Chapter 17

The next morning, it was back to business as usual. Mary was up and fixing breakfast, Xina was off in the greenhouse continuing her work there and Karen was in the communication center looking to see what contracts might be worth pursuing. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting any payment for contracts for a while, but I had suggested that she look at satellites that had been controlled by the State that were now fair game for taking out.

I also took some time to bathe and shave. It wasn’t as nice as taking a shower, but luxuries like that were a thing of the past. I then pulled on some of my nicer clothes over my skin suit and headed up to greet my visitor who should be arriving soon.

Sure enough, about the time I got up to the observation port, I saw a rover headed our way. They pulled up alongside the lunar pit, that served as the entrance to my habitat, and Jim and the driver hopped down and headed to my airlock.

I met them there and once the airlock had cycled and they had removed their EVA suits, we all headed into the living quarters and got comfortable. Mary had made her first attempt at making some tea from some mint and we all shared a cup, a nice change from the usual fare.

“Tom, I know you’ve seen the news from earthside. It was a horrible situation but we had good intelligence that the State was about to launch a nuclear attack on the USF. We decided to strike first and simply obliterate their power bases.”

“I can certainly appreciate that it was a difficult decision,” I replied, “but I won’t shed any tears over those terrorist assholes.”

I had to pause and get control of my emotions and Jim just nodded, giving me time.

“However, the USF and everyone left alive is going to be facing a tough few years, with all that dust in the atmosphere and the cooling effect that it’s going to have.”

“It might not be as bad as you think. With all the challenges around global warming we’ve been having our scientists thinking that we might only get back down in temperatures to where we were in the 1960’s.”

“And the radiation fallout?” I asked, “how long will those effects last?”

“Well, that is a challenge, but if we had allowed the State to proceed, it was something we were going to be facing anyway.”

Jim paused here and gave me a hard look, “I know you are incredibly intelligent Tom, so why don’t you tell me why you think I am here.”

“Well, it has been bothering me, but I suspect you are here to gain my assistance in significantly expanding Lunar Base and increasing the number of settlers here on the moon, in order to escape the radiation earthside.”

Jim smiled and nodded, sharing a look with the woman who accompanied him. “Tom, I want to introduce you to Commander Tani Nanami. I am here to introduce the two of you and I’m hoping that you will serve as a resource for her, as she prepares for her mission.”

“And what is her mission?” I asked.

“I’m supposed to set up a permanent colony on Mars,” she replied in a mater-of-fact tone.

“We were hoping that you might work with her in an advisory role,” Jim continued. “You’ve been incredibly helpful to the folks re-building Lunar Base and we think that you could add a lot to the team working on plans for Mars, what we are calling MB1.”

“Your experiences here, and with Lunar Base could help us quite a bit. And in exchange, we are willing to offer you prime real estate on Mars, at a future time, of your choosing. Something about ten times larger than you have here on the moon,” Tani offered.

“Well, that is an interesting offer, but I have a rather nice setup here, and a way to make money. I’d never be able to replicate it there.”

“So, skimming might be out of the question, but from Mars, the asteroid belt is well within reach of a ship like yours and we would be very interested in exploring and mining the belt,” Tani replied. “And did I fail to mention that we were offering a twenty-year contract for your consulting?” Tom added, “with a guarantee of a minimum number of hours consulting.”

“Also, the dust on Mars is supposed to be a lot less abrasive than the dust here on the moon,” Tani chimed in as she rubbed at a spot where some dust had rubbed an abrasion on her wrist.

I looked at both of them and then looked around at my habitat. I had built a life for myself here on Luna. We were raising more than enough food to sustain us, though a catastrophic loss of the greenhouse would put us in a serious bind. While we could always splashdown on Earth should that happen, if we went to Mars, there was no backup plan.

But wasn’t that the case with my ancestors who headed from the European continent to the America’s back in the 1600’s? They had a long voyage into an unknown world, where one crop failure might mean that they were all going to starve.

Colonizing a planet, much like the first settlements on Luna, were drought with danger. Several had died in those early years of Lunar Base. By the time I arrived, Lunar Base was in full operation and I was able to use it as a staging area while I worked to construct my habitat.

The lava tube and lunar pit worked out great for me, but a lot of people had thought I was a bit crazy when I started my project.

So, while I could understand the appeal of being one of the first settlers on Mars, and working to establish a permanent colony there, there were also a lot advantages to living on Mars rather than Luna. For one, there would be at least some atmosphere, and the presence of carbon dioxide meant that with plants, we could always generate oxygen. Days and nights would also be more normal, though sunlight would be weaker as we were further away from the sun.

There was also higher gravity on Mars, so this had a number if implications. First, and foremost, my weakened muscles, from years spent on the moon and in space, would need to be rehabbed quite a lot. But it also meant that more plants, animals and insects would be able to grow more normally, than what we experienced on Luna.

Then, of course, the combination of gravity and an atmosphere meant that ion drives would be useless until we got into space from Mars. So, there would be no more easy launches and no more skimming.

“So, how do you propose that I would use my ship?” I asked, my thoughts coming to the surface. “Launching from the Moon is simple, which means that skimming is possible, but that wouldn’t be the case on Mars.”

Tom looked over at Tani and the two of them smiled. “See, this is why we want you to review our plans and help us get this thing started. Although we did think of that one, and a drone ship carrying the materials needed to build a catapult, are already on their way to Mars. Two other drone ships are carrying the building materials for the base that we are calling Harmony.”

“I had noticed that your catapult was rather busy lately. I figured you were up to more than just rebuilding of Lunar Base, so now it makes sense.”

“Listen,” Tom continued, “there is no need to make any decisions now. I will send over a proposed contract for you to review and feel free to get a lawyer to review it as well. We won’t be ready for humans for at least a year. We’ll start shuttling from the Moon to Mars in about a year when Mars and Earth are at their closest. So, we have plenty of time for discussion.”

I nodded and took in the expectant looks from Tom and Tani, as well as from my family. “We will certainly review everything and discuss it. It is an exciting opportunity,” I replied non-committedly.

We made small talk for a while longer, and Tom handed me a list of additional satellites that Space Command wanted taken out of service. It was good to have the inside track on these kinds of jobs, but most of my competition had headed earthside or been killed in the attack. The only folks left doing skimming work were me and a few pilots from Lunar Base who did this in their free time.

Just before Tom left, he pulled me aside and handed me a small crate that we had carried in from the shuttle. When I opened it, I found six little chicks inside their own little airtight habitat.

“I’ve been assured that these guys are pathogen free, having been hatched in a controlled environment. They have been bred for a low gravity environment and will eat the crickets that you grow, as well as forage for seeds and roots in your gardens. Their eggs will make a nice addition to your diet, and I am assured that one of them is a rooster, so try not to kill that one.”

I had never tried to grow chickens before, because it was costly to get them off planet. Someone had tried to raise a few at Lunar Base in the past, but they hadn’t done well in the micro-gravity environment and they had been sacrificed before they lost any more weight.

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A man, nearly broken by loss, lives a solitary existence off planet earth in a small habitat he has constructed on the moon.

Skimmer

Lorn Skye

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