I dropped my passengers at HQ and took off across the base in the rover. I should have presented myself to Commander Harding, throwing myself at his mercy and praying he wouldn't send me back to Earth in chains. It might be the future, but it's still not exactly legal to fly to Luna without paying your way. I don't know what the punishment is for stuffing yourself in a cabinet and nearly dying during lift-off but delaying my fate for an hour or two couldn't make it much worse. Besides, he'd be busy greeting his guests from the hotel group.
My head buzzed with the idea of starting a tour company. I didn't understand why Astrid's reaction was so cold. Was it my presentation? I drove slowly on the smooth sintered pad surrounding the base thinking about what I would tell tourists.
The base is a series of interlocked circles. Each circle consists of five domes, we call them quints. Each quint of five domes connects to the next quint via an airlock.
When people see pictures of Moon Base Alpha, they see domed structures all nicely interconnected, surrounded by solar panels. They don't understand or realize what's going on inside those structures. Without the industrial processing and physical plant there would be no burgeoning community on Luna.
Astrid said she knows everything about the base, but I wonder if she really understands that It takes a combination of systems, processors, recyclers, and storage facilities to create the resources necessary to enable a survivable long-term habitat on the Moon. Moon Base Alpha is the result of hundreds of science and engineering missions and years of development. Remember, it all started long ago with a single step, a boot print in moon dust.
It's been a long, drawn out effort to get where we are today. In one sense, it took decades for technology to catch up with mankind's imagination. Once we achieved the technical knowledge it was ambition, determination, and human will power that made it happen. Mix that with a bit of greed, a healthy thirst for profit and you've got what it takes to create a moon base, once a dream, now a reality.
It may be a human fault to reach for things beyond our grasp. To want more. To seek and learn. For countless millennia humans looked up to the heavens and saw the moon beckoning, an invitation of sorts, that friendly man in the moon whispering come here, see what I've got, use me to go farther.
And mankind did reach. It took eons but eventually we rose above our primal urges to kill each other and worked to accomplish the mission, to achieve the dream and venture into space. We came to this place beyond the blue planet because we had an inkling that the moon could set us free. We wanted it and that desire motivated us to develop, build and explore.
We are developing resources on the moon. Being human we have exploited Luna. We take. We use. We occupied it and made it ours, processing, converting, building. Sometimes it's messy. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, we're human, it's what humans do.
Of course, we have reached beyond the moon. There are people on Mars doing much the same as we are doing on Luna and humans are venturing further in space exploring and discovering, but those are still baby steps. Moon Base Alpha is the real beginning. The beginning step in processing resources and building products for space.
Not a bad intro for being off the top of my head. Hopefully, I can inspire visitors to learn more about what we are doing on Luna.
I'd driven past the eighth quint, the end of the chain. I noticed new construction along the way. They'd finished the large waste management dome next to the biology quint. We'd just started building that when I got sent back. The base never stops growing. They've got to keep the construction bots busy. I drove through the industrial part of the base. These domes house the processing systems which enable the base to grow, support the hotel and more people living on Luna.
We make the water we drink, the air we breathe, and much more.
Large excavators scrape regolith from the surface. Yes, we are strip mining the Moon. You would have thought humans had learned to treat the moon better than we did Earth, but it's the cheapest, easiest way to get at the material. Moon dust is scooped up and delivered to huge processors that extract gases from the regolith.
The gas extraction processors are beasts, each one is ten feet wide by thirty feet long and run without human labor unless they need repair. The dome that houses three of the processors was built around the gigantic contraptions.
Moon regolith is forty percent oxygen and other gases. Raw regolith is heated to various temperatures along with some other magic I don't understand to extract the oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The gases are stored and used for life support systems and rocket fuel.
The leftover mixture of metal alloys are moved on a conveyor belt to another dome where mixtures of ore and alloys are processed into steel parts, iron beams and aluminum sheets. Metal objects can be printed, extruded, and forged into any conceivable shape. Residual silicates are put to their purposes to make of glass for mirrors and windows.
Another large dome houses the block formers. Raw regolith goes in one side, big machines heat the regolith then mold and compress it into different shaped construction blocks. Gases are captured from this process as well. We could not have moved from inflatable habitats to domes without the block formers. When you think about it, our domes aren't much different than the stone cities built by the ancient civilizations of Earth.
