Aerospace I : The Lunar Cycle

Aerospace I - Lunar Eyes

Frida said she has been working on the people at that end.

She said, "Plato needs to get off their asses and build a new fleet of ships. If you succeed in this, it could spur that program. They have the railguns and the 3D printers. We can get Ellie and Emile back here and Clyde as well. Your team could work the orbital assembly. A tough job, but they did a good job on the Parasol." (in orbit of Venus)

I was beginning to think something was going to happen. I started to think about two new ships. They needed to be identical, so all the parts would interchange. Each would be eight kilometres around, carry 10,000 in comfort. It would have two levels for farming. People could move back and forth easily, while the eyes flew in formation. Enough room for people to grow up, marry and have families.

All the trades, professions. We could have a mall area like the habs.

I talked to Joseph to see if he was on the same page. Then I talked to Ashley.

"We need to get in shape. If we are going to be up there, pushing ship sections around. How fit do we have to be?"

Ashley made a face. "I think you better start shaping up today. That is the toughest of jobs."

I thought of my beautiful slim body. "Then we start today." And Joseph and I stuck it out for a week. I called on the crew with another pep talk.

"I have decided that I want to take my crew back to Plato crater. When we are there, we are going to be rebuilding the Ravenchild, and begin constructing two new wheelships. They will be called the Callisto and the Rhea. Identical ships carrying 12,000 crew out past the asteroid belt. What I mean is, we will be constructing it ourselves in orbit. I and Joseph will be up there with you. Everything done on those ships will be our hands-on work. I will need a crew of fifteen hundred to start."

I got them. I got the blessing of Mars, who knew that this was good news for them.

It was a month of aching muscles. But most of the crew joined us. Every morning for an hour and every evening we were there. We changed our diet and began to put on weight. The trip Moonside had the Gs set at 0.5. The exercises continued.

Chapter 2 : Moon Work

Joseph and I, decided we needed to kiss council ass. Until we knew what we were dealing with. We have no friends on the council and it is a whole new generation from the time of the first wheelship builders. These people were wealthy and I was wondering. Did they remember what the point was in leaving Earth.

We had settled in to a block of flats in North Wall. Many of our crew were still up on the ship. It was five days before we got the call to come and talk to the council. We pushed just the first project. I said we were willing to do most of the work ourselves. Break the Ravenchild down, scrape it clean and refurbish it.

"But we need to use the 3D printers and a railgun. We have the original people, who built those facilities. We are willing to train apprentices from Plato. Leave you with a group, who could carry on, to build a new fleet of wheelships."

This was going well. "If you could just provide us with some of the orbital crew, as we have no experience working in lunar orbit. We have a crew of 1,500 ready to start."

They said they would get back to us.

They sent Kizzy Pike to deal with our problem. She is an exotic gypsy like creature. Maybe eighteen years old.

Her timing was interesting. We were out, at the exercising area, but for some reason Mani was alone in the flat. He is the son of Frida and Gohan. I think of him as a brother. Mani is a quiet boy but not at all stupid. He has made his contributions to the family. He sure did this day.