by Dan Eaton
She just laughed and said, “If I was wrong about you, would you really ask me such a dumb question, hey? Besides, the bows are all chipped. You try taking one out of here and a security team is going to show up immediately. That would be the end of that.”
Miss Gayle took us up to the Viewing Room so that we could witness the launch of the Chinese Far Side Mission.
Once she had us there and all seated, she said, “The Chinese have had a long interest in the far side of the Moon going back to the Chang'e missions starting in 2007. The long term goal has been to set up their own habitat on the far side that would support the Far Side Observatory. The FSO is going to be a very large radio telescope array that is shielded from the electromagnetic noise produced on Earth by being on the side of the Moon opposite of the Earth. The Chinese are intent on making their plans come true and have chartered the Virgin Galactic liner, VLS Eve, for this mission. They have placed an order with Denali Aerospace for their own CLT30, however, because of the backlog, they will not be receiving theirs until sometime in early 2040. National pride at carrying out the mission with their own ship has taken second place to the pragmatic concern over getting there first. Any of the smaller nations taking delivery of their CLT30 before the Chinese, could beat them to the far side, so the decision has come down to launch the mission with a chartered ship instead of taking the risk and waiting for their own ship to be ready. The launch should take place in about fifteen minutes. Does anyone have any questions?”
Nina and Jocelyn both raised their hands.
“You first, Jocelyn, then Nina.”
“Do we have any idea where they are going?”
“No, they’ve been studying that area with numerous missions and rovers for years. I’m sure they’ve got an excellent location picked out, although they haven’t shared it with anyone, yet. As soon as they land, of course, everyone will know at that point. Nina, what was your question?”
Nina collected her thoughts and said, “Do we know anything about the design of their habitat? Like how many people it will initially support?”
Yang’s hand shot up and Miss Gayle nodded for him to go ahead.
“Miss Forrester, my father hosted a dinner for the crew last night and I believe I can answer that question and others if you would permit me?”
Yang might not give a hoot about me, yet he was always unfailingly polite to any older person. He and Mei were uncomfortable calling Miss Gayle by her first name so she permitted them to address her by her last name.
Miss Gayle told him to go ahead and he said, “There is a crew of six. Four men and two women. The first structure will be similar to the barrel vault construction used here except they will be using a 3D printer to print the walls and roof from regolith with a binder. The structure will be recessed into the regolith. After the walls and roof are in place, autonomous construction robots will begin paving over the roof to provide additional shielding. The crew will live aboard the VLS Eve during the month it’s expected to take to have the first phase of the Habitat construction completed to the point the crew can move in. Construction will then shift to creating a landing pad with a protective berm so the resupply missions can safely land. After that, they will expand the Habitat as much as needed to support building a larger fully underground Habitat. They hope to have the first small radio telescope in place within three months and expect the Habitat population may reach as high as fifty people by the end of the year.”
Yang’s face lit up as he was telling the two classes this information. He was clearly quite enthralled with the project his nation was undertaking and very proud.
Miss Gayle said, “Thank you for sharing that, Yang. Nicely done. Does anyone have any other questions?”
No one did so she said the launch was due in about five minutes and gave us permission to talk quietly among ourselves until then. When the time ran down, Miss Gayle led us in an enthusiastic final ten second countdown. She was very proudly an unapologetic geek when it came down to that sort of stuff. The CLT30 lifted off in a trajectory that carried it to the south. Whipple was already just barely on the far side of the Moon and the Chinese had a relatively short distance to go so they wouldn’t be going into a normal orbit. Miss Gayle led us back down to the school, although we were all certain that we hadn’t heard the last of the Chinese mission.
The next day was the last day of the quarter and somehow Miss Gayle kept us distracted from that and on target until finally, we just had a half hour left. We were starting to get restless, and Miss Gayle stood up and called our attention to her.
