by TS Paul
The dome above them silently closed, and a faint sucking noise was heard. The control panel in the Pod made a loud ‘ding’ sound.
“That’s the signal for atmosphere. Time to go boys.” The Pod opened at William’s touch. The three of them stepped out onto the hangar deck.
“It’s about time you got here, pokey.” Bobcat stepped over from the wall he was leaning on.
William shrugged, “I took the long way to show the kids more of the Moon. Everything OK inside?”
“Yup. They left the supplies alone and only took the scientific equipment as planned. We still have to send the fabricators back up, but they should fit in the containers. It’s how we got them here after all.” Bobcat visually checked the Pod, out of habit, looking for damage.
“Good. What does Marcus think our schedule should be?” William pulled out the bags belonging to the two boys and threw them at them.
“He thinks we should strip the place first. Send out the containers and then pound the domes with pucks. Explosive charges might be easier.”
“You know, Jean has interns like we do. She might like to use them as target practice.” William stared at the dome overhead.
Bobcat smirked, “The domes, not the kids, right?”
“What?” William thought about what he said. “Yeah, sorry. Off in la la land apparently. The domes not the kids. Ha! That’s pretty funny. Let’s get everyone settled in, and then we can get started.”
Bobcat led them through a small tunnel to the adjoining dome.
Marcus pointed, “That pile is Chinese junk we picked up the last time we were here. It’s a couple of probes and their Chang'e 2 capsule which crashed when William gave it a good nudge with the Pod.”
In front of Marcus was a small unit that looked like it came off a cement mixer. One side was crushed, but you could still see the blue triangle of the CNSA.
William gave Marcus a small wave as he passed by him. Marcus then explained, “Our goal up here was two-fold. We wanted to establish a presence here initially, and test some of our technology. Now that we are leaving, it is vital that no country on Earth gains any sort of technological boost from our equipment here. So we are gathering it all up. Including the junk, others have left as well. My former employers aren’t very happy about it, and neither are the Russians.”
“Sir? Why would they be worried now, it’s just junk right?” Nestor pointed to the Chinese capsule pile.
“That one is now. But when we knocked it out of orbit it was still functional and being used to spy on us. Take that piece over there.” He pointed to what looked a bit like a baby carriage with a solar panel on it.
“Wow! A Lunokhod rover! Is that number one or two?” Ron stepped over to it and peered inside.
“Very good Ron. That is number one. It and its brother have been deactivated, but they were still operating and sending signals out even after being sent up here in the early 1970s. Both the owner and the Russian Government have protested about it.” Marcus informed the group.
“Uh, isn’t the owner the Government? I don’t understand.” Maxim stepped over and tried lifting the little robotic rover.
“Funny story, Ron might know more than I since he’s a fan. A private individual bought number two from the Russians in a public auction, making him the only private citizen to have something up here. Until we got here, that is.”
“How much did he pay for this thing?”
Ron jumped in. “He paid $68,000 dollars. That’s like four million Rubles.”
“For this? And he had to leave it up here?” Maxim gave it a kick.
“It was pretty advanced for its time. Even NASA would have been hard pressed to equal it. They actually sent it up with radioactive material inside. We have since removed the polonium-210 it contained.” Maxim jumped back from the machine.
“Are the Lunar Rovers from Apollo fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen here too?” Ron looked around.
“Outside. They still work. The science crew that was working here souped them up and replaced the batteries and fragile bumpers. They even took out the hard to steer controls and put in an actual steering wheel. Bobcat may have had something to do with that. He called them ‘dune buggies’ instead of rovers.” Marcus grinned at the memory.
Marcus then pointed to the large pile behind him. “The rest of this stuff has NASA written all over it. Probes, sensor packages, and spy satellites. We even found some off-the-books stuff.”
“Like Apollo 20?” Ron looked up from his investigation of a NASA probe.
“That one is definitely a hoax, but we found a few items that didn’t come with any of the documented missions. So who knows.” He looked at Ron. “You, young man, need to have a conversation with me someday about spacecraft and NASA.”
Yana was starting to look like she was sleeping. It was exciting, and all, but spacecraft history was boring to her.
“Let’s go find the living quarters and get you set up. We won’t start work until tomorrow anyway.”
—
“Ron, how did you get into NASA and conspiracies?” Maxim softly asked him. The boys were on one end of the sleeping chamber, the girls the other.
“Dad is a big shot computer programmer. He’s one of the ones that helped to create ADAM. We first lived in Colorado at the TQB base there. After my school class had been kidnapped, I started looking into mysterious happenings around the country. Most were obviously Forsaken or Wechselbalg once I knew they existed. So I began looking into space. We knew that at least one alien existed, why not more? The space agencies all deny it, but ultimately that is what they search for, aliens.”
