The Journey Begins
Page 17
I was up next so I walked up to Nina and said, “Happy Birthday Nina. Sandy’s been teaching me some cool stuff and he helped me make this. I hope you like it.”
She opened the box and reached in to pull the blaster out with a look of joy on her face. She turned to me and said, “Wow Bryce, it looks just like Captain Ellie’s Series II blaster.”
Sandy stepped up then and said, “Happy Birthday Nina. That gun’s not just a prop, it works too. Go ahead and try it out.”
Nina pointed the blaster away from everybody and pulled the trigger. A stream of red shot out of the muzzle and hit the chair Nina was aiming at. Nina was clearly enchanted by the blaster and I explained how Sandy had added a low power laser to illuminate the water stream and make it look like blaster fire from the show. I think she loved it because Sandy and I both got a colossal hug from Nina.
Sam came forward then and said, “Happy Birthday Nina. Now that you got that nice gun I know you want to put it to use. Why don’t you show up here tomorrow after work is over and bring as many friends as you can. My birthday present to you is a game of capture the flag and I have all of the equipment you’ll need. That way, you can have fun with your Blaster and everyone else can enjoy the game.”
Nina thanked Sam and then gave her a hug. She spent the rest of the evening with an ear to ear grin on her face showing her blaster to anyone who came near her. I tried to talk to her a couple of times but her mind was clearly on the Blaster and I didn’t have much luck other than hearing again how cool the gun was.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Hunt
Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Tuesday December 29th, 2037.
In Habitat news, yesterday was Nina Schubeler’s birthday and she received a replica of the Series II blaster carried by Captain Ellie of the Star Patrol series. The blaster was crafted by Bryce Burns and Sandy Mussconny and also functions as a squirt gun. In honor of the fine work Bryce and Sandy did and to give Nina something to actually do with the gun, Sam Tanner is hosting a game of capture the flag this evening. Sam invites all who might want to play to come meet in the main cafeteria at 19:00 this evening. Sam will be providing the equipment. For those who wish to watch, Sam will be providing commentary and tactical analysis as each game is played.
In financial news today, on the Lunar Stock Market shares of Mussconny Machine are trading steady at $22.37 a share, Mussconny Fabrication at $19.30 a share, Hotel Whipple shares are rising at $9.68. O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is up at $14.21 a share and CDB Farms is trading steady at $6.85 a share.
We met up with Sam the following evening at 19:00. There were all of us kids and a fair amount of adults either came to play or watch. Sandy had closed the shop down for the evening so I could play and he could see Nina and her blaster in action. I wasn’t surprised to see Christine there since she kept a pretty close eye on us kids. I thought the way things would go down was Nina would pick a team and of course she’d pick me to be on her team. Sam gave us the rules to the game and said six per team sounded about right. The playing field was the new section with the four long vaults. The Garden and Grand Boulevard were both out of bounds. The flags were placed in one of the four vault segments at opposite ends of the section. She had brought along two boxes and one contained a bunch of plain squirt guns she must have had Sandy manufacture and the other contained some mesh vests that could detect when they were hit with water. A hit would set off a beeper and a light so there was no mistaking if you were hit or not.
Sam volunteered Nina as team captain for her team and then asked for volunteers for the other team captain. One of the younger General Assistants volunteered to lead the second team. Then things took a turn I wasn’t expecting. Sam let Nina go first and choose her whole team. Can you say girl power? Besides Myra and Ananyu, Nina picked a couple of younger ladies that she seemed to know. Our team captain decided to go with guy power and besides myself, Adam, and Willie, he picked up two other athletic looking GA’s that he knew. Our captain’s name was Bruce and the other two guys were Steve and Joe.
I had been looking forward to the game, but things started out bad when Sam handed out the guns to our team and the first thing Adam did was to shoot me in the nuts repeatedly. It didn’t hurt but then he ran around telling people I had pissed in my pants. Sam had each team withdraw to their flag location and then started the game. She monitored the progress of the game by using the cameras in the cross corridors and doorways detecting our ID chips as we entered each segment. These details were all projected up on a big map of the section displayed on a wall of the cafeteria. You could tell where we were and you could tell where Nina’s team was by looking at the map. That would have been handy information to have.
