Strangers at the Door

by Dan Eaton

  I shoved the rods into the first failed bed, took the reading, and said, “Holy crap.”

  Plants need a certain amount of water, not too much, not too little. One of the hardest things about getting plants to grow on the Moon, was making sure they didn’t get too much water. The lower lunar gravity resulted in capillary action being a much stronger force and extra water just didn’t drain away.

  I looked at Mom and said, “Something is wrong. The bed is way too wet.”

  Mom nodded and said, “Check the other beds.”

  When I came back to her, I said, “They’re all the same, too much moisture. I don’t understand how that could have happened.”

  “Is that the same TDR you used before? Here, take this one and try it again.”

  While I was re-checking the beds, Mom had her E-pad out and was furiously pulling up data. She interrupted my testing and said, “Bryce, what did the readings say the day you signed off on the plots?”

  “They were within the limits, you can see that on the reports.”

  “I see that in the reports, yet I also see how much water was used in this room that day and it’s way over what it should have been. Are you sure you checked the right beds that day?”

  I was getting a little angry at my mom about the way she was grilling me.

  I snapped back at her, “Of course I checked the right beds and I’m telling you, the readings were all normal. Maybe there was a leak or something.”

  My mom looked down at her E-pad for a minute and then said, “Bryce, there was no maintenance logged that day to fix a leak and there’s only been the expected water usage in here since that day. Do you want to tell me what really happened?”

  “Mom, nothing happened. I checked the plots like Myra asked me to and they were fine. I don’t know how the extra water got in there.”

  In a quiet voice, my Mom said, “I know I put a lot of pressure on you about working with the Zhangs. You don’t have to cover for them. If they over watered the bed, you can tell me.”

  That made me mad and I said, “Mom, if the Zhangs screwed up, wouldn’t it make more sense for me to point it out to you so maybe you’d fire them and we’d be done with this awful idea?

  She looked at me with a mix of shock and sadness on her face and said, “Oh Bryce, tell me you didn’t sabotage their work.”

  I was really hurt my mom would even think that was possible. I angrily threw the TDR down and said, “Screw this. I told you before I didn’t sabotage their work. I checked the beds, and everything was okay. That’s all I know.”

  I turned around and walked out of the chamber, slamming the door as I went.

  It was Saturday morning, normally a time for me to be lazy and sleep in. This morning I had woken at five after a sleep that left me feeling like I had been fighting my bed all night. I got up and cleaned up, then sat in the kitchen wondering what to do with myself. I really wanted to be anywhere but here. I wanted to go for a long walk and just try to process through everything that had happened lately. Nina had dumped me yesterday. I had really mixed emotions about it. I had dreamed of having Nina for a girlfriend for so long, yet the truth was having her, wasn’t the same as wanting her. Nina, it turned out, pooped just like everyone else. It hurt to lose her, though it was also a relief in some ways. Then there was the fight with my mom. I felt hurt and betrayed by how she had thought I had messed up the work the Zhangs did.

  I’d been sitting there for a while, when Dad stumbled into the kitchen. I get my not being a morning person from him. He sat down, scratched his head, and said, “Morning sport. What the heck are you doing up so early?”

  I just gave him a sad look and said, “Girl problems, Dad.”

  He nodded his head sagely and said, “Yeah, your mom told me about your fight with her. You need to politely work that out with her. No screaming, you hear me?”

  “Yes, sir. Did you hear Nina broke up with me too?”

  “Bummer, anything I can do to help?”

  I shook my head no and said, “Fraid not, what I really need is to get far away from the habitat and spend time trying to think all this crap through. I’m just stuck here in this house unless I want an escort. I’ll muddle through it somehow.”

  My Dad sat there for a moment just staring off into space and then got a big smile on his face.

  “Let me get cleaned up and then we’re outta here.”

  When Dad was done showering and getting dressed, he made a couple of quick calls. We were heading out the door when Mom came out of the bedroom. She looked at the both of us and just said, “Love you”

  Dad gave Mom a peck on the cheek and said, “I’ve got some serious father/son bonding stuff to do with my son. I’ll give you a call later. Love you.”

  Dad escorted me to the cafeteria and we grabbed a couple of box breakfasts to go. From there, Dad led me over to the vehicle park where a transport was waiting for us. We took the last seats as the operator sealed the bus up and headed it for the air locks.

  I looked over at my dad and said, “What’s going on?”

  Dad said, “Well, you said you needed to get away from the Habitat and you wanted time alone to think. I may be wrapping things up at the accelerator now that the project is almost finished, however, I still have enough pull to get the two of us in there. It’s not likely that Mr. Zhang is going to show up with his son, so as long as they don’t, you’re free to wander around the Payload Preparation Room without an escort. You might need an escort elsewhere in the facility, however, at least it won’t be because of Yang.”