We've come a long way. Several years ago, using smaller, less sophisticated equipment it took two days to process a measly gallon of water. Now we process over a hundred gallons per day. We are already refueling Cruisers and as our capabilities scale up, we will fill tankers for deep space refueling of spacecraft.
Moon Base Alpha is not the result of a singular effort by a company or a government. The base was built through the combined investment and cooperation of private companies and a collation of governments. The Terran Alliance Council or TAC planned and implemented the base and all that makes the base work. Some private companies operate independently, but everyone is here under the auspices of TAC. I hope Astrid, Garrick and their gray suited mariachis understand what it really takes to keep the base and their hotel functioning.
I'd wasted enough time with my tour and hadn't even covered what happens in all the quints, but it was good to see the base again and see what had changed since I'd been off Luna. I headed back to the quints to visit Gus in the shop.
Gus maintains the gas extraction processors and doubles as the base mechanic. Gus can fix anything and with the 3D printers and volumetric additive manufacturing systems at his disposal he can fabricate broken parts and assemblies. His skills make him a valuable resource to everyone on Luna. Because of this, it doesn't matter if you are a miner or a scientist, you know Gus. He probably has a better idea of what's happening on the south pole of the Moon than Commander Harding.
If I parked the rover at HQ, I could walk through the maze of connected domes winding my way along corridors and airlocks connecting quints all the way to Gus's shop but that would mean walking through eight quints. It also meant I might run into one of the bot wranglers, a group that most likely wouldn't give me a warm welcome back to Luna. I had the rover it was easier to drive.
I docked at the shop dome. Many of the domes have exterior airlocks for easy access to rovers or for deliveries. Dome airlocks are twenty-foot long tubes, large enough to walk through standing up and long enough to extend through the eight-foot thick dome walls. If there was ever a catastrophic dome failure, a locked tube can act as a short-term emergency shelter with electrical, communications and life support.
The tinge of grease and chemicals hung in the air attacking my nostrils as I stepped into Gus's dome. A large excavator was parked in the center; The rotating blades that scoop up moon rocks had been removed leaving an odd gap, like missing teeth at the front of the vehicle. Parts scavenged from abandoned landers, rovers and other equipment was scattered on the floor and covered worktables.
Some habitats out on the moonscape will be used for future missions, those are left alone, but anything deemed a wreck, crashed, or abandoned are free for the taking. At the rear of the dome is a large raised loft built on extruded aluminum legs that look like stilts. The loft is Gus's quarters. Metal stairs lead down to the floor. This dome has an unusual feature, a large reinforced door big enough to get rovers, excavators, and other vehicles inside so they can be repaired.
I spot Gus busily working on a homemade vehicle he calls the Hopper.
"Looks like your making progress, when are you taking it out for a test drive?" I asked. The monstrosity looked like Dr. Frankenstein resurrected parts of dead spacecraft and welded them together into something resembling a rover. Two large tanks are mounted behind a sleek pressured cabin that looked like a sports coupe. Gus said it was from a wrecked Italian rover. Italians traveled in style, even on the Moon. The cab, barely large enough for the driver and a passenger was bolted to a wide tubular chassis with oversized suspension springs making it look like a grasshopper ready to jump and large oversized balloon tires with mud flap like treads.
Gus answered with a grunt without looking at me as he wrestled a sheet of diamond plate aluminum, welding it under the chassis as a skid plate. I probably should have offered to help, but he didn't ask so I didn't offer.
Gus is tall and muscular, his square jaw, flattop haircut and overalls complete the tough guy look, just what you'd expect for a guy named Gus. He looks tough but is known as a kind soul, generous with his time, always willing to help others and he's smart when it comes to mechanical and engineering skills. Gus has the ear of this community of disparate missions spread over the Malapert plain, the hard part is getting him to share what he knows. I guess what makes him a good listener is that he never says much.
"You ever gonna finish that clodhopper?" I asked.
"It passes the time," he said between spot welds.
"So, what have I missed?"
Gus slid out from under his Hopper, stood, walked to a box, and rummaged through salvaged parts tossing aside objects he didn't need.
"Why are you back?" he finally asked.
"You know me. Can't keep a good man down. Luna gets in your blood. Earth doesn't feel like home anymore. Besides, there's nothing for me there."
"Green grass, blue sky with all the air you can breathe should be enough," Gus said.
"I want to do my part, help this place become something. The hotel will be open soon. Tourists will be visiting. Holiday vacations on the moon! I flew up with the hotel executives, we're discussing plans for my new tour company. The woman boss, she's extremely excited about my ideas. Imagine all the opportunities that will open up."