“And this sort of information is just available on the Internet?” Maxim rolled over and stared at the younger boy.
“Sure. As one of my favorite movies says. You can’t stop the signal. Once it’s on the Internet, it cannot be removed completely. Dad says even ADAM has trouble taking stuff down for the Queen.”
“Interesting. When we get back, can you show me some of how you search?”
“Sure Maxim. I can do that.” Ron closed his eyes. It had been a long day.
“What are you looking for?” Nestor whispered into the room. Maxim’s sharp ears caught it anyway.
“Father. Surely there is some sign or report I can read. I want to be able to mourn him.”
“I understand, Cousin.”
At the other end of the room, Yana and Tina sat on their beds. “What is your opinion of conspiracy theory?”
Tina cocked her head to one side and smiled. “Ron gets a bit extreme for me. There is some truth in it, though. The UnknownWorld does exist, as well as aliens after all. Many of the Governments of the world have proven they can’t be trusted either. My mom has told me as much, too. Much of what is out there on the internet is just crazy, though.”
Yana nodded. “Back in Russia, it is hard to know what to believe. The state… well, the state controls everything. You have to believe what they say. Freedom is a luxury even without the Soviets.”
“You can trust us Yana. The Queen will protect you.”
“That I am believing. How do you like the Moon?” Yana smiled at Tina.
“It’s big and open. Too bad there isn’t any air. It would be fun to explore a bit.”
“We could take one of those rover things and look around. Marcus might let us.”
“I will ask later if you like. Marcus likes me.” Tina laughed. “I was the first kid in space because of him.”
“Was that fun?” Yana sometimes found it hard to believe others had fun adventures.
“It was crazy fun. Mom just about killed him, though. He didn’t say ‘outer space’ when she asked where he was taking me. For me, though, it was a blast. We raced a meteor and buzzed the Moon. Fun.” Tina smiled as she remembered the experience.
“It sounds like it. We better get some rest then. Goodnight.”
—
Breakfast was protein shakes and survival biscuits. Maxim was missing the school cafet
eria already.
“Today, we are packing up the manufacturing plant, as well as the machine shop. Gravity in those areas has been set low, so everything will be drastically lighter. Be sure to watch your teammates carefully. Having a half-ton of machinery moved in your direction can be deadly due to mass, so be careful. Later, after lunch, Marcus has a mathematics class on basic orbital mechanics. Should be fun.” Bobcat smiled at the looks on their faces.
Math and kids.
—
“Are we having fun yet?” Maxim grunted as his cousin tossed him a computer module.
“This is a workout, not fun! Why did they bring all of this here if they weren’t leaving it?” Nestor asked.
Bobcat answered, “William might have mentioned to you the magnetic anomaly to the North of us? Well, we think it has a high concentration of iron and other ferrous material. The initial plan was to dig and mine it out for use on the first space stations. Then the UN started whining, and the US, Russia, and China joined them in making waves. Bethany Anne then moved the mining to the asteroid belt. Farther away and less prying eyes out there. We had everything all set up to start when the plan was canceled. It’s only now that we have the time to pick it back up for storage. A few of the techs have been down here to tweak the sensors, but it’s been pretty much just us. NASA has been raising holy hell about the loss of sensors and cameras they have denied even having up here. It’s pretty funny.”
“Oh. I wondered. Much of this looks new.” Maxim said, setting another module inside the shipping container.
“It is. We will store everything, and when we get on the other side of the gate, we’ll pull it back out. This way it’s all in one place and ready.” Bobcat logged each item they put away.
“What about all the space junk in the other dome?” Ron dragged a large spool of wire over to the container.
“That, we are throwing into one of the other containers. Lots of salvage there. We can always use high-end composites and lightweight materials. Many of the other departments have one project or another that needs materials.”
“What about the technology?” Yana looked up from the system she was disconnecting.
“What about it? This stuff is just junk compared to what we have up in the Meredith Reynolds.”
He pointed up to space. “This stuff is just cluttering up the moon, so we’re disposing of it. We did leave the flags and the base of Apollo 11 in place. The Queen instructed us to put up a very nice monument commemorating the landing on the moon and those that lost their lives getting here. We tried very hard to not disturb any of Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin’s footsteps. Trust me when I say moving NASA's junk without making a mess is a chore even with the magnetic beam.”
A low chime sounded, and Bobcat looked around. “Lecture time. Have a good time and try not to fall asleep. Marcus can get on a roll and forget you’re not as interested in what he is teaching as he is.”
CHAPTER NINE
“Not another lecture. I’m not sure my brain can take another one!” Maxim mockingly clutched his head causing the girls to laugh.
“He’s not all that bad. His theory on gravitational anomalies is brilliant.” Tina tried to defend her friend.
