The Journey Begins

by Dan Eaton

  Desmond said, “Whoa, Sandy. Are you talking about having Bryce work in a hard vacuum? He’s not qualified and even if he was I wouldn’t be comfortable with the risk.” Sandy said, “ No, none of the work we will be doing will be in vacuum. Sunshine has a depot out there much like the depot you guys visited on your way here last year. Bryce will have to be trained on wearing a standard suit though. Fortunately, he’s gotten big enough that he can wear one of the generic suits. If I had to pay for a custom suit to be made for him, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. His job will be to help me get the equipment assembled and then we’ll stand around gawking while Sunshine tests things out.” Desmond said, “So how long is this going to take? We’d have to take Bryce out of school and I’d rather he didn’t miss a bunch.” Sandy said, “We’ll only be gone five days. A day traveling there, a day to get back, and three days at the depot. I went by and had a conversation with Gayle and Christine. Gayle was a little put out that she couldn’t go along too, but pointed out that she’s spent the last year teaching Bryce remotely so a couple days more is no big deal. Christine had some reservations, but said if it was okay with you two, it was okay with her.”

  Sandy could see on Cheryl’s face that the answer was going to be no. Desmond, however, spoke up and asked, “Is this that heliostat project?” I said, “Yes,” and Cheryl said, “What’s that project about?” Desmond jumped in and said, “Sunshine is doing a pilot project to see if they can put an array of mirrors at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point. They’re going to test if they can focus the array fine enough to light up the solar array at the ESA’s Moon Village during the lunar night without disturbing the Greenies back on Earth.” Cheryl said, “That would be a pretty neat trick. Wasn’t there a lot of debate over the Moon Village’s location when they decided to put it at Archimedes?” I said, “There was the same kind of debate about the NLH’s location and for the same reasons. NLH is located where it is because of sunshine and water. What we don’t have here is the higher concentrations of metals that you can find out on the Mare. They located the Village with the idea of being nearby rich sources of metal. Being out on the Mare Imbrium means they have to have enough power storage to get through the two week lunar night, which is hard as you get bigger and need more and more storage. That’s kept them from growing much and being able to take full advantage of their location. If the heliostat array works like Sunshine hopes it will, then they’ll have plenty of power even during the lunar night and can start expanding.” Desmond said, “If it works, it won’t just be the Village that will be expanding. Resolving the power issue would open up a lot of opportunities down in the middle latitudes of the Moon. That’s actually pretty exciting stuff.” “So, uh, that’s what I was thinking and I thought it be nice if Bryce could be in at the beginning of it,” I said.

  I could tell Desmond was warming up to the idea of Bryce going with me, but Cheryl was still a hard sell. Cheryl said, “So what problems do the Greenies have with this whole idea?” I said, “So, uh, they are worried that lighting up significant areas of the Moon during the lunar night will disturb the natural cycle of things back on Earth. Carried to the extreme, it could be like having a full moon in the sky every night. The Soviets were actually experimenting with the idea of using a heliostat to light up Earth cities back in the early nineties. There was enough concerned raised after the first test mirror went up that eventually, the project got dropped. Sunshine has taken those concerns into account and part of the goal of this project is to send just enough of a reflection back to the Moon to cover the Village’s solar power field with a strict minimum of over bleed to the surrounding area. We’re talking a spot of about 12 km in diameter, so from Earth, it’s really not going to have much of an effect.” I could see Cheryl was thinking about it and gave her some time. She looked over at Desmond and said, “Let us sleep on it. Maybe it will be okay.”

  Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Sunday, July 18th, 2038.

  In Habitat News, this morning it’s Bryce Burns’ birthday. His parents will be celebrating his birthday with him in the main cafeteria at 18:00 hours this evening. They invite all of their friends to drop by and join them in wishing Bryce a Happy Birthday.

  In financial news today, on the Lunar Stock Market shares of Mussconny Machine are trading steady at $29.11 a share, Mussconny Fabrication at $31.68 a share, Hotel Whipple shares are at $30.01. O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is at $24.31 a share and CDB Farms is trading steady at $24.55 a share.

