Aerospace I : The Lunar Cycle

Aerospace I - Lunar Radiance

Lunar Radiance

some short novels and shorter novels have been written.

Lunar Radiance
Lunar Warp
Lunar Harp
are the first three.

Aerospace I : The Lunar Cycle

This Aerospace Series is © copyrighted as of November, 2016.

There are six collections free to those who want to take a look. I have added footnotes.

Public Domain material. Just respect me as the author.

Lunar Radiance

Gordon Best

Part I

Chapter 0 : Meditations on a Hole by Anthony Perera

People who think they know me feel that I like the roots of mountains, as in the trolls in the old fairy tales. But the truth is that I am indifferent to close spaces. I work there, organize others to do that job, of digging and tunneling. I feel much better sitting on my foothill looking down at the distant hole with all the heavy dusty machinery moving about, and conveyor systems humming at a comfortable length away.

The number zero and tunnels have something in common. They allow the disappearance of distance and space. They open new possibilities. They lead man where he could not go before. Even worm holes are tunnels. They aerate the soil and on a larger scales they eliminate galactic distance and cross-pollinate civilizations.

The roots of the mountains have secrets. There are events going on in there. At a different size and time scale. There is damp down there; cold and heat. Rivers flow through caverns hidden for millions of years. Seams of iron, crystal and gold lie waiting.

We have not begun to explore this, our home planet Earth, because we have not explored the roots of the mountains. They are friendly beings, with long interesting lives. They grow, reign then dwindle to foothills or rocky shoals. The constant change in the consistency of the rock, metamorphic, sedimentary, igneous and primarily if water and ice have been messing with it, cause havoc with the tunneling machines, TBMs. If those machines are making subway tunnels, then you have all the other hazards left by man's handiwork. But I don't do that kind of work.

Here on my knoll, I sit working, reading the plans. Keeping the whole operation going by anticipating hazards, accidents, ordering parts, that I know will need replacement. I keep a list of people with different skills, so that any breakdown on the human side will not slow the operation. I am in touch with my foremen at all times.

My regency has reached a threshold. This moment will teach me that thresholds mean change.[1]

Chapter 1 : Mountain Roots

Ali and Alex McLean went to China in 2030 at the request of the Chinese authorities. The last four years they have been very busy in the Chinese government space program, involved in developing the stages of their Moon mission. It was this young couple, that established the Habitat Lunar System. They made the program a reality in the Chinese mind.

With this new initiative, deals were running chaotically through the Canadian Mining and Equipment community. There was money to be made and few people wanted to site the McLean couple as defectors.

The McLean family had started out in Calgary at Highwood Space University. Married, they produced four children, girls. Studies for Ali ranged in the social direction. For Alex it was the biological studies, with specialties in plant (vegetation) transfers from Earth to the Moon and Mars. But he would disappoint many by taking a 100% interest in Lunar studies and little in the other orbs of the solar system. Or so it seemed.

That is the main reason they slipped away to China during their doctoral studies. The news reports made a big thing of their disloyalty. Strictly speaking, they were free to go where they wanted. When mineral and manufacturing companies in Canada started getting large space contracts, because of McLean influence, the news people moved on to badger other free spirits.

For the Chinese, equipment and supplies were needed. A double railgun was built in the Hinggan Mountains (China) along with a new railroad line to transport the freight capsules to their Lunar destination. It was based on the rail ring system. A double railgun was also built in the Rockies not far from Prince George, a back up to the Hinggan machines. (What was double? One gun could be down for maintenance or be getting ready for launch, while the other was free to sling freight rockets.) These guns required a large electrical pulses, magnetically pushing the scram-jet freight carrier down a 5km long rail. The ring was completed with a ramp rail aiming the flight into an east-south-east direction and up to high earth orbit above the equator.

Deep in the mountains of British Columbia, the Telkwa airport was growing large fast. New runway and storage facilities. This allowed heavy freight planes to land hourly. Into the near mountains, a facility was built using temporary work crews from China to complete the railgun. Equipment was trucked in from Prince Rupert, where ships unloaded cargoes. This is really the backwoods of western Canada, not known well by your average Canadian. German tourists however trek the mountains paths at all times. But not this year. Restrictions kept all tourist at a distance from Telkwa and the mountain to the west.

I lived not far from Prince George. My work kept me there. I have worked with the Kamloops Tunnel Corporation for the last five years and I (Anthony Perera) am now the expert with those machines, drilling the mountain roots, shortening the road routes and rail-lines. I heard the rumors of the many Chinese working west of me. But that had nothing to do with my work. Or so I thought.

It was me that Ali approached one morning in May, 2036. I, standing by my portable work table, facing north along a newly constructed route, off the Farwell Canyon Road.

I was just turning thirty and was still single without any local family ties. I had a recent loss, my last girlfriend. The wilderness and hard work were my medicine. It was hard, but work filled my lonely periods.

Our machines were being built just outside of Calgary. I knew that the majority owner was a Hong Kong holding company. So when Ali came to visit my worksite, I was surprised that she was not Chinese.

She was a rather skinny white long-tall-Sally type. But there was a presence about her. When she opened her mouth, I had no doubt that she knew her stuff. Head office had phoned ahead warning me she was coming, but that had only given me a half-hour to research her history. A medium sized Sikorsky S590CB helicopter flew her in, direct from a Vancouver airport.

Elsewhere, freight packages were being assembled in Earth orbit to be transported to Lunar orbit. She would be going with her family to help establish the Chinese colony near the Lunar North Pole. I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious and nervous.

She came down the hill from the landing pad, with a large blue plastic tube under her right arm and a large female bodyguard in tow.

"Hello, I am Ali Mclean. " She held out her hand.

"Anthony Perera," I responded. We looked each other over.

"Can I use your table, to spread these on?" she asked. Without waiting she pulled the drawings from the tube and spread them out over my papers.

She gave me a moment to take in the designs, "This is a new model tunnelling worm. Light weight and much smaller than the ones you use." she explained.

I saw the diameter was only 3.4 metres. Not saying anything I looked at her with questions on my face. Usually the machines, TBMs, have a 4 to 6m diameter. The one down the hill was six metres.

Ali said, "It is extremely light weight and is built to be transported to the moon. We simplified." she answered. "Two of these are already in orbit. They will be assembled after all the parts have arrived, Moonside."

I still had not said anything.

"We need you Anthony!" she pointed at the sky. "Up there."

Boy was I stupid. I had not seen that coming. "Your not kidding?" I asked.

"There is going to be a thousand of us there, in about a year." Plato Crater, look it up. "All those souls will need a place to live. I will show you how we are going to do this, if you agree to join us." she was challenging me.

My life was only now finding a meaning. Clair was gone. My love and heart, gone from my world and I had a lifetime to live without her.

"How long before you need my answer?" I asked.

"Just mail me in the next two days. I will be in Calgary." Ali answered. We touched our pads together.

She rolled up the strange TBM plans and placed them back in the tube. Kissing me on the cheek, she whispered in my ear. "Going to be good friends. I can tell. I will have your back all the way." It was as if she did not want her bodyguard to hear. She turned and was on her way back to her ride.

The woman had caught me off guard. I did not have a reply. [2]

Chapter 2 : Native Fields

The following day I packed my things, stuffed my backpack with a few items and walked out of the trailer, to hop on my turbo-bike. Newest Vancouver model, electric and fast. It took me south the three hundred kilometres to Kamloops, where I headed straight for the company headquarters.

Frank was there in the office talking on the phone and sipping coffee. I said to him. "I heard I have been sold to the Chinese."

Frank put the phone down. "Charles is your replacement. He will take over. You trained him well enough."

"You could have consulted with me. Did she pay you?" I complained.

Frank said, "You are like a son to me. We will be supplying parts to the orbital station. Just think of us as another division of their company."

"It was not on my radar... This leaping around on the moon. You know if I am there more than a year, there is no coming back?" I stared at him but he would not look directly at me.

"She has arranged that you go to a native airfield over in Saskatchewan. An airship departs in two days with some of our equipment. You can hitch a ride."

"A slow road to China?" I asked. Or a Chinese colony.

"You will get there fast enough. That town is called Candle Lake. All native territory now. North of Prince Albert. They do the shuttle launches there." Frank explained.

I really was not complaining. I got good leave benefits, a pay rise and a change of venue.

I left the office, started the bike and headed for my old place. It was just a shack, but it looked out over the village, where my love had once lived. Clair was gone but neither I nor anyone who had met her could forget her voice and charm. I walked down to the cemetery, after cleaning myself up. She had been the centre of my world for six years. Slim, tall and black with a voice as sweet and tart as the best jazz singers. She was the local celebrity, story teller and spiritual leader.

When I was just 21, we met at the Night Club Kelowna. I was drinking iced-tea, she had a frapachino. Standing at the bar, we were drawn as two opposites. She was 45 but looked 30.

What she saw in me I don't know. But for me the world changed, the air shimmered and electrical currents flowed between us. I held her hand and stared into her eyes. It was only about once a week, that we were able to take time together. Each time we learned something special about our relationship. Two universes, exploring each other. The books have never been written that mentioned such a love.

I stood at her grave wondering what she was doing up there. I said some prayers and asked her to help me in my new adventures. One year ago she left me. She went fast, a heart attack. I stayed with her those last few days. No one else could match her.

* * *

The slow flight the airship made, did not take that long, but it was fighting a side wind most of the trip and the freighter swayed badly. It was a very uncomfortable 10 hours. The ship flew around the facility. Candle Lake, dozens of good sized industrial building and hangars below, two extremely long runways in an 'x' shape. No small operation. I was to meet a Doris Ravenchild.

She was there, a small young girl surrounded by roughnecks that were to unload the cargo. She had the long black hair and the straight nose and strong eagle eyes. She walked up quickly to me and extended a hand. I shook it and looked her straight in the eye. She was doing the same with me.

"You are wondering why someone so young was sent to be your tutor? I will explain it in time. Come to the cafeteria and we can speak over coffee." Doris explained.

I followed her neat small frame, to a nearby low-slung building. We sat in the early morning light coming through the windows.

I explained, "Ali Mclean instructed me to come here and told me a child would explain everything."

"Just her sense of humour. I am no child. Since I was 12, I have been involved in the politics and the sciences of this base. Those white people wanted nothing to do with us Dene and Cree, but it was our territory and we bested them. Now we run the show. The whole north has now centered its enterprises around this base. I see that your history is not very orthodox."

Doris was referring to my skin colour and my last name, Perera. My father's father and his mother were from Sri Lanka. My mother black, was born in Bermuda. They met in Toronto. I grew up in that big town, but left when I was 16. Most of my education was online MIT, U of Calgary and hands on. I settled in Kamloops, where I apprenticed with my employer. The last couple of years, I have made up with my parents and gone back to seeing them for holidays. I told Doris as much.

This Doris, girl, was about to give me the education of my life. Doris Ravenchild was as sharp as a knife and had a better memory than anyone I had ever met. She was the driving force behind all the changes that had occurred in Candle Lake. Every Native in the country was watching the changes here, and they were revising their education programs, to take part in the prosperity of the Shuttle Base.

Most freight could be flung into space at very high G forces, but people could not. Rail-guns were not for people. They built planes using the strongest and lightest materials. These were the tugs. All wings and engines. The shuttles, were separate rocket planes carried underneath and flown to a height of 20km before the burners on the shuttle engaged and the tug made the release. After the release the tug made an western journey as far a Happy Valley, on the coast of Labrador, where it glided down near-empty to refuel for the return trip.

Doris explained that shuttle hauling was only one part of the business. She and her mother had come south to work at making the spacesuits. Thousands were needed and the Dene people were especially skills with needle work and working heavy materials.

"There are a dozen different types of suits, depending on the work environment, floating in space, scrambling on the Moon's surface, working in the close environment of the tunnels. We help in the last minute design changes. Our people are not just laborers, and we are the first to take the shuttle up. Structures built with carbon-fiber struts are assembled in space, the Rigs, and just like the tall buildings in New York City, we are now doing the grunt work up there." Her eyes looked up. "We design, they give us the specs and we make it work. We produce the canopy material, which protects the workers down in the crater. We invented the conveyor cloth material that is strong and light."

She continued. "We are now making electrical work vehicles, that will be used on the Moon's surface. Not that different than the backwoods motors, ATVs we use here but with lighter materials. Then, there is the need for specialized hand tools, dried foods and emergency rations. When the first rigs went into orbit around Luna, it was our expertise that allowed for the construction of landing vehicles, by reassembling the strut systems on the rigs, and attaching control equipment and small rockets we got people down safely to the surface and back up."

I was impressed. "This strut assembly holds all the equipment?"

"We just strap it down, the cargo, and rockets at one end push the whole mess up out of Earth orbit and into the nine day journey to be captured in the Moon's gravity." Doris explained. "When a shuttle goes up we just strap that on as well. We are working on attaching inflatable habs so the shuttles can stay local."

She spent the next week showing me every detail of the base. I met her mother, Helen, and her aunt Rosa, in charge of the spacesuit production. Our lives would depend on them and their team.

Doris explained, "Among the local workers, blacksmiths are learning how to model non-traditional materials. The crews have been sending us samples of Lunar soil. We have brought in the best people to try and figure out how to create new products and processes. Ceramics seem the best solution. We were the people who used snow to build homes."

I said, "The cloth needs to be produced moonside as well. I am thinking that it can be used instead of walls. Decorated like the native structures." I suggested. "It could be a much coarser cloth that could be layered and/or spray-painted. You will need a place at the Lunar Base to get the best results. The vacuum will work to your advantage." I suggested.

She smiled as we walked now hand in hand. Every cell of my body tingled.

"I now want to show you what you are really here for," she said. "Every piece of equipment we sent off planet, has some kind of sensor or controlling, computing device. These chips so far have been coming from Japan and Korea. The Chinese insist that this cannot be continued into the future. Security requires we make our own sensors our own electronics. We will get you the manufacturing equipment, and you must supply us a place up there. We need a deeply sealed tunnel, completely clean and airless. Robots will be sealed in to control all the processing."

I bent down as we found a private spot and I touched my right eye-socket to hers. She did not pull away, but was curious about what I was doing. Our eye sockets touched and the eyelashes kissed. I held her there for a while as her body began to quiver.[3]

Doris remarked, "You realize that you just made me come." We spent our last week going over all the details.

When I boarded the shuttle, goodbyes were sad farewells. I was not looking forward to long days without her.

Chapter 3 : Friends but only such

Ali McLean had arranged my wonderful two weeks with Doris Ravenchild. She had paid my old boss a lavish sum to get me free. I was now assigned to a seat on the shuttle sitting next to Ali. She was all smiles. Doris had told me, that the seats were all paired up. Whoever you shared the other seat with was your intimate for the next nine days. Curtains gave privacy but not with your partner.

I liked the woman, but coming down off Doris, my interest was not as strong as McLean's interest in me. She gave me the window seat but there was no window. She was all interest, as I settled in. The seats would be our beds and living room for the entire journey. I intended to make the best of it and drain her for every item of info I could get. But she might expect compensation.

Nothing much was special about the first two hours as we lifted off hanging from the shuttle tug plane. When the rockets fired, the seats automatically adjusted and the seats secured us in place. I was not eating anything because nothing had been offered and it was just as well. Hours later, loose items started floating by. We seemed to have stopped accelerating. After some time in maneuvering, we and the shuttle was secured into place, up front on what looked like a giant hydroelectric tower.

Strapped all about the Rig were large bags and cans of equipment. We saw this all on the monitors up front. The rig already had a multitude of rockets secured to the rear end. Folk were outside in Doris' mother's spacesuits, making sure everything was ship shape. About the time the rockets engaged, we were told it was rest time, and there was a small meal before bed time.

After the meal and a washup in the small washrooms, we readied ourselves for bed. There was only a little gravity and it was in the wrong places. So we used the handholds provided. Most of the other 46 men and women were Chinese and spoke what Ali told me was Mandarin. The most widely spoken language outside of English.

So this is how it went at sleep time. A curtain blocked most of the sound and all the sight. It gave Ali and I privacy which she seemed to like and I not so much. The first time I slept, I woke a few hours later with her left hand over my legs. That started something I did out of self-defense. I held her hand every night for the rest of the journey. This only helped a little, as my grip would loosen as I slept and she slept lighter than I.

She told me that on the eighth day as the rig entered lunar orbit, she would go up front and I would get a new mate on the last night.

This is what I learned from our talks. Ali spoke Mandarin fluently and bantered with the team as they asked questions and shared answers. When she had time she translated for me. She gave me access to the company plans and specs. I asked her the overall goal of the Chinese.

They were planning a large installation within 100 kilometres of the Lunar north pole. This would allow their team to work without the long hot days at the equator and the 14 day chilly nights. Crater Plato was to become our starting point. It was far enough from European and American claims, but the Chinese were not waiting or asking permission. Directly north was the beginnings of a large solar farm to feed a thirsty settlement the power that it would need. This is close to the spot of the first Chinese soft landing.

They wanted four underground habitats. These holes in the wall would house 5000 people. They needed them to create a base for further solar-system exploration.

Each habitat is constructed by boring, using the redesigned equipment, 100 tunnels, 3 kilometres into the side of the crater. That would start the living quarters at about 500 metres below the average lunar surface. Lots of rock to protect delicate skin from the gama and beta rays of vacuum space. There is no atmosphere on the Moon for protection.

Tunnels will be created close enough that walls can be removed to make larger living spaces. Separate caverns will be constructed to provide agricultural sites. Recreational areas. Industrial work places. Equipment and utility space. All with a 3.4 metre bore diameter. One tunnel is adequate to produce a hallway. People and children will need that height in one sixth gravity, to not keep hitting their heads.

Coming into Orbit - Xing Xing, Yvette, Zoraida.

It was the last stop before we descended to the Moon's surface. Ali had been up front in the pilots cabin, leaving me alone and free to glance around. I wondered what she was doing as no crews were on the shuttle. Workers were entering the ship from the rear. I got no new companion.

On the last day, there must have been an airlock attached, as the air pressure did not change much. Three beautiful red heads stood in the aisle looking over the team. They were dressed in tight pink spacesuits without their helmets. Not Chinese but identical native beauties.

The one labeled Xing Xing spoke for the three. "We have brought suits for everyone and we will help you to dress. Please slip down to your underwear and remove all jewelry." Ali translated from the front into Mandarin.

Modesty was not a part of space travel yet. They must have known our sizes as my suit fit well. I knew what was about to come, but still it was not to my liking. We left in groups of 15 or so. I was in the last group. Xing Xing was giving me special attention. I don't imagine these things.

When I looked out the airlock door there was only two ropes and a platform of open strut triangles. On the platform were canvas seats for each person and a sturdy seat belt.

