by Dan Eaton
I know it sounds silly, however, I really liked seeing the shipping container. I’d seen a bunch of them back on Earth on either trains or trucks and it was nice seeing something familiar again, even if this particular container had been made here on the Moon and had never been to Earth. It was also nice just melting into the crowd. My classmates were all too busy gawking at the sights to pay much attention to me. Nina was sticking to me as usual, yet normally, most of the two classes were either ignoring me or a few, were openly hostile. What really hurt, was Myra wouldn’t even look at me since the incident. She, Mai, and Yang were standing off to the side talking. Like every other time I’d seen her since that morning, she had her back to me, making sure she couldn’t see my face..
Miss Gayle asked if we could see Launch Control and Dad lead us into the Administration section and up a set of stairs into the upper level where Launch Control was located. Along the outer wall was a set of windows looking out over the Payload Launch Room. Filling the far wall were rows of monitors showing all of the important locations associated with a launch.
Charlise asked, “Mr. Burns, is this where my mother will be working?”
“This is one of the places. Your mother and the other Monitors will be watching over the launches from those consoles over there. Before the launch, they’ll be briefed downstairs in Administration and they’ll spend time out in the Payload Launch Room and Payload Preparation Room validating the payloads.”
Eventually, we ran out of things to see and questions to ask. Dad and Miss Gayle lead us back to the transport, where they took a head count to make sure we weren’t leaving anyone behind. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one tempted to stay and enjoy all of that empty space. With us loaded up, the vehicle maneuvered out through the airlocks and then pulled around to the building at the bottom of the ramp. We had to wait briefly as another transport was coming down and had almost reached the bottom. Soon, with the cable attached to the front, the bus was making it steady way up the hill. After detaching the cable at the top, the vehicle pulled over to the side of the road and stopped at Miss Gayle’s request. Sitting there on the northern horizon was the Earth in all its glory. It was about three quarters full and no one on the bus was talking as we sat there mesmerized by our home world’s view. After letting us have a good, long look, the driver started the transport back up and down the road we went.
CHAPTER NINE
Presents, wanted and unwanted
Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Monday December 20th, 2038.
In Habitat News, Mussconny Fabrication has announced plans to expand with a new facility located near the Transship Facility. The new facility will include both manufacturing, recreational, and housing spaces.
In financial news today, on the Lunar Stock Market shares of Mussconny Machine are trading at $31.70 a share, Mussconny Fabrication at $35.01 a share, Hotel Whipple shares are at $31.39. O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is at $26.08 a share and CDB Farms is trading at $26.32 a share. MM Brewing is at $2.72 a share, and Daniels Designs is at $2.35 a share. Psuche Neural is at $12.70 a share.
I straightened up as I completed the first step in clearing out the garden bed in this growth chamber. My mom used every trick in the book to produce as much food as possible from each chamber. This bed was a perfect example. Like the surrounding beds, the most notable feature were the potato towers. The towers were made from wire fencing that Sandy specially produced for my Mom. There were five layers to a tower which typically yielded fifty plants per tower or a heck of a lot of potatoes.
If clearing the bed was just about the potatoes, I would have been finished, because that just involved taking off the metal fencing, knocking the tower over, and picking out the potatoes. My mom, wouldn’t be satisfied with something so simple. Surrounding each tower in the bed were open areas and Mom had made use of the space by planting various companion plants that were compatible with the potatoes. In this bed, she had planted horseradish.
I liked the sauce on roast beef, although, I wasn’t that thrilled with harvesting the plants. First, I had to cut off the tops of the plants for use as greens in the cafeteria. Some folks thought the greens were poisonous, yet in normal quantities, the greens were nutritious if maybe not a flavor I really enjoyed. Damaging the plants by cutting off the tops released an enzyme reaction that manufactured an irritating vapor far worse than the sting you got when peeling onions. We had quickly learned to have a fan blowing the fumes away from them while harvesting, however, my eyes were still watering by the time I was done.
Adam showed up with a cart to haul away the greens. Security was keeping a close eye on the doors to any growth chamber I was working in. No one who wasn’t from CBD Farms was allowed in and I could only leave if I was escorted.
“Man, that horseradish burns. How come we got stuck harvesting this stuff?”
“Sorry, I guess it’s my fault. I got into it with my Mom about working with the Zhangs. I guess you’re sharing the doghouse with me through association.”
Adam just laughed and said, “I argue with my mom all the time. It’s like a game to us.”
“Yeah, not so much a game with us. Having Yang around me is just asking for trouble. I can’t get her to see it that way. She thinks we’ll learn to get along together and be singing Kumbaya together by the end of the day.”
“Don’t worry about it, dude. I got your back and Myra is running herd over those two while they reset beds. Now, come on and help me get these greens loaded into the containers so we can stop smelling this stuff.”