  Mussconny Machine would like to announce the promotion of Bryce Burns to Apprentice II Machinist

  I went down to breakfast with Mom and Dad thinking we’d get to enjoy a nice, quiet, breakfast together. Mom had been quizzing me as we walked down to breakfast about Blaze and Jocelyn in my class and the kids in the new freshmen class. Blaze I thought was okay. I certainly pitied him his flight to NLH on the CLT30 with Jocelyn. Jocelyn was a bit of a know it all. Where Nina impressed you with her quiet competence, Jocelyn was quite vocal about telling people what she knew. For the younger kids, Miss Gayle had brought the two classes together several times to make it easier for the two classes to get to know each other, so I knew some of the younger kids a bit better.

  The latest selection process had produced a group of kids that weren’t as uniformly photogenic as our class was. Not, that any of them were plain, but they didn’t look like a group of empty headed models as some folks had unkindly said of our class. I had noticed Regan Sidman was the prettiest of the girls. Her hair was black with streaks of blue and green highlighting her heart-shaped face and peaches-and-cream complexion. She was always smartly dressed, in a way that spoke volumes about how much ahead of her classmates either she or her mom were when it came to understanding how to get exactly what you wanted from Habitat supply. While cute girls were appreciated, both Willie and I were thrilled to find that Javin Fromme and Meadow Warrior were both Gogo players. That would make it much easier to get together a group of players when we wanted to have a game.

  I had shared all that with my Mom, by the time we reached the cafeteria. We went through the line and I grabbed the biscuits and gravy. Mom got a stack of pancakes while Dad went with the 3D printed bacon, home fries, scrambled eggs and some toast. Despite the recent changes that had enlarged the dining room, it was very busy this morning and there weren’t a lot of empty tables. Mom said, “Oh look, there’s a free table over there.” We started towards the table Mom had seen open and then I saw Myra sitting with her back towards us at the next table over. I stopped and Dad said, “You forget something son?” I looked at Myra’s back and then at Mom and Dad and said, “I just remembered that I have to meet with Willie before the game today. I probably should just take my breakfast back to the house and head over to Willie’s after I eat.” Dad must have got a glimpse of Myra because he gave me a sympathetic look and said, “Bryce, you do what you got to do. It’ll be okay.” I looked over at my Mom and said, “I’ll be back home at five to get ready for the party.”

  I headed back home so I could scarf down the biscuits and gravy. It didn’t take long to eat and since Willie had worked an early shift today to free up time for the Gogo game I decided to just walk over to the Whipple Hotel to meet him when he got off of work. I drifted out of the house and headed west towards the ramp at the end of Grand Boulevard that would lead me down into the Grand. Once I entered the Grand, I took a break at the little park at the entrance and sat down on one of the benches just watching the water slowly fall down from the rocks on the upper level down into the small pool at the lowest. Willie didn’t get off for another hour, so I just sat there thinking about the last time I’d been there. Myra had been with me and it had been fun spending time with her which made me miss her now. I just hoped that Christine could help Myra quickly and things could go back to the way they were.

  I’d been sitting there staring at the pool for a while when I heard a cheerful voice beside me say, “It’s nice here, isn’t it?” I looked up, surprised
to see Ananyu standing there. I said, “Hey, what are you doing here?” She said, “Just on my way to help my dad out at the restaurant. You hiding out down here?” I said, “I’m not hiding, just killing some time before I meet up with Willie when he gets off of work. Isn’t this out of your way for getting to the restaurant?” She said, “I saw the whole scene in the cafeteria, so, yeah, you’re totally down here hiding from Myra. Not that I think that’s a bad thing. I think it’s sweet of you to do that for her. I take the long way to work just to get a little more exercise in and I like to visit this spot. Instead of sitting here alone, why don’t you walk me to work? You can hang out with me until Willie gets off.” I said, “Sure,” and we started off down the path.