The moon hung above us or was that below? The pilot, another woman, of our vehicle was sitting now in a substantial seat at the mid-point. She had a panel before her, which she consulted and when everyone was strapped in, she wasted no time in firing the jets and eventually flipping us over to come to a landing in our very own Lunar crater, Plato, depth one kilometre, diameter 100km. We landed near North Wall.

We were all unseated by assistants. They lead us to the temporary quarters of some foam and cloth built structures, air tight and air filled but a little lacking in space. We were shown to our bunks and told that the only public space was the cafeteria. When I had everything stowed, Ali arrived to put me to work.

"You will not be using the same suit because your job will require you being out in the radiation for hours every day. Much of the work will be done under great canopies, a protective roof-like covering, over a number of square kilometres of crater floor, but they only protect you from the sunlight and heat." After I donned the new suit, she lead me outside and to a spot where boxes are strewn about.

Five suited people stood about. "This is your assembly team. Fred, Robert, Xing Xing, Yvette and Zoraida. I figured your not fluent in Chinese so we borrowed them from the orbital crew. They are very good at assembly, as they have built all the structures in orbit, both here and around Earth." she concluded, then she marched off to troubleshoot a problem with the water separators.

Chapter 4 : The North Wall

When I arrived Ali had my crew ready but I asked for a few hours to survey the site. Xing Xing was there and she volunteered to answer any questions.

The wall was massive and wide, 50km wide and 1km high. There was substantial debris from the backsliding of materials since the meteor impact. The debris on impact had flung for many kilometers in every direction and Plato acquired a irregular rim, rising from a kilometer to 2.1km in height. Earlier crews had spent much time testing and probing the rim rocks to find the most stable place to start work on the tunnels.

Conveyors were set up at the work site to move materials away, to a holding area. Large canopies were held up with poles, spread out above the work area. This was a shelter from the bright sun and it stopped equipment from overheating. It was a light parachute-like material provided by Candle Lake. It was bright enough in the lunar day and also reflected artificial lighting in the dark. On North Wall, there is a lot of shadow so artificial light was what we worked with. The cold was severe and tested the heating systems in the suits.

There was an attempt to make a straight piece of wall at the crater floor. Machines had moved a mountain of debris off to a holding area.[4] It was estimated that if we tunneled from floor level that parts of the 3km tunnels would be 500m below the exterior moon surface (beyond the rim). When my crew started working the next week we made a tunnel about 20m above the floor just to see the condition of the rock and how much cracking and rubble were in the tunnel. After the exterior rubble had been removed we only found instability in the first 100m of rock.

This we could stabilize using thin fiber panels that bend easily to the tunnel circumference. We decided that tunneling higher up would be no worse and began the boring of 3 more parallel tunnels side by side. It would also be faster and less work to have the conveyors working near flat ground.

The tough material carrying the rock (on the conveyors) was again a multiple layer cloth compound. They thought it up in Candle Lake. A whole aircraft hangar had been taken over and just like rope making, the cloth was stretched the length of the building and turned back and forth as layers of cloth and composite materials were sown in by large stitcher machines. It received a protective rubber spray as it went through the final routing. The belt was rolled into a huge bundle, more than a ton (metric). This was shipped off to the railgun station on an airship. The airship could, if it had to, carry 80 of these. The railgun rockets had reached its capacity with one roll of this material.

The secret of the cloth surviving the heavy work was to run the conveyor slowly. Every object on the moon still has its same inertial mass, so sharp edges can cut through cloth if the speed is unreasonable. Another technique was to not put too much of a slope on the conveyor system. Rolling sharp rocks cause damage. But we had contingency plans for cloth repair. But people were another thing.

Projecting the TBM plans, blown up, on a side panel of the protecting screen, we worked out the best and fastest method to assembling the two tunneling machines. I had studied the plans on the trip over. It was a much simplified version of the machines I used in B.C.

My crew were a very clever bunch. You don't live long in space if you are otherwise. I made it plain that I was training them to train the Chinese. I did not know how long I would have on this gig.

Then because we were deep on the bottom of a crater, up against a North wall, we used a jacking rig to raise the first machine to the twenty meter point on the wall and power lines from distant banks of solar cells, we began boring the first set of what would be hundreds of tunnels. These holes were to a depth or distance of three kilometre. Four parallel tunnels separated by less than half a metre of rock. When the first three were finished a separate crew organized by Ali, went in with cutting machinery, based on mechanical and laser cutters used on Earth. They cleared away the remaining rock. Soon the tunnels were sealed up with one airlock giving entrance.

The TBMs worked three times as well here in vacuum. The big problem on Earth is the constant change in the hardness of the rock. This is caused mostly by ground water. We were now only dealing with frozen water. Deep frozen water, that probably thought itself to be rock. It was good that at this depth. The tunnels would start out with a temperature of just -10C.

The middle two tunnels would become accommodations. The left tunnel was for access, a hallway, the right tunnel was a utility tunnel handling all the electrics, pipes, drainage, ventilation, heating and atmosphere controls, etc.

* * *

I approached the slim woman with the can-do attitude and asked her for a private room with a real door.

"You would be surprised how many people have asked the same. I have noticed you and Xing Xing are getting along." she commented. I assumed she was going to help with my room as she changed the subject.

Ali designed the apartments for people living in the temporary inflatable habitats. Within a month we had moved ourselves into a radiation safe zone. We were a little short on air, especially nitrogen and the air pressure was low, but it was breathable.

From the rock removed by the tunneling machines, T1 and T2, they had discovered a wealth of frozen water ice. It was fortunate because we needed the water for the many functions preparing the settlement and the crew, and then there was the rocket fuel.

A massive supply of liquid air was being freighted from Earth as we were completing the first project. Mainly because we needed the nitrogen but also the oxygen and other gases. It was also much easier to compress the clear mountain air very near the rail launcher then to separate it into parts. It was also safer to sling into orbit as the nitrogen is somewhat inert.

We had a little celebration as we moved into our first habitat. The limited habitat was not much but it was safe and warm. I got my single room as did Xing Xing right next door. All the single rooms were near the airlock.

The kitchens were about 400 meters down the hall, the eating area next to it and the washrooms and showers were on the other side of the eating area.

Ali wasted no time and called 30 of us together about 10am the next morning. Neither she nor anyone else looked sharp, after the night before. I handed Ali a coffee as she entered the dining area.

"Got a splitting headache but what else is new?" said Ali in my ear. Then out loud she said, "Good morning crew. The first step is finished and now we must plan for the first official habitat. It is the first of four as you know." she spoke as the supervisor.

Some of the crew were plugged into their translators. The room was 20--10 Pure Chinese to Canadian mongrels.

"The teams that have been trained to run the tunnel worms have arrived and the equipment awaits outside. They know the complex structures that we are going to build.[5] Many will be four kilometers long, others will be up to five kilometers. There will be apartments for family units or groups that want to live as families. There will be large agricultural spaces, some room for shopping and leisure, and areas for industrial enterprises."

We would discuss all the details before lunch. My team was being split up as we each had practical experience with the first tunnels. There were 6 new machines, T3 to T8 and only one machine would be out of service for maintenance at any one time.

It was only 20 days into the tunneling. Then I was on special assignment with Ali McLean.

At lunch Ali pulled me aside. "I lied. You are coming with me. Bring your work suit to the airlock." Then she was off.

She led me down to the elevator which was outside, up against the crater wall. I touched her helmet and she looked around as my words of inquiry reached her.

I said, "I had Doris inbed a local radio transceiver in my right suit glove. Works on vibration. No one can hear us. I just need to touch someone's helmet."

Ali said, "Handy. I will have to get one of those."

"You still have to turn off your suit radio or they can hear both of us." I answered.

"I put it on receive." Ali answered.

"Where are we going?" I asked as we reached the crater floor.

"We are going south to the far wall. I have T9 waiting for us."

"So you did lie. One unregistered machine out of site on a special mission."

"You said it. And I have a fast rover waiting for us." We jumped into a new model of a 6 wheeler, I had not seen it before. We were soon moving south and hit a fresh narrow highway.

"Where has this road come from?" I asked.

"It was necessary to experiment with the gravel mixes we have been working on." she explained. "The junk rock that is discarded from the separation process, it has to be used for something. We used standard gravel making procedures from Earth. Conveyors and screens. Then the gravels are mixed. After we graded the road foundation and rolled it, we laid down different layers of gravel mix to get the best surface. What we have now acts a little like asphalt, when it has been rolled well." Ali said. "Sit back and relax. It will be an hour before we arrive." She was driving.

The rover rolled and jerked some but was moving faster than I thought possible. Ali, at her word, brought the rover up to the south wall face. Debris had been removed at the base, so we were looking at a vertical section mostly in shadow. We were under a large section of parachute canopy. Only some of the light got down to us. A shiny TBM sat up against the wall. I wondered what I was here for. Some one else had assembled the beast.

"The men who are here are my own team and they are sworn to secrecy. This project is not on the map." I was using my glove radio as she talked. "You will drill from ground level and 15 degrees to the right. One long tunnel until I tell you to stop. It won't be more than 7km."

I got the machine angled and started as the team scrambled with the conveyers and another group brought 'what we referred to as a moon trailer'. We were not leaving the site until the job was done. We had a bank of chemical battery systems running on methanol. The electricity was sufficient just for the long haul tunneling.

Ali was giving me hints about where this hole was going. Moon history was rife with volcanic events mostly back 3 billion years ago. These eruptions produced a number of lava tubes. Most collapsed over historical time. Some left holes in the Lunar surface but were less useful as the effort to seal them was labour intensive. Surveys had revealed three tubes near the Plato Crater. These tubes seemed to be mostly intact and deep. We would know better on investigation.

"We don't know what we will find, but if the tube is stable and airtight then it could be used for settlement." Ali wondered.

"You trying to pull a fast one on the Chinese?" I asked in a kidding voice.

"You bet. And our lives may depend on this find." she answered. "We also have another TBM in orbit that will remove rock from the side of the round tunnels. It will save us a lot of trouble. The chinese will get theirs as well."[6]

When T9 reached the spot, Ali signed me to pull it back and had the electric hand tools brought in. We spent a long period making our way down the long tunnel. There was a puff of gas as we broke through but nothing dramatic. Just a little water vapour. Ali crawled through first, and I followed her. She was sprawled a couple of metres below me on a dusty scree bank.

"You alright?" I asked.

"Ya! I am fine." Ali answered.

I jumped down beside her and we moved carefully down the dusty slope to reach the midpoint in the tube. Three of the workers hauled lighting equipment through the hole and cables borrowed from T9. Soon we were seeing something, that no one had ever seen before. My laser rule said it was 300 metres across, about 230 metres high and more than 3km east and a similar distance west. We needed to explore a lot more, but our two hours of walking about revealed no light from the surface and the only collapses were at the east end. Nothing that endangered the integrity of the tube. The temperature was about -10C. We don't measure the air because there is none, but slipping a probe between two rocks works.

"When the time comes I want to seal the walls and move 5000 people in here. But for now we seal off the entrance and start working on the nano factory project. Mum's the word. Nano factory tunnels. That is what we are here for. Distant from the populated areas. No dust nor vibration. " Ali explained.

"At your service mam. We leave the tube and it waits for now." and I bowed to her.

We continued over the next week to tunnel four more holes. Three below, two above and then Ali had the walls and floors removed, (with the specialized TBM, to make the walls straight) forming a rough triangle as the factory workspace. A special mixture of spray epoxy was developed to seal the walls and inhibit any dust. The inside surfaces would be easy to clean.

I told this unusual woman I was needing to get home. "I don't want to loose too much muscle tone. I think Doris is expecting me back."

"Yes, I know. I got one more job for you." she added.

Chapter 5 : Natural Champagne Diamonds

We drove 10km west along the wall. There was again the signs, of a crew having cleared the debris from the wall. T9 was again in place and I asked what was planned for this place.

"Well it would not make much sense to build such a fine road and only build one facility. We need people working in it. This is the location of Hab 5. We will be doing a little work on it, ahead of schedule. H1 habitat is now under construction on North Wall but I can tell them I am doing some test drilling just to see if it makes sense to have a habitat one hundred kilometres away from the main wall." Ali explained.

After a good meal and a rest, I set the machine in motion and the team scrambled. 4km in, Ali gave the signal to halt. I reversed the machine so we could do a little hand work on the face.

"You will not need those tools." said Xing Xing. "I got what you want in my bag."

"Ah! You women are full of surprises." I was full of wisdom.

"Not any more than I was when you did not try to sleep with me. Ali tells me you got something on with Doris." Xing Xing commented.

"Well I was thinking about you." I said lamely. She did not seem happy with my comment. It was true I had thought her a wonderful beauty, but I needed a linking of minds, a joining of souls.

"Ali said there was some diamond work for me here. If that is true then your machine is about to meet the dragon."

We knocked away some of the face and out of rough rock appeared brown glassy crystals as big as my fist.

The woman said, "Step back. You do not want to be struck by this stuff. What a beautiful colour!" She went at it with her small hammer and chisel. Ali was standing by me. I touched her helmet.

She said, "She worked as a diamond cutter and polisher before joining the space program. Some of the best trained people in the business are natives of the north. We are going to ship these rock beauties covertly back to the Shuttle Base. The triplets are due for a vacation. Oh! You will be on the same flight in a few days."

So it had been four months of constant work on the Moon. I rarely had time to think, but it had been fun. It was hard to believe I was still doing the same job I had done for several years, but on a different planet and for a mysterious boss. But I knew how to keep my mouth shut.

Ali said, "I would kiss you if I could. This haul will pay a big slice of the cost we intend to incure." She had about ten duffle bags loaded with raw Champagne Diamonds. "Now seal up the location and we can go back to base." I assumed they would dip in, when need demanded.

* * *

I was going to end up in lunar orbit for four days before my shuttle was ready. Xing Xing and Yvette were happy to take me up. They took me to the station, where they slept and ate. Gave me a bunk and a busy schedule and helped me into the equipment suits that they used to scoot about the fiber frames arriving from Earth. Most of the freight came without a shuttle attached. They had to divide the coded equipment bags, those that go to North Wall (load the hopper that was headed there) and those that were going to the south wall (load the hopper going there) and those going somewhere else (like the French colony or the Russians). There were storage rigs for freight, not yet ready to go somewhere. Some frames were taken apart and shipped down to be used as parts for various jobs.

I was taught how to jump from one place to another and use the gas jets to return, if I missed a jump. Yvette was watching me.

"It takes weeks to get it right, so you can jump without missing. I was terrible at first." she explained.

I was very tired when the first break came. There was two sleep breaks in 24 hours. One for 3 hours and another for 7 hours. You had to do your eating then as well. I shucked my suit and headed for my bunk.

After I was close to sleep, Yvette joined me and there was not much sleeping after that. That was the pattern for the next four days. I would have said a proper goodbye, but the shuttle became ready to leave and I boarded in the middle of a work stint. All three sisters came on the shuttle at the last moment, and acted as if nothing had changed. I felt a complete stranger for the nine days to Earth.

Where had they stored the diamonds? I do not know and maybe it is better that way. The shuttle was mostly empty. Just 20 of us including Xing Xing and a couple of workers who needed hospital care. The rig holding the rockets was smaller and the freight I learned was mostly rock samples for the Chinese to work with. Empty containers were not shipped back to Earth, but were used as materials for the crater habitats.

We glided into Candle Lake and the runway was barely long enough for the shuttle. We were towed into arrivals and for one moment my heart was troubled. My Doris was waiting. I was going to have to take it easy, as I weighed about 6 times what I did on the Moon.

Lucky for me, Doris had a couple of days off and we spent it together in bed. She was surprised by how much I slept and made me see the doctor at the clinic.

"What is the relationship between you and Ali?" I asked her one late morning.

"We talk. We agree. We plan." she said mysteriously. "I know about the diamonds so feel free to talk. Also the lava tube. We have already given it a name. The Crow Cave. A future home for some of our people."

"So the Chinese are not in on this?" I asked.

"There are only a dozen people in on it. Now that you know, you are the 13th man."

"Why would your people leave the north of Canada, when you are very much getting it together?"

"We are a people who have become addicted to the cities. Much of the population growth in Canada is aboriginal. Most will not prosper in the white man's castles. In a year or so, we intend to offer natives a new home. The size of the lava tubes will allow intensive farming and a controlled environment along with space to build highrise apartments like the cities. You saw Crow Cave."

"Yes. We spent three days exploring it. It is 300m wide, 250m high. You could build right to the top. It has few cracks but will not collapse. That means 50 to 60 stories of flats. You would not need to occupy too much of the agricultural land." I explained. Instead of having living quarters in the middle, I suggested the high rises be placed at the two ends of the tube.

Doris said, "This is why we needed the diamonds. Equipment needs to be bought, built and manufactured for when the time is right. That we can do here. Other reserves will have to take up the slack as the time arrives. Earthworms, seeds, soil, mushrooms, and lots more nitrogen unless we can find a source there."

"Oh! There is sufficient nitrogen in the moon soil, but extracting it is tricky." I commented.

"You have been studying. What else did you discover? Maybe a little Xing Xing?" she smiled and grabbed the pillow.

"I am as pure as the driven snow. Got only eyes for a certain Ravenchild." I untruthfully stated. I was the luckiest of men and she saw my gratitude in my eyes.

"We got work for you, Perera." she pounced and tried to smother me.

Chapter 6 : Nano Lessons

Later she clarified her statement over tea, prairie tea that is. "I want you to go back to school. You will need a new identity and some references to get you in. They will never suspect you of being native, nor will you ever mention your connection with the Moon or this base."

I looked at her with a question on my face. "And are you going to explain what this is all for?"

"Well it is a safeguard in case we cannot get an expert to run the robotics in the Nano factory. You have to learn as much as you can in the next six months. I have used the base's connections and we will allow you a lab, to practice what you are learning. Courses are available and we have hidden your internet access point, as well as anyone can. You tell us what you need and when you are ready, we will take your new identity and apprentice you to one of the Calgary factories." she explained.

God help me. I am a smart fellow but six months to come around to running a nano factory on Luna?

It was probably good that I did not have enough time. All of history and older methods went out the door, and only the newest controls could I make time for. The software was improving, as I learned. Much of the details were controlled by the A.I. It turned out, that what I would be needing most was, a man with the specs, for the devices we wanted to produce. We wanted to remove any kind of surveillance devices. How would I know, if I investigated a device. Would I know where the surveillance was coming from. My head felt at times that it was about to explode.

"Rocky Mountain Devices has an intern program and we have arranged for you to go there." Doris explained. "You need to find a good friend in the company and make him an offer he can't refuse. Someone who shares with you the secrets of their sensors."

"And if I have to sleep with her." I teased.

She turned red. "Whatever it takes. We need help and time is short."

