Alone in the Dark, page 8
part #3 of Lunar Age Series
“That sounds huge, like an airport back on Earth. Do they really think there’s going to be that much traffic?”
“The planning committee that Sandy is on thinks it’s just a matter of time, so they’ve carefully planned this out. The final Space Port phase has this ship bay/terminal being just one set of six arranged in a hexagon. The six sets will feed six elevators in the center of the hex. It’s hard to imagine this place, seeing that much traffic, but the planning committee has it covered just in case. Meanwhile, they can add a phase as traffic grows.”
Commander Saner and Mr. Hirayama came through the hatch with Mr. Hirayama closing and securing the hatch as he entered. Mr. Cook signaled the driver we were all set and the shuttle pulled away from the CLT30. After lowering the cabin, the shuttle made its way down the ship bay, dodging past equipment and supplies in what was clearly, normally, an active construction site. When we reached the end of the bay, the expected lock doors pierced the inner wall and the shuttle pulled in. The lock doors swung closed behind us and we sat waiting as the lock filled with air. It was a longer process than usual because of all of the dust that accompanies any construction site. The airflow into the lock chamber was retarded so any dust stayed where it was instead of being picked up and thrown into the air where it could migrate to other places.
The atmosphere indicators finally changed from red to green and Mr. Hirayama undid the hatch and opened it so we could all get out. There was a set of stairs on the right with smaller lock doors leading into a short hallway, followed by an additional set of lock doors. Once through the doors, you were into a walled off section of the terminal space. Mr. Cook took up station outside the hatch and directed everyone that exited the shuttle into the larger room. A guy I didn’t recognize came out to the shuttle carrying a pair of crutches and handed them to Mr. Cook, who handed them back through the hatch while saying, “Please pass these to Miss Tanner. I believe she’s been waiting on these.”
Mom passed the crutches to Sam, who said, “Thanks, Cheryl. Somebody was on the ball and had my request routed here. They must have a job site printer here someplace.”
Sam let the other passengers get off and then Mom and Dad helped her get off the shuttle and then into the terminal space. Nina and I waited on board as Commander Saner and Mr. Hirayama got off and then we spent the next half hour unloading all the meal kits, blankets and pillows. When that was done, Nina and I got a chance to look around our new home for the next couple of days. It wasn’t much. A temporary wall sealed off the terminal space about fifteen meters in. The wall sealed off the dust and noise from the rest of the space that was still under construction. There were some vending machines for food and drink along with a microwave. Near the vending area was a group of tables and chairs with seating for about twenty people. The rest of the room was empty.
The guy I saw earlier came through a door in the inner wall carrying a bunch of pipes and a basket full of connectors. Commander Saner looked over at me and Nina and said, “Nina, Bryce, this is Mr. Horvath. He volunteered to stay and take care of us. Would you take this stuff from him and start setting up the cots please?”
The next two days were pretty boring. While we had a safe shelter from the storm, and we had food and drink, what we didn’t have was any entertainment. Most people didn’t have their E-Pads and if they did, there was no network to pull data from. Worse, there was no news of what was going on. We could only wonder how bad of a hit Earth was taking from the storm. We were truly alone in the dark.
ACCOUNTING
Nina and I were sitting at a table after lunch on the third day when Nina nudged me and said, “Look.”
Mr. Horvath had just come out from his office and was walking purposefully over to the lock doors. He made sure they were shut and then came back to talk to Commander Saner. We heard him say, “The storm’s gone. I just got a call on the radio that a shuttle is on its way in with a work crew. If you’ll get everyone ready, we’ll send your passengers back to Peary on the shuttle. Then I’ll take you and Craig out to the CLT30 so you can get it back up and we can get it out of here. I got more crews coming in to work and we’ll need that space cleared.”
We rode the shuttle out of there. It was good to be out of that room and the cold, bleak landscape of Peary crater didn’t phase us as the shuttle driver followed the road for the almost forty kilometers it took to get back to the habitat at Peary. The planning committee had located the Spaceport near the center of the crater to avoid any crowding issues with the habitat. I thought they were over doing things, but they had a plan to link the Space Port with the habitat using a high speed train so at some point, this trip would only be a few minutes by train.
The next evening I was sitting at dinner with my mom and dad. Mom had been through a busy day and looked worried. I started to ask about the food situation, but then I remembered Commander Saner’s advice to make sure no one else was around when I did that. Both Mom and Dad had been quiet tonight and there wasn’t a lot of talking going on anywhere near us. The news from Earth was weighing on everybody. When we returned to NLH yesterday, there had been no word from Earth even though the storm was over. Efforts to contact Earth failed and the cause was found to be the down link to the trio of satellites that normally handled traffic between Earth and NLH. The trio of satellites ensured that there was always one in position to talk to the station at NLH. The failure of any of the satellites to respond was ominous.
