by Dan Eaton
Sandy took a minute to think and then asked Christine if she knew what an ASO was. The blank stare he got back from her confirmed she didn’t so he went on to explain. “So, uh, my dad had a buddy that was into Blacksmithing. One of the major tools in a blacksmith shop is the anvil. Anvils are also pretty popular with the antique collecting crowd and a consequence of that is there are a lot of things out there that look like an anvil, but are not. The smiths call them anvil shaped objects or ASO’s.”
Christine wasn’t quite sure where Sandy was going, but he knew a thing or two so she let him run with it.
Sandy continued, “The point being that an ASO might look like an anvil, but it is not an anvil. I know Security must have come to you freaking out that one of your kids was making a gun, but what Bryce made is a GSO.”
Christine let a little smile come to her face and said, “You mean the gun won’t fire?”
Sandy gave a little shrug and said, “I’d have to fire it to tell you that and I can’t do that for two reasons. One is that as far as I know there’s no 22 caliber ammunition on the Moon and I’m sure not paying the freight to get any shipped up here. The second reason is, even if I had a bullet that would fit it, I can’t test fire this gun here.”
Sandy had a little smirk on his face so Christine asked him why not. Sandy replied, “Because the Outer Space Treaty specifically forbids the use of the Moon for testing weapons of any kind”. Sandy continued, “So in my book what we have here is some machined scrap from Bryce practicing what I had taught him and not a weapon.”
Christine liked that Sandy had a plausible excuse to get Bryce and his parents off the hook, but wasn’t ready to dismiss the issue yet. She said, “What about the pistol grips he printed. No wonder security freaked when the scanner picked up on the keywords pistol grip in the 3D printer’s print queue.”
Sandy gave it some thought and said, “That girl is so out of his league I hate to encourage him on Nina, but all sorts of innocent things can have pistol grips. I think we can arrange for Bryce to build a present for Nina that features a harmless pistol grip.”
Christine thought she could work things out as far as Bryce was concerned, but she wasn’t done in Sandy’s office yet. “Okay, I can work with that, but what do we do about you? You let my kid in here and said you’d keep him safe. Instead of keeping him safe I have Security breathing down my neck wanting to know when they can ship him and his parents back to Earth for the illegal possession of a firearm. How do you fix this so it can’t happen again for Bryce or any other kid, I send in here?”
Sandy gave a little chuckle and replied, “I was hoping you’d overlook that little mistake on my part. Look Christine, Bryce is a good kid as you well know. He actually has some talent for this work and he has the right mind set. He paid attention to the safety rules and I haven’t caught him, ignoring any of them yet. There’s some older guys he puts to shame about that. So I relaxed my guard about him. When he said he was going to do a side project I was really proud of him and let it slide when he said he wanted to keep it a secret until he was done. This little stunt he pulled wasn’t due to lack of brains, it was due to him not having his brain in gear probably because a girl was involved. That’s not uncommon with kids his age and I’ve seen guys older than him screw up the same way. I should have been on top of it and I apologize for my lack of vigilance.”
Christine gave a nod of forgiveness and asked, “What about moving forward?”
Sandy took a minute and replied, “So, uh, actually, this little episode points out something that hasn’t been a problem so far but could be in the future. You know Bryce isn’t the only one I let do side projects. There’s a couple of adults that I’ve given access to the machines for this and that and I really haven’t been paying attention to the details. I think instituting a new policy that all projects have a project plan I can review before they start would be a good idea. I also think Bryce is going to get a little more supervision in the shop.”
Christine thought the first bit sounded good, but she wondered what Sandy had in mind for Bryce. She trusted Sandy but carefully asked, “You’re not going to step on his toes and spoil the shine on his shoes are you?”
Sandy laughed and with a smile on his face said, “Ah hell no, I’m going to promote him to a Monkey!”
Christine left Sandy’s office comfortable she had things under control thanks to Sandy’s help. Her next stop was Security where she was hoping it wouldn’t take too much to get Sam calmed down. Before heading that way she called Cheryl Burns.
Cheryl answered and the first words out of her mouth were, “How bad is it?”
When Cheryl got home, she found Bryce was very upset and looking more miserable than she had ever seen her son. She got the story out of him and realized he had actually built a gun of some kind. During the preparations to come here they all had it explained to them that no weapons were allowed on the base and being caught in the possession of any contraband was grounds for being returned to Earth. Cheryl felt that was kind of a worst case scenario and really hoped it wouldn’t come to that because it would be a very bad scenario for the family. Not only would she and Desmond lose their jobs, but the press couldn’t help but run with a story like that so getting jobs back on Earth might be difficult for a while.