Doris told me before I left that Ali's four girls and her husband Alex would be traveling through the next day. On their way to joining their mother. Doris and I were at arrivals to greet them.

Kimberly the youngest at seven, Khloe the second at nine, Zoey the second oldest at 11 and last and oldest Julia at 13. They were knock-offs of their mother, small boned and tall. Zoey was a little more heavy set. My favourite was Julia and she let me know that she liked me too. Alex had them well in tow. They all looked a little out of place, but I could see them fitting into the Moon colony.

Doris explained. "We have been producing many Lunar suits for children, this last couple of months. The girls should be well taken care of." I wanted to go back, just to see how those girls managed in their new home. Julia was the most like her mother.

They flew out to orbit the next day and I flew to Calgary. I was now alone. On my own. Not being ordered around and I really missed the women in my life. Rocky Mountain Devices was small and one of the newest companies in the successful nano corridor, along the highway leading to Banff. Morley was the central town, hub of the present and future economy. On the other side of Alberta, tar sands were closing down after 40 years of controversy.

Glenn Fletcher met me at the front desk, 9am HQ, 1000 Main Street, Morley. He was a short and worried man, as smart as lightning and wealthy by the look of his clothes.

"Got your message, let me show you around. This is the newest operation in Alberta and top of the line." he had his salesman voice on.

I did get the tour and what struck me? There was little noise and nothing but hip-high square machines buzzing and dishing out tiny circuits into small canisters. Clean, the whole place was spotless.

"Where are the people?" I thought...

Glenn said, "Jack has an office out back. He sends packages special delivery airmail. Roger and Richard are the bosses, I have no idea what they really do. I set up this operation and I am now wondering how long they will keep me. After I train you, that is."

What we did the next two months was sit in the lunch room and trade stories. I liked the guy. He was happy to have someone to talk to.

"Glenn," I asked "What do you want to do after this?"

"I have been married three times. They got out because of the boredom. If they had only loved me and not my money. I am a good guy, not much for looks, but everyone will lose that in time. I need a woman, someone to love, that is all important."

"You are right there," I replied. "I might be able to help you, and get you a job that is out of this world." What was I thinking?

I got in touch with Doris and apologized for putting her on the spot. Two days later she returned with the answer.

Glenn was explaining to me the process of sensor development. "It is a complete amalgamation of all the skills and knowledge of the human race, miniaturized. I will show you where to find the people in the business of invention, on this nano scale. Before them were great creations like transistors and integrated circuits..."

"Glenn!" I stated straight at him. "I am here for you. Got your back. Have found you someone as I promised. Will you come with me tomorrow and I will show you what I mean. I cannot say more than that at the moment. If you don't come with me, I will be gone in the morning without a trace. It has been a pleasure, but I have someone waiting for me and she demands my being there."

We rented a car and I drove us to Medicine Hat in the morning. From the airport, Doris provided a leased plane and it flew us to Candle Lake.

She was waiting for us at arrivals. With her was her aunt Rosa Adam. I greeted Rosa and then she went directly to Glenn grasped his hands and leading him off. We did not see him again for a week.

One day as I was downing some lunch in the cafeteria, Glenn waved to me from across the room and brought his coffee over to me. "I have to thank you man. This is the right place for me and when we go up to Plato next month, Rosa will be coming with."

"You ready to start making the orders." I asked. "We have a few mirage companies that act for Candle Lake. I personally cleaned and sealed that factory cavern at Plato South."

"I don't see any problems with the vacuum manufacturing. Our tolerances should become the best in the business. Anyway, I am not happy without a good problem to solve." he explained. Tears filled his eyes. "I was beginning to think life was reaching its end. Thanks for the rescue."

"I am just part of a team. We are going to do great things. Just wait until you meet Ali. She will not give you any time to catch your breath. And thank Rosa every time you see her."

Chapter 7 : Back to Plato

When all the orders were filled, we decided to bring much of the more delicate equipment onto the shuttles. The waffers were of little weight, but the manufacturing machines were heavy. We had to drop five passengers for each item. When the time arrived, I and Doris said our good-byes as did Glenn and Rosa. She was still needed in the spacesuit factories.

Glenn and I had the nine days side by side. Lots of time to make plans and discuss details. Communications with Luna and Earth were perfect and I used the sources Glenn provided me with, to brush up on all the stuff I had not the time to learn, while trying to convince Glenn of the glories of Lunar Life. Proud Lunies. Lunar Hosers.

It seemed that the shuttle had no regular north-side Plato peoples. When we arrived in Moon orbit, the freight haulers took us and the shuttle contents directly to south-side. For a week I did not know if north-side was aware that I had arrived. The Habitat, named Endevour, was complete and consisted of 80 tunnels and Ali's interior handiwork. Let's just say that a family flat took up four tunnels wide and 60 meters long and 2 tunnels high. There is plenty of room for living, 20 bedrooms, 12 doubles and 8 singles, a big communal kitchen and showers, toilets and baths. The upper rooms were accessed not by stairs, which would use valuable space, but a fireman's poll. On the moon I weigh 15kg but I am two centimetres taller. A kick up got me hitting the roof, if I did not have the pole to stop me.

Not every flat housed 32 people. But there was a rule that 24 was the smallest group allowed. They could decorate it as they liked. There was also two rooms that could be used for business or parties up over the kitchen.

It turned out Ali wanted me with her family. That sounded perfectly acceptable, now that the whole bunch were there. I did not want to live with strangers.

Ali had an Entourage. Nothing like hangars on. Just the best people she knew, for getting a job done. There was Shawn the fiddler. Eddie the carpenter. Gloria the garden queen. Glenn came into this as we needed him close. Ali's family took up three bedrooms and more. I will fill you in as the story continues.

I walked in behind Ali and Glenn. There in the living area sat Alex and his girls. All I saw was a family. I had not had one for many years. Then I saw Julia McLean. She stood and smiled as beautiful as the sun.

We sat about the table with coffee, tea and fruit juices. "You will need a tour of the place, Anthony." explained Alex. "Julia has volunteered to show you everything. She knows this maze better than I do. Tomorrow 9am. No need to start into work for a couple of days. Big party tomorrow night."

"Any excuse for a party," Ali said nervously.

After a few hours of gabbing, Alex showed me my room on the first floor, a double bedroom with sink, bed, just a thin wide pad on a slab, and a wardrobe on the back wall. I had to add other items with my own money.

"Thank you! It is much more than I expected."

"Ali needs you. There is no-one she talks about more and a husband knows. I know you are keeping hands off and I respect you for it."

"I expect to be a family man someday myself. Got to start out respecting the institution."

"I know you have principles and they are few on the ground. Good luck," said Alex looking straight at me, then he turned and left.

Chapter 8 : The Tour

There was a door made of some foam material overlaid with a grey lacquer. But no locks on the doors. Julia was sitting by me as I woke the next morning. "How long you been here?" I asked.

"Just a few minutes. Breakfast is ready and it is 8:30."

"Ok, give me some privacy and I will join you soon."

I dressed enough to make it across to the showers. Hot water recycled and not part of the drinking supply. A good shave and brush and I was back to finish my dressing. I put on my hiking boots.

The girls were in charge of breakfast.

"Shawn is the baker for many of the flats." explained Zoey. "And it is the best bread!"

"Who makes the butter?" I asked.

Zoey squinted up her face. "No cows here, not yet anyway!"

"Now that would be something?" I exclaimed.

All the girls giggled.

The three older girls took it upon themselves to show me the different living quarters. At first every flat was bustling, but after a while, as we went deeper, some flats were just sitting silent. There were two corridors of flats. But the girls said that there was no-one in the second corridor yet. They seemed a little nervous about my idea of checking it out anyway.

We went left instead of right and worked our way back through the warehouse corridor. Here people were setting up offices, supply rooms. There were two schools not in use on a holiday.

"There will be stores when people have stuff to sell." said Julia. "Mom says we need more people. To make it worthwhile."

"How many people so far?" I asked.

"Mother says about 500. The hab will take at least 2000. Maybe another thousand with modifications." Julia explained.

Smart kid. I thought. She has her hand on the pulse of the place. She will probably be running the operation in five years.

"What kind of modifications?" I asked.

"Well there are tunnels unused. Running along both sides of the flats. On the second level."

She certainly had the layout imprinted in her mind.

"The living area might get a little crowded." I suggested.

"Ya, I think your right." she answered.

She understood just how people can get on each others nerves.

"We show him the gardens." said Khloe the nine year old.

From the warehouse corridor, we found a shaft leading up and down. I followed my girls down two levels then a passage leading into the gardens. It was a very large structure. I knew they had them at North Wall, but I had not seen them completed. This Hab had just one and there was only one Gloria. Julia ran ahead down a middle walk and gave Gloria a big hug.

"You getting the tour Anthony?" She was as black as night, not a touch of brown, even her eyes were black. 'You girls come to help or are you believing this rumour that today is a holiday."

"We are working Gloria, showing Anthony about." said Julia. The two younger children offered to help. I guess I had failed their curiosity.

Julia grabbed my hand gently and lead me further down the garden path. I waved back to Gloria and the children.

"I work for her most mornings." Julia explained. "A morning job. Then I go to school in the afternoon. My sisters don't need to work yet."

She showed me the great light panels hanging from the roof. "There are also sprinkler systems and fans to move the air about. Very important to move the air and not always at the same speed. Plants need water, but they also need to dry out. The soil here is not yet very fertile but we are working on it."

I saw bands of root vegetables, some berry bushes, fruit trees and a small field of barley, some wheat.

"Mom says that this is just an experimental garden. We got worms and dusty mushrooms. Compost is working up a heat at the far end. All waste is composted for the garden. Water is recycled. Filtered for toxins. The middle of this room is 24 meters high, then it slopes down like a peaked roof. The soil is held in place by a great lot of tunnel rubble and some rough cloth."

I said, "You are the expert." she smiled at my praise.

"It is my home now. I want to know everything." she said, putting her foot down hard.

"Who planted the barley?" I asked.

She stopped, when I changed the subject. "Oh, that was Shawn's idea. He wanted to make beer."

"It looks like you need more people to finish this project."

"They are coming soon. The barley will mature fast and then real food can be grown." Julia said wrinkling her nose.

I commented, "I don't drink it either. They call me a teetotaler. Just my choice, as I have seen many friends land in difficulties from excesses."

"I think I will be a teetotaler also. Mom has some problems like you say."

"Let me find out myself. I don't want to hear about other's faults from you or anyone else."

"Boy, are you different." She was still holding my hand and squeezed it every once and a while.

We were home by lunch. The place was at first completely quiet. Julia headed for the kitchen and I to my room to change and wash up.

The party was a success if a little subdued. If the moods swung in Hab south it usually had something to do with Ali.

She wasn't saying much but the gin was always in her glass and people were very happy to keep it filled. I suspected she was feeling pressure from the north.

The band was playing an old Quebec waltz. Shawn on fiddle, Gloria on bass, Eddie on harmonica and the redheads singing up french verses.

Chapter 9 : Rosa

Rosa arrived the following week. Glenn had been flagging but soon perked up.

Rosa explained, "I convinced my sister that it was time for a change in management. I will start a spacesuit manufacturing company here in River City, and sell to the Chinese habs. We will diversify into other kinds of clothing as well. Maybe develop new textiles using materials we grow or make here."

She was sitting next to Glenn, holding his hand under the table.

The chip factory took three months, because it always seemed that a vital component was delayed. We were able to set up a control room in the warehouse corridor. It was mostly monitoring and program changes. Direct control was unwanted. Wafers are fed in each morning, while the resulting sensors are retrieved. Next door to the control-room is an assembly room. Five women, with extremely fine motor control skills, take the tiny chips and implanted them in slightly larger circuit boards to be shipped back to Earth and sold as improved monitoring and control devices. In time some things will be done by small dedicated robots.

Lunar Plato Inc. was our company name. We gave away free samples at shows and NASA put them through their own set of tests, as did the Chinese, CNSA. It was hoped that no one would find the kill-switch that we included on every chip. There was of course a gps locator circuit on board.

They asked indirectly about the circuits we had removed. It said much that we had. They asked if we had licenses to copy other companies creations. Glenn had the answers to all of this. He is the expert and knows how to enhance the quality of a chip. It no longer could be legally claimed as a copy. Besides, we were half the price of the big guys and not technically on Earth, where the laws applied. The big boys north of us were eager customers and we gave them first bid and informed them of upcoming items. The shipping costs are cheaper as well.

It came as a surprise one day that Julia came to the control room and poked her head in the door.

"Mother wants me to show you something. Glenn can come along. We are going to visit an ancient cavern." Those were the words that got my interest.

She took us to a supply locker in the garden cave, opened a large door and showed us a man-sized hole. Then she jumped down it. We followed.

Julia said, "This tunnel is much longer than any of the others and leads to your lava tube." I was wondering why we did not have our suits with us.

After ten minutes, we arrived at an opening. The lava tube had atmosphere and had been extensively sealed and prepared for it. "We got light!" said Julia. "Not much yet, but enough to work by. I have been part of the planning committee since I turned 14."

"And why have I not heard anything till now?" I asked.

"Mother figured it best, as you had other business pressing. You and Glenn are on it now. The council that is. Meeting in the right room over the kitchen. Tomorrow morning. We call the meetings, Tube Central."

Tube 1 was now on my mind night and day. Ali said they had been very successful at producing air and minerals from the ruble rock removed during hab construction.

"There was also new developments at Candle Lake." Ali said. "A larger shuttle had been purchased from the French. Can carry a hundred persons. The weight is only slightly more than the old ones but still the tugs needed major overhauling, new longer wings and more powerful Rolls Royce engines. The schedule will be set in three months. People will be coming in to Candle Lake and trained for their new home here. The city boys. They are leaving the cities. The first wave has arrived."

"But we cannot have the tube ready by then." I complained.

"No, but with all those people, the work-force will be enough." answered Ali. "Supplies will accompany the flights. We are building our own railgun near Labrador City. We use the railway from Sept-Ilse on the St. Lawrence. It arrives full of iron ore and returns empty. Well it is not empty these days. No problem launching the materials we need. We have made a few arrangements with the French. This can't get out. They get equal use of the launcher but no one knows that it is their supplies. The dance is done, as our people in orbit provide freight rigs for the french users."

* * *

One morning I was laying in my bed and was suddenly awake. Julia lay in my arms and she was sucking on my lower lip. I dared not let her know I was awake. Fluid was building in my mouth and it was flowing like a stream into hers. She drank more than a litre before she silently got up and left. A week later she was there again and she drank more. This went on for a couple of months. I wondered if there were times when I did not wake.

I should have called a stop to it. But there was closeness between us. Something I did not feel so strongly with Doris. Julia and I were like two souls wanting to become one. The physical was a symbol of a uniting of souls. Or so I was thinking.

But then something happened that scared me. It was time to leave for Earth and see how my friend Doris was doing. It had been six months this time and my body had weakened a lot. My weight had not changed much but there was less muscle in my legs.

* * *

On Earth arrival, I had to be wheeled from the shuttle in a wheelchair.

There was Doris fussing over me and I joked back. But I was missing Julia or that intense passion that she gave. She was 100% mine. Doris of course noticed something and after I was back on my feet, working out at the gym, I had to say something.

Julia said, "Before you say anything, I have instructions from Ali. If you are up for it. They need someone to go to Labrador City and double check the French railgun. It needs a series of safety backups and someone to train maintenance people. You will be writing the manual." Says Doris. She looking down upon my helpless body.

Again I read all the materials in French and English. Devised a plan, then flew to Morteau (in France) where the railgun people were. After a couple of weeks, I flew to Toronto, visited my parents and bought a few hundred kilo of testing and sensing equipment (our own chips). From there it was straight for Sept-Iles and the midnight train to Labrador, QNS&L Railway.

With me were three people from the material testing department of Ryerson University. Doris had made them an offer. They would help me to train an independent native inspection team. The IOCC was the company operating the iron ore mining. Native pension plans and Candle Lake Inc. bought a 30% share in the company.

Ode to a Railgun

It was located about 50km into the bush, north of Wabush, a neighbouring town. The railgun site required a flat area of about 100 square kilometers. There is the need for a huge oval and then a ramp, being what was left of a small mountain.

Iron ore is mined all over this region. This requires lots of explosives and a noonday blast or two. Then the crystal quartz rock is collected in huge dump trucks and transported to crushers where the dust is allowed to filter using gravity, down huge spiral structures that allow the heavier iron to fall out. This iron is conveyed to large mixers where it comes out as pellets which are loaded onto open train cars for the trip south. The iron dust is glued together in pellets. The other dust is collected in settling ponds where the water turns blood red from the leftover iron.

This dust was used to level out the area where the railgun track will lie. This was then rolled hard and sprayed with a tar coating to stop damage to rockets and cargo. The rail was raised up about 5 meters above the floor, because of the severe snow storms and 5 months of winter. Obviously winter time would see fewer rail launches. People were telling me that the winters had warmed which made for more snow.

Scramjet rockets aided the freight containers into orbit. If they did not quite make it, there were teams waiting out there to rush in and assist with extra boosting. Speeds (acceleration) were well beyond what any creature could withstand. Maybe microbes would survive. We try to control microbe passengers.

The total rail is about 6km long and finally lift off, in a east-south-east direction. In time, a second ring will be completed, surrounding the first one.

* * *

We had to devise a working method to test strains on metal and fiber parts. The sensors will not work during the highly magnetic shove. So sensors are turned off beforehand and turned on after the wave collapses. There had to be a 'materials replacement schedule' and a direct signal to Plato South, letting us know if maintenance is being neglected. We worked night and day, as it was high summer and the air was fresh. By September, my Ryerson team was getting back to Toronto and I was finishing up the schedules and the manuals.

Back to Doris and it was not long before we came to the understanding that all was not well.

"I need a break. From the Moon and from here. I want to spend some time back in the mountains. I need time to think and meditate." I explained.

"I thought something was up. Are we over?" she asked. I did not answer but I guess that was an answer.

"You found someone? Up there?" I did not answer but I guess that was an answer.

The next morning after great good-bye sex, I packed up my things and was driving south. I stopped outside of Saskatoon and rented a room. I was a rich young man with super potential. I could go anywhere I liked and not work for years without a worry. Where did I want to go except back to the arms of Julia. I wondered if she was being encouraged by her mother, to be with me. In time she could equal her mother or much more. Doris and I had no future. She had never offered to join me at Plato South. I was waiting for her to say something right up until I left. I had never actually asked her.

I sat out in the cool spring air by the empty pool, looking west as the sun set. I thought I could see the mountains but that was just my imagination. The next morning I took the county road west, in a rented car, out of Saskatoon going through Bigger, Unity, Provost, Stettler until I arrived at Red Deer. There I hunkered down for a week, got some supplies, and started walking into the foothills.

