Strangers at the Door

by Dan Eaton

  Sam showed up beside me and said, “Stand down, Bryce. Even if you beat him, you know, you’d still lose big time in the end.”

  I was so pissed. I’d been walking on eggshells for weeks trying to avoid any confrontation with Yang and the moment I let my guard down, the moment I finally relaxed, and was really enjoying myself, the dirt bag had to go take a cheap shot at me.

  Nina came up and tried to comfort me by saying, “It’s okay, Bryce. Everyone saw what happened and you’re in the clear. “

  I angrily answered back, “No, it’s not okay. Sam’s here with me, not taking the douche bag away. Everyone didn’t see what happened. Probably most people didn’t see what happened, so what kind of conclusion do you think they’re going to jump to when they see poor Yang being hustled off by his parents and that trouble maker Bryce standing here with the chief of Habitat security? And what’s wrong with you? I don’t need you jumping in between me and Yang every time he sneezes. I can take care of myself.”

  Nina had tears in her eyes when she just said “Fine, take care of yourself.”

  She exited quickly and Mom and Dad showed up.

  Sam turned to them and said, “He’s alright other than being pissed at the world at the moment. Why don’t you take him home and give him some time to cool off.”

  We started to leave and Sam said, “Bryce, I did see the whole thing and you aren’t in trouble over that. I will be coming by to have a chat with you tomorrow.”

  Mom and Dad led me out of the cafeteria and I couldn’t be happier to be rid of the place. Everyone was looking at me as we walked out and my imagination was vividly supplying me with all the nasty things they were saying. When we reached the relative privacy of the hallway, Dad quietly said, “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I almost snapped “No” at him and then thought better of it. I took a deep breath and then more calmly answered “No.”

  Dad gave me a long look and then gave me a brief nod. He said, “Your mom and I are here for you, son, if you change your mind.”

  After a fitful night of trying to sleep, and having the images of what happened roll over and over in my head, the first thing I did in the morning was to try calling Nina to apologize. I turned down an offer to go to breakfast with Mom and Dad, hoping Nina would call me back. Mom gave me an understanding look and promised to bring something back for me. It was Noon and multiple phone calls later before Nina finally answered. It took a long time before I finally convinced her to accept my apology. We weren’t totally fine, however, at least she wasn’t mad at me any more.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Fallen Times

  Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Monday, January 3rd, 2039.

  In Habitat News, a joint project has been announced between the European Space Agency’s Lunar Village and the Habitat to construct a road between the two bases. The road will be approximately eleven hundred kilometers long and will facilitate movement of heavy materials and resources. Contracts have been let with Mussconny Fabrication for the first round of autonomous paving equipment. Construction is expected to be completed within eighteen months.

  In financial news today, on the Lunar Stock Market shares of Mussconny Machine are trading at $31.93 a share, Mussconny Fabrication at $35.29 a share, Hotel Whipple shares are at $31.51. O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is at $26.23 a share and CDB Farms is trading at $26.47 a share. MM Brewing is at $2.74 a share, and Daniels Designs is at $2.36 a share. Psuche Neural is at $12.72 a share.

  Miss Gayle had been keeping us all busily occupied on this first day back since the break. As always, she had made it fun, yet the clock was running down to our release and we were all wondering what she had in store for us when she called for our attention.

  “Alright, I know this is the moment some of you have been waiting for.”

  She had a stack of report cards for the last quarter and handed them out to us.

  She let us look them over and then said, “The title for top GPA in the class has been hotly contested and this quarter I’m pleased to announce that Jocelyn Kaplow has taken top honors. Please join me in congratulating her.”

  I looked over at Nina. She was just staring straight ahead with a frown on her face. Miss Gayle released us from class a couple of minutes later. Jocelyn got up and started doing a victory dance while several of my classmates made their way over to congratulate her. I noticed Myra was hanging back while Yang was moving forward to talk to Jocelyn. I turned around to ask Nina if she was ready to go and she was gone. Ananyu was missing too, so I figured that Nina was upset about the GPA thing and Ananyu had gone to comfort her.

  Adam walked over then and said, “Hey, Bryce. Looks like the girls deserted you. How about I be your escort today and get you out of here.”

  We walked out under Yang’s glare. I don’t know what he had to be so pissed about. If I had done to him, what he had done to me at the New Year’s Eve dance, I’d be heading home to Earth. He, on the other hand, got a free shot at me with no repercussions. At least no official repercussion. It was pretty funny, now that I thought back on it, to see Yang dragged out of the cafeteria while his mom was ranting at him in Mandarin.

  Adam saw the look on my face and said, “What are you smiling about?”

  “I was just thinking about Mrs. Zhang dragging Yang out of the place the other night.”

  Adam laughed and said, “Yeah, it was pretty funny. Man, I don’t know what she was saying, but I heard enough to know I’m glad I wasn’t on the receiving end of it. He shouldn’t have bumped you. He was warned to take it easy dancing so the goof ball deserved what he got.”

