Strangers at the Door
Page 10
I looked up to see Ananyu looking down at me. I said, “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, Myra and I were talking to your Mom, who asked us if we had seen you and seemed a little worried. Nina was busy chatting up the Konovalovs and I didn’t think she’d appreciate me sending Myra to find you so I decided to come myself.”
I felt kind of ashamed that I had worried my Mom, and Ananyu probably had better things to do than track me down. I said, “You didn’t have to hunt me down. I feel bad that you had to leave the party because of me. How did you find me anyways?”
“Christine asked me to help with the welcome when their CST-30 landed so I’ve already got to meet and spend some time with the new families so don’t think I’m missing anything. I had a feeling you’d be down here at the waterfall so I decided it was better that I come to find you. “
She sat down on the bench next to me and watched the waterfall’s droplets slowly fall in the lunar gravity to the pool below us.
“So, feel like talking about what happened?”
“What happened is I went to LL1 and the Chinese bad mouthed my Dad and threatened to destroy everything I left behind. I had weeks to worry about that all by myself. Then when it’s all over, everyone treats the Chinese like they’re big heroes and nothing gets said about what they threatened, what they put me through. Then, what makes it even worse is I get back here and everyone treats it like it was no big deal. You could have all died. Mom says it was all words and I need to let it go. The words hurt me. I thought I was getting through this, although seeing the Zhangs just brought all those feelings back and I couldn’t deal with meeting them. I don’t think they would have liked what I had to say and I’m not happy with myself for wanting to say it so badly.”
Ananyu sat there for a minute processing what I had said and then said, “Wow, Bryce. I guess none of us realized what it was like for you. We thought you were off on this adventure having the time of your life. I didn’t think what it would be like to be out there alone except for Sandy and hearing all the terrible garbage on the news. Every evening while this was going on, Christine would pull us into the cafeteria and give us an update on what was happening. They even set up a laser communication link so we could ask questions of the administration back on Earth. We heard about the rocket on the pad, though we were told the US intelligence community was certain it was a communications satellite the Chinese were planning to position at the Lagrange point behind the Moon. There’s supposed to be a future Chinese mission to the far side of the Moon and the satellite will give them a communications route back to Earth. When there was something worrying on the news, it was addressed that evening. We really never felt threatened and the worse we had to deal with was the communications blackout that kept us from talking to anybody back on Earth.”
Hearing her say that made me feel better. Sandy had told me he didn’t think the threat was real, yet hearing that the folks at NLH had been told the rocket really was a communications satellite helped me to defang that demon. The other thing that made me feel better was hearing why none of my peers had felt the same way I did. When I wasn’t being distracted by Nina, I had felt isolated since none of my classmates seemed to harbor any resentment towards the Chinese. It made sense now and I felt like a weight had been lifted from me. I still felt what the Chinese had done was unfair, however, I didn’t feel so isolated anymore.
“I’m really glad you told me that. No one told me about the daily briefings and I couldn’t understand why you guys didn’t feel the same way I did.”
“Didn’t Nina say anything about the briefings when you asked her?”
“When I talked to Nina about it, she just said it wasn’t a big deal and I should move on. I probably could have found out from Myra, but up until the Homecoming dance I couldn’t talk to her and then after that, when I could talk to her, Nina didn’t want me to talk to her. I probably should have talked to Willie about it, but he’s been busy and Nina has been taking up a lot of my free time.”
Ananyu stood up from the bench and said, “Yeah, she’s not handling this whole relationship thing as well as I thought she would. Sometimes, she’s a bit of a dork. I should really get back before she starts thinking I’ve made off with her boyfriend. Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be okay. I feel a lot better after talking with you. Let’s go back. I’m not going to go introduce myself to the Zhangs just yet, still, if I run into them in the cafeteria, I think I can behave myself now.”
Ananyu gave me a searching look and said, “You know, maybe you should go have a chat with Christine about this. You aren’t alone here and maybe she could help.”