I had no plans, just walk and see what happened. I had my phone, but Doris never called. Glenn did and asked what was up. I told him it was personal. He replied "Ah! Women problems."

I agreed but gave no details. I asked about family and Rosa. They were missing me but very busy as the Native community was descending on Plato South. Did I not want to come and help?

God but I should. But they really did not need me. Now that so many people were there, I hoped Ali moved to a support position and allowed them to do their own organizing. I said as much to Glenn. He would pass it on to Rosa then Ali would hear my words.

Chapter 10 : Attack from the South

I was living in a mountain hut, put there for people passing through or facing bad weather. I used it over three weeks and no one had turned up. High summer and I was watching news on my device. There was something about an accident in South Dakota and the tar sands were on fire near Fort McMurray. All this and some reports of accidental firing of a couple of nuclear defense missiles. Something was up.

I phoned Doris, apologized for my sudden departure and ask her what was up.

"God man I miss you and I want you to come back in one piece. There was an attempt to blow up the shuttle base. Probably would have wiped out all of North Saskatchewan. Who would miss it but us? An American operation. Had the Canadian government OKed it? You know the way it goes. Just a bunch of Indians causing trouble. I heard about it early and contacted Glenn. He set up a program to give warning, if any sensors in those missiles activated. I think they used some newer and some older missiles. Glenn flicked the kill switch on the new missiles. The others seemed to have gone off course (Glenn had some of the codes to the old chips). There technology is maybe 60 years old."

"So the older ones hit the tar sands?" I asked. Of course it was some nuclear cruise missiles, as the silos were mothballed.

"They have done the most damage. Killed a lot of people. The fires won't go out this year. South Dakota is off-limits for the next 20 years, radiation and a couple of holes where towns used to be. We got a few thousand brothers and sister moving in here from the Dakotas."

I told her that I was fine and not to expect me back this year.

"I have been hearing about you through mother. She hears from Aunt Rosa." Ah, the grapevine.

I told Doris to feel free to find someone more reliable than me. I still did not know what my purpose was. There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end.

* * *

It was about a week later, I started to get itchy feet. The last night in the hut I had visitors. I was going to the shower in my underwear, when I sensed someone standing in the passage. I did not see anything with my eyes, but my heart was jumping and I knew there was someone there.

Up to that moment I had not given any thought to ghosts or danger. Being alone is a natural state for me. But after the shower, I sensed nothing more and went to bed. An hour later I woke suddenly and knew that there was someone looking at me. I dared not open my eyes. Then I knew that there were at least three of them, in my face. I could feel their curiosity and despair.

I said a prayer over and over, until I fell asleep. "Is there any remover of difficulties save God. Say, praised be God. He is God. All are His servants and all abide by His bidding."

* * *

Before long I found myself in the small town of Field on the Trans-Canada highway. Don't blink, but they had 5000 people making some kind of a living. So said the sign. I settled into a booth (Field Fine Foods) in one of two restaurants in town. The other was a Chinese take out. No Tim Hortons here.

Long hair halfway down my back, a full beard, I was rough looking, even for this town.

The waitress at the bar called over. "You want to eat, you come to the bar and take a stool. My feet are sore." I looked over at her and then something happened. Everything went dark and my head flew sideways and bounced off the front window. The waitress was pushed back against the cupboards behind her.

"Holy Jesus!" She said. "Did you get the number of that truck."

She was smart and well tested. I approached the bar a little shaky and sat down.

"You felt it too!" I said. "Someone is telling us something." We were alone in the place. Music playing in the jukebox. She leaned on the counter and I reached out to hold her hands. She was shaking, but liking my hands.

"What is your name?" I asked. We must have been in that tableau for an hour before she answered. The jukebox was silent and no one had entered for lunch.

"Day, Lady Day to you. My mother was a singer. I dabble."

"Are you native?" I asked. She nodded. "Good, I am only trusting natives these days. I need a place, a house to rent for a while. I got money."

She smiled. "I know a place. Roof doesn't leak and the heating system works. My uncle is out of province for a few months."

Then someone entered. "Hey Day, what's the soup."

"You say that every day Sam. But your late today. How come?" she answered.

Our old man looked at the clock. "I have no idea. I thought I left at the same time as always. Weird!"

I got my soup and a sandwich and returned to the booth to hang out to closing time.

* * *

"Hey, Jack! You going to sleep here tonight?" I must have fallen asleep.

I said, "Got a place down the road, this waitress friend of mine says it has a roof. She just about knocked me out today." I made these comments in a sleepy voice.

It was 10pm and the road was quiet as we walked toward the edge of town.

"Where from?" she asked.

"Just down south. Kamloops. Haven't been there in a couple of years. Been working over in north Saskatchewan. "

"What doing?" she asked carefully.

"I am sort of a troubleshooter. Get put in some tough situations and have to find solutions. I handle a lot of high tech equipment."

She wasn't going to let me off the hook. Straight questions needed straight answers.

I reached out and pulled her close. "I am staying here because of you. We will have enough time to talk."

She did not try to push away. "We are standing in front of the house. I have the place across the road." She pointed behind her.

She untangled herself and ran into her house. Came out with the keys for my new place. "Use the front bedroom. My uncle has his stuff stored in the back room. You will have to buy groceries in the morning, Mr. Moneybags."

I pulled out my wallet and gave her five hundreds. "Just to reassure you, I am not going to rip you off."

I held her hand and it happened again. Different this time. Not explosive, it was as if we were covered in a radiant light. She at first appeared as if wearing a glass helmet. I leaned over and the helmet disappeared. I figured later that we must have stood there 3 hours, holding hands and our foreheads touching. Then I left her as she staggered home.

Chapter 11 : New Purpose

Day Benedict. She was older than me. Maybe 40. I was 32. I have yet to understand the bond between us. My routine was to go downtown, do some shopping, eat lunch at her restaurant. She would arrive about 1:30PM for her shift.

The first day she introduced me to the banker, the barber, the baker and the butcher. Then we went shopping. I bought a cart to get everything home. The beard was now gone and the hair was as short as possible, without being bald. I paid the barber well.

"There used to be 5000 people in town. The signs were never changed." she commented that day. "Now there is less than half that many. You could have got a house for a better price, but then you would not be living across from me."

"And your uncle needs the money?" I asked.

"Oh, I get fifty percent. I need the money. Any day now Bob is going to lay me off."

I avoided her during the day and met her at closing time. She always seemed glad to see me.

She was a thoughtful woman. One day I asked what worried her.

"It is not you or even me. I am thinking of my people. They have no future and are often disturbed. The children end up in prison. Little hope, as the elders are often poor examples and concerned with their own problems." She stated.

We were walking home in the night.

"Well," I said after a long silence. "What are you going to do about it."

She looked over at me and down at my hand holding hers. Energy was flowing through my body and must have been affecting her as well.

"You are serious?" She asked. I nodded. "I don't know. What can I do?"

"Lots. If I thought you would give up everything to help your people, I will make it possible." I added.

It was that night she shared my bed. The next morning she gave notice at work and we started making plans. I put her in touch with Doris, who stated, that if she could convince the mountain natives to come to Plato South, then my Doris would provide the transport and training at Candle Lake. She also said that jobs were plentiful for people who stayed in the province.

We spent a week in each others arms. What a rush. Then we got down to business. She invited the natives around Field to her house and explained what was up. Through them she developed a vine-garden of names, places and institutions.

So many young people in prison. We traveled first to Rocky Mountain House. A major and very new prison. Doris put us in touch with a psychologist with native background. He was helpful, but a little vague as to solutions. Day wanted them out even if we had to spring them.

Doris came through. I don't know what she did. Prisons are a major source of jobs and money for small cities like this. Two buses pulled into House and parked outside the prison front gate. The gate opened and 60 men and boys walked out. The buses went east and never were they to return. Was it something to do with our sensors? I did not ask.

From there we went west. First to Clearwater, 100 Mile House, then Williams Lake. I rented a house near the airport, which served as a place people could gather, then they flew by company jets to Candle Lake. The prison in town and in Prince George did find doors unlocking and phones malfunctioning at critical times. Once word was out in the native grapevine, Williams Lake airport was never so busy. We did have some problems but what the hell. A little threat here, a bribe there.

Day was happy to see results. But we had little time together. One day I asked her.

"You want to go with them? There will be need of a lot of social services. You could open your own restaurant. And I was thinking we could marry and settle in."

"I would like to go see what it is like. The way you describe it -- it seems that it would be difficult to live in a hole in the ground and not look up and see the sky and the mountains."

She was holding off the marriage idea. "If anyone does not like it, they can come back or go somewhere else." I said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Ali has a plan. Build large passenger ships with Moon materials and send them out in all directions." I had only heard this recently from Glenn.

She looked thoughtful. I thought my bed was going to stay warm for years to come. I was wrong.

Chapter 12 : Feeling a little weak

She, my Day, was losing weight. She said that she was not ready for the Moon trip yet, but could we continue south and gather up more of her people. I was worried about her and when we reached Kamloops, I insisted she see a doctor. The doctor, Mr. Gray it was, said there was nothing wrong with her and not to worry.

Clair's old house was for rent and we settled in and let the native leaders and seekers locate us. News got round fast in the mountains and we were again in the middle of meetings every night, the house overflowing as we organized rides and pickup towns. It was a couple of months before we could move our operation further south to Trail.

This was a very isolated spot in the Rockies. Trail not too far from the American border. We found a place and settled in again as before. Day was not improving. She was quieter and I was doing more of the talking. A fellow named Goli Johnson had an idea that quickly got traction. Could we not get word down into Washington State and Idaho then send some buses down to pick them up.

I was nervous about it. Day was for it. They explained that the border was rather porous for them and they knew all the back road. Tobacco and weed were transported all the time, with bags of money coming back. We rounded up nine buses after two weeks of phoning and consulting. Within a few days, they were back and stopping by to thank us, as they headed for the shuttle base. 300 people mostly women, children and old men. I asked why the young men did not come.

Goli explained. "There is a standoff on some of the Washington reserves. The army is moving in to claim their mineral rites. Our people will be slaughtered, if they don't get any help."

I asked. "What have they got in the ground to make it so valuable?"

Goli answered. "Rare earths, heavy metals they say. Biggest deposit in North America."

I phoned Doris and put the ball in her court. News came a month later that the special forces sent in were getting blocked up. Their vehicles were stalling, guns not firing and helicopters crashing into trees. Glenn was getting better at making incidents look like accidents. The chips, old and new, would be turned back on after the event. No evidence.

I took Day to the hospital, the morning I could not wake her. The doctor there sent her directly to testing. They found something in her diaphragm and the lungs were affected. There was no point in operating and it was too late for chemo.

I told the others to make their way to Candle Lake or wherever they needed to be, as I wanted to spend time alone with Day. I hired nurses to give round the clock care and fixed up the brightest bedroom, bought a new bed and moved her out of the hospital. We were going to have that quiet time we had been waiting for.

Her uncle Bill came in from Ontario and he had Day's daughter in tow. I had extra rooms that I let them use.

Bill said, "She was always the bright and cheery one. Men loved her, but she always ended up with the bastard who would walk out on her."

Helen said, "Mom took good care of me and she was never mean. But I can't remember a time when she didn't have a job. I am surprised that she finally found someone decent and in that bloody town of Field."

I explained, "I literally came down from Mt. Stephen. Living like a hermit. I was not a good sight but she saw something in me right away."

It was 15 months since we first met. Three weeks later she was gone.

We buried her there in a small cemetery outside town. Spring was in the air but the mountain winds were freezing. Last call and I was left behind. This time I was sure Day was the one I wanted to spend eternity with. But I was still healthy and strong and in this messy world. Bill and Helen left me after a couple of days, helping me with the paperwork. I offered them the package trip to Luna but they politely refused.

Day had given me the house in Field. She had first offered it to Helen, but her daughter did not want anything to do with it. Bill said he was going back to Field, and he would board up both houses since there was not going to be anyone there caring for them.

I stayed in Trail. It suited my mood which was dark and bleak.

I got a library card and actually took out paper books on religion and the soul. Then I looked up on my pad, books that I could not find in the small library. It was good that the town was fully wired. No one would live here otherwise. For months I walked the streets, visited the restaurants and even the Tim Hortons. Nothing happened. I met no one and talked to no one, but the woman in the library. I was one of very few young men who did not need to work.

It took till the fall for an idea to start forming. I was learning Yoga and meditation, both the physical and the metaphysical parts. My house had drafts, but I put up with it. I thought about what had happened between my Clair and I, then Doris, then Julia, then Day. There seemed to be a progression. The forces in motion were getting stronger. Was it because I was opening up some capacities within myself?

I knew that I was growing into a powerful lover. But what was the purpose of being a lover, when the one you want has passed over? Maybe the power of loving was just one part of something larger. Did I have other abilities undiscovered simply because I was spending my time loving women. Not a bad job if you can get it.

There was an energy in me, it felt a little like electricity, but it was not so physical. It flowed, it radiated out of my fingers and my face, eyes, forehead. I had no one to talk to about it. No one alive that is. It caused mind explosions when it built up. Day was a perfect conduit. It felt as if time stopped when I was alone with her.

There was that need to become one when I was with Julia. She was still a child and was only acting out, doing anything to become a part of me. If I went back to Plato South, I would not live in the McLean flat.

I sensed that there would be other women. I was a big a.c. electrical magnet drawing receptive women to me. Plato South was full of them. This was the problem. Trail was not open to me and I was grateful for the time to rest and meditate.

It did not last long.

Chapter 13 : Meditation and Electricity

It was 9:30pm on a Friday night. I was sitting in silence on a firm straight chair. Just keeping my thoughts clear. Not holding on to any image nor allowing myself to think that my thoughts were me. I say a little prayer to centre myself. I am an hour in and the old 'swallowing the cannon ball' event starts. But I detached myself. Give it no importance. A voice screams at me. Telling me to go away.

Outside there is a screeching of brakes and crunching of metal. I get up and go to the window. A car lies partially on its side in my yard. I still am in meditation. I open the door and go out to see if anyone is hurt.

She is lying out on the lawn. Lovely small woman. Black hair thin face, high cheekbones. She opens her eyes and looks at me. "Go away!" she says.

"Are you hurt. I came over to see, as you chose my place to crash in front of." I explained.

"I think so." she tried to stand up. I hold out my hand and she grasps it. She stands up faster than I thought was possible.

"What did you do. I know you did something." she complained.

"Describe what happened. Then I can answer your question. Come over and sit on the porch. A drink? Coffee?" I had some in a thermos.

We sat across from each other on the large veranda. A long table between us. "I was thinking you could be hurt and if so you should be laying out flat on this table. Should I get some blankets?"

"No. I was driving home. I did have one drink but left early thinking I must work tomorrow." She started to shake. I held her free hand and she calmed down.

"Explain what happened just before the crash." I asked.

"Mmm, don't know. Maybe just my imagination. A voice saying a prayer, 'Oh, God guide me.' Then I was floating above the car and I was looking down as the car flipped around. I must have been thrown out the drivers door."

"Yes, it was open. And you were where it would have thrown you." I commented.

"When you arrived, I was still floating above my body. Then you spoke and I was back."

The police were now looking at the car out front and then over at us.

"Stay here. I will talk to them." Leaping off the steps, I explained to them, that she had not been drinking and she seemed to be alright.

I said to her on returning, "They will get the tow truck and I will pay any damages. It was my fault."

"What do you mean? You were home. I saw you come out the door." She asked.

"Yes, but I was saying that prayer and somehow you were reading my meditative state. I told the police that you flipped around because I stepped out in front of you suddenly."

"My name is Mary Walsh." she said.

"Come in the house, Mary Walsh. You can rest on the chesterfield." She was very passive and allowed me to lead her to the couch. She was asleep in a minute. I covered her with a blanket. There was a lot of noise, as the car was being turned about, scraping against that large rock in the garden, but she did not wake.

I knew she was out for the night. I sat down on my firm chair and tried to return to that previous state of mind.

She was in a beautiful garden, clean gravel paths, straight evergreens lined the walkway. Flowers everywhere, people sitting on benches in tight groups. I was seeing her dream. I was careful to not think or say anything. After an hour of observing, I went to my bed, not expecting to see her in the morning.

I smelt coffee and toast. Put myself in some decent clothes and walked into the kitchen. Mary was frying some eggs and had the toast buttered.

"I thought of leaving this morning, but that would not be polite. My purse was in the car and since I have no home here, I decided you deserved some breakfast."

"Thank you Mary." I sat down as she loaded up my plate and poured the coffee. I said, "My partner died a few months ago and I have been living very much alone here. This is not my town. We were just passing through, when I had to rush Day to the hospital." I did not want to load her up with my problems.

She smiled and I knew it was because my partner was a woman. "I am getting the impression that there is some bond between us." I stated.

"I have been awake a little longer than you and I know there is. Been thinking maybe we have a joined mind. You meditate, I do something similar. You don't drink? I was looking around. Simple foods. Clean kitchen."

"Never drank. Hate to have any fogginess in my brain." I am being very careful here because it would be very easy to misinterpret what was happening. "I am not making the assumption that you will be my next lover."

Mary commented, "Never heard anyone speak the way you do. You just say it straight. Life is mystery and it is not always about screwing someone else. I agree."

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"I am not really from here. Made up a story last night. Just passing. I was living in Lethbridge. An aunt of mine has taken care of me for the last ten years since my mother died. Been in college and then had a job in the Hydro office. Financial really."

"Your aunt ever tell you about your special skills?"

"She wanted me to be more aggressive. But the problem was always knowing, what people were thinking about me. It blew up last week at work. Office politics. I had to get away. That car is a rental and I just got my license."

I looked at her and judged that she was about 25.

"I will take care of it. Do you want me to get you a hotel room?"

"No, please. You know I need to stay here. We have a lot to learn from each other."

I realized she was reading my thoughts and up till then, I had not thought about her in any sexual way.

"How do you sort out what is important and what is just stray emotions." I asked her. 'I think of sexual things, when there is no one here, so is this a genuine desire or a fleating feeling?"

"That was amazing. How you pull yourself away by coming out with the subject itself."

I said, "I think we are going to be friends. I need to learn how this is done."

I showed her a bedroom very neat and quiet. "If you are staying, this is your room." It was the one Day's daughter used.

We straightened up everything with the police and the car rental. Then we went shopping, talking like newly-weds. When we got home, I insisted she call her aunt and give a reasonable story to calm her.

Within a few hour after that, she knew more about me than Day had. She started looking at my library book collection and the Yoga books.

"Why are you not afraid of me now that you know? I sense that you want to know about yourself and I might be a big help. Julia is a very special girl and you have no reason to be ashamed. You have literally sucked her in and she knows of nothing better. God you live a hot life." she was turning red. "This is really asking a lot of me."

