ron hurried to keep up with his classmates. He was beside himself with excitement. The Moon! One of his hobbies was conspiracy theories and their ties to space exploration. It didn’t matter to him that he was already in space or that Aliens existed. The Moon was the goal of most space fanatics down on Earth, and he was actually going there!
CHAPTER EIGHT
“This is so cool!” Ron had said the same thing at least twenty times so far.
Nestor could only roll his eyes. “Ron, you know we have been in space for months now, right?”
“I know that Nestor. But space isn’t the Moon! It’s the first celestial body that man walked on and we get to do it too!”
Nestor covered his own mouth so as not to respond. Or he at least covered where his mouth should be. The new skinsuits were exactly as advertised. Skin tight. The instantaneous radio communication was pretty cool as well.
Both boys were riding with William in one of the two, experimental, five passenger Pods they had created. The Queen had told them to make bigger ones, so these were the only mid-sized Pods in existence.
“Hey William, why are we going around the Mare Crisium? I thought the Sea of Tranquility was over there?” Ron pointed in another direction.
William smiled, “You’re better than a map book, Ron. Do you know all the craters?”
“Most of them. Or at least those related to NASA missions.” Ron agreed.
“Well, something that NASA didn’t tell you, the area around the Mare Crisium has some sort of electromagnetic field around it. Our etheric sensors tripped it after we lost a couple of probes. The geologists say it may be a rare magnetic mineral. We were about to dig it up to see, but BA, I mean the Queen, said wait. Earth has been getting pissy about us up here and strip mining the moon would really irritate them. So we go around. Less chance of damaging the Pod that way.”
“I wonder if NASA knows about it?” Ron asked.
William glanced at Ron and smiled. “You can ask Marcus that if you like. He might know. We’re coming up on the base ahead. It’s in the Sinus Medii Mare if you are trying to locate it.”
Ahead of the Pod was a rocky area with large rock formations. Domed buildings could be seen sticking up here and there among large shipping containers.
Ron’s eyes went wide, “Wow, this is huge!”
The Pod zipped down for a landing as the central dome opened up like a clamshell to receive it. William expertly flew the Pod down and landed next to the other five-person Pod. Several prototype three-person Pods lined the interior wall.
William called back to his group, “Wait for the dome to close. The suits will protect you, but without gravity, you will bounce easily and find yourself missing things and landing badly. Here on the Moon, unless you are in the base, you have to wear special gravity boots. We have enough for all of you so don’t worry about not getting a pair.”
The dome above them silently closed, and a faint sucking noise was heard. The control panel in the Pod made a loud ‘ding’ sound.
“That’s the signal for atmosphere. Time to go boys.” The Pod opened at William’s touch. The three of them stepped out onto the hangar deck.
“It’s about time you got here, pokey.” Bobcat stepped over from the wall he was leaning on.
William shrugged, “I took the long way to show the kids more of the Moon. Everything OK inside?”
“Yup. They left the supplies alone and only took the scientific equipment as planned. We still have to send the fabricators back up, but they should fit in the containers. It’s how we got them here after all.” Bobcat visually checked the Pod, out of habit, looking for damage.
“Good. What does Marcus think our schedule should be?” William pulled out the bags belonging to the two boys and threw them at them.
“He thinks we should strip the place first. Send out the containers and then pound the domes with pucks. Explosive charges might be easier.”
“You know, Jean has interns like we do. She might like to use them as target practice.” William stared at the dome overhead.
Bobcat smirked, “The domes, not the kids, right?”
“What?” William thought about what he said. “Yeah, sorry. Off in la la land apparently. The domes not the kids. Ha! That’s pretty funny. Let’s get everyone settled in, and then we can get started.”
Bobcat led them through a small tunnel to the adjoining dome.
Marcus pointed, “That pile is Chinese junk we picked up the last time we were here. It’s a couple of probes
and their Chang'e 2 capsule which crashed when William gave it a good nudge with the Pod.”
In front of Marcus was a small unit that looked like it came off a cement mixer. One side was crushed, but you could still see the blue triangle of the CNSA.
William gave Marcus a small wave as he passed by him. Marcus then explained, “Our goal up here was two-fold. We wanted to establish a presence here initially, and test some of our technology. Now that we are leaving, it is vital that no country on Earth gains any sort of technological boost from our equipment here. So we are gathering it all up. Including the junk, others have left as well. My former employers aren’t very happy about it, and neither are the Russians.”
“Sir? Why would they be worried now, it’s just junk right?” Nestor pointed to the Chinese capsule pile.
“That one is now. But when we knocked it out of orbit it was still functional and being used to spy on us. Take that piece over there.” He pointed to what looked a bit like a baby carriage with a solar panel on it.
“Wow! A Lunokhod rover! Is that number one or two?” Ron stepped over to it and peered inside.
“Very good Ron. That is number one. It and its brother have been deactivated, but they were still operating and sending signals out even after being sent up here in the early 1970s. Both the owner and the Russian Government have protested about it.” Marcus informed the group.
“Uh, isn’t the owner the Government? I don’t understand.” Maxim stepped over and tried lifting the little robotic rover.
“Funny story, Ron might know more than I since he’s a fan. A private individual bought number two from the Russians in a public auction, making him the only private citizen to have something up here. Until we got here, that is.”
