Leaving Home

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 ground 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 done that 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 generator units 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 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 moon 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 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 people 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 we 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 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 up a 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 more powerful thrust than 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."