"Because you haven't had any meaningful sleeping partner?" I ask. "I am reading your demeanor not your thoughts. It will always be difficult for you." She was still red. "You want to experience the things I have done and been. But they are all connected to the spiritual connection."

"You visited my garden last night. I could feel you, though you were very still." It was a question.

"I was with you for an hour before I went to sleep. I know where that garden is, but it is not completed yet." I stated.

This kind of conversation went on for the next month. We were becoming one consciousness and it happened that one night she crawled into bed with me and we practiced everything I had experienced, and then we found new things to explore. One universe exploring the other. Because there is always the surprise around the corner.

One day she started talking to me about Julia, trying to clear the air. "Do you think she did not know you were about to leave? Emotions and actions reached as far as she could take them. You will never know how far her attentions could have drawn you. She is stronger than you. Be pleased that you sipped her juices, savored her flavours from the bed sheets. Don't feel guilty. It went no further and now I have you." Mary smiled warmly.

I slapped her behind and made a serious face. "For the moment you have been naughty. I am thinking of savoring your flavour."

"I am getting hot under the collar. Need to ditch these here clothes and stretch out." she taunted.

It was another four months before I started thinking about returning to Plato South. Mary was coming. We worked hard to get her mind prepared. How to block out others in a small space. Concentrating our own thoughts on just one another.

No one was to be told that Mary could read thoughts. It could get her killed. She understood and I was not going to use her to find out the secrets of others. If things got too difficult, I would leave Luna and go where she wanted. This Mary has brought me up to another level all together. Forgive me Day.

It occurred to me that maybe Day had steered her in my direction.

Entangled in Mary

She is the making of me,

my solid soul, I was the man

who prodded her from a car

Now she challenges me to new forms of love

We renew each day in ways spontaneous

I know not what will spring from our bodies

that love each other so dearly, hand and eye

Nearly thought these beasts are

Each other and it is not with any intention

That they wish to be untangled.

We find it best to humble ourselves

Before the mystery of this new being

May I always remember just how good

The love of God and Mary brings joy

Sinking deep into the pillow of my falling

Dying and growing anew,

loosing my self

Bursting with creamy madness at closeness

Glad to be in the to and fro of the dance.

Flux and Flow we pull in the world to

Showing what happiness is,

we trust.

Chapter 14 : Back to Black

Mary Walsh and Anthony Perera arrived back in Plato South, while the place was in a great uproar. That is the way Mary described it.

I had spent the time on the shuttle trying to help Mary to focus her powers. Don't be reading people on the Moon, when you were sitting in a shuttle with a 100 people. Then take that hundred and concentrate on only the five about you. Then pull back and only listen to the one speaking to you. Then kiss me and think only of me, as I am thinking only of you. Hold my hand and read its thought, desire what it wants to do with your chin and between your lips. See my eye and read the love it holds for your eye. Press eye-socket to eye-socket. See how the eye is a better lover than the lips.

If she had things under control, then maybe there would be some peace on the base. But fate was heading in the direction of chaos.

We were not in the hab more than an hour. Ali was introduced to Mary. It was a cool reception and I was missing something. Mary pulled me out in the hall. "Ali knows about me. There are at least three like me nearby. They must be sisters and definitely female."

I jumped back from Mary and walked into the living area. I signed to Ali, that we needed a private talk, like right now. She excused herself and jumped up the pole to the meeting room. I followed leaving Mary alone.

"I don't know what you are imagining that I am up to." I said in controlled frustration, "Six months ago I did not know there were mind readers and then by accident, I meet Mary. I brought her here because I thought she could have a life. Now I find out you have the triplets working for you. It explains a lot about how you get away with stuff. Timing is everything? I do not have an agenda here. All I want is to have a life and for Mary to have one. If I find that I cannot do this, then we leave on the next flight."

Ali looked at me. "You don't waste any time. Ok, I can't read your mind, but I respect you. I will call a truce and ask for peace between all the mind readers."

"You mean there are others?" I asked.

"Ya, plenty on the other side. The Chinese cannot control them and we are at an advantage, because they want to come to our side. Most of them are confused and don't understand that they have an extra sense. We need you and Mary to go over and attract them to yourselves. I have some ideas. The triplets are not the best choice here. They aren't even supposed to be down here."

"Why is life a continuous conspiracy around you?" I asked. She just shrugged her shoulders and made a jester with her eye that there was someone behind me.

"Guess who has been working with the mind readers?" Ali mentioned.

I turned around to see Julia staring almost straight into my eyes.

"God, Julia my life has become so complex. I just want to scream." I said.

"Welcome back Perera. You got smaller or did I grow?"

I smiled and gave her a hug. "That woman you brought, she knows everything. I talked to her just a few minutes. It is as if it was your mind I was speaking to." Julia says.

"It was bound to become that way. I followed her dreams and she was seeing this place or the tubes as they will be in a few years. When awake she reads everything I think and feel. But her life had been lived among people who feared her and I was the first to welcome her in."

"You sure did. Mom knows about you and me. The triplets let the cat out." Julia says.

I looked over at Ali. "I make no promises. Mary and I will be living in another flat. I want a fresh start. Life is short."

Ali said, "Shaun has his own family now 6 flats down, has some empty rooms as so many are moving into the tube. Stay here for lunch. Then you can find him running a restaurant, on the warehouse corridor, Shaun's Soup and Bread. Julia will show you."

So we stayed and chatted. Mary seemed relaxed. Something about Ali reassured her. I didn't trust her, but I trusted others even less. Mary sat next to Julia and they were bonding. Got that right away. I guess when compared to Mary's previous social circumstances, this was paradise. Maybe it was better, on reflection.

I started to relax and when ever I do that, then hell breaks loose. Xing Xing runs in, red hair flowing behind her. She whispers to Ali.

"We are all friends here. You can speak to the group." Ali says.

The woman was still catching her breath. "We have to move quickly. No, I am not staging this Anthony. Yes, Mary needs to help because no one knows her. A fresh face inspires interest and she radiates innocence."

She continued, "The North Wall habs have now been in place for over three years. They are deciding on a program to bio-engineer mind readers, beauty whores and some things I do not wish to mention. They have moved a number of prototypes into the secret lab area. They think we know nothing about them. There are a number of mind readers there, but they are in confusion and North Wall is untrained to deal with this. The objectors cannot prepare an escape plan. We will give them one."

Ali spoke. "I was very glad to hear Anthony had arrived." She looked over and smiled. This is why I don't trust her. Who am I. Just a guy with some speciality talents and much too attractive to powerful women. What was her plan?

Ali dropped the smile and continued. "It is time to tell the Chinese about their lava tube and then send Anthony in as a specialist in tube management. They don't know you're here, so we send you up and co-ordinate you're arrival with the orbital crew."

"I suppose I have been on Earth for the last two years, found a new wife and all that?" I asked.

"Yes, exactly. You will come with special equipment to locate the tube. We have the location and have been sitting on it for years." Ali added.

We are to take a few weeks and using Mary's talents to locate and befriend the mindreaders. At some point Shaun will organize a musical night for North Wall. About the time we spring the news:

NEW LAVA TUBE 10KM LONG

COULD BE 400M ACROSS.

They will be in a good mood. The people will hear before the brass can put a cork in it. Bloody Canadians can't follow protocol. This is the plan.

The offer was made, that I come and survey for lava tubes. We knew that they had found a small one to the east of the first hab. They were sitting on it. We knew of a larger one to the north-west and deeper. Ali sent messages through the CNSA. If she knew something about a second tube then... The American news programs were broadcasting that there was a large lava tube suspected north of the China habs. A Canadian, Anthony Perera was on his way to help in the search. Ali was devious.

It was fifteen days later that we landed before the chinese habs. We had our stories and history straight. An official translator and a watcher met us at the airlock of Hab 2. I really wanted a tour, but they whisked us off to an official meeting. We were never to wander about and go anywhere without our minder. Something different here. Oppressive culture. Maybe a pressure cooker.

Mary was loving it. She was excited because she could talk to the mind readers, even though they knew no English.

"There are more pictures in their thoughts, but it is clear to me what they are saying. I am trying to restrict my thoughts as you taught me, but even this conversation and others we will need to have, will leak our purpose." Mary explained.

"Just relax and enjoy our stay. That is message enough." I stated with a smile as we went to our third meeting. A planning committee of the tunnelling group.

I took my legit, but useless, tube finding equipment the next day. Boarded a jumper and mounted my devices. Then we were off, me, the pilot and a chinese assistant, hovering a few metres above the ground and following a grid pattern. It took five days and gave Mary time to communicate information to the mind readers. She sat in the peoples dining-room pretending to read Chinese history, while she was actually somewhere else doing subversive work. She was telling the people about herself, all the difficult and happy moments and what happened when she met me. She was telling them everything she knew about Plato South and the program to settle native peoples from North America. How everyone was welcome, and how they formed their own government. At night, while I slept, she was answering many questions, lots of questions in her own innocent way.

She was sound asleep when I woke.

I got rather tired of the grid. But soon we were over the said location and I got excited about something my pilot could not read. I directed him on a new grid and noted on a pad the new info. The next day, I called in the Bore Machine crew and gave them the data. They went to work. We hit some iron and much nickel on the way. By the time we reached the tube, 6 days and 12km later, we had also drilled through a kilometre of solid ice. I hoped they were paying me well. I am going to pretend that I picked that route because of the ice, the minerals were a surprise.

I led the officials into the tube after the crew had installed enough lighting. I was impressed. It was as Ali said, but she did not tell me about the lake at the lower end. We had the tunnel airlocked, so the water vapour floating about would not escape. Plato South would welcome such a good find but Plato North had it.

Great happiness, positive omens, I was there lucky coin. I called a party and told people about it, before asking permission. Two days later we had a party.

Shaun brought all the musicians he could find. The triplets made a return from Lunar orbit. Julia and Ali were honoured guests. The other girls were there as well. Kimberly the youngest at ten, Khloe the second at twelve, Zoey the second oldest a tall 14 and last Julia now 16 and a tall beauty.

There was a grand display of Chinese talent. It is amazing, what a trained acrobat can do when presented with 16 percent gravity. The air worked a little different when musicians tuned their instruments. Maybe something to do with lower air pressure and higher argon levels. I believe these habs used a small percentage of helium.

What caught my eye an hour into the bash, was a young couple snuggling in the corner. Eye to eye and in full passion. It would have not stuck with me, if I did not see it again out in the corridor, a different pair. When I next saw Mary, she just smiled and put her eye to mine. "I think you started something. It would be best if you don't admit to it."

"I always thought of this as our private find. A very intimate kiss. Just between us."

"Do not be silly. No good deed goes unpunished. Now you have raised the passion level for all mankind."

I gasped, "God, save me!"

The lights went out. All the lights went out. Someone held my hand and led me out to an airlock. Suits were ready and we were out the door. It seemed that dozens of people were milling quietly about. Then hoppers were rising full of people. We were away. Not into orbit but across the crater floor to Plato South. Most of the mind readers had come with us, crying children. The ones left behind would keep quiet for fear of punishment or use the 'wait and see' approach. Certain persons were out of the cellars. The triplets had been busy.

Most of the mind readers wanted to go back to Earth and try to make a life in Canada. The experimental persons, chose to stay and live in our tube. After a year many of the emigrates to Canada returned secretly, to Plato South, the psychic chatter in Canada was overwhelming and jobs scarce for people without proper English.

* * *

It was at this time. When we returned from North Wall that I noticed the two young boys in our Shaun flat. We had moved in and Shaun did not explain the two children, that he had obviously taken charge of. It was Mary who finally brought up the topic.

"This is not fair, that you should find out this way," she said the second night we were back in our room. "One child belongs to Yvette and the other is from Xing Xing. They are your sons. Those women tricked you, up in lunar orbit. It was not always Yvette that you slept with."

I just sat and listened. Stared into space and tried to keep my mouth from falling open. What was I to say when meeting Yvette and Xing Xing? I felt so bad that Mary started to cry and that made me cry, so we held each other. Then I heard this wailing coming from one of the upper bedrooms.

It surprised me just how sad and lost I felt. I even forgot Mary sitting by my side in the love seat. Those sisters had taken love and turned it into something else. They must have known just how vulnerable I was and yet I was giving of myself in a chance that something would grow.

Mary explained. "The boys can feel your pain and they know in some way who you are. It is going to be difficult, if you don't pull out of this low spot. They are your sons and you have some chance to be a father, because the women have to work away much of the time. I don't think Shaun will mind, if you can take some of the responsibility."

So I pulled out and looked at the positive. I had a family, a loving wife and a supportive environment. It did seem a little late for taking the boys to Earth. They were 21 months old and their bones were likely to be too underdeveloped for Earth gravity.

I would have to ask around and see how people were dealing with lunar gravity. Children were all over and about a third were born here. That meant we had 900 children born in Plato Crater habs. This was also showing us that people were not concerned with returning to Earth. If they did, the children would have to stay behind. Maybe I was being a little pessimistic. There was technology that could be used in future. Exo Skeletons that would allow someone young to gradually adjust to stronger gravity. Time would tell.

Shaun was a beneficiary of all this. Zoraida got tired of the antics of her two sisters and retired to lunar life and a contracting job with the materials separation unit. They needed all the help they could get. She had moved to Shaun's flat and they began a little dance, where they both found love. The boys came along and they volunteered to adopt them. That is a South Wall adoption, where nothing was written. They had a ceremony and a party but again nothing written.

The Ion Pulse

Impulse engines, ion engines, improved chemical rockets. We had a research department now. A team of rocket students in Sydney, Cape Breton, N.S. had expressed dissatisfaction with the program in the Cabot University research facility. They wanted more opportunity to work with ion engines. When they approached Doris in Candle Lake, she offered them to be a part of a new operation starting up in Plato South.

Zoraida would be the person trying to steer these young people and to find other experts in the field. The science was well developed but everything would be, if possible, built using lunar materials. We found some loose plans the Chinese had sent to Plato North. An actual engine was more difficult, but friends in Toronto were able to locate two dysfunctional engines at Ryerson University. These engines would disappear from a Scarborough warehouse one night, and not be noticed for a month.

The following year, they woke up to the fact that we had copied their nano-ion thruster and made it into a major machine. No moving parts. Electro-magnetic and electrostatic versions. Liquid heart ion generator. We called it the LLHIG ( Lunar Liquid Heart Ion Generator). The power was sufficient that a ship could be moved out of lunar orbit. A large wheelship with multiple motors could be sent on its way to Mars. But we did not want to take five days to move the ships out of orbit so we resorted to chemical rockets when the time came.

We intended to build wheelships. Ion engines are very efficient but produce a low acceleration. By turning the wheel on its side and spinning it we had gravity and could adjust it for lunar or higher weight. It was a good thing the centre axle could be stationary as we needed a point to connect the framing, where the engines could be secured. On the other side of the centre were attached the framing for the giant solar sails. These were extremely thin and of our own manufacture. They collect the solar wind and processed the sunlight for electricity. The wheel itself used a substantial amount of power, as it was carrying a thousand persons. But the engines needed a strong power source, as well, to project ions at high speeds away from the wheel.

It would take less than four months for a Mars trip and about three months for a Venus trip, as the planet was often close by.

Ted's Struggle with Sunshine

Ali said, "Doris, we need your people here with all their material skills. I know that you stitch in solar cell materials into the backside of our outside suits. We need to find a way to make thin sheets of this fabric and produce square kilometers of it."

The Earth woman, who had yet to visit Plato Crater, was up on the video panel in Ali's office.

"I have got your memos and we are researching it. You will have to be able to produce synthetic materials of a certain strength." Doris commented.

"Yes, I have my people working on it. I will send you a list of chemicals, that we cannot yet produce here." Ali answered.

Doris found one fellow, who had been encouraging American manufacturers to produce a Kevlar like material in vacuum instead of a bath of sulphuric acid. This was not practical on Earth or in orbit. They were thinking in terms that returning the product to Earth would be too expensive.

None of this made sense unless you were manufacturing on the Moon and not shipping back to Earth. What is the Earth to us?

Ted Pringle was not that happy with living on Luna, even for a short stint. He was single and getting on into his 40s. But he needed to try his idea and this was his chance. The patent rights were very much in force, but he was the expert so he quietly disappeared one night from Nashville and arrived the next day in Candle Lake. He was given a tour of the base, introduced to the spacesuit women and told that part of his project would be to combine a light sensitive material with his own. This would make it a new patentable material. There was a woman there, Sherene, who was one of the persons researching new materials for the spacesuit manufacturers. He was drawn to her and they exchanged ideas until he realized that she was smarter than himself.

"I am going to Plato South in a few days. I need you if this is going to work. You have knowledge that even 4NM never ran into." Ted explained.

That night he realized he was in love and he knew nothing about Sherene. Was she married? Would she be able to love him? He did not sleep and got up early to go for a walk in the prairie sunrise. The full moon was setting.

As he was thinking of turning around and returning to the cafeteria, he saw a woman sitting on a bench in the park. It was Sherene.

She looked over at him. "You are up early. Come sit down and we can enjoy the sunrise together."

They later ate breakfast together and she spent the day showing him the materials department.

It was she that asked him. "I am not a young woman. Been married. Have children now grown up. Helen and I have worked together here, since the base started. I am self-educated, so there are great empty spaces in my knowledge."

"I understand that you are very important to this department." Ted said.

"Not as much as before. We have young university folk here and more coming. Even Helen is considering retiring. There is a change going on."

"I would think it would be difficult to leave all this. At the top of your field and everything."

"If I met the right person? I believe in new starts." she said.

"This last few days I have been thinking of marrying two different materials together, but last night I was thinking of a different type of marriage."

"Well, we will need more time, but I see no problems yet."

Ted's face went from white to red and he reached out for her in a hall alcove. Held her as if his life depended upon it.

It was another month before they boarded the shuttle and flew to the Moon. On board, were all kinds of chemicals that would not be allowed under normal circumstances. But the shuttle had never crashed. Only 42 passengers this time.

Ali welcomed them. She put them up in Shaun's flat.

I was able to work with Ted and Sherene for the next four months helping them with a new vacuum cavern. This cavern was my work during the time Ali was negotiating with Doris. It had to be two kilometers deep and 150 meters wide by 40 meters tall. About 860 tunnels using the old equipment. But Doris had sent me a new set of three machines with a 4 meter diameter. It meant that 340 tunnels would do the job. One tunnel a day per machine or only 114 days. We were the tunnelling experts.

I used two of the older machines starting from the top and new machines from the bottom. Everything was finished in 70 days. It also took every spare person on the south wall. Ali organized the interior rock cutting crews and the conveyor systems. A crew of ten per tunneling machine and 40 persons handling the extracted rock.

