by Nick Evans
"Sounds a recipe for hacking off work to me," replied Xalata as they approached a door near the end of the main runway.
The door opened into a large room that was a cross between a library, laboratory and common room. Other students were lounging on the chairs - around twenty in all - and an older man with slightly wild hair and a kindly expression was busy in the lab area with some equipment. As they entered, some of the students acknowledged Melody and turned their interest to Xalata - a new face.
"Hi guys, I'm Xalata," she said and a few of them waved briefly before turning back to their all-absorbing pads. One of them - a gangly boy of about fifteen - stood up and wandered over:
"Hey, Xalata, I'm Glitch. Melody'll tell you all about me. Just think of me as the go-to person for anything you need."
"Oh yeah?" retorted Xalata, "and why would I want to do that? You have something that others here don't have?"
"Yep, I just out-cool ‘em. Mistah friggin’ Freeze, that’s me!"
Xalata folded her arms, cocked her head to one side and did that look. All girls know the one. It encompasses disbelief, disdain and dismissal.
"Really?" she said, "and that's the full deal, the total of your offering?"
Glitch smiled knowingly,
"You'll see. Anyway, what brings you to our humble classroom? Have you just come from Earth - you look like an Earther."
"Oh, and what does an Earther look like?"
"Well, you've got a bit of a suntan - don't get that here. Your clothes don't look like the ones we can get from the outlets on LunarBase and you haven't had the haircut yet."
Xalata looked around. Nearly everyone had short or very short hair - she'd not really noticed. Her spiky hairstyle stood out like a sore thumb.
"OK - so why the shorties in the hair department then?" she said.
"It's style," replied Glitch, "Style with a capital "Stuh"."
The look returned to Xalata's face.
"Yeah? Really? If that's style then I'm from Mars."
"Hey, Martian!" Glitch snapped back. "Welcome to Moon!"
"Give over, Glitch. You're being a pain," said Melody. "Just ignore him. The real reason we all have rubbish hair is that there are no stylists up here. Essential personnel only. Hair and beauty doesn't come into it, so we have to make do with what we have."
"OK - I can cope with that," said Xalata, thinking "For Frank's sake, a quarter of a million miles from home and you can't get your hair cut?" Her face brightened, "OK yep, no problem. Just have to be creative, I guess?"
At this point, the tutor with the wild hair came over.
"Hello, Xalata. Your father told me you would be joining us today - welcome. I see you've already met Mr Shaw-Storey ..."
"Who?" said Xalata
"Ah, he'll have introduced himself as Glitch, of course. Justin Shaw-Storey is his name."
At this, Glitch ambled back to the seats where he had come from, looking over his shoulder with a grin.
"My name is Mr Wiggins. I'm the bio tutor and a good part of your hydroponics course will take place here and in the culture areas behind the Academy. You'll need to get yourself kitted out with lab wear, the instrument kits and so on. I'm sure Melody will help you sort those out. Our first group tutorial today is not until midday, so I hope you'll be able to sort out the kit before then, from the Student Commissary. If you need anything else, any help or guidance, Melody may be your best bet. However, don't hesitate to come and talk to me - I'm here most of the time."
His glasses - so old-fashioned - wobbled on the end of his nose as he looked over them and talked to Xalata. She felt comfortable with the thought of him as her tutor and so she responded brightly:
"Thanks Mr Wiggins. I'm sure I'll fit in quickly. I'm looking forward to starting the hydroponics course ..." and to herself she said, You liar. Nothing's further from the truth. This will bore you to death.
Mr Wiggins pointed out some of the features of the room and then wandered back to his workstation. Melody and Xalata watched him go:
"He's OK," said Melody. "Everyone here likes him, apart from Rose and Penny, that is."
"Oh, and who are they?"
"Check out in the corner by the instrument shelves."
At the back of the room, sitting together and with no other companions were two girls of about the same age as Xalata and Melody. One was very strikingly good-looking, despite the hairstyle. The other was much less appealing - a harsh face with a spiteful look and an aggressive attitude.
"Wow, who are those two?" said Xalata.
"Rose Pretty and Penny Wrath," replied Melody. "They're the misfits. Rose is the pretty one and she really thinks she's pretty by name, pretty by nature. She isn't. Penny is fairly much how she looks. She's a thorn in everyone's side. If there's trouble, she and Rose will almost always be right at the front of it. I'd stay away from them, if you can."
Inevitably, as Melody was speaking, the infamous pair caught Xalata looking across the room at them.
"Oi!" shouted Rose, "who you staring at?"
Xalata raised her eyebrows and looked away.
"I'm talking to you, new girl,"
The sound of boots on the floor of the classroom heralded the arrival of Rose Pretty, followed quickly by Penny Wrath.
"Oh, hi," said Xalata sweetly. "How nice of you to welcome me to the Academy. I'm Xalata, by the way. And you must be ...?"
"Never mind who we are," said Penny, "you need to watch your mouth."
"I do? And why is that?
"Because," said Rose, "people with too much to say usually end up eating their words. Do I make myself clear?"
"Actually, no," said Xalata, "I'm really not very bright. Perhaps you could spell it out for me?"
