by Dan Eaton
He turned to me and said, “With me,” as he turned around and went back through the door he had entered the room through.
Entering the next room, I found it held an office with a desk and several chairs for visitors. Screens on the walls offered several views of the surrounding area and kept the room from seeming too claustrophobic. The Major was already seated behind his desk and motioned for me to take a seat in one of the chairs. He regarded me in silence for several minutes that felt like hours to me. The Major then sighed, reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a couple of water bottles. He tossed one to me and said, “Start talking. Tell me everything that happened. All the details.”
So I told him everything I could, I started with Sandy asking my parents about the trip to LL1 and ended with Sam picking me up at school that day. He stopped me along the way multiple times to ask probing questions about how I felt or why I did what I did. When I was done, he pointed to another doorway and suggested I go use the bathroom facilities. I had been talking for two hours and had drained everything I could remember from my brain in addition to two bottles of water so I was really thankful for his suggestion. When I came back, Sam had joined us.
The Major waited for me to sit down and then said, “Okay kid, Sam, Christine, and Sandy all think you’re okay. I haven’t heard anything that makes me want to disagree with them. I’ll stand behind you, but I have to be honest here. We need to resolve this quickly. The longer it takes, the stronger the possibility becomes, guilty or not, that you get sent back to Earth.”
I’d been living with the idea that I could be sent back to Earth for some time now, although it was an abstract idea. Hearing the Major put it so bluntly filled me with dread. It must have shown on my face because the Major said, “Don’t give up on us yet. I’ve got a good team and my money’s on them.”
He turned to Sam and said, “What do you need?”
That’s where I ended the story of my meeting with the Major with Veronica.
“Veronica, what if they can’t find out who’s behind this?”
“Cross that bridge when you come to it. Worrying about it now is only going to make you miserable. Worse comes to worse, you can always come visit me in Hominy. They still have grits on the menu down at the diner, the last time I checked. If Sam and Christine are anything like Sandy, the Major is correct that he’s got a good team and I’d bet on them, too. Don’t give up before they’ve had their turn at bat.”
Veronica helped calm me down, even so, I didn’t know whether to look forward to or dread the next school break. I just had a bad feeling about Sam being right and hoped no one got seriously injured if there was an incident.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Isolation
Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Saturday, March 13th, 2039.
In Habitat News, today is the official opening of the first Grand expansion. An opening ceremony will be held at 09:30 with Dr. Christine Johnson presiding over the opening. Please take some time out this weekend to come check out the new living spaces.
Additionally, in a move consistent with China’s ‘Greener Tomorrow’ drive, the Chinese government has announced plans to build four solar power stations in LEO above China. These satellites will beam power to two receiver stations located in Western China. From there it will be transferred to Eastern China locations via superconducting power lines. Wan-Hu Corporation will be responsible for building the four solar power stations and has recently completed preliminary design of the stations. Wan-Hu Corporation has booked launches on the Big Shot, linear accelerator for the structural components of the stations that will be manufactured by Mussconny Industries.
In financial news today, on the Lunar Stock Market shares of Mussconny Machine are trading at $33.02 a share, Mussconny Fabrication at $36.67 a share, Hotel Whipple shares are at $32.07. O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is at $26.96 a share and CDB Farms is trading at $27.21 a share. MM Brewing is at $2.83 a share, and Daniels Designs is at $2.39 a share. Psuche Neural is at $12.84 a share.
I went down to breakfast with my parents. It was good to be with both of them and not have the awkwardness caused by the argument between my mom and me getting in the way. For a change, neither of them had to work. Mom was done with the expansion and Dad was enjoying a break, just watching over the Habitat crew for the Big Shot, until his time was up. I grabbed a garden omelet and a glass of chocolate milk. My dad grabbed some ham, scrambled eggs, home fries and toast. I really don’t know how he ate all that stuff without gaining weight. It was hard to get enough exercise. Mom just had coffee with oatmeal.
I didn’t have to be at Sandy’s until the afternoon, so we were planning to walk down and watch the opening ceremony for the extension to the Grand. I was thinking about the last discussion I had had with Sandy. He told me the Chinese had approached him about supplying structural major assemblies for a series of solar power satellites they were going to construct in LEO.
Dad interrupted my chain of thought by saying, “Alright, what’s got you so serious looking all of a sudden?”
“Sandy told me about the contract he just signed with the Chinese. It just still seems wrong to me that the Chinese are still benefiting from what they did.”
Dad sat his fork full of scrambled eggs back down, gave me a concerned look and said, “Bryce, I love you son, but you need to listen to me. First of all, you need to let this go. I know how you feel, yet you’re loosing sight of the bigger picture. Yes, the Chinese have benefited from their actions. So has the Habitat, so has Sandy, for that matter, so has CDB Farms.”
“What do you mean the Farm has benefited? We haven’t been dealing with the Chinese.”