The cavern was finished three weeks after Ted and Sherene arrived and they helped me design the equipment layout for the sail materials. That they were so sure as to the effectiveness of the material, was a work of double genius. There were some false starts. This first material was not ready yet for space, but there was another use. And we wanted to put the damaged materials to work.

Out on the plain, south of the wall, was the beginnings of a solar farm. There we had used traditional solar cells, but we found that the sail material was much cheaper to produce and large quantities could be made (some of the discarded materials) and easily spread over a grid of strong poles just as the canopy material in the crater. There was no wind or other factors to worry about. This was also a test site for the collector efficiency. We could also measure the strength of the solar wind as it struck the Moon.

Within a year we had the cloth we wanted, all produced from local materials. Many of the elements came from the rock removed by the tunneling operation. The improved cloth manufacturing, required a substantial amount of electric power, now provided by the fields of solar sails. Other banks of lithium air batteries were sheltered in the shade of the solar cloth.

Printers in Place

Having a natural vacuum environment (NVE) was working for us in many ways. Clyde Hammer came to us from a little town in Kentucky. Just outside of Lexington.

Clyde comments, "Paris Kentucky is not a household name, but that is where I worked out all the kinks in a new system of printing. I could not actually produce the vacuum I needed. The equipment I worked on was small scale, but could it be scaled up?"

We were in Shaun's new restaurant on the Promenade. Mary, I and Zoraida were sitting across a small lunch table.

Mary said, "And you have your 3D printer here built mostly from your own technology. What can we expect?"

"I worked with a printer company in Lexington for many years but never got the credit," Clyde was a two meter giant of a black man. "I created many of the electronic refinements that kept that company in business. Living on my own in Paris and trying to do my own research drove me into bankruptcy. Then I heard of your needs and plans. Someone had put an ad on Facebook. 'Looking for 3D print technology experts. Good money. Free accommodations.' I took a chance and answered."

Zoraida asked, "I just need specifications on your fine particle needs."

"But I was not expecting a native girl to phone me and on seeing her, I fell in love. Even if there was no job. I needed to go to Candle Lake and meet this young woman. I am a 43 year old black man in desperate love with a fine young lass. She will be here next week."

I commented. Mary put her hand on mine. "I wish you a great life my friend. Doris is an treasured friend."

"She told me some things about you. Her first love and all that." Clyde mentioned.

"I never realized I was the first. Most of our talk was technical."

Clyde just smiled. He was letting me know that he was King to my Lancelot and the subject was closed.

Doris arrived the following week and we had a large welcoming party to greet her. Then we had a dance in the second lava tube. Doris invite people to her own flat over the next few weeks, and the story of what was happening in Canada came out.

Doris and Clyde had invited Ali and her team with Shaun and his flat over in the second week of her arrival.

"I told you about the Zomes and their construction and I am sure Mary has kept you up to date on the research that came out of their farming experiments." Doris said. "The companies that collaborated on those buildings went on to tour the reserves of Canada and are showing them how a zome can be used and how it can eliminate (solve) the housing situation."

She went on, "If the weather is kept out, then housing becomes similar to what we have been doing here in the tubes. With the added bonus that they can look up into the sky at night and day. Years have gone by and fifty of these large structures have been built around the country. Some of the locations, like Yellowknife and Shefferville are in extreme arctic climate. They have proven successful, encouraging city natives to move back and help with the work." [7]

She continued, "So many people have left Toronto and Winnipeg, that there is great suspicion among the city elite. The Feds are investigating a terrorist plot. We have promoted our true goals through the media and have had many offers of non-reserve land to start new zomes."

I chirp in, "Canada is a winter country and the reserves have been unsuccessful with city-style housing. They were doomed to fail. This zome movement is an answer." I was stating the obvious.

Doris had caught her breath. "I think that this development will continue and I have a list here of 140 other locations that have requested a zome. To move a house up and install it on a reserve costs over a million. A zome built with power and water costs 50 million. Using wind farms and solar material over segments of the dome, there is no need for power-lines coming in."

Ali had sat quietly listening with a slite smile. "We need to encourage the exchange of people between here and the domes. We have some capacity right now, but if traffic thickens, we can invest in more shuttles and tugs."

Doris continued, "It is planned that way and the people who have replaced me and others in Candle Lake are working to make it so. The Moon is the only other planet that can be treated this way. Once we move to Mars the distances will be too great. Now if we could shorten the journey to 10 days?"

We all made a great community sigh.

Clyde was ready to make an announcement. "I am here tonight because I wish to tell you, all my friends, that within a two month period, we will be ready to start printing parts for the big wheels. A railgun will be used to shoot these parts into orbit, thus saving us substantially from the water supplies. The accuracies using my printers will be ten times the molding method. Some parts will be fired with a glaze and other parts can be untreated."

It seemed that we were now well on our way to having a serious space program. Clyde's printers were enormous. They looked like a series of large boxes spaced along the east wall of the crater.

One day Ali asks for me to come to her flat.

I enter and she was sitting quietly at a clean dinner table. Coffee cup sitting half empty in front of her.

"I just needed someone to talk to." she says. "I feel a bit like a third wheel these days."

"Well you have accomplished what you set out to do." I answered and sat down across from her.

"She wants to go back to Earth. Julia! She wants to take her sisters with her."

"That will be difficult for them. But if it is too hard..." I commented.

"I was afraid you would say that. Julia is a hard nosed person. She will not return before she has overcome the gravity pains."

"Yes, hard nosed." I said looking straight into her eyes.

"Yes, I know. She is like me."

"And she needs to find a mate. Look at the pattern. The pairing up seems to go better on Earth." I said.

"It would be a relief for me if her attention is turned away from you. She seems to be waiting for Mary to slip up."

I said, "Mary can read her. Nothing will happen. I do have some control."

"Good! Now how are we going to work this? I don't want her to think I am giving permission. She needs to slip out with her sisters, when I am not here. Next week? I will visit the French quarter in Fourier crater. Alex will come with me. You and Zoraida can arrange the girl's exit? Doris will see they have work at Candle Lake once they have adjusted."

Julia did come to me. Mary knew the plan. The four girls were very excited about the trip. They would doubt the wisdom of their decision, once they arrived, but youth bounces back. There was always work in the materials department at Candle Lake. They could make a tour of the domes and bring back a report. I wanted a daily log from Julia.

It was a year before the three younger sister returned.[8]

Chapter 15 : A Tube with a Difference

It is amazing. We now understood that even the brass in Plato North were not in agreement with the orders coming from China's HQ. They were relieved that the young experiments were gone. Some only nine and ten years old. Not something they had signed up for. Because of our mind readers, we knew that there was not going to be any attack against us. That gave us a two year period to do all the development we wanted. We stiffened our security in Candle Lake and Lab City. That is where they could hurt us.

What we needed now was to make the city of Plato South independent of supplies from Earth. We also needed to make products that Earth could not make for themselves.

The Farming Program.

Mary was a better than average bookkeeper. But I could not see her in that role here. Ali agreed and between us we enhanced a series of programs for her.

Doris, as soon as the discovery of our first lava tube, realized that it was going to be farmed and in consultation with her people decided to build two sister tubes in Saskatchewan. She knew of an architect that could build geodesic domes and asked if they would build her a long, long one. A zome. On the surface, not underground. She had native people tille and prepare the soil, they documented everything they did and then started experimenting to see what would grow best and right through the winter. It used artificial lighting so this was the real test. They could experiment with brightness, internal wind speed and temperature. Seeds and cuttings came in from all over the world.

What Doris was thinking was clear. She had a dome built 3km in length near the American border. Coranach, a town not 80km north and on a railway. Plant E1 was a target, a test of the American psychology. Everyone there had to be on their toes and no weed or similar substances allowed. The other dome, E2, would be closer to home, smaller and north of Prince Albert at Meath Park. Successful agricultural plants were passed on to LT01-PS, Lava tube, Plato South.

Now Mary was going to be the collector of all information to do with planting and results. She would visit e1 and e2 on occasion, but her main job was getting the best results in the lava tubes. I could not see her making that 18 day round trip so I arranged that Mary use an avatar. An individual would visit the Earth tubes, with cameras and microphones built into her hat. Even with a 2.0 second signal delay, there and back, it was workable.

But here we were three years in and it was time to break open the sleeping beast. There were three tubes to choose from but only one other like our LT01-PS.

LT02-PS was a monster but only 150m from the surface. This Hab 2 was similar to Hab 1 but much more advanced. Larger, roomier flats, but with fewer bedrooms. More industrial space, because we did not want this activity in the tubes. LT02-PS had a lake and 10km of wonderful space.

One aspect of the high rise construction I have not mentioned. The walls of the buildings were not made with brick or concrete. A similar material to the outdoor canopies was used. This could be designed with painted or dyed sections. The material could be sewn like a quilt to create sound insulation. Think of the materials used with the tipis. The structure was more like scaffolding with firm floors and ceilings. Windows would be flexible plastics or just flaps that could be tied back. Frame construction struts could also be made now, using Lunar materials.

Into the fifth year our numbers in Plato South were reaching 10,000. Plato North was 5500 and the rest were collectively about 220. US, Brazil, Russia and France. We were putting the most effort into mineral extraction. We learned a bit from our interests in the IOCC iron ore company. You need a good population to carry on manufacturing anywhere. With so many persons on site, you also have to give them work to do. Good honest work with a goal, not just to create personal comforts, but ultimately many would be going with the space crafts that they helped construct.

Young people here could adjust to the gravity of Mars or go out on a station-ship to Venus orbit, where the G force would be increased gradually for when that planet was cool enough to explore. Then there was the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, similar to Luna.

Six years later

The Sky Tube is a lava tube where part of the roof has collapsed. As long as people worked under the 30m section away from the hole, good vacuum work can be done all day without worrying about radiation. It turned out that this tube, came in real handy for building sections to the large space station ordered by the Russians. The Chinese were already doing similar work north of us. They had long ago stopped using our space cowboys in lunar orbit. Now that the space wheels were constructed piece by piece in orbit, security was strict.

We were literally sailing out to the stars. The plan was massive and our resources were not. You can only use so much lunar diamond crystal before the market value drops out. It had not yet and our store lay lightly used. Some of the products we produced, the Chinese were forced to purchase at high prices. This included fresh food, coffee and tea.

We needed little of what they had. I thought of the gold rush in the Yukon and who was it, that made money. It was the hotels, rooming houses, restaurants and bars. It was the transport people and the bankers. The service industry. Oh, the body houses as well.

We thought of all kinds of items that other colonies would need. Like toilets, baths, kitchen sinks, stoves, refrigerators, bed frames, small space heaters, basic hand tools. We were in the hardware business and no one could beat our prices. We had the seeds that grew well, not so cheap. Earthworms adapted to lunar soil. Cuttings of all kinds of fruit trees, nut trees, bees for pollination.

Our plumbing supplies were unbeatable. All the pipes, joints, taps, shower heads produced 'in house'. We had to produce them for the Mars trip, as people were moving down to the surface not long after they arrived. We also started to consider what terraforming Mars would look like. First the deep canyons, where tunnels could be made in the walls. But oxygen stations could be self-operating at intervals along the canyon floor. So we produced efficient oxygen and nitrogen generators for Mars.

Huge rigs could be sent with all the hardware and supplies at the same time, ahead of the first wheel stations. What I mean is the same rigs that sailed between the earth and the Moon could be set up by remote controls and ion rockets, to sail ahead to Mars orbit. Any kind of freight could be tied onto it. We could offer some of this for sale to the local settlers from the US, Russia, and China at good prices or straight barter. We were always aware that there was opportunity here to make a profit.

When we built a ship for the Russians according to their instructions, we built another much larger for ourselves. It was not done in their face, but out of direct sight of their operations. The Russians had a base at the south pole as did the Americans and the Europeans, but for some reason they had not made it large or moved in a lot of their people. Their direct private flights to Mars, did go badly at first, then better but it was the human factor that they could not overcome.

When in space take your loved ones, your extended family, your tribe, your town. It takes a town to raise a community. It takes a large group of like minded people to maintain any sanity.

The Russians were sending 50 to Venus orbit. We would send 1000 with all the comforts of a lava tube. It was a wheel, a tube eating its tail. Then we would send 5000 more people and begin the terraforming of Venus. The sail material arriving would be used to reflect sunlight away from the Venus atmosphere. It was all an experiment. First cool the atmosphere down a couple of hundred degrees and see what happens. Venus is Earth sized and close by. It would be a shame not to try and use it. We will ask assistance from the other countries, once there is proof that the planet is cooling.

Send an orbiting wheel, then another, then make some changes. Find some lava tubes. Maybe Venus had tubes as well as Mars.

Mary and her team would have the data ready, when we needed to start new agricultural projects out there. Yearly, we go to Earth, Mary, I and our son. We spend enough time there to strengthen ourselves. Then we visit Toronto, as my parents are so happy to have a grandchild.

I take a couple of days to examine the railguns in Labrador. We visit the many zomes or ground domes, out on the prairies. Mary catalogues the experimental results. Then it is back to Plato South. The shuttle is usually half full of seeds and cuttings and some insects and birds we take a chance on adapting to the tubes.

Part II

Chapter 16 : Ravenchild Wheel

On Earth the news kept its constant voice of disapproval of the wheelship projects coming out of Plato South. There was no way that we were going to succeed in sending a wheelship to Mars.

We had been planning this and working towards it since landing in Plato Crater. We asked them to send their best scientist. We would show them what we were doing. Check out our new ion motors, now tested at full throttle for over two years. Six times the thrust of the best American engines. We were sure the engines could run as long as five years. They can be banked and if a couple failed, spares can be brought online. Our sails are broad and strong enough to catch a good solar wind and at the same time collect solar power to fire the engines.

One Thorium reactor had found its way to us and we were going to use it with the next larger station to produce electrical power for the motors.

Then came a middle aged man and a young woman from Houston, Texas. They got the tour of the tubes, the mineral separation areas, soil production areas, and the railgun program.

Much of what we showed them, they had never heard about. They watched the multi-ton packages being rammed into Lunar orbit and were surprised that we were sending dirt into space. I let them chew on that one.

They then visited the four sections of the wheel. Looking down from orbit they saw our giant 3D printers in action. Shaun was onboard with Zoraida, who was the ship's Captain. Their two boys Henry and Dermit running about. Tom Warner and Shirlee Story, our Americans, were served a big meal and tasty juices from the berry plants already growing on board. Corn, potatoes, a variety of spicy proteins from beans and pulses graced their plates. A little duck on the side raised in a pond onboard.

The guests smiled and relaxed after the meal. No alcohol forced Tom to ask about the traditions of the colony.

Shaun was free to answer, "There are no strict rules about the use of alcohol and drugs. It might have something to do with the history of many of the city natives. Tobacco has gone back to being a sacred weed. We work hard, play hard, have families watching over each other. Never been much of an issue. We have a good time without the stimulants. Coffee or tea?"

Zoraida was watching the woman carefully. She was not easy to read, but she liked this Shirlee. Then she pulled her aside as the evening progressed and Tom was occupied with the boys.

"You do not want to go back." Zoraida said, "I can help you with that."

"You are one of the mind readers. We were briefed about you." replied Shirlee.

"I can read some people but not you. And I don't need to read your mind. You are part of a space program very much in free fall. Do you have a job when you return? Will this year bring more layoffs?"

"Yes," she sighed, "I have not much hope for the next few years in America. I trained for all this, the navigation to Mars and the other planets. But it is you and your kind that will take this huge population out of Earth. Someone who never even went to college."

"Easy girl. Just because we did not spend the bucks, does not mean we do not have the brains and make the effort. We trained, we studied the online courses. Our lives depend on it. But it would be most comforting to have someone like you on the first flight out. You would be free to report everything back to Houston."

When Shirlee told Tom her decision, he almost blew a gasket.

Shirlee explained, after Tom had stopped his rant. "I want to go to Mars. You and I both know it won't happen for us, after we return. So Zoraida is making me first mate."

She sent messages to all her friends before they heard from official channels.

"It is the adventure of a lifetime. They are Canadians. That is as good as American. It is time to stop being suspicious of them and join them."

She continues with her praise.

"Following their example. It was not a sudden decision on my part. I have been thinking about this for years. Did you know, they have dozens of cave gardens and three lava tubes housing 20,000 peoples. Forests and duck ponds full of fish. They can support this population with the food they grow. If we were to cut them off from Earth, they would just continue for years without needing anything from us. If they need something, they figure out how to make it. Just like the pioneers in our past."

"Many of the hard working people here are some of the homeless from Canadian cities. The poor who were not allowed to work. We could do the same, if we are concerned about our brothers. But please do not try to stop these pioneers. They are now the best of us."

The news of Shirlee's abduction aboard the Ravenchild, arrived hours after her own messages were spread across the web. News broadcasters needed to choose which side to fall on. The U.S, had a sudden exodus of space specialists to Canada and it is not that difficult to locate Candle Lake. They found themselves under much more scrutiny than any local person, when they arrived.

So some spies made it to Plato South. Ali figured, if they were going to do harm, that it would come soon after they came. Maybe even a suicide bombing. So first thing on sitting down in shuttle seats, they received their pin prick in the behind. Tagged and ready to be followed on arrival. They were warned to behave and not wander the first few days after arrival. Anyone who did was shipped back. Innocent or guilty.

We don't have weapons here. No projectile weapons, nor explosives. Ali had to have a bodyguard and chose a very innocent looking young woman. She had been one of the children removed from the Chinese habitats. She was a small adult with special abilities. No more to say about that now. No one with bad intentions got close to Ali.

Shirlee came down to quietly vet many of the new American arrivals.

She spoke with the chosen group. "You want to come up to the wheel and have a look. They are only weeks away from departure. They might even invite you to come along."

She continued, "If not now then there are other chances to get to Mars. Just staying here is interesting enough for some. I did not go back to Earth, because I have lost confidence in the American program. Some of you undoubtedly feel the same."

South Pole Advance

Ali had a meeting with the space committee. Anthony, Mary, Xing Xing, Yvette, Zoraida, Shaun and a few specialists. Something was coming soon out of the south pole American base.

After much discussion Ali finally said, "We have to do something. I say we take them over or clear the base."

Zoraida stated, "It seems they have only been keeping so many people on site for the chance to attack us. I say we allow them, but set up check points going south as it seems to be a ground offensive. They know we are undefended on the ground."

Ali said, "Not quite. We have knowledge."

A plan was made that anticipated their approach. First the Americans started setting up fuel depots along a route north. Hoppers only had a range of 300km. Some of the depots we located and most of the hydrogen we found was replaced with liquid air. Signs of our activity were removed carefully. Then we mounted false cannons up on the rim and placed some small charges where munitions might land. Good Hollywood stuff.