When we got to our flag, Bruce suggested we leave one person to guard the flag and then the rest of us would maneuver down and try to capture the girl’s flag. The problem was that while we were deciding that, the girls were all running in a mad dash to get down to our end. They ambushed us as we were coming through the first cross section. Somehow, I was the last one of the attack team left by the time I made it to the third cross section. Nina and Myra had me in a cross fire and took me out. Then they overwhelmed Willie, who had been left to defend the flag and hauled it back to their end for the win. We were supposed to be playing best two out of three, but the second game didn’t go any better. You would think that with six girls on a team that someone else would have finished me off, but it was Nina and Myra with me in the crossfire again.
The game was wildly popular to play and there were a lot of folks watching Sam give the commentary on the game. Nina’s team took on three other teams with similar lopsided wins by them each time. I was glad I had decided to sit it out after playing the first two games.
Finally, Christine walked over to Sam and said, “Okay, Sam, I can tell just watching you how much you want to play. How about I run the board for you and you go take Nina down a notch?”
Sam gave Christine a quick, “Thanks” and quickly rounded up a team. Christine had everyone take their starting positions and the game was off. Sam’s team took the first round, although she was down to only two players by the time they captured the flag. Nina’s team took the next game, and on the final game Sam came back and finally beat Nina for the last game of the evening.
Sometimes, it just sucks to be a teen. I really wanted Nina to have a good time, and after losing her best friend, whatever made Myra happy was fine with me. However, getting knocked out of the first two games by both of them kind of sucked. Not getting to play on a team with Nina sucked. Adam shooting me before the game and telling people I had peed in my pants sucked. In general, the evening sucked so I dragged myself back home in a frump and hoped tomorrow would be a better day.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Birth of a passenger liner
Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Wednesday January 13th, 2038.
In World news, late yesterday, Denali Aerospace Corporation publicly unveiled their CLT30 Cislunar Liner. The CLT30 Cislunar Liner is designed for a crew of four and will comfortably transport thirty passengers in shirt sleeve comfort to any destination in cislunar space. Denali Aerospace indicates early customers for the CLT30 are SpaceX and Virgin Galactic.
In Habitat news, the local Denali Aerospace office has revealed the CLT30 will be built in quantity here at Denali Aerospace’s NLH facility. The local office is hosting an open house Saturday in the main cafeteria and will be providing free tours of the prototype Denali Aerospace CLT30. The final CLT30 test flight will launch today at 11:00 hours. The flight will consist of a round trip to Earth LEO and then return to the NHL launch facility on Friday at 20:00 local time.
In financial news today, on the Lunar Stock Market shares of Mussconny Machine are trading steady at $22.87 a share, Mussconny Fabrication at $19.76 a share, Hotel Whipple shares are rising at $10.01. O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is up at $14.44 a share and CDB Farms is trading steady at $9.15 a share.
I sat in clas
s thinking about the morning’s announcement. Miss Gayle had us working on our individual studies program which meant I should be divining the beauty that is Geometry but instead I was excited by the CLT30 announcement and worried that CDB Farms was trading at $9.15 a share. I had been expecting the CLT30 announcement as our class had been following the liner’s progress closely. Sandy wouldn’t tell us who the ship belonged to but it didn’t take a great deal of sleuth work to figure out what company owned the facility the ship was lifting off from. Miss Gayle had allowed Sandy and Christine to hijack the class occasionally so we could watch the lift off of the two manned test flights, although since these were longer flights we didn’t get the rest of the school day off like we did on the last short un-manned flight.