“That’s not a bad idea, I’ll try to make some time and do that.”
I meant it when I said it, it just didn’t work out that way.
First thing Monday morning, Miss Gayle had both classes assemble in the lecture room on the top floor of the school. With her, on the speaker’s platform, were the five kids belonging to the UN Monitors. Miss Gayle got us quieted down and said, “Good morning. For those of you that didn’t get a chance to meet them at the party Saturday, these are our new students.”
She introduced each of them, however, didn’t put them on the spot by making them say anything at this point. I could tell Mei was still uncomfortable being in the spotlight and figured Miss Gayle had taken that into account when she decided to do the introductions. She held up a very thick stack of papers and addressed the new kids by saying, “The UN administration for the Monitoring team has thoughtfully provided the educational requirements for each of you to meet the standards of each of your nations. This was delivered to me this morning, which leaves me with no time to prepare a study plan that meets those requirements. So, as an interim step, I’m going to treat you like all the other students and do an evaluation of where you’re currently at and what we need to do to bring you to the same level as the rest of the class. With the interim study plan in place, I’ll then go back and add whatever you need to meet your individual nation’s requirements.”
She stopped for a second and gave them a welcoming smile as she added in, “Plus, we’ll try to have some fun along the way.”
With that said, she addressed the rest of us and said, “You guys have all been through this before. I expect you to help the new kids along and make them feel welcome.”
She then addressed all of us with a smile and said, “Of course, you all must realize what a tremendous opportunity this is to get to experience people from other cultures. We’ll be making the most of this opportunity.”
Miss Gayle broke us up into the two classes and sent us back to our classroom. She stayed with the freshman class to get Mei settled in while she had given us instructions to take fifteen minutes to get to know Charlise, Ren, Irisa, and Yang like she had us do when Jocelyn and Blayze had joined the class. Ananyu took over as facilitator when we got back and started off by asking if everyone had met each other at the party. Yang looked at me accusingly and said, “Unlike the others, I have not met him.”
I was embarrassed and put on the spot by what Yang said. Obviously, he must have noticed me leaving suddenly before being introduced to his family last night and he took it personally. I stumbled through an introduction by saying, “Uh, hi, I’m Bryce.”
Ananyu swept in to save me further embarrassment by saying, “Bryce was under the weather last night and had to leave suddenly. You know how it goes.” Yang hadn’t taken his gaze off me and said, “Yes, I know how it goes.”
I really hadn’t meant to get on his bad side, yet had managed to anyways.
Ananyu distracted the two of us by asking Ren where he was from. Ren’s family had lived in a little town called Indian Queens in the southwest of the UK near the UK’s spaceport built up around the former Cornwall Airport Newquay. His dad worked at an office based at the spaceport. His mom was a pharmacist. Charlise’s family had lived near Toulouse, France, where her father and mother had worked at the Centre National d' Et
udes Spatiales (CNES). Irisa’s family had lived in the city of Korolev, Russia, where her mother worked at the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities. Her dad was a heavy equipment engineer for RM-Terex.
Miss Gayle came back then and got most of us settled in doing individual study while she got the new kids started in on their assessments. The classroom had just settled down to work when Miss Christine showed up at the door and waved for Miss Gayle to join her in the hallway. They spoke for a minute and then Miss Gayle came back in and interrupted us by saying, “Miss Christine just came by and let me know something special is going on topside. Let’s take a little field trip and check it out.”
She led the class out and then stopped by the other classroom to pick up the other class. Right before we left the school, she said, “We’re getting to be a much bigger group than before. Everybody please stick together and keep the noise down.”
With that, she led us out and down the pathway until we reached the entrance to what we usually called the Cafeteria stairs. We headed up the stairs, however, instead of getting off like normal at the doors leading to the cafeteria, she led us on up to the top where the viewing room was.