  I said, “You know, your dad amazes me. I don’t understand how he’s able to serve some of the dishes he does from the stuff he has available to him here.” With a little laugh, Ananyu said, “It’s all smoke and mirrors Bryce. While you and I are thinking about specific things to eat, my papa is thinking about flavor and texture as separate things. When he needs something he doesn’t have and can’t easily get, he starts playing with foods that will give him the texture he wants and when he’s got the texture he starts modifying the flavor profile until he has something so perfect you can’t tell it from the original. Remember those pecans that were on the cake we had at the dinner before Prom?” I said, “Yeah, that’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about. How did he get pecans on the Moon?” Ananyu said, “He didn’t. Those started out as dried mushrooms from your mom’s farm. Then he did his magic and we ended up with pecans on our cake. When we get to the restaurant, remind me, and I’ll give you a sample of his latest work. He’s been playing around with the simulated pecans again.”

  We’d reached the point along the walk where the path dipped down into the open chamber in front of the school. I felt amazed and stupid at the same time when I looked at the two saplings that were the key features of this space. I said, “Holy mackerel, when Myra and I walked through here back in April, those trees were only half that size.” They now stood about three quarters of a meter tall, which surprised me, but what was making me feel stupid was our classroom and small cafeteria overlooked this space and somehow I had been completely oblivious to the changes in the trees. I mentioned that to Ananyu and she said, “Well, don’t be too hard on yourself, we’ve got ten new kids to interact with, Miss Gayle is here in person now, and you’re playing keep away from Myra. You got enough going on inside the building that I’m not surprised you haven’t paid any attention to the Mimosas.” I said, “To the what?” Ananyu pointed to the saplings and said, “To the Mimosa trees. That’s what is planted on this side of the school. On the other side of the school there are two Pink Dogwood trees. I was curious and asked your mom about them.”

  We followed the path under the school and into the next opening. When we got to the Dogwood saplings, Ananyu stopped, looked over at me with a quizzical look on her face, and said, “I don’t get it. You can have a good conversation with me. I’ve seen you and Myra so wrapped up in conversation you two forget everything around you. What’s up with you and Nina?” I said, “She’s—” Ananyu said, “Hideous, right? Not pretty like me and Myra. I can’t blame you for having problems talking to her.” I was shocked at first since Ananyu was Nina’s best friend, but then I caught the impish smile on her face and I said, “She’s pretty. It’s just—” Ananyu still had that impish smile on her face and said, “Ah, so you must think Myra and I are hideous and find us not as intimidating to talk to as the pretty girl?” I just looked at her, sighed, and said, “I give up.”

  Ananyu gave me a friendly smile and said, “Okay, I’ll stop picking on you. I’ll give you some advice though. Stop looking at the girl and start listening to her. You engaged me by asking about something in my life. Do the same with Nina. She is much more than just a pretty face, there’s all sorts of stuff she’s interested in. You all ready tried Star Patrol, you shouldn’t have stopped there.” I said, “But Ananyu, I’ve tried, I just can’t —” Ananyu said, “Seriously, you need to stop letting her looks freeze up your brain and listen in the next time she’s talking with someone. Get some clues from that. If you need some ideas, she’s from Colorado. Find out where. Find out what a fourteener is. Find out where the Front Range trail goes. She’s not a sedentary person so there’s a good chance she’s done some hiking. Like I said, quit looking at her, start listening, and do some research if you’re really interested in her.”

  We walked a little further in silence and then I asked her, “Why? Why are you helping me?” She said, “Um-mm…, you need help? Or because I like Myra and she’s not got a chance with you until you get past this Nina thing. Or…” She swung around, wrapped her arms around me, and suddenly was a very feminine presence pressed tightly up against me as she looked up at me with her soft, chocolate eyes and said, “Now that I know you find me hideous, maybe I just like the challenge of making you my boyfriend and I need Nina out of the way just like Myra does.” She backed away just as swiftly as she had pressed up against me and started laughing. In between fits of laughter, she said, “Oh, Bryce, if only you could see the look on your face right now.” I said, “Nice, Thank you I guess.”

