Aerospace I : The Lunar Cycle

Aerospace I : Lunar Warp

A young woman approached. I was curious. From one of the nearby farms? But she had a driver with her. I just about got up to talk to her, but Ernie gave me a look and I let him start.

"You are Doris." he held out his hand and touched hers. "I am honoured to meet you. I am Ernie."

I stood up. "This is my friend Basil. We were in school together. We would like to work together."

This was all very mysterious. He was treating her like a tribal elder. How was she in charge?

It turned out that Doris Ravenchild was very much in charge. Anyone who showed great ability was written into her books and if you failed her, she soon forgot you. She ran the shuttle base at Candle Lake. It was her and family that were helping the native peoples of the north.

She gave us our jobs that afternoon. The rocks continued being dumped into that giant hole.

Chapter 2 : Potatoes

Peru. She was sending us there to collect a good cross-section of the potatoe varieties. 200 good bunches would be enough. Then we were to return and try to grow them here under lunar conditions.

I was a little bit shaken. Was I going to be in charge of food supplies going out into space? Potatoes are the most versatile food, next to rice, in the world. Spuds, apples of the earth, karteflu, patata. I did not even speak Spanish. Nor did Ernie. It was my first trip out of Canada.

Ernie invited me up to his parents farm. Doris had arranged that a young woman from Saskatoon come to teach us Spanish. Rita got her own room and I had mine. She was young, sweet and single. I had barely started to think of her as a possible mate, when I noticed just how flustered Ernie was. I left him to it.

I have a good grasp for western languages. I have french and latin from high school and I can speak passable canadian french. Two weeks of Rita's lessons and using the pad exercises, I was ready to face Peru. Ernie was not so quick at it. Rita was a true hormonal wave for him.

We shipped out on a Monday. Doris arranged for our passports and we were on a plane to L.A. I traveled with a shoulder bag. Ernie brought much more but his luggage got lost along the way. He was doubly sad, because Rita was so far away. We settled into our hotel in Lima and laid back on the two beds in our room.

"You going to ask her to marry you?" I asked Ernie.

"She sure is beautiful. If I do marry, it will be someone like her." he answered.

"Talk to her. Every night, let her know that you are thinking of her. Don't let her forget you."

I was a little jealous of him. To be in love. There is no better feeling. Maybe some day it will happen to me.

We were five months in Peru. It was not just a few trips to the markets in Lima. We traveled inland. We needed motor bikes with knobby tires. Meeting people, who sometimes spoke other local languages and not spanish.

People grew special potatoes passed down through their family. You only heard about this because potatoes, of these rare breeds, were used as gifts between neighbours.

A professor Ramon Montez in Lima, at the University, was our assistant. He got all the permissions for us, helping us to get the tubers out of the country. We had to wash them clean and be very careful not to knock the eyes off. They were seed potatoes.

Doris told us to change our agenda. She had received about 300 varieties from us. She wanted us to collect maize (corn), squash and vine beans. The hardier cold climate types. 'The three sisters'.

When I first said those words out loud, Ernie burst out laughing. I asked him why.

"I have three cousins. They work out of Candle Lake. You don't want to tangle with them. Triplets, flaming red hair, mind readers. Don't mention that to anyone. They work up on the rigs. Lash down the freight in orbit. They handle the stuff being sent to the Chinese habitats, and the Canadian south wall."