Christine heard the anxiety in Cheryl’s voice and tried to reassure her, “Look Cheryl, I think this was an innocent lack of thinking on Bryce’s part. Sandy is on-board with me handling it that way. I’m heading over to talk to Security now and after I finish there I’ll stop by if that’s okay with you. I think the four of us need to sit down and have a little chat. In the meantime, stay in your home and don’t talk to anyone. Tell Bryce not to worry. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Christine called Sam next and asked her if she could spare a couple of minutes of her time. Sam told her she’d be done with her rounds in five and would meet Christine back in her office then. Christine headed on over to the administration section and thought about what she’d tell Sam. Sam was short for Samantha Tanner. Sam did a stint in the Marines as a gunnery Sargent and then moved into private security for a while. She liked trying new things and even tried a stint in Antarctica working for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR). Given her background, she was high on the selection list when it came time to find a security chief for the base. Christine hadn’t had cause to work with her much, but found Sam to be friendly and hoped she could smooth over this little flap before things got out of hand.
Sam welcomed Christine into her office and said, ”So one of your boys got into some mischief, hey?”
Sam grew up in Saint Cloud, Minnesota and had a slight Upper Midwest accent. Christine smiled and was relieved that Sam wasn’t in a hurry to fill out the paperwork to send the Burns family Earthbound.
She replied, “Yep, he was trying to impress a girl and took his brain out of gear. Sandy says there’s no ammo and even if there was he couldn’t fire it. Do you need to take this any further?”
Sam just chuckled and said “Let me guess, Nina Schubeler, would be the girl in question. She’s kind of out of Bryce’s league isn’t she?”
Christine knew Sam kept an eye on things, but was a little surprised she paid that close attention to the kids.
She mentioned that to Sam and Sam said, “Until the kids showed up the only trouble I really had was with the folks working here as general assistants getting frisky every so often and blowing off a little steam. Comes with the territory I guess and they settle down after I get involved. When the kids showed up I figured I’d better keep an eye on them because boys and girls that age tend to find their way into mischief eventually. So how did Bryce get the bright idea that Nina wanted a gun?”
Christine knew that boredom was one of the biggest problems facing the base and part of her job was combating the problem. She imagined that Sam keeping an eye on the kids also had something to do with keeping her own job interesting. She told Sam about the story Nina
had told in class about the Elk hunt and how Bryce had seized on the idea of making her a gun to give to her on her upcoming birthday.
Sam replied, “I use to go deer hunting with my dad all the time so I can relate to Nina liking guns. I don’t think it would help Bryce win over Nina but the thought was in the right place. I have an idea, hey. Let’s have Bryce give Nina a gun and then organize a hunt to go along with it.”
Christine looked at Sam for a second like she was off her rocker and then slowly said. “First of all, wasn’t it a gun that caused all this fuss in the first place? Second, there’s no elk or deer on the Moon last time I looked.”
Sam just smiled and said, “The right kind of gun won’t be a problem, it’ll actually fix one problem for a while. As for the elk, we got people, hey.”
Christine listened to Sam outline her idea. It actually sounded pretty good and she could stick Sandy with the work that needed to be done. She asked Sam to drop by Sandy’s and update him on the plan along with giving him some ideas on the gun. She was sure Sandy would be okay with it, but she’d swing by the shop later, just to make sure and to remind him he owed her.
Christine headed over to the Burns and when she knocked on the door it opened almost immediately. Desmond, Cheryl, and Bryce were all there so she suggested they sit down at the table and talk about what happened.
“First off,” she said, “I managed to get things settled down so everything is okay. Sandy has decided to keep Bryce on at Mussconny Machine. I imagine he’ll have a thing or two to say to Bryce tomorrow. My advice to you Bryce is to be very polite and do whatever Sandy asks of you with a smile on your face. Sandy went to bat for you or else this could have ended up much differently. “
“Secondly, because Sandy stood up for Bryce, Security is satisfied there was no actual gun and since there was no gun there was no contraband rule to be broken. If that were not true, then I’m afraid the three of you would be on the next flight with room back to Earth. Bryce do you understand the gravity of the situation?” Christine hated to be so hard on Bryce but he had to know there were consequences to his actions and being stupid wasn’t an excuse.
Bryce for his part was pretty miserable and answered her, “Yes ma’am.”
Christine asked Bryce to please excuse himself so she could talk with his parents. Once he had closed the door to his room, she turned to look at Cheryl and Desmond and said, “I think I’ve given Bryce enough to think about. Please don’t be too hard on him. You have a good kid who made a dumb mistake and I suspect the person who’s going to beat Bryce up the most about this is Bryce himself. Let’s let him stew a little bit but then you can tell him everything is okay and I think tomorrow is going to be nowhere near as bad as he’s probably imagining. Before I go, do you guys have any questions for me?”
Desmond spoke up and said, “I think I got everything but just to make sure, Bryce is not in trouble. Nothing going on his permanent record or anything like that?”
Christine gave them a reassuring smile and said, “Well, I think this event is probably permanently etched in Bryce’s memory, but, no, there won’t be anything officially noted about it. Nothing for you two to worry about and as long as Bryce keeps quiet about it, I don’t think his classmates will know. If there’s nothing else, I’d better be going. I’m sure you two have some things to say to Bryce.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Ghost and the Monkey
I made it through school with no problems and headed off to Sandy’s shop. I wasn’t sure what was waiting for me there or how angry Sandy would be. When I left for school this morning, Mom told me to not say anything to anyone about what happened yesterday. She said everything would be okay and gave me one of her big smiles that made it feel like nothing was wrong. When I showed up at Mussconny Machine Sandy was busy, but pointed for me to wait for him in the office. I went on in and took a seat and Sandy showed up about five minutes later.