They backed off after their failure. We approached them uninvited and asked for a meeting. Coming down from orbit we told them about not wanting any revenge nor any harm. If we had wanted them removed it was no trouble from orbit. They disobeyed orders and let me and Zoraida in.

Captain Clark Peters was in charge. Zoraida liked him and understood the pressure he was under.

"You like the cut of my jib my man." she said. Captain Peters was a sailing hobbyist. "I have two sisters identical who need a good man. I am married. But you got to come with. Convince as many as will."

Enticing a man with honey. I was finding it hard to keep a straight face. When the small group of defectors left with us there was soon a rumour spread about the station being wiped out. So the remaining team took off for their orbiting station and then home to court-martials. It was the Americans that destroyed the station and blamed Ali's team.

We checked out the remains a month later only to realize that what we had done had been to save a few souls from an explosive situation. The team was suffering and their purpose was flagging. Records did survive showing that their people were in a tailspin and the discipline was about gone. I will not say more.

It is so much better to have people with a purpose. Allow them freedom to make their own decisions, be a part of something bigger. Ali and Doris had kept the ship steering a straight course, though their own lives were anything but.

The American Mars program was stalled and their small settlement was about to be shut down. Perhaps we could do something about that.

"Can we offer them terms?" said Ali. "They have a lot of experience and we will be there in four months. Perhaps Shirlee could get the return voyage delayed."

Shirlee had joined the meeting. "I know how to do this."

Shirlee had a contact on Mars, Joakim Edvardson, and she emailed him. He did not want to leave and was willing to help in the delay. Now the exact date for the Ravenchild departure was set. Any details not completed would be taken care of on route.

The Americans on Mars were now dependent on the Plato South people, to get there before their old settlement ran out of food and resources. It would be a pity if they had to throw themselves on the mercy of the Russians.

Ali knew that the pride of the Americans was at stake and she understood that we had to get a move on. It was announced publicly their day of departure would be the first of November. Three days earlier we were already out of lunar orbit. Travelling faster than planned. Shirlee had shown Zoraida how to do that. Once she understood just how conservative the Canadians were. All the spare ion engines were used, while the sails were still close to the Sun. They would shut some engines down later as electricity was harder to get. At the last moment they had attached two small thorium reactors inside the ring.

It just happened that going faster put them in a more favourable position to shorten the journey. Closer to three months. But a month into the journey they get news from the Russian team.

"Uri Vostoc, call me Uri." he is talking to the two women pilots about the Americans, "The place is trashed. We got word they were leaving. Not one man left behind. They could have waited for you here. Sorry! We knew and I guess their bosses knew as well. They wanted to join you."

"Expect us in two months. We offer you an invitation onboard when we arrive." said Zoraida. "How does roast goose sound?"

"We will bring the vodka. See you then." said Uri.

"Oh, and Uri, leave the supply rigs be. Not good public relations. We have a few good offers for you on arrival." We had three rigs following or ahead powered with ion engines and small thorium reactors. Supplies that would have weighed down the wheelship.

Shirlee was crying as the conversation ended. Zoraida held her and they stayed that way for a long time.

"You know I love you Shirlee. Have from that first day. And I know you feel the same. But I will not take it any further. Good husband and family. I feel your joy and pain. From the first day in Candle Lake, we saw this coming. Your Americans even tried to wipe us off the Saskatchewan map."

"I respect your family and I just want to tell you this once. I love you in every sense of the word. Don't ever send me away from you. I will help you as long as I live."

They held each other again, until they were interrupted as pilots will be on a long space journey.

Shirlee would morn the loss of her friend Joakim. He was heading back to a bad situation. They would not forgive him. Perhaps she could do something to help him escape to Canada but she no longer trusted her messages being safe.

Another wheelship was already being assembled in Lunar orbit. This one for 5000 persons. Ali had everyone pushed on this one, because she did not want to be more than two years behind the Ravenchild.

Chapter 17 : Mars

The Russians were well aware of the great value of the freight rigs accompanying the Ravenchild. They were also afraid of the reputation following the Lunar explorers. They had a history of besting their enemies and then sucking them in. Women at the helm. Women behind everything. There were rumours that they used mind readers and men were seduced to follow their every command.

Perhaps it was wise to check out the wheelship and get the free meal they offered. None of them had eaten well in a year. Every one of their supplies were diminished. They had knowledge to trade. Two years in the Valles Marineris had to give them some advantage.

"Uri," answered Zoraida. "Whats up! We have been waiting for your call."

"We saw your arrival. Just wondered if you were coming right down." said Uri.

"Not a chance. Too many details to take care of. We are surveying the Canyon and waiting for our supplies to catch up. Should I pluck the duck?"

"You running on eastern standard time? I, with a few of my mates, will be up tomorrow about three. You got some showers we could use? And how about a washing machine? We will bring our laundry."

"No problem. You are our guests. Stay for a week and make yourself at home." said Zoraida.

"Where is that babe Shirlee? She married or mated up?"

"I will tell her you are expressing interest. She is very available. Good luck with that." answered Zoraida.

"See you all tomorrow!"

Shirlee was there standing to one side. She smiled and looked at her best friend.

"He is not shy. Thank God he will be washing up before hand." said Shirlee.

The Party

The ten men pulled there cruiser up to the docking airlock of the wheelship. They tumbled out as they adjusted to the spinning of the station. Eyes were opened on the sky roof, ceramic, coloured to look like clouding blue sky. In front of them stretched a grey stone walk and all about were fields of bamboo and corn. Ahead came the two sisters of navigation. Behind came Shaun and I. Hands were shaken, words of welcome expressed and then Shaun lead them off to the showers.

"You would think they could send at least a couple of their women." said I. "I know they have fifty of such."

We were watching their backs as they walked away.

"These are the men who are not attached. Uri decided early on, after a hint from me." said Zoraida.

"So did you choose some of our young women because they were single?" I asked.

"I don't know. But we do need to bond with them. The party will include many of the single women. Some of them are astrophysics apprentices and rig jockeys. We will let chemistry do its work."

"I am thinking to invite them (the Russians) into the site. We need their input." I suggested.

"Yes," Zoraida replied, "Good call."

It was a party that marked our arrival and our future as a united group. Nothing was said about a Russian / Lunar merger but it was in the background of our conversations. Pheromones were flying about and the Russian residents were strangely quiet that night. Many ducks and two geese got sacrificed and potatoes devoured. They passed the Vodka about, but we had our grape juices.

They told us in their own words the history of their Mars program. How the first crew landed in a difficult windy place. No water to find anywhere. Then the failure of the escape pods. There were two more attempts with only small crews, then they found out Plato South could supply them with a wheelship. That was our first attempt. It accommodated 200.

They were successful because they had picked a spot in the Valles Marineris. Lots of water-ice. Some air pressure. Which meant lighter spacesuits. New foam dwellings without the need for heavy radiation protection.

Uri explained, "We wanted to bring TBMs with us, but no one could come up with a good way to ship them down from orbit."

"We were stuck on that one as well." I said. "of course we haven't done it yet, but our equipment should get through."

"Zoraida was saying you re-invented the machine, so that there was no part heavier than 200kg." said Uri.

"Ya, we have these gliding freighters. Hope they land well." I replied.

I did not mention the cloth wings that unfold nor the parachutes that opens if it looked like a crash.

"When the gliders return we have people who can swoop down and grab them from the top of the atmosphere." I added.

We did the first shipment, while our Russian friends were still on board. I and a young space jockey, Blade Chee, went down in a good controlled flight and landing. The freight was a inflatable residence. I stayed behind and did some exploring while waiting for many more gliders to bring the equipment we needed. Every TBM machine and dozer was equally divided into puzzle parts.

The flight up involved inflating a bladder with hydrogen. Then the electric prop pushed its empty weight up into the thin atmosphere.

The five gliders proved themselves over the next few days. Each one bringing new members of the ground crew. But that first few hours were very special. Alone in a location that had never seen a human before. No footsteps, no traces. But inside I was not so clear that man, the soul had not been here. The light, the sifting sand, the wide valley bright. What a memory!

Uri arrived the next day. "Got caught up in what you are trying to do here. My bosses back on Earth did not want us associating. But it is too late for that. So here I am. I sent word to base, that I would send updates every day. You can clear them if you want. I have to use your equipment. Zoraida insisted we shake free of our communication devices."

"Uri. You understand her caution. Personally, I don't give a damn. How is Shirlee doing?"

"Man! It is a strange event to come all the way to Mars to fall in love. An American as well."

I showed him the cliff face we wanted to first test for stability and then bore into its base. Within a few days all the equipment was assembled and we started the first tunnel. About a kilometre, in through hard volcanic rock, we hit a soft spot. I was keeping an eye on the face temperature. Above freezing. Sudden warning signals and we stopped the machine.

Water everywhere! Hand tools handy the crew dug in and cleared a space revealing a waterfall descending through a hundred metre vertical drop. A party of young people climbed the upper part and found the place where it levelled out horizontally.

I called them back.

"We need to find a way to use this water but the tunnel is useless." I said.

After a couple of days we started piping the water out onto a small hollow we had constructed on the plain. It immediately filled up and froze. At the same time we set up oxygen generators using the liquid water. Uri just scratched his head.

"What is the purpose in that? It will just be blown away." asked Uri.

"Ya, at first. We need to see how the air moves about. We will bottle the hydrogen for now. The freighter gliders will have good use for it."

A couple of weeks later, we set up large wind breaks using the solar sail material. As the oxygen spread we expanded the breaks. As it expanded upward we trapped it with canopies in places. We tried not to cast shadows on the places we were working. All the equipment was producing heat. This caused a rise in the air temperature. The air pressure had doubled.

"Just wait for the storms." said Uri.

"Yes, I am sure it will wreak havoc. You got any ideas on how to re-enforce the breaks?"

"I will get back to you." He notified his base crew. Within a day they came in style. Big wheeled rovers pushing into view.

He introduced me to the second commander, Marina. Maybe 35, big but well shaped. My heart flipped and I could see Mary hopping the next flight down.

We shock hands and I showed all 40 Russians about.

"You are a crazy bunch." commented Marina. "Never in my wildest dreams, would I have thought of this. The storms will tear it apart. But if you bury the bottom two metres and slope the fence west, it might have a chance."

I called all the dozers in and put them on bury duty. Many of the Russians picked up shovels to help out. Marina and Uri followed me over to the next cliff location where the TBM sat waiting.

"Our testing devices now know what a water hazard looks like. We are hoping for a better result this time." I said.

After a kilometre of tunnelling, I was think of calling it off. The outer tunnel had some serious cracks. Then I wandered out to see Marina and Uri at a distance, checking out the debris in the pile at the end of the conveyor. I took the twelve minutes to walk over and have a private conversation.

"See anything interesting." I asked.

Marina came up and leaned her helmet against mine. "Hello, honey. Want to share my bed tonight."

I was expecting something sudden. "I would but my wife can read my mind."

"Just thought I would ask. Would have been fun." she said. I smiled.

I asked, "How about the minerals? I was thinking of shutting this tunnel down."

Marina said, "Oh, don't stop now. It is spitting out iron at 8 percent and rising. We also see significant levels of nickel, copper and zinc."

I stepped back. Could see Uri smiling. Turned my radio on.

I said, "What you smiling about? I will give the machine another kilometre then we can re-access."

Then I ran back to the wall. Now the tunnel walls were growing more firm. Just as I liked it. This was not the Moon and moving to another test site might be no better. At three kilometres all the equipment was pulled out. I missed Ali and her efficiency.

The next tunnel we bore right above the first. Gave the floor a two metre thickness. If the floor gave out then I would call a halt. But it didn't. Everything was looking much better. So we continued for the next week using all three machines and an expanded work teams. This included the Russians, now 80 strong for which we had to find room. I made certain that Uri shared my room and no one my bed. Food was sent down ready to heat from the wheelship.

This was the longest Mary and I had been separated. She sang to me as I fell asleep.

Two weeks into the tunnelling on number 201, we ran into water again. That was the sign to stop. This would be the Habitats water supply. The water tunnel would be kept separate from the main unit. We again did not have Ali to call on to get the walls and floors cleared out and I had to be careful how I assigned jobs. Marina was in charge of marking out the mineral contents in the rubble piles. She reported back to me and Uri. Most of the iron rich rock got into a limited area where we could process it later. The debris pile was now making a straight line, about 40 metres high and parallel, 2,500 metres from the wall.

In the tunnels, flats were cut out in a well understood manor. I should have trusted the young people to do the job properly. They made improvements that I would not have thought of. There were two low slung garden caves. I had planned only one but this was better. We spent extra time double sealing the surfaces with compounds we had developed in Plato South. Tests told us there was no danger of collapse. But if there were a quake.

I asked Uri. He and Marina were the chief geologists on the Russian team.

"Yes, there are quakes and they will cause some slippage. You are working right over a slip rift. But I don't see any danger. Just don't build your exits on the canyon floor. Five floors up is good."

"I am not encouraged. You must have been laughing at us all the time." I admitted.

"No, no. You are doing all the stuff I really wanted to do. But no one was going to give us go ahead on such a project. I love it."

He wasn't laughing but there was a big smile on his face. "Crazy Indians, I love you." and he gave me a big hug.

Uri explained, as the days went on, that for many reasons this was the best place to try all the new stuff. We needed to learn how to live on Mars. Their settlement was much too limited and many a beard would grow before something breathtaking happened.

I had two people on security, watching the Russian settlers and whether they were taking anything from the site. My people did not see any rovers moving away in all that time, but more people were arriving to help out. We needed the extra hands. Uri became my second in command. After the tunnels were completed, he and his bunch explored the tunnels and the garden caves. Those Russians. He exclaimed in surprise at the scale we were working on.

I said to Uri. "You want to move in? I will give you the second corridor. Room for 500. You can take the upper garden cavern." Mary was passing this message to me from Zoraida and Ali.

"You kidding me? I would be pleased. Don't go to my old settlement. It is not pretty."

So they moved in about three weeks later. A lot of the equipment on the wheelship was packed and freighted down. With it came half of our wheel population. The hardest part was moving the soils. We basically parachuted most of it. Huge winged chutes that broke up on impact. Most landed where we could retrieve the soils. Worms for the most part survived the shock.

Russians in the Halls

The people that we had brought with us were people with high learning abilities and good social natures. The pairing up had already started before the Russians moved in and they were being lead out of their private corridors. The children of course paid little attention to whose corridor they were in and the Russians were sick from a lack of young voices over the last three years. Their journey here had taken seven months. They had left the Moon orbit without taking on the soil quota they had been offered. Little agriculture happened onboard and few people stayed in orbit, after they had settled on Mars. The station floated as a lonely creature halfway, between the orbits of Mars' moons.

So right away there was a trickle of people into our flats. Maybe it was because we could cook better. It was a vegetable, beans and nuts society. Until we could grow some fruit trees. What had they been doing for food all this time? I did not really care as long as they were happy living here.

But I was seldom there in the halls. We had a lot to do before summer was over. Mars days are only a few minutes longer than Earth days but the year is twice as long. Even equator weather cools off a lot with the distance of Mars to the Sun. Nights get very cold and it is good to plan only indoor work after dark. But the TBMs worked round the clock and so did we.

The goal was to create a second Habitat before the second wheelship arrived. We now had 15 months and not too much luck in finding a second location. We kept moving east down the valley wall. A highway was in the making, as so much equipment was moving about, creating mud holes that the machines would sink into.

Then we ran into something special. A clear wall of sedimentary stone. Fine sand had sifted into a kilometre wide crevice and compacted over thousands of years. The rock did not come right down to the valley floor so we lifted the first TBM up to the 300m mark and started digging in.

It was even better material than we faced on the Moon. I wondered if the walls could be properly sealed. We has never tunnelled in sandstone before. I stretched all the safety measures. Three metre walls and three metre floors. We went in 6 kilometres because the machines worked faster and with less stress. All went well for a month and then we hit the white stuff. Deep in tunnel 112.

Salt, the good stuff. Potash, full of potassium. Can be used sparingly as seasoning. It is better as fertilizer. Good for making soap and bleach.

We had to revise our plans as we did not want the potash out in the valley. Moisture would have ruined it. So we kept on tunnelling up to the salt deposit then sealed off the end. We left those tunnels empty and not part of the hab. It was a larger construct. Six cavern gardens, six kilometres in. Seven corridors equally deep. Population capacity 3000. Industrial areas to spare.

The deposits are a naturally occurring mixture of potassium chloride (KCl) and sodium chloride (NaCl), better known as common table salt. We won't be exporting any soon, but there are many uses for it.

* * *

Now I had a little time to think about other stuff. Mary suggested I create a series of lakes east along the valley just outside the highway. I insisted that they would just freeze like the first one.

"Have you looked at the first lake?" Mary asked.

"Not lately."

"It is only frozen on top. Since warmer weather is back and the generators are pumping out air and heat. Just try it. If I am wrong, we will be ice skating in style."

So we put the TBMs in for total overhaul and had all the dozers busy scooping out a string of small pearl lakes connected by streams. Each lake a little lower than the one before. I had my doubts but the children loved it. They made sure the water kept flowing from one to the next, chipping away the ice in the streams. The bottom of the lakes had to be lined to seal in the water. There were several sources of water as we had abandoned several tunnels in our search for the right habitat sites.

It was worth it to see Mary's smile when I came in for supper.

"How many children do we have anyway?" I asked.

"The Russians have 45 on their side. 22 of those are newborns. We have 156. "

I said, "My, they have been busy. I see 50 children out there playing by the lakes every day. I just wondered why they put up with the suits."

"Dermit tells me they will be taking off the helmets soon. I don't know why he thinks that." said Mary.

That made me get out the data records on weather and air pressure since we arrived. The program made charts and projections and they made me pause.

That night in bed I asked Mary. "Don't tell anyone, but soon you or any child will be able to lay on the ground and breath slowly without a helmet. I am going to do a little experiment tomorrow."

I went into the garden seed store and borrowed a bag of clover seed. I left very early and walked around the first lake straight out from our hab. Seeds trickling through my fingers and my feet scuffing about. They called what I was doing, broadcasting. But my arm was by my side as I did not want anyone to suspect.

I did this each day for a different lake and a different type of seed. Mary said that if we got results, Zoey would be on the next ship with all the seeds from the medicinal plants. We don't want to use a lot of seed until we are sure they will thrive.

The Zoraida Wheel

Yvette was captain of the Zoraida wheel. A mother of wheels holding comfortably a town of 5000. And they all had good pay and good jobs. No unemployment here.

Yvette was able to build her navigation skills by paying attention to all the steps that her sister had taken. She had a Canadian pilot found through Candle Lake. Chris Payette second niece to Julie Payette. Born in Quebec, educated in Alberta and deflated in Florida, where the water was still rising and NASA's budget was falling. The two women too had become great friends.