Maxim stared at Tina for a moment, “That may be true, but did we have to hear all of it? He lost me at vertical deflection, physical geodesy, and gravimetry. Have you asked him about the rovers yet?”
Tina bit the inside of her cheek, “I’ll ask today. I promise.”
Marcus walked into the room and stared at the five kids. “So for today’s lecture, I thought we would continue on the science of Gravimetric analysis and how it relates to what we do with our current technology. If you remember from yesterday’s session gravimetric analysis is what we use…”
“Marcus, Sir?” Yana raised her hand.
Marcus stopped talking and looked at the tall Russian girl. “Yes, Yana?”
“Will we be using any of these principles in our work on the base or during operations?” she asked.
“Not normally. We use this form of science to speculate on how one body differs from another.”
“So it’s not something we need to know for any operation then?” Yana smiled to herself.
“Hmm, you have a point Miss Konstantinovich. How about we discuss regolith then, instead?”
Nestor stood. “Sir, you already gave us the background on how it is used in the construction of this base and the chemical makeup of moon soil.”
Marcus looked at the boy. “I have? Well, have I mentioned solar radiation?” There were nods among the kids.
“What about oxygen generation?” He carefully watched his interns. “NASA and many of the Earthbound space agencies use a piece of machinery called the Environmental Control and Life Support System or ECLSS. Water is processed into oxygen and hydrogen. This is the primary reason so much water is sent into space. Up here water is life. Over on the International Space Station, they process human urine into the air they breathe first before processing any pure water.”
“Eeew! Is that really true, Marcus?” Tina made a face at him.
“It’s completely true, Tina. In space, nothing is wasted. All resources are a precious commodity. That is the main reason we are cleaning up the moon. By the look on all of your faces, you never considered where your bodily waste goes did you? Let’s talk about that shall we?”
—
“Ugh! I’m never eating or drinking again! I can just taste it.” Maxim had a disgusted look on his face.
Yana started to laugh. “We’ve been among these people for months, and you are just now wondering these things? Back home we did similar. Night soil was used as fertilizer for crops as well as tanning hides. Grow up Maxim.”
“How did they get all the water we use up here? Marcus never did explain that part.” Ron now had more respect for those that grew the food he ate.
“Mom told me some of this. It’s one of the reasons they hate us down there. The Queen ordered entire icebergs lifted up to us. She did pick ones that were navigational hazards to avoid damaging ships.”
“If they were a danger why care about it?” Maxim could only stare at Tina.
“Natural resources were being stolen or at least that is what the environmental groups all screamed. The bergs were in the ocean, but that didn’t matter to them.”
Ron looked over at Nestor. “What did the Queen do? Did she stop taking them?”
“The ones at sea she did. A couple of the countries in South America and those near the Arctic actually offered to sell them to her. Mom said she agreed and gave them what they wanted in exchange. There is a place that she took me once in the bowels of the Meredith Reynolds that is a giant pool of water. Some of the water they found out in the asteroid field is in there too. Mom says some comets are nothing but frozen water and that there are plans to intercept and capture them.”
Yana smiled at her young friend. “Maybe your mom should come talk to us.”
“I’ll ask her,” Tina agreed.
“Who are you asking?” Bobcat stuck his head into the room.
“Hi, Bobcat. Yana asked if we could get mom to talk to us sometime.”
“Your mom is one of the hardest working women up there, but I bet if you asked nicely she would do it. So, Marcus tells me you want to get out of here for a bit. Thanks for that. I won an ounce of gold off William on how long you could stand Marcus’s lectures without running away. He does like to ramble.”
All the kids nodded yes. Maxim rolled his eyes while doing so.
“So we have three LRVs outside. I like to call them Moon Buggies. The engineers that were here one time souped them up pretty good. New batteries, transmissions, and structural enhancements make up the majority of improvements. How would you all like to take them for a spin?”
All the kids had big smiles on their faces. A day out of here!
“There are a few rules of course. The LRVs have locator beacons on them as well as a travel radius of about fifty miles.
Use the solar panels, or you will run out of juice earlier than intended. Use the radios and call us if you run into any trouble or find any tech we might have missed. Get your helmets and survival packs. I’ll show you how to drive them.”
Bobcat had to jump out of the way, or he would have been knocked to the floor. The five kids jumped up and hit the ground running. Scrambling out of the improvised lecture hall they all but ran to their quarters to their stuff.
“We actually get to drive on the moon!” Ron found his helmet and survival pack under his bed. The new and very cool TQB skinsuits didn’t normally use a helmet. A special shield would snap into place if the suit were exposed to space or toxins such as gas. The helmet was an accessory that was added if you were space walking or used on planetary surfaces. Asteroid miners and other heavy duty positions used a hard suit that enclosed the entire body.