A visit to the viewing room was always a treat, though it only took one look out the Eastern windows to tell something unusual was going on. When we first arrived at the NLH a year ago, the lunar shuttle had set down on Landing Pad #2. There were actually two pads, with Landing Pad #1 sitting just east of Pad #2. The pads were huge flat areas paved with sintered paving blocks and surrounded by raised berms. Having two pads seemed overkill back then, although looking out the window you could tell someone had been thinking ahead because today, each of the pads was occupied by a CLT30. Miss Gayle had the two classes gather around and said, “This past week, there were two CLT30 landings within a day of each other. Miss Christine tells me that this is the first time that has happened. She also told me that both ships are leaving today within a half hour of each other so I thought we’d come watch. Get your E-pads out and continue with your individual lessons while we wait, please.”
Willie was standing next to me on my left and Nina was guarding my right, so we just plopped down in front of the windows. Miss Gayle had grabbed a seat on one of the benches and was talking with Irisa and Meadow. I looked around, and there was Myra sitting by herself on the far side of the group. I noticed Yang had sat down near her and hoped he wasn’t going to bother her. Nina had noticed where my attention had wandered off to and said, “Bryce—.”
Miss Gayle had been keeping track of the time on her E-Pad and said, “Listen up everyone. The Lunar Spirit will be lifting off first, from the far pad in about forty seconds from now.“
We all watched out the window and joined Miss Gayle in counting down from ten. There was a flash of light from the base of the CLT30 and then it was steadily climbing into the sky on its way back to low earth orbit (LEO) for more work to do.
Once the Lunar Spirit was beyond our sight, we all settled back down to do our individual studies. I couldn’t help notice that Nina would look up from her own studies every so often to look at me. At first, I thought it was pretty cool that she was checking me out so often. Then I caught her eye’s flicking off to where Myra was sitting like she was trying to catch Myra and I sneaking glances at each other. Nina was my first real girlfriend and I hadn’t pictured her being so jealous as a part of the relationship. I’d given up on talking to Myra for her, however, she really didn’t like me talking to any other girls except Ananyu and sometimes it felt like even Ananyu had to walk on eggshells around Nina. It was great being with Nina, though sometimes I wish she could relax and not worry about me so much.
Eventually, Miss Gayle interrupted us again with the countdown for Virgin Galactic’s VLS Eve, to lift off. When the count reached zero, most of us cheered as the CLT30 pulled away from the surface. I noticed Mei, Charlise, Irisa, and Ren were a little somber. I guess for them, the VLS Eve, was their ride back to Earth and it had finally sunk in that now they were stuck here. I felt sorry for them. The UN kids hadn’t been given months to get ready for the trip. They were given scant weeks to get ready to leave the Earth and maybe the kids weren’t all volunteers like I knew the rest of us were. Just one more thing to blame on the Chinese government decisions. Mei was staring off at the northern horizon where the nearly full Earth shone brightly low on the horizon. One look at her sad face told me she certainly had nothing to do with what happened and no choice in being here.
Miss Gayle gathered us up and led us back to our classrooms. I had thought watching the lift offs would be a distraction from learning about the new kids today, however, watching their faces after the liftoff had revealed a lot about them. Miss Gayle kept us going the rest of that day with fun activities and a lot of mentally challenging tasks. I guess she understood how the UN kids felt and was doing her best to keep them distracted and help them fit in as soon as possible.
On the Monday after the Halloween party, Miss Gayle interrupted our afternoon studies by announcing we were going on a field trip to the viewing chamber. I knew from work, that Denali Aerospace was getting ready to test something called the Strongback so I was hoping Miss Gayle’s announcement meant that we were going to get to see what it was all about. Miss Gayle gathered up both classes and we made our way to the viewing chamber. When we got there, I wasn’t surprised to see Sandy was already there so I made my way over to him with Nina at my side. I said, “Hi Sandy. So is this about that Strongback project?” He turned around and smiled at us and said, “Hi Bryce, hi Nina. The Strongback is the freighter version of the CLT30 and we’ll see one liftoff in a few minutes. I think you’ll find it interesting.”