We were all excited about the tour of the CLT30. For the tour the CLT30 would be parked at one of the main landing pads. That meant to get to it, we’d have to ride out in one of the transports which meant a chance to actually leave the Habitat for the first time in six months. I wasn’t sure what I was more excited about, the chance to go inside the CLT30 or to actually get out of the Habitat for a while. The rumor was that during its last test flight, the CLT30 was stopping at one of the LEO orbitals to pick up a load of journalist for the flight back to the Moon. There was also some speculation that they would be bringing back some truly fresh foodstuffs for the open house. If the mission went off without a hitch it would set a record as being the fastest manned Earth/Moon round trip in the record books. It was a great way for Denali Aerospace to get some additional publicity and we were hoping they’d be generous with the celebratory food at the open house.
Putting the excitement over the CLT30 to the side, the news about the jump in the stock price of CDB Farms made me think of my mom and I was worried about her. Since the Holiday break, she’d been working continuously. She insisted that we all eat breakfast together and then she’d disappear for the day and wouldn’t come home until late at night. This even went on during the weekends. She said this was a push to get the Grand ready for opening, but she wouldn’t say what she was doing or how long this would go on other than she hoped not too much longer. Mom had turned all of the vertical gardening work over to Myra and Adam. She had also hired a couple of older women who loved to garden so between the four of them and Nina chipping in when she could they had the gardens under control. I would have helped out too, but the push to get the Grand open was also affecting both Mussconny Machine and Mussconny Fabrication with Sandy running his tail off between his day job and the other two businesses. He had me working a lot and I would have helped with the Farm too, except Christine had stepped in to put a limit on how much we kids were working. She was fully supported by my mom and Sandy so there were only so many hours we could work before Christine would sideline us.
Dad and I tried to eat dinner together every night. Occasionally he’d have to work late and when he couldn’t make dinner, he insisted I eat with Willie or Myra’s family. Myra had been deeply affected by the loss of her friend at Christmas and the last time I remember her smiling was when she and Nina had shot me during the capture the flag game Sam had organized. I still thought it sucked for them to shoot me like that, but if it had made her happy even for a bit I guess it was worth it. She seemed to be coming back to normal now although she was tired like Adam was most of the time. I guess all the hard work was therapeutic for her.
During one of our dinners together, I told Dad, I was worried about Mom.
He said, “Bryce, I know your mom is working a lot and we both miss her, but she’s doing some work that she finds really rewarding. When she can show it to us, we’ll both be really proud of her. Just hang in there son, this work will wind down eventually.”
I said, “It just seems like the more I see the CDB Farms stock go up, the less I see of Mom.”
Dad chuckled and said, “It’s actually the other way around although I can see what you mean. Your mom hasn’t said much about what she’s doing but obviously in one way or another she’s increasing the amount of square meterage that is devoted to agriculture. Either she’s working for the Habitat and increasing the amount of hydroponic chambers or she’s working for herself and adding to the area CDB Farms controls. Either way, it’s a win for CDB Farms and that’s why the stock is going up.”
I said, “Okay, I get why making the Farm larger would make the stock go up but why does her working on the Habitat stuff make the price go higher?”
Dad said, “The hydroponic chambers grow high density foodstuffs that are staples. The Habitat didn’t have enough square meterage so they were short on food. The Farm made up the shortfall in staple foods plus we had enough room left over for some crops that could be considered luxury items. Maybe luxury isn’t the right term but I’m talking about things like potatoes and the herbs and other things Chef Patel asked Mom if she could grow. So as the Habitat adds Hydroponic chambers, that’s crop area of the Farm that your mom can take out of staple food production and switch to growing the fancier things that bring a higher price. That’s what’s really driving the price of the stock up.”
I was glad Dad was there with me. I might be fourteen, but Mom and Dad had always been around in my life and Mom being gone so much was disturbing to me.
The CLT30 landed on Main Landing Pad #2 shortly after 20:00 local time Friday evening. I had wanted to go see it touch down, but Sandy had needed me at the shop until after that. Dad and I did walk over to the Viewing Chamber after I got home, and took a good look at the bird sitting on the nearby pad. It sat there gleaming in a gloss white that highlighted the Denali Aerospace logo. The mountain peak with a ring around it was done in a gray while the Denali Aerospace text was done in blue next to the hatch. I noticed that they had named the ship because painted in the same blue on the other side of the hatch were the words “Lunar Spirit” in a fancy script.