Mr Wiggins approached and Rose and Penny backed off, pretending they had just been chatting.
"Have you started your assignments, Rose and Penny?" he said. "I seem to remember that you're rather behind with them."
"Sure, Mr Wiggins, we were just saying hello to Xala-taar, here."
"Xa-latta, please ladies," said Xalata with exaggerated friendliness.
"Whatever," they muttered and walked back to their corner, Mr Wiggins following them at a distance.
"Don't fry them, Xalata," said Melody. "They can make serious trouble."
"Ask me how worried I am," said Xalata.
"Er, how worried are you?"
Xalata snapped her fingers.
"Oh," said Melody. "OK - let's get your stuff from the Commissary."
The traveller moves on
Its movement through space is silent. On the surface of Mars, preparations are being made for the impact - this is the first of five live asteroids programmed to hit the planet.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the surface, greenhouse gas factories are churning out vast quantities of CO2 and methane as well as a cocktail of other chemicals that, on Earth, are prohibited because of their effect on global warming. The free-flowing water on the surface of Mars has been brought to the surface and bacteria introduced to enable plant growth through advanced hydroponics - the soil is not yet present that will allow plants to grow on their own. As these technologies all work together, so the atmosphere is growing gently, day by day, but the whole process will take years before the atmosphere is breathable.
The asteroid's progress is monitored by automatic systems both on board the space rock itself and at monitoring stations on Mars, the Earth and the Moon. This is a dangerous manoeuver - nothing like it has ever been attempted before outside the realms of science fiction.
Fusion engines correct the flight path in small increments, adjusting the trajectory to ensure impact will be where and when it is planned.
Then ...
An engine fires and the huge asteroid, step by tiny step, hour by hour, swings through microscopic diversions from its original course, on an arc that sets it on a new target.
Chapter Seven
"How was the first day?" said Brett as he walked into the home at the end of w
ork.
"OK, I guess," replied Xalata who was sitting in the lounge area, trying to figure out an assignment that she had been given by Mr Wiggins. "The Academy is OK and it was good that I knew Melody. Met a few other types who were OK too, apart from a couple of real aliens ..."
"Let me guess, Rose and Penny," said Brett.
"Right on the nose. What a couple of idiots. Tried to come the heavy with me and I thought, nothing to lose here. So just ignored them."
"Watch out for those two," said Brett. "They're trouble. Rose has only held onto her place at the Academy because she's actually a brilliant student. Penny's there because her father is in the Praesidium."
"Well, anyway, they can do their thing and keep out of my way. Talking of being in the way ... Fark. Does he really have to accompany us? It's not as if we're special - why would anyone target us? What's the danger anyway?"
Brett explained to Xalata about the attacks on Farside and told her about a shadowy religious group called the Asttarians who believe that Lunar exploration and exploitation are against the will of Asttar, their god, whom they believe brought original life to Earth from space.
"Now, it doesn't matter that you might think their views are crazy, these guys have friends in high places and the security council of the Praesidium is putting all the military on high alert because of what the Asttarians might do next."
"And what might that be, do they know?" said Xalata.
Brett shook his head. "Their leader is a guy called Frank Wordsmith. He's based somewhere on Earth - no one really knows where - and his mission is to keep the faith pure, in other words, stop people from leaving it or messing about with it. He also wants to recruit as many people to the Asttarians as possible - there are some big incentives for them: they all look after each other as a huge extended family; those who are young and earning money, pay large amounts to the Church of Asttar every month and that subsidises those who are older and can't work. But also, people who don't have work - who've been left on the sidelines by society, they are of interest to the Asttarians too and Wordsmith is making sure that he pulls them into the fold because they will do exactly what he tells them, because they rely on him."
"OK - I don't see the connection with Farside and the attack on the habitat."
"That's classic Asttarian. They stage a set-piece attack or disruption, but they don't claim it. They like to leave people wondering. I'll bet you've never heard of them."
"Nope - but I don't take notice of the newsfeeds anyway."
"You will, soon enough. The Asttarians are growing rapidly and they have a popular following among people of your age, all of whom are sworn to secrecy ..."
"So how do you know about it?" said Xalata. "I mean, if they're so darned hidden, how come you can tell me all about this?"
"You asked about Fark. He's the senior security officer for the LunarBase. He works with my team to keep us safe. I'm telling you this because I know about it and I want to protect you. You need to keep this information close - don't share it at the Academy. Melody is aware too as her mother works in a similar area to me. However, I suggest you don't discuss it in public. You're safe enough here at home or at Melody's. Now, what would you like to eat?"
"Well, pizza ... of course!"
Chapter Eight
"Hey, Zala-taar! Still taking the ugly pills?"
Penny Wrath had been leaning behind an airlock door as Xalata headed in for classes the next morning. She sneered at Melody and lurched at Xalata, as if to push into her.
"Back off, Penny. Messing with me is not a good idea."
"Ha!" Penny pushed her face close to Xalata's, "Scared. So scared. I'll run away now." And with a final scowl she headed off towards the classroom.
"Is she going to keep turning up like that," said Xalata to Melody.