"Tourists 'll be the ruin of this place."
Real commerce on the moon is about to happen. I can feel it. We're nearly self-sufficient. Mining is scaling up. We have surpluses of oxygen and hydrogen. Heck, there's a team using algae to make bioplastics. We won't need to fly in the next excavator; we'll build it here. We're feeding ourselves with plants and fish grown here. When the hotel opens, more people will come. When people see what we are doing here, they won't want to miss out. Wow listen to me, I'm starting to believe my own bs, but there's no way I'll admit to Gus or anyone else that I came back for a woman. The only person I'll share that with is Wanda.
"Can't you feel it. This place will be a boom town," I said.
"That's what I'm afraid of," said Gus finding the part he was looking for, moving back to his Hopper.
"I don't want to miss out on that," I said.
"Time for me to find a new planet," Gus said.
A screeching sound came from Gus's watch. "Help! Gus, I need help."
Gus tapped his watch. "Felix, what happened?"
I heard the man gasp for air before he spoke. "Testing …superconducting wire…levitating mass… blew a hole in my dome." There was a long silence. "Airlocks to domes closed before I could…"
"His dome is losing pressure. He will suffocate," I said.
"Not if he freezes first. We'll take your rover," Gus said grabbing his tool bag as he headed for the airlock.
"You drive. I'll try to get some dogs over there to patch his dome," I said hustling through the open airlock.
Gus sat in the driver's seat anxiously waiting for the dock to seal and release. "We're coming with a rover. Get into your exterior airlock so we can grab you," Gus instructed.
"I am. The door won't close. It's so cold," Felix cried.
"We're on the way, use the emergency breather in the lock tube," Gus said pressing the accelerator to the floor.
I started hammering on the screen mounted in front of the passenger seat. Amazing to me, I still had access. "Come to me little doggies," I laughed.
"You got in? Harding should have deleted you the moment he launched you off this rock."
"Do me a favor, don't tell him."
I located a pack of doggies at the block pile behind the block former dome. I gained control of one of the pups. He was a new one, sleeker and faster than the dogs I used run. I toggled my screen to his cam. I saw the base through his eyes. I ran him as fast his four legs would carry him. It felt like he was flying, two legs off the ground at any moment, elegantly using the low gravity to his advantage, not like some clumsy astronaut. My heart was pumping. Man, it felt good to be back.
"You're going to piss off the bot wranglers," Gus said.
"They'll get over it." Truth is the other wranglers and I were never very cozy. I was accused of being competitive, combative and what else did they write up in their complaint? Oh yeah, uncooperative, lacks compassion and not a team player. Hell, they nailed it. That's me. I just wanted to get the job done.
If I could wrangle twelve dogs when the next best wrangler could barely manage six, why does that make me an ass? If I could get a dome built in half the time, how was that be a bad thing? From the day I arrived on Luna I never really hit it off with the builder team. Maybe it was their attitude. A group of proud, cocky jerks. We're running dogs on the moon, building habitats and storage structures. We're not drone pilots flying over New Persia saving the world. As you might surmise, I didn't gel with the bot wranglers. When I was off duty I gravitated to the geeks and, scientists, but I spent most of my time with Wanda.
I keyed in a few command strings on the screen and hit Enter. "Done. I've commandeered dogs for dome repair. I'll apologize later."
Gus ripped across the sintered pad surrounding the domes. Dr. Felix Bloch, a physicist working on god knows what is from the Netherlands if I remember correctly. He's a nice fella if not a bit socially awkward but look who's talking. Felix's dome is in quint six. Lucky for him his dome isn't on the other side or we'd have to drive all the way around.
"You haven't seen Harding yet?" Gus asked knowingly.
"I landed with the big wigs from the hotel company. I dropped them at HQ but figured Harding would be busy with them for a while."
Gus backed the rover up and docked just as my dog bot scaled the dome. I toggled the view to examine the ruptured dome. The blast broke several of the exterior blocks making a bigger hole at the top. Peering down the cavity it looked like the hole in the dome's ceiling was two-feet wide.
"Dang! I can see all the way into the lab."