Miss Gayle came up then and said, “Hi Sandy. So what are we supposed to look at today?”
Sandy said, “So, uh, Denali Aerospace is going to be launching the CLT-SB from their private pad shortly. If you look out to the East, way in the distance you can see the Manufacturing Module. The smaller building laying further to the Southeast of that belongs to Denali. The round bump sticking out beyond the top of their building is the thing you want to watch.”
Miss Gayle went off to make sure everyone else knew where to look. Nina said, “Sandy, you said this is the freighter version of the CLT30. How come Denali is building a freighter version now? I thought the amount of freight the CLT30’s could carry was more than enough for what the Habitat needs are.”
“The CLT-SB has upgraded engines over the CLT30 which gives it an increase in the amount of freight it can carry, however, you are right, Nina, we really don’t need it currently. What we do need it for, is when the Big Shot is operational. A lot of infrastructure is going to get built in either Earth orbit or at the Lagrange points. Most of the components for those projects will be built here on the Moon and then shot into orbit by the Big Shot. There—.”
Nina said, “I get it. There needs to be a way to get those components to their final destination and that’s where the Strongback comes in.”
Nina beamed with satisfaction when Sandy said, “You always were a sharp cookie.”
Sandy’s E-Pad chirped and he called over to Miss Gayle to let her know they had reached the thirty second mark in the countdown.
Nina said, “I guess I’m just surprised they’re getting ready to release the CLT-SB so soon when the Big Shot isn’t finished yet.”
The countdown must have hit the ten second mark because Miss Gayle started counting down out loud and the rest of the class joined in with her. When the count reached zero, we saw the round bump start rising just like we had seen on the CLT30 test flight we had witnessed. This time, as the CLT-SB cleared the Denali building, we had a surprise as part of the ship was missing. The CLT-SB would have been globe shaped like the CLT30, yet where the enclosed passenger compartment existed around the equator of the CLT30, there was only emptiness. The only exception was a complex, but very strong looking truss structure that functioned to hold the front and rear pieces of the CLT-SB together.
Nina started to say something, however, she was interrupted by Jocelyn, who said, “Mr. Mussconny, is the length of that truss structure adjustable? It seems awfully complex.”
Sandy gave Jocelyn a big smile and said, “You figured it out. Yes, the truss is adjustable. That will allow the CLT-SB to handle bulky loads that otherwise there wouldn’t be room for. Today’s test flight has the truss at its minimum extension. In future flights they’ll try extending it.
By now, the CLT-SB was just a rapidly diminishing spec in the sky.
I said, “Hey Sandy, do you know how long this test flight, is?” Sandy said, “So, uh, since they’re using flight tested hardware with the exception of the truss assembly, my understanding is they are going for a more aggressive flight test profile so they’ll be gone for about a day and a half.”
That shot down my idea of talking Miss Gayle into coming back for the landing like we did on the first CLT30 test flight. Miss Gayle gathered us back up and took us back to the lecture room. We still had about an hour left of class and Miss Gayle wanted to spend some time as a group discussing what we had seen. Sometimes, I forgot that that even though she had been our teacher last year, she hadn’t seen the things we did and witnessing the launch had to be a thrill for her.
I really never gave much thought to where Sandy lived until we received an invitation from him to come attend his house warming party. With the addition of the housing sections we lived in and the opening of the Grand, the Habitat had started up a program of shutting down the older eight person bunk rooms and converting them to two person spaces. It just never occurred to me that Sandy was still living in one of the bunk rooms. They had finally got around to closing down his bunk room and moving him into an apartment in the Grand. In recognition of all he’d done for the habitat, they gave him a place large enough for two people. Sandy had protested loudly, however, no one was listening so he finally gave in and did what any normal person at the Habitat would do under similar circumstances. He invited everyone over for a party.