Later that day, the laser receiver array activated. They had used the same backup system last year during the crisis with the Chinese and now it was being used again. Someone from Earth was trying to communicate directly by laser since the satellites were down. The news coming from Earth didn’t seem so bad at first. Of the five thousand four hundred and fifty three functioning satellites in Earth orbit before the storm, roughly sixty six percent still functioned or were expected to be functional shortly. The global power grid did even better with seventy one percent of the grid surviving the storm. This was far better than some of the more dire predictions. The problem was, percentages told one story, the actual numbers involved spelled disaster. Communications satellites, which made up about forty percent of the satellite fleet, were hit disproportionately harder than other types. Earth had lost one thousand, one hundred ninety nine communications satellites along with seven hundred fifty five satellites of other types. That meant replacing over eighteen hundred and fifty four satellites. The communications satellites were typically larger and more complex instruments and took longer to make. The forecast was it would take at least two years to replace the missing part of the satellite fleet. It would also take up the majority of the launches from Earth. Word was that the monthly supply run for NHL/Peary might be stretched out to four to six months.
I was deep in thought, wondering what the storm’s impact meant to NLH when a voice said, “Hey.”
Paul from school had slid into the seat across from me and next to my Mom.
He said, “Hey, Mrs. B.”
My mom smiled at Paul and said, “Hi Paul, what brings you to our table this evening?”
Before he could answer, there was a clattering next to me as Myra slid in with her tray of food. Kat wasn’t far behind and jumped up on the table to curl up across from Myra and next to Paul.
Myra said, “Hi everyone, is it okay if Paul and I join you? Kat, you know Paul doesn’t like you to sleep next to him while he’s eating”
Mom said, “Hi, Myra. It’s nice to see you and Paul this evening.”
For her part, Kat just gave Paul a belligerent look and said, “Meow.”
It didn’t take a genius to translate that into “Tough, I don’t care.”
Before I had left for Earth, Paul was a source of great annoyance to Myra. Clearly, something had changed while I was gone so I said, “Myra, what have you been up to while I was away?”
“Same old stuff. Paul and I came by to see if you want to join us studying tonight. I know how you hate to be behind at school and the storm put you even further behind.”
It was true, I was behind and Miss Gayle had loaded me up with extra homework. “I’d like that, but I’ve already got some study partners for tonight.”
“So, Jocelyn got to you first—”
“Huh?”
“Jocelyn. Cute redhead with a nice figure? Too smart for her own good? You remember Jocelyn.”
I did remember Jocelyn. I remembered all too well her behavior last year. I had ended up forgiving her, but I wasn’t quite ready to be buds with her.
“I know who you’re talking about. Why are you saying she got to me first?”
“Wait? Who are you studying with later then? You’re not getting back together with Nina are you?”
“I’m not getting back together with Nina. Ananyu came and asked me if I wanted to study with her and Nina tonight. Ananyu doesn’t think I’m a good match for either of them, so I don’t think she’s trying to get me back together with Nina. If Jocelyn said something about wanting to study with me, Ananyu must have heard and beat her to the punch to save me from having to deal with Jocelyn. That’s all that’s going on.”
Myra gave me a smile and said, “It’s so cute when you think you know what’s going on.”
Paul just gave me an encouraging smile and went back to eating. He was pretty quiet, maybe he was on to something.
WHICH WAY THE WINDS BLOW
I got home from studying with Nina and Ananyu and found my mom and dad sitting on the patio with Dr. Belvert. They waved “Hi” so I walked over and sat down. I said, “We had a good study session. I think I might be caught up by next week.”
Mom said, “That’s great, Bryce. Did Ananyu or Myra mention anything interesting happening at school while we were gone?”
“You mean other than Myra getting a boyfriend? Nothing besides that. I thought Paul just annoyed the heck out of her.”
“Liking somebody a lot can be annoying. They do make a cute couple though.”
My mom still looked tired and I had a feeling Dr. Belvert being there wasn’t just a social visit.
I said, “Mom, there’s something Mr. Saner brought up that I’ve been wanting to ask you about. Mr. Saner said to ask you in private, but I have a feeling it doesn’t matter if I ask this in front of Dr. Belvert.”
“You’re wondering about the food situation.”
“Yeah, Mr Saner said that he was worried about the food because we get so much from Earth. The news from Earth makes it sound like it might four to six months before we see another supply ship. Will there be enough food to keep us going until then?”
“The short answer is yes. The longer answer is—”
Dr. Belvert said, “What your mom’s trying to say is, how do you feel about being a vegetarian? Or maybe eating nothing but potatoes for weeks on end?”
Mom said, “We can make up the shortfall in calories, but we’re going to be short on choices. We started rationing meat today and even going to serving it once a week, we’ll probably run out before a resupply happens. We’ve been working all day to figure out how to maximize the acreage we have while maximizing the flavor of the meals that get served.”
I said, “So we eat salads every day. That doesn’t seem so bad.”
Dr. Belvert said, “Do you like salad dressing on your salad? A little something to spice it up? All of those dressings you see on the salad bar come here as a powder from Earth. We aren’t stocked for people using salad dressing three times a day. We’re going to run out. If someone serves you salad three times a day, you’re going to gripe about it. When they run out of salad dressing, you’re going to get angry. Having a whole lot of pissed off people at the Habitat and Peary is a really bad idea. We’ve been working towards being self sufficient on food, but we’re no where close to where we need to be now. If your mom and I can’t figure how to feed people reasonable meals, we may have to consider at least evacuating some people.”