The next morning we all got up and went down to breakfast together. Mom and I got stuffed omelets. I would have liked to have gotten the biscuits with sausage gravy, but it really filled me up and I wanted to have plenty of room if the rumors about the food at the Open House proved to be true. Dad got bacon with home fries and toast along with his usual drink of Tang. Mom had coffee. It had been a while since the last supply ship so there was no OJ or Coke to be had from the dispenser. I had tried the Tang before and it was okay, but this time I went with the milk still hoping that the funny taste of the powdered milk would become ‘normal’ at some point.
I had just grabbed a mouthful of omelet when Mom looked at me and Dad with a mischievous smile and said “Guess what?”
After swallowing my food I said, “What?” and mom spat out “Chicken butt, five cents a cut,” and started giggling.
“Seriously? Mom you’re working way too much. You’re getting goofy,” I said.
Mom gave me a big smile and said, “Yes, I have been working too much and I am getting goofy. That’s why Denise and I decided to take the day off. My plan is to spend the whole day with my men and I don’t want to hear any arguments about it.”
I guess what Sandy said about what a bad idea it was for me to play poker must be true because after Mom said that I remembered that Sandy had wanted me to work for a while this morning. Mom didn’t even say anything. She just pulled out her E-Pad and dialed Sandy.
When Sandy answered Mom said, “Good morning Sandy.” Sandy must have said good morning back to her because the next thing she said was, “Sandy, I have the day off for the first time in ages and I intend to spend it with my guys. Bryce mistakenly thinks he needs to go work with you sometime today. I hope that’s incorrect because otherwise you’re going to be talking to a crazy woman and I know you’re smarter than that.”
We could hear laughter coming from the other end of the phone and then Mom turned to me and said, “Sandy says you should stay home and make your mother happy.” She then said into the phone, “Thank you Sandy, I knew we could see eye to eye on that. We’ll see you later at the Open House. Bye bye.”
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We sat around having a lazy breakfast. Mom interrogated both Dad and I on how school had been and how we spent our free time. I told her I thought Myra working so much on the Farm was actually a good thing because it seemed to be helping her recover from the loss of her friend Jessie. After sitting there for a while, Mom suggested we go for a walk. We just wandered aimlessly through the habitat and talked about whatever came to our heads. It was nice family time together and I could tell Mom missed it as much as Dad and I did. Eventually we headed back to the Cafeteria where the Denali Aerospace team was setting up for the Open House. The CLT30 had brought back a group of journalists and we spoke to several of them about life at the Habitat and the impact we expected the CLT30 to have on our life's here.
We had timed it perfectly because Dad managed to get us signed up for the first tour bus going out to the CLT30. When they had enough people for the first bus, one of the Denali Aerospace guys led us over to the Lunar Vehicle Bay. It had been six months since I had been in that room and it was exciting to be there and see the transport in front of us again. I knew they weren’t there, but I couldn’t help looking around for Commander Davies and Yukiko. We boarded the transport and I grabbed a seat by the window. Mom and Dad slid into the seat in front of me with Mom by the window. My dad was out to the Manufacturing Module just about every day so riding on the transport and getting to look out the windows was no big deal to him. For Mom and me it was something different, so we were going to enjoy the novel experience.
The transport filled up and they sealed the hatches. We made our way out through the airlocks and then up the ramp to take us back to the lunar surface. The transport continued East on the main road passed the Regolith Reclamation and Sintering plants to the South and then turned left into Landing Pad #2. The CLT30 sat in the center of the pad and the driver curved around it to give us a 360 view of the liner before lining up on the hatch and backing up to the CLT30. The driver stopped a couple of meters before the hatch and activated the lift mechanism to elevate the passenger compartment to the same level as the hatch. Once that was done, the transport gingerly backed up until a secure contact was made with the airlock hatch. Once the transport was locked down our Denali Aerospace escort opened the airlock hatches and welcomed us aboard the Lunar Spirit.