“Not directly, no. However, the Chinese have an upcoming mission and the business supplying them with food stuffs is buying food from the Farm. They gain, we gain. Do I like how things played out? Short term, no. In the long term, we’re all probably better off that the Chinese got involved. If you want to ding them for how they did it, I’ll give you that, but only if you recognize that along with the bad, has come some good. Good things that have made things better for us and our friends.”
It wasn’t something I wanted to hear, although Dad made a good point. Sandy had made a bet that business would come along to justify the expansion he was making out in Peary. The contract he’d signed with the Chinese had helped justify the bet. Sandy had been very kind to me and I felt bad about begrudging him a little success just because the Chinese were involved.
Before I could think further on that point, Dad said, “Second, you can think what you want in private, nevertheless, you can’t afford to have any public opinions. Saying anything negative against the Chinese, and I know you mean the government and not individuals, doesn’t help you. Worse than that, you don’t really have as much skin in the game as the people who have stood by your side like Sam, Christine, and now, Major Steelings. If you say something, that’s taken the wrong way, it affects more people than just you. From now on, before you open your mouth, you think carefully about what you’re about to say and if it’s an opinion, don’t say anything at all. Personal opinions are something you’re too poor to afford right now. “
What Dad said stung. He was telling me to shut up. On the other hand, I’d been so focused on how this had been affecting me, I hadn’t really given that much thought to those around me. The Monitor article painted an ugly picture of me and a lot of people believed it. I’d paid the price, yet it couldn’t be easy for my friends and family to constantly stand up for me to other people. Dad hadn’t mentioned either him or Mom when he talked about people that had more skin in the game than me. I was at least, keenly aware of the price they might pay. I hadn’t really thought about the daily drag on them of having that “racist, juvenile delinquent” for a son.
My mom had sat through this without saying a word. Before I could respond to my dad, she said, “Son, you’ve been through a lot since your birthday. Even before your birthday, for that matter. Your dad and I w
ant you to go see Christine and talk to her. We love you and just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“But Mom, I am okay. I had some issues when I came back from LL1. I worked through them. Don’t you believe me?”
My mom reached out and took my hands in hers. She said, “You’ve been through so much more than someone fifteen should have had to face. I’m proud of you for how well you have stood up to it. However, this isn’t over yet. There may well be a straw that broke the camel’s back lying in wait for you out there. Your dad and I can’t risk that. Go see Christine and let her decide how sound you are.”
“But Mom, even if Christine decides I have a million little cracks and the next thing to come along will shatter me completely, what can we do?”
“We can leave,” Mom and Dad at the same time.
I looked at my parents and said, “But the Farm—”
“Is just a business. Denise or Sandy would be more than happy to buy it from me. Your Dad is done with the accelerator project. You are our son and if keeping you safe and sane means dropping everything and returning to Earth, then that is what we’re going to do. We can leave now if that’s what you want.”
I thought about what my parents were willing to give up for me and couldn’t think of a way to thank them enough.
Instead, I said, “I’ll go see Christine. If she says I can handle it, I want to stay. I don’t want to run away from this.”
My mom gave a big smile and said, “Alright, that’s enough of the drama for today. You two finish up eating and lets go down and watch the opening ceremony.”
Dad and I scarfed down the rest of our food and we walked down to the Waterfall Room where a small podium had been set up. It was almost 9:30 and a small crowd had gathered. Christine came in and stepped up to the podium.
She gave the crowd a little wave and then said, “Good morning. Thanks for coming down to the opening of the expansion of the Grand. I promise I’ll keep my remarks short. This expansion gives us more quality living space for those making their home at the Habitat. It gives us increased food production and it gives us more industrial capacity to make the Habitat a more viable place to live. Many of you have put long, hard hours into making this dream a reality. I thank you for that. Now, let’s go take a look.”
With that, the doors in the western wall of the Waterfall Room swung open, allowing us into the Expansion for the first time. Well, it was the first time for Dad and me, Mom had spent plenty of time working here. The expansion was just over a kilometer long which increased the overall length of the Grand to two point two kilometers. The first section we entered was an apartment block, with the section providing thirty apartments split among the three levels and including a couple of small pools and common areas. It looked like a nice place to live. There was another residential area further in, along with a small shopping district that had a faux food truck.
The remaining space, was all taken up by industrial chambers. Mom had been busy and it turned out a lot of that additional area was rented by CDB Farms. Mom showed us several of the rooms she had rented. One had a big crop of leeks nearing harvest while the other was entirely devoted to herbs. We made it all the way out to the end where Mom had some more rented space, however, Dad and I passed on touring the rooms there. Mom was excited about the plants, yet both Dad and I were feeling like, you saw one growth chamber full of plants, you saw them all.