The Zoraida wheelship now in orbit, sent 300 replacement people over to Ravenchild, allowing the final 300 to come down to the surface and take part in this new enterprise.

Yvette told the ground people about a new style freighter they had brought. Gliders that could sail the atmosphere for days. Larger TBMs (4m diameter). And seeds for any new cavern gardens we built. When Yvette and Chris stepped onto Mars, they were greeted by hundreds and thousands of clover and alfalfa flowers. Crocuses and daffodils. Dandelions and lupines. The children were playing crawling games with their helmets removed. If they stood up they put the helmets on quickly. They ran in the shallow parts of the lakes and splashed anyone nearby.

These new women, just stood there watching something that they could never successfully explain back home. Yvette had heard about it, but just passed it off as someone's imagination.

Zoraida rushed toward her sister and gave her a hug. Shirlee greeted Chris warmly as they had worked together back on Earth. I and Mary just watched, enjoying the shock on the new women's faces.

Inside we all sat around and I explained about the rising oxygen levels and the air pressure. I did not make any predictions; just let their eyes tell the story.

"Some of the plants have entered the lakes. We did do a series of tests for local bacteria and smaller critters. But the DNA seemed very much the same as Earth critters. Mars must have seeded Earth billions of years ago. Or they were both seeded from the same source." I explained.

"You mean by critters? Microbes?" asked Yvette.

"I am an engineer. I meant critters." I replied. It is doubtful I will ever be friends with this woman.

Mary spoke up. "The children sometimes stand up and faint then they wake up as the air is rich in the first 10cm. No harm done."

Zoraida added, "I have never seen the children happier. They could never go out without strict supervision on Luna."

Mary followed, "I want to put some small fry in a lake, from our pond stock. Just to see what happens. The children will feed them."

Zoraida finally got down to business. "We are ready to start receiving your supplies and your people. The new hab needs a lot of hardware. We can supply some of the food from our garden. We have two of the new gardens already in clover and alfalfa. About ready for some root crops."

"The rigs are bringing most of the hardware. I don't want to start stripping down the Zoraida because I feel we will be shipping out with a small crew soon. Ali wants us over in Venus orbit to receive a mass of solar sails."

They left 4400 persons and shipped out six months latter. Most of their ships and freighters docked by the Ravenchild. The Zoraida wheelship was not one you could pin down.

Next year came another wheel, the Anthony. I was a little embarrassed by it all. Xing Xing and Julia in command. They were again 5000. I asked Julia how many people were left in Plato South.

Julia answered, "Lots. People have been flooding into Candle Lake and we now have 35,000 people in the habs and tubes. Many want the chance to come to Mars. But I warned them that we have not seen a major storm yet and that could change everything."

"And we are on a fault line. The third hab is started and will be finished in ten weeks, ready for hardware when it arrives." I said.

Julia said, "I will stay as long as you like Anthony. I won't run away."

I did not know how to answer that but my heart wanted and wanted bad. But a woman with a good husband and three young boys.

Xing Xing spoke up. "I will not be so long in orbit. Ali wants everyone down here pronto and I will take a skeleton crew back. Again as Yvette has done, I will be going into Venus orbit, with people and supplies. Then we will be coming back here. Maybe both ships together if we have a good window. So be ready in about 15 months. Could be 10,000 onboard."

I just took a good breath. It was time to start training my replacements. I wanted more time to work with Mary on creative projects. Something to make the children happy.

Julia had brought me new seed from New Brunswick. Stokes Seeds.

There were hyacinths, blue bells, scilla and rads. There were lunaria, pampas grasses, and scabiosa just to mention a few.

The fish were growing and finding food. I know that the children's interest had flown elsewhere. They must have been nibbling on the plants and each other, the fish that is. They were jumping and I started noticing small midges around sunset, just above the water. Had we brought them in or was some local eggs coming to life with the new heat and moisture. I pointed it out to our biologists.

The next day I called a large meeting of all the crews working on the habs. We used the rocks in one of the new gardens as seats for the 300 people.

"I need to replace myself. There are two or three of you now that can step in for me in a pinch. I want at least ten people by next year who can take on my work. From now on therefore, I am not going to supervise these hab jobs. I will be a resource for you all. A place to ask questions, but it will be up to you to go ahead and complete the projects. Now listen clearly. I am not any longer going to direct the work."

I then put five people in charge of different divisions. It was up to them to find out what had to be done. Then do it.

It was a little chaotic at first. They kept looking to me to tell them what was next. I kept silent. I told the others what I had done. It was up to them to pass on their plans to the right supervisor, not me. Horror on their faces, only brought me relief, as they now understood that I wanted a change.

Mary laughed for a week every evening as we lounged about in our flat. Soon we were thinking up schemes and secretively carrying them out. It seemed to be the most productive approach to success.

Soil

It occurred to me, one day. I can be slow on the uptake. The soil right outside the habs had never been analysed. So I took some testing equipment and got a report from the garden soil laboratory. I had cores taken down to forty meters. The report gave a green light on all samples. It had every element that plants needed and then some. Even plant matter could be found in the deepest cores. High in nitrogen, phosphorus and sodium and potassium. Traces of magnesium, copper, zinc, nickel, iron and aluminum. Extra high in iron.

The soil particles, sand, silt and clay were ideal in size for holding air and water. Sulfur levels marked it as a true ACE flood plain, wetland soil.

I asked for a list of plants that would grow in such a place given the right moisture and temperatures. They came back with a long list of 200 species. I asked again. Which do we have and how many can I use?

So Mary and I used some of the junior apprentices to plant out gardens in areas where foot traffic was light. Then we put up signs to encourage caution. It was mostly close to the wind break, between the habs. Kilometres of no-man's-land. Then I waited.

Mary didn't wait. She had other ideas. It was as if someone were directing both our actions. Plant here, then do this, now that. She had a head full of all the experiments done in the zomes on Earth, in the tubes and gardens on the Moon and what was done in the wheelships.

A series of fences were planted between the wall and the highway. About two kilometres in length. These bush fences were started in the cavern gardens then bushes were transplanted a few months later. Bamboo shoots became one kind of fence. In the second year we replanted the fences, that had failed with different species. The fences then prospered, so we started new rows of taller plants to the east side. Prevailing winds were blocked somewhat giving the secondary bushes and trees a chance. All this we then continued on the other side of the highway. Between the road and the solar fence. Up to the shaded areas. By the third year plants were trapping the air, and allowing its pressure to increase. The high carbon dioxide levels were a kick to the plant growth and the plants broke it down and pumped out the breathable kind. New streams of carbon dioxide flowed like water flowed, down from the upper plane. We had walking paths made and benches built. When sitting down any adult could breath enough for comfort. The children came out in their suits and shed them as soon as they were out of site. Play areas were expanded near the hab vegetation, just to try to keep the young ones in site.

Who knew popular and birch, fir and tamarack would have made it into our planting seed supplies. Again, we started them inside and the following year moved thousands out onto the valley plain. Some experimenting was done by the children. We found potatoes and radishes growing in sunny spots we had not planted. The best potatoes I had ever tasted.

People were starting to complain that all the vegetation was ruining the view. I hope they were joking, but you can never tell. Gudrun allowed some bees to escape into the flowered areas. Worms were planted into areas where the potatoes were growing.

Now in the fourth year we have a population of 19,000 people and there are more babies arriving. Mary announced to me quietly that she was pregnant with our second. We were sitting in our favourite spot by the river flowing from lake 'd' to 'e'. Our first boy was tall and slim, nine years old and running about with his present girlfriend. Not a spacesuit in site.

"You know they have been experimenting. She is ten and strong." said Mary. You could not keep anything from my Mary.

"At nine, is it not a little early to be pumping out the white stuff?" I asked.

"So far she has just been sipping. A great joy for both of them. They are well matched." commented Mary. "Her mother is Marina."

I just sat there wondering about the influences Marina might have had on the child's choice.

"It is as good a pairing as I could wish. Expect grandchildren in the next four years." stated Mary.

At another time, I talked to Mary about the Green Man phenomena. How Julia and Jenna had visions before coming to Luna and what it might mean to us here.

Mary was very quiet so I didn't push it.

The Accident

Steven, Julia's husband was on one of the work teams clearing out the walls and floors of the Hab 6 construction. He was standing in the wrong place, when the floor collapsed and his lungs and heart were crushed. He did not live long enough to get to the hospital. Mary cried out from our bench. I held her and waited until she was ready to talk.

"I liked him so much. Such a quiet and polite man. He is not going to make it. It is Steven!"

We did not have a lot of accidents. But they happen. Julia had to be told and Mary rushed back to the hab. I followed and stayed out of the way, while they hugged and cried. People came and left through the day and night. Julia went to see the body. His face was unmarked.

We had a great funeral, the next day, after his body had been washed and wrapped in linen. A standard fine concrete coffin with a pad and cushions. The graveyard was not far and the young people carried it carefully into that quiet spot. Maybe 45 graves, most of them Russians. Prayers were said and the special prayer. Good-bye fair Steven. Julia seemed broken. Just a mess. She had her three boys to console her.

I left early and put Mary in charge of the wake. Food was spread out in a nearby park. Finger food and cold cuts of vegetable proteins.

I wandered east on a long walk. I was searching out Steven's spirit. He had not stuck around. I got tired and climbed a rock naturally planted there. Sat and cleared my mind. The air was a little thin, but I slowed my heart and my breathing, deep and calm.

After an hour something came to me. Not Steven. It was an older spirit. She was dressed in fine black body armor. Only her head and neck were exposed. Short cropped black hair. Her name was the Black Guardian. She was my protector in spirit. She protected the colony.

Steven's time had come and Julia needed to be released. They had a wonderful few years together. None of this was in words. Just impressions. Other knowledge came and after another two hours cold seeped into my bones, so I stood up and walked back. The wake had moved inside.

Julia and Mary were there. Mary must have understood parts of my experience and came to some decision. It struck me how similar Julia's face was to the Black Guardian. I left the room as she turned in my direction.

It was about six months later that I ran into Julia in the corridor. Her eyes were black and her hair a mess. She walked with a shuffle, but she only smiled and kept on. I was seeing her now without the makeup that had hidden her condition. This guardian was dying.

That night Mary told me about Julia's illness. How no expert had been able to diagnose it. She looked at me from the couch with the most lost expression.

"You have to go to her. I am releasing you." she said. "I even have a man in my sites." she smiled wanly.

It took me a month to come around. Mary would not let me sleep in the same room with her. Then she had our child, a girl, the next week and I kept her company.

She told me, "I will be alright. Go to her. Move into the new hab, as it has just opened. If you don't, she will die. You and her are magically joined. I don't know how it works, but your powers are the only remedy."

So I went to her the next day. Reached out and held her hands. "Mary sent me. She knows everything." Power was rushing up through my toes. My eyesight was blurred and forces pressed out of my face and through my fingers. She stood up and lead me out. I stumbled along. She borrowed a rover and drove us east where a room was waiting for us in the new hab.

We slept, ate and in time we made love. Not sexual love. I could feel Mary urging me on and I also felt her pain. I held Julia in the bed, in the living room, in the kitchen. We stood for hours looking into each other, before hunger forced us to eat something. Mary was right. There was something powerful here. I fed her power and she was getting stronger. Healthier than I had seen in years.

Mary assured me that only I could do this. Julia has a special purpose that will be revealed to us. Jenna would come in to visit her friend. Julia told her that I was the human form of the Green Man.

"And you are the Black Guardian? Seems a little sketchy to me. And he has something hanging between his legs?"

Julia just smiled. "You are jealous? I would be."

Jenna left scratching her beautiful head. Afterwards I started working again. But the young apprentices were very much in charge of the construction. So I joined in the outdoor garden work. Julia would come to watch me.

She yelled over to me naughty words. "Hey, Tony! Why is it taking so long to knock me up. I would have loved it when I was fourteen. Mom, was encouraging me."

"I figured that. I was young and scared. You know I had reasons to be." I shouted back. "Just love your three children, now that you have recovered. Little Stevens, they are and he was a fine man."

"I got about five more years, dear. Don't ask how I know. And I got things to do. Things to do." she repeated.

She was telling me that her resources were limited and the boys were not going to get much attention. As expected Shaun took over the three boys. Zoraida helped when she wasn't up in the wheelship.

Julia would go walk about. Anyone she met, she would give them a big hug and whisper in their ear. It was years later when I got it all sorted out.

The Black Guardian would visit these people in their dreams. Give them a message, then Julia would come to them the next day and whisper the same words. Most of the settlers got this treatment. Few said much about the message. It was not always the same.

We had been on Mars close to a decade. In our ninth year we had a series of terrible storms. The atmospere was blown away and much of the vegetation was destroyed or went dormant. It turned out that anyone up on the wheelship could not come down safely. Nor could anyone go up or anywhere else for that matter. The wheelship had a great stock of food and the fields were full of the most nutritious foods. A good thing because the storm went on for close to two years.

Everyone seemed to have anticipated the weather event. When asked, they had little idea why they had stockpiled so much food. There was even a great stock of dried food, emergency food that I had not seen since the first year at Plato South.

Julia was failing. It was four years into our arrangement and her job was finished.

"Steven is waiting for me and I bet he is really mad. I tried to be well behaved and sometimes it worked."

"Hey! Black Guardian! You finished your job already?" I hadn't completely figured it out yet.

"Were you not watching me. Blind in one eye and cockeyed in the other." I started to cry.

"I love you Julia. I have always loved you. But I will be springing back to Mary the day after you kick it."

We always talked like this. The love was so strong it helped to break the tension. Until the last, I avoided the sex.

* * *

It took me about six months to get over the loss. Mary let me know I was welcome when the time was right.

That next summer was warm and fair. Many of the plants we thought were dead, sprouted from their base. We learned from studying soil cores that the weather cycle was very much like this past nine years and we should plan accordingly. Teams came down from the wheelships and others went up to replace them. During the dark years 1500 new children were born, many twins, a couple of triplet girls.

We studied our situation and we were well ahead of where we had been in the first three years. More oxygen generators, many more trees of the kind that seemed to survive. We completely rebuilt the solar fence. Stronger, tighter and made in a way that sections could fail, not the whole thing, and these parts could be more easily be replaced.

Back to Mary : Flying Solo

When you have nothing inside to give, to return to a woman that has loved you deeply is hard to imagine. She saw that and gave me time. I knew that it was my faith in love and God's grace that was under fire. I had experienced more love and adventure in the act of unity than any man should expect.

Why did I feel like a flat tire? A plane no longer able to rise, a pool of dirty oil laying in a dark alley waiting for the street cleaner.

I had three children. They need a fresh happy father and a secure warm mother. Mary was suffering as much as I. She had put off the younger men begging for her attention. She told me, that I was the man and she was waiting for my rising from the ashes.

It is what I have done in the past. It was time for a tidal change.

* * *

It took me six months to complete the written exams. In the Glider Survey Corp. (GSC) one had to be able to memorize thousands of details of the Martian terrain and know the location of the closest landing site, emergency huts and charge centres, known as safety spots. I practised on the simulators and crashed a hundred times.

I was determined. Just the effort had cleared many of my dark corners. Mary was not happy, that I could be away for a week at a time, but we were always emotionally and mentally connected. That mattered a lot. Mary was going to share my aerial experience of Mars, listen to its stories and see its bright and dark sides. It was seven to nine days out on patrol then two weeks back, where I would help interpreting the data collected.

There are computer controlled gliders (each with an electric assist prop). Then there was the piloted kind. The pilotless gliders were used on the most distant flights. With the piloted gliders, speed was a factor. Top speed was slow at 120km an hour. Cruising was more 100km an hour. This gave a daily range of 1100km average, depending on prevailing winds. If a storm comes up we could be stuck in a safe spot for days. In a pinch, a passenger could be carried and this was done, when rescues were made.

I loved working with these young women and men. They were all less than half my age and they treated me well. The average age was 18. Weight was a factor and lighter pilots got better treatment. It was a challenge at first, but I soon trimmed down.

The glider base was up on the ridge above the habs. An elevator served both passenger and commercial use down to the floor. Tow planes moved the gliders to a comfortable height. Eight gliders were in constant rotation. A large slow prop kept the gliders hanging at the right altitude. Long slim wings caught the thin air and camera equipment recorded every detail of the topography. Tight solar-panels on the upper surfaces collected what sunlight there was and hightech batteries stored the electrical trickles.

Up there is not a time for day-dreaming. What I see is what the equipment detects. This is a bit overwhelming, but I got used to it and soon I was learning to concentrated on certain aspects of that info. What were we looking for? We were not a commercial, industrial enterprise. So it had more to do with the interests of each pilot. We were scientists, biologists and geologists. Because we had to detect important spots among the noise, personal hunches were important.

I was right near the west end of the valley. Three days out and nearing the turn-around safe spot for this journey. I noticed the wall as a faint straight line. Nothing much was straight on this planet. I flew lower into the rill valley. Not a lot of room to turn. My wings hovered close to the cliff walls. There was no possibility of landing so I started the motor and made a straight line to my resting spot for the night.

It was a week later. I was home with Mary and the children. Happy that my find had stirred people up. News came back that the scientific parties had found an ancient habitat, two old landing craft and some charred remains that were probably human like but present evidence was not enough to be sure. Any electronics from the ships were gone. Materials were being analysed. That was given to the Russians because of their co-operation. No sign that a tragedy had happened there and it seemed they must have got off the planet, but maybe a 50 years stay.

 * * * 

News got back to Earth. We always kept the Americans informed because their own press did not. There was an awakening among rich entrepreneurs. They were now pooling their resources. 'Copy the Plato Crater People'.

There was no other choice. For the next ten years they built up a base at the Moon's South Pole. The Schomberger crater was their home base. They saved a lot of time because Candle Lake made strong monetary deals to share data. They had the south, we had the north. We based their operations in the Labrador City area because the American military could not be trusted, if they operated out of Colorado or Nevada as they wanted to. They would not succeed.

Everything cost them three to nine times more than work done at the Plato South site. It was a professional bunch, well educated and paid. Might I guess that they did not have the fun we had. Playing catch up. Always thinking of return on their investment.

Candle Lake was now able to buy new tug planes and shuttles. People were crowding the small base and the only way to relieve this was to get them off the planet. Eventually populations reached 80,000 in the northern crater. Wheelships were routinely being built and sent off to Mars. They were required always to detour to Venus and maintain and expand the Parasol. A shield cutting off 15% of the Venus sunshine. Patches needed to be made and ion motors replaced, as they gasped into a long needed retirement. Nine years for the best of the motors holding up the reflective materials.

We got the message that Ali had died. A group of us are headed to Luna to honour her memory.

The End of Lunar Radiance