“How much did he pay for this thing?”
Ron jumped in. “He paid $68,000 dollars. That’s like four million Rubles.”
“For this? And he had to leave it up here?” Maxim gave it a kick.
“It was pretty advanced for its time. Even NASA would have been hard pressed to equal it. They actually sent it up with radioactive material inside. We have since removed the polonium-210 it contained.” Maxim jumped back from the machine.
“Are the Lunar Rovers from Apollo fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen here too?” Ron looked around.
“Outside. They still work. The science crew that was working here souped them up and replaced the batteries and fragile bumpers. They even took out the hard to steer controls and put in an actual steering wheel. Bobcat may have had something to do with that. He called them ‘dune buggies’ instead of rovers.” Marcus grinned at the memory.
Marcus then pointed to the large pile behind him. “The rest of this stuff has NASA written all over it. Probes, sensor packages, and spy satellites. We even found some off-the-books stuff.”
“Like Apollo 20?” Ron looked up from his investigation of a NASA probe.
“That one is definitely a hoax, but we found a few items that didn’t come with any of the documented missions. So who knows.” He looked at Ron. “You, young man, need to have a conversation with me someday about spacecraft and NASA.”
Yana was starting to look like she was sleeping. It was exciting, and all, but spacecraft history was boring to her.
“Let’s go find the living quarters and get you set up. We won’t start work until tomorrow anyway.”
—
“Ron, how did you get into NASA and conspiracies?” Maxim softly asked him. The boys were on one end of the sleeping chamber, the girls the other.
“Dad is a big shot computer programmer. He’s one of the ones that helped to create ADAM. We first lived in Colorado at the TQB base there. After my school class had been kidnapped, I started looking into mysterious happenings around the country. Most were obviously Forsaken or Wechselbalg once I knew they existed. So I began looking into space. We knew that at least one alien existed, why not more? The space agencies all deny it, but ultimately that is what they search for, aliens.”
“And this sort of information is just available on the Internet?” Maxim rolled over and stared at the younger boy.
“Sure. As one of my favorite movies says. You can’t stop the signal. Once it’s on the Internet, it cannot be removed completely. Dad says even ADAM has trouble taking stuff down for the Queen.”
“Interesting. When we get back, can you show me some of how you search?”
“Sure Maxim. I can do that.” Ron closed his eyes. It had been a long day.
“What are you looking for?” Nestor whispered into the room. Maxim’s sharp ears caught it anyway.
“Father. Surely there is some sign or report I can read. I want to be able to mourn him.”
“I understand, Cousin.”
At the other end of the room, Yana and Tina sat on their beds. “What is your opinion of conspiracy theory?”
Tina cocked her head to one side and smiled. “Ron gets a bit extreme for me. There is some truth in it, though. The UnknownWorld does exist, as well as aliens after all. Many of the Governments of the world have proven they can’t be trusted either. My mom has told me as much, too. Much of what is out there on the internet is just crazy, though.”
Yana nodded. “Back in Russia, it is hard to know what to believe. The state… well, the state controls everything. You have to believe what they say. Freedom is a luxury even without the Soviets.”
“You can trust us Yana. The Queen will protect you.”
“That I am believing. How do you like the Moon?” Yana smiled at Tina.
“It’s big and open. Too bad there isn’t any air. It would be fun to explore a bit.”
“We could take one of those rover things and look around. Marcus might let us.”
“I will ask later if you like. Marcus likes me.” Tina laughed. “I was the first kid in space because of him.”
“Was that fun?” Yana sometimes found it hard to believe others had fun adventures.
“It was crazy fun. Mom just about killed him, though. He didn’t say ‘outer space’ when she asked where he was taking me. For me, though, it was a blast. We raced a meteor and buzzed the Moon. Fun.” Tina smiled as she remembered the experience.
“It sounds like it. We better get some rest then. Goodnight.”
—
Breakfast was protein shakes and survival biscuits. Maxim was missing the school cafeteria already.
“Today, we are packing up the manufacturing plant, as well as the machine shop. Gravity in those areas has been set low, so everything will be drastically lighter. Be sure to watch your teammates carefully. Having a half-ton of machinery moved in your direction can be deadly due to mass, so be careful. Later, after lunch, Marcus has a mathematics class on basic orbital mechanics. Should be fun.” Bobcat smiled at the looks on their faces.
Math and kids.
—
“Are we having fun yet?” Maxim grunted as his cousin tossed him a computer module.
“This is a workout, not fun! Why did they bring all of this here if they weren’t leaving it?” Nestor asked.
Bobcat answered, “William might have mentioned to you the magnetic anomaly to the North of us? Well, we think it has a high concentration of iron and other ferrous material. The initial plan was to dig and mine it out for use on the first space stations. Then the UN started whining, and the US, Russia, and China joined them in making waves. Bethany Anne then moved the mining to the asteroid belt. Farther away and less prying eyes out there. We had everything all set up to start when the plan was canceled. It’s only now that we have the time to pick it back up for storage. A few of the techs have been down here to tweak the sensors, but it’s been pretty much just us. NASA has been raising holy hell about the loss of sensors and cameras they have denied even having up here. It’s pretty funny.”