“What about Chef Patel? He does crazy things turning one food into another all the time. Can he help?”
“He’s been working with us. You just missed him by about five minutes.”
I went ahead and excused myself and went on up to bed. Thinking about the news from the day kept me up a long time. What hadn’t got mentioned in the briefings from Earth was the state of the stations and the CLT30 fleet. Given the damage the satellites took, it was reasonable to assume that other things in orbit took damage, too. Heck, just stripping down the CLT-SB that they landed at NLH to keep it safe meant the ship was down for at least a week while they put it back together and checked and rechecked all of its systems. The CLT30’s and other vessels that couldn’t be brought back to Earth would have been docked at the stations. The stations would have all been evacuated. So did no word on the stations or CLT30 fleet mean that no one had been back to the stations yet?
My immediate concern was what was happening with the Moon, but Earth was a worry, too. There were over two billion people who were without power and might be without power for at least two years. Power companies distributed power from their plants using transmission lines and at each end of the line were big transformers. The transformers were what failed, when the transmission lines were exposed to the effects of a geomagnetic storm. The safeguards that had been put in place to protect those transformers had worked most places. But other places weren’t so lucky and the big transformers were a custom item that took a long time to build. Winter was coming in the northern part of the globe while southern parts would soon be facing soaring summer temperatures. Neither place would be safe without power.
OPPORTUNITIES
Regina sat staring at her half eaten chicken sandwich, quite unaware of the rest of the crowd. The room was packed and noisy now, but when she had come in, it wasn’t so bad and she’d been able to find a seat with no problem. As she had sat there eating, the room had filled and two other workers had sat down next to her. They were from a different team and she didn’t know them. They both gave her a friendly nod in greeting and then promptly became immersed in their own discussion. Regina hadn’t intended on eavesdropping, however, it was hard to resist listening in when the guys were talking about the rumors they had heard about the long term effects of the storm. There were rumors that food was going to be strictly rationed and even then, there might not be enough to go around. There was a rumor that all non-essential personnel were going to be evacuated to Earth. There was a nasty one that the permanent residents over at NLH were going to be fed like normal while the temporary construction workers were going to be reduced to half-rations. Everybody agreed that the pay for this job was excellent, but going around half starved for months wasn’t what they had signed up for.
The pair had drawn Regina into their discussion, prompting her for her thoughts and encouraging her responses. Her father had always been active in union politics and lessons the old man had taught her about the importance of protecting workers’ rights suddenly seemed more relevant. The men and women who worked around her were well paid specialists that would never have felt the need for the power of a collective voice. In the aftermath of the storm, everyone was skittish, unsure if they were going to affected and if so, how. People had made a major commitment to come to the Moon. The time away from the comforts of home was well worth it for what they were being paid. Now, all of that came into question. If the people you worked for couldn’t feed you, it was a reasonable question to ask if they could pay you. If they could pay you, but couldn’t feed you properly, then a worthwhile question was shouldn’t you be paid a hardship bonus?
Regina’s lunch companions had similar questions. Questions no one had any answers for. The engineers and project administrators who gave them their marching orders had no clue. They were just as cut off from Earth as everyone else. The folks over at NLH claimed the satellite links were down, whatever that meant. Regina’s meal companions had to leave and she had to get back to work herself, but not before taking a little time to think about the current situation. People were looking for answers. They were looking for a leader to step forward and hold the companies doing the builds at Peary accountable. When it came down to it, Regina, couldn’t help but ask herself a simple question. Why not her?
Her job as a quality control inspector got her around to a lot of different job sites. That freedom of movement let Regina talk to a lot of people if she wanted to. She knew people she could get to help. Ultimately, she’d want three or four recruiters and then a couple of guys to provide the muscle if needed. She’d start making some inquiries this afternoon. She wasn’t going to be pushed around and the longer she waited, the worse her position was going to be. She felt that most of the people she worked with were sheep. They’d just let the companies push them around and let them starve. She would be way ahead of the game to start pulling people together now so that they could make a stand against the companies.
DISCONTENT
MOONNET CENTRAL NEWS FOR MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2039
Good morning, this is Lisa Roderick with MoonNet Central News reporting from our studios at Peary. It’s Monday, November 14th, 2039.
The news from Earth today is Denali Corporation has announced that Denali Station is now eighty percent operational. Denali expects repairs to begin shortly on the craft that are docked there.
China has announced that it expects to have its solar power satellite constellation back in operation by the end of the month. Space solar energy analysts agree that China is capable of getting the satellites repaired by then, but say it’s largely a symbolic effort due to the damage the ground station and their network of ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission lines suffered. Estimates on the time to completely repair the transmission system are anywhere from four to eighteen months, depending on the availability of critical components that are unique to the ultra-high-voltage direct current distribution system.