“I’d like to talk to you about something. I’ve given this a lot of thought and think it’s something we should do, but only if you all agree. I’ll tell you right now, it’s going to be hard, and it’s going to hurt at some point, hopefully later than sooner.”
Adam raised his hand and said, “Miss Gayle?”
“Yes, Adam?”
“Spit it out please? The suspense is killing me.”
We all laughed, and Miss Gayle said, “Sorry, Adam. I’ll try to hurry this along.”
With that, she turned on the large screen in the classroom and flashed up a picture of a girl. The girl looked to be our age and was black with tan skin that had a red undertone to it. She wore a scarf that covered her hair and neck and a pale green top with long sleeves. She looked thin.
Miss Gayle said, “This is Sabrina Fellows. She turned fifteen back in November and her fondest wish in the world is to join this class.”
Myra had been staring at the girl and said, “She’s sick, isn’t she?”
Miss Gayle looked at us all and slowly said, “Yes, Myra, Sabrina isn’t doing that well. She’s been following your stories since the selection was made. You’ve inspired her and when the Make a Wish Foundation asked her what she would wish for, she asked to attend this class with you.”
Ananyu solemnly said, “How bad is it?”
Miss Gayle said, “She has ALS, that’s a progressive neurodegenerative disease. There’s a cure, but she’s not responding to it. Unless things change, she won’t see her sixteenth birthday.”
Myra looked at Miss Gayle and simply said, “Yes.”
Miss Gayle shook her head no, and said, “Myra, I want you guys to think about it before deciding. There’s things—”
Myra steadfastly said, “She’s in need, and we can help. There’s nothing to think about. Yes”
I raised my hand, and when Miss Gayle looked at me, I said, “Yes.”
Ananyu raised her hand and said, “Yes.”
Everyone in the class raised their hand and said, “Yes.”
Miss Gayle’s eyes were tearing up. She looked at us all and said, “I have never been so proud of you all as I am right now. Thank you for doing this.”
Adam’s hand shot up and he said, “Miss Gayle, if you’re done with us now, can we please be dismissed early?”
We all laughed at Adam’s question. After the drama of the last discussion, it was good to laugh. She looked at the clock and there were still ten minutes left before the end of the class.
“Maybe, Adam. First, let’s make sure no one has any questions. Anybody?”
Nina raised her hand and said, ”How is this going to work with Sabrina, as far as her attending class?”
“Good question, Nina. Sabrina is obviously too sick to join us in person so she’ll be joining us remotely. She’ll start with us two weeks from now, when the new quarter starts. At first, it’s going to be just like last year when I was teaching you remotely. Later, there’s a local company called Psuche Neural, that has committed to building Sabrina an autonomous virtual presence device that will give her some mobility so she can come with us on field trips or just go to the cafeteria to share lunch with you guys. Does that answer your question, Nina?”
Nina said she was good and no one else had any questions so Miss Gayle just said “See you later.”
And with that, our quarter ended.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
> Seeking
Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Monday, March 21th, 2039.
In Habitat News, CDB Farms is pleased to announce the promotion of Adam Dumas to Special Assistant to CDB Farm CEO Cheryl Burns. Adam’s area of focus will be marketing. CDB Farms is also pleased to announce the promotion of Myra Cherneski to Special Assistant to CDB Farm CEO Cheryl Burns. Myra’s area of focus will be production.
Mussconny Industries, announced today that they have entered negotiations with the Chinese engineering company, Northern Lights, to produce the autonomous road building robots needed by Northern Lights to construct a road to the Chinese Habitat at the Far Side Observatory.
In financial news today, on the Lunar Stock Market shares of Mussconny Machine are trading at $33.15 a share, Mussconny Fabrication at $36.83 a share, Hotel Whipple shares are at $32.14. O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is at $27.05 a share and CDB Farms is trading at $27.29 a share. MM Brewing is at $2.84 a share, and Daniels Designs is at $2.40 a share. Psuche Neural is at $12.85 a share.