  I really never spent much time talking to Adam besides while working for my mom or school and I was a little surprised to find we got along great. He dropped me off at Mussconny Machine and went on his way. Sandy wasn’t in yet so I found a clean spot on a work bench and started in on my homework. After work, my Dad picked me up and escorted me back to the cafeteria for dinner. Mom was back to working crazy hours due to the Grand expansion. While I missed seeing her, it did save us from an awkward meal together since we still hadn’t made up from the argument and from my point of view, the incident with Yang at the dance, just proved my contention that it was stupid to try and have the two of us working together.

  After supper, I tried calling Nina on my E-Pad to see what time she wanted me to come over to start studying. I tried for a half hour to reach her and then on a whim, tried calling Ananyu.

  She answered and said, “Hi Bryce. I’m talking with Nina. She’s pretty upset about her grades. Why don’t you take a break from studying with her tonight and give her some time to wrap her head around this whole not being the best in the class thing. She’s not use to it and it’s going to take her a while before she can accept it.”

  I let Ananyu go and then pondered the situation. I know Nina has this grand plan of hers. The bedrock of her plan had always been her superior grades. If she felt like her plan was failing because her grades had slipped, then that had to be pretty devastating to her. The weird thing, was most of the time Nina and I spent together was sitting in her kitchen studying. Either that know-it-all Jocelyn was really a lot smarter than Nina, or Nina had been distracted by something. Something, I realized, that was probably named Bryce. Now the question was what Nina was going to do about it.

  It had been two days since Nina had gotten the news that she no longer had the top GPA in the class. She had walked me to school the previous morning like normal, however, she hadn’t been in a very talkative mood. We normally shared lunch, although today, she just grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then asked Ananyu to stay with me and escort me back.

  When she left, I looked at Ananyu and said, “So what’s going on?”

  Ananyu turned from watching her friend leave and said with a worried look on her face, “She’s trying to figure out what’s the most important thing to her, you or her plan. You’ve become very important to her”

  It was a big boost to my ego to
hear that I really was important to Nina and I said, “Yea, I’m voting for me.”

  Ananyu looked angry for a second and then sighed.

  “I can’t blame you for wanting that. You’re going through a rough period and Nina makes you happy. I get that, but Bryce, where are you going to go to college?”

  I was taken back by the left turn in the conversation and stammered out, “I don’t know, maybe Washington University?”

  “You don’t know for sure and neither do I. Nina isn’t like us. She knows exactly where she’s going. She’ll attend the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Is Washington University in Colorado Springs?”

  “No…”

  “Of course, it isn’t. So you won’t be there with her. How about when you both graduate? She’ll be an officer in the US Air Force and will be posted many places while she tries to get into the astronaut program. Are you going to move from place to place to be with her?”

  “Ananyu, enough already. I know Nina has that plan. For now, can’t she have me and the plan? Does everything have to be settled right this moment?”

  Ananyu sighed and said, “Bryce, you and I can live with not having the future exactly nailed down. Nina has spent years working to make sure she’s on track with her life. It makes a difference to her. I’m just saying that before you go rooting for you, you might consider how it will affect Nina if she gives up on the plan and goes with you. We’re just kids, are you going to still be with Nina six months from now, a year, or two years from now? Think about it Bryce.”

  With that, she got up from the table and made it clear that it was time to go back.

  We walked back to class in silence. When we got there, Miss Gayle pulled both classes into the lecture hall and gave us a presentation on the accelerator program and what they hoped to accomplish with the test shot today. After that, she led us out of the school and to the vehicle bay where a transport stood waiting for us. We climbed aboard and soon the lunar terrain atop the Whipple crater was whizzing by the windows. When we reached the edge of the crater, instead of pulling into the cable station to get ready for a descent to Peary crater’s floor, the operator pulled the bus over to the paved overlook where we had a grand view of the floor of Peary crater and the accelerator track stretching off to the Western horizon.

  Miss Gayle, stepped to the front of the transport and activated a flat screen that had been placed there. The screen split to show a wide view shot of the launch control room on one half and a view of the payload module exiting the airlock on the other. There was a small, six wheeled locomotive behind the payload pushing it out of the airlock and onto the live section of the accelerator track. When it had the payload module in proper position on the track, the magnetic levitation system kicked in and the engine started backing up, pulling the skates that had previously supported the payload module with it. Robotic arms swung in from the sides and hooked up to the modules fore and aft sections to provide monitoring.

  The actual payload was a set of three twelve meter aluminum rings that represented structural elements of a possible space station. There was shielding on the payload module to prevent any magnetic interactions between the linear motors in the track and the actual payload pieces. The rings were instrumented to detect any interaction and cabling fed the results into the fore and aft sections. The rings were mounted parallel with the ground and dwarfed the rest of the payload module.

  From the control center, we could hear that the countdown to launch had entered the final thirty seconds. At ten seconds, Miss Gayle jubilantly led both classes through the final countdown as we watched the robotic arms detach from the payload module, freeing it for launch. When the count reached zero, the payload module just silently accelerated away. It was nothing like any of the launches we had seen in the past. It actually felt anticlimactic, more like just a car pulling away than something launching into space.