  With the test shot complete, there was a bunch of performance data to be analyzed before they did the next shot. So, essentially, that giant room was empty until it was time to put together the next test payload. When we got there, Dad gave me some space and headed off to his office in the administration section. I just started walking along the walls of the big, empty room and thinking about my life. It came to me on the tenth or the eleventh lap around the room that my life was slowly disappearing around me. First, it had been Myra, and then Willie and most of the freshmen class, then it was Nina, and finally, it was my Mom. It was like everything I cared about was being stolen, and it wasn’t much a stretch to realize the person mostly benefiting from this was Yang. I didn’t think he had some diabolical plan for stealing everything from me, although the effect was much the same.

  I spent a lot more time doing laps of the room. I didn’t come to any startling conclusions or ways to fix what was broke other than I need to find a way to regain what I had lost. It sounded like one of those things that was easier said than done. I decided the top two things to do first were to make up with my mom and to try and gain Willie’s trust back. I walked for another hour until my stomach started reminding me that breakfast had been long ago. I was feeling kind of bummed out, however, the food cheered me up and spending time with my dad was the highlight of the day. Halfway through lunch, I had remembered the strange equipment I had seen the last time I was there and asked me dad about it.

  He challenged me then and there to a game of Horse, lunar basketball style. It would have been ridiculously easy to stuff a normal basketball hoop in the reduced lunar gravity. To combat that, the hoops were now positioned twice as high as normal. The lighter weight of the balls, meant that they would travel much further when thrown, so to keep people from scoring goals from the far end of the court, the skins of the ball now had a tufted surface to increase drag and shorten how far they could be thrown. I took the best three out of five and beat my dad at the game of Horse. My life sucked at the moment. I needed to move forward and at least now, I had a plan. Plus, I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with my dad.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Respite

  Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Tuesday, January 11th, 2039.

  In Habitat News, with the successful test shot from the linear accelerator last Wednesday, Transcor corporation is pleased to announce the transfer of accelerator operations to the No
rthern Lunar Habitat as of today. Desmond Burns, project leader for Transcor, will remain on site with a small team for the next three months to advise and consult on any operational issues with the accelerator.

  Chef Patel at Seline’s Bistro would like to remind all lovers that Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Because of seating issues, only a limited number of dinner reservations will be accepted. Please make yours now before they all disappear.

  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.

  With Nina withdrawing from my life, I had one less escort, which made going places all the harder. Luckily, Adam and Ananyu, had stepped up at school to fill in the gap. Today, Ananyu had escorted me up to the cafeteria. Once we got there, she went to sit with Nina, however, she still had her eyes on me. Nina just looked sad and depressed. I understood how she felt and couldn’t bring myself to be angry at her for breaking up with me.

  I was just sitting there playing with my food, when there was a tap on my shoulder and Myra said, “Mind if I join you?”

  I smiled at her and said, “I’d love for you to but I thought Emperor Yang put a nix on us talking together.”

  “Yeah, funny things about making demands like that, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. I told him I needed to talk to you and if he didn’t like it, I’d start treating him exactly how he’s having me treat you. He said he hopes we have an excellent lunch.”

  I chuckled and said, “Did he really say that?”

  “No. He broke the rules when he pulled that little stunt while you guys were dancing so I don’t really care what he thinks.”

  I was really happy Myra had sat down. Maybe there’d be a price for me to pay later with Yang yet I really wasn’t worried about it. Myra made me smile and I really needed to smile at this point.

  “So what brings you by?”

  “Duh, you dummy. I wanted to see how you were doing since you and Nina, the wonder girl, aren’t hooked up any more?”

  “Oh. I guess I’m doing better than I thought I would be. Nina was great, and it was a dream come true going with her but—”

  “But the reality was a lot different than the dream, wasn’t it.”

  “Yeah, I enjoyed being with her. Somehow, though, I noticed we seldom did anything I wanted and pretty much always ended up doing what was on her schedule.”

  “So, you’re glad to be rid of her?”

  “No, I miss her. I just thought there would be more give and take in the relationship.”

  Myra said a little wistfully, “Maybe next time, Bryce. So you’re a little sad, although otherwise okay?”

  “Duh, Myra. Nina just dumped me, this thing with my Mom has me feeling like no one trusts me and I’m running really short on friends. I’m not okay. It’s going to be a tough road, although I am going to survive. Getting to talk to you is a big help.”

  “It’s good to talk to you too.”

  A germ of an idea sprouted in my head and I said, “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. I’ve been like a leaf in the wind since this all started, just blown to where ever with no choice about what happened. I want that to stop. I want my life and my friends back. I really need my friends back. Do you think Emperor Yang would still behave himself if you had lunch with me one day a week?”

  “I think that’s a great idea. I’ll talk to his mom about it.”

  “Huh? I thought Yang was the one calling the shots on that?”