I used a rag to wipe the sweat from my forehead. My mom had started us harvesting leeks today. Normally I wouldn’t have minded the work because Mom tried to automate things as much as possible to keep things in line with the amount of help she had. In this case, however, leeks had a limited shelf life so we harvested them in smaller batches where automation really didn’t help. Adam and I got to do it the old fashioned way using garden forks to get the leeks out of the ground.
Adam got off his E-Pad and said, “That was Myra. She wants us to move over to room thirty six and start resetting the beds there when we finish here. She and the Zhangs have finished pulling all the potatoes there and are dropping back to room eleven to harvest the carrots. After that, she’s hoping they can get a start on the sugar beets.”
“Man, this is going to be a long day. What were my mom and the Goddess of Production thinking?”
“Myra was thinking you and I are awesome specimens of males capable of amazing feats.”
“Awesome specimens of male beasts of burden you mean. Actually, that makes sense because donkeys are a beast of burden and another word for donkey is an ass, which, I could see Myra calling you an ass, repeatedly.”
“Wait till I tell her you called her the Goddess of Production. I bet she calls you more than an ass.”
“Ass”
Adam and I carried on like that all day. It helped pass the time and kept me from thinking about things too much. Things like my meetings with Christine. When I agreed to see Christine, my Mom had quickly followed up by contacting Christine and asking for her help. I imagined that we’d sit down and have this all sorted out and that would be the end of it, however, Christine pointed out that if I was in trouble, I didn’t get there in one day so it wasn’t reasonable to expect her to come to a conclusion in one meeting. We’d met twice last week and Christine had asked for two more meetings next week before she’d be willing to say I was alright or we needed to continue meeting. I think I’m okay, yet if I think about it too much I wonder if it would be so bad to be broke and heading back to Earth. I didn’t like that thought, although I had to admit to myself that fleeing the problems here had a seductive appeal. That was one reason I was glad we were on the Spring break from school and I was so busy doing stuff that kept me from thinking too much.
When I did have time for thinking, I tried to think about pleasant things. Like for instance, I now had a date for the Prom. I hadn’t really been thinking much about the Prom other than it was coming up this next quarter. Nina was definitely out of the picture and I doubted I’d be going with Myra. Her friendship with Mei had really blossomed. I was happy for her. I knew that loosing her friend Jessie had really hurt her and having a new best friend was the best thing for her. Unfortunately, with the situation with Mai’s brother, taking Myra to the Prom would have been awkward. I just figured I’d stay home.
Then last Friday, when school broke for the quarter, Ananyu had asked if it was okay if she escorted me home instead of Adam. We walked in silence for a while and then Ananyu said, “We have a problem. What are you going to do about Prom?”
“Huh? What problem? I guess I’m just going to stay home? Why?”
“Yeah, that’s not going to work. You need to go. The thing is, Nina doesn’t want you to go to the Prom with Jocelyn.”
“Nina thinks I’d actually go to the Prom with Jocelyn. We’re talking about the know-it-all Jocelyn from school, right? The one who goes around telling everybody I’m guilty and why, right?”
I’d stopped in my tracks and had actually said that last part a lot louder than I had intended to. We were getting curious stares from the other people around us.
Ananyu grabbed my arm and pulled me along.
“Yes, that Jocelyn. She’s got brains and she’s cute. Why’s it so hard for you to imagine going to the Prom with her?”
I stopped again and said “Like maybe because the girl hates me. Why in the world would you and Nina think I’d ask Jocelyn to the Prom?”
“Oh, we don’t think you’d ask her. She’s going to ask you.”
“What …”
Ananyu tugged on my arm to get me moving again and said, “Bryce, close your mouth. You look silly like that. The girls were talking about the Prom and Jocelyn mentioned she would like to go with you. It would really hurt Nina if you did that, so we can’t let that happen.”
“I don’t understand, the girl hates me. Why would she ask me to go to the Prom with her and why would you guys think I’d ever say yes?”