"Yeah, I'm afraid so. She always turns up - it's why we call her Bad Penny. Erm, I don't call her that to her face ..."
"Why not - she's just a bully. You need to stand up to her."
"I can't. I don't know how and it frightens me when you challenge her like that."
"What's she going do? Fight me? Attack me and try to kill me? Nah, I don't think so. It's all too locked down here - she'd be discovered and dealt with very quickly. She's just trying to psych us out. Bad Penny? Psycho Penny more like."
Melody laughed, a little nervously and they headed off for the classroom.
The tutorials were surprisingly interesting, Xalata found. The science of hydroponics is all about growing food in water, without soil - very important on a hostile terrain such as the Moon or indeed any other planet. The Moon is important in the further exploration of the Solar System because it is a good staging post for visiting the planets. The low gravity means that landings and take-off are relatively simple but the hostile environment - no atmosphere, no protection from deadly radiation - means that people on the Moon needed to live in habitats.
The first ones that had been created, many years earlier, had been very primitive with living conditions little better than those on the space stations that had orbited the Earth in the 20th and 21st century. Now the habitats were much more comfortable, with individual living quarters and, thanks to artificial gravity, the general feel of the place resembled living in an extended shopping mall on Earth. More importantly, the negative effects of low gravity on the human body were reduced. Cracking the gravity issue had been the biggest achievement in space exploration to date and the technology that was used on LunarBase was also used on all the space vehicles that travelled between the planets.
That day's tutorial was a look at mineral nutrients that needed to be in water that was used to grow hydroponic food. Mr Wiggins sat in the meeting area of the room and the students clustered around him on comfortable chairs, watching the display screen that occupied the far wall.
"So, our culture medium must be protected from light, as you know ... don't you Rose?"
"Of course, Mr Wiggins," said Rose who had been talking behind her hand to Penny. "If we don't keep out the light from the growing medium, algae can form and disrupt the growing process. That's also why we keep the nutrient circulating, so that it has less time exposed to the air and to light."
"Very good, Penny," said Mr Wiggins, "And I think you should all now check out the overview of the nutrient sets that are more commonly used - I'll ping you the page location shortly. After that, I'd like your views on which nutrients might most suitably be used for peas, beans or other pulses - and can we try to be a bit original? Be ready with your responses to me by end of day tomorrow. I expect a two minute tri-V from each of you in my inbox please."
"I don't know how Rose does it," said Melody as the class broke up. "She doesn't pay attention and most of the time she's just fooling about with Penny."
"My dad says that she's very bright," said Xalata. "Probably true but she still fries my wiring. Let's get the page from Wiglet and then we can get this work out of the way, what do you think? Anyway, what's a tri-V?"
"It's a viva voce video, three v's - I think it's Latin, you send in your two-minute report as a video so you can add presentation content or call in stuff from The Q. It's better than writing it and he can check that you've done it and that you've understood what you're saying. It stops people just copying chunks of text and putting them as their own stuff." said Melody.
"OK - schools down on Earth haven't caught up with that idea yet - we still mail assignments to be marked - some people event print them!"
"Yeah, well you can't do that here - paper is practically non-existent!"
At that moment, Glitch sauntered over and flopped onto a seat beside them.
"Hey gang, how's the intellectual pursuit? What's with the intense academic chat, friends? Let's freeze-frame, huh? Fancy a cooler?"
"Oh hi, Glitch - or should I say, Justin?" teased Xalata.
"Well, yeah, not keen on Justin. Glitch is my handle - sort of never forgiven the parents, really."
"OK - so, a cooler?" said Xalata
.
"Sure," replied Glitch, let's see what delights have been cooked up in the drinks department," and, with that he set off to the kitchen area where a small drinks vending machine sat waiting. "OK - we've got beetroot, tomato, or cucumber juice. What's happened to the citrus?"
"Crop failed," a voice called across the room. Melody was still studying her pad and had overheard the conversation. "They had an infection in the reservoir in the orangery and they've had to wipe the whole lot. Plenty of ordinary water though!"
As Xalata and Glitch pondered their choice of drink, Melody returned to her pad.
"Oh no, Jupe's loops. Take a look at this guys,"
She switched her pad to display on the far wall screen. A video report from the local news agency was showing some footage from a security camera:
"Recently discovered evidence of the creature or machine behind the Farside devastation at Habitat 14 has been backed up by video from a private security camera. All others appeared to have been disabled during the attack, but this one has captured some indistinct images of what went on ..."
As the students all gathered around, a strange creature met their eyes. It was big – like a large slug, the size of an old London double-decker bus, but with a strange opalescent carapace. It appeared to crawl, but actually had a series of small stumpy legs that allowed it to propel itself across the terrain very quickly. It was darting around the habitat and was destroying the environment - clouds of dust raced into space as the dome of the habitat shattered under its force. The fact that it had opened itself to the vacuum of space - something that would kill a normal creature - seemed not to bother it at all.
As it went out of the camera's range, a whole panel of walling appeared to dissolve in front of it.
"For Frank's sake, what in the name of all that's ugly is that?" cried Rose from the other side of the room.
As if to answer her question, the reporter on the piece continued,