  “It’s complicated. In his head, Yang thinks I’m his secret girlfriend. In reality, his parents are much more conservative than ours and he can’t have a real girlfriend until he goes off to college. He can’t even dance with a girl until he gets out of high school. That’s why he was dancing with his sister when he bumped into you. Most of the time you see me and him together, it’s really me spending time with Mei and through her, I got to be friends with their mom, Mrs. Zhang.”

  I mulled that over for a moment and asked, “So she’ll tell him to not make a fuss about you eating lunch with me?”

  “No, she’ll probably tell him she’s concerned about how much time he’s spending with me and I’ll volunteer to have lunch with you instead so he won’t be so tempted. He got into so much trouble with his parents over the dance incident that he won’t dare disagree with her over me eating lunch with you. We can eat together everyday if you’d like.”

  I didn’t say anything for a minute and Myra playfully said, “What’s the matter, you don’t want to eat lunch with me every day?”

  I quickly said, “No, that would be great to eat lunch with you every day, It’s just—”

  “It’s just you’ve built this image of Yang being some very powerful adversary who’s calling all the shots. It’s really not that way, Don’t take this the wrong way, however, in a lot of ways, Yang reminds me of you. If circumstance had been different, the two of you would probably be good friends.”

  It was a strange thought that Yang and I could be good friends.

  “Are you sure about that? I mean I don’t think I’m anything like him.”

  Myra just laughed and said, “Don’t you think it’s ironic how both of you have made the other into some big bad nemesis? I mean, you aren’t really this mean, racist, that’s always trying to strike out against him are you?”

  “Myra, you know I didn’t do any of that stuff.”

  Myra gently said, “I know Bryce. I’m just trying to say that things aren’t really as they appear for both of you. Just something to think about.”

  Ananyu came up to take me back to class then. Myra looked up at her and said, “Hi, Ananyu. I got Bryce, I think Nina probably can use your company more than we can at the moment.”

  Ananyu looked surprised at Myra and said, “Oh, okay. That’s actually excellent. See you back in class.”

  I walked with Myra back to class. She’d given me plenty to think about, though the best thing was she was back. Now to figure out how to get Willie back.

  The habitat was buzzing with rumors about Denali Aerospace’s birthday celebration for the CLT30. There were now twelve CLT30’s in operation and Denali was forecasting that number would triple by next year based on the number of confirmed orders they had. Countries that never had a space program before, suddenly found that for the price of a CLT30 and the relatively low transportation cost to get someone in orbit, they too could have a presence in space and an opportunity to participate in a growing market. To celebrate their good fortune, Denali was hosting a birthday party at the Habitat and all of the residents had been invited.

  Miss Gayle took advantage of the activities surrounding the birthday party by taking the classes on a morning field trip to the Viewing Room where we could witness Denali’s latest CLT30 returning from Earth, where it had picked up a contingent of prospective customers and reporters. The recently certified CLT-SB was sitting on landing pad 2 when the CLT30 landed on pad 1, giving the customers and reporters a close up look at the newest member of the CLT family. After watching the landing and the transports shuttle the VIPs around looking at the CLT-SB, Miss Gayle headed us back to class. Even as good as she was, she had a hard time keeping our minds on the class and the day seemed to drag on forever.

  When Adam dropped me off at my house after school, I was surprised to see my mom was home from work.

  She asked me to sit down in the kitchen and said, “Bryce, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about our argument. I think both of us could have handled things better. I also think we need to have a long discussion about what happened and after the events at the dance maybe you have a point. All that needs to be talked about, however, right now I’m just bone tired. What I really need is to spend a quiet dinner with my husband and m
y son, maybe have some good dessert, and then go to bed early. Could we call a truce on this until I finish my work on the Grand extension and we have time to sit down and talk it out?”

  “Sure, Mom. Dad won’t be home for at least another hour. Why don’t you go take a nap while I finish my homework. When Dad comes home, we’ll go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat together.”

  We were sitting there at dinner when I was surprised to see Willie walking up to our table. I’d been trying to find a way to talk to Willie and get our friendship back on track. I hadn’t made any progress so I was really happy when Willie said, “Hey, Bryce. Can I talk to you for a moment?”

  “Absolutely, Willie. I know things haven’t been the best between us lately, though I’d really like to change that.”

  “Well, I don’t understand what’s going on with you and the Chinese. Myra sticks up for you so I thought I’d better tell you what I found out.”

  He looked concerned and I said, “Willie, what’s going on?”

  “One of the reporters has been asking about you. Her name is Dana Murphy, she talked to me and I got the feeling she was really digging for dirt. The other reporter told me later to watch what I say to her. He didn’t seem to like her much. Anyways, I didn’t tell her a lot and I didn’t say anything at all about you and the Chinese, but you know if she’s really digging it’s not going to be long before she finds out.”

  I thought about what Willie had said and the way he was saying it. I was concerned about this reporter, however, I also saw I had an opportunity with Willie and I wanted to take it.

  “Willie, about this whole thing with the Chinese, can I talk to you about it?”