  We finally made it to Seline’s Bistro. I said, “I never told your dad, but I really like the name of the place. Nice tie into the location without hitting you over the head with it.” Ananyu gave me a bright smile and said, “Actually, the restaurant is named after my papa’s favorite aunt. By happy coincidence, her name also ties in nicely with the location as you said.” We stopped on the way in and saw Willie so he knew where he could find me. Ananyu sat me down in the restaurant where she could talk to me while she folded napkins and put out place settings. Chef Patel came out to say hi and Ananyu had him bring out a dish of his latest experiment. He had made up candied pecans and they tasted great. I had no clue what he used for the cinnamon flavor and decided it probably really didn’t matter.

  Eventually, Willie showed up and we said good bye to Ananyu and headed off to get ready for the Gogo game. Javin and Meadow from school joined us along with enough of the adults from our Gogo group that we were able to spend the afternoon in team play. We were having so much fun, I actually lost track of time and it was almost five o’clock before Willie asked me what time I needed to be home. We quickly broke up the game and then I headed home from Willie’s place. I took off at a run and passed through the segment directly to the west of the segment Willie’s home was in and then headed south to our segment. Coming in from the western end of our segment allowed me to avoid the Cherneski’s house in case Myra was about and I managed to squeak in the door just as the clock on the wall hit five o’clock. Mom insisted that I get cleaned up and change into some nicer clothes. When I came back down, she handed me a stack of boxes, handed Dad the birthday cake, and then led us off to the cafeteria.

  Once we arrived and got everything ready it didn’t take long before people started showing up. The usual suspects started trickling in, my classmates and their parents with the exception of Myra. Christine showed up along with Mom’s boss Dr. Belvert, some of Dad’s co-workers, Miss Gayle, and of course Sandy and some of the gang from Mussconny Machine. The new kids from freshman class and their parents started showing up, each looking a little unsure about what was going on. Mom and I had visited each of their homes and had personally invited them. We figured they’d get used to how parties worked at the habitat eventually, but I remembered how strange it felt at first and wanted to make them feel as welcome as possible. Dr. Taylor and Nurse Oak from Medical surprised me by showing up. I figured with the growth in the number of people at the Habitat, they’d probably had enough of these things to go to.

  After things had been going on for a while, Mom got everyone’s attention and they sang me happy birthday. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of presents but Mom had a pile of them for me. She handed me the one from her and Dad. I opened the box and there was an authentic Ca
rdinals jersey. It was navy blue with red sleeves and collar which each featured a white stripe, the Cardinal’s bat logo was emblazoned on the front, and the back had Yugo 15 for my favorite player and his number. This had to be one of the most expensive jersey’s in existence because they had actually ordered it from the Major League Baseball shop instead of getting the special dispensation from the Cardinals to have it made locally like Myra had done the year before. The shipping must have really sucked.

  The next box was from Sandy and was heavy for its size. I wasn’t surprised, but was very grateful when I opened it to find two Coke cans. Sandy said, “So, uh, I know you still like the stuff, so I figured you’d enjoy them.” I gave Sandy a thumbs up and thanked him. Next up was a small box from Ananyu and her parents. Inside I found a bag of the candied sham pecans Chef Patel had me try at the restaurant. Ananyu said, “You really seemed to like them so Papa said we should make a present of them to you.” I really liked the pecans and made sure they knew it as I thanked the Patels.

  I thought I was done with the presents, but Mom handed me a very small box and said, “Christine brought this but said it’s not from her.” I opened the box and there was a note. It said, “IOU until better times.” I looked over at Christine, who gave me an encouraging nod. The note had to have been from Myra. Christine didn’t want the two of us talking, but she must have allowed an exception since she was the one who brought the note to me. The note made me sad because I missed Myra and wished she could be at the party, but on the other hand it gave me hope that maybe Christine was making progress with Myra since she allowed her to send me the note.