Sandy sat down, looked over at me and said, “First off, that was a really stupid stunt. You and your parents could have both suffered some serious consequences. Second, I apologize. I’m supposed to be older and wiser and I let you do something I should have prevented. Thirdly, remember this always, girls you like will always foul up your thinking. If you think you have a great idea and it involves a girl you like, come to me and discuss it before you do anything stupid again.”
Sandy gave me a minute to think over what he had said and then continued. “Let’s move on, Sam came up with the idea of us making a squirt gun for Nina for her birthday. What do you think about that?” I guess he could tell from the look on my face that I didn’t like the idea because before I had a chance to answer he said, “Bryce, never play poker. Your face is an open book. So what’s wrong with the idea?”
“Sandy,” I said, “Nina was talking about a real gun. I know the pistol I made wasn’t much to talk about, but at least it wasn’t a cheap plastic squirt gun.”
Sandy looked at me for a bit and then patiently said, “I understand you want to give Nina a nice present to impress her. Neither Sam nor I were talking about making her a cheap plastic squirt gun. We had in mind something fancy that you would be just as proud of giving her as she would be to have it. I was thinking maybe we could make her something like this.”
Sandy handed me an E-Pad and displayed on it was a cool looking gun that looked like it had been a part of some old science fiction movie. The style was called Steampunk and I had to admit that it did look pretty awesome. There were a number of different designs shown on the site and that got me to thinking.
“Sandy,” I asked, “would it be possible to take this idea and make a Steampunk version of the Winchester Model 70 rifle? That would be really cool looking.”
Sandy answered, “So, uh, Bryce, that’s not a bad idea, but Sam had another idea for Nina’s birthday party. Nina will have more fun if she has a pistol sized weapon rather than something long like the Winchester.”
The wheels in my head were still turning and I picked up the E-Pad and started searching the Web for props from the Star Patrol series. I found what I was looking for. It was an image of Captain Ellie holding her Series II blaster. After the Halloween party I discovered Nina was a huge fan of Star Patrol. Since then we’d had a number of conversations about the show and if her costume choice hadn’t clued me in during our talks she had revealed that her favorite character was Captain Ellie. Captain Ellie and her devastating Series II blaster.
I showed Sandy the picture and said, “Nina dressed up as Captain Ellie for Halloween. I’ve talked with her and Captain Ellie is her favorite character from Star Patrol. Can we make her a Series II Blaster? I know she’d love it.”
Sandy looked it over and then looked at me and smiled. He said, “So, uh, here’s what we’re going to do….”
Sandy and I searched the web and found all the documentation we could on the Series II blaster so we knew exactly what one was supposed to look like. Then we started searching through the free designs that had been posted for 3D printing. We found one that was close enough that Sandy thought we could make some small changes/additions to the design to produce what should be a really close match to the one used on the show. Since the lunar gravity is only one sixth that of Earth, water shooting from a water gun can travel up to six times as far as it would on Earth. That gave Sandy an idea and in CAD, Sandy pulled the pump mechanism from a standard water gun design into our Series II blaster design. He then took it one step further and incorporated a low power laser pointed right down the exit tube for the water. When you pulled the trigger, not only would water shoot out the barrel of the blaster, but the laser would illuminate the water stream making it appear like a blaster ray from the series.
With the design basically done, Sandy said, “I’ll show you how to actually produce the parts tomorrow evening. In the meantime, I have a new job I want to train you on.” I had come in to work today worried that Sandy might fire me. Hearing he wanted to give me additional responsibilities s
urprised me. Sandy laughed and said, “There goes that face again telegraphing what you’re thinking. So, uh, look, you made a mistake. Fortunately, no permanent harm came from it. People make mistakes and I’m counting you as people. We need to move on and before your little mistake you were doing great so I’m giving you something new to do in addition to your regular job.”
Normally, the shop ran as what they called a job shop. That meant random jobs came in the door and were worked on as opposed to a production shop where they set the machines up to make one thing and then produced thousands of them. Sandy explained that a job had come in for the VMC’s that were going to tie two of the machines up for a long time producing some complicated parts. In addition to the parts being complicated, a large number of them needed to be made. Rather than having someone watch the machine all day to take out the finished parts and put in the blanks to be machined, Sandy had set them up with a pallet system. You loaded the pallet up with the blank parts and then put the pallet in the machine. The VMC worked on each blank part and when it completed everything on the pallet all someone had to do was change out the pallet for a new one.
After showing me how to put the parts on the pallet and then take them off, Sandy then showed me how to load the pallets in the machine.
He said, “Bryce, load up both VMC’s with pallets ready to go and the day shift Ghost will run them tomorrow. In the morning before you start the cleanup, have two additional pallets ready to go and I’ll load the second set into the VMC’s during the day. When you come in tomorrow evening, before you start cleaning unload both VMCs and then unload all four pallets. Then repeat the cycle by loading up two pallets and putting them in the VMC’s. I’ll probably have you doing this for the next two weeks. Any questions?”