The cart had three containers on it that could be sealed up once the greens were loaded. Adam and I got them loaded up and he took them off to the kitchens so they were out of my hair. I watched the cart exit through the door and then turned around to start knocking over potato towers. Mei Zhang was standing there looking at me like I was a dragon and she was the princess on the lunch menu. It pissed me off at first, I wasn’t the person Mei thought I was. I started to snap at her, yet the more I looked at her crestfallen face, the sorrier I felt for her. From my dealings with her, she was a sweet kid who was in a place she didn’t want to be and was now facing someone she felt had done harm to the brother she obviously loved very much.
Instead of biting her head off, I said as warmly as I could, “Hi Mai. It looks like you got a bad whiff of the horseradish. The stuffs pungent. Stand by the fan a minute and it’ll make it better.“
She had a confused look on her face for a second and then said, “Sorry to bother you Bryce, but Myra was wanting to know when you and Adam would be done with these beds. We are making good progress on resetting the beds she has us working on and she was thinking about breaking earlier for lunch if you’re going to be a while yet?”
She still looked scared of me so I said, “Mai, it’s okay. I’m not going to cause any problems. You can relax. I feel terrible about what happened to your brother. I didn’t have anything to do with it. I certainly don’t want to make you feel bad. I know I’m on your brother’s shit list, but can you please give me a chance?”
Mei looked up at me shyly and said, “Maybe.”
Maybe wasn’t great, however, it was better than “hell no” so I took what I could get.
“That’s great. Thank you. Tell Myra we had horseradish in this plot so it’s taking longer than we expected and if she wants to break early for lunch, that’s fine with me and Adam. Oh, tell her I’m sorry I didn’t get her E-Pad message.”
Mei looked happier now that she was getting to leave and said, “Okay, Bryce. I will tell her. Bye.”
I figured Myra had tried reaching me by E-Pad. I had set mine down by the tools and hadn’t heard it chirp for an incoming message which wasn’t unusual given the distraction the fumes from the horseradish was providing.
I started knocking down the potato towers by unhooking the metal fencing that held them in place and then tipping over the layers inside. That let me get to the potatoes and then it was just a matter of picking them
out of the clutter. Which left me time to think and I flashed back to the argument this morning. I hadn’t exactly forgotten Mom’s decision to hire the Zhang kids, although I sorta figured that with the politics involved, a decision to let the Zhangs work for my mom would take forever. It turned out, forever was actually about three weeks and this morning my mom had lowered the boom on me by saying, “I want you and Adam working on harvesting in section 21 A this morning.”
I didn’t think anything unusual about that and said, “Okay, what’s Myra going to be doing?”
Mom gave me one of those looks where I knew I wasn’t going to like the answer and said, “Myra is going to be training the Zhang kids on how to reset plots. That should keep you and Yang away from each other until you two can behave around each other. I expect you to be on your best behavior if you do end up in the same room.”
It just slipped and I said “Aw, crap.”
The discussion went down hill from there. I love my mother, I really do, though this idea of hers about me and Yang working together was just stupid. By the time we were done it got pretty heated with my mom telling me I could shut up and go do the work I was assigned or I could quit and have nothing further to do with the Farm. I was so mad I almost did quit, yet my name is on CDB Farms and it didn’t seem right to be walking away from that.
Mom and I have never fought like that before.
I didn’t even look at her as I said, “Yes, Ma’am. I’ll do my assigned work.”
I just stalked off and didn’t look back. I didn’t get far before I wanted to run back and tell Mom I was sorry. Then I started thinking about how bad things would be if Yang and I got into it. I really didn’t need to be at odds with my mom, especially with all the other crap going on. I’d just have to find a way to convince Mom that she was wrong before something bad happened.
It was Christmas morning and we’d come down to the cafeteria early to have breakfast together. Mom and I hadn’t made up from the fight the other day, however, by mutual unspoken consent, we had called a truce for the day. There had been a special supply run to bring in food for the holidays and the buffet this morning had special items on it like breakfast pizza made with cheese, eggs and sausage. There was also fresh fruit, banana bread, pastries and other delicacies meant to lift our spirits for the holiday. I had filled my plate with as many goodies as I could and then got a big glass of Coke to wash it down with. Dad had pretty much done the same except he swapped out the glass of Coke for one with orange juice. Mom had a plate with pastries and fresh fruit along with a cup of coffee that smelled amazingly good, even if I didn’t like drinking the stuff.
I had just about finished my plate and was thinking about going back for seconds when a familiar voice said, “Merry Christmas, Bryce.”
I looked up and Myra was standing there. Myra hadn’t spoken to me or even looked at me since someone had written those awful words on Yang’s desk. I thought she hated me and blamed me like everyone else did and yet, here she was standing before me and smiling at me. I quickly looked around as I thought of Yang and the urgent need not to have another confrontation with him.
She gently said, “It’s okay, Bryce. He won’t bother us today. May I sit down?”