If my explanation of things is boring, you can skip ahead. Guess it's the geek in me, I feel the need to give you some idea of what it takes to live on the moon. You see, the original domes were constructed over an inflatable structure. Lose regolith was pushed up the sides until the structure was covered then sintering bots were run over the surface using high powered microwaves to melt the moon dust in place. This was done in three layers. After the sintered regolith, two layers of interlocking compression formed blocks covered the dome. The inflatable habitat was buried under at least ten feet of microwave melted moon dust to protect the inhabitants from meteorite showers, radiation, cosmic rays, and the extreme cold temperatures of the moon. It was a bit of over kill.
We build larger domes these days that don't use inflatable structures. They cost too much to build and fly up. Nowadays we build the dome with a layer of blocks, seal them, then add one thick layer of sintered regolith and cap it with another layer of blocks creating eight-foot-thick walls, nice and cozy.
"Pull on a mask, I'm opening the dock. It's gonna get mighty cold in here," Gus said.
I grabbed a mask then sent instructions to my pack of doggies. I apologize if it bothers you, but I talk to myself while I work. Bad habit and bugs the heck out of some people, but it helps me focus.
"Doggie number one is ready to drop a size four block to plug the hole," I said typing instructions while viewing the operation from my new dog.
"Dog number two is standing by with two gallons of blue algae glue. He'll pour it over the block to seal it. Ready, set, go. Block dropped." I peered down the hole to check the block. "Looks good." The second dog moved into position as the first dog skittered down the dome.
"Glue is being dumped. Pup number three is right behind with ten gallons of aggregate." Once the glue was poured the dog moved away and dog number three holding a heavy bucket filled with gravel in its mechanical arms moved to the hole and dumped the aggregate.
"Now it's Sparky's turn, I've worked with this guy before. He's running up the dome with some good ole homemade sulfur-based moon cement to cap it." Sparky skidded to the edge of the hole holding a large tub of cement swinging over his metal body and proceeded to dump the slushy gray mixture into the hole.
"That should hold it for now," I said, my voice muffled by the mask. I rubbed my cold fingers and went back to typing on the screen watching my pack of dogs scamper back to the block pile as Gus pulled a shivering Dr. Felix Bloch through the docking bay.
When the dock sealed, I cranked the heat in the rover to help warm us up. Gus rubbed the poor man's arms and hands to get his circulation going. "Thank you, thank you," he muttered.
"That's one hell of a hole you punched through the dome. I've never seen anything penetrate a wall like that before," I said.
Dr. Bloch is a pudgy old guy with lots of white hair, a bushy gray moustache, and glasses. Rumor has it, he enjoys a nip or two of whiskey nightly. Deliveries arrive often.
"What were you doing? You could have died," said Gus.
The old man's entire body was shivering but he was able to get words out. "Well, I used some of the unusual ore Dr. Benson discovered at the Cabeus Crater. It appeared to be capable of superconductivity at room temperature. I ran some tests and found the material to be quite remarkable. I asked Ivan Schuller at the foundry to smelt the ore and form it into a length of thin wire. He was quite helpful. You must know him Gus. You know him, don't you?" Felix asked pulling on Gus's arm.
"Yes, Ivan helps me all the time. Go on."
"Well, you see, I used the wire to make a simple coil gun so I could test the wires resistance. I must have turned the voltage too high. As you have seen, the results were quite remarkable."
"You made a rail gun?" I asked.
Felix looked up, noticing me for the first time. "Frank? Why are you back?"
"I came back to save your ass. What prompted you to fire a rail gun in your dome?"
"Well, that was not the intent," said Dr. Bloch sitting more erect. "I hope the damage to my dome can be repaired."
"Already taken care of but give it a few hours for the glue and cement to set before re-pressurizing. There's still some work to be done, but I'll let the wranglers finish patching it up," I answered.
"You can hang out in the shop. I've got a bottle of Glen Alba 22-year-old Scotch that will help warm you up," Gus said as he moved to the driver's seat.
"That sounds splendid. Thank you, Gus. Thank you both," Felix said.
Gus drove the rover back to the shop. "Hey, Felix. Do you think Ivan could make me some of that wire?"
"Of course, what would you like to do with it?"
"I want to make a real rail gun. If you help me with the batteries and design, I can print the parts," Gus said.
"Why would you want to make a rail gun? They can be quite dangerous," said Felix.
"You should talk," I said.
"I like to make things," Gus answered.
"I wonder if you can get the design small enough to make a pistol?" I asked.
"Well, what would you do with it?" asked Felix.
"Use Frank as target practice," Gus said.