We slowly walked back through the extension, just talking with friends, we’d run into and taking in the sights. By the time we were back to the Waterfall Room, it was almost lunch time and Dad decided we should splurge a little and have lunch at Seline’s Bistro. Ananyu wasn’t working, however, Chef Patel came out to talk to us. He managed to convince Dad and I into trying his special fried rice meal. It was really good, although I know he didn’t use real rice in it. It felt like rice in my mouth and tasted like it, yet I know rice is way too heavy to make importing it to the Moon worth while. The meal was good and it was a great way to end the day before I had to go to work.
I just turned and walked away from Willie. It would get me in trouble with Sam, yet Willie had just ambushed me with news that he was teaming with Yang for this month’s Gogo tournament. Willie and I had been playing Gogo together since before we left Earth and now Willie was dumping him for Yang. He didn’t even try offering an excuse, he just said, “Hey Bryce, I’ve been talking with Yang and he’d like to try out the Gogo tournament so I’m going to team with him this time.”
I managed to stutter out, “Uh, okay,” and then stalked off.
I couldn’t tell Willie how disappointed I was. Things hadn’t been the same since that morning in the classroom when Yang had found those awful words written on his desk. Willie never said he believed I did it, although he’d drawn away from me since then and now he was abandoning me for Yang. It was a bitter pill to swallow so I walked out and aimlessly wandered. I was supposed to be in the company of somebody whenever I was out in public, however, I felt like I just lost a friend and it didn’t feel like there was anyone left.
Sam caught up to me at the waterfall park. Somehow, I’d ended up there, sitting on the bench watching the water slowly fall.
I thought she’d chew me out like the last time I wandered away on my own, although she just said, “Having a rough day, Kiddo?”
I mumbled, “Yeah,”
She said “Come on.”
I thought she was going to take me back to my house, however, she led me into the Grand expansion.
Sam led me deeper into the expansion, passing the first housing section, and into a more industrial part. Here we found a stairwell off the corridor that led down to the lowest layer of that section. There was a door that Sam unlocked and we found ourselves in a small lobby. Along the walls were seats for people to wait in and on the far wall was a counter, a door, and windows looking into a dark room.
“This place belongs to my friend Geena. You might remember her from the defense classes, a tall brunette with a big smile, hey? Anyways, she’s getting ready to open this place up and I don’t think she’d mind if we put it to the test, blowing off a little steam.” Sam walked over to the counter and threw a switch.
The dark room lit up and I could see it stretched off a long way. It must have been a hundred meters long, although I could see how Sam’s friend Geena must have got a break on the rent because the sloping walls ate into the space. Still, on the flat part of the floor, there was room for seven stations where people could stand and do what? I turned to ask Sam that question and found she had opened the storage behind the counter and had pulled out two bows.
“Archery? We got an archery range on the Moon?” I said.
“We do now. People are always looking for something new to do. I think Geena will do pretty good with this, hey.”
Sam handed me a recurve bow she had already strung and grabbed one for herself.
She said, “Have you ever shot a bow before?”
“A friend of mine had a compound bow I got to shoot a couple of times, but I’ve never been to a range.”
“It’s easy. Put this on.”
She handed me an arm guard to wear on my left arm. I held the bow in my left hand and I’d gotten some stings from the bow string when I’d shot my friend’s compound bow without wearing a guard. Sam grabbed a handful of targets, a large quiver, and led me out onto the range.
When I was standing at the shooting station, it was really noticeable how far away the end of the shooting gallery was. I said, “I guess your friend’s not worried about the range being too short. That’s a long way down to the other end.”
Sam laughed and said, “Actually, Geena is pretty concerned, this range is too short. It’s only a little longer than a competition range back on Earth and the lunar gravity will let an arrow fly further with less of a drop. For people just coming in to kill some time, it doesn’t make a difference, yet for someone who shot in competitions back on Earth, they’d probably prefer a longer range.”
Sam handed me a trigger strap and showed me how to loop it around my wrist so I could use it to pull the bow string back and release it. She said, “Let’s try twenty yards first and then move it out from there as you get used to it.“ Sam attached the targets to stands attached to motorized tracks in the floor. She sent the targets out to twenty yards and we spent the next two hours shooting on the range. There was just something very satisfying about the thunk the arrow made when it hit the target, especially later on when I got better and managed to consistently put the arrows near the center of the target.
When we were done, Sam said, “So how you feeling, hey?”
”Better, thanks for bringing me here and not yelling at me about being by myself.”
“I think you have it rough enough right now and you know the score about what’s going to happen if there’s another incident with you and Yang. For what it’s worth, even if I can’t prove it, you know I don’t think you’re responsible for what’s been going down.”
“Sam, what am I going to do? I feel like I’ve lost most of my friends and I’m living in a glass jar the way I have to be watched all the time.”
“Don’t give up hope. Nobody is perfect. Whoever is doing this will act again and one of these times they’ll miss something. When they do, I’m going to jump on them with both feet. I promise you that.”
If Sam hadn’t been so scary, I’d have given her a hug.
As it was, I said, “Thanks, Sam. Sam, what if you’re wrong about me? Aren’t you worried I’ll go crazy and go around shooting people with arrows now?”