I was stunned by her request and a little confused on how to answer it. We had been best friends and for all the world, I wanted her to sit down and talk to me for hours. She had also acted like I was guilty of the things I had been accused of and that was hard to swallow. There was also a little bit of me concerned about how Nina would react to me talking with Myra, yet I had also reached a point where I didn’t care anymore.
I was about to say, “No,” when Mom spoke up and said. “Merry Christmas, Myra. Sit down and talk to Bryce, we’ll be right back.”
She and Dad gave us some privacy and went over to say hi to Myra’s parents.
Myra settled in across from me and said, “I know how it looks, like I abandoned you because of what happened between you and Yang. That’s not how it is and I wouldn’t do that to you. Bryce, I’ll always have your back, you know that, don’t you?”
I looked in her eyes and saw the pleading in them and said with more heat than I wanted to, “Myra, you have a really strange way of having my back. After what happened in the classroom, you acted like I didn’t exist. I know we really hadn’t been able to talk much before that because of Nina, but I always felt I could reach out to you if I needed to. I had trouble enough getting other people to believe that I didn’t do it and you turning your back on me just convinced them that you didn’t believe me so why should they?”
Myra had tears in her eyes and said, “I’m so sorry, Bryce. I did have your back despite how it looked. Please let me explain.”
I looked at the girl who had been so close to me once upon a time and almost told her to leave. I was supposed to be keeping a low profile and the longer the two of us sat here, the more likely either Yang or Nina would show up and a nasty mess would erupt. Part of me, really missed Myra and I decided to give her one last chance.
“Okay, go ahead and tell me how pretending I didn’t exist meant you had my back.”
Myra wiped her eyes and took a moment to compose herself.
“Yang was seriously pissed that day. Those awful words and then Nina knocking him to the floor were a huge insult to him and he was just furious. Miss Gayle had taken him to her office and made sure he wasn’t injured. She tried to calm him down and eventually escorted him back to his parents and explained to them what had happened. After Sam had taken my statement, and we were released from school, I went over to the Zhangs to check on Yang. He was still very angry and insisted that you had done it. He said he had spoken with his father and his father was going to contact their government with a request that you be charged and prosecuted. I’m not allowed to be alone with Yang and Mr. Zhang and Mei were in the room with us. I was pleading with Yang that you didn’t do it when Mr. Zhang interrupted me and asked me how I could be so sure you didn’t do it. He talked to me for over an hour asking things about you and trying to understand you better. In the end, he agreed not to send the message to his government and let the local authorities handle it. However, there was a cost to it.”
If what Myra was saying was true, she had saved my butt. Now I understood why Mr. Zhang hadn’t made a fuss, although, it just didn’t jive with how Myra had treated me after that day.
“So what was the cost?”
With a sad look on her face, Myra said, “Yang wasn’t happy about his father’s decision and insisted that I have nothing to do with you until this was resolved. Mr. Zhang disapproved of Yang for saying that and told me that was not a condition I had to keep as far as he was concerned. I knew if I did it, that Yang would settle down so he wouldn’t be pestering his dad to have you kicked off the Habitat. If that was the cost I had to pay to keep you around, I thought it was worth it, even so, I extracted my own condition from Yang.”
“You let Yang blackmail you to try and save me?”
Myra shook her head and said, “No, I don’t think Yang saw it as blackmail as much as keeping me safe from you. He really doesn’t have a very good opinion of you or what you might do.”
“So why did you agree to it then?”
Myra looked at me and then lowered her head. She said, “You have to believe me that the foremost reason I did it was to protect you. Me ignoring you makes Yang happy and keeps him from stirring up things either with his father or directly with you. I would have done it just for that, yet I did need something too, and that’s the condition I extracted from Yang.”
“What was the condition?”
“I told him I’d ignore you until this was over, though if it went on for a long time I needed him to stay away from you on Christmas Day and I needed to talk with you that day for as long as I wanted. He agreed and gave me his word. His father told me Yang would be true to his word.”
All I could say at that point was, “But, why?”
Myra looked at me with sadness
in her eyes and said, “Because of Jessie.”
Jessie was Myra’s best friend who had drowned last year on Christmas Eve when the car she was riding in had been swept off the road by a flash flood. I knew Myra had been having sessions with Christine after she hit me at her birthday party, although, after Christine let us start talking together again I thought that had all been resolved.
I just dumbly said, “What about Jessie?”
“Jessie’s death affected me far more than I thought it had. Christine has helped me to come to terms with her loss, but there’s something I need to do today and I need you with me.”
I understood. I understood that when I thought my friend had abandoned me she really did have my back. She made a deal to keep me safe and was willing to pay a price I would never have asked her to. Now she was asking for a small thing in return and it was beyond my power to say no to her.
I looked over at her with a smile and teasingly said, “Let me check my schedule, I might be busy.”
She had a surprised look on her face and her lips mouthed an “Oh.”
Then, with a mischievous look, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small present covered in bright Christmas wrapping paper.
She handed it to me and said, “I came prepared.”
I opened it up and it was a Gogo scorekeeper tablet like she had given me last year.