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Everything was different now. People had been murdered a week ago, and no one mentioned it because Earth.
We all knew of the planet, but to me it had always seemed like one of the distant stars in the sky. Dashiell and Libba had told stories, and of course Levi had his books, but now we knew. The data stream was slow, but there was celebration every buoy that sent back data. Earth was close. The Canary/Aeneid conflict were distant memories as we all were denizens of Alpha Kepler, first human space colony. People found pride in unity.
I was fearful of the change.
I was afraid that Earth would assume some control, which was moonshy of course. They were light-years away from us, and who knew what kind of state they were in. We knew our world and we were doing fine without them. I didn't have to be on congress to know that Dashiell wanted to return us to the Earth way of running a government, and that Libba and Val trying to bring back Earth fashion and mannerisms. Titus found himself on congress without a single vote cast. I worried, but I stayed in my quiet office in environmental, reading CO2 levels from bacteria and staying out of politics.
When the people in charge decided that Earth couldn't be replicated here, people like my papa and Anatoly would be taken seriously. But until then, I could focus on breathable air without base interference or petty debates.
Someone knocked on my door and I stood up from my desk, sliding open the door to see Levi.
"Lunch?" he suggested, holding a box in one hand. "You left this morning before I could suggest it."
"I have a meeting soon," I told him.
When his smile faded, I sighed, letting him into the office.
"We have a half hour."
Levi kissed me on the cheek and moved to sit on my desk with a grin. He opened the box, handed me a wrapped triangle.
"I made sandwiches," he said. "Apparently I knew you were in a hurry."
I managed a smile and took the sandwich from him. It had been a week since house arrest, and I still hadn't moved back home yet. I had stayed the night last night, but it had been the first. I couldn't explain it, though many people had asked. I didn't want to be around people yet, even Levi. Conversations were exhausting, and I never knew what would bring the tears back. I needed all of my stability to handle my meetings, and I had none to spare, even for my partner.
"Alcott has another check up this afternoon," Levi told me. "She still hasn't started printing anything; I was thinking about getting the group together, pitching in so she doesn't have to worry about it. There are certain staples she's going to need. I just don't want her to worry if she doesn't have to. Oh, and the plums are ripe now. Try this, Dylan. They're amazing."
He held out a dark round fruit and I took it, biting through the smooth skin and nodding my approval. Levi beamed.
"They may be my new favorite," he confided. "Alcott says I call every new food my favorite, so I might be biased. I only bought two; they are so expensive. But worth it."
Levi needed another haircut, I noted. He hadn't cut it since I had the day before Landing Day and his blonde hair was falling into his eyes. I reached over to comb his hair back and he made a face.
"You and Alcott. She's threatening me with the pruning shears at work. I told her I'd start growing out my beard if she did."
"You don't have a beard," I pointed out.
"I could," Levi informed me. "I'll never know until I try. And shaving is tedious. Esperanza is letting Lully grow his facial hair out."
I tried to imagine Lully with a beard and grimaced. I had no idea what he would look like. Esperanza had once said Lully took enough time in the bathroom without having more hair on his head. I could only imagine what he was like now.
Levi craned his head to look at the time on my holo-rib.
"I shouldn't stay much longer," he remarked. "Where is your meeting?"
"Research," I said. "Edison and I are meeting with Ibsen to talk about expanding the lake. He thinks it's being fed by an underground spring, and if so, we might be able to use that and solar energy to make a power station. Then we could start a second base."
"Really? So close?"
"It's three kilometers away," I countered. "And it would be for research. They need the room, and environ could uproot one of our tertiary systems to support them."
"I wouldn't mind living closer to the lake," Levi mused. "Could be fun."
I finished my sandwich and plum, and rose from my chair. Levi stood with me.
"I can walk you there," he offered. "And then be on my way."
I would have rather he didn't, but instead I nodded, walking alongside Levi down the corridor. I also though that living by the lake would be preferable to the base, but I doubted my work would let me.
"Message me if you're coming over," he said, once we reached research. "I have to get more tea if that's the case; you've drank it all."
"I like tea," I admitted.
Levi smiled and I watched him head out of the bay and back to his own work. I didn't know if I would be going over there tonight; it depended on how this meeting went.
Edison arrived a moment later and we entered Ibsen's office together. Ibsen gave a grin.
"We've been reviewing our maps and samples Lincoln's team brought in," he explained, gesturing at the screen that made up the table. "I think that lake is a lot deeper than we thought it was. There's clearly something," he circled the area in question. "That's making the ground swell. Three kilometers isn't so far to pump water."
"It's far enough," Edison warned. "We'd have to finish between earthstorms, work around the clock."
"We'd have to do that for any project out there," Ibsen pointed out. "Which is why I'm about to propose something rotated."
"Go on," Edison said.
"I think we should fix up the Aeneid for one more journey," he said. "We know it can withstand an earthstorm. We know it has the capability for life support and has all the necessary rooms and needs a satellite base would have."
"You must be out of your venting mind," Edison shot back.
"We don't have to put it in the air, it has wheels, or we could use the hovers. But if we can't move it on one go, we know it can stay out there without further damage. If we don't finish a new base, it will all be blown to pieces. We don't have the resources to try twice."
Ibsen sighed. "It's not ideal. But our poor ship should have some use and we need to expand. I have enough people that I can task them with assessment and estimates for the repair before we ever try to move it. And then Dylan can have the life support built into the ship and we're not making guesses about how much air we need. We have all the Aeneid numbers. We still have people who lived on it."
"We do," Edison agreed. "And we do need more people."
"And a place to house them," Ibsen said. "We can set the intrepid out to the lake and branch out from there. Dylan? Thoughts?"
"Is there any other resources by the lake?" I asked. "Minerals, ores? It's a lot of work for just water."
"Silicon," he replied. "We can do a lot with it and it will stave off our present iron crisis. I bring this up now because we can't move until the storm is over. This means we have a couple weeks to run simulations and test and mark up charts and maps. We can involve the whole base if we want, but I wanted to start with materials and air because this would affect you the most."
I nodded. Edison stared at the map, though he had complained about the expense nearly as much as I had expected. He gave Ibsen and I a rare smile.
"We can talk about it," he said. "I'll get some rough estimates based on what we know the Aeneid is lacking and we can reconvene in a couple days? Seasons willing we don't have any massive damage."
"Agreed," Ibsen and I replied.
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Welcome to Book 5! I will admit, I never thought I would be writing a series. This was supposed to be a short story and that was it. Thank you so much for your support!