  The view of the payload module switched to a different viewpoint and showed the payload accelerating down the track. We could see the module racing down the track, out the windows of the transport, yet soon it drew far enough away that it became a tiny dot difficult to make out by just our eyes. The camera following the payload didn’t have that problem and kept the module in sharp focus despite the module’s speed and the many kilometers it was away from us now. Soon, the payload hit the start of the gentle ramp that led away from the surface. The module raced up the remaining track and then leapt out into the nothingness. It kept going, the flashing beacons on the module ends giving us a visual clue to its continuing rise above the landscape. We all let out a cheer and then listened to the reports coming in from the control room saying that everything had performed as expected and that the payload would soon reach lunar orbit.

  It was a pretty good time for me. There was no spotlight on me, it was just both classes enjoying sharing a moment in history together and I was part of it. The drama with Nina was forgotten for the moment. I was very proud of my dad and what he and his crew had accomplished. The only thing that would have made the moment better would have been if the Earth hadn’t been just a thin crescent shining low on the horizon. Even with just that tiny sliver showing, it was still good to see.

  It had been another long day at school. Nina was still avoiding me and I had eaten lunch with Adam. When class ended, I was sort of surprised to see Nina walk up to me.

  She quietly said, “Can I walk you to work?”

  “Sure, Nina.”

  We threaded our way out of the classroom and then out of the building. She still hadn’t said anything by the time we were walking along the path. I looked over at her and she didn’t look happy.

  “Nina—”

  It was like I had poked a hole in the dike. It all came spilling out at once.

  “Bryce, I’m really sorry. I,,, I have to stop going out with you. I like you so much, but you distract me and my grades … Oh, Bryce, even my parents think I should stop seeing you.”

  She started crying so I held her and she sobbed into my shoulder for a minute. Then she ran off down the path without even saying goodbye.

  I just stood there, kind of in shock, over how quickly things had fallen apart. I was sad that Nina was gone. I was a little angry that stupid plan of hers had won out over me, although, I was also relieved because Ananyu’s words had been weighing on my mind. Finally, more practically, I was a little worried because I was now out and about unescorted. I really didn’t want to get in trouble with Sam. About the time I thought that, Sam came walking down the path towards me. I thought she’d be pissed finding me out by myself. I was a little surprised when with concern in her voice she said, “Hey, Bryce, how are you doing?”

  “Sam, please don’t be mad. Nina got upset and just left me here not more than a minute ago.”

  “It’s okay. Nina had talked to me this morning about what was going on. She asked if I could be nearby in case you needed an escort. Sorry things didn’t work out for you two.”

  It was all really confusing. Nina broke up with me, however, she cared enough about me to ask Sam ahead of time to look out for me so I wouldn’t be wandering around unescorted. Sam walked me to Mussconny Machine where fortunately, all I had to do tonight was clean machines. I muddled through things until dinner time when Dad came to pick me up. Sandy took a dinner break and joined us. Dad and Sandy kept up a steady stream of conversation so I just sat back and used my fork to push the food around my plate. Sandy walked me back to work, talking up a blue streak like nothing had happened. About an hour later, things really went down hill.

  Sandy walked into the machine room and asked me to join him in his office. I wondered what was going on and when we got there, I found my mom was on the phone.

  “Bryce, did you sign off on the Zhangs work last week?”

  I had to think a minute and then said, “Oh, yeah. You assigned them those plots to reset. Myra asked me to check them afterwards since Adam was tied up.”

  “Sandy, something important has come up and I ne
ed to see Bryce right away. Can he please leave early tonight?”

  Sandy looked at me curiously and said, “Sure Cheryl, you can have him.”

  Mom said for me to wait for her and then said goodbye to Sandy.

  When Mom showed up, she thanked Sandy for letting me go early and then had me follow her down to one of the industrial sections of the Grand she rented from the habitat. This was the same room I was in last week and she read off a series of plot numbers and asked me to take a look at them. Each of the plots looked healthy with seedlings just pushing up through the soil. Then she read off a second set of plot numbers and had me check them.

  “Mom, I don’t get what you are looking for. These beds were reset last week and nothings come up yet?”

  “Bryce, all of those plots were reset at the same time with the same crop. They should all have seedlings coming up. The ones where they aren’t coming up are the one’s that Yang and Mei worked on. The ones you signed off on. Myra noticed it today and called me.”

  I looked at the bare beds and then at my mom and with a sinking heart said, “You’re accusing me of sabotaging the Zhang’s work?”

  “No, of course not, Bryce. I’m trying to understand what’s broken in the process. Go grab the TDR you used and lets go through the checklist again. The TDR was an instrument that was properly called a Time Domain Reflectometer. You shoved a couple of metal rods in the ground and the TDR made measurements that told you about several parameters of the soil. In this case, the most important one was soil moisture.