“Bryce, Jocelyn just thinks you are guilty as sin, why do you think she hates you? Some girls just find bad boys very appealing. Other than that, you’re not bad looking, you can dance well, and going with you guarantees every eye in the place will be on you and your date. As far as you agreeing to go with her, maybe I’m just being catty, but you’re a boy and I’m sure she can be as persuasive as she needs to in order to get you to take her.”
The whole concept that Jocelyn actually liked me threw me for a loop. We walked along in silence for a minute or two while I tried to come to grips with the idea.
I finally said, “Okay, I know I’m just a dumb boy, but you guys have nothing to worry about. Jocelyn has helped make my life miserable and I wouldn’t touch her with a ten foot pole. I won’t take her to the Prom. I’ll just stay home like I was planning to anyways.”
This time it was Ananyu who stopped.
“I’m sorry, Bryce, you are not a dumb boy. Maybe a little naive, definitely not dumb.”
She sighed and said, “If anyone’s dumb here it’s me. I meddled with you and Nina thinking it would be easy to make things better for the both of you and now I fear I’ve made a mess.”
“You’re not dumb. A little pushy sometimes, but not dumb. Why would you think that what happened between me and Nina is your fault?”
“Because I pushed the two of you together even though I knew it was doomed to fail. I figured it would help you get past Nina and it would give Nina some experience with boys she was sadly lacking. I was so sure it would be over by Homecoming. You’d be hurt, although Myra would be a soft shoulder to cry on while Nina would come out of it stronger and better equipped to deal with the real world her plan failed to fully account for. I was so sure. Then Nina ended up liking you way more that I planned on and Jocelyn beat Nina in the class rankings. It just made things harder on you and now Nina has taken a blow to her confidence. That’s why you can’t go to the Prom with Jocelyn. It would crush her.”
The topic of conversation seemed to keep returning to me going to the Prom with Jocelyn and it was getting a little irritating.
“For the last time, I’m not going with Jocelyn. I’ll just stay home.”
“The problem is, if you say you’re just going to stay home, then Nina is going to be distracted and keep wondering if you’ll change your mind. Besides that, you need to go. You need to be with friends and that’s where we’re all going to be”
&nbs
p; “Ananyu, if you’ll remember, Nina dumped me. She really doesn’t get a say on who I go to the Prom with. Not that I’m going with Jocelyn.”
“I know, Bryce. It’s just I screwed up and am trying to fix things. I…”
She started crying. I hate it when girls cry.
“Ananyu, it’s okay. I don’t understand why you think this is your fault. I get why Nina doesn’t want me to go with Jocelyn although I don’t see why it matters to her if I don’t go. Just please stop crying and tell me what I can do to help.”
Ananyu wiped her eyes and said, “It’s my fault because I meddled. I come from a long line of meddlers and I couldn’t resist the urge. Now, Nina’s lost her confidence. She’s intimidated by Jocelyn and needs to build her confidence back up. You know she can beat Jocelyn at school, yet she needs to concentrate on doing that, not be worrying about Jocelyn rubbing the two of you in her face.”
“I … I still don’t get it, but I’ll do what I can to help. What do you need from me?”
“Take me to the Prom. Nina is okay with you going with me because she knows there’s nothing between us and there never will be. She’d even be okay if you took Myra though that doesn’t look too likely. Just take me please and then Nina won’t worry and maybe she can get back where she needs to be.”
I thought about it a minute. I certainly didn’t mind going to the Prom with Ananyu, however, the whole “nothing between us and there never will be” kind of stung a little.
“I’ll take you to the Prom but what’s with the nothing between us and never will be, thing? I thought we were friends? “
“We are friends, but that’s all we can ever be. I like you Bryce and I wish things were different, unfortunately, you and I would end up a worse mess than you and Nina. Besides, you said yourself that you’ll be going off to college on Earth in two years. Why even start down a road we could never finish together?”
